Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 11 Matchups, Disappointing WRs

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary
Episode: Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 11 Matchups, Disappointing WRs
Release Date: November 16, 2017
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright

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Introduction to Week 11 Fantasy Football

The Fantasy Footballers kick off their Week 11 episode with a mix of banter and essential fantasy football insights. After a brief, humorous exchange about pre-show routines, the hosts delve into the critical discussions shaping the fantasy landscape for the week.

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Key Highlights and Notable News

Ezekiel Elliott's Legal Update

• Andy Holloway (02:18): Announces that Ezekiel Elliott has dropped his case and its appeals, marking the end of an extensive legal saga.
• Jason Moore (02:45): Expresses relief, likening Elliott's situation to the Brady saga but is happy it concludes swiftly—"I feel so great about never talking about this again after that moment."

Aaron Rodgers' Recovery Status

• Andy Holloway (08:05): Mentions Aaron Rodgers taking snaps during his recovery from collarbone surgery, expressing skepticism about his return.
• Jason Moore (08:22): Advises against such practices post-surgery, stating, "Not recommended after collarbone surgery."
• Mike Wright (08:26): Notes, "It has now, because you just announced it," highlighting the unprecedented nature of the situation.

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Disappointing Wide Receivers: DEZ Bryant, Demarius Thomas, Keenan Allen

The hosts analyze three wide receivers who have underperformed thus far in the season but show potential to finish strong.

Keenan Allen vs. DEZ Bryant vs. Demarius Thomas

• Jason Moore (04:21): Favors Keenan Allen due to his team's favorable upcoming matchups despite current disappointments.
• Andy Holloway (05:22): Chooses Demarius Thomas, citing consistent touchdown opportunities with quarterback Brock Osweiler.
• Mike Wright (05:36): Agrees with Demarius, highlighting Osweiler's reliance on Thomas in the red zone—"one touchdown per game with Brock Osweiler as the quarterback."

Conclusion:
The trio leans towards Demarius Thomas as the best option among the three, considering his steady usage and potential for touchdowns.

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Week 11 Matchups Analysis

Detroit Lions vs. Chicago Bears

• Mike Wright (11:30): Highlights Golden Tate's exceptional performance—"56 receptions on 71 targets" with a "79% catch rate."
• Jason Moore (13:07): Cautions about Marvin Jones' performance in adverse weather affecting his reliability.
• Andy Holloway (17:18): Strongly supports Demarius Thomas over DEZ Bryant due to matchup concerns.

Weather Impact:
A significant storm near the Great Lakes is expected to affect games in Green Bay, Cleveland, and Chicago with low temperatures and high winds, likely diminishing passing game performances.

Cleveland Browns vs. Jacksonville Jaguars

• Andy Holloway (17:09): Predicts a run-heavy game favoring Leonard Fournette, despite his recent sluggish performances.
• Jason Moore (19:12): Supports starting Duke Johnson over Isaiah Crowell due to Crowell's limited passing game value.
• Mike Wright (19:53): Agrees with the confidence in Duke Johnson, highlighting his consistent performance in PPR formats.

Conclusion:
Leonard Fournette is expected to rebound with increased volume, while Duke Johnson remains a safe and valuable start.

Ravens vs. Packers

• Jason Moore (25:07): Recommends monitoring player conditions and emphasizes the importance of weather forecasts provided on their website.
• Mike Wright (25:21): Recounts a historical matchup affected by severe weather, stressing the importance of accurate weather reporting.

Houston Texans vs. Arizona Cardinals

• Andy Holloway (28:11): Labels this a "pick them game" due to both teams' quarterback issues and the Texans' declining season.
• Jason Moore (29:12): Advises against relying on David Johnson despite his appeal, aligning with the general consensus to avoid high-risk players.

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Starts of the Week

Each host shares their top picks for the week, focusing on players they believe will outperform expectations.

Running Backs

• Andy Holloway: Jordan Howard (Week 11)
  • Rationale (47:13): Confidence in Howard's involvement against a methodical Detroit offense.
• Jason Moore: Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon (Minnesota Vikings vs. Los Angeles Rams)
  • Rationale: Strong matching against a weak rushing defense and consistent volume.
• Mike Wright: JJ Watt (New York Jets)
  • Rationale: Increased usage and potential for offensive plays despite previous down performances.

Quarterbacks

• Andy Holloway: Blake Bortles (Cincinnati Bengals)
  • Rationale (57:10): Positive outlook on Bortles' performance despite some concerns.
• Jason Moore: Derek Carr (Oakland Raiders)
  • Rationale (48:10): Expectation of a high-scoring game in Mexico City with favorable quarterback conditions.
• Mike Wright: Blake Bortles as a streaming option, suggesting flexibility based on tight end performance.

Wide Receivers

• Andy Holloway: Michael Crabtree (New England Patriots vs. Oakland Raiders)
  • Rationale (50:40): Anticipates Crabtree's significant involvement in a high-point game.
• Jason Moore: Devonte Parker (Tampa Bay Buccaneers)
  • Rationale (51:30): Believes Parker's downfield ability will outperform his ranking.
• Mike Wright: Sterling Shepard (New York Giants vs. Kansas City Chiefs)
  • Rationale (52:10): High target count and matchup against a favorable Chiefs defense.

Tight Ends

• Andy Holloway: Jason Whitten (Washington Redskins vs. New Orleans Saints)
  • Rationale (55:37): Increased role as a safety valve with improved offensive support.
• Jason Moore: Hunter Henry (San Diego Chargers vs. Houston Texans)
  • Rationale (55:59): Recovery from a tough week and potential for better performance.
• Mike Wright: Tyler Croft (Cincinnati Bengals vs. Denver Broncos)
  • Rationale (50:07): Goal-line threat facing a Denver defense susceptible to tight ends.

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Forecast and Game Scripts

The hosts provide insights into anticipated game flows, emphasizing how weather and defensive strengths influence fantasy projections.

• Detroit vs. Chicago: Expect a controlled, run-oriented game with limited high-scoring plays.
• Cleveland vs. Jacksonville: Predicted to be a ground and pound affair favoring the Jaguars.
• Minnesota vs. Los Angeles: Favor strong running game contributions from Murray and McKinnon.
• Washington vs. Saints: A balanced game where Washington needs to bounce back, leveraging tight end performances.

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Fantasy Picks and Strategies

• Andy Holloway: Advocates for stacking with quarterbacks and wide receivers who have favorable matchups and high upside.
• Jason Moore: Emphasizes starting high-volume running backs and reliable receivers despite current rankings.
• Mike Wright: Suggests targeting players with consistent usage and favorable defensive matchups, ready to pivot based on opponent strengths.

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Closing Remarks and Community Engagement

The Fantasy Footballers wrap up the episode by promoting their community platforms and upcoming events:

• Pristine Auction Sponsor: Showcases autographed memorabilia available for listeners.
• Omaha Steaks Deal: Offers a discounted family gift pack for listeners using the promo code "Fantasy."
• Mailbag and Listener Interaction: Encourages audience participation and feedback through their website and social media channels.

Notable Quotes:

• Jason Moore (02:45): "It's over. I feel so great about never talking about this again after that moment."
• Mike Wright (05:36): "He takes on a tough matchup and still finds the end zone—Demarius has my vote."
• Andy Holloway (55:37): "Jason Whitten's been a safety valve, and his seven receptions last week prove his value."
• Jason Moore (59:09): "Jason Moore's ironclad, locked and loaded, 100% guaranteed. Boom, boom. Kicker of the week: Greg Zurline."

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Conclusion

This Week 11 episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast offers in-depth analysis of underperforming wide receivers, key matchup forecasts influenced by weather conditions, and strategic player starts to optimize fantasy lineups. The hosts provide a blend of expert insights, humorous banter, and interactive segments, ensuring listeners are well-equipped to make informed decisions for their fantasy teams.

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For more detailed discussions and daily updates, join the Fantasy Footballers community at jointhefoot.com and follow them on Twitter @theFFballers.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Foot Clan. Before we start today's show, I want to talk to you about responsibility. As a fantasy football champion in your league, you have a responsibility to rub it into everybody's faces. And you can go to fantasychamps.com right now. They have a brand new gold fantasy football championship belt that you can customize with your illustrious team name and your league name, and you can throw it over your shoulder and you can make your league mates feel as small as they deserve to [e-mail] with the promo code Ballers.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the Play Draft Studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah. Whoa.

