Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (AFC)! Big Ben, Sutton, Hunt and More (09/16 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 16, 2021

The Steelers are set up for success this week, and Ben Roethlisberger headlines our list of players we love in Week 1 (2:00) as we also are ready to start Mike Williams for an encore performance. Meanwhile, we're trying to sit (8:00) Saquon Barkley and a number of other RBs. Speaking of RBs, we reassess our RB draft strategies (11:15). Will Zero-RB or Hero-RB pay off? ... Heath is tanking in one of his leagues (16:30)! Should we kick him out??? Also your news and notes (21:30) and 60-second rankings disputes (25:00) on James Robinson, David Montgomery and Jared Cook ... Start or sit for Chiefs-Ravens (31:00), Texans-Browns (37:40), Bills-Dolphins (43:30), Broncos-Jaguars (51:00), Raiders-Steelers (57:10), Patriots-Jets (58:30), Rams-Colts (1:02:30) and Cowboys-Chargers (1:07:00) ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races. Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. Welcome to Fantasy Football.

Today we've got eight AFC home games to preview. A very risky start of the week. Very bold, Jamie. You nervous? Nah. All right, all right. Can't be worse than last week. All right.

Ten yards per carry for Raheem Mostert. You know what's funny? On FFT, on CBS Sports HQ on Sunday morning, in the usual good natured ribbing that, I was trying to think of the right appropriate word there, that Pete Prisco was giving me about the start of the week, which he does every week. He said, what do you think Boster's going to get?

Maybe 12, 15 carries? I said, yeah, but he's going to average 10 yards a carry, so I'll get 150 yards and two touchdowns. You did. I was right. He averaged 10 yards a carry. And they had two rushing touchdowns, right, from the running back. No, they did. Yeah, that's Jamie. I'm Adam. Heath is... Hey, Heath. Hey,

Adam, how are you? It's so good to talk to you today. It is. We haven't spoken in a while, right? Yeah, we're going to talk about players we love, players to avoid, 60-second rankings disputes, some cornerback versus wide receiver matchups. We'll talk a little bit about Thursday night's game and how you're feeling about Saquon Barkley. And the games today, Kansas City, Baltimore, Buffalo, Miami,

should be a pretty interesting one to preview. Boy, Lamar Jackson, by the way, very bad history against the Kansas City Chiefs. I think even Houston, Cleveland, Denver, Jacksonville, they may not be so interesting in the NFL world, but in fantasy, they're very interesting. Let's start with players you love. And Jamie, that risky start of the week is? Ben Roethlisberger.

It's risky. I totally get it. And he's only ranked 12th for me, so he's a starter, but it's not like I expect him to have just this monster, monster game. But I do think that he's going to play well. Unfortunately, he plays a position that there's a lot of great players. So the thing about Ben is the setup for him. And you see it if you're watching the YouTube channel here.

He's great in home openers. And I azer-statted this a little bit, but I think it's relevant so i took the seattle home opener out um 2019 of course of course so huh if he left at halftime of course um but in the in the last five home openers that he's finished he's averaging nearly 30 fantasy points per game all five of those over 22 points so he's had a he had a 44 point game in there and he had a 22 point game in there as well. So that's the range of spectrum, uh, for where I think he'll, he'll probably end up, but it's more about the setup. You have the Raiders playing an overtime game on Monday night, having to travel cross country for a one o'clock start. So that's gotta be a tired team. And I think we're out this burger. We'll take advantage of that. Um, you know, you can look at the game

last week and say, okay, maybe they're not the the best but I'll give Buffalo's defense some credit I don't want to take away anything from the Raiders defense that defense played great against the Ravens and I think they're going to be a tougher unit this season especially if those pass rushers continue to do what they do but I do think that Roethlisberger has a big game here and I think all the guys step up um you know the receivers are all in play for sure, and Najee Harris as well. So who would you start Roethlisberger over? Any big names? I have him ranked over Burrow, over Lawrence, over I'm trying to think of guys who played well last week.

Tannehill you have him ranked over. Over Tannehill. Bridgewater, which I know people might question. He's at Jacksonville. Heath has him back-to-back, Roethlisberger, Bridgewater. You have Roethlisberger ahead. Yeah, it's a position where there's a lot of great players. And so then you get to that next group of guys.

He's at the top of the next group of guys. Okay. Heath, who do you love this week? I want to start him over Lamar Jackson. Even though you said Jackson's got a bad history and Rodgers coming off a bad game, I think he bounces back. Just to put it in context. You would not start him over history and Rodgers coming off a bad game, I think he bounces back. Just to put it in context. You would not start him over

Jackson Rodgers? I would not. Heath, how about you? Who do you love? I would echo what Jamie said and just say all the Steelers against the Raiders. I think the Raiders are going to have a major letdown game, but I'll go a different direction. I'll say Mike Williams. I love the setup for the Chargers. The Cowboys know

Demarcus Lawrence now. The Washington football team could not touch Justin Herbert last week. And Herbert still didn't have a fantastic game, but that offensive line for the Chargers played awesome. Now they face a Cowboys team that cannot rush the passer and looked a little bit improved against the run last week. So I do think you saw Tampa Bay just throw all over the Cowboys. You'll see Justin Herbert throw all over the Cowboys. Keenan Allen and Mike Williams,

both top 20 wide receivers. Allen might be top five. Okay, I'm glad you brought this one up. I was going to ask separately about Mike Williams, and I'm glad you brought up the pressure. Washington had the fourth lowest pressure rate last week.

That's amazing. That's according to Pro Football Reference. Fourth lowest pressure rate going up against the Chargers offensive line, which again last year was worse than the NFL, but obviously is better now. So that's great. Yeah, DeMarcus Lawrence out.

Randy Gregory probably out. You know, all that. But is Trayvon Diggs a concern for you and how well he did against Mike Evans? Or, you know, I didn't watch the film, but how bad Mike Evans was last week with Trayvon Diggs shadowing him. And I would think he'd probably go on Mike Williams, if anyone, is that a concern for anybody? It's not particularly worrisome for me because I think the difference is Tom Brady had both Antonio Brown and Chris

Godwin that he could just throw to. And I mean, Herbert has Keenan Allen. He's going to throw to him a bunch, but I still think we'll see the targets for Mike Williams. Agree, Jamie. Yeah, totally. I was going to say that,

you know, and I said this last week, you know, when we were talking about Evans, not bad, he was most teams don't have the luxury of what Tom Brady has. And don't forget Gronk as well. You know,

they catch it, you know, so there's just so many different directions Brady can go. Like why attempt it? You know, so it's like, I don directions brady can go like why attempt it you know so it's like i don't want to take anything away from digs but i want to see when digs is matched up with one of these guys and getting challenged and how he'll do you know so i think it'll be fun you know not that mike williams obviously should be considered a world beater at this point after one strong game but i don't think he's going to go from 12 targets to four

you know he's probably going to be somewhere in the eight target range especially if this game gets to the point where i think it's going to get where these two teams are going back and forth and you know punching it out with a high scoring game i haven't said this for a while but uh bonanza uh you should you should be happy that your your legend of bonanza has carried over to other programs. I did Nick Costas' show, You Better You Bet. He said, this has the feeling of a Bonanza. Our buddy Adam Azer, the Bonanza. I haven't spoken to him in a while. I got a tweet at him.

He was singing your praises. Oh, yeah. Or maybe ruining it. All right. Listen, all season long, we are playing the FFT Start-Sit Challenge. You can go to cbssports.com slash start-sit to play. Each week, answer 10 start-sit questions to win a customized Trophy Smack championship belt

with your name engraved. This is great. We love doing this. We love starter sit. You get your name engraved on a belt from Trophy Smack. The overall winner for the season wins $1,000 and a guest appearance on the podcast. Which one would you rather overall winner for the season wins $1,000 and a guest appearance on the podcast. Which one would you rather

have, by the way? $1,000 or a guest appearance? One question this week. Elijah Mitchell, Tyson Williams, or Naheem Hines? Who will score the most fantasy points? What do you guys think? Elijah Mitchell, Tyson Williams, or Naheem Hines? In PPR?

