Fantasy Football Today - 09/20: Start or Sit (AFC); Buy High Candidates (Fantasy Football Podcast)
Episode Date: September 20, 2018We always talk buy low/sell high, but what about players to buy high (1:00)? We've got some names for you at the top of the show before getting into Start or Sit. How are we ranking Ryan Fitzpatrick t...his week (6:33)? Which key NFL injuries could have a Fantasy impact in Week 3 (12:00)? ... Debating Giovani Bernard vs. David Johnson (18:30) and a bonus Fantasy Regulators (22:55) that sparks a debate ... DEN-BAL (25:30), SF-KC (34:01), OAK-MIA (39:20), NYG-HOU (46:00), PIT-TB (50:45), TEN-JAC (55:20), NE-DET (59:30) ... Your emails at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports.
Here we go!
Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com.
Here we go!
Get your lineup set. It's time for Start or Sit.
Let's go!
Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
Start or Sit for the AMC home games.
Plus we're going to throw in Sunday Night Football.
Patriots at the Lions.
We've got a somewhat bold prediction about that game.
Looking forward to talking about it.
Welcome, everybody, to the Thursday edition.
It's September 20th.
And I am Adam Azer with Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
Good morning, fellas.
Yo, what up?
Not much.
The Google Assistant is up.
All season long, CBS Sports is delivering the best fantasy football advice
directly through the Google Assistant.
You'll be able to compare players, get insights into who to start,
who to sit, add, and drop.
And we're going to turn to Jamie, Dave, and Heath
to find out how this works later in the show.
That's the Google Assistant.
We talked buy low, sell high yesterday.
How about we do buy high today?
So this is a player who's off to a good start.
Maybe the fantasy owners aren't quite buying it and they're thinking, oh, I'm going to sell high.
But no, actually, it's a buy high. Who are we talking about? Somebody give me a buy high
candidate. Michael Thomas. So you'd have to give up something very, very good to get him.
Odell Beckham. Are you saying Odell is a buy high? I very good to get him. Odell Beckham.
Are you saying Odell is a buy high?
I'm saying I would give up Odell Beckham to get Michael Thomas.
I would too.
I would give up DeAndre Hopkins.
Who is going to trade you Odell Beckham straight up for Michael Thomas?
Or to take Odell Beckham?
A Giants fan?
Maybe somebody who owns a Beckham jersey?
Maybe somebody who –
No, I would rather have Michael Thomas.
Wouldn't you rather – but what if it's Odell Beckham and a running back?
You don't do it for Michael Thomas.
Depends on who the running back is.
Todd Gurley and Odell Beckham for Michael Thomas.
No, I would not do that.
Okay, what if it were Odell Beckham and Matt Breida for Michael Thomas?
Because Breida, I think that's more than enough for Michael Thomas.
Yeah, but is it too much?
Because I think Breida is a buy high.
That would be my guy. Oh, sorry. Jamie, but is it too much? Because I think Breida is a buy high. That would be my guy.
Oh, sorry.
Jamie, who's a buy high?
Matt Breida.
I tried to get Matt Breida yesterday, but Kaiser, who we work with, he –
Oh, I have a good trade story for you.
He was giving me the most insane –
He knows this story.
He already knows.
– Acer offers.
He lived this story.
He really tried to trade Josh Gordon when you don't have Josh Gordon?
Well, he – okay, so he was trying to make trade offers
with me, and he said somebody and Gordon
for his two players. I'm like, this must be my
Josh Gordon league. He met Melvin Gordon.
He was giving me the most insulting trade offers.
I hope you're listening, Kaiser. I said to you,
I said to him, you are giving me Acer offers.
Don't do that. That is insulting.
That's not the story we heard.
That's not the way we heard it.
Should we go get Mike?
Yeah, I think we should.
He's not the story we heard That's not the way we heard it Should we go get Mike? No, no, no He's not here
He's not here
No
I think
What we were told
Was that you said
I'll give you Gordon for
I don't know who you were trying to get
I was trying to get
Oh, Frida, maybe
Yeah
And he said, sure
Oh, no, Ajayi
Ajayi
I said, how about Gordon straight up for Ajayi?
He said, yeah, let's do it.
I was like, okay.
So I go to the league.
I go to make the trade.
I'm like, wait a second.
I have Melvin Gordon.
Right.
So whose fault is that?
That's yours.
That part was my fault.
But he offered me such a ridiculous trade that I thought he must have meant Josh Gordon
because there's no way I would have given up Melvin Gordon.
Anyway, Matt Breida's a bye-hi for Jamie.
You want to expand on that?
I mean, go back several months with Jarek McKinnon.
I mean, this is what I was expecting McKinnon to do, not clearly lead the NFL in rushing through two weeks,
but take advantage of good matchups like we saw last week against Detroit.
So this is Kyle Shanahan's offense.
He's going to get good production out of their running backs.
And Breida is better than Alfred Morris.
We told you that when McKinnon went down.
So I think there's going to be very good production moving forward.
And if you can get him, even though he is leading the NFL in rushing,
which is a surprise, pay for it.
He's going to be awesome this week too.
Yep.
Okay.
Will he out-carry Alfredris as he hasn't done that yet
yeah i mean look he's still working his way back from that shoulder injury i think he's fine now
uh they're they're both gonna split split touches but in the passing game which i think is gonna be
really important for him this week uh brita is definitely the guy okay um and he says michael
thomas and dave says how about a guy that you can buy high on and not have to spend a ton to get that is that a buy high
i was told it was so i'm going with it marshall lynch that's a buy high that's a that's a buy
cheap he's giving you double digit fantasy production two straight games absolutely
i went to the source i went to the source on this one because i asked him what what what do you mean
by buy high he told me what it meant i said is marshall lynch a buy high he said yes that's
interesting let's go with him i'm saying marshall lynch what is and he's not going to cost you what
matt burrito will cost you or what michael thomas you're going to need like 10 marshall lynches i'm
buying high to get michael thomas i would trade michael thomas or 10 marshall lynches for michael
thomas what i'm telling you is that if you need a running backwn Lynch's for Michael Thomas.
What I'm telling you is that if you need a running back and you want one who's doing well and will continue to do well.
Will he?
I think so.
His schedule is nice moving forward.
He's already had to leave games twice.
He's going to be okay.
Marshawn Lynch is something you can get cheap.
No, I think it's interesting because people don't really want Marshawn Lynch.
But he has, I don't know how much I want him in PPR.
He has two catches in both games, two against the Rams, two against the Broncos.
But in non-PPR, maybe even half PPR.
In non-PPR, what did I say, Dave?
Ten straight games with seven or more fantasy points? Which, I mean, like seven isn't really that good.
No, but it's a high floor.
And that's, you know, he's going to get a lot of carries.
So thank you.
Thank you, David.
Absolutely a buy high candidate.
Certainly not a buy low.
He's got 22 fantasy points in two weeks.
CBS All Access is your way to watch your local CBS game on your mobile device.
Go to cbs.com slash NFL.
That's cbs.com slash NFL and get a free trial and start watching CBS All Access right now.
That's how I watch the CBS games.
Put them on my laptop on Sundays.
It's an excellent way to watch more football.
And we don't read a ton of emails, I guess, during the week.
I try.
I try to answer them in the inbox as well, but we get somewhere between 50 and 100 every day.
So we've got a Saturday mailbag, and make sure you listen to that.
And we do some DFS.
We're going to have Mike McClure from Sportsline on to give you some DFS tips on the Saturday Mailbag.
All right, the rankings are very different for Ryan Fitzpatrick.
Will he be Fitzmagic or will he be Fitzcraptrick this week?
Well, that was terrible.
That was Fitz bit scrap-chick.
I like to have fun titles to segments.
What do you think?
The rankings go everywhere from 8th to Dave to 16th to Heath,
and Jamie's in the middle.
No, I'm moving to the 7th.
Really?
Yep.
Oh, then Jamie's the high guy.
I think he's going to take advantage of the Steelers' defense.
Joe Hayden expected to play.
I think a little bit of this is probably just think as opposed to project.
But the Steelers have a history of when it's really, really dramatic, they respond.
And I think Joe Hayden being back does make a big difference.
And most importantly, there is going to be a week in the very near future
where the spell is broken.