[Mike Wright]

What's happened?

[Andy Holloway]

It's time to have another show.

[Mike Wright]

You @ UFC on us.

[Andy Holloway]

It's time now. I'm ready to have a show. Mike, you seem exceptionally ready for a show.

[Mike Wright]

Hold. I'm ready.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, I knew that. And Jason.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah?

[Mike Wright]

I just had a piece of a.

[Jason Moore]

Cracker, some crackers, and I was warned to not eat dry crackers right before a show where you talk for an hour. And I said, I'm fine.

[Andy Holloway]

It's 8:50 in the morning and we hit the record button and he takes a bite of a cracker.

[Jason Moore]

In fairness, it wasn't like just a cracker.

[Mike Wright]

Was this a Saltine?

[Jason Moore]

No, it's called Bella Vitas.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's like a little breakfast snack.

[Jason Moore]

Look, I like to eat pretty much 12, 13 meals a day.

[Andy Holloway]

Yesterday you were talking about a breakfast that you have between lunch and dinner.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's the most important meal of the day. That's what I keep hearing from people.

[Andy Holloway]

Doesn't matter when you have it.

[Jason Moore]

I never miss.

[Andy Holloway]

I never miss an afternoon breakfast.

[Jason Moore]

No, says Jason. It's just true.

[Andy Holloway]

We have a great show. Matchups for week 11, huh? Week 11.

[Mike Wright]

Is that a question?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Where you're calling from a walkie talkie. Week 11 matchups today, starts of the week. Jason's boom boom kicker of the week. Maybe some mailbag. We'll see some news and notes. I'm excited to talk today about a number of important fantasy notes. The big one being that Ezekiel Elliott, he's dropping his case, he's dropping the appeal, they're dropping all of that stuff. And this is the last time we're ever going to talk about it.

[Jason Moore]

It makes me right now this the thought I remember thinking, you know, a couple months ago, this is going to be like the Brady situation. It's going to go into next off season, and in the whole off season, we're going to have to keep talking the same narrative for two years. Nope, nope. It's over. I feel so great about never talking about this again after that moment.

[Andy Holloway]

That's why you had you ate a cracker this morning. You were just celebrating.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it's a celebration cracker. I like to do those after every little victory.

[Mike Wright]

I woke up today. Chomp, chomp, cracker.

[Jason Moore]

That was a successful sleep. I think I'll have a cracker.

[Mike Wright]

I've brushed my teeth.

[Jason Moore]

Chomp, chomp, chomp. You always want to go right before and after. Right before you brush your teeth. Eat a saltine. Enjoy that teeth brushing.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, this is a good show. This is a really good fantasy football show. Quick question of the day. Let's talk about disappointing fantasy wide receivers thus far in 2017 and who you guys think are going to finish the year a lot stronger than they've been. Des Bryant thus far, wide receiver 24. Demarius Thomas thus far, wide receiver 26. And then Keenan Allen. Somebody asked, almost asked about on Yesterday's show. Wide receiver 29. Basically all tied with each other. Only four fantasy points separating them rest of season. So what do you think? Who's the best of those three? Rest of season and any other thoughts you have on, you know, Keenan Allen. I think big disappointment.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I mean the nice thing about Keenan Allen versus DEZ Bryant, if you're just looking at two of these three, Keenan Allen didn't cost you as much. I don't think the disappointment. I mean, you're talking about the wide receiver 24, the wide receiver 29. One of those guys was back end first round, you know, or the second. And then Keenan would often fall into the fourth round and he got off to a hot start, which is why I think you're disappointed lately. That being said, Dak is the much better quarterback than Philip Rivers. But the schedule coming up, I think for the Los Angeles Chargers is really great for the passing game. I mean, you've got so Buffalo this week, maybe not the best, but then you face Dallas and Cleveland and you, you got games in the playoffs against Kansas City and the Jets. I really like those matchups for Keenan Allen and I think so that's your vote. That's my vote. I would go DEZ if it weren't for his current injury worries.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to vote demarius Thomas scored me a couple of weeks in a row. Oakland, Miami, New York, Indianapolis, Kansas city in Week 17. But four of those matchups solid. Yeah, I'm gonna go with Demarius because.

[Jason Moore]

I even with the quarterback situation, that's.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly why I'm going with demarius Thomas is because Brock Osweiler not only does he target Demarius Thomas just all over the field and when they get into the red zone, Demarys Thomas is his go to weapon. And I know that he was the tight end machine in Houston. But you go back to when Brock was playing games in replacement of Peyton Manning, he would go to Demary's Thomas and throw touchdowns to Thomas. We have two games of Brock Osweiler starting. That's correct. Yes. One touchdown per game with Brock Osweiler as the quarterback. So this is a projecting thing of if Brock is the quarterback the rest of the year, which we certainly don't know that Paxton lynch has officially been moved to number two on the depth chart. They could go to him at some point.

[Jason Moore]

I think that point is going to be quick. Because you say one touchdown a game. Yeah, that's what demarius Thomas is doing. That's also pretty much what the Broncos are doing while he, you know, Brock Osweiler has only thrown one touchdown each of those games. He's thrown three interceptions and they've lost those games. So I don't think Brock Osweiler is the starting quarterback. Then they go to question Lynch. I don't want Demarys Thomas to be my relied upon guy.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure. I look the reason that they are at 26, 24, 29, they all have some warning signs.

[Jason Moore]

Some warts. Some warts need to get that.

[Andy Holloway]

Dr. Good vocabulary. Jason. You should have a cracker.

[Mike Wright]

The wart remover.

[Jason Moore]

I should have. I should just have a cracker pile.

[Andy Holloway]

The best player in that group is probably Dez.

[Mike Wright]

Dr. Schultz.

[Andy Holloway]

And the best quarterback is Dez. But.

[Jason Moore]

But nobody picked him.

[Andy Holloway]

But nobody picked him, I think.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, because we're all kind of.

[Andy Holloway]

Like concern injury plus no Z.

[Mike Wright]

Well, if the question for me is if Brock Osweiler is the quarterback for the rest of the season and you feel like that's going to happen, it's demarius. Otherwise it's DEZ Bryant for me.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. We talked about the big news. Zeke withdrawing the appeal. We just talked about the fact Paxton lynch was moved up on the depth chart. Otherwise you're not really looking at any headline news. We'll get into, in or out on the show tomorrow. And we'll talk about some of these players like Philip Rivers, Danny Amendola, limited in practice, whether we think they're going to play Sean Kaiser. There was a bit of news that came out about Aaron Rodgers. He took snaps from a trainer. He's eligible in week 15 and hoping to return. But obviously this is a David Johnson situation. You don't come back unless you're in the playoff hunt.

[Mike Wright]

I definitely in my head heard you say Aaron Rodgers was taking snaps from a train.

[Andy Holloway]

Harder to do.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Super.

[Mike Wright]

That's how you get ready for the NFL.

[Jason Moore]

I was going to say not recommended after collarbone surgery.

[Andy Holloway]

Dare I say, never been done.

[Mike Wright]

It has now, because you just announced it.

[Jason Moore]

I would say that you might have buried the lead. There is one pretty big headline news story that we did not yet get to, which is the Megalodon is coming. The Megalodon episode next week. Enjoy your Thanksgiving football with the Megalodon.

[Mike Wright]

You feast on the Megalodon and then you feast on the Thanksgiving dinner.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, here's what you do. You listen to it, you watch it on YouTube. YouTube.com fantasy footballers, the Mega Deg and Ladon. Yeah, I don't know. And then you share it with your family. Around Thanksgiving, around the table.

[Mike Wright]

Honestly, I think we need to start a new tradition. New Foot Clan tradition.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I can't wait.

[Mike Wright]

Because, you know, I mean, Christmas time people, a lot of time, before they open the gifts, read the Christmas story. All these things happen. Thanksgiving morning, the family, they all run downstairs, they fire up the hi Fi stereo, you sit around in your PJs and you listen to the Megalodon episode.

[Jason Moore]

As a family, we are overtaking the Macy's Day parade.

[Mike Wright]

Is this correct? Get out of my face Parade. I've had enough with your float.

[Andy Holloway]

Old Busted.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it's the new hotness. And that's getting ready for the three Thanksgiving games.

[Andy Holloway]

How effective do you think it would be for us as a business if we could release all of our podcasts on vinyl, like every day?

[Jason Moore]

Not very effective, but worth it.

