Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Starts of the Week + Week 7 Breakdown, Heating Up! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/19

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

Time to dig deep with all the injuries and bye weeks! Week 7 matchup previews and Starts of the Week on today’s fantasy football podcast! Plus, NFL News, injury updates, and Jason’s Boom Boom Kicker! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for October 19th, 2023. Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Starts of the Week presented by Purina Pro Plan. Visit https://www.purina.com/pro-plan/dogs/sport-dog-food?utm_campaign=prp-sport2023&utm_medium=display&utm_source=youtube_spotify_callout&utm_content=cr-fantasy_football_podcast_sponsorship_pt-na&utm_term= Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. Monopoly is back at McDonald's, everybody. This is an alert. It's time to get back to Mickey D's. Monopoly Double Play is back at McDonald's, and it's easy to get into the win. First, you peel on pack, and then again in the app. There are millions of prizes to be won,

including a new chance to win cash every minute in the app. Get into the game with Monopoly Double Play at McDonald's. While supplies last, one in five chances to win game piece prizes at outset, chances to win Double Play prizes based on time of code entry, and draw prizes based on number of entries in each draw. See rules in the app. Get a credit card annual fee waiver and earn C-plus points faster with the Scotiabank Ultimate Package and bank more entertainment. Learn more at scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. It's football time. Yeah. Will he play tonight? I don't know Welcome into the show, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast Jason Moore is here, Mike, the Fantasy Hitman I'm Andy Holloway This is Trevor Lawrence

Is Prince Valiant playing tonight? I don't believe so. All right. That was the first thing Jason said to me as he walked into the studio this morning, or one of the first things. He said, I don't think Trevor Lawrence is going to play tonight. Yeah, I mean, he's pushing to play. You know, it's possible, but teams don't usually activate quarterbacks to their active roster

just for depth. They do it because they need a quarterback playing, and so we'll see. It's a short week. He's got the knee issue. It's certainly not impossible that he plays tonight, but I think fantasy managers should be prepared to not have Trevor Lawrence. Some C.J. Beathard action. That would be the backup.

And, you know, what would that do to your guys' expectations for Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk? Are they just binged? Kicks them right in the crotch. Oh, yeah. I mean, it really does. Look, I wouldn't care so much about it if the matchup was delicious. Right.

But it's not. So I do care and and it kicks them right in the crotch it it does we're going over a lot of matchups today so i'll be curious if we find some uh some nasty boys that you might i'll throw one out right now hit me joshua palmer would you rather play him against kansas city or would you rather play Christian Kirk? With Beathard, you're saying. With Beathard. With Beathard against the Saints. I would go Palmer.

I would still play Kirk. Okay. All right. Now's the beginning. We'll get into the matchups. That is today's show. Along with starts of the week. I'll be honest.

One of mine is pretty scary. Oh, brother. I am. You got nasty boys. with starts of the week i'll be honest uh one of mine is pretty scary oh brother i am you got nasty boys it's we got six teams on by yeah this is the time got injuries everywhere that you are you're diving into the numbers you are looking at the process of where where can i Where can I find someone to fill in? And who is the cleanest of the nasty boys that I'm willing to put in a starting roster? Because, man, I don't know if you guys saw it, but someone tagged me, or he tagged us on Twitter saying, I'm the commish. What do we think about this?

Because we always say you start a full roster. And this was a dynasty league. And this team, with the bye weeks and the injuries, was literally, like, three players short. Three players short on a dynasty team. On a dynasty squad. And it's like, what? I mean – Now, does the dynasty squad have And it's like, what? I mean.

Now, does the dynasty squad have only Houston Texans? I mean, is this the whole roster of Texans on by? That is shocking. No, there are so many teams on by. And then just with the injuries, it was a wild squad to see. I mean, I'm hit. My dynasty team. Oh, Jason is making a face.

Did some waiver actually happen? Well, I was going gonna say it is drop it like it's hot day so check it check your waiver wire but the point being uh oh yeah kyle found the tweet so you guys can look at the team my dynasty roster i i don't have uh yeah i don't care about you i don't care i want to finish the point all right cd lamb garrett wilson jamar chase CeeDee Lamb, Garrett Wilson, Jamar Chase, like the bedrock of my dynasty squad. No, no, the NFL in its infinite wisdom is letting them all rest this week. Well, did you see that we go from like,

I think we have no buys next week. Yeah, of course. Why? And then we're back to like... Because we took care of them. Then we go back to six. Why spread them out? Why would you do that?

Rip the Band-Aid off. So speaking of, I mean, Jason, what was the- Yeah, I was grimacing because our waivers went through, and I really, really, really wanted Joshua Palmer. I upped my bid a little bit. You still got a Josh. I did. I wanted both Joshes.

I wanted Josh Downs and Joshua Palmer, but Andy outbid me for Joshua Palmer. Speaking to the point- You fart face. The bi-week point. Thanks. It is one of those weeks where you're fighting. I had a bunch of fab

saved the whole year. And then the byes hit and the injuries hit. And I spent almost all of it just to survive. So, yeah. It's tough. We'll see. Boom Boom Kicker on the show today as well. Follow us on X at the FF Ballers.

At Andy Hollowayay At Jason FFL At FF Hitman And then Mr. Moore Mr. Wright we have a discount It's discount o'clock because the DFS pass It's that time We have reached one third of the way through the season And the DFS pass

The heralded Much acclaimed potentially award-winning dfs pass uh now 33 off i've given it fair i made up my own award and i gave it to the dfs pass oh fantastic best dfs pass got gold yeah no bronze here um yeah that's uh that's not fair because we are technically not a third the way through the DFS pass this season because the DFS pass goes into the playoffs. So when NFL playoffs are happening, you could still play along and have some skin in the game and have some answers. Do you want me to undo it or just leave the DFS?

We'll leave it. We'll let it ride. Dfspass.com, take advantage of that, a chance to get in there for two-thirds of the price. All right, into the news we go. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. So one of the pieces of news that I do not see in our show doc that I'm going to lead with was the comments from the son of the daughter of Susan McVeigh.

