Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (NFC): Montgomery, Olave, Deebo and More! (11/18 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

The Titans-Packers game gave us a bunch of intriguing Fantasy storylines. We give our thoughts on Aaron Rodgers, Allen Lazard, Christian Watson, Treylon Burks and a few others before getting into the news and notes (12:30) for Week 11 ... Beat the Waiver Wire (18:45) and One Question for Each Game (20:55)! Do we trust Adam Thielen, Deebo Samuel, James Conner, Antonio GIbson or Darius Slayton this week? ... Start or Sit for Bears-Falcons (29:05), Cowboys-Vikings (40:15), 49ers-Cardinals (46:40), Lions-Giants (57:15), Rams-Saints (1:04:00) and Commanders-Texans (1:09:40) ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply.

Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. This is going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Happy Friday, everyone. Get your Thanksgiving side dishes ready. We're going to be talking a lot about that next week. But right now we've got a lot of football to talk about, including a really interesting Thursday night game and six NFC home games to preview. Actually, one of them is an AFC home game, Washington at Houston. The others are Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas, Minnesota, San Francisco, Arizona,

in Mexico City, Detroit at the Giants, and the Rams at the Saints. And a very happy Friday. Oh, yeah, yes. Happy Friday to you, sir. Question, is the Browns-Bills game now an NFC home game because they're playing in Detroit? Good question.

We did talk about that one yesterday, but we will revisit it with this game moving to Detroit, which is going to be interesting for the Bills. They go to Detroit, then they come home, and they go right back for a Thanksgiving game in Detroit. But what I was going to say is it's a very happy Friday for the 66% of Christian Watson managers who started him. And the 10% of Ryan Tannehill managers who started Ryan Tannehill. But imagine picking up Christian Watson and, yeah, way to go. Picking up Christian Watson and not starting him.

All right, so Tennessee 27, Green Bay 17. Really a lot of developments here. Jamie's on the show too. Happy Friday, Jamie. And what did you think of last night's game? I thought it was fun. I thought Rodgers struggled a little bit, which was a little frustrating. You know, he missed some throws.

You know, Alan Lazard had a rough night as well. But I told you Tuesday, we talked about Ryan Tannehill. He just finds a way to get it done. And here he is again with another 20-plus point game. Now four of seven healthy games that he's played, he's been above 20 fantasy points. So don't discount him. And certainly don't discount now Traylon Burks,

who as Heath was making the case for watson with rookie receivers just coming along you know maybe now is his time coming off the the toe injury that he's going to start to play at a high level but uh christian watson you know five touchdowns in in less than a week it's always good to have that type of production that's good and uh you know i think you just kind of see where where the the trajectory is headed that he's not going to do this consistently. You don't want him to be just touchdown or bust, but he's certainly a fun fantasy option for the rest of the season. Okay. Traylon

Berks or Christian Watson, rest of season? Watson. You take the one with the better quarterback, at least on paper. So I'll take Watson, but it's close. Man, we could talk about this game for a half hour. We're going to try to squeeze it in eight minutes or so, but look, Aaron aaron rogers yes he did miss some throws um and probably a little disappointed in the way he played he was starting 63 if you saw the comments uh no i didn't what

do you say uh i did not have my best game i could tell you exactly if you want to know yeah he struggled but at the same time with watson emerging here randall kovac helped him as well 23 fantasy points. Second straight game, he's had 23 or more. So these are, I believe, yeah, it's two best games of the season. Two straight weeks. Is it a coincidence? It's obviously Christian Watson making plays for him. So

is Aaron Rodgers, with the state of the quarterback position, is he now, Dave, a must-start quarterback? Which is weird to say coming off that kind of game, but you see the production. He's a must-start guy going forward. I mean, first of all, as long as Christian Watson is scoring multiple touchdowns a game, of course he is. And, and I think that Watson, especially after the last two games and what defense is now know about what he's capable of doing. I think he's going to change the way that defenses have been playing against green Bay. So it's going to take

Rogers throwing the ball better from game to game in order for him to really hit his potential. And that's a weird thing to say, because we're used to Aaron Rogers being great throwing the ball, but missing throws like he did last night, it's going to make you a little bit worried. I'd call him a candidate to be a top 12 quarterback rest of season. He's no longer in that.

He's no longer in the trash bin. We're saying, forget it. He can't get it done trash bin. We're saying, forget it. He can't get it done. I'd feel that way of Christian Watson never got going. But the fact that he's got somebody now that can stretch the defense vertically makes me feel a little bit more optimistic in Rogers. And there's one other factor.

Their defense, it was bad pretty much all year. But without Rashad and Gary there, their pass rush isn't that good. I think you're going to continue to see quarterbacks lighting up the Green Bay Packers defense. That's going to force Aaron Rodgers into some pass heavy games. Here's what Roger said. This is a rap report to this quote. I threw a lot of, I threw a lot of kind of wobblers.

There was some wind. I just missed a few throws I should have had. And I'll just, just to piggyback on what Dave said, I think he's definitely a must-start quarterback the rest of the way if you just consider him to be a low-end number one guy. You don't have to find a replacement for him now. Right. How about

Alan Lazard now? It's two disappointing games in a row, but there were a lot of opportunities, at least, for him to finish with 11 targets. So would you rather have Christian Watson, who had six targets, caught four of them and scored two touchdowns, and now he has eight catches and five touchdowns in the last two games? Would you rather have Lazard or Watson rest of season?

I think you just got to play the upside card right now and take Watson. But this is a good opportunity if your trade deadline is not passed to see if you can get Lazard for nothing. So, you know, there'll still be some great games ahead for him. I think we're going to see, as David alluded to, defense and putting Rodgers in some situations where he has to throw. These are going to be his two guys. I know Randall Cobb had some nice numbers.

Right. And so, you know, we'll see what that means, you know, moving forward. Romeo Dobbs will eventually be back, you know, so we'll see toward the end of the season. But I think these are still his top two guys. You know, the nice thing about it was Lazard had a little bit of a tough drop. It was a bad throw in the middle. He read the situation right.

He just, I don't think, settled in the zone the way Rodgers wanted him to. So the throw was a little behind him. The next play went right back to him. And it was a first down reception. So I think those type of things, how we talked about a week or less, a week or so, Pacheco fumbles, they go right back to him. When you see things like that, you kind of know that there's, there's a trust, there's, there's a comfort factor, there's a relationship and a report that's been established. So I think Lazard will,

will, will might get a squeaky wheel game coming at some point. And it could happen as soon as, I don't know if it could happen next week at Philadelphia. That could be tough because their secondary is good, but the game after that at Chicago could easily see Alan Lazard step up there. And you saw it a little bit in this game, 11 targets, a Lazard.

How many of them were deep down the field? I don't think there were that many, if any, and then he thought he cut off their out. Yeah. And there was an end zone target that he had where he was almost interfered with about a 30. That's fair.

Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep. And then Aaron Jones and Cobb. Cobb and Jones had a bunch of targets and how many of those were 20 plus yards down the

field. So I think what Watson's doing is opening things up underneath. I think that'll continue to happen and Lazard still 11 targets speaks volumes to me. I know it's not going to be fun to say this or fun to accept this, but I think Lazard's going to be the better PPR wide receiver rest of season.

Yeah. It was that one play where he was open over the middle. Was it on fourth down? I don't know. It was, and Rodgers threw a little high. I don't know, maybe on third down. That could have been a really big play for Lazard. So it was nice to see him get the 11 targets.

Any concerns about Aaron Jones? Just if their defense is not good, he had 12 carries and he's got a lot of games with about 12 carries. You know, it's, it's a little frustrating. They have almost no care as a team. They, they can never, almost never get near the goal line. Um, but Dylan still could be a factor there. So any concerns that this is obviously a tough matchup. No running back has scored a rushing touchdown against the Titans since week one. But any concerns about Jones

going forward? Not really. Not to the point where I think you're benching him. Just to make it clear, Lazard did have, I'm looking at the stats now, three targets that went 20 plus air yards. That's pretty good.

That's pretty good. Cobb had none. Obviously, Aaron Jones had none. What's interesting is that that's two more targets than Christian Watson had. Let's talk about the Titans. Henry's Henry. I don't think it should be legal to throw a handoff.

I think that... Oh, stop. It's a weird rule. It's a weird rule. You know, like, if I were playing backyard football and you handed the ball off, you wouldn't be able to throw that. You'd only be able to throw it on a backwards pass or lateral or something like that, you know?

