Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Time now for Fantasy Football Weekly from iHeartRadio, your weekly
Speaker 2: source for the nation's best fantasy football advice, speculation, and
Speaker 2: whatever stupid stuff they decide to drop into the show.
Speaker 2: Now here's your host, Paul Chargion.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Fantasy Football Weekly, Playoff edition. Yes, it's taken
Speaker 1: us eighteen long weeks to get here, but Brian Johnson,
Speaker 1: we've got playoff football.
Speaker 3: Lots of it, and some football weather as people like
Speaker 3: to call it, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, I think I think a lot of it's
Speaker 1: being overstated. You know, I'll believe it when I see it.
Speaker 1: This is the time of week when a lot of
Speaker 1: times people are are suggesting way worse weather than it
Speaker 1: turns out to be.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't think there's something denying the cold that's
Speaker 3: gonna be in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: Though it'll be cold.
Speaker 3: We'll get into all these games, of course, Yeah, like
Speaker 3: historically cold for you know, I think of like the
Speaker 3: Giants Packers game in seven, the red based Yeah, Tom
Speaker 3: Coughlin game Vikings Seahawks.
Speaker 1: I think is the most recent game that's in this ballpark.
Speaker 1: That one was negative five. I believe it kickoff, and
Speaker 1: of course Bud Grant came running out.
Speaker 3: In Minnesota Stadium. Of course, people wondering they're plight the
Speaker 3: Gopher Stadium. Yeah, we Grant yep, shorts leeves.
Speaker 1: Yep when they were building US Bank Stadium. So that
Speaker 1: was that was epic for sure. Lots of games to
Speaker 1: get through. And the way I decided to do this
Speaker 1: rather than like break every date game down and completely
Speaker 1: like FFW style, I just want to pick out sort
Speaker 1: of key interesting angles from each one of these. It
Speaker 1: could be for use in your DFS team. It could
Speaker 1: be for use if you're cobbling together a playoff roster
Speaker 1: like the full playoffs. If you're a better you could
Speaker 1: probably use some of this for prop bets. So however
Speaker 1: you want to play. I think this is going to
Speaker 1: be some cool stuff to look at, Brian, and I thought,
Speaker 1: maybe we just attack these in the order in which
Speaker 1: they will be played this weekend.
Speaker 3: Makes sense.
Speaker 1: That brings us to Cleveland Houston. This is with all
Speaker 1: the great quarterbacks that are coming up this weekend, Brian.
Speaker 1: So like Miami, you get Tua versus Mahomes, then we
Speaker 1: got Josh Allen, and we've got Jordan Love who might
Speaker 1: be the third consecutive Hall of Fame quarterback for the
Speaker 1: for the Packers at Dallas and Dak Prescott. You've got
Speaker 1: the great quarterback situation between the Rams and the Lions.
Speaker 1: You've got Jalen Hurts and whether or not he's you
Speaker 1: know how hurt is he going to be? Can he
Speaker 1: be effective? But the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Texans
Speaker 1: Joe Flacco.
Speaker 3: C J.
Speaker 1: Stroud is my favorite game from this whole weekend.
Speaker 3: The first one. I'm going to watch. The other ones
Speaker 3: I don't. I'm not getting Peacock after that game. I'm
Speaker 3: the I'm the Mahomes and Tua. Yeah, this is the
Speaker 3: primetime game right here.
Speaker 1: I love this game. So I want to the angle
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about that I'm really
Speaker 1: interested in. Is a big game from c J. Stroud.
Speaker 1: I think most of America doesn't realize how good CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud is. And because the Texans were never on national
Speaker 1: television they had only noon local time starts every week
Speaker 1: until Week eighteen when they had their win and in
Speaker 1: game against the Colts, most of the country doesn't realize
Speaker 1: just how good CJ. Stroud is.
Speaker 3: Brian no and like what he's really catching fire. Maybe
Speaker 3: they would have flexed Houston into one of the primetime games,
Speaker 3: and then he got hurt and he missed what two
Speaker 3: three games. That's a road with the concussion.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, but I.
Speaker 3: Am he's gonna see how he handles the big lights,
Speaker 3: the bright lights.
Speaker 1: Even knowing our listeners are hardcore football fans, I bet
Speaker 1: most of them don't realize Houston has won seven of
Speaker 1: the last ten games. You know, it took him a
Speaker 1: little while to sort of shake off several years of losing,
Speaker 1: right and then you know the last over the last
Speaker 1: ten games, I get seven wins. I mean that's you know,
Speaker 1: those are in several of the legitimate wins against good teams.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about CJ. Stroud in particular. The Cleveland secondary.
Speaker 1: Denzel Ward questionable, Mike Ford questionable, two important cornerbacks safety
Speaker 1: Grant Delpit just got put on IR and the other
Speaker 1: safety wants Thornhill, may not play in this game. Those
Speaker 1: are huge angles. And the other thing that I think
Speaker 1: is really interesting is that you know, we all view
Speaker 1: Cleveland as an elite defense, and they are a good defense,
Speaker 1: but you know what their pass defense was elite for
Speaker 1: the first twelve games, Let's talk about the more recent
Speaker 1: six games. Cleveland yielding sixty one more passing yards over
Speaker 1: the most recent six games and over the double number
Speaker 1: of passing touchdowns two over two two point one passing
Speaker 1: touchdowns per game over the last six Brian this pass
Speaker 1: defense and get a load of this over those four games,
Speaker 1: justin fields, Davis Mills, Trevor Simeon, and Jake Browning were
Speaker 1: among the quarterbacks who were putting up big games and
Speaker 1: helping propel Cleveland to the to the futility stats that
Speaker 1: I just mentioned.
