The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Dr. Roto Gets You Ready For Fantasy Football Week One

Episode Date: September 10, 2020

Dr. Roto Gets You Ready For Fantasy Football Week One

This is the Matt Thomas show. Toto, give me the news, I really. Fantasy football information. The champion of all fantasy football guys is on the radio for another season with us. This is week number two with Dr. Roto, the good doctor. You can find them on Twitter at DRROTO with Sports Illustrated. Good doctor, Howard. Thanks. M-T, I'm getting ready for opening kickoff tonight.

Let's do it. You know what? I normally like to start with the and with the text and stuff, but since they are the first game of the season, let's play the headlines and play the hits early on. Weather could be a small factor in the game, temperatures in the mid-50s with rain sprinkled throughout. Does it affect either side much, if at all, and if it does, who it would be most harmed by a nice rainstorm during the game tonight? Well, you know, I always think that people overrate the weather. Okay, offensive players know where they're going. defense defensive players normally don't. So I don't ever panic.

Wins bother me because then maybe your quarterback is not throwing the ball 40 yards down the field. But I think people overrated. But I think for the Texans, clearly this is a David Johnson night. The Chiefs have a pretty good past defense. So I think if anybody's going to struggle tonight, maybe it will be Will Fuller just a little bit. Cook is not 100%. So I really like David Johnson. And I think a sneaky play, and Texan fans are going to,

enjoy this guy this year. I think Randall Copp. I think he's definitely in play tonight. I think it's a guy who runs great routes. He has good hands and he's where he needs to be and Dishon Watson will be able to find him. So I think he should probably go like six for 60 tonight. So if Brandon Cooks doesn't play, is he the play to go to if you've got him on your roster or do you think that maybe the other guys pick up the heavy lifting and Will Fuller is maybe more of a play than he normally would be? I mean, Will Fuller is a great play. He's great. I just worry, in his case the weather because he's such a downfield target, you know, I could see the weather being slightly a factor for Fuller, but not as much for the other guys. But Will Fuller, you're going to

play him. I mean, he is a very talented player when he and the shower on the field together. Good things happen. So I think clearly I'm playing Fuller. I'm playing David Johnson. I'm playing Watson. And if you've got Cobb and you're worried about injuries, you could play Cobb. How much do, and again, we teased last week about the fact that I, in a keeper league, I took David Johnson. How long do you ride with him? if let's say the first couple of weeks aren't what you think he's going to be. I mean, at some point,

is there a slate of games that he starts to get fat and happy, or is it an early indication tonight and maybe next week against Baltimore is to kind of give us a season preview what to expect from him? Not necessarily. I think you look at that on a game-to-game basis, right?

You're playing the Chiefs tonight, so if you fall behind by 20, is he going to be getting as many touches? When you're playing Baltimore, if you fall behind, it's not going to be a day where he gets touches. So I think it's all about touches for Johnson. If he's getting 20 to 25 touches, then you have the opportunity to at fantasy production.

If all of a sudden he starts getting 15 to 18, well, now that production starts to, you know, dissipate a little bit. So I think it's a question of look at the touches and that's how you're going to see how happy O'Brien is with him. Let's go to the Kansas City side of things. What do you expect from those guys putting on the uniform tonight? Look, I'm as excited as anybody to see the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes and Clyde Edwards-Holair. If people don't know him, you're going to know him after tonight. He's a very, very good young player. Andy Re compares him favorably to Brian Westbrook.

And I think he might even be a little bit better than Brian Westbrook, which is saying a lot. So Tyree Kill has dealt with some injuries during, you know, the preseason and training camp. I will say preseason, we'll just call it training camp. So he's not 100 percent. Kelsey's been nicked up. But, hey, they're the Chief. They've got a lot of weapons. You know, you got Hill.

