Fantasy Football Daily - Week 1 Fantasy Focus | Two-Point Stance Podcast

Episode Date: September 7, 2023

Drake and Dolan are breaking down the NFL Week 1 slate by looking at each matchup and picking out the ONE thing they most want to see from a fantasy football aspect. From rookie running backs getting their shots to Aaron Rodgers taking over in New York. This podcast hits every game with an eye to what fantasy managers care about most. Subscribe to the Fantasy Points YouTube Follow us on Twitter: Brian Drake Joe Dolan FantasyPoints FantasyPoints is your home for weekly rankings, DFS, betting, and data that can't be found anywhere else. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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responsibly. It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoints.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room, with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. All across the fantasy universe, welcome everybody to the beginning of the NFL season and the Two Point Stance podcast powered by Fantasy Points.com. what's up? Hope you guys are ready for fantasy. You're ready for the NFL. Your kids are back to school. Mine just got on the bus today after a 45-minute delay.

I can take a breath, relax, and set my lineups in a bathroom like the true alpha that I am. I'm Brian Drake, host of this little program here, along with my main man, managing editor of Fantasy Points.com, Mr. Joe Dolan. Joe, what's up, man? You ready for some football? I was really excited last night, man. I was, I, I, I, it was just one of those things where if I know, look, it's a busy season for us, okay? And this week is especially rough because you have to cater to both the people who haven't drafted yet and also the people who want your projections like three weeks ago so they can set their week one lineups. And then, of course, inevitably there's tools on the website are going to malfunction here and there,

you know, as the APIs get updated. It's been, we've been through the ringer at, at the ringer. We've been through the ringer at fantasy points.com this week. But I think everybody calms down once they get their first lineups that. They see the first snap of the football, the crack of the bat, the puck on the ice. I think everybody's going to be really fired up tonight. And it's an interesting game because normally it's a couple of of juggernauts that kick off the opening season. Right.

But, you know, Detroit, this plucky underduring. dog. Everybody's hyphen up that I picked them to win the division. It's scaring me how many people are picking Detroit to win the division. But this plucky underdog, these lions, man, I, I'm pretty interested to see what, what they look like tonight. And then, of course, a great slate of one. Yeah, by 10 o'clock tonight, all of America will in unison be tweeting, why the hell are the lions on the opening game? This could have been Eagles, Chiefs, and we would have been having a fantasy freaking bonanza. But I digress.

What we're going to do here on the two-point stance, something a little different. We're going to go through all the games. And we're not going to bore you with every take on every game because you ain't got time for that. And let's be honest, neither to me and Joe. So we're going to find one fun fantasy angle from each game that is interesting to each of us and go from there.

And we've got an alternating games. And I'll have a topic that I like. And then Joe will have a game. We'll kind of just talk around it this way. I give you guys a fun overview of what's going on here at fantasy points.com. So let's kick things off with the game on Thursday night. Detroit, Kansas City, Joe, this one's on you. What is, you know, really sticking in your craw fantasy-wise for this game.

What do you want to say? Yeah, so obviously we have to watch the Travis Kelsey situation, but that's not the thing I'm most interested to watch. I am actually most interested to watch Jemir Gibbs. What is Jemir Gibbs's role in this game? You know, the lions come out and they say, look, did you see the video that they posted when they drafted Jemir Gibbs? Yes, I couldn't believe that they thought, if anyone didn't see it, by the way, it's in their war room. They traded down a little bit.

They were worried they weren't going to get Gibbs. And when they did get him, I believe it at the 12th pick, you would have thought it was Christmas at an eight-year-old's house. They went bananas. So they were on the clock at seven. and Arizona was calling, Arizona was calling because they wanted to trade up for Parrish Johnson at number seven, the tackle out of Ohio State. And basically Dan Campbell asked Brad Holmes, do you think he'll still be there? Trading down to 12. And he, it turns out, was Jamir Gibbs.

And this video seemed to confirm the post-draft reports that the Lions were going to take Jamir Gibbs over Bijon Robinson. which is insane to me, but, you know, Kaplan told us before the draft that there were teams that had games rated higher because of his weapon potential. And now there's a couple of things here. Michelle Steele, he told Michelle Steele v.SPN,

he thinks of 1,000-yard rushing, 500-yard receiving season is in the cards. Now, do you know how many rookie running backs have done that in history, Drake? Wait, 1,000-1,000? 1,000 yards rushing 500-receiving. I'm sorry. I don't know. I'm going to go like zero, four.

Only one has done it in the 21st century. Do you know who that is? Would that be, let's see. I don't know. I can't even think of it now. Sequan. Sequan Barkley is the only one to do it in the 21st century. So I don't know if that's going to happen. But he's got the opportunity to do something special, right?

Because the Lions need pass catchers. Jameson Williams is suspended. I'm on Ross A. Brown's going to get 38 targets tonight. We know that. But Tim 20man, who writes for the Lions official website, he wrote on Wednesday that he thinks Gibbs is going to be the lion's top downfield passing option early in the season. That's ridiculous.

