Hello, everybody, Welcome into the Fantasy pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan Warmley, joined today by not Derek Brown, by only Pat Fitzmorris. Debro is off doing general Christmas and holiday related festivities with friends and family and whoever he's celebrating.
With, so we are holding down the fort without him.
Happy Holidays to Debro into everybody who's watching and listening. It'll be just a two man show with Fits and myself.
Fitz.
I do love doing two man shows with you, so I'm looking forward to talking about some key questions today.
Likewise for him, and I believe Debro is with the in laws right now, so I'm glad he is biting that bullet for us. You know, here we get to have a nice conversation and not see our in laws, or.
We get to talk some fantasy football. This is our Friday show. Were running through key questions. We usually do kind of a top ten key questions of the week. We're just going to do every game this week because a couple of games have already played. Obviously, with you know the games taking place on Christmas, we are recording this on Thursday, so Thursday Night Football hasn't taken place yet, but by the time everybody's listening it will have taken place.
So we figured there's not as many games, let us get through them all. And plus it's a fantasy championship game. We don't want to leave any matchups undiscussed in the most important week of the entire fantasy calendar, the week where everybody can win some titles. So as a quick reminder, as always, all of our weekly consensus rankings and tiers can be found at fantasypros dot com slash rankings and fits.
Before we jump in, we often will.
Kind of talk about when we tape on Friday mornings, what did we see on Thursday night and any fantasy takeaways. There's obviously not as much you can talk about in terms of immediate fantasy takeaways, but if you have a fantasy takeaway, if you have a football takeaway, what was your reaction to watching the couple of games on Christmas And did you like having Wednesday games?
No, I didn't like having the games.
It would prefer to be with family that and there are days when NFL Sunday.
Happens to fall on Christmas or whatever.
They Christmas on a Saturday and they wanted to do a couple of games that day, but I know about forcing the issue the way they did, And I basically watched like five plays of Ravens Texans, and luckily it wasn't much of a game anyway. Neither game really competitive, So maybe that was a blessing for anyone who actually wanted to pay attention to their family on Christmas Day. So didn't love it, and I know they weren't great games, Like I don't know, I have concerns for the Steelers'
ability to go very far in the playoffs. I just think they're too limited on offense. You know, they've won one decent pass catcher in the offense, Like that's a problem once you get in the playoffs and start facing teams with more firepower every week, and you know, like the Texans, I don't think anyone expects them to go in a Super Bowl run this year. They were sort of ahead of ETA and twenty twenty three and now they've stall out a little bit.
And I'm not so much worried about CJ. Stroud.
I just think they need to fix the offensive line and obviously they've had major injury problems at the wide receiver position this year. So I think I don't think it's gonna be that hard to get the offense back on track, but they need to rebuild this offensive line because it has been just terrible this season.
This was the second year in a row that the Ravens played on Christmas, which obviously like I'm not going to miss the Ravens game as a fan. Last year was at night, which worked out well because my family is a bunch of you know that they like to go to bed early, so I was kind of able to step away by the time we got to the night and you kind of just watch on my own. This year a little tougher, but thankfully.
It wasn't in the morning.
You know, for me, that would have been really tricky when that's kind of like the height of our Christmas festivities is that late morning early afternoon, So I didn't watch a ton of Chief Steelers. And we had it on and we're like somewhat paying attention, but there's little kids running around and you know, we're eating and playing games, so it's more of a background experience and then trying
to focus more on the Ravens. I don't mind having the game to watch on Christmas, especially like I think like a night game, an annual night game would be fun, but I agree, like if it's on a Wednesday, you should just skip that year. Like I know that they're trying to make it a thing. I know Netflix played a lot of money. I know they did this whole Saturday Wednesday round robin and it worked out well for the Ravens that they won both of those games, and
worked out well for the Chiefs too. But I just think the quick turnaround late in the season, Like I would prefer if Christmas falls on a Thursday, do a triple header Thursday through Sunday.
I'm all in.
Even a Monday, you can, you know, make it a Monday night week doubleheader. But Tuesday or Wednesday, Like, to me, going forward, I don't. I think that should kind of be should kind of be left alone. And I especially feel bad again the Ravens two years in a row playing on Christmas. I feel bad for not just the players and coaches who have families that you know, two years in a row, but for the you know, the beat reporters who have to travel to this game and
don't get to spend their time with the family. I thought that was really kind of uncool the NFL to do it to the same team two years in a row, but obviously I was very happy with the win in dominant uh you know fashion. We were actually talking a little bit after we taped to the Thursday show this week about the MVP conversation, and you know, Lamar kind of re cementing himself in that conversation. I've been kind of complaining this whole time about the wide gap in
the odds. I thought it was insane that Josh Allen was like minus nine hundred minus not a thousand, when Lamar had clearly better stats.
We've said kind of a bit on the shows.
Before, like I don't have a problem with anybody who wants to vote for Josh Allen. He's having an unbelievable year. The problem was not somebody who favored him. The problem to somebody saying it's not close, or the odds reflecting that it wasn't close. Lamar, you know, gets another standalone
game where he looks awesome. The stats weren't even that amazing, just because he didn't need to do much because the Texans were terrible, but just another game of I mean, the you know, a nearly fifty yard touchdown run and toying with open you know, defenders in the open field, and just Lamar doing Lamar stuff, and the odds are now reflective of where I think they should be. I actually think Lamar maybe should be favored a little bit, but at least it's now much closer than it was.
