 Hey everybody, what's going on? I am Greg Sussman joined today by Jim Sannis of Fandle, who's here to break down this week's week 17 TFS slate. Giving us the top values on the board. What's happening Jim? I am all good, Greg. It's interesting for week 17 as always because there's a lot of stuff in flocks and we're recording this on Thursday and there's a lot of stuff we still don't quite know yet. So a lot could change, but it makes things pretty exciting and it's crucial to pay attention. So definitely a slate that benefits people who are plugged in. How are you doing today? I'm doing great, Jim. Thank you. Thanks so much for hanging out. The week 17 is always interesting. It's always tough to figure out. Let's start with what we know. In Baltimore, there will not be Lamar Jackson in the lineup, but you know the Ravens want to beat their arch rivals of the Pittsburgh Steelers. So that's why from a value perspective, you like RG3 throwing it back about seven years here. Why do you like RG3 in this spot? I mean, partially I'm just excited to watch and play football again. I think that's a good enough reason to use some money to DFS, right? Just want to watch this guy play football and move from a bit, but I think it also does kind of make sense. Now, in using RG3, you're kind of using him under the knowledge that Marshall Yanda will not play. Probably not going to have Marquis Brown or Mark Andrews in the entire game. So it's not going to be the same weapons that Lamar Jackson has around him. So we should not expect a similar output from RG3 that we expect out of Lamar Jackson, but it's still going to be, you know, a pretty decent spot because this Ravens team does have some depth in their past catchers. Got guys like Miles Boykin, like Hayden Hearst who can step in even when those other guys are potentially resting up for the playoffs. So I don't think it'll be a bear cupboard for RG3 by any means. And you add on the fact that he can rush a bit. And I think it's not a terrible way to go here. He has $7,000. And I think that that salary being as low as it is kind of helps account for some of the imperfections in the profile that Robert Griffin III has for this weekend. Yes, it is a tough matchup. And yes, he's not going to have, you know, everything at his disposal here for the Ravens. But I think there'll be enough there for Griffin to still be in play. We want to spend up for some running backs this weekend. I love a lot of the super high dollar guys, but it's hard to get there if it's been enough for expensive quarterbacks like Dak Prescott. So it makes sense, save some salary, get down to Robert Griffin III at $7,000 and the added bonus to getting to cheer for RG3 once again. It'll be fun to have RG3 back in the lineup, but we'll see how athletic and how good he looks here this weekend in the spot against Pittsburgh who are playing for something, obviously, and have a chance to still go to the playoffs and take tough defense. I don't know about RG3. It makes me a little bit nervous, Jim, but we'll see on Sunday. All right, let's move on to the running backs. As you said, you plan on paying up for the running backs here, and I know that. But if you want to save a little bit of cash and pay off elsewhere, there's other directions to go in. That includes in New England with Sonny Michelle in a good spot against the Miami Dolphins. What do you like, Sonny, here on Sunday? Yeah, I don't think I've used Sonny Michelle this entire year, so this is kind of uncharted territory for me, which will make it very interesting, but I think if you're ever gonna use a running back in the mold with Sonny Michelle, you wanna do it in a spot like this. Patriots are big home favorites. They are facing the Dolphins, and the Dolphins rank 24th against the Rush based on number of fire schedule adjusted metrics, so it is a good matchup at home. That's where you want guys like Michelle who don't get work in the passing game, and if a guy's gonna pay off without getting work in the passing game, you do need a heavy output in the Russian category. That means you need efficiency, which he could get against the Dolphins, but it also means you need a lot of volume there, like Derek Henry-esque volume, but Michelle's been getting that recently. He had 19 carries in week 15, he had 21 carries in week 16, and he also had two targets in both those games, so I wouldn't expect a whole lot there from Sonny Michelle in the passing game, but at least it's not nothing, and that certainly does help. It seems like James White has kind of gotten the squeeze here for the Patriots, which opens up additional volume for Michelle, so this is not the archetype of back I like to use. I want my running backs to get work in the passing game and have multiple sources of upside. Michelle does not have that, but he could get you 100 yards Russian, he could have a multi-touchdown day, and I think that's enough to at least consider him here at $6,500. The volume has been there for Sonny Michelle, as you said, it has to be, otherwise he's not productive. So against Miami, it will be there because of the matchup, and hopefully the Patriots do what they need to do, get a win, get the buy, and that means relying on Sonny Michelle, which at a good price makes a lot of sense to have in your Fando line-ups on Sunday. Up next here, Jim, we get to Damien Williams, who I also think is really undervalued this week because he's back in this leader role in this KC offense. Spencer Ware is out for the season. Maybe LaShaw McCoy will be active. Maybe he won't, but Damien Williams is