Right. Oh, okay. Sean. You know him as Sean McVeigh. Yeah. They asked him point blank in a press conference, like, is it fair to expect Zach Evans is going to start the game? And he said, I wouldn't say that.

He said that all four players are going to be able to evaluate it this week. And when he says all four, Zach Evans, Royce Freeman, Daryl Henderson, and Miles Gaskin. And he named them all. He said them by name. So right now, you know, we don't know who's going to get the majority of the reps. And in a lot of leagues, all the fab was spent on Zach Evans. None of it was spent on Royce. I saw somebody just added Daryl Henderson named Jason for $0.

Familiarity with the system. So, you know, I don't really know how dependable Zach Evans is going to be this week. And you need to be willing to make a pivot if you find out more later in the week. Yeah, I think Zach Evans is exciting. You know, he's the fast, speedy rookie that you hope you can just hit a home run with, but the fact that, like, in our league, he went for 78 fab while Royce Freeman and Darnell Anderson were oh he's back were unclaimed uh is a ridiculous gap it's a mistake and I you know it makes it very difficult his comments I know I know he's a dirty dirty liar and so we're gonna really be tested this week

maybe he's trying to make amends and just let everybody know hey look this is what's happening I want fantasy managers to be aware or maybe you know if he comes out and it's all Zach Evans we will know just what a filthy mouth he has um or or because Zach Evans has been the one who's been on the roster for the entirety of the year. That matters so not at all. Really? Completely. I mean, literally you have that example with Arizona giving Damian Williams a ton of work last week. I mean, four carries in his life for Zach Evans.

Sometimes players play roles. Darrington Evans, was he on the roster forever? Yeah. No, he wasn't. They just added him. He wasn't on their practice squad? No, they added him to the – I don added him he wasn't on their practice no he they added him to the they i don't remember if he was on the practice squad the whole year but i just look i i didn't

spend fab on zach evans because i was afraid of this if you want continuity if if that's you know you you want someone that knows the system the person that knows the system the best is daryl henderson aka darnel anderson um dary Daryl Henderson has been in this role before, so if he comes out and is the guy, I wouldn't be shocked. Yeah, and they did. They added him to the roster, and all of a sudden he was getting more carries in the first half than Freeman. So it doesn't mean that Zach can't do it.

He has the most upside as a player. When you draft a young, fast, talented, highly scouted player. So familiarity does matter. It's a scary situation. Yeah, I think the addition of Henderson is – I think that's the biggest threat. To me, the probability still lies that it will be Zach Evans and Royce Freeman as the predomin the predominant running backs Gaskin the addition that's whatever

but Henderson Henderson could go in and be like yeah I remember all this stuff let's put it let's set the line eight fantasy points you think Zach Evans is above or below eight fantasy points this week? If you had to make the estimation right now. I'm going to take the under. So then. The, the, the, what sucks is the matchup is good.

It's a simple question. Yeah, no, it's not. No, it is not a simple question. The ending answer one is a one word answer. So that's simple.

I will go. I will, I will go under. I'm going to go under as well. Roshon Johnson remains in the concussion protocol. He did not practice on Wednesday. So we're still waiting to hear, is it going to be Roshon, Freeman, Evans, that combination for Bobo. Foreman.

You called him Freeman again. Foreman, yeah. Devontae Smith added to the injury report on Wednesday. The team added Julio Jones. Yeah, this was a hamstring issue. That's what it was listed as. And if you were going to not practice with a hamstring, you have a greater than 50% chance of not playing in that week.

So you need to be prepared. He was originally going to be my start of the week. The matchup is great for the Eagles, and you expect a ton of points this week in that game. I was really looking forward to a bounce back, and now my teams that acquired Devonta Smith recently are looking to have a different starter prepared. Yeah, makes sense, and maybe Dallas Goddard gets more involved.

Jeff Wilson returned to a full practice. It seems like Jeff Wilson will be next man up behind Raheem Mostert. I would rather start Jeff Wilson than Zach Evans for sure. Wow, in week one of Wilson being back. It's week one for both of them. I can see that, yeah. Okay. Kyler Murray limited on Wednesday.

They said the plan, at leastzona reporters are saying the plan is to have him back in two weeks okay so not this week potentially next week uh but he has a 21 day window aaron jones returned to limited practice should people be trading for hollywood brown right now trying to acquire him they should be doing that anyways right Right. That's what I mean. He's a great start this week. He's been – Nice. He's just a really good player, and his ceiling is about to –

he's going from a single story to a two-story house soon. Okay, the ceiling. I get it. Yeah, that's good. It's vaulted. It's got to be vaulted. Because adding a second story doesn't necessarily mean that you're one of the rooms has vaulted yeah full vaulted ceiling no i

like it yeah because i'm in it in like in my i have a two-story home and my my second story is actually but the that ceiling is much lower that's an eight foot but it raises the roof from the outside i'm raising the roof. I think that going after Hollywood Brown, though, you have to have a certain roster set up. Hollywood, I agree that he's a good addition right now. But to look long-term, if Kyler's not back for two weeks, Kyler's acclimating to a system he's never played in. I think it could still take some time,

so this isn't an immediate fix to a roster. Devontae Adams. There was a big kind of press conference answer from Devontae Adams yesterday, and I went back this morning and watched it. Did you? Yeah, I didn't watch it. I've only read the quote. No, you guys both need to listen here,

because the quote that came out of it, of a long answer, was perfect for Twitter slash X. It was essentially, I'm not here for wins and losses. I'm here for greatness. My benchmark is not wins and losses. My benchmark is not wins and losses. It's greatness. And that's going around, and people are like, what in the world?

This is terrible. You're not a good leader. Because his production the last two weeks have not been good but the team won last week and it's a non-starter i mean the whole the whole thing if you listen to the answer i and i posted it on my on my account on x everything he said is fine to me this is a competitor he compares it to like to Kobe having that mentality. His main point is the offense isn't doing very well, and he would like to be a fundamental part of making the offense perform well on a weekly basis,

and he believes he has the skill ability. He's not there to hang out. He wants to dominate. He wants to be involved so that they don't look terrible on offense. That's basically what he's saying, and it's real good for fantasy yeah it really is good for fantasy because this is a true squeaky wheel issue and i love this wheel ain't squeaking man this is a 19 target wheel now yeah i think so i uh i know jason and the listener league you acquired davante adams i did i wasn't sure as I'm sure it was a reaction.