That could be week four.
Here's what I did.
I was just on a radio show this morning, and I was getting peppered with Fitzpatrick.
Me too.
Fitzpatrick or Rodgers. Fitzpatrick or Rodgers.
Fitzpatrick or Watson.
And the only thing I could say is he's going to turn into Ryan Fitzpatrick again.
He's going to turn into Ryan Fitzpatrick again.
And that's not a reason.
Nope.
And I agree with you.
I think the Steelers, wounded duck, all the things going around with them, they find a way to win the game.
But do they find a way to win it defensively?
Do they find a way to win it game. But do they find a way to win it defensively?
Do they find a way to win it by slowing down Tampa Bay's offense?
Do they find a way to keep Fitzpatrick from having 302 as opposed to 404?
So, yes, he's going to come down.
Absolutely.
It's insane to think that he's going to keep this up.
But with how he's playing, with how this game should go, I still think he's capable of being a top 10 fantasy quarterback.
Now, as the answer I gave on the radio show, I'll say the same thing here.
And I'm sure you agree, Heath, because you project every game.
It's a fantasy point or two between the guy at 7 and the guy at 20.
That's how good quarterback play is right now.
So if you like player X over Fitzpatrick, quarterback X over Fitzpatrick, you absolutely start that guy over Fitzpatrick.
But I think it's just hard to overlook.
We can't just sit here and say, oh, Mahomes is playing great.
He's going to keep it up.
Great matchup.
And not say the same thing about Fitzpatrick.
Yeah, so Heath, you're the low guy.
You have him 16th still, I hope.
And another point to this is saying somebody's number 16 at quarterback
is not saying they're going to be bad.
Right.
I would still start him over Phillip Rivers.
I would start him over Russell Wilson.
I would too.
I would not, and this, you want to talk about something crazy.
I'm the high guy on Carson Wentz.
I would not start him over Carson Wentz.
Wow.
Yeah, I'm not doing that.
Carson Wentz's first game against live competition since he got hurt.
I can't do that.
Fitzpatrick is in the middle of a perfect storm right now.
As soon as one of the things that has been a great factor for him goes away,
whether it's a receiver getting hurt, a lineman getting hurt,
the running game coming to life in Tampa Bay, don't laugh, it might happen.
Until one of those things happen,
he's going to continue to be in this position to put up ridiculous numbers.
He's throwing to the best receiving core he's ever thrown to in his life.
So would you start Rodgers or Fitzpatrick?
I'm still going to take Rodgers ahead of Fitzpatrick,
but they're both top eight fantasy quarterbacks.
I'm expecting them to get you in the neighborhood of 25 to 30.
Okay.
All right.
So Fitzpatrick now seventh for Jamie, eighth for Dave, and 16th for Heath.
But kind of like what we said last week about Cousins,
that doesn't mean Heath doesn't like him.
It's a deep, deep position.
And will you be playing Ryan Fitzpatrick on FanDuel this week?
Make sure you join our content. No, Heath?
No. What's his pricing?
Well, it's a single game slate.
Oh, right, right. I actually did look
at the full
week three slate because I wanted to
know the pricing for Antonio Brown
and Juju Smith-Schuster, wondering if there was a
discount on Antonio Brown. There is not.
He is the second most expensive this week.
And I still think he might be worth playing because I think he's going to go off.
Do we all think Antonio Brown is going to go off?
Of course.
Yeah.
I think he's going to be good.
Yes.
He might be worth it.
Number one this week is Michael Thomas.
Juju Smith-Schuster is the 13th most expensive wide receiver on FanDuel.
But if you want to compete against us, take our money.
It's a $5 entry. Go to FanDuel. But if you want to compete against us, take our money. It's a $5 entry.
Go to FanDuel.com slash FFT.
FanDuel.com slash FFT.
You also get a $20 bonus when you make your first deposit,
but you have to go through FanDuel.com slash FFT to do that.
So make your first deposit there.
Get a $20 bonus.
There are big contests, small contests, a lot of money, little money.
Play against your friends. Play against total strangers. Whatever you, small contest, a lot of money, little money. Play against your friends.
Play against total strangers.
Whatever you want to do.
A ton of things you can do.
You can play the Monday night, Thursday night slate.
You can do everything on FanDuel.
It's so much fun.
FanDuel.com slash FFT.
Also, no kickers.
They have flexes now.
So that's cool.
FanDuel.com slash FFT.
And if you do want to do the single game slate, they have an MVP slot, so you get a point and a half
bonus for one
player. So like last week,
I thought that
Joe Mixon would be that guy.
Oh no, I'm sorry. I thought the kickers
would be that guy. So I played
Justin Tucker in one, and
I played AJ Green,
but I wish I had him in the MVP spot.
Yeah, and you can play kickers, but you don't have to.
So there's something for everyone.
Injuries, news, and notes.
All right, Aaron Rodgers is concerned his knee will get worse.
Yesterday I asked Heath, should we sell high on the Packers passing game?
And you said no, right?
I read that article.
That was a situation where the headline and the article didn't exactly match up.
I agree.
Rogers said the word concern, but I don't think
he meant it. I think the reporter said the word concerned.
Are you concerned it'll get worse?
He's like, well, yeah. You just hope it goes
the other way and gets better.
Right.
That being said, Jamie's got him fourth.
Dave has him sixth this week. Keith has him second.
I feel like if the knee were not a concern
at all, he might be second this week for everyone.
You know, because he's Aaron Rodgers.
There's got to be some concern here.
Yes.
That's why people are asking Fitzpatrick or Rodgers.
I mean, no matter what scenario of Fitzpatrick playing great, you would never consider him over Rodgers.
But on one leg and with somebody else playing fantastic in a great matchup, these are things you consider.
Now, I think what I'll tell you, based on our rankings,
you're playing Aaron Rodgers because the last thing you want to do is
have the Fitzpatrick game where it goes the other way,
and Rodgers does what Rodgers does.
But I don't think it's a bad situation to sell high on him.
What are you going to get?
It's the same thing that you would sell high with Mahomes.
Any quarterback that you could trade for a starting running back
or starting receiver, and you still have that ability would sell high with Mahomes. Any quarterback that you could trade for a starting running back or starting receiver. Oh, sure.
And you still have that ability to find a replaceable quarterback.
Fitzpatrick's still on waivers in a lot of leagues.
You could trade for whoever that guy is starting over.
If you can get a starting running back or starting receiver and then make a smaller trade to get, let's say, Stafford or Ryan or guys that are still going to be top 12-ish, you absolutely do that.
It's really more just taking advantage of the idiot morons in your league that'll overpay for a quarterback right those are probably the same people that drafted a quarterback
earlier than you would sure or you know they're just not happy with stafford or ryan or you know
luck right you know anybody you know not sold on whence or whatever the case may be
marcus mariotta still feeling tingling in his arm and uh we're not going to start him anyway at
jacksonville all right so i want to do these news and notes quickly.
Just tell me if you expect them to play as of right now.
Leonard Fournette was limited in practice.
Yes.
You were expecting him to play?
Yes, absolutely.
That's great.
LeSean McCoy.
Yes.
Yeah, not starting him.
Dalvin Cook.
Yes, yes, yes.
Jay Ajayi, Darren Sproles.
No. Maybe and no. Okay. We'll. Jay Ajayi, Darren Sproles? No.
Maybe and no.
Okay.
We'll see on Ajayi.
Corey Clement would be a very good start.
Amazing.
He would be amazing.
Marlon Mack.
Would you start him even if he was healthy, even if he wasn't on the injury report?
I would not do, but no.
Tight ends, Jack Doyle.
Yes.
All right, wide receivers.
Josh Gordon.
Starting to look that way.
Yes, but probably not a big role.
Antonio Brown was disciplined by Mike Tomlin, but he's fine.
Julio Jones.
Yes.
Any concerns about it?
Is it going to be another year where Julio Jones is playing hurt?
No. If he's taking
Wednesdays off, then that's not a
big deal. Let's see if he... Is he going to
be limited on Thursday or full on Thursday?
And certainly by Friday.
For now, I'm not concerned at all. And he's been awesome
when he's been hurt.
Larry Fitzgerald is expected to play.
T.Y. Hilton, do you expect him to play?