Like, this goes along with the nonsense we hear from teams. It's like, we're going to put, you know, Adrian Peterson is going to catch more passes this year. It never happens. Like, what are you going to run this guy? He's going to be running, you know, go routes from the slot? I'm going to be very interested to see what happens, and I will tell you, I've placed a, put a couple of peanuts on Jemir Gibbs over three and a half receptions. Oh, God, over three and a half.

He'll get that because it feels like, it feels like they're going to force the issue, but I'm really interested to see. Like, they were this excited to draft them and teams always, like, you're right, they always say this stuff. They always say, oh, we're going to put both running backs on the field at the same time. I think the lines are actually going to do that, though. like i i do believe there's going to be situations where david montgomery's in the backfield and jimere gives is out wide i think that's going to happen so that is what i'm most excited to see about tonight's game from a fantasy perspective yeah i like it i think that you know Gibbs is one of those guys for fantasy that really excites us because he has that buried skill set and the team's talking them up it's not like there was some scat back that

we hope comes in on passing downs like no they're going to use the guy so uh we can all rejoice tonight if we have Jemir Gibbs in a PPR. Let's move on to the game. The next game, first one for me, Carolina, Atlanta. And I'm of the same ilk here. I want to see Bijan Robinson, all right? This is a tweet, and it goes along with what you said about Gibbs from my friend, Dwayne McFarland.

Running backs taken in the top 12 of the NFL draft have been immediate fantasy studs. Dwayne goes on to say rookie season points per game since 2012. Sequin Barclay was RB2, Leonard Fournet was RB8. Zeeq was three, Gurley RB five, Trent Richardson, seven, McCaffrey, 13.

So if you were taken in the top 12, basically since 2000, you're going to finish as a top 13 PPR running back. So the two guys that we're most, you know, excited to see here,

have big opportunities. I was in a snake draft last night. The guy took Bijan one overall. One overall. And he came back in the second round. He took Gibbs. Wow. Madness.

I mean, Bejon, like, if Bejon landed with, like, the Eagles, I think people would have been taking him number one overall in Tennessee drafts. But I am excited to watch Bejan Robinson. Let me just throw another one out there. Josh Kendall of the athletic, who covers the Falcons, said he wouldn't be surprised if Kyle Pitts was fourth on the Falcons and targets. Oh, God. Now, I'm not saying I necessarily agree with that, but could you imagine how dumb that would be? to spend a first round pick on this guy. Not just a first round pick, a top five pick.

Oh, I mean, look at Atlanta. So Atlanta has, last year, they were number one in the NFL in rushing attempts, okay? They had nearly 600 rushing attempts. And in terms of past attempts, I believe they were second fewest. I don't think Arthur Smith is all of a sudden going to change his game plan and how he coaches, you know, in this one off season. They're going to keep pounding the rock. Oh, of course they are.

But I mean, when they do throw it, I would like to see them throw it to their good players. And that includes Bejohn Robinson. But it shouldn't. Kyle Pitts was the first non-quarterback taken in 2021, Drake. He got drafted ahead of J. Jemar Chase.

He got drafted ahead of Devonte Smith. He got drafted ahead of Jalen Waddle. He was the first non-quarterback taken in that draft. If he doesn't get more than five targets in this game, Arthur Smith, get out of town. What's worse, Arthur Smith's coaching job slash philosophy or the GM who selected Kyle Pitts in the top 10? I still believe in Kyle Pitts's skill set.

So I'm going to lean towards that. Maybe I'm just confirming my priors, but I, well, maybe Kyle Pitts is still dealing with effects from the knee injury. But I mean, anyway, that was your, that was your time to shine. and I stepped all over it with a ranting about Kyle Pitts. It's a two-way street here, a conversation. You got Houston, Baltimore. Oh, well, this is self-evident, the Ravens offense. How much do they throw it?

How much do these wide receivers impact the game? How much are they spreading it out? That thing got so stale under Greg Roman. They're so compacted. They're running a freaking military academy offense. Three tight ends out there. one receiver. And to be fair to Greg Roman, it's not like they had personnel at wide receiver. There was only so much he could do. Rashad Bateman got hurt early last year. What are you going to do

throw Tylin Wallace out there? So Odell Beckham, look, I drafted Odell Beckham so much in best ball this off season, not because I like them, but just because it was cheap. And I'm like, well, I have Lamar Jackson, and I can very easily stack them with both Zayflowers and Odell Beckham. I really want to see what the, what the breakdown is there. Can Lamar get back to more of his MVP form? That Todd Monk in offense, he aired it out when he was in Tampa Bay. You know, his offenses really love to throw the ball down the field. That is what I'm looking forward to in this game. Can Baltimore become an offensive juggernaut? Yeah, God, I've got so much Zay flowers. I really need him to come through. There's multiple leagues where he's like my wide receiver three. So,

kid, you better, better show up with your lunch pal ready to go from week one. I've got Cincinnati and Cleveland. And my fantasy takeaway here is I got to see Burroughs bounce back. So we really haven't seen him at all in training camp. He's got the calf issue. So do they lean on Joe Mixen a little more early? Somaget P. Ron's Ryan is gone. He's in Denver.

