Hey everybody, welcome to Fantasy Friday here on fantasy
football. Almost daily it's the semi
finals so it's time for my Co host to pull out the best advice
they have left. Because of this we kicked
Anthony Maggio to the curb. Suspended for one week.
We bring out the big guns. Kent Wyrock is back.
He's ready to help you win. Hey, Kent.
Hey, how we doing? That's I'm doing.
I'm doing great. I'm happy to have you this week.
Trevor Jones is here as well, and he was a big fan of his
namesake, Trevor Lawrence last week.
I wasn't. I gave him a bench grade.
Oops. Yeah, the Trevor Brotherhood
paid off of his best game of all time.
So Trevor, you got it right. You're back again.
So there's 15 more games to get to this week, so let's not delay
too much. I'll remind everybody that we'll
give you 9 players on whom you can roll the dice.
We'll see if you can. You 2 can crack my 2 tough nuts.
And at the very end of the show lightning round.
Have we helped you this year? I hope we have if if you have
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All right, let's get right into the match ups and we'll kick off
with Trevor. Trevor, this week we've got you
got the Eagles commanders game. That's a Saturday afternoon kick
off Trevor and the commander's defense has fallen apart
recently. Is this as?
Simple as Fire up all your Eagles.
It's pretty close. Yeah, Jalen Hurts will start.
We'll give him a goal. He bounced back from his ugly 4
interception game to throw for three touchdowns against Vegas
last week. This week, like you said, he
faces out of Trochis Washington defense bottom 5 and pass
touchdowns and passing yards allowed and recently was lit up
for three touchdowns by JJ McCarthy and 300 combo yards and
two touchdowns to Jackson Dart. A.J.
Brown, he gets a gold as well. He did have two targets last
week. That was mostly because Jalen
Hurst only threw 15 times because Vegas mustered like 10
yards. Before that though, Brown had
seen double digit targets in four straight.
He'd also recorded 100 yards or a touchdown.
In five straight. And the Commanders allowed the 8
most yards to the position. Devante Smith is the one guy I'm
not super excited about. I'm giving him bronze.
Brown's recent surge has come at the expense of Devante, who's
cleared 15 PPR points just once since Week 7.
It is a good match up. He's a really talented guy so he
still gets a starting grade, but I am wary in this match up.
Saquon Barkley, he gets a gold. He's coming Outback to back
games with 20 plus touches and a touchdown.
Now gets a prime match up with a Washington run defense that's
allowing 145 combo yards per game to enemy backs, which is
the third worst in the league since week 4.
Opposing rushing attacks have cleared 140 yards in all but two
games against Washington. So Saquons of gold and then
Dallas guard will round out with a silver.
The tight ends boasted at least 6 catches and 70 yards.
Now in back-to-back games. This commander side end defense
is giving up the 6th most yards and the fifth most tight ends to
the position. So it's a great match up since
the week 12 by Washington's allowed these performances 9 for
1/26 to Denver's tight ends, 5 for 36 and three to Minnesota's
group and then played better ish last week.
The giants tight ends only combined for six for one O 7, so
it's a good spot for Dallas Godder on the other side, it's
pretty light. Mario Todd's on the bench.
Philly's only permitted 13 touchdown passes all year,
second best of the league. Also just 279 passing yards
allowed in their last three games combined.
The running backs, it's JCM Chris Rodriguez and Jeremy
Mcnichols in a three man timeshare.
Again, Rodriguez. Rodriguez is expected back from
injury and then also Debo Samuel steals a couple carries.
So we're not interested there. Jerry Mclaurin does remain in
play with the bronze. He's got a touchdown.
He's got a touchdown to two or three games back from injury and
he's also scored in top 50 yards at each of his last two
performances against Philly and will give Debo Browns as well.
Sorry, excuse me, a bench grade Philly struggled with #2
receivers this year, allowing multiple 9 catch, 100 yard
performances to the position. However, in the last three
games, Philly's defense has only allowed two receivers to clear
20 receiving yards. The Eagles have given up just
six touchdowns to whiteouts all year.
Debo's only got 12 catches himself in the last three games
since Lauren's return. So he's on the bench and the
tight end. I don't know, Jake Bates and
Synod or somebody. Philly allows the fewest tight
end yards in the league. We're not playing those guys.
No, that would be silly. All right, moving on to the next
match up, Kent, Kansas City heads to Tennessee without
Patrick Mahomes, maybe without Rashi Rice, but the match up is
extra juicy. Kent, what are you doing with
these Chiefs? Yeah, it's scary.
I think I still want to give the bench grade to Gardner Minshew.
Zero top 12 finishes last year. Now, granted, that was with the
Raiders, so an unfortunate situation for him.
But even the year before the Colts, just three top 12
finishes in 16 games played. I'm not really interested in
that and my semifinals. I'll find some other better
streaming option than him if we're looking at you know, Rashi
Rice, he's a maybe right now, but if he does play, I'll give
him a silver. He's got a 32% target share in
the last month, he's been targeted 9 times in the red zone
during that stretch. Thank you despite just one red
zone touchdown. So he's still got some upside
opportunity there in the pay dirt.
He's at a very low average of the target though, at just 4
yards per target. So it's been kind of an
interesting usage for him, but he's getting peppered a lot and
I think that should continue even with Minshew.
He maybe gold if Mahomes was playing, but obviously I'm not
going to push him up to that right now.
So on the other hand, Travis Kelsey, I will give a silver
grade 2. After Mahomes went out of the
last game, 3 of Minshew's 4 targets went to Kelsey.
Now he didn't catch all of them, one was an interception, but
still he was 3 targets out of the four.
So that's pretty nice to see. He's also getting close to some
milestones. He's 9099 yards away from second
all time and receiving yards for a tight end. 7 touchdowns away
from tying the 4th all time and touchdowns.
Oh, you think he'll get it? This.
Week. No, no, probably not.
But I do think they'll be forcing him the ball to try and
get these yardage markers. And certainly if he gets a
couple of touchdowns, that wouldn't be too bad either.
Not just to strengthen his Hall of Fame resume.
And he's also 203 yards away from his eighth 1000 yard
season. I think that one's pretty
achievable in in in two games. So there's some interesting
milestones there for him. So I'll give him a silver.
I think they're going to pepper him with targets.
Cream Hunt. I'm leaving on the bench this
week. It seems like since Isaiah
Pacheco's come back, his workloads drop each week and
they're just kind of going with a platoon style thing.
He had just six carries last week against the Chargers and
has far lower of a touchdown upside with Mahomes or without
Mahomes in the lineup. So I'm not, I'm not going to
play him over on the Tennessee side of the ball.
Well, the only starting grade I have is Tony Pollard.
He he will get a silver. In his last three games, he's
averaging 108 yards, 6.6 yards per carry, which is 2.2 rushing
yards over expectation per attempt and a touchdown to his
name. So he's been looking really good
despite playing some stronger defenses there too.
He seems to be the engine of this offense right now.
Cam Ward's on the bench. You got better options.
All the wide receivers, I don't know how you could possibly
decide which one to play on any given week.
So they're all a bench and KC is a tougher match up too.
And then the tight ends. We we got a tight end timeshare
now with Chico Coco and Gunner Helm.
Gunner Helm I think is an interesting long term dynasty
type guy. But right now it's a timeshare.
I don't want to invest in like a bungalow on Mount Everest.
I I don't want that timeshare. Yeah.
So that's it for the Tennessee side.
Things real easy on that team. Yeah, there's a there's a couple
of matchups this week where it's basically like blanket bench
just about everybody. And here's one of them right
here. It's the the Bills and Browns.
I'm sure the Bills took a boat across Lake Erie to get to
Cleveland this week, and I'm sure people are wondering what
to do with Josh Allen against one of the league's best
defenses. And the answer is you start him.
But it's just a silver grade for Josh Allen.
Cleveland top five in almost all defensive categories against
quarterbacks, although they have allowed both Cam Ward and Caleb
Williams to go for multiple passing touchdowns in just the
last two weeks. And top corner Denzel Ward looks
like he might not go this week with a calf injury.
So you can still fire up Josh Allen very safely.
Is it Dalton Kincaid or Dawson Knox that he's passing the ball
to? The easiest positional matchup
is against the tight end when you go against the Browns.
Now. Knox scored twice last week and
had a bunch of yardage that the week before, and Kincaid scored
the week before. Last week both had four targets
and three receptions in New England.
To be honest, one of them will probably score and one of them
will probably have a decent yardage day of like over 60
yards. But it's a super weird split
right now, and Jackson Hawes is involved too, so I'd rather
leave all three on the bench in this.
In this scenario, Khalil Shakur is the only wide receiver you'd
consider playing. I'll throw a bronze grade on
him. He mostly runs from the slot and
he gets the best match up against Miles Harden, who's a
completely real person and Pro Football focuses. 110th ranked
corner out of 112. Harden has allowed five
touchdowns in his coverage this year and has a passer rating of
120 against him. Khalil Shakur's in kind of a
good spot here and James Cook I'll give a gold grade to.
Cleveland's run defense has taken some lumps the past few
weeks. Four different runners have
topped 20 PPR points against the Browns in the last five games,
including DeAndre Swift going for 98 and 2 scores on the
ground last week and the aforementioned Tony Pollard
going for 161 and 2 the week before.
Cook always gets a crazy workload and he scored twice
last week, so I'm not afraid of starting him this week.
On the Brown side, there's only two Browns that you'd even
consider starting this week. 1st is Quinton Judkins, who
basically got all the work last week against the Bears.
But that game got out of hand so quickly that the Browns
abandoned the run. And there's a little bit of
danger in that happening in this one too against the Bills.
But the Bills, they're not very good against the run, and
they're coming off an emotional win in New England last week.
And when they come off emotional wins, they have let downs the
next week. They beat KC and Arrowhead in
Week 9. Then they lost to the Dolphins,
and Devon A Chan had 40 points in that game.
They beat Tampa in a shootout in Week 11.
Then they lost to the Texans on Thursday night.
And Woody Marks didn't have a huge game, but he had 74 yards
on the ground in that one. Overall, the Bills have allowed
five different runners to top 30 PPR points this season,
including Treyvion Henderson last week.
So I got a silver grade on Judkins.
And then there's Harold Fan, and he's the only other guy you
could consider in this game. 14 targets last week caught seven
of them but for only 48 yards. And David and Joku looks like
he's going to miss this week. But the Bills are the best tight
end defense in the league and it's not really that close.
