Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (AFC); Week 1 Streamers (09/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 9, 2021

Who are some players we love this week (3:00) and who are some players to avoid (7:30)? Raheem Mostert is the Start of the Week, but is Josh Jacobs a sit? How do we feel about Allen Robinson in a tough matchup? We'll also give you the latest news including our take on the Chargers backfield (19:40) ... Need to stream in Week 1? We've got you covered with streaming options at each position (24:40). Does anyone have faith in Dan Arnold this week!? ... Previewing Browns-Chiefs (30:50), Vikings-Bengals (40:40), Steelers-Bills (46:00), Dolphins-Patriots (51:00), Jaguars-Texans (59:00), Seahawks-Colts (1:02:50), Cardinals-Titans (1:04:00) and Ravens-Raiders (1:06:00) ... 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

Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for?

Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600.

BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. 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 Beck. Good morning, everybody. It is game day, baby. It is Thursday, September 9th. And tonight, Chris Godwin's playing. Basically, everyone's healthy.

Cowboys at Bucks. 2021 season begins. We'll give you our start of the week. We'll give you some streamers at each position. We'll talk about the Eckler injury and break down eight AFC home games. Adam Azer, Heath Cummings, and Jamie Eisenberg. What's your viewing habit for tonight? Like, give me your setup,

Jamie, for Bucs Cowboys. Hopefully my kids will be asleep. But first, we have Chris Godwin coming up on HQ at noon Eastern. So he's joining the show in advance of tonight's game so i'll be exciting um yeah i hope my kids are asleep uh there might be a little of uh uh watch the watch the opening drive and then dvr the the

start and go back to it but um yeah it's it's uh it'll be fun you know if you and i coordinate my kids don't go to sleep until like nine sometimes my son at like 10 You know, if you and I coordinate My kids don't go to sleep until like 9 Sometimes my son at like 10, it's crazy If you and I coordinate, maybe we can DVR And watch together So you and I, we can tweet at each other I mean, my kids are older than yours So my 9-year-old, I'll probably let him watch

The start of it, the 7-year-old Who just turned 7 yesterday, so happy birthday, Eli The 7-year-old will probably want to Watch as well, he's into it But it's the 3-year-old who just turned seven yesterday. So happy birthday, Eli. Hey. The seven-year-old will probably want to, you know, watch as well. He's into it. But it's the three-year-old. Like if he gets wound up at that time,

then it's a disaster. Yeah. All right. Lessons learned. I'm taking mental notes for down the line. Heath, you got like to just like smoke a big rack of ribs for tonight. Y'all ready to go?

No. I'll probably have some wings and some potato skins. And I have no idea what my kids will be doing. It's irrelevant to me. Nice. I'm all good. All right. Past the point of having to care.

All right, guys. Let's get into starts and sits here. We also have 60 seconds. What's your viewing habit? Well, ordinarily, I would order a pizza. Thursday night is a good pizza night. Football is a pizza sport. But I have those prepared pizza. I, you know, Thursday night is a good pizza night. Football is a pizza, is a pizza sport. But I have those, you know, prepared meals that I get.

I get like three a week, not prepared. I have that, you know, packaged meals. I have to cook them. And I have one more and a new batch coming tonight. So I have to make the pork chops tonight. But if not, I would just eat a pizza, like a lot of it. And why can't you make the pork chops tomorrow night? Because I have the new shipment of food, of meals coming tonight.

So I really got to get rid of last week's before I get into the week. Who's the player you love this week? Jamie, start with your start of the week. Raheem Mostert, yeah. Love the setup for him. I think he's pissed. After the drafting of Sermon, a lot of people writing him off. He actually spoke about that at some point during the preseason.

But it's more, you know, clearly the Lions run defense, I think, is going to be bad. The 49ers run offense is going to be good. Both of those respectively, top three in fantasy points allowed and fantasy points scored last season. 49ers run game third best. Lions were second worst in allowing fantasy points to the position uh there'll be some balancing out i think of that but um last year in a bad season for the 49ers they ran the ball with just their running backs on average 24.8 times i think it was um they're gonna run the ball so i think most it's a great start and sermon's a pretty good sleeper if you

look at their rush attempts the one year that really stands out was the Super Bowl year. Maybe I was looking at their pass attempts. They were very low that year because the defense was really good. Defense wasn't so good last year. Better defense this year, especially in this matchup. A lot of running. Are you considering at all starting Trey Sermon with the thought that he gets 15 carries for 80 yards

and two touchdowns in the fourth quarter alone? I do have Sermon as a flex in my rankings, but in the few leagues where I do have Trey Sermon, I know one in particular where I drafted. I don't want to say I neglected second running back, but waited on second running back, RB2. I drafted Javante Williams and Trey Sermon, and I'm starting Trey Sermon over Javante Williams.

Last question on Mostert, your start of the week. Would you start Mostert over T. Higgins against Minnesota? I would. The question I got in regards to tonight's game was, would I start Raheem Mostert over Ezekiel Elliott? And that's very tempting in non-PPR. In PPR, I'd definitely still stick with Elliott, but it's close. You know what I mean? You know, you got

a tough defense that Zeke is facing, and you got the offensive line concerns without Zach Martin there. It would not shock me if Mostert has a better game. So if you're that brave, I'm not, but if you're that brave, I would start Mostert over Zeke. It's one of those games, like, we're going to look back and say, why didn't I tell people to start Mostert

over Zeke? But it's close. It's definitely ranked that way, close, but I still start Zeke in most cases. All right. Heath, who's a player you love this week? It'd be fun if I just went with the running back on the other side, right? I'll go with DeAndre Swift, and I've loved him all preseason, but I love the fact that

we had to deal with this injury concern for the last three weeks of training camp, and it's been frustrating, and it's been concerning, and he's just been a full go this week. It's as if there has not been any concern, and is there still a risk that he could have a setback during the game? I'm sure there is, but for the most part, if a guy is a full go all week for this season, we're just going to mostly not worry about them, and that's how I am with DeAndre Swift. I am very hopeful, not going to guarantee it, but I'm very hopeful we're going to find out in this game

how good the pass-catching running back can be in this offense, even when they're in a bad game script, even when they're playing against a good defense. I expect plenty of targets for Swift. I expect he'll make at least one play where he reminds us how good he is. And he's a top 15 running back for me this week. Yeah, so we have a segment it's called 60 second rankings disputes, but today it's 60 second Heath disputes because Heath is the odd man out on all of them.

And I thought Dave was going to be on the show today. It's always fun to just pick the like four guys that everybody agrees on, except for Heath. And let's just, I didn't pick them. Just do that. I didn't pick them, but they are,

they're just all Heath guys. Swift is one of them because in, in PPR, you know, Dave's in the middle. Jamie has Swift 27th, and Heath has him 13th. So 60-second ranking dispute, Jamie, go. Yeah, I just don't want to trust the Lions against a really good defense. So I'm concerned about Hawkinson. I'm concerned about Swift.

Certainly concerned about the other guys that you would clearly not be starting in week one. I think most people are going to start Swift. He's better in PPR than non-PPR. But like he said, I want to see it. I want to see what this is going to look like. I want to see what Jamal Williams is going to do. I want to see what happens when they're down three touchdowns in the fourth quarter. Are they going to run their prize running back out there and risk him getting further, uh, injured.

So, um, I would take a, a cautious approach if you can. Like I have Swift, uh, in a 14 team, non PPR league,

and I am not starting him in that league. Who are you starting? Uh, Damien Harris, Daryl Henderson. And, uh, who was our first pick?

It's my son's league that we share. Uh, Aaron Jones. Okay. Let's go to players you are avoiding. Heath, who are you avoiding this week? Yeah, I'll just play. This is tough for me,

and I struggled with the sits for today's show on HQ as well because for the most part, we don't have any injuries. I'm, for the most part, starting the guys I drafted as starters and sitting the guys that I drafted as bench players because it's week one. But I am a little

bit concerned about Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers. I'm worried about Juju and non-PPR. I'm worried about Claypool and full PPR. I'm worried about Claypool and full PPR. Um,

and like we've talked about it, a lot of my process for projections and touchdowns comes from the Vegas implied lines and, and the Steelers aren't that far. I think they have, they're implied for a point more than the bears are against the Rams. And there's Vegas seems to think this bill's defense is either a lot better than I do or the Steelers offense isn't going to make quite the big transition they did last year. So I'd rather

not start a lot of Steelers in the passing game. I'm still starting Najee Harris, but I don't love the situation for him as a road underdog with a team that's not projected to score very many points. Yeah, the Bills gave up the fourth fewest fantasy points to wide receivers last year. They did great against Steelers in the matchup. Sharp football, as I mentioned yesterday, sharp football analysis has them as the second best secondary. I think pro football focus has them top five.