I agree, And it is really hard to separate those two in terms of it, Like, even if you want to use the criteria, which player is more essential to his team's success.
I don't know if you can separate them.
I think both guys, both teams will be picking in the top five without these quarterbacks probably probably, Yeah, So we'll see. We'll see how that continues to play out. We're gonna talk about Josh Allen's matchup later on. Let's start with a Sunday slate, though, excuse me the Saturday slate, because we've got a triple header on Saturday. We're gonna start with Chargers Patriots. That's the first game kicking off
on Saturday. If it's assuming he plays, which you know, as of right now we are taping this again kind of early Thursday, so still up in the air. But if he plays, are we going right back to JK Dobbins starting him in fantasy.
Oh man, I'm not sure about that. Worm Like, I don't know what the return of JK. Dobbins is gonna look like, whether it happens at all this week or if it does, whether it's you know, a two man show with JK. Dobbins and Gus Edwards, a three man with Kamani Videll thrown in there, or if it's just mostly JK.
Dobb Evans.
I've will probably have him ranked as a mid range to low end running back three if he does play, so I won't feel wildly.
Confident about him.
But like I know Ericson when we talked about this on our Start sit show, he seemed pretty confident that they were going to go right back to JK. Dobbins as the lead guy. I'm not quite as confident as he is. But that's in the range of possibilities.
Where do you expect to see ecr land on him? Not where are you ranking him, but where do you think you're going to see Dobbins ranked? If we get word that he's playing.
Like RB twenty eight somewhere around there.
I think I'll probably be like a little bit lower and a little bit more cautious with my ranking of him than ECR, but probably yeah, RB twenty eight, give or take a few spots.
I want to ask the second question on this game just because you and I do you know, host the mean the Dynasty Show in the off season, and we're bringing that back, you and me and Bogman of course in January, and I wanted to kind of ask because we talked a lot about Drake May after he was drafted, and in kind of those May conversations May the month, not May the player, but in those May conversations during rookie draft season, it was a lot of talk about
we really liked him as a prospect, the landing spot looked tricky, kind of a similar conversation to what we had talked about with CJ.
Stroud a year earlier. Really liked the player, but the landing spot was bad.
I was kind of on the side of I'm just going to go for the talent, and a quarterback can make a situation look good all by himself. And I was still ranking Drake May fairly aggressively, I think, relative to consensus amongst the rookies. If we were doing a twenty twenty five, or I guess would be twenty twenty four. At this point, Dynasty Rookie Redraft, where would you be taking Drake.
May QB six are sixth overall? I guess I should say super flex because my first six would be all quarterbacks. It would be Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson, Jaden Daniels, Joe Burrow,
Jalen Hurt, and Drake May. And I think you could even debate Drake May versus Jalen Hurts, like I'm not sure how sustainable the business model is for Hurts with the tush push and so much of his production coming through the air, like May is in that sweet spot where it's mostly about Drake May as a passer, but he adds rushing value like he distinctly adds rushing value in fantasy, and what he has been able to do in like the steady weekly floor that he gives you
despite having quite possibly the worst groups of the worst group of wide receivers in the league. In fact, I don't even know it's if it's debatable. I think it's the worst. Not a great offensive line, I mean he's got it. Seems like half his passing yardage goes to his tight ends Hunter Henry and Amara Austin Hooper every week. Like what he has been able to do and how comfortable he has looked right off the bat bodes really well for him. I think he's going to be a star.
I mean, maybe he approaches Josh Allen Lamar Jackson territory worm. I don't think that's out of the question. And you know, like at worst, I think he's maybe like a little below Joe Burrow as a passer who adds more rushing value than Joe Burrow does.
What about amongst just the rookies, I mean, for me, like, I think he'd be easily the top pick besides Jane Daniels, who will be number one. But I think of everybody else, I would rather have him in a rookie Dynasty draft over any of those guys from twenty twenty four.
Yeah, I agree, Like I think he's past Caleb Williams, even though I don't think Caleb has been like a flop by any mean, I.
Still like Caleb.
I don't want to to come across like I think I'm out on Caleb entirely, Like I just I'm just really that impressed with May.
Yeah, you know, Caleb has been fine and bo Nix has certainly outkicked expectations. But I would rather have Drake Man my Dynasty roster than either of those guys.
Let's look at the next Saturday game here, Bronco's Bengals. Speaking Bonnicks, I want to ask, actually about the running backs. Are you willing to trust any Denver running back in your Fantasy Championship against what is a welcoming Bengals run defense.
Probably not, now that it looks like Julia McLoughlin is going to be back this week. I had Javonte Williams ranked RB twenty seven with the expectation that Jalil would miss another week. Now that Jalila is coming back, I think Javante is probably going to be outside my top thirty. You know, he did have eleven targets and seven catches last week, and you know he played a very high percentage of the Broncos offensive snaps. But he only had
four carries in that game. And we just have seen such an unpredictable division of labor worm and I should just do a mea calpey here since this is kind of an end of the year show. One of my biggest mistakes during draft season was over investing in the
Broncos running backs. I took Javonte Williams or Julia McLoughlin, one of those guys on pretty much every team I drafted, and you know, part of it was thinking that the Denver running backs always well Sean Sean Payton running backs are always so productive as pass catchers, and even that really.