Yes. Yep. Yep. Alshon Jeffrey? No. No. Devontae Parker is expected to play. T.Y. Hilton, do you expect him to play? Yes. Yep.
Alshon Jeffrey?
No.
Devontae Parker is expected to play this week.
What about Marquise Goodwin?
Well, he's expected to be healthy.
No, I read today that they expect to play him, start him.
I don't know where I read that. He's in the same boat as Marlon Mack.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't know how it maybe would affect other receivers
because brian tano is really evenly distributing the football right now i don't know that we need
another receiver in there mucking it up uh what about marquis goodwin he's getting better but no
okay offensive line that's interesting because jimmy garoppolo we're going to preview that game
today but he's lower than i thought but it really be – it has to have something to do with Goodwin, right?
He's not been good so far.
Well, he hasn't thrown the ball that much.
He's going to have to this week.
Yeah, he was pretty good on a per-throw basis last week.
I think he threw 26 passes.
He had double that this week.
Hopefully.
All right, offensive line.
What's the big news?
Denver could be without Jared Veldier.
Tennessee could be without left tackle Taylor LeJuan.
Well, he's limited in practice.
He might come back this week.
Pittsburgh might be without David DeCrasher again.
And Pat Effline, center for Minnesota, he practiced.
Is there a big impact offensive line story here?
The biggest one is probably the one in Cincinnati with Price not there because his replacement
isn't very good and that would hurt Giovanni Bernard.
He's out.
On his carries.
But we still like Gio a lot, right?
Mustard.
Number two fantasy running back.
Number one.
There are some pretty big defensive injuries this week.
Miami safety Rashad Jones has a shoulder injury.
Green Bay cornerback Kevin King unlikely to play.
Darius Slay, this might be the biggest one.
He has a concussion.
He might not play against the Patriots.
And the Patriots themselves are going to be limping without Patrick Chung
and Trey Flowers, a safety and a defensive end.
Is Flowers definitely out?
No.
No.
But they're both still in the protocol.
Baltimore will likely be without C.J. Mosley.
Sean Lee did not practice.
He's expected to play, but I thought he practiced by now.
That could be big.
Joe Hayden likely to play.
Bobby Wagner expected back.
K.J. right now.
There are actually a lot of really big ones.
Eli Apple, we actually saw on Sunday night's game how much worse they are without him.
He's probably not going to play.
No Olivier Vernon either.
No Olivier Vernon, most likely.
Jadeveon Clown.
And no Connor Barwin.
Oh, really?
They have one sack through two games, lowest in the league.
And feasibly their two best pass rushers could miss the game against Houston.
Carolina could be without two starters in the secondary.
Eric Berry still seems unlikely to play.
And Chiefs defensive lineman Chris Jones mispracticed.
So a lot here, actually.
Maybe we can talk about it as we preview the games.
I don't know.
Kevin King is pretty interesting because the Packers secondary
was really bad without him last year.
Yes.
They were bad without him last week.
Okay.
So I had some emails in here.
Not going to get to them right now.
We'll try to get to them later on in the show,
but I want to make sure that we get to the games.
So before we get to the games, I need to have a little debate with you,
and it's going to be a Google Assistant-inspired debate.
I hope you've been using the Google Assistant.
We can't answer all of your fantasy questions, unfortunately, via email and tweet,
but the Google Assistant can.
When you need some extra help, like I did last week.
I needed a quarterback, so I asked the Google Assistant.
I said, hey, Google, talk to CBS Sports on the Google Assistant app.
And I got my answer in my lineup decision.
So make sure you download the Google Assistant on the App Store or the Play Store.
Today's debate is an interesting one.
David Johnson versus Giovanni Bernard.
All right, dudes. Who do you got, David Johnson versus Giovanni Bernard. All right, dudes.
Who do you got, David Johnson or Gio?
Johnson?
Gio.
Gio.
Oh, my goodness.
Dave, tell me why David Johnson over Gio.
You know, Johnson has been bad the first two weeks of the season.
I like that he's at home again, and he's taking on a Bears defense that played on Monday night.
They're going to be on the road, and the coaches have talked up Johnson,
saying we've got to get him more involved in the slot.
Of course they have to do it.
I think you're going to see his workload rise, and I think he'll be effective in this game.
And you know what his upside is.
He's got 100-yard, one touchdown upside, 150-yard total with the score,
and I think he can get you there.
I don't think Geo can get you anywhere close to that, not without
getting a ton of work, and I think Johnson's
going to get it. Fellas?
Gio, Vonnie, Bernard,
week 15,
2017, 168
total yards and a touchdown.
How many carries? 23. How many
catches? Seven. So 30
touches in the game. Who did he play
against? That was against the Lions. Okay, and how was their defense? That is the worst run defense in the game. 30 touches in the game. Who did he play against? That was against the Lions.
Okay.
And how was their defense?
That is the worst run defense in the world.
Probably giving up about five yards per carry.
Okay, so if he was playing the Lions this week, then maybe I'd agree with you.
The Panthers have not been a good defense yet, and they are still kind of beat up.
They're getting Thomas Davis back, right?
No, he's got two more games.
He's got two more games.
But Billy Price, like we mentioned, isn't going to play for Cincinnati. The great thing about
Geo is he is game script independent.
It does not matter if they're winning
or they're losing. He's getting touches. He's had
20 touches eight times in his career. He's been
double-digit fanning points every single time
and non-PPR. He'll probably score
20 in PPR this week. Logically,
it should be David Johnson because he
is the better player. But you have to
sort of throw logic out of the window here when you look at the Cardinals
and how they've been operating because they're just a mess.
And so the coordinator is a mess.
The play calling is a mess.
The quarterback is a mess.
The offensive line is a mess.
And yes, the Bears may be tired playing on the road after a Monday night game.
Totally agree with you.
But that is a great defense from what we've seen so far through two games, especially
against the run.
So I can't buy into David Johnson as a automatic, he's a top three, top five guy.
It just has not been.
There's two games worth of evidence to suggest that right now they're not using him the right way.
Will they?
Maybe.
Should they?
Hopefully.
You know what Giovanni Bernard is going to give you because he's replacing Joe Mixon.
So I will take that in that situation over what David Johnson will hopefully do.
All right.
Let's settle it. Let's settle it. Now we got to ask the Google Assistant here. So I'm
going to get the Google Assistant app out. Say, hey, Google, talk to CBS Sports.
Hi, this is CBS Sports, and we are using our fantasy football computer projections and expert
rankings to answer your start, sit, or add, drop questions. Ask a question like, should I add Austin Eckler, or should I drop Phillip Rivers?
You can also ask us to choose between two players.
Should I start Giovanni Bernard or David Johnson?
David Johnson is projected for more fantasy points than Giovanni Bernard.
David Johnson is also projected for more fantasy points in PPR leagues.
What else would you like to know?
How you feeling, Dave?
Google Assistant gives you the win.
Google Assistant didn't give me the win.
We'll find out the win on Sunday when David Johnson has more fantasy points than Giovanni
Bernard.
There you go.
All right, so the Google Assistant has spoken and David Johnson it is.
It says start your studs, everybody, and I love the Google Assistant.
Very fun, very helpful.
Give it a shot.
And make sure you download the Google Assistant app or use Google Assistant on Android all season long by asking,
Hey, Google, talk to CBS Sports.
We will tackle a key fantasy question every week.
You can submit your question via fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Or if you want your question answered next week live on HQ, tweet at CBS Fantasy on Twitter.
Oh, you know, I said that we were going to preview the games, but it's time first for everybody's favorite segment, the fantasy regulators.
And I really wanted Dave to have one regulator segment because we haven't heard from you in a while on a regulator show, Dave.
Well, thank you.
Are you not going to do it?
What do you want me to do exactly?
That's all right.
Forget it.
Regulators.
Regulators!
Mount up.
All right.
This is Chuck from Chicago.
I bid on John Brown on Tuesday night,
and upon waking up this morning, I saw it went through for $61.
I intended to place only $6 on John Brown
and had a typo when the one did not delete.
After the waivers passed, I would have still ended up with John Brown for $6,
but never would have spent $61 on him.
