There are no buys this week. It's also the fantasy play offs.
This is basically the first part of Fantasy Friday right here on
this Fantasy Football Almost Daily podcast.
You need to know who to start in every game, and that starts with
the Thursday night contest between the Falcons and the
Bucks. Then on Friday, it's the full
Fantasy Friday on Fantasy Football Almost Daily.
We'll preview all 15 of the remaining games.
Talk about which guys you can roll the dice on.
Crack a few tough nuts. My friend Trevor Jones and my
friend Kent Wyrock will join me this week.
You won't want to miss it, especially if you're in the
fantasy playoffs. Tell your friends and neighbors
to tune in. They got to get here.
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Today I'm going to preview the Thursday night contest between
the Atlanta Falcons and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
But first, Tate's intro music from the Sports Hub Games
Network. This is fantasy football almost
dated with your host, Matt Harrison.
All right, guys, it's Matt Harrison back again.
You can find me on Twitter or Blue Sky at Explosive Output.
I've got a, a, a Twitter post up right now talking about
lightning round. If you want to be a part of the
lightning round this week on fantasy Friday, go over to
explosive output on Twitter, find my tweet and throw your
hardest decision between two players in the comments below
there. And we'll we'll see if we can
get to you help you out a little bit this week.
You can help us out if you're listening to this podcast, rate
it, review it, follow like subscribe 5 stars.
All the things comments are good too.
Who knows we we might respond to you on those comments, but we're
here to get the Thursday night game in.
Let's let's see what we're going to do for this podcast here.
I'm excited because it's retro jersey night in Tampa.
The old Falcon is on the red helmets, Bucko Bruce and the
Creamsicle uniforms are there for Tampa.
I'm excited to see this clash of two uniform Titans here and
we'll start on the Falcons side as we preview the game here and
we'll do it with Bijon. He's a gold grade in this game.
Another 22 touches last week for Bijon and he was in a really
tough match up against the Seahawks.
This is a much easier test against Tampa.
The Bucks have allowed 15 PPR points 7 times in the last eight
games to an opposing running back, which includes Devin Neil
going for 84 combo yards in a score last week on 20 touches.
And that right there seems like the floor for Bijan.
And his ceiling is obviously what he did in Week 13 where he
hit 193 combo yards in a score. And he might be the most
targeted player in the passing game this week as well because
Drake London, he's not going to go and Kyle Pitts is
questionable with a knee injury. I'll get to him a little bit
later. And the rest of the wide
receivers are dog Doo Doo. Kirk Cousins in the passing game
are definitely tricky though. I'll throw bronze grade on
Cousins. I don't think many people are
starting him in a fantasy playoff week, and I think that's
about as high as we can go at this moment in time.
In his last three starts since Penex went down, he's averaging
198 yards and a score per game. That's not very good, but the
Bucks match up is super juicy. Last week, Tyler Shuck gouged
the Bucks on the ground, which Cousins won't do.
But before that, Tampa Bay had allowed at least 270 passing
yards and multiple touchdowns to each of the previous four
quarterbacks they faced. So it's a starting grade for
Cousins. Bronze.
Not great, but it's there. If Kyle Pitts goes, he's
questionable. The knee injury, he's probably
the most reliable passing option next to Bijan.
He's hit 82 and 90 yards in the last two weeks on 18 targets
over that time. The Bucks are middle of the pack
against the tight end, but Pitts is about it for options for
Cousins. It's going to be Bijan and it's
going to be Pitts because like I said, the rest of the wide
receiver is not good. Darnell Mooney, I guess if Pitts
is out, could be startable. But who's going to start Darnell
Mooney in a fantasy week that you are in a playoff week where
you need those points? Mooney's only managed 3 catches
for 31 scoreless yards over the last two games combined, so I'm
not very excited about him. Someone named Dylan Drummond LED
wide receivers and targets last week.
David Sills is also heavily involved in the passing game.
He didn't catch any of his four targets last week.
They just signed Malik Heath from the Packers.