It was part of it, yeah. And, look, I have similar offers out where I'm interested in Devontae Adams. Trevor Lawrence, questionable. Going to go through the pregame workout tonight. Jamal Williams, questionable. Expected to play first time we're going to see Kamara and Jamal Williams. It will diminish. I mean, Kamara's been getting so many carries.

That's going to come down a little bit. Yeah, and the Saints are down three starting offensive linemen. That's not good. No. I mean, I'm still playing Camara. Don't read too much into that. That was today's News and Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance.

Fantasy forecast. Well, we've been talking about it all week. Bengals, Cowboys, Jets, Panthers, Texans, Titans, all taking the week off. A little break. A little break, Ski. Lazy. And you need to be prepared for some lower scoring games this week.

The implied team totals this week, 21.3 on average. It came from Hayden Winks. The NFL average the last few years, it's been a lot higher than that. Warren Sharp tweeted this morning, fewest touchdowns since 2010,est percentage of big plays since 2009. Not as entertaining with a lot of large margin victories and a lot of lower overrunners this week. But this is nasty time for the Foot Clan.

When things get hard, you are going to be better than your opponent. That's exactly right. This is the season, even though it though it's like oh it's yuck it's not as fun this is when the foot clan wins you know we're gonna we're gonna help you decide who to who to start and how to dig through trash and find that gold yeah the las vegas raiders are three and three davante adams's squad travel to Chicago, taking on the 1-5 Bears, DK Sportsbook line, Las Vegas, minus three on the road. The over-under is 37.5,

and that is somehow the second lowest total of the week. And you will have, most likely, Tyson Badgent. Bilbo Badgent? Yes, Bilbo. We've seen the tweets, poor fella. When you said Tyson, I was like, who's this? Yeah, I know. Who are we talking about?

That can't be his name. As Kyle has told us, he holds a butt ton of Division II records. Nice. Ah. And he'll be the guy. And so he's who you're depending on to provide DJ Moore with fantasy value. So look, let's start it off right away. Are you turning back to DJ Moore and the fact that he is the bona fide one here

with Bilbo? Or do you go to the Christian Kirk, Joshua Palmer area? No, I'm not going to drop all that way down because of Bilbo. What we saw was, I mean, obviously it was a very short period of time, but when Bilbo came in, he was targeting DJ Moore like crazy. So I expect DJ Moore will have one target. Yeah, he's the target. And the matchup, you know, it's not the worst. I would say this, the Raiders defense has looked much better the last few weeks than how it opened this season we need to pay attention to that um DJ Moore is not

like uh you gotta get him in your lineups but I would rather play him uh than the Palmers or Christian Kirk with Beathard Craig Reynolds DJ Moore was we didn't mention but craig reynolds we should have was banged up in practice so i mean i saw two injuries yeah toe and four for mr reynolds toe and hamstring oh yeah he that was a it was a full did not practice and jameer gibbs is supposed to be back so i mean i don't think it's funny because, you know, on Tuesday and this, this happens, you gave this perfect example earlier, how last week Mike emptied his fab getting demarcato. And by the end of the week, when games needed to be played, you benched him. That was the right decision.

I mean, you, you can't just have the sunk cost fallacy to, well, I, I picked these guys up. Zach Evans and Craig Reynolds right now look like bad starts. Yeah, potentially. Until we get more information, if Reynolds is practicing in full for two days, it changes. If Evans is taking all the first-team reps, it changes. But on that side of the ball, I mean, that's Cole Komet.

We had the down game last week, which is, look, welcome to tight ends that break out. They don't really break out. They just break through for a couple weeks, and I wouldn't trust him. No, it's like for Cole Komet, you're looking for touchdowns, and this isn't a seasoned veteran coming in here to be our backup quarterback, so I would try to move away from Komet. Okay, and then we know the running back situation right now.

Deonta Foreman last week got work. Darrington Evans got work. Travis Homer's supposed to be back. Travis Homer was on the active roster, which is a place that Darrington Evans wasn't and Deonta Foreman wasn't. Yeah, so to me the flow chart would be if Roshan clears concussion protocol, I want to play him. I know that the quarterback situation is not great,

but where the Raiders are against running back schedule adjusted, they're 27th, so I'm going to take the work and the opportunity and a decent matchup that they can get it done. And if Roshan is out, I think that Travis Homer likely just takes what Darrington Evans did last week, and then Foreman stays in what he did last week. So if Roshon's active, I like it. If he is out, it's two really high-risk plays,

leaning that you're just hoping that there's a P.I. You're really hoping Darnell Mooney draws a PI in the end zone and then Foreman falls in. On a week like this week where you've got a bunch of injuries, a bunch of bye weeks, I think you should probably be starting Roshan if he's active or Deontay Foreman if Roshan is not active. I am more pro Deontay Foreman than I think you two gentlemen are. He still had, I know you say it was garbage time,

but he still had 15 carries last week. I believe he will get the bulk of the carries in this game, and the Raiders are a good matchup on the ground. Okay, with the flow chart, Roshan's out. Tyler Algier against Tampa Bay or Deonta Foreman? Deonta Foreman. The Raiders side of the football, Jimmy Garoppolo didn't practice with the back injury.

Do you guys have any other updates on Jimmy G's availability? Anything you've heard? The way that they were talking about the injury, I had fully expected him to miss this week. I saw something that was positive that made it seem like he was going to. They said it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but I don't know that that means he played. Yeah, I think it's still too early to know for sure.

