Hello, everybody, Welcome into the Fantasy Pros Football Podcast. I'm Ryan Warmley, joined on this Thursday morning by Andrew Erickson and Chris welsch Els It's our predictions show. We're changing up the schedule a bit because of the new year, also because it's Week eighteen, so kind of takes a different shape here when we get to this time of the year because most fantasy leagues are done, the vast majority of leagues have their championship, as they should in
Week seventeen. There are a few stragglers, you know, random leagues here and there. I know of a couple of people who the commissioner just like accidentally said a Week eighteen or something. Those are few and far between, though. We are still bringing you predictions though for a bunch of reasons. Maybe you're playing DFS, maybe you want to bet on some of these players, maybe you do have
one of those Week eighteen championships. For whatever the reason is that you're interested in kind of previewing and predicting the week ahead. That is why we are here doing our usual predictions. Each guy is gonna bring five of them and we're gonna see how we did last week. Ericson, you were wrong about everything again.
No, no, hey, is that real?
Technically yes, though I will give you two caveats. One is that Anthony Richardson didn't play, so you really only had four predictions that could have panned out. And you were, as we discussed, spiritually correct about JK. Dobbins, if not technically correct about JK Dobbins. But yes, you have another O for back to back weeks. Erickson, I thought.
You were being just mean by the way. I thought, like like in our little private chat we have, I thought worm was just being like a jerk, like just trying to poke the bear. It's tough to do, Ericson.
It's a fair assumption most of the time. But no, he is wrong again. But like I said, you were spiritually correct at least about Dobbins. Ericson, Yeah, so.
I mean the point of it was Jaco Dobbins is gonna have a goo game against Patriots. He did, he scored, didn't hit the massive rushing yards amount, but he didn't play in the fourth quarter because Patriot sucks. So yeah, that's not my fault. And I thought my fault Richardon didn't play. So again, we only get me four bets. I mean, it's gonna be tough for me to hit any predictions. And I only get four chances.
So everyone knows you need five. It's like it's like well known by everybody.
You had five chances is you picked a player who didn't end up playing welch, You didn't have a great week. You had a couple of misses Addrick Estime, Jordan Love
and Jade and Reed. Obviously you were technically wrong about Jamison Williams the artist, but again very spiritually correct about Jamison Williams having a big game, and he had the forty yard play really like the definition of spiritually correct on him, and then of course like technically correct, spiritually correct everything correct on Mike Evans two touchdown incentive game just absolutely hit that nail on the head.
Yeah, we got that.
Yeah.
And I had said with the Oddrick estimate one too, like it could be Julia McLoughlin. So I think I'm like in the spiritual category because I said, if McLoughlin plays, it's going to be him instead of estimated, So there's like a spiritual side to it. But yeah, it was okay, I mean, did nail the Evans one I'm going to take a win on Jamison Williams. Whatever the other ones were weren't great, but hey, like Eric's has said, you
get five stabs at it. You gotta get one, but you gotta get five stabs tick.
Players that are playing number one, give me your.
Best as it's a good it's well, guess what, it's week eighteen. Who the hell knows.
It's never harder to know who's playing this week. By the way, just housekeeping for everyone, we are going to continue this show into the playoffs, so you can kind of view it as more just a general, you know, weekly preview of the playoff rounds. Again, if you want to, you know, use this for placing bets, or if you're playing some kind of playoff fantasy, whatever the reason might be that you would be interested. We are going to continue this show throughout the NFL playoffs, even once the
regular season is done. This week, guys, that's hump in two our Week eighteen predictions ericson Start us.
Off Steelers are going to beat the Cincinnati Bengals on Saturday, and it's going to because of a Jalen Warren RB one season. Jalen Warren's kind of taken over this backfield. Basically, since he's gotten healthy, he's out snapped Naji Harris four straight games. He's also had more red zone work than Naji Harris over the last two weeks. So when it comes to a prop, I like the over on his receiving yards. Twenty one and a half is the line that I've seen. He has at least twenty five receiving
yards and six of his last eight games. Last time he faced the Bengals four targets, caught all of them for fifty five yards, including a twenty nine yard game. The Bengals can't tackle on defense. If you remember how this matchup worked out the first time, it was Najie Harris and Jalen Warren just running free, breaking tackles left and right against the Bengals defense. The head did a lot of damage in the passing game, both of the running backs did, so I'm expecting more of the same.
I think that these Steelers can win this game. I don't think they're getting enough credit for their season so far. And oh, they don't have a lot to play for. Uh, it's Mike Common at home as an underdog, Like, give me that all daygainst the Cincinnati Bengals. Look, this is the perfect way to end the bengals terrible season that has been a waste of Joe Burrow. A loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers to knock them out of the playoffs entirely. So they're gonna get to play out and see what
Denver or Miami does on Sunday. So that's my prediction. I think Jalen Warren is going to be someone that is gonna have a really big game.
Yeah, I'm somewhat confused. What is the line current on this game?
Bengals are favored by like a point and a half.
I see two here on Drafting Sports two. Yeah, I don't totally understand why the Steelers are underdogs.
Well, I think part of it is because I think Justin Fields was taking like first team reps if I saw that correctly earlier in the week. So again, with what they're playing for, you might see Fields in this game. That's probably some because they're not what are they playing for?
Can't they get the five seed?
They get to play at Houston versus if they lose, they have to play at Baltimore, Which is a good point. I mean, that's I mean doesn't take a gen us to figure out who if they'd like to win this game or not. And they also get to knock out Steels. They've also played terrible, Like they're a three game losing street. Do they want to go into the playoffs facing Baltimore again on the road losing four games in a row, like, probably not.
It's the only thing that makes sense for a Pittsburgh team that's at home for them to not be favorites would be that they're not going to play it out. That would be what the line must be telling us.
