Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (NFC); CIN-CLE Recap (09/18 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 18, 2020

What a fun Thursday night game! Now let's rank Nick Chubb, Joe Mixon and Kareem Hunt rest of season. And how about all of the Bengals and Browns WRs while we're at it? ... Getting into Start or Sit for the NFC home games, should you avoid Christian McCaffrey in DFS (14:00)? And how do we feel about some stud WRs with tough matchups (15:24) like Terry McLaurin and D.K. Metcalf? Are there streamer WRs we'd start over them? We also give you the latest news (21:00), play Beat the Waiver Wire (27:30) and use the Startometer (28:24) for players such as Devin Singletary, CeeDee Lamb and Antonio Gibson ... NE-SEA (31:30), DET-GB (39:40), NYG-CHI (45:30), CAR-TB (52:25), BUF-MIA (56:40), ATL-DAL (1:01:44), WAS-ARI (1:06:18) ... Email us at [e-mail] Listen to the brand new Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-in-5/id1528634304 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @YardsPerGretch, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter 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

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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. 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. Man, what a shootout last night. It's hard to find a game with more fantasy storylines than what we've got coming out of Cincinnati and Cleveland. 35-30, the Browns get the victory and improve to 1-1. Welcome, everybody, to Fantasy Football today.

On this Friday morning, we are going to give you a starter. We've got some tough wide receiver matchups to talk about, like Terry McLaurin at Arizona, DK Metcalf against New England, DJ Moore at Tampa Bay, and even the Bills wide receivers at Miami. You may not realize it, but that might be a tough matchup. Good morning, Dave Richard and Jamie Eisenberg. Dave, how are you doing? I'm hanging in there, Adam.

I'm doing better than AJ Green. 13 targets, three catches. About half those targets were uncatchable, but it looked like he got credited with two drops in the game. One for sure, and then another one in the end zone where a ball hit his hand. He couldn't reel it in. Frustrating, especially on a night where Joe Burrow attempted over 60 passes. He leads the NFL

in almost touchdowns. He is the early leader out of the gate. Jamie, good morning. How are you? By low, by low, by low. Go get A.J. Green now. He's going to be good. But he kind of like, like a little hobbled after the first play of the game. Are you worried about him staying healthy?

Don't overspend because there's the injury risk still. But if you get him cheap, I'll take any receiver getting 13 targets. You know, I was going to to do a whole segment on CJ Uzama, but he hurt his Achilles.

I think they should just have AJ Green line up as a tight end. Joe Burrow's got this connection with the tight ends going on here. I mean, he's got a connection with everybody when he's throwing 60 times.

Yeah. Since you didn't ask how I'm doing, which is rude, I would like you to know I was having a great morning. Like one of our coworkers. Yeah know I was having a great morning. Like one of our co-workers. Yeah.

I was having this great morning and then I got the automated email from the Scott Fishbowl. I am losing 88 to nothing. In our podcast league, Todd Rones and I, we have Odell Beckham and Nick Chubb. Last week was

frustrating. Last night was great. In another league, I'm playing against Odell Beckham and Nick Chubb. And that sucked. I'm playing against Mayfield, Burrow, Kareem Hunt, and tight end premium league, CJ Uzama.

We'll get to his sample now. Yeah, and by the way, I'm starting Peyton Barber, so everything should be fine. Let's talk about... You can make a trade. Oh, no, you can't. You can't make a trade. You can't make a trade.

Cleveland 35, Cincinnati 30. Okay, and then obviously we'll get into starters for the seven AFC home games. We'll play some beat the waiver wire. I think there are some really exciting wide receivers that are on waivers that are good stashes right now, like the rookies, Jalen Rager and Brandon Ayuk, maybe Alshon Jeffrey and Debo Samuel,

if they're available. So we'll get into that. But this game, all right, how convinced are you that the Browns offense is good and that Mayfield and Beckham and Chubb and Hunt and Landry will get going a little bit, hopefully. They didn't throw much, only I think 23 pass attempts, yeah attempts for Mayfield. But I guess,

Dave, your overall thoughts on the Browns offense and fantasy managers being able to rely on them. Well, there's two huge factors here. Number one is Baker. Obviously, when he's on, that definitely gives the receivers a better chance to make plays. And then the other thing is the running backs and whether or not

they're able to take advantage of the matchup that they're in. When they've got a game against, say, Pittsburgh, that's going to be tough against the run and smothering cornerbacks and a great pass rush, the Browns aren't going to be very good. But when you put them up against Cincinnati on a short week at home, of course, they're going to come out and play well. I didn't think Baker would be, not that he was amazing, amazing, but he was really good. He played well and the running backs just went crazy. And yeah, Chubb, you're going to start every week, no matter what. I think Hunt, you're probably going to do the same with every week as a number two running back. Well, that's interesting, Jamie, because Kareem Hunt had 10 carries. Eight of them came in the fourth quarter with a lead and he only had two catches. And last week, he did have four catches,

and he had 13 carries. And, you know, week one, it was a pretty even split. In fact, more carries for Kareem Hunt. Week two, Nick Chubb was the guy. And until the fourth quarter, it was like, uh-oh. Kareem Hunt, I'm glad he caught that touchdown, but we got a problem here. So what's your take on these guys?

I think you're going to see... Again, we're two weeks in. They're still figuring out how they're going to use these guys. I don't think there's a tried and true plan. You have this many carries in this part of the game. You have this much work in this part of the game. Week one,

they were chasing points. You would probably expect that that's more of a Kareem Hunt script. Week two, they're playing with the lead, more of a Nick Chubb script, and then working Kareem Hunt when the defense was tired and he just looked extremely explosive in the fourth quarter when he was out there doing what he was doing, especially on a Thursday night. Next week's game is going to be telling because week one against as good a defense as you will find. Week two, especially without Geno Atkins in there,

one of the worst run defenses that you'll find, as we've seen over the first two weeks. Look what the Chargers did against them last week with Austin Eckler and Joshua Kelly. So they play Washington. That defensive front is really good. We'll see what Washington's run defense looks like in week two. If they come out of this with a strong performance

against Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmonds, then you got to say, okay, I'm still starting the Browns guys. That's without question, but maybe it's not going to be as easy as it looked. And let's not forget Conklin didn't play last night, you know? So that's a big piece of that offensive line that wasn't out there. So for them to do what they did is even more impressive.

So I think you look at both these guys as starts. I still prefer Chubb in non PPR. I probably would still start Chubb in non-PPR. I probably would still start Chubb in PPR, even though he's not catching as many passes. But if you think they're going to win, and again, Washington is playing in Cleveland next week. I think that's right. Yeah, Washington's in Cleveland next week. So home game, they're probably going to be favored. I think you're going to start both these guys and hopefully get quality production. Where does Joe Mixon factor in? How would you rank these three running backs?

Mixon with another disappointing day, 16 carries for 46 yards, did have four catches for 40 yards. We can see it. It's clear as day. The offensive line is a big problem for the Bengals. So how would you rank these three running backs rest of season?

I'd put Mixon third right now based on how these guys look, but that's not a knock on Mixon. That's just those other guys are playing really well. You were going to take Kareem hunt over Joe Mixon rest of season. I, I mean, based on what I've seen the first two weeks and looking at this offensive line, you know, it's, it's, if he's getting the same amount of work, you know, it's, it's basically that's, that's how it's shaping up.

You know, you're talking about under 20 touches. So I think for, for mixing right now, he's still a starter. You're not getting under 20 touches. I think for Mixon right now, he's still a starter. He did this last year. Mixon's had 20 touches, two straight games. Well, I mean, it's not impressive, 20 touches. It's 20 touches.

You're right, he did do this last game. He's not doing well with it. If there's something you hang your hat on, it's the four catches last night. The fact that they used him in the passing game like they did, that's something that they have to do to get him going a little bit. But this is a run defense, I think, in Cleveland that we got to give some credit to.

This is two weeks in a row now where they look really good. They did a great job on Baltimore's running backs last week, too. Yeah. Yeah. I would take Mixon ahead of Hunt for the obvious reasons. A, he's getting more work. And B, we did see it last year where he did eventually come around. And I feel like the coaches kind of forgot about how to use

him the right way. There were a lot of plays where I thought the offensive line was trying to use power blocking, and that's just not his style. He needs more targets. He needs more catches. Maybe that happens. Maybe the coaches wise up and say, okay, he's a weapon. Let's use him through the passing game, especially if the offensive line can't do anything. And I would imagine they'll try and find a way to improve that offensive line a little bit as the season goes on. That also happened last year.