We could see a little more passing game work from Mixon. Or does he see touches maybe Chris Evans, the rookie Chase Brown? I want to see with Burroughs help, do they come out throwing? or do they lean on Mixin? And if so, you know, I wrote in an article I do for a site called Sports Kita about my top 10, I don't know what the crazy SEO cash grab was for the article, Joe, but it was like top 10 like crazy bold predictions. And I said that Joe Mixin is going to be this year's Josh Jacobs because this team is going

to run the wheels off them. They cut his pay. They're probably going to get rid of them pretty soon. So why not just grind him into the ground, right? They take a little off of Burrough's plate. So I think I like Joe Mixin in a huge, huge spot this season to really cash in for fantasy owners. Now, there are caveats to these stats because I think Jamar Chase was very limited in some of these games. And then also there was some bad weather.

But Burroughs thrown four touchdowns to four interceptions in his last three games against the Browns. And of course, he's hurt in this game. Burrow did not take my advice, Drake. You would be shocked to learn. I said that guy should not even stand, let alone, play football. That guy shouldn't stand up until there's pen to paper on his new contract. He said yesterday that, quote, it's the last thing I'm thinking about right now. I call bullshit on that. I think when generational, I mean, he already has generational wealth, but when

he's got multi-generational wealth basically resting on his body and its ability to perform, I would hope he's thinking about it. I would love to see him get his contract signed before Sunday. but I kind of agree with you. I wonder if Joe Mixon, this is going to be the old warhorse in his last battle here. The Bengals are a notoriously cheap and poorly run organization. I'm just going to call it right now. I think with all these contracts that are going to come do, Burrow, Chase, Higgins, you ain't going to keep all of them.

I think Higgins is going to end up leaving at some point. I wonder if we start to see some. holdouts and the cheapness of the Bengals rear its ugly head because they're not they lucked into their fortune here because they were so terrible where they got Joe Burrow and they got chase and they've kind of turned this thing around with a number of draft picks and they made a nice higher on the defensive side with Lou Amarolo. I think I just butcher's last name. But this is still to me not a well-run team.

And I just got a feeling it's going to get ugly with Burrow down the stretch. But we'll see. I think they drafted really well. man like the offensive line's been a problem um you know i know jona williams hasn't been what they anticipated him being or jackson carman but i think they've done a decent job in spite of themselves um but they're cheap the owner doesn't have over the uh when it comes to handing out these new deals they've drafted well now they got to retain yeah well i mean but i also think that's a problem for a lot of teams right um because of the salary cap but yeah you're right

i mean higgins might end up going somewhere but now i mean burrow's getting done it borough might be done by the time you listen to this podcast. I feel like that's seriously. I feel like that's something that could drop at any point. Yeah. You got Jacksonville and Indy. There's another quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, so we'll get paid in a few years. Look, I want to see the breakdown in the Jacksonville backfield because Jacksonville, here's a stat for you, Drake. Jacksonville ran the ball on Indianapolis. The rushing yards last year were the 13th most of any opponent against any other opponent, any team against any other opponent. Now, if that doesn't sound that impressive, just note that there are 455 different instances of a team

playing another team last year, okay? And Jacksonville ran the ball in Indianapolis for the 13th most yards. Travis Eton didn't even gain a third of those yards. And there's a lot of talk about Doug Peterson likes his rotation and they draft the Tank Bigsby and they have Deerness Johnson. What is the running back breakdown going to be? I did not draft a ton of ETIN. He didn't catch more and three passes in any game last year. So with Tank Biggsby coming in, I didn't really dabble in this backfield, which might be stupid, because they ran the ball very well. Only four teams opened up more adjusted yards before contact than the Jaguars did last

year. So their offensive line did well in the running game. Look, they have offensive line issues right now. But I think they did an excellent job. Opening, opening holes, Doug Peterson schemed it well. have a little bit of mobility helps there. But this is a team that can run the ball. Who is going to run it for the Jacksonville Jaguars?

Yeah, I don't have a lot of these guys either. I steered clear of Travis E.T.M. Bigsby, you know, we'll see. He's going to have to get his shot. All right. Next on the docket, Tampa Bay and Minnesota. Gone is Mr. Brady. You may have heard of him.

So what I want to see here is how much do these teams lean on their new featurebacks? Got Rashad White and Alexander Madison. They're going to take the starring roles in these backfields. Now, White is on a Bucks team, Joe, that was dead last in rushing attempts last year while leading the NFL in attempts. I suspect that changes. And Madison, of course, we know, fills the void left by Delvin Cook. I think he'll do quite well until he undoubtedly gets injured in like week eight. But I am scared by how many zero RB teams I have that, that, sorry, Brett Whitefield was calling me. I had to.