And I think people are just like very like there's been this kind of swell of well, maybe Joe Burrow should actually get MVP consideration, and he's been amazing and he really has been incredible this year, and obviously we know Jamar Chason t Higgins are awesome, but the rest of this team stinks. Like I think people are just looking at like, oh, Joe Burrow amazing, and they they are more desperate to get in the playoffs than the Steelers are going to be to just like go up
a seed line. But I think the Steelers have have incentive to win this game, even if the Ravens win the earlier game on Saturday. I think the Steelers will want to win this to try and get that Texans matchup. And I just think Cynthia is really really bad outside of those megastars, and they are legitimately playing like some of the best players in football, but there's like three or four guys on that team. The rest of them are not good. So I don't I don't understand that
line at all. Honestly, what do you think about wells Jalen Warren as an RB one, Like Erickson's predicting.
Always, it's always, It's always Jalen Warren. It's always been Jalen Warren. It's got to continue to be Jalen Warren. You know. Coming into a couple of weeks ago, I was talking about how the Bengals were giving up receiving yards. They've moved off of being like the number one team because they got blasted one game, but they're still like right around the top ten and receiving yards given up two running backs, and that is where Jalen war I mean,
Jalen Warren's thriving on the ground as well. I'd be one hundred percent interested in the receiving yard prop I'd be looking at what his rushing and receiving combo yards look like as well, because they love to give him the ball instead of you know, just not just like you know, six or seven carries. It's like, no, give it more primary over nausey. I think he's going to
eat up this team again. The only concerner question would be is if this line is telling us that they're not going to be playing out the whole game, do they want to make sure that Jalen Warren is the guy that's playing out the whole game. Would that be something maybe you get a little bit more nausey because he's had less work, get third string in. I don't know, but I do like the receiving yards of Jalen Warren.
Well, so let's stick with you for your number five prediction.
Yeah, So mine is going to ruin and break a lot of people's brains for next season, especially when they're getting in the tight end market, because Pennix is going to get the ball to Kyle Pitts this week. So first, it's kind of a there's a pseudo Penix is going to have two passing touchdowns this week, But the main thing is about Kyle Pitts going sixty plus and another touchdown. Everybody also was already like, oh, like, oh, look, Carl Pitt's doing a few things. He's going to do some
more things and it's going to hurt people. Caroline has given up the eleventh most receiving yards two tight ends so far in the year, and the most touchdowns overall. We saw him catch four or five passes this past week, and he's becoming a target.
You know.
Pennix is kind of doing that checkdown thing. He's getting the ball around, He's starting to do some of those athletic plays. His biggest problem is catching the ball. That was why that interception happened two weeks ago, where it was like whoop, like old school Vernon Davis with those stonehands and really great athleticism. Though, but I think we are going to get a bigger Kyle Pitts game, going to be the biggest game of his season. It'll be
just ripe to end the season. So next year when we're breaking down tight ends, everyone's going to be like Carl Putts, Remember Carl Puts, and we shouldn't we shouldn't do that. But he's going to break people's brains this week.
Man like sitting in August talking about Kyle, like, we just can't like they're going to I know you're probably right, but we can't. I like, this was the year, this was the okay, one last ride. I will give him a final chance to you know, become the guy we thought he could be. It obviously didn't happen. I can't do another offseason.
I was like, finom the last dance.
We are competence. Yes, it's pretty good impression. Where do you think he will be ranked? Not by you but in ECR in twenty twenty five drafts? Welsh?
Oh god, I think I think he'll be around like fourteen, and that's already gonna probably be six spots too high. But I think it'll be right around that fourteen to fifteen area because of those last two games. But this is what I want to say, Ericson, don't bad put Kyle Pitts down. Don't do it? Are you gonna do it?
I mean, if he's a late round tight end, he's an option, like again, like he's gonna be guy. You can take the last pick. You don't have to draft him in most leagues anyway, So I think you can see it play out, like you're gonna say you don't want pieces of Michael Pennix year two Falcons offense, like, and he's gonna be the cheapest guy.
I mean, look, I actually think I actually don't think he's gonna be a late round option. If if Welsh's right and we see like a big finish from Pitts when specifically paired with Michael Pennix, I think people will talk themselves into it, Like, once again, how old is Kyle Pitts? What is he twenty four?
Like I don't know if he just turned twenty four or if he's turning twenty five. I just know he's twenty four right now as we're talking on January second.
So he turned twenty four in October. He will start next season at twenty four years old, Like you're telling me, yes, I think he's younger than Michael Pennix. Actually, I'm not saying I will be in on him. I'm not saying he's gonna be right to the top five. I think he's gonna be not a late round guy. I think he's gonna be like a mid round tight end.
A better prediction would be top twelve tight end, like he will probably be when people get to like ten and twelve, they'll be like, yeah, you know what, I think we could do Kyle Pits over you know, Friar Mooth.
Or Yeah, that's the thing. Like what name are you gonna put ahead? Like are you gonna picks like zach Ertz another you're older, like like Chaga Conkuo, like Jake Fergus.
That's what I mean, Like when you do when you're the ranking, I mean, you're gonna take Jaga Conkuo who is like you should? Why Pitts has little been in New Year two? It's the same thing.
Pitts has been one of the worst picks of all time this year that we did again.
I think he was worse last year, except.
Penix is making again Penix and then maybe.
It will be fixed.
But this, this is what I'm talking about. Your brain is already broken. Oh my god, people, brains are going to be broken. Brains are already broken.
With cow Pits in the fourteenth round. My team is dead. No, he is not dead.
I don't think you can be able to wait till the fourteenth round if you want to.
Oh my god, I don't know what I mean.