Okay. So how would you then rank the four wide receivers in this game rest of season? You got to put Beckham first. I think you... Well, okay, hold on green green is probably second and then Landry and Boyd I think I'd probably take Boyd ahead of Landry so I don't know if it really changed very much from where we were in the preseason it's just funny because Beckham obviously like he had a good game but but he had six targets, and they threw 23 passes, and that kind of stinks. They won't.

They won. You want them right. They had the lead all game long. Right, and they have Washington and then Dallas and then the Colts, I think. So they're going to have to throw a little bit more in some games, obviously, than they did in this game, but it wasn't like an amazing game for Beckham.

I'm very happy with it. If the touchdowns overturned. Yeah. And I didn't really think he got in. Not a great game. I don't think he did either. But you're talking 16 targets though through two games. So that's encouraging.

Yeah. He's the downfield guy because Landry is not going to, especially if he's not a hundred percent. Austin Hooper is more of a blocker than a receiver at this point. It's ridiculous. You know, you're looking at concentrated targets. You know, so of the 23 pass attempts, six of those go to Beckham.

So, you know, that's encouraging. So how would you, I'm sorry, did I interrupt you? Same order, same order as Dave. I think, and just to kind of circle back to Mixon, you're still talking about a rookie quarterback making his second start. They're trying to work through a lot of things here with Cincinnati.

Seriously. So Mixon will be better. And again, saying I'm taking Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt over him right now, that's not a knock on Mixon. That's just looking at those other two guys who's playing well. So I just look at it like, you know, another scenario. Like I said, buy low on A.J. Green if they're going to let Burrow throw this much. And buy low on Joe Mixon because this offense is going to start

to do a lot of good things as they continue to get better. And you have to hope that Burrow will start throwing catchable passes to Green because half of the targets yesterday just... I mean, give Denzel Ward credit. Denzel Ward was all over him in that game. Sure, but there were still passes that were several

feet ahead of A.J. Green. Some that were were several, several feet ahead of A.J. Green. Some that were like one or two feet ahead of A.J. Green. I didn't think they were traveling Denzel Ward. I thought Ward played on his side mostly. Here, I'll tell you what it was. I just saw it's that this morning. Okay. I think on seven of his targets, seven of the 13, he was all over.

Yeah, usually Ward plays to one side. Yeah, he played on the left side of the defense. Right, right, right. I didn't see him playing right cornerback yesterday, but he might have. I wasn't intently watching Denzel Ward. I was sort of watching that because Denzel Ward used to be a thing and we don't really talk about it much.

No, he's still good. He's not a shadower. Okay. All right. And Burrow is 80% rostered and he threw 61 times. I'd be interested to see what fantasy managers do with him and then Baker Mayfield, 66% rostered and he look he threw 61 times I'd be interested to see what fantasy managers do with him and then Baker Mayfield 66% rostered who would

you guys rather have rest of season Burrow or Mayfield and we'll end with that oh no here this is according to Jake Trotter who covers the Browns for ESPN AJ Green lined up against Denzel Ward for 16 routes Green got seven targets of those 16 routes had two receptions for 14 yards with Ward on him.

Yeah, that's good. I just don't think he... Obviously, he didn't shadow him because he had 13 targets. He had seven against Denzel Ward. And that's just important to know next time a number one wide receiver faces the Cleveland Browns. Where's that number one wide receiver line up? If he's not on the right side of the formation,

he might not see a lot of Denzel Ward. Maybe they get Greedy Williams back. Greedy Williams was out. Kevin Johnson, I think, was out too. Yep, he was out. Right. Okay. It's a great bounce back game for the Browns defense.

And yeah, Drew Sample. It wasn't just this week. It was Uzama's had two solid games in a row. In fact, Uzama, I was getting ready to talk about him because he caught a touchdown in week 16 and 17 of last year. So that's three out of four games with a touchdown and not a ton of yards. But now Sample gets nine targets.

Are you only looking at him in like a tight end premium league? Yes. Okay, cool. Let's move on then. CBS Sports HQ is your home for fantasy football news and information, and not just that, ladies and gentlemen. CBS Sports HQ is just outstanding sports coverage. We've got Stanley Cup Finals coming up. We've got the White Sox in the playoffs. Ooh, yeah, Dave. We've got the NBA playoffs. Apparently, the Heat won yesterday. They're up 2-0. That's great. We've got baseball. Everything's in full swing. Great time to be a sports fan. And if you want to follow it all, just download the CBS Sports HQ app. Or if you have the CBS Sports app on your phone, you can watch from there. But I watch HQ on my Roku all the time. So if you've got any type of device like that, put the CBS Sports HQ app on

there. Everything's free, 24-7, streaming, highlights, gambling, fantasy talk. And fantasy football today is on from noon to one, Monday through Friday. And it begins at 10 a.m. Eastern on Sunday. Just a ton of sports coverage for you. We got our mailbag episode coming up on Saturday. We're going to record it later today. But if you want to leave a nice Apple podcast review, a five-star review, and ask a question. You should do it probably Wednesday or Thursday night just because it takes a little bit of time to show up in Apple, and we record that on Friday. So I don't want to miss your question.

And big news on Twitch this weekend. 4 p.m. Eastern, join us on Twitch, twitch.com slash fftoday. The home team watch party for the Chiefs Chargers is presented by Lowe's. We're going to be joined by former players Dante Hall and Sean Merriman to talk about Chiefs Chargers. And then Nando DeFino is coming on to talk fantasy. Dave Richards stopping by. We're basically going to watch football together.

4 p.m. Eastern to the end of the Chiefs Chargers game, essentially, on Twitch, twitch.com slash FF today. All right, let's get into these NFC home games. We did Rams-Eagles yesterday, plus the AFC home games. We'll do the seven FF today. All right, let's get into these NFC home games. We did Rams-Eagles yesterday, plus the AFC home games. We'll do the seven other games today. We have injury updates for you as well. Stat of the week.

Christian McCaffrey against the Bucs. Two games against the Bucs last year. 38 carries for 68 yards and a touchdown. Six catches for 42 yards and a touchdown. Holy cow! And Dave, you stole him as one of my bad buys for HQ today in DFS.

We're, of course, starting McCaffrey in seasonal redraft leagues. But in DFS, are you getting away from Christian McCaffrey? You gotta. He's the most expensive player

on the board. For him to be good, he's gotta deliver 30 points in PPR on draft Kings. I'm a, I don't see it. I think it would be very wise of Carolina to use them as a receiver way more this week than last week. Okay.

Let Teddy Bridgewater's arm fall off. Let him attempt 60 passes because you're not going to be able to do well running into the teeth of this Tampa Bay defense. So, in that theory if he gets 10 catches well now he only needs to get 20 points otherwise I still think that's going to be hard for him to do against Tampa Bay the Bucks have now gone seven straight games without allowing 60 rushing yards to a running back I think he can get there but we we'll see. I hope so. Let's talk about wide receivers with tough matchups. Terry McLaurin at Arizona.

And looking at all of the tough matchups that he has had last year and this year, Dallas last year with Byron Jones was very good against wide receivers that weren't slot receivers. The Bears, fairly tough. The Patriots, 49ers. Remember that game was in the rain. He only had one catch for 11 yards. It was a weird game. The Bills, the Lions

with Darius Slay. The Packers have good cornerbacks. Last week against Darius Slay, McLaurin is almost always around the 60 to 70 yard or 50 to 70 yard, probably averaging about 60 to 65 yards. Seems like he's always around there.

You got DK Metcalf against New England and maybe Stephon Gilmore. You got DJ Moore at Tampa Bay and maybe Carlton Davis. They just held Michael Thomas to three catches for 17 yards. And in their last six games, seven games now, going back to last year, they've been terrific. Pretty good against Julio Jones twice. Great against Chark. Great against Galladay. Great against Hopkins. Great against Michael Thomas. That's DJ Moore's matchup. And then Miami, sneakily, has a really good cornerback tandem. Xavier Howard still getting back to full strength, but Byron Jones is a very good cornerback. In effect, John Brown last year when he faced the Cowboys,

Byron Jones' team, I don't know how much he saw of him, but he only had three catches for 26 yards. So the Bills' wide receivers seem to have a difficult matchup, but I guess we'll learn more about that. But Jamie, I mentioned four names. I mentioned McLaurin, Metcalf, Moore, and then I guess I mentioned two Bills wide receivers. Are you sitting any of these guys?