I had to F you button him. Hit him on the show. Let's go. I am scared to death by how many zero RB teams I have that have either Rashad White, Madison, or both. But I feel like one of those guys hits this year, right? If not both of them. And I was in on both of them. I know Madison was polarizing.

White's ADP never jumped the way I thought it was going to. And I think part of that reason was because people think their offensive line stinks might be true. Last year, if you look at all via the fancy plan, lot graphs. Rashad White is down in the bottom left-hand corner of like explosive runs and efficiency, whatever you want. Well, so was Leonard Fournett. So it wasn't like a Zeke Elliott, Tony Pollard relationship or one was in the top right quadrant and one was in the bottom left. It was a systematic issue. Did the box and their new offensive coordinator, Dave Canales, did they manage to sort out some of these systematic issues that prevented them from running the football effectively

last year. Tampa Bay last year was dead last in the NFL with explosive rush yards or rush plays of 10 plus or more. They only had 28. The only team worse than or even close is Houston at 31. Houston's got all kinds of problems. So I'm sure we'll get to them. So your next game here, Joe, you got Tennessee and the Saints. Tennessee had the best run defense in the NFL last year. You drafted Jamal Williams. If you drafted Jamal Williams, you drafted him to start him the first three weeks of the season, right? Kendrae Miller's hurt, Alvin Camara suspended. Can Jamal Williams get it done against the team that gave up the fewest rushing yards in the NFL last year?

I'm, I think they're going to give him the opportunity. I think this is why you sign a guy to a multi-year contract. You know, Jamal Williams also, when he was in Green Bay, he was a decent receiver. The Lions did not ask him to do that at all. Do the Saints use Jamal Williams as a factorback in the first three weeks of the season, with Alvin Cameroon on the suspended list. Yeah. I think Jamal Williams has a skill set that can play.

I think everyone thinks of him as like this grinder now. He's like, oh, he just got all these one-yard touchdowns. But he's still a guy that I remember his time in Detroit. He could catch the ball. It was he and who is he sharing the backfield there? D'Andre Swift? Jondry Swift. Like, he could still go out and catch the ball.

And he's not a total zero. you know he's not you know Brian Robinson or somebody like that who you're like oh he's never going to catch a pass or the Alfred Morris types I don't know why when I think of duds who can't catch the football I always think of commander running backs yeah Alfred Moore Alfred Morris in the Shanahan offense

yeah and then of course the other one here Drake I would be remiss if I didn't talk about it can Chigakonkwo maintain a similar level of efficiency with a full-time role that's going to be tough I mean I love Tannahill and I don't think he didn't play much with Tannahill down the stretch

last year, did he? Yeah, because Tanna Hill, Tanna Hill got hurt, so then you had the Malik Willis and the Josh Dobbs and all that. So Tennessee's offense might actually be somewhat better than I think we're giving it credit for. My Scott Fishbowl team would love that because I've got Tanna Hill as my QB3. I think I got some Chigacan Kankwo out there. I mean, listen, Traylon Burks with a full off season, now he's back healthy to go along with DeAndre Hopkins.

This is an NFL offense for the first time in a long time. in Nashville. So, you know, good for them. I got Pittsburgh, San Francisco. And really what I want to see here is I want to look and see, can we live up to the hype in Pittsburgh that this offense has generated during training camp? Kenny Pickett's growth in this offense is what I'm keeping my eye on. He's got all the weapons in the world, right? Great running game, improved offensive line. Offensive coordinators a dope and that's really what is what has hamstrung him you know this is this is a team in Pittsburgh who was bottom 10 in pass yards last year it's got to change everyone's in on picket if

you listen to anything that we put out at fantasy points you'll see guys love kenny picket we love pickin dante johnson will finally score a touchdown this year i'm going to say if i got props to bet dante johnson scores a touchdown opening day this year oh my yins are my ins are group chat with which has brawley and a couple of my friends from Penn State. They'll be going nuts if Deontay scores in week one because that's been a bone of contention. So I completely agree with you. I would push back a little bit in saying that they have a great run game. I thought you're going to push back on that Matt Canada is dope.

Oh, God, no. No, I'll push back on the fact that they have a great running game. It was an inefficient running game last year. And part of that might be because. Naji Harris was banged up for most of the year. But then, you know, you factor in how much does Jalen Warren play in this game? But I completely agree with you being intrigued by Pittsburgh in general because in theory, this is a team that we should love for fantasy.

They got a, in theory, a great X receiver in Pickens, a great Z in Johnson. They have a good tight end in Friermouth. And they have a couple of backs. You've got your thunder and lightning combo in the backfield. But they just could not score last year. It was the exact opposite in the preseason. They played five series and scored on all five of them, the starters. So this is a really tough matchup, though.

