Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (NFC); Zeke or Taysom Rest of Season? (12/03 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 3, 2021

Recapping the Cowboys-Saints game and we of course focus on Taysom Hill and Ezekiel Elliott. Was Hill's performance encouraging or discouraging? Is Tony Pollard the Cowboys RB to start now? ... News and notes (12:00) with updates on Melvin Gordon, Odell Beckham and Miles Sanders among others. And then we've got Beat the Waiver Wire (18:00) and one question for each game on today's slate (22:00). Are we confident in anyone in the Eagles or Seahawks passing games? Will Kyle Pitts or Van Jefferson come through this week? ... Start or Sit for 49ers-Seahawks (27:15), Cardinals-Bears (38:00), Eagles-Jets (46:40), Vikings-Lions (58:30), Jaguars-Rams (1:50:40) and Bucs-Falcons (1:11:30) ... Email us at [e-mail] 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. Happy Friday, folks. This is touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. Happy Friday, folks. Not so much if you started Ezekiel Elliott last night. If you were lucky enough, maybe smart enough, to start Tony Pollard, well done. Adam Azer here with Dave Richard. We're going to break down the Saints and the Cowboys. We've got a fun trivia question from Dave at the start of the show.

The six games we're looking at today. I have something in my throat, Dave. San Francisco. Consul. I don't tell you what it is. San Francisco, Seattle, Arizona, Chicago, Philadelphia and the Jets, Minnesota, Detroit, Jacksonville

at the Rams and Tampa Bay and Atlanta. Dave, I ate a cookie for breakfast and some of the crumbs are making my throat very scratchy. Oh, I hope you cookie for breakfast and some of the crumbs are making my throat very scratchy. Oh, I hope you're on a acid reflux. That would be a terrible way to start your Friday. Yeah, it would. Would a cookie give you that? What kind of cookie do you eat? Was it an oatmeal raisin cookie? No, my mom sent cookies for the holidays to really the kids, but I've eaten almost all of them. They're very good. Yeah.

Oh, we've all been there. Thank goodness for kids. We get fed so much more. So much more. Yeah. Okay, so Dave, what's our trivia question to start the show? Okay, first of all, that Cowboys-Saints game, there's going to be a theme to that game that I'll talk about.

It's a word that rhymes with a bad word. It ends with UCK, but it's the L word luck. How many plays in this game were run inside of 10 yards or closer between both teams? So you asked me this earlier, right? The green zone. You asked me this earlier. I can't remember one. So I'm going gonna say zero well there was definitely one because michael gallup had a one yard oh that was it that was that was it

the only play in the game from 10 yards or closer was that play weird game strange game uh we'll talk about it. Let's talk about it. Yeah, let's talk. And you know, at the time, I thought to myself, that was probably the only chance that Ezekiel Elliott is going to have to give me a respectable fantasy game. He's going to have to have that touchdown plunge. And he didn't have it.

They threw that really nice pass and catch to Michael Gallup. But 27-17. Who would you rather have rest of season, Taysom Hill or Ezekiel Elliott? Is it weird if I say Taysom Hill? You know, I don't like saying it. I don't like that that's my answer, but, I mean, facts are facts.

Taysom Hill proved that he's still very capable of running the football. I might even argue he looked better running the football in that game than he did in any of the other games from last year. How did he look throwing the football? That was awful. And that's what I was expecting was a terrible passing game from Taysom Hill. He was an absolute nightmare.

Four interceptions. There's no getting around it. He was bad. No velocity,ceptions. There's no getting around it. He was bad. No velocity, no zip on the football. Yeah. And there are major concerns about the rest of that new Orleans offense moving forward.

But I think that that rushing upside is now that we know that it's there. I think that you've got to kind of bake that into how you feel about him moving forward. I wasn't sure if it was going to be there with the foot injury and Mark Ingram being available and everything else. Zeke, on the other hand, dude,

he's, he's stopping his feet behind the line of scrimmage. The offensive line did not get any push for him or Pollard throughout the game. That's a problem. It's been a problem that's been happening for a couple of weeks now. And I could see that workload continue to decline for Ezekiel Elliott.

Still right around 65% of the snaps in the game. He's somebody that I don't think you can look at as even a top 15 running back anymore. I think he's going to be close to a low-end number two running back. Touchdown-dependent running back in the future. He's hobbling around. I think that they're really doing a disservice to their team.

I'm sorry to say it in fact i i try i didn't have time to read it but there's an article that i have on my computer right now oh i'm not allowed to read it anyway it's behind a paywall and it says it's well you'd be allowed to if you weren't such a cheapskate yeah it's from the fort worth star telegram and the headline said ezekiel elliott needs uh ezekiel elliott and layton vanderesh should not be starting for the dallas cowboys so right but an Van Der Esch should not be starting for the Dallas Cowboys. Right. But an article saying that they should not start doesn't mean that they won't. And not starting doesn't mean anything.

He cannot start a game and still see 66% of the snaps or whatever it's been. So it's a coaching decision. They seem to believe that Ezekiel Elliott gives them the better chance to win. And Tony Pollard had that amazing run. He had a little bit of help on that run. There should have been called back. If we're being honest, he had a lucky play too.

And I don't, I don't know if Pollard, you know, made the case that he should be the every down back for the cow. Was he more explosive than Zeke? No doubt about it, but he was just as bad. Take away that one big run that he had.

I don't know if it's necessarily all on Zeke. He looks slower, but that line is a big problem. And when they can't run the football, we've seen it before. When they can't run the football effectively, Dak struggles a little bit more. Yeah, and the Saints have the best run defense in football. Give them a little credit. They gave up that long run to Tony Pollard.

And other than that, they were outstanding. It was a 58-yard touchdown run for Pollard. Dak did struggle. He ended up with 13 fantasy points. That's his third worst game of the season. He scored 29 fantasy points last week. He's been really good. I mean,

he had, he had a horrible game without lamb and Cooper, mostly without lamb against Kansas city. He had a bad game earlier this year against the Chargers. We actually played great. It was like 22 of 26. This was a weird performance. Not a great performance. Any concerns about

Dak? Yes, obviously. Why? I think you're still going to start him. I don't think that Dak is someone that you're going to suddenly cut for Taysom Hill or anything like that off the waiver wire, but you've got to suddenly cut for Taysom Hill or anything like that off the waiver wire. But you've got to worry about him not coming through for multiple touchdowns. And again, no good offensive line helping that run game puts a lot more on Dak's shoulders.

It makes their job a little bit easier to defend him. And they were moving the ball. They moved the ball fairly well in the game. It seems very harsh. He's been one of the best quarterbacks in fantasy. He's been a stud every week. Games like this are going to make you take a pause. Why, though?

I mean, should they? A little bit. Look, I'm not saying you should cut him or bench him. What was Cooper's snap count? Amari Cooper? Yeah. I'd have to look that up. He didn't play much.

He didn't do much. Two catches for 41 yards on two targets. So you think that that's the key? He played 21 snaps out of 69. Yeah, I think he's got one of the best receiving cores in football. I think the running backs give him something in the passing game. I think it wasn't a great night for Dak Prescott. But if you look at all the quarterbacks that have struggled,

I mean, Brady's had three rough games in a row. Stafford's been terrible. I know he scored a lot of points last week, but we'll talk about him later. He's been bad lately. Josh Allen had a stretch. I mean, this is the third game all year with fewer than 22 fantasy points.

The fourth game with fewer than 25 fantasy points. I just can't... I know, I mean, look, maybe there are some concerns. You're calming me down. You're easing the fears a little bit. Yeah, calm down, calm down. But again, for the third time i'm not saying you should cut or bench dac prescott right okay uh true trae kwan smith marquis calloway deontay

harris little jordan humphrey any interest there no okay i'm i am scared to start any saints player any camara name a Saints player. Kamara? I'm scared to start. Scared. At the Jets next year? Actually, I'm not scared, as long as he's on the inactive list. I'm cool with it,

because then I don't have to worry about starting him. But Taysom Hill being there, how many catches did Mark Ingram have? He had one. How many targets did he have? But Ty Montgomery had four. Okay. But I don't know if that's necessarily going to mean

that Alvin Kamara is going to get four-plus every time he plays. And every time that Taysom Hill runs with the ball, that's a carry or a catch that the running backs don't get. And they didn't have any snaps inside the 10-yard line. What's going to happen when they eventually do figure out a way to get inside the 10-yard line? They play the Jets next week. I think they're going to get there.