You got Watkins. You got Kelsey. You got Hartman. You got DeMarcus Robinson. You got Darrell Williams. So the Chiefs can beat you in a hundred different ways. And it feels like to me this is going to be a very high-scoring game because, let's face it, and there's probably not been a lot of hitting on both sides over the last month or so.

Well, it's very interesting. I think it's, you know, like in baseball, when the season starts, other than the pitchers usually have an advantage. And sometimes it's the hitters. Here, I think it'll be the offense of the advantage over the defense, because I don't think that the defense has seen, you know, other complex offenses coming at them. So I do think I expect more scoring in the beginning of this NFL season. All right.

If you've got a question for Dr. Roto, he will take your calls in segment number two of this radio show. So if you'd want to get him in about your particular team, who to pick up, matchup-wise, 7-13-212-5-790, 7-1-3-212-5-790. And we'll get the lock of the week coming in from Dr. Roto as well towards the back of the half hour. Let's go to some other games. Cam Newton's debut in New England. What do you expect him? Well, I mean, look, the Patriots are saying all the right things about Cam.

They're saying that he could be rushing for a lot of yards that we're used to. I just don't think he has the receiving core that he needs. I mean, Edelman is a solid receiver, but McKeel Harry hasn't done it before, and now you have Jamie Irford, and you don't really have a tight end. So you have James White coming out of the backfield in Edelman. So I think Cam will give us the rushing numbers, maybe 600 yards, 7-8 rushing touchdowns. What are we going to see 4,000 yards passing?

Probably not, but we could see 3,500 yards. But look, the Patriots won't win with Jared Stidham. and Cam gives them the best opportunity to compete for that division. Previous Cam Newton-led teams in fantasy. You love the four touchdown day, but boy, those three interceptions would creep in, especially if you're holding on to a tight lane and he throws an interception late in the fourth quarter. Will Bill Belichick allow that to happen? And so in a week-to-week basis, especially against the dolphins this week,

what are you kind of expecting from him? Yeah, and I think that, you know, I always talk about front-foot cam versus back-foot cam. Back-cam is a guy that's just a horrible quarterback. Front for Cam at least you have a shot. And Cannon is maddening. I think against the Dolphins, the Dolphins are not ready yet. Devonte Parker is not 100%. They're still playing with Ryan Fitzpatrick.

The defense is trying to figure out how to gel. So I do like the Patriots, and I think Cam is a good play. He's a good play in DFS, and he's good playing seasonal. But, I mean, as we move forward with the season, I think they're going to face tougher teams, and those are going to be weeks you won't want to play. But I think this week, Cam is absolutely playable. I play Edelman. I play James White.

And on the Dolphins side, I'd play Matt Breda. And I would play a guy I can name Preston Williams, who I really like, and he's very sneaky in fantasy leagues. What does your gut tell you about Philip Rivers' debut in Indianapolis when they go to Jacksonville this week? Well, I mean, Jacksonville's just a mess. I'll give you a bunch of guys in this game that I'm looking at. Philip Rivers is, you know, not a sexy player, but he's solid. But I really like Marlon Mac. And this weekend I really like Jonathan Taylor.

So these are two guys that are going to be Thunder and Lightning. Indianapolis has one of the best offensive lines in the game, and Jacksonville's defense has been decimated. So I really think that you're going to see at least two or three rushing touchdowns. Keep an eyeball also on Paris Campbell. He was injured a lot last year. He could be that speed receiver along with T.Y. Hilton to help the Colts. On the Jaguar side, I'm going to give everybody a name that maybe you haven't heard of before,

but he will be the starting running back. It's a kid named James Robinson, who played in the FCF last year. He was a very talented runner, and he was one of the reasons why they felt they could released Leonard Fournette. They were tired of Fournet, but Robinson does have ability. Your boy, Minchew is looking pretty good, and I love DJ Shark. He's a very solid receiver who should give excellent fantasy production. When did I ever say Gardner Minchew is my guy, Roto? Come on now. Oh, my God. Last year, every segment, you were like, Gardner Minchue, Gardner Minchre. I thought you had stock in them or something like that. Yeah, I got rid of it.