So it is interesting. They don't give up big plays. All right, so are you sitting chase claypool would you start would you start raheem mostard over claypool uh definitely start mostard over claypool and on ppr i'd probably i'd probably start claypool in full ppr um but it's it's really close i might just go with mostard to feel a little bit better I'm not sure how many more catches Claypool's going to have. I've got them basically at the same exact projection. In full PPR, I'd start Marquez Callaway over Claypool. Jamie, who are you sitting this week?

I agree with Heath. I think it's going to be tough for the Steelers. Juju's actually my favorite, just in terms of where he's going to line up for the Steelers. Again, I don't think anybody's sitting these guys, but I'd be really concerned about the two top Bears guys, Allen Robinson and David Montgomery, and I'm concerned about Saquon. Heath mentioned we don't have injury concerns,

but we have some injury questions. And Barkley is certainly at the top of the list. What's his workload going to be? They play Thursday night next week. So are they going to run him out there if they get behind? What's the concern level going to be about giving him that workload? are they going to run him out there if they get behind? You know, what's the, you know, concern level going to be about, you know, giving him that workload? He's going to want to play.

He's going to, I'm sure, be pushing to get on the field. He's definitely playing, but I'm saying once the game gets, you know, maybe, I don't think it's going to get out of hand, but if it does. So those guys, you know, make me nervous. Robinson had a okay game, you know, four for 70 against the Rams and Ramsey last year. But I think part of that was a, if I'm not mistaken, a 42-yard reception in there,

which was a season high for him. So you take that away, which, you know, that's Azers statting it, but if you take that away, it's really an even worse game for him. Only four targets. Why do we have to just say, no, we're not sitting Allen Robinson? I have him as a borderline starter. You know, this is one of like, you know, I know what Heath is getting at, you know, Why do we have to just say, no, we're not sitting Allen Robinson?

I have him as a borderline starter. This is one of like, I know what Heath is getting at from his process. You draft these guys in a spot that you start to question, okay, am I really going to sit my first round pick if it was Barkley? My second round pick if it was Robinson or Montgomery or third round pick. And that's the decision a lot of fantasy managers have to make. If Allen Robinson were playing the Rams every week for 17

games... You wouldn't draft him in the third round. I wouldn't draft him in the eighth round. But again, that four for 70, is that 11 points in PPR or seven and on better than what Jacoby Myers is going to get you, you know, or Marcus Calloway is going to get you, you know, who also has a tough matchup, you know. So it's it's just a matter of who you who you're sitting or who you're starting, you know, Robinson over.

So Montgomery, same thing. You know, he had a miserable, miserable game. You know, we had this conversation yesterday on HQ. I think it was you saying, Adam, you know he's going to get the catches. And he followed up, well, his touches. Well, he had 19 touches in that game. He had five catches in that game. You say that right now, you sign up for that all day, right? Of course, yeah. He had 40 yards rushing and 21 yards receiving.

But I do think that kind of illustrates the point of what Adam and I were saying. It's both sides of it because he averaged three yards per carry and four yards per reception and still scored 11.5 fantasy points. And we're talking about the game last year against the Rams. And obviously, we're not expecting an exact replica of the stats. No, but you have to worry about road game, fired up defense, offensive line concerns for the the bears still so again i don't i don't expect you i'm starting montgomery i have them in two leagues i'm starting them you

know i'm not gonna uh i don't have quality options to bet like if i had most or i would bench him for most if i had james robinson i'd bench him for robinson if i had um gus edwards you know those are all guys i like better than montgomery this week by a lot yeah right and i just don't see a scenario for Alan Robinson if you're in like a three receiver PPR league with a flex, how are you sitting him? I guess I could see people being loaded in a two receiver league

and then maybe their flex would be a running back or something like that. But that's in the 62nd rankings disputes, which is basically killing that segment right now because Heath has Robinson 13th in non-PPR and ninth in PPR. Jamie's got him right around 24 in both formats. Dave's even lower 29th and non PPR 27th and PPR for Alan Robinson, who, uh, you know, like he had five catches for 53 yards at Carolina last year.

They were really good against wide receivers. He had three catches for 33 yards against the giants. They were good against number ones, but he had 87 yards and a touchdown against the Saints, who have Marcus Lattimore. He had 74 yards and two touchdowns at the Packers, who have Jair Alexander, who was one of the best cornerbacks in football last year. So, Heath, you know, at Robinson, it's not like he had no good games in tough matchups last year,

and you have him in your top 12. You want to just finish up. I think this goes back to, like, you and I had this discussion about Allen Robinson during the preseason. I think Allen Robinson, if everything went perfect with Justin Fields, could possibly be the number one wide receiver in football.

I think he's that talented. Allen Robinson is not the type of player that I'm generally going to sit against any matchup. Okay. All right, we'll get into some streaming options if you need them. I just want to bring up Josh Jacobs. He's one of the last players we're going to talk about today. He's in, he's year. I think he missed one game and it was a win. So he played in all eight of their losses last year.

He had only two games with more than seven non-PPR and more than nine PPR fantasy points. He had only one game with more than 12 PPR fantasy points. We heard Dan Schneier bring this up in the preseason. Josh Jacobs is one of the most game script dependent running backs. They are facing the Ravens. It is a home game. It is Monday night.

Maybe that keeps them in it a little bit. But if they lose by double digits, if they lose in general, if they're trailing, you know, I'm pretty nervous. I'm probably going to start James White over Josh Jacobs in a full PPR league. Oh, I would too. Yeah, I think it could be a really bad game for Jacobs.

It's also also we have a story that we got to keep an eye on he's supposed to return to practice on thursday he's been missing practice time for undisclosed reason now obviously the monday night game they get the extra day so uh thursday is is technically their first day of submitting an injury report it reportedly is not an injury situation but if he misses practice on thursday you absolutely should play the bucks guys and the Cowboys guys. Not that I'm telling you anything about the running backs there, but if you have a flex question, like I would play Michael Gallup, potentially, if you're in a deeper league.

Obviously, the Bucs receivers are easy because you know they're going to have good games. But if you're looking at the Bucs running backs compared to Jacobs and you don't have any other options, you play Ronald Jones, maybe you play Fournette, maybe you play Bernard. But just keep an eye on that because if he doesn't practice on thursday could be something that we have to worry about going into monday so we got something really cool on the website cbssports.com slash start sit cbssports.com slash start sit this is our starter sit fft i appreciate that thank you for for talking about fft start sit challenge yeah jamie also has the starter said article each week we answer each week answer you can answer 10 starter sit questions to win a customized trophy smack championship belt with your name engraved very cool stuff the overall

winner for the season gets a thousand dollars and a guest appearance on this podcast. One question this week, guys. Give me your analysis real quick. A.J. Dillon versus Jamal Williams. So you just go on the website. You answer these starter set questions. A.J. Dillon versus Jamal Williams. If you needed a running back, who would you start this week? Dillon in non-PPR, Williams in PPR.

I'd probably go Williams in both. But yeah, I think it's very, very close for me in non-PPR. In full PPR, I'd probably go Williams in both, but yeah, I think it's very, very close for me in non-PPR. In full PPR, I'd definitely go Williams. Remember, that is cbssports.com slash start sit to play. And I want to tell you our YouTube live stream schedule for the fall. Tuesday, all times are Eastern. Tuesday, 8 p.m. Thursday, 2 p.m. Sunday, 11.30 a.m. And 8.15 p.m. We're podcasting live, our Sunday night slash Monday morning recap podcast. 8.15 p.m.

That's our YouTube schedule for the fall. So we'll see you today at 2 p.m. Thursday afternoons at 2 to answer your start to questions. All of that is at youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. Give me Heath and Jamie., first Heath, though, your overall week one philosophy. How much do you look at last year? Basically, that's the major question.