The hate for Coyle. Pits is pretty strong. I don't think people are going to be swayed if he catches a touchdown against the Carolina Panthers.
It's still just such a weak position. Like like I'm looking like right now, this is a week eighteen rankings, but just looking at the names, like there's not that many that I'm one hundred percent certain will be ranked ahead of Kyle Pitts and ECR. It's like like Bowers McBride, Laporta,
John new Hockinson, Andrews Kittle. That's seven, Tucker Craft that's eight names like after that, Like, I think there are other names that will probably be ranked ahead of him, but I'm not one hundred percent certain we'll be ranked ahead of Kyle Pitts and ECR. Come august Is. I guess that's my point.
I think I think you're probably right. By the way, best stat is that he's younger than Michael Pennix. That's actually the best stat of all.
Think it's more about it just Penis being old as a rookie than Pitts.
Well, Pitts also was very young and is enter me.
I mean, like, let's be honest, though, wuld it surprise anybody if a tight end that was really young took four years to this happens all the time. But that's the thing that he's a tight end like, and tight ends tend to be slow starters like not everyone's Rock Bowers.
So I can't believe we're making this case.
But way I told the.
Point of this week though, I think it's a good call by Welsh because Panthers suck against tight ends, and he already went over seventy yards against them earlier this year. He didn't score, so if you can get the rs, you can probably find the end zone two and he's got Penix, so yeah, I mean obviously in Penis's targeted back to back weeks in the red zone right. The first time it was an interception. This time it was a touchdown, So I like the odds.
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Ericson what's your next prediction?
The Seahawks are going to beat the Rams B team led by Gim mcgoppolo and Gino Smith is going to get himself a fat payday in the making. So Gino Smith has a bunch of contract incentives that are related to the team winning double EDGIT games, which they can do if they beat the Rams that'll get them ten wins for the year. He gets another two million dollars if he passes for at least one hundred and eighty six yards and he achieves a sixty nine point five percent completion rate this season.
So nice.
The Seahawks are out of the playoff contention after the Rams clinched the NFC Weeks NFC Weast NFC West last week, and so that's the only incentive Gino has to play really is, Hey, I can make a lot of money in this game. If I just throw for two hundred yards, we win the game against the backups. So let's ride. So I like Geno Smith a lot in this week to be out there throwing the ball. It's funny. Something that I've been betting a lot this year is the
Geno Smith under on his passing attempts. It's like every week it's thirty four and a half and he comes nowhere near the passing attempted under that number. And I think like eight of his last ten games. But this is the one we where you might seem to throw forty times so that he can get these high completions, short underneath targets to Jackson Smith and Jigba and hit at least two hundred passing yards and get the Seahawks
to win against the Rams. As we know, look the Rams again, a lot of stuff in Week eighteen is like preseason. Like That's essentially what it is to me, Tom viewing this game is Rams do not care. We see Sean mcvaye preseason games, they get destroyed because he just doesn't care or try to win these games and any capacity. So I think that Gino has a day. If you again, if you're playing fantasy this week, I think that the Seahawks are a good bet to make
on an offense. It's going to play their starters a decent amount just because they're going to finish the season strong, new head coach, and Gino has every incentive to be out there. So once he gets his incentives, gets the yards, maybe we see him come out, but before I think he's gonna do some damage. Before then, I think the Seahawks are gonna win.
Were you saying NFC weast like SpongeBob? I thought he said weast, Yes, yes, exactly that classic. Well should you SpongeBob guy?
I love SpongeBob. Did I hear it? SpongeBob is coming to an end this year too? My kids said that, Oh for really, I think the guy did the voice the creator. I think he passed away, and there's something about SpongeBob ending this year we can't do.
I think sponge I once saw a stat I can't remember where I heard it, but I think SpongeBob alone has accounted for something like five percent of the lifetime revenue for Paramount, which is like an obscene number to think about how big that company is, how long it's been around. It might have even been a higher percentage than that. It's just such a behemoth. I can't imagine they would they would let it end. That's so that's really surprising to me.
I don't know if that's true.
Yeah, maybe it's not. Maybe it's maybe you're you know, maybe this is another prediction we're going to miss on this show.
I hope we miss it, though, I hope I'm wrong.
What do you think Welch about the Seahawks Rams game.
Yeah, I'm I'm just like all in on the incentive incentive gate across the board, like especially when it's like obtainable. I mean, I'm still pissed about one that we can't put on here because the team is sitting a certain player, but like this is a massively obtainable one, like two hundred yards passing for Gino on the financial incentive side them to be slanging the ball against a backup Rams
team to smash of the century one hundred percent. But also just to point out, can you imagine that you are playing your Fantasy Championship in and you have to decide between the likes of Jimmy Garoppolo or Joshua Dobbs, Like these are the guys that are going in at
quarterback and you're going to backup running backs. I think mcveigh's like, we're excited to see what Blake Korham does, you know, Like it's just you can't do week eighteen, Like Week eighteen is chaos, and anybody that does, I mean, God bless you. I guess if you do do it in Fantasy and you're cutting your star players for Blake Korum and Jimmy Garoppolo. But it's rough, it's rough in the streets.
Yeah, I get that. Sometimes commissioners like make mistakes. It's like you know that you have a lot, like oh, and you're setting up multiple leagues, Like mistakes happen if you intentionally put your championship in week eighteen, like you're just not fit to be a fan.
I think there's a lot of people that intentionally go to week eighteen. I think you surprised, and.
Why not just play start in the preseason then, I mean that's where they agree. I mean like people will argue like, oh, I want more games plays like, so then start preseason week one, like let's go, like, let's get as many weeks as we can roll all the way to the super Bowl.
People are petitioning NFL to in the bye weeks at week thirteen so they can now start their playoffs fourteen through sixteen because of the chaos it just happened in week seventeen, Like going to eighteen is crazy.