Speaker 3: That's gonna be a whole nother story with Stroud under
Speaker 3: the safety of a dome too. You got all the
Speaker 3: dome games.
Speaker 1: By the way, I didn't realize that games. You're right,
Speaker 1: I got, I got, I got. I don't have any
Speaker 1: to deal with any weather for any of my games. No, yeah,
Speaker 1: the uh. If I were allowed to legally bet in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: I would be betting C. J. Stroud over one and
Speaker 1: a half passing touchdowns. I'm not Houston scores through the air,
Speaker 1: as anybody who rostered Damian Pierce sorry or Devin Singletary knows,
Speaker 1: they don't score on the ground. This team scored seventy
Speaker 1: five percent of their touchdowns through the air, Nico Collins,
Speaker 1: and maybe, if you're feeling up to it, how about
Speaker 1: a little Dalton Shultz as an angle here or for
Speaker 1: receiving touchdown as well. I like I like those angles.
Speaker 1: I think I think scores are coming here another reason.
Speaker 3: And by the way, I was gonna ask, is this
Speaker 3: the this might be the highest over under of the weekend.
Speaker 1: No, it's not. No, it's uh, it's great. I think yeah,
Speaker 1: I think it is done. I think that one's like
Speaker 1: fifty five. Uh.
Speaker 3: Everybody to guess all the Dome games of the top
Speaker 3: three probably probably.
Speaker 1: Uh, here's the other angle I want to talk.
Speaker 3: And and a half. Well, we'll get to those of
Speaker 3: the games later.
Speaker 1: Go ahead, Sorry, Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt, I think
Speaker 1: are going to struggle in this game. So we mentioned
Speaker 1: Houston played it's nationally It's one nationally telbysed game last week,
Speaker 1: and Jonathan Taylor ran through the Texans and almost single
Speaker 1: handedly brought the Colts to the playoffs. But Taylor couldn't
Speaker 1: quite get there but a. It took Taylor thirty carries
Speaker 1: in that game to get to his hundred and eighty
Speaker 1: eight rushing yards. But more importantly, that output was a
Speaker 1: total anomaly against a surging Houston run defense. Get a
Speaker 1: load of this. How great the Houston run defense had
Speaker 1: been prior to Jonathan Taylor last week in the ten games.
Speaker 1: Prior ten games along sample size, I'd mentioned that ten
Speaker 1: game win loss thing for Reston in the prior ten games,
Speaker 1: Brian Houston's run defense giving up two point seven yards
Speaker 1: per carry. That's it. Here's what some better runners than
Speaker 1: Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt have done against Houston recently.
Speaker 1: Two meetings with Derrick Henry his average game twenty five
Speaker 1: yards and one point eight yards per carry, Breese Hall
Speaker 1: forty yards, Javonte Williams forty six yards, Travis Etn averaged
Speaker 1: two point eight yards per carry. Joe Mixon put up
Speaker 1: forty six yards, and two games ago when these teams met,
Speaker 1: Jerome Ford twenty five yards, Kareem Hunt eleven yards rushing.
Speaker 1: That's it. I believe Houston's gonna win this game.
Speaker 3: They're the underdogs.
Speaker 1: I believe they are underdogs. I believe three is point underdogs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was wrong. Forty four and a half point
Speaker 3: over under. It is the third highest but it's like
Speaker 3: six seven points behind the other two indoor games, Dallas,
Speaker 3: Green Bay Rams.
Speaker 1: Well, it's because you know, people broadly believe this Cleveland defense.
Speaker 1: I think the perception was set through those first twelve
Speaker 1: weeks that Cleveland is a shut down defense. I'm just
Speaker 1: here to say they haven't played that way for six weeks.
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like parlaying the over with those props you mentioned,
Speaker 3: the Stroud overs, maybe the you know, hit that over.
Speaker 3: The Texans got to score some points, and they're gonna
Speaker 3: do that through the air, like you said, most likely.
Speaker 1: All right, let's go to Miami taking on Kansas City.
Speaker 3: All right, Yeah, we know it's gonna be cold, negative
Speaker 3: twenty wind, chill, all that stuff. Tickets are like forty
Speaker 3: bucks right now. I saw. That's pretty crazy for a
Speaker 3: Chiefs playoff, that really is. I doubt Taylor Swift will
Speaker 3: be there. But these teams played this season actually in Germany.
Speaker 3: If you recall back in Week nine, the pre hard
Speaker 3: knock days for the Dolphins.
Speaker 1: Have you been watching I've not watched the end the
Speaker 1: season hard knocks. I watch a lot of football, Brian,
Speaker 1: I get enough, as.
Speaker 3: Do I But I don't know. I don't know he's
Speaker 3: still in between the football you are. My favorite part
Speaker 3: of Hard Knocks is the non football, though I hate
Speaker 3: when they show the football in Hard Knocks. I like
Speaker 3: all the all field stuff, but the anyway, it was
Speaker 3: an ugly game Chiefs one twenty one to fourteen, and
Speaker 3: that one can't probably be an ugly game in this one.
Speaker 3: Kansas City four and a half point favorites over Under
Speaker 3: a forty three and a half. We expect the weather,
Speaker 3: the extreme cold, to play a role in this game.
Speaker 3: On the injury front, Raheem Moster expected to make his return,
Speaker 3: but Miami's defense is all sorts of banged up. Xavian
Speaker 3: Howard has been ruled out both starting safety is questionable
Speaker 3: to play. Miami's lost about five linebackers the last four weeks,
Speaker 3: so that they're all they're all sorts of injured on
Speaker 3: the on the defensive side of the ball for Miami,
Speaker 3: So you know, it's really all about the cold. There's
Speaker 3: not a lot of players that really stand out in
Speaker 3: this game, even though there are huge names, but guys
Speaker 3: I'm fading or like Tyreek Hill, Travis Kelcey. The guy
Speaker 3: I like most in this game is a DFS dark Pros.