They allow an average of only 2.7 catches and 33 yards per
game to the tight end position as a whole.
They've only given up two scores all year.
It's a bench grade for Fannin. I think he'll be better than 3
catches for 33 yards, but not much better.
Maybe 4 catches for 40 ish yards.
That's bench grade for me. All right, now we got to take a
quick break and we're going to man Maj. is going to tell us a
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It's it's it's really bugging me here.
Well, anyway, welcome back to fantasy football.
Almost daily. You can find me Matt Harrison on
Twitter or blue sky at explosive output.
Trevor is at on Twitter at T Jones 5 and Kent Wyrock is at
Kent Wyrock. And you got to spell out the
Wyrock. It's Wey Rauch.
Holy smokes. Yeah, Holy Smokes is right.
All right, now it's time for a segment we like to call Roll the
Dice. It's now time to roll the dice.
These are 9 players that might not normally be in your line up,
but you may want to roll the dice on them this week.
Let's start with the quarterback position and Trevor Jones.
Yeah, quarterback. This week we'll go with Aaron
Rodgers. Steelers are a touchdown Rd. dog
in what projects to be the highest scoring game of the
week. Vegas has it at 52 over under
right now, helping Rodgers outlook.
The Lions have allowed the fifth most passing touchdowns, eighth
most passing yards. It's a great line up for the
pass catchers, too. Only one team's allowed more
receiver touchdowns in the Lions 20, and no defense has given up
more yards to the receiver position.
And obviously, this is a a familiar matchup for Aaron.
He's got 26 Detroit matchups in his career.
His average stat line is roughly 250 yards and two touchdowns,
which you would certainly take in this week.
I'm sure the Lions fans are just scared to see Aaron Rodgers come
back to their building one more time.
So many bad memories for them. All right.
Yeah. Kent, who do you got at the
quarterback position? I'm going with Caleb Williams
and this might seem weird with the injuries to their wide
receiver core, but they still have a respectable receiving
core left behind as well. Between DJ Moore, Olamide
Zacchias, Colson Loveland, and Cole Commet in A2 tight end set
up, the Packers will be without Micah Parsons on IR.
This is a stat coming from Seth Walder of ESPN.
Their pass rush win rate with Micah Parsons is third in the
NFL and without is 32nd. Their EPA per drop back allowed
with Parsons is average middle of the pack and without Parsons,
26th. So I think this is an
exploitable match up for Caleb Williams.
He's quietly QB 9 on the year in points per game and he's had two
plus touchdowns and three of his last four games.
They're on a good roll. Ben Johnson's in his bag.
I mean, I just want to see him continue to impress and I think
the Bears have a real opportunity to take the division
here. Ben Johnson's in his bag.
Yeah, it's deep, deep in. The bag you're doing doing well
is this. Is this a phrase you're
unfamiliar with? I'm not familiar with.
Yeah, that's a real 1. You you kids in your hip lingo.
I don't. Know if I'm qualified as a kid
anymore but I'll take it. That's true.
Bryce Young versus Tampa Bay is my roll the dice quarterback.
Bryce has alternated 3 touchdown games with one touchdown games
for the past month. And guess what?
He had one touchdown last week. So it's 3 touchdown time against
Tampa and there's no better landing spot than Tampa.
Their past defense has fallen off a Cliff over the last month.
In their last six games, 5 quarterbacks have topped 270
yards. 5 quarterbacks have thrown for multiple touchdowns.
Of those, 53 have thrown for three touchdown passes.
Tyler Shuck was the only one who didn't throw for multiple scores
in that six game stretch. He had two rushing touchdowns.
So the average quarterback score in standard fantasy points
against the Bucks over the last six games. 29.75 Bryce Young is
a solid start. Like silver grade at minimum for
Bryce Young in this game. Let's go to the running back
position. Trevor, who you got?
Yeah, we'll go with Arizona's Michael Carter.
Arizona's down James Conner, Trey Benson, and then they just
lost Bam Knight last week. Additionally, Amari Di Mercado,
sort of sometimes the passing game back came into last week's
game with an injury, only saw three touches.
Carter saw the lion's share of the running back workload.
With those guys out. He turned 18 touches into nearly
100 combo yards. Even when the other backs were
healthy, Carter did have a good pass catching pass game role.
He had 19 catches over his past five games.
Falcons are not an opposing matchup for enemy running backs,
either on the ground or through the air.
So yeah, Michael Carter could be looking at it.
Nearly 20 touches at a decent matchup here.
All right, Cantuti got the running back position.
I am going with Audrick Estimate, who now plays for the
Saints. He played last year with Denver,
got released with the Denver Broncos.
He had 76 attempts for 310 yards and two touchdowns in a fill in
role. 4.1 yards per carry. Did his job.
Was OK in the 2024 right back draft class.
He was first in Next Gen. Stats production score and his
last year in Notre Dame he had 210 attempts for 210 attempts
for 1341 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns.
He's coming in to play for the Saints this week now that
they're down. Devin Neil, Alvin Kamara, and
he's looking to take on a New York Jets defense that is fourth
in yards per game allowed, tied for fifth and rush touchdowns
allowed, Allowed the 6th most yards after contact per attempt
and have allowed at least one rush TD in four of their last
five games. So it's a good spot for them.
Yeah, that's that is a nice spot against The Jets.
It's always a nice spot against The Jets.
Right now, my running back is Jawar Jordan versus the Vegas
Raiders. Woody marks iffy to play this
week with an ankle injury and they elevated Jordan from the
from the practice squad to the active roster.
Last week, he got his first taste of the NFL.
He had 15 carries, 101 yards on the ground, added two catches
for 17 yards. He has to have more gas in the
tank than Nick Chubb, by the way, who missed last week, but
looks like he's going to suit up at least this week.
The Raiders have allowed the 4th most rushing scorers this season
at 15 on the year, and opposing backs as a group are averaging
almost 30 touches per game. And so if there's two backs in
play here, it seems like 15 touches is imminent for Jawar
Jordan because they're not going to give Nick Chubb 20.
If Woody Marks is active, I don't think you can play him.
And Woody Marks did practice on Friday, so that puts a little
pause in there. But if Woody Marks and his ankle
is no good and the Texans probably don't need him to beat
the Raiders, I would say that Jawar Jordan's in a good spot.
All right, let's go to the receiver position.
I think you guys both have tight ends, don't you, Trevor?
You start us off. Yeah, I took the the easy one,
tight end versus the Bengals that this week.
That's Darren Waller for the Dolphins we've talked about
since he has the worst tight end defense of all time.
Waller's played in just seven games this year himself, but he
has 6 touchdowns in those seven. Last week, Waller was in a
nearly identical spot against the second worst tight end
defense, the Steelers, and he buried them for seven catches,
66 starts with two touchdowns all season highs.
This offense runs through three players.
Like, it's really hard for me to picture anyone other than a Chan
Waller or Jalen Waddle scoring. So yeah, Waller tight end
against the against the Bengals, man, easy game.
That makes a lot of sense. Insert pick on tight end against
the Bengals here. So.
I tried that last week in Scott Fishbowl by playing both Ravens
tight ends, and that did not work out for me.
Yeah, but that was it was the right idea.
Likely was my my my take a chance or Nope, Nope, not that.
Roll the dice. Roll the tight end to last week.
Did not work. Kent, who do you got to roll the
dice on this week? I am rolling the dice on Colston
Loveland. We talked about that Bears
situation. There should be some
consolidated targets with a Doones and Burden out.
He already had four games in a row with five plus targets.
So he's on a good pace, kind of working his way into the
offense. Even though Komet is back in
action and he's been perfect in the red zone last month,
catching all three of his targets, 2 of which he turned
into touchdowns. So going against his weaken Pack
and D Packers defense, like I talked about earlier, I think
there's a good opportunity for him to be a top 12 tight end.
All right, my, my roll the dice receiver is a wide receiver and
I've got a bonus backup because he's a little dinged up right
now. So I have Ricky Pearsall with
Kendrick Bourne as the backup here.
So Pearsall has a knee injury and an ankle injury.
He really hasn't been healthy since September.
He did not practice Thursday. Shanahan says he might still go,
but this is a Monday night game so you have to have another plan
just in case. Shanahan notably unreliable on
injury stuff. So that's why you really need to
have Kendrick born if you're thinking about doing Ricky
Pearsall here. But Pearsall had 7 targets, 6
catches, 96 yards last week, all led the team, and I really like
his match up against the Colts this week.
What the heck is going on? Oh man, my computer's making
noises at me. As I was saying, I like his
match up against the Colts this week.
Last week, the Seahawks receivers combined for 17
catches and 233 yards against this Colts secondary.
That will for sure be missing Charvarius Ward, who's now on
IR, and probably missing Sauce Gardner.
Oh, by the way, the Colts have already allowed the most
receptions and second most receiving yards to opposing wide
receivers. So if you have Piersol and he's
active, you're starting him. If Kendrick Bourne is available,
you pick him up as your backup OC option and if Pierce all is
out, you just slide Kendrick Bourne right into that spot.
And those were the 9 players on whom you could roll the dice.
This week we're going to move right back into the matchups,
Bengals, Dolphins and Trevor. Joe Burrow needs a get right
game and he needs one bad and he heads to Miami this Sunday.
I think the only worry for the Bengals is it's going to be 80°
and sunny and maybe Burrow falls in love with the Miami weather
and asked to be traded there this offseason.
Mid game, maybe he gets traded to the Dolphins, Yeah.
They need a quarterback, clearly.
And Joe's he's he's kind of going through it with his
reflective press conferences. Yeah, this was a, this is a big
match up. A lot of fantasy implications
here. Joe Burrow does get a silver.
Since returning from injury, he's averaging over 40 pass
attempts per game, which is a massive number.
Further boosting his outlook is the expected return of T Higgins
from concussion, who got in limited practices on Wednesday
and Thursday. I believe Borough would have had
better numbers. Last week.
Cincinnati reached Baltimore territory on five different
drives that all ended in zero points.
Somehow Miami's had bottom third defense against quarterbacks and
they just lost their best secondary player in Mika
Fitzpatrick. Chase Brown also gets a silver.
Dolphins are a good match up for backs as they permit the eighth
most touches and 4th most combo yards to enemy backs.