And how much is it just, I'm going to start the guys I drafted as starters. What's your overall week one philosophy? Yeah, I think I kind of already said mine. I'm not totally just starting the guys I drafted, but for the most part, my week one rankings probably look the most like my draft rankings. There are some major exceptions to that, but I'm not as confident in the defensive matchups and who are going to be the three to five teams that matter either direction. So I'm sticking mostly with my usage projections and then using Vegas for touchdown projections and going off that. Jamie?

Yeah, it's similar. I mean, obviously I factor in a lot more of who they're facing, but it doesn't deviate too much. You know, like tight end, for example, there's not a lot that's leapfrogging. Nobody's really leapfrogging the top six guys. And in this case you know like logan thomas for example with the curtis samuel injury i hate the matchup against derwin james and the chargers but i think you're still starting logan

thomas um but you know there there has to be some level of okay now it's real who who's on the other side uh you're not looking at season long like like for the example of Robinson or Montgomery. So, you know, guys could have some, some tough matchups that you're still starting. And I think that's the thing is most people are going to start them. It's like, it's frustrating when you, when you write, um, or you talk about advice like we do here and people, even though they understand what you're saying and they listen to what you're saying, they're not going to do it because you drafted these guys in a certain spot and why would you bench them? You know? So it's just, uh, it's just the nature of, okay, I drafted this guy. I'm so excited about this guy. Like here, think, think about this from, from our perspective, we are, we started talking about week one while we're

still doing drafts. So like I'm doing, I'm doing drafts Tuesday night, Wednesday night, I've already written start sit. And I'm like, okay, I hate this guy for week one. Right. But I got to get that out of my head because I want to think about what the season-long situation is. So some guys may struggle week one, and that's okay. They're still going to be great over the course of the season. So don't panic.

Yep. All right, injuries, news, and notes. Chris Godwin's playing tonight. Austin Eckler mispracticed with a hamstring injury. Do you think Justin Jackson is a must-add right now? He is an add. I don't want to use the word must-add because people will now start to drop players that they shouldn't.

So he still may play. Eckler still may play. And even if he doesn't play, is it definitely Justin Jackson? We assume it's going to be the lead guy. But they keptoshua kelly around for a reason they kept larry roundtree around for a reason so i don't want people to just you know all of a sudden oh man tony jones i'm excited i'll drop him for justin jackson or you know i i picked up receiver x or he's my last pick i'm going to drop him and that receiver might might be Elijah Moore, you know, so don't, don't do those types of things just yet.

I am the, as the Justin Jackson guy, I will say, I drafted him and I think six leagues before this, I think he's a top 48 running back this week. If Eckler plays. So I do think that he should be added pretty much everywhere, but I wouldn't,

I agree. I don't want to drop too good a player for him. I mean, if you're in a 10 team league or something like that, I think we did pick him up in a 10 team dropping goal, but I agree. I don't want to drop too good a player for him. If you're in a 10-team league or something like that, I think we did pick him up in a 10-team league, dropping Gollman, but I'd rather have him than Gollman because I think he could have a role even if Eckler's healthy. Yeah, yeah. We probably should have just drafted

him instead of Gollman, but that was Heath's pick. Saquon Barkley, Kenny Galladay, Kadarius Toney, all expected to play. Evan Ingram seems less likely for this game against the Broncos. Curtis Samuel left practice with an injury, so that's, you know, not, it's just been a rough offseason for Curtis Samuel,

and they have the Chargers coming to town. Ramondre Stevenson dislocated his thumb last week facing the Dolphins. Do we know if Ramondre Stevenson is going to play? The report I saw seemed to indicate that they are still hoping he can play, but I don't know what his workload will be. I don't know what his workload will be i don't

know what his workload would have been if he was healthy so yesterday that he's full go doesn't mean he's gonna have a big workload but he's full go injury wise all right thank you ben schrager he's like oh yeah i gotta get on here it's a chance to shine houston signed danny amandola Houston signed Danny Amendola. Do we care? Just say no. No. No. Okay, great. Carson Wentz is going to start. And I'm going to start him over Derek Carr in 2QB. Ooh.

Yeah. Sean McVay said he could go for a big back. But who are you starting over Carr? Carson Wentz. Why? Derek Carr is going to have a terrible game. Absolutely terrible game.? Carson Wentz. Why? Derek Carr is going to have a terrible game. Absolutely terrible game. And Carson Wentz isn't?

No, I mean, yeah, he is. But this is why. Why would you not shoot for the guy with the higher ceiling? Oh, that's definitely not Derek Carr. Against the Ravens? I think Wentz has a higher ceiling, personally. Yeah, I'd be concerned with the foot, though.

I'm concerned. Yeah, I'm definitely concerned. Yeah, but I mean, not finishing the game concern. Whatever. If he's going to play, he's going to use it. I think you should start Derek Carr. Am I playing you? No, I have Derek Carr ranked higher. I'm just trying to help you.

If you don't accept my Jameis Winston trade, I'll start Jameis Winston. Sean McVay said he smelled a Big Mac and said he could go for a Big Mac. And yeah, they're pretty good. I'm going to give him that one. But that's a good sense of smell. Like a very distinct smell

when you get the bag of McDonald's. Trey Lance could be available. He has that small fracture in his finger. We don't know what his role will be. New Orleans trading for a cornerback, Bradley Roby from Houston. He is that small fracture in his finger. We don't know what his role will be. New Orleans trading for cornerback Bradley Roby from Houston. He is suspended for week one so that will not help in this game against Green Bay at home

in Jacksonville. And Passionville Holmes is 10-0 in September over the last three seasons per ESPN. They start very fast, these Chiefs. They are basically unbeatable in September. Good luck, Cleveland. We're going to take a quick break here

on Fantasy Football today. When we come back, we'll give you streaming options at each position and get into the games right after that, basically. So we'll be right back on FFT. What do Mattel, Banana Republic, ButcherBox, and Glossier all have in common? They power their businesses with Shopify.

Shopify is the most innovative and scaled commerce platform on the planet that also happens to have the best converting checkout on the planet. And that's no industry secret. That's Shopify. Learn more at Shopify.com slash enterprise. We don't usually do streaming options like this on the Thursday shows, but this is an unusual week. We didn't have the waiver wire on Tuesday. We didn't talk much starter sit on Wednesday. So, yeah, let's just say you've got a bad matchup or, you know,

you're in a deeper league or something. Give me some streaming options. Heath, let's start with quarterback. Who would you be looking to stream? I think my highest-ranked quarterbacks that are owning fewer than 60% of leagues are Ryan Fitzpatrick and Derek Carr. Neither of them have good matchups.

It's not a week where there is a streamer that's in my top 15, so I wouldn't say it. Like I said, we've said about everything else. It's week one. Pretty much all the quarterbacks are healthy. Hopefully you're not streaming, but Carr and Fitzpatrick would be my two favorites below 60% ownership roster rate.

Okay. I'm going to get the roster percentage list up here. Make sure we're not missing anyone. Jamie, any running backs that might be available to stream? That never an easy one i mean obviously justin jackson now becomes somebody gotta keep an eye on there um i mean i'll pull up the same list as well so i haven't geo is exactly 60 percent rostered uh he'd probably my favorite in a ppr league tonight uh yeah i would imagine those 60 percent those where he's where he's rostered uh go get tony jones even if you don't play him um you know he's at 47 that's an easy one uh mark

ingram i think he's got an opportunity against jacksonville as the what i would consider to be the lead guy i know philip lindsey's gonna get his touches but mark ingram for sure uh he's the most available of the guys i think that have an opportunity to start and maybe score. 27% is his roster percentage on CBS. He's somebody. How about a Jets? Any Jets? No.

I guess Tevin Coleman would be my favorite and then Ty Johnson second. Tevin Coleman's at 53%. Let's hope you're not dipping into the running back waiver wire. Naeem Hines too. If you're looking PPR also. He's hope you're not dipping into the running back waiver wire. Oh, nine minds too. You know, if, if,

uh, if you're looking PPR also, he's, he's, uh, slightly more rostered than geo, but in that same range, how about wide receivers?

Heath, who are the streamable wide receivers? Um, well, I mean, like I would probably just say Elijah Moore, because even if you lose this week, I'd rather have Elijah Moore on my team.