So you're going to start Alvin Kamara, but I don't know if we can start him with the same type of confidence that we did earlier this year. Dave, I've got to be honest with you. I'm not really feeling your Friday vibe right now. I had a cookie this morning. I obviously am excited

for the weekend. Maybe we should have done this game last. Is there something you're excited about today or this weekend or in the football slate? I'm excited about the rest of the slate. This game was definitely... Hey, dude, I'm thrilled about

CeeDee Lamb. I think the Cowboys DSE was worthy of a start. They did good. That part was great. Gallup had the nice touchdown. That was helpful. dalton schultz i was worried about him i lost the prop that i had on him but i won the the notion that he shouldn't be a starter nine ppr points not so good and tasem hill is 59 percent roster let's finish on this couple things with tasem hill one he hurt his finger in the game which made his throwing

even worse and it was bad before the finger, but he played most of the game with a splint on his finger. He threw 41 times. That is just so unusual for Taysom Hill. All of the targets that you see for these Saints wide receivers, I wouldn't expect it again next week at the Jets. It's at the Jets. At the Jets, and then they're at Tampa Bay and then Miami. Really good matchup next week. You may have the confidence to start Taysom Hill

as a top 12 quarterback next week. And then I don't know if you can do it again after that. Okay, and that would be it from that game. I think Dave is excited for Sunday, and you should all be excited to watch CBS Sports HQ on Sunday, 10 a.m. Eastern until 1 p.m., right up until kickoff. So check out CBS Sports HQ. You can watch it on the CBS Sports app. You can download that on your Amazon Fire, your Roku, your Apple TV, whatever it

is. I watch on my Roku all the time. CBS Sports HQ, always streaming, always great sports content, a lot of gambling, a lot of fantasy, but 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sunday to get you ready for the games. Meanwhile, DFS is cool. It's always fun to set a DFS lineup. You have the best lineup you have in any of your leagues. You just get a bunch of studs in there. How about I had Tony Pollard in my captain spot and Lil Jordan Humphrey on my lineup in my DraftKings squad yesterday?

Did you cash? All right, way to go. I'm a millionaire now. Oh, hey, congratulations. All right. Well, Dave probably didn't listen to the DFS, Fantasy Football DFS podcast. Sorry, Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast,

but he probably would be worth even more millions had he done so. It's Frank Stample, Mike McClure, and Sian Najad giving you cash and GPP analysis on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is the Fantasy Football Today DFS podcast twice a week. You can download it wherever you're listening to FFT.

By the way, so we mentioned yesterday the Spotify Wrapped is out. And you can see, like I can look on my Spotify right now, you can see what you've been listening to the most. And it tells you how many minutes you've listened to your 2021 year in review you

want to hear my top songs sure this is gonna be uh oh it's all it's all stuff that my son listens to really it was sure keep fishing by weezer is number one i really would have thought it would be something else uh but yeah fantasy football today Today is my top show. Some people have streamed our show for 8,000 or more minutes this year. So that is incredible dedication. Thank you. Yes. Thank you, Fade. That's amazing.

Right? Amazing. We really appreciate it. All right. Antonio Brown has suspended three games for violating the COVID protocols. So here's the question. Can you still stash him on the IR?

He's not on IR. On some sites, you're allowed to stash him on the IR just because he's out. If he's suspended, I don't think he can. This is such crap, man. He's supposed to be out the next two games with an injury anyway. In our leagues, no, you can't put him in IR

because he's not on ir they never did that nope not on cbs i'm gonna let your commissioner set the settings where it doesn't matter what the guy's designation is you can just put the guy on ir i'm gonna let you be the judge here should i go on a little bit of a a rant that's not about football and it's not about vaccines either it's it's not about vaccines either. It's not about politics. But this Antonio... Can you save it toward the end of the show?

Because I want to get to the games. I know we have a lot of games to get to. Okay, okay. You have to remind me. I'm really mad about Antonio Brown. Narrator. Dave is not going to remind Adam. Everything.

It's just... I'm mad at the Bucs. All right. Josh Jacobs was limited with an ankle injury. So we'll see. Is it about not putting him on IR? Is that the rant? No. It's about how many times.

He should not be in football. No, no, later in the show. Okay. But he shouldn't be. After we hit the end button. No, at the end. I'm going on the rant. Oh, God.

Darren Waller, mispractice, not surprising. Max Crosby, mispractice, not surprising. Deshaun Jackson has a calf issue. He doesn't think it's a big deal. Those areer mispracticed. Not surprising. Max Crosby mispracticed. Not surprising. Deshaun Jackson has a calf issue. He doesn't think it's a big deal. Those are your Raiders notes. Hopkins and Murray look like they're going to play. We expect them to play.

Woo-hoo! Daryl Henderson and Odell Beckham mispracticed. It's looking a little murky for Odell Beckham right now against Jacksonville. Which is too bad because he did look good last week. And don't... I wouldn't just pencil in daryl henderson i still want to you know we got to see him practice on friday see if sony michelle is on your waiver wire stash him right now if he can meanwhile san francisco linebackers dre green

law and fred warner mispractice they're at you know that's the new score. Gerald Everett? Adrian Peterson. Melvin Gordon missed practice. He is 50-50 to play. That would be big, obviously. Oh, I would love it if he missed the game. No offense, Mel. We are hesitant on them this week, on the Broncos running backs, if they both play. But where would you rank Javante Williams if Gordon were out?

If Melvin were out, Javante would be a must-start fantasy running back of the number two ilk. I would probably have him very close to 15th in PPR rankings. So, how about

Jamal Williams or Javante in this scenario? I respect the Chiefs' run defense. Really, the last seven weeks, they've been great against the run. I don't think they've allowed a touchdown to a running back in those seven games.

And that's pretty much the basis for it. So he'll be a running back that gets a lot of work. I think I'd lean toward Jamal Williams. As terrible as that feels to say, I can't believe I'm saying it, but I'm going to go with what the odds are of a player having a better game. Jamal Williams with a full workload against Minnesota,

I think will do better than Javante Williams with a full workload against Kansas City. By the way, Mark Ingram, huge bust. We didn't really talk about that. No, we didn't. But again, see, that's what got me on the trail of being nervous about starting any Saints player. Because not only did he stink with the carries he had,

he didn't get a lot of carries, and he didn't have many catches either. And Ty Montgomery actually played more snaps than Mark Ingram. That was very disappointing. That's not going to happen next week. And it's not just because they were trailing late and Ty Montgomery was in the hurry-up offense. They were splitting all the way through the fourth quarter. Okay, but Ty Montgomery's not going to play more snaps than Alvin Kamara,

and they hopefully will get... I sure as heck hope not. It's not going to happen. They could hopefully get their starting tackles back as well. They had their two starting tackles out. All right, back to the notes. Phillip Lindsey mispractice. Daniel Jones' status is apparently up to the doctors. It's mispracticed. Daniel Jones' status is apparently

up to the doctors. It's a bit of a strange situation. Cole Komet practiced. Justin Fields was limited. Joe Hayden

mispracticed for Pittsburgh. Does not look like he's going to play. You guys are ranking Andy Dalton, by the way. Just go back to

that Justin Fields thing. Still, we're expecting Dalton. Tampa Bay looks like they're getting cornerback Carlton Davis back this week. Corey Davis mispractice.

We're going to talk about Elijah Moore shortly. Jalen Hurts was limited. He looks like he's going to go. Boston. Miles Sanders is going to start or he's going to play. And Boston Scott mispractice with an illness. What about Jordan Howard? He hasn't practiced yet this week.

I would not expect him to play. A few Kansas City notes coming off their bye. Rashad Fenton, who got hurt in their last game. He missed practice. He's a cornerback for them. Reserve cornerback? Maybe Nickel? Don't know.

No, I think he's a starter. Okay. I might be wrong on that. I know they have Snead and the other guy, Lejarich and Ward. All right, anyway. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Kansas City right tackle Lucas Niang a mispractice as well.

Baltimore has two pretty significant injuries right now on defense. I don't know. I didn't think it was too serious, but Marlon Humphrey and Odafe Owe mispractice. And ready? Owe's a big one. Humphrey and Odafe Owe mispractice. And ready? Owe's a big one. Humphrey's is a big one, too. Humphrey's a big one, yeah.

But I don't know if he's as great of a shutdown corner as he once was. I still think he's their best corner, though. That may be factual. Rashad Penny and Travis Homer practice in full. Everybody's practicing for the Seahawks, which brings us to beat the waiver wire. Dave, what about Rashad Penny? I really feel like they want him to be the running back there. Any interest in picking him up as a stash?

You can definitely stash him. I really find it hard to believe that he's going to end up being a 15-touch guy in this offense. I don't know how much more they can really trust him. Given how many opportunities they've given him since they drafted him. And he's botched every single one. And that offensive line isn't very good. Yeah.