Probably not. I mean, you know, John Brown's more of a number three receiver, so I don't know if he's a must more of a number three receiver. So, um, I don't know if he's a must start guy, but he looked good last week. And, you know, I, I think I've said this a few times this off season, like it's going to be fun just watching him run against most second cornerbacks. Now that Stefan digs is going to draw most of the top cornerbacks on his

matchups. But I think you look at, uh, Metcalf against Gilmore is probably going to be a thing. So I'd be the most nervous about him. And then probably McLaurin next just because of Patrick Peterson. Dave, did you want to weigh in? McLaurin, Metcalf, Moore, Bills guys?

I'm okay with McLaurin. I know Peterson's got the reputation. Last year he allowed a 67% catch rate. That's not necessarily reputation. Last year, he allowed a 67% catch rate. That's not necessarily terrible. You see a ton of cornerbacks in the 70% range, but I'm not sure if he was on his A-plus game, and I'm not sure he's going to travel.

He didn't travel last week, but he did travel last year. You might assume that he does end up traveling with Terry McLaurin. What did he travel with last week? Yeah, you're probably right, but there were games last year where he did move around so like i i think mclaren could give him a run for his money i think mclaren's a good cornerback and um yeah i think and even if they don't travel byron murphy was playing well for arizona but i feel like mclaren's going to get more work i think washington's going to you know continue to have to throw a ton so i kind of like mclaurin neck half one-on-one versus gilmore you can't feel good about i think he's like a super duper flex and and that's about it and dj more nervous about

him too but he moves all over the formation and he crosses the field so that's more about tampa bay making sure they wrap him up rather than having one guy follow him around all game long. Okay. And how about some good wide receiver streamers this week? I came up with four names. None of them are rostered in more than 44% of leagues. So in terms of roster percentage, it goes Corey Davis. Was A.J. Brown expected to miss the game with a bone bruise in his knee? Corey Davis against Jacksonville.

Russell Gage at Dallas. Dallas awful against slot receivers last year and gave up 100 yards to Robert Woods in week knee. Corey Davis against Jacksonville. Russell Gage at Dallas. Dallas awful against slot receivers last year and gave up 100 yards to Robert Woods in week one. Danny Amendola. Scotty Miller's 21% roster. Danny Amendola's 18% roster. Scotty Miller has Carolina.

I wouldn't say we're not expecting Chris Godwin to play. I'd say he might not play. Danny Amendola I think we're not expecting Golinay to play. He'd say he might not play. And Danny Amendola, I think we're not expecting Gallinay to play. He's 18% rostered and had seven targets and 81 yards last week.

So, Corey Davis, Russell Gage, Scotty Miller, Danny Amendola. Are these interesting wide receivers to you? Would you start them over any of the guys

that we mentioned with tough matchups? No, but Davis is the most interesting. He's also battling, I think, an injury as well. Keep an eye on his final practice report. You saw

last week with eight targets, seven catches. He was the leading receiver. He looked fantastic. This was the guy they were expecting to see, I think, all of his career. It's a good matchup. I don't think that they're going to necessarily... They're not going to throw as much if A.J. Brown's not there,

and they're not going to have to against Jacksonville. So Ryan Tannehill's not going to be a good starting option if A.J. Brown's not out there. But Davis should be the leading receiver. And I'd even, in deeper leagues, look at Adam Humphreys. You know, he had seven targets last week, had six catches. He didn't do much with it, under 50 yards receiving. But, you know, he's going to get probably in that same range of targets. So he's only 3% rostered right now.

Do the Humpty hump. I like Davis. I like Scott Miller for sure. If Chris Godwin is out because Miller not only can attack downfield, he's a good short area target. And I do think Tampa Bay will use both their tight ends and really all three of their tight ends way more if Godwin's not there. But I still feel like Scott Miller, like Brady,

I feel like Brady wants to perfect that timing with Miller. Like they missed a little bit last week, but I could see Scott Miller end up having a pretty good game. Nice safe floor of like 12 PPR points. Okay. Would you start any of those four? Davis, Miller, Gage, Amendola over, say, Darius Slayton against the Bears? Nope.

No, but I would start all those guys over both Dolphins receivers. Fair enough. All right, let's do the entries, news, and notes. Chris Goblin remains in the concussion protocol as he faces Carolina. Kenny Galladay mispracticed. Jeffrey Okuda looks like he'll play. He's the Lions' best corner. Yeah, I was going to say that last night on Twitch.

That's a game against Green Bay, and that's why Aaron Rodgers has a ton of potential this week. Also, because he's Aaron Rodgers. Baltimore's backfield is going to be a different rotation each week, according to Offense Coordinator Greg Roman. Do you buy that? No.

I mean, I do to a certain extent. I think we're going to get game script is going to be probably how the game, those guys get used because I don't know how much in crunch time they're going to turn to Gus Edwards and J.K. Dobbins over Mark Ingram. So if they're

chasing points or in scenarios where they're just going to use their most trusted running back, it's still going to be Ingram. And even though he played fewer snaps than Dobbins, he had more carries than Dobbins. So it's not like Dobbins just did a lot with it. He just scored two touchdowns. So don't overvalue J.K. Dobbins yet,

but you can see the writing on the wall that he's coming. The fact that they did give him the seven carries in week one, gave him the goal line opportunities, but they're still going to play Gus Edwards, which is the most frustrating part of all of it. Jamison Crowder mispracticed with a hamstring injury. He's not looking

great for the Jets against the 49ers. James Conner practiced in full. Uh-oh. Dave, what do we do with the Steelers? Let's see what happens on Friday, but it sounds to me like Conner's got a real shot to play and I wonder if the Steelers are going to say, okay, shake it off. Your

ankle's fine. You're still our guy. Go out there and do your thing. Can you start either one? If James Conner plays, can you start? If Conner plays, I think he's the one you start of of the two but you've got to lower expectations for him and view him even in what looks to be a really nice matchup against denver i think you've got to look at him as nothing more than a number two fantasy running back not a top 12 guy because i think snell is going to get maybe a little bit more work than he would have if connor had not gotten hurt in week one and if snell hadn't

gone crazy in week one um but we'll see what happens it looks like connor's ready to go though so a big sigh of relief for everybody that had james connor and didn't have snell and the window is now open if you have connor and you don't have snell maybe with connor coming back and playing and he should have a decent game against Denver, you can trade for Snell on the cheap, and then you've got yourself covered in case Conner gets hurt again. Yeah. Or if you have Snell, you can trade him to the James Conner manager

and see what you can get, because there might be an overpay there. It just depends on what happens in each individual league. Would you start James Conner or Corey Davis, assuming A.J. Brown's out? Conner. James Con Connor or Mark Ingram? Connor. The only thing you got to fear with Connor is, is he rushing back for fear of maybe, you know,

the contract situation, not, you know, losing his job, getting Wally pipped. And is he a hundred percent? Cause if he takes a shot on the ankle, if he couldn't finish last week's game,

when he came into it healthy, we know what his track record has been, you know? So if he takes a shot on the ankle, if he couldn't finish last week's game when he came into it healthy, we know what his track record has been. So hopefully he is 100%. The fact that he practices and falls is a good sign. Forget about a shot to the ankle, a shot anywhere, and he could end up being trouble. Yeah, if he's not on the injury report on Friday and he's a go for the game,

I'm looking for the Snell manager in my league and trying to work something out to get him, if I have Connor. The Kansas City Chiefs running backs coach, I don't know how to pronounce his name to you, Delland, Dilland, McCullough? I'm going to say Delland. He said this about Clyde Edwards-Elair.

The bottom line is, if you follow all the keys we're coached up to do in our room, he scores. So he did put the blame on Clyde Edwards-Elair for not getting in the end zone, but they're sticking with him in the goal line role for now. He's got to do a better job. And I just thought it was interesting. They were very honest about it.