I want to let people know Josh Jacobs is number one in the NFL in opportunities per game right now. So Josh Jacobs is getting all of the workload, and that matters. I had some people coming after him in my dynasty league, Josh Jacobs. Because he's 25. He's a pretty attractive dynasty asset. The opportunities the last four weeks, 22, 28, 25, 30. Efficiency hasn't been there for him. I don't care that much. That is so invaluable. Offers

were made to me with Ramondre. They were made to me with Alvin Kamara and all the work he gets. Jacobs is beating Kamara in those opportunities and the target number. I'm very excited for Jacobs this week. I think it's a good week for him. And then Devontae Adams dealt with the shoulder injury, had the monster game, and then two down weeks, not worried about him, put him back out there.

There is the off chance that he would get moved before the trade deadline in two weeks but because this team is probably going to win this game they'll be sitting at four and three i doubt it happens jacoby myers has been uh he's been great great yeah he's he's looked great he's had the targets he's had the fantasy production it's been a wide receiver one each of the past two weeks. Yeah. Currently on the season, he is the wide receiver 14, and he didn't play in week two. A top 12 wide receiver in three of his five games. And he looks the part.

It's not just coincidence. It's not like the old Renfro just was hyper-targeted a couple years ago and you just go with it. Myers looks like a go-to receiver. It is really funny that you've got a low over-under, a great matchup against the Bears' bad defense, but with this low over-under and not knowing who the quarterback is, it's like, but yet I want to play Josh Jacobs and Devontae Adams

and Jacoby Myers, and I think that you can be looking towards Michael Mayer. Absolutely. Mike is in on that. I think it could be trappy this week. But I get it. I get the matchup. Out of pure nastiness. Now, we are under the impression, I'm under the impression,

that if Garoppolo misses, Brian Hoyer would be the starter. Is there anything out there that suggests that O'Connell would start? Not to my knowledge. Okay, that's something that we do need. It'll be Hoyer. We do need to pay attention, just in case something pops up. I don't. I think Ed O'Connell's fine, too, against the Bears.

Man, he looked rough. All right, quick break. Back with another matchup. The Cleveland Browns are 3-2, and the Indianapolis Colts, well, they are 3-3. Games in Indianapolis in the DraftKings Sportsbook line. Cleveland, minus 2.5. The over-under is 40.

Are we celebrating that? I'm not sure. Yeah, we are. But both teams, you know, in the playoff picture, both teams could potentially have backup quarterbacks. Gardner Minshew has thrown the ball 99 times in the past two weeks. Just a lot of backup quarterbacks right now. Yeah, you know, it's going to be P.J. Walker or Deshaun Watson if he can play.

And I've seen some positivity around Watson being back out there. I would be thrilled as an Amari Cooper manager to have him back. So, you know, last week, every time I looked looked at the screen it felt like some targets were heading elijah moore's way but elijah moore has not i mean the summary of this season is that he has not turned in even a wide receiver three week despite being targeted nine times nine times like he's finished 43 67 49 118 58. So you can just ignore those targets. Yeah. Yeah.

So, Amari Cooper, we're cool there. What about Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt this week against the Colts, 24th-ranked running defense? Yeah, you can run on the Colts. I think Jerome Ford is a great start, and Kareem Hunt could be. He did miss practice, so we need to pay attention. No. What's going on there?

Yeah, I don't remember the exact injury. I can look it up here. Like car trouble? No, no. It was an injury. Time's on issue. Yeah, it's like he just missed it. He overslept practice again, but I believe he was non-participant in practice.

So we'll see how today goes. I think that's a really important one to monitor with or without Hunt. Even if Hunt is active, I think Jerome Ford is still a good start. He still gets the majority of snaps over Kareem Hunt. He is in the leading role. And while it might be closer to a 50-50 timeshare, it's not just Jerome Ford getting everything. He's looked good, and this is a very plus matchup on a week where you need guys like Jerome Ford.

All right, the matchups for the running back position are so much better on the Cleveland side with the Indianapolis defense. But now we're staring down Jonathan Taylor and Zach Moss in some sort of committee, some sort of timeshare, and the Browns are a tremendous defense. They travel well. They shut down the run. I wouldn't love the matchup if one of those guys was alone, like if Zach Moss had to start by himself.

So how are you evaluating Taylor, who had 50% of snaps last week, Moss, who had 42%? Yeah, I mean, I believe Taylor has taken over the leading role, but it is not yet a situation where he's 75%, where I do think he'll end up. The matchup is brutal. I mean, this is a week where you're probably going to start Jonathan Taylor and get not a ton from him, but more than the other garbage options out there. The real question is Zach Moss.

Can you start someone who is getting less than 50% and could be significantly less? It could be 30%. I think it'll probably get about 40% of the work this week, but it's 40% of the work for a backup quarterback against a great Browns defense. It's so ruthless with Zach Moss because he's been a top 10 guy four out of five weeks, and he's been a top 21 guy every week, and I've never wanted to start him. I've never wanted to.

I traded him away last week, and the person started him, and they got 15 fantasy points. They got the touchdown and a bunch of receptions. That's what it comes down to is Gardner likely going to throw the ball a lot they're not going to have a ton of success on the ground Jonathan Taylor has not had success on the ground thus far but six targets this past week I'm playing Taylor this week and if I can get out of it I'm trying not to play Moss but like would you play Zach Moss against the Browns or would you go Gus Edwards against the Detroit Lions uh both are bad matchups right um I would I would stick with the hotness. You'd stick with Moss?

Yeah. I think I'd go Gus on that one. But just highlighting the point of another guy getting work in a bad matchup. Man, I think that the switch is happening this week. And you would have – where Moss – Moss had a touchdown. I'm trying to remember how it happened. It felt – The problem is that they like him, and he's performing well on a regular basis.

And it was seven carries. Seven, seven. He had more targets than Taylor. I'm playing Taylor, and I'm trying not to play Moss. You laid it out well. Buffalo's foreign. Oh, Josh Downs. Any interest this week?

Yeah. I mean, it's a tough week. They're throwing the ball a ton. The matchup stinks, but the targets are actually funneling to the slot wide receivers against the Cleveland Browns. So in a PPR, I'm not looking at the Cleveland Browns and Josh Downs and going, I got to get out of this. Buffalo is four and two.