Should I be able to get my money back
and only spend six bucks on john brown or have to give back john brown or have to stick with the
typo and lose 61 in fab heath and i are grinning with like that wicked evil grin or at least he
looks wicked and evil i probably look just as ugly as normal uh you made the mistake you pay
for the mistake no way way. Disagree.
$61 it is.
Oh, no.
You have to check your bid amounts when you do that.
You're a jerk.
What do you mean no, Adam?
I have a real-life comparison.
Go ahead.
Jamie and I are in a fantasy baseball league.
This has happened maybe twice but definitely once where somebody bid like an extra $100 on someone, and the commissioner went back and gave him his money back
and gave him his player, and everybody was completely fine with it.
You don't want to make someone hate their fantasy season.
This is being a jerk commish.
Be a nice commish and let him have John Brown for $6,
assuming no one else bid $7.
Well, how do you know that, though?
Because his bid was $61.
You ask, and and use the honor system
i'm just congr congratulations on keeping your streak alive this is five straight you've been
wrong on jayme can you help me out here with me when i saw you uh i i didn't agree with it when
it happened in the baseball league so yeah you you can't how did how do you know that he this
is actually the way that he meant to do it? Like he could have thought that he really needed to get John Brown in?
Moreover, it now sets a precedent where I can bid my max amount on a player.
No, it doesn't.
And then the next day.
Common sense.
Hey, wait a minute.
I didn't mean to go 100% of my remaining budget on somebody.
Can you give it to me for six?
Adam, play the music.
Have we officially regulated it?
It's been regulated. It's been regulated we officially regulated it? It's been regulated.
It's been regulated. It's over. It's been regulated.
Three of us on this podcast are jerks
and I am a nice guy. Denver is at
Baltimore. Alright, let's get
going with the game. So, conflicting stats
of the game. Denver on the
East Coast last year. Lost
26-16 at Buffalo. Lost
51-23 at Philadelphia.
Lost 35-9 at Miami. lost 27-11 at Washington.
They got blown out by double digits in all four games.
Maybe they didn't get blown out at Buffalo.
Got blown out in the other three.
They were terrible.
Three of the four quarterbacks they faced in those East Coast games had good games, scored 21 or more fantasy points.
So it was a really tough trip for Denver.
They weren't that good last year to begin with.
The other stat, so you wouldn't expect much from the Broncos.
The other stat, though, is that now, I mentioned this last week,
and I didn't buy into it.
I just mentioned it for the Thursday night game,
that when Baltimore didn't have Jimmy Smith,
they faced, in my opinion, five good quarterbacks.
And I eliminated the two times they faced Andy Dalton without A.J. Green.
And all five of those times, the quarterback scored 22 or more fantasy points and six points for passing touchdown leagues. Well, after last week without Jimmy Smith,
it is six for six over the last three seasons where a good quarterback has had 22 or more
fantasy points. That's a very good game. And five of those six have scored 25 or more fantasy
points. That's a great game.
So I got the East Coast thing, which would say avoid Denver.
I got the Jimmy Smith thing, which would say Denver's pass catchers and passing games should be great.
Give me your read on the Denver offense in this game at Baltimore.
I think they take advantage of the Ravens missing C.J. Mosley,
and they work the middle of the field.
I think Phillip Lindsey is the better running back here than Royce Freeman.
I actually think, here's a crazy call.
This might be like the GPP tight end of the week is Jake Butt,
where he can also take advantage.
He's been playing the most of any tight end in Denver.
I wonder if they try and manufacture a matchup with him against those linebackers in the red zone,
and he comes through for a touchdown in the game.
Love Emmanuel Sanders.
Love the matchup in the slot form against Tavon Young.
Nervous about Demarius Thomas.
Don't think that he'll have a big game
because those outside corners have been playing better for Baltimore.
And I'm not really ready to start Case Keenum.
That was a lot.
Let's take it one by one. You asked me a very broad question. I did. I answered it to the Case Keenum. That was a lot. Let's take it one by one.
You asked me a very broad question.
I did.
I answered it to the best of my ability.
That was wonderful.
Case Keenum, sit, right?
Yes.
Yes.
Okay.
No upside.
Sit him.
I disagree about that.
Go on.
They're terrible without Jimmy Smith, and they're missing C.J. Mosley.
We would have said the same.
I don't want to start him. I just disagree
that there's no upside. I have a hard time
this game I think
is the hardest one to project this week because both
of these defenses in theory
are very good NFL defenses.
In practice
so far, I'm not sure I believe that.
We've seen the Ravens in two games. One of them
doesn't really count because it was the Bills.
The other one they got sliced and diced by Andy Dalton on Thursday Night Football.
By A.J. Green.
They couldn't tackle A.J. Green.
Tyler Boyd.
Tyler Boyd had a big game.
Joe Mixon was just fine.
Yeah.
The Raiders just let Derek Carr complete like 95% of his passes
and are giving up nine yards per pass attempt or something.
The Broncos.
The Broncos allowed, yeah, to Carr last week.
Yeah.
I agree.
That's why I started with this game because I do think it's got – look,
you have better options than Case Keenum, so I won't say that.
I think in a DFS standpoint, I wouldn't mind taking it.
I'm assuming he's pretty cheap, but I'd probably avoid him.
You know what?
In a GPP, you could.
Okay.
So forget him.
Zach with Sanders.
We like Lindsey better than Freeman in this game?
Yes. Yep, I do. How do Lindsey better than Freeman in this game? Yes.
Yep, I do.
How do we rank?
I'm going to give you four running backs.
Please rank them.
Lindsey, Freeman, Giovanni Bernard, Isaiah Crowell.
Bernard, Lindsey, Crowell, Freeman.
Agreed.
I can't remember if I have Crowell higher than Freeman or not,
but those are the bottom two guys.
Okay, so Bernard and Lindsey are the bottom two guys. Okay.
So Bernard and Lindsey are what we're excited about.
Would you start Philip Lindsey or Lamar Miller?
Miller.
Miller.
Miller.
Okay.
Lindsey is at what, top 20 running back?
I'm 21st.
He's right there, yeah.
I'm 19th.
Okay.
Yeah, you guys have him 20, 21, and 19.
How about that?
So he's 20th or so.
All right.
Then Emmanuel Sanders or Demarius Thomas?
Who do you like?
Sanders.
I like Sanders.
I'm not quite ready to make a definitive statement that he's going to be better every week.
And in PPR, it might be Thomas.
Upside favor Sanders.
Matchup favor Sanders.
Who he'll go up against on the field definitely favor Sanders. Matchup favor Sanders. Who he'll go up against on the field, definitely favor Sanders.
Thomas is touchdown dependent.
Well, I mean, he did get more targets than Sanders.
That's great.
If he gets twice as many targets, then he has more upside than Sanders.
What was his receiving average last week?
It was really bad.
It was like it made Nelson Aguilar's week one.
He had five catches for 18 yards on 11 targets.
That's what I thought it was.
Oh, it was awful.
But over their career, I think Thomas has had a better receiving average.
Yes, over the course of their career, perhaps that's the case.
But in the here and now, I just think Sanders is far more electric.
Are you confident starting either one?
Sanders.
They're low-end number two, high-end number threes.
All right.
Moving on to the Ravens.
We're not starting Joe Flacco.
Alex Collins or Phillip Lindsey?
Lindsey.
Lindsey.
Yeah, Lindsey.
Wow.
All right, Alex Collins or Royce Freeman?
Collins.
Collins, but I don't really love it.
Now, Denver's run defense has been pretty good.
They're allowing 3.8 yards per carry to running back.
So it's not a great matchup for Collins.
Maybe we buy low next week.
Which Baltimore wide receiver do you like better?
Brown.
Brown.
Yep.
And do you like him better than either Demarius Thomas or Emmanuel Sanders?
No.
I might take the chance on him over Thomas in a non-PPR.
So I guess that means we're sitting our Ravens this week.
Yeah, a lot of people can't sit Collins.
Yeah, I'd flex Collins, and I think you can flex Buck Allen in PPR.
Oh, yeah, I should have.
I'm sorry for not mentioning Buck Allen.
Would you start Buck Allen over any of the running backs in Thursday night's game?
I only am talking about him in PPR.
Okay.
Over Duke Johnson at this point, for sure.
I think he's right there with the Jets.