It's a penny stock. All right. I'm fascinated by quarterbacks making debuts in a new uniform. So we've got to go to Tampa, New Orleans this week. Tell me about the Buccaneers. Tell me about all the threats he's now got. He's got the tight-in. He's got receivers, got running backs. How's Tom Tripp are going to do in his Tampa uniform debut? Yeah, the only thing he may not have this week is Mike Evans.

I have some inside info that he, Evans, is probably a little less than 50% right now as to whether he's going to play. That said, take a look at this kid, Scotty Miller, who has been all the talk of training camp for the Buccaneers. Tom Brady loves him. He's like an Edelman type of. a player. I love Tom Brady this year in fantasy. I think he's going to throw for 40, 200 yards, 35 touchdowns. I'm all in on Brady. Chris Godwin is a sensational receiver, and he is absolutely a must start. Gront, I don't think you're going to see the usual Grunk numbers, but I think you may see touchdowns, right? Maybe Grunk has 50 receptions on the year, but he could

have eight or nine touchdowns. Evans is a terrific player, but maybe not this week. As for Leonard Fournette, look, they didn't bring him in not to play him. They brought him in to get 15 to 18 touches, and I think we're going to see that this week. The bucks are very, very shrewd and good picks to make the Super Bowl, and I think they've got a shot. All right. The Rams defense, they would have to be one of the bigger disappointments of last season. Will they give up as many points as they didn't do two years ago as DAC starts his, I want a fresh contract tour in Los Angeles this weekend?

Yeah, Dak wants his money, and his team is loaded. The one thing that I'll say about the Rams defense, I'll give you. three guys to watch for. One is Jalen Ramsey. You just signed a big old contract, and he is one of the top three shut down corners in the game. So if you put Ramsey and Amari Cooper and you have Amari Cooper on your fantasy team, I'm not loving Amari Cooper this week.

The Rams also have Aaron Donald, and they've got this linebacker, Micah Kaiser, who I really like, who I think is going to make a lot of plays if you're playing an IDP league. But for Dallas, Dak and Cooper and Zeke and Gallup and C.D. Lamb and Blake Jarwin, I mean, Dallas is

just stacked. And so, look, if there's any year that DAC is in a contract year, man, he can throw 35 touchdowns, and he's going to get paid in the offseason. But will he do it against the Rams this week, though? I think he will. I think Dallas is just too good. It's going to take one of the top teams in football, and maybe not anytime soon, maybe starting like week 7, 8, 9, maybe Dallas can lose a game then, but in the beginning

of the season, I think this offense is too good. Their defense is solid enough. Dallas is going to start the season very strong. All right, we'll run through a few more games, and take your phone calls. next. If you've got any questions for Dr. Roto, two ways for that to happen for me to get him to him is you calling us at 713-212-5-790. 7-1-3-212-5-790. Also on Twitter at SportsMT. The good doctor is with us. I'm Matt Thomas, and you are listening to Sports Talk 790. At least now we know that losing sucks. And if anybody knows how much losing sucks, it's Matt Thomas. I'm outstanding. This is Whitney Merciless.

to the Matt Thomas show on Sports Talk 790. Wow, a brand new song makes the list on the fantasy with Dr. Roto. How about that, Dr. Roto? We added production value here in 2020. My daughter would love it. She loves silly Joel. So I'm cool. Okay.

Hey, by the way, before I go to the phones, is there anybody that we drafted, we collectively all of our fantasy owners in the early rounds that's not playing this week because you just hate the matchup? I really don't like Amari Cooper this matchup. I think Jaylorans is going to shut him down. Going to shut him down. And Mike Evans could be out. So watch for those two guys.

Okay. Let's go to the phones. Talk to some folks. We'll start with Brian and Mission Ben for Dr. Roto. Hi, Brian. Hey, guys. How's it going? Good.

