Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (NFC); Cowboys-Bucs Recap; Ravens RB Rankings (09/10 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 10, 2021

What a game! And what a way to start the 2021 season! We kick off the show with a lengthy recap of Cowboys-Bucs. Buy low on Mike Evans and Ezekiel Elliott? Or are we actually worried about them? What do we make of Rob Gronkowski, Antonio Brown and the Bucs backfield? Then we'll tell you how to prioritize the Ravens RBs (18:50) and how to approach Saquon Barkley this week (23:30) ... Beat the Waiver Wire (27:30) if you're looking to get ahead of the game for Week 2, and we've got the Startometer (29:05) for guys like D'Andre Swift and Brandon Aiyuk ... Start or Sit for Packers-Saints (33:00), Bears-Rams (39:30), Eagles-Falcons (50:30), Chargers-Football Team (57:30), Jets-Panthers (1:03:00), 49ers-Lions (1:06:30) and Broncos-Giants (1:11:00) ... 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

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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. 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. Happy Friday. Getting ready for the weekend and a big week one. And it started off with a bang and an excellent game last night, 31-29. Let's hope they're all 31-29 throughout the season.

Tampa Bay with the win over Dallas. Adam Azer, Dave Richard, and Jamie Eisenberg. All right, two really quick questions for you to start the show, guys. Who's the best Bucs wide receiver rest of season? Chris Godwin. I'll say Godwin. Okay, follow up. Who's the second best?

Mike Evans. I still think it's Mike Evans. Okay, here's the third question. I lied. I thought there were two. There were three. Antonio Brown. Yeah.

Who's the best Ravens running back to have right now? Tyson Williams. Tyson Williams. Ooh, another follow-up. Who's the second best? Latavius Murray. Latavius Murray. Yeah.

Oh, man. Don't make us say who the third best is. I don't even care anymore. I sent a tweet out a little while ago I said you've got about 10 minutes to be my producer what should I lead today's show with Cowboys Bucks reaction or Ravens backfield thoughts

and you know what credit to the people out there they want to be positive right now they want to start 62% Cowboys Bucks reaction so that's why it was a great game who wants to talk about the Ravens backfield I yeah well I mean they're pretty it's pretty important right you know it's important Bucks reaction. So that's what it was like. That was a great game. Who wants to talk about the Ravens backfield? Yeah.

Well, I mean, it's pretty important, right? It's important, but I mean, let's focus on the positive. That was awesome. It was a great game. Absolutely. What an awesome,

awesome start. I tweeted at the end of the first half, how amazing is this that this is the first half of the first game of the season? And then I quote tweeted myself and said,

remind me of this at halftime of Jacksonville, Houston, or New York, Denver. Speaking of New York, Denver, a lot of start sit decisions in that game.

We'll talk about Jerry Judy. Of course, we'll talk about Saquon Barkley. That is a big, big deal today. Other players that will be discussed a little more on Alan Robinson, David Montgomery, although we did talk about them at length yesterday.

Mark was Calloway. I mean, you know, there's seven NFC home games, so we'll get to all of that. Can you trust Sam Darnold? Is he a good DFS play? Can you trust DeAndre Swift?

He's full go against the 49ers. But let's start with the good stuff and the game-winning field goal. And, well, we won't really talk so much about that, but all right. That's the first thing out of your mouth is the game-winning field goal. Well, I mean mean they won the game yeah it was it was really a terrific game um anyway make every trade offer for ezekiel

right now please oh okay okay oh a little hesitation there dave yeah i'm hesitating like ezekiel as elliot hesitated when he was running yesterday i look there's ultimately and there's the reason why you trade for him. For those things right there. What? Because I saw him... People are panicking for no reason. I'm not... I've got Zeke in a bunch of leagues.

I'm not getting rid of him for nothing. I'm going to want first-round value for him. But if there's idiots in your league who don't think like me and they've seen enough after 11 carries and they think it's going to be 11 carries every week, then i agree uh i thought the cowboys had a smart game plan to just throw like crazy against out or against tampa sure i what else were they supposed to do and made perfect sense i wish i'd realized that before i ranked ezekiel elliott as a top 20 running

back this week yeah i talked about it on wednesday when we previewed when we previewed the game this is the best run defense against running backs two years in a row. And when they had Vita Vail last year, and you saw the impact he made yesterday, they gave up 2.5 yards per carry to running backs. And they faced Kamara and they faced McCaffrey. It wasn't just a bunch of junk. And actually,

Zeke outperformed that. He had three yards per carry. So it's not a huge surprise. The only thing that would concern me, guys, if I had Zeke, is I think Zeke is, you know, I think it was kind of a fluke, but Tony Pollard did have four catches and Zeke only had two. I don't know what the routes run were. I suspect Zeke ran a lot more routes than Pollard.

Zeke was the fullback. Come on. Yeah, but that's the only thing. If we're counting on having a big role in the passing game, I don't think Tony Pollard is the passing downs back or anything. I think the numbers were a little bit fluky. It just seemed like when Pollard was in the game, he seemed to get the ball a lot.

I mean, look, they were throwing on every down, essentially. And Zeke played 82% of snaps. He did a great job in pass protection. So, yes, Pollard looked flashier. And he had a few more, I i would say highlight plays for whatever the running back situation looked like you know the end around where he faked the the the toss to cooper and um the one reception that he had we actually got out in space a little bit but zeke's gonna be fine there was you mentioned the defense there was no zach martin also you

got to factor that in you know so uh give them credit for how they operated in this game they knew that they couldn't run against the cow against the bucks uh they saw murphy bunning go down that factored into it also the secondary was a mess for the for a bucks and take that into account if you need a quarterback for next week and matt ryan's available uh because their secondary is a mess um so i think you're going to see a lot of teams do the same thing against Tampa. Um, it's the only way to beat them, especially if you have the offense blind to protect. And so Zeke's going to be fine by low. If you can, if somebody is going to say he looked bad or didn't play well, take advantage of that because people are going to give him up for less than what he's worth.

And he's still going to have a monster season. Would you still take him fifth overall in a draft? A hundred percent. Yeah, I'm, I'm not. Um, but one game you're already giving up. The third and two... The third and two... The third and two play,

where it was like an option, where Blake Darwin didn't block. I still expect Ezekiel Elliott to make a man miss. And there were several other plays... The minute he touched the ball, the defender was there because Darwin didn't make the play. I agree, but that's... So if you agree, then why are you panicking?

Because I expect him to make him miss. This is why you trade for Ezekiel right now. Hold on, hold on. Go ahead, Dave. Go ahead, Dave. Go ahead. All I want to do is just say what I want to say, and then you can rip me apart. Go ahead. Go ahead. Okay.

There were several plays in the game where Ezekiel Elliott was either hesitating, slow to make a move after stopping his feet, or not accelerating to the corner. There was a 13-yard run that he had. It looked like he was slow getting around the corner to me. Now, I think he's going to get more work than 11 carries and two catches per game. And so, obviously, volume will help him. There's going to be games coming up where he's going to get 20 touches, and he's going to be awesome. But I'm not taking him at fifth overall if we're redrafting to da i'm still going to take him in round one but it's

not going to be fifth overall i'm taking aaron jones ahead of him now for sure so if aaron jones has a bad game you're going to change your opinion then uh against new orleans it wouldn't surprise me if you did have a bad game but if aaron jones looks okay but has a bad game then no i won't change my opinion then i didn't think Zeke looked like the same guy. And Adam had been talking about it that the last two years he hasn't had a lot of explosive plays. And now here he is his first game. It's a small sample size, but he didn't look explosive in the game.

He couldn't make a man miss on a got to have a play. The catch that he had near the end zone, that was on Dak. That was on Dak. That should have been a touchdown. For sure. Should have been a touchdown catch for Ezekiel Elliott and if he has that then no one's really talking about it

but man I didn't recognize Zeke is the guy that I knew and thought he would be yeah I think he hasn't been that guy for three well for the last two seasons yet in 2019 he was top five per

game and last year he was top five per game when Dak was healthy. I think maybe top six. No, he's not better than that. He's top five if you project it over six years. Yeah, so you're buying into the opportunity. You're buying into the offense. But all right, look, we do have to see if he's a better rusher.

And he knows it, right? He lost a lot of weight, and he knows he has to be a better rusher. I personally, you know, I mean, I'm not quite willing to go that far just on one game, Dave, but I understand where you're coming from. Would you take him fifth overall, Adam? Yeah, I think I would. And by the way, I would be a little surprised if Aaron Jones struggled in this game because the Saints, while they usually have one of the best run defenses,

they don't have David Onyemata. They have a pretty inexperienced... They have a new center of the Packers. They have a new left tackle of Packers. Things could be bad for him, too, just like it was bad for Zeke without Zach Martin in there against a really good run defense.