I would like them to end their buys in week thirteen, so you could do in a sixteen playoff one week, one week, two weeks, and then you still don't go to week eighteen because I do like the two week championship and that somewhat mitigates some of that. And so if you start a week fourteen, you could do that. But I don't know that we're going to see them like change the bye weeks, which you know is a bummer Welsh, what's your next prediction?
All right, Oh yeah, we're going to me. We're talking about SpongeBob and Bye Weeks and stuff like that, and I got distracted. I'm going to go back to the JK. Dobbins well, and I'm gonna have a victory lap. Even though there was a spiritual win for mister Andrew Erickson, I will get a full on win and Dobbins is going to go for over one hundred yards against the
Raiders and we are going to lock in incentives. Raiders are giving up the tenth most rushing yards over the last month, even though they had been pretty stingy on the year, al so you can pass against them. Dobbins had nineteen carries last game. He's averaging over four yards per carryover his last three games, and he needs just around sixty yards to hit that one hundred and twenty five thousand dollars incentive that he's at because I think he needed like one hundred and thirty four going into
last game. Was able to lock some in. We'll have a bigger game, much bigger game. He's going to go over one hundred. You can throw a touchdown in there if you want, but you know, spiritual to actual wins, I'm going to just go with one hundred plus here also might even mess around, like you think about some of these and you go like two hundred yards, gino, and then maybe you can alt. I don't know what. Dobbin's probably going to open up around one hundred. The books,
by the way, are pretty keen to incentives. We'll talk about one that I have that they went hard. It's the most of this guy's receiving yards have been the entire year, and it's because of what he needs that I wouldn't be surprised if Dobbins opens up at like sixty five sixty six, which would be a little bit more than you would usually probably see, but I would
be playing overs on him. Genos Smith and there's a couple others if you want to mess around in week eighteen to have some actual fun that you're not, you know, playing your championship into. So Dobbin's over one hundred.
Eric Sinan on Dobbins again.
I like him, but maybe not to the hundred mark because he needs fifty eight to get nine hundred on the season, and that gets him his first bonus, and then he would need another one hundred and fifty after that. So I kind of just like it. Hey, he'll get sixty rushingyrons and then that'll get him his his bonus
and then they can probably sit him. Because the thing with the Chargers is if the Steelers win, which is my prediction, so we're going we're kind of anti correlated here, Welsh, the Chargers can't do anything playoff wise, like they are stuck where they are if the Pittsburgh Steelers win, so that gives them less incentive and Hardla's kind of a non committal about like playing his guys especial if they
have nothing to play for. I mean, we know that this Chargers team is based on the health of Justin Herbert. It's basically been that like all season. If there's an opportunity for him not to play, that guy not play. JK. Dobbins, who obviously was banged up during the offseason, got hurt during the season. With healthy last week, that would mean my only shy away. But at least you get to know Sunday morning, Hey, what did the Steelers do if
they lost? Okay, let's wrap up JK. Dobbins. But if not, maybe you will pull back a little bit.
I didn't think to look this up before this show, but I'm curious what Harbad did when he was with the forty nine ers in terms of choosing to rest guys or not when they had nothing to play for, because the way he is wired, it would seem to me like that's not something they're going to do. But I'm curious what kind of the past has shown us that he's decided in the scenarios.
Dobbins is also in an interesting situation just because he missed so much time. And it's not like you know, you were out for the season, you got to get your reps in in like you know, exhibition games and stuff like that, but like he missed a significant amount of time that you may want to, like get that rhythm back, may want him to be out there a little bit more, but to the point, hit the incentive
get off the field. My interpretation of a lot of teams that are and this is actually what I thought. I mean, Frank, we just say it. Like with the Eagles, I was one hundred percent going to go with Saquon Barkley breaking the record, but then they announced that he's not going to was that they're going to give you a half, And I think any of these guys for teams that don't have a lot to play for that
still want to maybe put some starters out there. You get a half to figure thing out that would have been I thought with Saquon That's what I think it'll be with Dobbins, and they'll see within you know, what striking distance are you of, you know, him specifically needing to get to it, So it'll be a strong half of where you'll get the guy. And if they are going to pull back, it would probably be in the
third quarter. And if they have absolutely nothing to play for, I would actually say that's probably likely by Harbaugh.
The other thing I would just say on Dobbins is remember the first of you know, really like life changing, like career altering injury that he suffered was in a preseason game. Like I think he is somebody who is going to say, like getting the incentive. I do think he is going to want to do that. I think once he hits whatever that first milestone is, I think he personally will be like, I've had a like injury that really ruined my career once before in a game
that didn't matter. I do not want to risk doing that again, So I wouldn't be surprised if that's in the back of his mind. I want to let everybody know that we've got a special offer for you all. Unlock a month of Betting Pros Premium for free. Download the Betting Pros app today and use promo code FP free to start betting smarter, not harder. Betting Pros Premium gives you exclusive access to cutting edge tools that take your betting game to the next level. Our Same Game
Parlay tool creates winning parlays with ease. Our prop bet analyzer and Prize Picks. Prop bet cheat sheet uncovers the picks that provide the most value. Our betting systems allow you to create and back test custom strategies that help you find value and maximize your bankroll. Take the guesswork out of betting. Download the Betting Pros app, use code FP free and start winning today. All right, erics and what's your ext prediction?
The Jaguars are gonna score thirty points against Indianapolis Colts this week. Mac Jones is going to go over his passing yards prop which is egregiously low at two hundred and seven and a half yards, and Brian Thomas Junior is going to finish the year leading all rookies in receiving yards and.
What also is going to happen real quick and then someone I know is going to cash a fourteen.