But whatever, you know, the rule's the rule. I won't penalize him for it. I mean, as commissioner, I would take the touchdown away, but I won't go that far. What do you think about Traylon Burks? Robert Woods had a good game, too, but Burks was only 28% rostered. He had 51 of his 111 yards on basically their last play of the game

and then they yield after that. Dave, what do you think about Traylon Burks? 28% roster, like I said. I liked what I saw, but I still think, yeah, it's almost like what we were saying about Christian Watson, where you know that there's talent there. You can see that there's talent

there. It's just a matter of it continuing to develop. The one problem is he's got Tannehill as his quarterback. It worked out great on Thursday night. Not sure it's going to work out great every single week, and it's still a Titans offense that wants to run the football primarily. So a little bit worried about what that target volume is. Definitely don't like that. Basically half of his receiving yards came on, on one last play. It was a great play. He beat Jair Alexander one-on-one

great throw by Tannehill and might've even scored on it if he had fought a little bit harder. But he looked like the guy that I saw at Arkansas, where not necessarily a speedster, does have some speed, but not like Christian Watson's speed. Physical guy, lots of short targets. I'm going to look this up when I'm done yapping here, but I don't think he played every red zone snap for tennis. Probably not, because they get in the red zone,

they probably take some wide receivers off the field. No, there were plenty of plays where there were multiple receivers on the field. All right, let me just... He's a must-add guy, right? He's a must-add guy. He's a must-add guy, but this could go down as his best game of the year.

Okay. All right. And hopefully he didn't buy into Nick Westbrook-Akina, judging by the rosters. Four routes for him in the red zone out of, I'm going to guess, 10, 12. I'll tell you in a second. 12 pass plays? 12 dropbacks?

I would be surprised. No, no, no, no, no, no. I'm going to tell you. How many dropbacks did Tannehill have? Sorry, I'm not as fast. 17 dropbacks. In the Reds? In the Reds. Those were snaps. 11. How many different numbers can I throw?

It's getting confusing. Let's move on here. It is a great time on the sports calendar. Football is obviously in full swing. College football is at its most important time. The NBA, the NHL, you got great stuff going on all around. And the best way to follow all of it is on the CBS Sports app.

It features lightning-fast live scoring for every pro and college football game and all major sports, of course. You can track your favorite teams or just individual games you have interest in with the click of a button. And it's also the way to get breaking news. That's how I get my breaking news alerts. So watch live sports on the CBS Sports app as well and stay on top of all the latest updates.

By the way, you can watch CBS Sports HQ. And it's totally free whether you have an iPhone or an Android, and it is the easiest way to keep your finger on the pulse of every game that matters. Here are the news and notes that matter. Ten dropbacks for Ryan Tannehill. Really? Four of them for Trey Lindbergh.

We're still on this, Dave. Look, he's obviously... Let's talk about Christian Watson some more. He's obviously ascending, right? I mean, it was a good game. He's a talented guy. And yeah. Okay, you know what?

Fine. I'll indulge you. How many routes run in the red zone by a wide receiver who had the most routes run on the Titans? Who had the most routes run? Give me 20 minutes. I'll get you the answer. Okay, great.

No, I'm just kidding. It's 10 for Nick Westbrook, Akine, and Robert Woods. Okay, there you go. That's the step. There were 10 pass plays. I said 10 pass plays for Ryan Tannehill. Traylon ran a route on four of Traylon ran around on four of them. He only played on four of them.

Right. But it means more to me, I think, to hear that the other guys ran all ten. And that's interesting. All right. Thank you, Dave. Let's see. We got a good stat out of that. All right.

News and notes. Matthew Stafford is expected to play this week. Dalton starting. Taylor Heineke starting. Kyler Murray, we still don't know. He and Colt McCoy, who's also dealing with an injury, are both practicing. And yesterday was only their first practice

because they have the Monday game in Mexico City. Cleveland Buffalo, Jamie, was moved to Detroit, as we mentioned. What is the fantasy impact here of that? I mean, it's obviously great. You don't have to worry about any weather concerns, so we always love that. As we talked about yesterday, would you rather see a game of snow

or would you rather see Josh Allen be Josh Allen? So I'd rather see Josh Allen be Josh Allen after the, oh, look, it's snowing. So, you know, we get hopefully Gabe Davis on a fast surface is always fun. Stephon Diggs should be great as usual. I still like Devin Singletary just based on the matchup. And then for the Browns, you don't have to worry. You know, does this, so does this qualify as a road game for Amari Cooper still? If it's a neutral fight?

Oh, man. It's going to screw up everything. It really does. So I'm going to say neutral side, he's fine. So everybody's in the same scenario. Well, he's at Detroit, so that's a great matchup. Cooper fine. DPJ, good number three receiver with upside. Hopefully in the joke of plays, doesn'troit so that's a great matchup cooper fine dbj good good number three receiver

with upside um hopefully the joke plays doesn't seem like like that's the case you're nothing really changes you're starting the guys you'll be planning on starting okay if you were wondering by the way how hampered i didn't don't think i had a chance to bring this up how hampered josh allen was by the elbow um you know just look at the a dot or the you know air yards per pass attempt pretty normal but he did not throw a single pass more than 30 air yards. And he had done that three times in each of the previous three games. So it is just something to watch. He did throw plenty of passes, 20 air yards,

but he did not at one point take the top off the defense with a deep ball at any point in that last game against Minnesota. Running backs, Ty Montgomery. A lot of this is a repeat. Ty Montgomery out for the season. Zeke says he's optimistic about playing. If he plays, he will wear a knee brace. We are going to talk about that game at Minnesota shortly. DeAndre Swift practiced in full.

Gus Edwards looks good to go. Wide receiver news. We'll see about Marquise Brown. We still don't know. Today will be a big practice report um let's see cory davis mispractice the thing though just just to clarify they don't have to list him on the injury report yeah i know it's a little we won't get a designation about what he is but we'll get reports like he was running around yesterday oh he looked good too that that's

a great sign but we won't get a, he's questionable, whatever. You know, you won't get that. That's Marquise Brown. Let's see. Jerry, Judy, mispractice again. All three of the injured Chargers wide receivers were limited. Do we have any idea, Dave, which way this is going to go with Williams, Keenan Allen, and Carter?

It's turning in the right direction. We've seen it go in this direction for Keenan Allen before, and then he ended up not playing. So I would be the most nervous about him, but I'm feeling optimistic that Mike Williams will be available for fantasy managers this week, and he'll be a top 10 to 15 wide receiver. Must start guy.

I'll be a little bit more optimistic about Allen just because PPR, I think he's going to be... I think Justin Herbert is just begging for reliable hands on the field. That's his most reliable guy. Here's a big one. Juju Smith-Schuster mispracticed. He's probably not going to play. And Mikko Hardman is on

IR. MVS... I'm feeling pretty good about him. How are you guys feeling? Top 20 receiver. Ooh. You got to think of it that way. Just such a perfect opportunity for him. Yeah.

Josh Reynolds was limited, hoping to get back out there at the Giants. Not the same energy for him as for Kadarius. I picked him up in two leagues. That's how desperate I am. I mean, one of the leagues I'm throwing out there, I have Godwin on a bye. I have Chase out. You would not even believe the lineup I'm throwing out there.

And I can't be alone. No, you're not. We got to fish for wide receivers. I dare you. We could compare lineups, and I guarantee you mine is uglier than yours. Challenge accepted. Okay, is this the league?

No, okay. Go ahead. Get your crappy league up. I'll get by. I'm up. I'm ready. Okay, what's your crappy lineup? 14-team PPR. My receivers on by this week are Chris Godwin and Christian Kirk, and I benched Traylon Burks because I'm a genius. My starting receivers are Darius Slayton. That's my number one. Chris Moore is number two. Quez Watkins, number three. Oh, okay. So Darius Slayton, Chris Moore, Quez Watkins, or Nico Collins, Terrace Marshall, and honestly, Josh Reynolds right now is my third guy. I will have to make a move. I'm worse

than you, right? No, no, no. I'm worse than you. Oh. Jamie? Eh, whatever. They're both bad. Nobody cares about our lineups. We're going to have to scrape the bottom of the barrel in a lot of cases at wide receiver this week. Alright, tight end news. Mark Andrews was

limited. We still don't know about him, so definitely keep Isaiah Likely on your radar. Gerald Everett was limited. David Njoku did get back on the practice field. He didn't practice Wednesday. He was limited on Thursday. And Kenny Moore, a couple of defensive injuries to keep an eye on. First of all, Mika Fitzpatrick had an appendectomy about a week ago.