Speaker 3: Noah Gray, who's a He'll probably come coming close to
Speaker 3: bare minimum. The Dolphins are one of eight teams to
Speaker 3: yield at least one hundred and twenty five targets to
Speaker 3: tight ends, one of five teams to allow at least
Speaker 3: nine hundred yards and seven touchdowns to the position. And
Speaker 3: so those are great numbers obviously for posing tight ends.
Speaker 3: And we've seen Gray get involved. And I gotta give
Speaker 3: credit to Derek Brown of Fantasy Pros for this da
Speaker 3: he went in a little deeper. Since Week thirteen, Miami
Speaker 3: has utilized Cover three or Cover six. Those are zone coverages.
Speaker 3: You know the takeaway basically the deep play on more
Speaker 3: than fifty percent of their defensive snaps. And this week twelve,
Speaker 3: against these coverages, Noah Gray has a thirty percent targets
Speaker 3: per route run that's third on the team and nearly
Speaker 3: three yards per route run when facing Cover three or
Speaker 3: Cover six. And those are great numbers. And I don't
Speaker 3: know Travis Kelce is taking a step back. So Noah
Speaker 3: Gray a great a dart throw there. When I talk
Speaker 3: about fading guys, I think Tyreek kill is the number
Speaker 3: one fade in a revenge game. So this is a
Speaker 3: guy you know you're not gonna want to use him
Speaker 3: in your one and done pools, even though you usually
Speaker 3: win that team like the Dolphins, you don't expect to win.
Speaker 3: You're like, oh, I want to use one of the
Speaker 3: big name players. This is my only chance to use them,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? A one and done game
Speaker 3: where you don't use a player once in the playoffs. Ye,
Speaker 3: he'll all sorts of banged up with the ankle injury.
Speaker 3: The chief secondary, led by Lagerius sneed maybe the best
Speaker 3: corner in the game, at least one of the best.
Speaker 3: They're going to focus on him, and Kansas City as
Speaker 3: a whole deploys a lot of two high safety zone looks,
Speaker 3: which actually caters more to Jalen Waddle, So I have
Speaker 3: to pick a receiver in this game, it's Waddle against
Speaker 3: two high safety zone. Wattle actually leads Hill in targets
Speaker 3: per route run, so he has more targets per oute
Speaker 3: run in his coverage and yards per route run four
Speaker 3: and a half, which is a lot for Waddle to
Speaker 3: just three from Hill. So the Chiefs are not going
Speaker 3: to want Tyreek Hill to go off in this game.
Speaker 3: So I think they're going to do everything in their
Speaker 3: power to take away, you know, the deeplay threat from Hill,
Speaker 3: So I like Wattle more in this game. So I'm
Speaker 3: totally out on Hill.
Speaker 1: So you know, I'm just out of that game in
Speaker 1: a nutshell.
Speaker 3: Hopefully no one gets frost play.
Speaker 1: Like I'm just out on the passing games. I just
Speaker 1: think there's a point at which, if it's cold enough,
Speaker 1: the air just comes out of the ball, and I
Speaker 1: would be more inclined to try to orient maybe towards
Speaker 1: the running backs in this one. But that's that's just me,
Speaker 1: and I think we're at that stage where it's just
Speaker 1: it's just gonna might be one of those games where
Speaker 1: nothing's really moving. So yeah, we'll see, we'll see. I
Speaker 1: think you raised some really valid points about the Miami
Speaker 1: defense being very suspect and very banged up, and you know,
Speaker 1: but I'm doneculating that this is the game that Kansas
Speaker 1: City turns it around, because we've been doing that for
Speaker 1: two months.
Speaker 3: I saw, you know, that Miami's got historically bad record
Speaker 3: in cold weather games, and I saw how they Mike
Speaker 3: McDaniel said, they got the facility, they can get it
Speaker 3: down to fifty with the air conditioning.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 3: They've been practicing. We like you better be doing that
Speaker 3: like basically naked, like you know, ice packs.
Speaker 2: Me.
Speaker 3: I don't know, it's gonna be an ugly game.
Speaker 1: That is gonna be an ugly game. Watch remember Miami
Speaker 1: you traveled to was it Buffalo last year? Skyler Thompson
Speaker 1: almost won that game in cold weather. Let's let's go
Speaker 1: to Pittsburgh Buffalo the next one up. This is also
Speaker 1: one of yours, and this is also a weather game.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: It sounds like over the totality of the weekend, there's
Speaker 1: going to be quite a bit of snow. It's unclear
Speaker 1: as to how much snow Brian is actually going to
Speaker 1: fall during game. You know, Buffalo knows all about from
Speaker 1: snow removal. You know, they all all the lake effects
Speaker 1: snow that they've they've gotten since the city was uh,
Speaker 1: you know founded. So I don't believe the rumors that
Speaker 1: they might move the game or anything like that. And
Speaker 1: I'm not and I'm not fully believing the stories that
Speaker 1: it's going to be like a foot of snow during
Speaker 1: the game or anything like that.
Speaker 3: No, and then supposedly the main snow is going to
Speaker 3: be on Saturday or you know overnight, so they love
Speaker 3: time to clear the field and all that. So I'm
Speaker 3: not too worried about that. It's uh, it's Buffalo. It's nothing,
Speaker 3: nothing new, and this is definitely not one of the
Speaker 3: sexier games on a Super wild Card weekend. From an
Speaker 3: offensive standpoint, Buffalo nine and a half point favorites over
Speaker 3: under a thirty five and that's basically all on the
Speaker 3: Buffalo side. Right. TJ. Watt been ruled out for Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: That is huge. I mean for Pittsburgh to have a
Speaker 3: chance in this game, their defense has a step up.