And I'm wondering if, you know, the 49ers, Nick Bost assigned his contract, he's the highest paid defensive coordinator in, defensive coordinator, defensive player in NFL history. So could there be some buy low opportunities on the Steelers after this game if they just come out and the 49ers defense swallows them up? If I wanted my offense to get off to a hot start, this is probably the last matchup in the league I'd want. If you drafted Jalen Warren and millions of people out there have listening to this podcast, is there any chance you start him this week in a flex?

Maybe you start two flexes in a league. It's deep. Well, let me give you a scenario where I have a team. It was a 14-team keeper league, two keepers. And Drake, I had to keep. my, my, I had to keep my first two picks. I got rid of my first two picks to keep Jamar Chase and Tyree Kill. Okay.

Mm-hmm. Um, I'm with you. This is, this is a league where, look, these are two top five players in a 14 team league. I had to keep them. I was giving up my first two picks. My running backs in that league. Do you know who the first running back I drafted was? Tai J. Spears.

No, not, not quite that bad. Zach Charbonnet. And then I drafted Alvin Camara because I'm like, all right, I'm zero RB right now. I need somebody who can be a difference maker for me at some point. So I was able to talk myself in McMara, but I don't have Camara week one. Yeah. I also have Jalen Warren. I have Devon A-Chane and I have Dion Jackson hoping like Zach Moss doesn't play this week.

I just need points from that running back spot because my receivers were really good. I have I have I have Lamar quarterback I've got Debo Samuel to go with Jamar Chase and Jalen and and Tyree Kill this is a 14 team league so that's a stacked kind of my running backs are god awful so that is a situation where I might literally consider starting Jalen 1 yeah I think that's my team I think I go A chain and and Dion Jackson for the first week but yeah I got in the offense I want nothing to do with those running back I mean I'm not going to play I'm not going to play Dion Jackson if Zach Moss plays. So I'm going to have to do something with that team. Anyway, nobody wants to hear about my fantasy team. But that that's a situation where

there are scenarios Drake for everything. I had some asshole in our discord asking who he would bench bench between Amon Ross St. Brown and A.J. Brown in week one. How do you have that decision? If you want to be an asshole in our in our fantasy points discard, just sign up at fantasy points.com. Get your season plan. Join our discord. And, uh, You know, get called swear words on a podcast. I mean asshole in the most loving way possible because I would love to have have that decision in a fantasy league this year. Matter of fact,

I'd actually hate that decision because you're probably going to be wrong, whichever one you decide. Yeah, really? What is this a one wide receiver league? Yeah, what the heck's going on out there? Jesus, Louise. Well, I mean, if people aren't intrigued by your lineup decisions, they're going to be all in on Arizona, Washington.

What do you got in this one? Oh. What beers are on tap? I mean, what can you look forward to in this game? Here's what I'm looking. The commanders are seven point favorites. The commanders in week one. My question is, can Jonathan Gannon's defense, which won exclusively because he had elite

defensive line talent last year, stop literally anyone? No. With the talent he has in Arizona, and I think my answer is going to be no. And I don't think I'm breaking any new ground here. But, I mean. I'm on a loss for words. I feel like we're ever going to be targeting Arizona each and every week. Now, where are they going to be weaker?

On the ground or through the air? I think my answer to that question is yes. But just how much are we going to be targeting Arizona every week? If you can add and drop guys right now, folks, and you're listening to this. And the commander's defense is on your waiver wire, pick them up and start them. you know if oh maybe you drafted the bills you don't want to play the bills this week against the jet go pick up Washington and stream them this week if you need other defensive streamers go over to fantasy points.com some knucklehead name oh me wrote an article about streaming defenses

for the first few weeks of the season you know Drake you make fun of the streaming defenses article and we all like oh no I don't it's uh you know how much do you know how much that article gets read by the way. That's like it is the most popular on the site because of the author. Well, you know, that's part of it. But like, like when I go through our metrics and like,

you know, I see all like the, the articles that I spent 20 hours of my week on and it gets X amount of clicks. And then I look at streaming defenses and it gets 10 times the clicks. And I'm like, I'm going to know. I'm going to do this next year is I'll do, uh,

anatomy like Scott Barrett, who we love at fantasy points. He's, you know, one of our, our key contributors over there, one of the owners of the site, does anatomy of a league winner. I'm going to do anatomy of a streaming defense. And I'm going to break down, you know, why you should stream each team week to week.

And again, right now it starts with the Washington commanders. All right. So you got that slobber knocker. Let's move over to Green Bay and Chicago. So we get an old Norris division rivalry here between these two squads. Really what I want to see in this game. is what these two young quarter, I don't know how young love is at this point,

but I want to see these two young quarterbacks evolution and how they get the ball to their playmakers. We don't know at this point if Christian Watson or if Romeo Dobbs is going to even play for the Green Bay Packer. So it could be Luke Musgrave and, you know, Jalen Reed running around out there as the leading receivers. But I want to see, can these offenses scheme things up for these two young playmakers to get the ball out to their weapons,

get the ball to DJ Moore, get the ball to Darnell Mooney, run around a little bit and have a functional offense because I think people are worried about that fan basis of these two teams. Can they have a functional offense with these two signal callers? It's going to be hard for Green Bay if neither Christian Watson nor Romeo Dobbs can play in this game. Both of them sat out of practice on Wednesday with hamstring injuries.