The return of Semaj P Ryan from injury is eating a Chase Brown's
workload a little bit, though. Brown has made-up for it by
being an excellent receiving back with 17 catches in the
three games since P Ryan returned.
And even though P Ryan is getting extra work, chases a
solid 19 touches per game over the last three that P Ryan has
played. Tamar Chase is a goal.
Miami's actually a tough matchup, allowing just one
receiver to clear 60 yards in the last three games.
But it's fantasy semifinals week.
You're starting Tamar Chase. Let's be serious.
T Higgins is just a bronze. Sounds like he's going to clear
the protocol. He's a quality start.
He's got 9 touchdowns in his twelve games played this season.
However, he's topped just six catches only once and only has
one game over 100 receiving yards as well.
So the floor is solid, but the ceiling game is much more likely
to go to Jamar Chase. It is a Mike Jasiki revenge
game, but he's on the bench. In the 20 games Jasiki's played
with T Higgins, he's got one touchdown.
So unless team misses, you're keeping Jasiki on the bench.
The Dolphins, their new starting quarterback is Queen Ewers.
Ewers is a sub 200 LB seventh round rookie who's been behind
two and Zach Wilson for most of the season.
Going to pass there. A chance of platinum.
We know how bad since these DE is against tight ends, only
slightly better against running backs.
They've allowed the most combo yards per game to position and
the fourth most touchdowns a chance.
Got a 20% target share. Excellent play.
And then Jalen Waddle, he's got a bronze, not a huge drop off to
yours, but the game total did drop a few points once that news
broke. It's only it's been a month
since Waddle cleared 55 yards and the match up is tough.
Everyone just attacks 2 backs and tight ends, but he is viable
strictly to his role in the offense in the high game total.
And then Darren Waller was my roll the dice pass catcher as we
talked about. There we go, nice and easy,
Kent. Let's talk about the Packers and
Bears. They're going to play on
Saturday night, basically for the NFC North crown.
I couldn't give this match up to Trevor #1 because he's no longer
on screen and #2 because he can't take his cheese colored
glasses off. But how do you think Jordan Love
and company will do in Soldier Field on Saturday?
Yeah, I think it's going to be slightly worse than last time
that they played just because of the difference in home field
advantage and stuff like that. Jordan Love.
And last month he's averaging 18 completions on 29 attempts, 220
yards per game. He's had three interceptions in
the last two weeks. So he's been a little bit
sketchy here and there. And then includes his game
against the Bears where he did throw for three touchdowns.
So that was a little bit nicer in Green Bay.
Going on the road at the Chicago past events has been solid
lately. Since week 10.
They're fifth in EPA per drop back allowed and and they've had
one interception in five of the last six games.
So they've been playing really well on the past defense side of
things. So I haven't met just a bronze
grade. I was between bronze and silver,
but I'm going to go down just with the home field advantage
switch now it sounds like Josh Jacobs is doubtful more than
questionable. So I'm going to give Emmanuel
Wilson the gold grade because, yeah, this is obviously on the
fly here a little bit, but the Bears defense has been
struggling a little bit more on the run defense side of things.
6th month EPA per rush allowed since Week 10 and the fourth
most rush yards per play on the year.
If this is an opportunity for Caleb Williams to get going,
like I think he will, they're gonna, you know, they're gonna
need some different, excuse me, I'm talking on the wrong side of
the ball there. If just if Jordan Love has some
struggle to get going, they're gonna need Emmanuel Wilson to
run between the tackles hard and I think he can fill that role
for him. So gold great for him.
And looking at the receivers for the Packers, it's a little bit
tricky. You know, Jayden Reed, he's just
kind of coming back into his full form.
Offensive snaps have been ramping up for the last couple
weeks, 47% in week 1465. Last week should be up to
basically a full load this week. He's led the team with 10
targets in the last two weeks, of which he's caught 9486
scoreless yards, unfortunately. So there has really been a ton
of fantasy goodness in terms of wide receivers on this team.
I will give Reed a bronze grade just because because he's
leading the group. Christian Watson, I'm going to
leave him on the bench. He's questionable with a chest
injury. His targets have fallen a little
bit since Reed has returned. He's a big a big play guy and
since this is a Saturday game, I don't think you want to lean on
a low volume, big play type player in your semifinal.
So I'm leaving him on the bench and then same deal with Luke
Musgrave. You're just going to have better
options out there. I'm pretty sure for the tight
end position over on the bare side of the ball.
You know, like I said, Caleb Williams, silver grade, he's my
roll the dice player. DeAndre Swift, I will give him a
silver. He seems to be holding on to the
running back. One roll in the offense now
after it looked like Kyle when a guy was eating to do his work a
little bit. Swift has had 17 plus
opportunities in each of the last three games and while
Monongai was kind of becoming the goal line back, that shifted
back a little bit more to a timeshare.
Swift has actually had more inside the 10 and inside the
five rush attempts in their last three games and has had two
touchdowns to Monongai's one in that time.
So he's been playing a little bit better.
He's running a 5.8 yards per carry during that stretch as
well. Ben Johnson, He's in his bag,
Matt. I mean, come on.
OK. So with that.
Dirty can't. It sounds dirty.
Well, it could be a little dirty if you want it to be, but Kyle
Manon, guy I was, I was split. I, I'm going with bench grade
here. He ran just 11 times for 33
yards last week. In his last three weeks, he's
caught one of his five targets as well for 0 yards.
So it's, it's just been a little bit of a struggle for him lately
to get going. You know, a little bit of that
rookie wall, maybe tough to trust in your semifinals.
I I think that they're really going to use Swift more so than
Monongai in this game. DJ Moore will get a silver grade
again with that consolidation of targets with the other guys out.
He caught four of his five targets last week for 69 yards
and two touchdowns against the Cleveland defense.
I do think that it's just a volume up, efficiency down type
of thing for DJ Moore. So I couldn't quite get him up
to a gold grade, but I I think he's going to have a good game.
And then Colston Loveland, silver grade, he was my roll the
dice tight end, so we're good to go there.
There we go. All right, the Vikings conclude
their tour of the NFC, least this Sunday in New Jersey
against the Giants. And I think you can fire up JJ
McCarthy again, 2:50 and 2:00 through the air last week in
Dallas added a gritty run into the end zone as well.
He was QB six last week. He was QB 12 the week before.
Those are two QB 1 finishes in the last two weeks.
He's feasting on bad defenses, just like the Giants, who are
bottom 11 in every category against the quarterback, have
allowed the most rushing yards to quarterbacks in the league
this year, by the way. And JJ can run a little bit,
too. It is worth noting that both of
McCarthy's tackles and his center are on the injury report
this week as well. Christian Darasaw, I think, is
the one most in danger of not going.
He didn't play last week, but Ryan Kelly and Brian O'Neill are
also on the injury report. And keep an eye on that if if
both of them don't go as well, I think you definitely downgrade
McCarthy, maybe even all the way to the bench.
I don't know if I can trust McCarthy with three of his five
starting lineman not playing. Justin Jefferson gets a silver
grade. I think he scores this week.
By the way, he should have caught a touchdown last week,
kind of dropped it and then had one called back for a penalty.
The Vikings are clearly targeting him in the red zone.
And even if they get their way, even even if they get way up in
this game, they're evaluating their passing game for the rest
of the season. They're going to keep throwing
the ball. Justin Jefferson, by the way,
needs 168 yards to hit 1000 on the season and KOC already said
that they're going to try to get him that.
So I think Justin Jefferson is heavily in focus this week.
Jordan Addison and Jaylen Naylor, they're both startable
in a pinch with bronze grades. The Giants have allowed the
fifth most receiving yards to opposing wide receivers at 163
per game. Naylor coming off A2 touchdown
game in Dallas. Addison has been a downfield
threat for JJ. He had another deep catch last
week, but Naylor's the guy who's kind of been J JS whoopie a
little bit. He's kind of just found him at
the right time. So I think both are startable
with bronze grades, as is TJ. Hawkinson quietly put up a
couple of respectable weeks even with Max Brosmer as his
quarterback. He had 6 catches for 59 yards
and in the last two weeks scored against the Commanders and had
four for 66 last week against Dallas.
And JJ has been throwing the ball in the red zone a ton.
And if Jefferson is double covered, which is happening on
almost all of his red zone routes right now, that's how TJ
Hawkinson gets open. That's how Josh Oliver scores 2
touchdowns against the Commanders.
The Giants aren't a particularly easy match up for tight ends,
mostly because you haven't really needed to utilize the
tight end that much to beat them.
But their pass rush is garbage and wide receivers have been
open all day. And Dallas Goddard scored on
them thrice this season in their two meetings.
Hunter Henry put up 4 for 73 a couple weeks ago.
I think T JS in a good spot. Aaron Jones and Jordan Mason
both get a bronze grade two. It was about an even split in
the backfield. Slight edge to Jones last week.
12 to 10 in carries in favor of Jones.
Jones had three catches. Mason didn't have a catch.
But Mason has seen 6 red zone touches in the last two weeks
compared to Jones 2, and the Giants allow the second most
combo yards to opposing backs at 157 per game.
So if you split that and even if you take off a little, these
guys are looking at like 70 yards apiece and that's worthy
of a bronze. So I think they're both in play.
Jackson Dart is miraculously not on the injury report.
He's had five confirmed concussions between college and
the NFL and was in the blue tent being evaluated for a concussion
last week. And they threw him back in the
game. It feels like he's the least
likely of NFL quarterbacks to finish a game in Week 16.
And he faces the top quarterback defense in the league.
The Vikings are top five in past yards and touchdowns allowed.
They've only given up 1 touchdown on the ground to a
quarterback this year. The Vikings did lose stud edge
rusher Jonathan Granard and starting safety Josh Matelas to
IR though this week. It's still a bench grade for
Dart though. I I can't figure out a way to
put him in my lineup. Wandale Robinson gets a bronze
grade. It actually might be better if
if Dart goes down and Jameis comes in.
Maybe, but Robinson has been a pretty reliable like 10 targets
per game over the past month and a half.
Problem is, he's only catching just over half of his targets in
the past five weeks. He scores against bad defenses,
he doesn't score against good ones.
The Vikings are a good one. They're only allowing 9
receptions. Oh, there we go. 99 receptions
per game to wide receivers. That's third fewest in the
league. That's that's so few.
