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Week 15 Matchup Previews with Bob Harris || Fantasy Football 2025
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- [00:00]
Dave Kluge
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- [00:20]
Ad Voice / Sponsor
Guys, thanks for helping me carry my Christmas tree.
- [00:22]
Dave Kluge
Zoe, this thing weighs a ton.
- [00:24]
Bob Harris
Drew Ski, live with your legs, man. Santa. Santa, did you get my letter?
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Dave Kluge
He's talking to you, Bridges.
- [00:29]
Bob Harris
I'm not.
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Ad Voice / Sponsor
Of course he did.
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Bob Harris
Right, Santa, you know my elf Drew Ski here.
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Dave Kluge
He handles the nice list and elf. I'm six' three. What everyone wants is iPhone 17 and at T Mobile you can get it on them. That center stage front camera is amazing for group selfies, right, Mrs. Claus?
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Dave Kluge
Needed when you switch.
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Bob Harris
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Dave Kluge
Nice. My side of the tree is slipping.
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Bob Harris
Kimber.
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Dave Kluge
The holidays are better. AT T Mobile switch in just 15 minutes and get iPhone 17 on us with no trade in needed. And now T Mobile is available in US cellular stores with 24 monthly bill credits for well qualified customers plus tax and $35 device connection charge credit engine balance due if you pay off earlier. Cancel Financing Agreement 256Gates. $830 eligible for in a new line $100 plus a month plan with auto pay plus taxes fees required. Check out 15 minutes or less per line. Visit t mobile.com thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Launchpad. I'm your host Dave Kluge and as always I am joined with a great football guys guest today. We've got the legend himself, Bob Harris joining us to get you ready for week one of the fantasy playoffs for week 15. A great time to be playing fantasy. Today we're going to look at some of the biggest matchups around the week and we're not going to focus on the guys that you know you're starting and the guys that you know you're mentioned. We're talking about all of those fringe players, the RB3s and the wide receiver fours that you're not sure about. Bob has a lot of experience in this industry and is going to provide in depth, actionable advice for all of these situations. As always, thank you for taking the time to listen. The show wouldn't be possible without you Doing that now. Let's dive in. Bob Harris, how are you doing today?
- [02:10]
Bob Harris
I'm doing fantastic. As season's rolling on, I've been knocked out of about 80% of my league's playoffs, which means I actually have time to, to set lineups and think about making roster moves and, and do my work. It's crazy this time of year when I'm not managing 30 plus teams.
- [02:26]
Dave Kluge
You know what, Bob? I don't want to pat myself on the back too hard. Nobody likes that. But I was actually looking forward to when the playoffs started saying like, yes, I get to shed a bunch of my teams. I was just too darn good this year, Bob. I made playoffs in a lot of leagues and I was able to shed a small handful of, I will say the nfc, those high stakes leagues, those are tough. And that's also a platform that I'm not very used to. So I was, I advanced three of the eight teams that I had over there. So that to me, you know, five less teams I have to worry about over on NFC is a huge time saver. But what we're gonna do today, first week of the playoffs, we're going to talk about some of the upcoming matchups here as we always do. Start with the, the Ravens and the Bengals. We just saw this two weeks ago. It was a little bit different of a game then. It was Joe Burrow's first game back. It was in prime time. Now we're looking at them playing on a Sunday morning. And Bob, I think the first question I have, you know, some people got into the fantasy playoffs with Lamar Jackson. Two, you know, despite Lamar Jackson, I should say what he's done for the last month and a half, but he looked okay last week. Do you think that fantasy managers now could have a little bit more confidence starting Lamar Jackson in week 15?
- [03:31]
Bob Harris
I don't know if they, if we should, but we will, right? I mean like it doesn't take a lot. You know, I always talk about players divorcing the day from the numbers, right? And that's, you know, with Lamar, that's the numbers had been horrible, hadn't scored a touchdown in over, in what, four games or three games without a touchdown. So, and you know, some single digit games, it had not been good and so but when you divorce the name from the numbers, you're divorcing the history that goes with the name, right? And that's hard to do. And so with a player like Lamar Jackson, I'm sure we'll talk about Justin Jefferson at some point. Players like that you're still playing the guy they were. And that's not always great, but in this case, getting a little bit of. A little bit of sign. He ran seven times, I think 40 plus yards through it, through a touchdown pass. And to be fair to him, he should have more touchdown passes. Over the last three games, he has been having some really unfortunate touchdown luck, some weird calls, some fumbles, some things that have gone not his way. So, yeah, I think against this matchup, I, I'd be fine. I think you're still playing him. I think people were still playing him and just hoping he turned back into some reasonable facsimile of the guy we drafted. I think he's headed there or this matchup should help him get there too.
- [04:41]
Dave Kluge
And I'm looking@footballguys.com where you can get all of our rankings and projections. We've got him as QB6 on the week in a pretty big tier one. So we've got him ranked as a tier one quarterback. And I think what you talk about a lot of fluky weird things, right? Like that touchdown pass that wasn't a touchdown pass to Isaiah likely two weeks ago, where he fumbles the ball across the goal. That drastically changes how we're looking at Lamar Jackson. Exactly. Yeah. And then we also had like a 2 dropped from Mark Andrews over the last month as well. So like weird things, but I think the, the biggest thing for me, and there's no numbers or anything to back this up, he just looked apprehensive for a while there, like he didn't want to play like Lamar Jackson. You'd see like the rushing lane would be there and we're. Normally you'd see Lamar Jackson just gash it a defense for 20 yards. He was kind of hesitant to do that. And last week I saw him feeling a little bit more comfortable. So that to me gives me confidence in getting him back in the lineup.
- [05:31]
Bob Harris
Some of the language too, we were hearing over that course of time, like he had a string of injuries, came off the hamstring and then there was an ankle and then there was a toe and then there was a knee and the.
- [05:39]
Dave Kluge
Yeah.
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Bob Harris
And at one point John Harbaugh was asked, you know, is he fully healthy? And the answer was fully healthy to play. Right. So you know that he. You know that that is a big fat lie. Not fully healthy, but healthy enough to play. Should have been the more correct response.
- [05:55]
Dave Kluge
But.
- [05:56]
Bob Harris
But I'm assuming that he's getting healthier. And you're right.
- [05:58]
Dave Kluge
He.
- [05:59]
Bob Harris
He seemed reluctant to. To you know, tuck it in and run. And in this last game he seemed much more eager and willing.
- [06:06]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And you talk about like healthy at this point in the season. I don't think anybody, the healthiest player in the NFL right now might be a 44 year old Philip Rivers. I think everybody who's been playing for the last 15 weeks is feeling the aches and pains of the season at this point. But sticking with this game. We, we have talked ad nauseam this offseason or I'm sorry this season about this Bengals defense and how they are just giving up so many points to opposing tight ends. And you know, we talked about the dropped Isaiah Likely, like he would have had 20 plus points two weeks ago against the Bengals. We've seen Mark Andrews has been kind of hit or miss this season. So my question for you, Bob, do you prefer Mark Andrews or Isaiah Likely this week or do you think this is one where you could just start both of them?