They take on the one in five New England Patriots in New England. Buffalo is nine point road favorites over the Patriots. It gives the Patriots 16 implied points. Yeah. So let's start there. How gross is this going to be for the offense of New England? It's not going to go great, but to be fair, it hasn't gone great all season. Ramondre Stevenson, I still think you can start him.

He had his bounce back last week, as we had hoped. The matchup, remember the plan was wait until those three terrible matchups were over uh when he had the the Jets the Cowboys and the Saints in a row trade for him play him so far so good uh last week against the Raiders he put up 15 and a half fantasy points he got the targets going again so Ramondre I'm fine starting again Buffalo is not – I mean, they're a good team. They're a good defense, but they aren't a brutal matchup for running backs. They're middle of the pack. They've given up the 23rd most points to fantasy running backs.

I'm not scared of this matchup for Ramondre. Anybody else on the Patriots? No. Goodness, hopefully not josh allen been a couple of rough weeks is he returned to stallion form this week what do you think uh look yeah i think like a baby you think so again the patriots have been shutting down quarterbacks. Seventh, if you adjust for schedule, only 12.4 points to the position. I mean, even two weeks ago against Jacksonville, when their offense really struggled, they had a hard time scoring. The whole first half, Josh Allen did nothing.

He was still the quarterback, too. He put up 27 fantasy points in four-point scoring. Five times he's played New England. Three touchdowns, two, three, one, four. Yeah. I mean, no matter what, you're not benching Allen. James Cook, I tweeted this morning, James Cook is averaging more yards from scrimmage per touch than Bijan Robinson. He's number four in the NFL. Bijan's at five.

And yet, last week, 49% of snaps and zero targets. An entire half of nothingness. One touchdown on the season. Latavius Murray is the pass blocking preference. When the pass rush is kind of causing problems

for Josh Allen, I believe Murray is getting rotated in to protect him. I don't know what that pass rush is going to look like from New England this week. Divisional matchup. I've had thoughts of teams that have Cook and Murray just playing both because the game script could end up being out of hand and Damian Harris is not a factor this week. Is that a potential play? That way you're not mad when you look at the

screen you ever think about that i got that guy i also have that guy i just i got all the bills running back i think i would be mad if all i got was the running game from the bills the bills i mean the if you look at the Patriots right now, they've been giving up schedule adjusted about 15 fantasy points a game, you know, two running backs. It was only 11 fantasy points last week if you combine them. Right. So that's not good. I don't think you're happy to play both.

I'm going to certainly stick with Cook, who has been excellent. The opportunity hasn't been great the last two weeks, but his talent has. Throw him the ball. Yeah, seriously. That's why you have him here. That's his skill set. Yeah.

Yeah, and, you know, the thing is, if you don't like the pass rush, there is the drop it down to your running back strategy as opposed to just blocking with Latavius Murray. Stephon Diggs, of course. Gabe Gabe Davis he finally gave Davis last week but he had been on a roll it's not a great matchup it's a dart throw this week just like I mean Josh Palmer Gabe Davis that is an interesting question I I would probably go Josh. Dalton Kincaid should be back, which kind of makes both tight ends unplayable. Cortland Sutton or Gabe Davis?

Oh, man. Gabe Davis. Really? Probably. If it were me, I would do that because I would want to not have Russ throwing my guy the ball. Oof. You're not going to want to hear the starts of the week.

Oh, boy. Oh, boy. All right. Well, we'll get into that more. Washington's 3-3. The Giants are 1-5. Washington travels to New York. The DraftKings Sportsbook line, Washington minus 2.5.

Over-under is 39. Immediate thoughts in this matchup. Washington minus 2.5 over under is 39 immediate thoughts in this matchup that Sam Howell is still in play as a streaming quarterback we don't know if it's going to be Daniel Jones yet he was limited in practice on Wednesday Taylor did okay

in a much more difficult matchup the past week for Tyrod Taylor if he is going to go. Washington's defense is on the season hasn't been what they had hoped. We're looking at schedule adjusted 25th against

quarterbacks 31st against wide receivers. So I think that there is some action in here even though I think on on the surface when I see Manders versus Giants I'm not overly excited about it especially with the over under but I think that there are there's players here who I think can have be be amongst the top of the fantasy scores this week. Yeah, I think you're right. Brian Robinson projects to be a good play. Sam Howell projects to be a good play. Obviously, you've got Saquon, who is always going to be started,

and a guy I know you like, Mike, Wandale Robinson. The matchup for wide receivers here is perfect for the Giants, and I'm not too worried about whether it is Daniel Jones or not. For a guy like Wandale, whose targets are close to the line of scrimmage, he's a really solid play this week. All right. You see that? You see Jahan Dotson holding the football? Yeah, what was that?

He's taking reps as a holder. What are we? And you probably are going, what's a holder? Because we don't talk about holders a lot. You know the guy who receives the snap on the kick and then he holds the ball? It's just above water, boy. It is right above water, boy. Yeah.

What is happening? It's not good. I mean, who does that at practice? maybe he came up and was like how do you do that what if he walked out because i could see myself there has to be an explanation what's the what's the strategy there yeah you don't take your first round wide receiver and be like hey at practice today i want you to go over with those guys and uh catch that snap and hold that doing that no No, no. So, you know, what else from this matchup is interesting to you?

Wandale? Yeah, well, I think Wandale, if you want to get just absolutely as nasty as possible, again, the transition of the Giants wide receivers, Wandale is the slot wide receiver. Paris Campbell has been relegated to the bench. Slayton had two huge catches this past week and they were very nice with uh with Tyrod he always looks great on the plays he's involved he always has yeah he really I don't know why he isn't more involved but this again the matchup is really nice I think that on a crazy bi-week injury riddled situation, I've been looking at

waivers where I'm like, man, I've got a really bad double flex. Is there someone on waivers that I could start? And Darius Slayton is someone where he's playing 80 plus percent of snaps in a game where you could easily see him with 80 plus yards and five receptions having a fine fantasy day he's sitting out there on 100 of waivers so if you're in a an emergency situation i you can look his direction uh washington 31st against opposing fantasy wide receivers um so and and logan i think you can go back to logan thomas i know it was disaster this past week, but I still believe he will be involved. Yeah, I'm still playing him in a couple of leagues over other options. I think if you don't ride the bumps with some of the lower tier tight ends,

you get none of the good games. Right. We'll see if he fits into that category or not. Atlanta is 3-3. Tampa Bay is 3-2. The DraftKings Sportsbook line is Tampa Bay minus 2.5. The over-unders. There it is.