Well, so we're talking about Rashad Penny here. We're looking at players that you could stash right now. Like if you've been stashing Rex Burkhead. And there's really no reason to stash Rex Burkhead unless you're just paper thin at running back. You could make the switch from Burkhead to Penny. I just want to check one thing here before we move on. Week 11 against the Cardinals. He started.

He started. He got hurt after one carry. Yeah. That sounds like Rashad penny in a nutshell yeah and that i mean that's alex collins but but what i'm saying is he did start that game so it's a long shot he's got to stay healthy but i do think that there's a chance that rashad penny uh can become the starter okay so zero chance that he's going to be in a fantasy lineup this week for them against the 49ers.

Next week, they're at Houston. So if he shows out this week and Rashad Penny just bucks the trend and shows that he can stay healthy and strong and give the Seahawks a good run game, you may consider starting him at Houston. After that, it's the Rams, it's the Bears, it's the Lions. So a couple more interesting matchups. That's why he's a stash.

Alex Cash wants to know if you'd stash Penny or Singletary. I don't know if Singletary has that much upside, to be honest. So he's not as much fun, but he's going to play. He's going to probably lead the Bills running backs in snaps. Yeah, look, the Seahawks have a terrible run game and a bad offense so i'm not saying i just i know there's one league that i have no choice but to start alex collins most weeks because i'm just hoping he gets 10 carries and one of them finds the end

zone you know so if you're in that situation uh that's why i'm mentioning penny another guy amir abdullah he is five percent roster. And maybe he's the passing downs guy. Yeah, he probably is. I think he is. Yeah. I think he is. Only PPR. I mean, we'll see what they decide coming out of the bye week

on how they want to utilize their running backs post-CMC. But I would imagine that going into the bye week, after McCaffrey left the game, Amir Abdullah not only was the passing downs guy, they were trailing, so he played a lot, played two-thirds of the snaps. So I think he's going to have a significant role behind Chippa Hubbard. I have not checked the roster percentages,

but you can take a look at the Tennessee running backs and see if they're available. I think Gerald Everett, if you need help at tight end, is interesting. He's at Houston next week. And there are a lot of DSTs. Minnesota's got Pittsburgh. Carolina's against Atlanta. Seattle's got Pittsburgh. Carolina's against Atlanta.

Seattle's at Houston. Chargers against the Giants. Denver against Detroit. If anybody drops the Denver DST this week against the Chiefs, be understandable. They get Detroit next week, so you can pick them up. Okay, both the Titans running backs. Hilliard is available in 33% of leagues.

Foreman in 38% of leagues. Oh, so Hilliard's actually more rostered than Foreman? Correct. That's interesting. Yeah, I don't mind. I would rather stash Foreman ahead of Rashad Penny or Devin Singletary or Rex Burkhead. Oh, yeah, agreed.

Okay, Dave, so yesterday we tried a new segment. I liked it. It was one question for each game. It was real quick, 30 seconds per game at most, whatever. And this will replace the start-o-meter today. San Francisco, Seattle, are you confident in anyone in the Seattle passing game? Confident?

No, not super confident. But I do think that Tyler Lockett deserves the most love. He's been getting the job done on downfield throws. It's the one thing that Russell Wilson hasn't completely stunk at. And it sounds like DK Metcalf is going to get more targets this week and get that squeaky wheel treatment. So I'm starting those guys as number two fantasy receivers. Squeaky wheel.

Arizona, Chicago is David Montgomery. A good start this week. He has two good games this season. I think you're starting them for the same reasons why you started Mark Ingram on Thursday night. He's a running back. Who's going,

who should get 15 plus touches in the case of Montgomery. He's been consistently getting a lot of work, both before his injury and after his injury. plus touches. In the case of Montgomery, he's been consistently getting a lot of work, both before his injury and after his injury. And the Cardinals run defense isn't amazing. So he's got a chance to score. Philadelphia at the Jets. Are you confident in anyone in the Eagles passing game? I am probably a little more confident in Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf than I am Devontae Smith, but I love the metrics for the matchup for Devontae Smith. I can't wait to get into that later.

Oh, okay. I've got Smith as a low-end number two fantasy receiver. There is some generous upside in play here. Do you like Smith or Elijah Moore? Smith. Okay. Elijah Moore I was nervous about last week because Zach Wilson was under center and Zach Wilson,

although he wasn't, he only threw one uncatchable pass to Elijah Moore. Uh, it still was not a great game for Elijah Moore and I have a hard time trusting him. Yeah. I know Heath likes more a lot this week because of the target. Cause it's based off of right.

Like Heath loves reciting the numbers that Elijah Moore had before Zach Wilson was back in quarterback. And that Moore was so productive with these other guys. Quality of target really matters when it comes to receivers. Perfect example is what's been going on in Seattle. Sure, yeah. But Heath's case, this will be the third game we get to, Philadelphia and the Jets. Heath's case is the Jets barely threw last week. They won, and they won, right? Yes.

Yeah, they did. They beat the Texans. The Giants and the Jets won in the same week, and New York had no idea what the hell was going on. Yeah, so anyway, the target share was still good. Just the pass volume was low, so he's just thinking he'll still get a lot of targets. Okay.

Anyway, Minnesota, Detroit, Minnesota has allowed one touchdown to a tight end this season. So does that mean we should sit TJ Hawkinson? You could, I don't think that he's a, he's ranked as a top 12 tight end,

but he's not a must start tight end. As an example, I would have started him ahead of Dalton Schultz, but in PPR, Knox is ranked ahead of him for me. No, he's not. Logan Thomas is ranked ahead of him for me. I think you can make the case for Foster

Moreau. I think you can make the case for Gerald Everett. He's dicey. That's TJ Hawkinson. Jacksonville at the Rams. Who are you starting? I have Beckham in here, but Van Yeah, he's dicey. Okay, that's TJ Hawkinson. Jacksonville at the Rams. Who are you starting? I have Beckham in here, but Van Jefferson and Odell Beckham, who are you starting them over? You have them ranked ahead of which wide receivers?

Both of them I have ranked ahead of Christian Kirk, Cole Beasley, Kenny Galladay, Jacoby Myers, Elijah Moore, Rondell Moore, Dudley Moore, Kendrick Bourne, Jawan Jennings, Tim Patrick, and Cooper Cup. Just kidding. Do you remember when Monica wanted her haircut like Demi Moore? Monica who? Monica from Friends. And someone, I think it may have been Phoebe, cut her hair like Dudley Moore.

You don't remember that? Not a Friends guy? Okay. Tampa Bay and Atlanta. Is Cordaro Patterson the only good start for the falcons this is really a kyle pitts question yes okay yeah yeah i can't wait to talk about pitts too okay well you have to wait a little while that's our last game so real quick who would you start over pitts we're saving that game for last tampa bay atlanta i mean i really feel like there's only one tough call and it's pitts So real quick, who would you start over Pitts? We're saving that game for last. Tampa Bay Atlanta. I mean, I really feel like there's only one tough call,

and it's Pitts, right? Okay, I get it. Kind of how I prioritize. Oh, so that's how you decide how we, the order in which we talk about games. Yeah, yeah. The most interesting conversations lead the show, and also the toughest start-sit decisions.

Yeah, I mean, for Tampa Bay, Patterson is interesting because you know they have such a great run defense in Tampa Bay and he wasn't, he was a true running back last week, but every time he's had a tough matchup, he comes through in the passing game. He doesn't do it in the running game, but he comes through in the passing

game, including against the Bucs. Well, he had a touchdown run against the Bucs earlier this year. Yeah, but it was terrible. Well, he had a touchdown run against the Bucs earlier this year. Yeah. It was terrible otherwise, but he had the touchdown run. All right, let's go to Seattle and San Francisco. This game in Seattle. And Seattle has allowed, they have a pretty good defense. The seventh fewest points per game in the NFL.

They have the fourth best red zone defense in football. They are going to face the Niners, who have the best red zone offense in football. A 77.4% touchdown rate. That is really, really impressive. Really, yeah. And San Francisco's rolling right now. They won four out of five with 30 or more points

in four of those wins. One game they had a defensive touchdown, but also, I mean, they're just killing it right now. So, how do you see this game playing out? Do you think the Niners still keep it going without Debo? I have a feeling he's part of that success rate in the red zone. And how does the Niners' offense look without Debo Samuel? I think they're going to lean on their run game as much as they possibly can.

I think that's the weakness of the Seahawks' defense right now. And I think that they try and just dominate with Elijah Mitchell and anybody else that they have available to them in the run game. Jeff Wilson will get a little bit of work and try and take that pressure off of Jimmy Garoppolo by running the ball. They can then use play action off that. It's a basic formula that you see West Coast offenses do all the time. Kittle could be a real good factor, obviously, as well. All right. So here's your stat of the game. Kittle could be a real good factor, obviously, as well. All right, so here's your stat of the game. We're going to look at Brandon Ayuk.