I mean, you don't panic after one game. No, no, but Dave's not panicking. But I'm not saying to sell high on him. I'm just saying he didn't look like the guy that I thought he was. Okay, that's fair. That's fair. Look, regardless if it's fifth or not,

everybody here still thinks he's a first-round talent. Now, the question is... Or a first-round fantasy. Now the question is, or first-round fantasy pick, the question is, are we buying low on Mike Evans? And I want to say Trayvon Diggs did a heck of a job and it's something that we should probably keep an eye on if Dallas maybe has a lockdown corner developing there. He seemed to shadow Mike Evans from what I was noticing. He did. He covered him.

NextGenStats had this on 83% of his routes. Yeah, and I think he did a really good job. And he also had an interception, right, on the screen pass. But that's not on. No, but it was a good play because he was covering Evans. He broke off of him and whatever. Anyway, I will say this,

though, in terms of Diggs being a shadow corner, he's probably going to be that. But most teams are not going to have this level of weaponry going against his defense. But let's talk about Evans. Sorry, let's focus on... What do you do right now?

What I'm saying is, most teams don't have the ability to have a Chris Godwin or Antonio Brown or Rob Gronkowski. So, you know, he may see more attention in his direction when he's covering a number one receiver per se. So do you downgrade Evans? I mean, are you worried?

I mean, we were worried going into the season that, you know, he could have a target share issue because of all these guys there. And again, this is Brady's luxury. This is why, you know, Tom Brady's still great at 150 years old and probably will play into his 60s if he has this type of players around him. So Brown is fantastic and looked awesome last night. Godwin looked great last night. The fumble sucked, but everything else was good, and he rebounded in the final drive. I think for Evans, is he going to return value as a fourth or fifth round pick? Maybe not, but is he going to be a as a fourth or fifth round pick? Maybe not.

But is he going to be a fifth or sixth or seventh round pick? Probably so. So he'll still be at worst a number three receiver. I don't think he's going to have games like this very often. If he had scored, he would have been fine. So if you panic on Mike Evans, again, you're just making a mistake. It was one game. The way you feel about Evans, Jamie, or the way you felt about Zeke

is the way I feel about Evans. This is the buy low or the way you felt about zeke is the way i feel about evans this is the buy low guy to get he was fifth on the team in targets it's not going to be like this every week he was a red zone machine for them last season fully expect him to bounce back from this the schedule is going to be easier it's i i just i push back on the idea that brady didn't throw at evans because of trayvon diggs because fifth and fifth on the idea that Brady didn't throw at Evans because of Trayvon Diggs. Because fifth on the team in targets just tells me that Brady was preferring other guys in this game.

In this game, but I just wanted to give Diggs some credit. It seemed like he was doing a pretty damn good job. I guess that's my point. They go against, let's say, the Chargers next week, right? So, Keenan Allen doesn't have two other guys on his level.

Mike Evans has two other guys on his level on the field. So you're saying that it's easy for Brady to just say, alright, look, he's got the best cornerback, let's go other places. Why do I have to force the ball in that direction? So, I don't want to spend a full hour on this game, even though we could. These are the two most interesting teams.

These are two of the most interesting teams. Okay, so holy cow, Antonio Brown. Holy cow, Rob Gronkowski. We'll get to Leonard Fournette in a second. Ronald Jones didn't have a carry after he fumbled. Okay, Antonio Brown, if you're redrafting today, remember, it was a game against the Cowboys. It was a shootout.

It was a perfect setup. But if you're redrafting today, he's remember, it was a game against the Cowboys. It was a shootout. It was a perfect setup. But if you're redrafting today, he's a round what pick? Seven. I was going to say six. I'm moving up a little bit. Rob Gronkowski, if you're redrafting today, he's tight end what? Seven.

Seven or eight or nine, somewhere in there. Buying in? Do you think he's got a chance to get this type of target share every week? Eight targets? I find that a little hard to believe. No, but he could still score on four targets, and that's the thing you're looking at for him. The red zone play, clearly.

The second touchdown was just a beautiful play design. They made the Cowboys bite on on their play call and it worked out to perfection but brady last season when he got in rhythm he got in rhythm with his guys and obviously this is one of those guys you know i think the concern would be what would oj howard's role well what would be oj howard's role uh cameron bray did nothing howard did nothing you know it was it was definitely gronk and so um they seemed to find a matchup that they like which i think the cowboys thought was going to be a strength of having keanu neal cover tight ends and that didn't necessarily work out for them so we'll see how things go for them moving forward but yeah gronk is somebody that i think is a sell

high candidate because i don't think he's going to do this clearly so if somebody's willing to buy especially if you drafted gronk as your second tight end this is the type of trade that you make now and probably the same thing with Antonio Brown. Look, he's not going to do this weekly. And so sell him while his value is at maybe the peak. I guess. But he might be the best receiver on the team. He might be the best receiver on the team.

But that's the chance you have. If somebody's willing to give you a second or three, let's just say David Montgomery struggles, which could easily happen against the Rams, or Allen Robinson struggles against the Rams. That's a trade you should try to explore. I'm not saying sell him for similar value. I'm saying you sell him for... If somebody wants to give

you a package of Zeke and somebody for Antonio Brown, I saw somebody tweet at me today. Should I sell Antonio Brown or should I give up Ezekiel Elliott for Antonio Brown? Yes, a thousand percent. Nobody said that. That was a fake account. That can't be real. Don't do that. All right, Dave, talk to me about Leonard Fournette.

He had five catches and a drop. He apparently, Chris Collinsworth said he was catching everything in practice. Now, they did go to Gio at the very end on the last drive, but Gio was more or less uninvolved. We've seen Ronald Jones get benched for fumbling

and then come back, you know, maybe with a week after or a week after that. But what's your read on the Bucs running backs right now? I guess Fournette is someone that you could consider as a starting option next week against Atlanta. We'll see what this Falcons run defense looks like, but my guess is that they won't be amazing. And even if they are, Fournette was clearly the guy even before the fumble.

If you just look, he started the game. There were two drives where he took every single snap. Three, if you count the one where he had the ball bounce off his hands. But when Rojo fumbled, that was it, man. You could see Rojo go to the bench. It might have been his position coach that put his arm around him and was almost like leading him to the bench to show him his spot where he's going to watch the rest of the game.

You just cut with me right over there. Yeah, this is your new role. Benchwarmer number, Benchwarmer one. And listen, Fournette looks like he's going to be the guy, and the fact that he had more targets, more catches, more yards than Giovanni Bernard makes me feel silly about our preseason read that Giovanni Bernard was going to be that guy. And he started off being that guy.

We saw it in the preseason. He took a ton of third down snaps. He had third down snaps in the game last night. But he's not getting the workload that goes with it. So they clearly, and they clearly have no problem with Fournette when he makes a mistake. And now the ball had bounced off of Rojo's hands and it led to an interception.

He would have been right back on the bench too. But Fournette happens to him. He's right back out on the very next drive. So I think that tells you how the coaches feel about Fournette. There's two things, I think, with the backs. First off, I would take a little bit of a patient approach with Gio because I wonder how much the ankle injury leading into week one factored into what they were going to do with him.

And then in their most important drive, Gio was their pass-catching guy on the field you know at the end of the game that's where he had his most production so hopefully that's something that helps especially now if rojo goes from you know 1a to you know 35 on the depth chart um the other thing with fornette is as you said dave yes they trust him he might have made the play of the game when Tom Brady's falling down and Fournette stepped in front of Michael Parsons and saved the interception. Actually got a first down out of it. So that was a pretty impressive play by him. So Fournette is the one that you want to lean on moving forward.

But I would hold Geo. I wouldn't necessarily panic if you have him in PPR. Non-PPR, it's easy to get rid of him. What are you doing with Rojo? I'm dropping Rojo. I mean, if there are leagues that hold their waiver moves, are it's easy to get rid of him he's only doing 64 i'm dropping rojo i mean you know the if if there are uh you know leagues that hold their waiver moves excuse me through the weekend and we see something from uh the ravens back you know tyson williams does nothing you know he

struggles let's say against the raiders and latavius is available uh levion does anything you know that's an easy move to make, but there's going to be a few guys clearly that emerge, different positions. Rojo's not worth holding. Even if he is still involved in the game plan, he's not going to be the lead guy by any stretch, barring an injury.

So he's an easy guy to move on. All right, guys, we've got to wrap this up here. This was a very interesting game with a ton of storylines, including Michael Gallup leaving with an ankle injury in the third quarter. How great was it to see both Cowboys receivers, the top two guys, play well? Yeah, well, in the first half, Gallup had six targets,

Cooper had five, Lamb had ten. He also had a couple of drops in the first half, three total, but yeah, they all had huge games, and it was a great return for Dak Prescott. Only thing that worries you maybe is that report that he's going to have MRIs every couple of weeks just to check in on his shoulder, but he threw 50-something times, and he looked great. You can watch the Fantasy Football Today video show on CBS Sports HQ every weekday, noon Eastern. You know that.

Did you know on Sundays, they start at 10 a.m. Eastern? They go till kickoff. It is a long pregame show. It is really fun. It's a great show from start to finish. Gambling, just football talk, obviously a ton of fantasy. So be there. Watch it on CBSSportsHQ.com or, of course, on the app, CBS Sports app. But 10 a.m. until kickoff on Sunday, Eastern time. Kickoff Eastern time, yeah.