They haven't allowed a wide receiver touchdown since Week 9.
It's been six weeks since the wide receiver has scored against
the Vikings. It's crazy.
Theo Johnson catches 3 balls per game pretty much exactly.
He's alternated between 30 yard games and 70 yard games over the
past five weeks. Problem is he had a 70 some yard
game last week and in the last six games, no tight end has
topped 45 yards against the Vikings.
Only Mark Andrews has scored in those games.
That was way back in week 10. So Theo Johnson's on the bench
and then there's Tyrone Tracy and Devin Singletary.
Tracy seems to have taken the backfield back.
He had 18 touches to Singletary 6 last week.
Tracy also scored twice and it seems like there's a little bit
of wiggle room for Tracy here to get to double digit PPR points.
The Vikings have been bend but don't break against runners and
it feels like a high volume day for both backs could be in play
if the Giants want to keep it anywhere close.
Nine different backs if it double digit PPR points against
Minnesota in their last eight games, and that includes both
Javonte Williams and Malik Davis last week.
So I'll give Tracy a bronze grade singletary I'd just leave
on the bench. If you're starting Devon
Singletary in the fantasy playoffs, you've got problems
and you're probably not going to win.
All right, I wanted to remind everybody that the show is
brought to you by Game Blazers. Try Game Blazers this week for
your share of $36,000 in prizes and free to play contest.
Sign up with the referral code FFAD.
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two more rare packs for just 5 bucks.
Learn more at gameblazers.com. All right, Trevor, the Chargers
head to Dallas this week and it's a much easier task than
last week for Justin Airbear and the offense, but have fantasy
players. Just lost trust in the Chargers
offense at this point. Yeah, it's tough because the
ecosystem around Herbert has just fallen apart recently.
Specifically the offensive line. Herbert's taken 14 sacks in his
three games since the buy and averaged just 25 pass attempts
in those three as LA tries to scheme around having backups or
third stringers at both tackle spots.
So yeah, it's not been great, but it's kind of the best
matchup. Dallas is league worse in
passing yards, passing touchdowns and rushing
touchdowns allowed to enemy QBs so that keeps Herbert and play
as a low end QB one this week the running game I'm getting
both a Marion Hampton and Kameli Vidal bronzes.
In the two games since Hampton returned the workloads really
split right in half. Hampton has 31 touches 2 Vidal's
28. However, Vidal is on the field
more 69 and 64% snaps run compared to just 31 and 36 for
Hampton. I guess Fidel is the guy they
trust pass protection right now, which would explain why he's
seeing a lot of snaps, but obviously Hampton touches the
ball when he's on the field. On the season of Dow, it's been
a good match up for running backs, but not since they added
Quinn and Williams. In the five games since the
Quinn and Williams trade, the Cowboys are giving up just 79
yards per game on the ground volume and the game having the
second highest total do keep both backs in play.
For the receivers, only Lad Mcconkey gets the bronze keeping
the other receivers on the bench.
Quentin Johnson's got 5 catches in his last four games.
Keenan Allen hasn't topped 60 yards since Week 7.
I'm keeping the light on for the lad.
He gets the most slot work for the Chargers and Dallas has been
eaten up by some slots recently like Amon Rah and Rasheed Rice
for 92 yards apiece in their last three games.
Cowboys have also given up the most touchdowns to receivers in
the third most yards to the position.
Ronda Gadson we're keeping on the bench as well.
He hasn't scored in six weeks and he has just 8 combined
catches in his last four games. Dallas has only given up 4
touchdowns to the position all season.
On the other side here, DAC gets a silver.
He's been great recently, averaging 322 passing yards per
game over his last five, and that's come against some good
defenses like Philly, Kansas City and Minnesota.
He also has multiple touchdown throws and three of the five.
The Chargers are a tough match if they've allowed the fewest
passing touchdowns, but Dallas leads a league in offensive
yards at his 5th and scoring offense in this game as I think
the second or third highest total on the weekend.
Jomonte Williams gets a bronze. After a bit of a hot start to
the season, he's kind of settled in as a nice running back.
Two weekly with at least 15 touches in six straight games.
The floor has been good, the ceiling really hasn't.
He hasn't topped 100 combo yards since Week 7.
Only two backs have cleared 100 rushing yards against the
Chargers since Week 2. That was Saquon and Devon A
Chan, which Javonte Williams is not.
Dallas even held JT to 94 yards in the passing game here.
CD Lamb, he stays hot with a goal.
The Chargers best wide receiver defense which they are very
good, but that comes mostly against outside receivers and CD
runs. A-Team high 36% of his routes
from the slot. He's got three straight games
with over 120 / 110 yards as well.
George Pickens. This is maybe the toughest one I
I had all week. I ended up with the bronze.
He's been comatose in the last two games.
Just 8 catches for 70 yards combined and and multiple
loafing. Bad loafing clips.
The Chargers are the number one toughest defense for opposing
receivers. Only allowed six receiving
touchdowns to the position all year.
Only four teams have given up less yards.
We're not benching a guy with like 35 point upside in any
given week. So Pickens talent and gaming
environment keep him starting but lower the expectations a
little bit. Finally, we'll round it out with
Do you have something there On beckons Matt.
I was gonna say Pickens is the kind of guy you start if you
played against Puka already. Yeah, that's, it's almost a good
way to think about it. Like do you need ceiling or do
you need floor 'cause if you need ceiling, Pickens has it
higher than almost anybody. George.
George Pickens or Mike Evans asking for a friend.
Mike Evans. That's where I'm at right now.
Yeah, yeah, I think Mike Evans, but man, you should be excited
for that. And it's like, I don't know what
I just. Wanna do?
Yeah, it's a. It's a good problem to have.
Yeah, yeah. For sure, we'll round it out
with Jake Ferguson. He gets a bronze.
He's been consistent recently. Four or more catches in five of
his last six. Just one touchdown in that
stretch, though LA permits the 5th fewest catches to the
position, though each of the last three Titan ones to face
the Chargers did clear at least 4 catches in 60 yards.
So he's an OK *. All right, hey guys, did you
know that fantasy football season is almost over?
That's so sad. You know what's fun though?
Fantasy golf. And we've got a huge fantasy
golf contest coming up at Sports Hub.
I'm going to let my friend Pat Mayo tell you about it.
All right people, it's that time of year again.
The Mayo Cup is officially open. That's right, your yearly
reminder that you could win life changing money if you stop
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prizes, 110,000 to the winner. Just $250 to play.
This is the year. Unless you blow it again.
But hey, you might not sign up now.
The contest Tees off January 15th.
Welcome back. I love 1 and done golf, by the
way, super fun format. And by the way, if a $250 entry
fee is too rich for your blood, Fantasy Golf championships has a
bunch of different season long leagues that run and actually
I'm hosting a private 40 player tournament and I'm inviting you
who are listening to this program right now.
Go check my Twitter if you want to join me in that contest.
Trevor, you could be in it. Kent, you could be in it It's
$25 contest. We're going to limit it to 40
people. It's going to pay out the top
ten. It's going to be very fun.
Come play 1 and done golf with me now time for a segment that
we like to call 2 tough nuts. It's time for two tough nuts
crack. I don't know why I crack myself
up every time I say that. Don't crack your own tough nuts.
That's you don't want to. Yeah, that's self-inflicted.
Injury right there. Those of you at home who want to
play along with two tough nuts, I always remind everybody, do so
very safely. Do it.
Do it in the comfort of your own home, preferably with your
drapes closed. You know, all right, tough nut
#1. Which current rookie quarterback
will have the highest ADP in redraft leagues in 2026?
Kent, let's start with you. I am going with Jackson Dart.
He's got some actually interesting efficiency numbers
under the hood. He's 14th in EPACPOE composite,
which is a lot of letters to say one of the most predictive
things of future success and he's had at least one pass
touchdown in every single game that he's played in its
entirety. He's also getting Malik
neighbors back next year, which should be an uptick for him.
Should be a lot of fun to watch. He's his rushing floor, not to
mention is one of the best things about him in in his nine
full game, 70 attempts, 400 rushing yards and seven rush
touchdowns. I mean, he's a fun player, maybe
a little too much fun at times with his concussion issues, but
he's going to be a lot of fun to watch next year I think.
All right, Trevor, did you get a tough nut right last week?
I did not and I felt good about getting this one right.
And then Kent said Jackson Dart and I was like, this is too
easy, right? Like so I said Jackson Dart as
well. Dart's got an elite left tackle
and Andrew Thomas and the elite receiver won in the league.
Neighbors Kim Ward has a passable offensive line with the
worst sealed position players in the league.
I understand that Titans have a ton of cap space.
Good players aren't available in free agency for the most part
anymore like they used to be. And like, like Kent said, the
the dual threat really pushes Dart over the top.
He surpassed 54 rushing yards at six of his nine games this year.
That's massive. I think the only way this isn't
Jackson Dart is if the Giants draft Mendoza at #1 which would
surprise me. Yeah, I don't think they're
going to draft Mendoza at #1 All right, Trevor, I, I thought I
gave you a layup this week. You got it wrong again.
It's Tyler. No, it's not.
I was going to say I was like, I'm gonna just quit.
That's yeah. But anyway, it's Shudur.
Sanders, you. Know I do have Jackson, Dart,
Kent, Kent and Trevor. You guys kind of nailed it.
They have the pieces in place. Malik Neighbors, by the way,
they have Cam Scataboo returning too.
That's a pretty nice offensive piece to have.
Wandale Robinson isn't a bad second receiver.
Theo Johnson, a very serviceable tight end.
They're probably going to get the number one overall pick
unless something goes very wrong for them and they win in the
next three weeks they play. The Raiders in two weeks, I
believe. Oh, that's not good.
If if they do get the number one pick, I think they trade out of
that pick and they trade it for a bunch of other draft picks
that could help them. Plus, they're going to have a
new head coach and either it's going to be an offensive mind
that can help develop a young QB, or they're going to put that
in place with the new offensive coordinator.
And he's one of the few quarterbacks who does offer some
legit running potential. We talked about it a little bit
on last week's show. There's just not many more
running quarterbacks anymore. And he might be this generation
of quarterbacks. Best bet to be the rushing
upside QB. All right, good job, Trevor.
You did it your first tough nut correctly.
It only took a month I think. So yeah, I think so.
All right, tough nut #2. 17 different flex eligible players
scored multiple touchdowns in Week 15.