The Seahawks, in their first four games of the year, they gave up six receiving touchdowns to wide receivers. But in their last seven games, they've only given up one, and it was Jamal Agnew. In garbage time. Yeah, and they did the same thing last year, if I recall. But regardless, I mean, they've gotten so much better against wide receivers. McLaurin had 51 yards

a couple weeks ago. I think Christian Kirk had 25 yards. Yeah, Kirk had a touchdown called back in that game, too, but even if you had given him the touchdown, it's not like, wow, huge game. I went into the week really excited about Iyuk without Debo there,

but the matchup does make me a little bit nervous here. How do you feel about Brandon Iyuk? I'm still starting him as a number two fantasy receiver because of his big playability, because the 49ers have given him the opportunity to make a bunch of plays. And he came through last week, and he came through as a number two receiver last week,

and I like that. I also love how he did last year without Debo Samuel there were six games without him in four of them at least 13 with non-PPR points 20 in PPR leagues uh even at a even at a rushing touchdown yeah so two of those games were also I think they were with Kittle and one of the two he was amazing in and I think it was the one at Seattle. So he's the number one wide receiver for them. I figure he'll get a decent dose of targets.

It won't be huge unless Russell Wilson's finger is healed and he forces the issue and forces Garoppolo to throw. But I'm comfortable starting Brandon Ayuk because of the upside that he has. Okay, so I know you like Devontae Smith. Would you start Ayuk or Smith? I'd start Ayuk over Smith. But both of them are kind of the upside that he has. Okay, so I know you like Devontae Smith. Would you start Iyuk or Smith? I'd start Iyuk over Smith, but both of them are kind of the same guy.

They've got target concerns, but they've got big playability. Yeah, I think I should just get over it because the matchup scares me a little bit, but you're right about it. He was one of the best wide receivers in football without Deebo Samuel last year, so let's give that to you here.

Garoppolo is a sit. He's been playing well, but I think he's second in the NFL on yards per attempt. And over his last five games, he's averaging 9.16 yards per attempt, which is ridiculous. But I understand the hesitance there.

They run the ball a lot. It wouldn't surprise me if he ended up with 18 or 19 fantasy points, but I would be stunned if he ended up with 18 or 19 fantasy points, but I would be stunned if he had 25 plus. Elijah Mitchell is top 10 in both formats. He's had a few games recently with five catches and Seattle gives up the most receiving yards to running backs.

And this, he probably have some catches. It's good to start him. Jamie's got all the great stats on Elijah Mitchell. It's his start of the week, and I love that. The Seahawks have given up at least 99 total yards and a touchdown to a running back in five of their last six games. The only game where they didn't do that was against Jacksonville when James Robinson got hurt.

Yeah, but their run defense has actually been very good lately, and it's funny. Their run defense has been good on a per carry basis, but it never matters because they're so bad in the passing game and they give up touchdowns. They're getting crushed in time of possession, which plays right into Mitchell's hands

and the 49ers and their ability to run the ball. The only replacement running back this week that you'd start over him is Madison, not Jamal Williams, not Michelle. Madison's the only one. George Kittle is top four in both formats and let's go to the Seahawks. Russell Wilson. He's around, he's around 12th. I think you have him 12th. Same with Jamie. Heath has him 14th. He came through sort of with 22 points last week, but we know it was a struggle. So what do you think about Wilson this week? How'd you end up with him as a top 12 guy? Just barely.

There are a lot of quarterbacks that I've got some trust issues with. And I just figure that Russ Wilson is a safe bet to get right around 20 fantasy points. I thought that he was worse in week 12 than he was in week 11, but still better than he was in week 10. So he's on the right track. I think that he'll get a decent game for fantasy managers who start him. Actually, you have him 13th. You moved Wentz ahead of him, I believe.

Nope. Wentz has always been ahead of him. Okay. So Cousins, I don't know. You move someone up, but you go, oh, Burrow, maybe you go Wentz, Wilson, Carr. You go Burrow, Wentz, Wilson, Carr, Heineke. So he's right in the Carr. You go Burrow, Wentz, Wilson, Carr, Heineke. So he's right in the middle of that. Burrow, Wentz, Wilson, Carr, Heineke.

He's right in the middle. And listen, if this run game can't get going, eventually the Seahawks are going to say, all right, Russ, save us. And usually they do that in the fourth quarter, or at least in the past few years they've done that in the fourth quarter. They might have to do that in the second or third quarter

because that run game just cannot get started. So we're not starting any seahawks running backs i who would you want to even start now if you're putting me in like a death trap and the only way out is to give you a name then the name is going to be alex collins because of what you said earlier 10 carries you hope one of them ends with him in the end zone. All right. I got the chat here on YouTube. By the way, hit the like button, please. We got 445 of you in here.

And how many? I got to turn my sound off on the laptop. Sorry about that. 17 likes. What are you kidding me? 17 likes. Let's go. We can get that number up.

Please hit like right now. What I want to see here, if you have any DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett questions or Russell Wilson, anything in the Seahawks passing game, send them in right now and I'll try to read them. But let's, where did you end up ranking Metcalf and Lockett this week? They are top 24 fantasy receivers in PPR.

I think Lockett will be, I think he's earned the trust and you can start him with some confidence. DK is right behind him. But as bad as DK has been for the last three weeks, you know what the potential is. You'd hate to have that on the bench. I would consider in PPR, Jalen Waddell, Hunter Renfro ahead of both of them. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to get crazy and start like Mike Williams or Michael Pittman.

We've talked about Odell and Devante Smith. I'm not ready to start those guys ahead of a Seattle wide receiver yet either. Okay, so Metcalf or Renfro? We got this question. I would go with Renfro in full PPR. Okay, Russell Wilson or Matt Stafford? Stafford. Metcalf, Van Jefferson, and Claypool.

I need two. It would be Metcalf and Claypool for me. All right. Would that change if Odell is out? I think it might, depending on what the state of the Ravens' defense is. Because if Roethlisberger has no pressure on him, then Claypool could have a really good game.

Metcalf or Mooney, half PPR? I believe I have Mooney ranked higher. Okay. And then one more, Wilson or Wentz? I have Wentz ranked higher. Gerald Everett, Foster Moreau, who do you like? I kind of like them both. If you're making me choose between the two of them,

Everett's ranked higher. I like the target volume over the last three weeks. I think he's part of the reason why DK Metcalf hasn't given fantasy managers the numbers that they're used to. And I think he's been doing a good job. I don't see any reason why the Seahawks would get away from him. He's not amazing or anything, but he's 16% rostered. That's got to be

a little too low for Gerald Everett if you're in tight end hell. I'm sorry. You said... Easy guy to pick up and start. Everett or Moreau? What was your answer? I'm sorry. I have Everett over Moreau. Everett or Pitts? They're both top 10. Both top 8. Everett or Pitts?

Everett and Moreau over Pitts. And Greenlaw and Warner being out, I mean, I don't know how much covering of tight ends they do, but I can't imagine it's a good thing here for San Francisco, assuming they're out, which it probably will be. Warner is one of the best linebackers in football. Right. Yeah, I just don't know.

I think it's bad all the way around. Okay. So San Francisco's DST, by the way, is seventh for Dave. You can take a look at them if you'd like. We're going to take a quick break here. When we come back, I've got to talk about Darnell Mooney here because I give this stat every week, and I feel like I ignore it in my start-sit advice every week,

and maybe no more. Maybe I'm actually going to pay attention to what the Cardinals have done against top-wide receivers this year. We'll be to pay attention to what the Cardinals have done against top wide receivers this year. We'll be right back to talk about the Cardinals and the Bears after this on Fantasy Football Today. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic.

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It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. And we are rolling along on this Friday. Arizona's at Chicago. Stat of the game. Okay. I'm just going to give you the names. A.J. Brown, Julio Jones,

Justin Jefferson, Adam Thielen, Robert Woods, Cooper Cup, Brandon Cooks, Debo Samuel twice, D.J. Moore, D.K. Metcalf. Those 11 wide receivers, 65 or fewer yards. Only four of those 11 have scored. The only wide receivers with more than 65 yards against the Cardinals

are KJ Osborne, Van Jefferson, two Cleveland Browns somehow, Brandon Iyuk, and Tyler Lockett. So I keep bringing this up that Cardinals are so good against number one wide receivers. Now Mooney is going to play a little bit in the slot. So that's a good thing, but they give up the third fewest receiving yards to slot receivers too. So Dave, I just, I feel like I, it's almost like I'm ignoring everything I say. If I'm just excited about starting Darnell Mooney, which I want to be, he's got two straight 100-yard games. So you got that,

and you got the matchup. What wins out here? Do you start or do you sit Darnell Mooney? I think you start Mooney because he's not only a receiver that can make a big play and use that to potentially score a touchdown. That's always great for fantasy,

but he's been getting great target volume. Turning your back on that, even in a tough matchup is really hard to do so he's absolutely in that mix for me of a top 15 to 20 fantasy wide receiver yeah he makes big plays but guess what the cardinals give up the second fewest big pass plays in football you look at 20 plus yard pass 20-plus yard pass plays, 40-plus yard pass plays. I believe the Bills are number one. The Cardinals are number two. We'll see. They're second in both categories.