And he's still only rostered in 58% of leagues. Um, Sterling Shepard in full PPR. One of the Lions guys either call Tyrell or Munro St. Brown. I think both of those guys have a chance to at least get some garbage time points. Okay. Rondell Moore too.

Alright. And yeah, by the way, for that naheem hines call boy the seahawks were just terrible against past catching running backs last year don't know if it'll carry over but they allowed 40 or more receiving guards to six running backs 30 or more receiving guards to 11 running backs last season uh and tight ends tight ends to stream jamie austin hooper um Hooper. He's got hopefully better performance than he did against the Chiefs in the playoff game last year, but he closed

including the Steelers game in the first round of the playoffs for them, the wildcard round. His last four games prior to that were pretty impressive, but we'll see what happens with Beckham now back in the fold. Gerald Everett. I don't know what the Seahawks are going to do between Everett and Will Disley, who's going to be the better of the two, but he's available.

And Russell Wilson was talking him up. Zach Ertz, he's a little bit more rostered than we typically talk about, but under 70%. So, you know, great matchup. And we'll see if he's better than Goddard. And then Hunter Henry, you know, we don't know what the Patriots-Titan situation is going to look like. But he's free. 52% is his roster percentage, and he might be better than John. And we've said that quite a bit.

So not a bad guy to take a flyer on even just to see what happens. Speaking of tight end situations, we don't know what's going to happen with them. Blake Jarwin is 20% rostered. Tampa Bay, like you said, Adam, yesterday, gave up quite a bit of protection to tight ends relative to wide receivers. And Jarwin's at the top of the depth chart. So he at least worked through the injury enough to get to that point.

Okay. Yeah. A lot of the production they gave up those early in the season. So you wonder like whatever they work through, they work through toward the end of the year. They were 21st against tight ends. No. And then in the last eight games for the bucks,

six tight ends had 70 yards or a touchdown. That was wrong team. Yeah. Maybe Irv Smith, Hayden Hurst twice, Logan Thomas, Robert Tanya, In the last eight games for the Bucs, six tight ends had 70 yards or a touchdown. Oh, am I thinking of the wrong team? Yeah, maybe. Irv Smith, Hayden Hurst twice, Logan Thomas, Robert Tunyon, and Travis Kelsey. Yeah, I must be thinking of the wrong team. I'm sorry.

Oh, that's all right. And yeah, what was I going to say? Oh, nobody mentioned Dan Arnold against the Jets. The Jets are the... You know, remember two years ago, the Cardinals were not just the worst team against tight ends. They were one of the worst teams in years against tight ends. They were the free space, and then they were sixth best last year, I think.

Remember three years ago, the Giants gave up a touchdown to a tight end every single week. And then the next week, they were fine. Yeah, but their personnel did change. The Jets still should be absolutely dreadful on defense. Well, yeah, two years ago. I don't remember the Giants exactly. But no, you're right.

It doesn't always carry over. But anyway, would you think about Dan Arnold or no? Is that just too risky? I would actually look at the other tight end in the game, Tyler Croft, knowing that Crowder's banged up. And if it is, you know, we keep saying, okay, the 49ers offense, the 49ers offense. Yeah, they may run the ball or try to run the ball like the 49ers offense. What if the

tight end is like the 49ers offense? Now, obviously, Tyler Croft is nowhere in the stratosphere of George Kittle, but what if the targets are? What if the opportunity is? And the Panthers are bad against tight ends last year, too. And Adam, I think that a lot of Twitter and other fantasy football people are with you on the Dan Arnold

call. Oh, well, no. Not with me. I was just asking. You just made the Dan Arnold call. I, well, no. Not with me. I was just asking. You just made the Dan Arnold call. I hope you're right. I hope you scored a touchdown. But the thing that I struggle with, they've got DJ Moore, Robbie Anderson, Christian McCaffrey. They just drafted Terrace Marshall.

I don't know how there's any targets for Dan Arnold. He's got a score. It'll be like a two for 30 and a touchdown type of game. It'll be good. And it can happen. Yeah. If you want to do a Panthers-DFS stack, I'm not going to hate you for it.

It could be the best game of the year for Sam Darnold. In fact, bold prediction, this will be the best game of the year for Sam Darnold. I don't know how many points, but it will be the best. It's the best matchup. That's a good streaming quarterback, too. Yeah. Okay.

Start your starters, though. Cleveland at Kansas City. Here we go. Let's get into the games. Not doing 60-second rankings disputes. We pretty much did them all. Cleveland at Kansas City. I'll give you some stats of the game, but who knows if they matter.

But this one probably does. Does Cleveland throw more in losses? They lost six games last year, including the playoffs. They threw 39, 28, 25. And I think that game was a bad weather game. Like really bad. 48, 53, and 37 times. That was their stretch of just miserable weather, right?

Back to back to back. Yes. One of them was a loss. Usually the pass attempts were up. 37 or more in four of those six games. So that's good. A stat of the game number two, and this one is now two years in a row,

the Chiefs have allowed the most receiving yards per game to running backs. And three years ago, they were fifth worst. So this appears to be maybe a Spags thing. I don't know. But that's three years in a row. Well, and shockingly, the Chiefs were really good

against wide receivers last year. Oh, yeah, yeah. Makes no sense. Every year. I think LeGarrius Sneed's pretty good and apparently has gotten a little bit better in the offseason. So I think if you're going to go off the matchups thing for week one and we know how extreme Odell Beckham was in terms of good versus bad matchups

last year, this would not be a game where you would feel good about him. Especially if his snaps are going to be limited. We don't know that, but the fact that they arrested him on Wednesday... I always hate this with guys that are coming back from stuff. Week one, you got to be rested.

Chris, I mentioned this yesterday. I never followed up on the show. On Tuesday night's stream, Chris said that the Browns were going to be pretty conservative with Beckham. He might play pretty limited snaps in week one. I was trying to find that on The Athletic because I thought that's where he cited it from. I couldn't exactly find that.

I saw a little bit of speculation. You think Chris made it up? No, no. Chris is really good with that stuff. I mean, he's very in tune with the... I'm kidding, I'm kidding. No, but just saying. Like, you read his newsletter, it's a great way to stay up to date on the news. If you follow him on Twitter, I mean, that's Chris nails that stuff.

Are we just basically saying to sit Beckham, though, in this game where they could be throwing a lot? If you're going to start Beckham, isn't this the time to start Beckham or is it just too risky? Oh, I'd wait and see. I would absolutely wait and see. It's not an easy matchup. Again, they like their backup receivers. They like Peoples Jones.

They like Higgins. They're going to lean on Hooper. They're going to try and run the ball. I know what you're saying, Adam. Late in the game does beckham have a chance to you know play well is he in the game late in the game you know because they're looking long term they're not necessarily trying to win the super bowl in week one they want to make sure that guy's right so i would be a little cautious with beckham you know if it was a slam dunk you know this is gonna be a shootout these two teams and and the secondary is not good then then I think you've got to buy into it.

He's a number three receiver, so if you don't have a better third receiver, you start back. I'm assuming you're not interested in Landry. I'm not interested in Landry when Beckham's on the field until I see otherwise. What about Mayfield, Heath? No, not really.

Big total in this game. They went toe-to-toe with the Chiefs in the playoffs, and Mayfield didn't have a great game. Mah. Big total in this game. I mean, look, they went toe-to-toe with the Chiefs in the playoffs, and Mayfield didn't have a great game. Yeah, Mahomes got hurt in that game. I don't remember what the score was at the time, but... They were losing. Who was losing? The Chiefs.

The Chiefs were losing? Weren't they? Oh, no, not when Mahomes got hurt, no. I think they were up one score when they got hurt, maybe. I don't know. I don't remember now. Okay, so we're not starting Mayfield. He's 17th for Jamie, 22nd for Dave, not ranked for Heath.

The Cleveland running backs. So everyone's going to start Nick Chubb, but I will scare you a little bit. He only played in four losses last year. He had 10, 17, 11, and 13 carries. I think Kareem Hunt was better than him in the playoff game. He was because he scored. But Chubb, I think, had more catches, actually, in the playoff game. Starter stick, Kareem Hunt.