Yeah, I think Powell's a little bit safer in PPR,
but he's probably there with Crowell.
I think Crowell has the revenge game factor, though.
Oh, yeah, got to love those revenge games.
I do.
Oh, yeah, and you know revenge games. I do. Oh, yeah.
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All right. Let's see what we got next. We got San Francisco at Kansas City.
I'm going to make a bonanza rule,
and I'm not saying that this is it
because I will decide tomorrow.
I'm allowed to use the same team twice in a row,
but not three times in a row.
Okay.
Okay, so there's my rule.
I don't think that's a rule
you should have to stick with at all.
It won't be a hard rule to follow with the Chiefs.
You're not going to use them next week. Oh, they're going buy no they're not gonna buy till like week 11 who they play next week at denver oh bonanza but don't worry the week after
that they've got jacksonville at home uh don't worry about that they're at new england uh bonanza
uh all right san francisco at kansas. In their last eight games, dating back to – oh, okay.
I know what the stat is now.
I wrote it wrong.
Let's look at the San Francisco run defense.
Last week, the Detroit running backs became the first group of running backs,
team running backs, to average more than 3.7 yards per carry going back to last year
in the last eight games for the Niners.
They had a very good run defense.
So I know we love Mahomes in the passing game.
Do we love Kareem Hunt this week?
You have to start him on the hope that he picks up some of the numbers
that Kansas City puts up, just like he did last week.
He caught the touchdown pass from Mahomes,
and eventually he's going to break out as a runner.
There is a part of me that wonders when a team will come along and just say,
okay, our front four, all they're going to be assigned all game long is to either stop the run
or attack Mahomes based on if it's a run or a pass.
And everybody else on defense is going to defend against the pass.
Like a defense is going to come along that can do it.
And I wonder if the 49ers think they've got the guys to do that.
I'm curious to see how they deploy their defense this week.
Here are a list of running backs I would start over Kareem Hunt in PPR.
Lamar Miller, James White, Tevin Coleman, Giovanni Bernard,
Corey Clement, if Jay Ajayi's out, Chris Thompson.
It's easier to say those names in PPR because Hunt's just not nearly as much involved in the passing game.
Or has to be as involved.
Well, what's interesting is the Chiefs, or the Niners rather, they've been very bad against running backs in the passing game.
They've allowed three running backs to have 47 to 55 receiving yards.
Two running backs, sorry.
Dalvin Cook and Theo Riddick.
Theo Riddick, I guess, I understand.
But Dalvin Cook, that was surprising.
Dalvin Cook,
if you look at his career so far,
he's been pretty much a monster
in the passing game, right? No.
No. He already
has over 100 yards receiving this year?
I wouldn't call him a monster.
This year? Well,
not based on last year.
But Hunt was a monster.
Only one of his games, he had 70 yards last year.
So he has over 50 yards receiving in half of his games.
What does he have so far this year?
107 so far.
Well, okay, fine.
But Hunt was a monster last year.
Do you think it's realistic that he gets back into that role this week?
Do you like Kareem Hunt this week?
You're starting him, yes.
I would say if you picked up Giovanni Bernard or Tevin Coleman,
and I agree with you on Thompson and PPR, there is room to bench him.
Now, most people don't have the you-know-what to do it,
but I think if you're being realistic and looking at it,
he just hasn't been the guy that he was a year ago.
And this goes back to our preseason conversations.
There's a change in how the offense is operating,
and he's not benefiting from it.
Who's a better flex, Kareem Hunt or Sammy Watkins?
Hunt, easily.
How much do you like?
He's not a fall-off-the-map guy.
What's happening to him is not as bad as what's happening to David Johnson,
for example.
Well, how much do you like Sammy Watkins this week?
I have a feeling that he can find the end.
He's like the one guy on the Chiefs that hasn't scored.
So he's kind of like the argument's stupid, but it's kind of like he's due.
And Andy Reid typically rewards those players that –
I think he rewarded him last week.
Yeah.
He had the quietest 100-yard game you'll ever see.
Those 131 total yards.
So, I mean, they gave him plenty of opportunities to find the end zone.
He's a number three receiver.
Watkins or Alex Collins?
Watkins.
Watkins and PPR. Watkins and PPR.
Watkins and PPR for sure.
I'd do Watkins in both.
I'll do Collins in none.
Watkins or a San Francisco wide receiver?
You're starting Tyreek Hill.
You're starting Travis Kelsey.
You're starting Patrick Williams.
Patrick Williams is the number one quarterback for Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
Do not start anyone over Patrick Williams.
There's a kiss of death.
Yeah, totally.
Now let's go to San Francisco.
Watkins or a Niners wide receiver?
Watkins.
Yep.
What if Goodwin plays?
Still, he's not going to be 100%.
I will probably rank Goodwin ahead of him.
I think I would too.
They'll be right in the same range.
So, like, they have a terrible defense.
Who's going to start?
Who are you going to start on San Francisco against this bad Chiefs defense?
You can't trust any of them, but Garcon and Pettis are certainly in play if Goodwin is out,
and then George Kittle and Brita.
I think Kittle's pretty close to a must play.
Oh, great.
And Brita is too.
Great.
Yep.
What about Garoppolo versus Carson Wentz?
I'm going Garoppolo.
Garoppolo.
For sure.
He's in my top 12 this week.
Just look at the numbers that quarterbacks have been getting against the Chiefs.
Yeah.
They've been throwing 111 pass attempts in two games.
They are forced to throw.
It's a great point.
Garoppolo.
If Garoppolo throws 30 passes and averages what Rivers and Roethlisberger average per attempt,
he would score 21 fantasy points on 30 passes.
If he throws 40, then we've got a big game here.
So let's hope it gets up there.
Garoppolo has thrown 36 –
33 and 26 pass attempts in two games.
All right, so look, we don't hate Garoppolo by any means,
but we don't love him.
He's 10th, right around 10th for the three guys.
I think that pretty much does it.
We can compare George Kittle.
Like, George Kittle or Evan Ingram?
Kittle.
I'll take Ingram.
I'll take Kittle.
Kittle or a Colts tight end?
Kittle.
Kittle.
Yep.
Okay.
We like Kittle.
Let's move on to Oakland at Miami.
Stat of the game.
Three wide receivers with eight or more targets against Miami so far this year.
And Corey Davis had six catches for 62 yards.
Quincy Inunua had seven for 92.
Terrell Pryor had four for 84.
Oh, did he only have four targets in that game?
Well, anyway, Miami's been good but not amazing against wide receivers.
What do you think about Amari Cooper this week?
I tend to disagree with you.
I think they've been pretty good against receivers.
They haven't given up a touchdown to a wide receiver?
Their top three cornerbacks have yet to allow a touchdown,
according to Sports Info Solutions.
Somebody scored last week, right?
Did Pryor score last week?
No, none of them scored.
I don't think they scored. No, Pryor had eight week? No, none of them scored. I don't think they scored.
No, Pryor had eight targets.
Right, so it was three guys with eight targets.
Two of them had 84 or more yards.
Yeah, no receivers had more than 10 fantasy points against him.
I mean, you know me.
I've been saying how good the secondary is for the start of the season,
you know, with Xavier Howard and the safeties.
Now, Rashad Jones, if he's out, that could be bad.
But the guys playing opposite him, Lippitt and –
No, Lippitt's gone.
It's Bobby McCain.
Oh, I'm sorry.
And it's Minka Fitzpatrick in the slot.
He's been great.
Apparently wants to trademark the nickname Fitzpatrick.
He did.
I think he did.
He did trademark it.
But he said he'll let Ryan Fitzpatrick borrow it.
Yeah.
That's awesome.
I don't know if he'll let Larry Fitzgerald borrow it.
He's not magic anymore.
No.
Yeah, it's a great secondary.
And, you know, it's surprising. They only have three sacks and they got them all
last week. They haven't exactly
been getting a ton of
sacks. They've been getting pressure on the quarterback.
It's the
inside guys that have success against them. It's not outside
guys. They moved Cooper around last week
as they did in week one. They just featured him.
They threw the ball at him.
It's not rocket science.
John Gruen actually got something right for a change.
But that's what you have to hope for when you start Amari.
You're probably starting Amari Cooper if you have start three wide receivers or if you have a flex.
