The Fat & Lazy Fantasy Show is a locally-hosted, nationally-syndicated fantasy football podcast. Tweet your questions to @FLFantasyShow
I officially have 14 minutes to write this column.
It's not that I'm a procrastinator, it's that I'm exceptionally busy with a variety of odd jobs, tasks, and trinkets thanks to the high demands of radio.
No, I'm kidding. Actually, I'm a procrastinator. Look, the show is called the "Fat & Lazy" show for a reason. I'm 165 pounds, so I'm clearly the lazy part of the equation.
13 minutes.
It's the fantasy playoffs! For most of you (myself included) this is actually semifinals week, where one bad move can be the difference between bragging to your friends for the next 9 months or sitting at home watching next week's game with no alterior motives, which trust me, is not as fun as you might think. So let's see if we can't help you out.
12 minutes.
I'll defend last week's predictions by saying that, again, the philosophies behind our bold predictions were sound...the numbers were a little bad. Okay, a lot bad. But we had the right idea. It's not science, folks.
Let's get into some news and notes before we hit bold predictions:
Robert Griffin III is questionable thanks to that nasty looking LCL sprain on Sunday. He's been practicing and he expects to play. Personally, I don't. I think the Redskins hold him out because they're in a playoff hunt, and they can win this game against Cleveland without him. Either way, we'll know before the 1:00 kickoff on Sunday, and likely not a minute sooner.
Dez Bryant also expects to play with a broken index finger. I expect him to play as well, and would probably start him if I had him.
10 minutes. Thank God I type fast.
Moving on now, here's some bold predictions for each game Week 15 and your fantasy playoffs.
Bengals at Eagles - First, let me say we're 1 for 14 on our Thursday night predictions this year, going to prove that you can't predict anything that happens to teams on a short week. For this game, we like Andy Dalton as a Top 8 fantasy QB. Chances are, you're not starting Dalton, but if you're in a deeper league, a 2-QB league, or looking for a potential RGIII fill-in, I'll take the guy who has AJ Green to throw to and is going up against the league's worst defense over the latter half of the season.
Packers at Bears - Alshon Jeffery finds the end zone for the 2nd straight week. Brandon Marshall, who we called a Top 5 receiver for 2012, is actually #1 up to this point. Don't think the Packers don't know that and will make sure he doesn't go off in this game. The Bears should be throwing a lot, and Jeffery's got the big play potential and will have enough targets to matter from a fantasy standpoint.
8 minutes. Starting to panic.
Giants at Falcons - 4 Wide Receivers from this game finish in the Top 25. In other words, you're starting Cruz, Nicks, Jones, and White. Not that you weren't anyway, but you should feel good about them all here.
Vikings at Rams - Steven Jackson goes over 15 fantasy points. Steven Jackson won't be back in St. Louis next year. He's also running better than he has in the last 3 years, is getting 20+ carries a game (19 or more in 4 of the last 5 games) and is pretty much all the Rams have offensively against a Vikings defense that looks slow and tired. Jackson is set for a nice week here.
Jaguars at Dolphins - Reggie Bush had 14 carries to Daniel Thomas's 2 last week. That's a good sign for Bush owners who have been frustrated as of late. Reggie goes for 15+ fantasy points against a bad Jacksonville run D. Remember, with Bush, it only really takes one play to make him a valuable fantasy commodity for the week.
Redskins at Browns - We've talked ad nauseum about Josh Gordon on the podcast, but I also like Greg Little to be a Top 30 wide receiver in this game. The Redskins are a really bad pass D, and Little is slowly becoming more involved in the offense. 4 catches in each of the last 2 games....I don't start him in a standard league, but he's a sneaky deep-league guy with some upside.
4 minutes. Thank God I can do a lot of things in 4 minutes (just ask my wife)
Broncos at Ravens - Knowshown Moreno goes over 100 total yards for the second game in a row. As bad as we think Moreno is, the Broncos seem to trust him - they handed him the ball 32 times last week. While that won't happen here, 20-25 is a reasonable expectation, and the Ravens run D is in the bottom half of the league.
Colts at Texans - You know how we like Dalton as a Top 8 guy? I like Andrew Luck even better. He's a Top 8 QB this week against a Texans D that's been shredded the last few weeks (except for against Tennessee, but who cares?) They're banged up, getting beat on deep balls, and Andrew Luck has a good road game under his belt now (28 against Detroit 2 weeks ago).
Buccaneers at Saints - Josh Freeman finishes with more fantasy points than Drew Brees. This game actually has shootout written all over it, with the two worst pass defenses in the NFL going at it. Both QBs could have nice weeks, but Freeman's an interesting start even in standard scoring.
Lions at Cardinals - Tony Scheffler finishes as a top-12 tight end. Tight end has been a terrible position this entire season. To put it in perspective, Jimmy Graham was a Top 5 play last week...with 8 fantasy points. Oy. Brandon Pettigrew is banged up, might not play here...and the Cardinals have allowed TDs to tight ends (including Zach Miller) in 3 straight weeks. Scheffler could be a good plug-and-play guy.
1 minute. Don't think I'm gonna make it. Oh well. Deadlines, shmedlines.
Panthers at Chargers - Ryan Mathews FINALLY has a nice game, going for over 80 total yards and a score. To be fair, Tyler, who owns Mathews, picked this one. I (JJ) still hate him, but if he's gonna have a nice game, it's gonna be against the league's 6th worst rushing defense.
Seahawks at Bills - Marshawn Lynch finises UNDER 15 fantasy points. It's only happened twice in the last 7 games, as he's been in BEAST MODE. But the Bills are much better against the run over the last 4 weeks, and have allowed just 4 rushing TDs over the last 6. Nice game for Marshawn, but not huge.
I'm past 5:00. Poop. Sorry, Hash.
Steelers at Cowboys - DeMarco Murray is the top scoring Cowboy. Nothing more here, but this is NOT going to be a high scoring game.
Chiefs at Raiders - Eek. What an awful game. I do think Darren McFadden scores double-digit fantasy points in this game. It's not as good of a matchup as you think and McFadden hasn't done much since he's been in there, but I could easily see 18 for 65 and a score.
49ers at Patriots - Sidebar (hell, I'm past my deadline anyway, what's another 2 minutes?) You're not starting San Francisco. Opposing fantasy defenses are scoring -1.5 points...NEGATIVE 1.5!!!....against New England this year. For a prediction? You're obviously starting Tom Brady, but Colin Kaepernick finishes the week within 6 fantasy points of Brady. Brady will be LESS Brady-like against the Niners, and Kaepernick will have a chance to score some points against New England. Both of them could be right around the 5-6-7 rank.
Jets at Titans - Whoever schedules Monday Night Football games will be fired immediately following a 7-6 MNF game that no one watches. And Shonn Greene and Bilal Powell both finish as Top 25 running backs this week. This is assuming that Powell plays (he didn't practice today, which is scary). But if he does, did you know he has double-digit carries in 4 straight, and 4 touchdowns in the last 5? Yeah, me neither until I looked it up. The Titans can't stop the run, and the Jets? Well, running is about the only thing they're not terrible at. Both are good high-end flex plays.
Good luck with Week 15 and remember, tweet us! @FLFantasyShow on Sunday morning with all your questions.