To celebrate the start of the football season, oh, this is no big deal. And to give a thank you to loyal listeners, we're just giving away a 75-inch TV. That doesn't happen every day, huh? The contest is completely free to enter. If you want a TV, go to cbssports.com slash fftsweeps. cbssports.com slash fftswe. CBSSports.com slash FFT sweeps.

And the giveaway ends on September 30th. Baltimore running backs. Eventually we'll get to start or sit, right? Baltimore running backs. Is there going to be, you already said Tyson Williams is the best one to have. Latavius Murray is the second best one to have. You know, at the beginning of last year,

and they were using all three guys, when I was doing the starter sit, it was like, all right, Baltimore running backs, sit them all, right? And that was usually the answer. Do you think we're headed toward that situation where there actually won't be a good for fantasy, good for fantasy Baltimore running back this year, Dave?

Yeah, I think we absolutely are headed in that direction. But we're headed in that direction assuming that Tyson Williams is okay, which when I watched him in the preseason, I thought he looked okay, and that Latavius Murray is just okay and that he's not going to be the superstar that he once was. And that Le'Veon Bell is obviously not a factor.

So if those two guys are going to mix and match, we've talked about it so much since J.K. Dobbins got hurt that the Ravens like using a 1A guy for around 14 or so touches per game, more if he's hot, and then a 1B guy somewhere between 8 and 10 touches per game, assuming he doesn't get hot and the other guy gets cold, whatever it might be.

But they like using multiple running backs. Harbaugh spoke specifically on that when he was asked about Gus Edwards following the Dobbins injury. And I'm sure he feels that way now that he doesn't have Edwards. So they probably feel like they don't know what they have at running back. They hope that Williams can be that guy. The talent looks like it's there. He's got an injury history. Latavius is 31 years old. He could break down at any point. So there's going to be a lot of up and down with that with that run game i wouldn't expect to have a number two running back in baltimore for any more than maybe three or four weeks at a time jamie who would you drop

for name your baltimore running back and i should check tyson williams roster percentage now i know it was like he's over 79 i think it He was like 66% going into the day yesterday. I was just watching it creep up throughout the course of the day. He's probably more now that waivers have run. Oh, yeah. He's 85%. All right. So let's take him out of the equation.

Latavius Murray or Le'Veon Bell. Again, a lot of Tony Jones. Would you drop him for Latavius Murray? No. No. The only one I would drop Tony Jones for would be Tyson Williams if that's a decision you have to make, but I hope that's not a decision you have to make just because I'd like to carry both of those guys.

I think it's going to be in a few weeks, if everybody's healthy, mostly Tyson Williams and Latavius Murray because Le'Veon just doesn't fit the way that they play offense. He needs to dance and see holes and play the way that he plays offense. You know, he needs to dance and see holes and, you know,

play the way that he plays, and that's certainly not what you do in this offense with the read option. So it's just a weird fit. Obviously, I'm sure Baltimore, look, you get biased by certain things. You know, Harbaugh watched Le'Veon beat him up for years, probably wants to see what he has left, which is why they brought him in as a practice squad guy as opposed to bringing him on the full roster.

Obviously, money factored in with that as well. But in any event, I think Le'Veon is – let's see what he has to offer. If he can fit with this team, he's going to get the first crack at it because they need him this week. So if they elevate him to play Monday, we'll see what he has to offer. But if Tyson Williams stays healthy, I think he's going to be the best guy, and maybe by by a significant margin um just because he's been with the team he knows what they'd like to do he looked good in the preseason um you know so I I hope he kind of runs away with the job and has

a great game Monday night because that would be fantastic to see and fantastic for people that have bought into him but Latavius I think is gonna you know make things difficult by the time he gets up to speed with things uh I just think he's a better fit for them than than levion so the way i approached it was i tried to pick up latavius wherever he was available um i did pick up and it was in our podcast league you know so for obviously the people that listen to us they're in the league with us i did pick up with with uh my partner todd um latavius just to see uh we dropped cole beasley. I probably overspent with an $11 bid, but you never know. It's a 14-team league just to see what happens.

In any event, I dropped Ramondre Stevenson in one league for Latavius. That's one I might end up regretting, but that was the extent of it. I dropped AJ Green in one league for one of those guys. I wasn't going crazy with it. Okay. All right.

Tyson Williams is the guy to have. Quick question, guys. If you're drafting right now, would you draft Antonio Brown or Tyson Williams? Brown. Brown. It would only be close in non-PPR. Okay. All right. Let's talk about

Saquon Barkley. The Saquon Barkley conundrum. Start's talk about saquon barkley the saquon barkley can i haven't done enough of that starter sit saquon barkley this is the last game we're going to preview it's a boring game not a lot of fantasy stars here and i cannot imagine you're starting any giants except for saquon barkley but uh you know dave where do you have him ranked and who would you start over him or who would you start him over you know you know the drill 15 and 7 or 16 and 17 right in that same range non-ppr and ppr um i would trust robinson james robinson carson gaskin for sure in ppr i'd have to double check the non ppr but i i'm not thrilled to start saquon barkley i'm kind of starting saquon barkley for the same

reasons why I started Ezekiel Elliott, which is, I know what the upside is. I know what he can contribute in the passing game. I just hope we don't get the same type of stat line from Barkley. Who's going to be limited running against a tough defense, playing behind a much worse offensive line than Ezekiel Elliott.

I think you just have to get drafted him in the first round. It looks like he's going to play. You know what the upside is. It's tough to leave that on your bench unless you've got really good running backs. Jamie, I'm going to give you some... I'm scared, yeah. I would try to avoid him if you can.

Okay. I'm going to give you some wide receivers. You've got them low, right? 23. Yeah. 24. I'm going to give you some wide receivers, guys. It's a bad offensive line right now.

It's an injury concern. They play Thursday night next week. You know, snaps could be limited. I would try to look elsewhere if you can. How many Jaguars wide receivers would you start over Saquon Barkley? Just one in PPR. And it'd be LaVisca. I've got none.

How many Steelers wide receivers would you start over Barkley? Juju and Deontay and PPR. Would you start Marquise Brown? No. No. Okay. How about Robbie Anderson or Barkley? Robbie.

Robbie. All right. News and notes. Austin Eckler did not practice. They're at Washington. They haven't ruled him out. We'll see if he practices today. We have a mailbag show on Saturday, by the way,

with your emails and your Apple podcast questions. And we actually record it on Friday, but after the practice reports come out. So we should have an update on Eckler. Vic Fangio said, Cortland Sutton looks great. Did he say it like that? Yeah.

Like Tony the Tiger? He did. He was wearing a Tiger outfit and everything. He's going to look great against James Bradbury. I don't know who's going to cover who. It'll be interesting to see. My uneducated guess is Bradbury on Sutton, Adoree Jackson on Judy.

You want the faster corner on the faster receiver. Yes. Well, it's also Bradbury won't necessarily go on the slot as much. Well, I don't know if Judy. You want the faster corner on the faster receiver. Yes. Well, it's also, Bradbury won't necessarily go in the slot as much. Well, I don't know if Judy's going to go in the slot. Judy... A little, he will. Judy... Yeah, I don't know if we have talked about this on air. We did yesterday, I think, on the stream.

Start of the year last year, Jerry Judy was in the slot a lot. And then the second half of the year, never more than 10 snaps a game, usually around like six. Yeah, but think about the receiving core last year and how it all fell apart. I'm curious to see what happens. I hope they move them around, for sure, especially in this game against the Giants.

Their slot corner is their weakness. Let's see. DeAndre Swift will go this week. We'll have him on the start-o-meter shortly. TJ Watt, big. $80 million guaranteed. $112 million over four years. That's quite a contract. I want Ben Roethlisberger to be my agent, too.J. Watt, big, $80 million guaranteed, $112 million over four years. That's quite a contract.

I want Ben Roethlisberger to be my agent, too. Yeah. Traequan Smith mispracticed with a hamstring injury. A.J. Brown was back. Evan Ingram seems unlikely. Is that going to be an evergreen statement for you? What? Traequan Smith? Traequan Smith missed blank with blank.

Yeah, probably. Nelson Aguilar mispracticed with a hamstring injury. Jared Campbell missed blank with blank. Unfortunately, how about Curtis Samuel? Curtis Samuel missed blank with blank. Yeah, probably. Nelson Aguilar mispracticed with... Jared Campbell missed blank with blank. Unfortunately, how about Curtis Samuel? Curtis Samuel missed blank with blank. So he mispracticed too. Alright, not a big injury report for week one. Probably going to stay that way all

season. It's going to be great. Let's do Beat the Waiver Wire if you're looking at week two. I don't know that this is such a relevant segment in week one, so we can do it pretty quickly, but you got Andy Dalton with a revenge game against the Bengals. You got a Roethlisberger against the Raiders,

Mac Jones at the jets, Teddy Bridgewater at the Jaguars, Baker Mayfield against Houston. Get those quarterbacks out there. If you got Ryan against the bucks. True. Matt Ryan against the bucks. Yeah.