[Mike Wright]

Putting it on wax.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I mean, you said, look, you put it up the hi Fi. I figure you got the vinyl system in there.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know if the world is ready for the smooth tones of my voice on vinyl.

[Jason Moore]

Shipping is gonna be a problem.

[Mike Wright]

Shipping?

[Andy Holloway]

No, you do one of those Columbia House things. You get 12 episodes of our show on vinyl. All you have to do is buy another six. At 199.99 each.

[Mike Wright]

20% of our audience got that reference.

[Andy Holloway]

Columbia House. What is it, BMG? Yeah, whatever. Okay, moving on. Twitter, heffballers, the fancyfootballers.com and then the communities. Jointhefoot.com come hang out with [e-mail]. you can give us Feedback on ideas like podcasts on vinyl. We listen. We may not do that if you tell us not to do it. Let's talk forecast.

[Jason Moore]

Fantasy forecast.

[Andy Holloway]

The more I think about the economics, the less I think it's gonna work.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, it was a good idea. It's too bad.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, that's. That's a fantastic idea.

[Andy Holloway]

It's such a good idea.

[Jason Moore]

All right, let's talk.

[Mike Wright]

You get your week 10 news in week 12.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. At best. At best.

[Mike Wright]

If everything goes according to plan, it's.

[Andy Holloway]

Too bad we don't get to have previous seasons that are like, you know, relevant.

[Mike Wright]

The hits.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll get the hit.

[Jason Moore]

Remember this good old.

[Mike Wright]

It started the week from week seven.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. 2014. All right, the Lions, we're talking matchups. All right, the Lions, they take on the Bears in. What is this? In the wizard of Oz.

[Jason Moore]

What? I think he's going with the. The reference of the Lions and tigers and Bears.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, 41 point over under. The Bears are three point underdogs.

[Mike Wright]

That was deep.

[Andy Holloway]

And. Well, what do we think the. The big takeaways of this game is? What are. Who are you excited about? Who are you not expecting much from in this matchup?

[Mike Wright]

You got to continue to be excited about Golden Tate. 56 receptions on 71 targets. I mean, that's basically a 79% catch rate that is best in the NFL. He has absolutely gone nuclear hot these past few weeks. About a month of incredible play from Golden Tate. So that's what you're excited for, honestly, on the Detroit side. Because meanwhile, while that's Golden Tate's a sure thing for the Lions, I don't think anything else for the Detroit Lions is a sure thing. Fantasy speaking. It's a division game, it's on the road, and the Bears defense is quietly sneaky. Good. They're allowing the fourth least points to quarterback to the quarterback position. The fourth least to the tight end. I'm sorry, Jason, that Eric Ebron's probably not in that stream where the.

[Jason Moore]

Well, we're talking about starts of the week today, so we'll see if we talk about them.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I hope.

[Jason Moore]

Spoiler alert. We are not. We are not.

[Mike Wright]

All right, fantastic. But so that. That's what I'm excited about. And then what am I watching for? I'm watching for. Can Marva Jones come back or will the smooth routes continue now? Smooth routes continue to take away. Oh, oh, there it is.

[Jason Moore]

It's so smooth.

[Andy Holloway]

It's very important that Kenny G. Become a fantasy relev.

[Jason Moore]

I have some worries.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't learn to play the saxophone for just a couple of weeks.

[Jason Moore]

That was Andy playing the sax there.

[Andy Holloway]

That is right.

[Jason Moore]

So I've talked about this a little bit earlier in the week, or maybe that was on the footcast, I don't remember. But there is a big storm that is going to be near the Great Lakes. And as we are closer to Sunday, I think that it's time where we could say, okay, it looks like this is going to be accurate. Now it's the snow has kind of the projection for snow has gone away, but the winds and the temperature are still a problem. And this is going to affect three games. Okay. This is going to affect the game in Green Bay, the game in Cleveland.

[Andy Holloway]

And the game in Detroit, or I'm.

[Jason Moore]

Sorry, in Chicago and the game in Chicago. Yes. So this is one of those games where you're going to have low temperatures, possibly in the 20s, and winds about 15 miles an hour or up. So you're kind of. And for fantasy players, the data says that there's two kind of markers of where the passing game takes a big hit and the rushing game. The attempts go up in the rushing game. One is once it drops to about 20 degrees, so weather wise, that's one. And then wind wise, it's about 15 miles an hour. So you're getting close to those numbers, but both of them in the same game. So I think I temper a perfect storm. Perfect storm. I temper my expectations for those three matchups in the passing game. I'm not saying, hey, you can't start. You know, Matthew Stafford, we've seen players have good games in cold weather, good games even in windy conditions, but you're not going to see these matchups. I don't think like Marvin Jones. Marvin Jones is a guy who usually does his work through, you know, a lot of air yards. I'm tempering expectations on those type of players. Versus Golden Tate, who's going to get a lot of work in the screen game.

[Andy Holloway]

He runs through the air.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he runs through the air.

[Mike Wright]

So then with those perfect storm things and you're talking the rushing attempts, Jordan Howard, what's your level of excitement for him? He's coming off of a kind of a dud.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, we'll talk about him.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, we're moving him.

[Andy Holloway]

We're going to talk about him during the strides of the week.

[Mike Wright]

All right, well, let's talk about Benny Cunningham versus Tariq Cohen. Just real quick.

[Andy Holloway]

Let's just talk about the reality that Benny Cunningham is playing ahead of Tariq Cohen.

[Mike Wright]

That's exactly what I.

[Andy Holloway]

You can drop Tariq Cohen?

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think you can.

[Andy Holloway]

He basically, I mean, John Fox came out and said, look, Benny Cunningham, he's seen protections, he knows how to protect on third down. And Tariq Cohen, explosive as he is, apparently, you know, John Fox is content with 13.9 points per game, second worst in the league. Let's get the weapons.

[Mike Wright]

You know, we didn't even talk about.

[Andy Holloway]

Let'S get the weapons off the field.

[Mike Wright]

Was John Fox with the worst challenge in the history of the NFL when he thought he's like, oh, no, my player. He got in because the refs called him out on the four on this diving touchdown play. And then the replay quickly shows. Obviously he was in, except he was bobbling the ball as he was diving into the end zone and hitting the pylon, which anyone who knows NFL rules knows that this is going to be a touchback. But no, no, what is. What is happening with John Fox because he has. He has no one. He has no one helping him out to say, Mr. Fox, don't challenge that play because we will go from getting the ball first and four first.

[Jason Moore]

A goal from the four.

[Mike Wright]

First goal from the four to giving the ball away. Congratulations.

[Jason Moore]

Now, before we move on from this game, I do think Amir Abdullah is an okay play as well. The running game is going to be more important. The Bears, while their defense has been great against quarterback, against TE and their middle of the pack, maybe even lower when it comes to fantasy points given up against the running back. So I think this will be a lower scoring game, but you're going to see two teams that are going to need to run the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

He better get in the end zone if you want him to be relevant. I'll tell you that. I'm going to say it. I'm going to say it right now. Oh, he stinks. Oh, he stinks.

[Mike Wright]

You will live to regret the day you have said that. He stinks.

[Andy Holloway]

As soon as he gets over 50 yards rushing, I'll be all right. 53 yards.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so you already regret saying it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Okay, let's be. Let's move on. Jags, Browns in Cleveland, seven and a half point underdogs are the Browns 37 and a half point over under. Look, Vegas and myself, we expect this to be a run heavy game. Look, not only do the Browns struggle to move the ball, but you're not going to have an opportunity in the passing game against these otherworldly DBs from the Jacksonville Jaguars. I expect Leonard Fournette to be fed the Rock early and often. Assuming his health is in place, I expect this to be a ground and pound game, a defensive game. I would not be surprised if Jacksonville shut them out. So look, Isaiah Carell's looked a lot better over the last few weeks. Gotten the ball plenty of times. But it's not, it's not going to be pretty for anybody on the Cleveland side. There's really not from a fantasy perspective. There's no one to talk about on this side because I wouldn't touch anybody.

[Mike Wright]

On the Cleveland Brown side on the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, I can agree with that. My big question for this game is Leonard Fournette. This is not a question of do you start him? Of course you do. But the matchup is tough. The Browns run defense, we've been talking about this all year, they're, they're actually a solid unit. However, they have lost Jamie Collins, linebacker. They're giving up the eighth fewest points to the running back position. And Leonard Fournette, I mean, 17 for 33 against the Chargers looking, looking sluggish, looking like he's been out of football for a month. So can he bounce back in this particular matchup?

