FFW Week 12

the show. It is week number twelve Fantasy Football Weekly. We're uh, we're getting near nut cutting time. I don't know what it means. I don't like that. I don't like I don't even like thinking about what that might mean. Nobody wants their nuts cut. That's what I about now. Yeah, nobody wants that. Brian Johnson Matt Harrison are my co host today. Good morning guys, Good morning, many teams. You may find yourself in a sizeable deficit right now after

after the game's on Thursday. Yes, nut cutting time, okay, the point when you have tried everything but failed. While the nut cutting time originally refers to the effort required to remove a rusted or stripped nut. It has come to be used as legislative context as the time to exert maximum efforts to round up votes. Really it's a it's it's screws. Really like you, you're both got rusted and you can't get it off with a wrench, so you go, oh, oh, you cut it right. It's rusted.

It doesn't have anything to do with testicles. Okay, it's rusted nuts, got it. I can just sense the ratings plummeting right now. Yeah, probably cut. We've got all kinds of good stuff to get to though. Over the course of the show, of course, take a chance on me. We'll give you nine players you can start that you normally would, many of whom are on the waiver wire.

You can also play along with three hot questions, premature speculation and the final premature speculation of the year coming right here this week, and then Lightning round of course, and all of the matchups, including Pittsburgh taking on Denver. Brian, the the whole home road thing for Ben still it's a little up in the air right now. Overall, he's been better on the road this year, hasn't had like the massive explosive games that he typically gets at home,

but hasn't had the dreadful games either. And then last week's had to light out because for three and a half quarters he was awful, awful, and then he ends up with two passing touchdowns and a rushing touchdown and puts himself into a good position for a solid fantasy day on the road last week. Now he gets Denver. What do you make of Ben Roethlisberger this week? Uh?

Safer floor than normal on the road. It feels like for all the reasons you mentioned, Uh, he seems to at least come away with two fifty and two on the road and passed there's like one eight and one and three interceptions. So guys like Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, Philip Rivers averaging over three five yards and two and a half touchdowns against Denver recently. Uh, Ben's still of that ilk, even on the road. So I'll give him a solid B here. Uh, mainly because I just absolutely

well of Antonio Brown this week. Everyone loves Antonio Brown every week, but this feels like the week where he's gonna go double digit receptions for a hundred yards and maybe a crooked number in terms of touchdowns. Possibly, Yes, he's gonna get Bradley Roby and Tremaine Brock on the outside, who are not they are no a key to lead. Yeah, So Denver secondary is a thing of the past, so easy a for Brown. But Juju Smith Schues Juju Smith

Schuster not so much. I'm gonna give him a sea here because he will see Chris Harris, who is still the best slot corner in the NFL. Juju run sev routes from the slot, so he has the toughest matchup. I'm just giving him a sea here. Uh. Harris has allowed just thirty four catches for three D sixty yards on fifty six targets all season, So not a good

matchup for Juju. Better matchup for Vans McDonald though, giving him a B opposing tight ends or averaging sixty plus R for a game against Denver, and the Broncos have also allowed a tight end touchdown in each of their last three games, So Mike and Vance here he gets a B and only given James Connery be Denver is actually uh kind of gotten tough against running backs recently, allowing just under three yards per carry over the last four games, just one combined total touchdown to running backs

during that span too, And uh, Connor is cooled off now that he doesn't have to throw about Levon Bell. Bell is out of the picture. So Connor now now he's gonna tank. He's on an autopilot. But just over hundred twenty combo yards over the last two games for Connor, so he has cooled down. Not an amazing matchups, Just to be for him here over to the Denver side, just to be for Philip Lindsay. Pittsburgh has been very

tough against running backs all season. No loan back had topped eighty five combo yards against the Steelers until Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey both did it in each of the last two weeks. Lindsay is borderline in that territory, but he's still saw startable. I'm justsna give him a soft be here. But Davante Freeman from Sorry Royce Freeman, DeVante Booker easily on the bench. H Emmanuel Sanders borderline bench greade for me in this one, even in a

revenge game against his old team, his Steelers. But Sanders has been held scoreless in three straight hasn't topped sixty yards in that span, and he gets Mike Hilton, who's another great slot cornerback, maybe one b to Chris Harris when hers the slot corners. Uh. He's allowed just twelve yards per twelve yards per game in his coverage over the last six games something, and hasn't allowed to touchdown all seasons. So I do not like Sanders. I will

give him a see though. He's a tough guy to sit as a primary receiver in a game where Denver probably chasing points. But Courtland Sutton on the bench has yet the top three catches in a single game all year, and he faces a resurgent Joe Dare we call him Iron Hayden again? He's been very good this ye her Joe Hayden, absolutely so, Sutton on the bench. Love him long term dyansty keeper leagues, but he's on the bench this week. Jeff Hoyerman, our boy, Jeff Berman. Is it

Hierman tier? I like human? Well, it looks like it ought to be Hoyerman. There's no eye in it, but it's Hireman. Tricky tricky Hireman. Anyway. Pittsburgh ranks against tight ends by football outsiders, allowing more than sixty five yards per game to the position. Sadly, Hireman's birthday is not on Sunday, but guess when it is Monday, this very moment, it's today. Shall we celebrating? Shall we sink the Hireman?

Happy birthday to you? Case Keenum Jeff Hireman on the bench though, Sadly, I mean when you only really like Hireman as a pass catcher for a football team, you're not gonna start the quarterback. And that would be case Keenum on the bench. On the bench chart you got some pipes over there. Well, I don't show him off offen, but I can do it. Yeah, it helps if it's morning and everything's sort of gravelly, and yeah that it

works better that way. Actually, let's go to Jacksonville taking on Buffalo Matt h The Jaguars offense better with Leonard Fournett, who has been solid in his two games. This is kind of a sneaky, tough matchup with a decent Buffalo run defense. What do you make of Leonard four Nette today? We're gonna try to get out of this matchup as quick as we got into it. Leonard Fournette gets an A grade. He had thirty touches last week against the Steelers again, another huge touch total was a twenty nine

the week before. I think, uh. Only one running back has had more than fifteen touches against the Bills this year. That was Marlon Mack. He ended up with a hundred and fifty nine combo yards and two touchdowns, so four nets an easy a Blake Bortles and the rest of the passing game is on the bench. Five out of the last six quarterbacks the Bills have faced have been held to under two hundred yards, and six out of the last seven quarterbacks the Bills of face to have

been held to one or fewer touchdown passes. That's one or zero, so D D. Westbrook, DJ Charkin, Dante Moncrief who combined for forty five yards last week. Yeah, they're all on the bench too. On the other side, there's one starter, and it's not a great starter. It's Lashawn McCoy, who gets a See. Jacksonville has only allowed four rushing touchdowns on the season to opposing running backs. That's not good. Buffalo just fed McCoy like a crazy team. They just

gave him the ball over and over again. Twenty six carries last week, for a hundred and thirteen yards and two scores. The only problem was that was two of Buffalo's three running back touchdowns on the season, so literally it was McCoy's only good game of the year. If they're going to stay in this game, they're going to ground and pound and try to play great defense. I think you don't think Josh Allen changes the complexion of that offense quite a bit. I do, no, not that much.

He's slated to start this game, but the Bills are only snuffing ad and eight two passing yards per game this year, with only five touchdown passes on the season, and most of those were Matt Barkley's um They're on pace to be the worst quarterback group since the two thousand fifteen St. Louis Rams, whose quarterbacks were the NFC Championship Game quarterbacks from last year, Nick Foles and case

keenum they were the worst quarterbacks in recent history. They averaged one eight one and had eleven touchdowns on the season for the Rams. So Za Jones is on the bench to some people are chasing his eleven targets, his eight catches, his ninety three yards in a score last week, but he gets Jalen Ramsey this week. So I'm not going to say, Zay, I'm not going to say you don't say, I don't say nobody's as I can I

zig and you could say never mind. Uh, let me mention this about the Bill's run defense and Leonard four Nette. You mentioned Marlon Max great game, yet nineteen carries, hundred twenty six yards in a touchdown, chipped another touchdown through the air. He's the only back who's topped seventy seven yards against the Buffalo run defense all year. Well, and as I said, he's the only back who's had more than fifteen carries in a game. They just they haven't

faced a bell cow back like four Net. Well they kind of have, you know, Melvin Gordon twenty eight rushing yards as one example. Um, they were way up in that game, though they didn't need all. That is true. They were way up in that game and they didn't need it. So you know, we'll see. I you know, I just I think they're so I think it's a little bit trickier for I think it's a little trickier for lenond front at than you do. But that's all right, Okay, Well,

we'll see how it plays out. Let's go to the Giants taking on the Eagles, and if there's anything to know here, no, it's the Eagle secondary is an absolute wreck. Jalen Mills has got a foot injury. Sydney Jones safety expected to miss the game. Already, backups, already, already backups. Rassul Douglass and a Vonte Maddox both went down against the Saints last week, and it doesn't look like they're going to go either. We're looking at like fifth and

six string guys starting throughout the secondary. Not a cornerback has been able to practice the Eagles. It's not cornerbacks, not one. It is an utter disaster. There wasn't one of those guys the bad guy, and Batman begins to Russuel Douglas exactly. So if there's ever a time to start your Giants in the passing game, this certainly feels like it. We've got it. Obviously a grade on Odell Beckham that I don't even need to expand on beyond that,

But let's talk about Eli Manning. There are some mixed trends here. Um. With all of the injuries, the Eagles have allowed at least two hundred seventy passing yards in every game since Week four. But we've already seen Eli Mann and go belly up in these great opportunities in the past against other bad defenses Atlanta, Washington, San Francisco, and Tampa. He only managed two three yards per game and one point eight touchdowns. So I had Eli as an A until I dug into the stats a little farther.