To fourteen to one on Brian Tommas to lead all rookies and receiving yards. But this is I mean, it's gonna be sweat because right now, currently in the standings, Brian Thomas Junior leads with one one hundred and seventy nine yards. He is thirty five yards ahead of Rock Bowers, who all we're going to also talk about in the show at one one hundred and forty four, who is four yards ahead of mylik Neighbors, who's sitting at one thousand, one hundred and forty. So all these guys are like
fighting for records. But it's interesting because Neighbors and Bowers are kind of fighting for like receptions, where Thomas has the lead on the yards, but it's not alter like he's not going to break any receiving yards records, but he would just be the receiving yards leader this particular season, which I'm not sure if the Jaguars are paying I know I'm paying attention to this of course, because this is something that I've been highly invested in all season long,
so but I just love the matchup here when you look at the Jacksonville Jaguars and their offense. Again, I don't need to go too deeply into how bad. I mean, the Colts just got lit up by a stoic dame by Drew Locke, Like we literally just saw this happen. About how bad this Colts defense is. The Jaguars the last three times that they faced the Colts over the past two seasons thirty points in every single game. So Doug Peterson owns this defense. I mean, most offenses own
this defense for Indianapolis. So I think once again, they're going to finish the season strong. Mac Jones and can connect with Brian Thomas Junior. He's gonna go for one hundred yards whatever. But they're gonna be over thirty points beat the Colts, and Brian Thomas Junior is going to have himself another day and get himself into the first round of fantasy drafts next year. So it'd be fun.
I knew those guys were all having amazing rookie seasons, obviously, I didn't realize that they were all in the top eight of receiving yards this year. Those three rookies, and like Chase and Jefferson are out of reach. But some of the other names in the topic, like Seedee Lamb is not adding any more yards obviously, like Jerry Judy
is stuck with this quarterback situation in Cleveland. Now, if I'm in Ross Brown has a bad game, and these three guys have good games to finish, Like, we could reasonably see three rookies in the top five of receiving yards this year. That is very much on the table looking at the leaderboard right now, which is remarkable. Honestly, that's like just so impressive for all three of those guys.
You've been on Brian Thomas all year. I really liked Brian Thomas in August and then I just didn't end up getting him in a lot of places, and I've had a ton of fomo because of that. Welsh what do you think about Thomas finishing the season leading all rookies and receiving yards, which in most years would already be locked if it wasn't for the fact that he also has Bowers and neighbors.
I don't know my next prediction what might play a little role into it. I think it is definitely possible. He's the big play guy too. I mean, of all of these guys, there's you know, obviously there's consistency, mass amounts of catches for like Neighbors and Bowers. Thomas is the guy that's gonna make the big, big play. So I think it's absolutely in play. I'm here for It's a great matchup. It's just going to be. I mean, all mac Jones does is look at Brian Thomas, which
you love to see. I remember when Lawrence went down, we were all like, oh God, what's gonna happen? Like are we going to see? And that's Mac Jones just looks at Brian Thomas and goes to him each game. So this is definitely in play. Does it lock? I'm not one hundred percent sure, especially with my prediction. The one question I do have though, Erickson, can you cash this bet? Can you buy out of it at all?
I already looked at it. I can't. I do have another one on Neighbors too, So I mean the only one that can really just screw me over is Blrock Bowers, which he probably will so because he's just that good. So I mean I'm ready I'm ready for it. I'm like, all right, I mean, hey, this is one of those things where I don't want to die on the process. I really want the results here.
Come on, let's get to Welsh's next prediction then, because it's about brock Bowers.
Unfortunately, Bowers might ruin your weekend because brock Bowers needs nine catches to break the all time if it's tight end record. I believe that's the actual It was zach Ertz who had like one sixteen. I believe the number was so nine catches to break the all time tight end record. Brock Bowers gets ten, He's gonna have ten catches in this game. He has caught first off nine or more six times this season. He has had ten receptions four times this season. He's also received twenty targets
over his last two games. Maybe the yards will work in your favor, but I think we're getting ten balls in brock Bauer's hands and what he does with them will determine the cash and your wallet. So I don't feel super great about it, but you do have that little bit of a lead. Ten catches for brock Bowers is my bet. I do hope you catch the Brian Thomas one. I'm not sure if the Neighbors one is going to work out, but Neighbors is super close to
him as well. But brock Bowers breaking all the records of this.
Weekend scale of one to ten ericson how nervous are you about brock Bowers ruining your bets.
Here, Well, I gotta have a forty yard buffer and they're not going for yards, They're going for receptions, So it can be as easy as like, let's get them screens behind the line of scrimmage, like they don't care if it's getting yards or not. Like a catch is a catch, So that works in my favorite again, like I'd rather be in my spot than having to black rock Bowers or leak Neighbors like you're trying to catch me. So I'm in the lead. But as we see Mario
kart Hey, no lead to save. You never know what's gonna happen. Those bluees Shells are coming for you, and brock Bowers has blue shell in the arsenal, and I'm afraid.
Blushell comes from the last place teams, He's not gonna be getting that.
As got triple reds and then they're homing.
Yeah, no, no stars for black Bowers, Eric, So let's go to your number two prediction.
Tony Pollard. He's gonna play this week, hopefully, because it doesn't look like Taji Spears is gonna play, and I think he's going to hit his incentives. So he's gonna rush for eighty three plus yards exactly and hit two touchdowns exactly because that's what he needs, that's what he needs for his contract incentives. Again, the Titans have been a lost season this year. They've actually been the worst team I don't remember how long it's been, but against
the spread, the single worst team like ever. It has been absolutely ttrocious for them. So Callahan coming in after Mike Rabel has been an utter disaster. They've had super low expectations and they have somehow performed under expectations despite them being super low. Anyway, we're getting a dual quarterback usage this week between Will Levis and Mason Rudolph, which tells you Steam's not trying to necessarily win this game.