There's some things he needs to work on, some things he needs to correct, but they're going to be patient with Clyde Edwards-Elair, and let's just hope if he gets some goal line work this week, he scores. All right, I'm going to fire through the rest of these. The Chargers center, Mike Pouncey, he's out for the season. He did miss 11 games in 2019.

That's a big blow for the Chargers. The Rams are close to extending Robert Woods, which is disappointing for Van Jefferson Dynasty managers, I'd say, because I thought Woods had a chance to maybe not be there next year. A.J. Brown, bone bruise, might miss a couple games. We'll see what the status is there. Corey Davis was limited in practice, but he did practice. Jets running back Michael Pirine practiced.

Maybe he's a sleeper, I don't know, next week or something. He's a stash candidate. Okay. Amari Cooper was limited in practice with an ankle injury. Henry Ruggs missed practice with a knee injury. Cortland Sutton is questionable.

Phillip Lindsey missed practice, probably not expecting him as of now. Julio Jones was limited with a hamstring injury. Cortland Sutton, Jamie, if he plays, where would you rank him at Pittsburgh? Number three receiver. Still got to make sure that he's 100%. I hope he can do his 10 jumping jacks

to make sure that that shoulder is okay. But it's a tough matchup. And it's going know probably take a little bit of time for him to get the rapport back with drew lock in game action so i wouldn't want to trust him fully but it's nice to have him back out there if he is able to go we're gonna do a quick game of beat the waiver wire you saw the the news from schaefter on michael thomas right after the news from schaefter on Michael Thomas. No, what is it? According to Schefter, he tweeted,

despite his high ankle sprain, Michael Thomas felt fantastic at practice Thursday, and there's a little glimmer of hope he can play Monday night. Okay. So, like, what do you even do with that if you have Michael Thomas? I think you have to start Sunday guys over him, right? Unless you have, I would imagine we'll have an idea Sunday, you know, based on what,

if we're hearing this now, you know, there's, there's going to be some indication on Friday and Saturday, what he does. I'll be probably listed as questionable, but the biggest thing, not necessarily for week two, it's the fact that it doesn't sound like he's going to be out a long time. So it's, it seems as if, if there's a glimmer of hope to play this week, hopefully he's back out there. No, no worse than week three.

OK. All right. Now beat the waiver wire. There's a potential starting running back that is rostered in 15 percent of leagues. His name is Miles Gaskin. Not the worst player to put on your bench. 15 percent rostered. And you got Jalen Rager.

You got Alshon Jeffrey. Jeffrey's not playing this week. Rager is. He gets the Bengals next week. Brandon Ayuk, Debo Samuel. They're both at the Giants next week. Samuel won't play, though. But these are just players to stash.

Ayuk's only 36% rostered. Mike Williams has Carolina next week. He's 45% rostered. Corey Davis is at Minnesota. I mean, that's a good opportunity for Corey Davis if A.J. Brown is still out next week. I like the Eagles DST against the Bengals and the Colts, pardon me,

against the Jets. All right. I don't know what's going on here. All right. I do. You're's going on here. All right. I do. You're dying. Start-O-Meter. The last three games we're going to talk about today are Dallas-Atlanta.

It's a pretty easy game. Start a lot of players there. Miami-Buffalo. It's a pretty easy game. Don't start too many players there. And Arizona-Washington. I think you more or less know what to do there. But Start-O-Meter for these three games.

Michael Gallup against Atlanta. 8. CeeDee Lamb. 7. Wow. Todd Gurley. 8. 7. 6.75.

I was a little surprised that he wasn't a top 12 guy for you. It's more like 15 to18 or something like that. Yeah, it's the same story for him every week. He's got to score in order to have a chance to even have a good game. Devin Singletary at Miami.

5. 6. Zach Moss at Miami. 4. 5. Okay, so you guys like Singletary better than Moss? Slightly. Moss got 89% of the red zone work last week. Frank Gore?

Preston Williams against Buffalo. Sid Preston Williams. Miami running backs. Miami running backs, right? Sid all Dolphins? Sid who? All Dolphins? Yes. It's probably a good idea. I bet the Dolphins wish

they could do that. I wonder if Fitzpatrick has a bad half if they make the switch. I'd be surprised if it did, but we've seen Tua come in at halftime before. Yeah, good point. Antonio Gibson at Arizona. Five. Five.

Five in PPR, three in non. I'm so interested to see, like, if we think eventually he, I don't know if we do, but if we think eventually he's going to take over, like, it could be any, it could be this week. Peyton Barber is just, like, the most. Yeah, but they like him. They like what they can get out of him. Oh, great.

Yeah, I love 1.7 yards per carry, which, by the way, is like the norm for him. They love his physicality. They love that he's a powerful runner. Gibson's big. He's big, but I don't know if he's a physical runner. I guess I don't know that. I don't even know how good of a rusher he is. He's okay.

Average four yards per carry last week. I'm telling you, he's better than Peyton Barber. He's probably better than Peyton Barber. I feel very confident saying that. I don't know how they thought Peyton Barber was better than Adrian Peterson, though. It's not about that, though. It's about... It's his first NFL game as a

running back. He didn't have any preseason action. It's going to take some time. My point is, he's a sleeper. He's a roster sleeper. He's not a week two sleeper, Antonio Gibson. We're not talking about getting rid of Antonio Gibson. If somebody's frustrated, go trade for him now. Peyton Barber,

0-10 on the start-o-meter. Negative 6. Negative shoe. Logan Thomas at Arizona. 4-6. Christian Kirk against Washington. 2. 4. Alright, guys.

We're going to get into the games a little bit later than we usually do, so we might have to pick up the pace. But here we go. The Patriots are at Seattle, and they are making their first road trip to the West Coast since 2017. That's kind of strange. Stat of the game. Looking at great quarterbacks against the Patriots the last two seasons,

there's been some really good ones and some really bad ones. You've had Deshaun Watson, Ben Roethlisberger twice, if you count Roethlisberger in Week 1 last year. Dak Prescott, Patrick Mahomes, 15 or fewer fantasy points and six points per passing touchdown. Those are bad games. You've also had Mahomes and Luck score 28 or more. You've had Mahomes score 30 on a separate occasion. Lamar Jackson

30. Deshaun Watson 33. So, how many fantasy points are you thinking for Russell Wilson this week in a six point for passing touchdown league? 25. More. Okay. So, start them up. Not too concerned. No. Alright. I guess we'll stick

with the Seattle Seahawks then. It seemed like Nick Chubb kind of established himself as the number one running back in a timeshare in Cleveland. Do you think the same thing happens with Chris Carson? They had basically the same amount of carries last week, Carson and Hyde. What's your feel for this? Will Carson come out of this looking like,

oh, okay, it's his backfield? It should. You hope it would. You know, after how the game unfolded in week one, you don't want to hang your hat on him catching passes like that, especially finding the end zone like that. So I think the hope would be is that

two to one split, you know, in terms of the carries, you know, that would be nice to see. But I think Pete Carroll is going to lean on Carlos' side more than we expect and more, you know, that would be nice to see, but I think Pete Carroll is going to lean on Carlos Hyde more than we expect and more than we hope and more than we want to see. And that's going to be a little frustrating. So you're not benching Chris Carson, but I don't know if he's a great DFS play, especially against a good defense. Carson played 45% of the snaps last week. That's not great. And that doesn't mean that Carlos Hyde played 55 because he didn't, he only played 34% of the snaps. And Travis Homer, who we haven't talked about in forever,

had 21% of the snaps. They were using three guys. I can't help but think that Homer got most of his work late. I can't confirm that. I didn't watch in detail of the game. If this is a competitive game and if the Seahawks end up either trailing or up three points in the fourth quarter, I think you'll still see more of Carson than Hyde. Hyde might be their finisher. He might be the guy that just grinds down the clock in the second half. Okay, so I'm a little surprised that you guys have Carson just slightly ahead of Todd Gurley,

but I take that as a vote of confidence for Chris Carson. And he catches passes. We think he'll catch passes. I'm also trying to look up Travis Homer had a carry on their second to last drive of the game. Yeah, look, Travis Homer's not a factor. Good for Travis. The problem is

that he's taking some playing time away from the other guys. Barely. Barely, but okay. 21% isn't that much. Chris Carson or James Conner? Carson. Carson. Chris Carson or DK Metcalf? Carson.