He's a borderline starter. Better in PPR than non-PPR. Same in half. But I'm with you. I think, based on what you said, he's going to have to play a role in the passing game. Obviously, there's a little bit of a revenge game factor still, going back to Arrowhead.

So we'll see. I think he's a definite flex play for sure. I would start him over both the Broncos, and I'd start him over Trey Sermon. I have a funny Kareem Hunt draft-related story. So a guy that you know, certainly Adam, and our audience has heard me mention years ago, but James Questel is our former Fantasy Football Today producer,

the original FFT producer for the video show. So when it wasn't on before HQ, like this is how far back this guy goes with us. So he's in a pretty heavily, big money league um and he was using my rankings we were talking through it but uh my son's birthday last night so sometimes i i didn't get the phone call on time he's like oh we got 30 seconds left on the clock i got i got the guys your highest ranking guys queued up he's like kareem hunt this guy this guy i'm like oh okay uh yeah we need a third running back take kareem hunt and he's like okay okay, cool. We got Kareem Hunt. Yeah, Adam Thielen

just went and Daryl Henderson. I'm like, what cue are you working off of? That's not my guys. He's like, oh, I hit the wrong button. Oh, man. He drafted a really, really good team, but

I keep trying to tell him, like, listen, three weeks from now, four weeks from now, a month from now, whatever the case may be, if Nick Chubb gets hurt, that's the best pick you could have ever made.

Don't necessarily love him over some of the guys that you took, but still, it's okay. Don't panic. You can't hit the wrong button during the draft. By the way, my wife had

a fantasy draft last night, and she crushed it. Your team is incredible. You cheated, didn't you? I didn't. That's the thing. I knew it.

I knew it. That's what I was going to say. There's no way anyone is going to believe that I didn't draft the team for her. You cheated, didn't you? I didn't. That's the thing. I knew it. I knew it. That's what I was going to say. There's no way anyone is going to believe that I didn't draft the team for her. Let me check somebody who might have a connection. I swear, dude. Once you have the Scarlet

Sea, everyone assumes you're going to do it over and over and over again. Somehow, it's a 10-team league. Somehow, she ended up with CeeDee Lamb, Robert Woods, and another wide receiver that's right in that range. CeeDee Lamb, whatever. Three guys who all go within ten picks.

How did you do that? Her first two picks were running backs. Anyway, let's get going. How did you do that? I don't know how she did it. I don't know. Amazing. Austin Hooper.

Allie, Allie, you're on the Okay, Austin Hooper... Allie! Allie! You're on the clock. Austin Hooper's not ranked for Dave, but he's borderline top 12 for Jamie and Heath. He did catch a touchdown in three of his last five regular season games. He had 71 yards in one of the other two games. He had a strong finish, as Jamie mentioned, except for that game against the Chiefs,

who allowed the third most fantasy points to tight ends. On the Chiefs' side, Mahomes, yes. Hill, yes. Kelsey, yes. Clyde Edwards, E-lair. Kind of borderline for you guys. But, you know, look, there's nobody on bye. So his ranking is fairly similar to his preseason ranking. It's outside the top 15, but it's inside the top 24.

But, Heath, are there guys you would consider starting over Clyde Edwards-Hilaire? You know, the guys who were drafted after him, I would say Chris Carson, I would. James Robinson, I would. Mike Davis, I would. Of course, you know, I'm starting DeAndre Swift over him. I've got him right next to Raheem Mostert. I assume Jamie has Mostert ahead of him. I should probably move Mostert ahead of Clyde just for the

start of the week team effort. But yeah, there's there are guys who are drafted in round five or round six that you might start over Clyde, but there's also a guy like I would definitely start Clyde over Saquon Barkley this week. I would start him over Josh Jacobs. So there's guys that were drafted in the

same range too. Would you start Antonio Brown or Clyde Edwards either? That's tough in PPR. Man, I don't want to sit Antonio Brown. I've got this feeling. But I would probably start Clyde. When you look at the Browns, obviously we're high on their defense.

Not necessarily this game, but I feel like their defensive tackles could be their weakness. It's a new unit. They had Sheldon Richardson and Ogunjobi last year. It might be better, but their pass

rush in their secondary looks loaded. All right, Minnesota at Cincinnati at last check. By the way, just on Antonio Brown for tonight's game. So Heath and I do the first portion of the Wednesday Fantasy Football Today show on HQ with Pete Prisco.

And Pete has always been a little bit concerned about Brown for the season. When he said what he said about him yesterday, that made me a little bit more excited about Antonio Brown. So he said that when he was with the Bucs, Brown had a bad day, pouting about not getting the ball, getting into it with defensive backs on the sideline.

And to Pete, who's been around the NFL for 30 years, gave off just some bad body language vibe, if you want to read body language, but that's not usually Pete's thing, but he just happened to bring it up. And then he has a good relationship with the coaching staff there. So he, he'd said he's been checking on just, you know, how they think of Brian. He's like, he's never heard that, that staff rave about a player like that. Yeah. I mean, Bruce Arians just did it the other day, by the way, you said Pete so many times there. I just took so many, so many drinks of water. We used to have a producer that would, uh, when producer that when he wanted Pete on the show, he would walk around the office going, Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete, Pete.

Dude, stop, man. I can't play that game right now. Minnesota, Cincinnati, Vikings are a three-point favorite. Total is 47 and a half. Stat of the game is actually the Bengals, they were only 17th against quarterbacks last year. They weren't terrible. PFF has their secondary 15th. Sharp Football Analysis has their secondary 18th. So they have a solid secondary. Safeties are great. Yeah, and unfortunately, though, the issue is they get no pressure. They had the third lowest pressure rate in the NFL,

according to Pro Football Reference. But they did add Trey Hendrickson. So hopefully that helps. Anyway, is this an easy mashup for Cousins? Is this a time when you want to start Kirk Cousins, guys? I would feel better about it if Joe Burrow had a better preseason.

Because you want them to score. You want the Bengals to score, obviously. I would feel better about it if the Vikings didn't have such good defense. I would feel better about it if the Vikings didn't have such good defense. I would start Cousins over, like anybody we said as a streamer before, I'd start Cousins over. I would not start Cousins over

anyone that you drafted as a top 12 quarterback. Jamie, I know you don't love Herbert this week. Would you start Cousins or Herbert? That's the one I struggle with, honestly. I would start Herbert over him just because I think there's a little bit higher ceiling if Herbert does what he's typically been capable of doing, but I hate to match up for Herbert too, but I just think, uh, like he said, you know, I, the question that I'm concerned about is how much cousins will have to do now. Is it a,

will they do what they want to do? Because I do think it's, you know, they're down Trey Wayne's again, in terms of the Bengals, not having one of their corners they were counting on. The safeties are great, but the safeties aren't covering Justin Jefferson and Adam Thielen, you know? So they're going to make things tough on those guys, but I still think that cousins will have enough opportunities to be in the starting conversation by the end of the week.

I just don't think you want to necessarily trust them going into the week. And to Heath's question,'s question, guys that we drafted as starters, Burrow was drafted as a starter in some cases. I would definitely start Cousins over Burrow. Heath, would you start Cousins over Burrow? I have Burrow two spots higher. I think Burrow's... This

Vikings defense, I'm so excited to watch. Why? They're obviously going to be better, but let's talk about this. You really think they're going to be that good? They have one of the best pass rushers back in the NFL going against that offensive line. You're talking about Everson Griffin? No, Hunter.

Oh, Daniel Hunter. Okay, yeah. I forgot about him. A little bit, yeah. The secondary is going to be better, just with the guys that they added. I know Patrick Peters is not the same guy, but the other two guys that they added as well, McKenzie and what was it?

McKenzie Alexander and Xavier Woods. Yeah. They're going to add just better depth to what was a miserable secondary last year. So pass rush better, secondary better, still questionable offensive line for the Bengals. I think they're going to do whatever they want to against that. The whole Bengals offense scares me.

You're not benching Joe Mixon, but I think you can get away from the receivers. Also, two new defensive tackles. You got Dalvin Tomlinson, who came over from the Giants, and bigger news, I'd say, is Michael Pierce, who sat out last year. He's right. Yeah, sat out last year because of COVID concerns.

Yeah. All right. So start Dalvin Cook. I'm assuming Jefferson obviously must start. Thielen must start. Yes. I'm starting Thielen, yeah. I don't...