He's already back on the practice field. He might play. That's crazy. Kenny Moore and Isaiah Rogers, two cornerbacks for the Colts. They are out with an illness. Hopefully they can get back out there. And the Eagles addressed their run defense twice this week. They signed Linval Joseph and Indomitian Sioux. They have recently placed two defensive tackles on IR, Jordan Davis and Marlon Tuipolotu on IR. Say that 10 times fast. Tuipolotu.

Once, that's all. And a big one, Arizona cornerback Byron Murphy has mispracticed. He missed last week's game. He mispracticed. Buda Baker mispracticed as well, but he played last week, so he should probably play. Let's beat the waiver wire. We'll watch that for the Cardinals' defense when we get to that game.

All right. Let's beat the waiver wire here. And we don't have any teams on a bye, so I don't know how much waiver wire beating you have to do, but we kind of like Mariota and Heineke facing each other next week. You could look at Matt Ryan against Pittsburgh. Is it going to be Heineke?

Yeah, it should. Audition this week. Deshaun Watson is two weeks away from playing. What do you think about Zach Wilson and Corey Davis against the Bears? Yeah, there's potential there. The only concern would be

is that Wilson's appeal is when he's throwing a lot and not facing Belichick. Don't start Zach Wilson this week, but maybe next week if you think that they're going to score a lot, then maybe you trust them. Yeah, and like I said, no team's on by, so you probably don't have to go into the Zach Wilson bucket. Foster Morrow is at...

Foster Morrow? Foster Morrow. Oh, you finally said it right. Foster Morrow is at Seattle. Sing the Andy song again? Nah, I can't. Only one Annie song per week. Foster Morrow is at Seattle next week.

Noah Fant gets the Raiders if you're looking for a tight end. Running backs, it's not about matchups. It's about potential. Jalen Warren, 60%. Jarek McKinnon, 45%. Same guys we talked about on the Waiver Wire show. You could maybe look at a Denver running back or a Rams running back. The Rams are playing the Chiefs, and that's interesting, Dave. I don't know how you feel about Van Jefferson. We have

never seen him play without Cooper Cup. He's 44% rostered. He could be a fill-in next week, Van Jefferson. Let's call this week the audition. So if you want to put him on your bench this week, maybe just to see what happens, and then you'll make a decision on him for week 12. He might be somebody who turns into a bi-week replacement in weeks 13 or 14. Okay. What else?

Nico Collins is at Miami. Zay Jones against Baltimore. If the Ravens score a lot of points, you might see a lot of throwing from Trevor Lawrence. And DPJ is still available in a lot of leagues, and that's pretty much all I got. One question for each game. Chicago at Atlanta.

Big game for David Montgomery, Dave? He's got a shot. This Falcons defense isn't very good. And we know that there's no Khalil Herbert. Treston Ebner is there, but he might end up playing. He might be specialized to play just in passing down situations where he could be a target, not necessarily as a blocker. So there should be.

I think he's got a shot to play at least 70% of the snaps. Should flirt with 20 touches. Definitely going to be the goal line guy. Hopefully fields doesn't steal a goal line touchdown from him. What am I saying? Of course, Justin Fields is going to steal a goal line touchdown from him. He's a number two running back.

Yeah. It's a shame because it's the opportunity. There's so much work there. And they, they run a lot. They have a lot of carries inside the five yard line, but Montgomery just kind of has been stinky. Yes. And just a lot. They have a lot of carries inside the five-yard line, but Montgomery just kind of has been stinky. Yes, and just a hint,

I have a feeling that both of these teams are going to run the ball a lot or try to. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. All right, Dallas at Minnesota. Jamie, are you feeling it? No.

No. I mean, it's been seven targets each of the last two weeks with TJ Hawkinson, limited production. He only has two touchdowns on the season. Now, the one thing could be is if they stick digs on Jefferson. And, you know, we saw how that went last week for the Packers with Christian Watson. But I don't think Adam Thielen is Christian Watson.

So, number three receiver at best. San Francisco's at Arizona, Dave, and Mexico City. You got James Conner, Debo Samuel, and Brandon Ayuk. Rank the three of them as flex options. Conner, Debo, Ayuk. I'm going to put Ayuk at the top. I'm most excited about him. I'm probably going to have Debo next and then Conner third.

I just don't love the matchup for Connor. Don't see an opportunity for him to get as much work as he had last week. You're hoping that he scores a touchdown and maybe two in order to come through for you in fantasy. All right, I'm going to make my case for Debo. You could argue that the Cardinals are the best matchup in football for Debo Samuel because he's the yak machine and no team allows more yak and yak per catch than the Cardinals. Wait till you hear that. You want to hear this stat now? Yeah. All right. So you have done a great job talking about how Arizona takes away deep throws. On passes of 15 or fewer air yards, They're fifth worst in catch rate allowed.

They're fifth worst in yards per catch. They're dead last in yards after catch per reception. You just mentioned it. And they're dead last in touchdowns allowed 16 touchdowns. Wow. On passes of 15 or fewer air yards. Wow. You remember that game?

Gino Smith had two weeks ago. Yeah. I think he threw one pass longer than 16 air yards. Might be two. Yeah. But he kept it short, and that's what Garoppolo's great at. And you're right. IU can absolutely take those short slants and breaking routes.

Debo can do it, too. That's why Debo's in play this week. Yeah. No, this Cardinals defense is a perfect matchup for the Niners offense. It's on paper anyway. It's exactly what the 49ers are good at, is all the short stuff and the yak, and no Byron Murphy as of now.

Detroit of the Giants. Jamie, if fantasy football were a dating service, are we dating Slayton? You're reaching on that one, buddy. Slayton's in a good spot. He's a very safe number three receiver. He has top 20 upside. Wanda Robinson did not practice.

Kenny Galladay looks like he's going to be out again. Kenny Galladay is? Kenny Galladay is out? No, I'm serious. Like Ben String out. No, Wanda does. They both do. They both do. Oh, no. I'm looking. Like Ben String. No, Wandale. Wandale does. They both do.

They both do. Oh, no. I'm looking it up right now. Oh, I didn't realize that. Okay. Sorry. And so with the injuries to both, you could be Dayton Slayton. Yeah.

But I guess if you were Dayton Slayton, you'd have to go to a restaurant that takes reservations. And if they don't take reservations, has less than a 20 minute wait. Yep. Um, probably has rabbit paella or no, it doesn't have rabbit paella. You hate that. Yeah.

Um, whoever orders that is just a weirdo. Um, yeah. So if I'm slating, I probably don't want to go out with you. I don't blame him. Um,

yeah. Someone told me that a lot of paella has rabbit in it, but I don't believe that. I think someone was lying to me. All right, Rams at the Saints. Start or sit Chris Olave? You're starting him for the upside. Must start?

Yes. Why? Look at the receivers that are missing this week. You just went through, and please spare us again from saying it, the lineups that the two of you have. Yes. Why? Look at the receivers that are missing this week. You just went through, and please spare us again from saying it, the lineups that the two of you have. Yes. You would kill for Chris Olavo.

Yeah, yeah, but what about Paris Campbell, Caderius, Tony Donovan, Peoples Jones, the guys we may have picked up off- You could certainly make cases for all of those guys, but I'm still starting Chris Olavo. Okay. Washington and Houston. Are we starting all of the running backs in this game the three big ones yeah you should Pierce is a must and that Texans run defense is so bad and you just saw the commanders completely willing to let their offense run through the run game even when they're not

averaging four yards per carry they're going to average four yards per carry against the Texans okay so uh Kenny Galladay was limited with a hamstring. Wandale, I think, is more in jeopardy of missing the game because he did not practice. What am I going to do with that? Just let you know. Adam, if you were a Giants fan, and you get to watch Chiefs Chargers,

and Kadarius Toney goes for 80 yards and a touchdown and has 30 yards on the ground and scores that way. And you're watching Darius Slayton get six targets and have a nice game. But nobody else does anything. How are you going to feel? I don't care. They didn't get rid of him because of football reasons.