[Andy Holloway]

I think so.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I do too.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think it's going to be volume. And then if you give Leonard Fournette volume, what we did, they gave him.

[Mike Wright]

17 carries last week.

[Andy Holloway]

I understand, but I'm saying what we've seen from him this, this year is that volume equates to an explosive player, too. From Leonard Fournette, that makes your fantasy week. And so, yes, last week in a.

[Mike Wright]

Vacuum was, dare I say, Abdullian.

[Andy Holloway]

Sure. But that's not the standard by which I'm going to judge Leonard Fournette here in the past or in the future. Leonard Fournette is a much more explosive player than we saw last week. And yes, I realized that the Browns are, I think, giving up that, you know, the eighth least points to the running back. But you know, Bortles will do enough in this matchup to keep them honest.

[Mike Wright]

I like Bortles in this game.

[Andy Holloway]

So, Marquis Lee, you need to monitor whether he's active. He hasn't practiced recently, but still played. Yes, I expect him to play. As do I. Hearns is not going to play.

[Mike Wright]

And we expect Dede Westbrook to be activated for this, who I think is.

[Andy Holloway]

A really good player.

[Jason Moore]

That'll be helpful. It'll be helpful in the sense that having the speedy guys. Again, this is one of those 20 mile an hour wind games. So the deep ball might not work as much, but Marquis, Lee, Didi, Westbrook, you got some real speed there that can easily burn Cleveland, you know, dbs. And before we move on, I also want to mention that because Andy, you said you wouldn't really want to touch anyone from the Cleveland side. I believe Duke Johnson is completely safe. I mean you're, you're going to, you're getting a guy who is getting, you know, 10 carries plus five or six receptions a game. And I just think he is safe as a what? Safe as a, as a flex. Safe as just a guy that you could plug in. I mean in a half point scoring format. Basically, since week three, there's only been one game where he hasn't been double digits.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you rather roll him out then Isaiah Crowell?

[Jason Moore]

I would, yeah. Because I think Crowell passing game value. Passing game value, especially with the pass rush that's going to be coming from the Jacksonville Jaguars. You're going to need those dump off pass to be in order to do anything and beat that pass rush.

[Mike Wright]

Duke Johnson's on, on pace currently for almost 100 targets and 75 receptions.

[Jason Moore]

I mean he's the wide receiver in a half point PPR. He's quietly the wide receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

18 if Coleman and other.

[Jason Moore]

Gordon wide receiver, sorry, running back. He's basically a wide receiver. I've been saying that for a while.

[Andy Holloway]

Does it change if Coleman and Gordon get involved?

[Jason Moore]

It could. I mean this is, this has been without Corey Coleman who is back for this game. You're not going to touch him this week against Jacksonville, I think. Corey Coleman. Yeah. I mean whenever you have better wide receivers, you might need the running back less. But until proven that way, I'm willing to put Duke Johnson in my lineup.

[Mike Wright]

Before we move on to the Ravens and Packers, want to thank today's sponsor, Pristine Auction, the absolute best sports memorabilia site.

[Andy Holloway]

What did you just frame up yesterday for our office?

[Jason Moore]

Oh, oh, Brooks.

[Mike Wright]

It's not on the wall. That's an absolute Brooks disgrace.

[Andy Holloway]

While we do this read, I want you to change it. Change it out right now.

[Jason Moore]

Incredible.

[Mike Wright]

But then show that means Brooks has to put his face on the camera.

[Jason Moore]

So we can't do that.

[Mike Wright]

We cannot allow.

[Andy Holloway]

Change the camera to me. I'll entertain while Mike talks.

[Mike Wright]

What?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, okay, fair enough.

[Mike Wright]

And I'll go back, but yeah, we just framed up a Michael Crabtree jersey. A signed Michael Crabtree jersey. You know what? I got that beast for 55.

[Andy Holloway]

55 bucks.

[Mike Wright]

55 bucks for a Michael Crabtree signed authentic signature on this jersey. A couple of things that just went out. Tyree Kill signed Chiefs logo football for 60 bucks. A Corey Davis, ladies and gentlemen. We know that Corey Davis in the fantasy football community, we know that he is arriving.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Someone got a signed jersey from Corey Davis for $67. And like throwbacks, like LT. You want to sign Chargers throwback, mini helmet. Just 100 bucks. I mean, incredible stuff every single day. New stuff every single day at Pristine Auction. That's P R I S T I n e auction.com. you make that completely free account. You let them know that the Fantasy footballers sent you.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

You hungry? Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what? Oh, I'm pretty hungry. And we've got friends at Omaha Steaks because the winter is coming, the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas. I'm excited. My family is excited. We're all excited. And I'm excited for the Omaha Steaks deal, the same one that we saw last year. It's unbelievable. We got.

[Mike Wright]

This package deal is sensational.

[Andy Holloway]

It's unbelievable. 75% off. Here's what you get for $49.99. It's a family gift pack. You go to omahasteaks.com you enter the code fantasy in the search bar. And here's what you get for our listeners. We've had so many tweets about this. Here's what you get for $49.99. 2 filet mignons, 2 top sirloins, 2 boneless pork chops, 4 boneless chicken breasts, 4 kielbasa sausages, 4 burgers, 4 potatoes au garrad, 4 caramel apple tartlets, 1 Omaha steak seasoning packet. And they throw in an extra four sausages for $49.99.

[Mike Wright]

I'm salivating.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So go to Omaha steaks.com, enter my code Fantasy. All right. Enter that code in the search bar. Get 75% savings. It is a an incredible gift, guaranteed to be delicious. And now we go back to the.

[Mike Wright]

Wild, just like magic. I need that. We need that. That horn. That. That majestic horn.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, Michael Crabtree is up in the studio.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

If you want to see an example, Mike just got that from Pristine auction yesterday. We've got an autographed Crabby Michael Crabtree up on the wall. Thanks, Brooks. I realized that was, you know, that was a tough ask. Do what I have to.

[Jason Moore]

Thank you. Real team player.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Keep them around. Ravens, packers in Green Bay. Jason just talked about the weather in this matchup, and, well, 38 point over, under.

[Mike Wright]

And just a quick reminder, we have a. There is a weekly article all about the weather and how it will impact the games. By Eric Ludwig Beethoven that we put up on the site each and every weekend. Make sure you check that out.

[Jason Moore]

And it's going to be better than whatever we say on the Thursday show because you're talking about actual accurate weather reports.

[Mike Wright]

I had this matchup and this is years ago. This is before the podcast even existed, where I was riding out Matthew Stafford as my quarterback and he. I think this was even like week 14 or something. So we're talking fantasy playoffs. I had no idea that there was a torrential snowstorm in Philadelphia. So I'm like, oh, sweet Stafford, he's having a monster year. I flip on the game. It's just powder everywhere. So I was a fool. It did not check the weather reports.

[Andy Holloway]

When was this?

[Mike Wright]

This was years and years ago. This was like. Remember when Stafford was the hotness for.

[Andy Holloway]

As a fantasy quarterback after his 40 touchdowns?

[Mike Wright]

Calvin Johnson, I think it was the 40 touchdown year.

[Andy Holloway]

Look how, how excited are you for this matchup?

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I'm so excited to play the Baltimore dst, I'll tell you that much.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'd be excited to play the Baltimore dst. I'd be excited to. I'd be okay playing Javorius Allen and I'd be okay playing Jamal Williams if time Montgomery is out, which he hasn't practiced all week.

[Mike Wright]

Let me ask you this. Are you still excited to play Javorius Allen if it comes out that Danny Woodhead is in fact playing?

[Jason Moore]

No, no, Jason was quick on that one. I mean, I'm not saying that.

[Andy Holloway]

And Terrence west is back in practice, so let's bring them all back.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm not saying that when Danny Woodhead comes back, that Buck Allen is going to be irrelevant, but I will if Danny would have.

[Mike Wright]

Is that like a wink wink? I'm not saying that.

[Jason Moore]

What I'm. What I am saying is that if Danny Woodhead comes back, I'm not, I'm not putting Buck Allen in my lineup because I, you know, we don't know the future. But there is a possibility that he loses 100% of the passing game work. And that's where he's been, you know, old reliable. So I'm, I'm not, you know, you got to monitor the Danny Woodhead situation. That being said, I think Alex Collins is going to keep that, you know, first, second down role until proven otherwise. So I'm fine with Alex Collins in this game.

