Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Fantasy Show: Best props, QB matchups from four most interesting Week 1 games

Episode Date: September 4, 2025

Matthew Coller is joined by Mike Schopp of ADP Chasing for the return of the Purple Insider Fantasy Show. Coller and Mike discuss some of the most interesting props and quarterback matchups from the four of the best games of opening week of the 2025 season. The Purple Insider podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

All right, we welcome into the show. Mike Shope for the Purple Insider Fantasy Shope. Mike Shope, WGR 550, also hosting on ADP chasing. And it is now the first Tuesday of every month that you are hosting on ADP chasing. Great outlet. If people want to go check that out on YouTube, Mike, we got real football. I absolutely cannot wait to break down. I picked four games that are of interest to Vikings fans, including Vikings Bears, and I have

three props each that we are going to go through today. But I have to start out the show by telling you a little fantasy football horror story. You know, I thought, you know what I should do before week one? I should make sure that I got a fresh fantasy team to show Mike and have you be proud of me as the fantasy football experts. Oh, great, draft. You've improved so much since last year. You've learned so much.

And so I got into, you know, fan dual room. And, okay, it's a 10 person draft, little snake draft action, $10 to win 90, very much my speed. So I set it up. It's like, okay. Winner takes all. Yeah, yeah, exactly, exactly. All in, all in. So, uh, all right, we need three more people.

Okay, well, let me go mow the lawn real quick, take out the dog, get those extra people that I'll be ready. Come back and the draft is done. so and then when I looked at it you know how it gives you the projections like here's what your projected score is my projection was the worst of anyone's by far and my number one overall pick was bo-nicks so what it didn't it didn't go the best and I'm not sure how any of that happened but I'm going to tell you my team and then you can tell me like am I just completely screwed or could this be do I have a chance okay so here's my team I got bow nix Jalen Warren, which I feel pretty good about, the backfield,

Travis E.TN, which I do not feel all that good about. And then receivers, Brian Thomas, T. Higgins, and Amica, Egbuka. And that's the team. That's it, six rounds? Yep, that's the team. So it's a one quarterback league where you drafted Bo Nix first. Why would that be possible? How would that be possible?

I don't have a good answer for it. You're not using your own rankings. No, no. It just was like automatically set up. Is that to be a story? Yeah. If I, right, if I had Bo Nix.

I don't know how this happened, but this was how it just, I just clicked, you know, auto draft or something must have been clicked on automatically. And then it just, well, bang, bang, bang and. Right.

I mean, some sites, I'm not sure with Fandul. Some sites will automatically move you to auto draft after one missed pick. Sometimes. it's two, sometimes it's never. Ibuka, Higgins, and who? Thomas.

Brian Thomas. Okay. Not terrible for the wide receivers. No, it's not terrible, but you're dead. I mean, like, Knicks, if you're playing in a 16 league, I don't even know how that works. Like, no, I can't see a path, but, you know, you'll be back. I mean, I think you're a reluctant hero. I mean, you sort of want to include, involve fantasy football in the purple, within the Purple Insider domain, which I am grateful for, but you're not yet somebody, which I think is probably, I mean, I should mean this, and I do as a compliment, that is drafting constantly.

Right. So as someone drafting constantly, I got autoed a dozen or so times I would have to admit over the last two weeks as all the slow draft. grinded to a halt and the eight hour clock, which was very convenient and manageable, became a one hour clock, which was like, uh, and then I think he even went to 15 minutes on some sites. So they got to get these things in before the season starts. I mean, you tell me what you think the ceiling is for Bo Nix. The line I've used all the time on him after last year, which, you know, it's pretty good. As a rookie, he had more. passing yards, more passing touchdowns, and a higher completion percentage than

Josh Allen as a rookie. So like there is the potential for numbers there. And I think Peyton is, I mean, clearly proven as a play caller. But I don't know, like it just doesn't seem like somebody you would need to have in this format. It does not seem all that promising. I am very intrigued by Jalen Warren in the backfield of the Pittsburgh Steelers. I think a lot of people thought that Caleb Johnson getting drafted there would just win that job and maybe they'd have a duo. But from what I've read, it doesn't really seem that way. And I think the receivers can compete with a lot of different teams. But at the quarterback position, the one thing I would give Bo Nix is that he does run a lot. And when you can get those extra yards, maybe he scrambles for a

couple touchdowns. But I've not been the highest on Bo Nix this off season, just because I think there's ceiling there. And if you look at last year and really start to pick it apart, the end of the year, they had a crazy run of bad teams that they faced. And he racked up four extra touchdowns in a meaningless end of the season game, which wouldn't have even counted in most fantasy leagues in the playoffs. And I just wonder if some of those stats were a little bit pumped up. But I do think he is a guy that either throws to his first read or scrambles, which could result in 400, 500 extra rushing yards, five or six touchdowns, something like that. But when you're asking Bo Nix to compete in a small league like this versus Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen and