Which of them has the best chance to repeat their multi
touchdown effort in both weeks 16 and 17?
Basically, who's going to be the hero of the fantasy playoffs?
All right, Trevor, you go first this time.
I went Trey McBride this week. He's got a tough match up
against Atlanta. Although the Falcons have played
a horrific tight end schedule, they only face 2 tight ends you
would consider above average. That was Tyler Warren who went
for 8 and 99. And then George Kittle, His
first game back from injury was against this team so we actually
got blanked. I went to my betting site and
found that Bet Online has Trey McBride a + 450 to score twice
this week. For comparison, James Cook,
somebody who's you know, good about to score plus 350.
So it's not as crazy as you think for him to score twice
this week. It's really just this week
you're worried about because next week is Trey McBride
against the Bengals, which I don't even know.
Like, what kind of cosmic forces might just the the greatest
tight end of all time against the worst defense of all time
just gonna be crazy? Yeah.
Arizona's on running back 4. Jacobi loves getting Jacobi
preset. Loves getting 40 pass attempts
off the Cardinals. Sets up another big McBride week
in the Fantasy Championship. All right, Kent, who's the
fantasy hero coming down the Pike with multiple touchdowns in
the next two weeks? Yeah, I went with Dallas
Goddard. I tried to pick one.
You know, you said flex eligible, eligible.
I tried to pick one that was a little bit like you could
potentially find him and play him there in a flex spot with
another tight end or something. But he's going against the
Commanders this week and they have completely given up their
will to live and they were atrocious even when they were
trying. So they were the 4th most
points, a lot of tight ends on the year.
So that's a good match up. They got the Buffalo Bills in
Week 17, so that should be at least a high scoring affair
where you have the opportunity for some touchdowns.
Dallas got it, has three multi touchdown games this season,
already tied for 6th, and he's got 17 total targets the last
two weeks. I think it's a good spot for
him. Those are those are both really
good answers and I'm not even lying about that.
I I really like those answers and I like am considering just
changing my answer to Trevor's answer right now and Trey
McBride. I didn't end up with Trey
McBride as the correct answer though.
I have Treyvion Henderson who had 14 carries, 148 yards and
two scores last week. This week he gets the Ravens.
They've been a little bit better against the run as of late, but
they allowed two multi score games to backs this year and
Henderson is really good. In the past game too, the Ravens
have given up the 4th most receptions and receiving yards
to opposing backs. So I think he's in play from
multiple angles and they're really kind of dwindling down on
Romandre Stevenson's touches right now.
And then they get The Jets in Week 17.
They're just brutal against runners.
Multiple touchdowns to running backs in five straight games.
They gave up four touchdowns to the Jags backs last week all
through the air. By the way, Trey McBride's a
fantastic answer. And Trevor, guess what?
I'm going to give you credit as the correct answer because I
really should have. I got this one wrong.
My friend Paul from Utah never got his own tough nut wrong.
Well, those were my 2 tough nuts to crack, and Trevor cracked him
better than I could, so here we go.
All right, let's move back to the matchups and we're going to
get to man, what a doozy of a game The Jets and Saints play
this Sunday. Kent.
The only reason anyone would watch this game is if they had
fantasy players going in this game.
Are there any that you would really want to play?
The the true degenerates among us are tuning in for every
second of this game. What are you talking about Matt?
Yeah, this is a tough one. I guess we'll just start on The
Jets side of things. I will give Breece Hall a bronze
grade. He's just had 12 plus touches
every single game this season season low yardage totals these
last couple weeks, 37 scrimmage yards last week, 43 the week
before. But he does have 10 red zone
opportunities in the last month. So despite only scoring 1
touchdown, there's there's at least a little bit of scoring
upside. I guess he's startable in it
like a flex play for sure in most leagues.
So you got to give him a starting grade at night.
Mitchell I will give a silver grade to since week 11.
He's 4th in average air yards per game and he has a 27% target
share in his last three games, which is very good mark to hit
this New Orleans defense. They're tough.
They're the fourth lowest success rate allowed among drop
backs, but they are 21st and explosive plays allowed in the
last month, which is where Mitchell's making his money.
So I gave him the silver grade. I want to find a little silver
lining, so to speak with Mitchell in this game.
John Menchie, we're leaving on the bench, low volume, not
interested. And then Mason Taylor sounds
like he's not going to play with that neck injury.
So obviously you're not starting him.
Tyrod Taylor, not interested, Only one game with 200 plus
yards and one game with two plus passing touchdowns.
And those were different games. So you really have no upside to
him right now over on the New Orleans side of things.
Tyler Shuck? Well, you may have considered
him as the answer for your tough nut.
We're leaving him on the bench. He has had 18.1 fantasy points
or better in his last three games, but only three passing
touchdowns in the last month. A couple of rushing touchdowns
kind of helped them get there. So you're just not interested?
Yeah, I, I. I made this mistake last week
when I said, oh, you don't even need to pass against The Jets to
get in and Trevor Lawrence went for five touchdowns.
That's fair. That is fair.
Maybe there's an opportunity there.
You, you just probably have better options is really what it
comes down to in your semifinals.
I had talked about Audrick Estimate already.
He gets a silver grade. Roll the dice player Evan Hall,
you know, just to call out his name.
Some people think there might be an opportunity.
I I'm leaving him on the bench. I think this is going to be
Estimate's backfield for at least this game.
We'll find out for sure. But Chris Olave I will give a
gold grade to. I think he's going to get
essentially all the targets in this team because estimates not
much of A pass catcher. He only had like 17 receptions
in college or something like that with Camara, valet, Neil
all out 10 plus targets feels very likely for Chris Olava in
this match up and new the New York Jets are 27th and explosive
passing plays allowed in the last month.
So there's at least an opportunity here for him.
He might get the bracket, but maybe he can deal with that just
by pure volume. Juan Johnson with the receivers
out, I will give a a cracked glass bronze.
You know, like if you really need a tight end for some
reason, you can start him. He'll probably have an uptick in
targets in the games with 7 plus targets, he averages 5.7
receptions and 56 yards. So that's that's not bad.
You might get a touchdown out of that too.
It'll fill the gap. OK.
And the only the New York Jets have not really played many
tough tight ends either. The only top five tight end they
played all year has been Kyle Pitts, and he went seven for
8:00 for 82 yards against them. So I don't know if you think
Juwan Johnson can get the job done.
Throw them in a flex maybe, or a tight end if you really need it.
But yeah, just in case. Did you get to like 6 tepid
starting grades in that game? I found ways to feel positive
about players because I'm a true degenerate, like I said.
Rainbows and sunshine for Kent Wyrock.
That's all it is. All right, the Bucks and
Panthers are about to play their first match up between these two
divisional rivals over the next three weeks, and that's going to
decide which of these teams goes to the playoffs.
I already told you I liked Bryce Young as my roll the dice
quarterback. So what about his receivers?
Ted McMillan returned to practice on Thursday.
He was dealing with foot and ankle injuries.
Maybe it's because of those nagging injuries that Jalen
Coker led the team last week with four catches and 60 yards,
plus the score. Ted's volume has just dried up
the last few weeks, though. In Week 11, he had eight
catches. Since then, 21 and two in the
three games since. That's not good.
I'm going to get to bronze grades on both.
Tampa's been terrible against the past as of recent, but
they've kind of limited wide receivers in that they're
they're giving up a lot to running backs and tight ends.
Only three touchdowns allowed to wide receivers in the last five
games. They've limited yardage, but it
it's weird. They have been terrible against
pass catching backs and that's why Rico Dowdell gets a gold
grade from me here. He's getting about 17 carries
per game. He's much better than Chuba
Hubbard at pass catching. Not that Chuba Hubbard's bad,
but Dowdell's just a little bit better.
Tampa OK against traditional backs between the tackles, but
they've allowed the ninth most receptions and then the most
yards to receiving running backs.
So backfield receiving yardage totals in the last five weeks.
66 to James Cook, 61 to Ty Johnson.
That was in the same game both of them scored through the air.
83 and a score to the Cards. Combo of backs. 8 catches for 82
yards to Bijan last week. So there's huge catch up side
here. So I got Dowdell as a gold.
Hubbard I could see getting mixed in, but I can't advise you
starting him in a fantasy playoff week like this.
Bucky Irving is back and he's on the other side.
I'm going to start him with a silver grade.
It would be a gold grade. I kind of think He's still a
little bit injured though. He's got the touch totals, 1917
and 17 since his return, but his yardage totals have been kind of
bad for a player of his magnitude and slipperiness.
Only 8181 and 71 combo yards in this game.
Now he has scored in two out of three games.
That has kept you afloat. The match up is great.
Carolina gives up 4.8 yards per carry, That's the fourth worst
in the league and runners average just over a touchdown
per game against them. So I think Bucky is good enough
to get a silver grade here. I'm just worried that he can't
have the big blow up game that we all need.
Baker Mayfield, he also looks kind of hurt.
He did top 200 yards last week for the first time since week 10
though, through for multiple scorers.
So you're saying there's a chance here?
The kids call the Carolina pass defense mid, but Stafford
managed 243 and two and Shuck got to 272 and one in the last
two weeks. I think Baker's kind of in the
middle of that there like 260 and 1 1/2 touchdowns ish.
That sounds about right to me. That seems like a Shibuichi
somewhere between a bronze and a silver.
So we'll go Shibuichi on Baker Mayfield.
Then there's the wide receivers. By the way, K Dotton looks like
he's not going to play. So you're not even considering a
tight end Mike Evans a Mecca? EG Buka and Chris Godwin, all
three of them played for the first time ever in a game last
week. Evans was back as the A12
targets in that game. Igbuca had a solid 7 targets.
Godwin had five targets. He caught four of them only for
20 yards, but he had the touchdown and the other two
didn't. When all three of them are out
there, it's really pick your poison time.
Godwin runs the most routes out of the slot, about half of them,
so he gets the best matchup against slot corner Chow Smith
Wade, who is totally not made-up.
JC Horn likely goes against Mike Evans, but that match up, it's
not as scary as it used to be. Horns allowed five touchdowns in
his coverage this year. That's on the higher end.
This could be a repeat of what the Rams receivers did just two
weeks ago. Devante Puka and Xavier Smith
each hit 11 PPR points in that game.
So Evans gets a silver as the alpha.