Anyway, you like Darnell Mooney? You'd start him over Metcalf? If it's not full PPR, I would start him over Metcalf. If it's full P PPR, I would start him over Metcalf. If it's full PPR, I think it's really close between the two of them. I think someone already asked us that.

I'm sorry about that. Yeah, my bad. I think when you asked, it was half PPR, right? It was half. It was half, yeah. Right. So in half PPR, sure,

but in full PPR, I'd probably go with DK just because I'm expecting to get more work. DeAndre Hopkins is coming back. I'd rather start Mooney over Hopkins. Devontae Smith, worried about target concerns. I'd rather start Mooney over Hopkins. Devontae Smith, worried about target concerns.

I'd rather start Mooney over Smith. Okay, yes, we got to talk about David Montgomery. All right, start or sit. Cardinals have, per carry, a pretty bad run defense, but they actually don't give up a lot of fantasy points to running backs. They don't see a ton of carries. So start or sit? I'm starting him because of the workload and the opportunity that he gets from game to game. A running back has scored

a touchdown in Arizona three of the last four weeks. That's a running back on the Packers, the Panthers, the Seahawks. I don't think they've only given up three 100-yard games to a running back in the last eight. So Montgomery feels like a touchdown-needy running back, but at least he's one that's going to get a lot of work. When you say 100-yard game, is that total yards or rushing yards? Total. Okay, yeah, because only Dalvin Cook has rushed for 100 yards.

It's a good run defense. They've given up some touchdowns lately. I think Montgomery is okay as a number two running back. I like him more with Dalton than Fields because Dalton will throw to him more. Sure. Just didn't do a ton of that on Thanksgiving. Yeah.

All right. He did, though, I thought. He had three catches on four targets or something. Right. For Montgomery, that's pretty good. But I wish it was a little bit more. I wish the Bears would use him a little bit more in the pass game.

Cole Komet or Zach Ertz? It's Ertz. I'm not even 100% sure that Cole Komet will be at full strength if he plays. I thought you guys ranked Ertz pretty aggressively. You're the low guy. Well, in non-PPR. I thought I was the high guy earlier this week,

and then I chickened out a little bit. Well, they've been pretty good. The Bears have been pretty good against tight ends. Not so much lately. Not lately. Yeah, yeah. I mean, Friar Muth had two touchdowns. Andrews had a big game, 73 yards.

Hawkinson caught a touchdown. Hawkinson scored, yeah, 11 or more half PPR points to a tight end each of their last three games. Okay. So, Ertz or Moreau and Everett? I would take the Johnny-come-latelys over Zach Ertz. But I would

still start Ertz over Pitts. And I would start Ertz over Hawkinson, too. James Conner's a slam dunk, right? Windmill jam. Is it the shoes? Kyler Murray. By the way. You're starting him.

Yeah. I don't even want to bring this up. It ruined my night. But as the crappy football game was going on, the Knicks and the Bulls, your team and my team, played one of the best games I've seen in a long time. It was an incredible game, Dave.

I didn't watch a second of it. I didn't even know they were playing each other. The Bulls are good, but I'm not going to be as into it as I was when I was a kid. Oh, you should. I mean, they're good. I know, but I'm not going to.

It's just, it's not the same. It's definitely not the same. The other problem is that when it's football season, I barely know what my kids are up to. I talked to my wife for an hour a day. I'm just, you know, belly button deep in football. Yeah, I get you. I was going to say another word that started with a B for how deep I was in the football, but I'm even deeper than that. Oh God, that is disgusting. Kyler Murray. All all right how confident are you at kyler burry reasonably confident that he'll come back and play healthy against a bears defense that shouldn't put a ton of pressure on him i'm okay starting him as a middle of the pack qb1

there have been four quarterbacks who've scored 26 or more fantasy points against the bears and they're mostly great quarterbacks. Stafford, Rodgers, Brady, and then there was Jimmy Garoppolo. And he had two rushing touchdowns in this game. But the Bears have a weird defense. I don't know. I guess I call them middle of the pack. Is that fair?

I guess. Yeah. All right. So to summarize this game. Oh, we didn't do the wide receivers yet. I'm sorry. So Kyler Murray is a low Yeah. Kyler Murray is a low end starter, but a starter

and would you start Kyler Murray or Jalen Hurts? I would go with I would go with Murray over Hurts. Would you start Murray or Stafford? I would start Stafford over Murray.

Murray. Any there any streamers like you wouldn't start to once over Murray. Murray. Any streamers? You wouldn't start Tua? No. Wentz? No. No. Murray's ahead of Burrow, Cousins, Wentz, Russ, Carr. You've got Conner's an easy one.

You like Mooney a lot. You like him. He's your favorite wide receiver in this game. He is. You like Ertz. He's a low-end number two receiver. You like Ertz better than Komet. Yeah.

And Montgomery, would you start David Montgomery? Or let me give you a wide receiver. What, would you start David Montgomery or DeAndre Hopkins? I'd go Montgomery over Hopkins. Really? All right, so you seem a little hesitant on Hopkins. And in his first seven games, he's played eight games. I'm going to take away the Green Bay game he barely played.

He actually had a good game, but he barely played in that game. Remember he was sneaking on the field in that one? Yeah. The coach was like, don't play. And he's grabbing his helmet and running on the field and going into the huddle. I shouldn't say he barely played. I don't remember the snap count, but obviously he was hurt.

He missed a decent amount of time. But he was the number 13 wide receiver in non-PPR, number 18 in PPR per game in those first seven games. He did not have more than 87 yards in any game, but he caught seven touchdowns and averaged about seven targets per game. So why are you not ranking Hopkins a top 12 guy this week? Because I feel like he's still a touchdown and volume needy receiver.

I don't know how many big plays he's got in him. I don't know how healthy he is. We're making an assumption on Kyler Murray that he's going to be close to 100% after the long layoff that he's had. We can make the same assumption about Hopkins, but we know that he was never really close to playing. It seemed like Kyler was kind of close to playing before the bye.

So I feel reasonably more confident in Kyler playing and playing reasonably well than I do somebody like Hopkins who needs touchdowns. It's as simple as that. And then Christian Kirk and A.J. Green, interest level? Low-ish, especially for Green. I'd start Kirk ahead of him. Let's go to our next

game here. By the way, Arizona's DST is top five. Philadelphia at the Jets. Okay, let's talk about Elijah Moore. So, entering this week, there have only been four wide receivers with more than 66 yards against the Eagles. Four wide receivers in

12 games. And they are Debo Samuel, Tyreek Hill, Antonio Brown, and Keenan Allen. And three of those four had 12 to 13 targets. To sum it up, the Eagles are really good against wide receivers. It's not just Darius Slay. I don't think

Elijah Moore is getting shadowed by Darius Slay. I don't know how you feel about that, but I'd be surprised if it happens. Slay is probably going to play left cornerback and he'll see a little bit of more, but I don't think it's going to be a shadow situation. But again, four wide receivers all season long have more than 66 yards against the Eagles and they are studs. Debo, Tyree Kill, Antonio Brown, and Keenan Allen, and three of them had 12 to 13 targets. Debo had eight. So yeah, so you already talked about Elijah Moore a little bit, but... It just seems unlikely that he can join those elite receivers. I think he's a good receiver, but look at what's working against him. It's a tough matchup. It's the worst quarterback that

could possibly throw to him, given the results of the season so far. And I just don't feel good trusting him outside of the lowest of low-end number three wideouts. So are you starting any Jets? I don't think I am. Definitely not starting Zach Wilson. I don't know if he's even worth starting in two quarterback leagues. Tevin Coleman, don't like him nearly as much as I did last know if he's even worth starting in two quarterback leagues. Tevin Coleman.

Don't like him nearly as much as I did last week. It's a tougher matchup for him. Ty Johnson. Isn't any good. I do. I really need to run through every single name on the jets. The answer is no, no,

don't start any jets unless you're just absolutely stuck. How stuck do you have to be to start Tyler Croft against the best matchup? Is he playing or did he come off the IR? Oh, I don't know. All right. So why don't you ask that question with the tight end who's been playing, which is Ryan Griffin. Okay.