Jalen Hertz and all the fantasy heroes. I think I am in a lot of trouble. But I did, I did want to go back. I wanted to ask the auto draft. What, what were you thinking there? What were you thinking auto draft? Because I wouldn't have done that. And then Travis ETN, I don't know. I haven't read up on the Jaguars backfield, but he just got relegated last year to a backup role. And I don't know if, or I'm sorry, he's a, wait, which Trevor ETN, which, Trevor ETN is the rookie the Carolina. Okay, no, it is Travis ETN. Okay, it is Travis ETN. Hopefully, didn't have that. No, that, the kick return. No, it is Travis ET. I don't know what his deal is. It's going to be one of, this always happens every year. It's why this week is so great.

Um, one of the many interesting storylines to track around the NFL, Jacksonville, Tennessee. No, Jacksonville, Carolina in week one. I often get those teams confused. Hall of Fame game 95 matchup. Both light blue. But it's Ted McMillan and Travis Hunter potentially and then Hunter on the other side. My most drafted player in almost 300 leagues this summer was Basial Tutin, the rookie that Jacksonville picked.

And there are two or three fundamental reasons. I mean, by far. So I'm definitely out on the wire when it comes to this player. but it's that there's a new coach and GM in Jacksonville. So all bets are off with the guys they've already, you know, built in ETN and Tank Bigsbee. Also, Tutin has was an athletic freak. He's somebody that I think was if you dived in on this year in the draft and how deep the running back prospects were and how excellent the class was, he's somebody who's named

you would know, like, all right. So is this going to be a day two pick or day three? And you had a half a dozen guys, if not more, like him in this respect. So he goes to a team with new management. And I mean, a lot of people are sort of, they're making their last call bets on Trevor Lawrence on that offense with Thomas, who's so good. You got him. You got a Jacksonville connection there at least. So if they're the best offense in the league, you probably will benefit on both sides of that, although you wish Lawrence was your quarterback if you had to do it over. But ETN, he's never been anybody, even out of college, out of Clemson, there were enough analysts in the industry sort of bringing him down as a pass catcher and sort of as an overall

talent. They had just such a perfect setup there. Look at the players on that team that won. And so he's always been somebody for me that's been in the end a disappointment. in Jacksonville. He got the volume. Doug Peterson at least once, maybe twice admitted to the media. Yeah, we've overused him. So volume-wise, which is number one, when it comes to running backs in fantasy, fine. But I just didn't think that was going to repeat. And so here we go. Basial Tutin, let's fly. I mean, look, we're very back if we're talking about basal tutin. But, you know, our friend Chris Trappaso is kind of obsessed with him. I love him. I love him. him coming out of college. So you never, the backfield, you never know. When you dropped the factoid on me the other day that Rahim Moster had led the NFL in touchdowns two years ago. It's like, anything can happen in the backfield. But Jamal Williams the year before. Oh, right. Yeah,

yeah, yeah. So we've got a bunch of games here. And I would love to spend four hours going through every prop of every game because it's just so interesting. But instead, I picked out four. games and three props for each game. And I want you to break them down. So we're going to start out with just the first game of the National Football League season, which is Dallas and Philadelphia. And what I've got for each game is obviously the quarterback. So we can talk about what the quarterbacks are going to do and the yardage props on Fandool. And then I've got some other ones just picked out based on the game. So Jalen Hertz, 212.5 yards. And Dak Prescott at 248.5. Here's what I want to do. I want to ask you which one is the better over for these props

unless stated otherwise. Which one would be the better over? Is it Jalen Hertz at 212 or is it Dak Prescott at 248.5? Folks, I know a lot of you out there either own your own business or you are in a management position where you have to hire people and it can be such a headache. You have to sort through all sorts of resumes of people who aren't qualified. and you end up overlooking some of the best candidates. It's tough. But what is not tough is using ZipRecruiter for your hiring need. ZipRecruiter finds amazing candidates for you and fast. And right now you could try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. It's just so easy that you have to try it. You can use their smart technology that finds great candidates for you. Or you can use the invite to apply button that allows you to reach out to your favorite candidates.

