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Frank Reich is a fine man. A good man, even. Sometimes, I sit around daydreaming, wondering what it would be like if he were my father. He would no-doubt instill many wholesome values in me, his son, and be a great fishing partner. He simply has that look about him — the one that comes with a Geppetto-eque twinkle in one’s eye — that exudes wisdom and level-headedness. Personally, I believe he’s a tremendous football coach, perhaps one of the most underrated in the entire league. The Indianapolis Colts are incredibly fortunate that Josh McDaniels spurned their head coaching offer back in the February of 2018 to remain with New England, leading to Reich landing the job as a sort of second choice candidate at the time. Since then, he’s done wonders with the team and carries many strengths as the man in charge, but he’s largely been a fantasy enemy to this point — especially as it relates to the running back position. That’s because he treats his backfield like a true father figure would: he believes in all of his backs, especially the young Jonathan Taylor, and is always willing to give dish out a second chance. The issue is… it’s hard to predict when those second chances are going to come. Heading into the week, Nyheim Hines was one of the highest risers up most rest-of-season rankings after receiving 12 carries in Week 10, rushing for 70 yards and one touchdown in addition to his typical receiving workload: five receptions for 45 yards and another touchdown. Jonathan Taylor saw just seven carries in that game, to which he translated to a mere 12 yards, which came on the heels of a Week 9 game in which Reich gave Taylor a measly six carries. Fast-forward to Week 11: Taylor rushed 22 times for 90 yards, also catching four passes (on four targets) for 24 yards. Those 22 carries equated to 68.8% of running back carries (22/32), as his 26 total touches were by far the highest amongst the Indy trio. Jordan Wilkins (four carries, 21 yards; one reception on one target, 15 yards) touched the ball just five times, while Hines (six carries, two yards; three receptions on four targets, 31 yards) registered nine touches. It’s certainly encouraging to see Taylor so involved in a crucial, competitive game that the Colts ultimately won in exciting fashion — but what can we expect from him moving into the home stretch of the 2020 fantasy football season?

After sinking to RB30 overall in my rankings last week, Taylor is back up into RB2 territory thanks in large part to an incredibly easy schedule from here on out. The only truly difficult matchup remaining for Taylor will come in Week 16 against the Steelers, which isn’t ideal as it’s when most fantasy championships will occur, but until then he’ll go up against the Titans, Texans, Raiders and Texans, again. There are certainly RB2 options with safer floors, but Taylor is once again trending up and represents a much more attractive Flex play than he did one week ago.

There’s a lot more to dive into this week, so before getting to the rankings, let’s take a quick trip around the league.

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With most fantasy leagues entering their Championship Sunday in week 16, we will only focus on running back situations that warrant start consideration. Starting running backs that will enter this Sunday 100% healthy, their traditional handcuff can be dropped to waivers to make better use of bench spots. Blocking your opponent, from adding a better defense or a starting caliber player at the QB and skill position (WR/TE/RB), is a tactic the most competitive and cut-throat players deploy. If your league plays to week 17, you will want to pay extra attention to the names below. Congratulations to everyone that made it to their championship game or are fighting for 2nd/3rd place prize pools.

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The fantasy football playoffs are finally here. In the interest of the rest of season rankings being as useful as possible I’ve thrown a whole pile of players in the 70-80 range that could potentially be a one week plug and plays for your team. I encourage all readers to map out their lineups throughout the playoffs to find expendable players. Ensure you have the optimal lineup for this week if you are in a playoff matchup, after that move on to week 15 and week 16. If there are players on your roster who will not make your projected lineup in any of those weeks those players become droppable (sans handcuffs). Prior to dropping any players, the last key question to ask yourself is will throwing this player to the waiver wire improve any potential competitor’s lineup substantially? If that isn’t the case find the highest upside players possible and get them on your roster. For a personal example, I have a first-round bye secured in a league. In the league I dropped Bo Scarbrough for David Njoku for the outside chance he returns against Arizona in week 15. Scarborough will never make my lineup. He is a usefully player, but the upside of Njoku against Arizona is worth the risk of one of my opponents snagging Scarborough.

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Welcome to the playoffs.

If you are reading his, you have had a good season, or at least been lucky enough to make the playoffs in your league. Let’s look at some Week 14 matchups we can exploit or avoid while trying to move on to the semi-finals and beyond.