This team is trying to evaluate its quarterbacks, and I think it's pretty obvious to tell neither quarterback is going to be the answer. In twenty twenty five but when you look at Pollard, any three rushing yards away from one thy one hundred, so that's a two hundred and fifty K bonus, and he scores two touchdowns, that's going to be another two hundred thousand dollars that he'll hit
his contract. And it's interesting because the touchdowns one I don't feel as great about because in the last two games where Pollard and Spears have played together, Spears has had four rushing touchdowns, So like they had opportunities to give Pollard those touchdowns, but they did it instead of giving them to Spears. I know Pollard's been banged up a little bit the last couple of weeks, but he's going to be the guys more healthy this week. I don't think Spears is going to play at all. So
I like Tony Pollard. He used to get eighty three rushing yards and then I think he's gonna at least store one touchdown. So anytime touchdowns two touchdowns, I think Tody Pollard they're going to try to feed him if they get in, especially with Spears out, and the Texans are kind of I'm not really sure what they're doing. I mean, I don't think anybody really knows what the Texans are doing, because conventional wisdom would suggest, well, they've
nothing to play for, they should bench everybody. But they also played so horrible on Christmas that, dude, are they really just going to backdoor their way into the playoffs and hope that everything changes? Like it seems like they should play their guys to just build some type of momentum. We all kind of know that this team's not going
to make a playoff run. But if I were them and be like, no, we got to play our guys, like, we can't play like we did on Christmas, and they be like, all right, we're good to go for the playoffs, Like let's rest everybody, rest them from what they need to play better. So and you've seen that reflected in the line movement, like it was pretty heavy on the Titans as favorites, and now you're seeing Houston like minus it's like almost a pick them in in some places.
So I'm not really sure. Nobody really knows what the Houston Texas are going to do. So if it's more competitive, again, going back to Tony Pollard, that's what I'm more sure about in this matchup.
I completely agree as far as the Texans, like I would play if I were them, Like I you, it's not just that Christmas game that was like the kind of the big one that everybody saw, but like they weren't. They just have not been playing well for a while and it kind of all came to a head on
Christmas Day. But on the Tennessee side, I feel like, you know, I haven't been focusing that heavily at that kind of the race for the number one pick this year because a there's no like generational quarterback prospect this year, at least the way people are looking at it, and be like, it's just a lot of teams that, like I didn't, I didn't find that interesting to kind of
be fighting for the number one spot. The Titans are currently picking second, Like there is every possibility that you know, going into next season they have Shud or Sanders or I guess I would guess Dion would kind of you know, manipulate it so he wasn't there, but like cam Ward could be their quarterback next year, or you know, somebody else who's coming out and and kind of rises late in the process. So like they're just kind of the forgotten team for me in the you know, I keep
thinking about, like the job. So they just lost a number one pick, Like the Patriots are there, but they don't need a quarterback. You know, the Raiders won a quarterback, but they're picking eighth right now, like the Titans like are picking second and need a quarterback. And I'll be really curious to see kind of like what direction they take that because this was such a last season and like, I mean, I don't think I don't think Callahan's gonna be one and done as a head coach, but like it,
it was not an impressive year from him by any stretch. Welsh, what do you think about Tony Pollard this week?
Yeah? I like it, especially with Spears being out, having like that hardcore of an incentive. I just was laughing when you were like, he'll have exactly those yards and then he'll be out, Like that makes me laugh, But I do think I'll hit it. By the way, to jump on what you were saying, the Titans are two and fourteen against the spread. I was looking at that when you said that two and fourteen on the year.
Is why the two teams I covered against because I right at the VP Prime every week it was against the Texans, who have been also really bad against the spread this year, and when they meet the Patriots in overtime, that was it wild number.
Well, what's your next prediction.
I'm going back to the Jamison Williams. Well, maybe boring, but JMO going to continue on with that crazy pitch pass to him which saved me some money definitely on some bets. But he's just been a bigger target monster in this offense. As defenses are definitely focused on a manra they want to get the ball out of Jamison Williams. And that's the biggest change that's happened year over year, is like first read targets, design plays for Jamison Williams.
So I think he's going to go over one hundred and the Lions are going to beat the Vikings in this wild matchup. Maybe the other prediction should have been, like they do actually hit the over ridiculous over But Vikings are giving up the second most receiving yards on the year to wide receiver, but also that has maintained over the last month, the last four weeks, second most receiving yards overall to wideouts, and he has caught five passes in five of his last six games, so he
is getting a massive amount of targets. He's the guy that stretches the field. A couple opportunities that were missed in that forty nine er game as well, but you're seeing the targets go up in Ah. If you believe it's going to be a shootout based on that score, you should be in on overs for a lot of these guys, specifically Jamison Williams. I believe he also needs it's like fifty yards to one thousand, so you can
hit a thousand yard season coming up here. So big, big incoming week for Jmo Erickson.
What do you think?
I mean, he's playing in the Dome and a game with the with like the highest total I've seen I've ever seen since I think that game in Mexico between the Rams and Chiefs. I think that game was pushing like sixty points. So you got one of the same quarterbacks playing in this matchup. It's interesting because when you look at like historically the number at fifty seven, when games have closed at fifty seven and fifty seven and a half or above, the over is actually hit at
a seventy percent rate. So if the lines like settle on fifty seven to fifty seven and a half, then no, it is going to go over something.
He go down it's fifty six and a half.
Now yeah, So that so it's interesting because that is a key number because when the number is closed at fifty six and a half, it's not positive towards the over. So again, as I've always that the overs a chorus field of the NFL, but in this particular match, if it closed the fifty six and a half, the books are saying, no, this isn't gonna happen, It's gonna go under the total. If anything, the confidence would be backing
the over end. I think there's gonna be a lot of sharp money on the under because I think that's just an obvious play. I mean, this total is just it's so.