There's a lot of ways that you can make ZipRecruiter, your best recruiting tool. Ditch the other hiring sites, let ZipRecruiter find what you're looking for, that needle in a haystack. Four out of five employers who post on ZipRecruiter, get a quality candidate within the first day. So try it for free at this exclusive web address, ZipRecruiter.com slash audio. Again, that is zipRecruiter.com slash audio. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Um, well, easily Prescott is my answer. Like if it's eight and a half, which is the number that Fanduel has up as we're talking, and it's moved up a little bit since the Parsons trade. The most likely game script is that Philadelphia dominates on the ground, which they did all year last year. I mean, they threw so few passes, uh, which, you know, caps obviously would cap any quarterbacks passing upside. So the most likely game. script here is you get a game where Philadelphia gradually shows superior and Prescott, Lamb

and Pickens and Ferguson. I love drafting all those guys this year because I think the upside is so high and it went up because of the Parsons trade. So it even went up a little bit more. I mean, Prescott has been a 4,500-yard passer on pace every year. He's been hurt a couple times, but I thought he was a good MVP bet before Parsons was traded. Now, I think there's just no chance they'll win enough games. But I love their upside. I think 248s is a pretty safe number to bet the over there. And if I'm right, then you'd want the under on Hertz. I mean, they, again, just did not have to push it. And if you think this is a game where, you know, maybe Philadelphia isn't on point, Dallas does a little better than we thought, then you could, you should

be able to clear two 12 and a half if that was the number on hertz but i think you'd want to correlate that which for me would be over on prescott and under on hurts yeah i agree with you there especially just because the way we could see this playing out is let's say you know 17 to seven at half time dallas has to come out and just throw like crazy also i was looking at i was i i found out today who the running back of the dallas cowboys is i i honestly could not have told you Javante Williams is their running back. I guess, yeah. What else are you going to do other than throw the football?

I think that their entire offense is going to have to be throwing the ball. So every week might have to be overs for Dak Prescott. There was that, I don't know why it sticks in my brain because there's probably a hundred other examples of this. But the time that John Kittner had a, you know, to win team or something and threw for 4,000 yards, it just sort of reminds me like this team shouldn't be all that good. but Dak Prescott could throw for 5,000 yards because he's going to have to. The better example is probably just last year's Bengals. That defense was so bad for Cincinnati and Burrough just through and through and through and through.

And I could see Prescott having to do the same thing. And he's got the weapons to be able to do it, but doesn't have the defense to be able to slow down anybody, I think, at this point. Yeah. I think for that kind of game script, which as you're saying, Dallas could have a bushel of those. The running back you'd want is Jaden Blue, the rookie. Like, he's going to, he's not big, but he's there going to be their past catching back. And if he's sort of ready, he had an ankle sprain more than a week ago, but he's off the injury report for this game. And it's the kind of game

where if he's like NFL speed, that's seven or eight catches sometimes, like just dump off, under pressure, here come the Eagles. So I think Blue would be, that's an over prop for me again if you make make sure it correlates if this is the game you have in mind um you know long term Dallas might have lots of problems or we might do what we've ended up doing in the past when it comes to defensive players and oh we shouldn't really have worried about that I think the question with the cowboys is will they implode from this news what were they thinking they were I mean, Prescott has quarterbacked many good teams. And this could be one where the Parsons, the charade with Jerry Jones is so embarrassing that it gets away from them.

And so then it doesn't become a Kittna or a Blake Bortle season where, like, nobody really thought you were anything anyway. You know, Burroughs team stayed in it as bad as their defense was. And Jamar Chase won the Triple Crown at receiver, which who knew that Triple Crown was actually a thing? people said in football until like two years ago. But I think, you know, with Prescott, it could get really bad. The risk of mine as a Prescott drafter this year is like if the whole thing just gets imploded because of this news. If it doesn't, there should be a lot of fantasy goodness. Right.

We have seen this team collapse under the weight of the drama. Usually it happens kind of in the playoffs, but I even thought that it happened to some extent last year where they got into a little trouble early. and then they just can't dig themselves out of it because their owner comes out and talks after every single game and, you know, the fan base there. I think that there is something real to that with places like Chicago and Dallas that have struggled for a long time or in Dallas's case have gotten kind of close but not really close at times and they have such massive coverage nationally and such massive fan bases that I, and either crazy owners or not great owners or not great.

leadership or whatever. Like, I think that that stuff kind of adds up on a team after a while, but I just look at Dallas's roster and I go, I don't think you guys have enough to compete in that division, which means a lot of Dak Prescott throwing the ball. The two other ones that we can do quickly because I think really them not having Parsons and now what are they is the biggest story here. But AJ Brown at 69.5 yards or CD Lamb at 71 and a half, which one is the better over. I do think there's something there with A.J. Brown and J.L. Hurts that seems to be hot and cold with each other. And since they won the Super Bowl, it's like, all, everything is fine and there's no issues. But that was kind of a big discussion for last

year. So I was wondering if they come out and try to remember when they did the like very contrived touchdown dance to show the world that they were okay. I was wondering if we're going to get sort of the same thing. Like, are they going to pump the ball to AJ Brown early to try to make him happy from the start. Like, remember when you had 157 yards in week one? Well, when you had 27 in week three, you can't be mad. Yes. Along the same lines as the earlier outlook on this game, lamb over for me, definitely. I mean, I think he's probably wide receiver two this offseason in fantasy above Jefferson, the Jefferson injury, and then the Parsons. And then the Parsons. trade added to that and sort of lamb has, I think, ascended past Jefferson in that way.