EG Buka and Godwin get a bronze. I don't mind if you start them
here. All right, let's let's go over
to the Falcons and Cardinals. And Trevor, we all saw it
coming. Kirk Cousins and Kyle Pitts are
fantasy playoff heroes. Can they keep it up on Sunday in
the desert? I think one of them can.
We'll start on the Falcons with Kirk.
I am putting Kirk on the bench before he turned the back of the
clock last week against Tampa as Tampa was melting down.
His next best fantasy outputs were 199 and two and two, 3-4
and one that came against the Saints.
Jets were not very good defenses.
He's a low ceiling play, not a great matchup.
Dijon, I'm giving a platinum to. Arizona gives up the fifth most
rushing yards and and Russian touchdown to the position.
Dijon's been a following monster, averaging more than 25
touches per game in his last three.
Dream match up for the fantasy playoffs.
I'm going to go out on a limb a little bit and give Drake London
a goal. It sounds like he's going to
play this week. He got in a limited practice on
Thursday. Prior to his injury, he was
crushing. He had three straight games with
six plus catches and over 100 yards.
Cardinals are not in an imposing match up for enemy receivers.
They've allowed the following receiver outings in just their
last four games. 385-271-6723 for 78571 and 1:00 and 4:50 and
1:00. And that's everybody from Puku
Nukua to Parker Washington. Kyle Pitts is a silver.
Obviously. He blew up for the fantasy
performance of a lifetime last week.
I don't think we're chasing the box court here.
His targets have been trending up in the last four weeks since
Kirk took over, going from 5:00 to 8:00 to 11:50.
Certainly that'll come down a little bit with Drake London
back. He does have three straight
games with at least 6 catches and 80 yards.
Arizona is a good match up, their bottom 10 and both yards
and catches allowed to the position.
So it's not as good as it was maybe a day or two ago, but it's
still a good grade for Kyle Pitts.
Trevor, help me make this make sense.
You got a gold grade on London and a single grade bench grade
on Cousins. It's got to.
Be a bronze then if you can, you can support like 2 good
receivers. The quarterback has to do it.
Bijan's not throwing this ball. Are we sure he's not, man?
It's just Kirk is a zero in the ground game.
He's not getting you any Russian output whatsoever.
And it's just even if he throws for 250 yards and two
touchdowns, which. That's kind of his ceiling
bronze worthy. I don't know, maybe it's just
kind of the fantasy semi finals that's that's given me the just
kind of throwing perk to the side probably.
He's probably ranked in the mid to low 20s out of quarterbacks
this week, but if you like his receivers enough, I mean.
He's closer probably to a roll the dice quarterback.
There we go, a true bench. I'll take it.
All right. On the other side, we got Jacoby
Brissett, who's just the most consistent quarterback of all
time. Give him a bronze.
In his nine starts this year, he has multiple touchdowns and
eight of 940 passing attempts and seven of nine averaging over
300 yards a game. Crazy.
Atlanta's not an opposing matchup.
They've already given up 23 passing touchdowns on the year
and Arizona has just the 1 running back left.
Michael Carter, which should keep the game plan focused on
the pass as if they needed more reasons to throw it.
Michael Carter was my roll the dice player, so we'll skip him.
I'm throwing a gold on Michael Wilson as well.
Any NFL player having a 5 game stretch where you're seeing over
13 targets per game probably worth a goal.
Atlanta's permitted 17 wide receiver touchdowns this year,
which is fourth most in the league, so it's a good match up
too. I'm throwing the commercial
bronze on Marvin Harrison. He did return to practice this
week in a limited fashion. However, I think he's the clear
third option in the passing game now behind Trey McBride and
Michael Wilson. He re injured himself mid game
the last time he came back from an injury.
I don't really trust him to finish the game.
He did clear 13 PPR points in six of his ten starts, and if
we're talking about 40 passing attempts, it's probably enough
to keep him live. Trey McBride, smash play.
If you have him, you're starting him.
I will know. Atlanta's the second toughest
matchup for tight ends, but Houston's a great tight end
defense and Trey McBride burned them to the ground.
So yeah, play Trey McBride. He's an arsonist, Kent.
One of the more intriguing reality games on Sunday is the
Jags and Broncos in Denver. Travis ETN, coming off a Randy
Moss Thanksgiving 1998 light Game 3, catches 73 yards and
three touchdowns through the air last week.
Can you repeat? That well, maybe because Bashel
Tooten is doubtful with a finger injury.
So it's going to be all ETN all the time.
Baby. I, I won't give him a gold Gray
just because it is against Denver.
I'll give him a silver. ETN had, you know, 82 plus
scrimmage yards in three of his last four games, 5 total
touchdowns in his last two games.
His Denver defense, well, they are tough, has been 21st and
explosive rushing plays allowed in the last month.
So they've been showing some cracks as of late.
And I think ETN has an opportunity to have a good game
here. Trevor Lawrence, you know, I'll
bet everything I have that he doesn't throw 5 touchdowns
again. Any takers?
Takers. No, but he will get a silver
grade in this match up. I'll take that.
I'll take this 5 touchdowns and then you get everything I own.
So yeah, that's not too bad. I guess.
In the last month he's been quarterback one in points per
game. Obviously heavily influenced by
last week, but he was quarterback 5 without the big
one, so still pretty good. He's averaging 264 yards, He has
12 touchdowns with just three picks, and he's added 121
rushing yards and a score on the ground too.
He's been playing really, really good football lately and some of
those cracks that Denver defense has been showing has been
through the air to 16th and EPA per drop back allowed in the
last month and 19th and explosive, all explosive plays
allowed, 11th in passing. So not as forgiving there, but
still some opportunity when you think of the Broncos as a very
good defense. He's going to be throwing to his
wide receiver, one Jacoby Myers. He's going to get a bronze grade
in this game, but he's, I don't know, I, I was kind of in
between a few here. I think that the ball's going to
get spread around, but Jacoby Myers gets a bronze since he's
been getting a full snap count with the Jaguars.
He's at 7.3 targets per game, 4.8 reception, 63 yards and he's
had three total touchdowns in that time span.
He leads the team with 26% target chair and 31% of the end
zone target. So he's had some scoring
opportunities lately and and he's been doing a good job with
it. Brian Thomas, I'm leaving on the
bench. I think he's going to see the
most of Patrick Surtain this week, not just based on how the
alignment works out. You know, Brian Thomas is
probably still the most physically talented receiver on
the team compared to Myers. So they're going to go ahead and
just shut him down and try and deal with Myers with the rest of
the defense. Brenton Strange I will also
leave on the bench. He had just three targets last
week and 45 or fewer yards and three of his last four games.
So it's just not really that good of a look.
Trevor Lawrence, you know, I think he's just the sum of all
the parts, even though there's not many good parts, kind of
like a anti Kirk Cousins situation going on here over on
the Broncos side of the ball. Bonex A bronze grade as well.
He's coming off a very nice game, 302 yards and four passing
touchdowns, but it's four games prior to that he had just one
total passing touchdown and one rush touchdown.
So it's been kind of tough sledding for him.
I see still he's been quarterback 3IN points per game
in the last three weeks. So there's something there and
he's probably startable if you're in a pinch.
The Jacksonville defense has the lowest EPA per drop back allowed
in the last month, but that is events was again against a very
easy quarterback schedule in Brady Cook, Riley Leonard, Cam
Ward and Jacoby Brissett. So that's not really a ton to
read into there, but they're still a good defense.
RJ Harvey will get a bronze grade.
Since the JK Dobbins injury, which is weeks 11 through 15,
he's averaged 15 rushing attempts, 51 rushing yards, 3
1/2 targets and 18 receiving yards per game with four rushing
touchdowns to his name. He was a full practice this week
Despite that rib injury. We were worried about a little
bit, but the Jacksonville run defense, they they're pretty
tough. Fewest rushing, excuse me,
fewest rush yards allowed per game, fourth lowest rushing
yards over expectation allowed and then the third lowest yards
after contact per attempt allowed too.
So they really, really shut it down on all fronts there.
Portland Sutton gets a bronze grade.
He's got 10 targets in each of his last two games and 175 total
receiving yards and a touchdown in those games.
And last month, he leads the team in target share, air yard
share and end zone target share. So it's just he's the wide
receiver one on this team between Troy Franklin and Pat
Bryant. We're just going to bench both
of them. Bryant is back in practice.
So I don't know how you can decide which one's going to have
a better game on any given week. I don't think there's any
discernible trends there. So I'm not going to trust either
of them in the semifinals. And then and yeah, you're
benching him. You can find someone better you.
Don't want the Evan Ingraham revenge game?
Yeah, I guess there's that. But frankly, no, I do not.
Wow. Just so quick to cast aside the
Evan Ingraham revenge angle. He's so angry.
I I think he he has good, good tidings for the Jacksonville
Jaguars. Program all right, time for a
quick break and a word from Maj. about game Blazers.
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The nearly inept Las Vegas Raiders offense heads to Houston
to take on the best defense in the land of this week.
Can you start either of the two Raiders you'd think about
starting? Well, let's start with Brock
Bowers. It sounds like Geno Smith might
go this weekend, which would be better for Bowers, I think.
But it's still against the scary Texans defense.
But the Texans faced another top tight end last week in Trey
McBride. And as Trevor said, he burned
them down 12 catches, 135 yards and two touchdowns.
Now, Bowers. Here's his schedule over the
last month. He faced the Browns, Chargers,
Broncos, Eagles, and now Texans. There's not a harder schedule of
defenses that you can face. He's put up good numbers, double
digit PPR points and three of the last four in and the one
last week against Philly, that's the one he didn't get to double
digit PPR points. He had eight targets last week.
So I think Brock Bowers is still startable.
I'll give him a silver grade. Ashton Gente is the other one.
The problem is, is his volume is just drying up right now. 12
touches against Denver in week 14, only 38 combo yards. 13
touches last week in Philly, only 42 combo yards.
And luckily four of those touches were catches which
helped him limp to 8.2 PPR points.
The Texans this week are at least as difficult as those
prior to opponents. My guess is that very few
fantasy teams with Genti are still in the playoffs, but if
you are, I'm leaving Ashton Genti on the bench this week.
The Texans have allowed the third fewest combo yards in the
league to opposing backs and it's just not the time for
Ashton Genti to shine this week. And I hope I'm wrong on that one
too, because I have Ashton Genti and I might be forced to use him
in a game this week. So Yikes.
