Name: Week 16 Fantasy Football Playoffs Updates & Lineup Advice
Uploaded: 2025-12-16T16:08:02-05:00
Duration: 9 min 25 s
Description: Joe Pisapia joins Craig Mish to deliver essential fantasy football tips on players and strategies, prepping you for the playoffs. Who do you need to start?

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Joe Pisapia joins Craig Mish to deliver essential fantasy football tips on players and strategies, prepping you for the playoffs. Who do you need to start?

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Week 16 Fantasy Football Playoffs Updates & Lineup Advice

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Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. The fantasy football playoffs roll on. Let's bring in Joe P Zapia from Fantasy Sports today and of course, the fantasy Black Book to get his thoughts on what we saw and what we could see coming up. Joe, great to have you back here on, on Newswire. There's a lot of folks out there are very hopeful that they have a chance to play for the championship if they win this week, and if they had any of the players that we're going to discuss, I think there was a pretty good shot. So welcome back. Let's go through it. Kyle Pitts. I mean, where, where did this come from? I have no idea. Travis ETN like uh like 50 fantasy points this past week. Trey McBride had 13 targets, 12 receptions, 100 to 30, 134 yards, and 2 touchdowns, and I should also mention he's not on this list, but I, I did have Trevor Lawrence, and he carried me to the next round of the fantasy playoffs as well. But yeah, I mean, those were some super performances this weekend. Yeah, well, part of the Kyle Pits explosion comes again from the lack of Drake London, right? There's not a lot of options to throw the football to in Atlanta right now. Darnell Mooney hasn't been able to step up in that void, and Drake London's been out for almost a month now, which is something we talked about on this very show. If you have Drake London and you're trying to fight your way into the playoffs, you should get rid of Drake London and take something else that you can at least fight with, because you can't take zeros, and you can't be waiting for Drake London to come back. On a team that is completely irrelevant. And so far, he is still yet to come back. Now, we'll see what happens this week, but if he does return, I don't know if Kyle Pitts gets banished to the shadow realm necessarily. I think he's still a viable play this week after that explosion. We all know Kyle Pitts has this sort of upside. You saw him yourself in college, big Florida guy, right? You know what he's capable of in terms of the size and athleticism, and I don't think really people have given him enough targets or enough workload. To really unlock Kyle Pitts. Uh, Travis Etien started slow, so a lot of people were a little mad at him in that first quarter or so, and then after that, uh, the gloves came off and Travis 18 had a great day. So did James Cook, uh, so did Trayvon Henderson, a lot of big running back performances. It was kinda tough to kinda find another running back performance there, which was the best of the best. They were all some stud running back performances in week 15. And then the other one we're talking about too is Trey McBride, which once again, Jacoby Brissett, you know, I think we gotta give this guy a lot of credit. Another QB1 performance, this time against arguably the best defense in the league, the Houston Texans, on the road in Houston. Was it always pretty? No, but he was able to get those fantasy points, he was able to get the total of the team up to 20, and that is tough considering Houston at home has thrown up a lot of crooked numbers on teams, so. An incredible performance by Brissett too, in tough circumstances, you gotta keep rolling with him all the way through. And look, if people dropped him in a lot of leagues, I will tell you, he's only 50, 50% rostered right now on sleeper. People dropped him going into that Houston Texans matchup. If you lost Mahomes and Brissett is out there, you run to pick up Jacoby Brissett this week. I mean, uh, I, I don't see it exactly the same. I kind of feel like he is the garbage time king of fantasy football this season based, I mean, they're down so immediately, I understand, but I mean, Arizona is horrendous. I mean, they're almost as bad as the team that we're gonna talk about next, but I guess if you look at it from that perspective, then where are the Raiders' garbage time points because they're getting none. They were shut out 31 to 0 by the Philadelphia. Eagles, it doesn't matter if it's Geno Smith or Kenny Pickett, they just can't score. It's over for them. Joe Burrow had his worst game of the season since coming back, got shut out by the Baltimore Ravens, and I know Sean McVeigh said that they're keeping the light on here for Devonte Adams, but he did suffer a hamstring injury and unfortunately, he is on one of my teams here that I'm in the playoffs with, so I'm probably gonna pivot out of that Thursday night, even if they say that he may play. One of mine as well, and I'll turn that light out that he's keeping on because it's a Thursday night game. It'd be shocking if he played, and I know it's a big one, I know it's got big playoff implications, division implications too against the Seattle Seahawks, but a Thursday game with a hamstring injury, there's just no way you're gonna see Devonte Adams, that would be shocking. And if he does play, he's gonna be more of a DK, a decoy. He's not gonna be a guy who's going to necessarily. The, uh, what he's been so far for the season for the Rams, which is leading the league and receiving touchdowns. He's been absolutely tremendous this season for fantasy teams, and I feel your pain. Cause I also have him on the team and I'm looking for replacements as well. You're looking on that waiver wire, kind of barren this time of year. There's not a lot of things you can really look forward to, but I think it's gonna be probably next to impossible for Devonte Adams to suit up on Thursday night. The Joe