So 71.5 and the NBC Thursday night opener with a losing game script plus eight and a half. I love it. I would be less into a brown under in kind because of what you said. And also, like, there can just be a 50-yard fade to the back pylon and like it's touchdown A.J. Brown. And if they're going to build a lead, they're going to do it somehow. I mean, Sequin Barclay last year got tackled at the one yard line 11 times and never scored on a single one of those drives. Amazing stuff. Like maybe AJ Brown gets tackled at the one. But if you get one or two plays like that, you're home. So I don't know that I would bet the over there, but I wouldn't want to bet the under either because there's such a high ceiling with him.

and if they get that lead one big play to him gets you home almost definitely a 50 yard touchdown and you're almost sure to win but lamb over 71 and a half I'm all about my third one is a deck prescott two and a half rushing attempts or saquan barclay over 18 and a half rushing attempts uh the reason i i threw in deck prescott is because i don't think they're going to run giovante williams really at all uh prescott doesn't really run anymore but he's going to scramble three times, right? I don't love either one. If it gets, if it really gets

away from Dallas, then no. Well, I guess it could happen that way. But my instinct to your question was more the type that the game is so bad for them. I don't really think that about this game. Like, I think Dallas is probably potent enough to keep,

get us into the third quarter, at least with the Eagles. So, yeah, you could get three rushes. but those quarterback props are just like, they're just sort of putting the bait out, you know, what do you think? Will he run three times? It doesn't seem like very much.

A couple of big rushes. He goes around the end. I mean, I would probably stay away. Barclay, 18 and a half. They have been using Will Shipley, or at least I can't say they've been using him because it's only been the preseason and that's irrelevant. But the speculation around the Eagles,

they might do a little bit more with their back. backup. Again, if they have the lead, they could do that. And, you know, preserving Barclay after just an absolutely massive season for touches would make sense. Don't love the over on either. That has been my offseason. I don't know if it's that hot of a take, but it's a little bit just based on how running backs have fared after they run for 2,000 yards. It's never the same. It doesn't mean it's terrible, but it's just never the same. So I would be hitting some Saquan Barkley unders. But week one, though, he's probably. pretty jacked up to play. And if they're ahead, then, you know, maybe. But that one for long

term, I don't think it's going to be the same as it was last year. Next game is Kansas City and the LA Chargers. We have Stan Humphreys and Elvis Gerbach starting Kimball Anders in the back field. And let's see, Natron Means would have been back there. Alfred Papuunu is blocking for him. It's a great. It's a great matchup. Marcus Allen is, he what a fantasy darling he would have been uh anyway in real life patrick mahomes 240.5 yards and justin herbert 231.5 which one is the better over to take i like mahomes but with these you sort of you need l.A to keep up and in this rivalry they've done a lot of that like they have not they've beaten the chiefs once or twice but they've pushed them most of the time

And so you might like the over on both guys. It's just like it's Jim Harbaugh and the rookie O'Marion Hampton. Like maybe they're still more of a ball control kind of team. That's how most teams I think would approach playing Kansas City. The buzz this offseason on the Chiefs has been, okay, they're ready to go back to being the Chiefs, which is down the field. They will not have Rashi Rice for this game. That's mostly underneath.

They do have worthy. We're hearing more about like a rigid. Juvenated Travis Kelsey if he's able to find sort of a wayback machine, Hollywood Brown, even, well, I guess Royals is not going to play, but even like Juju, like they've used them in the AFC championship, he was relevant. I kind of want to see that. I mean, Pacheco seems healthy, but I wonder if the chiefs, and if they get behind even better for this, you know, this concept. What if the chiefs are ready to reestablish as a team like, all right, this is the best quarterback in the league? this is the best team in the league and we're going to show it and you know week one you get all a year to prepare for that so it's assuming a little bit when it comes to kansas city and their