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I mean, look, they weren't that bad against wide receivers last year but i just i went and looked at the game logs and basically every good wide receiver except for a small except small handful of exceptions every wide receiver that you would normally start had a good game against cincinn. So we'll see if that holds up. And any interest in a Vikings tight end against Cincinnati? No. Okay. No, they listed Herndon third on the depth chart.

So you got to let him work his way through whatever, you know, learning the playbook if he's ever going to get it. Conklin is banged up still. So no. All right. Joe Burrow is 19th for Jamie, 14th for Dave and Heath. And Joe Mixon is top 12 in both formats.

But, you know, could be a tough matchup. Let's, come on, Joe Mixon, start off with a good note here. But yeah, we expect him to catch some passes too. All right, then let's talk about the Cincinnati wide receivers. How confident are you in them? Who's your favorite? Heath, give me the's talk about the Cincinnati wide receivers. How confident are you in them? Who's your favorite? Heath, give me the rundown

of the Bengals receivers. Yeah, I don't know that I have a great deal of confidence in any of them. Higgins is the one that I think has probably the most week one upside. I view them all basically as number three wide receivers.

I would rank them Higgins, Boyd, and Chase. Let's do some running backs versus these receivers. DeAndre Swift or Tyler Boyd? Swift? For me. Boyd and PPR, Swift, and everything else. Daryl Henderson against the Bears versus the Bengals receivers. Henderson in all formats for me.

Yeah, I think I have... I'll take the Bengals receivers over Henderson. I'm starting T. Higgins over... I'm starting Higgins over... Sorry, I can't remember. Some running back in there. I like Higgins over... Sorry, I can't remember. Some running back in there. I like Higgins. I feel like Higgins is going to be started in most leagues.

Yeah. All right. All right. And if we think the Vikings are going to score, then, you know, that bodes well. Minnesota's DST is 17th for Heath, but top 12 for Dave and Jamie. Fifth for Jamie.

All right, Pittsburgh at Buffalo. is 17th for Heath, but top 12 for Dave and Jamie. Fifth for Jamie. All right, Pittsburgh at Buffalo. I won't even give the stats of the game. They're mostly irrelevant, except for this one. They played each other week 14 last year. You got a pretty good blueprint about what this is going to look like. No, you better not,

because that was a horrible game for Ben Roethlisberger. You're expecting that much better? I'm expecting... It'll be better, but that much better?'m expecting to be better but that much better well not start not where i'm starting him yeah but um but i mean he was so bad in that game what did he have your pass rush got better for buffalo man your kid's gonna be great for them yeah gregory russo and boogie bash him i don't know what they'll do in the first two games

first game of the season but they were the first and second round picks for, uh, for Buffalo. Um, I don't know one thing. Well, first of all, Devin Singletary and Zach Moss played 13 games together.

Only once did Singletary score more than 11 PPR points. Only, um, only once did Moss score more than 12 PPR points. So any interest in starting a Buffalo running back? No, I've got Singletary as a, um, mid range flex. That's fair. So if we look at this game, you're, you're starting out on,

you're sitting Roethlisberger. You're not starting, you're starting Harris. You're trying to avoid the Buffalo running backs. You're starting digs. Are you starting any other Bills wide receiver? No. I want to see it first. I want to see what Sanders does in relation to Beasley, what Beasley and Sanders do in relation to Davis. I think Davis is a good DFS play just because if he hits a big play,

it could be one of those league-winning type of things. But no, not yet. By the way, can you name the only quarterback last year that scored more than 22 points against Pittsburgh? Six point per passing touchdown league, non-decimal. Only one. Josh Allen.

It was not. It was Baker Mayfield in the playoffs. Not one quarterback in the regular season. Not Allen, not Watson, Tannehill, Lamar Jackson, none scored more than 22 fantasy points against Pittsburgh. Amazing. All right, not Watson, Tannehill, Lamar Jackson, none scored more than 22 fantasy points

against Pittsburgh. Amazing. All right, then. Let's talk about the Bengals wide receivers versus the Steelers wide receivers. Jamie, which group overall do you have more confidence in? It's a great question.

Probably still the Steelers. Yeah. Who's the highest ranked of the six? You know, I said I like Jju the best i think i still have though deontay johnson ranked higher um i probably need to change that but um right now it's deontay johnson but i feel the the most comfortable i think about juju because i think juju where he lines up mostly is going to avoid trudeaus white and levi wallace so i think he's got the best chance to maybe have some success yeah i'd go dionte juju

higgins and ppr and i still got claypool ahead of them in non-ppr so how do you feel about a guy like damian harris who he's you know not going to catch a lot of passes has i don't not quite sure what kind of a matchup that is against the dolphins not like gus edwards against the ravens how do you feel about a guy like damian Harris against the Steelers wide receivers? I would start Harris over all of them in non PPR in PPR though. I probably still start certainly the top two Steelers receivers in Deontay Johnson and Juju. Yeah.

And PPR, I'd probably start all of the Steelers and all of the Bengals wide receivers and non PPR. I'd probably start Harris over all of them. There's a big difference between running backs and wide receivers, especially running backs like Damian Harris comparedals wide receivers and non PPR. I'd probably start Harris over all of them. There's a big difference between running backs and wide receivers, especially running backs like Damian Harris compared to wide receivers and non versus PPR. Yeah.

And I know nobody's going to start a Steelers tight end, but this is just something to watch for the future. Buffalo allowed the fourth most points, fantasy points, the tight ends last year, and they saw the most targets. They've got a very good secondary. So it's possible that teams are just going to attack them with the tight ends.

They saw the most targets from opposing tight ends in the NFL. Which is really amazing when you consider how little the Patriots, Jets, and Dolphins use their tight ends. They played six games against those two teams last year. I mean, Gusecki had stretches where he was heavily used. But for the most part, they didn't play good tight ends in six games and still get... That's interesting.

Yeah. I will say, though, Matt Milano being in and out of the lineup last year did not help. That's a good point. Yeah. All right, Miami at New England. Pittsburgh's DST, by the way, is not a top 12 DST. Buffalo's is just inside the top 12.

So I know a lot of you like to roster two DSTs. Pittsburgh, part of that for me was the TJ Watt situation. I'll probably move him up a few spots if he plays. All right, let's go to Miami and New England. Interesting game here. You would think it'd be low scoring. Let me check the total here. It might be the lowest of the week.

43 and a half. Looks like Denver and the Giants is a little bit lower, 42. And yeah, I think those are the two lowest scoring totals, lowest totals of the week. And the Patriots are three-point favorites. Looking forward to this game, even though it might not be fantasy appealing. This is interesting.

And this stat of the game, I'm going to question your rankings. You all have Mike Kosicki eighth in non-PPR, you two plus Dave. You all have him top 12 in PPR. Why? The Patriots gave up the six fewest fantasy points to tight ends. They faced the four best tight ends in football last year. They faced Kelsey, Waller, Kittle, and Andrews,

and they still were six best against tight ends. Their defense is only going to be better this year. Is it just because of the tight end position? Why do you have so much faith in Mike Gusecki? It's twofold for me. One, you mentioned the tight end position being what it is. And two, the fact that Fuller's not playing and Parker still is not, I think, at full strength. You know, their third receiver is going to be Jakeem Grant.

This has been the setup for Gusecki. Whenever there's been a key guy missing, he's typically played well. Now, obviously, the key guy has been Preston Williams. We'll take that for what it is. They do have Waddle still there. They obviously have Parker still there. So that's a different duo than what they were dealing with last year. But I think Tua is going to have to throw to some extent in this game.

I don't know if Gusecki falls in line with some of the tight ends that they typically try to take away. If this was a week seven, hey, look, this tight end's been playing great, and that tight end's been playing great. Gusecki's probably not ranked as high because of the matchup, but just looking at the landscape of the position, I think he's got a chance

to finish in the top 12. I'd go even further. If I just knew for sure who the number one tight end was for the patriots or for tampa bay or for the cowboy like we've got so many of these situations where i've got multiple tight ends that could be a part of the equation um but i don't like mike gosicki all that much just just that's where he ended up. Okay. Okay. Makes sense then. And let's talk about this game in general. First of all, we're going to sit the quarterbacks.