Hasn't worked out.
There have been moments of pass catching productivity for Javonte Williams, like last week, Angelia McLoughlin throughout the season, but like, no guy has given you a steady four or five receptions a week.
It's just been a mess.
And you know, I definitely did not benefit from being heavily invested in Denver running backs this year.
Yeah, Deebro obviously not on this episode, but I'm sure he would like a mea culpa on Julia McLoughlin, particularly who I think he had ranked. I want to say RB twenty four during draft season. That's how kind of high he was on Jelil and has not paid out. My answer to this question is no, I'm just not willing to trust any of them. I am forced to in one league where it's a dynasty league.
I did make the title well.
I have intentionally built to not have strong running backs and am competing earlier than I expected. So Javonte Williams is the running back I have to run out there, But if I have any other option.
I'm not.
I'm not starting a Broncos running back even against this since he run defense. How about Cardinals rams, where are you ranking whoever the Cardinals starting running back is this week, assuming it's not James Connor. And again, we are taping a couple of days early, so by the time we get.
To Saturday, maybe it will be Connor playing.
He's trending get a better direction than I think I anticipated earlier in the week. But if he is playing, obviously there's no question at all. If he's not playing, if it's Trey Benson or Michael Carter, even, where are you ranking the starting Cardinals running back not names James Connor?
So right now I'm ranking Benson RB twenty nine with the assumption that Connor is not going to play. I do think we'll probably get some of Michael Carter, maybe the primary passing down back for Arizona this week.
They're out of the running for a playoff spot.
And what really concerns me werem with the Cardinals offense is that they just put both of their starting offensive tackles on injured reserve Paris Johnson and Jonah Williams. So how functional is this offense going to be? Even in, you know, not a terrible matchup against the Rams. I'm just not that interested in starting any of the Arizona running backs this week if James Connor is not an option.
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All right, fits, let's now get to the Sunday slate.
We'll start off with the Jets Bills game down game from the Bills passing attack in week sixteen. Obviously, we aren't worried about a bounce back really from Josh Allen, considering how much he's carried fantasy managers most of the season, especially lately prior to Week sixteen.
But what about the other guys?
Khalil Shakir, Can you start any Bills in this game besides Allen and of course James Cook.
Yeah, I mean, probably only Shakir, But even he is not a real comfortable start. I've got him ranked it's a low end wide receiver three. I think I've got him ranked wide receiver thirty five. He's had fewer than forty receiving yards in three of his last four games, and the problem is that the Bills have become kind of a fantasy nightmare. Other than Josh Allen. They rotate three running backs, they rotate four receivers, and they use
two tight ends. And like the running back where rotation has worked out just fine for James Cook, He's going to get his But like, it's not just a three receiver configuration for them. With Keon Coleman back from injury, now they are using all of Shakir, Amari Cooper, Keon Coleman, and Mac Collins and they're all playing about the same number of snaps and running about the same number of routes.
So yeah, I mean, I have Shakir wide receiver thirty five in my next highest ranked Buffalo receiver Amari Cooper down at wide receiver forty nine. It's just really hard to trust any single pass catcher in this offense.
Do you feel like they're using Shakir differently?
And I asked that as a way to frame Early on in the season, a lot of people were talking about the fact that he was catching every target. If you look at his game log of Fantasy Risk targets three receptions, three targets, five receptions, five target, six receptions six and then there was a couple of games where you know it was off by Wine, but he was catching every target butt one or still every target for several weeks.
Lately that hasn't been the case.
It's been nine targets, six receptions, it's been twelve targets, eight receptions. It's been seven targets, four receptions.
Eight and five.
It started to not be a lot of just catching literally everything for the last several weeks. Is there anything to that or is that just kind of a fluke, small sample size.
No, that's a that's a good question, and I have to dig into that whether the average depth of target has increased for Khalil Shakir, if that's it. Maybe it did when they didn't have Kean Coleman, who was sort of that established vertical threat, and maybe now Shakir goes back to being more of a strict possession receiver. So it's possible that's kind of how it came into play, not having Keon Coleman as that field stretcher, that they were maybe having Shakir run deeper routes.
But I can't say that for a fact.
You know, like he's still been pretty efficient, but yes, it has not been the hyper efficiency that we saw from Shakiir earlier. This season and pretty much all of last season too.
Let's go to Titans Jaguars. As Ericson said, this is a Thursday night football game taking place on a Sunday. Rank fits in this game the four Committee.
Running backs in this matchup, So that's Tony.
Pollard, TAIJ. Spears, Travis Etn, and Tank Bigsby.
All right, I have both Titans running backs ranked ahead of both Jaguars running backs. I've got Pollard at running back nineteen, Spears running back twenty five, Travis Etn running back twenty six, and Tank Bigsby running back thirty three. We talked about this a little on the start said show, I wish Pollard were just scratched so we could get
a full TAIJ. Spears game, in which case I'd probably have him inside my top definitely inside my top fifteen, maybe inside my top twelve, even like Spears has looked really good the last couple of weeks, and I would love to see him get the soul crack at this backfield against a Jaguars defense that you know has given up a lot of fantasy points to running backs. And of course part of that is selfish worm, because I am flexing Taij Spears in a championship game this week.