Best of luck, Yeah. I'm down to an Ashton Genti or
Kamani Vidal or Taijae Spears thing and I it it, it it's
pretty rough right there. All right on the Texan side,
Jawar Jordan was my roll the dice runner.
Nick Chubb is in play if Woody Marks doesn't go by the way, for
many of the same reasons. And I will mention Marks got in
a limited practice on that injured ankle on Friday.
So if he goes, he'll get first crack at the good grade and he'd
be a silver. If Marx doesn't go, both Jordan
and Chubb would be bronze grades.
CJ Stroud looks like he's back to the two years ago CJ Stroud
that everyone loved so much. 260 and three last week against
Arizona. But the big thing was he
completed 22 of his 29 passes, so he only had 7 incompletions.
The Raiders defense is open for business.
They allowed multiple scores to three of the last five
quarterbacks they've faced. More notably, teams are
completing every pass against the Raiders right now.
Justin Herbert only had five incomplete passes.
Nicks only had 7 incomplete passes on 38 attempts.
Jalen Hurts only threw 15 passes last week.
He completed 12 of them and three of those were touchdowns.
So a silver grade for Stroud. Nico Collins, he gets a gold
grade. Underrated aspect of the Texans
6 game-winning streak is how consistent Nico has been. 20 or
more PPR points four times in those six games.
The two others, he caught all three of his targets for 55
yards against the Bills and had four catches for 121 yards
against the Chiefs. 19 different wide receivers of it.
Double digit PPR points against the Raiders this year.
So an easy gold for Collins and Jaden Higgins.
I'm given a bronze grade 2 as well.
His snap share was 72% last week.
Nico had one more snap than Jaden Higgins.
So the problem for Higgins, he only had one catch for four
yards last week and only three catches for 34 the week before.
But I'll take the opportunity. He's on the field a ton.
His backfield is iffy at best right now with some injuries and
Chubb not being very good and a practice squad player may be
starting. It's a must win game for the
Texans to keep pace in the playoff race.
It's at home, it's indoors and it's against a past defense
that's bottom 10 in receptions, yards and touchdowns allowed to
opposing wide receivers. So Higgins is a bronze.
Don't play Dalton Schultz. The Raiders are actually good
against tight ends, top ten in every category.
Don't play Dalton Schultz. All right, one of my favorite
things of this week is the Yukon Cornelius.
Game of the Week. Gold, gold and silver, silver
and gold. Wahoo, Trevor, it's the Steelers
and Lions. This has got to be the highest
scoring game of the week that I would think.
You told us you like Aaron Rodgers.
What about his receivers? I'll give DK Metcalf a silver.
As I mentioned with Rodgers earlier, the matchups elite.
Only one team has given up more wide receiver touchdown from the
Lions 20, and no defense has given up more yards to the
position. DK leads the team with a 22 1/2
percent target share. Kind of a weird stat.
He's got exactly 5 catches in each of his other three games
against the NFC North, so maybe you just expect 5 catches on
Sunday. Ben's.
The rest of the receivers were not messing around there.
Jalen Warren and Kenny Gainwell. I'm going to give the commercial
bronze to both of them. Warren's been getting a majority
of the touches slightly, but Gainwell has 13 catches over his
past two games and he actually out carried Jalen Warren 13 to
12 last week. Jalen Warren did come into the
game dealing with an illness, so that could explain some of the
role change. It's a brutal match up to
Detroit's the second toughest match up for running backs.
They've not allowed a catch receiving touchdowns to a
running back all year and their top ten in touch, his yards in
total touchdowns given up to the position.
But if both guys are in the mix for 12 to 13 touches plus a high
game total that keeps both of them in play.
The tight ends, Stila tight end hasn't scored or had four
catches in the game since November 23rd.
Keep them on the bench. And then on the other side, we
get to the Yukon Cornelius Silvers and goals.
Jared Goff starts with a silver. It's the highest total game on
the slate opened at 45 1/2. It's now up to 52.
So people love the over. Detroit's had four home games
since the buy the total game, total total game totals.
The game totals in those are as follows, 516155 and 74.
Detroit's defense is fading, so Pittsburgh should be able to
keep pace a little bit. You get a Dome spot.
The Steelers allow the most completions in the fourth most
yards to quarterbacks. Jamir Gibbs, he's a beast.
Play him last two home games. He has 6 touchdowns, nearly 23
touches a game. Pittsburgh's a good match up.
Jamie Montgomery, I will give a commercial bronze too.
He does have a touchdown in three straight, but 8 or less
touches in four to five. You're mostly betting on a score
here. Pittsburgh's only allowed six
running back touchdowns of any kind this season.
So it's it's a way to kind of get access to this high scoring
game. But I'm not thrilled about it.
Amon, Ron Jameson, I'm giving platinum and golds to.
Dan Campbell took over the Lions play calling in the Washington
game in Week 10, in part because he was upset at how Jameson
Williams was being used. Well.
Since then, Jamo's been on a heater.
He's got 4 touchdowns in those six games and at least 88 yards
and five of the six. Excellent match up as well.
Pittsburgh's allowed the second most catches and 7th most yards
to enemy receivers. Amon Raz right up there with
Chase as the top. Chase.
Jamar Chase as the top play of the week.
Pittsburgh's tight end defense is horrible, but the top 2 tight
ends on the Lion's roster have two catches combined this
season, so I'm not going to go there.
Yeah, probably not, but fire up those Lions for sure.
All right, Kent, your final match up of the week is a doozy.
It's the Sunday nighter. The Ravens shut out Joe Burrow
and Jamar Chase last week. Can they do the same to Drake
May? I no, definitely not, but I do
think that Drake May is in a good opportunity here.
I just saw recently they announced that Kyle Hamilton was
downgraded to questionable and then Jidobi woozy is going to be
a doubtful for this game as well.
So there's some injuries going on in the secondary for
Baltimore right now. Drake May, I got a silver grade
on him. I was considering bumping that
up to the gold with his news, but I don't think I'm quite
there. He's been reliable, but kind of
consistently in that 20 to 24 point range.
He's got eight games with 20 plus fantasy points of the year,
which is tied for 2nd. And despite last week where he
had 155 yards and no touchdowns and an interception, he did have
two rushing touchdowns, which is good for that every once in a
while. So he he likes to use his legs
quite a bit. He's really trustworthy against
his Baltimore team. It should be a really fun game,
but we're just going to leave him a silver grade.
Travion Henderson, I know you said you liked him earlier, but
I'm going to only put a bronze grain on him this week.
He was shot out of a cannon twice last game, 14 attempts for
184 yards and two touchdowns, but the touchdowns were 52 yards
and 65 yards. Little back of the napkin math
leaves twelve other attempts for 31 yards.
So if he's not getting those explosive rushing plays, we're a
little bit in the woods with him.
The Baltimore Ravens allow the fewest explosive rushing plays
in the last month. Just 1% of rushes go for more
than 10 yards. So it's a little bit of.
A got the right answer in that question.
Come on. Well, I'm sticking to my guns
here. And then Ramande Stevenson, he's
got a bench grade. He's taking the backseat to
Henderson. Just six attempts and three
targets last game. So you're not really going to
trust him there. Wide receivers, somehow I have
to bench all three despite saying Drake May's a silver.
You know, Stephon Diggs, four few targets in the last three
games. Keishon Booty, he had one target
last game. He's a big play guy, but he has
zero volume to his name. It's just like you trust him or
do you trust him to get a touchdown or not and that's
basically it. And then Matt Collins coming off
8 targets, but he's impossible to trust.
I feel like we've seen this a few times with him.
He always pulls a Kaiser Soze at the end, disappears into the
wind like he was never there to begin with.
So you can't trust any of these guys this week.
Someone will have a good game. We just don't know who.
And then Hunter Henry, if weirdly enough, I'm also going
to give a bench to only one tight end, has gone for more
than 50 yards against Baltimore all season long, and that's
including when they were very injured earlier in the year,
too. They've allowed just two
touchdowns to tight ends all season, so it's just not a good
spot for him either. That's probably the biggest
reason I wasn't able to get Drake May up to a goal because I
don't think any of the receivers or tight ends are in a very good
spot here. Over on the Baltimore side of
things, Lamar Jackson, man, something seems broken with him.
Bronze grade. He went eight for 12 for 150
yards, 2 touchdowns and an interception last week against
the Bengals. So that seems so much worse when
you say it that way. It would be an OK stat line
against a a good defense, but the Bengals he should be just
trouncing them and was not able to get anything going.
It was his first two plus passing touchdown game since
week 9 as well and he's only had one game with 50 or more rushing
yards all season. Last year he had 9.
So we're really just seeing a whole different ball game from
Lamar this year. This Patriots defense in the
last month hasn't allowed 200 plus yards passing and only Josh
Allen threw for two or more touchdowns.
So it's just not a good spot for Lamar Jackson.
If you got him, you probably have to start him, but don't
don't feel great about it. Derrick Henry, I got a bronze
grade on him. He's starting to look his age, I
think a little bit more every single week.
But he does have three straight games with 100 scrimmage yards.
So it's hard to really be too mad about that.
The New England Patriots have allowed the third fewest fantasy
points to running backs this season, but in the last month it
has been their highest stretch of yards per carry allowed all
season where they're allowing 5 yards per carry.
So it's been a little bit lighter compared to previous
weeks with them. And the only two times they've
allowed 100 plus yards to a opposing running back was in
that time stretch too in the last four weeks.
So it's an OK spot for Henry. You're probably starting them
again, but you don't feel great about it.
Jose Flowers, I'll give him a bronze.
In his last two games, he's at 16 total targets, 11 receptions
for 192 yards, one touchdown. It's all good stuff.
He'll probably see quite a bit of Christian Gonzalez in
coverage, though. Not necessarily a shadow, but
it's just kind of a tough look to go against Gonzalez.
He's one of the best quarterbacks out there right
now. Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely,
they're about dead to me. As I discussed earlier, they
blew it last week against the Bengals, likely had a goose egg
and just two weeks prior they both had really good games
against the Bengals. So you know, I'm kind of
surprised that you know, they're they're so defeated this last
week compared to weeks prior. But you can't trust either of
them right now either. You you got to find a better
streaming option than them. Yeah.
That, that was maybe the most disappointing call I've had all
year. Absolutely.