Carson. All right. Look at the Seattle wide receivers. Tyler Lockett, must start. Love him. Yeah. Must start. Absolutely. Okay. And so Metcalf, would you start Malcolm Brown over DK Metcalf? In non-PPR?

Yes. Really? Wow. All right. I thought you said Marquise Brown. No, I would start DK Metcalf over Brown in both. I don't like Malcolm Brown that much this week. How about Naeem Hines or DK Metcalf?

Hines in both. Hines in PPR. How about DK Metcalfines or DK Metcalf? Hines in both. Hines in PPR. How about DK Metcalf or Darius Slayton? I think I have Metcalf ranked higher. Metcalf by like one or two spots. Okay. Works for me. And then Seattle tight end.

Any interest? Greg Olson got a touchdown last week. No, but it wouldn't surprise me if he plays well. You know what? The thing is, the Patriots really did lose a lot on defense, and they wouldn't surprise me if he plays well. You know what the thing is? The Patriots really did lose a lot on defense, and they weren't really tested in Week 1. So I think it'll be a really interesting litmus test to see what they've got.

Offensively for them, how do you feel about Cam Newton this week? Jamie, you've got him 11th. I'll check the updated. He's not in my top 12. Looks like 16th for Dave, 11th for Jamie, 12th for Heath. Okay. Tell me about that, Dave.

16th for Cam. Seattle's familiar with him. They often say he's running in New England. It's the same thing that he ran in Carolina. And he's had terrible games against the Seahawks in his career, except for once, and that was in 2018, when he had Christian McCaffrey, and he used McCaffrey as a big-time weapon out of the backfield. We're talking like over a hundred

yards receiving and a touchdown for Christian McCaffrey. And he doesn't have that this week. And I guess I'm just not sold yet on Cam Newton, the passer. I know his completion rate was good against Miami, but I don't think he's going to be this huge stat producer on the ground. I'm not counting on him for two rushing touchdowns each week. I'm not counting on him for 15 carries every week. He's going to have to just keep me to feel confident to start him, especially what I think is a difficult matchup, not an impossible matchup,

but certainly a secondary that matches up well with the Patriots pass catchers. Okay. And Jamie, you have him 11th. So you're more optimistic about Cam Newton. A hundred percent. I mean, anytime you can get a running quarterback that has an opportunity to increase his production as a passer, cause that's definitely going to happen. He's not throwing 20 times in this game. And so there's a higher ceiling that he can get to as a thrower. And you got to hope that the floor is still there as a runner. So what we typically see from cam when he's right is around 40 yards rushing, and he's always a chance to score. So if he's going to give you that opportunity against the Seattle defense, that's dramatically

different than the ones that he faced the last time he played them. And I do think this is going to be a great game for James White. I like him a lot in this matchup, his production. Typically you talked about a tree Cohen, I think off the air about what he does and wins and losses James White on the road versus James White is home last year. He scored six touchdowns. Five of them came on the road. And so I think we're going to see a scenario where he is a huge factor in this game. So I like James White a lot. I think Cam's going to run enough. I think he's going to have success throwing in this, in this game. I hope it's a back and forth type of game. You know, I want to see the Seattle offense put up some points because clearly of all the options that they have, but I

think you're going to see new England have to put up some points as well, but even in a grinded out type of game, that's going to favor cam. You know, he, he likes those types of, of, of games. It's kind of the way that he ran in Carolina too. So he'll be able to run. He'll throw enough. He may not have a 28 to 30 point game, but I think he's going to be in the low 20s and an easy guy to start. Whenever you get these running quarterbacks, you should lean on them

as much as you possibly can. I'm starting him easily over Deshaun Watson this week. OK, are you guys starting any New England running backs other than apparently Jamie likes James White? White's the only one.

Yeah, I mean, you got lucky with Sonny Michel finding the end zone last week. You know, 10 carries for 37 yards doesn't work in the passing game. They're going to use Rex Burkhead. They're going to use JJ Taylor. When Damien Harris comes back, it's going to be even more of a mess. James White is the only one right now and maybe the only one

all season that should be started and maybe even roster. Would you start DK Metcalf or Julian Edelman? Metcalf. Especially in non-PPR. I'm hopeful for Edelman just because I'm hopeful that Cam's got to throw at least 30 times

and maybe that could be 7 for 70 or something like that for Edelman. You know, because he obviously is their best wide receiver. He had five catches for 57 yards on seven targets against the Dolphins. So, okay, you guys have him as like a number four in non-PPR and number three in PPR. James White or Julian Edelman? James White. I'll take Edelman in full PPR.

And you guys sit in the DSTs. Yeah, so Patriots DST is just not a... I want to see it first. I think we all do against a great team like Seattle. Great offense like Seattle's. Not a week for the DSTs. It's the front seven for New England that people have questions about. It's not the secondary.

Their secondary is good. But it doesn't have Patrick Chung, which is a big deal. Yeah, but I mean, any safety can cover Greg Olson these days. Yeah, yeah. Detroit at Green Bay. Okay, here's your stat of the game. I'm here to give old man Peterson some love. He is rostered in 66% of leagues.

Now, the difficult stat, because you don't know what his workload's going to be, but in 2019, with 14 or more carries, he had nine games with 13 or more carries, pardon me. And he averaged 10.7 non-PPR fantasy points in nine games with 13 or more carries. That's Adrian Peterson. And of course, he had 14 carries in week one, and he scored 11 non-PPR fantasy points. So that's what he does. So we poo-poo Adrian Peterson all the time, yet we were gung-ho on Benny Snell. Benny Snell had five games with 16 or more carries,

and he averaged 9.2 fantasy points in non-PPR compared to 10.7 for Adrian Peterson when he had 13 more carries. Peterson produces when he gets work. We might not want to accept it, but it happens. The Packers' run defense was really bad last year. Did not get off to a good start against the Vikings in week one. Okay, that's your stat of the game.

Tell me, are you interested in any Detroit Lions running back? Swift more so than Peterson. I'll take Peterson over Swift for non-PPR. This is going to be game script and Swift played more than Peterson last week in a game that they were winning. And so they're only going to continue to work him up more.

Peterson is going to be game scripted out of this one, because even though he had catches last week, I don't care. We've seen this time and time again as he's gotten older. Great game when he's rested. Following game, he stinks. It was week one. That wasn't true last year. He was great last year.

It might have been true in the second half of last year. I'm looking at his game log. He was never great, really. And he's not going to be great this week either. He'll be serviceable. Yeah, don't fall for that. If you're looking for seven or eight non-PPR points, he can get you there.

I'll take the under. Look, I'm not starting him, but I just thought it was really interesting that he has been more productive than we give him credit for. You just don't know what the workload's going to be like because of Swift. Okay, but look, those guys aren't great stars. You can't forget about him sucking

for, you know, 10 touches a game. I don't know why they keep using him, but he was limited. Well, I think he's probably a better player than Peterson. I would hope anyway. He was limited last week. No, I think he's probably a better player than Peterson. I would hope anyway. He was limited last week. No, no. He was coming back from an injury at the surgery. Okay.

Anyway, anyway, anyway. Rest of the Lions. Start or sit Matthew Stafford. Sit. The holiday is up. Okay. Marvin Jones and Danny Amendola. Amendola is a desperation play in deep

PPR. Marvin, number three. Heath has Marvin Jones in his top 20, so I'm just wondering. He loves Marvin Jones. Well, he does, but look, he got eight targets last week in a close game. If you think the Packers are going to put up a lot of points, isn't that good for Marvin Jones? Shouldn't it be higher than

you guys have him like 30th? A lot of good receivers this week. You know, I mean, and Jones, you know, you guys have like 30th. A lot of good receivers this week, you know, I mean, and Jones, you know, he's, he's, this is one of those weeks where he could flash and have a great game. And then, you know, we know the story, you run to start him and he lets you down. So I don't have a problem starting Marvin Jones if,

if he's your second best receiver, but I would hope he's not your second best receiver. You know, he's a good replacement for Galladay, but they targeted Quintin Cephas 10 times. Yeah, they sure did, and it didn't go well. TJ Hawkinson rostered in 79% of leagues, top 10 for Jamie

and Heath, 14th for Dave. Are you low on Hawkinson or just a lot of tight ends you like? It's both. It's not that I think Hawkinson stinks by any stretch. Just I think that the Packers are going to try and do a good job to take him away

in the short and mid range and red zone because that's something the Bears just did not do a good enough job of last week. Okay, and all these rankings like Jones and Hawkinson, this is without Kenny Galladay.