Of course, no one and no process is perfect. There will always be the Adrian Peterson or Derrius Guices of the world to show that. But these are educated predictions of who may or may not deserve a spot in your lineup this week.

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Happy Thanksgiving loyal readers! It’s the one day of the year that you can crack a beer at 10 in the morning and nobody in your family will look at you twice. Football also starts an hour earlier than it does on a normal Sunday. There won’t be a wrap up of these three games tomorrow so if you have any questions for me before Sunday’s primer, this will be the post for them. 

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The running back stash/wheel of death continues this week; I’m sensing a trend, maybe you’ve noticed? Early weeks, wide receivers were the dominant adds; now, its survival of the fittest running backs. So there are three wideouts I’d bid on this week and a bunch of RBs that may or may not help. Some should’ve been added prior weeks. There are even a couple of Tight Ends, which if you’ve been reading has been really tough to pin down which TE will hit each week.

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It’s that time of the year, the majority of fantasy leagues are entering the last week of the regular season. Fantasy owners that have secured a playoff spot need to prepare themselves for a championship victory. One way to protect yourself through the playoffs is by grabbing your stud running back handcuff. Unless you own two top 10 QBs, there is no reason to hold two quarterbacks. There is no point wasting bench spots with players that are never going to hit your starting lineup. Nothing is worse than losing Dalvin Cook while you are in the hunt for fantasy football glory only to find that you have no shot at grabbing Alexander Mattison because of low waiver priority or min FAAB budget. Make sure you grab your insurance policy before the price increases. Chris Carson owners are learning that lesson this week. Don’t get caught with your pants down and good luck as you jockey for playoff positioning.

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While B_Don is off gallivanting in Europe, Donkey is joined by special guest and current RazzBowl leader, Mike Beers of RotoViz. Beers elaborates on his best ball and RazzBowl draft strategy as well as his in season RazzBowl management. Then the guys discuss several of Mike’s RazzBowl players and what the future might hold for each: Derrick Henry, Kyler Murray, Baker Mayfield, George Kittle and Keke Coutee.

Later in the waiver wire segment (24:55), Beers tears into Donkey Teeth’s Top 5 waiver adds heading into week 13. Players in consideration for a pickup this week include Rashaad Penny, A.J. Brown, Bo Scarbrough, Benny Snell and Randall Cobb. Tune in now and discover what RazzBowl dreams are made of!

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A hand injury has taken Marlon Mack from us too soon and now we’re left to choose between three backups. Oh joy. It’s like this the rest of the way as I said last week; the big add will usually be injury-related so it was advisable to begin adding solid backups…but 0% owned Jonathan Williams? Did not seem him there. Brian Hill was in a similar position last week, cost a lot and then he gave us 15 carries for 30 yards. It happens and I’m not out on Hill yet. Same rule applies to JWill as Brian Hill last week; if you want him he’s going to cost you.

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Donkey and B_Don are back talking pickups following week 11. A**hole of the week comes early this week with the Browns/Steelers debacle of nut grabbing and helmet bashing. B_Don is also questions Robert Woods’ surprise late scratch with “personal issues.” Don’t look to B_Don for sympathy if you’re going through some tough times!

For once the guys have mostly a consensus on their top 5 adds of the week as both hosts have the same top 4 recommendations of Jonathan Williams, Derrius Guice, Bo Scarbrough and Nyheim Hines. In the deep targets segment some interesting names are thrown around, including Tim Patrick, Marcus Johnson, Ryan Griffin, Pat Laird and Russell Gage. Tune in and continue to dominate your waiver wire on your way to fantasy glory!
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Ty Johnson was able to clear concussion protocol and suit up after carrying a questionable tag all week, but it was the Lions practice squad acquisition that led this backfield on Sunday against the Cowboys. Bo Scarbrough found the field for 49% of the Lions offensive snaps, leading both Ty Johnson (29%) and JD McKissic (23%), and looked good while doing it. Bo handled 74% of the Lions running back carries (14), and finished the day with 55 yards, 1TD, and 11.5 fantasy points. If the Lions did not fall behind in the second half, Scarbrough would have padded his stats a little more. The Lions turned to JD McKissic in the passing game, recording 3 receptions on 4 targets, with Bo recording 0 targets while the Lions were playing catch-up. Ty Johnson was an afterthought, taking his 2 carries for a measly 6 yards, making Bo one of the top adds this week. McKissic still offers low-end value in deeper PPR formats, but Ty Johnson can be dropped in most 12-team and small leagues.

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