I would like to. Yeah. Yeah. Unless it's a two-quarterback league or something. And Sam Darnold or Tua? I'll go Tua. Darnold Tua. Okay.

Who's the best flex? Is it Gaskin? Is it a Patriots running back? Is it Jacoby Myers? Is it Jalen Waddell? Who's the best flex in this game? Gaskin is my favorite

player in the game. I think he's a must-start guy, so I don't think he's a flex. I just meant running back, receiver, tight end. Yeah, yeah, no. Gaskin for me.

I would say Gaskin and PPR, Harris, and Nunn. Gaskin and half. So you don't have to ask. All right. What about, well, let's stay on Myles Gaskin for a little bit here. Behind Mostert? Yes.

Oh, yeah. Behind Gus? In non-PPR, no. In non-PPR, yes, but ahead of him in full PPR. I'm sorry, yeah, I'd rather have Gaskin. No, you know, I'd take Gus and Bo. I'll take Gaskin in PPR, Gus in non. Clyde or Gaskin?

Clyde. Clyde in non, Gaskin in PPR. Barkley or Gaskin? Gaskin. I think I'm going to move Gaskin ahead of Barkley in PPR. I have Barkley higher in none. This is a fascinating game because last year, you mentioned that, the Patriots defense obviously got better.

I almost wonder if this was the game that the Patriots circled and said, this is the game we have to improve on because they met in week 15 and the Dolphins ran for 200-plus yards with Savan Ahmed and Matt Breida going for, for 200 and a touchdown Gaskin didn't play in that game. So he's not going to do that. They're not going to do that. Clearly this is a different Patriots defense,

but you know, if he gets the full workload that he has been getting last year and hopefully like the, the Falcons preseason game showed us, then it's hard to bench miles Gaskin. Yeah. New England was pretty, pretty weak against running backs last year, but their front seven is so dramatically different. the Falcons preseason game showed us, then it's hard to bench Miles Gaskin. Yeah, New England was pretty weak against running backs last year, but their front seven is so dramatically different.

So this is not one where I was really looking at last year so much. Right. But they were pretty good against pass-catching running backs. They did not allow more than 36 yards. If Miles Gaskin gets 36 yards, that'd be great. But nobody had more than 36 receiving yards.

No running back against the Patriots last year. All right, but whatever. We'll see what happens. This is an interesting game for sure. Yeah, this is a fist fight. This is going to be a slugfest between these two teams, and it's field goal at the end to win it. Oh, so start the kickers.

I think you're definitely starting Sanders. Yeah, I have a lot of Sanders. I don't think Quinn Norton is somebody you want to start. So then Jalen Waddell, Jacoby Myers, give me your thoughts. Number three receivers, I think. Myers beat up the Dolphins in that game last year too, and that was with Cam. So he's better in PPR than non-PPR.

I hope he gets off to a great start, but it's not an easy matchup. They have one of the better secondaries in the league. But it'll avoid Howard and it'll avoid Byron Jones, so he's fine. And then, look, Waddle's facing the Patriots without Stephon Gilmore, and he's going to clearly move around.

But, you know, Jacobs, right? Jackson. And Josh Johnson, right? Jonathan Jones. but um you know jacobs jc jackson jackson and and josh johnson right no jonathan jones jonathan jones and yes it's so confusing they have four four j's and those two that's still a really good secondary without stefan gilmore in there so it's uh it's not gonna be easy for waddle but number three is he right there yeah i like I like Waddle more than Myers in both. Damian Harris or James White? Who do you like? White and PPR, Harris and none.

I'll take Harris in both. Okay, Harris is right around. He's 19th to 22nd in non-PPR. He's closer to 24th, a little bit lower for Jamie and Heath in full PPR. And you're not starting White in non-PPR. In full PPR, 24th for Jamie. This actually surprised me, Heath, that you had James White 36th in full PPR.

I thought you were a James White guy. I don't think I ever was a James White guy. I think I was a Giovanni Bernard guy. Oh, all right. Yeah, I'm excited for James White in this game just to see what he does with Mac Jones. This just feels like a game where he's going to get a lot of catches.

I think I've got a little bit of the target crunch on the Patriots. I was surprised at how low I came out on Jacoby Myers as well. I think Mac Jones' first start and they're favored at home. I just expect them to run pretty heavy. They've got a lot of guys that I'm

not sure where the targets are going between Myers and the tight new tight in combination and James White and so I'm maybe a little more wait and see mode for me but definitely a run heavy projection we we saw this a little bit last year and I think it's something to keep an eye on the Patriots Bill Belichick's got a history of just really frustrating young quarterbacks. And the Dolphins, I think with Brian Flores, have a similar ability to do something along those lines. And the game you can point to is they made things really uncomfortable for Justin Herbert last year,

and I think they're going to make things uncomfortable for Mac Jones too. A lot of checkdowns. Checkdown, checkdown, checkdown. Right, that's why I like James White. I think it's going to be a lot of, you know, oh, get the ball out quick. That's all from defense is good. Schrager just sent me a kind of funny quote.

I appreciate the honesty here, just off subject from Jamar Chase talking about his drops. The ball is different because it is bigger. It doesn't have the white stripes on the side, so you can't see the ball coming from the tip point, so you actually have to look for the strings on the ball at the top, which is hard

to see because the whole ball is brown and you have the six strings that are white. For the most part, you just have to get used to it and find out what I'm comfortable with catching. He's talking about the difference between the college ball and the NFL ball. And he also said, I don't want to blame it on me sitting on my butt the whole year, but it probably had something to do with it, of course. There's a bigger

ball adjustment. It's interesting. You know, good for you, Jamar Chase. Maybe it is harder. You'll get used to it. All right. Let's go to the DSTs in this game. They're both startable. Patriots are a little bit higher than the Dolphins, but both startable.

We've got Jacksonville at Houston. Yeah, not the marquee game, but could be fun for fantasy. Trevor Lawrence, start or sit? Start for me. I don't want to start him. I would start him over Cousins.

He's a top 15 quarterback, but not top 12 for me. Yeah, I'd start him over Cousins. I'd start him over Burrow. I don't think anybody else of big name how about like jalen hurts no how about matt ryan yes all right i would start ryan i just i and i think some of this is just that i have really really low degree of confidence in urban meyer and i'm afraid that both of these teams are going to be run heavy in the first game and that it's just like an ugly 20-17 type game. Well, look, you should know Jacksonville was 31st in scoring defense in 2020,

and they are switching to a 3-4 this year. Houston was 27th in scoring defense in 2020, and they are switching to a 4-3 this year. So good luck to both of them as they try to completely remake their defenses. What were these teams in offensive scoring? I guess it doesn't matter for the Texans because they had Deshaun Watson. Houston allowed 83 or more rushing yards

to a running back in five straight games to end 2020. Let's see if that continues. James Robinson, we are really liking James Robinson this week. You should start him. Which wide receiver, who's your favorite wide receiver in this game?

Chennault. Chennault. Chennault. Over Cooks. Yes, Cooks is second. Are you considering Marvin Jones or DJ Chark? Absolutely. How could you not in this matchup? But I'd like to see what they look like first.

So, you know, number three receivers at best. Yeah, I want to see if DJ Chark is bigger, more physical, right? Like Urban Meyer wanted him to be or something like that. How about T. Higgins versus the wide receivers in this game? I start Chenault over Higgins.

I'll take Higgins overall. And would you start any Houston running backs? The jaguars allowed five or more catches to nine running backs in 2020 and it wasn't because they were leading and the other teams needed to throw they went 1 and 15 but they were so bad against pass catching right look they're changing their scheme or whatever but but that week one game had a lot to do with the last year i know it was every that game yeah their only it last year. I know. That game, yeah.

Their only win last year, they allowed 17 catches, 142 yards, and a touchdown to running backs against the Colts. It's an entirely new system. I think the thing with the Texans running backs, we had the report yesterday that it's going to be Lindsey and Ingram doing most of the work. Good luck if you have to start eating those guys.

Just to go back to the streamer situation, I think Ingram, to me, is right now the lead guy. But I don't want to trust them. They're kind of like the Ravens on a bad team. Because Ingram and Lindsey also aren't going to catch passes. Because if they do that, I think it'll be David Johnson. So it's a 10 to 12 carry. Hope they fall into the end zone.