Things would change if Galladay plays. Aaron Rodgers, sixth for Jamie, third for Dave, tenth for Heath. Lions secondary is really bad. And, you know, Rodgers only had six games with 20 or more fantasy points last year, and two of them were against Detroit. And things are looking up there.

Get him, start him, and then trade him. Oh, yeah? Okay. I mean, it's another matchup where the pass rush isn't going to be that bad, and the secondary is going to be terrible, and his receivers should make plays. All right, we're going to start Aaron Jones. That's an obvious one. Let's talk about MVS and Alan Lazard.

Would you start either of them over Marvin Jones? No. I think you can make the case for Lazard. That's how good the matchup is for the Packers. I am trying to make the case to start MVS over Zach Moss. Would you guys do that? Yeah. No. Over Zach Moss? Yes. It's a bit of a Hail Mary.

I will take that boom or bust chance over Moss. Does he find the end zone and get 40 yards on top of it? Road favorite going back to his hometown. Zach Moss is going to score this week. He scored last

week and he still was in the single digits. That's a good run defense he went up against. This is not going to be the same thing. I'm excited about the Packers wide receivers. That's the other side of it. MBS had a great game. This is the week that he busts and you get frustrated by it. He had a good game. He had two

drops in that game. He could have had a monster game, and then you wouldn't even be questioning MVS. So, look, you're hoping that he comes down with one or two deep balls and a couple of screen passes or slants or something like that. And he's only 25% rostered. Now, DFS, he's a great player. Yep. Oh, yeah.

Except everybody's going to be on him. He'll be popular because he was good last week. And it's the Lions. Packers DST is top 12. In fact, 4th for Dave, 10th for Jamie, 11th for Heath. So you can go ahead and get the Packers DST in your lineup. All right. The Giants are at the Bears.

Your stat of the game. In his career, Tariq Cohen has averaged 3.4 catches per game in wins, 5 catches per game in wins, five catches per game in losses, and about nine more receiving yards per game in losses. And he's got about the same amount of wins and losses in his career. So do you think Bears win this game? Yes. They're five and a half point favorites.

Oh, let's talk some trash, Dave. My team versus your team, dude. this isn't my team but i'll play the role of chicago in for you my terrible team is better than your terrible team and we'll both be drafting in the top 15 picks in the nfl draft yeah but we got a better quarterback but maybe we're gonna have a better head coach next year because we're gonna fire our coach and gm and replace him with somebody underwhelming from the CFL or something. Yeah, but my coach would make us start this podcast over if we didn't do it right.

My baseball team's in the playoffs. Where's yours? Firmly in the playoffs. I would win six in a row. All right. Anyway, Tariq Cohen, these two running backs are interesting, Montgomery and Cohen.

Jamie, how are you approaching the Bears running backs? I like Montgomery. I think, you know, anytime they have a chance to play with the lead, you're going to see him get more work. I think that's going to be the case this week. The Giants run defense was not as good as advertised by some last week against the Steelers. And so, you know, Montgomery, I forget what the next gen stat that I saw, but I think most created opportunities for rushing yards was by the bears last week if i'm saying that correctly

if not i apologize um but you know he i was i was surprised he ran well you know he did a guy coming off of a groin injury that we weren't expecting to play so i don't mind he's not a slam dunk by any stretch but you low-end starter in both formats, better in non-PPR than PPR. He would have had a touchdown catch if Trubisky had thrown a ball just a little bit higher. How many times has Robbins said that? Yeah, I know.

I think that's the bear that people should get excited about, and I think he's the DFS play that everybody should use. Yeah, Robinson is a squeaky wheel game coming. A-Rob could have a two-touchdown game. Would you start Montgomery or Cohen in PPR? Montgomery. I'd still start Montgomery, but it's close. I mean, obviously, anytime you're going to factor in PPR,

Cohen's going to get a little bit more of a win. And he's also talking. He said he had some quote, like, he wants to run over people. Good luck. I read it. I read it quickly. And when I say the word, you're going to understand what I what I inferred. He said something to the effect of you all think of me as a shifty back.

I was like, whoa. Yeah. And look, I mean, it's not really my opinion. It's a fact. The Giants had a very good run defense last year after they traded. I didn't say you. Did I say you? No, no. But you were implying it. And that's fine. I did. It's a fact. The Giants had a very good run defense last year after they traded for Leonard Williams. Did I say you? No, but you were implying it, and that's fine.

I did go out on a limb. I said they had a great run defense, and I expected them to have one, and they were great against James Conn. They got worn down, I think, last week. So I'm not sure if it's a good matchup. Things change year to year. Well, we know their secondary isn't very good. But we also, you know,

I was reading that the Bears offensive line actually played pretty well last week. So that's better than, than they did last year. We do know that we do know the giant secondary is an issue. We saw what Ben Roethlisberger and, uh, Juju and Deontay Johnson did and James Washington caught a touchdown. And, uh, what do you think about the bears passing game? I mean, Trubisky, honestly, you look at last year, he scored 20 points against the Giants. He usually came through in good matchups. He had some good matchups, and he actually played pretty well, and he had a good matchup in week one,

and he put up fantasy points. Let's say put up fantasy points. He had three really bad quarters, and then he finally got into a rhythm in the fourth quarter and was nails. But he was off target on a ton of passes. And you got to be nervous if you're starting Mitchell Trubisky. I get it in a two-quarterback league or using him as a super flex.

That's okay. That's fine. The matchup's good. And the press rush from the Giants shouldn't be on him too bad. So I think he can come through with like an 18 to 21-point game, somewhere in that range. Maybe a little bit better. But I'm not starting him over,

like Cam, I'm not a big fan of Cam. I'm easily starting Cam ahead of Trubisky. I'm starting Minshew and Tannehill too. The only named guy for me I'd start him over would be Stafford, you know, of the guys who are drafted as potential starters. Who's the second best wide receiver in this game behind Allen Robinson?

Slayton. I agree. Ahead of Anthony Miller? Yeah. Okay. Evan Ingram, you guys have him top seven. There are some interesting tight ends. I mean, John, who's obviously got a great opportunity.

Jared Cook has a big opportunity, unless Thomas plays. But even then, he probably has a good opportunity in a revenge game. You know, we like Dallas Goddard a lot. So I was surprised to see Ingram was ahead of most of those guys, if not all of them. I think they go right back to him. The matchup is better. Obviously, it's better.

He's not taking on the stinking Steelers. He's got Chicago's linebackers, which are good athletic guys in coverage, but Ingram's just more so. And I think the Giants are going to have to continue to throw the ball in a play-from-behind effort. Sit Daniel Jones. I don't feel great about Jones.

I almost feel the same way. I feel better about Trubisky than I do Jones, but they're kind of in that same boat of guys that are fine as a number two quarterback. He's my number two quarterback this week in Scott Fishbowl. It wouldn't surprise me if Daniel Jones had a good game, but I don't want to trust it.

And he's like Trubisky too. He'll make great throw, great throw, great throw. Now he's lobbing a ball right into the hands of the other team in the end zone. He turns the ball over. Trubisky makes horrible throws.

He's such a bad quarterback. I'm sorry. These guys were both in the end zone. Right. He just, he turns the ball over. Trubisky makes horrible throws. It's like, ugh. And, I mean, he's such a bad quarterback. I'm sorry. These guys were both top six picks in the NFL draft.

I don't feel that, I don't, he's not in Trubisky territory yet, but. No, no way. Okay,

sorry. Jimmy Graham, any interest? I mean, if you're desperate, there's probably some people in 14 and 16 team leagues that were starting Blake Jarwin. So he was second on the team in targets.