healthy. He's the guy, KC also playing for something because if New England falls, KC is an opportunity to get the buy in the first round. I like Damien Williams a lot, especially at a very reasonable price. Yeah, I did too. He came back into a really good role last week. Snapper is above 50%, yet 16 carries and free targets. And I think that we kind of, a lot of people wrote off this chief's backfield because even in single game line-ups on Sunday night, not a lot of people are going at Damien Williams, even though he had a pretty low salary. I think that we have this conception that this chief's team wants to be a committee backfield. But when Damien Williams is healthy, it hasn't really been the case. There have been nine instances this year where he cheats running back has had a snap rate above 50%, which is not a big number, but six of those have been by Damien Williams including each of his past three healthy gains. So like you said, when he's been healthy, they have been okay leaning on this guy and it's paid off pretty well recently. The efficiency definitely was not there early on this year, but recently it has been. If you look at the gains he's played these half the snaps, Williams is averaging 13 carries and 4.2 targets per game. And when you tie that volume to Patrick Mahomes, there is a lot of value in it. Now the one thing that's worth mentioning here is that she's potentially could have nothing to play for if we get late in this game because they need the Patriots to lose in order to move up to the two seed in the AFC and the Patriots are facing the Dolphins. We could get to a point where the Patriots are a big at halftime and the Chiefs could shut things down then. So I don't think Damien Williams is in play for cash despite what I expect to be a really good role for him. But in tournaments, if you think that Patriots game stays close or the Chiefs just keep on pushing even if they do, even if the Patriots do get ahead, then Williams makes a lot of sense. He is at home, he is tied in Mahomes. He is $6,400 and he should get work both as a rusher and a receiver at a very good offense. That is exactly what I want. And I think that I'm willing to trust Damien Williams because the Chiefs have done so as well. There's no Spencer Rear as you mentioned, no Dara Williams anymore. It's gonna be his backfield, I think, and that is a pretty enticing thing to get for 64. So there are some risks for Damien Williams, for sure they could potentially mix in with Sean McCoy more. They could decide to bench guys if the Patriots are a big at halftime. But I think even with those risks of knowledge, Damien Williams is a guy I want to use in week 17. I think to be cautious makes sense with the Chiefs playing after the Patriots. You do have to be a little bit nervous, but Damien Williams, if they do still have someone to play for, if they are still fighting, he's gonna be out there. Now, again, if they don't, he's been hurt a lot this year. They need him for the playoffs. So you do want to make sure if you can that Damien Williams is worth starting on Sunday. Let's move on to the wide receivers, Jim, and that brings us to the lizard. Alan Lazard back in our lineup for Green Bay here this week, going up against the Lions secondary that's clearly burnable. Devonte Adams was fantastic last week. Alan Lazard wasn't really fantastic last week. Why do you like the lizard here on Sunday? Yeah, he may not have been fantastic, but he was on the field. And when I can get a player who is on the field with Aaron Rodgers, it's generally a pretty good thing. And in that game, we saw Lazard play 75% of the snaps, which actually is the second consecutive game he has hit that mark. Back-to-back games with a 75% snap rate and he converted that into nine targets. Three of those targets are at least 16 yards downfield and he didn't do a whole lot with that volume. But if you give him that volume against the Lions, I know that the Viking secondary is not that good, but giving him that volume against the Lions is pretty enticing. Darius Lay is gonna see Devonte Adams. I don't worry about that for Devonte Adams. Devonte Adams can crush any matchup and Darius Lay has not been a guy we've had to avoid so far this year. So that does not influence my view of Devonte Adams, but it could potentially shuffle a couple additional targets out towards guys like Alan Lazard. And I think that's pretty intriguing. So what you're getting here is the firm number two wide receiver in this Packers offense could see somewhere between six to 10 targets and should get some work down the field. We know this guy is a large frame two which can work in the red zone. You're getting all that for $5,400 in a dome tied to Aaron Rodgers. I think that is a lot. And I think that that's really enticing for Alan Lazard. We mentioned before, I wanna spend it for running backs. I don't have to use guys like Sony Michelle. I want to spend up there when possible and using someone like Alan Lazard allows me to do so. So the production was not there last week for Lazard. That is for sure, but he's playing a lot of snaps. He is getting volume and he allows me to pay up elsewhere. So that's a lot in his favor. So even though it takes a bit of a leap of faith, I do think that Lazard is someone we should be willing to trust this weekend. Not going against Darius Lay. Certainly a check for his corner there. Aaron Rodgers should be able to take advantage. We saw a ton of Aaron Jones last week. They're gonna try to run the ball against Detroit again. But Rodgers goes in a different direction