[Andy Holloway]

Even with Terrence west returning to practice.

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think Collins get this number one in the league in terms of the highest percentage of his rushes being over 10 yards. So he has 93 plays, 93 carries, but he has rushed for 10 or more yards on 17 of them.

[Jason Moore]

It's pretty good.

[Mike Wright]

Impressive.

[Andy Holloway]

He's a rumbler. Yeah, he can rumble downfield. Packers defense has allowed passes of 20 plus yards on 32 of 295 attempts. That's one of the worst totals in the league. Is there any upside for the pass catchers in Baltimore, in Green Bay, in the weather in this game? Joe Flacco's throwing the ball. Are you excited about playing Jeremy Macklin as a flex?

[Mike Wright]

Not excited? Yeah, I'm not excited, but I think.

[Jason Moore]

You can do it.

[Andy Holloway]

You're willing to click the button?

[Jason Moore]

Yes, I am willing to. You know, this is one of those deals where if you don't have any better options, he is a startable asset, but you're not, you just, you're not projecting much for him.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's talk about this game in Houston. All right. This is a pick them game right now. I think that's because, look, the Cardinals, the Texans, they have quarterback issues. The Cardinals are 4 and 5. They're taking on the 3 and 6 Texans. The season's falling apart for the Texans. It's on its way for the Cardinals. 40 point over under. There was some news this week. I think people are curious. David Johnson got the cast off getting some range of motion back. He is very ambitious to play this year. David Johnson does not want to miss the entire season.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, well, the players want to play, but. Yeah, I. I can't imagine.

[Andy Holloway]

But is there any fantasy relevance there?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I can't imagine a scenario where he comes back to great fantasy relevance and. Or the team allowing him back.

[Jason Moore]

I don't.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know. Maybe because the Cardinals, they're still technically in the wild card hunt. This is a matchup that they can win on the road playing against the Texans and that would put them back at 500. Who. I mean, crazy things have happened now, guys.

[Andy Holloway]

I just.

[Mike Wright]

Not counting on it, though.

[Andy Holloway]

I just saw we got a one star review on itunes.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, no.

[Jason Moore]

Impossible.

[Andy Holloway]

Because we recommended David Johnson.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, well, wait, we and the world.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Well, they said week 11 this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Could have come in a little early before I listen to you. I always made the playoffs, but you guys recommended David Johnson. Now look at me.

[Jason Moore]

Well, I apologize.

[Mike Wright]

I apologize for the sadness that has taken over that person's soul.

[Andy Holloway]

It's because you guys are homers. It's because we're homers. Oh, yeah. Thanks, Brooks. Blaine, Gabbard Drew Stanton. We still don't know who's starting a decision supposed to be. Oh, we're starting all the Cardinals tomorrow.

[Mike Wright]

I recommend all of them.

[Andy Holloway]

I pumped the brakes on Larry Fitzgerald. You don't touch another pass catcher there, really. And so is it. Do you feel confident starting Adrian Peterson as an RB2 this week against the Texans, number one ranked against fantasy run defense?

[Jason Moore]

No, I don't. I really don't. It's on the road. I mean, he's going to be an RB2. You've seen the volume, right? This past week, you know, when I pumped the brakes on Adrian Peterson, he still had 21 carries, which is great. This is a longer week of rest. Part of my argument was not just that they're playing against the Seattle rush defense last week, but it was that he had a very short time after 37 carries to rest his body. Now because of that extra short week last week and they played Thursday night, he's got an extra few days to be prepared for this game. So I'm not excited to play him because the Houston Texans have a great rush defense, but he will get enough volume to be, you know, an RB2. So I'm not saying don't play.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a game script thing there where, like, I don't know if he's going to be that successful. The blueprint for being the Cardinals is obvious. You just stop being here in Peter. They can't do anything else. But the other side of the ball that we're going to talk about now, Tom Savage, Lamar Miller, DeAndre Hopkins and that offense, they're not doing very much. And so as opposed to a situation like in Seattle where you can get into a really, really upside down game script, at least the game script could be neutral. It could be neutral or there could be a scenario where the Cardinals are leading in this game as opposed to the odds that you had predicted correctly about the Cardinals with Seattle. All that being said, RB2, RB3 fringe guy.

[Jason Moore]

For me right now, I agree. The real question here that I think a lot of owners are going to have and maybe they won't because, you know, you're talking about the number one wide receiver for fantasy football in the season. But we had a huge discussion this morning about can you sit DeAndre Hopkins in this game if he's going to be matched up against Patrick Peterson? Andy, you have this decision in our league of record. You're toiling because you have other good options.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, only if you have other great options.

[Andy Holloway]

But let's just let's just bring up Crabtree.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Who is my start of the week at the wide receiver position this year. This week. And you bring up Crabtree plays New England. Then you bring up Hopkins. And I'm looking at myself and I'm going, this is a must win. Do I possibly like the start Your studs philosophy, Right. You always put Hopkins in there. But the variables to this equation, not only is there the Tom Savage variable, who, by the way, if he comes out and I think he plays poorly in the first half, you could have a complete switch halfway through this game. I thought it was going to happen last game after four turnovers. That's a variable. Patrick Peterson. Look, Hopkins doesn't move into the slot the way Doug Baldwin does. We looked up that line.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he'll be shadowed by Peterson.

[Andy Holloway]

He'll be shadowed by Peterson. Now you go look at how Peterson's done against the wide receiver ones on the year. He's faced Dez Bryant who was like 2 for 12, but he had a touchdown. Mike Evans. Mike Evans scored his one play. He had a big play, but it wasn't on Peterson.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

You had Alshon Jeffrey completely shut down by Patrick Peterson and you had Pierre Garcon shut down by Peterson, but you had a couple situations where they scored a touchdown. Hopkins, number one in the league in touchdowns.

[Mike Wright]

What do you do, man?

[Andy Holloway]

How do I ascertain? Because here's what's going to happen if I make the call right. The way I think it should be, which I think is Crabtree. I think Crabtree is a better play than Hopkins this week. Okay, maybe I'm right. But if I lose with Hopkins on my bench, that's going to be a tough pill to swallow.

[Mike Wright]

The mental, the mental exhaustion, the mental game certainly factors into it. But I think when you in your particular situation, which other people may have that as well, because Crabtree's, you know, it was a fifth six round pick. Crabtree falls into start your studs for me. So I'm okay playing Crabtree in a much better situation, a better matchup than Hopkins. So I would play Crabtree over Hopkins, but other than that, I mean, there's not a ton of guys who I think fit into that. The category of start your studs, who you probably have multiple ones of them.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you rather play Hopkins at home against Arizona and Patrick Peterson or A.J. green on the road against Denver?

[Mike Wright]

Green. Yeah, I think, wow, that's a man.

[Jason Moore]

I would rather start. A.J.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I would go A.J. green.

[Jason Moore]

Now, that being said, you might look at the card you might look at the Cardinals defense and think, well, wait, wait, wait. The Cardinals passing defense against wide receivers, they're not very good.

[Andy Holloway]

They're bad.

[Jason Moore]

And that's true. But it's never the number one, because the Cardinals defense have Patrick Peterson locking down whoever the opposing teams one is, and then they've got just garbage around him, letting everybody fly. And this week, I think that's going to be Bruce Ellington. You have Will Fuller out. He's not playing this week. That's kind of what the reports have been.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Jason Moore]

And Bruce Ellington, who was, you know, a guy that, I think two years ago before he got injured, Matt Harmon was really high on him.

[Andy Holloway]

Eight targets two weeks in a row takes over the number two spot. Bill O'Brien came out, said they need to get him the ball more. He was very relevant on the field last week, and I think he played.

[Mike Wright]

He was relevant. Fuller was injured, too.

[Andy Holloway]

Very sneaky start this week. I've got him starting in our listener league. I'm excited about him.

[Mike Wright]

I'm with you, Jay, because the Cardinals run a program. I don't know if you guys have even really heard of this. They run a program where they go. They go out to all the local high schools and they fulfill the dreams of these guys, like get some early experience.

[Andy Holloway]

They let them play the cornerback on the other side.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's exactly how they run things.