Schrager, is there an answer to that? Let's go with both. I'd probably take Mitchell in both, but PPR, it might be Hines. I'll take Mitchell in both. Okay. Let's go to players to avoid. Heath, who should we sit this week?

Can I use Thursday night players for this? Can you do both? Can we get a quick thursday night and then a sunday i'm scared to death of saquon barkley in this game against washington and i really don't want to use him um for obvious reasons i think hopefully this is the last week we say that hopefully he gets to play 60 of the snaps and he looks a little bit better maybe breaks one long run and gives you enough to where you can think, okay, 10 days rest, I'm going to start him. But I'm really

worried if he plays 50% of the snaps and averages two and a half yards per carry, what his value is going to be moving forward. And I'm going to try to stay away from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers running backs. All of them. I was really pretty excited about Leonard Fournette until Bruce Arian said Ronald Jones was going to be the starter. But I don't know how much you can take out of Ronald Jones being the starter. He started 13 games last year. Five of those games, he had 10 carries or fewer. So Ronald Jones is one mistake away from not playing again

for the rest of the game, probably. So I would like to stay away from all Tampa again for the rest of the game, probably. So I would like to stay away from all Tampa Bay running backs and Saquon Barkley. Okay. Bucs are facing Atlanta. Jamie, who should we sit? It's hard to sit in, but I would try and get away from Mike Davis this week. That Tampa Bay run defense is obviously no joke.

We've said that time and time again. And so, you know, you're looking at a guy that's going to have to make some plays in the passing game like him better in ppr than non-ppr uh i didn't like the fact that they gave cordero patterson as much work as they did um you know not that you know davis getting 15 carries is something to overlook but uh it's been one running back to go over 100 yards against them and i think it's 25 games and it's, I forget the number of touchdowns, but it's going to be a bad game for Mike Davis. So hard to say to him, but I would do it this week. I'll give another running back, too,

or a team of running backs that I'm trying to avoid, and that's the Ravens. I don't have any faith. They just promoted, minutes ago, Devontae Freeman to the active roster first ahead of Le'Veon Bell. John Harbaugh said they will be using four running backs moving forward.

They only have three on their active roster, but I would assume that Bell is going to get activated at some point. I feel like Tyson Williams is kind of in that Ronald Jones situation where they would like it if he would be the starter. They would like it if he was the best back, but he might be one mistake away

from just not playing anymore except for a second or third role. I'd like to not start any Ravens running backs as well. Out of the Ravens running backs, the Bucs running backs, Mike Davis and Saquon Barkley, who's the best? I'm going with Davis and

throwing up in my mouth. I'd go Davis as well in PPR. In non-PPR, I still hope it's Tyson Williams, but it's hard to trust him. Just almost instantly, one week in, and there's like 14 running backs that I like. You know, I was thinking, sorry to veer off topic here from start-sit,

but I was thinking about this when, uh, when, uh, Elijah Mitchell and, you know, it's been a, it's been a wacky week with running backs with San Francisco and Baltimore in particular. Is this a case for, or against zero or even hero RB? What's so funny?

Uh, no, it's just, I, we don't know yet. If Elijah Mitchell is 15 touches a game the rest of the year then it's definitely a case for zero rb yeah it's not just about him i mean it's about the ram situation and the ravens and the 49ers and uh you know because because i'm throwing cam acres in there but obviously running backs get hurt and And on one hand I'm thinking like,

well, maybe an approach of taking three running backs with your first four picks or something and saying, Hey, even if one of them gets hurt, at least I have two other chances to have a stud. Maybe that's the best way to go for a 17 game season. I'll give you an example. I think it's our,

our FFT team, our FFT league, um, where I think I have like five viable running backs which you know is a nice spot to be in but like my my third receiver i think is like lavisca chanel um it's it's ppr so he's fine but uh i was gonna wait till waivers ran to to kind of see what moves were made and and who got who but start making some trade offers of running backs because clearly it's nice to have some of that capital. But at the same time, it's like,

do I want to sort of hoard that a little bit for another week or two and just see what happens even more? And these aren't like world-beating guys. Like I'm looking at, you know, what can I get for Myles Gaskin? You know, those type of guys who's coming off a disappointing game,

but has a good, hopefully, future ahead of him. But clearly people need that. You know, it was fun for me. I don't know how much you guys paid attention to, like, the bids of Elijah Mitchell in your leagues. And so the Flex Leagues, which, you know, is run by Jake Sealy, does a great job. It's a lot of analysts. Rich Rebar spent a hundred of his a hundred dollars on elijah mitchell and you know jake tweets the bids usually of the of the high profile guys and

you know somebody replied to him like oh wow rich going all in and he said you know i'm i'm the sermon guy so now i have that backfield locked up and i'll play it out as it as it unfolds and so you know there there are obviously different circumstances for you know certain moves that you make but um you know if you did go zero rb and you did get elijah mitchell you know this is uh this is going to make you feel a lot better about it if you didn't get elijah mitchell and you know you're starting um you know tony jones or uh damian williams or those type of guys you know you're probably upset about this a little bit so far. Go ahead. Sorry. Two things about Zero RB. First, my worst team by far week one was a Zero RB team

where I took Devante Adams, Stefan Diggs, Robert Woods, and Mark Andrews. Yeah. But I'm in four of the football guys' players' championship leagues, which are the most expensive leagues I'm in. He did not go for less than 700 out of 1,000 in any of those four leagues.

And I saw several of those leagues where he went for the full 1,000. This could be a big mistake. And that's what we said. We said about 30% of your budget on Mitchell. So that could be a big mistake. And even thinking you have Sermon and Mitchell, you have the 49ers backfield locked up. I don't know. I don't know how comfortable I'd be.

Who knows what the 49ers backfield is up. I don't know. I don't know how comfortable I'd be. Who knows what the 49ers backfield is going to look like. The range of possible outcomes is league winner to waivers by week six. But this, you know, you mentioned FFT. That is a league that I drafted three running backs with my first four picks. I'm pretty sure. Because one of them, I'm pretty sure it was Gus Edwards. This is exactly my point. Is I lost Gus Edwards.

That was a big loss for me. I still have Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley. Obviously. I lost Gus Edwards. That was a big loss for me. I still have Derrick Henry and Saquon Barkley. Obviously, I lost week one. But this could be a really good team because even with Henry and Barkley and I have James White, I still have Robert Woods, T. Higgins, Brandon Cooks.

And yeah, I might be a little weak at receiver three, but hopefully I can figure that out. But I don't know. We'll see how it plays out, obviously. But it's interesting running back depth, you know, to invest in it early and take advantage of what the wide receiver depth was. Is that going to be a better strategy than to load up on stud wide receivers and play

the waiver wire and try to get Elijah Mitchell and try to get Tyson Williams and all that? Obviously, you can't now. But yeah, as long as the running backs you invested early in weren't Cam Akers and J.K. Dobbins. Yeah, but what I'm saying is I invested in Gus Edwards. I already lost him, but because I went running back heavy, it's not that bad for my team.

I can still recover from it. Whereas if I didn't go running back heavy, I might be in hell at running back. We'll see. We'll see how it plays out. We had a funny moment in yesterday's show. Jamie, you can laugh at this. Hopefully Heath won't prove me wrong quite as

instantly as he did yesterday. Listen to this. San Francisco signed Kerryon Johnson to the practice squad. Nobody's adding Kerryon Johnson. Added Kerryon Johnson in the league this morning. Did you really? We got that great laugh from Dave Richards. Speaking of that league,

some people are complaining about you tanking, by the way. Really? Yes. Uh-oh. I felt so... I've never done this before,

and I felt so guilty after a week. Play the fancy costume music. We need to regulate. Are we kicking him out of the league, folks? And I'm the commissioner. Please kick me out of the commissioner spot. Anybody in the whole world can have this job besides me.