Burrow performance also kind of troubling, I think, also more troubling on the heels of the comments that he made earlier in the week. Now, this, this comments about, well, you know, if I'm not having fun, I don't wanna play football anymore. Is he going Andrew Luck on us or is he trying to get out of Cincinnati, one of those two things, or maybe he's just in his feelings after being in the Another irrelevant injured season, which is also very fair. But only two things are gonna happen now. He's either gonna respond and come back and have a huge game this week, or we're gonna start to wonder this offseason, is Joe Burrow somewhere else? And is that placed on another team or just not playing football anymore? I don't think it's not playing football anymore, but maybe it's time for a change of scenery for Ohio, Joe Burrow. And last but not least, too, you're talking about those Raiders, a big fat goose egg. Where do they go next week? They play the Houston Texans. So, things are not getting any better. Houston Texans defense is ferocious. They've been incredible, and that offense is picking things up too. I have to say, I think the most dangerous team in the AFC right now, the team you do not wanna play in the first round of the playoff, is the Houston Texans cause they are starting to get confident and that defense has been absolutely incredible. So, you've got Ashton Genty, you've got Brock Bowers, any pieces there with the Raiders. You can't feel good about going into this week's matchup with those guys, you gotta be looking for replacements. Other headlines this week, of course, none bigger than the news on Patrick Mahomes. Uh, Chiefs are out and he's out for the season. So Gardner Minho is gonna be running things for the Chiefs. Philip Rivers will stay as starting quarterback for the Colts. I, I was actually shocked to see him do as well as he did. I can't imagine that continuing, but I suppose we'll see. Uh, JJ McCarthy did look a little bit better with the Vikings, although his, uh, running mate, so to speak, Justin Jefferson still doing nothing. We're fantasy owners as well, so I'll let you attack Joe any order you wanna do this. Well, let's attack with the old man, because I think that's cool, you know, it's kind of fun to see Phil Rivers out there, and he kinda looked like, uh, you know, when someone dresses up for Halloween as a football player, like the uniform doesn't quite fit right, maybe cause they have a little couple of pounds on them. It's just, it didn't look right, but when he was in the pocket and throwing the football, it looked OK at moments, good enough to have a lead in the 4th quarter, unfortunately, that lead. evaporated quickly thereafter. But unfortunate set of circumstances, now we get him on Monday Night Football, which is kind of fun. Uh, the bad news is the matchup that he's gonna have ahead of him too against the Forty-Niners cause that offense certainly is gonna put more points on the board, I would imagine too. So, uh, look, for Philip Rivers, again, I think it's the same thing. Jonathan Taylor, the volume will be there, but it's gonna not be great, yet, yet again. Uh, it's an easier defensive matchup. Than what he just had against the Seattle Seahawks, Seattle at home, especially, has been outstanding this year. So, Pittman, you could still roll out there. Tyler Warren, I think you begrudgingly still roll out there, and then Jonathan Taylor, those are the three pieces you could still go ahead and start. I don't think Pierce, I don't think Downs, any of those ancillary pieces are really in play. I don't think there's enough passing volume to support them. Patrick Mahomes now being out for the year, interesting spot here for the Chiefs to kind of reset this offseason. And kind of reset the dynasty. The Patriots were able to do this. I think what the Chiefs need to do this offseason is really remake the offensive line, get rid of some of the older talent, make this team a little younger, get this guy an alpha dog wide receiver. Remember when Tom Brady got Randy Moss, how that, uh, that dynasty had a second life. Let's get him somebody big like that. Let's get him a big dog wide receiver and see what we can get out of Patrick Mahomes in his 30s. And this week, Gardner Miner will make him relevant against the Titans. Uh, you could still start Rushy Rice, you could still start, uh, Travis Kelsey this week. I would still roll them out there. If there's one guy that can go out there in a tough situation. And kinda make everybody forget about it and go love football again for uh a few quarters. It's Gardner-Manu. So, I think things will be OK there. Again, the run game has not been there for the Chiefs. It's been a really difficult situation for him. And JJ McCarthy, last couple of weeks has played well, so that's positive. I know a lot of people wondering, Justin Jefferson, what are we doing here? It's never gonna work. Let's be patient. There was a touchdown that got called back. There was another opportunity as well. So, I think we are getting closer to unlocking Justin Jefferson. I know it's been a struggle. If you're still alive after last week with Justin Jefferson, that's great. JJ McCarthy is playing better football. The matchup against the Giants is a really good one. So roll them out there. JJ McCarthy in Superflex against the Giants, and of course, Justin Jefferson against the Giants as well. We've got one more shot here. I gotta tell you, Craig, I was shocked. So many questions last week about Justin Jefferson. Should I play him in this first round of the playoffs. So clearly a lot of JJ teams actually did make the playoffs this year. Yeah, no, I, I, I, I can't have that same recommendation. I cannot start Jefferson at this point. Yeah, no, I, I get it. But, and, and maybe he'll do well this week, but 5 weeks in a row, Giants, that is hard. It's the Giants hard sell. Come on, hard sell. All right, Joe, enjoy your, uh, playoff run here, and we'll talk again next week. Thanks again.

Week 16 Fantasy Football Playoffs Updates & Lineup Advice

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