If you need a tight end for next week, how about Hooper against Houston? Johnnie Smith is very rostered, 79%, but Hunter Henry, 52% at the Jets. Jared Cook against Dallas.

You know, that could be something there if it's Cook, in fact. Mike Williams against Dallas if you just want to get in on that matchup. you know, that could be, could be something there. If it's cook, in fact, um, Mike Williams against Dallas. If you just want to get in on that matchup, how about Sammy Watkins against Kansas city? Ooh,

orange. Yeah. All right. I don't really care about this segment in this week, but there are some names. No Cleveland DST gets Houston next week in Chicago. The following week. Yeah.

Yep. Okay. Now it's time for starter. See it. We go with the start-o-meter. Here's how the start-o-meter works. First of all, if you're new to the show or just are unaware, in the episode description that I write for every show,

I put time codes for each game. The time codes are going to be a little bit off because there are commercials and pre-rolls and things like that. And I don't know how long they're going to be when I do them. So blah, blah, blah. They're going to be a little off, but they're going to be approximate. So if you want to skip ahead to a game, you can look at the time codes. The Stardometer is a segment we do just before we start the games, because these are the last

three games we're going to preview. And based on it's already 30 minutes in, that could be an hour and 10 minutes into the show. And I don't know how much time you have to listen. So I want to make sure we cover our bases with some players on the, you know, less exciting games. In the less exciting games. Start-o-meter 0-10. 0 is no way am I starting this guy. 10 is no way am I sitting him. He's the best. I love him. He's great. He's better than Zeke.

Corey Davis at Carolina. 0-10. 4-7. Oh. They're a little more optimistic there, Dave. Yeah. Definite flex. Okay.

Any Jets running back? Zero. Like a three? Sam Darnold against the Jets. Four. Four or five. I think the highest we'll ever be on the starting meter on Sam Darnold this year. Any two-quarterback league, any typical starting?

Would you start Darnold over Roethlisberger or Jameis Winston? Nope. No. Okay. Dan Arnold, tight end against the Jets. I love Dan Arnold. Yeah. You love Dan Arnold after Darnold.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got basically the entire Panthers roster in this segment. So, Dan Arnold against the Jets. He's like a five. He's a streaming tight end. He's a zero. And the reason Corey Davis is only a four is because you didn't draft these guys as starters, so you don't necessarily have to get cute and bench the guys that you started for some of these guys

unless you're absolutely desperate. You might be desperate at tight end. You might be. And he's not a bad fallback option, but I hope you're not that desperate that you're starting these guys this week. Davis is the third receiver in three receiver leagues. That's why he's a four. DJ Moore. Oh, 10. You're starting him.

Robbie Anderson. Starting him too. 10. Terrace Marshall. Four. Yeah, four. All right, new game. San Francisco at Detroit. DeAndre Swift against the Niners. He's going to be a seven in PPR and like a five and a half in non.

Yep. Swift or Barkley? Barkley. Barkley for Jamie, Swift for Dave. Only in PPR, not non-PPR. Okay. Brandon Ayuk. You know, I'll say Swift over Barkley.

I'll say seven on Ayuk. Same as what I said for Davis. Yep. Debo Samuel. Five. Four. Denver running backs at the Giants. Now, I will say Davis and Debo, good DFS plays.

Corey Davis. I disagree. I think Debo's too expensive.. Corey Davis. I disagree. I think Debo's too expensive. That might be. I don't know his prices, so I'll take that back if he's too expensive. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He's a little too rich. Gordon is a six. Javante is a 4.75. Yeah, six and five. I can't decide between Corey Davis and Tee Higgins for my last FanDuel wide receiver spot.

No, not Corey Davis. I'm sorry. Robbie Anderson and Tee Higgins for my last FanDuel wide receiver spot. No, not Corey Davis. I'm sorry. Robbie Anderson or Tee Higgins. Robbie's going to be super popular. Yeah, I probably should go Anderson. All right. Got to change that. He's a solid value.

They're both within $200 of each other. All right. Denver running backs. Zero to 10 for them. There's a ton of cheap receivers that I love on DraftKings this week, by the way. It's unbelievable. Denver wide receivers, you said no running backs oh i we already gave you that you did yeah you just don't want it well i'll do it again if you want i didn't hear it i guess i'm sorry six and five six and five jerry judy at the giants 34 uh eight Corlin Sutton.

Eight is more reasonable than 34. Six. Noah Fant. Fant says seven. Five. I want him to be a starter. Dan Arnold or Fant? Fant.

Kenny Galladay. Five. Four. Sterling Shepard. Four. Six and a half in PPR, three in non-PPR. So you're telling me you're starting Shepard over Galladay in PPR? Yes.

Yeah? All right. Let's rock and roll with a game here. Green Bay at New Orleans. Rock and roll. As I mentioned, New Orleans defensive tackle David Onyemata suspended for the first six games. Defensive tackle might actually be a weakness for them. This is usually a big strength for the Saints.

So I'm going to go ahead and say start Aaron Jones. Here's your stat of the game. Wide receivers against Green Bay. There were obviously some good performances. They played a lot of games last year. But how about this? Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley, Chris Godwin once, Mike Evans twice, Will Fuller, Brandon Cooks, Adam Thielen once,

Justin Jefferson, Marvin Jones twice. Marvin Jones was pretty good last year when Gallaudet didn't play. Curtis Samuel, Robbie Anderson, A.J. Brown, Allen Robinson, Robert Woods. Holy cow, did I mention a lot of great receivers there? All of them had fewer than 60 yards against the Packers. Marquez Calloway is going to be an interesting one in this game. Jamie, I think you're a little lower on him, if I'm not mistaken.

Give me your thoughts on Calloway. I think he's a good third receiver. There's obviously a lot of good players available to you this week. Put it this way. He'll be better than Mike Evans and worse than Antonio Brown. I think there's an opportunity for him here. And what he did in the preseason was clearly impressive when he did,

when he performed against Baltimore with, you know, Humphrey and Peters in coverage, what he did against the Jaguars with Griffin in coverage. If Alexander shadows him, I think it's going to be difficult. If he gets matched up with Kevin King, he'll have certainly a little chance for more success. And he's going to have a chance for a lot of targets. I want to see it first.

He's not a must-start by any stretch. I think, again, third receiver in a three-receiver league, he should be in your lineup. Dave, you're more optimistic? I actually agree with Jamie. The only thing that sticks in my mind is that I know that Jameis is far

more willing to throw downfield than he is to check down or go short and I mean think about that first touchdown that Callaway had against Jacksonville where Callaway was like covered and smothered in the end zone and he still made the play on the ball Jameis still threw it so I think Jameis trusts him on those 15 plus yard routes downfield and jamis isn't going to care if he's covered by jair alexander or not so it'll come down to alexander making a play or not making a play and i think about how callaway can separate from guys as well so i i think it's a little unnecessary to like push him up and make him a number two receiver and force them into your lineup i think he's okay your lineup. I think he's okay as a flex. I think he's okay as a number

three receiver and you take a little bit more of a passive approach with Callaway. Okay, you know, the target is going to be there for him. I mean, this receiving core is just decimated right now. So that's the bonus. The negative is the Packers know that too, and their secondary is really good. We're going to sit Jameis Winston, I assume.

I think you have to because of the lack of weapons, the defense that he's facing, and the Taysom Hill factor. Yeah, right. You got to love the value in DFS. Taysom Hill, it would not shock me if he has the most receptions in this game. Jeez.

Hopefully Kamara. Hopefully Kamara. Jameis is real cheap in DFS because he was priced before he was named the starter. $5,200 on DraftKings, $6,700 on FanDuel. Yeah. You can build some lineups with Jameis. Okay.

GPPs. This is a good secondary. They are top seven according to both Sharp Football Analysis and PFF. It's a pretty useful list, as I had mentioned. Start Kamara, start Aaron Jones. Tony Jones or A.J. Dillon, who's a better number two running back? I trust Dillon right now,

but I'm curious. Dillon! Would you start him? Are you starting AJ Dillon? No. I mean, again, you may have lost Gus Edwards and you're stuck. I'm in that situation where not a tough call, but

my one team where I lost Gus Edwards, my two top backups are Javante Williams and A.J. Dillon. So, you know, he's in that conversation. Javante hopefully will be better. But, you know, people could be 14 team leagues and having Dillon as their third running back and losing a guy, you could have to play him. I have a tough call, guys. Help me out. Aaron Rodgers or Jalen Hurts against the Falcons? Rodgers. I would play Hurts, but I would not be surprised if it's close.

Yeah, Rodgers scored 30 points against the Saints last year and six points for passing touchdown leagues. I don't know what to make of this defense. They lost Hendrickson. They obviously are desperate for a number two cornerback. They've been adding Trufant and Roby. Roby won't play in this game. So Rodgers is ninth for Jamie,

10th for Heath. He's sixth for Dave. So Dave, you're the highest on Rodgers. Obviously he's a start. Tannehill or Rodgers? Rodgers. I'll take Tannehill.