I went so gaga over Kadarius Toney. I called him, I think, a top 12 dynasty wide receiver last year after about two games. He could be so good. So I really hope he's good. I do. Selfishly, though, I do have Juju on a couple of teams, and I don't really want Tony to

do that well for Juju. Cause I don't want anything to interfere with Juju being a bus start. Um, but no, there's no doubt he's, he's such a good player. Just needs to stay healthy. All right. Uh, he, yeah. So Kadarius Tony is a good player, but he is not as good as an awesome fitted Indochino suit. And I'm going to tell you right now, you can get 50 bucks off any purchase of $3.99 or more at Indochino.com with the promo code FFT. It's I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O.com and the promo code is FFT.

So I actually have had a lot of people over the years, Indochino has been a sponsor for a while, a lot of people over the years saying, hey, my wedding's coming up. Can I get that promo code? Or I had a big event. I bought an Indochino suit. I've gotten a lot of great feedback on Indochino. That is the honest truth. You can't find the perfect suit, but you can find the suit that's perfect for you. And you can do that on Indochino. You go on there. You submit your measurements. You pick everything out, every style point, the buttons, the pleats,

the lining on the inside of the jacket, everything. Details that you wouldn't have even thought about. You get to make everything. It's so cool to make an Indochino suit, and it's going to look great. Their suits start at just $449, which is a terrific value. They also have premium fitted shirts starting at just $89. It's a great site with a lot of great items there for you. So you can shop custom fitted shirts, casual wear, outerwear, and much more. And again, design your perfect suit with Indochino. To get 50 bucks off any purchase of $3.99 or more, use promo code FFT at Indochino.com.

That's I-N-D-O-C-H-I-N-O.com. The promo code is FFT for 50 bucks off any purchase of $3.99 or more. And we go to the games. And this one, you can see this taking a while. There are a lot of things to talk about here with Chicago and Atlanta. This is perfect, right? These two teams are both bottom five in pressure rate.

They're both terrible in passing yards per attempt allowed. They're top four in RB carries, running back carries. So it just sets up for a lot of fantasy points here. Jamie, take us through Chicago Atlanta in 30 seconds. Justin Fields, must start. Cordero Patterson, David Montgomery, good number two running backs this week. Darnell Mooney, good number three receiver backs this week. Darnell Mooney,

good number three receiver for this week. Cole commit must start tight end Kyle pits, maybe start tight end Drake London desperation. Number three receiver. Speaker 1 Is there room for trust in Ebner as a stash guy? Speaker 2 Yes. I agree in the Keontae Ingram. Speaker 1 Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Z the Keontae Ingram. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Zemir White, stuff like that. Better than Zemir White, but I would say behind the Jalen Warrens and Rashad Whites of the world.

Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. 127 catches. Is that what I said, Adam? Over five years at Baylor for Ebner. So he can be a passing down threat for Chicago, an outlet guy for Justin Fields. And I wonder, just because Khalil Herbert is out,

does it guarantee that it's going to be David Montgomery nonstop? And I don't think it does. I think you're going to see a little bit of Ebner, not to the point where it's 50-50 or even 60-40, like I said earlier. But I do think that he's an interesting stash play. And hopefully he doesn't have a twin brother named Earl or Dave that ruins things like what happened with the Hebners in the WWE.

I have no idea. Yeah, I mean, the stat of the game I had is that the Bears are fourth in running back carries and they are ninth in running back carries inside the five-yard line. So, man, you know, it's the first time I'm excited to start David Montgomery in a long time, but you guys don't have him ranked all that high. But is he the highest-ranked running back in this game? Because obviously Patterson and Algier, they have a great matchup, too. He is for me. I do think he's got a chance.

He's got the chance to get more touches. You're thrown off a little bit by Patterson not even playing 50% of the snaps. Not even 40% the last two weeks. If Zeke plays, would you start Pollard or Montgomery? Pollard. I think I'll take Montgomery over Pollard. Let's talk about Darnell Mooney in his last seven games. His 17 game pace is 78 catches, 1,061 yards,

two touchdowns on 109 targets. And he is facing a team that allows the most fantasy points to wide receivers. They have allowed the most pass plays of 20-plus yards. They have allowed the second most completions of 20-plus air yards. Everything here is good on paper for Darnell Mooney. Would you start Darnell Mooney or Chris Olave? That's not in the same range of outcomes. I don't know why you say that.

I mean, why not? It was last week. Olave has just not been that good. I'm kidding, but I'm starting a lot of over moon. Me too. Me too.

But I, the thing that I'm worried about is the thing that's held Jamie from loving Mooney back all year long. And that's the target share. Of course. Yeah. But honestly, any Dalton doesn't throw that many more passes than Justin Fields.

He throws more, but, um, he throws more, but maybe like five. Uh, all right. I would love to see,

uh, Andy Dalton make a mistake or two and they put James in the game. Yeah. I think it's pretty clear. It's a foot issue at this point, right? That's keeping Jameis out. Not a performance thing.

It seems like they want to, they want to make the move, but they said he's not healthy. He's not 100% healthy because of the foot. Oh. That's what Dennis Allen said. He didn't say they want to make the move, but he did say Jameis will not be 100% healthy all year because of that foot.

All right, so Mooney or Slayton? Slayton. I have Slayton over Mooney. Okay. Cole Komet over Kyle Pitts. How about Cole Komet or Pat Frymuth? Komet. I'll take Komet too.

Cole Komet or Greg Nolcich? Komet. Komet. All right. Start Komet. The Falcons are 24th against the... Adam, it sounds like you have Kemetman issues. Yeah, well, in one league, I have him and Andrews.

So, you know, that decision will be... It's a good place to be. I have the same thing in one league, too. I'm playing actually both. It's RDP league. So one's flex. Oh, okay. Mariota.

Mariota's top 12 for both of you, huh? Or no, no, no 14th? Top 14? No Oh, you dropped him, Dave Yeah Okay, why? I think you had him at 12 at one point

Now he's 18th I did I started the week with him at 12 Because the matchup's bad But I can't help but think that After what Arthur Smith saw last week The last thing he wants to do Is have Marcus Mariota throw all over the place.

So unless this game gets one-sided and the Falcons are down two scores in the second half, I don't think you're going to see Mario to throw that much. Yeah, the Bears are scoring a lot of points, though. We expect them to score, right? You just think they're going to run, run, run either way? I would imagine that unless they're down three touchdowns, that we're going to see a lot of running,

just what we saw early in the season. And if they are throwing a lot and Mariota is playing like he did last week, we could see Desmond Ritter in the game. Okay. So would you start? Yeah, that's another reason to not start Mariota. Mariota or Goff? Goff, Daniel Jones, Mariota.

Who's your favorite? Oh, you just want us to say Jones first. Jones. I definitely don't. Jones is 12th for me this week. All right. Jamie, where do you have Patterson? Right behind Montgomery.

So top 20 running back this week. Okay. Okay. I think one thing that maybe we overlooked a little bit was he had the two touchdown game and his first game back from the uh the four game absence and then had to turn around and play thursday night you know so that could be a little bit of why his usage was so low yeah that he might not have been 100 that was quick turnaround for a guy that had such a long absence so um i hoping the mini-bye week, the fact that they had the game last Thursday night, great matchup, revenge game, spent two years in Chicago.

All those things help Cordero Patterson this week. Matchup is the biggest thing. Yeah, Algiers, though, is obviously a big problem. Algiers had 18 carries over the last two games. Patterson's had 18 carries over the last two games. The Bears have given up 16 or more PPR fantasy points to a running back in seven of their last nine games, though, so it is a

terrific matchup. Starting to see maybe a little bit of improvement from their run defense, but still looks like a great matchup. And Algier, I mean, you know, when you talk about guys like Jarek McKinnon, Jalen Warren, where is Algier, Dave, compared to them? He's behind those guys, but it's close i think he's

when you think about starting him you put him in that range of a running back that can get you somewhere between six to nine ppr points six to seven non-ppr points uh we want to avoid drake london right i think you said desperation play jamie drake london i would think so you know I don't think you want to chase what he did last week um again with what the the likely game plan should be you know where they're running the ball a lot and so six to seven targets you know chance to score is what you're banking on he's only only done that, what, three times this season? Once since week four? It's not exactly the most reliable scenario.