High, it just bonkers.
Again, anything can happen, and if it goes over, then it doesn't matter if you made the quote unquote right sharp move. But I think that the sharp plays clearly to take the under.
In there is a nineteen point gap between the highest total of the week and the lowest, which is thirty seven and a half for New York and Philly. Like I cannot remember ever seeing a gap like that, but two games in the same week, just like almost a twenty point gap. If it was one more point, it's.
It's it's pretty bonkers. I did want to say one thing you because it reminded me of something when you mentioned it. Welsh they're gonna get or Jamil has a chance to get a thousand receiving yards. What about this Juwan Jennings south Sayer, they're talking about getting him a thousand yards? But about that Joshua Dobbs coming in, They got the Tennessee connection. We saw him come in and kind of immediately target Jennings after it was a Ricky Pearson is it? I mean he only needs like eighty
seventy or seventy seven yards? Does he get to a thousand? Soothsayer?
Come on, no, he does, one hundred percent does But yeah, no, that one hurt me. Just as a side note, I had like a big bet, like fourteen hundred bucks on the line for George Kittle. It was a couple leg thing to just get a touchdown. Perdy gets knocked out, Dobbs is in, he throws that ball to Kittle, we
get to the five yard line. I'm like, please, we just all we needed was the Kittle touchdown, and he doesn't get it to Kittle and then he tries to throw to Jennings and I'm like, this is not gonna happen. Then he ran the ball in and ruined absolutely everything that aside me hating Josh Dobbs for that Tennessee connection one hundred percent. He's gonna be slaying the ball to Jennings and he's going to get that number for sure.
You guys can all help shape the Fantasy Pros Football podcast. Please take a minute or two to fill out our quick easy survey at fantasypros dot com slash survey and leave a review at fantasypros dot com slash review to help us improve. We really appreciate your support all season long. We thank you for listening and help us get better and put our best foot forward here into twenty twenty five. Rickson, what's your last prediction?
DeAndre Hopkins scores a touchdown? Now I did right, officially catches a touchdown from Carson Wentz, And now I'm realizing I made many a mistake with that because we've seen the Chiefs do weird things at the goal line. So watch him catch touchdown. Not from Carson Wentz, some other quarterback, no one Gray, Okay, we god this. The prediction is Hopkins scores a touchdown. It's because he is a one touchdown away from five hundred thousand dollars bonus in his contract.
And I don't think the Chiefs can necessarily sit everybody in this game. I think they're gonna sit obviously their main starters, but I think Hopkins wants hey throw me on the red zone and I'll catch touchdown and then I get my money. So I think he's gonna play enough where he gets red zone packages and he catches
a touchdown. So Hopkins touchdown for me. The official prediction is from Carson Wentz, and I can't wait for it to be mccle hartman that throws him in the touchdown, So that'll be great.
It is a good point by you, Erickson that these teams that have nothing to play for, you can't sit every You do need to field a playable team. And the guys that that's like obviously like you don't want to risk it with somebody like you know, Patrick Mahomes or whatever, but like you know, Travis Kelsey's older Anddre Hopkins is older too, but like there is a limit to like you literally cannot sit everybody that you want to if you're one of these really good teams with
a lot of stars. The Ravens right into this last year where like they had to play guys that normally you would want to sit because you just have to. So you know it, Hoptons might be one of those guys who's in there, and if you're playing, you might as well try and go get you know this contract incentive. Well, sh do you like DeAndre Hopkins to score a touchdown?
Yeah? What I like about it too, And what you're talking about here is like not everybody can play in blah blah bab. He won't be in any series until they get to the red zone. That'll be the big thing, especially if you don't want to play. He just sits on the sideline. They get into the red zone and then in comes DeAndre Hopkins for so they can really
control and maintain this. So I one hundred percent they think they're going to give him an opportunity out this obviously assuming that the team gets in the red zone. But I think inside the twenty, inside the ten, that's where it'll be some Hopkins packages, and I'm definitely in
on this. I also love that there's like I like that a lot of these teams and like coaches and stuff, you're almost playing against the organization still because maybe you know, these billionaires don't necessarily care, but they're sitting there and be like, don't put this guy in for half a million dollars. But coaches and everybody like they're going to be supportive. They're going to give some opportunities for it to happen, and I think it will with that club. And I like this one.
Plus four to twenty five anytime touchdown score on DraftKings plus twenty five hundred first touchdown score.
And then if he doesn't play, it gets avoided. Right, So you also you also have that option too he doesn't play a snap, then you get your money back.
So what was there anytime on Hopkins?
Uh four to twenty five plus four twenty.
Five that's pretty high.
First, I kind of did a double take to make sure I'm looking at it right.
But I guess they assume he's not going to start or play much or anything.
Yeah, that's about Yeah, that's a boat mine. Take advantage people.
I gotta jump on that or gu we're done.
Yeah, it was updated on DraftKings earlier this morning. Yeah, plus four twenty five anytime touchdown and plus twenty five hundred first touchdown.
I mean, if he does anything in this game, it's going to be a touchdown touchdown.
That's the point, Like, if you're good, if there's anything, it's going to be red zone targets. That would that's what he would be there for. I'm not doing yards, I'm not doing catches, just touchdown.
Welsh, what is your final prediction of the show.