Okay, wait. So go ahead. I'll give you 30 seconds. Explain what you're doing. I traded everyone for... Dynasty League. Dynasty League. Traded everyone for rookies, and I have two firsts next year. I have Elijah Moore,

Rondale Moore, Terrace Marshall. I still have Patrick Mahomes, though. And I don't want to start Patrick Mahomes because he can win you weeks by himself sometimes because I have a pretty good defense, and nobody will trade me anything for the defensive players. I mean, Blake Martinez, top five linebacker. I can't get a second round pick for me then. Anyway, I benched Patrick Mahomes for Terod Taylor. I benched Sterling Shepard for, um,

I think it was like Elijah, like a collection of wide receivers that scored like four combined points. I'm benching Blake Martinez for another linebacker. I don't expect to score any more points. And in week one, I lost to Chris Towers by about 30 points. I should have beat him by

30 points. You are tanking. I am tanking. Now, here's the place where I'm going to admit that I actually made an error that should be penalized. I don't know what the penalty should be. But I don't know if you remember, but there were a lot of surprises that happened Sunday morning with actives, inactives, things that were going on. And we're on air right up until kickoff. And it's a scramble to, A, update our rosters.

Most importantly, A, update our rankings. Also, update DFS lineups. And so Sunday morning, I did not update my YOLO lineup. I did end up starting someone who wasn't playing. And it could have started someone else in that player's spot. So that was a bad, bad job by me. Yeah, it's excusable. I've been there, done that.

But I lost because I didn't set my lineup correctly. And I did so intentionally. You're going to do that all year. You want the number one pick. It hurt me Tuesday morning to realize that. I don't know that I can continue doing it. Although my lineup is currently set with Terod Taylor over Patrick Mahomes for week two. Ah, he's playing with the Ravens.

He's going to struggle, right? All right. Well, let's kick Heath out of the league. This is fine, right? In all seriousness, if you play players on your roster and you're trying to tank in a Dynasty League, I think it's fine. I don't like doing it. In my opinion, the only thing I did wrong was start

someone who we found out Sunday morning was inactive. All right. You all right with this, Jamie? We'll wrap it up. I don't care. I mean, I wish I was playing him twice in the season as opposed to only once. Is Jack in the league? Now, here's the question.

Because Jack's probably bad if he was in the league. Here's the question that I am struggling with. There's one team already that I have their first round pick. There's another team that I have their second round pick. When I play those two teams, can I set my lineup like I want to? Yeah, you can do whatever the hell you want. Can I try to beat those two teams

to improve those draft picks? You sure can. We're going to take a break on fantasy football today. Nothing but start or sit for the rest of the show. We'll talk about Jarvis Landry with Odell Beckham out. Trent and Cannon going to the 49ers. Does that matter? And we will be right back.

He's already picked him up. Oh, there you go. We will be right. He's starting him over his first round pick over Derek Henry. All right. We'll talk to you later. I mean, no, we'll be right back. We're not done.

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Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Welcome back, everybody. What a wacky show. News and notes. Saquon Barkley questionable. He's expected to play. We already talked about him. Evan Ingram out. Starting left guard Shane Lemieux out tonight at Washington. Demarcus Lawrence out six to eight weeks. Star pass rusher for the Cowboys.

Randy Gregory, another pass rusher on the COVID list. Probably not going to play this week at the Chargers. John Harbaugh said Baltimore will play four running backs going forward. And yeah, we've already touched on a lot of this, so that helps. San Francisco claimed Trenton Cannon after he was just released by the Ravens. Does this matter to anybody? It matters for potentially a big reason, to be honest with you.

If he's going to play special teams right away, that could mean one of Serm sermon or hasty is not active. And clearly they told you what, what that, what, what that might be. So just keep that in mind, which would be great for Elijah Mitchell. I think if it's,

if it's hasty Mitchell and Canon as the only running backs were active, let's go. If it's not, and sermon plays, then you gotta be a little bit concerned. So I'd be very much encouraged if Trent Cannon is active this week as the Elijah Mitchell fantasy manager.

Very discouraged as a Trey Sermon guy. Odell Beckham is out. Jarvis Landry, I think you guys have him as a number three receiver, right? Against Houston? No, he's a borderline starter for me. I'm still a little low on him, but I'll probably move him up a little

bit more. He's a number three-ish receiver. One other thing in deeper leagues, I think you should go at Anthony Schwartz. He had 86 yards against the Chiefs in week one. He banged up a little bit. Just keep that in mind. Keep an eye on the injury report. They were

scheming plays for him and he was playing over Donovan Peoples-Jones and Higgins, so. It's funny because I said, I think you guys have him as a number three receiver and JV said, no, he's a borderline starter,

but that is actually technically a number three. Huh? He's 20, well, he's 26 for you, so. Well, I mean, you know, it's hard to get a lot of guys in the top 24.

How many can you get in the top 24? Huh? 24. How many can you get in the top 24? How many receivers can you actually get in the top 24? I would like to put 40 of them in there. I know what you're saying. Denzel Good, starting guard for the Raiders. He's out for the year, and so is defensive tackle Gerald McCoy.

Eric McCoy for the Saints. A very good center is going to miss some time. That's a shame. Xavier Rhodes and Darius Leonard mispractice for the Colts. And, uh, they, they ended last season pretty bad against wide receivers. They were terrible against wide receivers as the Colts last year, uh, last week. Sorry.

So, you know, I'm sure people are going to start woods and cup anyway, but maybe that helps make you feel better about it. Josh Jacobs mispractice, which was not a surprise. sorry so you know i'm sure people are going to start woods and cup anyway but maybe that helps make you feel better about it josh jacobs mispractice which was not a surprise we'll keep an eye on it zach urts mispractice with a hamstring injury he came back in the game but we'll again keep an eye on that brandon iuk practiced in full but he was called out by his coach he said he's got to play better. So are you guys feeling comfortable starting Ayuk this week at Philadelphia? No.

Sorry. Oh, my bad. Are you feeling comfortable? No. Okay. Would you start Deebo Samuel? Do you feel comfortable starting him? More so than Ayuk,

but I think Samuel is going to get Darius Slay and it could be a rough game for him. I do have Samuel ahead of Jarvis Landry. Ian Rapoport thinks that Jerry Judy will be out closer to six weeks. That's good. Yeah. I guess we'll live with that.

It is time for 60-second rankings disputes. This segment needs its own theme music. We're going to have to get that. James Robinson. He is 33rd for Jamie and 24th for heath i don't know if that is an enormous difference it's a fairly big difference but what do you think about james robinson against denver heath why do you have him as a low end number two number 24 yeah i don't i think what has happened because i don't really want to start James Robinson either, but I have a hard time getting excited about the guys behind him.

I don't want to start Saquon Barkley over James Robinson. I don't want to start Tyson Williams or Josh Jacobs or those guys. And so I think most of the rankings disputes you'll see is where I've probably not adjusted enough from where I had guys going into week one based on one game. Some of these I'm going to be wrong about because it's just going to be we were wrong going into the season about them. I'm really hopeful that's not the case with James Robinson, and Carlos Hyde doesn't get 50% of the carries in the first half this week.

Okay, and Jamie, you've got him as a sit, Robinson. Yeah, I have him, as a sit, Robinson. Yeah. I have him, I think, 31st. I'm adjusting rankings as we speak. And I just moved Tyson Williams behind him. So I think it's a tough matchup. I think they're going to be chasing points. I think Trevor Lawrence is not necessarily going to dump the ball off to him

as much as we would like to see going back to last year. Unfortunately, Urban Meyer likes Carlos Hyde way too much. I would try to avoid James Robinson for a week if he can. David Montgomery. You guys both have him as starts, but Jamie and Dave have him in the top 10. Heath has him 17th.