- [06:43]
Bob Harris
You could start either one. You have. I, if you ask my preference, I like Likely. I think he's our tight end 17 this week. I think he's the guy that's gonna, you know, be the one who tears. And it's the momentum thing. Like I'm happy with people playing Andrews as well. But. But J.J. zach Reason, our buddy at late round fantasy pointed out that over the last three weeks Andrews has scored like 11 12.7 fantasy points to likely 29 points. Right. It just seems like the momentum is going. The missed touchdown might have changed that even more. But the big thing is the matchup. Whichever one you want to play the, you know, go ahead and play 15 touchdowns. The Bengals have given up to the position this year. That's like five more than anybody else.
- [07:23]
Dave Kluge
And 1258 yards. Like they are giving up like a 2020 Cooper cup type of season to tight ends this year.
- [07:30]
Bob Harris
Yeah, 1212 plus points to 11 different players. And some of them guys like Colston Loveland and who else had 28 like patfiremuth had like 28 points against like 24 points or more. It's been ridiculous. So yeah, I, I play, you know, play the one you got. I, I like Likely a little bit this week just because the momentum seems to be there. But there are still times when I watch Mark Andrews that when he's on his game, he looks like the best player on the field at times.
- [07:57]
Dave Kluge
Right. We just, it doesn't seem like he's always on his game. You know, he has these frustrating drops or sometimes he can't break the Tackles, but we never really know what Mark Andrews we're going to get. And I just want to put some numbers to this real quick, quickly, because, like, we have heard so much about the Bengals that sometimes we just like, don't really peel back the layers. Like we just hear, hey, start your tight ends against the Bengals, they are giving up an average of 24.1 fantasy points per game. Two opposing tight ends, that is seven and a half points more than the next closest defense out there. And you compare them to another team like the, the Buffalo Bills, who we'll talk about a little bit later, they're giving up seven points per game. So, like, we're looking at the Bengals giving up over four times as many points per game. I mean, it's just unbelievable what they are doing this year. So this is.
- [08:37]
Bob Harris
Nobody's close. I mean, it's, it's by a country mile that they are the worst. Not just like they're, hey, they're really bad. No, they are by far the worst. And so I, I feel like every week you could go through and chart it and you'd probably be happy that you played whatever tight end was playing them.
- [08:52]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, I mean, right now, like the tight end playing against the Bengals on average is scoring more points than Trey McBride is on a per game basis. I mean, it's just that simple right now. But let's stick with this game. I got a couple more questions here. T. Higgins sounds like he probably isn't going to suit up this week. You know, dealing with another concussion, just getting out of concussion protocol. If he is unable to play, who do you think is the biggest beneficiary in the Bengals pass catching core?
- [09:17]
Bob Harris
Well, it's the obvious guy. It's Mike Gasecki, the guy who is the obvious winner last year and why he got a big contract. Also, he just scored like, what, 20 points against the Buffalo Bills. The toughest defense against that seems like a little bit of an outlier. T. Higgins was on the field. That just seems like a weird game. So I don't know that I expect a 20 point output every single week. But. But he was the guy last year that tended to pick up the pace when there was no Higgins. I do think, Higgins, like, you know, Wednesday, limited practices Wednesday for guys with concussions are the gateway to playing on Sundays. It just is. But I wonder if in Higgins case, just the optics of it might lead to a more cautious approach with him. So. So we'll see. But Gasecki would be the guy who.
- [10:00]
Dave Kluge
Benefits, and that is a thing. I'm glad you mentioned that too. Like Jackson Dark missed multiple games of the concussion. We see some guys don't miss any time. Some guys miss multiple. I think we see this a lot, that when a guy like misses a game for concussion protocol, comes back in, gets another concussion, we do almost always see those guys miss some time. I think back to like Tua Tucker by Loa a few years ago. Like this is not something that we see often where a guy comes back from concussion, gets concussed again and then immediately plays the next week.
- [10:26]
Bob Harris
And plus there's a lot of skepticism, skepticism out there because he had the two tests in game. Everyone watching the game saw his head bounce off the court like a basketball bouncing off the court and then he gets cleared two times and people are thinking there's something going on here. Well, there's not. I mean it's independent neurologists, they're in Buffalo. I'm doubting they're doing anything to help the Bengals, even if they weren't independent. So, so, but, but nonetheless the optics are the optics. So I'm guessing they will tread lightly. It's a funny thing about, you know, this I, I've talked about it on the Daily Update podcast this very morning. The physics of the game come into play with guys like T. Higgins. When you're 220 pounds and you can leap and, and jump like that, it's like falling off a ladder, right? And it's like dropping a bag of cement and you know, the, all the pieces bouncing off the ground. It's, it's, it's, it can be tough. So I, I, we'll see if he makes it back or not. But either way, I think a SEKI is the obvious benefactor, gets the obvious.
- [11:21]
Dave Kluge
Benefit if not another player. I want to talk about in this one. Samaj AP Ryan, he has 23 touches over the last couple of weeks. I know a lot of people are talking about him as a potential stash, a guy that you want to hold in case Chase Brown goes down. Do you think there's any standalone value here or do you think that's all Samajp Ryan is, is just kind of a stash at this point.
- [11:38]
Bob Harris
I would tell you on a number of those teams of mine that did not make the playoffs, he was not, he was not a stash. He was, he was a guy I needed to get things done. So yes. So yeah, he's a guy like, like, I think as we head into the playoffs, you do want to have him as a stash. But the standalone value, you're pushing it a little bit. I mean, I, I, I can tell you from my own experience there is some. Right. He'll help you avoid a zero, but you know, the huge upside or the scoring upside, you know, you're taking your chances there. So ideally, no, not standalone value. If you're in a super emergency, yes, standalone value.
- [12:14]
Dave Kluge
And I think, you know, I, I was given kind of cautionary tale last week coming out of that Cincinnati game. It was Samaji P. Ryan's first game back, and it was very much so. A 5050 split with Samaj P. Ryan and Chase Brown. But I said if you look at the context of how those touches came, they came late in the game when he was coming back from an injury, wanted to get some extra reps in. They were up 2, 3 scores at that point. So it didn't really tell the whole story as to why the touches were split that way. Then last week, and we see a much closer game. Chase Brown is the guy on the field for 70% of the snaps, getting 70% of the touches. So I think that a couple of weeks ago, when we saw Samaj P. Ryan really pushing for a big workload, I think that was just them being up multiple scores and him trying to shake the rust off after an extended absence. So completely. With you there, Bob. Let's move on to the next game here. Bills and Patriots. There's a lot of good divisional matchups this week, and we're going to talk about another one here. Dalton Kincaid. Is he the only Bill's pass catcher that we're really starting on a weekly basis right now? It seems like the ball has just been spread so thin in Buffalo. I find it hard to trust any of these guys.
- [13:13]
Bob Harris
Yeah. And I don't really trust Dkaid. But the problem is, is his playing time. Right. He first gave back last week. It was what, 37% snapshare, but his norm is only like about 40, 45%. There's a lot of consternation in the local media. This guy's your best receiver. Why isn't he on the field more? Seems to be the plan. We've seen times, though, when that kind of issue comes up that Joe Brady will make adjustments if the, if the heat is coming on him. We saw it with James Cook, had a couple games where he kind of was minimalized for and then came back with a vengeance after. I think it was right after their buy. And you heard Sean McDermott going in the buy. We're going to talk about this and then we came back and saw a ton of James Cook. I don't know if we're at that level with Dalton Kincaid. Maybe I'm just wish casting here because I do that a lot. But, but still, I mean even, even as it is, I mean he was not getting a ton of. Of snaps the first what, seven weeks of the season and he was what tight end? He was inside, well inside the top 10. So. So yeah, I think he's the most trustworthy piece there. It's like, you know, I tend to view the packers wide receiving core as a whack, a mole unit. This. I wish there was a mole in this Buffalo unit like that I could try to whack every now and again. It's just, it's very hard and I guess, you know, it's Khalil Shakir, if there is one, but, but I'm not eager to test that. It's more, he's more of a, you know, if I have to wide receiver three play. But Kincaid is it. He's. He'll be, he'll be in the starting lineups for me this week.