efficiency that we didn't get any of last year but i'd like mahomes over that number and herbert is more a byproduct of what the chiefs are able to do can their you know can the charger's defense make it a game which you know the spread says is likely and then maybe you get there with herbert too. I just don't like for Herbert the running games or the identity of the team and then also what his receiving options are. I'd be Mahomes here. I know that the nation is very tired of Kansas City and they're very tired of Travis Kelsey and his podcast and his fiance and all, all those sorts of things. But athletes that are in the range of Patrick Mahomes historically, your Tom Brady's, your Peyton Mannings, your Kobe Bryant's, you're Michael Jordan's. Like he's, he's in, he's,

he's in that your tiger woods your serena williams he gets that sort of billing right if there's a down moment there's usually something special on the way right for the for that group and that's exactly the way i'm thinking about patrick mahomes this year now i've wondered like hey could the chargers actually win that division or could you know we get really surprised by denver or something and the answer is probably not because of this last off season and the motivation of getting killed in the super bowl and then also having a bad year overall, which is crazy to say because they reached the Super Bowl and you and I cover teams that don't get to the Super Bowl. And so we're like, oh, what a bad year it was for Kansas

City as they, you know, lost to the Eagles in the Super Bowl where the Vikings haven't been since the 70s. But the point just being that, you know, I think that that would have been a, I'm taking it personal type of moment for Patrick Mahomes and for Andy Reed, because his offense was just plotting last year and almost frustrating to watch. at times. I got tired of watching Patrick Mahomes scramble around and then throw a two-yard pass and have to convert a third and eight time and time again. I think that they probably spent the whole offseason studying, even people like Kevin O'Connell, who have found ways to beat two deep coverages, where everyone's always doubling Justin Jefferson, they're always playing

over the top, and yet he finds ways to beat them. I think that that's probably what they spent a lot of time on. And when it comes to overs and Justin Herbert, I would just never do it. because it's Jim Harbaugh, and they want to run so much, which does lead me to my next one, which is the better bet here for a touchdown score, Xavier Worthy or Omerian Hampton. They have about equal odds on Fandul to score a touchdown in this game. Hampton, I think.

I mean, Worthy can score on a jet sweep. You can get the big play. Last year, the timing with Mahomes and Worthy didn't really take shape until very late, but as late as the Super Bowl, you got a deep ball touchdown. It started to happen. So if you want to imagine a season where Worthy is ready to really pop and become a bona fide number one,

then maybe he scores in this game and it's not even a big story. But Hampton, I think, will be the bell cow. Naji Harris, okay. I mean, he's available in week one. That was a little bit of a surprise. Did not practice at all. I know that, I think you'd agree, you can't rule out the possibility of teams lying.

to us constantly. And maybe with Najee Harris, it was really never anything, but he didn't, he hasn't really played at all, if practiced at all, and he's going to go to Brazil and run against the chiefs and be relevant. Hampton's a first round pick. He wasn't everybody's

favorite prospect. A lot of people liked him. Harbaugh, Roman. He scores. If they're down in this game, you know, they get into the red zone, I think Hampton pops one in. So I'd rather bet him. I like that too. And, just knowing, again, Jim Harbaugh, like what he's going to lean on.

That situation with Najee Harris is pretty interesting. They would have him practicing if he was okay, 100%. They wouldn't, right. They wouldn't play that game all summer long. Just what are they trying to hide Najee Harris? I know Harbaugh is insane, but I don't think he's that insane. They want their best players practicing. And so maybe we'll see some fireworks in the game.

Am I right? You can make that, you can make that joke if he's okay. and he's going to play, right? Then you can make the joke. Hopefully it's safe to do that. But if you're going to spend a first round pick on O'Mary and Hampton, you're going to use him. So I wholeheartedly agree.

Now, that leads to my third one for this game, which is nobody has a higher number rushing in this game than 47.5, which is Isaiah Pacheco. Anybody go over 50 yards rushing in this game, you think? Hampton could. Pacheco could. Those numbers have to be a little bit close, right? I don't know Hampton's number.

Yes, they're separated by one yard. Yeah. Yeah. So I could see both guys doing it. What's always with these, we talked about every week last year with the night games. Put it in your mind what kind of game you see. And every pick you make has to fit into that.

And so if you see Kansas City as the better team here, and we're talking already here about Mahomes opening it up and the chief's trying to make a point, that doesn't mean Isaiah Pacheco can't get to 47 yards. I mean, that's 48, whatever it is. like that that's not crazy at all. It sounds like he's healthy and they're clear number one going into the season. That was in question earlier in the preseason.

So I like Pacheco over there, I think. You know, if it's a good night for the offense, it should be a good night for him too. I think both. Yeah, I think both are pretty easy for me for him and Hampton to both go over. All right, Green Bay Detroit, first prop is Micah Parsons mentions 5,463. and a half is the number for Micah Parsons numbers. This is, uh, it's, you know, look, I, I love action. I love offseason action.