It sounds like the kind of most difficult And maybe it wasn't difficult for you, but the guys who are ranked closer together certainly were Spears in ETN just one spot apart the other guys. There's a bit of a gap. How do you parse between ETN and Spears?
What do you?
I mean, obviously you just kind of hit on Spears, But for the ETN side of things, why does he come down at running back twenty six for you? Yeah?
I mean it's it's just that Tank Biggsby has looked better as a runner all year long, and so I just I don't know. If if I were calling the plays for Jacksonville, I would probably just divide it up like biggsb is my early down guy and ETN is my designated passing down guy. It's been a little more interchangeable than that and a little more hard to parse from week to week.
Where's Spears now?
It seems like they are trying to preserve Tony Pollard a little bit, and they've pretty much made Taij Spears the main passing down back and he gets a little bit of early down work too, So I don't know.
I just basically I think TAIJ.
Spears is better than Travis Etn And I didn't think I would have drawn that conclusion by the end of this season. Even though like it hasn't been a great season for TAIJ. Spears, He's dealt with a lot of injury issues and people, some people including me, were ranking him basically back to back with Tony Pollard back in August. That turned out to be a mistake, but these last couple of weeks have reminded us that TAIJ. Spears is really really good when he gets a chance.
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Com slash Survey. Please take the time to help us get better all right, let's go to question number six here. Raiders Saints. This definitely would have been a game I would have skipped if we weren't doing every game this week. Kendre Miller let fantasy managers down in a tough matchup in week sixteen. You kind of set our expectations lower last week fits given that matchup against the Packers, and
you were proven correct on that one. If you started Kendre Miller and somehow survived and have an yet running back again in week seventeen, are you willing to go back to him in a much better matchup this week, assuming Alva Kamara is out again.
Yeah, I still wouldn't feel great about it. We saw Kendry Miller split work last week with Jamal Williams and Jordan Mims, and just there wasn't a lot to split up because things were so bleak for the Saints offense and they couldn't get first downs or move the chains.
And I don't know.
I guess I feel a little bit better about the outlook this week against the Raiders than I did in a tougher matchup against the Packers, But I don't think I would feel great about having Kendrey Miller in my lineup.
Regardless, where will you have him ranked?
Probably probably mid range running back three, like running back thirty two or so, that's.
A little lower than consensus. He's alreably twenty seven in consensus as it sits. That's in the half PPR expert consensus rankings, So we'll see kind of where he winds up. But you're not that far off, just a little bit lower than the consensus ranking. Let's look at Colt's giants. I want to kind of just ask generally about really all the receivers in this game. I guess, you know, on the giant side of things, it's really just the one receiver in Neighbors and then.
A couple options for the Colts.
But just given the quarterback situations that both teams are dealing with in terms of the passing game specifically, what is your confidence level ranking the receivers in this one?
Very low in anyone but Malik Neighbors, and I think I'm below consensus on neighbors to it, like wide receiver twenty one. I don't have in Indianapolis wide receiver ranked In'sid'm my top forty. I've downed a wide receiver forty one and Pittman is like forty nine or fifty or something like that. I just there's just not a lot of passing volume. But the Colts not a lot of completions for Anthony richards in most games.
And you know, even though we don't.
Hate the matchup for either of these passing games, I mean, you can throw on both the Colts and the Giants, but man, it's just with the level of quarterback play. And I like Richardson, but I like him as a runner and not so much.
As a passer.
So you're down on Neighbors. He is a consensus wider. Hever seventeen. So looking at guys kind of more in the range that you had in wide receiver twenty one?
Are you starting him.
Over guys like DJ Moore, who will have played last night by the time everybody hears this, But we're sitting here, he hasn't played yet. Guy like him, guy like Jordan Addison, Garrett Wilson. Are these some of the names you'd be ranking him amongst are still higher than that group.
I'm a little higher on Malik Neighbors than Garrett Wilson and Jordan Addison, but I think I might have DJ Moore ranked one spot higher than Malik Neighbors, and I'm looking at that now and I nope, I've still got Neighbors. Yeah, I do have Neighbors ranked one spot behind DJ Moore.
Okay, so we'll see how that pans out tonight. On the DJ Moore side of things, I do have a second question in this game. Obviously, like everybody starting Jonathan Taylor either way, but you do appear to be the low man on Taylor this week, at least in terms of our staff rankings. So I'm just kind of curious, considering what he did last week and the opponent against the Giants, why is he ranked a little bit lower for you this week?
Yeah?
I just I could not rank Jonathan Taylor ahead of Saquon Barkley, Jamior Gibbs, Bjean Robinson, Derrick, Henry Devon a Chen or Chase Brown like those guys just because of their usage, and in the case of a Chen and Chase Brown in particular, their dual run catch usage. Couldn't put Taylor ahead of those guys. And I debated between Jonathan Taylor versus Kyron Williams. I think I went with kyrone one spot higher, but it's pretty much a coin
flip between those two. So yeah, I mean, it's weird for me to be the low man on Jonathan Taylor where I'm but just trying to be objective. I did not see him as a top five RB.
Taylor almost single handedly knocked me out of my family fantasy league, which my brother in law, who is the one who knocked me out, was very happy to bring up all day yesterday.
Hi Christmas.
I mentioned this on the in Our Waivers show earlier in the week, but this is pretty strange. I was involved in two semi finals with Jonathan Taylor involved.