And our guy, Dr. Redwing Porras, found that of fantasy relevant wide receivers since 2018, and I think he meant 10 fantasy points per game. Wide receivers who sat out, this is the kind of research he does. Wide receivers who sat out, practice on Wednesday with a hamstring injury, end up missing about 53% of the time. So it's literally a coin flip for both of these guys to play. Now, maybe they're being cautious because Watson had a hamstring last year.

Dobbs obviously missed time with the high ankle sprain. But that would be really bad news for the Packers if one or both of those guys can't play in this game. I always steer clear on hamstring guys. Hamstrings scare me and high ankle sprains. Forget about it. If I ever get a player in my team, they always got a high ankle,

just trade him, drop him, do whatever. He's done. I mean, the high ankle completely derailed Dave Davis last season because he played through it. You know, it's nasty,

nasty stuff. All right. Las Vegas and Denver. What are you looking forward to in this matchup of the Titans? You know, last year when Denver was in prime time, like every week. At first it was entertaining

to watch Nathaniel Hackett barf all over himself and Russell Wilson not being able to cliche his way out of a paper bag. But I want to see just how bad the Nathaniel Hackett offense was.

Because if Russell Wilson last year did not play starting quarterback level. He was not like, I would argue there were probably 30 plus quarterbacks who would have been better than him, but how much of that was just simply the offense? Can Sean Payton come out here? And I don't need him to be, I don't need him to be Russell Wilson of 2016 in week one.

But can he be Russell Wilson of 2021 in week one? Somebody who the Seahawks were ready to move on from, but was still somebody who was able to get multiple first round picks in the open trade market. that would be a really positive step and Denver would be an interesting fantasy team because of that. It would help if Jerry Judy plays, speaking of hamstrings, but he's been practicing in a limited fashion, so it's trending in the positive direction for him. But it's simply what does Sean Payton's offense look like? Is he able to at least show signs that he is fixing Russell Wilson?

The first player that Sean Payton drafted was Marvin Mims. He moved up to get him. I want to see the plan that he has for Marvin Mims. selfishly because I have Marvin Mims on several teams. All right, let's look at Miami and the LA Chargers. So I want to see Kellyn Moore's fingerprints on this Chargers offense. All right, we've heard enough about, they're going to push the ball down the field,

and we're going to use Herbert's arm. And I know because I'm one of the guys spewing that every single week. But I want to see it now. I want to see you're playing against a real defense. Miami can score. This game could be an absolute shootout and a ton of fun to watch. So I want to see Kellyn Moore getting the ball to these playmakers. I want to see Austin Echler.

You know, is he going to run between the tackles or just get outside and catch passes? Is there a role for Joshua Kelly here? So show me something here, Kellyn Moore in week one. I would laugh my freaking balls off if on the first play of the game, they take a shot to Mike Williams. After sideways Joe Lombardi just was throwing these bubble screens and quick hitches and And my auntie's hanged up at corner. So. Yeah.

No Jalen Ramsey. Man, I would just laugh my ass off if that's the first play of the game. Kellen Moore being like, here, Charger fans. Like, this is what you wanted. This is our, we've got Joe, we got Justin Herbert, man. We've got our $250 million quarterback. We're going to throw the ball down the field. It's McNabb to T.O. in that preseason game.

T.O.'s first play. You got him. Philly fans. Here he is. Against the Ravens. He ran right by him. Yeah, and I don't, I've never been more excited for a preseason play than I was for that. I remember I was at, I was at a friend's house.

We were watching at the basement. And my girlfriend at the time, she's like, why are you excited for preseason? And I'm like, that's why. It was on my birthday. I remember that. What a gift is a preseason game. We should be like commanders who I think hung a banner for beating the Ravens in a preseason game a week or so ago. Well, you know what, the Raymans are bragging about that stupid streak.

I wouldn't blame the commanders for hanging a banner for it. Speaking of the birds, they are playing the Patriots in Foxborough this week. What do you want to see in this ball game? Slightly intrigued by the Patriots offense with an actual play caller, but the Patriots were not a team that I was very interested in from a fantasy perspective. So I'm going to default to the simplest answer here. Eagles running backs. early in the off season

Rashad Penny was by far my favorite eagle running back to draft. And then it became evident that, not that he was clearly behind, but that the Eagles might not view him as like a real factorback, somebody to get 10 to, not even somebody who's going to get like Miles Sanders role. And then as risky as it became, I started to shift into drafting D'Andre Swift more.

because it was not very hard to close my eyes and imagine DeAndre Swift having the best season of his NFL career. From your lips to God's ears. I'm not 100% buying the Kenny Gamewell stuff. I think the Eagles trust him because he's good in short yardage. They think he can pass protect and he's got short hands. I think he was only one fumble in his NFL career and I don't think he lost it. So I think the Eagles really trust Kenny Gainwell in those like hurry up situations. But does one of these other two running backs take and my money would be on Swift?