Now I've got him as a B right now. But that he has, he's potentially colossal upside In this case, He's just a two eight, three and two kind of guy in his best games. Kind of that is sort of his upside, isn't it. You know where you look at that secondary and you think that could be a four hundred yard passing game. But Eli doesn't give us those anymore. Sterling Shepherd could be going up against slot cornerback Cravon le Blanc back that's right, claimed off wave

is a couple of weeks ago. Uh. In fact, he's been on the team I think eleven days. Do they call him the little blanket, the blanket le blanket coverage, blanket comforts. Does he whitewash the opponent? I like it? Uh? Cravon le blanc against Sterley Shepherd feels very very good. Um, I would have made Sterling Shepherd today grade. But he's done nothing for the better part of a month either,

so he was blocked last weekend. It's a blank. Yes, uh, nobody else is laughing, but we're cracking ourselves up if nothing else. Evan Ingram just to see grade. He goes have been great against tight ends all year, allowing only three and a half receptions in thirty five yards per game. Ingram was forced to miss the first game between these two earlier this season, but last year he did average ten targets for sixty six yards in the two games against the Eagles. I've got to see grade on him,

but you could pray done. He hasn't done anything of note. Ellison outsnapped him last week. That's well, but they have two different roles, you know, Ingram's your pass catcher, rets your your blocker. Obviously they don't need a pass catching tight end anymore. Well, they need blockers worse. The offensive line so bad. And then obviously se kwon Barkley's and a a start. Although I'll note your Kwan's got the hardest matchup on the field. The Eagles are only giving up

sixteen rushes per game to opposing backs. But Sa Kwan did just find on thirteen attempts when they met in week five, and he put up two nine yards. So in a grade for Se Kwon. But again, everybody else on the fields got easier matchups than he does, and the game script could go away from him. Let's go to the eagle side. Carson Wentz gets an A grade

for me. I know last week was dismal. It was a terrible game, but Once had went into that game having thrown multiple touchdowns in sixth straight before that game, so I'm gonna assume that was the anomaly. And among those games was a three touchdown effort against the same Giants in week six. I would take another three touchdowns. The Giant secondaries improved slightly since shedding Eli Apple, which was additioned by subtraction, and they picked off Tampa quarterback

four times, Tampa quarterbacks four times last week. Still, this is a very beatiful secondary, and I've got an A grade on Carson Wentz. How about all Sean Jeffrey b grade? Here is he is? He lines up against the Giant's defense that he tore apart in Week six, catching eight

passes for seventy four yards and two touchdowns. Now they're without Eli Apple, who was who Now without without Elie Apple who allowed a hundred and eleven of those yards in the Eagles game last time, So he probably has a little tougher matchup, and he's been a lot quieter lately. Now the most intriguing matchup of this whole game. What do you do about Golden Tate? I'll tell you what you do stardom. He got moved to the slot last week and that promptly led him to lead the team

and targets, receptions and yards. And I know it didn't materialize into a big fantasy game, and lever is putting him on the bench. Get him off the bench. Here he goes up against giant slot corner Grant Haley, who has surrendered a passer rating of one hundred thirty nine in his coverage. Tampa's sl receiver last week, Adam Humphreys against Grant Haley, uh caught three passes, sixty yards and a score on him. So I like Golden Tate in

this matchup. Zach ERT's obvious A We're not gonna even extrap explain well not extrap Lee won't expound on his game. Josh Adams, last guy will mention the running game, the only running back you'd want to start, and I've got a starting grade on him with a C grade. The Giants have given up one hundred or more rushing yards and a touchdown to the opponent's leading running back in each of the last three weeks. And those guys to get the hundred yards and or a touchdown Adrian Peterson,

Matton Brita and Peyton Barber. That is not exactly like Girly Zeke and se Kwan. That was Adrian Matt Brita and Peyton Barber. If those guys are getting it done, I like Adams here. Here's the catch though, Adams hasn't top nine carries in a game yet. Now you can only do so much on nine carries. So the hope is that Adams gets more work, and if he does,

I like the opportunity for a decent game here. Um, if you are of the opinion that Josh Adams is going to vault up to eighteen carries out of nowhere, great, give him a B grade, give him an A grade. But what we've seen have been seven seven and nine carries in the last three weeks for Josh Adams. That keeps him out of sea. Great, all right, we'll take a break when we come back. Take a chance on me. Nine players not normally in your starting line up. Many

of them are available on the waiver wire. Will type tricky Tricky week for Rams and Chiefs owners. By the way, plenty of waiver wire needs out there. We'll tell you who to pick up when we come back. This is Fantasy Football Weekly presented by green Bell Premium on the value if you change all on the first day line, I'm still free. Take a chance on me if you need me. Let me no gonna be If you got no pleace to go, it's take a chance on me.

Nine players that you would not normally start, let's find out who they are, beginning at the quarterback position and Brian Johnson, let's go with san Franz Nick Mullins at the bucks. Uh Tampa has been shredded by every quarterback not named Alex Smith or Nick Foles this season. Mullins probably deserves to be mentioned along the lines of Alex Smith and Nick Boles, but coming off is bye week. I like him in this matchup. Tampa Bay will be

without Lavonte David, their all world middle linebacker. Could also still be without JPP and Vinny Curry from their D line. Just a bad defense. So let mullins eat all right songs making me sleepy and get much sleep last night, because I was up all night thinking about Baker Mayfield and it's an awesome matchup that he's got. I've got. He's thrown from multiple passing touchdowns in four straight games, and he's facing quite possibly the worst path s defense

in the league. That's the Bengals. They're allowing three six passing yards per game and two point one touchdowns per game through the air. They're also allowing a league high six point six QB rushing attempts skewed a little bit by Lamar Jackson last week, just a bit, and it's twenty seven carries, that's true. They've They've allowed thirty quarterback rushing yards per game and three quarterback rushing scores this season.

And Baker can run a little. He had six carries himself last week for twenty yards on the ground against Atlanta, so he might chip in a little extra there too. I'm going Jameis Winston against San Francisco. Let's hope he can just make it through the game without getting benched. So let's start there, and he is averaging three point two interceptions per game. Think about that, he's on pace

for a fifty interception season. If you were to pro rate his his season over sixteen games, it's pretty solid. That's pretty bad. Nevertheless, here comes San Francisco. They're pretty bad to Uh. Winston has plenty of ups side. San Francisco has allowed touchdowns to every quarterback except Derek Carr, multiple touchdowns in six of the past seven games. Jamis Winston simultaneously or take a chance on me. Defense is San Francisco? That's right, you bet you could do both, uh,

Ryan running back. Let's go the Jets Elijah McGuire at home versus New England. Let's just start this off by saying, Isaiah crow l is god awful? Since his uh nineteen yard explosive output in Week five, you crow well, I was totaled hundred and sixty two yards on fifty seven carries in the five games. Since that's terrible, that's awful. What was your starting running back for the Jets Week one?

Next year? Not? Is it? Is it? Crow? Well McGuire or not on roster currently, Bell could be, could be, It's certainly not crow Well, and it's probably not gonna be crow Well on Sunday. It should be Elijah McGuire, who has nine touches in each of his first two games back. I like you have more carries in this game.

But he did see a healthy number of targets in his first few games five and six, which bodes will because opposing running backs are averaging six catches on eight targets against the Patriots, so uh and in the game script will favor passing running backs out of backfields and Elijah not that he's a great pass catcher, but he can catch. All right, let's go to Matt running back. It's come to this that Derrick Henry is now take a chance on me running back. He's only owned, He's

not the feature back. And the Titans have been a terrible team on the road this season, but four of his six rushing attempt totals of ten or more came on the road when they were trying to play ball control. He's also scored in two of his last three road games. The Titans need to control the clock when outside of Nashville. They're in Houston, and the Texans have given up four rushing touchdowns in just the last three weeks to the Miami, Denver,

and Washington backfields. I'm not asking for a town here, I'm just asking for a touchdown out to Derrick Henry Gus Edwards. I'm fully board. Uh. He made the most of his opportunities last week, averaging almost seven yards per carry, scored a touchdown, and relegated Alex Collins of the bench for the entire second half. And what a delicious matchup for Gus Edwards against the Raiders, arguably the worst front

defense in the league. Raiders rank last or second to last in rushing attempts, rushing yards, and rushing yards per carry. Gus Edwards, let's go to the receiver position and Brian Johnson. Ravens fans were calling him Gus the bus to troll Steelers fans. But yeah, I got Adam Humphries. We just talked about him a little bit before. He's at home against the Niners. Uh. With Jamis Winston under center, Humphries

target share is up. That's twice as high as it is when Ryan Fitzpatrick is quarterback, and things go the opposite way for DeShawn Jackson. When Winston is under center, he basically sees no targets. He's got a jury anyway, so Humphries will see more looks than Jackson. And this one in the forty Niners have getting have given up either a hundred yards and door a touchdown to primary slot receivers in eight of San Francisco's ten games. So

I'm leaking Adam Humphries. All right, I hope you're right. I gotta start him in one league where I got a battle league filled with Chiefs, a team filled of Chiefs. Do you remember a quarterback receiver split situation like the Tampa situation where it's been Fitzpatrick has his guys that he goes to and Howard and Jackson and Evans for

touchdowns and Winston goes to break and Humphrees. It's it's bizarre, you know, I don't, but you know it's probably happened, but I don't recall one because so few teams end up swapping quarterbacks in and out like this, but not that I remember. It's just just bizarre. Anyway, My guys don trelle inman. Uh, He's like emerged as the wide receiver too. In Indianapolis Churches favorite team next to the Vikings.