Last week.
I won the game where I was going against Jonathan Taylor and lost the game.
Wow, Jonathan Taylor. Wow, that's pretty hard to pull off, man.
That's yeah, that's impressing.
I had the same thing happened last year, not as to you, but just in terms of going up against a huge game where in Week sixteen I think it was, I think it was Week sixteen last year, also the Amari Cooper huge blow up game. I also was knocked out facing him with a team where I had the best team, but just that one individual performance guy dropped forty or fifty points from one player. That's just really hard to overcome. So that's remarkable that it went the
other way twice for you. In your defense on the ranking with Taylor, you're actually much closer to consensus. ECR has him seventh, behind Saquon Gibbs, Bijon, Derek Henry's already play, Kien Williams, Chase Brown, a chan is behind Taylor in ECR. It's it's our staff guys, you know, deebro and Ericson both have Taylor second, So they're the ones who are kind of a lot higher than consensus, not that you
are a lot lower. Let's go to another matchup here, Cowboys Eagles, And again, given the time with the holiday when we're recording this, we aren't one hundred percent sure what the status of some of the health guys is going to be. But if Jalen Hurts doesn't play, what are you doing with your Eagles players playing with the backup quarterback who happens to be Kenny Pickett.
Yeah, so I'm still playing Saquon Barkley and AJ Brown, and like, Saquon's a no brainer, and Kenny Pickett when he came in for Jalen Hurts last week really locked onto AJ Brown like he only had eyes for AJB in that game. So I think AJ Brown's outlook would only be maybe slightly worse with Kenny Pickett than it would be with Jalen Hurts. But I do think Devonte Smith goes from playable to unplayable if hurt sits this
one out. And by the way, I know there were some doubts about Kenny Pickett's availability too, but I think last we saw he did practice in a limited capacity with a rib injury, but I think he would be good to go if Hurts. We're not able to clear concussion protocol before Sunday.
I don't want to spend too much time on this conversation because we have some uncertainty about the quarterback, but I do want to throw out a second question on this game. On the Cowboy side of things, Rico Daddle had a three week stretch where he was a top fifteen Fantasy running back. Every week he's been getting awesome volume. We've been happy to see him kind of finally take over this backfield, and then he fell back to earth in a major way against the Bucks. I think he
had under twenty five rushing yards. I think he was twenty three was his total. He's got a tough matchup this week in Philly. Are you trusting Doubtle again or looking for other options in your title game?
I mean mostly I've been ranking Rico as like a low end running back won the last few weeks, and now I've got him RB seventeen this week, But I think under most circumstances you are playing him. Over the last five weeks, Rico Dawdle has averaged nineteen point four carries, twenty one point four touches, and one hundred and twelve
scrimmage yards per game, so it's been pretty good. I know he's sort of ran aground last week against the Bucks, but despite the tough matchup, I'd feel okay with him as my RB two this week.
Let's look at Panthers Buccaneers.
I want to ask about Bryce Young, who continues to just be immersing the best stretch of his NFL career. Coming off the best Fantasy finish of his career. He was QB two in Week sixteen. His only other game this season inside the top ten at the position came
against these Bucks. That was back in Week thirteen. So in this encore matchup here in the Fantasy Championship Game, are you willing to trust Bryce Young as a I'm not going to ask as a you know, in a one QB league, but as a super flex quarterback in your title game?
I think so.
I mean, I've got him QB twenty four, which might be below consensus, but I think he's on the same tier as the guys I have directly ahead of him, which would be Mason Rudolph, Gino Smith, and Aaron Rodgers. I see all of those four on roughly the same tier, and uh yeah, we like the matchup against the Buccaneers, So I would feel okay about trotting out Bryce Young as my second quarterback in a super flex league.
Where are you going to have him?
Ranks QB twenty four, twenty four.
So right at the point of the fact.
Yeah, so I've got I've got Mason Rudolph QB twenty one, Gino Smith QB twenty two, Aaron Rodgers QB twenty three.
I had so much fun just watching him.
I mean, obviously a lot of it came from the you know, sixty yards and a rushing touchdown. In terms of this past week, we're getting you know, over twenty seven fantasy points. But he's had a rushing touchdown in three the last four games, and that adds a lot of value if you're you know, especially coupling that with
you know somewhere or at twenty thirty rushing yards as well. Obviously, you know, sixty eight was a lot last week, but he was a very legitimate He's been a very legitimate super flex starter worthy quarterback for like several weeks in a row.
Now, yeah, you know what impressed me last week or was the way he has been handling pressure and making throws under pressure. There was one throw he made I think there was like an a gap blitz bearing down on him and he just stood in there and just ripped a throw over to the middle to one of his receivers on a crossing route where I'm like, wow, I mean, he looked like a Pro Bowl quarterback on that play. So there are signs of Bryce Young maybe
turning the corner. Like I don't know if I want to draft him to be my starting quarterback and a fantasy team in twenty twenty five, but in super flex leagues, I think he is a little more viable than certainly than he looked at mid season this year.