He would be a top 30 receiver for me if this were a game that I thought the Falcons would have to throw in. Last two games, he's been very involved in their red zone offense. Had five red zone targets two games ago. Not sure how many red zone targets he had last week, but he scored on one of them. After this game, it's the Commanders, it's the Steelers, then a bye, then the Saints.

I'm not sure how many of those games they're definitely going to have to throw in either. So it kind of could be a lost cause for Drake London. Might be fine to have on the bench, but in smaller leagues, you could let them go. Look, there's really, if you don't think they're going to have to throw against the Bears with the way Justin Fields is playing,

then I don't know, with the Chiefs, it doesn't really matter. They don't throw. That's kind of their thing. They run as much as they can. Now, Kyle Pitts is so interesting because you guys have him right around 10th. He's got seven to nine targets in three straight games.

And we've seen it. Chris Towers said it well. It's like Marcus Mariota. I think Chris said he's basically a normal bad quarterback. But when he's throwing to Kyle Pitts, he's the worst quarterback in the world. But there's so many opportunities here. He could have these big games. I think he's a great DFS play.

If you're trying to lose at DFS, I agree. No, come on. If Marcus Mariota could just hit a wide open guy, this is also the guy he's throwing to in the end zone. The Bears, they allow the fifth fewest points to tight ends, but that's all about the competition they faced. There's a lot to like about Kyle Pitts. Is anybody feeling this or am I on Pitts Island here? I mean, look, the thing about it is, and this is the frustration of Kyle Pitt's fantasy managers, if you've been starting him all this time and you've been winning,

you're hoping for those rare big games. I agree with you. He's a great DFS player because if he does it like we saw, what was it? The London game. He had a good game. Carolina, 80 yards and a touchdown on nine targets. There's certainly scenarios where if they connect he's going to have a big blow up game but they've been so few and far between but you're trying to win a tournament

that not a lot of that a lot of people are are playing in so you want to be different but if you've been losing with Kyle Pitts like what are you doing at this point you know find a different alternative yeah I just think he's a touchdown or bust tight end he doesn't have what he is evolved to but the the it's if Mariota could just hit him when he's wide open. The big difference is that he has seven to nine targets in three straight games. Do you know how many catches he has in his last three games? I know, but it's on Mariota. It's not on Pitts. I'm saying that the throws that Mariota has missed, I would expect him to complete. It's been unusually terrible.

You would hope that the Falcons would try and consider a change? No. Jamie talked about it and put Ritter in, and Ritter might be better in that regard. The fact that they're not going to Ritter. Mariota stinks. The fact that they're not going to Ritter tells me that they think Ritter's not ready. Yeah.

We're good. They had 10 days to get him up and running in this game. They didn't do it. Arthur Smith basically said that. He basically said, we're trying to win. He implied,

Mariota is their best chance to win. All right. Dallas is at Minnesota. And stat of the game, I mean, I don't know how much this matters. It might matter. Minnesota's run defense

has been damn good. They have allowed only 16 running back carries of 10 plus yards. That's fifth fewest. Only two running back carries all year of 20 plus yards allowed by the Vikings. And in their last five games, they are allowing 2.95 yards per carry to running backs. So having said that, I feel like you have a... Well, Jamie, are you ranking Pollard as if Zeke is playing at this point?

We have not ranked Zeke yet. So Pollard has been ranked as if he's by himself. So when we rank Zeke, I will have Pollard still ahead of Zeke. He'll be in the teens. Right now, Pollard's in the top 10. Zeke will be closer to 24. So in that Najee Harris, Deontay Foreman range for me, touchdown or bust, I think, at this point for Zeke

because if he's playing, he's not playing 100%. Yeah, I wonder how much the matchup matters for Pollard. He's just been so good on his career, exceptional, but interested to see what he can do against this defense. Which quarterback do you prefer in this game, guys? Dak Prescott. If you watched yesterday's show, you know which one I prefer. Yeah.

Start of the week. They're both starters, though, right? Cousins and Dak. Yeah, Cousins is more of a low-end starter, but Dak, I think, has an opportunity for another big game. Top six quarterback. Which tight end do you prefer? Shultz.

Hawkinson. Oh! Burn! They're both starters, though. Dave, why Hockinson over Schultz? Oh, you have them 3-4 in the rank. I love them both, but I think Hockinson is just going to get more targets and more catches.

A little bit more of an explosive player than Schultz as well. Schultz is good without a touchdown. Last week, he was great with the touchdown. Hawkinson's been very good without scoring a touchdown in PPR the past two games with the Vikings. Hawkinson's actually already faced the Cowboys. He had four catches for 48 yards.

The Cowboys have been really good against tight ends. All right, are there any surprises in this game? We're obviously starting Cook. We're obviously starting Jefferson. We're starting Lamb. Dave, when you talk about Gallup or Thielen or Zeke, maybe, I mean, is there anyone you want to make the case for? No.

It's easy to make the case for Zeke. He can score. It's the game. Vikings hosted the Cowboys. Interrupting day return with the game of the week. Yeah. Hold on.

This is amazing because during the show, I sent you a G chat. I figured the game of the week would have been like Chiefs Chargers. Yeah, I was running that game.

And so like earlier i talked about cadareous tony and i after i talked i thought oh my god he could have buzzed me on that and then you texted you sent me a note back we did it yesterday chiefs chargers sorry yeah i lied to dave i said we did the game of the week yesterday you want to start your answer over sorry, you don't get the answer now. And guess what? It wouldn't have been that good of an answer anyway. You're not going to feel good starting Thielen or Zeke

or Michael Gallup or anybody else. Yeah, it's a shame too because Minnesota's past events is so bad. They give up the second most points to wide receivers, third most targets per game to wide receivers. It is that bad of a week at wide receiver, though. Did you guys end up with Gallup in your top 36? Just outside, top 40.

Did I tell you what song I think Game of the Week sounds like? No. Well, I did say that it sounds like Real Man of Genius, that old beer commercial, whatever. I mean, anything you can do to sing. But say that it sounds like real man of genius, that old beer commercial, whatever. I mean, anything you can do to sing. But I think it sounds like Somebody's Baby by Jackson Brown.

You know? It's got this, you know the song, right? No, sing it. From Fast Times at Ridgemont High. No, sing it, please. No, I'm not going to sing it. It's got a Jackson Brown vibe to it. All right, real quick on Kirk Cousins here.

Kirk Cousins or Jimmy Garoppolo? Cousins. Cousins. Herbert or Cousins? Herbert as of now. Herbert with his guys. That's why. How many of his guys?

Mike, one. One. Okay, Burrow or Cousins? Burrow. I have Cousins. What would Joe Burrow have been if he had played at Buffalo this week in the snow? He would have been Joe Burrow.

Or he would have been Burrowing. Also good. I think that's it for this game, right? We good here? Yeah. All right. Probably a chance we could get some snow flurries in the Steelers-Bengals game.

Yeah, maybe. If we do, I'll make the joke again, I promise. We're going to take a break here. We're going to Mexico City. We are not going to get snow there. San Francisco and Arizona when we come back on Fantasy Football today. All right. San Francisco and Arizona. Your stat of the game.

In addition to that whole yak thing we talked about earlier, the Cardinals giving up the most yak per catch and the Niners averaging the most yak per catch offensively. I just want to go through some Debo stats I talked about on Monday on Beyond the Box score and get your thoughts on it. Because he's obviously been disappointing. But you may not realize how

inefficient he's been and disappointing, but you may not realize how inefficient he's been and below his career averages. This is what really jumps out. Deebo Samuel has a 56%, 57% catch rate. That's really low. And he's got a 4.9 yard ADOT, which is also really low. And there is a correlation, a low ADOT leads to a higher catch rate. Easier to catch those passes. So I know he's been bad, but you cannot expect a player like Debo Samuel to have these types of rates. It's kind of like what I talked about with Chris Godwin. He had a very low ADOT and a very low catch rate.

Debo's like five times worse than that. So something is going to, he's going to get better. I want to know, Dave, I'll give you the first word. Like, what do you think about that? Because we talk, we just see the raw numbers with Debo,

but the underlying stats say he should be doing a lot better than this. He should be. I haven't taken a close enough look at him on film to get a clear view. I like the targets. The volume has been good. He should be catching the ball more, should be making more I like the targets. The volume has been good. He should be catching the ball

more, should be making more plays after the catch, not featured near the goal line much anymore. That was something that helped him last year. And so I think you do have to lower expectations for him. And I think given the way that Iuke's been playing, it's easy to rank Iuke over Debo and Iuke's been getting as many, if not more, targets than Debo over the last month, month and a half. And would you guys start Rondale more over both 49ers wide receivers? I have Iyuk, Rondale, then many receivers, including Chris Olave and Kadarius Toney and then Debo.