His red zone opportunities were there. Should have had two touchdowns. He's not going to be a volume guy, but he'll be one of these touchdown or bust type of tight ends. And if he scores, you'll be okay with it. Logan Thomas or Jimmy Graham? Logan Thomas. Logan Thomas or Rob G or Jimmy Graham? Logan Thomas

or Rob Gronkowski? Logan Thomas. All right. Sterling Shepard's a sit, right? I don't know. You can feel great about him. He's got that 10 to 12 PPR point floor. And the Bears

DST is going to be very good. All right. Carolina at tampa bay speaking of rob gronkowski uh yeah you know what like i think you guys have howard ranked ahead of gronkowski don't you i do yep oh yeah i have to make that decision or a podcast leak yeah both i do have i think both could be good but oj how Howard is the one that can get you the yardage. And that's contingent on Godwin being out. So Tom Brady, like how high do you have Tom Brady ranked?

I don't think I have him ranked high enough and he's in my top 10. He's got top seven upside. If Godwin plays, he's closer to 10. If Godwin's out. But, I mean, this is the squeaky wheel game coming for him. And it's such a bad-looking secondary in Carolina. What do you think about Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette this week? How would you compare your favorite Bucs running back,

whoever that might be, to David Montgomery and Tariq Cohen? I have Jones and Montgomery ranked in a similar spot. You know, I think Jones is probably a little bit safer in PPR, just given the nature of how he plays compared to the nature of how Montgomery typically plays. But in non-PPR, I think Montgomery is a little bit safer. This is a wild card game for Ronald Jones and Leonard Fournette because the matchup is great.

They're at home. Leonard Fournette's now two weeks into their, you know, system. He played a little bit last week, enough to get his feet wet. So they're comfortable probably with what he's capable of doing. But you would assume that Jones is still going to be the guy early. And if he gets off to a good start, why would he not stay on the field? So I would start Ronald Jones over Leonard Fournette if I had both. I think Jones is a good flex at worst.

If you have him on your team, he's a number two running back. But you probably have some different options that are better than him. I think he should be mildly encouraged by Ronald Jones with the workload that he got in week one, the way that he played in the second half. I thought he was much better in the second half than the first half. Favorable game, home favorite. I think you're going to see him get

enough opportunities to be successful. For net, you want to keep an eye on because if he has a good game, then it's going to be a problem. If Ronald Jones makes a mistake, four nets going to be the one on the field, and we don't know when that mistake will come. And I have a harder time trusting Ronald Jones, knowing that Leonard Fournette is right there waiting to take all that work away from him. And if it's the first quarter and he blows a pass protection,

Arians is going to get him out of there. And now it's Fournette's turn turn and Fournette runs off with it. Or it could be LeSean. You guys have no faith in him. It's crazy. I did see something. Their running backs coach, I think, was meeting with the media. And he said, we have faith in Fournette.

We have faith in Rojo. We have faith in McCoy. Maybe it was McCoy over Rojo. And people were starting to read into the list, you know, and how he listed things, you know. So, you know, and how he listed the names. You know, so, you know, people are looking at different things, which are funny.

But I still think, you know, Ronald Jones is the number two running back this week. Is Ronald Jones a better flex than Scott Miller if Chris Godwin's out? I still feel more comfortable with his touches in a favorable matchup, yes. In non-PPR, yes. Half PPR, yes. Half PPR, yes. Full PPR, no.

How about Ronald Jones or Robbie Anderson? How do you feel about Robbie Anderson? It's a tough matchup. It is tough. I really like the target share from last week, though. But it's been the number two. I mentioned all those stats about DJ Moore and all the number one wide receivers

that the Bucs shut down late in the year, but the number two wide receivers did very well. But I don't know if that'll carry over. Did Davis travel inside, though? That's the thing. I don't even know if they're going to do a lot of traveling. I think they're just going to play what they play and have the pass rush go nuts. No, they travel Carlton Davis.

He sticks on number one, apparently. Yeah, he sticks on number one guys. But look, Emmanuelers caught a touchdown last week and michael thomas was horrible but sanders didn't do much i don't know that the number two guys are going to carry over like they did last year being good because everybody's a year older and they just they've got really good cornerbacks a very good defense and a good pass rush so it's a little it's a little nerve-wracking so So you're going to downgrade all these guys. Like DJ Moore, I don't think he's any better

than a number two wide receiver this week, even in full PPR. And Anderson is a flex at best. Did you rank Ian Thomas? No, not highly. Okay. That's a team bad against tight ends last year, bad in week one, but fair enough.

All right, moving on to Buffalo and Miami. Your stat of the game was about Zach Moss. 89% of the red zone work in week one, and he caught a touchdown. So how do you feel about Singletary and Moss? I think they're both good flex options. Unfortunately,

they're going to take work away from each other, but they're both South Florida kids coming back home. That's true. Love it. Singletary is the better flex, especially in PPR. Ronald Jones or Singletary? I would play Ronald Jones over both, but it's both.

Yeah, it is close. Again, Moss' first NFL action. He's only going to get better. And the Jets run defense. You want to talk about a good run defense from New York, the Jets run defense is better than the Giants run defense. Do you know who the Giants defensive tackles are? Do you know who the Jets defensive coach is? And their defensive tackles aren't bad either.

You know what? You don't have to tell me that. I've been the one saying it every year that the Jets have a good run defense. So it was like, oh, he's playing the Jets. The Jets stuck. Always have a good run defense. So it was like, oh, he's playing the Jets. Jets stuck. Always have a good run defense. But their best defensive tackle from last year is now on the Giants.

Yeah. I'll tell you what. Are they training Quentin Williams? Let's talk about Letty Williams. He is. He is. He is. I thought the Bills offensive line did not do a good job last week. Maybe it's just because of who they were playing, but I don't think...

I thought they were getting pushed around. I hope that offensive line does this poorly this week and Josh Allen does what he does again. It should be worth noting, by the way, that two stud linebackers for the Bills got hurt last week. I don't know what their status is. Do you? Micah Hyde got hurt last week, too.

Matt Milano got hurt. Who the heck got hurt last week? Trem Milano got hurt. Who the heck got hurt? Tremaine Edwards got hurt. Yes. They both got hurt. I don't think that's going to make you all that confident in the Dolphins, but those are some key players there. Anyway, so who is the best?

Who are the best? Rank all the wide receivers and running backs in this game. Is Diggs number one? Diggs would be number one. Round two. Parker three if he plays. Williams four. who are the best, like rank all the wide receivers and running backs in this game is digs. Number one, digs would be number one round to Parker three. If he plays Williams for what I'm sorry. What about, what about, sorry,

what about with Singletary and, and Moss and all of the players? Oh, digs one Singletary to Moss three Brown, Brown 4, Andre Reid 5. Okay. Where is Eric Moulds? John Brown had a foot injury but practiced in full. Yeah, so did Tremaine Edwards.

Edwards was limited. He was wearing the non-contact jersey. Okay. No, that's good. I wanted to know how you'd rank the Bills, basically the Bills wide receivers versus the Bills running backs in this game. Yeah, Diggs is their best skill player. Then the two running backs, just based on how many touches that they'll get. Brown is, you know, I think we just undervalued him too much based on what he's going to potentially do if Allen continues to throw like this.

So he's going to be erratic. He's not going to be consistent. But John Brown last year on 105 targets was pretty special. If they allow Allen to throw as much as he's going to throw, he's going to be around a hundred targets again. And Brown is now facing the second cornerback on a weekly basis, as opposed to the top cornerback on a weekly basis. And he is going to run past that guy 10 times out of 10. So have the bills become a passing team? No, but I think they're opening the,

of the offense as we saw last week, 46 passes for Josh Allen against the Jets. In a game that they were winning easy. Yeah. I mean, they came out throwing. I think each running back had one carry by close to the two-minute warning. I think they also had the ball for 41 minutes.

I think they combined for six carries. Josh Allen has faced... Now, a lot of this is running, but Josh Allen has faced Miami four times in his career. He hasn't had less than 25 fantasy points in all of them, with three of them over 30. I mean, he destroys this team. Aaron Rodgers or Josh Allen? Rodgers.

Josh Allen for me, but it's close. Okay. And I think that'll do it. Running quarterbacks, man. They just are different animals. And the fact that he ran as much as he did and still threw as much as he did. If this is the Josh Allen we're going to get he did and still threw as much as he did if this is the josh allen we're gonna get sports line had him as a top five guy i know for me i had him

seventh and i feel like it's too low at this point after seeing week one it's the jets just you know it was the jet oh i'm sorry the dolphins are showing up no but i'm just saying no but this schedule does get tougher later on this year. Absolutely does. Absolutely does. And the Dolphins, honestly, might not have that bad of a defense. They might not. I expect them to have a huge game. I got to see the Dolphins have a good defense before I think they have a good defense. But all of the free agent acquisitions they made, they're a much better roster than they were last year.