I'm not the first person to make this comparison, but he looks like Alabama Bryce Young. It's some of the time and every single play, but Alabama Bryce Young was an awesome college quarterback and he has had stretches and had plays where he looks like that again, which is
really fun to see. And I know everybody's like, again, I'm not the only one to say this, but it's just really nice to see him like smiling and take a hit and get up and he's he's laughing and still making the play, and just given everything he went through last year and early parts of this year, it's been really cool to see. And boy, another feather in the cap for Dave Canalis as a quarterback whisperer to do it with you know, he did it with Gino, who still looked good since he left, did it with
Baker who's still look good since he left. But now to do it with Bryce Young too, is really remarkable for Canalis. Let's go to another matchup here. Dolphins Browns were into the late afternoon slate here. Now you're probably obligated to start Tyreek Hill, but I just want to kind of highlight his fantasy finishes at the position since
Tua returned from the latest injury. Wide receiver forty one, wide receiver, thirty wide receiver, twenty three, Wide receiver sixteen, wide receiver, forty wide receiver twelve, wide receiver, six wide receiver, sixty two, Wide receiver thirty one. So there is a you know, top six finish in there. There's another top twelve finish in there, but there's a lot outside the top forty two. He's ranked as a top fifteen wide receiver option this week in ECR, but he's only finished
that high twice since Week eight. So what are your expectations against the Browns?
Oh Man, I feel like we can't even use the word expectations with Tyreek Hill anymore because I don't think we have any and certainly not the expectation of a smash game from Tyreek Hill in any given week, which is weird to say, especially with us looking at a Week seventeen game for Tyreek Hill where Jayden Wattle is probably not going to be playing for the Miami Dolphins with his knee injury. So but look, man, it's Tyreek Hill and he has scored a touchdown in three of his last four games.
Again, no waddle.
Probably means a few extra targets. I have Tyreek ranked wide receiver thirteen, and I feel like that's a nice conservative ranking for a guy who obviously has been a disappointment this season. But I think unless you have an absolute embarrassment of riches at wide receiver, you're probably starting him in your championship game.
Yeah, thirteen feels appropriate for the ranking, even if maybe like like I don't really expect him to finish as wide receiver thirteen. But as far as like just where to put him in the rankings, I think that's about He's about a server fourteen and ECR so so one spot lower. But yeah, I just I where do you think you're going to have him ranked in twenty twenty five drafts?
That's a really good question. Probably still in wide receiver one range. I mean, I just it was just such a strange year for the Dolls, and I don't know, I mean, maybe maybe that's wrong and it should be more as like a high ender mid range wide receiver two. But I still fundamentally believe, like I came into this season thinking Tyreek Hill is the best wide receiver in football, and you know, now I'll almost surely be ranking him
behind Nicocollins. I'mon Ralph Saint Brown, probably even Brian Thomas Junior. So yeah, I mean, maybe it's gonna be maybe it's gonna be well outside the top ten.
He'll be thirty one next year.
He turns thirty one in March, and a guy who really relies on speed to be as dominant as he is, you know, coming off the season, when you say, you know, as a wide receiver, one to me like, if you're ranked in the top twelve at wide receiver, you're not getting out of the second round of a lot of drafts. And I don't know that I would be very comfortable drafting Tyreek Hill in the second round. I think if it will be, and we'll see how I feel, you know,
come August. That's a long way from now, and maybe the you know, situation will change around him in Miami. I mean, who knows. But as of right now, it feels to me like I wouldn't be comfortable taking him in the second round, but maybe I would be taking him like early third and so maybe kind of more of a wide receiver.
Two range.
But that's that's kind of shooting from the hip. I you know, we'll obviously kind of need to sit down and think about it more when we get when we get actually closer. But for a guy who's been you know, locked into the really the first round for a lot of years, you know, maybe we're starting to see the fall off here.
Yeah, it'll be it'll be interesting. I mean, it's gonna be one of those things where it will be a shock to the system. If you're in a draft and you're sitting there with pick one oh three and all of a sudden, Tyreek is available to you at two ten.
Yeah, that might be.
Really hard to pass on him. And like maybe I could wait till three oh three, but I don't know if I want to wait. I might just want to grab this guy here.
Yeah, if you're if you if you have like the one oh one, and like let's say you take saquad and then he'll Tyree gets back to you. Like, it's hard to imagine passing up the opportunity to pair at saquead and with Tyreek. But I certainly would say I don't think I'll be considering him in the first half of the second round.
I think it would have to be a back half of the second round.
As of how I feel sitting here on you know, in late December, eight months away from having to make this decision. Packers Vikings fits best game on the week seventeen schedule. Obviously your team is involved here, tons of fantasy options on both sides, So I just want to kind of ask you, force you to fade somebody in this one? Which guy who is an obvious start in this matchup? Are you actually fading this week?
You know What's funny, I've been low on Jordan Love relative to consensus for quite a few weeks, just because the Packers passing volume has been so low. But now I see that I'm actually like three spots above consensus on Love this week, and I think that's largely matchup related. I mean, the Minnesota run defense is tough, and they're, you know, not that hard to throw on. And we saw I think Jordan Love had the most passing attempts in any game this season in his first meeting against
the Vikings. But that was also a game where the game script went sideways for the Packers. They fell into this big hole early and they basically had to stomp the accelerator and run a two minute offense the rest of the game.
So Jordan Love wound up putting up huge numbers.
I don't know if that happens again, but I'm optimistic he puts up decent numbers. I guess the guys I'm fading relative to consensus are Josh Jacobs because that Minnesota run defense is tough. I've got him at like running back nine, and I know consensus is higher than that. And Jordan Addison, I mean I'm a little below consensus. I think I've got him at wide receiver twenty eight and the ECR has him at wide receiver twenty two.