- [14:34]
Dave Kluge
And even with Shakir, like it's so hit or miss. Like we got the touchdown last week, three weeks ago we got the 110 yard game. But over the last four games, three of those games he's had two or fewer receptions. So I mean like it is just pulling my hair out trying to get a read on this team. And you know, being a co host with Jeff Bell, an unabashed Bills fan, we talk about it a lot. It just seems like they are just not utilizing these guys the way they should be. I mean Jeff has said it multiple times, like, why isn't Khalil Shakir getting Amon Ra St Brown type of usage where they're just peppered in 10 times a game across the middle of the field. Dalton Kincaid, I feel like the, the issue with him of course is injuries. Like it feels like it's the same thing over and over and over again. He comes back from injury, he' slowly kind of ramped up. As soon as you get faith to put him in your lineup, he gets injured again and leaves the game and then he misses a couple more games. I mean he's just been maddening trying to project this Bill's offense on a week to week basis. Another one that is pretty tough to talk about on a week to week basis. The Patriots backfield. Now we've got the bye week where we assume Radre Stevenson was able to heal up a little Bit. But they also could have reassessed some things during the bye week. So there's no wrong answer here because you are just guessing. Bob, how do you expect touches to be split between Ramadre Stevenson and Trevion Henderson coming out of the buy?
- [15:48]
Bob Harris
Honestly, it's only tough because we had more expectations for one than the other. You wanted to be Henderson, I wanted to be Henderson. We all wanted to be Henderson, except Mike vrabel and Josh McDaniels. They don't care what we want. They're going to do their thing. And there's some veteran deference here. You know, it looked like when Henderson had the job to himself and Stevenson was hurt, he was going to keep the job to himself. Not so fast. He did not. And it was like a slower, slower rise. First week back for Stevenson was like what, a 60, 40 split? And then last week we were right back to the Stevenson slightly ahead of Henderson, getting slightly more touches, splitting the red zone work. So, and, and, and by the way, like going back Matt Waldman, I remember the rsp, the rookie scouting portfolio when Andrew, when Stevenson came out and his discussion, a lot of discussion there was how Stevenson's a way better receiver than people give him credit for. He looks like a little better receiver right now than Henderson. Henderson's more explosive player. Right. I. I mean, like, in an ideal world, I would love to play him, but. But right now I think it's dead even. I know the rankings don't say that. I think what Henderson is our running back, 17 and. Or right in that range. And Stevenson is 37 on our rankings right now. That sounds about right. It's close.
- [17:00]
Dave Kluge
17. You have those memorized? Yes. Spot on. 17 and 37. Yeah.
- [17:03]
Bob Harris
Yeah. So I think, look, if, like, I'm always looking for the value, to me, Stevenson is the value play here. If you're playing dfs, he's probably the cheaper piece. I'd probably be interested in that. And season long, you're going to play the one you have and you're going to play him with expectations. I think the expectations for Henderson are probably too high at 17, and for Stevenson they're too low at 37. They're somewhere good. They're going to meet somewhere in the middle.
- [17:28]
Dave Kluge
I think the hope, of course, is that Henderson can take his 50% touches and generate twice as many yards per touch and have a big touchdown and kind of, you know, make your fantasy week that way. But yeah, I think there is a shaky floor here that people don't want to talk about all that Much because he's a rookie and he's a second round rookie and people get excited about that type of guy. But if he isn't hitting the big play, if he's not scoring a touchdown, he's got a floor of like five points this week.
- [17:51]
Bob Harris
Right. It feels like the Patriot way includes. There's still some of that around and it includes not trusting rookies. Right. Especially. And, and I get it, you know, and, and again, I think in a league where quarterbacks, there are not enough of those to go around and you have one of those, you'll go to great lengths to protect him. Perhaps pass protection is an issue still for Henderson as well. I know it was early in the season. Backs get better at that. They learn because you know, staying on the field is important to them as it is to us. And, and they figured out. But, but he may not have that portion figured out yet.
- [18:23]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And you know, there's so much. Of course Bill Belichick isn't with the Patriots anymore, but you can't tell me that his DNA.
- [18:30]
Bob Harris
Exactly, Daniel. Right.
- [18:32]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, exactly. Even last year with Gerard Mayo, like they are still, like this is still the same DNA pumping through Foxborough whether Bill Belichick is there or not.
- [18:40]
Bob Harris
I say that about Washington right now. Not to, you know, digress here but, but like, you know, there's got to be some institutional memory of RG3 when they're dealing with Daniels right now and his, Jaden Daniels and his elbow injury.
- [18:52]
Dave Kluge
Right.
- [18:52]
Bob Harris
They, they got to say we don't want to destro this guy, you know, in his, in his. Early in his career.
- [18:58]
Dave Kluge
I mean we could go way off the rails here. But Sigma Bloom talks about like Team DNAs all the time.
- [19:03]
Bob Harris
Right?
- [19:03]
Dave Kluge
You're telling me right now like a year two quarterback in Chicago with this new hotshot offensive minded head coach, surprising a bunch of teams making the playoffs. To me, like don't get me wrong, I'm excited as a Bears fan, but I remember year two with Mitch Trubisky and you know, first year head coach Matt Nagy and all the fun things that they did. I mean we do see a lot of the storylines just replaying over and over and over again.
- [19:24]
Bob Harris
I only remember Rex.
- [19:25]
Dave Kluge
Same franchise. Sorry Dave. That was a great one as well. Yeah, I got my, my Lovey Smith signed football right here next to me on my desk. But I want to stick with this game. And you talked about it, you know, last week we did see the. Mike Kasicki had a big game against the Bills last week, but on the season, they're averaging just 7.3 fantasy points per game. Two opposing tight ends, by far the fewest of any team out there. So Hunter Henry is a guy who has been very boomer bust so far this season. Do you think that he is a guy that you might want to maybe think about benching this week, going up against a tough Bills defense?
- [19:57]
Bob Harris
Yeah, I think that's fair. You know, like, I'm sure there will people still be people. I, I, you know, it's, it struck me the other, I think I was looking last week and he was like, he's still tight end six on the season. There was a time when he was like in the tight end twenties over the, you know, over, like it was like weeks one through five, he was tight end two or something up, up in the, in the upper range. And then he just fell off the radar, right. And now he's kind of climbed back up and been pretty solid. But yeah, in this game, I don't feel like he's a must play. And like if I had him or Isaiah likely, I would probably, I would likely outsmart myself. And so, so I, I'm, I come kind of with you. I mean, I, I write a column every week, you know, in and out, where I'm trying to game the projections and, and I'm always looking at whoever's playing the Bills and Travis Kelce got a big win that week. You know, there's, there's a lot of wins for me, just like there's a lot of wins going with tight ends playing Buffalo, playing Cincinnati. There's a lot of wins avoiding tight ends playing the Buffalo Bills this year.