[Andy Holloway]

More of an internship.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Like you just kind of come. You want to play across from Patrick Peterson, see what it's like. All right. So that being said, what do you think of Lamar Miller? What do you think of Lamar Dorwitz back in. In the tight end rotation there?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'm not. I'm not excited about Fedorowitz because you also have. His name is escaping me right now. Stevenson. Anderson.

[Andy Holloway]

Anderson.

[Jason Moore]

Anderson.

[Andy Holloway]

Stephen Anderson.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, well, that's why. So I'm. It's not like a. I'm not. I'm not back with the Mad Hatter. Lamar Miller, I think is. He's fine as the volume play. Both of these teams, the Cardinals and the Texans, are good fantasy. Speaking against opposing running backs, I wanted to circle back quick to Larry Fitzgerald while you have pumped the brakes on him. Because I got a question on Twitter that said, okay, Andy's pumped the brakes on Fitz & Juju is a name who's been talked up on this show because we think he's emerging. But the rankings do say we would play Larry Fitzgerald over JuJu Smith Schuster over a guy like that. So I just wanted to. While you're Pumping the brakes. I want you to talk.

[Andy Holloway]

Illuminate that a little bit.

[Mike Wright]

We'll talk about those guys. Like, would you play Parker or Keenan Allen or these types of guys over Fitz?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. It's very easy to look at the Texans defense and see what they're giving up to the wide receiver position on the year and make Fitz in auto start in that situation. And I'm okay with that. If you want to roll with Larry Fitzgerald, that's fine. But we looked at it yesterday. The home road splits. Right, are massive.12.2 fantasy points per game. Home road split for Larry Fitzgerald.

[Jason Moore]

Better at.

[Mike Wright]

Better at home.

[Andy Holloway]

Better at home, yes. He's on the road in this game. And then you have the variable, the Cardinals quarterback situation. For me, it was just a simple. It's a. It's a confidence level thing. What do you need from that position? What's the better upside? Those are the things that determine juju versus Larry Fitzgerald. Who do I think has the higher upside this week? I think it's actually juju. Smith Schuster, for sure. Yes. He's the two in that offense. But you're playing a. A Tennessee defense that gives up a lot of points and he's at home. What's the ceiling for the Cardinals on the road here? Are you scoring 20 points? I think Pittsburgh can score 35 points at least. That's the upside there. So, look, you're mitigating risk. Maybe. Maybe you're saying, I want to guarantee myself, you know, five for 50. I think Larry might be a better guarantee of five for 50 than Juju is. But this week I lean juju for the upside.

[Jason Moore]

And it's really hard to tell with a new quarterback. You know, I know we said we don't know who's going to be the starter, but it's going to be Blaine Gabbard. The news from Stanton, if you look at him talk and he's like, you know, what percent are you at? And he's like, oh, I can't give a percentage. It's probably would be about as bad as my completion percentage right now. Is what he said 15?

[Andy Holloway]

Is that what he really said?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that's what he said. But it does make me wonder because of the Houston defense at wide receiver, maybe John Brown is another sneaky play, kind of like the Bruce Ellington John Brown. I think we saw some of that in preseason.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Yeah, we'll see.

[Jason Moore]

You're not going to feel good about it.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I'm excited for this game. The Rams and Vikings, Jared Goff, Case keenum, both teams 7 and 2 Vikings, 2 and a half point favorites at home.

[Jason Moore]

Apologize.

[Mike Wright]

I would play big gresh, though, if you. If you're in a desperate situation, even with them going.

[Andy Holloway]

You always say that, but I don't know if everybody knows who you're talking about.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, I.

[Mike Wright]

Thank you. Jermaine Gresham, big gresh tight end for the Arizona Cardinals. Yeah. Getting more involved.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, can we talk about this other more exciting game?

[Jason Moore]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Vikings. Rams. Vikings, two and a half point favorites.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, revenge game.

[Andy Holloway]

46 point over under. Yeah. Jeff Fisher's not there. His revenge game is going to be different. Wherever Jeff Fisher lands someday. But we've talked a lot about golf this week. Gurley, number one running back. He's locked and loaded. Robert woods in the midst of a fiery fire streak.

[Jason Moore]

Got to stay in the flames.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, those fiery fire streaks.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, man. Well, so fiery. Look, I mean, if there's one thing that's going to go up on fire, sometimes it's fire, it's the woods. So Robert Woods.

[Mike Wright]

The woods are burning.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, it's a forest fire right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike is out of control. Somebody asked Jay Grizz on Twitter whether to start Robert woods or someone else. Someone else. And he responded with a picture of the woods.

[Jason Moore]

And he was very dead on accurate.

[Mike Wright]

It's just the best part of that whole interaction was Andy's scrunched up face when he realized what he had said.

[Andy Holloway]

Fiery fire streaks. Come on, get in on it.

[Mike Wright]

That sounds like a snack you'd buy at the 7 11.

[Andy Holloway]

This is coming from. No, the fiery fire sticks. Yeah, yeah. This is coming from the guy who said he was gonna throw a bucket of fire on something the other day.

[Mike Wright]

And then the Twitter pictures proved I was accurate.

[Andy Holloway]

One gift does not make you right, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

That's how I live my life.

[Andy Holloway]

Look, the question, one game at a time. The question in this game is who you who do you not start? Because Thielen, Diggs, McKinnon, Murray, Keenum, Rudolph. That's six names on Minnesota that I'm fine with.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And then on the other side, golf, Gurley, Woods. I think we're all fine with Watkins. Are you confident? Two weeks in a row with a score. Minnesota is tough guys.

[Mike Wright]

I knew we need some updates on Xavier Rhodes.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I can't find any updates. I think they're Xavier Rhodes.

[Mike Wright]

He is the shutdown defensive back for the Minnesota Vikings.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, but Watkins is being shut down by his target count right now. Anyway, that's been the problem, so. But he scored. So I'm actually Okay. With Watkins in this game as well. The Vikings defense, while it's great against the run, it's still middle of the pack against the wide receivers. So any concern that Gurley's upside is pretty capped this week or.

[Mike Wright]

Certainly. But that's. You play Todd Gurley in this matchup, but you might need to adjust your expectations.

[Andy Holloway]

Thielen over Diggs. If you had to choose between the.

[Jason Moore]

Two, I would choose Thielen over Diggs right now. But I want both. I think you can start both.

[Andy Holloway]

I feel like we made a water bet preseason about Thielen Diggs.

[Mike Wright]

No, you're just. I don't know if we did that. We definitely had the week one where they both.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I do remember that.

[Mike Wright]

Loaded. But Diggs won out.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Both great players and they offer Case Keenum, you know, valuable streaming weapons. Anything else from this game?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, we're going to talk about the Minnesota running game a little bit later in the start of the week, but I think that this, this game matches up really, really well for the Minnesota running backs. And I definitely say you can start both of them. Jerick McKinnon and Latavius Murray.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. The Redskins fighting for their playoff lives. Back and forth they go four and five. Take on the Saints on fire. Saints seven and a half point favorites at home. That's a lot of respect for the New Orleans Saints.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, it is.

[Andy Holloway]

In the dome. 51 point over under. This thing has the makings of a great fantasy game for many players involved. I'm excited to see what Kirk Cousins can do on the road. Maybe intrigued, not excited.

[Mike Wright]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

The Saints defense has been really, really good right now. Here's their ranks. 12th against fantasy quarterbacks, 10th against running backs, 8th against wide receivers, 6 against tight ends. They've been getting it done.

[Jason Moore]

If there was another position in the NFL, they'd be fourth kicker in fantasy.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, Chris Thompson.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Samaj P. Ryan. What are they this week? Two and a three.

[Mike Wright]

What are they? Yeah, you know, I think that's fair.

[Jason Moore]

I think Samaj. I see Samaj very similar to how I see the running backs. We talked earlier. Adrian Peterson and Lamar Miller and Samaj. I think all three are not in good matchups, but they're going to get enough volume to be successful. Fantasy plays as that running back to running back. 3 Chris Thompson I like a little bit more because you're going to have the Saints putting, you know, points on the clock.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, that's going way back.

[Jason Moore]

That's going way back to points on the clock.

[Andy Holloway]

Put them up on the clock.

[Jason Moore]

The running game for, you know, for the Saints has just been unstoppable running.

[Mike Wright]

This is true. The running backs were so good last week. They were so good that they got Tyrod Taylor benched. That's how good they were.

[Jason Moore]

It really is actually accurate. That's unbelievable.

[Mike Wright]

I know it's ridiculous, but that's how good they were.