He's terrific, but there's always a chance, and we saw happen last week that he plays second fiddle to Justin Jefferson in any given game, and Justin Jefferson, whenever he has not had to deal with Jy or alex And of the Packers, has always smashed. And I don't think JayR is coming back this week, So no JayR Alexander probably means another smash game for Justin Jefferson, and I don't know if there's also room for Jordan Addison to smash.
Let's go to Falcon's commanders. Before we get to the key question for Sunday Night's matchup, I want to ask you fits about your Uber Eats Sunday Night meal of the Week fits. What must order food gets you reaching for your Uber Eats app for great Game Day deals when you think of Washington.
D c oh Man, I have to try this thing they call in It's called a half smoke.
Are you familiar with this worm?
So it's like, I'm I'm from a big sausage town Milwaukee, that is, we appreciate our sausages in Milwaukee, and this is apparently a half smoke is kind of like a spicier version of a chili dog. I guess it's some sort of sausage served with like chili and cheese and onions, and it's fantastic.
Yeah, I am not like a big sausage guy in general, and so I've actually never had a half smoke, but it is like definitely a DC thing. And I think if if I was able to kind of get like, I'm not like a big like spicy meat person, and typically half smoked like a little bit of spice to it, So I think I might be more interested in trying it actually now as I've sort of developed my palette of bit since.
Leaving the DC area.
Then then I was interested in it when I was living here, so I would try that again at this point for me, like when I think of DC food, like first of all, like being from the area, like you can get good food of any kind in this area. Like it's a very transient city, so there's not a ton that's been like originated from DC. But every type of food you can imagine has quality options in the area. Like you can get amazing like Peruvian chicken in the
DC era. You can get amazing like anything really, like you can go down the list, like any type of foreign cuisine that appeals to you, you can find some good options. But when I think of stuff that is like from DC, and my first stuches goes to mumbo sauce, which is like kind of a it's like somehow like sweeter and also kind of spicier than barbecue sauce. But it's like a very classic condiment for DC. And just get some wings with mumbo sauce on them is like
such a great go to, especially for watching football. So half smoke for fits mumbo sauce really on anything for myself, that's our Uber Eats Sunday Night meals of the week. Uber Eats has the best game day deals all season long.
Order now for game day.
And by the way, technically the Commanders do play in Maryland, not in d C. So I could have just had another excuse to talk about crabcakes, but I will not do that. I want to ask in this one, how are you ranking the Falcons offensive players this week? Now that we've seen the first start from Michael Pennox.
So I've got Penix ranked quarterback twenty eight, and I almost feel guilty about that because I am a Michael Pennox fan. I just I always want to be conservative with my ranking of a quarterback getting his first exposure to NFL defenses. And you know, we saw this last week with Pennex played a decent game, but for fantasy it wasn't a decent game he had against the Giants, like I think it was two hundred and twenty some
yards and no touchdowns. So maybe maybe it seems inconsistent, but I'm ranking Drake London wide receiver seventeen, Darnell Mooney wide receiver thirty two, and you know, Ray, Ray McLeod and Kyle Pitts I consider to be unplayable basically. But I'm ranking the wide receivers basically where I would have had them with Kirk Cousins back when Kirk Cousins was
playing semi competently. So, like, I feel okay about Michael Pennix making those guys work for fantasy, but not so great about Pennix himself.
Here's another interesting twenty twenty five question. Where do you think you're going to have Pennick stranked amongst quarterbacks for fantasy next year?
Probably late teams. Yeah.
So, I really like the player, and I believe in the arm talent and think he is, you know, one of the best arms in the league, but he is not going to add much as a runner, and some of the things he does best as a player don't always show up for fantasy, like his aversion of turnovers and sacks.
You love that.
If you've got Michael Pennix as you're starting quarterback and you're a fan of the Atlanta Falcons, it just doesn't do much for you in the fantasy game.
We've got a second question in this Sunday night matchup, just how much trust do you have going back to Brian Robinson after his huge letdown in week sixteen? He like, if he had had his normal game, there are multiple leagues I would have advanced to the title game in without him. So maybe most people listening are not able to trust going back to him because they've already been eliminated.
But if you did survive Brian Robinson's huge life down in week sixteen, how are you approaching him in week seventeen?
And I actually did survive his letdown in two leagues where I will be rolling him out in a championship game.
Lucky, But yeah, like I'm.
A little nervous about it. I'm a little nervous, to be honest with you. I mean, he did lose two fumbles last week, and if he puts another on the ground, there's a very good chance he sits and we see more playing time for Jeremy Nichols and Chris Rodriguez. And
the Atlanta run defense not exactly a pushover. They've given up only four rushing touchdowns to running backs this season, tied with the Los Angeles Chargers for the fewest, and they've allowed the ninth fewest rushing yards to running backs. So not a great matchup for Brian Robinson, but I do think the game script should be more favorable this week. We saw the Commanders sort of thrust into catch up mode last week against the Eagles.
They should probably be playing with.
A lead or at least in a close game with the Falcons throughout this game, so that bodes better for Brian Robinson than last week's game script.
Last game on the slate here Monday Night, Lions forty nine ers fits. We got our first Jamison Williams Spike week in a while.