37. There it is. Okay. It was a really disappointing offensive performance for Tampa Bay last week. It was a tough matchup. Detroit's defense is exceptional. And Baker just didn't get it going 51 of passes completed some bat downs at the line of scrimmage some interceptions off of those so on the tampa side let's talk about it baker trying to get the ball to evans and godwin

godwin for what it's worth has just just been a Falcon killer in his career, averaging six receptions, 93 yards against Atlanta since 2018. He also hunts Falcons. Wow. To eat them. What? He doesn't waste any of it. He uses the feathers, everything. Well, it's got to be environmental.

Is that a hat? You make a hat out of those? That's the most you can make, right? I mean, if you get enough of them. You probably need enough. A pillow? A pillow? Yeah a falcon feather pillow yeah i mean you put out you're telling me you can't go to go to like a farmer's market and you still i'm selling a falcon it is unlawful for any person to trap take transport or possess yeah oh look we don't wrap hers for falconry

purposes i do not condone we don't support it this behaviorors for falconry purposes. I do not condone this behavior. We don't support it. We're just saying Chris Godwin does. It's from the falconry guide and permits. Would you be surprised to know that nobody in the entire NFL is catching a higher percentage of their targets than Rashad White at the running back position? He is the number one in the NFL. Saw that this morning.

Is that? And it is a. Stats that don't matter. It's a fairly large uh amount of targets i mean he we knew he was capable of catching the ball it's not turning into yards yeah what he does with his receptions is impressively bad 16 of 17 98 total yards on those so So yards per catch of five, six, eight, seven, four. Uh, that's six on the season.

Shot white is, uh, what is he for fantasy? He is a bust. He is. Sorry. He has a, a startable fringe running back too.

He has been red light, green light the entire season. If you want to buy into those trends, it is a green light week i have uh you know when i was looking at the work that kishan von got last week i wanted to like talk about him on waivers and then i saw so i averaged one and a half a care yeah he's no no he's just what happened to sean tucker mike they uh he probably was on a hunt with Chris Godwin, and he took the fall. So the team is mad at him.

Mike Evans, you play him. Godwin, you play him. And there you go. Desmond Ritter on the other side. Bijan, Algier, Drake Glenn, and Kyle Pitts. John O. Smith. You've got to say the name now. You do have to say the name.

I mean, it feels like a coin flip when you throw those both out there, which guy's going to end up at the top. But, hey, let's give him credit while we can. Kyle Pitts, the number nine and number three tight end over the last two weeks. Back into the end zone. Is that heating up? Yeah, that's heating up. For him?

Oh, yeah, no, 93. I mean, he was – Yes, he is heating up. It is. Rules are rules, Andy. It is double-digit fantasy points at the tight end position. It's a technicality. He had 43 yards. And a touchdown.

Yeah. Yeah, don't leave that part out. All right. He is technically heating up. I don't really want to play him in this matchup, but you could certainly do worse this week. Would you play Logan Thomas over Pitts and Johnny?

No. Yeah, I'm not sure about that either. No, I think I'd go with Pitts. And Johnny Smith, third most routes run on the Falcons this year. Drake London? Mike, he was your hungry for more. He has

been very good in terms of targets he is a go to receiver yeah he is a go to receiver and they are not favored the matchup the Bucks shut everything down except for fantasy wide receivers so he is he's the one I have the most confidence in of the Falcons B. John Robinson's fantasy finishes

this year give me a lay of the land 8-8-25-10 21-20 the last two weeks. Opportunities per game. Been pretty good. Yeah. 18-1⁄2. They need to go north.

They really need to go north. I mean, this team needs to keep Bichon on the field far more. Tyler Algier has not looked good I mean he is getting a lot of work and doing very little with it and it just seems like when I'm watching the Falcons play if I was a Falcons fan and I had nothing to do with fantasy football nothing to do with I want more points for B. John Robinson I'm I would just be frustrated every time it feels like you're having success and moving the ball with Bijan, and then it's like, well, you want to be second and long?

Let's put Algier in and give him the first down carry and just, like, wipe a drive away. It really is frustrating, and hearing Arthur Smith talk about saving Bijon and taking the long-term approach and making sure that he's good for the whole season, it's like you're going to lose your season if you don't put your players out there to win games. So what if he's there in Week 17 when you're playing for nothing it's just frustrating to me when when you see a talent gap so clear so evident where one thing is helping your team one thing is hurting your team and it's not like Bijan is too tired in that moment it's just oh I'm sure he

wants to play yeah for sure it's like just do what's better for your team you want the saquon treatment yes i want the christian mccaffrey treatment the the all the all the running backs that are the as good as bijan where the gap for your actual team is like you're hurting your ability to win when you take them off the field stop taking them off the field man it touchdowns are what it's destroying bijan he has uh am i looking at this zero rushing touchdowns on the year he has that little behind the back shuffle he has two receiving touchdowns on the year he has uh one carry back from week two one carry inside the five and and last year algier or last week algier algier had one yeah that's not algier's not dominating that he had one last week but hadn't

seen one since week one that goes to the bigger they're just they're not getting inside the five and running the ball apparently that's that's it they're not getting inside the five or the 10 or the 20 you want to know why because they keep handing handing the ball to Tyler Algier and killing drives. Stop it. All right. A couple of. 17 carries two weeks ago. 13 carries this last week.

Stop doing that. And I told you yards from scrimmage per touch is at number five in the league. Deshaun Watson will practice on Thursday. First full practice potential since the 22nd of September. I'm dropping Tyler Algier. Out of spite? I'm dropping Tyler Algier. Out of spite? I'm going to offer him. I'm getting him off my roster.