He's facing the Bengals. Jamie, top 10 for Montgomery. Now he's 12, but close enough, obviously. I think just the way he ran last week was impressive, and this is a much easier opponent to run against. So I would – look, this is silly. Who's benching David Montgomery? Yeah, I guess so.

The only thing I will say, because I am – I think I had him – I'm lower on him this week against the Bengals than I was last week against the Rams, which makes absolutely no sense at all. Except I was kind of discouraged by how much more Damian Williams saw the ball in the passing game and was on passing downs. And some of that might have been because Montgomery banged his hand and they couldn't catch.

I don't know. But if Williams was kind of almost playing the tarik cohen role in week one and that worried me a little bit but i'm still starting yeah all right start start day month on me jared cook facing dallas and he had eight targets last week which was third most on the team obviously gronkowski had 90 yards and two touchdowns against dallas last week and it's pretty close to non-PPR but in full PPR Dave and Jamie have Jared Cook 12th or at least they did when I did my notes and Heath had him 19th so Heath not buying into Jared Cook in this matchup this week well I've always hated Jared Cook it's kind of true but honestly like the

thing was this is one of those week one things that I don't know what to do with. I had Austin Eckler at a 17% target share for the Chargers. I had Jared Cook at like an 8% or 9% target share. Cook saw eight targets. Eckler saw zero. So I knocked Eckler down 3%, and I boosted Cook up 3%. A lot of times those tight end running back targets are correlated. There's not too many teams that throw a lot to both.

If Austin Eckler is really this uninvolved in the passing game, I think Jared Cook could be a 7 or 8 target guy every week. I just assume they're going to throw more to Austin Eckler and not so much to Jared Cook. So this is where I think if Trevon Diggs takes away Mike Williams to whatever extent, this is where Jared Cook is going to win. I don't think he's going to necessarily – I don't think they have to go hand-in-hand, but you saw obviously what Gronk did against this defense

last week. They're down now to Marcus Lawrence, so Justin Herbert may have a year to throw, and he probably is going to do whatever he wants to do in this matchup. So Eckler will take away from Cook, but Cook may take away from Mike Williams. So he kind of maybe balances out some of the things that he did last week. He's a tight end that's involved in a pass-heavy offense and a very high over-under. So I think there's a chance for him to have a big week.

Would you guys start Jared Cook over Logan Thomas tonight? No, but it's close. It is close. I would not. Would you start him over? This is one of those things, though, Adam, when we talk about tight ends, and I know what you're doing.

You're obviously doing your job, but I don't think people are making transactions to drop Logan Thomas or drop players to pick up a second tight end, especially after Thomas scored. Yeah, I know. I'm always surprised by the questions we get. And I'm like, really?

You have those two tight ends? But all right. I like Cook over Juwan Johnson. Oh, yeah. That's somebody from last week that people might blame. And look, two waiver wire guys. I would start Cook over Komet, even though Komet had a decent week last week.

But if you're just looking target for target and playing time, playing time, matchups, both have a good opportunity here. But I think there's a better chance of Jared Cook being more involved than Kmet being more involved. All right, so, sorry, last one. Jonu Smith against the Jets or Jared Cook against Dallas? I've got Jonu a couple spots higher,

but I don't feel great about it. Jamie, you said Cook? Yeah. Okay. All right, let's go to our game. You can do it. It's your rankings. You can change it. I can just move it, huh. Jamie, you said Cook? Yeah. Okay. All right, let's go to our game. You know what you can do? It's your rankings. You can change it. I can just move it, huh?

Right in the middle of the show. Kansas City at Baltimore. So many hours in the day, Adam. No, I'm just messing around. I understand. I hate to ruin your notes. No, no. I read them diligently.

Yeah. No, actually, I like to know when you make these changes because then I can know who you're moving ahead of and whatnot. Yeah. All right, Kansas City at Baltimore. Yeah, so what do you guys make of Lamar Jackson and his three games?

Look, let's not count his rookie year, but the last two years, 20 points and 15 points against the Chiefs. Does that give you any hesitation to start Lamar Jackson? No. I love him in primetime whenever he gets the opportunity to play in primetime. I know it wasn't great against the Raiders, but I can't

bench him. That's not something that I'm going to feel comfortable doing. As much as I love Roethlisberger, if I had those two guys, I'm not benching Lamar for Roethlisberger. So I hope we'll get a shootout. Yeah, I think this is probably one of the easiest games that we'll do. I know it's high profile, and so we were going to talk about it for a while,

but we're starting Mahomes, we're starting Clyde, we're starting Tyreek, we're starting Kelsey, we're starting Lamar, we're starting Andrews. It's the Ravens running backs and it's Marquise Brown that are really the only discussion points for me. Yeah, well, I'd like to throw CEH in there, at least to know why you're so confident in him as just an easy start. But let me give you this crazy stat.

They've played three years in a row. Every year, the Chiefs have had two running backs in each game with either 47 or more receiving yards or a receiving touchdown. When they have faced the Ravens, they've thrown a lot to the running backs. What did you say, Heath? There you go. That explains it. It seems so fluky, but it happened with CEH last year. How many combined fantasy points did Josh Jacobs and Kenyon Drake score last week?

And Drake had five catches for 50 something yards yeah okay well all right but it is a good run defense i mean it's not like it's not like they ran well against the ravens mostly to answer your question it's all the guys we talked about the first 10 minutes of the show right like there's just you he's gonna be for me a top 20 running back by default so you you wouldn't start, say, James White over CEH in PPR? Or Naeem Hines? I would not. The only guy I think might be in question.

I would start Mitchell over him now in non-PPR. And I would start Melvin Gordon over him in both. Why would you start Mitchell over him? Mitchell has a tough matchup. Probably won't be involved in the passing game, and is, I don't know, you tell me if you think he's going to split. Well, in non-PPR,

I think he's still getting probably 15-plus carries, and to me, the 49ers running back, whoever it is, like you told me that Adam Azer was the starting running back for the 49ers, I would probably say that guy has a chance to be successful. I do, I kind of feel like the 49ers running back is matchup proof. I don't think it's necessarily matchup proof, but it's not necessarily like

this is not the defense to run away from. It's a good defense. It's a very good run defense. But like, for example, you tell me that Elijah Mitchell is getting the same amount of carries that Mike Davis had last week, 15 carries. I'm going to buy into that for the 49ers running back. Okay. And so, all right, fine.

We don't have to spend a lot of time on this game because you're right, Heath. But let's talk about the Ravens running backs. Can we clip that? Yeah, I'll put it right next to... I'll put it right next to... Adam, you were right. Thanks.

All right, Schrager, make a note of that. 30, 32 minutes, 30 seconds. So anyway, are there any scenarios in which you're playing Tyson Williams or Murray? Who do you actually have ranked higher? Uh,

so I just moved them down, um, in every format. Uh, Tyson, I put them in non PPR back to back and PPR. I put Tyson few spots ahead, both outside the top 24, but just inside the top 30. Yeah, I'd start...

Man, I'm going to struggle with this all the way up until kickoff, but I think right now I would still start Tyson over Barkley. Yes. And Jacobs. Yeah, so I have Tyson over Jacobs in PPR and non-PPR just because Jacobs could clearly fall into the end zone, as we saw. I put Jacobs ahead of Tyson. Let's do some wide receivers.

Would you start Tyson, Williams, or Sterling Shepard? Non-PPR, Tyson, PPR, Shepard easily. Half Shepard. How about a Jaguars wide receiver? Would you start any Jaguars wide receivers against Denver ahead of Tyson Williams? Same answer. Non-PPR, yes.