He's had seventeen targets over the last three games, trailing only t Y Hilton on the team during that span. He also ran more routes than any other Cult wide receivers outside of Hilton last week and scored his first touchdown of the year. Hilton will draw Zavian Howard this week, leaving Inman free to roam against the rest of that secondary that's not very good in Miami. So like him in there? All right, good, my h my guy in our final take a chance on me is Willie Sneed

already liked one Raider. Sorry, excuse me. I already liked one Raven in the Raiders game. That was Gus Edwards. Now we're going with the receiver as well, Willie Sneed. It's only a one game sample size, but Willie Sneed got of the targets from Lamar Jackson. That's awfully good sign. We'll see if it carries through a week two. And if it does, what a nice matchup that he's got. Oakland secondaries allowed six wide receiver touchdowns in the last

three games alone and running out of the slot. He'll face Raiders cornerback Nick Nelson, who allowed two scores in his coverage just last week alone. So Willie Snead with a terrific opportunity. All right, there, you go, take a chance on me in the books. Hopefully that helps New England taking on the New York Jets. Brian, it's kind of start everybody for the Patriots and start nobody except at Joe McGuire for the Jets. How it feels pretty much, But uh, I don't know Gronk yet. There's a little

trepidation and starting Gronk, I'm giving him not more. You gotta go right, you got well, gotta be healthy now bye week, you would think, and hopefully he can make his return against his good buddy the Jets. Over his last eight games, he's averaging seven catches for eighty five yards and one whole touchdown New York. His owners need that badly, yes they do, and on paper doesn't look

too good for tight ends. Jets are allowing just over two and a half catches per game to opposing tight ends, but by far the best tight end they faced it's Eric Ebron this season, and he caught four passes for seven one yards and a touchdown. That's probably a safe floor for Gronk if he is anywhere near old Gronk status. But uh, obviously keep your ear to the ground on him.

But over to the other receivers Edelman and Josh Gordon and give them an a. Edelman hasn't scored against the Jets since two thousand and twelve, which is kind of a shocking, but I bet he ends that drought this week. Opposing wide receivers like Za Jones, Robert Foster, Aldrick Robinson, Marcus Johnson, Chester Rogers, Albert Will and all have had big days against New York. I like Edelman and Gordon's chances gets buster screen, the busted screen. That's matchup souh

a's for them, A for Tom Brady. New York has allowed multiple touchdowns and six of the past seven games, and that includes guys like Blake Border's case, Keenum and Matt Barkley. Uh. Some people may say, you know New York will struggle to keep pace with New England. Doesn't matter. Belichick will run up the score on the Jets all day long, one of his favorite pastimes. So that's not about I'm a little worried about James White, though I'm

just gonna give him a c uh. He actually has positive splits with Grunt in the lineup a bit more points but um and even though opposing running backs are adging nearly fourteen yards per catch against the Jets over the last four weeks, the highest clip in the league. Check out these catch totals for opposing backfield starting with the most recent Buffalo one catch, Miami Backs at seven. But then Chicago Backs one catch, Minnesota Backs two catches,

Colts Backs or catches. So and I'm start some teams that can catch to This seems more like a Sonium shell game to me. So he gets the while White gets the sea. Sony had eleven carries in Week ten against a tough Titans run defense coming off a by. He should easily see fifteen plus carries in this game. New York is one of five teams allowing more than twenty eight rush attempts per game over their last three games. Opposing teams are running the ball more than thirty five

times per game against the Jets. So Sony Michelle b borderline a here in a smash spot. I love him, especially in daily when his his Price is a little suppress still, and then over the Jets, crow L sucks bench, Elijah McGuire, take com Quincy and Nune what the one wide receiver you might contemplate starting if you really wanted to opposing White I was at averaging twenty targets, thirteen catches and a hundred and sixty yards per game as a whole against New England and none what probably soaks

up most of those stats. But he's just a dart throat still on the bench for me, Chris Herndon, I'll give him a seed just because most tight ends are worthless and opposing tight ends are averaging five catches for sixty two yards against the Pats second day. Yeah, so he's a he's a sea level grade. And then uh, Sam Donald has been ruled out, So Josh McCown is the starter, probably the better fantasy option, but that just means the accounts of d While Donald would have been

in f he's on the bench. The Jets haveing top ten points since week seven? Are you serious? Oh jeez, I didn't realize it was that bad. That is terrible. When we come back speaking terrible, we'll spend five seconds on the Miami offense. But we'll break down the Indianapolis coltson Andrew Luck. Will Matt tell you to bench every Colt find out when we come back. This is Fantasy Football Weekly presented my green Belt Premium on the Fan.

Welcome back to Fantasy Football Weekly on the Fan. Our Crushed Charch Challenge winner from last week is Mike Fransen. Mike Franson will be joining me and maybe you at Manny Steakhouse for the winner's banquet in January. You can play along by going to Greenbelt dot com play the Crushed Charch Challenge. Put up a roster against my roster for this week. I didn't have any Thursday players, so I didn't I don't ever use Thursday players, So I don't have a Mariy Cooper in. I don't have Dak Prescott.

You don't you know, you don't not already at a big deficit to my squad. So you don't have Sam Arnold in there. Sam Arnold in there? No, I don't know sam Arnold appearances whatsoever. So put together your roster for this weekend's playing your chance at the two thousand dollar grand prize. As always, many thanks to our friends at the Brewery and Dave Wilson at Manny's for all their support for this free to play game again. Grain belt dot Com also of note, I love what when

we've got callers from various destinations. We've got in Ontario and Milwaukee, a Los Angeles on hold, continue to hold. We'll try to work in some calls at the end of the segment if we can be pretty brief with our matchups, including Miami taking on Indianapolis. There's nothing to talk about with the Miami side of this, is there.

Uh Frank Gore in a revenge games. I gave him a C grade because he's had double digit carries in seven straight games and that seven game span, Kenyan Drake has only hit the nine carry mark twice, so Kenyan

Drake's definitely on the bench. Gore doesn't have a rushing touchdown on this season though, and wulous Yeah have only opposing backfields of only top two hundred yards against the Colts twice this season and they're on They've only allowed four rushing touchdowns in ten games, so Gorge like the D grade. Basically it's just the revenge angle. I think uh Ryan Tannehill's back starting he was limited in practice all week, but he was named the Week twelve starter.

In his two games prior to the injury, he threw four one yards and zero touchdowns and and one And the Colts are only allowing an average of two hund thirty five yards per game over the last five weeks. So Tannehill and the receivers are all on the bench. Let's go over to the Colt side Marlon Mack. I gave him a bench grade last week, and he kind of shut me up by scoring a touchdown against Tennessee.

After two straight weeks of over a hundred and twenty yards, Mac is only averaged forty five rushing yards in his two most recent games. This week he will get it going against the Dolphins team that is allowing a hundred and fifty one rushing yards per game when the last month of play. I love Mac and I've got him. I don't know if I can say, I'm you may see you may see him in my charch, my chase

charge lineup at family. Let's just put it that well, well, they should take you on by going dot com slash charge. You can do that. You can play for free. I already talked about Don Trell Inman, he was gonna take a chance on me. Receiver t Y Hilton, I'm given a B grade two. Even though he's going up against the zave Cave. He's getting progressively healthier over the last month. He went from four to five to seven to nine targets over his last four games, which converted into thirty four,

seventy seven and a hundred and fifty five yards. And Xavian Howard has him in the same cornerback of late. Either he's been getting beaten the last few weeks. Yeah, I like I like Hilton here in the spot. What was the grade he gave both Hilton and Mac? I miss Mac Mac. I gave a B. Hilton, I gave a B. Thank you all right? Jack Doyle and Eric Ebron only given CS two. Did you know that Eric Ebron has scored nine times this season? Why? As a

matter of fact, nine times nine times? Yeah, But mysteriously, Eric Ebron wasn't targeted at all last week against Tennessee. That was weird. It was the first game in which Jack Doyle was active in which Ibron didn't score a touchdown. Doyle only had four targets in that affair too, So the Bright side is is that the Dolphins have given up multiple touchdown passes to tight ends twice in their last five games, so there's room for both Doyle and