Speaker 3: Big TJ. Watt one of the best pass rushers in
Speaker 3: the NFL. So that boats well for Buffalo. Gabe Davis,
Speaker 3: I'm likely to play that might be.
Speaker 1: They've ruled them out.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I wasn't expecting to go. So he's out. Uh,
Speaker 3: so you can we can throw that. We can mitigate
Speaker 3: all roller coaster ride risk, whether you're gonna get zero
Speaker 3: points or thirty from from Gabe Davis. So Khalil Shakir
Speaker 3: a guy who will be popular for sure. He's stepped
Speaker 3: up after since if this has been down the last
Speaker 3: game or two. Really, you know, from the Bill side,
Speaker 3: I'm worried about the Bills from the perspective of best
Speaker 3: ball contest, where you know there's an advancement after each round,
Speaker 3: where the Bills are probably gonna win this game, but
Speaker 3: they're not gonna score a lot of points. One would
Speaker 3: think so a lot of best ball teams are probably
Speaker 3: gonna die by that are heavily invested in the Bills
Speaker 3: even though they're gonna advance to the next round most likely,
Speaker 3: but not gonna score a lot of points. So from
Speaker 3: a from a DFS perspective, I'm gonna go with a
Speaker 3: Steeler as my my dark phone. It's Jalen Warren who
Speaker 3: is has reverted back to the to the backup role
Speaker 3: behind Najie Harris, even though it's always been a fifty
Speaker 3: to fifty split. Essentially, the Bills were one of six
Speaker 3: teams to allow at least eighty five catches in seven
Speaker 3: hundred yards to opposing running backs. Buffalo also deploys two
Speaker 3: high safety coverage at the third highest clip in the league,
Speaker 3: and Mason Rudolph has targeted his running backs over forty
Speaker 3: percent of the time against too high and Jalen Warren
Speaker 3: is the still the preferred pass catching running back and
Speaker 3: Rudolph gonna be under a lot of durest. Most likely.
Speaker 3: I see him checking down to Warren a lot in
Speaker 3: this game, and the condition is not being great for passing.
Speaker 3: Most likely, I to see Warren as a safety blanket,
Speaker 3: and he's gonna be the cheapest running back on the
Speaker 3: slate that gets significant run for you, and he's gonna
Speaker 3: come in at a very low ownership percentage. So he's
Speaker 3: my contrariant dart throat in DFS. Really, the fade is
Speaker 3: just almost anyone else in this game, even from the
Speaker 3: Buffalo side. They're gonna need to score ten points and
Speaker 3: that's like I mean, they'll they'll put the pedal to
Speaker 3: the middle a little more than that, But this is
Speaker 3: not a fun game. From an offensive perspective.
Speaker 1: James Cook could get a lot of work. They could
Speaker 1: see them getting ahead and then just running Cook a
Speaker 1: bunch and and holding there. And it's hard to find
Speaker 1: your spots with Cook, right, you got to really be
Speaker 1: thoughtful about it. I think this could be one of them.
Speaker 1: Let's go to the next game that that's up as
Speaker 1: we transition to the Sunday late afternoon game, that's Green
Speaker 1: Bay at Dallas for Jordan love some night. I think
Speaker 1: there's some sneaky opportunity here. First of all, by the way,
Speaker 1: is over under of rushing yards is like nine. He's
Speaker 1: gonna run from Micah Parsons for nine on the first
Speaker 1: drive potentially, So there's there's some opportunity for betters that way.
Speaker 1: The uh, I want to talk about some recent passing
Speaker 1: stats against Dallas, and I want to I'm gonna go
Speaker 1: all the way back to week twelve, so we're gonna
Speaker 1: have a fairly long sample size here. But I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw out two games. First, the Cowboys got blown out
Speaker 1: by Buffalo and they barely passed. I think Josh Allen
Speaker 1: threw like fourteen passes in the game, So I'm gonna
Speaker 1: throw that game out. I'm throwing out Sam Howell's woeful
Speaker 1: start last Sunday in a meeting, you know, in a
Speaker 1: meaningless game which everybody that they were gonna get uh,
Speaker 1: you know, everybody's gonna get fired howl those you know,
Speaker 1: was not necessarily the intended starter. They've been starting Jacoby
Speaker 1: him over Jacoby Brissetts. They had to blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: So I'm throwing those out. But other than that, all
Speaker 1: the other quarterbacks are averaging two hundred and eighty yards
Speaker 1: against Dallas and two eighties a pretty darn good day.
Speaker 1: So I feel like Jordan Love's got that in them.
Speaker 1: It's probably Dallas is gonna score points in this game.
Speaker 1: Is when we talking about that in a minute. I
Speaker 1: think Green Bay answers with plenty of passing in particular,
Speaker 1: and the Dallas safeties are bad. Donovan Wilson and jay
Speaker 1: Ron Curse have Pro Football focused coverage grades as safety
Speaker 1: thirty three and safety one hundred and one. I didn't
Speaker 1: think there were one hundred and one safeties in the NFL.
Speaker 1: Love's been obviously way better lately, and I I really
Speaker 1: seven of his last nine games he's had over two
Speaker 1: hundred and eighty six yards. I think Jordan Love is
Speaker 1: gonna flirt with the three hundred yard mark in this one.
Speaker 1: I really like him here and that like receivers.
Speaker 3: Too, sorry to cut you off there, it's unlikely to happen,
Speaker 3: but he still will not have his entire offense healthy
Speaker 3: for one game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, not all the starting receivers. Yeah, no, I mean nobody.
