Fantasy

All Aboard the Gus Bus Once Again

by Brad Drotar

November 25, 2020
2:14 pm

Reading Time: 4 minutes

If you listened to my advice last week, congrats on your win! Man, we hit on almost all our picks. I hope you all enjoyed absolutely crushing your opponents along with any hopes and dreams they had of a playoff run. Isn’t it funny how you get the most joy out of humiliating your closest friends?

Anyway, taking a look back, we smashed our starts in the Ravens-Titans matchup, which I refuse to talk about. Although I will say this: you have to be fired up by this quickly brewing rivalry that already had Malcom Butler and Mike Vrabel getting into it with John Harbaugh at mid-field before the game after they disrespected the Ravens shield at the 50-yard line.

Here’s a bad copy off the TV. pic.twitter.com/Tx6zcw2yfP

— Andrew Siciliano (@AndrewSiciliano) November 25, 2020

We may not have won, but we made Butler look like a flaming bag of dog sh*t that you would hurl at the neighborhood Karen. Moving on… we also hit on all of our fire squad picks except for James Conner, who continues to be a disappointment. Our worst call of the week was putting Jared Goff on the ice squad. He put on a show in the Rams’ upset victory over the Bucs.

Let’s get to the action!

Ravens-Steelers Fantasy Outlook

Start em’

Gus Edwards

If this game ends up being played on Turkey day (or on Sunday), Gus the Bus is the guy you want to start. With Mark Ingram and J.K. Dobbins sidelined with the ‘rona, the remaining backs are Gus and Justice Hill. While we will probably see a decent amount of Hill, Gus should get the lion’s share of the work with Hill seeing action on passing downs. Gus will also be getting the goal line carries. You can expect Gus to get 15-20+ carries this week and a couple targets. Sure, he could do absolutely nothing with those touches against this stout Steelers defense. But I think it is more likely that Gus shows the league that he is a starting-caliber player and he most likely finds the end zone.

Diontae Johnson

Since Week 7, Johnson has had one game with fewer than 10 targets and is coming off a game where he turned 16 targets into 12 receptions for 111 yards. Johnson has developed into an elite option each and every week. He will have a tough go at it against the Ravens secondary, but so will all of the receivers on the Steelers. We are gonna go with volume and talent here. Big Ben’s favorite target is as close to a sure thing as it gets in fantasy.

Streamin’ Around the League

QB – Taysom Hill

Hill is coming off a 24-point performance against the Falcons and is the starter until further notice. On paper, this matchup isn’t great against the Broncos defense that ranks 9^th in pass defense and 15^th in fantasy points given to opposing QBs.

However, this is going to work in Hills favor. With his receivers having a tougher time getting open, he will have to sit in the pocket longer. The line will start to collapse. Then he’s off to the races!! Between having Michael Thomas to throw to every play and Kamara as a dump off option, mixed with Hill’s rushing capability, he is a fool-proof play this week.

RB – Duke Johnson

If Johnson is ever going to break out as the starting RB, it will be this week against a Lions defense that ranks 30^th in rush defense and lets up the most points to opposing RB’s in the league. He has been a real disappointment since David Johnson went down, but he will get the touches, the targets and the game flow. The Texans defense kind of blows and Matt Stafford will be able to get down the field with ease, epecially with the return of Kenny Golladay (hopefully) and D’Andre Swift tearing it up. This will create more targets to Duke to keep up with the lions. And when the Texans get ahead (and they will), Duke gets to feast on one of the league’s worst rushing defenses. He will also get a fair amount of opportunities in the red zone. Fire him up!

WR – Michael Pittman Jr.

Coming off back-to-back games with either 100 yards or a TD, Pittman is making his case as the #1 receiver in the Colts offense. This week, he gets to take on the Titans, who rank 24^th in pass defense and 26^th in points allowed to fantasy WRs. The Titans should be able to score some points, even with the Colts’ stud-filled defense. If they get behind, Pittman should be looked at often.

The Colts also have an implied point total of 27, so he has a good shot at getting into the end zone in this high scoring game.

TE: Mike Gesicki

Gesicki takes on the Jets this week, so he’s automatically a start. Besides that, the Jets are 31^st in pass defense and 29^th against opposing fantasy TEs. Tua should start, but if Fitzmagic gets thrown into the game, Gesicki could end up as a top 5 TE this week. If Tua plays the whole game, Gesicki still has a very favorable matchup against a team that gives up the 2^nd most fantasy points to opposing teams.

Fire Squad

QB: DeShaun Watson

RB: Nick Chubb

RB: D’Andre Swift

WR: Terry McLaurin

WR: Mike Williams

TE: Darren Waller

D/ST: Cleveland

Ice Squad

QB: Matt Ryan (If Julio Jones is out)

RB: Melvin Gordon

RB: Aaron Jones

WR: Tee Higgins

WR: DJ Chark

TE: Jared Cook

D/ST: Washington

Brad Drotar

Being born alongside the Ravens in 1996, Brad was drinking the purple Kool-Aid since birth. His love for the game began by watching the Ravens in the basement with his father, quizzing him on football terms and rules, and toasting his little brother in backyard football games during half time every weekend. Once in college, he began to do his own deep dive analysis into not just the Ravens, but the entire league. Utilizing his self-made spreadsheet of thousands of hand-picked stats, the self-proclaimed fantasy football extraordinaire creates his own rankings to dominate his fantasy leagues. “Daddy Brad” as the girls called him in college, proudly follows in his father’s footsteps by drinking lots of beer and screaming at the TV every weekend. He now specializes in deep dive analysis to predict player performances and the outcome of the games.