- [20:56]
Dave Kluge
And you know, this is a divisional matchup where they faced each other earlier in the year. And just two catches for Hunter Henry. So, you know, we do see like you talk about him like kind of popping back up into that top six. You got the, you got the Bengals a couple of weeks ago, seven catches for 115 yards and a touchdown like that, you know, playing the Bengals. That is the boom match up here. And the reason I asked this, Bob, you know, when we submit our rankings over football, guys, we're kind of flagged for outliers. I've got Hunter Henry kind of in the back end of the straining discussion this week as the tight end 17. Our projections are a little bit more aggressive on him. And it said, are you sure you have Hunter Henry ranked appropriately? And I said yes, but I don't really know, like it's anybody's guess when.
- [21:36]
Bob Harris
It comes to these 6.6 points in that last game. Right. I mean. Right. If he hit that again, it would not be surprising at all.
- [21:43]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And also, you know, 6.6 points from a tight end, it's not going to kill you. It could get worse than that. Absolutely. So two catches for 46 yards, you're, you're happy with that in most spots.
- [21:53]
Bob Harris
Jalen hurts on Monday night can tell you it can get much worse than that.
- [21:56]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know what? 6.6 points from your quarterback. But yeah, we'll take what we can get there. Let's stick with one more divisional game here. Chargers at Chiefs. We're benching Justin Herbert. Right. Like that's just the point that we're at. I think I, I don't think I'm giving any groundbreaking analysis here, but let's try to make it a little bit actionable for people who have Justin Herbert. You know, last week I, I wrote an article saying these are some guys, you know, Tyler Schuck and Shador Sanders and some of these other guys that are available, who are some other readily available quarterbacks that you might start ahead of Justin Herbert this week.
- [22:33]
Bob Harris
Bob, I'll say this. Anyone who watched that game Monday night knows that there's absolutely no sense in playing Justin Herbert. And, and also that game Monday night was his best game in his last four. Right. It hasn't been great. Offensive lines matter, people and he is, his hand might get better, but his offensive line is not, not for a while anyway. So there's a handful of quarterbacks. You mentioned Tyler Shuck right now. You know, I, I, I don't want to overstate the case. Right. I feel like that's like, I don't want to go overboard, but he what, three quarterback one finishes in the last or what quarterback 11 or better in the last two, three of the last four games or something. Something ridiculous like that. I, I play him for sure. I would play, I would, I would consider Sanders given the matchup for sure. Rice Young would be the conversation. J.J. mcCarthy going against the Dallas Cowboys like and, and he's horrible. And I would still play him against the Cowboys over, over Justin Herbert. I just don't like though, you know, like this is going to be a run heavy offense for a little while. I suspect so. Yeah. Out on Herbert. I'm like, I go into season like I am famously, I'd like to think injury agnostic. I don't worry about injured players, you know, going into a season. But I'm not stupid. Once a player's hurt like you, he couldn't secure the football. I mean, you know, can't take snaps under center. Maybe that improves this week. I hope so. But, but I don't have a lot of faith. And, and boy, once you, once an opposing defense sees that you only have one hand to secure the football, they are, you're like, you're like walking through the dog pound with a pork chop in your pocket. They are coming after you, man.
- [24:19]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, especially last week we saw him just bringing blitzes every single time that they could, trying to increase the pressure on him. And right now it's been bad. Like we, we, we know this. But Bob, I've been tracking the with and without Joe Alt splits every single week and it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse with, with Joe Alt out there. I mean we saw a six game sample where on a per game basis Justin Herbert was the top scoring quarterback in fantasy football, averaging more points per game with Joe Al than Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes. Everybody else is right now in the games without Joe Alt. He is the QB31 on a per game basis. I mean like it could not be more stark how much of a difference Joe Al made there. And then you also see like Justin Herbert leading the league in pressures. I believe he's second in sacks behind Cam Ward. He's leading the league in quarterback hits. I mean like they are just teeing off on him out there. There's no protection whatsoever and he's a big guy. Like he could still overcome some of these hits and make plays with his legs and throw the ball through traffic. But like at a certain point it just starts to wear a quarterback down.
- [25:18]
Bob Harris
100% that look, look, look what's going on with Patrick Mahomes with, with injuries along his offensive line. Right. It's not helping him either that he's not been a quarterback one since he played Dallas two weeks ago. The other four games of his last five he's been well outside the quarterback one range. So last week single digits scored. So I think this is a big deal and I think this is probably not going to be a great game for him. I know they're getting Trey Smith back, I think the Chiefs this week but, but I'm not excited about Patrick Mahomes this week either.
- [25:45]
Dave Kluge
Well, let's stick with the Chargers real quickly because you know, early in the season, through the first month, we were just saying lad, McConkey, Keenan Allen, Quentin Johnson, start them all. Now I think the question is like, are any of these guys startable? Like there's Been very little production and it's spread very thin through these pass catchers. So look at it, lad McConkey, Keenan Allen, Quentin Johnson. We'll throw Ronda Gads in in there as well, who hasn't been doing much lately. Are all these guys just kind of fringe starters or is there one guy that you'd say like, no, I still feel good getting this guy in my lineup.
- [26:11]
Bob Harris
I don't feel good about any of my. Probably still to play mcconi. You know, you saw Herbert taking some shots to him at least, albeit un ineffectively taking shots at him. So yeah, that would be, that would be the one I'm playing. Otherwise, I, I'm going to avoid this altogether. Chiefs are very good defense and, and I think that, I think this is, this is probably just an offense outside the running back position that I'm not very interested in.
- [26:39]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I think that's an okay stance to have here. And looking at it, I mean we have Vlad McConkey ranked as the highest of all of these guys in our rankings. Wide receiver 30 though, I mean like that is not that. That is far from a must start. That means if he got him, maybe you're starting him, but you also might have a better option. So I think that's like a lot of people don't want to be benching guys like this. You like Quentin Johnson was the top scoring wide receiver for a handful of weeks. Like Keenan Allen looked like he was a godsend for people that got him late in drafts. But I just don't know if you can trust any of these guys.
- [27:07]
Bob Harris
But no, I, I do know you cannot.
- [27:10]
Dave Kluge
You cannot. Yeah. And like you said, like, if you're desperate, Lad Bakanki is the one that you feel best about, but you don't feel great there. So. One more question I have about the Chargers before we talk about the Chiefs. Quickly. Last week we saw a split. Omarion Hampton and Kamani Vidal. Do you think we are going to continue seeing that sort of split or do you think that was just, hey, let's kind of ease Omarion Hampton back in. In his first game. Do you think he runs away with this backfield or do we keep seeing this kind of split?
- [27:36]
Bob Harris
We do not see this kind of split. We see Omarion Hampton taking over. Kamani Vidal got the ceremonial start. Had he not had a big play early on, we might not have seen so much of him. Had what, what Was that? A 60 yard catch and run. And Hampton Sigma Bloom pointed this out, you know, in our conversations online at the staff conversations that. That 23 snaps for Hampton, 15 touches. Let's start extrapolating. Right. As the stats go up, I think we'll know. And. And another point that Sig made and that I. That I've been thinking all along is you mentioned something. Nobody's 100 right now. Maureen. Hampton's pretty damn close to it, right? Fresh legs coming in late. We've seen guys like that. Who, Who? Aaron Jones. We've seen like, what year was it? Like, was he last year, the year before he came back from a knee injury late in the season and just ran wild on everybody. You could see something similar.