Speaker 1: You know, there are lots of cases. If you're like
Speaker 1: the totality of the offense. You don't have those. That's
Speaker 1: that's many many teams that don't have older starters. But
Speaker 1: he hasn't even had all of his starting receivers on
Speaker 1: the field for one game.
Speaker 3: And barely He's never had Aaron Jones and aj week one.
Speaker 3: Then it's been crazier for Green May. But I'm excited
Speaker 3: for this game too. It should be the over unders
Speaker 3: over fifty points, so it should be a pretty entertaining one.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Dak Prescott for a minute. I think
Speaker 1: sitting on a very big game. Here's the passers the
Speaker 1: Packers have faced for the last five weeks. Justin fields
Speaker 1: a half of Jaron Hall and a half of Nick Mullins,
Speaker 1: Bryce Young, Baker Mayfield, Tommy DeVito comes Dak Prescott and
Speaker 1: Cede Lamb and Brandon Cooks. You know, and Mayfield and Young,
Speaker 1: by the way, went off on the Packers. They combined
Speaker 1: for seven hundred yards and six touchdowns. Brian, I think
Speaker 1: this is a big game coming for Dak Prescott. Green
Speaker 1: Bay has got the worst set of cornerbacks in the
Speaker 1: playoffs and maybe the whole league. Keishawn Nixon is basically
Speaker 1: a special teams return man forced to play slot cornerbacks.
Speaker 1: They don't have anybody else, which brings us to Cede
Speaker 1: Lamb gigantic game possibly in coming here against Keishawn Nixon,
Speaker 1: the eighty second ranked cornerback in coverage by Pro Football Focus,
Speaker 1: giving up an eighty two percent catch rate and an
Speaker 1: opposer passer rating of one hundred and four. Here's what
Speaker 1: other slot receivers have done against the Packers since Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1: Adam Thielen ninety four yards, Chris Godwin ten catches one
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty five yards, when Dale Robinson's seventy nine yards.
Speaker 1: Rashee Rice, running mostly from the slot, eight catches sixty
Speaker 1: four yards. I'm on Ross Saint Brown nine catches ninety
Speaker 1: five yards. Keenan Allen ten catches one hundred and sixteen yards.
Speaker 1: These slow receivers killing the killing the Packers, averaging eight
Speaker 1: receptions one hundred yards. Ceedee Lamb is the hottest receiver
Speaker 1: in football. It's gonna be a great game for him
Speaker 1: and tons of points coming.
Speaker 3: I saw a prop when it was Ceedee Lamb, and
Speaker 3: I forget who else. It was like Tyreek Hill or
Speaker 3: Mike another big name receiver, but it was for Ceedee
Speaker 3: Lamb and that other receiver to combine for three hundred
Speaker 3: and a half yards.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: I like ceedee Lamb might get that himself.
Speaker 1: Three hundred yards, man, that's not that much.
Speaker 3: But she could sniff two hundred. That's not too far
Speaker 3: fetched any means.
Speaker 1: The Sunday night game is also mine. That's Rams and Lions.
Speaker 1: Let's talk that one through for a minute. I think
Speaker 1: there's possible struggles coming for David Montgomery and Jamier gibbson
Speaker 1: this one. Quietly. The Rams have been a terrific run defense.
Speaker 1: It's largely powered. They're way into the playoffs. No back
Speaker 1: has fifty four rushing yards since Week nine. I mean
Speaker 1: that's you know, we're talking the entire second half of
Speaker 1: the season and over that stretch, opposing runners averaging just
Speaker 1: three point seven yards per carry. And since Week nine
Speaker 1: they've given up one rushing touchdown. Brian, these are elite
Speaker 1: run defense metrics. Montgomery and Gibbs have been very safe
Speaker 1: weekly starters throughout the regular season. Not so much here,
Speaker 1: and let me put some icing on that Rams are
Speaker 1: great against running backs through the air. They ranked number
Speaker 1: two on the season in receiving yards allowed to runners
Speaker 1: and they gave up one running back touchdown through the air.
Speaker 1: All season, the average running back game through the air
Speaker 1: was against the Rams four catches twenty one yards. So
Speaker 1: if Montgomery and Gibbs are gonna share that, that gives
Speaker 1: them two catches for ten and a half yards each.
Speaker 1: That's it. So I think those guys might struggle in
Speaker 1: this game. And it also, by the way, it makes
Speaker 1: me wonder if if the Lions do struggle to run
Speaker 1: the ball, which is kind of their bread and butter,
Speaker 1: that I feel like sets up the rest of their offense.
Speaker 1: I wonder what happens the rest of their offense. Phokinakua
Speaker 1: is sitting on a potentially gigantic game, Brian.
Speaker 3: We're gonna say that every week for like ten years,
Speaker 3: I feel like, But yeah, he's.
Speaker 1: Gonna face off, most commonly against Kendall Vildor, an old
Speaker 1: FFW favorite. Oh if we loved picking on Kendall Vildor.
Speaker 1: Over the past five weeks, the Lions have allowed the
Speaker 1: most receiving yards to wide receivers. Buy a mile. Get
Speaker 1: that this is just to wide receivers, two hundred twenty
Speaker 1: eight yards per game to the wide receiver position. Who
Speaker 1: can akoup is good for?
Speaker 3: Brian?
Speaker 1: What do you think half of the total RAMS wide
Speaker 1: receiver yardage output?
Speaker 3: One would think. Now there's Cooper Cup in town and
Speaker 3: DeMarcus Robinson though he's been guarding some attention. But yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: that's a safe assumption.
Speaker 1: So Kindallvildor is an outside cornerback, and you know they
Speaker 1: didn't want to start him, but they got stuck starting
Speaker 1: him because of Emmanuel Moseley's injury. Now, let me give
Speaker 1: you some Kindle Vildor futility stats. You're ready opposer passer
Speaker 1: rating in Kindallvildor's coverage, Brian, you want to guess.
