Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 5 Matchups, In-or-Out, Bold Bets

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary
Episode: Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 5 Matchups, In-or-Out, Bold Bets
Release Date: October 6, 2017

The Fantasy Footballers' fifth episode of their 2017 season delivers a comprehensive analysis of Week 5 matchups, player availability updates, and strategic bold bets to enhance your fantasy roster. Hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright engage in dynamic discussions, offering expert insights and actionable advice for fantasy football enthusiasts. Below is a detailed breakdown of the episode’s key segments, enriched with notable quotes and timestamps.

---

1. Show Overview and Community Engagement [00:00 - 06:28]

The episode kicks off with the hosts expressing excitement about the day's content, emphasizing a packed agenda that includes player availability (“In-or-Out”), matchup analyses, and giveaways. Acknowledging their supportive community, they announce a giveaway of a $40 gift card to shopballers.com, with James Shipley being the winner.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway [05:12]: “Every Friday we say thank you to the Foot Clan, our supportive community, and we give away a $40 gift card.”

2. Player Availability and Injury Reports [06:28 - 16:06]

The hosts delve into critical injury updates affecting Week 5, focusing primarily on kickers and key offensive players across various teams.

• Kicking Struggles:

  • Discussion centers on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' kicker woes, highlighting Nick Folk's unexpected performance decline.
  • Eric Dickerson [02:46]: “Roberto Aguayo's pressure was way too much for him and he failed.”

• Key Offensive Injuries:

  • Josh Norman suffers a rib fracture and minor lung damage, impacting his availability.
  • C.J. Prosise remains out due to persistent injuries, leading to increased focus on potential replacements like McKissick.

Notable Quote:

• Mike Wright [03:18]: “Football. You really need The Rams and 49ers bring them back.”

3. In-or-Out Player Decisions [10:32 - 28:21]

This segment tackles the "In-or-Out" decisions for various players based on their current health status and projected performance.

• Quarterbacks:
  • Sam Bradford and Marcus Mariota are discussed as potential outs due to uncertainties about their starting roles.
  • Latavius Murray is projected to be active, albeit with some skepticism regarding his involvement.

Notable Quotes:

• Andy Holloway [11:00]: “I think he's going to be out. That's what I'm taking.”

• Eric Dickerson [12:04]: “Henderson deserves a bump.”

• Running Backs and Wide Receivers:

  • Carlos Hyde and Jai Collins are deemed in, while Matt Forte and Corey Clement are out.
  • DeVante Adams is uncertain due to concussion protocols, leading to recommendations to sit him unless cleared.

Notable Quote:

• Mike Wright [12:34]: “I'm going in. Limited last week, but still came in and he's a beast.”

4. Fantasy Forecasts and Matchup Analyses [16:06 - 42:35]

The hosts provide in-depth analyses of specific Week 5 matchups, offering strategies on which players to start or sit based on opposing defenses and player performances.

• Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Pittsburgh Steelers:
  • Despite the Steelers being favorites, Andy advises sitting Ben Roethlisberger due to his low fantasy output.
  • Eric Dickerson [17:12]: “Yeah. We talked about this around the studio yesterday.”

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway [17:42]: “You're starting Big Ben over Cam Newton against Detroit.”

• Seattle Seahawks vs. Los Angeles Rams:

  • The uncertainty around Seattle’s backfield leads to debates on starting Eddie Lacy or Thomas Rawls.
  • Eric Dickerson [24:38]: “It's just as likely, I think maybe, you know, 51%, 49% that it comes out and Thomas Rawls is the guy completely.”

• Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys:

  • Focus on Dak Prescott and DeSean Jackson's matchup against strong defenses.
  • Andy Holloway [34:11]: “Packers defense only allow 16.8 points per game to opposing offenses.”

Notable Quotes:

• Andy Holloway [26:35]: “I'm not touching Macklin. I'm not touching Watson.”
• Mike Wright [28:20]: “All right.”

5. Bold Bets and Strategic Recommendations [27:32 - 37:00]

The hosts engage in playful banter while making bold predictions and strategic recommendations to capitalize on specific player performances and matchup advantages.

• Bold Prediction:
  • Andy Holloway confidently predicts an Eddie Lacy touchdown, encouraging listeners to take a "water bet" on his success.
  • Andy's Prediction [27:36]: “I guarantee an Eddie Lacy touchdown in this game.”

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway [28:11]: “No team in the NFL have given up more rushing touchdowns than the Los Angeles Rams.”

6. Daily Dose and Community Interaction [45:53 - 52:07]

The "Daily Dose" segment features listener reviews and community interactions, fostering a sense of camaraderie among the Fantasy Footballers' audience.

• Listener Review:
  • Nick Shem praises the podcast for enhancing his fantasy experience.
  • Nick Shem [07:32]: “I wait the whole morning for this podcast. It actually makes my day and helps my fantasy tremendously.”

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway [08:12]: “My kids got like the plain old [school pictures].” (Relates to Mike’s daughter's chemistry-themed school picture.)

7. Expert Draft and Quarterback-Only Draft [46:06 - 52:07]

In a fun twist, the hosts participate in a quarterback-only draft, selecting five quarterbacks each and discussing their picks' potential impacts for Week 5.