[Jason Moore]

But the point is, is that with the Saints scoring, if the Redskins are, you know, throwing the ball coming back into it, I think Chris Thompson, that's where he's going to make his hay and be more valuable than Samaj.

[Andy Holloway]

We talked about Bruce Ellington. Would you rather start Bruce Ellington or Ted Ginn Jr. In this game?

[Mike Wright]

Ooh, you think I would go.

[Andy Holloway]

There's not really a difficult start question on New Orleans outside of Ted Ginn Jr. Because you're not starting Fleen or you are starting Ingram, Camara, Michael Thomas and Drew Brees.

[Mike Wright]

I think I would go with Bruce Ellington.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you?

[Jason Moore]

I lean that way as well.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, me too. All right, best. Let's be best friends. Kirk Cousins. You want to set him this week?

[Jason Moore]

No. No way.

[Mike Wright]

I would still play him.

[Andy Holloway]

He was one of the top quarterbacks in the league last week. Fantasy wise.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. He's in a dome in a game where he's going to have to throw the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

Vernon.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, absolutely. I mean, The Washington defense, 29th against the tight end.

[Jason Moore]

Jordan Reed, did not practice Wednesday.

[Andy Holloway]

I give a lot of credit to Jay Gruden for. You know, there are things that we make fun of him for, but his teams tend to bounce back from defeat. And we saw this when they went up and stole a win in Seattle two weeks ago. I expect this game to be closer, dare I say. Oh, no, dare I say.

[Jason Moore]

Against the Saints. Your Saints. Andy's almost upset of the way. You don't feel good about it, do you?

[Andy Holloway]

I. This is one of those ones. This is one of those ones where it's the line. Seven and a half points. I think the Saints do win this game, but I think it's. I think it's a good game. I think it's gonna be a close one. So I have confidence that Washington is going to bounce back from. From the loss last week. So we'll get into the rest of the matchups tomorrow. We do a show every day.

[Jason Moore]

Every weekday.

[Andy Holloway]

Every weekday. And Periscope on Sundays.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And two shows on Thursdays and two shows on Wednesdays.

[Mike Wright]

So many shows.

[Jason Moore]

DFS podcast on Fridays.

[Andy Holloway]

Thanks, Brooks. And then Brooks has a show that's coming out soon too, right?

[Jason Moore]

The judge.

[Andy Holloway]

The judge.

[Mike Wright]

I was going with Brooks on books.

[Andy Holloway]

Brooks on books, Yeah. I like living with the judge. I hope it's just day to day life.

[Mike Wright]

This is what you deal with when you wear only a robe.

[Andy Holloway]

This morning I made some eggs, put.

[Jason Moore]

Some salsa in my robe. Of course.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah. You wake in that robe. You go to sleep in that robe. Do you shower in the robe? In my robe, yeah.

[Jason Moore]

I've gone to the water park with him. He's in a robe.

[Mike Wright]

It's dangerous when he visits windy cities such as Chicago.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Marilyn Monroe. Yes. Yeah. There's nothing on judge Giamond.

[Mike Wright]

There is a Monroe situation.

[Andy Holloway]

You know what we should do? Starts to the week.

[Jason Moore]

All right. Starts of the week.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, don't like the wind. Don't like the wind. If you're a judge. My start of the week, he's like the wind. My start of the week. I'm going to start at the running back position. The aforementioned Jordan Howard. Three down weeks in a row and he hasn't scored a touchdown since week four. But I have confidence that he gets it rocking against Detroit. The one thing about Detroit is even if they win this game and even if they win this game, going away against Chicago, the way that Detroit scores is very methodical. They are not generally a big play offense. They are a dink dunk and bring it down the field offense. Which means I think you have a slower path to a blowout than you do against other teams. Which means I think Jordan Howard's involvement, his success, it's going to be there. I have confidence in him. I want you to have confidence in him. Start him in week 11.

[Jason Moore]

I'm going with Derek Carr for my start of the week. This week you've got a guy who has thrown. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Send in the car. Oh, send in the car.

[Jason Moore]

The classic send in the car with, with Derek Carr. Derek Carr, his three games before the buy, he threw for a thousand yards over those three games. He was, you know, he was on fire. He's coming off the buy and he's playing against the New England Patriots and one of the higher over unders. And this is, if you're not aware, this game is in Mexico City. So it goes down as a home game for the Raiders. It's not really a home game but it also is a home game because I mean we've seen the Raiders there before. They are going to be the favorite. Tom Brady is going to get the lasers in his eyes from the fans.

[Mike Wright]

He may.

[Andy Holloway]

Wasn't that reserved for Brock Osweiler. Isn't that what happened down there?

[Jason Moore]

Well, it's just so weird because he's a big target. Yeah. You don't need it. With Brock, though, I don't know why they. They should have just let him see. Yeah, because he could have accidentally completed passes. But the point is the Patriots defense looks. They've gotten. They've gotten a lot better over the last few weeks, you know, but, you know, last week they only gave up 14 points to the quarterback position, but that was Brock Osweiler. So I think that the Patriots or without Laser and Derek Carr is going to score. It's going to be a high scoring affair.

[Mike Wright]

Now, I'm not exactly sure where to go here for my initial start because Andy went running back, which we usually start with the quarterback, and then Jason went quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

What? Did you go quarterback?

[Jason Moore]

Because I didn't listen to you.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, okay.

[Mike Wright]

So then I'm going to go with my tight end start.

[Andy Holloway]

Come on now.

[Jason Moore]

I love it.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going back to the tomb because it was. Look, it was rough. It was just a bunch of dead things in the tomb last week.

[Jason Moore]

But Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, voice of public opinion.

[Jason Moore]

But I started him last week and he got one catch.

[Andy Holloway]

None of you have said his name.

[Mike Wright]

We haven't got there yet. Tyler Croft, tight end for the Cincinnati Bengals. I get it. I get it.

[Jason Moore]

It was.

[Mike Wright]

It was rough.

[Andy Holloway]

Targets were there. You made a good argument earlier this week.

[Mike Wright]

But Tyler Croft gets to go up against Denver. They are giving up the second most points to the tight end position because it's. It's tough in the streets for wide receivers against the Denver Broncos and their DBs. So often things are filtered into the tight end. And Tyler Croft is talented. He is a goal line threat. I'm fine going back to this and streaming him again.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so you went tight end. Now what do I do?

[Mike Wright]

You got.

[Jason Moore]

Sounds like you. We need a wide receiver.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Michael Crabtree.

[Jason Moore]

Ooh.

[Andy Holloway]

Past heavy game. You expect New England to be able to pile up the points against Oakland. He's coming off a couple down weeks. Coming off the bye week, hasn't scored in a couple of games. But look, for me, He's a top 10 play in this. In this week's matchup. They're going to need him. They're going to use him. He's going to be great.

[Mike Wright]

Yep. I'm with you. Love, Crabtree.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'll stick with wide receiver because that would make a lot of sense. Devonte Parker this week. I really, really like devonte Parker. Whenever you're playing against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this year. The wide receivers are having a heyday. They are always outperforming. You know, the other competition when you play against Tampa Bay and Devonte Parker, he came back, you know, five for 76, six for 66 and oh, six for 66. Oh, no.

[Mike Wright]

But I brought this up already, Jason.

[Jason Moore]

I do think that devonte Parker has the downfield ability that is going to cause real problems for Tampa Bay. I love Devonta Parker this week almost as. I mean I pretty much see him as a wide receiver. One play I would start, I would fire him up for sure.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

Over Landry.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean Landry is going to be safer. Yeah, I would fire him up over Landry for sure. I was looking at whether or not DeVonta Parker or Jarvis Landry. If you look at rankings, rankings aren't always. I mean, it's so dumb because they're just linear. Sometimes you're factoring in.

[Mike Wright]

You gotta get upside down.

[Jason Moore]

You explained it earlier, your opponent. Right. You know what, what's the probability of outcomes? Travis Landry's not having a bad game for sure. Devonte Parker could, but I think Parker has the much bigger game.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going with Sterling Shepard. He gets to take on the Kansas City Chiefs who just love it. A bleed points to the wide receiver position. On top of that, we saw him back from his injury and he is by de facto he's the number one wide receiver on the team. And that went to the tune of 13 targets. Now 11 for 142. That was against the 49ers. But like I said, the Chiefs are beatable at the wide receiver position. So I'm very confident in Sterling Shepard this week.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, well, I guess I'll give you my quarterback because it matches up with your wide receiver and oh wow, Eli Manning.