And again, you can't sit here and say all these offensive guys are going to get better with time and not say the defensive guys when they start to get on the field together as well. A lot of good players on that Dolphins defense, but they still have to come together and show you something. Because if Cam at 31 just ran for 75 yards and two touchdowns, Josh Allen could go for $1.75 and two touchdowns based on how he's playing. Yeah, I'm fired up to start him.

All right, Atlanta at Dallas. Stat of the game. We got to go back to 2019. The only wide receivers with 70 or more yards against Dallas were these guys. Cody Latimer, Michael Thomas, Robbie Anderson. And now pay attention. Jamison Crowder, Julian Edelman, Jacoby Myers, Cole Beasley, Greg Ward, Stephen Sims.

Notice a trend there. A lot of slot guys. They were great against outside receivers. They were bad against the slot. Don't see why they'd be much better against the slot this year. I know it's risky to start Russell Gage, but that's your stat of the game.

And I don't know. I mean, 14 teams. I like how you say we have to go back to 2019 as opposed to the week one data that we have. Well, the thing is, you watch the game. You watch the Rams-Cowboys game. It's not like Robert Woods was running a lot of conventional,

making catches like conventional slot receivers, right? It was very creative stuff. I think it was probably a lot different than what you'd expect from Russell Gage. That's why I didn't really, I don't know that there's much of a week-to-week translation there. Woods is just different.

And Woods actually had a bad game against Dallas in 2019. But they stunk against the slot. So I don't know. Gage is interesting. But how confident are you in him? Because I know we're starting Julio. We're starting Ridley and Ryan. It's Hurst and Gage.

What do you think about them? Hayden Hurst, actually, I saw this. I think he ran 27 routes from the slot. Cool. At some point, he's going to get going, and Gage is 27 routes from the slot. Yep. So, you know, cool. They're, you know, at some point he's going to get going and Gage is going to be the one that suffers. At least, you know, that's the hope because you're clearly starting the other two

and hoping they're going to be great. I don't think this Dallas defense is going to be very good. You know, they're just too beat up right now and they're young and they're secondary. So I think you're going to see a scenario of they're all in play. Gage is, you know, we have a lot of wide receiver injuries, you know, from the top guy and Michael Thomas all the way down to everybody else in between.

If Cortland Sutton doesn't play again and all these other guys that were dealing with AJ Brown, Gallaudet, whatever, uh, gauge is a great pickup and play your quarterback. I think he has times. Yeah. They're not going to, I think they're going to run on Dallas. So I think early is going to have success because Dallas run defense, I think is just're going to run on Dallas. So I think Gurley's going to have success. Because Dallas run defense, I think, is just not going to be very good. But if they're chasing points because their defense isn't good, then here we go, Matt Ryan, again, like we saw last week.

Oh, Bonanza, by the way. Sorry, Bonanza. Bonanza. Good call. What was it last week? Or you didn't pick one? It was Arizona-San Francisco. Well, that wasn't horrible. I think pretty much everyone hit, except for Kittle. Right, he got hurt. A little Christian Kirk.

No, he's... Nah, does he count? No. Yes, he counts. Okay, okay. Look, I think you're looking at Gage in the same conversation as Scott Miller and Corey Davis and Danny Amendola

and guys that are going to get opportunities and have the chance to be successful. If he's getting 10 plus targets on a weekly basis, he was, he was tied with the other two guys, you know? So that's something you hang your hat on and say, okay,

Matt Ryan likes him. They didn't do anything to replace Muhammad Sanu because they clearly feel comfortable with him. He's a third year receiver. So again, a guy getting more comfortable in his role. Jamie, Jamie,

if he gets 160 targets this year, you're right. He will have a good season. It'll be good. He had a lot of garbage time last week. We'll see if there's going to be a lot of garbage time this week. But I do think Atlanta will trail.

And I think Gage could end up getting some good numbers. But I do think this is more of a Hurst week than a Gage week. Fair enough. So how about this? Just rank the wide receivers. We're starting the running backs. We're starting the running backs.

We're starting the quarterbacks. Well, okay. Real quick. Dak or Ryan? Dak. This is a new one. No, Vic or Ryan? Vic or Ryan.

I've got Ryan. Okay. They both should be great. Yeah. I saw Russell Wilson do what Russell Wilson did last week. I'm starting Dak Prescott against the Falcons without hesitation. Fair enough. And, fair enough. And so is Dave.

Everybody should be. Yeah. Okay, yeah. So you don't have to rank the wide receivers, but Gallup or McLaurin? Gallup. I have McLaurin higher. CeeDee Lamb or Edelman?

I have Edelman one spot ahead in PPR, but Lamb in non-PPR. I've got Lamb ahead. I think he benefits now with Jarwin out, and I think they can start to game plan that. CeeDee Lamb or Ronald Jones? Jones in non-PPR, Lamb in PPR. Would you start Hayden Hurst over any of these guys? Jared Cook, Jonu Smith, Dallas Goddard.

Let's go with them. I'd go Hurst over Jonu. Okay. Would you start Hurst over Gronkowski? That's actually tougher to do if A.J. Brown doesn't play. I would start Hurst over Gronkowski, yes. I would start Hurst over Gronk. Washington at Arizona, Hurst or Logan Thomas?

Hurst. Hurst. Okay. Hurst okay anything is first anything not obvious here start Kyler start Drake start Hopkins we've talked a lot about McLaurin he's a number two wide receiver I guess right number two borderline number two number three okay I'm I'm more excited about him than that so really it just comes down to the Washington running backs and Logan Thomas is a decent streamer. Washington running backs and I guess Christian Kirk? Yeah, I don't feel good about Kirk. And I wouldn't feel so great about a Washington running back either.

I don't think you have to go in those directions. Gibson is the best of the bunch based on what his upside could be. Again, second NFL game. What we saw last week, obviously different offense, but similar style of play caller is San Francisco's running backs were great in the passing game against Arizona. And so, you know, they teamed up most on Simmons. That was a great play when he had the touchdown.

McKinnon scored a touchdown. He was a factor in the passing game. It could be McKissick. So keep that in mind. But Gibson's only going to continue to get better as he gets more comfortable. So I think Gibson's in the flex conversation. And like I'd start him over the Detroit running backs. I would start him over... It's close for me with him and Malcolm Brown, to be honest with you, but I'd start Brown over him, but they're in the same range. I'd start Gibson over Sonny Michel, if you're looking at it that way. Those caliber of guys. Gibson or the Bills running backs?

I'd start the Bills running backs, but I like the Bills running backs this week, so I'll take the matchup against Miami. Okay. That vaunted Dolphins defense? That vaunted Dolphins defense. Give me Moss. Give me Singletary. Their return to South Florida will be triumphant.

All right. I like it. Guys, give me one upset pick. In the NFL? Yeah. I think the Rams are road favorites, right? I think it's a pick-up. It's a pick-up now.

Sorry, I can't use it. I got two. I'm trying to think of the spreads off the top of my head. I think the Saints could lose. I think Vegas can beat the Saints. They're six-point dogs. And I think the Giants have a decent chance against the Bears. Of course you do.

Well, you don't. Upset win or carbon spread? Upset win. I'm looking for a big spread here. There aren't that many options. Vikings are going to beat the Colts. No way. Vikings are going to beat the Colts.

That's only a three-point spread, but fair enough. Oh, I'm sorry. It wasn't big enough. Well, look for an upset here. These are touchdown spreads I'm taking here. That's technically an upset. What am I going to do? I'm going to take the Broncos to beat the Steelers?

I'm going with the Raiders over the Saints. Good for you. Let's bet that, you and me. No vig. All right, everybody. Have a great weekend. We got the mailbag on Saturday, and I forgot to do DFS stuff, but we'll talk about that on the mailbag.

So that'll be me and Jamie. We'll talk to you then. Make sure you're watching HQ all day Sunday and Twitch at 4 p.m. Eastern and noon Eastern. Twitch, we are answering your starting questions as well. Later.