I love trades. I love breaking them down. I love moves. I hated the timing of this move because it just crushed everything else going into week one on the front page of the discussion of the NFL. So we can move past the, uh, conversation at least till the third prop. And let's start with Jordan Love. We have a minute then.

Yeah, we do. Yes. Let's let's really, really hold on to these non- Micah Parsons discussion moments in our life. Jordan Love at 234.5 or Jared Goff at 241.5. Love, I'm buying into the vibes a little bit here. The one closest thing over the course of the summer as a drafter that approached a hot take for me. I'm not a hot take. take guy. Usually I'm sort of crowdsourcing and trying to build portfolios and percentages. It's trying to make sense of it all is to be off on Detroit. I think the the offensive line removals, right? The center retired. Zitler moved on. Like I think those could be really significant. Your coordinator is gone.

We're kind of hoping as a fantasy community that James and Williams is all that. That's a pretty big, you know, that's pretty big hope because he hasn't been a consistent producer yet in the league and then you have Isaac Tesla and of course Laporta so it's probably not going to snow but this is Jared Goff outdoors and so not excited really about that could be proven wrong a couple of years ago they went to Lambo and I probably said the same things was a night game and they just killed it St. Brown just dominated Green Bay I I'm hoping not for the Vikings rankings sake, but for sort of football's sake that finally this year, Green Bay decides, all right, let's put the pedal down. I mean, they invested in the quarterback. They put a first round pick into a wide receiver. I don't know if Jaden Reed is healthy. That's a weird one because they're talking about Jones fracture, but he's playing anyway, and we don't really know. We tried to break that down on ADP chasing earlier this week. It wasn't easy. Tucker Kraft, everybody likes. Jacobs is still Jacobs. I think.

So to the game, sort of feeling the Packers' vibes, although I'm not sure Micah Parsons is 100%. So it's like his back is still a thing. But I'll go with Green Bay here. And as run-oriented and is kind of slow, certainly the Rogers teams there under Lafleur were slow. The defense has been good. This is where you get burned with the Packers.

I don't need to know which wide receiver leads in yards, but love over. I'll go there. Yeah, and I think Detroit's going to score. Like even though Green Bay's defense was very good last year, even if they have Micah Parsons, I don't think they have Micah Parsons for 75 snaps. I think they probably got him for a little less

as he continues to recover from a back injury that turned out to be real when I don't think anyone thought it was real. And he also doesn't know the entire defense. Even with Khalil Mack, when he got traded over from Chicago or to Chicago from the Raiders, I don't think he played the entire game in the first night. Yannikin Gokwe, when he was traded to the Vikings, did not play the entire week one.

So these late acquisitions don't always result in the very first week where that guy just plays a full-time role. Speaking of the wide receiver position, Matthew Golden at three and a half receptions or James at three and a half receptions. Golden to me, Mike, is a swing player, huge swing player for the entire Green Bay Packers season. like if he's great right away like maybe not just the Jefferson level but we see rookies come in and have success at that position if that happens their offense could be pretty darn dangerous if it doesn't then it's just another guy in the league that they have playing wide receiver yeah um well where have we started here that the green bay and their passing offense they have a night and so I'm open to the idea of golden as his first in his first game in the league having a

bigger night. I think I'd like in both cases, Golden and Williams yards more than catches because I think they're both. Golden sort of sounds like this and Williams is definitely this. He's sort of like the depth of target kind of guys. So it depends on what Reed is. If Reed doesn't play, maybe you get Don Tavian Wicks instead. But I mean, it's certainly not crazy to think I can get to four catches on a good night for the Packers with their with their rookie. But I think of him more as, give me a yards prop. It's not going to be that egregious, maybe like 38 and a half or 40s, something like that. I think I'd rather play that.

Williams, this is a cool one. Like, what, if Detroit gets challenged in this game or even down, what is Jameson Williams? If you knew all summer when you're drafting in that fifth, sixth, seventh round range, and there's Jameson Williams, but all these other comparable receivers for ADP, Jerry Judy, Jacopy Myers, Rissolave, Roma Dunes, eh, Williams. Williams is the boom-bust king when it comes to that. And so if they get down in this game, you want that. You want to see eight for a hundred from James and Williams. And, you know, I mean, eight's a lot.