[Mike Wright]

We are double stuffing all over the place.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm doubling up on Eli this week. He's my stream as well. Look, he's gonna have to throw and you can throw against Kansas City. They're 26 against fantasy quarterbacks. You know, they're gonna score against the Giants and I expect the offense to be able to do enough to sustain Eli Manning 275 passing yards last week. He's been able to put up at least a couple of touchdowns. Evan Ingram. Sterling shepherd will get it done. And by necessity, if Shepherd's going to have that big game, it's going to be from Eli. So. Sure, I like him.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I'm going to go back to the running back that I should have started with with Latavius Murray. I mentioned it earlier, but I think that the Minnesota Vikings at home against the Los Angeles Rams, they've had a pretty darn good defense against the passing game which I think will be exposed this week, but their rushing defense has not been good. They are the 28th against the running back position when it comes to giving up fantasy points at home. I think both Latavius Murray and Jerick McKinnon should be started now. McKinnon is probably an auto start even though he had a bad game last week. If he's not in your mind, put him back to an auto start type of player. It's a great matchup for him. But Latavius Murray, I think if you look over the last few weeks, he's probably not started in the majority of leagues. He's probably on most people's bench. But he's had double digit carries since week five. 15 carries, 18 carries, 1917 carries. When you get that kind of volume against a weak rushing team at home in a game where I think points are going to be flowing okay, I like it.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike, what's your running back?

[Mike Wright]

My running back start of the week is Jai and he's coming off of the bye week with his brand new team. The Cowboys are they're kind of in the middle of the pack but they will be without Sean Lee at the linebacker position. Coach Peterson's already talking up we're going to increase the usage. JJ despite the down performances for Fantasy when he was in Miami he was still grading out at incredible overall metrics at the running back position. So I love him moving forward. I think that JJ is a league winning type of running back down the stretch and so if you're trying to acquire him, I think that this is your last chance to do it.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason Whitten is my tight end start of the week. He takes on Philadelphia. Jason Whitten is the fix all when they're dealing with issues in this offense. And with Zeke out with the offensive line struggling, he went to he became safety valve Jason Whitten as he's been so many times in his career.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, and Dax needed safety.

[Andy Holloway]

He needed help and even with DEZ even struggling with some injury, Terrence Williams struggling with injury. You saw Whitten's receptions go from one the previous week to seven last week. I think this is a six to eight reception game which is a great baseline for tight end. Jason Whitten's the start of the week.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah and I'm going with Hunter Henry after his Jason? Yes, voice.

[Mike Wright]

I started Hunter Henry last week and he's. He stunk.

[Jason Moore]

You should have gone with. He only got one reception.

[Mike Wright]

He got only one reception.

[Jason Moore]

That's true. You know, and look, the more that Mike Williams has gotten involved, I think that that's hurt Hunter Henry a little bit. But the. We've seen Buffalo recently. You know, if you think back to that Tampa Bay game where OJ Howard destroyed him, Cameron Brait destroyed him, I think when you've got an actual talented tight end, which Hunter Henry fits that mold, Hunter Henry can expose what they do if you, you know, their numbers are middle of the pack. The last couple weeks, they haven't really played any great tight ends. They played against ASJ when he should have had a touchdown but didn't. So the numbers are kind of skewed. But I think Hunter Henry is still a good play. This was a hard week for tight ends. Tight ends, I think they're starting to form to the point where you go, okay, I know the weekly starters, those guys that every single week you're rolling with those guys outside of them, Hunter Henry should be able to bounce back. And I want to give you confidence because you've had two down weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, the last player here is going to be Mike's quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

All right, we have.

[Andy Holloway]

And it's one I actually really disagree with.

[Mike Wright]

We have to give. That's fine, but we have to give. I have to give the official warning that's always associated with this player. Stop operating your heavy machinery. Stop eating food for a moment. Pause. Okay, my start of the week at the quarterback position is Blake Bortles. I think that he is playing far better than people give him credit for lately. I have some concerns. These guys do not, but I have some concerns about Leonard Fournette against the Cleveland Browns being able to open up with that big play. And I think that they will have to lean on Bortles a little bit more than they've had to for when Leonard Fournette's having monster games, Marquise Lee is emerging into one of the better wide receivers the game. Dede Westbrook, if he is in fact activated and the player that that draft Twitter believes he will be, that's a huge upgrade. On top of that, we saw Mercedes Lewis had a monster game. You know that in that London game that trace touchdown games. Oh, he's playing the Cleveland Browns the. At one of the worst defenses against the tight end position. Mercedes Lewis is in fact worth great DFS play, worth DFS play worth that. If things are really Nasty at your tight end position. He's worth a pickup and a stream. So I think that Blake Bortles is a is a stream worthy start of the week.

[Andy Holloway]

I want to run these back since we messed the order up. Eli Manning, Derek Carr, Blake Bortles, Jordan Howard latavius, Murray slash McKinnon. And then Jay Ajayi, Michael Crabtree, Devonte Parker, and Sterling Shepard. And then Jason Whitten, Hunter Henry. And back to the tomb with Tyler Croft, the tomb raider himself. And of course, without further ado, there is only one segment that we all look forward to each and every week from the poet, Jason Moore.

[Jason Moore]

Jason Moore's ironclad, locked and loaded, 100% guaranteed. Boom, boom. Kicker of the week. Oh, the kicker this week is sure fine because he's the number one kicker. Greg Zurline.

[Andy Holloway]

It's pretty bad, pretty good.

[Jason Moore]

Nailed it.

[Mike Wright]

But how do you not take the opportunity to bring back up Greg Zirloin?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, if you missed the foot cast yesterday that we recorded [e-mail] I could not say Greg Zurline as a Zurich. I really can't. All of a sudden it's like this mental blockade.

[Andy Holloway]

Why you. You say it like Z W E.

[Jason Moore]

R Z Wurline, Zwerlene. Have you ever looked at his spelling?

[Andy Holloway]

Nope.

[Jason Moore]

Spell his name.

[Andy Holloway]

Zurline.

[Jason Moore]

Wait, no, no, no. Okay, okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Spell his name.

[Jason Moore]

Spell his name. Okay, without looking.

[Andy Holloway]

Z U R L E I N. Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Z U e R L I N.

[Jason Moore]

E. No, you're both very close, but I'm not telling you other than you were both wrong.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, well.

[Mike Wright]

Z U E R O L E.

[Jason Moore]

I n. There you go.

[Mike Wright]

I had the ending, I believe.

[Andy Holloway]

I think if we combined ours, we would have done it right.

[Jason Moore]

That's right. It's actually pronounced Zandinavian.

[Andy Holloway]

The key is boom boom.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Boom, boom.

[Mike Wright]

Well, if you hit up that Omaha Steaks deal, you get a nice zirloin.

[Andy Holloway]

Boom boom Zirloin of the week. All right, look, before we close out the show, I want to thank everybody for supporting the [e-mail] I also want to invite you to check out draft.comballers where you can play on the draft app week to week. You draft the team you played, you can win a few bucks, you can play against your friends and Jason and myself. We're going to be out in New York for the World series of fantasy final table there with draft a great company doing great stuff. Mike has got his finger up. He said. One moment, please.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, because Joey at Joey Sims got a bone to pick with this fellow. We don't always. We're not always able to get to the mailbag, but I think Brooks specifically put this one in to get me fiery. Because Joey Sims says, can any of.

[Jason Moore]

You do a push up?

[Mike Wright]

And I'll have you know, Joey Sims, that we have been.

[Andy Holloway]

We actually can do push ups.

[Mike Wright]

We have a rocking it.

[Andy Holloway]

That is all we can do.

[Mike Wright]

We've been rocking out some push up challenges here for the past month, all three of us. I will push you under the table.

[Jason Moore]

Worked up to 50 pushups in one.

[Mike Wright]

Darn right.

[Andy Holloway]

Mike. Mike is the push up champ at this point. I think he's been. He did like 90 yesterday.

[Jason Moore]

We got to the 50 marker.

[Andy Holloway]

Now he's. Now he's.

[Mike Wright]

Check that. That's for the. That's for the YouTube. YouTubers.

[Andy Holloway]

You're gonna. You're gonna turn people. Oh, gosh. All right, stop. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye, everybody.

[Jason Moore]

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 the FFballers.