So I was wondering, should I start Marvin Jones over Juju and also should I start Tyler Lockett over Keenan Allen? Okay, great questions. I love Tyler Lockett. That's a very high-scoring game. So Allen's a very safe player, but I think Lottka could have a long-distance touchdown. I don't like either of the secondaries in that match-up. Juju and Marvin Jones, look, I think that does.

The Chicago-D Detroit game is going to be high-scoring, but I don't think there's a time you said Juju against the giant defense. I know James Bradbury's back there, but he doesn't worry me, so I would go with Juju. Is there any defense at first blush? And again, we've got a long way to go here. Is there any that, you know what, I've got a load up on every single player because this defense could be giving up boatloads of points every week. And that's what I do

sometimes is you find favorable matchups because some teams just can't cover anybody. Are any teams that are on that watch list? And I hate to say this, are the Texans one of them? I look at secondaries, right? When you can't cover anybody in the back, that's a problem. So the Texan

secondary is not very good. The giant secondary is very suspect. The Jet secondary is pretty bad. So, I mean, good receivers take advantage of bad secondaries. So I think You know, a lot of people, there's something called a wide receiver cornerback matchup chart. And I tell you people out there, check out s.i.com, the fantasy. We have a football plus thing.

We have that matchup chart. And you can check it right there. And you're like, this guy's got a good matchup. I should play. And this guy's got a matchup. I should sit up. All right. Let's continue.

713, 21, 2, 1,2, 5, 790. Let's go to Kvon in the Montrose. Hello, Kvon. Hey, how's going? Good. I've had a question about what I should expect from. Philip Lindsay this year is my second running back, and what to expect out of DeAndre Swift? Yeah, so Philip Lindsay, I do like, but he's going to share touches with Melvin Gordon.

If Gordon is ever injured, then Lindsay is in a great spot. I don't think I want Lindsay as my number two running back. I think I'd like him more as my three or four. DeAndre Swift's a really good young player, but, I mean, he's not 100% right now. They brought in Adrian Peterson because he knows Darrell Bell's offense. I think that you're going to see Peterson be the short yardage and goal line back to start the year. I think Swift has the most talent, and talent usually wins out, but it may take seven or eight weeks for him to get the bulk of the touches.

Thanks for the phone call. Let's continue and say hello to Trey and Katie with Dr. Roto on 790. Hi, Trey. Hey, Doc. Other than Jonathan Taylor, what other rookie running back to the high on guys like Acres, Moss, and Dobbins got a lot of bus during camp? and I was just wondering who we like in PBR. Thanks.

Yeah, I mean, first of all of all right, you know that. I like Ken Akers and PPR. You're dead right about Jack Moss. I'm a big Zach Moss fan. Look, he is like a young version of Frank Gore, and he's big, he's strong, he's their goal lineback, and he can catch. J.K. Dobbins, let's not sleep on him. Greg Roman has already said that they're going to go on a week-to-week basis. Dobbins is a terrific stud there.

So if Ingram should ever get hurt, Dobbins will win somebody a fantasy league. And keep your eyes on a kid named Joshua Kelly for the Chargers. If Echler should ever get injured for any reason or if I had Austin Echlor on my team now, I would make sure to get Kelly as a backup. I think he's very talented. Breaking news out of Denver, Cortland Sutton just went down with an apparent shoulder injury going to the locker room with the trainers. Yeah, so, I mean, that's not good news.

But I think you bump up a Jerry Judy immediately. If Sutton's out for any length of time, you know, It's a bad loss if that happens. I see that news right here as well. I see good catch. I do like Jerry Judy. I like Noah fans. These guys are studs,

but we don't want to see the Broncos lose Sutton. I mean, after losing Von Miller, you lose Sutton, all of a sudden, your season is totally different. Same with water receivers. Got feeling on Stefan Diggs as a Buffalo Bill. What are you thinking? Like but don't love.