using some of his other wide receivers. Alan Lazard, obviously the best choice, the best case scenario is Lazard going off, us getting the points, and us making money on Sunday. One more wide receiver that we wanna hit on today, Jim, and that brings us to John Ross. John Ross was good for Andy Dalton last week. He's been good since he got back off of IR. Now, facing a Cleveland secondary that hasn't been great over the last couple of weeks, Cincinnati trying to win another game for Zach Taylor, for Andy Dalton, and probably his last game with the Bengals. I like John Ross this week. Yeah, they've locked up that number one pick, so the Bengals can finally unleash everything. They can be the Bengals we were hoping they were, and this is the only thing holding them back this year. Guaranteed it was just trying to lock down that number one pick, so we're gonna see a dominant offense now, obviously, and we're probably not gonna see that. But I think that with John Ross, it makes a lot of sense because last week, his snap rate did spike back up. It was 79% easily as high since coming back off of injured reserve, and Andy Dalton looked his way pretty often. He had 13 targets in that game, and seven of those targets were at least 16 yards downfield. So he was back in his field stretcher role, and he was able to haul in a good number of those targets as well, which builds well for him here. As you mentioned, the Browns secondary has not played well, and it's mostly because of the Miles Garrett suspension. Ever since Miles Garrett got suspended and Morgan Burnett went on injured reserve, this Browns defense has been a very different team than what we saw earlier in the year, which builds well not just for John Ross, but also for Tyler Boyd, Joe Mixon, if he's off that flu, Andy Dalton, all those guys benefit with this Browns defense not playing that well. But John Ross is $5,200, and I think that at that salary, with his yardage upside, he could pay off that salary even without scoring a touchdown. I think that's kind of what you want whenever you can get it, but you don't often get it out of a wide receiver that is cheap and with the role that guys like John Ross traditionally have. So I think the volume should be there. I think the matchup is awesome for John Ross too. And again, he is crazy cheap at $52, it allows me to spend up elsewhere. So it is risky. You never want to go all in on someone like John Ross, who could potentially put up a goose egg. But I think here, the volume is just too hard to pass down with the salary that's low and the yardage upside being this high. Volume is there, upside is there, a lot to love here with John Ross on Sunday with the Bengals having nothing to lose, everything to gain, just meaning a win for Andy Dalton. But still, you got to like John Ross this week against Cleveland in a very, very juicy matchup. Finally, Jim, we get to the time to end position, our final DFS regular season position here of the year, and that, well, we have to start here because why not, right? Like this is it. There's no better place to end than O.J. Howard. Yeah, right after all the best ball seasons close out, that's when O.J. Howard is finally gonna beast. It is right after all those are done. So welcome to our lives once again, O.J. Howard for $5,500, but the volume's been pretty good for O.J. Howard the past couple of games with Mike Evans being out. He has 17.4% of the targets the past two games. He's averaged 1.5 deep targets per game, and he actually had three deep targets on Saturday, which was their first game without Chris Godwin. So I'd expect him to get some pretty good deep work here. He has 56.5 receiving yards per game over their past four games and at least 46 in each. So the floor for O.J. Howard from a yardage perspective actually hasn't been that bad. We just haven't seen the ceiling yet, but I think that the formula for a ceiling is there. He is facing the Falcons in the game with the highest total on the slate and the volume should be there as well. That's kind of enticing for me. So I like O.J. Howard quite a bit. He is $5,500, I think that Justin Watson is also another potential value at $6,100. You could pay it for Rashad Periman. I think everyone in this Buccaneers offense is at least in play, at least as far as the past catchers go. But my favorite is O.J. Howard. He is the cheapest. He fills the worst position. I think that's kind of hard to pass up, especially with the narrative of him finally paying off after the season long season is over. This is not a standing gym. This comment made it all real for me, right? That, hey, the floor is there. We know what it is. He just hasn't reached his ceiling yet. It's week 17. He hasn't reached his ceiling in the first 16 weeks of the season. So if not then, how about now? When the narrative is there? Okay, Jim, you start, O.J. Howard. I won't. We'll see you cashes on Sunday. That's gonna do it for us here on The Vandal Hurry Up. Jim, it has been a blast over the last 17 weeks. I am sure I will talk to you throughout the playoffs. Have a good one, buddy. It is gonna be a blast, Greg. I am looking forward to a playoff football. No more trash week 17. It's gonna be great. I'll talk to you then. Happy holidays to you and everyone back in the FNTSY Studios, too. I appreciate it, my friend. Everybody at Fandal. Everybody out there. We appreciate all of you checking us out all regular season long. For Jim Sons, I'm Greg Salsman. We'll be back with Gabe Marenzi tomorrow for his best pets of week 17. That'll be fun, too. Have a good one, everybody.