Yes. So Ryan Griffin. No, don't start him. Okay. All right. That's a better question then. All right. Then for the Eagles,

here's stat of the game. Number two for Eagles and jets, Eagles running a better question then. All right, then for the Eagles, here's stat of the game number two for Eagles and Jets. Eagles running backs and their carries. Now I'm looking to see if Tyler Croft came off. No, he didn't. Well, he didn't last week, so no. The Eagles running backs have combined for at least 24 carries in five straight games, 29 or more carries in three of those five games.

They get a lot of work. Break down the Eagles running backs and where you rank them, how much you like them this week. They're both, Sanders and Scott are the two that I'm looking at. And as of now, I've got Sanders ranked ahead of Scott. I understand the argument for Scott ahead of Sanders, but I really think you're taking

a risk starting either one unless you're expecting in the neighborhood of seven to eight non-PPR points, maybe eight to ten. Why? I don't get it. Why? I mean, this is the best matchup. Because they're going to take away. Yeah, but we don't know how much work they're going to get. They're quarterback vultures touchdowns at the goal line. We don't know if they, if Sanders, Sanders has breakaway run potential. Will he actually do it? Maybe. This is the type of matchup where he could do it.

It's hard to have confidence in him to do better than what a low-end number two running back would give. Just look at the way their offense is set up right now, and maybe Jason Kelsey matters to see if he plays their center, but look at their yards per carry. They don't need a lot of carries. Totally. Yeah, you're right.

How many carries can you guarantee mile Sanders? Well, I think it's pretty reasonable to, to expect at least 12. And then if you look at the last two games, Sanders and week 11 had 16, Howard had 10, Scott had six last week,

Scott had 15 and Sanders had nine. So, you know, a lead running back has had 15, 16, or 17 in three of the last four games. And then, like, in week eight, three running backs had 12 to 13 carries and a blowout win at Detroit. So I think 13 carries for 60-something yards. You're right about them. They're not going to have any catches, most likely, although the Jets are really bad in that area, too.

Sanders probably won't have maybe one or two. I don't know. I think you could be looking at 80 total yards and a pretty good chance to score. I think I agree about the total yards part. The scoring part, as long as Hurts is there, very nervous that either one of these guys can actually do it. It's happening so often.

That's what I don't really understand. There was only one game where Hurts had the three rushing touchdowns. I think that was week 11 against New Orleans. That's fair, but is there a consistent track record of Eagles running back scoring not named Jordan Howard anyway? Howard has been their hammer at the goal line, too. He's not playing in the game. Who takes that role with him out?

Is it going to be Sanders or Scott? Let's go through it, right? I'm just looking at the last five games. That's when they made their offensive makeover. Five games ago, week eight, Boston Scott, two touchdowns, Jordan Howard, two touchdowns against Detroit. Week nine...

And this is that kind of matchup, so entirely possible. Week nine, Howard had is that kind of matchup, so entirely possible. Week nine, Howard had a touchdown. Gainwell had a touchdown. Week 10, no touchdown. Week 11, no touchdowns. Week 12, Boston Scott scored. So a mixed bag.

Can you tell me which one will get the touchdown? No. I can tell you last week, Sanders played more in the first half, but it was close between the two of them. The two minute snaps all went to Boston. Scott, there were three snaps inside the 10.

Remember how the Eagles messed up the end of the first half. Scott was in on those three plays. That was all of the inside the 10 yard line plays green zone plays that the Eagles ran in the first half. The week before they split those green zone snaps three the eagles ran in the first half uh the week before they split those green zone snaps three to two in favor of sanders but scott's their two-minute drill running back if they fall behind scott'll play a little bit more but i don't think they've got a reliable rotation that fantasy managers can count on for their running backs inside the 10-yard line. Okay, Miles Sanders or Clyde Edwards-Ziller?

I have Clyde higher. Miles Sanders or a Patriots running back? I have... I know I've got both running backs ahead of Ramondre. Yeah, I've got both Eagles running backs ahead of both Patriots running backs. Okay, that makes sense to me. Miles Sanders or

DK Metcalf? Half PPR. I think I'll take the upside of Metcalf. How do you feel about Jalen Hurts this week, buddy? I think he can come through for a decent game, maybe a little bit better than 20 fantasy points.

He's hard to predict. Duh. He really is. Listen, if we're going to say sour things about the Eagles running backs, and one of the reasons why is because Jalen Hurts can score from short yardage, then why not include that as part of the positives for Jalen Hurts and why he's a good start for fantasy managers this week. He's a top 10 fantasy quarterback,

and it's not like they're going to run every single play against the jets. I do expect them to be run heavy, but when they do throw, there's should be some downfield opportunities. And I think they, I think that they want to get Goddard and Smith more involved than they did last week. I think the coaching staff has realized that creating a game plan

that involves Jalen Rager and Quez Watkins isn't going to get the job done. And so leaning on these two more reliable receivers, one in the case of Smith who can get open quite easily, could make things a little bit easier for Hertz. There's going to be less of a pass rush on Hertz. And I think that it'll work out. I think the passing game will be more efficient, just not quite as lucrative as other ones around the league.

You know, Sirianni got a lot of criticism for getting away from the run last week and having Hurts throw 31 times, which was by far the most in his last five games. It was a weird game. They're running all over the Giants, and for some reason they just became very pass-heavy. That is not going to happen this week. They're going to run the ball

down the Jets' throats, and Hurts has... I really separate his season into the first seven games and the last five games, because the first seven games, he averaged 34.6 pass attempts per game. The last five games, he's averaged 21.8

pass attempts per game. They just changed their offense, so I'm comfortable doing that. Heath might yell at me for it, but that's what happened. They changed their offense. I agree. Right. So let me tell you this stat. I gave this out on the Monday show. And after a loss, it would be completely reasonable to expect them to revert back to that. In the first seven games, Jalen Hurts averaged 15 fantasy points per game on just yards. Yards alone, 15 fantasy points per game. In the last five games, 12.5 fantasy points on yards alone. That's a pretty significant drop, and it's not good, but I'm starting him in two leagues. Did you do that stat with his rushing numbers?

Yeah, of course. Because I know he's rushing a lot now. He's on pace in his last five games for 1,069 rushing yards in 16 games. But in his first seven games, he was still on pace for 825 rushing yards. He was still rushing a ton. But the passing numbers have just cratered. He's like 150-ish yards per game passing the last five games.

Anyway, I'm starting him over Derek Carr. That's the under on his yardage. Okay, I'm starting him over Derek Carr in one league. I'm starting him over oh, Aaron Rodgers in the other league. That's a good move. What about Hurts or Cousins? Cousins going up against the Lions.

I think I'd go... Who do you feel better with? I would go Hurts in four-point and Cousins in six-point. How about you? I've got Hurts ahead of Cousins in both. But it's a really close call. I'm not sure how much Cousins

is going to have to throw. That's part of it. This has been a very deep dive here, Dave. So let's finish it off with Devontae Smith and Dallas Goddard. Why you're so excited or you've seen a lot of potential for Devante Smith. Devante Smith's got this amazing matchup against the Jets and is bad. They've been worse against the run than they have been against the past, but they've allowed a lot of numbers to wide receivers, at least nine non PPR points to nine wide receivers in their last five games

with seven total touchdowns. And here's where they rank. Let me start over. They're in the bottom five in yards per catch allowed, yards after catch per reception allowed, passes of 20-plus air yards allowed. Remember, bottom five for all of these categories. Five, they're among the five worst. Completions of 20-plus yards allowed.

And that's just to outside wide receivers. We're taking out tight ends. We're taking out receivers who line up in the slot, just receivers who line up outside. They are brutal against them. It makes me think that there's going to be a couple of deep opportunities for Devontae Smith. Nice. All right. Good. Now I'm a little more confident.

Smith or Claypool? I have Smith ahead of Claypool. That will change if the Ravens defense doesn't have Humphrey, doesn't have Owe. And you're going to start Smith over Miles Sanders? Yeah. Yeah. Dallas Goddard?

That might be harder to sell in non-PPR. Okay. Dallas Goddard is top seven. Top eight in non-PPR, top seven in PPR. Just go ahead and start him. I know he's coming off a terrible game. I do currently have Claypool ahead of Smith, by the way. I should rectify that.