I would start Rondale over those guys if there's no Marquise Brown. Right. Dave, why are you so high on Ayuk? Because I think he can score. I think he can make one of those after-catch scores. He should have scored last week. He dropped a touchdown.

I like his role in the offense. I like his mojo with Jimmy G. Everyone's high on Iuke. I think just in comparing the two sets of receivers, you're probably maxing out maybe at eight targets for Iuke. Rondell Moore might have eight catches in that game. Yeah. That was what I was saying about Iuke.

I mean, I felt like he's a sell high. He gets seven, eight catches. He gets 80 yards, four straight games. He's caught a touchdown in two of them. He should have caught a touchdown in three of them. I just feel like he is overperforming his targets big time. Well, this is obviously an easy game for a bounce back potential for George Kittle.

So we know how bad they are against tight ends. We had this conversation on HQ with Pete Prisco and Heath that there's going to be, each week, one guy left out in the passing game. There's just not enough volume in this passing game for three guys to have big games of Debo, Ayuk, and Kittle. And as we saw last week, two guys were left out. Debo and Kittle both struggled.

So Pete says, I kind of can see it happening. And you brought up the numbers, Adam. Debo can have a bounce back week this week. Kittle can easily have a bounce back week this week. It would not be surprising if Iuke has the disappointing game. Now, I don't have it ranked that way because I agree with Dave. I think you see what Iuke is doing and how he's performed basically since coming out of the doghouse last year, how he's outperformed Debo as a receiver, that Debo losing those carries.

But Pete alluded to after watching the game that they had Debo and McCaffrey lined up in the backfield, you know, and they do all their misdirection, you know, where one guy's going one way, one guy's going the other way, that if you just flip them, and it's McCaffrey going as the decoy and Debo's going that way, that this is going to be those easy catches for Debo, and he gets the ball, you know, going that way. So there's going to be, you know, without saying it, you know, it's not Kyle Shanahan having to say, we have to get Debo going,

we have to get Kittle going. There's going to be a squeaky wheel type of game here for one of those two guys. One of them is going to have the seven or eight targets that probably go to Iyuk and Iyuk goes to four or five and it could be this week. So I think you just kind of if you have these guys like I have Debo in one I don't have any Kittle shares, but I have Debo in one league. I'm not benching. I'm not going away from him. I wouldn't be surprised if this is a big game for him.

Okay, and you guys have you have Iyuk top 14. You have Debo around 20th or so. Would you start Paris Campbell or Kadarius Tony over Debo Samuel? If there's no juju, I would start Tony over him, yes. Over Debo, excuse me. Tony, yes, but not Paris Campbell.

Okay. Correct. But they're very close, though. And then, so Hopkins is obviously a must-start. What about Rondell Moore? You said you guys have... Pretty a must start in PPR. Okay. Yeah. It'll change a little bit if Marquise Brown plays, because then you just have to wonder how this is all going to work.

But for this week, I think you should feel okay with Rondell Moore. You know, I, I just hope that, you know, we had the first game with Robbie Anderson and things kind of got a little bit off with where they use Rondell Moore.

Like, don't do that again. Yes, yes. So the last thing was you might be sitting here listening to me talking about IUK's targets and notice he had two games with 11 targets recently. Those were the two games where the 49ers, the only two games all year they've thrown more than 30 passes. And the two games where their defense played like crap against the Chiefs and the Falcons.

When their defense is playing well, they throw 28 passes typically, right around there. And that brings us now to Kittle, Hawkinson, Schultz. How do you rank those three? I believe you just know. I mean, Schultz, Hawkinson, Kittle. And I've got Hawkinson, Schultz, Kittle, and PPR. Kmet or Kon, Kittle. And I've got Hawkinson, Schultz, Kittle, and PPR. Komet or Kittle? Kittle.

I like Kittle better than everybody we've talked about in the last 15 seconds in non-PPR. I will take Komet in non-PPR. I will take Kittle in PPR. All right. It's just an amazing matchup. And Kittle's back close to the top five. I think he's top six for everyone.

If he does not play well this week, though, sound the panic alarm. Yeah. Arizona, their quarterbacks. I can't imagine going to start Colt McCoy, but Jamie, if Kyler Murray plays, start or sit? I would start him.

I would start him over the Daniel Jones, Kirk Cousins, Russell Wilson, the low-end starter guys, you know, so where I have Aaron Rodgers ranked around 10, you know, so I think you'll get 21, 22 points. The concern would be, is he going to run? You know, if the hamstring is a problem, you know,

is he going to give you enough production throwing the ball? So you got to hope that he's going to get you at least 30 yards on the ground. You know, he hasn't been the best running quarterback this season. So, you know, hopefully 30 yards on the ground, maybe chance to score, maybe primetime game, you know, helps him, you know, with the, with the spotlight on him, step up and have a big game. But if they get everybody back and Marquise Brown is back, this is what we've been waiting for.

You know, this is, this is the, the dream scenario of if Marquise Brown is right of Hopkins Brown, Rondell Moore, you know, it sucks. You don't have Ertz there, but you know, this is arguably as good a receiving core as anybody in the league. And so, can he have enough success throwing against this defense? I hope he does.

You're starting him based on hope. I wonder if he could flirt with 400 yards passing. If all three of those receivers are back? He's not going to be able to run as much because of the hamstring. I think he'll top three.

Maybe that'll be my bold prediction this week on FFT on Sunday. Kyler will get 400 yards, but he might have 400 yards. No, because I don't know how many touchdowns he'll get with it, but he'll be top 400 and no touchdowns. No, one touchdown to like Trey McBride

or something just to mess. He has two 400-yard games in his career. That surprised me. And he has four games to 380 or more. All right, so let's hope we get those wide receivers. But would you still start him over, say, Kirk Cousins if Marquise Brown doesn't play? If we find out on Sunday that Brown's not going to play? No.

I think it's just, you know, unless we get word Sunday that he is 100% fine, you know, full practice on Saturday, good to go, I would consider it. All right. This is a tough freaking game. Got to worry about that. Because James Conner is also difficult. I mean, I'm going to go ahead and guarantee you that James Conner

is not going to have a good yards per carry in this game. Way to go out on a limb. He never does, and the Niners are just incredible against the run. They are the best against running backs in fantasy, 3.25 yards per carry. But you know, you're getting a lot of, a lot of work from James Connor.

So Connor or David Montgomery, Montgomery. Oh, Connor or Patterson. Patterson. Wow. I'm struggling on that one. I currently have Connor ranked higher

because I'm I feel better about his chances to get north of 15 touches. And he could have four or five catches. So in PPR, I think I'll say Connor. But in non-PPR, I think Patterson makes a little

more sense. And again, just going back to Patterson, not playing a lot in those first two games back, that worries me a little bit. It gives me some spilkies. Well, the first game back, I mean, he had 17 carries. He did, but he only played 40% of the snap, dude. I don't care. When he was on the field, the game worked.

Cordero Patterson? Is that what he said? Yeah. Oh, he had 13 carries the first game back. 13 for 77 in the touchdown? Cordero Patterson? No. 13 for 44 in the touchdown?

Two touchdowns against the Chargers. I'm sorry I did this, everybody. Would you start Garrett Wilson or James Conner? I think I like Wilson better in PPR. I might take Conor and non. Would you start Kadarius, Tony or James Conor? Tony. Yeah.

Tony. Okay. And we talked about the Arizona wide receivers. Don't start Trey McBride. Maybe you want to stash him. I don't know. And the 49ers defense is top three. Are they going to be top three if Kyler Murray plays?