Does one of these other two running backs basically prevent the Eagles from going too heavy on Kenny Gainwell? Because there's so much explosiveness in D'Andre Swift and Rashad Penny. I just got Gainwell in a draft last night in the 16th round. My final pick. Nobody was going to take. I go, I'll take Kenny Gainwell at this point. I mean, DeAndre Swift has showed me that he can't stay healthy as Mr. Glass out there. So if Swift went down, I mean, Gainwell becomes that role and would be to the freaking moon. He'd be an every week starter in fantasy.

So we will see what happens with our birds who have a brand new play caller in Brian Johnson, by the way. See how he does in his debut. I got Rams and Seahawks. Woo! I got to see how these Cs. Seattle rookies are utilized. Okay, Charbonnet, JSN, he gets in there with the wrist issue. He's going to like Pete Carroll said.

Let's go. I want to see how these guys are utilized. What's this back field split with Ken Walker and Charbonnet? Are they going to use him as the grinder? Maybe we're going to use Ken Walker in a more elusive role on the outside. Who knows? And JSN, geez, Louise. I mean, can we get a guy more hype to be a third receiver on an NFL team?

So that's what I'm excited for. There's nothing to be excited about. the movers no i mean no cooper cup i mean this he's not yet on i are but mcvay hasn't ruled it out um this is a really brutal matchup for their receivers um just take a look at take a look at what seattle has put together in that secondary oh seattle's on my list if you go read that defense article i drafted him yesterday yeah the fifth round rookie last year tarique woolen allowed the fifth of the eighth of the eighth fewest yards per route run last year among all all qualified corners.

He's a fifth round rookie. And then they spent the fifth overall pick on Devin Witherspoon. That secondary is going to be really good, really good. Let me ask you, because I know our good friend Brett Whitefield from fantasy points is talking up Puka Nakua, the kid out of BYU. He's said he could kind of be their Debo, Samuel. They need some expulsiveness. It's Van Jefferson, Scoronic, Atwell, Nakua. You think for any reach that your mind can grasp right now, right?

Is Pukunakua going to be a thing this year? I mean, yeah. The Rams defense is literally Aaron Donald and 10 guys. Like, if Stafford stays healthy, they're going to have to throw the football to somebody. This team has worst record in the NFL potential. Oh, they're fighting with the Cardinals. Those two teams, and they're going to play each other twice. Oh, God.

That is going to be brutal. watch those two games. All right. Giants Cowboys. This is always a fun opening nighter Joe. What is Darren Waller going to do to this offense? Because the Giants had no weapons whatsoever last year. Darren Waller was like the hype guy of training camp. Can Darren Waller really make a difference for Daniel Jones out there? It's going to be an absolutely fascinating watch. The thing about Darren Waller is he's over 30 and he's had serious injuries the last two years. Yeah, he played eight games. If he gets hurt, this Giants' offense is in the same shit they were in the last couple of years.

Because, look, like, I like what Darius Slayton did for them, but they have a bunch of slot receivers outside of Darren Wall. Yeah, it's, when you look at the Giants, too, I pulled this up yesterday. I was hanging with my guy, Jim Coventry, who is, without question, the nicest man in fantasy football. He might have to fight Bob Harris for that title. but you look at what the Giants A dot was a year ago. And this is a team that made the playoffs, folks. The Giants A dot last year, I'm just, this is in a radio, inside radio here is, you know, you're just vamping, trying to find something on the air.

The Giants had an NFL worst A dot in 2022 of 6.7, right? Darren Waller shows up. His last two seasons were 13.5 and 9.8. So we're going to matriculate the football down the field, hopefully, with Darren Waller. And that's a tight end, by the way. Tight end. Yeah. So let's see here.

I got wheels up. I think I had to go in. I took Darren Waller last night in the fourth round of a draft. Boy, does he getting steamed up. Oh, huge. I mean, you could get him in like the seventh round early in the in the off season. Yeah, that was that was gone after a while. On my last game here, Buffalo and the JETS Jets.

Jets, Jets. There's only three words I can think of for this game. Aaron Fffin Rogers. That's all I want to see. I want to see Rogers. I want to see him throwing touchdowns. I want to see him getting sacked. I want to see him fighting with reporters after the game. I want to see, you know, Mike and the Mad Dog beating him up.