PPR, no. Sorry. Non-PPR, you're going Tyson. PPR, you're going... Non-PPR, I'd stick with the running back. PPR, I'd go with the receivers. All right. Okay, and then what do you think

about Marquise Brown this week against the team that somehow is always giving up very few points to... very few fantasy points to wide receivers? What do you think about... And honestly, we shouldn't just ignore the fact that Sammy Watkins had more targets

and more yards, and it's a revenge game. What do you think about the Baltimore wide receivers? I think Brown is a number three receiver in non-PPR, just outside that in PPR, and Watkins is still more, to me,

a desperation play. Yeah. I've got him Brown 32 and non-37 in full. He's kind of right in that Kenny Galladay range. You're probably hoping for one big play. I noticed three receiving groups

where we are not taking seriously the fact that player B had more receiving yards than player A. And that would be Nelson Aguilar over Jacoby Myers last week. Devontae Parker more than Jalen Waddell. And this one, Sammy Watkins ahead of Marquise Brown. And I'm not saying that we should care,

but it's on my radar a little bit. We don't know for a fact that... Yeah, the Aguilar-Myers one, I'll go targets in that regard, where Myers had more targets. So I'll lean that way. I think that's an easy one for-Meyers one, I'll go targets in that regard, where Meyers had more targets. So I'll lean that way. I think that's an easy one for me. The Baltimore one is certainly interesting,

but I wonder how much of that was game flow related when they were playing with a lead as opposed to when they all of a sudden found themselves in a fight at the end of the game. So Marquis Brown did all of his damage early, and then Sammy Watkins did his damage late. So however you want to read that. And then the Dolphins one,

I just don't want to trust Parker if Fuller's playing. Waddle, to me, is going to be more involved in a different amount of ways. Yeah, right. He has a different kind of role, we'd think. All right, Mark Andrews, top five in both formats, and sit the DSTs. Let's go to Houston at Cleveland.

Yeah, you know, it's interesting that I put this game second, but I think we have some fun start or sit decisions. I guess, first of all, you starting any Texans? Brandon Cooks. I'm not. I'm afraid to Rod Taylor

in this game. Well, you're starting him over Mahomes. What's that? You're starting him over Mahomes. Yes. Well, it should serve my purpose as well. I just hope that I'm able to start him week three. This Cleveland pass rush is so good,

and they almost got to Mahomes a lot. And I just feel like their at-home, home opener after losing a game to the Chiefs that they rightly should feel like they should have won. They gave it away in the second half. And I just think they're going

to destroy the Texans in a way that is frightening. Okay. So, Jamie, then make the case for Cooks. Even in that scenario, do you not see a path for Cooks? I'll go to Heath first to be a starter. No, I think there's a path. I think he's a boom-bust flex, and he could have another big game.

But I'm worried about the potential for a complete disaster from the offense. Jamie, would you say Tim Patrick over Brandon Cooks? No, I think Cooks. I would not do that. I think Cooks, the thing that was encouraging was he had seven targets in the game that they were playing with the lead the entire time, and now I'm expecting them to be chasing points.

And so, you know, look, is he getting, what was it, 15 targets that Tyreek Hill had last week or whatever it was? No, that's certainly not, I think, something you should expect. But 10 targets potentially, you know, and you tell me that that type of guy is getting 10 targets or eight plus targets. I'll sign up for that, you know. So is he a slam dunk top 20 receiver? No, but I think he's in that Jarvis Landry range that we talked about, somewhere in the top 30. And for me, he's closer to 24.

How about Sutton or Cooks? Cooks, easy. Yeah, it's Sutton for me. But I don't really have a lot of faith in Sutton either. All right, we'll get to that game in a little bit. Baker Mayfield, start or sit? I would sit him if you can. You saw the blueprint last week when he went over 300 yards and didn't have any touchdowns, you know, so he could play well. He played well

last week, you know, but just doesn't necessarily have the touchdown volume, but he could also have 250 yards. He could have the Jameis game. You know, he can go for under 200 yards passing and throw three touchdowns as well. So it's just, he's one of those guys, you know. So two QB leagues, I think you're okay. One QB leagues, even in deeper formats, I think it's borderline guy at best. And then Kareem Hunt. What do we do with Kareem Hunt this week?

Go for a blowout. Yeah, I would still, like, I think there's a lot of running backs that you could have drafted as starters that I would start him over. I'd start him over Josh Jacobs. I'd start him over Saquon Barkley. I'd start him over most of the running backs that we talked about being scared of. I'd start him over the Bucs.

But he's also a little bit risky. Yeah, I'm not sure if people still consider him to be a big part of the passing game. He didn't have any more than three catches in any game that they didn't lose last year. Is that what it was? I think, yeah, basically like all, yeah. His only two games of more than three catches

were losses to Baltimore. And Cleveland allowed 47 and 38 points. So if they're winning... I mean, if he gets three, that's good. Yeah, but that was a competitive game. So, you know, back and forth. And and 38 points. If he gets three, that's good. Yeah, but that was a competitive game. So back and forth, and they were losing. They lost. I know it was back and forth,

but if they blow him out, I'm not sure he gets more than three. He has a lot better chance of scoring a touchdown, I think, than most people give him because Nick Chubb scores so many touchdowns, but Kareem Hunt does too. Yes, he does. So how about Jarvis Landry or Kareem Hunt?

I would take Hunt in non-PPR and Landry in PPR. I think I have Hunt ahead in both, but it's really, really close in PPR. Hunt just finds a way to score, and he scored six touchdowns in games that they were winning last year. So you said this a lot, Adam, talking about where Hunt's production came from last season. In blowouts, he typically has the chance to play well.

This feels like a blowout. Yeah, I mean, they blew out Washington in week two or three last year, and he had 16 carries, I think. Most of them were—yeah, he had 16 carries late in the game. So for Landry, you know, it depends how you want to treat the bad weather games, but if you take, after the bad weather games, he played seven games

without Odell Beckham last year, including the playoffs. He had five or more catches in every single game, and he had five catches last week. So that's a pretty nice floor in PPR, and I think you guys have talked enough about Jarvis Landry.

I could give you a few more. Jarvis Landry or Corey Davis? Landry. I think I have Davis higher. Jarvis Landry or Mike Evans? Evans. Evans, but it's close.

Last one. Landry or Debo Samuel? Landry. Okay, last one. Landry or Debo Samuel? Landry. Debo for me. Any interest in a Cleveland tight end? No. Not the way they chopped it up, no. Okay.

Let's go with Buffalo. Oh, Cleveland DSTs start then. They're still, as of yesterday, only 61% rostered. There's a lot of good DSTs that are available. That's an interesting week. Buffalo at Miami. See if star Lotulale comes back. That's the starting defensive tackle for Buffalo. They're hoping to have him back this week.

They didn't have him last week. Really missed him. Yeah, the run defense was outstanding. All right, Josh Allen is a must start. He torched the Dolphins last year. One time he did it in a half in week 17 let's talk about Devin Singletary here would you start Devin Singletary or Kareem Hunt

I would start Singletary and non-PPR Hunt and PPR I'm going to start Hunt over Singletary but they are very very close I would start Singletary over Barkley tonight yes yeah you know Singletary, but they are very, very close. I would start Singletary over Barkley tonight. Yes. The Bills were in four or five wide receiver sets for

so much of the game. They just didn't really run the ball. Maybe they might. I don't know if they'll learn a lesson. Maybe they'll just be better at it this week. I'd like to see them be a little bit more balanced if you have Devin Singletary. I'd like to see a few more screens for Devin Singletary, too. Yeah, I mean, 11 carries

for 72 yards, three catches for eight yards against Pittsburgh. Buffalo wide receivers, other than Diggs, are we starting any Buffalo wide receivers? Beasley and PPR is the number three option. Yep. And Sanders too. Look, in deeper leagues, he still had, what, eight targets?