Well, you're the low guy, Heath, on Amari Cooper.
I thought the Cooper rankings were very interesting.
I'll try to look at the updated ones.
They've updated a little bit.
So now Heath has him 31st.
Dave and Jamie have him 25th.
And in PPR, 23rd for Jamie, 22nd for Dave, 29th for Cooper.
So I guess it's the same way.
You're not buying what you saw last week.
I think it's possible.
I've got him for eight targets.
I just think this is a terrible spot for the Raiders.
Second consecutive road game traveling across the country against a defense that's a lot better than I thought it was.
I just think with what we saw from them in this game last week is going to be
kind of the norm.
Get the ball out quick, short targets.
He's not going to have a lot of big plays down the field,
but he's going to Quincy Anunua his way to some good numbers.
Are we sitting Derek Carr?
Yeah, they've gone, I think, now seven or eight games in a row
with not allowing multiple touchdowns to quarterbacks.
The Dolphins?
Yes.
I thought you were saying Carr's gone seven or eight games
without multiple touchdowns.
That sounds about right, too.
I mean, he has 591 passing yards
in two games, and those two games were the Rams
and the Broncos. He's completing
80% of his passes, too. Yeah.
I mean, it's just like maybe
Amari Cooper's going to be a slot receiver
who catches a lot of balls and is really good at PPR.
You know the Patriots play that bend but
don't break defense? Everybody's doing
that now. The Raiders are kind of playing the move but don't score offense.
Starter sit Jared Cook.
I'm starting him.
I think he's good enough to be a starter.
He finds a way to get open.
It's just up to Carr to find him.
There were a couple of plays last week where Carr didn't see him open.
He's making one read.
That's part of the problem.
He's making one read.
Not every time, but most of the time. If he's holding the ball as quickly as he is read. That's part of the problem. He's making one read. Not every time, but a good
portion of the time. If he's holding the ball as quickly
as he is, he's not skinning the field.
Look, he's
not going to be
4 for 49 most weeks, but that's
probably closer to what his stat line is than what we saw in week one.
Cook or Kittle? I would say
Kittle, easy. Kittle is more up. Kittle, easy.
Cook or Njoku? Cook.
Cook, PPR, Njoku, non-PPR.
Okay.
I have Njoku over Cook.
Marshawn Lynch, good start, great start, bad start?
I think he'll continue to do what he's been doing.
I think he can find the end zone again.
Scored twice on the Dolphins last year.
Dolphins have given up 13 fantasy points to a running back each of its first two games.
That's the Tennessee duo, and that's the Jets duo.
So not exactly a who's who of running backs here.
But those are both teams that have the duos,
and the one that scored the fantasy points is the pass-catching back.
Yes, good point.
I don't know if the pass-catching back plays enough for the Raiders to see that much of an effect.
He did in week one, but not in week two because the score was different.
Score could be the same here too.
I don't think this is a Dolphins blowout.
Oh, agreed.
No, I think Lynch is a – I don't want to say safe.
He's a number two running back, but if he doesn't score, you're going to be in trouble.
He's a flex for me.
Marshawn Lynch or Royce Freeman?
Lynch.
Lynch.
Lynch.
Marshawn Lynch or Alfred Morris?
Lynch.
Lynch.
These are easy ones.
I'll take Alph and non-PPR. Lynch or Alfred Morris? Lynch. Lynch. These are easy ones. I'll take it. I'll take Alf and non-PPR.
Lynch or Brita?
Yeah, I would actually think Alf and PPR because he's been more involved in the passing game than I was expecting.
He caught two passes.
That's more than Lynch does.
Lynch has two passes.
He's caught two passes in this game.
All right, Lynch or Brita?
Brita.
Brita.
Brita easily.
Yes.
Lynch or Drake?
Drake easily.
Yeah.
But you're the low guy on Drake, Heath.
I thought he was surprisingly low for you.
19th.
I think I've got him in the top 24 running backs.
19th, and Dave and Jamie have him top 13.
It's probably not a huge difference.
It looks kind of different.
All right.
Start Drake.
Any wide receivers for the Dolphins?
No.
Nah.
Stills is the best one, but number three receiver.
Do you know that he's fourth on the Dolphins in targets?
Yeah, we talked about this yesterday.
I actually gave Adam some props for his,
does Ryan Tannehill just not like Kenny Stills?
I don't think that's what I said.
Or is it just Ryan Tannehill is just spreading
the ball around, doing what a lot of teams
are doing now.
If you need to flex Kenny Stills, I don't think
you should throw up about it.
Last question on this game. Stills or
Lynch?
I think
Stills and PPR is still the better way to go.
Certainly there's upside that favors them.
And if you do look at the receiver, for whatever it's worth,
the receivers that have done the best against the Raiders,
whose secondary is actually playing better than you'd think,
considering they don't have much of a pass rush,
it's been speedy receivers.
And Stills is the speediest of the Dolphins receivers.
I'd definitely rather start Stills and PPR.
I'm the low guy on Lynch, but I'd start him at nine.
Jakeem Grant would make more laps around Kenny Stills. You know, that's a good point.
That's a fair point. And he has more targets.
Maybe Jakeem Grant is a sneaky sleeper
this week. Miami DST is number 11
for Jamie. The rankings
are updated. They're like around 10th.
They're not a bad play if you need to stream a DST.
Dolphins. Alright, Giants
are at the Texans in this game.
Stat of the
game. Last year, Houston.
I really think this is a team that's very good against pass-catching running backs.
James White in week one, he had 38 yards and a touchdown, but he had nine targets.
So it's not amazing production.
Last year, they allowed the fourth fewest receiving yards to opposing running backs
and only three receiving touchdowns to running backs, none after week five.
And last week, Deion Lewis had one catch for one yard on one target.
Yeah, that was dumb.
So do you like Saquon Barkley this week or do you love Saquon Barkley this week?
I love Saquon Barkley, but I hadn't heard that particular stat.
I still don't really care.
Yeah, I don't either.
They're going to continue to find ways to get him the football.
Kudos to them.
Kudos, Adam, for giving him as many catches as they did last week.
Which they never want to do again, by the way.
Take note, Arizona.
No, but they never want to give him, what, 14 catches or something?
Yeah, yeah.
He won't have 14 again this season, but I bet he'll have a lot with 789.
And that's not to say 789 catches.
Why is 6 afraid of 7 Dave?
Because 789
Thank you
Is Barkley kind of like in the Kareem Hunt mode
Where if you have Geo
If you have Tevin Coleman
You sit Barkley
Or no chance you sit Barkley
I'm not sitting Barkley
No way
I would
For those two?
Yeah they're in better situations
They definitely are
Odell Beckham You guys have like around 12th,
and Heath does have him 6th in PPR.
So everybody's going to start Beckham.
So far, the Texans have been pretty damn good against wide receivers.
Nobody's sitting Beckham, though, but maybe not a DFS guy.
Evan Ingram, start or sit?
I don't want to start him, but tight not a dfs guy evan ingram starter sit i don't want to start him but it
tight ends awful you know why don't you want to start him after what you saw last week the nice
garbage time touchdown little extra work never hurt anybody they're gonna be they're gonna be
trailing he's got one game with one point and one game with 12 points so it's gonna be somewhere
between those i feel like his upside keeps him in the top 12.
Yeah.
We already said you can start Kittle over him.
Dave does have Ingram over Kittle.
The other guys do not.
And Najoku or Ingram?
Ingram.
Ingram.
Okay.
Going to the Texans.
So, like, the Giants' defense has actually been solid this year.
I do worry about them with all the injuries, though. Is this a huge game for the Texans. So like the Giants defense has actually been solid this year. I do worry about
them with all the injuries though.
Is this a huge game for the Texans or just
like a solid game or what?
I think they explode.
This is like when Randy Savage
and Hulk Hogan met at WrestleMania.
The mega powers exploded.
An okay game.
I said it already.
One sack through two games and two of their best pass rushers are hurt.
So Deshaun Watson or Fitzpatrick?
I'll go Watson.
Yeah, I think Watson can have a 30-point game.
I'll go Watson.
Jamie, go ahead.
I think Watson can have a 30-point game too.
I'll just take Watson.
I interrupted Jamie.