Minnesota's at Detroit. Do we have an update on Dalvin Tomlinson and Anthony Barr? Tomlinson's off the COVID list. He's expected to play. I do not have an update on Anthony bar. If you give me 36 seconds, I will give you one. Okay. I don't believe he practiced yesterday, but yes, uh, you will have that time. You will not need 36 seconds. Um, but I don't know how much it matters. We're going to start Jamal Williams anyway. He's going to be a big part of

the passing game. And Jamal Williams has a very good history of coming through when he gets opportunities. In his career, he has 13 games with 15 or more carries. And in PPR, he's scored 12 or more PPR fantasy points in

9 of those 13 games. He's had some really big games too. So, he's going to catch a lot of passes. Barr hasn't practiced. He dealt with a knee injury earlier in the year. Now he's got a hamstring injury. Also of note, Eric Kendricks missed Thursday's practice with a biceps injury.

These are their two best linebackers. Okay. Let's go to this stat of the game. Detroit has thrown in their last three games 23 to 25 times for 114, 77, and 171 yards. It's just awful. And then you've got Minnesota that's given up one touchdown to a tight end. It was Josiah DeGuara.

So it's so hard to have any confidence. I think they're going to—I'll take the over on 171 passing yards, which has been their high in the last three games, but it just underlines, this is such a bad passing offense and hard to have any confidence in Hawkinson, really. But do you think maybe Hawkinson benefits from Swift being out?

I don't know if he really benefits from Swift being out. I think he would benefit if both linebackers were out for Minnesota because the Vikings defense, you said it earlier in the show, they've been really great against tight ends. They've always been strong right up the middle of the defense. If those linebackers aren't there,

I am certain the lions will look at that as an opportunity for them to try and attack. But Hawkinson just really hasn't had consistent target volume from game to game. Seems a little bit more of a touchdown relreliant tight end at this point. I've moved him down in my rankings as recently as this morning to a low-end TE1. Okay.

This game, I think, is fairly simple. We like Jamal Williams a lot, and Madison we like even more. He's top four. Jefferson and Thielen, you're starting. I assume you're not starting Tyler Conklin. No. There are enough tight ends out there. Everett and Moreau really stepping up. And you said Everett's available in like 80% of leagues.

Yeah. Why would you even have Conklin on your roster? And then there's Kirk Cousins. So let's talk about him. He's top 10. He's close to the bottom of the top 10 for all three of our analysts. In the first meeting against Detroit,

he didn't play so badly, but only got one touchdown and 15 fantasy points against the Lions, who are 20th against... So they're 20th against quarterbacks, but they allow the most yards per attempt. So what does that tell you? They don't see a lot of pass attempts.

What do you think about Cousins this week? He's another case pretty tough. What do you think about him? I like the track record going into last week. I know that he didn't give you 21 fantasy points. He does have multiple touchdowns in each of his past four. It's 21-plus fantasy points in three of the past four games. And even without Dalvin Cook in two games this year,

he threw at least 34 passes. So there should be some interest in getting him involved in the offense. It should be a lot of Alexander Madison. Maybe it's Alexander Madison catching passes. We've seen that before this year, too. Cousins is okay with me as a middle-ish to low-end starting fantasy quarterback. Okay. Cousins or Herbert?

I would go with Herbert over Cousins. I think there's more upside with Herbert. All right. The way Dave has it ranked is Herbert, Kyler, Jalen Hurts, Kirk Cousins, Burrow, Wentz, Wilson, Carr. And that's pretty much it. If I had an interesting stash candidate, tell me, how many likes do we have on the video right now on YouTube?

Let's find out. We have... Please. Oh, we have on the video right now on YouTube? Let's find out. We have... Please. Oh, we have to have more than that, right? Let me reset this. I don't know. 164. You tell me.

Okay, that's great, because I know earlier we had less than 20, and that was bad. If we can get to 200 likes, I'll tell you a little bit about a sleeper that I've stashed in a couple of my links. All right, let's do it. 174 likes. Let's get to 200 likes, and Dave will give us a sleeper that I've stashed in a couple of my links. All right, let's do it. 174 likes. Let's get to 200 likes, and Dave will give us a sleeper. We're at 178. It's going to happen.

I'll give you a few. Or you could just read Start, Sit, Sleepers, Bus. He's in there, too. Let me give you a few more Jamal Williams questions. Who wants to read, right? We're podcasting. Yeah, I don't read. Jamal Williams or Saquon Barkley?

Oh, Williams. Jamal Williams. Can you believe that that's the answer? That's 2021 fantasy football season. Jamal Williams or Najee Harris. I'm not even second-guessing starting him over Saquon. That's how bad it's been for Saquon. I would start Najee.

I've got Najee one spot ahead of Jamal Williams. Jamal Williams or Brandon Ayuk? I don't even know if I can stick with that. Like, I'm starting to get kind of excited about Jamal Williams with those linebackers being out. Ask again. Ayuk or Jamal Williams? Williams.

All right. 208 likes, Dave. We got there. That was fast. Okay, I've changed my mind. We need 250,000 likes. Sorry. I thought Josh Reynolds played moderately well

last week. Obviously, the stats say that he did great, but this is a Lions offense that's been desperate to find a receiver all year. Adam, you've talked about never wanting to trust the lion's receiver because one week a monros saint brown looked good the next week it was khalif raymond and those guys are just they're not even average guys they're below average guys i hate to say but i think josh reynolds has an opportunity excuse me as a cookie as a as a kind of a, a deep threat guy and also like an intermediate target and golf is comfortable with him. He's worked with him before they need to develop

something to help their past game out a little bit. So I'm not, I'm, I am going to start Josh in a couple of 14 team leagues that I'm in because I'm absolutely desperate. There are three flex leagues, but I think even in 12 team leagues, if you want to carry a guy that might have some upside, it's a lot more than just the one play he had last week against Chicago. Reynolds was able to get open against zone coverage pretty easily. I think he's worth a roster spot. All right.

Jacksonville at the Rams. I will buy beer. If we can get to six, no, too high. 515 likes. I'll buy some people some beers. We've got 741 people in here, so we can definitely get that. Hit the like button. I'm not buying everybody a beer.

I'm not making money over here. You said you were a millionaire because of DFS. I didn't win that much in DFS last night. All right. Can we believe anything you say now? Jacksonville with the Rams. The Vikings DST in the last game. They're a top 10 DST. They're not as high as the Rams.

The Rams are number one this week. And stat of the game, it's on Daryl Henderson. He has scored four to five non-PPR points, eight PPR points, exactly eight, in three of his last five games. It's non-decimal scoring. So three duds in his last five games, one great game and one fine game.

How much confidence do you have in him? We know it's a good run defense, even though it wasn't good last week for the Jaguars. How much confidence do you have in Daryl Henderson this week? If he were healthy and practicing all week, no questions asked,

he'd be right around a top 15 fantasy running back for me. I still believe that the Rams, A, need to get their run game going and B, they like to lean on one guy when they do get it going and Henderson would be that guy. Not practicing on Wednesday and Thursday,

that's definitely alarming. It forced me to start Tony Pollard in one league ahead of him. That worked out well. But I don't know what to make of him if he's practicing on a limited basis on Friday. And then even if he ends up playing, does he really get that full workload? Does he need to get that full workload?

I'm really concerned. So let's see what happens on Friday. If he practices in full and isn't on the practice report, fine. He's a top 15-ish fantasy running back. If he practices and then he ends up playing in the game, expectations will be dialed back a little bit because I think Sonny Michel will take some off his plate. If he's out, then I think Sonny Michel could vault into that top 20 range at running back

because he would get that workload against the Jaguars' defense. And the Jaguars' run defense has gotten better, but I think the Rams are going to try and get their run game going a little bit too. Not to the point where the Lions will, but I think that Rams are going to try and get their run game going a little bit too. That's the point where like the lions will, but I think that they're going to try and at least get that rushing presence there. You take Jamal Williams over the Rams running back. Yeah,

that's easy. That's easy. Same thing with Madison. Yeah. But I think you'd have a decision to make with somebody like Saquon Barkley, somebody like Devante Freeman, Clyde Edwards,

the lair, the Eagles running backs, Patriots running. What decision would you make? If, if Henderson's full go, he's clearly ahead. If Sony's the only guy he's clearly ahead. All right. If we really don't know before that game kicks off on Sunday afternoon, it's one of the late games.

Then I believe with a safer direction than either one. What about James Robinson start or start him over Henderson? Uh, yeah, real close between those two. I would start him ahead of Henderson, him ahead of David Montgomery, him ahead of Devante Freeman, him ahead of Saquon Barkley. I am a little concerned that he lost some third down work to Carlos Hyde last week. That was a change for the Jaguars. All right.

In this game, that Robinson's the only Jaguar you want to start, right? Yeah. I don't know if I can even, no, he's the only one. So then you seem to have a pretty good amount of confidence in Matthew

Stafford based on your ranking and you have, you have him fourth. Jamie has him fifth. Heath has him eighth. What has he done lately to deserve that? And I, you know, I know he scored big last week,

but I think you sent me a link that he had the most off target passes of any quarterback. He did all last week. It's true. But I think that this is a get right spot for the Rams in general against Jacksonville and could very much. And this is assuming that Odell Beckham's playing as well. He can lean on those three guys.