He did have eight targets. What did Josh Allen throw? Josh Allen threw 50. The hell did he do last week? Threw a lot of passes. Sorry, I don't have that handy. But, you know, got to keep that in mind. All right, so just Beasley.

No Gabriel Davis, no Emmanuel Sanders. I would like Emmanuel Sanders better because Gabriel Davis mispracticed yesterday, right? Yes. He's banged up. If he doesn't play, then Beasley and Sanders are much more appealing. No Dawson Knox, I assume.

No. All right, what about the Dolphins? Any interest in Tua this week? Not if you can avoid it. Only if you have to start two of them. Miles Gaskin. two of this week? Not if you can avoid it. Only if you have to start two of them. Miles Gaskin. Let's discuss Miles Gaskin.

This is a tough one this week. How would you compare him to other running backs we're going to preview like Daryl Henderson and Damian Harris? Behind them. Gaskin better in PPR than Harris. I've got him right in the Henderson range behind Harris. Kind of like, for me,

the same thing I said about Clyde. There's enough running backs I don't like that Gaskin's a borderline top 20 guy. You know he's going to be involved in the passing game, so it's not an easy matchup. You just have to hope that he's a little bit more productive this week. And would you start any Dolphins wide receivers over Myles Gaskin? No.

I would not. Unless, well, I don't think we've got full confirmation of how much Will Fuller is going to practice slash play. Brian Flores said they're taking it day by day. So if Fuller didn't play, then I'd probably start Waddle over him. I thought the A dots were interesting in week one. Jalen Waddle, this is average depth of target, so that's how far down the field you are when you're targeted on average. Jalen Waddle's was at 11.

Devontae Parker's was at 11.7. And Will Fuller last year was at 12.5. So there's no short area guy. Obviously, it's just one week. I just want to see how it plays out. But last week, Waddle with an 11 ADOT and Parker with 11.7. Kind of interesting.

Which secondary do you consider to be better? The Patriots last week without Gilmore or the Bills now? Well, I can tell you the two websites I was using, Sharp Analysis and Sharp Football Analysis and Pro Football Focus. I'm almost positive they both had the Bills

ahead of the Patriots. Oh, I would too. But that changed with Gilmore, clearly. But I think, not that they struggled against the Dolphins, but I think this is a tougher matchup. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Sure. And, all right, so there's sits, right? So, as of now, if Will Fuller plays, you're not starting Waddle or Fuller or Parker.

I would try to avoid all the Dolphins receivers if you can, just because, you know, you want to see how it's all going to shake out. None of them were drafted as must start plays. Flores saying that Fuller's role is, you know, still up in the air, even if he does play because of the foot injury that he was dealing with in the preseason. So one of them may have a big play. I mean, look, Waddle scored last week, so I don't think Tua's getting shut out completely from the end zone. And you saw last week, you know, that there was some plays for the Steelers to be made.

You know, Johnson scoring the touchdown, you know, Juju and Claypool having some opportunities. But it's a lot easier to rely on the Steelers passing game than it is the Dolphins passing game against this Bill's defense. No interest in Kosicki. Only two targets last week, so you guys don't even have him

in your top 15 or 20. I don't know if you saw the story from the Palm Beach Post that they wanted Durham Smythe on the field more because of their tackle situation. And having him block, he played more snaps than Gusecki. And so I don't know if that changes. And then you also have the story of how Gusecki's been when there's a crowded receiving

court versus a less crowded receiving court. My hope for him last week was there was a less crowded receiving core and it didn't play out by any stretch. You used to work for the Palm beach post. I did. And how old were you? How old was I? Yeah,

I was, uh, well, I started working for them in college. So I was, uh, 18 until 21. And then no 19 to 21. And then, no, 19 to 21.

And then I went there, I was 25 to 29. Don't you miss the days when you were young and you had work friends? You would go out to lunch and play basketball with your work friends. Heath doesn't really miss those days. We were talking off the air. I miss those days. I went out to lunch with my friend. I went out to lunch with Pete and Jack Capitordo.

Yeah, but Pete, well, Jack's young. You can't play basketball with Pete. I would love to. That would be fun. I bet Pete would surprise you how good of a shooter he is. I, like, seriously, what are the odds if we put Pete versus Adam in a one-on-one game? I would run around him. I would run around him. I would run around him.

He wouldn't make me cry because he would elbow you and push you and hit you. I'd call foul. He don't care. He's not fouling out in one-on-one. He's getting the ball every time. He's minus four and a half, and you've got to lay 200 to get those odds. We used to have this argument eight years ago about whether or not Pete could cover me one-on-one.

You'd never get off the line. There's no chance. I would have destroyed him. You would never get off the line. But I bet you even now... You would run past him in anything that requires running. But if you're playing

a one-on-one basketball game, he's going to hurt you. Maybe, but I still think I'd win. But I think even now, eight years later, he probably would say that he could cover me one-on-one. Let me text him.

You're both slower. You're both slower than you were eight years ago. I'm not that much. I marginally. When was the last time you ran? I run after my kids like every day. Does that count? Those are like wind sprints.

No, it does not count. I went jogging about a month or two months ago. Full out sprint for more than 10 yards. Oh, that was last month. I raced my nephew. I kicked his butt. It was awesome. Just like Pete Prisco.

He's like nine years old or something. He thought he was going to beat me and I crushed him. All right. The Denver's at Jacksonville. I texted him. I said, Pete, we're talking about you versus Azar and Hoops on the air right now. He says he'll run around you and win. You say what? Okay. All right. The Denver's at Jacksonville. I texted him. I said, Pete, we're talking about you versus Azar and Hoops on the air right now.

He says he'll run around you and win. You say what? Okay. All right. Hey, tell me if he wants to come on, you know. Happy to have him on. All right. This is the stat of the game. Just another thing to watch. Here were the ADOTs for the Jacksonville receivers. DJ Chark was 16.6, which is outrageously high. Marvin Jones. What? His response? Hold on. Hold on. I actually outrageously high. Marvin Jones. What? His response? Hold on, hold on.

I actually played this sport. Please stop. That was like a long time ago, Pete. Peach baskets. DJ Chark, 16.6 yard, ADOT. Marvin Jones, 11.6. How about LaVisca Chennault? 4.1.

That's why he's going to be, if that continues, pretty safe in PPR. He said I was a starting point guard in high school when he played soccer. I did play soccer. Backup goalie. Backup. You want to talk about the Jaguars wide receivers? I don't want to start the Jaguars wide receivers? I don't want to start the Jaguars wide receivers. We don't want to start any Jaguars,

except Heath made the case as a low-end number two for James Robinson. We'll just say that. High-end flex, but yeah. Trevor Lawrence is not in my top 24. Oh yeah, he's interesting. It's just respect for the Broncos' defense, right? Because, you know... Yeah, go ahead.

I mean, there could be... Can't say what he just said. What you're saying, Adam, is he should have garbage time so he can just do the same thing he did last week? Yeah, possibly. Yeah. He had like 100. He played two and a half. There was three minutes left in the third quarter,

and he had like 175 yards and one touchdown and two interceptions against the Texans. Yeah, all right. So we'll sit Trevor Lawrence. What about Teddy Bridgewater? What about the Broncos here? I would start Teddy Bridgewater over Tannehill. I would not do that. I would start Teddy Bridgewater over Channahill. I would not do that.

I would start him over Lawrence, though. I think, and I'm doing that in the 2QB League where I smacked Adam around last week. It's high score. I had a decent week. You were high score. I think the thing about Lawrence is, how much is volume going to help him here?

And so this team just feels like a train wreck. I mean, with everything happening with Irvin Meyer and having to deny that he's taking the USC job and, you know, everything that's led up to this, it's such a weird team. It really is. I wouldn't be surprised if they have a bad game that there's some assistants fired after this week. So the Broncos, I think this is a smash game for their running backs. Now, it's not like the Texans ran the ball very efficiently. You know, I mean, we look at Mark Ingram and we go, wow, 26 carries and he scored a touchdown.