I can't wait to see this disaster that is going to be Aaron Rogers failing in New York. Because it will be unbelievable as immediately. media circus. Nothing on ESPN will pop it. They will make covering LeBron 24-7 look like the Little League World Series coverage. It would be insane. I don't think it's going to be a disaster. I've actually had pretty good vibes. I'm just pulling for it. Yeah, I've had pretty good vibes on the Jets. And maybe it's the hard knocks boost, but like it seems like Rogers is engaged. I'm not really, like people are obviously going to compare it to the FARV thing. Um, Farv got hurt when he He was with the Jets, but with the FARV thing,

I think it was pretty evident that he didn't want to retire. Like, he wanted to be the Packers quarterback. And I don't think his heart was in it when he got traded to the Jets. I think Gary and Rogers' heart is in this thing. I don't think it's going to be a disaster trick. I actually think they're going to win on Monday night. And if it is a disaster, then laugh at me. I want to see the disaster because as someone who is at home at

10 o'clock in the morning to watch these nonsensical shows on the cable networks. But I need something, something juicy to, you know what? You'll get bored of it, though, because it's all ESPN will talk about when the Jets start off one and five with this brutal schedule. You've been enough. Talk about somebody else. But here's the other thing, though. And I'm just speaking from a football fan perspective, okay?

Here is the Jets schedule early in the season in terms of television. They play the bills in prime time. They play the Cowboys next week at 425. So obviously that's the late afternoon kind of big window game. That is going to get so many eyeballs. My God. They play the Chiefs in prime time in week four. They have two 425 games against the Broncos and the Eagles.

They play the Chargers in prime time on November 6th. They play the Raiders in prime time on November 12th. So I think they play the dolphins on Thanksgiving. So like if you're a football fan, I think they play the dolphins actually on the Black Friday game, I think that is. So if you're a football fan, this team is an island team. We do not want another Broncos situation where we have to sit there and say,

oh, God, the Broncos again. So if you're just a football fan, the Jets being aesthetically pleasing is going to help your life. But, I mean, if you like disasters, then, well, maybe the Jets are not too. To me, it's hard to say that they're going to be a disaster based on anything other than I just like to watch people suffer because I'm an Eagles fan. But they've got a really good defense and they've got a ton of playmakers. Like every game they play is going to be close. This defense is not going to allow them to get blown out.

I'm going to say this too. They play so many games on national television. If they're in it, right, and they have a winning record, they're contend for the. division. Sauce Gardner is going to win defensive MVP of the year. And you can get that right now and win a ton of dough because every game, it's going to be the Rogers show and they got to talk about some of the defense and it's going to be all sauce all the time. Put the money on it today, kid, sauce Gardner, defensive MVP. Yeah. So it was kind of the same with the Broncos last year too, right? That's why the Broncos are almost so hard to watch was because the defense kept them in games.

And it was a slow bleed. I don't think the, I don't think the jets are going to be anywhere near that level of a disaster. It's going to be fun, man. We're here, brother. It's here. The NFL is ready to kick off. We've got just so much fun ahead of us. Oh, by the way, folks,

make sure you set your damn lineups out there. Get the people off your bench. Get them into your lineups. If you got fantasy questions, and you want to hit us up on the old Twitter machine, I'm at Drake Fantasy. Joe is at FG underscore Dolan. Fantasy Points, of course,

is at FantasyPTS. You can go over to FantasyPoint.com. If you want to get in for the regular season, you still can. You can get all the articles. You want the guru's rankings. Joe, the rankings you guys have been putting out. You've been winning awards while you put the numbers in from fantasy pros.

You're like a top five ranker. You're killing over there, right? Yeah, we don't, we don't give it away for free anymore, though. So that's, so that's, we're not doing that anymore. But we won awards. It was, it was a drop the mic and walk off the stage kind of moment. Bill Murray and Space Jam retire undefeated and untied. That's what we've done with those.

Yeah. So if you've got questions on your lineup, you want the best rankings out there. They're at FantasyPoints.com. The team that Joe and John and Graham and Scott have put together over there is second to none. So Joe, that's about all we got here, man. Anything else you're looking forward to week one? I'm looking forward to just sitting on the couch with a cocktail and tweeting about football. You're doing a radio show on Sundays during these games.

I want to see with the cocktail tweeting through. Yeah. Well, actually, we're, actually we shorten the show by one hour this, this year from one to six on Sirius XM. I thought it was a good decision by the, the program director, Jacob Stevens Kittner, because we basically, what happens is the games, the 430 games kind of go to halftime at six and then we're just kind of floating around for the last hour.

I think it's a great idea by him. It's going to, we're going to pack more action into a slightly. smaller window. We're still on air for five hours, so we still have plenty of to do. So if you have Sirius XM out there, folks, go check out our good friend, Joe Dolan and Paul Kelly, right? He's doing the show with you. Yeah, Paul, Paul, Paul's the man. Paul is a radio pros pro. He is phenomenal at what he does. Sirius XM Fantasy Sports Radio Channel 87, so make sure you check out the boys over there. All right, folks, enjoy week one. We'll be back with you on the two-point stance.

make sure you go over to YouTube.com slash FantasyPoints, subscribe over there so you get all our great content. Give us a nice review here on whatever platform you listen to your podcast on. For Mr. Dolan, I'm Drake. We'll see you. Good luck in week one, the two points dance. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points Podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform.

And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.