Are they going to be a must three if Kyler Murray plays? Are they going to be a must start if Kyler Murray plays? I would probably drop them behind the Saints and the Commanders, but they're still starting. Detroit's at the Giants. How about this? The Lions are ninth in points per game. The Giants are ninth in points allowed per game. Detroit sees the

most air yards per pass attempt. Teams throw very deep on them. The Giants, or Daniel Jones, has the fourth lowest air yards per pass attempt. Teams throw very deep on them. The Giants, or Daniel Jones, has the fourth lowest air yards per pass attempt in football. This is a weird matchup to me. Very, very different teams stylistically. Giants are three-point favorites and obviously the Lions

are playing a little bit better lately. So, you guys like Daniel Jones better than Jared Goff. Do you want to make the case for either of them as a starter this week? Jared Goff will be you want to make the case for either of them as a starter this week? Jared Goff will be better if Josh Reynolds plays and maybe DJ Chark is activated for this game. So I think just lacking playmakers in the passing game is a problem

for him, and especially if he's counting on his running backs to make plays in the passing game. The Giants allow the fewest running back receptions on the season, only 23 catches to the position. So DeAndre Swift, that's kind of what's been saving him. I don't think you want to start that to begin with, but you know, if you're counting on him making plays in the passing game significantly, the track record against this team would say no, but if he gets Reynolds back, if he gets Chark again, you know, it's, it's at least

some semblance of more competent receivers alongside Amaro St. Brown. So that was my concern from last week, despite the matchup, you know, he didn't have just a lot of options to help him, to support him, to, you know, lift him up. And so at least Reynolds you've seen at, at points this season, his best game this season, Reynolds was a big part of that, the Seattle game. But losing Hawkinson, not having other guys, it's just, I think a little bit disconcerting for, for Derek off ceiling. He's going to get blitzed out of his cleats too.

They're going to come after him. And that's been his poison whenever he's been on the field basically in his NFL career uh Daniel Jones has taken on the Lions case closed the Lions have allowed five running backs to run five quarterbacks excuse me to run for 20 or more yards only one failed to get more than 20 fantasy points it was Aaron Rodgers when he had the three interceptions. He had 40 yards rushing in the game. Daniel Jones has one game this season under 20 yards rushing. So if those numbers hold, good opportunity for Daniel Jones to use his legs. Now, last time I said that was against Seattle,

he didn't run. Yeah, I didn't think he would in that game, but I think he might a little bit in this game, and he's going to have open receivers in this game too. Not that he's throwing to, you know to the most amazing receiving core on the planet. He might be sad because he's the Lions, and even though their receiving core is crappy, it might be better than what the Giants have.

But I think Daniel Jones is better. Leafs and Downs are better than what the Giants have. I think it's St. Brown alone. Yeah. Sure. Yeah, but it is a pretty bad group of receivers in this game you know saint brown towering at his height uh over who's the best tight end in this game yeah i think actually tanner hudson is kind of interesting he gets it you know the giants use their tight

ends in a pretty sneaky way uh but nobody's starting Tanner Hudson. Daniel Jones, you guys have, I think, outside the top 12, but not far, around 13 or 14 this week. Actually, Dave, do you have him 12th? Check the update. Daniel Jones is 12th for me as of now. Kyler will bump him down if Kyler plays. Ah, okay.

You wouldn't start Heineke over him, guys? I would not. Okay, because both guys have matchups against teams that are terrible against the run, so I'm sure you're thinking both teams are going to run the ball a lot. All right, we have obviously some good quarterbacks on by, so that pushes players like Daniel Jones up. You're sitting off.

You're starting. Your borderlines start on Jones. Okay, start Barkley. Jamie, give me the rundown on the Lions running backs. Not the easiest of matchups. Giants have done a nice job against the run, but you know what you're getting with Jamal Williams. You're getting a lot of volume.

If he scores, you'll be very happy with what you're getting. If he doesn't score, like we saw two weeks ago, 24 carries, 81 yards, no catches, got a two-point conversion to save him there. That's the, I think, the drawback to Jamal Williams. So the work in the passing game has been non-existent.

Again, tough matchup even if he was getting the work in the passing game. So by default, with all the running backs that we're missing this week and the injuries, I think he's still a number two running back, but not a, oh my God, I'm excited to have Jamal Williams this week. So he could have a two-touchdown game. That wouldn't be crazy, but that's what he needs to do. It needs to score. DeAndre Swift, I think at this point you're seeing he's now facing a timeshare for the

number two job with Justin Jackson. And so while he's found the end zone and when he's on the field, he looks fantastic. I just don't understand why they are not giving him more opportunities or he just may not be earning them for whatever reason. I'm going to guess it's more injury related. But at this point, DeAndre Swift is a flex at best. And I just don't think you're going to get a great game unless he scores.

But he just hasn't been doing that consistently from a rushing perspective. So we've talked with kind of a tepid endorsement for David Montgomery, James Conner, Cordero Patterson. Are you starting Jamal Williams over those guys? I don't know. But they're all in the same range. I mean, you know, you're splitting hairs, I think.

Montgomery versus Williams, Patterson versus Montgomery, Williams versus Conner. You know, they're all... To me, Conner and Williams are the same from a volume standpoint. The difference is Conner is going to make plays in the passing game. Williams is not. You know, Montgomery, better matchup. Patterson, better matchup Patterson better matchup,

but Williams might out touch them just from a, a pure volume standpoint. So it's, again, it comes down to, I think what you need format, you know, Williams is just,

you know, getting a lot of work. That's the, that's the saving grace for him. He gets like 15 touches a week, which is pretty good. I think, I think all these running backs are going to get there though.

Montgomery is my favorite. I currently have Connor and backs are going to get there, though. Montgomery's my favorite. I currently have Connor and PPR over Patterson and then Jamal. All four top 20 running backs. I have all four of them ahead of Deontay Foreman. The Giants' stats against running backs kind of sums up the Giants' season. They are allowing the third most yards per carry to running backs and the most yards per catch to running backs, yet somehow they are allowing the fifth fewest fantasy points to running backs and the most yards per catch to running backs. Yet somehow they are allowing the fifth fewest fantasy points to running

backs. Uh, it's just weird there. They haven't been a good run defense. I think they're getting better. Dexter Lawrence is, is playing at a pro bowl level. Um,

in fact, Damian Pierce had a terrible game last week, except for one 44 yard carry with Dexter Lawrence off the field. Um, so he, so they have good defensive tackles, but for some reason, 5.4 yards per carry to running backs.

Absolutely terrible, yet they just don't give up a lot of fantasy points to them. Detroit wide receivers start St. Brown, and that's it. And that's it for this game. Slayton, we can do a little bit of Slayton-ish stuff here. Slayton or Zeke, if Zeke plays? Slayton-ish stuff here. Slayton or Zeke, if Zeke plays? Slayton.

I'll take Slayton in PPR, Zeke in non-PPR. Slayton or Jamal Williams in full PPR? Slayton. I'll take Jamal. The Lions have allowed 17.9 or more PPR fantasy points to 10 wide receivers in nine games. Big only concern, not

only concern, but big concern is do they put Okuda on Slayton and limit him? I don't know. All right, that's it for this game. Rams, it's Saints. Stat of the game, nine wide receivers, kind of similar to what I just said about the Lions. Nine wide receivers have scored

17 or more fantasy points, PPR fantasy points, against the Rams. They've gotten better, but that's a lot. So, Chris Olave. Dave, what do you think about Chris Olave this week? I think his upside makes him a number

two fantasy wide receiver. I still think he's the best option in the passing game, certainly outside of five yards of the line of scrimmage for the new Orleans saints. He's had a couple of bad games. I would, uh, I don't know if I'm ready to call this the Joe boo week for him, where if he doesn't come through, then that's it. We're done. Chris Olave banished to the bench, but I feel like we're kind of close to it. I'm happy to start him knowing that that upside is so

good. I got a weird feeling that the Saints are going to have to throw in this one. A, maybe they want to, but I think the Rams give them a game. Give them a game, yeah, but does that mean they have to throw? I mean, that implies that they're going to. I don't see that at here, here are any Dalton's past attempts in seven

games, 28, 24, 32, 47. That was the game where he threw two pick sixes, 30, 29, and 27. He is almost always in the 27 to 32 pass attempt range, which he'll be, he'll be over 30 pass attempts. All right. I mean, you're expecting the Rams to have to force him in that situation. I can't see that. I think this Saints defense is A, not good, and B, exhausted. They played over 80 snaps last week. I don't care. Look what they're facing this week.

This is the worst offense in the NFL. It's a bad offense, but they're going to find ways. I think they're going to find ways to run the ball. I think Daryl Henderson has a sneaky play this week as a flex. Where is this coming from? For the Rams, against the Saints. With that offensive line? With that defense. The defense is

terrible for New Orleans, and they've played back-to-back games where they've been on the field a lot. Daryl Henderson just had six carries for 21 yards and a touchdown against the Cardinals. What? I don't, I just, where's this confidence coming from? I'm using him in DFS this week, but obviously there are a lot of touches to go around without Cooper cup.

