Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit Week 1 (09/10 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 10, 2023

Our thoughts on Isaiah Likely and many other tight ends, the Packers passing game, the Jets, Broncos and Colts running backs and much more.  You can also follow the full-length Fantasy Football Today podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-podcast/id261735167 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 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs. You can listen to Fantasy Football Today in 5 on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast." 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 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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and we are giving it right now on Fantasy Football Today in 5. Good morning. Welcome to Week 1. It's Adam Azer and Heath Cummings here. Five minutes of injury updates for you. Mark Andrews not expected to play today, and a lot of Isaiah likely questions. And here's what he did in three games without Mark Andrews last year, including one game where Andrews played about 12% of the snaps.

Six catches, 77 yards and a touchdown. One catch for 24 yards and a touchdown, but he led the team in targets in that game. Eight catches, 103 yards. Two of those games with Lamar Jackson, one with Anthony Brown through 44 passes in week 18. All right, Heath, where do you have Isaiah likely ranked among tight ends? He is a number two tight end for me, right in the, uh, the Luke Musgrave range. I think I'll probably be one of the low guys on him. I've got him around tight end 18. Um, and it's like, those numbers were impressive, but I don't know that we can expect exactly the

same tight end role to exist in this offense with a new offensive coordinator. Baltimore threw the ball to their tight ends last year, like 10% more than anyone else. And oh yeah, they didn't have Zay Flowers, Odell Beckham or Rashad Bateman. So I I'm a little more skeptical. I would rather stream Gerald Everett than start Isaiah Likely. Okay, because I've tweeted that he's tight end four for me. I think he's tight end. Perfect. I'm glad we're starting off on a good foot. He's tight end five for Jamie.

I don't know if I see him in Dave's rankings just yet. Yeah, people will be split on him. It is interesting. Now, there's also maybe a boost for Bateman and Flowers and Beckham. What do you think? Yeah, I am interested in starting both Flowers and Bateman as boom bust number three, high-end flex type guys. I feel pretty confident one of those two is going to lead the team in targets. I've got Beckham a distant third at wide receiver.

Okay, more tight end news. Darren Waller questionable. Unfortunately, it's a Sunday night game. So what do we do in this situation? Yeah, I wouldn't start Isaiah likely over him. I'd rather have Jake Ferguson on my bench and then I can just wait it out. But if you don't have Ferguson, if you don't have, I don't really want to start one of the guys on the Monday night tight ends, then I'm starting David Njoku over him.

I'm starting Pat Fryermuth over him. But I'd rather wait it out. If you're in a super deep league, you could pick up Daniel Bellinger and see what happens there. But the word is that Waller is expected to play. He is expected to play. It's not expected to be great weather, though. And sometimes that can have an impact on guys with injuries and how much they play and you've got pretty significant risk for a guy who's had as many hamstring injuries as him in the last few years and already battled

one this year that that he's not a full-time player uh george kittle is expected to play so you'll start him uh j Judy, not expected to play. How about Dulcich? How about Mims? How about Sutton? Your thoughts? Yeah, I'm starting Sutton as a high-end No. 3 or low-end No. 2 wide receiver. I have Dulcich, I believe, right behind Isaiah likely.

None of these guys are bad streams. There's probably 17 guys in that tight end 12 range because the bar is so low. But I would slightly prefer likely to Dulcich. And Mims is a good boom bust flex option, but behind Bateman and Flowers for sure. So I was excited to start Romeo Dobbs when I learned that Christian Watson would be out

and Dobbs would return to practice. But apparently he's going to be on a snap count. I think that was Schefter and Rappaport reporting that. This is week one, so I'll just say this now. We get a lot of snap count reports throughout the year, and then coaches seem to just go astray from that. But I don't know what to expect from Dobbs. Should we play it safe and sit him?

Anyone that you like in the Packers passing game? Aaron Jones. I think you should be very scared of the Packers passing game. It's Jordan Love. We don't have a great grasp on exactly how good of a quarterback he is. His number one wide receiver might be Jaden Reed, a rookie in his first game. I would like to stay away from the Packers pass catchers. What about A.J. Dillon?

Does this help him at all? I wouldn't be. It depends. Packers are actually underdog to the Bears. So, yeah, if the Packers defense steps up and they're able to slow down this Bears offense, then yeah, I do think it would help Dylan. I've not moved him up in my rankings much at all, though.

He's still just a high end flex. Marquise Brown and Zach Ertz are expected to play. Do you care? I don't really. Brown is just barely inside my top 48 wide receivers. I'd rather start both Rashad Bateman and Flowers over him. I care about Ertz playing because it takes Trey McBride out of that glut of tight end twos you'd be okay streaming.

And I think you don't think you can trust either Cardinals tight end. The only Cardinal that I would start this week is James Conner. Adam Thielen expected to play. DJ Chark is out. Is Thielen your favorite Panthers wide receiver and is he start worthy? He is in the conversation as a number three wide receiver. He's definitely my favorite Panthers wide receiver. If they score a passing touchdown, I like the chances that Adam Thielen's the one who catches it, but he's another old player

dealing with an injury and so the floor is pretty low. Dalvin Cook and Brees Hall will play. Will you start either one? I hopefully not. I would like to have better options, but I would start Hall over Dalvin Cook. I see a question in the chat Hall or DeAndre Swift, and I would prefer Brees Hall over DeAndre Swift as well, but he's not a top 25 running back closer to RB30 for me. Do you want to start any Broncos running backs with Javante Williams maybe on a snap count and word that Jaleel McLaughlin, a rookie, could get some work? Yeah, I've got both P. Ryan and Javante Williams ahead of Brees Hall and DeAndre Swift. They are borderline number twos just ahead of A.J. Dillon. Again, I'd rather start Jamal Williams over both of them.

I think it'd be better if you could take a week and see the rotation, but I'm expecting pretty close to a 50-50 touch distribution between those two, and it's a spectacular matchup against a terrible Raiders team. Would you start a Colts running back with Zach Moss out, or likely out, or a Broncos running back? I would rather start the Broncos. I would rather start Brees Hall. I think it's really tough between Swift and Deion Jackson,

who would be my favorite Colts running back. But I think a committee with bad running backs on a team that we expect to lose, it's not the best place to look. All right, we went long today. Sorry about that. Let's read 30 seconds of emails. Madison, Lockett, Dotson, or Dillon?

These are not emails, and I will flex Madison. YouTube comments. Michael Thomas or Raheem Mostert, PPR? I'll go with Thomas. Mims, Khalil Herbert, or Pickens, PPR? Herbert. Richardson or Watson at QB? Oof.

I don't want to start either one of these guys, but I'll slightly lean towards Watson. Nico Collins or Hollywood Brown? Nico. And we are out of here for today. Thank you, FFT and Seven,

for you today. Thanks to Heath Cummings. Good luck, everybody. We'll talk to you at 8 o'clock-ish, recapping Week 1's Sunday games. See you later.