- [28:28]
Dave Kluge
170 yard playoff game. I remember. Yeah, yeah.
- [28:32]
Bob Harris
Yep, yep, yep. So we could see something along those lines from Hampton or at least a. A return to that level. And I was concerned, like, coming out, you know, we've seen guys like, you know, Isaiah Pacheco. Turns out Isaiah Pacheco might just not be as good as we thought he was. Right. He's never finished better than a running back three. But we were very excited about him, you know, but. But, you know, you see him coming off injury or Tony Pollard coming off his fracture. That took probably. What did he say until week 10 of the next year. You heard that in a playoff game in January against San Francisco for the Cowboys, and he wasn't the same until week 10, the next season. And so that's always a concern with guys. I didn't see a whole lot of that from Hampton in this. This first game back. So I do expect the workload to increase and we start seeing a guy that we. Something closer to what we saw the first five weeks of the season.
- [29:21]
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- [30:27]
Dave Kluge
So I, you know, I, I want to get there. I do. Like, I, you know, we love our rookie running backs, but I do worry a little bit just that, like, if you look at the history of Harbaugh and Roman, how they like to split touches up a little bit. I think that's my fear is that like going into the year, they wanted it to be Najee Harris and Omarion Hampton, and then Najee Harris went down. They gave the work to Amarian Hampton. And then I think while Hampton was out, they kind of found something with Vidal that I think they might nurture here a little bit. And I don't think it's going to be. Last week we saw a 50, 50 touch split. I don't expect that to maintain, but where we saw O', Brien, Hampton getting 80, 90 of the touches before his injury, I think we probably guess more like a 70, 30, 65, 35 type of split. And of course we're guessing here. I don't know the answers. You don't know the answers. But I just look at that Greg Roman history where like J.K. dobbins was a stellar rookie and they were still giving touches to Gus Edwards and Mark Ingram. You know, I just, that that that's my fear is that if they know they have another capable back, they're going to find ways to get him the ball.
- [31:23]
Bob Harris
Yeah, I will say this, that, that. I mean, in those weeks when Hampton was really going running wild, he had like week three, 79, week four 89, it was with Hassan Haskins. Nobody's going to confuse Hassan Haskins for commanding Vidal. I, you know, I get that. Nonetheless, the Chargers are in a situation where they need. What do they need more than anything? They need that running game to, to at least slow the opposing pass rushers down or at least give them something to think about, keep them semi honest. And so I think we're going to see a lot of running and I think it'll be plenty of Hampton. And though you're like a 70, 30 wouldn't surprise me. In fact, that would probably please me. And if we get that Hampton will, will deliver above and beyond expectations, but.
- [32:05]
Dave Kluge
Still hold on to your commodity if you got it.
- [32:07]
Bob Harris
Sure.
- [32:07]
Dave Kluge
Just, you know, it's always good to keep those guys. Absolutely.
- [32:10]
Bob Harris
Don't let go of anything.
- [32:12]
Dave Kluge
So you talk about Isaiah Pacheco maybe not being as good as Some people would have hoped he'd be. And Rashard Smith, you know, we love our, our day. Three rookies. Exactly. Yeah. But he has turned out to be a, a bunch of nothing so far this year. So that leads me to my next question. Kareem Hunt, is he just a plug and play option through the fantasy playoffs?
- [32:32]
Bob Harris
He is. For no other reason than every goal line. He's the option of the goal line. Right. I mean, I'll play that potential touchdown pretty much every week for an offense that can matriculate the ball up and down the field pretty darn well even on the worst of days. So, so I would probably play that. I mean like Hunting's been surprisingly good, I feel like, I mean, I think he's like obviously outperforming expectations. But, but man, what was it? Two weeks ago he had like a real football game for a, for a running back 100 yard game. It was like, wow, that guy is, can still play. So I'm not expecting that every week, but I do think the workloads there, I don't think we'll see Isaiah Pacheco taking over because we would have seeded if it was going to happen. Andy Reid has a lot of faith in players and you know, he's a savvy veteran coach. He knows what's working and he's going to stick with that. And right now for him, Kareem Hut's working. So yes, he is a viable playoff.
- [33:24]
Dave Kluge
Candidate for me and I understand why. Fantasy football players, we love the young guys with the breakaway speed and all that sort of stuff, but sometimes there's this like disconnect between what fantasy managers want to see and what NFL coaches want to see. And this is something I remember. Matt Waldman and I, we talked about it last year when Kareem Hunt came back to Kansas City and everybody was saying like, why are they giving Kareem Hunt all of these touches? Sure, he might not be the guy who can break off an 80 yard touchdown like he could his rookie season, but he is really good at mitigating losses, moving piles, you know, getting skinny between holes, like he can read the leverage on his offensive line. All of that minutiae of playing the running back position like the, the, the, the attention to detail. Coaches love that. He's not going to come out and do what Isaiah Pacheco does and dance in the backfield for 10 seconds and take an eight yard loss. He's just going to keep the offense on schedule, move the ball down the field. And I think that's why he keeps getting these touches. So he's not the same Kareem Hunt from his rookie season that you're plugging in as a guy with top three upside. But the opportunity is going to be there in any given week. He could score two or three touchdowns and I think that alone makes you want to keep him in your lineups. Anything else you want to talk about this game?
- [34:30]
Bob Harris
Just real quickly. Total place he's why he's running back 26 on the season points per game 10 points per game. My Samaj P Ryan leagues would love to have them.
- [34:44]
Dave Kluge
I I think we could agree with that. I know Bob, you had mentioned Patrick Mahomes. You know, not looking great over the last few weeks before we move on to the next game. Any overall themes or just things that you've noticed with with Patrick Mahomes that you want to mention? Because he did have that 30 point outing two weeks ago. So it hasn't been as consistent as it was early in the year. But I still think Mahomes has the upside. You want to see that you're still starting him as a QB one even if we don't feel quite as good about it as we did maybe a month ago.
- [35:09]
Bob Harris
Yeah, I'd still start him this week. I think I have him inside my top 12 this week. Maybe I maybe I moved him out. Maybe like I'm trying to talk myself into moving him out. I make adjustments constantly. Probably some while we were having this discussion but you know last week he went against the toughest defense in the league and finished like it. He was outside quarterback two to quarterback 25. Just five fantasy points. But it's not been great in other game non Cowboys games. We go back to what week nine it was what quarterback 15 what quarterback 24 quarterback 24 quarterback 25 against the bills in week nine eight and a half points. Quarterback 15 against the broncos. Week 11 13.3 points. Quarterback 14 against the colts in week two 15.1 points. So it's not all daunting, super daunting defenses. So I think the Chargers defense that I saw play Monday night will have something for him and this offense in general. So like I would set my expectations at the lower end next week. Week 16 against the Titans. Let's go. Week 17 against the Broncos. I'm going to be working on some.
- [36:16]
Dave Kluge
Other plans and I think the Broncos are a good segue for the next game. I want to talk about the packers are heading to Denver to face against the Broncos and we've seen Christian Watson has been on A tear since coming back from an acl. And I feel like every time I talk about Christian Watson, I just talk about what a whiff it was for me. Like I didn't even expect this guy to come back and play this year, let alone come back and play the best football he's played of his career. Most yards per game of his career, best touchdown rate of his career. I mean, we could just go on and on. He has looked like the wide receiver one that the packers hoped he would be when they drafted him in round two a few years ago. But now this week, a very tough matchup. We've got one of the best secondaries in the NFL. He's probably going to be drawing coverage from Pat Surtan, who we have seen just kind of glues to that most athletic receiver on the field. So I know everybody's been happy with the wide receiver one production that they've been getting from Christian. Watson. But would you say that maybe this week you don't have. I mean, I don't want to put words in your mouth, Bob, but I know I don't have the same expectations for Christian Watson this week as what he has been doing for the last month.