You know, we, we've never seen them with Stafford and no cup. Uh, he's their entire offense and it's, it is, it does make things pretty interesting because the saints defense isn't, isn't good.

You're right about that. Uh, and they probably have to try to run the ball more. Um, Higby is really interesting because he has the toughest matchup on paper. The saints give up the fewest fantasy points to tight ends, but he got very involved

in the fourth quarter of that game without Cooper Cup. Was that because of the score? Was that because no Cooper Cup? I don't know. Let's keep this game kind of simple here because you're not starting the quarterbacks. Kamara, you have ranked a little bit low. I know he's got two bad games in a row. I'll just say they've had the ball for about 21 minutes on average

in each of the last two games. Absolutely terrible game scripts. It's not going to be that bad. Defense on the field. Yeah, but that's extremely bad. And the defense being on the field a lot, Dave, is also partially the offense's fault. Let's be real here.

So you're going to start Kamara when it's all said and done. Olave's the number two guy. Dave's got a hunch on the Rams. But I think Higby's interesting. And Jamie, what do you think about Higby? What do you think about the Rams' pass catchers, basically? The only one you should be starting is Higby. That's it.

So, I mean, you've got to be desperate to be starting Allen Robinson, who could not make plays when he had lesser coverage, when he had Cooper Cup on the field. I mean, this Rams team is... But isn't this more targets for him? It could be. But are you trusting Allen Robbins at this point? I mean, you know, it's...

This week, maybe. This week, maybe. Maybe. I would start him over that crap fest of... I would start him over Terrace Marshall fest of of uh i would start him over terrence marshall yes nico collins if that's if that's your starting point then yes both rams guys are better than terrence marshall baker makes is he is he 10 ppr points i mean that would be his fourth best game of the season tied for third best game of the season i think he gets to 10, baby.

All right. See how it plays out. 5 for 50 for Allen Robinson. Right, exactly. Right. Did Van Jefferson do that too? Yes. I mean, they couldn't score when they had the best receiver in the world. Now you take him away.

Yeah. Tyler Higbee or Jawan Johnson? Higbee. Higbee. It's closer in non-PPR. Tyler Higbee or Greg Dulcich? Dulcich. Higbee. Higby. It's closer in non-PPR. Tyler Higby or Greg Dulcich? Dulcich. Higby.

Higby or Pitts? Higby. I do have Higby higher in PPR than Dulcich. Higby over Pitts. Saints or Rams? DST. Saints, but they're both startable. I would not be surprised if the Rams just check out.

This is so bad. It's absolutely so bad. I don't think they're quitting. I don't think Aaron Donald has that in him. But they were bad when they had good players on offense. Now they're bad. This offensive line is so bad. It is so bad.

I don't mean to insult the fan bases here, but I'm just going to tell you, I don't give one crap about that game. That game is an absolute nothing. Saints and Rams. Obviously, for fantasy purposes, I do. But in terms of who wins, don't care at all. I'm going to guess outside of the diehard of diehard.

They don't care either. We got a name for the next sequel. Washington at Houston, our last game. Stat of the game. Look at the Washington run defense the last three weeks. Jonathan Taylor scored 5.6 PPR fantasy points. Dalvin Cook caught a touchdown and got to 13.6 PPR fantasy points. Miles Sanders, 5.4.

Damian Pierce's four straight games with 12.2 to 15.7 PPR fantasy points. Miles Sanders, 5.4. Damian Pierce has four straight games with 12.2 to 15.7 PPR fantasy points. So he's been good, but not great. He does have 117 or more total yards in five of his last six games, though. But tough matchup. Would you start Damian Pierce or Alvin Kamara this week?

Kamara. I will take Pierce. All right. I will take Pierce. All right. I'm sure people are going to start them. Now, let's go back to that group of running backs. I would hope. With, you know, we'll take Gibson and Robinson.

Connor, Montgomery, Patterson. Where do they compare to those guys? In the same range. You know, I think the best thing is obviously the matchup, the Texans think. So there's a chance for both of those guys to do very similar to what they did last week, maybe even better when they both scored 14 PPR points. But they can oblige each other a little bit.

You know, I mean, you would say Brian Robinson's getting 26 carries should be a monster game. He just hasn't exactly had the best rushing average. So, you know, is this 26 for a hundred? Is it 26 for 80 again? You know, so I think that's the, the, the worry there Gibson probably needs to score because I don't think you're going to be throwing the ball to him a lot because they're probably not chasing points. So there's a chance for both of them to be, again, both score, both have good numbers, but unfortunately, because there are two of them and you're probably looking at 30 total touches,

at least for the two of them. Well, they both have Uber success with them. Uber. Who do you have right now? Gibson and PPR Robinson. I agree with that. The one thing I'll say is that if, if we're wrong about how this game is going to go, that helps Gibson's numbers more so than Robinson's. Texans give the commanders a game. Maybe it's back and forth. Brandon Cook shows up finally. That's kind of built into Gibson's value this week, if you ask me. Not saying that that's what's going to happen. It could very easily be a commander's blowout.

That's why I've got Gibson higher. He's safer. He's not as touchdown dependent as Bryan Robinson. When you look at the Ravens running backs, the Jets running backs, the commanders running backs, who are the best?

Commanders. You said commanders, J commanders jets and who ravens ravens yeah that's not close for me oh i'm taking drake ahead of oh i got gibson once but i have a gibson drake robinson in ppr okay i bet in non-ppr i've got drake at the top of the list if you look at what the trends have been this should should be a great game for McLaurin and a bad game for Curtis Samuel. The Texans are terrific against the slot and really struggle against some outside receivers. Anybody who's had a good game has been an outside receiver against the Texans.

Is that kind of how you guys see it? Yes, McLaurin? No, Samuel? Yes. Now, what about Samuel versus Paris Campbell, Michael Pittman? yes yeah now what about samuel versus paris campbell michael pitman um behind him yeah behind what about samuel versus slayton slayton okay how about curtis samuel versus alan robinson in the battle of the 10 PPR point stars? I'll take Samuel.

I don't want to take Robinson. I'll take Robinson. You can make the case for him. Just because if the commanders run the ball a whole lot, there's not a lot left there for Samuel. But I'd still take Samuel. Sit Davis Mills. We didn't talk about Taylor Heineke.

You just think they're going to run too much? I just think it's 20 fantasy points. Heineke is 15 to 18 points. Okay. Start Pierce. Which wide receiver do you prefer for the Texans, Cooks or Collins? Collins.

I think you've got to make the shift to Collins. Okay. He's only 45% rostered. So you can, you know, you can stash them if you'd like, or you can start them in a three receiver league. And that's pretty much it for this game. Well,

yeah. Nico Collins or Curtis Samuel, Alan Robinson. Nico on PPR. Okay, what about Brandon Cooks or those guys? Makes me want to puke. I'd start Cooks over them. I don't think I can do that.

It's a good matchup here. Washington's defense has played a lot better, there's no question. Still not a bad matchup for wide receivers. They were tough last week against the Eagles, but the week before that, Justin Jefferson at 115 yards. Actually, they really are getting better. Anyway, Commanders, DST, top seven. Comparing Justin Jefferson to Brandon Cooks makes sense.

Right, that's the thing. They're really only getting crushed lately by Jefferson. Yeah, Devontae Smith caught it. I think it would be pretty cool to see all four teams in the East for both conferences make the playoffs. Yeah, it's possible. It's insane.

That's it for today's show. Thanks for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow with the mailbag. Or if you're watching on YouTube, we'll talk to you later this afternoon with the mailbag. There's also a lot going on with the Bills and their travel.

They're having a tough time getting to Detroit. So we'll, of course, keep you updated on all of these developments. We'll talk to you later this afternoon with the mailbag. There's also a lot going on with the bills and their travel. They're having a tough time getting to Detroit. So we'll, of course, keep you updated on all of these developments. You know what they should trade for? Phil Burrow. Phil Burrow, yeah. That's right. Oh, you were going with the Burrowing.

Yeah, yeah, I went with the other joke. All right, I got to work on that. I got to work on that. We'll talk to you later, everybody. See you.