Speaker 3: It's triple digits, and I'm not counting decimal points. There
Speaker 3: would be quintuple digits with decimal points. One eleven point seventy.
Speaker 1: Four perfect, of course, is a one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: eight passer rating in his coverage. He's giving up a
Speaker 1: one hundred forty four passer rating in his coverage. He owns.
Speaker 1: The league's longest average reception is against Kendall Vildor. You
Speaker 1: want to can't get us what the average reception against Kendallvilldor.
Speaker 3: Is seventeen yards twenty two.
Speaker 1: I mean, think about that. You're getting twenty too high. No, right,
Speaker 1: it's it's unbelievable. He's allowed the longest reception from scrimmage
Speaker 1: across the entire league Kindallvilldor and he's allowed touchdowns and
Speaker 1: back to back games entering this one. It's a potentially
Speaker 1: massive game for Puka Nkua on the outside, which is
Speaker 1: where you'll find Kindallvildor. DeMarcus Robinson also runs from the outside.
Speaker 1: He's gonna see some Kindallvilldor too. I wouldn't. I would
Speaker 1: consider him as somebody that you could you could make
Speaker 1: some waves with. I think the Rams as much as
Speaker 1: we all want the Lions. I think with their years
Speaker 1: of futility, the Rams won the Super Bowl three years ago.
Speaker 1: You know, I think most people feel like the Lions
Speaker 1: deserve to win this. We might want them to win this.
Speaker 1: I think the Rams are gonna win.
Speaker 3: I kind of do too. Another great game, though Philadelphia
Speaker 3: Philadelphia Tampa on Monday night is the least interesting of
Speaker 3: these to me, other than the possibility that Philadelphia ends
Speaker 3: up losing six to the last seven.
Speaker 1: Fire the coach, I mean, who I mean this watching
Speaker 1: all of this happen to Philadelphia. Not that I want
Speaker 1: bad things for Philadelphia. I don't, but it's just I
Speaker 1: just can't believe what I'm seeing. When this team was
Speaker 1: sitting at what like ten and one through eleven weeks,
Speaker 1: they were they were on, they were gonna coast to
Speaker 1: the number one seed, and now here they are, they're
Speaker 1: traveling to Tampa. Nobody saw this coming. Unbelievable drama.
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were like the first team that was ten
Speaker 3: and one to not reach twelve wins. Ever, I think
Speaker 3: I read and that's now there's an extra game where
Speaker 3: you can get to the twelve.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's an amazing stat.
Speaker 3: So yeah, they're in this total tailspin in Philly, and
Speaker 3: of course everyone outside of Philadelphia is loving every second
Speaker 3: of it. But it gets worse on Thursday. Jalen Hurts
Speaker 3: says he has not thrown a football since he injured
Speaker 3: his finger on last Sunday, So we'll see what happens
Speaker 3: on Friday Saturday. But his middle his fingers messed up
Speaker 3: on his throwing, and he said it was a mistake
Speaker 3: going back in the game against the Giants, and there's
Speaker 3: really nothing to play forelmost at that point. So yeah,
Speaker 3: you gotta be worried about all of the Eagles, especially
Speaker 3: DeAndre Swift. He's the I'll roll the dice on the
Speaker 3: passing game because you know that's how you attack the Bucks.
Speaker 3: But it's no shock or that you don't want to
Speaker 3: go with DeAndre Swift really in any format against the Bucks,
Speaker 3: allowing three point six yards per carry and the eighth
Speaker 3: lowest rushing success rate over the final ten weeks of
Speaker 3: the regular season. In Swift, you know who's usually he
Speaker 3: can be a bell cow back when given the opportunities,
Speaker 3: meaning you know, he gets his carries and he gets
Speaker 3: worked through the He's been invisible in the pass game
Speaker 3: over his last six totally, just six catches for seventeen
Speaker 3: scoreless yards on eleven targets during that span his last
Speaker 3: six games. So gross, gross prospects for DeAndre Swift in
Speaker 3: this game. What I'm who I'm most excited for is
Speaker 3: Baker Mayfield, who coming off a really bad game statistically
Speaker 3: against Carolina last week, but he was banged up and
Speaker 3: teams just we said it all season, they do not
Speaker 3: throw against the Panthers, and the Panthers do have a
Speaker 3: good secondary when teams do choose to throw against them.
Speaker 3: But who doesn't have a good secondary, And it's taken
Speaker 3: a total you know from last season is Philadelphia. Since
Speaker 3: Week thirteen, Philly has allowed the sixth highest yards per attempt,
Speaker 3: the third most passing touchdowns, the fourth highest passer rating,
Speaker 3: the seventh highest adjusted completion rate. Again, Baker's been banged
Speaker 3: up with the rib injury, but he'll benefit from the
Speaker 3: extra day arrest with its game being on Monday night,
Speaker 3: which I hate, by the way, it should.
Speaker 1: Just be tween. So I mean some you know, the
Speaker 1: winner here is gonna get at most six days rest.
Speaker 1: They'll get six. They won't play him on Saturday, but
Speaker 1: they get six days.
Speaker 3: Still disadvantage.
Speaker 1: It's a sizable disadvantage, and.