- [37:14]
Bob Harris
Well, to be fair, I don't have expectations for him any week other than he has a chance to score touchdowns. Right? Like he is that guy and he. And to his credit, he's been doing it. He's arguably the best deep threat in the league right now. Air yards, 18 and a half air yards on his targets this year. That's the league it's highest mark, 452 yards and five touchdowns. Top 15 at his position since week eight. So he's been great. But the targets are the issue as I got a 19 target share last week. Like last week it was his lowest since week 10. He's had one game with real target numbers. That was the Detroit game. That's been the outlier. He had what, 10 targets in week 13. He's averaged 5.8 targets per game and that's inflated by the 10 targets against Detroit in week 13. He's had the same four targets he saw against the Bears. In four of those four of his seven games, he's scoring touchdowns. You're like, this is the thing about packers receivers. Play the one you got and hope it's that. Hope it's his week. If you need to play him, I'm playing Watson over everybody else. But you're right, the matchup does not favor him in this one. But he's got four games with what, three games with single digits? Four games, 12.5 points or fewer. You just have to realize he's a boom bust play. And the Booms are as likely as the Busts or the Busts are as likely as the Booms and maybe more likely against the Denver Broncos.
- [38:39]
Dave Kluge
And I think every packers wide receiver is boom bust besides Matthew golden, who might just be bust right now. We'll see if the Booms can come in future years. But I think for now, I mean, we haven't been getting that. But you know, Bob, I don't know if you ever do this. When I do my rankings, sometimes I feel like I just like have to make a stance in my rankings. This week I put Jaden Reed one spot ahead of Christian Watson in my rankings. So am I crazy for doing that? Right. And you know what I'm saying? You do the same thing I do, I'm sure. But it's like I'm saying Jaden Reed. I, I prefer Jaden Reed in this matchup. He's not going to be drawing coverage from Pat Certain. If there's one spot that we have seen is somewhat susceptible in this Broncos defense, it is against slot receivers. So I saw Jaden Reed, he looked like his normal explosive self last week. I think that game to shake the rust off. I, I prefer Jaden Reed, if you've got him this week, to Christian Watson. So I don't have any reservations about firing up. I don't know how you feel about Jaden Reed in this.
- [39:32]
Bob Harris
I remember this one game last year when Jaden Reed was really good, but I don't remember any others. No.
- [39:37]
Dave Kluge
Yeah.
- [39:39]
Bob Harris
That'S been. To me, that's the problem with any of these guys. Right. So Reed is as likely to come through and like he, to me now, he is the second choice on this list. But will he get the targets? I mean, that's. That's always going to be the answer here. He's as likely to. And there's maybe more varied usage and maybe he gets a carrier two in a fortuitous spot. So I think that adds to his vibe. I do not have him ahead of Watson this week, but I don't feel, I don't feel confident in anybody in this offense this week. I'm increasingly less confident or decreasingly confident, some would say. And Josh Jacobs, as he's not practicing as we head in to, you know, get closer to the weekend, he's been beat up. This is going to be a tough matchup for both teams, though.
- [40:21]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And I mean, we do know Josh Jacobs, he just plays through injuries. That dude is tough as nails. I'm not going to count him out until I see that inactive Status come out 90 minutes before kickoff because he just always plays through stuff like this. But last question I have in this one, we don't have to talk a ton about the Broncos. I think, you know, you know, you're starting Bo Nicks as kind of a back end streamer. You're starting RJ Harvey if you've got him and you feel good about that. But I think the one spot that we do have some question marks about, it seemed like there was a point in time where we were talking about Troy Franklin as the wide receiver one for the Broncos before the bye week. He's not. I don't even know if he's the wide receiver too right now.
- [40:57]
Bob Harris
Four or five at this point.
- [40:59]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, now we're seeing Evan Ingram getting involved. We're seeing Pat Bryan and that's what Harvey is very involved in the passing game as well. So we do have this news though, that Pat Bryant probably isn't going to be playing this week. And over the last three games we have seen Pat Brian has been the coach, clear secondary option among receivers and Troy Franklin just hasn't gotten any usage at all. But do you think with Pat Bryant out of this game, fantasy manager who have been holding on to Troy Franklin, do you think maybe they can use him as a wide receiver two or a wide receiver three, basically what he was doing through the first 11 weeks before losing that role to Pat Bryant? Or do you think that this is just one where like start Corland Sutton and avoid everybody else?
- [41:38]
Bob Harris
That's probably where I'm at. More where I'm at. I mean, like we're going like. And if I don't have to start Cortland Sutton, I won't start him either. But I probably have to. I mean, it's hard to avoid him. I have pretty heavily invested. But I do think that's that's correct. Like, like we're in the playoffs, man. Don't. There's no need to take chances here. If you don't feel comfortable about a player's role and you compound that with a tough matchup, I'm probably looking at other options at least that have one of those things, one of those attributes that I could hang my hat on and at least like tell myself I have a chance. I don't feel that with Franklin. I know the high side games are there. The upside, the potential is there. He just doesn't hit it enough.
- [42:19]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And to put some like actionable names to it. And the reason I want to talk about this is because I think a lot of people do see that Pat Bryant isn't playing and saying good, now I can go back to Troy Franklin and will I get that mindset? Like we could also see.
- [42:31]
Bob Harris
No, go back to Devon Belle. Find somebody else and that spot on.
- [42:36]
Dave Kluge
That's what I was gonna say. I have Devon Valley ahead of Troy Franklin. I have Troy Franklin in the same cluster as John Metchie, Keenan Allen, Shimmery, dk, Cooper Cup. Like those aren't guys you want to start. Like you could probably find better options on your waiver wire right now than.
- [42:51]
Bob Harris
Starting more than me. I have them with the Calvin Austin's Xavier Legends and Keon Colemans.
- [43:01]
Dave Kluge
So I moved him up a little bit because I think that there is potential to have a 10 times like he was doing. But I think the floor is also so dangerously low because this is a Sean Payton offense and clearly Troy Franklin did something over the last month that he has lost the good graces of Sean Payton for sure. And that's just the risk is that he gets no uses whatsoever in this game. But we're going to talk about the Colts and Seahawks. I, I don't think you do a fantasy show this week without talking about the Colts and Seahawks game. Here. Philip Rivers, we're not thinking about him in single quarterback leagues. Absolutely not. But I, I gotta ask the question, Bob. Two quarterback leagues, super flex leagues. I mean this is a good offensive line. There's good weapons. We know Philip Rivers. It's been a while but like can we look at this guy's potential streamer in two quarterback and super flex leagues.
- [43:50]
Bob Harris
I encourage you to do that. Hopefully in leagues where I'm playing you and super flex leagues where I'm playing you.
- [43:54]
Dave Kluge
You.
- [43:55]
Bob Harris
I'm probably not doing that. I'm probably. It's a great story. Super cool feel good story. Amazing.