Ebron to play in many fantasy lineups. Andrew Luck, I'm just giving a C grade too. No, that's not true. It's not true. I'm giving him an thank you, all right, You've come around out Andrew Luck. It's only taken eleven weeks of incredibly elite production. He's thrown for at least three touchdowns in each of the last seven games, and the dollar logest such streak in the history of the NFL, and the Dolphins will allowed multiple passing scores in four

of their last five. And to be fair charge, I gave Luck a B grade last week and have him as to take a chance on me, guy, And I did not say to drop Andrew Luck outright in a five question earlier in the season. That is true. Some of us came around, so there. It took me two weeks to come right. I've just took you. I've been there the whole time. Great on him. Two weeks I did not you did. I am holding these two apart right now. They're about to go. Are you done. Yeah,

thank you. Let's go to Oakland Baltimore. There's only one starter in Oakland and that's Jared Cook and he only has a C grade. He has scored four times, but he's also failed the top thirty one yards in five the last eight games, so you're really you're hoping for a touchdown here. Baltimore has allowed to tight end to score in three of the past four, so we're hoping for the touchdown, that's it. They've also given up at least fifty yards to their opponent's tight end group in

five of the last six. So Jared Cook's the one guy feel good about. Everybody else is on the bench running game. Doug Martin is hurt, DeAndre Washington sucks. Jalen Rochard hasn't scored this season. There's no reason to play any of those guys, especially against an elite level Ravens defense allowing three and a half yards per carry and even less than that over the last month of play, and they're excellent through the air to allowing the fewest

receiving yards two runners. So those of you that have been streaming Jalen Rochard and just you know, hoping to get your five catches for forty yards and be done. You might not even get that. For the passing game, Derek Carr has been shut out in two of his past three games, and over the last five games, he's averaging just one yards. Jordy has hurt, Mark Tavis Bryant has hurt Brandon Lafel just won on i R. It's a disaster. Let's go to the Baltimore side, which is

a lot more fun. I love Lamar Jackson in this game. On on the season, Oakland has allowed the second most passing touchdowns, including multiple touchdowns in every game since Week two, three touchdowns in four of the past five games. So if you looked at last week, you went, well, you know Lamar Jackson, Sure, sure he was my fifth, you know, number five quarterback last week, but where were the touchdowns? Well, here come the touchdowns on top of everything you did

last week. This is an awesome matchup for him. He has literally highest scoring quarterback potential in this game. Jackson only through nineteen passes last week, but I think he completed like fifteen of the nineteen something like that, which was good. And last week Josh Rosen only threw twenty against the Raiders. Still scored three times, so you don't even need I don't know, I don't need suddenly for Lamar Jackson to throw his arm out of socket to

get touchdowns. Josh Rosen just did it on three twenty touches twenty passes, scoring three times. So I love Lamar Jackson a grade. He's my number four ranked quarterback for this week. Gus Edwards was might take a chance on me running back Willie snead was might take a chance on the wide receiver John Brown also started with a

B grade. He's done nothing for three straight weeks. I get that, but this matchup has got slump buster written all over it because he faces a Raider secondary that's allowed six receiver scores in the last three games and on the season has allowed the fourth most scores to the position. John Brown should be started here. I've got Alex Collins on the bench. He's likely the backup, and he also has a foot injury he's got to try

to play through. So combining that, I don't know that he gets enough carries um there could be the two running backs get fed. It could be that both Alex Gus Edwards and Alex Collins do a little something here, but I'd prefer to keep him on the bench. And Michael Crabtree has been a disaster and got no attention from Jackson last week, so we're gonna leave him on the bench as well. Final matchup of this segment is

San Francisco taking on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. My favorite forty Niner, Brian, I'm Matt Brita sitting on a big game potentially here. I thought you're gonna say George Kittle, who was like my favorite thing in the world. Uh, joke before, probably the healthiest he's been since birth. It could be clearly they coming off a bye week, he's in a health wise, he's as close to as he can be. The Bucks have allowed a league seventeen touchdowns to running backs. I said, no Lavante David for Tampa Bay.

Maybe no Jpp Vinny Curry. Brita obvious a in this game. Uh speaking of Bobby is as George Kittle who leads all tight ends end wide receivers in yards after the catch this year? Are you serious? And if you take just the yards after the catch, yeah, he's among tight ends receiving yards. That's a stat from a rich Rebar which uh I definitely enjoyed at Tampa Bay allowing seventy plus yards for game to opposing tight ends and another

great Kittle stat from Graham Barfield. Uh san Fran uses Kittle as a traditional receiver on nearly forty of his routes, mean he's lined up on the outside or the slot. Tampa Bay has been terrorized for a hundred thirty yards per game by enemy slot receivers. And that's pretty much gonna be Kittle. If you haven't watched Kittle play, make a point. D's good fun over to the wide receivers, though, don't love him as much even though you look at Tampa Bay and you're like, oh, what a great matchup

for wide receivers. Over the last three weeks, only a hundred seven yards per game to wide receivers as a whole. Tampa Bay is allowing and uh Goodwin only nine targets from Nick Mullins and his two starts. Uh. That said, Tampa Bay has surrendered at least one wide receiver score in every game this year, and opposing primary receivers have scored in four of the last five, So I'll give Goodwin a see. But there's it does but there's I don't know. He and Mullins really don't have any chemistry yet.

That's my only concern here. So I'm still gonna go with the Sea, but he does have the potential in this matchup. Pierre Garson is out. That makes Pettis a viable dart throw. Almost used him as might take a chance, let me receiver, but I like him on fan ball, very cheap. Check him out. We might talk about him a little later in the show. Nick Mullins might take a chance on the quarterback in this matchup, as we

talked about earlier over the Tampa Bay side. I donna give Mike Evans an a this year with Winston as quarterback, Evans has average more catches and yards than with Stu Beard under center, and San fran has conceded big games of primary receivers recently, Odell Beckham, Larry if Fitzgerald, Brandon Cooks, Davante Adams all have had big games. Again, San Francisco, I got the Shawan Jackson on the bench. He does not fare so well with Winston. Next quarterback Adam Humphreys does.

That's why he is might take a chance on the wide receiver and Cameron Braid. If you're an O. J. Howard owner, we're gonna talk about camera break. If you don't know that he's on, I R. I'm sorry to

ruin your Saturday, but he is. Cameron Braid is the guy and uh opposing tight ends or averaging a modest four catches for forty eight yards against the forty Niners and the Niners haven't surrendered a score to the position in sixth straight, but Braid is still to be as the only tight end in that lineup now and then in Jammeis Winston was going to take a chance of the quarterback charge and Peyton Barber, I think just give him a sea here shocking the only one running back

as top the hundred yards against San Francisco and they haven't allowed a running back to score since Week seven. But it is surprising. Jarn McCoy is one of the biggest impact defensive tackles in the NFL. In games he misses, and he misses a couple every year. Teams just run right through the box and then he comes back. Sorry, you're right, I had that flipped over in my head. But sorry that this is against him. That's right, That's

why ye but Barber home team favorite. You're starting painting Barber, but I'm being uh cautious with the sea here on him all right when we come back. Oh wait, well, I promised to try to work in a couple of calls and if people are nice enough to call from the likes of Ontario where Jordan is, we should talk to them. Hi, Jordan's um high charge. It's it's Jordan, and I'm a question for you, Chris Carson or Shepherd.

I love Sterling Shepherd this week and what might be the easiest matchup of his entire season, and Chris Carson's sharing work with three two other backs, so Sterling Shepherd probably with my highest ranking that he's had all season, I believe I have a met at wide receiver twelve this week overall, especially if it's PPR even more so Shepherd. Yeah, thank you for chiming in. Jordan appreciate it. You're welcome. How old are you? Awesome? Jordan's keep playing, You'll love it.

That's about the age I started. Well, I started a little later than that, but not a lot later. That's perfect. Thanks, Jordan's Yeah. Charles in Los Angeles, Hello, Hello, Hi, good morning. How did you find us. Oh, I've been listening for a couple of years. I think through Sigmund Bloom and the football guys outstanding. Yeah, we love sake. What can we do for you, Charles? I've got a lex question in a half point PPR league, and I'm starting either

Kenyan Drake, Derrick Henry, Marquez Valdez Scantling, or Corey Davis. Well. I happened to have a few of these guys in my matchups, and the only one of those guys that I gave a starting grade two is Derrick Henry. I'm not feeling great about Marquez Velda's scantling now, and especially if Cob comes back and plays, which you might. Yeah, And and Corey Davis is just in a tough spot too, so it's kind of gross. But it's Derrick Henry and

hoping for a touchdown. There might be something better on your waiver wire that you can grab a Dontrell in min type something like that. I like almost all of our take a chance on me receivers better than the guys you're talking about, and runners for that matter. Okay, great, and can I have one more quick one? Well, because it's not lightning round yes, Um, for quarterback, I'm either starting Russell Wilson or Lamar Jackson. You're a Magnet's either

Watson or Jackson, or Watson, Jackson or Wilson. I've gotten this like fourteen times. Do you know where I'm gonna come in on this. I think I made my opinion on Lamar Jackson perfectly and uh, yeah, that four is high. I'll put it this way. I feel like Wilson has the safer floor is still uh, Jackson has the higher ceiling. If you feel like you're an underdog, shoot the moon with Jackson. But if you depends on what the score and from your Thursday games are really does Um, yeah,

