So we have Christmas Football and it’s on a Friday afternoon which just feels WEIRD. The game being on a holiday isn’t so much of an issue in my mind as the fact that it’s a day of the week in which nobody has ever really prepared to play for. Thursday games have become normal enough that teams can adjust to them, as have Sunday Night, Monday Night and even Saturday games to be honest. But Friday games? In the mid afternoon? I just cannot get a sleeping thought out of my mind and given that New Orleans was at home last week and Minnesota basically saw their season end in a home loss to the Bears I lean on the Saints to get this game over with early.
Minnesota Vikings
Adam Theilen and Dalvin Cook have had strong games against New Orleans in the past. But New Orleans was able to limit Theilen at times in the wild card game last year with Janoris Jenkins on him instead of Marshon Lattimore. Either way, Theilen is a guy who has always had incredible catches against the Saints and is still my preferred WR to target from the Vikings. I expect New Orleans to be without FS Marcus Williams who does so much to limit teams in the passing game and helps out in the run quite a bit as well. It’s a big loss for New Orleans but their front four is good enough to expect the Saints defense to not allow a high scoring game from the Vikings.
New Orleans Saints
This sets up to be a ground and pound game with Latavius Murray and Alvin Kamara. New Orleans DEF had to be on the field for 92 plays against the Chiefs last week which is unheard of and now they’re on a short week. New Orleans is going to control the clock with lots of Murray, Kamara and Taysom Hill in the running game. There is a little narrative of Drew Brees potentially playing his final home regular season game as a Saint, but he still likely has a playoff game or two in the Superdome and without a ton of fans there I just don’t see there being this magical Brees 5 TD game in this spot because of the gameplan — but it is Drew so you never know.
CAPTAINS PICKS
Marquez Callaway – NO
Callaway is expected to return off IR and the timing could not be better for the Saints. They need him with Tre’Quan Smith getting banged up in the Chiefs game and he has shown good ability to get open in the short passing game earlier this season when other Saints WR’s missed time. I expect Callaway to be a big part of the passing game for New Orleans and he immediately will become their #2 WR along side Emmanuel Sanders but because of the other options he should see most of his snaps out of the slot, where he has lined up 21.9% of the time this season. Callaway has hauled in 15 of his 19 targets and unlike fellow UDFA WR’s Lil’Jordan Humpfrey and Juwan Johnson he is not called upon to run block as often when he is on the field, which means you shouldn’t worry about even think twice about playing him at only $200 in the FLEX position.
Latavius Murray – NO
I am going on record saying this is a Murray game. He should see double digit carries and has shown to be a very good receiving option for New Orleans who have a history of wanting to run screens against the Vikings.
FLEX Player Pool
Drew Brees
Taysom Hill
Jared Cook
Josh Hill
Saints Defense / Wil Lutz – Correlate together.
Dalvin Cook
Alvin Kamara
Irv Smith Jr.
FADES
Kirk Cousins
Justin Jefferson
Lil’Jordan Humphrey