- [44:01]
Dave Kluge
Remarkable.
- [44:02]
Bob Harris
It would be great if it was the fairy tale came true. Fairy tales aren't going to win me fantasy championships. Most times I'm probably looking like can I get Marcus Mariota? You know I, I'd probably be thinking of. I'd be looking at other options before I looked at Rivers. I don't. I'm not dismissing anything you say. All those things are 100 true. Also Seattle is no joke.
- [44:25]
Dave Kluge
Right. That's the big thing, I think.
- [44:27]
Bob Harris
Yeah, right. That, that's, that's my, you know, that's a huge concern. And, and like you know conditioning for quarterbacks. I don't think that's that big a deal. Conditioning for a quarterback like Philip Rivers also not a big deal. He's not going to run more than three steps. Maybe you know, maybe so. So all that. Yes. But ah just for me I think that's a it. That's what I would call a bridge too far.
- [44:51]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And and again to like put names to this. I have him in a tier with Aaron Rodgers, Cam Ward 2 talking by Loa and Kirk Cousins. So like that is your break glass in case of emergency tier. Like you know if you're in a deep super flex league where everybody else is hoarding three or four quarterbacks and like you're really really desperate. But yeah I'd hope that if you are in the playoffs you've got a better option than than Phil Richard Rivers.
- [45:17]
Bob Harris
I'll say this, I think the Colts hope they do as well. Riley Leonard practice fully to open the week which I was surprised, you know when you hear the week to week comment you think that's probably at least a week then and in this case maybe not but. But it will be. I'll tell you it won't be Brett Rippin. Right, right. So. So there's 100 a chance and I, you know like look he knows the offense, he's got a great relationship with Shane Steichen, goes back to their time together as quarterbacks coach in Los Angeles. So I mean like I don't want to be just totally dismissive of it but a 44 year old quarterback coming out that cold, I mean we've seen these things before. Like I want to go back to like Steve the Berg coming in for like Kansas City or something like that. Ridiculous. And, and having an amazing run to finish the season. So like fairy tales do come true. I just don't want to bank on him for my fantasy success.
- [46:08]
Dave Kluge
And here's what I will say. At least pick him up if you're into two quarterback in super flex league if he's available because this is a tough matchup. But let's say he does start and look good in this matchup next week against a depleted 49ers defense. I think we'd have a lot more confidence starting him next week if he looks okay. And again we don't even know if he's starting this week.
- [46:24]
Bob Harris
But also you don't want Philip Rivers beating you in a championship. What would be more humiliating? Just stash him at the end of your bench and keep somebody else from winning.
- [46:32]
Dave Kluge
Yeah and maybe I'VE got higher hopes here, Bob. But like Philip Rivers, he's never been a guy like, you know, this isn't a 44 year old Lamar Jackson. This is a guy who like his best skill is, his best skill is, you know, pre diagnosing coverage before the snap, knowing who the open guy is going to be. I think if they could just put him back there and shotgun and just say, hey, get the ball to Tyler Warren, Josh Downs, Michael Piven. I, I think there could be something here. Maybe I'm just a sucker, maybe I'm a romantic that just wants.
- [46:58]
Bob Harris
NFL is a very fast game, Very fast game. Might take, it might take a minute to catch up.
- [47:04]
Dave Kluge
Daniel Jones out for the season. Obviously we just talked about that a little bit. How do you think this impacts Jonathan Taylor? Because we even saw when like Daniel Jones lost his mobility, it impacted Jonathan Taylor. So now if we're looking at not just an immobile quarterback, but either a old immobile quarterback or an undrafted kind of mobile quarterback. Either way, I just, I don't think this is good for Jonathan Taylor.
- [47:26]
Bob Harris
No, I should look at the numbers. I should have looked at the numbers. I don't know what the, how many more, how many more times he's going to see an additional man in the box. I'm guessing it will be a lot. And he probably already sees, sees it a lot. And we saw, you know, we've seen Jonathan Taylor come down to earth a little bit. I'll dismiss last week's game because the Jaguars always have his number in Jacksonville also. They're the best run defense in the league. And so, so that wasn't a huge shocker, but there have been some games where it's a huge shocker still. I mean, Jonathan Taylor is one step away from scoring a touchdown every time somebody hands him the football. So whoever it is handing him the football, he is that guy still. You're playing him like he's, that he's that guy with the hopes of better outcomes. But no, you should obviously be thinking this is going to be a tougher run for him and the entire Colts offense without their frontline quarterback. Daniel Jones was playing fantastic football early in the season. He was slowed down a little bit when he, when the leg was hurt for sure. Maybe he was slowing down even before that a little bit or at least.
- [48:24]
Dave Kluge
Yeah.
- [48:24]
Bob Harris
Becoming more giant like Daniel Jones. The turnovers had been an issue. Right. I think going back to the, the, to the Europe game. So, so yeah, I'm not like, you know, I'm not sitting Jonathan Taylor anywhere. But also when he comes up short, I'm going, I should have known it.
- [48:42]
Dave Kluge
Yeah, we see this all the time, right? Like this team that just gets in as the one seed just dominating all year and then they kind of limp into the playoffs with these guys who are trending down and then that six seed that's got Jacoby Brissette and Michael Wilson and RJ Harvey ends up kind of running the table. So, yeah, I mean, like you're starting Jonathan Taylor, but definitely a bit dimmer of an outlook now than it would have been earlier in the year. Last game I want to talk about here, Bob Vikings at Cowboys. You talked about it. Justin Jefferson. You know, we had the same conversation earlier about Justin Herbert. Who are some wide receivers that you would recommend? Because it's easy to say like, oh, Justin Herbert, things are terrible, but like, let's put some names to it. Let's make it actionable for the listeners who are some wide receivers that you would start ahead of Justin Jefferson this week.
- [49:27]
Bob Harris
So I'd probably be in this matchup more willing. Like again, I've been trying to tell people, you know, where we're at and where we're at is, is. Is not good. Right. Just to, just to remind everybody what the numbers look like. They have not been good here. What do we got? Let's see. Finished week 14, just two catches in what, J.J. mcCarthy's best or second best game? Best full game. Right. He had a good quarter earlier in the season, so he ended up with two catches on four targets. Second straight week with only two catches. He's had two or few catches in the total in two total games the last two years combined. Right. 3.1 fantasy points. He was wide receiver 77. That's not good. He scored fewer than 10 points in three straight games. For the season, he's wide receiver 25 with an average of 12.1 points per game. He's been wide receiver 34 over the last 18, eight games with 9.2 points per game. He's been Wide receiver 55 over the last four weeks. 6.4 points per game. All that said, I'm still playing him as a tail end wide receiver too in this matchup against Cowboys, who have been, I mean, the, the most generous defense to receivers all season and even more so the last four weeks. Even though the defense is getting better and they're getting a little more pressure on the quarterback, their pressure rate's up, up. I still think that, that the, the secondary has not gotten better, not even remotely better. So but looking at the guys that I would play over him this week, it's pretty, it's pretty robust list. I, I mean, you know, the decisions would come to like guys like DeVonta Smith, DK Metcalf, Jacoby Myers probably would play Jacoby Myers over him.
- [51:13]
Dave Kluge
Ahead of him too. I like that Miami matchup. You know, they're. They're all susceptible to the big play. So I've got Jacoby and DK both ahead of Justin Jefferson.