Jackson's got the higher ceiling. But it's it's virtually a coin flip. But I'll concede to charge his number four ranking of Lamar Jackson, which has to be higher than Russell Wilson, I would imagine, right, Yes, yes, got it. I'm playing for the point total lead. Okaya on the cheese. You don't even need our help, Charles, go have fun with Lamar Jackson because even if he flops against the Raiders, um,

you know you're still fine. And he does have the crazy upside that will make you jump out of your couch. If he has a great game one on Sunday, which we love, go have fun with him. Yeah, take him out to the Santa Monica pier. Right, go hit skip some rocks. Isn't that Sunday boarding. I don't think I actually want to go in the water. Okay, I don't think. I don't think that's safe. When we come back, three hot questions for a panel of experts, you can play along see if you can go three and oh. This

is Fantasy Football Weekly presented by Devanes on Many. Welcome back to the show Fantasy Football Weekly on the Fan. Our number two, we encourage you to try the brand new auction games at Fanball. Super fun, super fast, multiplayer, hyper competitive. We dole out thirty six players in an auction format in under ten minutes. It's fast, it's frantic, everything that salary cap games aren't. This is if you've

ever tried an online auction. This is even a whole level of bonkers beyond that play for free or play for cash fan ball dot com slash bid. We encourage you to check that out. It is time four Hot question number one for the rest of the year, is Josh Reynolds a wide receiver. One wide receiver to flex or bench Brian Well. Reynolds, essentially filling in for Cooper Cup has been put on I R and when Cup

was healthy this year. Earlier in the season, he was a borderline wide receiver one, which means Reynolds is probably easily a borderline wide receiver to um. I might even gonna look at the rest of the rest of season schedule because of the Chiefs are that I'm sorry, the Rams are that good and their past defense is not

that great, so opposing teams can put up points. There are a lot of mouths to feed in l A. But I am still gonna say wide receiver too, because if for whatever reason, the Rams need to rest players down the stretch, I feel like Reynolds will not be one of those players as he continues to build chemistry with Golf. So I'll go wide receiver to Matt. I got him out of flex because he's not Cooper Cup, and I don't think we should pretend that he's just

like some sort of replacement for him. He does have three touchdowns in the three games the Cup did not play one of those games. He only had one catch for nineteen yards. The next he had three catches for forty two yards and two and there were two short touchdowns, and the last was an impressive six for eight and one and the mother of all shootouts against Kansas City. He's not gonna be playing Kansas City like defense is the rest of the way. This week, he gets a

zero for his bye week. Then he's got Detroit, which is a positive matchup, Chicago is a neutral matchup, Phillies positive matchup, and then Arizona in your Week sixteen championship week, that's a negative matchup for him. So I just had him as a flex. All right. Well, let's first a couple of things. You know, he does not play Cooper Cup's role. They've moved Robert Woods into play the slot and so he's playing outside. He got percent of the

snaps last week. Josh Reynolds did so on the field virtually every play, and last week get targeted eight times in that new role. That was third most on the team. Finished with the eight yards, second most on the team. When I look through the remaining schedule and I estimate where he's going to grade out if I had the rams every week for the rest of the year, Detroit will be a B, Chicago will be a C. Philadelphia might be an A the way their secondary is going.

And then in the Fantasy Championship, Patrick Peterson's gonna be on Brandon Cooks, so he's I think he's gonna be absolutely started. There's gonna be gonna be grade that all averages out to a B grade, which puts him Josh Reynolds at a wide receiver to for the rest of the year question number two. But the rest of the year is Gus Edwards a running back? One running back

to flex or bench? Matt I got him as a running back too, and we've only seen one sample, one game sample size out of Gus Edwards, so I I like what I saw in the first game. But his matchups are amazing and that's why he's in the In the conversation for an RB to the rest of the way, Oakland bottom ten versus running backs this week, Atlanta worst versus the running back, Kansas City second, Where's Tampa Bay fifth,

whereas Chargers eleventh worst. There's no stoppers in there, so if Gus Edwards can hold onto that role, which I think is there is a little bit of an if there, I think he's an RB two. Okay, I don't have much to add other than a different answer. It's an amazing schedule, like Matt said, but I still have to

go Lex. I can't call Gus Edwards an RB two moving forward, even though things are clicking with Lamar Jackson, the more tape that piles up defenses will be able to key in on that sort of pseudo option that they're running. I just can't say Gus Edwards is an RB two. So I'm just saying flex that's can't get yourself. You know, I cannot do it, not on a half of tape. I understand that. Um I watched all his carries for the year, uh a couple of days ago,

and the kid looks pretty good. And I go back to Alex Collins averaging just three and a half yards per carry. He's hit four yards per carries, your general measuring stick on good and bad running backs, right, four yards per carry. He's hit four yards per carry in two games. It's week twelve, for Pete's sake. He's hit it for two hit four yards per carry two times. I think it's gonna be awfully easy to phase him out.

Of this um and I think it's awfully easy for Gus Edwards to cement his starter's role because he's got Oakland Oakland such a bad, terrible run defense. I can just cements it right here and he gets the job the rest of the way. Nine The key is a solid RB two trending towards RB one, but correct answer running back to seven's hot question number three. Now, the full time starter in Tampa will Cameron Brad finishes a top five tight end or six through ten tight end

or lower than ten Bryan. Alright, So, since since the start of last season, Brad has played in eighteen games with Jamis Winston as quarterback and seven without Jamis. In the eighteen games with Winston, Brad is averaging three catches per game for nearly forty yards and half a touchdown per game. Not I popping numbers, right, but they are when you consider in the seven games without Winston, Brad is averaging one and a half catches, thirteen yards and

zero point one four touchdown. Stu Beard hates him, so that that delta is significant, and it's a nice schedule for Bright moving forward this week at San Francisco or San Francisco at home, Caroline at home is a very plus matchup for tight ends. New Orleans sort of neutral. Then at Baltimore seems scary, but as you said earlier, Church, they've allowed a tight end touchdown in three of the last four, and then that Dallas in week sixteen is

a very positive matchup. I'm not going into week seventeen, so I'm gonna go out on a whim and say top five tight end Cameron Bridd. Okay, Wow, Brian kind of mowed my lawn. But I came up with six to ten just because I think that there's five tight ends better than Cameron Braid. So are they, Uh, let's go Kelsey, Urts Okay, Kittle, Kittle, and then probably ebron And I like Vance McDonald. What about Cronk, No, I don't.

I don't like Gronk, but Gronk is probably in the conversation with Cameron and Braid in the sixth to ten area, and so I think Cameron Braid he's the guy. I think the angle you guys missed out on here and good analysis is if you add together Howard and Brad's numbers together and knowing that their only other tight end on roster. A guy named Alan Cross is a full time blocker. He has one catch. All he does is block. So I think it's fair to roll together Howard and

Braid or most of what they do together. If you roll their numbers together. On average this season, they average five receptions, seventy two yards and almost a touchdown per game. So who else is five receptions seventy two yards and almost a touchdown per game? We almost nobody, is the answer. You're getting George Kittle's level of receptions and yards which is crazy high, and Eric Ebrunn and Travis Kelsey's scores

at almost a touchdown. You're getting almost the best of both of all the best tight ends out there rolled into one guy in Cameron Brad assuming they use them like they've used Howard and and Uh and Braid in the past. For that reason, he is a top five tight end. The rest of the way, let's move on through our matchups, and we still have several left to get to, including Seattle taking on Carolina matt This is the Seattle running back situation, frustrating and inexplicable for many people.

Try to make sense of it. For us, well, I think Chris Carson re established himself as the top dog in that offense. He had seventeen carries for eighty three yards in a score last week against Green Bay. That was coming off of the injury. And remember Rashad Penny had the big game two weeks ago, but that's when Carson was inactive. So Penny's a guy who's going to be the change of pace back. He's gonna get eight touches per game. Carson is gonna be a guy getting

fifteen to twenty somewhere in there. And then they're gonna mix in Mike Davis as a receiving back sometimes too. All that equals out Chris Carson getting a C and Penny and Mike Davis on the bench. Because the Panthers have given up a rushing score and three of their last four games, but have only a lot of posing backfields to top a hundred yards once in their last eight. So Carson's just to see. Russell Wilson is a B

grade in this game. Prior to allowing one score to Matthew Stafford last week, the Panthers had allowed eight straight multi touchdown games to opposing quarterbacks, and the Panthers have the fifth highest blitz rate in the league. They're going up against the top rated quarterback in the league against the blitz that's Russell Wilson. So it's favoring Will in

a little bit here. He's thrown for two or three scores nine times this season nine times, nine times, but he's only top three d yards once, so just to beat it makes sense. Yeah, um, Tyler Lockett, I'm giving him be and Doug Baldwin's seish grade if he goes, but it doesn't look probable for him. And I'll mention this groin injuries on wide receivers, no boy, no bad deal. That's a bad combo. When you're a receiver, it's all

about cutting. You can't cut on the groin injury. So I think you gotta show a lot of a lot of caution on Doug ball. I think Baldwin's ending up on most people's benches. The problem is that he looked last week and get it looks so good. I tweeted, finally we've got we've got like the healthy Doug Baldwin back because looking at that game, he looked fantastic. I forget the actual definition, but is it nut cutting time on Baldwin's groin injury. Yeah no, no, is it rusty.