You think someone's trading for Tyler Algier? Wait, is this just like a handoff trade? Yeah. Anyone want him? I mean, if you're just handing him off, sure. Yeah, I might. I'm very mad at Algier. I didn't realize that until this game breakdown.

You're mad at Arthur Smith. No, no, no, no, no, no. Well, okay, yeah, both. You don't want Algier to be great. If Algier were on a different team, we would like Tyler Algier. It's frustrating me to watch him kill drives. You also have a turd on your roster for weeks. Yeah, and I've got to end that.

Is this like a Zach Moss situation? Yeah, maybe I'll trade him for Moss. Yeah, I'll trade him for Moss. Yeah, I don't have him anymore. All right, Trevor Lawrence, improvement with the knee sprain. Expected to start tonight. Jason? Okay.

All right. Well, that's good. All right, let's do it. Welcome to Starts of the Week, presented by Purina ProPlan. All right. Let's kick it off. I'm going to be honest. I genuinely, honestly don't like any quarterback starts of the week

that aren't obvious this week. Right. We have our, we had our streamers. I mean, like Brock Purdy was my streamer and he is fine for this category, but I,

you know, we try not, we're not going to give you layups. It's not going to be Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson for our starts of the week. So trying to find another name with a matchup, with an opportunity, I reluctantly selected Jordan Love. Jordan Love is the start of the week this week because, you know,

he's been a top 12 quarterback in three of five weeks. He plays Denver. He has averaged, you know, the eighth most fantasy points among quarterbacks per game, just barely behind Lamar Jackson. He gets back a true first down, move the sticks, passing game weapon in Aaron Jones, and we know how bad the Broncos defense has been. So when I look at those kind of peripheral options,

Jordan Love stuck out to me as one that you could get into your lineup this week. If you have a bye week, if you need to turn back to somebody that has produced, that's my guy. I'm going to go with my stream of the week, Geno Smith. If you picked him up, I think he's a capable starter. He's got more than a touchdown favorite line at home, third highest team applied total. The Cardinals rank 31st in scheduled adjusted fantasy points, giving up two quarterbacks. Might be 32nd if people weren't dropping touchdowns against them last week.

So, you know, if you've got Geno Smith and you've got bye weeks, he projects to be a good start this week. Steel underpants. Here we go, baby. Russell Wilson against the Green Bay Packers. Steel Underpants. It sounds nasty. Russell Wilson is a top-12 quarterback on the season right now.

The Broncos are 1-5. It is not all Russ's fault. The matchup is one that we can attack against the Green Bay Packers it is one of three games currently with a total of 45 or above and then diving deeper into the metrics this one shout out to Kyle Russ ranks number one among all quarterbacks in fantasy points per drop back against zone coverage the Pack Packers run zone, at least they have, 80% of the time. This is a matchup that I think that Russ finishes the week as a top 10 quarterback.

And if you have the intestinal fortitude and the underpants to protect yourself, it makes sense. Well, I'm going to double down real quick here with the Packers and that Denver matchup, which is all we've talked about so far on the majority of the starts of the week. But I think people need to hear it. Aaron Jones is going to be back, and he needs to be in your lineup. I truly believe that.

I think it has not been a fun ride dealing with the hamstring, the re-aggravation, the lack of opportunity, and this is a terrible, terrible Bronco defense that has been especially bad to running backs. I think we have all watched the Green Bay Packers and said to ourselves every play, oh my gosh, they need Aaron Jones so bad. And he's going to be back out there. He is ready to contribute.

They give up 172 yards a game to running backs, and I think you have to jam him back into your lineup this week. For me, my running back start of the week is Jerome Ford. Ford, tough. Bill Ford, tough. Jerome Ford has been pretty good. He's been a top 24 running back three of his five uh weeks obviously the first week didn't even really count with uh nick chubb there and

he's he's averaging 14 and a half fantasy points per game the the colts they're 23rd and schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to running backs this is the type of player that I think is just a really solid play. He's going to get enough carries to have opportunity you can rely on. They're favored. They should score a rushing touchdown. And you've got the current thigh injury to Kareem Hunt. So Jerome Ford, he's wheels up for me. Isaiah Pacheco, back-to-back weeks for me,

but he's taken on the Chargers. He's been top 15 four straight weeks, averaging 20 opportunities per game. That's wild. That's the thing is Pacheco has gone from a guy of like, yeah, he's on a great offense. He's their starting running back, and he gets me points sometimes too. He is being featured in this offense and the bonus over the past three years, the Chiefs-Chargers games have averaged 54 points.

So I don't know that they're going to make it there this week, but they've been giving us greatness over the past three years. All right, well, less hesitancy here. This is my favorite start of the week. My wide receiver, who would have been Jason's had I not hustled and grabbed him sooner. It's Hollywood Brown. It makes sense.

11 delicious targets last week, but you didn't get the outcome that you wanted, making him a buy-now candidate. I mean, you can buy him on the cheap. You're going to get Kyler back soon, but I like him this week against seattle uh this is a player that's in the top 10 in the nfl in total targets last week and kyle uh you're gonna have to look that number up for me but it was like 135 air yards last week and he only ended up with like 42 total yards the ratio was not where we wanted and

if you remember the game i mean he had a couple of bomb touchdowns where it was like the fingertips of a St. Louis Ram defender prevented it from happening. He's been targeted on 26% of his routes. That's slightly behind Keenan. And Seattle is giving up oh my gosh, it was 190 air yards. 190 and he ended up with 34 actual yards. Play him this week against Seattle. I really like him in this matchup.

They're going to have to throw the football, and Seattle stinks against wide receivers. My wide receiver start of the week is Puka Nakua. You cannot be afraid of what happened last week. You say, oh, no, Cooper Cupp is back, and he's the main guy. You should not. I can't. You should not. I'm't. You should not. I'm a little afraid.

I know that there are people afraid. There's people like me. Yeah, but here's the thing. Last week, you didn't have to throw a ton to destroy the Cardinals. In the second half, they just ran it down their throat. Even still, Puka had 33% of the targets. It just weren't a ton of targets. He also was one of the aforementioned dropped touchdown passes.