All right. But, but top 10 for everyone. Uh, any other green Bay wide receiver other than Adams? No, no. DFS.

You could look at, uh, Valdez scaling just based on the reports and, you know, shot play here or there, but I would try and stay away. Do you like my Tanyan? Yeah.

Do you like Tanyan in this game? That was my question. He had a five for 50 and a touchdown against the Saints last year. He caught a touchdown every 4.7 catches last year. Scored on the Saints last year, just like you said, one of nine touchdowns scored by tight ends against New Orleans. And I think that he's an option every time they're inside the 10 for Aaron Rodgers. So you just have to figure, all right, maybe he's an option every time they're inside the 10 for Aaron Rodgers.

So you just have to figure, all right, maybe he's got just as good of a chance of scoring a touchdown as everybody not named Adams and Jones in that offense. And so if he's third on the pecking order in the red zone and they're going to be in the red zone inside the 10 frequently, then I think he's got a chance to come through for a touchdown. Would you start Tunyon or Gerald Everett? Tunyon. Tunyon or

Hooper? Hooper. Tunyon! Tunyon. Alright, and I'm assuming we are not starting Jawan Johnson or any other Saint. You could stash him if you wanted to, but I'm not sure how good he'll be.

And the Packers defense is outside the top 12. So it's Rodgers. It's the two running backs. It's Devontae Adams. Callaway's a number three. Start Tunyon as a low-end starter. And that is it. I want to see just how Rodgers does without

Bakhtiari there going against Cam Jordan. Chicago is at the Rams. Different secondaries here. The Bears no longer have Kyle Fuller. The Rams don't have John Johnson that was a safety for them or slot corner Troy Hill. But still expect great defense for the Rams. And we'll see about the Bears. All right.

So with Alan Robinson, here's your stat of the game. It's similar to what I just said about the Packers. The Rams held Stephon Diggs, McLaurin, Robinson, Lockett three times, Metcalf twice, Godwin, Evans, Hopkins twice, and Devontae Adams. The very best wide receivers in football, basically, to 70 or fewer yards. Now, Diggs, Evans, Godwin, and Hopkins and Adams all scored. They have, you know, better quarterback situations than Robinson. So Dave, you weren't on the show yesterday.

We talked a lot about Alan Robinson, but I think you have him ranked very similarly to Jamie, whereas Heath is the high guy. How do you feel about Alan Robinson? I would try and get away from him. How many yards was it? He had 70. He had the most out of Diggs, McLaurin, Lockett, Metcalf,

Goblin, Hopkins. But he also had a season-high 42-yard reception in that 4-for-70. And so... I think it was on Ramsey, too, if I recall. He could obviously do that again, and that could be a touchdown. And you can make a strong case that the quarterback play is better right now than it was a year ago or maybe at any point in his career.

Whichever quarterback is throwing the ball, because there could be Justin Fields playing at some point in this game. But it's just risky. It's risky to go against the best corner in football. And again, it's the same thing like Zeke against the Bucs. Barkley. Barkley. And in the same game, Montgomery going against this Rams defense too.

They shut him down also. So these are the decisions that you make. If you feel comfortable benching Allen Robinson, Saquon Barkley, Ezekiel Elliott, Mike Evans going into the game, if you knew he was going to have that type of production. It wouldn't be surprising if Allen Robinson has a Mike Evans stat line. And 70 yards was the mark that you said, he's had 70 or fewer yards with no touchdowns in three straight years

against LA. It's not necessarily a by-product of Jalen Ramsey. It's the scheme that they play. They've got good cornerbacks on both sides. It's not just Ramsey. They've got another cornerback, Darius Williams on the other side. He was really good last year.

And I think the bears are going to realize, I think the Bears are going to realize that they've got to just kind of work the middle of the field against L.A. And I also think that Nagy's got it in his head now that he has to run the football so much and he's talked about it so much. It's one of the reasons why I'm kind of optimistic about David Montgomery this week is that I think he's going to get fed. And I know he got fed last time he played the Rams and he didn't do well. But I'll still take a chance on any running back that's going to get close. And I know he got fed last time he played the Rams and he didn't do well, but I'll still take a chance on any running back. That's going to get close to 20 touches. Yeah. You're more optimistic.

You have Montgomery right around 12th. Jamie's got them just outside the top 20 inside the top 24. So this is another guy we talked a lot about yesterday, but Jamie, you know, you just, you saw what he did last year. He had a lot of touches and it wasn't good. You go ahead. You can have the first word on Montgomery, and then we'll – Again, as I said yesterday, I said it on HQ.

I'm going to say it again anytime somebody asks me. You're not benching David Montgomery. I get that. No matter what numbers you put in front of anybody, you have to really stack teams. So you had to have James Robinson maybe as a late pick or a later pick than he was going before the ETN injury, that type of situation. You want to start maybe Tyson Williams over him if you have a strong feeling on on him um i'd probably still start montgomery but it's close uh in non-ppr at least um but again 19 total touches

last season we'd all sign up for 19 total touches for most running backs that are as prolific as david montgomery has been but in those 19 touches he had 14 carries for 50 plus or 40 plus yards and five catches for 20 plus yards. So they did a good job containing him. I think it's going to be another rough game for him. So this offensive line concerns me. This defense is awesome. They're at home.

I just think it's going to be a bad game for David Montgomery by his standards, certainly by the standards that he showed us at the end of the season. Okay. Let's go to stat of the game number two. The Bears were terrible against tight ends last year. Twelve tight ends caught a touchdown against the Bears, and eleven of those twelve had

five or fewer targets. Does that mean anything for you guys with Higby? You're starting him for the same reason you start Tunyon, or why you might have started Gronk. He's a touchdown or bus candidate. I have a hard time believing that Higby is suddenly going to reemerge as somebody who's getting five, six targets a game when they saw what they saw at the end of 2019 and then they didn't really lean on him that much in 2020.

Well, because they used Everett so much. I mean, they used Everett. All of those games at the end of 2019 came with Everett out. Most of them came with Everett out. I think he came back in week 17. Yeah, he played like four snaps in those six games. He either was inactive or benched. It was a non-factor.

And so you're hoping that Everett being gone is key for him. Last year, and it's funny the numbers that you said, Dave, because last year it was basically like the games that he got, five-plus targets were the ones that he was successful. So it's almost like he has to get to that number at least. I mean, anything north of that is going to be good for any player. But this is as deep a receiving core as you'll find. We know the top two are awesome.

Deshaun Jackson, while he's healthy, is a great third. You know, you throw in Van Jefferson as the fourth, Tutu Atwell as the fifth. I mean, they're just going to throw a ton of guys at you that can do a variety of different things. They're going to throw to their running backs. So Matthew Stafford, I think, is going to potentially just have a monster season. And I think he's going to have a big game too.

The Bears secondary is young. He knows this defense. So there's some familiarity there coming from the division, playing them last year. So he's going to give Sean McVay some things that work well for him. And McVay is going to tweak that because he's a great play caller. So I think Stafford has a chance for a big week one. And I think you're going to see that because he's a great play caller. So I think Stafford has a chance for a big week one. And I think, you know, you're going to see,

it's going to be like Tampa. There's going to be somebody who surprises us in some capacity. You know, clearly not to the same level. There's not going to be an Antonio Brown type performance. But it wouldn't surprise me if there's a 60-yard touchdown to Deshaun Jackson on two catches. You know, he has two catches for 66 yards. You know, one six-yard catch that they try to do something

where he breaks a tackle and then one just big play down the field. Higby scores, you know, a red zone touchdown. So you like it because Stafford does not have good history against the Bears. He did crush them in his most recent game, but he did not score more than 21 fantasy points in seven of the last eight games going back to 2016. He has a career 86.3 passer rating against the Chicago Bears.

Does that matter at all to you? Not much. Okay. So who are you starting? Rodgers or Stafford? Rodgers. Rodgers, but it's close. Stafford or Cousins?

Stafford. Stafford. Stafford or Herbert? Stafford. Stafford. Stafford or Herbert? Stafford. Herbert. All right. That's, by the way, the Herbert, the Washington. Herbert if Eckler plays.

Okay. Washington-Los Angeles game should be interesting. Let's go to the Rams running backs. We're assuming Henderson's the guy, right? Yes. Yeah. I mean, you go back to what McVay said earlier this week about Sonny Michel still learning the playbook. it yes yeah i mean you go back to what mcveigh said earlier this week about sony michelle still

learning the playbook you know so henderson hopefully you know for for everyone who invested in him at whatever point you drafted uh you certainly invested i would hope more in him than you did in michelle that he comes out and has a phenomenal game now they had a good game combined against the bears last year their backfieldfield, it was Malcolm Brown and Henderson. Brown, I think, was like 10 for 57 in a touchdown, and Henderson had more work, but not as much yards. So,

you know, Henderson should hopefully have a chance for a big game. This should be his fourth career game with at least 15 touches. He's only three to this point, two of those three. He gave you 15-plus in PPR, but only one of the three did he give you 80 plus yards. So you're either hoping for a lot of catches or a

touchdown from Henderson. It's entirely possible that one or both of those things can happen. I wrote him up as a bust candidate, but also said that he's fine as a number two fantasy running back. Would you start Montgomery or Henderson? Montgomery. I'd still start Montgomery there, but it's close. I think it would not surprise me if Henderson has a better game by any stretch. Would you start Montgomery or Henderson? Montgomery. I'd still start Montgomery there, but it's close.