If he's got a rusty groin, then yeah, so I think that's what we've learned, all right. So obviously Baldwin didn't practice all week. They're coming off the long week because they played Thursday last week. This is this isn't looking good. If he doesn't go, Locket takes over as the primary slot wide receiver, where the Panthers have been torched by the likes of Tyler Boyd, Juju, Adam Humphrey,

Sterling Shepherd, and Cole Beasley. Even if Lockett stays on the outside, he's still averaging a touchdown in every seven targets, So I like Locket as a B grade. On the other side, Cam gets an A. Seahawks have allowed three hundred more passing yards and two touchdowns and three of their last four calf He gets an A. In the last six games CMCs thirty one targets, he's trailing Devin Funches for the team lead by one. Speaking of punches,

he's missed that as doubtful. I don't think he's gonna go, right, But you get Tori Smith back right excited? Oh yeah, no, d j Moore is the only wide receiver you need to consider her. He's just to see, why is he just to see if Funchess is out and Tory Smith sucks and they gotta pass to somebody, We're gonna pass the McCaffrey and they're gonna pass the Olsen. I gave him a C grade because I mean, how about he's

been good for a month. He's been good. Only Julio Jones averages more yards per touch than more fifteen point seven. Three different wide receivers have topped eight yards against the Seahawks in the last two weeks, but that was the Rams and the Packers. So I think he's in the seventies yard range in this game. Maybe a coin flip at a touchdown. That's just the Sea grade for me. I like, I like him better than you do. Yeah, yeah, obviously do um Greg Olsen, I'm giving a B grade. Two.

He's caught every target thrown his way in home games this year, they happened to be at home, and in the last two weeks the Seattle defense has given up every target has been caught by tight ends nine of nine against the Rams and Packers. So with Punchius out, I think Olsen becomes a focal point and I like him as a b I gotta believe a lot of he's been Uh, he's been very inconsistent. Olsen has Yes, this might be a good time to get on board. Is he cheap on fanball, Brian? I bet he is.

He's this week so all right, because he's an actual, like real tight end. As an actual real tight end, I'm gonna sneak in one more matchup Arizona taking on

the Chargers. There's only one chart Arizona player with a starting grade, and that's David Johnson, who has been basically back to what we expected once Byron left, which took over, and he faces the Chargers defense, it's just middle of the pack against running backs on the ground and very vulnerable through the air, where they've given up the third most receiving yards and the fourth most receptions per game. David Johnson a grade. Everybody else is on the bench

for Josh Rosen. He's improved enough to be startable and easy matchups, so but this is not one of them. The Charges have allowed the fewest passing touchdowns over the last month he's on the bench. Larry Fitzgerald has a brutal draw against excellent slack cornerback Desmond King, who's allowed just one touchdown in his coverage all season long. So I don't like him either in this game. And the Chargers over the last five games ranked seventh in receiving

yards allowed to wide receivers. So Fitzgerald's out. And if I don't like Fitzgerald, that probably don't like Christian Cark. And he's got even tougher matchup with Casey Hayward. So Casey Hayward's giving up an average of twenty one yards and his coverage Kirk is dead to us too. What about Ricky Seals Jones, you might ask, well, Chargers are a beat of old defense for tight ends, but Ricky Seals Jones is averaging two and a half receptions per game.

You just can't get. You just can't get two good fantasy numbers on two and a half targets per games. So that's it. They're all all the restaur out. Let's go to the Chargers side, where there's a few guys to talk about more better. Um, Melvin Gordon's an obvious a with the one caveat that he's got a He's he has a true game time decision, and he's not, and what could otherwise be the best matchup of his entire year against arguably the worst run defense in the NFL.

So if Gordon does go, absolutely start him. If he doesn't go, Austin Ekeler gets a huge upgrade, all the way up from the bench level that I've got him at right now, all the way up to probably a top ten running back. So I watched this one closely. If Eckler has been opped, and there's a decent chance he has been dropped because he's done nothing for like six weeks, go get him now and watch this thing close. It's there's a real chance it's a it's a later

afternoon game. There's a real chance that Gordon doesn't go and Ekeler gets the start in a awesome matchup. And if you're absolutely desperate, I think his name is Josh Jackson, who would be the backup running back if Gordon was on the bench in what appears to be a blowout on the horizon for he could be viable if you're maybe Ubert desperate, if you have no other there's not many in gigantic leagues. Yeah, let's talk about the passing

game here, Philip Rivers, it's uh. He is the only quarterback in the NFL with multiple touchdowns in every game. It ends here. I'm calling my shot. This is gonna. This is the lowest ranking I have on Philip Rivers all season long. I've got him at quarterback fourteen right now in a B grade. Potentially it comes to an end if if the Chargers hybrid safety slot corner guy Buddha Baker does play. Now, if he doesn't play, then anything goes and then I'm I'm gonna move up. I'm

gonna move Philip Rivers quite a bit up. But Buddha Baker is awesome, and he would take away largely neutralized Keenan Allen in the slot and Tyrolle Williams may not play in this game, and now we're running out of viable targets and so a lot of it really depends on Buddha Baker and if he goes. So, if Buddha Baker is in, then I'm worried about Philip Rivers. And Buddha Baker's out, then I love Rivers and I'm gonna move him up to an A. So and I don't

know yet and we're not gonna know until kickoffs. So that's so if you really care about Philip Rivers, then you really care about Buddha Baker, because that brings us to Keenan Allen, who has been good lately, who has scored or clips the one yard mark in three straight games. But if Baker's plays, I think it's just a B grade on on Alan. If Baker is if if Baker is out, then Keenan Allen goes right to an A grade as he would face ben A ben Wickery. You

may recall that Kristin Peterson wants verbed ben a ben Wicker. Yeah, you don't want to be ben Wicker rise, dude, you never want to be ben Wicker rised. And there is a chance that that was benwick Rice himself. It was Julio. It was like, thank yeah, that's if it. I'd like to see Keenan Allen hit the three hundred. Don't been to benapen Wickery and he could do it twice. Man,

wouldn't that be fun? All right? Last guy I mentioned, Tyroll Williams may not play, and even if he does, he's totally touchdown dependent and he probably draws Patrick Peterson. So he's dead to us two and again that brings me back to Philip Rivers. If we don't love Keenan Allen and Tyroll Williams is injured and he's got Patrick Peterson anyway, I don't know. I don't know where the passes go, so I get a little bit worried. Maybe Mike Williams. But that's that's it. When we come back,

another set of matchups, including Cleveland taking on Cincinnati. Here's two slumping defenses and a lot of opportunities for sleepers. Will tell you what to do with guys like Nick Chubb when we come back. This is Fantasy Green Bell Premium on the Fan. Welcome back Fantasy Football Weekly Week number twelve. Fault Charchie and Brian Johnson, Matt Harrison with you. Thank you for joining us again. If you if you listen to the show on the podcast, please take a

moment to review and rate the show. Let's help others around the country find it. It's it's something of an institution here after twenty four years in the locally in the Twin Cities, but the rest of the country doesn't have an opportunity here except to the podcast or streaming online. And that certainly helps, so we we thank people who do that. What are we gonna do for the silver

anniversary next year? It's a good point. It is silver, right, so should we mince some silver coins to commemorate it. I wasn't going that far though. I like the idea of a foundry at your house, silver bars of some kind. Maybe it's just my hair will be yet more silver. Maybe that'll be to Maybe that's the angle, okay for our SILVERI and we'll have to we do need to come up with something. A quarter of a century of the show. That fantasy foot Camp's gotta be nuts, I hope.

So we gotta do something special. Yeah, we really should. It's cannon or something. Hi ho silver maybe, um, maybe we need to have horses Canterbury. We should get all the white horses with silver. A white horse, I assume. So, I don't know. I never watched the show, but I assume something something cowboy related. The Lone Ranger. I think it was the Lone Ranger. That's that's before my time, before my time too. I'm older than you guys. Let's

go back to the matchups. Uh, Cleveland taking on Cincinnati Brian Nick Chubb has been great and this is a terrific matchup, and I think he's a pretty easy A. I'm more interested in what you have to say about the passing game. And if there's some angles here, let's uh and I'll set it up this way. A. J. Green downgraded too doubtful, so plan to not have him.

But also, Drake Kirkpatrick, starting cornerback for the Bengals, is not expected to play in this game for an already really really bad secondary something called kaiv A Russell could be your starting cornerback. Well, I don't know where you want me to start now, And let's start with a little reality football talk. Cleveland going into this game has lost twenty five straight road games. They lose this game, they will tie the record set by the Detroit Lions

from two thousand and seven. Certain little motivated, but they're gonna win. It's Christmas time now, so let's just start with jolly st Nick Chubb here. And here's the stat that illustrates how Chubb rises to the occasion and stands tall against stuffed boxes. When facing eight or more defenders in the box, Chubb is averaging an insane eight point two yards per Carrie really he's snuffing that against stuff boxes. That's the stat from Graham Barfield. Very appreciative that one.

And uh yeah, chubbing easy a in this matchup Duke Johnson, this can't give him a c here has been pretty hot recently, but m and even though Football Outsiders has since he ranked dead last in defending running backs as receivers, which would suggest this to say could match up. It would, but only four running backs have caught at least five passes against the Bengals, and only one running back has topped sixty receiving yards, and that's when Kenyan Drake had

seven for sixty nine nice yards and a touchdown. But so just to see for Johnson and this one, I like Landry a whole lot more Jarvis that is going to give him an a here despite yardage totals of twenty two, fifty and thirty nine over his last three games with zero touchdowns. Pretty gross, but Cincinnati obviously reeling on defense and slot received slot receivers have had success against the Bengals as of late. Really Snead, Adam Humphreys,

Tyreek Kill, Juju, Mohammed Sanu all big games. So Jarvis Landry in line for one as well. David and Joku gonna give him a BE despite being questionable. He seems more like probable than question here since he allowing roughly fifty yards and half a touchdown to opposing tight ends.