I mean, it's a very, very talented receiver, but the bills like to run the ball. Josh Allen is very inaccurate. Josh Allen connects with less than 60% of his passes. He's got to get that number in that 62, 63% range. If he's hovering at 58-59, Stefan Diggs is going to be a little annoyed, right? So I think he's going to have big plays, but I don't think he's a guy that gets more than like four or five catchers a game. All right.

Let's continue 713-212-5-790. Garrett's in Cyprus on the Matt Thomas show. Go ahead, Garrett with Dr. Roto. Hey, Matt, Dr. Roto. I got a quick tight-in question. I drafted Gronkowski and Hayden Hurst. This week, I'm going to put Gruncowski on the bench in favor of Hurst. I was wondering if you thought that was a good move. And then just real quickly, I just wanted to know your thoughts on Four Nets. Yeah, it's a great move. I love Hayden Hurst in a PPR format. He's one of my top five, six tight ends.

You've never got to see what he could do with Baltimore because I had Mark Andrews, but he's a very talented player, and I really love him. him. As for Fournett, look, they brought him in because they need to protect Brady and they're trying to win a Super Bowl in the next one to two years. And Fournette is a guy that can do that for you. He can grind it out. He's better at the goal line than he showed last year. I mean, the Jaguar's offensive line is not very good. He can pass protect. He can catch. He can do it all. And I mean, when you look up Ronald Jones in the dictionary, his picture's next to the word mediocre. Okay, so Leonard Fournette's a star player here. So let's not kid ourselves. Fournette has a chance to be a very solid RB2. in fantasy. All right, ladies and gentlemen, this time during our visits with Dr. Roto, I asked Dr. Roto to come up with one player who is going to dominate, who's going to own, is going to help you win an opening week. We call that Dr. Roto's lock of the week. Yeah, this week I really like Alan Robinson from the Bears. I know it's hard to get behind a Mitch Trubiske-led offense,

but Robinson is clearly that number one receiver. The lion's number one quarterback, Gary Slay is now in Philadelphia. Desmond Truffon is there. He's lost about three steps. Trabisky if he wants to keep his job, he's going to get to go to Robbins. And I think Robinson gets double-digit patches, something like 10 for 1-10 and a touchdown. And that is Dr. Roto's

lock of the week. Wait for it. There it. You know, wait for it. It was called a pregnant pause, my friend. All right, you're going to be busy. Now, you've done all your drafts. You're done. You can't draft anything after tonight, correct? This is it. You're done. I'm wiped out. Wiped out. All right.

And remind folks who they can find you between now and tonight and obviously before Sunday's big games. Absolutely. You can find me at Twitter at DRROTO. You could also find me at sI.com backslash fantasy. I've got a podcast on Spotify with SI Fantasy. And, of course, our football plus product is absolutely terrific. To myself, Michael Fabiano, Sean Kyle's a lot of high-stakes winners, guys giving you the best information that you need for your fantasy football championships.

And last question for me, is there somebody so vague that wasn't drafted? that we're all going to be running to the waiver wire on Tuesday to go grab. Is there anybody that has crossed your mind either was a super late or wasn't drafted at all that you think could have a really impactful week, which means somebody that gets hurt, run to that waiver wire as soon as possible to go try to grab. Yeah, I'll give you two names. One, if you didn't grab them, I love Brian Edwards for the Raiders.

I think he might actually have a more productive season than Henry Ruggs. And like I said earlier in the show, Scotty Miller is really good. And I think people don't know who he is, but you will know that name come Sunday night for the Buccaneers. Enjoy opening night, my friend. We'll talk again next Thursday. You too. Take care of you.

You got it. That's the one and only good Dr. Roto with us here on Sports Talk 790. We have a new word in investigations that I never thought we'd ever say. I'll say the phrase and explain it in regards to the Rockets. 227. Sports Talk 790.