I think it would not surprise me if Henderson has a better game by any stretch. Would you start Marquez Calloway or Daryl Henderson? I have a decision to make in the Dynasty League. Right now I'm starting Henderson. Okay. Start Cup and Woods. Higby is higher for Jamie than he is for Dave and Heath. Higby's top 10 for Jamie is just outside the top 12,

but he's top 15 for Dave and Heath. And the Rams DST is number one for Jamie and Heath, number two for Dave. Remember last year, Everett without Higby in the game. Everett had a touchdown on four catches for 28 yards and five targets. Yeah. And that stretch in 2019, the only time,

the only time in his career that Higby has played without Everett, who has been basically a model of health. He was, he set a record for the best four or five game stretch, basically consecutive. Remember what Jacob Gibbs told us

about this Rams offense when they put their tight ends in routes, they throw to them. I don't think he's going to be the only tight end in routes, though. That's very true, 100%. I think they like Johnny Muntz a little bit more than we've given them credit for,

and they've got a rookie in Jacob Harris who might end up playing a role. Part of the problem with Higby is that on a lot of passing plays, he's blocking, and that happened after 2019. That happened in 2020 as well. So maybe he's running a route four out of every five pass plays. Right. That was what Jacob's point was. That was what Jacob's point was.

What last year when they sent their tight ends out in routes, and it was Jared Goff, but Goff was looking for them quite consistent. It was more of a Hawkinson conversation when we had this. Yeah. But it was when they send their tight out, 10 tight ends out in routes, which they don't do very often to your point,

Dave, because Higby is such a good blocker is that they tend to feature them when they're their tight ends out in routes, which they don't do very often to your point, Dave, because Higbee is such a good blocker, is that they tend to feature them when they're running their routes. So hopefully the same thing happens with Stafford if you're buying into Higbee. All right, we are going to take a break. By the way, what do you think about this team name

for the Rams? Atwell Foley. Nice. Thank you, thank you. Dave, you don't get it or what? Like Axel Foley? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We've had better. We've had worse, though. We'll take a quick break. Thank you. Dave, you don't get it? Like Axel Full? We've had better.

We've had worse, though. We'll take a quick break when we come back. Philadelphia at Atlanta. This should be a fun game. The running backs have really tough, on paper, tough matchups. Can you start Miles Sanders? Can you start Mike Davis? We'll tell you after this on Fantasy Football Today.

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Visit OntarioOneCall.ca and avoid unnecessary damages to get the job done right. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. All right, here we go. Five games left. Philadelphia at Atlanta. It's that of the game.

The Falcons allowed... This is amazing. They allowed 100 yards or a touchdown to a wide receiver in 14 of 16 games last year. The two exceptions were the Packers without Devontae Adams and the Raiders. How about

Devontae Smith versus Miles Sanders and Mike Davis? How would you rank the three of them as flexes in let's say a half PPR league? I would go Davis, Sanders, Smith. I kind of have the feeling for the flavor of Devontae Smith.

I'm going to put him second behind Davis ahead of Sanders in PPR. I did say half PPR if that changes anything. I think I'll probably still take Devontae Smith over Miles Sanders. Okay. And I know that sounds nuts because we've barely seen him play in the preseason,

but he looked good in the preseason, drew rave reviews in practice, hurts, drew rave reviews in practice after the first week of camp. And this matchup, I think it's really good for Philadelphia as far as hitting the outsides of that Atlanta defense. Now, they might do it with edge runs, but I think they can do it without routes and back shoulder fades and stuff like that. I'm curious to see how this Falcons defense operates.

Dean Pease is calling the plays. Different play caller. Pease usually likes to play a lot of man coverage, but I don't know if that's going to happen. I think if he plays a lot of man coverage, Jalen Hurts will run for 150 yards. They have three new starters in the secondary, and they're switching to a 3-4.

So I don't know how much we should really be paying attention to last year anyway. But secondaries are weak. Dean Peets is going to change his defense, Matt. The thing that you want to see, to your point, Dave, is you don't want to see a lot of third and long situations because I think they're going to confuse Hurts as still a young quarterback. That's natural. But at the same time, if they're in a lot of third and long situations

and they're playing man, then he's going to have, you know, if their backs are turned, goodbye. See you later, Jalen Hertz. Okay. So let's talk about Hertz, and then we'll talk about Ryan. And apparently you guys like Mike Davis better than Miles Sanders. But Jamie, Hertz, seventh for you, he's tenth for Dave. You would start Hertz ahead of, you may remember these such quarterbacks as who?

Rodgers, Tannehill, two guys that you brought up. Herbert, for sure. I think there's just an opportunity for him to go out and make plays. And again, three of the starts that he started and finished last year, two of them were awesome. I'm hoping that he comes out with a big performance. There's a big number on this game. So I think Philly's going to have to score, and I think they will.

David serves with Matt Ryan. And again, the Eagles' secondary might be the weakness on defense. What do you think? It's not Mike. It is. But I don't think it's necessarily bad. I don't think it's a bad secondary. Okay, so who's secondary? Darius Slay is going to be okay. Well, he't think it's necessarily bad. I don't think it's a bad secondary.

Okay, so... Secondary Darius Slay is going to be okay. Well, he wasn't very good last year. I mean, he was fine. But I think he's got a chance to... It's a new scheme in Philadelphia, too. Yes. And I would imagine that he'll be better suited for it. Yeah, so...

Matt Ryan against the eventual NFC East champs. What do you think? Who would you start him over? Who would I start Matt Ryan over would i start matt ryan over yeah uh jamis i would start him over fitzmatt bro to uh i can't do that i can't do that look this is also the first game for kyle pitts it's the first game for a new offense in atlanta i thought that they were they operated well in practice against miami i don't know if that's enough to go on, but I'm worried about that offensive line holding up against Philly in their front. Um, part of the reason why the secondary is the weakness for Philadelphia's

defense is because their front seven is pretty darn good. And when Matt Ryan's under pressure, he's usually not very good. I think he can definitely get the ball to Ridley a ton. We'll see what pits does. And after that, I don't know if he's got enough to get you 300 yards and two touchdowns. Okay. Miles Sanders, Mike Davis, are they behind Saquon Barkley? I believe so. Miles Sanders and Mike Davis or Saquon? Yeah.

I'd rather have those two guys over Saquon. Okay. But just to give you a point, Dave and I just got tweeted this question. Just got offered Zeke for Chris Carson. See? People are starting to make trades. Awesome. Awesome. That's to give you a point, Dave and I just got tweeted this question. Just got offered Zeke for Chris Carson. See, people are starting to make trades. Awesome. Awesome. That's a deal you make. Yes.

By the way, I love the Miles Davis reference there. This is officially the Miles Davis game. That's right. Miles Sanders and Mike Davis. Daryl Henderson or a running back in this game? I was about to make a pee my pants joke. I would have gotten it. What was your question?

Miles Sanders, Mike Davis, Daryl Henderson. Who's your favorite? Davis. Davis, Sanders, Henderson, in that order. Would you start James White over these guys in PPR? No. Okay. Would you start Corey Davis over Sanders or Davis?

No. Okay. All right, look, I mean, the Falcons run defense, I mean, the fourth best last year, 3.87 yards per carry to running backs. The Eagles weren't much worse. So, you know, we'll see. And Davis might catch passes.

It doesn't seem like Sanders is in that role. Yeah, I think he will catch passes. Sanders is going to have the benefit of a good offensive line, and he'll get the most touches in this backfield. But I think the strength of the Falcons defense is right up the middle. Defensive tackles, middle linebacker, safeties. The Eagles tight ends. Jamie, give me a quick breakdown on Goddard-Nertz.

It's a great matchup. We'll see if they take advantage of it based at least on what they did last year. This is one of those games where you want to see what happens. So you're probably starting Goddard because you drafted him to be a number one tight end. But it would not surprise me at all if Zach Ertz has more targets. He was operating

essentially in a similar role that he's been in preseason and training camp. For those people that were charting the targets in practice and training camp, he had more targets than Dallas Goddard, whatever that's worth. But obviously, you know, the hope is that Goddard comes out and has the bigger game of the two. But Zach Ertz could be somebody if you want to beat the waiver wire. He's right around that number.

We talk about 65 percent. If you just want to carry two tight ends to see what happens, if he's the Zach Ertz of old, now that the fences have been mended and everything's Kumbaya, you know, maybe we see Zach Ertz as the best tight end in Philly once again. Okay. Over under last year, only one tight end had more than 54 receiving yards against the Eagles. That was George Kittle.

He caught 15 of 15 passes thrown his way for 183 yards. It's his inside end, though. All right, yeah. But will Kyle Pitts have more than 54 receiving yards? Yes. Okay. But if you make that number 84, I don't know if I can say yes. Okay.