He can check down a little bit to Tyler Higbee. I wonder if the film that Jefferson and Beckham put out last week changes the way that the Jaguars are going to cover this passing game and could really open up the floodgates for Cooper cup. It's going to be interesting to see, but I think Stafford is one of the very few quarterbacks this week that have 30-point upside. Now granted, I thought Dak also had 30-point upside. That's why I had him ranked, why I have him ranked. But I think that Stafford

still has that type of upside, whereas other guys that we've talked about, the Hurts, the Cousins, the Russell Wilsons of the world, I just don't think they have it. So who do you like better, Beckham or Jefferson, if they both play? Beckham over Jefferson, but it's close between those two. Cup way ahead of them both, obviously. Let's say Beckham misses the game. Would you start Van Jefferson or Daryl Henderson? Well, what's the deal with Daryl Henderson? He's full go. He's the best version of Daryl Henderson. I would target Henderson over Jefferson if Henderson is full go. Jefferson is catching 53% of his targets.

Yeah, he's getting a lot of downfield throws, though, so that's part of the reason for it. It's a legitimate stat, but he's also, I would imagine that he would be in line for 7-plus targets if there's no Beckham. And last week he had 9. Yeah, he usually gets 7-plus. He usually gets seven plus.

He usually gets around seven. Seven, six, seven, seven, and nine targets in his last five games. Jacksonville. We can probably bump that to eight then. Yeah, Jacksonville, they're not great against wide receivers. They're 17th, but yeah. I mean, you can beat them.

And Tyler Higby is outside the top 15. Go on. And since they're by so their last five games the jaguars have allowed 11 targets per game to outside wide receivers in those last five games those receivers the outside receivers a 73 percent catch rate so they're letting guys catch left and right on them at a pretty high clip. It's encouraging for Beckham. It's encouraging for Jefferson. And that would be guys like Stefan Diggs, Pittman, Iuke, and... And good receivers, no doubt.

Maybe Metcalf. I don't remember if that was before or after the bye. That might have been the fifth game, the first game of the five. You're sitting Tyler Higbee. He's outside the top 15. Tampa Bay is at Atlanta. Our final game of the five. You're sitting Tyler Higbee. He's outside the top 15. Tampa Bay is at Atlanta. Our final game of the slate.

Tom Brady. I think you have, do you have Stafford ranked ahead of Brady? I might. You do. I really think that, yeah, I've got the remaining quarterbacks this week.

Lamar, Mahomes, Stafford, Brady, Josh Allen. I'm a little mad at you for ranking Stafford ahead of Brady, but that's okay. It's your right.

Would have been right last week. Definitely would have. Yeah, Brady struggled a little bit. The fantasy points haven't been there. There have been some reasons a little bit out of his control for that, but yeah. But the Falcons give it the second most fantasy points to quarterbacks. So here's the deal.

Start all your bucks. Gronkowski, he might be number two. I don't know. He's really high in your rankings. He's up there, for sure. He's probably not ahead of Andrews, but he's top four, right? He's top three. Kelsey, Andrews, Gronk.

Can't even make the case to start Foster Moreau ahead of Gronk. Right. Gronk and Kittle are back-to-back for everybody. All right, start him. Evans and Godwin, I know they've been a little bit down lately, but they're easy starts, right? I mean, I hesitate to call them easy starts, but when you think about what their potential is,

particularly in PPR leagues, then you just start them. You know that they've got potential to go and get you. They've got 100-yard potential. Each of them do. Maybe Godwin a little bit more than Evans. And certainly their touchdown potential is strong. They're in the right offense to get some good numbers in. Is it a guarantee they'll do it against the Falcons?

I don't know if I can say a guarantee. But I think Evans is probably a better shot to score than Godwin. Godwin a better shot to get more yards than Evans. Leonard Fournette is an easy start. He's Leonard Fournette, gets a ton of catches. And by the way, Antonio Brown being out for three more games, that just helps the outlook for those two. Cordaro Patterson.

All right, so Patterson or Jamal Williams? Patterson over Williams. I mean, I hope they throw to him. Last week, he had two catches for 27 yards, but he had 16 carries for 108 yards and two touchdowns. Yeah, it should be the inverse this week. I would imagine he gets more work in the passing game. All right.

And, Kyle, Russell Gage, any interest in Russell Gage? Deeper leagues, full PPR. He's interesting. Not not exciting but interesting they held pitman to four catches for 53 yards ty hilton did catch a touchdown last week but now now it is eight straight games with no wide receiver having more than 70 yards and it's i think seven straight games with no wide receiver having more than 60 yards against the Bucs and only Traquan Smith, DeAndre Carter and T Y Hilton have caught a touchdown in the last eight games.

So it's just, you usually need a lot of targets to have a good game against the Buccaneers. I don't know that gauge is going to have that. Uh, Kyle pits. He did crack your top 12, but who's ranked ahead of Kyle pits, both Gerald Everett and Foster Moreau.

I've mentioned that. Obviously, the stud tight ends are going to be ahead of him. I have Zach Ertz ahead of him. I've got Logan Thomas and Dallas Goddard ahead of him. Even TJ Hawkinson, poor lowly TJ Hawkinson, is still ahead of Kyle Pitts. And the truth is, he's just not getting the numbers that everybody saw a couple weeks ago. Not a couple, several weeks ago. Ten or fewer PPR points in five straight games. Literally every game that Calvin Ridley's missed, he hasn't come through for 11 plus PPR points. There have been a lot of double teams

in the red zone. He only has one red zone target since the bye week. He's just not getting the type of high value targets that you look for from a fantasy tight end. And Tampa Bay's pass defense has gotten much better. They haven't allowed a 100-yard game to anybody in their last eight games, and they're getting Carlton Davis back. And I wonder if they use Davis a little bit more to cover Kyle Pitts, and that could free up other pieces of the secondary to do more things like blitz or put a safety over the top,

whatever they want to do against him. Eight touchdowns to wide receivers and tight ends in those last eight games as well. We always look at Pitts, and you can't just say he's strictly a tight end. They use him quite a bit like he's a wide receiver, so you've got to consider what they do against wide receivers as well. He had five catches for 72 yards against Tampa Bay earlier this year. I wonder if that's closer to a ceiling than like the median game for Kyle Pitts at this point. Bucks DST fifth for Jamie, ninth for Dave, sixth for Heath. And that's it. I won't go on my

rant. I'm just going to say I believe in second chances. Sometimes I believe in third chances, but Antonio Brown's got a lot of, a lot of baggage the last few years, a lot of accusations, some things that are definitely true. And I'm sorry. It's sometimes it's not win at all costs. I don't really understand why the bucks continue to stand by him.

Like what else do you need at this point? I had to say, I don't know why I felt like I want, I had to say it. Maybe it wasn't the venue. Maybe some of you were pissed off. I can deal with that. You can hate me. That's fine. Do you have him on any of your fantasy teams? Nope.

Nope. And you know, I got sick. If you did, if you did. That was intentional by the way. That was intentional by the way. I'm sure it was. And that's your right. There are people who don't want to have certain players on their teams because they don't like what they do off the field or what they stand for. that's okay it's your fantasy team you control it the way you want but if you had him on your team would you cut him right now

yeah i would i i not from a fantasy standpoint i would never recommend that to anybody either because i could think he could win you your lead but yeah i would i i wouldn't deal with this anymore i mean it's really selfish to to if you don't want to get vaccinated, don't get vaccinated, but don't fake it. That's just mean. Like that's just jeopardizing other people. And then like the accusations that the women have made and the threatening text messages that we've seen

and the fight, throwing furniture out of a building. Now I am going off a rant. And fighting with the moving truck guy. Like it's a lot of stuff here. And two teams cut him last year. And the box are just like that. Whatever. No big deal.

He'll be back. He's fine. I think it's a, I think it's something really worth looking at here. I think they can do better. I, I think they can do better. I respect the opinion.

And all I will end with is that this fantasy football, I want my fantasy teams to win what these players do off the field. I have my own opinions for, and it's just not going to be shared here. I've learned the hard way over almost 20 years doing this, not to, not to share your opinion on anything outside of football during our time together talking about fantasy football. Yeah. Well, we do it pretty rarely, but this one just kind of, kind of bothered me a lot, but all right. Um, that's why I say it's the end of but this one just kind of bothered me a lot. All right. That's why I say it's the end of the show.

Thank you for making me do that. That's Dave. I'm Adam. Good luck this week. We'll talk to you all weekend long. Good luck. Yep. See you.

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