All right, this is the easiest one of the week. It's a smash. I will say I did have, Like I know I mentioned earlier, my number one was going to be the Saquan one hundred and one yards. He was gonna do it in the first half. Obviously he's not playing, but this is the smash of the smash weeks. It's Mike Evans. Mike Evans is going to have a hundred yard day and he is going to also have a touchdown, even though his incentive is not tied to the touchdowns because last week, remember when I said two,
he already hit that. He needs five catches eighty five yards to get his I think it's a three million dollar bonus. He needed all those things to piece together. So this is not not to be dismissive about, like my JK. Dobbins one. This isn't like one hundred and twenty five thousand, This isn't half a million. There's a three million dollar bonus. Also, the books have already put this is what I was alluding to earlier. Mike Kevin's receiving yard line ninety one. It's opened up at. That's
a wild number to open up at. But because everybody knows where the incentives are at. The Bucks are playing for the NFC South title, so you know the importance of winning this game is absolutely in play. He's had ninety seven or more yards and three of his last five games eight catches in three of his last five games. Eight catches are more. You need five, you need eighty five. Lock lock, Let's throw a touchdown in there, because it's
an important game. Lock it up. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to get in on that yard prop because.
It went up.
By the way it went up, it's ninety five and a half now.
And I'm gonna guess his catches are probably gonna be They're probably gonna lock it at six and a half, maybe seven because he needs five, so maybe they'll mess around at five and a half. I'm gonna guess it's gonna be six and a half. It's gonna be very tempting. But because of the volume that he's going to need and the importance of winning this game, the anytime touchdown is going to be in play. It wasn't. It was minus money last week, but it's smashed, so I love
all of it. So we're going one hundred and a touchdown for Mike Evans and him securing I believe the tenth straight one thousand yard receiving season and a three million dollar bonus.
It'd be eleventh, right because he was drafting twenty fourteen eleven? Is that right? Yeah?
Sure, all of that. Yeah whatever.
It is remarkable, remarkable streak. He's insane ericson We all think that Evans is gonna hit these incentives. What do you think about that ninety five and a half line? Are you taking the over and that?
I mean, this is literally gonna happen. He's going to break the records, but then not hit any of this.
But by the way, the over over is minus one thirty.
That's what I mean. That's why he's gonna have what's gonna be. He has six catches for ninety yards, right, So everybody loses all their money because they've met the overs. But he's happy because he gets a thousand yards. He gets his five catches that he needs, but he doesn't actually get So I mean, if you can all bet this, like I think take maybe just do the over five and a half catches over eighty yards or something like that. Maybe,
and it's going to be heavy juice anyway. But if you combine their receptions in the yards because you don't want to be playing against what the incentive actually is, right, they know once he gets it that he's good to go, and that necessarily divorce things. It does from a matchup perspective, though, if I'm the Saints, I'm putting Calvin Johnson double coverage on Mike Evans.
Because hate coverage.
I mean, look, the Saints arrivals with the Buccaneers. They don't want to make it easy on Mike Evans. And it's interesting because it's the one time we have had the Saints matchup where there is no Marshall Lattimore like this has been his achilles heel his entire NFL career. As though he gets Marshawn Lattimore, he's no longer on the team. And it's interesting because when they've had these previous matchups, it's not even because of Latimore that he's
been knocked out. He's been ejected in games. He's left every game with an injury, it seems like with a hammy. Even this year when he played the Saints, he didn't play the full game because he got hurt. So that's the other thing too, is if he gets hanged up, obviously he wouldn't hit his incentives. But I'm interested to see if the Saints just throw everything at Mike Evans like no, like, we're not gonna let him make this easy on him, and we're gonna do everything to stop him.
And I mean, they want to win this game, they want to play spoiler in some way. Again, I don't think that they can win, especially against the B team, but it would be interesting to see if Rizzy's like, no, our goal is to make sure Mike Evans doesn't get to one thousand receiving yards. We're gonna throw everything at at him. To stop him, and Baker Mayfield has as good as he's been this year. He's throwing a lot of interceptions.
It sounds like you might want to play an under By the way, Baker has an incentive as well. I just had it before and I went away from it. It's like the completion percentage to be in like the top ten. I think of completion percentage in the league, and it's a multimillion dollar bonus attached to it. So not that that's going to like drive anything, but you know, probably maybe be looking a little bit more screen passy. There.
Sounds like you might want to play a Mike Evans under on receiving errands this week because you can go under ninety five and he can still hit his goal.
Under is also even money, but that's not fun.
It's not fun, undertaker.
I know, I want to do the reception. I want to do the receptions and the receiving yards like because like I think ultimately he's gonna get it. I mean, he's one. He's a Hall of Fame receiver. Again talking about theoretically with the Saints, oh they could do this and that, but it's also like Dan Rizzi man, like is he actually gonna do this, like probably not, and they just don't have they don't have the ponies anymore.
We've also heard Baker specifically talk about this thousand yard marker, which is super important. And I just reiterate again, this is not like a half or quarter million dollar bonus. This is three million dollars. This is a huge bonus that they're one hundred percent going to be paying attention to.
Also, they need to win this game still technically, I mean he likely there is they can get in the playoffs without winning, but like they want to win to clinch the division, and it is like good practice to throw the bottom with Mike Evit's like it's not like he's some you know, terrible player at this point in his career that you're just doing like giving charity to, Like he's their best receiver, like they want to throw to him to win this game, even aside from the
fact that there's all these incentives too.
So and he can also make play. I mean, he can be double covered and still cast the ball really like that was before. If anything, like that's where he thrives.
He's pretty good.
Yeah, yeah, all right, or wrapp up there, Thanks everybody for tuning in. If you do you have a matchup in week eighteen, I apologize on behalf of your commissioner and best of luck to you. Hopefully this is just serving as more of a preview or maybe some subbending or dfs for you, but best of luck if you do have a matchup there four Welsh and Ericsson. I'm Ryan warmly thank you everybody for tuning in and we'll see again next week. Thanks for listening to the Fantasy
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