Daniel Dopp and Liz Loza talk life, fantasy football, pop culture and everything in between in the weekly Fantasy Improv column, which runs every Friday throughout the NFL season. Joe Kaiser serves as the moderator and attempts to keep things on track.
Joe: OK, how many of your fantasy teams are left standing? I managed to squeak through with all of mine, though it was looking bleak having faced Kirk Cousins in two of them.
Also, do you have Jalen Hurts on any of your teams? Hurts being ruled out for Saturday against the Cowboys is a nightmare for fantasy managers everywhere.
Liz: Congrats, Joe! I advanced to the semis in all three of my leagues as well. I do not have Hurts on any of those rosters. Finding a replacement quarterback is going to be tricky, particularly with blustery conditions likely to wreak havoc this weekend. Daniel Jones (rostered in 58% of ESPN fantasy leagues) would be my first streaming target. The matchup at Minnesota is favorable (the Vikings have allowed an average of 316 passing yards per game to opposing QBs over the past four weeks) and indoors!
The weather in Cleveland and Chicago currently projects to be the most severe. However, I think all kickers playing in the Midwest/Northeast should be monitored. I'd have an indoor option stashed just in case. Chase McLaughlin (IND) is coming off a monster game and is available in almost 95% of ESPN fantasy leagues as of Friday morning.
Daniel: I have two season-long and four best-ball tournament teams still in play for this week. I have Hurts on three of those four best-ball teams, so I'll need some major production from my backups. Luckily, one of those Hurts team has Cousins, so I'm still in an OK spot there (I hope). But I don't have any lineup choices in these best-ball leagues so I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. Especially with how bad the weather is supposed to be this weekend!
Liz: Yeah, I'm less concerned about the cold and more concerned about the wind. Both Chicago and Cleveland are expecting gusts upwards of 50 mph. I can tell you, personally, my parents (who live in Chicago) changed their flight to arrive in Los Angeles a day earlier in the hopes of getting out before the storm. They made it. But my friends traveling east -- both of whom had connections in the Midwest -- had their flights canceled due to the weather.
Normally, I don't overreact to blustery conditions, but the Bills are such a pass-first operation (top five in offensive passing plays) that their approach this weekend might need some tweaking. I still have Stefon Diggs as a top-five play, but I've moved Gabe Davis well outside of my top 30 players at the position.
Joe: Great call. Also a reason to find different kickers in those games, as you mentioned above with McLaughin. Different game, but I found myself moving off New England's Nick Folk (27 degrees is the high in Foxborough on Sunday) and going with Cameron Dicker, who faces McLaughlin's Colts indoors on Monday night.
It's always fascinating to me how some players have no problems dealing with the cold and others just shut down. And it's not always the players or the teams you'd think, either. Just hard to ever know which will fit into each category. I'd be in the shutdown category, admittedly. In college I interned for Dawgman.com covering University of Washington sports, and I still get cold thinking about the wind coming off the lake. The windier it is, the colder it feels, and there's no escaping it.
San Francisco GM John Lynch was on the radio here in the Bay Area recently and he said he had no problem dealing with the snow or the rain; it was the wind that was the hardest to deal with as a player.
Daniel: I almost wish I could start two RBs, one WR & three Flex this week knowing how much passing could be down leaguewide. We're expecting more runs in these windy or frigid conditions, and more running means more time off the clock and lower-scoring games.
I would last about minus-1 plays in the NFL if I had to play this weekend. In spite of my Michigan roots, I don't particularly love the cold! It's another reminder of how different these athletes are from the normal person on the street.
Liz: Daniel doesn't like the cold and neither does his team's QB. Charlotte is far from a cold-weather locale, but it's supposed to be a chilly 32 degrees with gusts upwards of 15 mph in the Queen City. That's part of the reason I'm digging Jamaal Williams OVER 45.5 rushing yards.
I'm also tempted to roll with UNDER 71.5 receiving yards for Ja'Marr Chase, but that has less to do with the weather and more to do with the Pats' pressure rate.
Daniel: Speaking of running backs in that Detroit-Carolina game, just a quick reminder that the Lions still have not allowed a RB to score 10 fantasy points in a game since Week 7. In Dan Campbell and Brad Holmes we trust! (But also start DJ Moore in all formats this week against that Lions secondary!)
Joe: It is so hard to believe the Lions and Seahawks have the same record, isn't it?! Talk about trending in opposite directions ... and the big thing with Seattle is the inability to stop the run. That's probably not a coincidence.
Daniel: The Detroit Lions and the Geno Smith-led Seattle Seahawks both have a better record than Tom Brady entering Week 16. That is an incredible sentence to write. But both teams do have major flaws, so we can't go overboard here. Joe, with the Seahawks having a top-five pick this year, do you think they go QB to pair with DK Metcalf, Tyler Lockett, Noah Fant and Kenneth Walker III? Or do they address that atrocious defense you just mentioned?
Joe: Rule No. 1 of following the Seahawks draft is never root for anything because they won't do what you want. But I think they pass on QB, re-sign Geno, and address the interior DL with that pick by drafting Georgia's Jalen Carter. So now that it's out there, expect anything but this to happen.
Daniel: Look at us, just a couple of fans talking about the draft while their teams are still in playoff contention. Who would've thought, huh?!
Joe: I blame the wind.
Follow Liz Loza (@LizLoza_FF), Daniel Dopp (@DanielDopp) and Joe Kaiser (@joekaisersports) on Twitter. Liz Loza and Daniel Dopp's fantasy football rankings appear every week during the season.