Speaker 3: I do I will admit. Once Monday comes around, you know,
Speaker 3: Monday night, you're like, oh, there's a football game on,
Speaker 3: So I guess I'm glad they did wait, But overall
Speaker 3: it's it's stupid. But anyway, uh, not stupid would be
Speaker 3: stacking the Buccaneers from all angles against this Eagles defense,
Speaker 3: starting with the obvious guys Mike Evans, Chris Godwin, you
Speaker 3: can go all the way down to Kate Otten though,
Speaker 3: just super stackable friendly team. Uh for the Bucks who
Speaker 3: there's gonna be some rain in this one. Philly still
Speaker 3: favored three point favorites. I don't know about that. This
Speaker 3: feels more like just a toss up to me with
Speaker 3: the way the Eagles have been playing, But I would
Speaker 3: not be shocked to see the the Bucks pull the
Speaker 3: upset here. And uh, you know, Rashad White can only
Speaker 3: say good things about Rashad White that the Eagles run
Speaker 3: defense is all so taking a complete one eighty just again,
Speaker 3: total tail spin. All the Bucks are in play in
Speaker 3: this game, I'd give.
Speaker 1: Some you want, you want a dart throw buck, It's
Speaker 1: Trey Palmer. Trey Palmer. Yeah, the slot has been a
Speaker 1: problem for Philadelphia all year long, and in some cases
Speaker 1: a massive problem for them. And you know Philadelphia's you know,
Speaker 1: they got they got a Vonte Maddox back there, and
Speaker 1: you know Maddox is he's not terrible, but he's you know,
Speaker 1: also not all that good. Philadelphia is allowed let me
Speaker 1: look at it, see if they've allowed the fourth most
Speaker 1: Fantasy points to the slot. So yeah, that'll be that'll
Speaker 1: be one to watch as well if you need a
Speaker 1: sort of DFS dart throw Trey Palmer potential. Can we
Speaker 1: can we just feel good about Baker Mayfield for a second.
Speaker 1: I mean, the dude when ignominiously ejected from Cleveland. You know,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people, a lot of fans,
Speaker 1: you know, after watching his TV ads for three years,
Speaker 1: and we're like, what has he done to earn this
Speaker 1: level of stature? Blah blah blah whatever, just very quietly
Speaker 1: signs with the Bucks. People felt like it was a
Speaker 1: desperation move from the Bucks, who didn't have anywhere else
Speaker 1: to turn at quarterback. And Baker Mayfield's turned in a
Speaker 1: good fantasy season and a good, well, just a good season.
Speaker 1: I don't want to qualify but make it sound like
Speaker 1: a fantasy season, Brian, it's you know, by I think,
Speaker 1: by any standards, it was a good season, in a
Speaker 1: better season than pretty much anybody expected from Baker Mayfield.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, for sure. And you can't forget last year
Speaker 3: he started off with the Panthers, didn't play well, but
Speaker 3: we all know the story in Carolina. They were a
Speaker 3: disaster last year. They're gonna be a disaster for a
Speaker 3: long time. Then he went to the Rams for a minute.
Speaker 3: They ran out of quarterbacks essentially, and he played all
Speaker 3: right for the He just showed up, I remember, and
Speaker 3: he played decent one game for the Rams, and I
Speaker 3: think they went to Green Bay and got rolled. But yeah, great,
Speaker 3: great story. He should be Comeback Player of the Year.
Speaker 1: Well not, unfortunately not, you know, not even in consideration.
Speaker 1: Really it's a right now it's Flacco and DeMar Hamlin,
Speaker 1: or at least that's how they closed out the regular
Speaker 1: season as those two.
Speaker 3: Is Hamlin's he played what, like, I know, that's incredible.
Speaker 1: Seven look delighted, yeh, obviously delighted he's alive and delighted
Speaker 1: he's still in the league. But I just think at
Speaker 1: some point to win this award, you need to play,
Speaker 1: don't you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, seven snaps? Seven games we're taking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he had seventeen If I misspoke, it was seventeen snaps,
Speaker 1: which is pretty ridiculous.
Speaker 3: I just like, a that's a quarter.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, and maybe, you know, maybe DeMar
Speaker 1: Hamlin's going to be much better next year, you know,
Speaker 1: further removed from nearly dying on the field, and so
Speaker 1: maybe next will be better. But you know, I think
Speaker 1: if it were my vote, I would I'd go Joe
Speaker 1: Flacco for that, or to your point, Baker Mayfield, by
Speaker 1: the way, you care to guests, were Baker Mayfield ESPN scoring?
Speaker 1: What position did Baker Mayfield finish in the quarterback position?
Speaker 3: Got to be top ten to go seventh.
Speaker 1: Ten Baker Mayfield ten. How about that?
Speaker 3: I wanted to bring it up circle back to Houston Cleveland.
Speaker 3: Really we're talking about and just season awards Stefanski or
Speaker 3: Demiko Ryans.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I talked about it on KFA and today, what
Speaker 1: an amazing job by both guys. Stefanski had to overcome
Speaker 1: way more. You lose Nick Chubb in week two, You're
Speaker 1: on four different quarterbacks. You have to juggle the hole
Speaker 1: Deshaun Watson thing, which is you know, really difficult, lots
Speaker 1: of injuries on and off to his defense as well
Speaker 1: for Kevin Stefanski. And now they've you know, they've really
Speaker 1: you know, they've turned into obviously a very good team.
Speaker 1: That's parts great for Stefanski, for Damiko Ryans. Remember Houston
Speaker 1: picked two in the draft. They were so bad and
Speaker 1: there look at where they ended up. You know, they
Speaker 1: end up being they're hosting a playoff game. They win
Speaker 1: their division and hosts a playoff game. What a job
Speaker 1: he did. I don't if you had to, if you
Speaker 1: were to pick one or the other who would you pick?
Speaker 3: I think, has there ever been a co co winner?
Speaker 3: This is the year that there should be one.
Speaker 1: I think I'm pretty sure there has been a co
Speaker 1: winner of coach.
Speaker 3: I know, I know you can't factor the postseason, but
Speaker 3: really this game should decide.