I'll take 83. Los Angeles Chargers at Washington. The Chargers played six games without Eckler last year and a running back had 15 or more carries in five of those six games and a running back had five or more catches in every game, which should make you feel pretty good about DeAndre Swift because it doesn't matter who's in there.

That's what Anthony Lynn does. He has his quarterback sort of running back. Anyway, Justin Herbert, I think JV, when I was on HQ on Wednesday, I said, you're a little too low and Heath's a little bit too high. Can we meet in the middle? I feel like Heath dropped him two spots.

Maybe you moved him up one spot. No, I had moved him up before the show, but I had given the show notes that he was 14th. He's 13th. He's not even the top 12 guy. Interesting. He's 13th. 11th for Dave, 9th for Heath.

Yeah, why not? He was drafted by some as the sixth quarterback or something off the board right around there. Why not start him there? Make him an absolute must-start. Again, this is what I said about Montgomery, about Allen Robinson, any of these guys you drafted to be starters.

I don't think a lot of people are going to make that type of move. So I get it. But this is a tough defense. It's a West coast team going East coast for one o'clock start. It's a great, great defense that he's facing with that pass rush, you know? So we're going to find out how good this offensive line is. I think Herbert's still good. Look, we said this, the draft process, quarterback eight through 15 is probably going to be very similar in

production. So I don't think it's going to be far off from where I have Jalen hurts. If I was doing projections in terms of what the numbers would be. So I think Herbert is still be fine. He's the bust alert and start sits. So that doesn't mean he's a must sit guy by any stretch, but I like, you know,

12 quarterbacks, but like the one that I think, you know, would probably surprise some people is, is Trevor Lawrence. And I think Lawrence is going to have a good game against Washington, excuse me, against Houston,

because of his matchup. I'll take those. I'll take my chances against that defense, as opposed to Herbert taking on the Washington football team. Okay. And Dave, you would not start Lawrence over Herbert, right?

No, no, I'm going to go with Herbert for now. Let's see if Austin Eckler practices, you know, part of the, the beauty of Herbert last year was that he got a ton of yards after catch from his past catchers.

And so if he doesn't have Eckler, that's a downgrade. He doesn't have Hunter Henry. Now it's Jared Cook. I don't know if I look at Jared Cook as a yards after catch type of guy. I know that they've added some pieces like Josh Palmer at wide receiver. Could he be a yak guy? Sure. I don't think Mike Williams is necessarily a yak guy.

I think he's a downfield guy. And Jamie talked about the Washington defense. Not only is their front seven good, they added to their secondary. They've got William Jackson at corner. And I think he's a definite upgrade for what they've got. Landon Collins is back as well. So it's going to be tricky for Herbert, but I know that he's come through in tough matchups before and he's, he's willing to sling it. This is an offense that's going to revolve around him. And he's going to try and complete a lot of passes and hope that some of his receivers shake free if he doesn't have eckler though i don't think you can feel quite as confident because i think most of her big games come without

eckler last year i don't know if most of them did some of them definitely did but the way that the offense operated last year remember it's a different offense this year is that they would just try to lull the defense into playing up a little bit and then they'd use play action or have herbert move out of the pocket and he'd just fire a ball deep and connect with it for 40 plus yards it's actually it's actually interesting i think a lot of his best games did come without eckler and he was throwing the ball downfield more and then he got very conservative uh more conservative the the average depth of target or intended air yards got lower later in the season, and he played

worse. And that was my concern. You also have a better defense, too. With Lombardi. Yeah, and they ran the most plays in the NFL last year. Anyway, this is more of a season-long thing, so let's call him a low-end starter. Let's go to the Chargers running backs here. Start Eckler if he plays. If Eckler doesn't play, Jamie, what does that mean? Who would

you start, if anyone, against Washington here? I wouldn't. I mean, Jackson would be a flex. Justin Jackson would be a flex. I just think there'd be a committee to whatever extent, whether it's Jackson and Kelly because both will play, or if they throw Larry Roundtree in there also. It just feels like

it could be messy. Somebody says the wrong thing to Justin Jackson at halftime and he tweaks his ankle, you know what I mean? He's just so injury prone. I just would be a little hesitant, but clearly there would be a nice opportunity there to potentially trust him. Any interest in a pass catcher that's not Keenan Allen? So that would be a tight end or Mike Williams?

No, not against his defense. Cook is a touchdown or bust tight end option behind Tunyon, Higby, behind Gerald Everett, too. Okay. Starters hit Ryan Fitzpatrick. He has scored

20 or more fantasy points in 11 of his last 13 starts, 23 or more in 9 of his last 13 starts. I'd prefer not to just because I'd like to see what happens. And this defense is going to be good. I mean,

this just feels like a low scoring game. You know, these offenses, I think have much bigger days ahead of them. I think the Chargers defense, you know, with Derwin James back and Bosa healthy from the concussion issue last year,

you know, you put those two guys on the field, they're going to be, you know, they're going to wreak havoc on a lot of offenses, just those two alone. But the secondary for the Chargers is good. You know, Kenneth Murray is going to make a lot of plays going to be you know they're going to wreak havoc on a lot of offenses just those two alone but the secondary for the chargers is good um you know kenneth murray's going to make a lot of plays the you know uh in the middle uh i just think that's for me it's

really just mccorn and antonio gibson uh thomas by default uh because the position he plays but i think he's going to struggle with their own james in this game yeah that's a tough matchup for logan thomas assuming that they use james same way. For 200 more on DraftKings, you can start Burrow ahead of Fitzpatrick. That just seems like a no-brainer to me. One more guy in this game, J.D. McKissick. He'll be sneaky. He'll be sneaky without Curtis Samuel in there,

you know, PPR. But again, I don't know how many people are going to be forced to start him. Jets at Panthers. Stat of the game. The Jets allowed the most fantasy points to tight ends. Did you know that? Here are the guys who caught touchdowns against the Jets.

Jordan Reed, Mo'Ally Cox, Adam Shaheen, Durham Smythe, Travis Kelsey, Hunter Henry, Mike Kosicki, Shaheen again, Darren Waller, Tyler Higbee, and Devin Asiasi. All right, we've said enough. You know what we should do? We should have done this in the preseason. Let's predict the team that's going to be the Cardinals and Jets of this year. For tight ends?

Yeah. I'm going to go on a limb and say the Dallas Cowboys. That doesn't seem fair. Well, there are already two in the hole. All right. I'm going to take a team that has some decent corners. You know, Carolina's got decent corners. I don't think they qualify.

I don't think they're going to be bad against tight ends. I like Carolina's corners. Adam's having a dream sequence here. I'm just going to take the Jaguars. You put your fingers on the top of your nose, on the bridge of your nose, and all of a sudden, like, you went out of focus. And it looked like a dream sequence.

All right, stat of the day, stat of the game number two for Jets at Carolina. Vinegar does not belong anywhere near barbecue, Carolina barbecue. One of the most disappointing experiences I've ever had. All right. Oh, the hate mail you're going to get. Corey Davis is the only Jet that's worth starting. He's a number. You might as well have just said, you should combine the Carolinas into one

state. Well, it's true, Dave, you don't put you vinegar on barbecue. They should combine UNC and Duke's basketball teams. I did go to a UNC Duke game. And I,

here's another thing that's going to piss people off. I was so upset that it was at Chapel Hill. I just couldn't have cared less about going to that stadium. I really wanted to go to Cameron. It was fun. It was fun. It was cool. It was a good experience. I've been on the court of both. I would agree that Cameron's a little better

than the Dean Dome. But you've never been to a game there. Never been to a game at either one, but I was on the court. I went to the court at Cameron, but it was empty. Then I went to a game at either one, but I was on the court. I went to the court at Cameron, but it was empty. Then I went to the game at UNC. It was really cool. Anyway, Corey Davis is the only Jet

it seems that we're interested in starting. He's like a number four guy. Elijah Moore is interesting. Hold on. And then Tyler Croft. You keep talking about these other tight ends we're going to find out a lot about how much of the san francisco offense is is being replicated here and they tend to throw their tight ends quite a bit now obviously george kittle is on a different

level than anybody that the jets have but croft is somebody that i want to keep an eye on just to see what happens yeah is he a beat the waiver wire guy? He might be in deeper leagues. You know, I don't think anybody should go crazy with him, but again, they moved on from Herndon, which is no surprise, but they didn't bring in anybody but significance. And if, again, they replicate this without Crowder there, he's dealing with the COVID situation.

Keelan Cole's banged up. It could be Denzel Mims, you know, who I think a lot of people would like to see, but I would just keep an eye on Tyler Croft just to see how he plays. And the Panthers were bad against tight ends last year also. They did allow the 10th most fantasy points to tight ends. Christian McCaffrey's back. That's cool. And start Morin Anderson and sit Dan Arnold, even though, you know.