If he catches that touchdown pass, he has a fine game and no one is afraid at all. The metrics of him being out on the field, of running routes, of getting targets, they're all still just as good. Not every wide receiver scores a bunch every single week. It's the combination of the fact that Cup is back and he had a down game while Cup had a good game that has everybody afraid. Do not be afraid. This is a very, very good matchup. The Steelers rank dead last in schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed two wide receivers. He's on the field. He's getting targets. He's a great play. Don't

be afraid of it. Puka's going to dominate this week. I'm going with Wandale Robinson of the New York Giants taking on the Washington Manders. Since returning from injury, five targets, six, six, and then eight this past week with Tyrod Taylor. Been targeted on nearly 26% of his routes this season. That is a top 12 number at the wide receiver position. is their guy Paris Campbell started as the guy as the slot player for the Giants zero routes this past week plus the matchup commanders have allowed the fourth most passing yards and they are 31st in schedule adjusted points I think that Wandale no matter if it's Daniel Jones or Taylor as the quarterback I think that he's in play this week.

All right, I'm going to go with Dallas Goddard in the Miami game that I'm actually super excited about. 52.5 points. Goddard, you know, this is a player that slow start is going to be important for the Eagles the rest of the way. And that week one impact, Mike talked about it yesterday. He goosed. He made you think that you had wasted everything.

I don't think so. Miami's a pretty bad defense against opposing tight ends. We talked about the Devontae Smith injury. Trust in Goddard. Trust in Goddard. I like it. My tight end start of the week is getting loose. Oh, no.

Pat Friermuth. Really? Pat Friar Muth. Really? Pat Friar Muth is not about it. Does he need some underpants? No, no, no. He's a good start. I thought about it, but I was too scared. Wait, you made a pivot. I did make a pivot. I was too scared because of the

first game off the injury. Let me just throw this out there because I want to set the table of the fear before you fill it out. I saw him hit some waiver wires this week. He's on waiver wires in some leagues. And then I was like, that's insane based on what I know of him. Then I went and looked at three of his four games, one for three,

one for two, three for seven, a combined 12 yards in three games. So now you may proceed. Tell me why this is time. Remember, it took him to week three to get to two hands? Yes. And what happened in week three? He had 41 yards, a touchdown, a very good game. I believe he was your start of the week that weekend was a good start.

One of those games with only seven yards was where he got injured right before this last, that was the last time we saw him. And he got hurt week one. Take that one out. You know, when he plays 50% of the snaps and doesn't finish the game, okay, it's not a great start. Otherwise, he's talented. But more important is the confidence coming back off the injury. He came right out of the bye week. Keep in mind, it was, he missed the game and then got an extra week off off the injury. He came right out of the bye week. Keep in mind, it was he missed the game and then got an extra week off with the bye. When they came out of the bye week, immediately to practicing in full. This isn't a ramp him back up. He's fine. This is basically like almost because of the bye week, it's like the second, you know, it's like, oh, we don't have to wait on this injury. The matchup is

outstanding. I was doing a ton of nerdy spreadsheet work this week, and one of the things that really stood out to me was over the last five weeks, when you adjust for schedule, the biggest gap of any position at, you know, for any team was how bad the Rams have been at guarding the tight end position. So I think he's healthy. He was on waiver wires. And I had Luke Musgrave as my start of the week originally because Vance Joseph defenses can't guard tight ends. It's another great matchup. This is push comes to shove I had both players on my roster in league of record and I dropped Luke Musgrave this morning because I was able to pick up Pat Friermuth and I'm starting him over Musgrave so I am with the people who will

be starting him I think it's going to be a really good game this week. And my tight end start of the week, it is not for the faint. It is rookie Michael Mayer against the Chicago Bears. The work in has been slow for the highly drafted rookie, but look at the snaps, 47%, 51, 66, up to 81% last week. We like that rise. And he was the tight end five. Six targets, five for 75. The Bears have allowed top 12 tight end performance in four of six weeks. I think the matchup is there. I think they're figuring out how to get

Mayer involved. And again, this is not a play for everybody, but I do think that he is a top 10 play this week. Alright, there it is. Your 10 play this week. All right. There it is, your starts of the week. Thanks again to our sponsor, Purina ProPlan Sport. ProPlan Sport provides fine-tuned nutrition for strength and stamina that enables dogs and owners to take on life's adventures together.

ProPlan Sport, high-performance fuel for active dogs. It all starts here. And one more very important segment jason moore's iron clad locked and loaded 100 guaranteed boom boom kicker of the week last week on boom boom i missed it And Mike led a kicker mutiny? An uprising? I returned home with glee Unbeknownst the trap was set for me

There laid a delicious baked potato skin It turned me red like Mark McGuire Bowels burned like hellfire. Tricked by the Packers' Anders Carlson. Mike, any thoughts? There's a lot. I mean, if you were hosting a podcast reflecting on that episode, would the potato skin be at the top of that talking point list?

No, no. Actually, the Mark McGuire is at the top of that. Turn red? That's just what a reference to the team he played on? Oh, no. He was a red. He was a real Bruce Arians. He had Bruce Arians face?

Yeah, he had absolute Bruce Arians face. For sure. Which would have potentially been a football reference you could have gone with. Could have. Could have. But I chose not to. Good work. Yeah, you went baseball. All right, that is

it. More matchups tomorrow. The fantasy face-off where Jason will spin a wheel tomorrow morning. So don't miss it. Make sure you leave us a five-star review if you are so kind on Apple or if you listen on Spotify. Make sure you follow over there five-star review if you are so kind on Apple or if you listen on Spotify. Make sure you follow over there.

You can find us on YouTube, youtube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Subscribe, click the bell, catch Mike on Sunday live. And a reminder, one final reminder, dfspass.com. Pick it up for a 33% discount. If you play DFS, you want the lineup optimizer, go check it out. That'll do it for today's episode of the show. Thank you for joining us and we'll talk to you later.

Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.