Speaker 1: That's a great point. Now, the winner of this game
Speaker 1: gets to win that award.
Speaker 3: I think ins the fancy just because it's Yeah, Houston's
Speaker 3: been It just seemed like a total like that. They
Speaker 3: were just their season was over almost, you know, as
Speaker 3: soon as Nick Chubb went down, and then things got
Speaker 3: worse and worse and worse to the point where you're like,
Speaker 3: just shut it down. And then in comes Joe Flacco
Speaker 3: and yeah, fitting water with Dorriyan Thompson, Robinson and stuff.
Speaker 3: They had a win or two there, but Flacco thing
Speaker 3: is just incredible. I It's gonna be a Disney movie
Speaker 3: about this.
Speaker 1: This is like, well, if you he wins the super Bowl,
Speaker 1: there might be yes, yeah, okay, And I'm wrong. I
Speaker 1: don't believe there has been have been co winners. I
Speaker 1: thought that there might have, but I do not appear
Speaker 1: to have been correct about that.
Speaker 3: So has there been any steam I'm in Charlotte now,
Speaker 3: so I'm not hearing a lot of the local gibber
Speaker 3: jabber anymore. But Joe Flago of the Vikings next year,
Speaker 3: is that a possibility?
Speaker 1: Not that I think. I think they're here. They're talking
Speaker 1: about the general managed for the Vikings came out and
Speaker 1: talked about how he's you know, the team's going to
Speaker 1: make an effort to resign Kirk Cousins. That doesn't mean
Speaker 1: they will, and it doesn't mean that Kirk will accept
Speaker 1: whatever they offer for a salary, but there will be
Speaker 1: an effort made to keep him, and I think ultimately
Speaker 1: they will.
Speaker 3: Flacco can certainly play still, clearly saw Tom Brady. We
Speaker 3: saw Tom Brady play all forty five and he's an
Speaker 3: unrestricted free agent. Cleveland is unfortunately married to de Shaun Watson.
Speaker 3: And if someone's gonna be willing to pay him starter money,
Speaker 3: not gonna he'll probably take it.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they always do, right, or almost always do.
Speaker 1: I if you had to pick a team where if
Speaker 1: you had to pick a team right now that Joe
Speaker 1: Flacco is going to be the starter for on Week one,
Speaker 1: who would you pick?
Speaker 3: Like where it would work? I think it would work
Speaker 3: with the Vikings if they don't resign Kirk Cousins Atlanta possibly,
Speaker 3: I think it's getting one.
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a team farther down
Speaker 1: the draft that can't really realistically go get their guy,
Speaker 1: and that's Pittsburgh at twenty three. You know, there's Pittsburgh
Speaker 1: sitting at twenty three. Is at least if they're twenty
Speaker 1: three now, they could move up depending on you know,
Speaker 1: wins or losses here, Pittsburgh at twenty three doesn't have
Speaker 1: a very viable way to get up into the top
Speaker 1: six or so that you're going to have to get
Speaker 1: one of the three quarterbacks that are believed to be
Speaker 1: going early in the lottery here.
Speaker 3: So it'll be his third AFC North team that.
Speaker 1: Wouldn't wild Yeah, yep, you.
Speaker 3: Know, finished the career in Cincinnati.
Speaker 1: Yeah right, maybe maybe he could Burrow goes.
Speaker 3: Down in twenty twenty six or no, twenty twenty five,
Speaker 3: what you're Rewian, But yeah, it would be incredible if
Speaker 3: they just it's incredible already. But if the Browns make
Speaker 3: a deep run, if the Browns win the Super Bowl,
Speaker 3: what do you do with Deshaun Watson?
Speaker 1: Yeah, how do you how would you at that point
Speaker 1: go back to Deshaun Watson and tell your fan base, Yeah,
Speaker 1: we just won the Super Bowl at Joe Flacco, but
Speaker 1: we're gonna let him go to Pittsburgh, our division rival,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna go back to the guy who was
Speaker 1: fully incapable of moving this offense.
Speaker 3: That knows our whole postseason playbooked right walk away with that.
Speaker 1: Unreal, God, it'd be it'd be such a great storyline,
Speaker 1: wouldn't it incredible?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Unreal? Thanks for coming on the show. Good to have
Speaker 1: you your first show from from New Diggs in Carolina.
Speaker 3: And and yes I'm not the Brian Johnson who's interviewing
Speaker 3: for the Why and why.
Speaker 1: Is he interviewing for anything? What has he done with this?
Speaker 1: What has he done with the Eagles offense? To Garner
Speaker 1: an interview.
Speaker 3: That's why I'm further rooting for Philly's offense to Sputter,
Speaker 3: so he doesn't get this job, because I can't stand
Speaker 3: watching Eagles games. Hearing your own name over and over
Speaker 3: again while watching football game is very annoying. You're gonna
Speaker 3: have to trust me on this. And they're like Brian Johnson,
Speaker 3: Brian Johnson and Brian Johnson, then I'm like shouted up.
Speaker 3: So I don't want Brian Johnson in the news cycle
Speaker 3: right anymore, exactly until the ac DC lead singer dies.
Speaker 3: That's the last time I want to hear Brian Johnson.
Speaker 1: Well we're not. Let's not wish death.
Speaker 3: No, this is many many years down there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, decades, all right, Brian, thanks a lot. Appreciate everybody
Speaker 1: who listened to Fantasy Football Weekly. Back next week more
Speaker 1: of the same. We'll be breaking down playoff games, obviously
Speaker 1: throughout the entire playoffs, and we appreciate all the fantasy
Speaker 1: players who who continue to join us and continue listening
Speaker 1: throughout the off season, and we'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 1: Bye bye. Fantasy Football Weekly is a production of iHeartRadio.
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