But they've really faced a stars and scrubs list of tight ends thus far, the quote unquote stars or really like the more comparable notework noteworthy tight ends I've done well against since the lebron a tron had four for fifty one to touchdown, Jack Doyle seven for sixty Vance McDonald seven for sixty eight, Kelsey five O. J. Howard scored. So when Joeco startable with a B and Baker Mayfield is Matt's take a chance of a quarterback? I was

gonna give him an A, so I'll give it. I'll give him a C. I guess for that reason, I'm sorry I had to throw under the blank. That was an easy one. Very nice play our call on Mayfield. There over to the sinc side A J. Green news unlikely to play now we'll never No one expects him to play this. No, he's not playing, so he is not playing, which doesn't really bode well for Tyler Boyd.

He's done much better with Green in the lineup. He still has a safe PPR floor, as he's posted double digit points in both the games without Green in the lineup, and the Browns are top six and targets, red zone targets and red zone touches yielded to opposing wide receivers. So Boyd still gets to be here, and with no A J. Green, that bumps up John Ross into starting territory.

I feel like the soft sea Uh was targeted seven times and caught a touchdown against Baltimore last week, a much tougher matchup than the Browns, So I'll give Ross a C. But C J Uzoma the US has really fallen off. I'm gonna put him on the bench here. Uh. A J's absence has not done him any favors either, and there are at least fifteen other tight ends. I'd start over Ouzy this week and Andy Dalton gonna give him a c. Uh. He's struggled without A J. Green

as well. Has combined for just three and sixty four yards and three touchdowns in the two games without Green. He was posting those numbers in one game with A J. So just to see for him, but in a for mixing U Joe Mixon coming off back to back brutal matchups against the Saints and Ravens. Quite the different story with Cleveland, who has allowed fifty one runs of ten or more yards, the most in the league, and they've

allowed twelve rushing touchdowns alone to running back. So mixing gets an A yeah, I like, I do like mixing here. I've your offensive line is playing a little better and they've been banged up some, but nevertheless it feels like a good play. But the whole offense is not the same without a J Green for sure. How about this? Hugh Jackson is going to be on the other side of the field as Cleveland ends the futility streak that he was personally responsible for. Isn't that just delicious? Cleveland?

Everyone's pulling for Cleveland. Everybody's pulled I am, even Bengals fans probably if probably, are there any of those Bengals still in the playoff hunt? They're always in the hunt. They're always in the hunt. Well, last year, they weren't. Last they weren't even in it. They weren't even in the hunt. Tennessee takes on Houston, Matt This is uh, this is a matchup between a swamping Tennessee offense and a surge in Houston defense. And I don't like many

players from the Tennessee side. Yeah, I don't either. I get I give a tepid Derrick Henry C grade uh for him he might take a chance on me runner, And then I gave Dion Lewis a C grade as well. After back to back twenty touch games, Lewis only tally eleven touches for thirty two combined yards last week against Indie and mentioned that the touchdowns the Texans have given up in the Henry take a chance on me segment. They've also allowed five running back receiving touchdowns on the year.

That's the second most in the NFL. So the angle and the only reason I think there's what do you give him a SE grade? Yeah? See grade on Lewis, Marcus Mariota and Blaine Gabbert. Whichever one ends up starting, it sounds like it's gonna be Mariota, but they're both on the bench. He exited last week's game with what's what was described as a next stinger. Either way, it's a bad matchup. The Texans are allowing the sixth fewest passing yards per game this season and have not allowed

a rushing touchdown to a quarterback all year. UH. That means Corey Davis and the rest of the receivers around the bench. The Texans haven't allowed a wide receiver score in four games, and the last time they played each other, Davis had a meager five catches for fifty five yards. If you need a dart throw on some sort of

Tennessee receiver, it's John wu Smith the tight end. Uh. He's been teetering on top ten tight end points in the last month, and the Texans have allowed eighteen receptions yards and two touchdowns to opposing tight ends in just the last two weeks. So if anything, and you need a guy desperately because this is the Monday night game and somebody came up lame, he's flexible. I guess I have to start him in my league with Kelsey. Yeah.

Over on the other side, DeAndre Hopkins is an obvious A, Demarius Thomas is an obvious bench and Kiki Cutie is a C grade. In his return last week, he had thirty seven and a half percent of the team's targets. In his fourth games, he scored or topped seventy five yards in three of them, and over the last month, Tennessee is allowing two receiving yards per game to wide receivers and almost two touchdowns per game. So there's plenty to go around between Hopkins and Cutie, and Cutie's large

is largely unowned, right I mean it? Not? Well, that's that's a stretch went up, down, up and down because he's been injured a few times. So, uh, Deshaun Watson, I'm giving only a C grade too. He's yeah, he's a high upside play here, as evidenced by his five touchdown first in Week eight against Miami. Look at this. Outside of that game, he's thrown for one or two touchdowns in every game. Like you said, oh I heard DeAndre Hopkins Watts, Sorry, never mind, I should never be

able to get those two straight. Okay, alright, se grade on you. If I could do a wah backwards, that would be it. So Watson one or two touchdowns in every game hasn't top two or thirty nine passing yards in his last five outings. In those last five games, he's only topped fourteen rushing yards once, and he's only got one rushing touchdown on the season, so he's only a C grade. I'll jump in on Watson. The problem for Watson is volume. He hasn't topped twenty five passes

in five straight games, and you just you can't. They're just not throwing. No, I mean nobody, not even Andrew Luck. They're not throwing and he's not running, so he's he's not getting points. You just hit soon your quarterback. To get it can distant high level of fantasy production. You have to throw more than twenty five times, and he never does. They never led him. Last guy i'll mention is Lamar Miller. He's on the bench. Only one team has topped a hundred yards against the Titans in their

last five, and that was Indianapolis last week. In that game, Marlon Mack did score, but it took him sixteen carries to get a poultry sixty one yards. In their first meeting, Miller was held to sixty eight scoreless yards. He's only scored on the ground twice this year, and it's a tough matchup. He's on your bench. This is Fantasy Football Weekly presented by Dean Man. Welcome Back. Final segment of Fantasy Football Weekly on the Fan Um, I saw sauce

in her earlier is it pregame show Gophers? Now that's too early? What what are we doing? What's what's after this? We got Gophers pregames starting at alright, fantastic. Uh, well you will want to stay tune for that finals final premature speculation of the year. Yes, Brian, if they beat us, Uh, they're gonna keep the ax, but they're gonna take our oars to Yes, they they can have the ars um. That ax is really big. It could double as an

order um final premature speculation for two reasons. One, it starts being being increasingly meaningless as the season goes on, but also because beginning next year when any teams on by frankly, we just need the time to get to all the matchups and get all the matchups in so final premature speculation, Brian, go alright, whether you're a Todd Gurley owner or not, let's go out and grab Malcolm Brown, the backup running back in l A averaging five yards

per carry on forty one carries this here. Uh. And if you hadn't notice until yesterday, I hadn't. Gurley has top six team carries just once in his last five games. Yeah, they're trying. They're trying to save him for the playoffs a little bit. And here's the scenario that's scary. They have the same record with the Saints, who owned the ty tiebreaker because they beat the Rams. The Rams are at Detroit next week, probably win, but then on the road again at Chicago that which is a tough one.

Next two games for Saints not too tough. So if if point being, if the Rams lose that Chicago game and the Saints when they're next to they're shutting it down because they will essentially clinch the not getting the number one So then you're looking at backups going into week fifteen. I don't think they can clinch that early though. I think their clinches like maybe sixteen for the championship game pretty much. If the garantee they're not gonna get

the number one seed if they lose. If the Bears beat the Rams, then the Bears hold the tiebreaker and the Rams would only be one game up. Is probably good. Matt Mind's a lot quicker. It's time Montgomery Packer fans may remember him. He's now a Baltimore Raven reason. Gus Edwards has one career catch Wow. Next week time Montgomery gets the Falcons, the epically bad past receiving running against running backs defense the Atlanta Falcons. The week after at

he gets the Chiefs and they're almost as bad. They've allowed the second most receptions to running backs, the most yards, and the most touchdowns to opposing runners through the air. So I'm not really worried about Javorious buck Allen, who shaved charges Amster long ago. He did time Montgomery might come in and be the receiving back here and let's

give a shot. All right, Um, I am going with Dante Pettis the wide receiver, and this is more for Dynasty and Empire leagues really, so let me let me clarify for the rest of the season, I don't really care about Dante Pettis. I'm talking to you guys that are in Dynasty and Empire leagues. A two things. Number One, Cal Shanahan is totally legit as an offensive coach, and that nine Ers offense is going to continue to only get better. Jimmy Garoppolo coming back, they're gonna be They're

gonna watch their hands of pre Garson. You're gonna watch the starting wide receiver for the forty Niners and that at Week one next year it's gonna be Goodwin and Dante Pettis just to pile on a little bit. They moved up to get at him in the second round of the draft. They wanted Pettis, and he had a great first game with Garoppolo and he got injured in the second game on like a thirty yard catch. So it was off to a great start and he's just

come back. I love it. So I know all your Dynasty and Empire leaguers, some of you are out of it and you can afford to, you know, just start thinking. You're already thinking about next year, regardless if you're in or out of it. Dante Pettis is one of my favorite stashes for nineteen. Go get him now. You could start him against Tampa Bay this week. I thought he was almost might take a chance of me receive this, So yeah, go get him. Um final matchup is Vikings

versus Packers on Sunday night. Flipping pages to get to that one, we begin with Aaron Rodgers. The Vikings secondary's been terrific for five straight games, giving up get this one ninety four yards and zero point six touchdowns. Per game one six and zero point six. Wow. In the first meeting this season between the teams, Rogers was held

to just two eighteen yards in one score. Now, in fairness, he was playing that game on half a knee, but still, but you need to Any time you can keep Aaron Rodgers full game plus overtime eighteen yards in one score, you've done something right. And going back, Rogers has thrown zero or one touchdowns and four out of the last five against Minnesota, and either Jimmy Graham won't play or he's gonna try to play with some kind of contraption around his thumb to try to protect it, so he's

short of receiver there too. So oh no. The best I can muster for Aaron Rodgers is a B grade, and that's mostly just because he's the best quarterback in the NFL. I could if here anybody else's name on this, he would probably be a C grade. Let's go to his receivers. Davante Adams gets another it's another just respect grade. He gets an A grade here, but he gets Xavier Rhodes for most of this game, and Xavier has been great lately. He's limited receivers to thirty seven or fewer

yards in his coverage in four straight games. UM. That said, he has given up a season high nine catches for seventy five yards against the Packers. Are the Packers UH. Davante Adams had a season high nine catches seventy five yards against the Vikings in in in UH in week number two, and he's been basically beating the opposing team's best coverage all season long. So Davante Adams remains in a all the rest of the receivers are on the bench.