Carolina's DST, 8th for Jamie, 12th for Dave, 17th for Heath. San Francisco is at Detroit. Detroit allowed the second most fantasy points to quarterbacks. No, the most to quarterbacks, the second most to running backs, and the third most to wide receivers. So they were horrible last year and probably will be this year. Would you give any look to Jimmy Garoppolo if Trey Lance does not play?

For sure. In two quarterbacks, it's the Reflex Leagues for sure. Who's a better flyer? Sam Darnold. I swear that was an accident. Sam Darnold or Garoppolo? Without Lance. Garoppolo. Darnold. Okay. How about

Mostert? Well, we can talk about this. We mentioned yesterday. Okay. How about Mostert? Well, we can talk about this. We mentioned it yesterday. He's the start of the week. Would you rather start Mostert or Corey Davis in PPR? Mostert. Raheem. Mostert or DeAndre Swift?

Mostert. Swift. So Mostert or... Did we do Barkley versus Mostert? I'd start Barkley, but it's much closer in non than PPR. I would start Mostert 10 out of 10 over Saquon Barkley this week. Okay. That's not even close.

Trey Sermon's a number three running back. And Iyuk over Debo. The only thing I had questions about was Iuke's health and role. He practices in full. Health isn't an issue. Opportunities are going to be an issue. Well, then let's go. If he's healthy and he should be able to do well against Detroit.

If he doesn't do well against Detroit, maybe you give him a pass because he wasn't fully healthy and missed time. But if we're worried about his opportunity and he wasn't fully healthy and missed time. But if we're worried about his opportunity and he can't get it done against this team, that would be scary. Well, but what if he only gets four or five targets in the game? Then when are you going to feel comfortable

starting him? The reason why Jamie picked Mostert, I would imagine I'm not going to speak entirely for you, Jamie, is because of the matchup and because the 49ers love to run the football. And so this is their best running back to do that and accomplish that. So this is a team that doesn't throw a lot. I do like Iuke a little bit more if Lance is out because that means Garoppolo's playing the whole game.

It probably means a slight uptick in pass attempts for San Francisco, but I don't know how much it's going to be. I think the 49ers are going to be able to run at will. And it won't be just Mostert doing it. Sermon's going to get involved too. Okay. By the way, I hear that echo, folks. I have no idea where it's from.

Try to get rid of it. Probably just an internet thing. And Ayuk, Debo, Corey Davis, how do you rank them? Ayuk, Davis, Debo. Just like that. Would you go in PPR, Brandon Iuke or Daryl Henderson? Iuke. I've got it.

So that just, you want to talk about, start George Kittle. You want to talk about DeAndre Swift a little bit here? What you expect? I expect a struggle. Ton of catches, used on the perimeter. Not a ton of catches used on the perimeter. Not a ton of yards. Slim to modest chance at a touchdown. Yeah, I'd say 12 carries for 44 yards and four catches for 22 yards.

That would be very disappointing. Ten PPR points. How about Jamal Williams? Got to sit him now? You should. He's a good plan B if you're plan A running back. Maybe it was Gus Edwards or Eckler's out. You can turn to him.

And you can probably trade for him on the cheap before week one. If you're really in a bind and running back, you can get him. Justin Jackson or Jamal Williams? If Eckler plays? If Eckler's out. If Eckler's out, I'd go Jackson. Okay, but you'd go Swift. I would start Jackson

near where I have Swift ranked. That was my next question. Swift or Justin Jackson? Swift, but it'd be close. Dave would definitely take Swift. I would take Swift. Swift or Justin Jackson? Swift, but it'd be close. Dave would definitely take Swift. I would take Swift. TJ Hawkinson. Look, it might not be an easy matchup for Hawkinson,

but you're going to start him. He's going to get a ton of targets, too. They, uh... Well, we'll see. Good deal, best play. The Niners saw the fewest tight end targets

in the NFL last year. They were also really good against tight ends in 2019, but I looked at their game logs. They really didn't face a lot of good tight ends over the last two seasons. Not exactly the NFC West's forte. If you remove San Francisco, uh,

all right. And the Niners DST is top two Denver at the giants. We saved the best for last. I really, I mean, there actually are some tough calls here because we talked ad nauseum about Barkley, but Judy and Sutton,

look, you're not going to start any Giants other than Barkley. He's borderline at that. Shepard could have his typical five, six catches. Taylor Decker is dealing with a finger injury. He may not play. That could be really bad for the Lions

even more so given the defense that they're facing. Jamie, come on. People want to talk about the Giants-Broncos game. It's true. You're not going to start Bridgewater. You're not starting Jones. It's a little risky with the Broncos running backs.

One thing I will say, keep an eye on this. The Giants gave up the third most receiving yards per game to running backs last year, and I don't think that was an accident. They are a team that tries to take away the big play. If you heard what Patrick Graham, their defensive coordinator, was talking about with the Broncos,

he's like, oh my gosh, they have so much speed. We have to make sure they don't get behind us. So you might see some underneath throws. We'll just have to see which running back that is. That's the thing.

It's like, which one's going to benefit? So Sutton and Judy. Judy's a number two and Sutton's like a top 40 guy, basically. But yeah, I mean, if you want to talk about it, because the Giants have Bradbury and maybe a Dory Jackson, he's questionable. This is a strength for them.

They have a good secondary. Why so much faith, Dave, Mr. Dave Judy? Why so much faith in your guy? Because he's able to do well, I think, against just about any cornerback in the NFL. And so I'm going to test that theory this week against the Giants. I think the offensive line can do a good enough job protecting Bridgewater. I think their game plan is going to be just keeping it simple,

using play action to keep them off balance, and then attacking in that 10 to 15-yard range with Judy with a couple of deep shots mixed in for all the receivers in Denver. I think he's going to be the most targeted guy for the Broncos. He's certainly the most explosive guy that they've got in the passing game, and I think he's going to be a factor in the red zone when they get there. When they get inside the five, he won't be a factor. That's going to be where the running backs come into play.

But outside of that, when they're the 15 or the 10, I think you'll see a shot or two for Judy, and I think he's got a chance at making those plays, whereas last year, a lot of uncatchable throws. A lot of Broncos this week talked about how they didn't feel nearly as good. And I bet this is across the whole NFL, but certainly in Denver. They didn't feel as good about themselves at this point last year because they were learning a new offense.

They didn't have a typical offseason, a typical training camp. They didn't play any preseason games. They all talked about like it was a mess. And this year, across the board, whether it's a coordinator, a coach, a player, they're all saying the same thing that they all feel like they're much more in sync and more prepared for this year. I think we'll see that on Sunday. So I don't, I don't know that I can recall a wide receiver who did so little getting so much hype. It is amazing to me. I get it with Judy.

He's so talented, and Bridgewater's going to fit him a lot better than Locke. Yes. But it's like, holy cow. I don't know. I'm just a little worried that we're going to... He didn't play with Corlin Sutton last year. You know, Sutton's back.

Bridgewater never throws touchdowns. It's just, you know, it's kind of, it's a bold leap of faith, I think. A lot of people are taking it. Bridgewater didn't throw touchdowns last year, and look how good the receiving core was there still. Yeah, it was pretty good, but you know, it was,

but none of them had more than, none of them were standouts. You know, Anderson had a ton of catches. Well, I mean, he had two guys go over 1,000 yards. That's pretty nice to start with. To be fair, it's a different type of scheme in Carolina than what Denver will have. So this is to Adam's point, is that Denver isn't going to implore a lot of short passing

week after week after week. There might be game plans where they do it. But why not? That's the thing. They don't have to do that stupid stuff last year where everything was deep. That's not? That's a thing. They don't have to do that stupid stuff last year where everything was deep. But that's not how to use Jerry Judy. He's the best route runner in college

football when he came out. Well, you could use him that way, but that's the nice thing about Judy. He can do a lot of things. Yeah. I think Bridgewater's a better fit than Locke because Locke really just wants to throw the ball deep. Just about any quarterback is a better fit than Locke. Yeah, I know, but Bridgewater's no prize. I don't know. But Bridgewater's no prize.

I don't know. All right. All right. Let's see what happens. Jerry, Judy, how many questions did we get about Judy yesterday on the live stream, Dave? It was Antonio Brown, Jerry, Judy. Him, Antonio Brown, we got a ton of questions on. Yeah, it was Gus Edwards. We told everybody to start Brown, of course.

We get a lot of questions on. Gus Edwards before the injury. Yeah, what do you do with the Ravens? Yeah. DJ Moore, I feel like like yeah we've got a lot thanks everybody anyway we're done enjoy week 1

CBS Sports HQ 10am Eastern also 11.30am Eastern on Sunday we've got a live stream on YouTube so we will see you there and enjoy a little college football on Saturday and then we'll rock and roll with week one 8-15. We'll see you at 8-15 p.m. Eastern for a live stream of our

podcast on Sunday night here youtube.com slash fantasyfootball today for Dave and Jamie. I just realized, holy cow, guys, look at the logo on the video. The entire time. I just realized

Shracker's going gonna be so bad we're within 30 seconds of the podcast ending i have the kegelatzo branding the entire there you go you're fixed all right welcome thank you adam adios i'll take a lot so see ya