Probably not going to average five yards per carry like the Ravens do, though. Would you start Brandon Cooks or Josh Jacobs? Jacobs. Jacobs and non, but Cooks and PPR. Half? Cooks and Jacobs. Okay.

All right, guys. I am not doing an hour and 15-minute episode for week one. So we are, like, I have to be better than this. I'm not setting the tone with this. So here we go. We have three games left. They're mostly easy stuff. Seattle at Indianapolis.

Start Wilson. Sit Wentz. Start Taylor. Feel good about Carson? This was a damn good run defense last year. Feel good? No. Sit?

No. You're starting him. Yep, start him. Okay. Both Seattle wide receivers, good to go? Yep. Good to go. All right, tell me about the Colts wide receivers

and if you're interested there. I'm not. Pittman's a desperation play. Number three receiver in deeper leagues. Thank you. It's very good. So would you start Pittman or Waddle? Waddle.

Pittman or Naeem Hines as a flex? Hines. I think Hines has a chance for a good game. This is another one, you know, get the ball quick for Carson Wentz and probably chasing points. So Paris Campbell's banged up again.

Indianapolis allowed the fourth fewest points to tie down your Spider-Man meme again. Gigi QT might get elevated. Would you start Gerald Everett or a Patriots tight end? Patriots. Okay, Gerald Everett or Noah Fantz. I'd start Everett over Henry,

but I'd start John over Everett. Noah Fantz or Gerald Everett? Fantz. Dan Arnold or Gerald Everett or Noah Fant. I'd start Everett over Henry, but I'd start Don over Everett. Noah Fant or Gerald Everett? Fant. Fant. Dan Arnold or Gerald Everett? Everett. Everett. All right.

You found a way to get us to say Gerald Everett. I have a team where I'm starting Gerald Everett, so I just wanted to feel a little bit better about myself. Arizona's at Tennessee. Man. You're not going to start a second Cardinals wide receiver, but let's just see if this continues. The Titans allowed 100 yards to a wide receiver

in each of the last four games of 2020. Let's see if Hopkins can make it five. Would you start any wide receivers in this game that aren't the big three studs, Arizona and Tennessee? Not yet, but again, the streaming question that you asked, I think either A.J. Green or Rondell Moore are worth a flyer.

I'd take Moore over Green right now. Okay. And Kyler Murray's top five. Ryan Tannehill is top 10. Tannehill or Hertz? Hertz. Hertz. Start Derek Henry. Chase Ed. Tannehill or Hertz? Hertz. Hertz. Start Derek Henry.

Chase Edmonds, start or sit? I think he's a borderline must-start in PPR and a flex in none. I'm more wait-and-see with Edmonds. Especially if you went zero RB and you drafted him in the sixth round or whatever, you're probably starting him. There's not too many guys who were drafted after him that I would start over him.

But I'm a little bit nervous. I want to see what the run split is between him and Connor. And I want to see if... I do think if Rondale Moore is heavily involved in the game plan, that's going to be a bad thing for Chase Edmonds. How about Edmonds versus Damian Harris?

I'll take Edmonds and PPR and Harris and none. I think I have Harris ahead in both. And any interest in Anthony Ferkser? Yeah. Yes, but not a must-start guy. Heath Ferkser or Everett? Ferkser. Oh, no!

All right, Baltimore is at Las Vegas. Stat of the game, Marquise Brown had eight good matchups last year, if you include two games against Cincinnati, who actually wasn't really that bad against wide receivers. In those eight games for Marquise Brown, well, I mean, look, you take him out, it's fine. But this actually wasn't a great matchup, and he still did really well against them.

He scored nine or more non-PPR fantasy points, 13 or more PPR fantasy points in six of those eight games. Starter Sid Marquis Brown. I think he's a starter in the three-receiver league. He has a great track record in openers, in two openers. He's combined for 45 PPR points over 100 yards in both those games. No Rashad Bateman.

Now, this Raiders secondary should be better with the addition of Casey Hayward alone. So I don't think it's going to be an easy cakewalk for Marquise Brown, but I'll take my chances with him. Obviously, he's going to be in a lot of showdown lineups on Monday night. Just based on the guys we've talked about so far, I would start him

over Marvin Jones and DJ Chark. I would start him over Brandon Cooks. I would start him over Odell Beckham and Jarvis Landry. I'd start him over Myers and Waddle, too. I would start him over Myers. I've got Waddle a little bit higher. If Sammy Watkins were not

on the Ravens, then I would say Marquise Brown is going to outscore Allen Robinson. I've got Waddle a little bit higher. I'll tell you, if Sammy Watkins were not on the Ravens, then I would say Marquise Brown is going to outscore Allen Robinson. It's probably going to be a week one Sammy Watkins boom followed by a week two Sammy Watkins disappointment. Yeah, maybe. But I would have this great, bold prediction about Brown. I'm going to do it anyway. Let's just make a gentleman's

bet, okay? Anyone who wants to take it, Marquise Brown over Allen Robinson. No, I wouldn't actually do that on my fantasy team, but we're fun it's football season we're having fun it's a podcast so you know just kind of kind of feel like podcast designed to help people well don't do it i'm telling you start alan robinson over marquise brown but i just kind of feel like marquise brown is gonna be better i don't you to do something if it doesn't come through. Fine. What do you want me to do? You get zero credit for this. Save your eyebrows.

No, I get... Yes. I get... Yeah, okay, fine. I get almost no credit for it. I want just a little bit of credit if it happens. Just a little bit.

That's all I want. Now you got to do something. I just, like, I don't know. All right, Josh Jacobs, we already talked about earlier. Start Lamar Jackson. Gus Edwardswards top 12 and non-ppr 14th and ppr for jamie 17th for dave 22nd for heath so he's a little a little more

cautious there and i asked you earlier aj dylan or jamal williams but what about tyson williams how about this the uh the ras won eight games last year by 14 or more points. Nine games. In each of their last four wins by 14 or more points, two running backs had at least eight PPR points.

That's not great, but do you think Tyson Williams, would you start him over A.J. Dillon or Jamal Williams? No, but it's not going to be surprising if he's better than those guys. I do think that you are a little bit more, because this is the second or third time you've referenced the potential blowout of this game.

This game's got a four-point spread. Yeah, I'm taking the Ravens. A four-point spread for the road team, though. It is a four-point spread for the road team, but there's several games that are much more potential blowouts. I don't know that it's going to be a blowout. It's four and a half, Heath. Pete said yesterday it was going to be a shootout.

I don't get it. I mean, all right. We got to see the Ravens' pass rush if it's still the same. You would anticipate it would still be really good, but they lost some guys. They did. Secondary is still amazing. Yes.

Look, the Raiders, we know Darren Waller is going to get his targets and his opportunities. Those two other guys got to step up big time in Henry Ruggs and Brian Edwards and Hunter Renfro. I mean, this is the most incomplete receiving core because we just don't know. Like, Ruggs is a first-round pick that has a big opportunity in front of him. Can he be awesome? Hopefully. Can Edwards be awesome? Hopefully.

Can they both stink? Yeah, they could, especially against, you know, Humphrey and Peters. That's not an easy situation for those guys to go out there, and Derek Carr typically, you know, could struggle in this type of scenario. So I hope he plays well. I can't imagine ever playing Carson Wentz over Derek Carr. But it's not an easy situation for this Raiders offense, especially you know that if they get behind,

they're not going to run the ball to any level of success. How about the fact that the Ravens won nine games last year by 14 or more points? How many times do you think they were favored by 14 or more points? They blow people out. They crush it. If you're not on the same level as the Ravens, they just destroy you, especially in week one. 38-6 against Cleveland last year. The year before that, it was the Dolphins game in week one.

All right. Anyway, I'm assuming you're not starting Henry Ruggs or Brian Edwards. No. Start the tight ends. Start the Ravens defense and start having fun watching football. Thank you so much for listening, everybody. We will talk to you tomorrow. We've got six more minutes. What are you talking about? No. Gosh.

Too long. Too long. With the NFC home games. Marquise Brown over Allen Robinson. Give me a little bit of credit, ladies and gentlemen. I games, Marquise Brown over Allen Robinson. Give me a little bit of credit, ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and Sammy Watkins over Allen Robinson. I didn't say that. Alright, we'll talk to you tomorrow. Enjoy football.