Yes, Watson.
I think you were going to say – Jamie, what's your take?
Like Lamar Miller, is he a must-start?
Hopkins is easy. I really like
Will Fuller this week. Yep.
He had nine targets last week.
That was great. And Deshaun Watson only threw 32
passes.
I believe it's a career-high receptions for Fuller, too.
Eight catches, 113 yards.
How many times has Deshaun Watson thrown more than 32
passes in his
career? Not many.
That feels pretty close to the ceiling for me this week.
But I don't think he has to based on what we've seen from him.
I mean, look, for what it's worth,
every time Watson and Fuller have been on the field together,
there's been a lot of production from both those guys.
From Hopkins, too.
It's worth buying into this offense, for sure, for this week.
I think Janoris Chang is going to make life tough on one of those two receivers.
He's still a very good corner, but they can avoid him and move those guys around,
so you're starting both receivers.
Yeah, Watson's a great start this week, and Miller is just – he'll be fine.
You're starting him as he always is, just not exciting.
Also, the Giants are an early candidate for a team that is the worst against mobile quarterbacks.
Dak Prescott just ran for a career high.
You guys just thought the team is the worst.
No, I mean they actually have decent pieces on defense.
But 45 yards for Prescott, 40 yards or something like that for Bortles rushing.
And Watson gives you 40 yards every game.
If I recall, they used to be good at that.
I don't know.
But they changed schemes, and now it's bad.
Do you have the numbers on Deshaun?
Did you look it up?
For career high and past attempts.
Oh, he's 34.
34 is his career high.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't know if he'll get to 34.
I don't think he has to this week.
No, I think it's kind of a low-volume passing game.
Lamar Miller or Alex Collins?
Miller.
Miller.
Yeah.
Lamar Miller or Saquon Barkley?
Saquon.
Pittsburgh at Tampa Bay.
I'll try to speed it up.
What are the
tough calls in this game?
You can't start Peyton Barber.
Well, I mean, you could.
You're just going to regret it.
I mean, he's not involved in the passing game in a game that has the ability to just be a shootout.
70 points?
Probably.
No, I mean, is Peyton Barber going to score 70 fantasy points this year?
This year?
Man, that's hard to say.
This is one of the reasons why Fitzpatrick has been great, by the way.
Because Ronald Jones sucked early.
Peyton Barber sucks now.
And they don't have anything close to resembling a run game.
Which quarterback do you like better?
Ben.
Ben.
Ben.
Don't Ben me because I'll tell you something.
Here's your stat of the game.
Ben Roethlisberger did not score more than 21 fantasy points in any road game last year,
six points per passing touchdown.
And he faced four teams that were among the nine worst in fantasy points allowed to opposing quarterbacks. So he had four great
matchups, did not score more than 21 points in any of those games. He's on the road.
Yeah. I hate using that narrative as a reason to not trust Roethlisberger.
Me too.
Because the matchup is still very good. His receivers should
explode. Antonio Brown, if he has another bad
game, who knows what he'll tweet.
I just can't help
but feel like this all sets up for
Roethlisberger to have one of those
rare mega games on the road for him.
I know. It's weird. I always
envision him having that game, and it just so
rarely happens. Somebody asked me,
though, is the weather supposed to be bad Monday night?
I haven't checked.
I don't know.
Want me to take a peek?
Sorry, I got it.
Yeah, take a peek.
One of you, take a peek.
James Connors, top five in non-PPR, top seven in PPR.
I think the other tough calls are Deshaun Jackson and Chris Godwin.
First of all, who do you like better?
Secondly, how much do you like them?
Jackson, better, but not by much.
And I like them both at the very worst as top 30 receivers this week.
The weather's supposed to stop raining on Sunday night.
I'll take Godwin and PPR, but they're both just flexes for me.
Ay, ay, ay.
I love Deshaun.
I'll take him as the number two receiver.
Ride this hot hand.
Would you start?
I know what you're saying.
He's had nine targets in two games.
He's caught them all for 275 yards.
Look, this is the thing.
If he slows down, Fitzpatrick's going to slow down a little bit.
But it's hard to get away from what this has been.
As long as you're just not saying – this isn't a scenario for me.
I'm looking at Giovanni Bernard's workload, Tevin Coleman's workload.
And for me, that's – I buy into that over what I've seen from David Johnson and Kareem Hunt.
So I could start those guys over those two other running backs.
In this case, workload matters.
And so while Deshaun's having these big performances, I'm not getting cute with him over Beckham who's been struggling or Keenan Allen who has a tough matchup.
I'm not going to do that.
But I think you have to look at Deshaun Jackson
as if you're comparing him to Demaryius Thomas at this point.
While the targets certainly favor Thomas,
the matchup and situation favors Deshaun Jackson.
That, for me, is easy to buy into.
We could spend two minutes going through Deshaun Jackson or questions.
Yeah, so let's do a few.
So why don't you go ahead and...
You're going to go against him.
Why don't you name...
Adam, we'll get to you in a second.
Heath, can you give me three
wide receivers that
Deshaun Jackson would start over for you?
You're taking Jackson over these guys.
We just had Godwin and PPR.
Brandon Marshall.
Michael Crabtree.
Any Jaguar in PPR. Brandon Marshall. Okay. Michael Crabtree. Okay.
Any Jaguar besides Keelan Cole?
This was a bad idea. Adam, who do you have?
Matt Breida or a Tampa Bay
wide receiver not named Mike Evans.
Matt Breida all day long. I think I'd go
Breida too. Of course.
How about Will Fuller?
I'll take Fuller. Give me Fuller.
How about Alex Collins?
Jackson.
Collins.
Jackson would be better.
Jackson and any more upside.
Jackson for both of them.
OJ Howard, start or sit?
Sit.
Sit.
But, I mean, for the love of God, Todd Monken and Tampa Bay,
just give the guys seven, eight targets a game.
Let's see what this looks like.
Well, then that'll kill Deshaun Jackson.
Fine.
Fine.
I'd rather have Howard than Jackson.
All right.
Well, hey, look.
Howard's 64% owned.
Just in case they realize we need to start featuring him,
you might want to stash Jordan Howard, or O.J. Howard, rather, 64% owned.
You can stash Jordan Howard.
You can stash Jordan Howard for sure.
Tennessee's at Jacksonville.
We've got two games left.
Stat of the game number one.
Jacksonville native Bob Hayes is the only man to win an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring.
That is according to visitjacksonville.com.
Thank you again, visitjacksonville.com for the fun facts.
Stat of the game number two.
You can just call Pete Prisco.
Tennessee, I could.
Tennessee allows the third highest passing yards per attempt in the NFL.
They haven't seen a lot of attempts, but they have not been very good against them.
So any interest in Blake Bortles?
Yes, as long as Fournette doesn't play.
I think even if Fournette does play, he scored 20 or more fantasy points in six of his last eight games going back to last year. And I'd buy into if they're going to be – if they want to be the team that they're capable of being,
they have to be more aggressive throwing the ball.
And I think that they're going to do that because Fournette's not going to be 100% if he plays.
And so this is an opportunity for them to let him continue to play a little bit more open,
a little bit more free.
And I think the receiving core as a whole is better than he's ever had before.
And what do we think about the receiving core for the Jacksonville Jaguars?
I love the matchup for Keelan Cole,
who has started to break away from the slot and play on the outside more.
Starting Titans, outside cornerbacks, Adoree Jackson, Malcolm Butler.
So far this season, 21 catches on 33 targets allowed for 347 yards
and four touchdowns per Sports Info Solutions.
And Keelan Cole should be able to cash in on that.
It's just a matter of – it's what Jamie said, and I think I tend to agree with it,
which is do they want to try and get Leonard Fournette going
or do they want to try and keep Blake Bortles hot?
But they could do both.
And that's what they did at the end of last season.
As they went into the playoffs, it was Bortles, and then the run game was still supporting it.
So I think you could still get great numbers out of Fournette,
but with the way Bortles looks right now, he's not a must-start guy by any stretch.
I'm thinking more for daily than Bortles. Sure, but I would start Bortles looks right now, he's not a must-start guy by any stretch. I'm thinking more for daily on Bortles.
Sure, but I would start Bortles over Carson Wentz.