They've got St. Brown and Laporta. But, you know, like, I guess I want him. I'm talking myself into the over on him before Golden. And that's a little bit again because I think, you know, maybe Detroit will lose. I like Golden on this because I think that they're going to want to show off their new toy and from whatever thing I saw from the Packers media about training camp, it looked like he was their guy right from the start and he had a very good camp. But with Jameson Williams, he is one of the more, kind of an old school boomer bus player

where you could see one catch for 27 yards. Like if I'm just throwing out random old players like James Jett or something where you just laid the one big play and that's pretty much it for him or wouldn't be the first time on this episode that you've thrown out games of random old players. Every once in a while. Well, maybe Cadre Ismael, if I'm doing a Viking connection there for the downfield guy. I believe that Natron Means earlier. Yeah, the Natron Means shows up in almost every show for some reason or another. But Mewaldi Moore came up the other day.

This is, there's a brand here. But when it, when it comes to Jameson Williams, I mean, he, he is absolutely that type of guy where it's five catches for 140 yards or it's kind of nothing. and I don't know which one it's going to be for this game. That might depend on how it goes. It might just depend on how Green Bay ends up playing him. The one thing, though, about Green Bay is as much as they've jacked up their defense with Micah Parsons, their secondary is still not that great outside of one safety. And that, to me, is opportunity to go deep down the field.

The pass protection will be an issue. I don't know. I think you could go either way on this. Okay, the third one is Micah Parsons is minus 140 to record a sack in this. game. I would bet against it all day. I mean, Jared Gough just doesn't get sacked a whole heck of a lot. Right. Agree. Don't know about his back. And he's going to be job one for the lions. I mean, I'm thinking the lions have seen him before. I'm thinking of the, yeah, of course, the game in Dallas a couple of years ago that was sort of a controversial finish. So I don't like

to bet minus 140 at anything. Yeah, fair enough. The opposite of Kevin from the office who bets. Isn't it if it's something is 10,000 to one, he bets everything. No matter what it is, if it's 10,000 to one, he takes it because if it works, he's rich. Uh, okay. Now, does it have to be a full sack? Oh, that's a good question. It just says record a sack. So that is different. That is a half, does a half count? Now it's in, it's in Green Bay. They're going to give him a half sack if he breathes on the quarterback, right? Just to be like, like, like scores play games like that make sure on this one maybe if he gets two halves would that count that's a that is a good question uh okay there is a big game being played on monday night football between the minnesota vikings

and chicago bears let us end there with this caleb williams 218.5 or j j mccarthy 220.5 yards which is the better over i think williams although i do like the vikings in the game i think you know we've talked this offseason a lot of us have to about just like, is Minnesota primed to rein in their pass rate over expected a little bit? And if the bears are not competent on offense, which usually is safe to expect, but maybe not anymore, then it plays right into the Vikings hands as a team that, you know, can kind of just do whatever they want. So the bears have to threaten them. And maybe that'll happen.

Everybody loves the bear's weapons. We all did last year, too. just can't ever resist dragging the stat out, 10 yards per opening drive for their entire season last year on offense. New coach, new management, maybe the bears are ready for this spot. But love the Vikings roster. And even with Adam Thielen brought in, I don't think they need to be a team that in a game script I'm imagining has to really push it. And we've never seen J.J. McCarthy do that in his life. I mean, just sort of have to throw, what, 35 passes or some number like that. So if it's Minnesota's game on the road, bears get frustrated, they'll want to

get something out of Williams. I think maybe I can get to that number sooner. But look, I mean, if it's, if you pop one to Justin Jefferson in the first quarter for 72 yards, you're going to have, you know, you're going to feel great about that over. I'm with Williams here. I'm all about Williams on this one because, and I like how you frame it of what's the game that you imagine. And I imagine a game where Caleb Williams has to play from behind and has to throw a lot and ends up with 278 yards and five sacks and an interception and something like that. And the Vikings win 23 to 13. That's kind of how I could see this going where McCarthy is getting ahead and then playing from ahead in the same way that he did at Michigan. And

I also think that, you know, they went out and spent a lot of money on the line and the running backs for a reason, not to let Jordan Mason sit over on the sideline and, or whatever, pass protects, right? They didn't bring him in for that. They brought him in to get ahead by 10 points and then pound the heck out of the Chicago Bears. Whose D-line, his front seven is just okay. And I think you could stay on the field a lot. And even just watching camp, like J.J. McCarthy was perfectly comfortable with 10-yard throws, 7-yard throws, just moving the sticks more than he was going down the field. all the time like Sam Darnold was. Yes, and dare I say it, I mean, the Bears have put a lot into their offensive and defensive lines. There is a scenario here where it doesn't happen for Minnesota on offense. They can't run between the tackles.