- [51:22]
Bob Harris
Stefan Diggs had 10 catches for 146 yards last time he played the Buffalo Bills. We'll see if he gets Christian Benford, but I think they'll run him out of the slot enough to, to, to avoid that. I don't know. Are we going to go all the way to Trey Tucker?
- [51:36]
Dave Kluge
I'm not that far, no. I've got all the names that you mentioned. The four guys I have directly ahead of Justin Jefferson are Stefan Diggs, DK Metcalf and Jacoby Myers, who you mentioned. The other one is Wandale Robinson, you know, a very porous Washington secondary.
- [51:50]
Bob Harris
I think he's like inside my. He's number 10 for me this week. So yeah, I mean, he's been great.
- [51:58]
Dave Kluge
And then I think like where Jefferson falls into. And it's so weird to say that this is where Jefferson is, but I've got to be a tier with Juwan Jennings, Chris Godwin, Ameka Buka and Lad Makaki. So like just kind of wide receiver too is where you got him.
- [52:14]
Bob Harris
I'm pretty much down on Abuka right now, so. So probably I probably go Jefferson ahead of him. Abuka's not been that much better for the last, what, since the last eight games? It's been pretty bad. Right? He's like 41.
- [52:30]
Dave Kluge
This tier is like, this is the we know these guys are talented but they have been awful this year tier. That's pretty much what those guys are. Exactly. And, and you know, the, the last number I'll add to this. You know, I did a roundtable with Matt Waldman earlier in the week, dove into Justin Jefferson a little bit. We're not looking at a tiny sample here. We're looking at eight games.
- [52:48]
Bob Harris
Correct.
- [52:48]
Dave Kluge
Justin Jefferson has played without Carson Wentz. He is averaging 41.6 receiving yards and 8.7 PPR points per game in those eight games without Carson Wentz. That's wide receiver 54 in fantasy on a per game basis. So I mean, it has been bad. But. But also it's Justin Jefferson. Like I don't know what Else you can say like it's Justin Jefferson, he could always moss a defender, have himself a big touchdown, make a play after the catch. But you also know the downside is that he gives you 40 scoreless yards.
- [53:17]
Bob Harris
Yeah. Going back, like, you know, there are guys that become roster cloggers or lineup cloggers and just based on their name alone. And again, I go back to divorce the name from the numbers. But you're doing that. You're divorcing history from the name. Right. And it's hard to do that. Very. And with a guy like Jefferson, even more so. That's been, you know, a dominant player at his position now with an array of quarterbacks. I always said he has the quarterback proof card. I have issued a JJ McCarthy exemption. I've stamped his quarterback proof card with an exemption for McCarthy.
- [53:47]
Dave Kluge
Max Rosberg as well. Yeah, right. So let's talk about CD Lamb real quickly. The last thing I want to talk about here, this might all be for not because he is currently back at practice, we hope Ceedee Lamb is going to play on Sunday night, but coming back from this concussion, we never really know for sure. So let's talk through this a little bit. You know, if CD Lam, let's say he is a game time decision, which is pretty uncommon for concussions, we usually get a clear picture beforehand. But what would you recommend that fantasy managers do if they have CD Lam? Is this just as simple as pick up Ryan Flournoy and that is the pivot option if he can play or if we're looking at a questionable tag on Sunday morning. Do you think it's just better to start who you've got on Sunday, get somebody in your lineup and if you miss out on CD Lam, it's just kind of the way it goes.
- [54:35]
Bob Harris
I think we're going to have clarity before then. My thoughts. So it's a 10 day turnaround. He got the limited Wednesday. He was in the facility last Friday. To me that's a, that's a big key. If you're at the facility, you're not having serious symptoms. They're not keeping you away. So I think he'll make it. But if we got into that position, I think Florida, like you're not going to get another wide receiver three week people. It's not happening. George Pickens will come out of his slumber and there's money to be made.
- [55:02]
Dave Kluge
George.
- [55:03]
Bob Harris
But, but, but, but, but I think that's a viable option. And like, if you don't feel like you want to go that deep, I would totally get it if he was questionable. I'd want to give every chance to get CD Lamb into the mix. But if he's questionable, how are you, you know, look, he's either going to be cleared or he's not, right? So once a guy's cleared from concussion, I don't play him like he's going to get another one. Like, if he's had two in two weeks, I might be a little less inclined, right. T. Higgins. I'm looking at you, sir. But probably in, in Lamb's case, I would probably be willing to. I probably the upside's high enough that I take a chance and probably just grab Flournoy and go from there.
- [55:39]
Dave Kluge
Yeah. And. And I think we are trending in the right direction now, so, you know, important to talk about because there's a lot of people right now that are gearing up for round one of their playoffs and they see CD Lamb hasn't had a full practice and he's got a cue next to it, his name and panicking about it. If it gives you a little bit of peace of mind, you know, you could pick up a Calvin Austin on a Monday night or Ryan Flournoy for a Sunday night and have that late pivot option. But all signs do appear that CD Lamb will be ready this Sunday night, hopefully helping fantasy managers more than he did when he missed.
- [56:10]
Bob Harris
Even if he stays limited 30 Thursday and Friday, that doesn't mean he won't get cleared. You got to go through a series of steps and increase your workload, but not necessarily, you know, so if he gets like a full walk throughout Friday, but they can take that all the way out to Saturday on the final clearance or even Sunday if they need to. So just watch for that and that'll be the important word. Once he's cleared, he's good to go. If he's not, make, make, get your. Get your backups ready.
- [56:35]
Dave Kluge
And on that note, footballguys.com news, you can see all of the news coming through in the NFL. Bob Harris, you are a big part of what we're doing over there. I also help out there on Fridays, as does Sigmund Bloom and Cecilami. And what we do is we kind of add fantasy centric views to these news stories to help you prepare for the week. And Bob, you do a lot more than just the news and occasionally helping me out over here. When I need a guest on the launch pad, let him know everybody else you're doing over here at football. Guys, a very, very busy man.
- [57:04]
Bob Harris
Multiple articles every week Just like you know, Dave, I'm out there publishing the Fantasy Notebook book out every Thursday I do a collaboration, a Face off collaboration with Gary Davenport. Every Friday I do my In N Out column. Every Saturday, the daily update podcast. 10 minutes of NFL news and fantasy analysis. Just enough to get you going. It's available every morning. You can hear me on the radio as well. Football die hards on SiriusXM fantasy sports radio six days a week. Pregame show on Sunday of Sirius as well. So 8 to 10pm Eastern time on weeknights, 8 to 11 on Saturdays on NFL Radio and the Fantasy Channel and then the pregame show with Jeff Mann. So there's it's hard to avoid me. You've got to work to miss me every week.
- [57:48]
Dave Kluge
You know, a lot of people like to dub themselves like the hardest workers in the industry. I've never heard you say that about yourself, Bob, but if anybody could take that claim for themselves, I think it would be you. I don't know when you sleep, Bob, like you're sitting news updates at a base camp at 6am and 2am and 3pm and like you are just plugged in 24 7. It has been a pleasure. Yes, exactly. But it has been a pleasure getting to work with you over the last couple of years, getting to know you a little bit better. And thank you for making the time today. Be sure to check out everything that Bob is doing over here at football guys, SiriusXM social media, all that good stuff. Want to thank you the viewer so much time for taking the time to listen today. I will be back next week to get you through some Week 16 matchups. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will see you next week.
- [58:43]
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