I would, too.
There's a little bit more upside with him.
I'd start him over Russell Wilson.
I'd start him over Phillip Rivers.
I'd start Wilson over him.
But I wonder how much run Fournette is really going to get in this game.
Because do they really need him?
Well, what do we do with the running backs?
Let's talk about that.
Fournette plays you stardom.
There's no other guy in Jacksonville you're playing over Fournette.
Maybe he will be the second running back in the last, was it 10 games?
15 games, I think, to get more than 73 yards rushing against.
Yeah.
So it's been 15 games dating back to last season.
Only one running back has more than 73 rushing guards against the Titans,
and that was Todd Gurley.
However, their run defense is not as good this year.
They lost Carl Klug and Sylvester Williams.
They lost linebacker Avery Williamson,
and so far they are giving up well over four yards per carry.
The Dolphins ran the ball against them well.
They just didn't score.
Yeah, and Drake had 14 for 48.
Gore had 9 for 61.
Lamar Miller had 14 for 68.
So he almost got to that 73-yard mark.
Just need a little bit more workload.
Is there any Titan that you want to start?
I'm good with Deion Lewis.
Are you thrown off a little bit by last week?
They were thrown off.
The Texans were thrown off.
Kudos to that coaching staff and how they managed that game to get the win without
Mariota, but it looks like Mariota
is not going to play again. I don't want to trust these
guys. Hopefully, Luan plays. It sounds like he's
trending in the right direction. I don't know about Conklin
there. Did he play last week? No, I don't think so.
I don't think he did.
No, he didn't because we were so excited about the Texans'
defense.
I just think that this offense is not
trustworthy. I think Lewis is a good
flex option if you still want to stick with Henry
with 18 carries. Last week was the first time Henry had
more than 14 carries in a game
and did not get double digits in fantasy points.
So the streak is broken.
But
it's kind of game flow.
Henry's so dependent on if they're playing with
the league, which is what we saw last week. So you can't trust him
and I just think that Lewis is upside his cap.
All right, last question.
Would you start Blaine Gabbert or Kevin Bayard at quarterback?
LOL.
All right, we got a bold prediction.
Revenge game for Gabbert.
We got a bold prediction here for New England at Detroit, I think.
We talked about it sort of off the air before the show.
Let's throw it out there.
What are we thinking that's going to happen in this game that hasn't happened yet?
The rookies.
I think they may both be unleashed.
Kerryon Johnson and Sonny Michel.
These are two of the worst run defenses in the league.
Definitely the worst.
One of them will be blowing out the other.
Yeah, but Johnson got five catches last week, so hopefully that.
Was that because Riddick got hurt and they just needed somebody to fill that
role? I just think they need to
try to establish their own early and
use Kerryon Johnson as a result.
You can't start Kerryon Johnson with any semblance of confidence,
but hopefully what we
saw last week is the
turning of the page a little bit. Might be a good time to make a trade
offer for Sonny Michel or Kerryon Johnson. Yes, by
law right now. I think Kerryon Johnson
is a much more likely candidate
because Burkhead's still there.
I mean, Burkhead's a good player, but Blunt isn't.
Like, that's my...
And James White is still there too.
Yeah, but so is Theo Riddick.
I mean, but White at least gets four or five carries a game.
Riddick doesn't really get any.
Yeah, I would still...
I'm sorry.
Who would you rather have rest of the season,
Kerryon Johnson or Sonny Michel?
I was about to say I would take Michel.
I'll still take Kerryon Johnson.
Better team and he's got more playmaking ability than Johnson, I think.
Less talent than Miles Defeat in Detroit.
There are more talent than Miles Defeat in that New England backfield.
Heath, break the tie.
I'll take Sonny. Okay. That sounded veryfield. Heath, break the tie. I'll take Sony.
That sounded very confident.
No, it's not confident at all.
Somebody suggested sell high or Heath sigh as a new segment.
All right, so are you starting any running back in this game?
Well, James White and PPR, right?
Yep.
Yeah, like James White over Deion Lewis? Yep. Would you start James White in PPR, right? Yep. Like James White over Deion Lewis?
Yep.
Would you start James White over Leonard Fournette
in PPR? No.
I don't think I'm there yet.
I don't know if I'll ever be there.
Would you start James White over Kareem Hunt in PPR?
No. Yes, for Heath.
Okay, okay. Emphatic yes.
What about Burkhead, Michelle,
Johnson?
Let's just see if we can see what happens this week and try to avoid them?
I think so.
How much playing time is Rex going to get if it's not a competitive game?
That's the argument for Sony, if you ask me.
Well, it depends on what you mean by competitive.
Are they ahead?
Because he could still be a guy that they're leaning on.
Last week, they started using Michelleelle they got down by 18 points no they they the second series
of the game was all sony and it lasted three plays and they were done but they're there i think
they're trying to use sony a little more to try and get him used to the nfl like this is your time
to right which is 25 snaps this could be a game where he does have an opportunity.
Burkhead is just not inspiring
anything right now.
He's not. However, this is the best
matchup we'll have all year. I know I
have a league where I just hate my running backs.
I can actually try to
give an example if that
would help. That's funny. I have a league where I
hate my co-owner.
No surprise. I's funny. I have a league where I hate my co-owner. No surprise.
Yeah, I'll see if I can try to be helpful.
Oh, did you get Wentz?
No, we didn't.
He didn't place a bid.
He went for a $0 bid.
Adam didn't place a bid for him.
What?
Neither did Heath.
What?
I was trying to be a nice, friendly co-owner.
I didn't want to do something that you didn't want.
I'm sorry.
Who could you have dropped to get him?
It would have had to be Chris Godwin
probably. Oh, I don't know
if you made the right call.
Yeah, but we don't even start Chris Godwin.
Yeah, I have LaShawn McCoy,
Austin Eckler, or
Rex Burkhead in PPR. That's what it's going to come
down to for me. Eckler.
Eckler. Dave?
I think I have Burkhead higher, but I don't know if I can even justify it.
All right, which wide receivers are we starting in this game?
This is one that I've really been struggling with,
and somebody needs to give me a reason to move Chris Hogan way up in my rankings
because I am missing something and like 30 spots lower than everybody else in the industry.
No Darius Slay potentially, and that defense stinks.
So I just look at his touchdown potential.
I hope the targets stay there.
To me, it's contingent on Josh Gordon.
Gordon plays.
He's ranked too high.
If Gordon doesn't play, then I think he's in a good spot.
Could he get open because Gordon's on the field?
Where is Hogan, by the way?
He's just outside my top 24, like in the top third.
And I think the consensus ranking on Fantasy Pros is like 23rd.
You're chasing points.
He's got five targets in each of the first two games,
and that's without Josh Gordon.
And that's one game where the Patriots were kind of behind on the scoreboard.
That's what they were against Jacksonville.
All right, we're going to finish up here.
The targets go low.
Do you think that there are three Lions wide receivers that you're ranking ahead of Chris Hogan?
Oh, 100%.
Two for me.
Who's the three?
I'll take him over Jones.
No, I'll take Jones over Hogan.
Wow.
All right.
They're trying to get him going.
This is a game they're going to play from behind.
Well, I mean, they've been behind in two games.
Stat of the game.
And they've been trying.
Here's the one.
He's now gone 13 games with Kenny Gall down the field
and only once over four catches.
He has 30 seconds left.
Wrap it up.
Philip Dorsett has more targets, more receptions,
and I believe more receiving yards the first two weeks than Chris Hogan does.
Here's your stat of the game.
There have been five wide receivers to score seven or more fantasy points
against the Patriots.
Last week, three of them scored nine or more fantasy points in non-PPR.
Four of those wide receivers had eight to 11 targets.
So, yeah, they've just been terrible against wide receivers.
You can start all of the Lions.
Guys, and that is it.
Patriots DST is okay outside the top 12.
Just okay.
All right, that's it.
We're out of here.
Theo Riddick, over under five and a half catches.
Wait, I got it.
Say it.
Just say the answer.
Got to go back.
Dave?
Heath?
Theo Riddick?
Five and a half catches.
I will take the under on that.
Okay.
Bye, everybody.
We'll talk to you on Friday with a recap of the Thursday night game.
Na, na, na, na, na, na.