He had 80-something yards. You know, it's not like he had a great rushing average. And, you know, part of their running numbers is 4 for 40 for Tyrod Taylor, you know, as a team. So I hope that Melvin Gordon and Javante Williams deliver. I'm counting on them to have a big game because of score and how they're going to probably operate with their offense. But it wouldn't surprise me if Bridgewater has a Daniel Jones kind of game where he has two touchdowns, some minimal yards, and is a low-end starter.

It's not a great game for Teddy, I don't think. All right, Denver running backs. Then we've got to talk about Melvin Gordon and Javante Williams. As you mentioned, Jamie, Jacksonville did a pretty good job against Houston running backs. We've got to talk about Melvin Gordon and Javante Williams. As you mentioned, Jamie, Jacksonville did a pretty good job against Houston running backs. They averaged 3.24 yards per carry. They had a long of 11 yards. We'll see a tougher

test this week. Who do you like better, Gordon or Williams? Gordon. It was close. What did you say, Heath? You said Gordon? Who do you like better, Gordon or James Robinson? Gordon. I just moved. That do you like better, Gordon or James Robinson? Gordon. I just moved. That was the thing I was able to do to move Robinson down a little bit.

I just moved both Gordon and Javante Williams one spot ahead of James Robinson to get Robinson out to 27. They're at 25 and 26. You'd start. I don't actually project them very well because it's hard when you get two running backs like that that that are like basically dead, even in terms of touches. I think I can start Javante Williams over Saquon Barkley.

I get my leagues mixed up, but you would do that, right? Oh, easily. Yeah. And the thing about, um,

about, uh, Robinson in this game is, um, the touchdown opportunities. You know, who's going, who's getting those.

Oh, versus hide. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Any interest in Sutton or, or the wide receivers? They're both number three guys.

And you could even make a case that Hamler's a potential number three guy as well. I would rank them Sutton, Patrick Hamler, but I'd like to see something from sutton first like was he just taken out of the game last week or is he still struggling to get back you know and and this is something that i was thinking about yesterday do we need to go back to reevaluating the acl injury with barkley and beckham and sutton and you know like we're we we got so lucky with

adrian peterson coming back as quickly as he did and a handful of other and you know like we're we we got so lucky with Adrian Peterson coming back as quickly as he did and a handful of other guys you know but it feels as if that injury maybe has regressed a little bit I don't know if it's just these three guys in particular and you know I'm certainly not going to say that there's a study that I've conducted but it just feels as if the ACL injury we have completely overlooked as being major surgery. And these guys are struggling to come back. Yeah, they are. That's why I know nobody cares about this, but Miami's quarterback, college,

came back in eight months from an ACL tear, which shocked me. And that's why I don't understand why it's taking Saquon Barkley so long. But he had a pretty major, he had more damage than that. So did Joe Burrow, though. And they had to wait.

Yeah, I mean, I'm wondering if it's kind of fine for quarterbacks, but the skill position player is not the same. Eric Fisher is talking like he's going to play

this week. He's eight months removed from the Achilles. You can't get a running back or wide receiver to come back to eight months from an Achilles. That's true.

All right, let's giddy up here. We got four games to go. Was it a full rupture, though? Not sure. Yeah. Denver's DST is top three. You should start them. Las Vegas at Pittsburgh.

Stat of the game, the stars in the Steelers logo are not stars. They are hypocycloids. So, just so you know. That's from uncoveringpa.com. Any Raiders other than Darren Waller? No. No, but, you know, you want to see something from one of the receivers you know if you want to buy into any of them moving forward and then for the steelers we already talked about rothlisberger at

the very top of the show and where did you guys end up ranking rothlisberger 12 12 12 okay naji harris must start all all go ahead yeah naji harris must start. Go ahead. Najee Harris must start, but I need to see something this week. If he goes bad this week, I'm going to be very, very nervous. Yep. Okay, what about the Stewards Wide receivers?

Deontay one, Juju two, Claypool three, but all number three receivers at worst. I have Deontay as a borderline number one, Juju as a mid-range number two. Claypool is a mid-range number three. Let's put them on the Jarvis-Landry scale. Landry over Landry. Landry over Claypool.

That's it. Let's go to New England at the Jets. You can start the Steelers. No Pittsburgh tight end, right? No. New England at the Jets. The Patriots just held the Dolphins to 259 yards, and Miami averaged five yards per play.

Before we get into Corey Davis, the stat of the game made me a little nervous here. James White, here were his catches last week. He had six catches for 49 yards. He had one in the first quarter, one in the second quarter, two in the third, and three in the fourth. Those aren't his catches. Sorry, those were his targets. He had one in the first quarter, one in the second quarter, two in the third, and three in the fourth.

Those aren't his catches. Sorry, those were his targets. He had six catches on seven targets. Five of them came in the second half. Three of them came in the fourth quarter. Could this be, you know, kind of a crummy game for James? Why are you worried about him?

Would you start him? Obviously, it's only PPR. Only in PPR is a flex. And I actually would start him over James Robinson in PPR. Start him over Barkley in P actually would start him over james robinson in ppr start him over barkley in ppr start him over uh jacobs in ppr uh the panthers it's a totally different team they had 11 catches from their two running backs and kathy had nine of them yeah i can't come on we can't really count this but they they struggled last year too with defending running backs with

similar personnel the jets different coaching so i don't think it's a another six catch game for james white but i also wouldn't be surprised if maybe he gets an additional carry or two because of the fumbling situation from the other guys so i don't think he's a slam dunk by any stretch but in that format with the catches that he might have i think he's got a chance to still be a flex option in PPR. Man, I did not realize what a big difference there was in wins and losses with James White last year in terms of his catches. He did not have very many catches in their wins.

I'm pretty worried about him. I don't really want to start him. I think the one thing Jamie said that I could pretty worried about Tim I don't really want to start him but I think the one thing Jamie said that I could be wrong about is I'm just kind of assuming it's Damian Harris' first fumble of his career I'm just assuming they're going to not penalize him

for that, especially since the primary guy they would give the ball to, Stevenson fumbled on his second career touch J.J. Taylor come on down if you have a roster spot, it's not the worst idea they would give the ball to, Stevenson, fumbled on his second career touch. J.J. Taylor, come on down. Yeah, well, you should, if you have a roster spot, it's not the worst idea to speculate on J.J. Taylor. But, yeah, obviously I'm not saying starting or anything.

Okay, so then to stick with the Patriots here. So I assume if J.J. Taylor is better than Damian Harris this week, you're going to tweet me and say, I want credit for this? I think I deserve a little credit for Marquise Brown over Allen Robinson. Damian Harris, is he a must-start? Who you should have stuck with was the more bolder one, which was Sammy Watkins.

Well, I guess so. I could have won a lot of bets over Allen Robinson last week. Damian Harris must start. I mean, he loves him. Jamie likes him. Yes, he must start. Yes.

Okay. And then would you start Jacoby Myers or Nelson Aguilar this week? I would start Myers in both, but none of them are slam dunks. Must start, guys. Okay. Yeah, I'd rather start Myers than Aguilaror but i'd rather not start either would you start sutton or myers sutton sutton ppr myers toby myers or james white

um white i have no idea i i would go with my. Corey Davis, five catches, 97 yards, two touchdowns on seven targets at Carolina. Start or sit? I would try to sit him if you can. Borderline number three receiver at best. He had the two touchdowns, great. Solid performance, great. Seven targets, not so great.

And Bill Belichick just destroys rookie quarterbacks. I mean, this is, and no Becton. Like, this is, to me, the Patriots DST is one of the slam dunk plays in DFS by far. They're going to be popular. I don't care. This could be ugly for the Jets all the way around. Yeah, I've got Corey Davis behind Jacoby Myers.