Marcus Velda Scandling may or may not play in the slot again, but then the Randall Cobb is up to questionable and he might split time. And then Marcus Vandis Scandling wasn't getting any activity anyway since he moved to the slot, so he's dead to us and y Marques Valdez Scantling vs mvs UM. Let's talk about the running back situation. I love Aaron Jones and he's been great, but the Vikings very tough to run upon as well. They've given up two rushing touchdowns all year. That's it

right now, That's number one in the NFL. It had been had been the Bears, where they gave up a couple of them to get on yes two days ago um and the Vikings are giving up just three point six yards per carry, so now he does have an angle through the air. The Vikings um aren't as good.

They're his targets. Receptions and receiving yards have increased in each of the past four weeks for Aaron Jones, culminating in sixty three yards and score last week the Vikings ranked twenty four and running back receptions and and they do get Anthony Barr back though, and that should help. I think he'll pick up Aaron Jones out of the backfield a lot. But that's why he gets a B grade is because of what he could do through the air, more so than what he would do on the ground.

Let's go to the Viking side. Kirk Cousins gets a B grade in this game. Let me let's note that the Green Bay secondary has just taken a beating with injuries Kevin King, Kentro, Bryce, Raven Green, but Shot Brelan all or some of them will miss game this game. And I don't know yet all of them yet except I think Raven Green has been ruled out. I think the rest are all shaping up his game time decisions.

It's um it could be a very good opportunity for a bounce back game for Cousins against a bunch of second stringers. UM Since Week four, though cousins average game is just two undred sixty yards and one and a half touchdowns and obviously coming out of a bad game in Chicago, still a B grade for Cousins. A grade for Stefen Diggs after a career high eighteen targets last week, He's now just one of four NFL receivers to get double digit targets and at least seven different games, and

that kind of volume generally makes Diggs very safe. They'll see a lot of the Packers rookie JR. Alexander, who is their best cornerback, but it's still a plus matchup for Stefon Diggs against the rookie Adam Theeland also in a grade. Three of Theland's last four games against Green Bay have been very good with at least nineties seven yards, including his massive Week two game where he had twelve catches hundred thirty one yards in a score. And now

with JR. Alexander moving to the outside, that puts Bishot Breland and if he can even play into the nickel spot, assuming that Breland can go, and even if Briland does go, he's a subpart starter. So Theeland's got a fantastic matchup and I could easily see him bouncing back to the production that we saw through September and October. Staying with the passing game, I've got Kyle Rudolph on the bench

who has disappeared from the Vikings offense. He did to have his best game at the year against the Packers in Week two, but since then just averaging three catches thirty three yards. We'd like to see a little more from Kyle Rudolph. I'm assuming they're asking him to block more to make up for some deficiencies across the offensive line.

And lastly, let's mention Dalvin Cook. Only the Giants and Bengals have fewer rushing attempts than the Vikings do, and I can understand why Dalvin Cook hasn't been able to get it going. And if you take away a seventy yard run against the Lions, which isn't really fair, but if you do take it away, he's only averaging two point four yards per carry um. This still is a good opportunity, however, because the Packers are giving up four and a half yards per carry and they're now without

their run stuffing defensive tackle. Mike Daniel is one of the best in the business, and he is not He is not expected to play. In fact, I think they've officially ruled him out. Seattle just ran for one hundred fifty one yards against Green Bay without Mike Daniels, so I think this is a nice opportunity for a bounce back game for Dalvin. For Dalvin Cook, you could even try Lottavius Murray. You know the bit here. He's an up the middle runner. That's where Mike Daniels would have

been plausible. Dart throw for a rushing touchdown and a C grade for Lotavius Murray. It is time for lightning round. All your questions answered. They must be in the form of one question between two players. Thank you for your patients. Everybody has been holding for a very long time, including Mike. Hello, Mike, pr say it again, Mike, it was Connor and Michelle. I'm doing Michelle in this game. I don't like the matchup for Connor and Michelle is gonna get twenty carries

in this game. Okay, Steve, Hello Steve, you've been holding for two Okay, there we go, Ah Brown Brown, I guess the Raiders. Yeah, Mike, Mike will Ms might be Yeah, it's Brown's Brown. If Tyroll Williams doesn't go, I could see maybe going Mike Williams, but he didn't mention the Michael Crabtree revenge game. By the way, that's true and probably doesn't bear mentioning. Alex You're next? Yeah, I need to go Chris Carson or Gus Edward. That point Gus

Edward's baby. I love Gus in a fantastic matchup. Uh, Mike, you are next? Hi? Hi? So do I keeps or do I start Sterling Shepherd? We're best at two around here. Luck he had a cute kid. Sterling Shepherd is the answer. Sterling Shepherd. Adam, Hello, Hi guys, Nick Bullens or Andy Dalton? Yea, Andy Dalton. Still I don't feel great about it? Yeah, Ben you are next? All right, guys, I got cut

down heavy. I'm dealing with the Melvin Gordon situation. Contree games. Okay, do I drop um my guy and go for I guess Duke Johnson when I have Rubb already or Jones. I'm not totally sure what you're asking, but you can't do you think he has Chubb already? Shepherd is your question, Ben, It's it's gotta be Shepherd this week. Shepherd. Awesome matchup, barely gotta see Okay, thank you, Ben, Chad, You're next born in the standard scoring Tony Mitchelle or Aaron Jones.

Thank God. I like Michelle this week. I like him a lot. I like Jones as well, but Michelle is my guy. Hi, Sue Hi, Um, Kirk Cousins or Carson Wentz. All right, I'm gonna go Kirk Cousins. I think that's the only way the Vikings can really generate points in this game, as Cousins throwing three to four touchdowns. Rocko, you are next, Hey, guys, I rick it with Doug Baldwin. We're trying to pick up J. Moore. It was Baldwin or d J. Moore. Let's go d J. Moore. I

like that. I like the matchup anyway, and I just I just don't think Baldwin's gonna go. And I don't like starting a wide receiver of the groin injury anyway, because those guys get knocked out of games and reinjured themselves all the time. I think he mentioned that he might be dropping Doug Baldwin to make this move for d J. Moore. Still I still might do that. Yeah, I think it's sabotage. Drop time on Doug Baldwin, could be Bob Your next, Hi, guys, both point PPR Flood,

Corey Davis or Jack Doyle. I had both of these guys and my my matchups, and I gave Jack Doyle a starting grade and Corey Davis a bench grade. So there we go. There we have it. Dan, you're next on the fan. Dan, Hello, all right, we're moving on. Chuck, you're on the fan. Hey, standard scoring. Keenan Allen or Eric Key Uh. Keenan Allen, particularly if Buddha Baker does does not go. But even if Buda Baker goes, I

think I'd still go. Keena. Now you're gonna have to make the decision before that anyway, YEA, Yeah, you're right. Keenan all Mark, you're next. Hey, guys, great, say it again for NET or for NET. I don't like the Connor Connor's matchup this week. It's tough in Denver for NETS. We guy all right, uh, Tom, you are next. Um, should I drop Peyton Barber and pick up Malcolm Brown and take him from the Todd Gurley owner. Yes, okay, all right, I like that. Sneaky underhanded, but this is

the strategy. This is the strategy you need. Right, he's the kinds of Uh, it's not underhanded. It's just good strategy, that's all. It is. Revival of the fittest. Absolutely um. If you haven't a chance to check out fan Ball's auctions, please do fanball dot com us bid play for free. See if you love it. It is so much fun and unlike anything you've ever done in fantasy football. Highly

recommend that you give those a try. Also, if you haven't checked out the podcast or rank to review the podcast, you can do that at iTunes, also available cafe and dot com and on the i part Radio app where we have our own channel, Fantasy Football Weekly Go for pregame show coming up next. Thanks everybody, talk to you in a week. Bye bye. This afternoon at two thirty, the Minnesotta Gophers take on the Wisconsin Badgers on FM

on three. The Fan that the Greater Twin Cities Hunted Dealers are proud supporters of Gopher Athletics on i Heart Radio