Against the Bears last week.
Just a second game all season with over one hundred receiving guards. Though, are you or are you not starting him in Fantasy championship matchups against San Francisco?
Maybe I've got him at wide receiver twenty nine, so that probably puts him right on the start sit border in a lot of cases. It's over his last seven games, JMO has had between five and eight targets in every game, which is not terrible for a big play vertical wide receiver, but obviously he's got this boomer bust profile and the
targets are getting chopped up more ways than ever. I feel like in Detroit these days, with suddenly Samu Laporta is getting targets again after being sort of, I don't know, a major target drought for him early in the season. He's starting to get back into the offense and Tim Patrick has been pretty involved in this offense over the last month. So I think he's going to be a dilemma for a lot of people this week where I
don't know what to make of him. But as we were talking about with Ericson, he's a nice guy to have if you're like an underdog or if you're trying to play catch up after maybe falling into a hole with the Christmas Day games or the Thursday night game, like Jamo is a guy if you're a dog or have to make a comeback, you feel pretty good about having him because, you know, whatever, if he has a dud game and gets thirty some yards, you were probably
gonna lose anyway. But he's also the guy who could get you one hundred and seventy yards and a touchdown if things break right.
So we kind of talked a lot about this a little bit on the Thursday Show. But just for anybody who who didn't catch that one, Monday night, you're down, you have Jamison Williams, they have nobody left. How many points would you need to be down for you to feel confident going into that situation with only Jamison Williams left?
Oh Man, Like, if you've got the lead.
No, no, the opposite. Oh, I guess you could do it early either way. But what is the line where you're feeling confident that Jameson Williams is overcoming this lead or deficit if you're on the other side of it.
Oh Man, Like, if I'm in the if I'm down with Jamison Williams.
Like, because if it's like thirty five points, you're like, Okay, maybe it happens, but like you would never You're feeling pretty bad about that thirteen Like okay, like it's possible, but it's not a guarantee. Three Okay, Yeah, he's definitely getting that. What's the line where you're like, I'm feeling pretty good that Jameson Williams is going to be a fantasy hero for me.
I think I think it's pretty low.
Like I think you need to only be like seven down or six down or something like that, because that's the thing. I mean, Jamo could give you three for thirty five, yeah, you know, and PPR that's six and a half points. But at the same time, if I'm going against Jamison Williams, I don't want to be up at least twenty to feel good about my chances. I would want a big, big cushion against Jamison Williams.
It's definitely scarier to be facing him in the final game of your Fantasy title week than it is confident to be, you know, throwing him out there for your team. I think he's more scary as an opponent than he is you know, instilling you with great confidence.
Yeah, I think the JMO stakeholders have learned to live with the boombost profile that you are inevitably going to get for him from him. But yes, going against Jamison Williams this week is a scary proposition.
For sure.
It's going to be a fun week. We've hit every matchup here. If it's any other kind of final thoughts, just you know, for the Fantasy Championship game, any any.
Good luck charm you find yourself relying on.
Are you one of those managers who likes to pick up like a Chris Godwin or you know, David Montgomery as kind of like an honorary bench spot in this title game. What's your mental approach to winning a championship?
No, it's just sort of a coincidence.
I think I've been wearing my tag Strong T shirt on NFL Sundays for the last couple of weeks, and the Fantasy playoffs have gone reasonably well so far. So I think I'm gonna have to do some laundry before Sunday and make sure my tag Strong T shirt is clean for the big deal.
Or maybe don't do some laundry. You want to leave it, you know the way it has been this whole time. I assume you haven't been watching it.
I'm just worried it's gonna like walk out of the house if I don't get it in the laundry pretty soon.
All right, we'll have of there. Thank you everybody for tuning in. Hope de Brose enjoying the time with the in laws. We are going to have a show next week. It's going to, I think, be a slightly varied version of this show, given that most Fantasy championships are out. I'm not one hundred percent sure what it's gonna look like yet, but we will be back in some capacity next week. There'll be a few shows next week, but maybe a more modified schedule compared to what we're doing
all season long. But it's been a joy to do this show all season long. I hope we have helped somebody out there win a fantasy championship and hopefully a whole lot of somebody's So I really this is, you know, one of my favorite shows to do every week fits, So it's been a pleasure to do it with you and with Debro again for the season. And yeah, I hope everybody else has enjoyed the ride too.
Yeah, likewise, worm, this is one of my favorite shows to do, and just because a lot of times we spin off into completely unplanned directions over the course of the show, just things kind of come up organically, and I sort of like it that way.
Yeah, I do. It's too, a very fun show. So best of luck to everybody.
Happy holidays for those who still have kind of festivities going on throughout the weekend. You know, thanks to my parents for hosting me for Christmas stuff and for letting me take over my mom's office to do these shows during the week. It's been It's always fun to play a road Game and hosts from some more different spot than usual, But yeah shouts everybody celebrating the holidays and celebrating hopefully a fantasy title this weekend Forfeits and Debro.
I'm Ryan Warmley. Thanks everybody for tuning in and we'll see again next time. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros Fantasy Football podcast. If you love the show, the best freeway to support us is by leaving a positive review on Apple podcasts at Fantasypros dot com, slash review, or on Spotify. Follow us on x, Instagram and TikTok at Fantasy Pros, and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot
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