This might be the worst wide receiver group in the league
right now and they got a great match up this week, so it's all
for waste. On the Buck side, it looks like
Mike Evans is going to return on Thursday night.
They've activated him from IR. He had a collarbone injury, so I
assume he's ready. There's not much risk for re
injury here and he should be pretty fresh.
His legs are going to be in pretty good shape.
It's not like he has to learn how to cut on a on a weird knee
or risk the hamstring injury or anything like that.
So right out of the gate, I'll throw a silver grade on Evans
and we'll go silver on both Godwin and Iguca as well.
Each of these guys gets to the slot about 30% of the time and
they move all over the field. They're always somewhere else.
The slot match up is the best against the Falcons that that
that way you're going against D Alford, who comes in at Pro
Football Focus's number 100 cornerback out of 111.
But on the outsides, Mike Hughes and AJ Terrell, they aren't much
better. They're 73 and 72 respectively.
The Falcons have been roasted in the passing game since Week 812.
Different wide receivers have hit the double digit PPR mark in
those seven weeks, which includes 28 points to JSN last
week, 24 to AD Mitchell the week before, 33 to Ted McMillan in
Week 11. There's plenty to go around
here. So silver grades for all the
receivers, but the concern with the silver grades is Baker
Mayfield hasn't been good for like well over a month.
In fact, it's been six games since he's been pretty bad.
He's hit the 200 yard mark only once in those six games.
Multiple touchdown passes also only once in those six games.
Now they have reduced the pass plays on offense and maybe it's
because Baker's left shoulder, his non throwing shoulder was
hurt. Maybe it's because Trifton
Tristan Werfs, his all world left tackle, was out for a
couple of games, or maybe it's because Mike Evans had been out.
But Werfs is back this week and Evans is back this week and
Bucky Irving's back for a third week in a row and Baker's
looking at his best match up that he's seen since Week 7.
So if you are a no risk it, no biscuit kind of guy or girl,
this is one of those match ups where I think you throw Baker
Mayfield in, I'm giving him a silver grade.
The Falcons have allowed 240 yards or multiple scores to
seven straight quarterbacks. That list includes Tua, Tyler
Shuck, Bryce Young, Tyrod Taylor, all guys who may or may
not be full time starters next year.
So I think Baker Mayfield's a silver grade in this one.
You're not going to start K Dotton, too many receivers are
back and he's doubtful to play anyway.
And finally, Bucky Irving, I'll give him a silver grade as well.
I wanted to give him a pewter just because of their helmet
color most of the time, but silver is a little bit better
than pewter since he's returned. 19 touches and 17 touches for
Bucky. He scored in both games.
He's had exactly 16.1 PPR points in both of those games.
But last week, Rashad White had 12 touches and Sean Tucker had
seven, and he vultured a touchdown.
The Falcons are a little worse than average against runners,
but a lot of that's been weighed down by two absolutely ginormous
days. Jonathan Taylor and Christian
McCaffrey both played this team. CMC had 31 touches.
JT had 35. Both scored tons of points
against Atlanta. And Bucky won't hit that
workload. He's not going to get over 30
touches. But the guys who've been at like
the 17 to 20 touch range against the Falcons, at least in the
last two months, they've got about 15 to 20 PPR points that
those are guys like Breece Hall, Rico Dowdell, Trayvon Henderson,
Devon A Chan, Those guys are all in the range of Bucky Irving
right now, I think. And that's where they landed in
the last two months against Atlanta.
And 15 to 20 PPR points, that's solid enough for a silver grade
for me. Now, both Tucker and White,
they're good options when Bucky's out.
But this is the playoffs, man. You're not starting either of
those guys, so just don't do it. And that is the whole match up
between the Falcons and the Bucks.
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We'll be back tomorrow with another show with Trevor Jones
as we preview this week's favorite DFS plays.
I can't wait. Trevor is on fire as always.
I did a lot better last week than I did in week 13.
Can't wait to talk to you about our DFS plays for this week on
tomorrow's Fantasy Football Almost Daily.
This was fantasy football almost daily.
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