Yeah, it cost me a a trip to the semifinals in Scott Fishbowl.
That's so sad. Yep, I'm.
Sorry if it was me that gave you that advice, I'm so sad.
I hope he. Was not as, as you know, I was
quite busy last week, yeah. All right, final match up of the
day is the Monday nighter and Brock Purdy is back 295 and
three last week with 44 rushing yards too.
It looks like he's finally healthy.
The Colts this week are an interesting match up.
They are allowing the third most passing yards in the league at
264 per game. They haven't allowed many
passing touchdowns though. They've only given up two
passing touchdowns in the last four games and the quarterbacks
against were Mahomes, Stroud, Lawrence, and Darnold.
Some pretty good quarterbacks in there.
Silver grade here for Purdy on the yardage for sure.
Let's see if he can toss a few in the end zone though, and if
he's going to do that, he's going to probably throw 1 to
Jawan Jennings. He's been his favorite end zone
target in his last six games. 6 touchdowns, including two last
week. I mentioned in Roll the Dice
that two of the Colts starting corners are already out this
week. That sets up nicely for
Jennings. So a silver grade on him.
And then we get to this part of the match up.
I love gold. There's so much gold happening
here. Like George Kittle gets a gold
grade Like his helmet. Since week 10, he's got five
games over 10 PPR points. In only five games, he's got
three of those games over 22 PPR points and 0 games under 10
Indies, allowing the eighth most receptions and 5th most yards to
tight ends this year. Super nice day for George Kittle
incoming, but the marquee matchup of this game and I'm
gonna lump these two together in a rare in a rare occurrence on
fantasy Friday, I'm gonna put Christian McCaffrey and Jonathan
Taylor into the matchup together because it's basically the
number one and #2 running backs in the league.
They're facing off against each other.
They're obviously both in your starting lineups with gold
grades that's. Gold.
Jerry McCaffrey has the tougher of the two matchups.
Worth noting, the Niners have allowed the second most
receptions in the league so far this year, so I think Jonathan
Taylor might be in play for a big receiving game, too.
Or Amir Abdullah, who randomly had five receptions last week.
If you're starting Phillip Rivers in 2025 in a playoff
matchup, you're crazy. But I like you, but you're
crazy. The match up is decent.
The Niners allow 236 yards and almost 2 touchdown passes per
game. They've only picked off 5 passes
all year, which bodes well for Rivers.
But I'm not going to lie, it didn't look like Rivers could
get the ball maybe more than 20 yards downfield last week, which
is why Amir Abdullah was his top receiver with five receptions.
I'm leaving Rivers on the bench. I'm barely extending starting
grades to only two of his receivers.
Tyler Warren is 1. He gets a bronze led the team in
targets last week with six his. His matchup is the best amongst
the receivers. The Niners have allowed the
fifth most touchdowns to the tight end position this year and
includes A touchdown to Harold Fannon and a touchdown to Gunnar
Helm in the last two weeks. Michael Pittman gets the other
bronze grade and I don't even really like it that much.
He had five targets last week, 1 fewer than Warren.
His matchup is pretty good against Diamador Lenore, who is
definitely not a person I made-up, and Lenore has allowed
five touchdowns in his coverage this year.
For what it's worth, I like Josh Downs from the slot much better
than Alec Pierce, but I think I'm going to leave both of them
on the bench. Downs did get the touchdown pass
from Rivers last week and the slots definitely a better spot,
but you definitely can't play Alec Pierce.
If you needed to twist my arm into a Josh Downs bronze, I
think I could maybe get there, but I don't really like it all
that much. All right, before we hit
lightning Round, I wanted to quickly go over a big Christmas
Day contest that's coming up on our partner site, the National
Fantasy Football Championship. And oh look, it's Maj.
The National Fantasy Football and Basketball Championships
have a huge holiday bonus on the line this Christmas Day.
The NFL Christmas Day Bonanza has a 40K prize pool with 7500
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To enter, sign up for the NFL bonanza@playnffc.com/bonanza and
thenbajam@playnfbkc.com/jam. All right, to end the show, this
is what we call lightning round. Oh, hey, speed.
I am speed. That's right, all right to be.
If you'd like to be featured on Lightning Round, find my Twitter
handle at Explosive Output. Each week I'll put up a
Lightning Round thread. We'll pick a few, and we'll
answer them rapid fire. And remember, it's a decision
between two players and two players only.
If you include three players, we hang up and listen to you cry.
All right, Kent and Trevor, are you guys ready for Lightning
Round? Yeah, get.
It all right, here we go. Trevor.
Rashi Rice if he goes, or a Mecca Egbuka.
And that's from our friend Woody Show.
Yeah, Woody, I'm going Rice if he plays.
Egbuka has a top 11 PPR points since week 10 and like you said,
all three of the pass catchers are healthy now.
All right, Kent, Ryan Schwartz wants to know either Kyle Pitts
or Brock Bowers in guillotine. Can't believe I'm saying this,
but Kyle Pitts, even with Drake back, I think it's a good
opportunity for the Falcons and the the Houston defense.
You don't want to deal with that, and that's who Bowers has
to go against. All right, Trevor, Bucky Irving
or Trayvion Henderson. That's for Mark Giannini.
Yeah, I'm going with Bucky. He gets a slight nod.
He has a little bit better match up than Trayvon Henderson does
this week. All right, Kent, can you help
out Jerry Goldfarb here? Would you go with Debo Samuel or
DK Metcalf? DK Metcalf because I at least
can hope that he gets a house call at some point.
Debo Samuel looks cooked man, and with the Marcus Mariota
offense, I'm not interested. All right, Trevor, Daryl Hancock
wants to know Tyler Shuck or Bryce Young.
Shout out to Daryl by the way for having both of these
quarterbacks in his semi Final Fantasy matchup.
What a legend. I'll go Shuck against a middling
Jets past defense that Trevor Lawrence just let up for a
career day. I I think he went zero
quarterback for sure he. Must.
Trevor, I'm going to stay with you on this one because I got
another Tyler Shuck one. EJB wants to know Shuck or JJ
McCarthy. I'm going to stick with Shuck
here. No Devin, Devin, Neil or Camara
should set up a pass first approach.
Although I do like McCarthy too, I don't really think he could go
wrong either way there. Interesting.
I thought you were going to go McCarthy for sure.
Wow. Yeah, the the Darasaw things
makes me a little nervous. OK, can't.
Let's hit you with a few quarterback ones, and I got a
McCarthy one for you too. Tim Matfield wants to know JJ
McCarthy or Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy, you know, still no
sauce for the Colts, who Purdy's going up against.
And then GJ McCarthy. That's just scary.
Downside in the semifinals, man, I I think he's an OK streamer,
but Purdy's a better quarterback.
OK. Well, I'm going to stick with
you for a couple more, Kent, because now we got Brock Purdy
versus Jacoby Brissett. That's for David Glenn.
Yeah, this one was tougher. I I am going to stick with
Purdy. Brissett has three straight
games with an interception, and then Purdy seems to have gotten
his interception issues under control and I think Ricky
Pearsall does play, so that seems to be an uplift for him as
well. OK Kent, I'm going to do one
more because I got another Brissette in here.
We got Josh Laurent who does the fantasy football report card for
us. He wants to know Jacoby
Brissette or Dak Prescott and this is a 5 point passing
touchdown league. Oh, I did not know that part.
I don't think it really matters much.
I will go with Jacoby Brissette here.
It's a tough match up for Dak going against the Los Angeles
Chargers defense. It's been very stout against the
passing. And then Brissette has higher
upside, arguably with Marvin Harrison Junior back of the
game. All right, Trevor James Cook or
Saquon in guillotine, and this is for Aaron Johnson.
Yeah, I'll give. I'll go.
James Cook. I like the 10 point favorite
home spot over Cleveland better than Saquon against Washington.
They're on a on the road, Trevor come.
On Sorry, I still like Cook better.
It it they're on the same lake, but they're on the road.
That's true. That's true.
Weird that they're on the same lake, all right.
Kent Quinchon Judkins or Omarion Hampton.
And this is for Jason Hansen. Yeah, this was a little scarier
with the split with Vidal and Hampton, but I will go with
Omarion Hampton here. Judkins has really struggled to
get it going. Low yardage numbers the last
couple weeks and defense, they've been better lately, but
still somewhat exploitable. At least Hampton has been better
than Vidal despite the split, so I think he gets going a little
bit more. All right, and Trevor, this is
the last one of Lightning Round and there's a little story
behind this one. This is for Joe Thompson, who is
playing his wife Tina in his fantasy semifinals this week.
So this is the most important question you may ever hear on
Lightning Round. He's got to beat his wife in
fantasy in the in the flex. I I did mention in fantasy, yes.
He did? Yep.
In the flex in APPR league is a quinch on Judkins or is it Terry
Mclaurin? Yeah, this is for sure the most
pressure I'll ever have on a lightning round question.
So hopefully we'll get you there, man.
I'll go with Quinch on Judkins against the Bills run defense
that's allowed to lead worst 18 rushing touchdowns.
All right, there we go. That was lightning round.
You guys did so well. I'm so proud of you.
Thanks, Dad. Well, our leader, Yep.
All right, Trevor Kent, anything that you guys got coming up in
in the next weekend? Anything fun going on?
Just grinding through the end of football season, man.
Got a hockey for the kid and some Santa pictures I think too.
Oh, is is Santa going to be at the hockey rink?
Yeah, he's actually our forward. Yeah, he's on the team.
No, pretty good. Different outings, yeah.
There we go All right, make sure to follow Trevor and Kent on on
Twitter. It's not an easy task to get
this show going and they deserve a follow at T Jones 5 for Trevor
at Kent Wyrock, and I spelled it out for you before, but you can
probably find him if you just at Kent WE and then you'll figure
it out. It'll it'll it'll figure out.
You were halfway there, man, I know.
Thanks for tuning into Fantasy Friday on fantasy Football
almost daily. Next week we're going to do a
split episode. So we're going to have have two
different episodes that are kind of Fantasy Friday because we got
Thursday and Christmas Day matchups and all sorts of fun
stuff. So make sure you tune into both
episodes next week. And really good luck to
everybody in your fantasy semifinals this week.
We hope that you win and bring home the title.
All right, Thanks, guys. We'll see you next week on
fantasy football almost daily. This was fantasy football almost
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