I love Tevin Coleman in this game, guys. Rams and Colts. So you saw the Colts. They really got punched in the mouth by the Seahawks last week, but in the second half, they got much, much better. Russell Wilson had 166 yards and three touchdowns in the first half. First half, he had 88 yards in the second. Chris Carson had 60 rushing yards in the first, 31 in the second. So hopefully we see a better performance from what was a good defense last year. But Rams and Colts, interesting game.

Who do you really like in this game? Who's an obvious must-start, should have a big game? All the Rams. Do you really feel that way about Daryl Henderson? Do you feel that way about Stafford? Yeah. He dominated playing time over Sonny Michel.

It was Michel's first game. I have Jonathan Taylor still as number one running back. I have Cooper Cup as a number one wide receiver. But Woods is a number two wide receiver. I'm starting him. Henderson's a number two running receiver. I'm starting him. Henderson's the number two running back. I'm starting him. Stafford's the top 10 or 11 quarterback. I'm starting him.

And Naeem Hines is a good flex. Yes. Agreed on all that. The total, 47 and a half. It's not terrible, I guess. No. 30-17. Works out well. 30-17. Stafford or

Roethlisberger? That's the one I struggle with. I still stick with Stafford. But would not surprise me the other way if it's Roethlisberger. I don't want to make too much of last year, but the last five

quarterbacks to face the Colts, Derek Carr scored 27 points, did have a rushing touchdown. Watson scored 26. Roethlisberger scored 31. Mike Lennon scored 20. Josh Allen scored 35. So they were bad, and then they were bad last week, too. And then they gave up. The

wide receivers killed them. Indianapolis allowed 70 yards or a touchdown to multiple wide receivers in six. Indianapolis allowed 70 yards or a touchdown to multiple wide receivers in six of their last seven games to finish 2020 and again to start 2021. And now they're down roads potentially again. Yeah. And I forgot one.

I'm starting Higby too. But I do want to talk about Daryl Henderson because he only had one catch. They were very, very pass heavy. They didn't run a lot of plays last week, but Daryl Henderson had four carries at halftime, seven carries at the end of the third quarter. He had nine carries in garbage, I guess, quasi garbage time in the fourth quarter. And it could be a different story at the Colts this week in

terms of the score, but maybe they're just going to be a very pass heavy team. And if he's not involved in the passing game, if he doesn't score, he could be looking at seven points, you know? So I don't know. Is he really that obvious of a start? Darryl Henderson. He's better in non-PPR than PPR. As you said, the only one catch. But this was first game with Matthew Stafford

in prime time. You think they were going to go and line up and run the ball all over the place? I mean, especially against the Bears? Chris Carson did a great job last week against this defense. You know, Darius Leonard might not play, you know, that would obviously change things. He's banged up.

Yeah. I mean, look, it's Henderson going to have a top five performance without maybe scoring two touchdowns. I doubt it, but top 15, I think that's within the realm of possibility.

So it's like, I started him over Gaskin. I'd start him over the Broncos guys. I started him over Edwards, a layer. You know, I, I just think you look at this Colts team,

I think there are better days ahead, but this does not feel like one of those games. And non-PPR, I think I agree with all of the players that Jamie said. In PPR, I'm a little more closer to what you're saying, Adam, but he is the last running back that I don't hate, and there's only like 20 of those. Okay, and then people might say that I don't hate. And there's only like 20 of those. So I'm starting him. And then people might say that I'm crazy for saying that they were pass heavy

because Stafford threw 26 passes. But it just seemed like that was their game plan. They had two long touchdowns, so they didn't run a lot of plays. And as I said, it was nine carries in the fourth quarter out of 16 for Daryl Henderson. I would start Elijah Mitchell over Henderson. That's interesting. Yeah, they're close for me. I for Daryl Henderson. I would start Elijah Mitchell over Henderson. That's interesting.

Yeah, they're close for me. I'd still stick with Henderson. Unless you tell me Sermon's inactive again, then I'll switch that Sunday. And you feel good about Higby? You guys have him sort of toward the back end of the top 12. Yes, his usage was great. We said, what does he typically look like whenever Everett's not there?

We know Everett's not there. You said it. They didn't run a lot of plays, and he still was heavily targeted. You know, so he's got a big opportunity. And look, the Seahawks, if you want to, you know, go game by game and how one team did the previous week, it wasn't a lot of attention to the tight ends, but five catches for the duo of Gerald Everett and Will Disley, scored a touchdown over 50 yards receiving.

I wouldn't be surprised if Higby does that by himself. Well, and he had, it's pretty, the first time in his career, he played 100% of the snaps. And you mentioned it, Adam, only 26 passes for Stafford. Six of them went to Tyler Higby. That's an enormous target share for a tight end. Yeah. All right. Rock on. And the Rams DST is top four.

And I love Michael Pittman in this game, guys. All right. Dallas at the Chargers. Tevin Coleman or Michael Pittman? Dallas at the Chargers. Stat of the game. I already talked about this. Justin Herbert was sacked twice on 49 dropbacks at Washington.

And they had the fourth lowest pressure rate Washington did in week one. So he mentioned at the top of the show, great stuff from the chargers offense, Dak Prescott or Justin Herbert. Who you guys like better Dak, but it's a, it's close. I think I'm the only one that has Herbert higher. And basically like, I love both of them. I want to start both of them. The tiebreaker is that like the Cowboys defense, defense is a lot worse than the Chargers defense. The real tiebreaker is that the Chargers are implied to score four more points than the Cowboys, and that's why he's higher in my projections.

This is such an easy game. Start Zeke, start Eckler, start Cooper, start Lamb, start Keenan Allen. Mike Williams, I thought, might be somewhat of a tough call, but we can rewind all the way to the beginning of the show or we can just, you know, it's been an hour. So if you want to kind of give your thoughts again, Heath, on why you like Mike Williams. Well, you just said it again.

The Cowboys can't get pressure. They're going to be without Demarcus Lawrence. The Washington football team is one of the best teams at getting pressure, and they couldn't get pressure against the Chargers. Their offensive line is awesome. They told us all summer they wanted to throw the ball more to Mike Williams, and then they gave him 26% of the best teams at getting pressure, and they couldn't get pressure against the Chargers. Their offensive line is awesome. They told us all summer they wanted to throw the ball more to Mike Williams, and then they gave him 26% of the targets in week one, and he delivered, and

the Cowboys' defense is really, really bad. Okay, there you go. Would you start Mike Williams or Juju Smith-Schuster or Chase Claypool? Mike Williams. I would go Juju Williams, Claypool? Mike Williams. I would go Juju, Williams, Claypool and PPR. Williams, Juju, Claypool and non.

Yes, I'm sorry. I was thinking non-PPR. Yes, I would start Juju over Williams and PPR. And we're done here. Jared Cook, we did in the 60-second rankings disputes. Yeah, Jamie likes him better than Heath does. Easy matchup. Okay. And then I was

giving a bunch of examples and we were like, people probably aren't making these decisions. So Jared Cook is a low-end starter. The Gusecki fantasy manager. You had to turn to somebody. And so it's Cook, Kemet, Juwan Johnson, Janu. a secchi fancy manager you know you had to turn to somebody and so it's cook commit uh juwan johnson um john who i'm trying to think of the guys that were in like the 70 percent range or lower you

know for people in 10 team leagues um to me it cook is the best of that group i streamed hooper last week i definitely play cook over hooper this week okay that's it for today's show we've got the seven remaining nfC home games tomorrow plus a recap of Washington and the New York Giants and send your emails we have a mailbag

that airs on Saturday that records on Friday so send your Apple podcast questions might be a little too late at this point but you can try anyway and your email is fantasyfootballatcbsi.com

thanks a lot for watching everybody for Heath and Jamie I'm Adam talk to you tomorrow.