And McCarthy just sort of the pressure breaks down. There's a, there's a, not a nightmare scenario, but there's a game here where for as much as we talk about or maybe I fixate on Williams and the offense, where the Bears defense at home in week one, is a problem. And so I could see that, too. That's how the Viking season ended. I mean, I don't have to tell you or your viewers that.

So it'd be another reason to fade the McCarthy over. In Chicago, nightmares are always possible for the Minnesota Vikings. I have learned that over the years. How about a couple of receivers here? Adam Thielen 32 and a half yards or Rome Adunze 50.5. I think I like the over on both. in a vacuum, Thielen, what do you think? Maybe they sort of want to bring him back

and have their moments with Adam Thielen as the compliment to Jefferson. Addison, of course, is not there. So I think that if he's healthy, I mean, he hasn't really looked old yet. Maybe the last time he did was in Minnesota. I don't know, but it hasn't really sort of been that yet. They just got the trade.

If they happen to struggle a little bit game script-wise, then kind of like the over-on-thelan, but it feels a little bit like a sucker bet. And then on O'Donze, everybody that I know in the Sharp community is in on him. He's the guy this year. Last year we were supposed to be DJ Moore. DJ Moore, we've made all the excuses for him for years, didn't have the quarterback. He's a heavy fate for me this year in fantasy.

It was Keenan Allen last year that ended up being the guy there, and no wonder they averaged 10 yards for opening drive. But I think O'Donzee is a big talent. and I think it's Odunzei and then Loveland and eventually Luther Burden on that offense. And Moore is fine, but I just don't see a big year there. So I'll go over on both guys, but really it depends on which game script you like. Like if my first hypothetical and the bears just aren't able to function, you're not going to want the over on anybody. If you see it differently, O'Donzee would be the one play I would make on their offense.

with Thielen one of the things that it's a very specific point about McCarthy but I think he sees the middle of the field really well and I think he utilizes it and I think that's where Adam Thielen's going to be all the time and he still went Thielen still went down the field sometimes last year but I think he can be that guy who lives underneath in those zones especially as the defense gets stretched out by Justin Jefferson and 32 doesn't I mean that seems like three four catches I think that's very reasonable wouldn't you play Hawkinson in this game. Oh, yes, 100%. Yep, 100%. And I think he beat my number one. I have been super high on the idea of Hawkinson, but the thing that ends up happening for me, because I just know O'Connell's offenses and it's like,

well, what about this guy's targets? Oh, he's got to get a ton. What about that guy's targets? Oh, a million. What about this guy? Thousands. And I was looking at Mike Clay's projections from ESPN. He's got, you know, Jefferson with 170 and Hawkinson with 120.

And it's like, who, who is? even gets taken away here, but maybe the answer is nobody. I don't know. So, but I do agree with you there. And, well, the last one for this, and we kind of alluded to it is the over under one and a half point favorites for the Minnesota Vikings. Would you take the Vikings in this game? I just think they probably, week one is life on the wire, whoever knows,

but they probably have the much better team. Yeah. I mean, I think Chicago has done the right things. conceptually this off season. I don't mind them drafting Loveland and Burden like they did even with the skill position guys they had like that's what this coach is about. But they

did more than that and there's a chance that they look great. You know, in the preseason against Buffalo, they were I mean, Bill's backups, but they were like men against boys. Then they went to Kansas City and they got shredded against Mahomes because weirdly

the chiefs like played Mahomes and Kelsey and their guys in the preseason finale, which is weird. So I think the bears are a really tough guess at this point, but I like so much about how Minnesota is built and their coaches, I mean, really, they have it, they have it down. So if McCarthy holds up, I like the vikes here and it's not much of a number. I would definitely pick Minnesota here. I also think it's hard for a coach who has taken over a new franchise versus a coach who, two coaches, offense and defense. No changes for the Vikings. Same system. A lot of the guys come

back that are their key parts. Even their quarterback has been in this system for two years as opposed to Caleb Williams. I think there's an edge there. And Kevin O'Connell has kind of broken the streak of crazy horrible things happening to the Vikings at Soldier Field. So we shall see. But every Wednesday, you and I will be doing this here fantasy show presented by our friends over at Fandul. Appreciate them for that. And I'm just excited, Mike. I mean, we talked about who do you draft what do you do let's project all these things and then we get the answers and i cannot wait so thank you for your time why you run all those laughs yes why you lift all those weights i've got a couple of drafts left i'll get to like 294 and i mean who would stop at

294 if you would bang out six six quickies there to get to an even 300 that's the plan or you could auto draft the six worst drafts you've ever seen like i did that was my plan so i think i'm gonna have to do a real one before we get started. Just don't go outside before. Yeah, exactly. All right. Thanks, Mike. Thank you.