• Draft Picks:
  • Andy Holloway selects Aaron Rodgers as his first pick.
  • Eric Dickerson opts for Russell Wilson, aiming for high upside despite some uncertainties.
  • Mike Wright chooses Carson Palmer, highlighting his potential for high yardage despite touchdown concerns.

Notable Quotes:

• Andy Holloway [46:46]: “I took Aaron Rodgers. I'm gonna get the baseline.”
• Eric Dickerson [48:15]: “No, I don't get that vibe. I think he wants to win.”

8. Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts [52:07 - 53:30]

The episode wraps up with the hosts reflecting on the draft outcomes, teasing future episodes, and reinforcing community engagement.

• Final Thoughts:
  • Encouragement to join the Fantasy Footballers' community and engage with upcoming content.
  • Lighthearted banter about future episodes and the competitive spirit of fantasy football.

Notable Quote:

• Andy Holloway [53:14]: “Good luck to you, Brooks.”

---

Key Takeaways:

1. Player Management is Crucial: Staying updated with injury reports and making informed In-or-Out decisions can significantly impact your fantasy team's success.

2. Strategic Matchup Analysis: Understanding how players perform against specific defenses helps in optimizing your lineup each week.

3. Bold Bets with Caution: While making bold predictions like guaranteed touchdowns can be enticing, it’s essential to balance risk with informed strategy.

4. Community Engagement Enhances Experience: Listener reviews and community interactions enrich the fantasy football experience, providing additional insights and support.

5. Draft Strategies Adapt to Weekly Changes: Participating in specialized drafts, such as a quarterback-only draft, showcases the importance of adapting strategies based on weekly performance fluctuations.

---

Final Thoughts:

This episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast serves as a valuable resource for fantasy football managers seeking to navigate the complexities of Week 5. With expert analysis, strategic advice, and engaging community interactions, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright provide listeners with the tools and insights necessary to excel in their fantasy leagues.

For continuous updates, strategy discussions, and community support, join the Fantasy Footballers at jointhefoot.com and follow them on Twitter @ffballers.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Foot Clan. Before we get into the rest of the Week 5 matchups and all the good stuff we have on today's show, I do want to thank today's sponsor, Fantasy Champs. Head over to fantasychamps.com use the promo code ballers. You can get championship rings, championship trophies, custom engravings to commemorate your fantasy football championship. And if you play fantasy baseball, they got stuff for that as well. So check it out [e-mail] hi, this.

[Mike Wright]

Is Eric Dickinson, NFL hall of Famer.

[Andy Holloway]

And you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast.

[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.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, it is a day of the week that is not Thursday or Wednesday or Tuesday or Monday. It's French Friday. It's Friday. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Andy, Mike and Jason back once more and I'm excited. Today's show is so jam packed. We have in or out. We have all the news. We're going to talk Thursday Night Football. We have rest of the Week 5 matchups. We have the daily dose.

[Eric Dickerson]

We got a Foot Clan giveaway.

[Andy Holloway]

We got a giveaway. We got a review. We've got everything. What we don't have is any folk music.

[Mike Wright]

Did you.

[Andy Holloway]

Which I traditionally enjoy, but did you.

[Mike Wright]

Forget what day it was?

[Eric Dickerson]

He was trying to avoid saying it.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I did not. You don't remember last week? No, I made a mistake on this day and you guys went into some Rebecca Black and I told you were real slow on. On the uptake there, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Nice. Yeah.

[Eric Dickerson]

I thought it was well done by.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you get what.

[Mike Wright]

Because that's. I don't think about that stuff. That's just sleeper cell that's burned into my head.

[Andy Holloway]

You could call today the day that Nick Folk continued crying.

[Eric Dickerson]

Oh, man.

[Andy Holloway]

You could call it the day that.

[Eric Dickerson]

Is it the day that Roberto Aguayo was happy again?

[Andy Holloway]

He was just smirking in his bed somewhere. Look, the life of a kicker is not an easy one.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

Unless you make your kicks.

[Eric Dickerson]

I had one of those, you know, those shower thoughts moments where you're. You're real thoughtful. This morning in the shower, I was. I was questioning whether the Bucks shot themselves in the foot when they tried to fix their kicker problem by trading up to the second round to draft the best kicker. Because I feel like that moment just completely destroyed any kicker's ability to succeed in Tampa Bay. It was like there's a curse. Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

The pressure.

[Eric Dickerson]

Roberto Aguayo's pressure was way too much for him and he failed. But because that pressure was so high and they cut ties with the second round pick, whoever's coming in after that's going to suck. And whoever's coming in now, they're. I mean the pressure is on. If you're replacing you go for it now.

[Andy Holloway]

You go for it on every fourth down here on out.

[Mike Wright]

That's. I was kind of expecting that. I mean we remember a couple years ago, Mike Tomlin and the Steelers were having some tremendous kicker struggles and Tomlin says, screw this crap. No more deal with. I'm just going to go on fourth down.

[Eric Dickerson]

I'm going for two. No extra points. I don't need a kicker. I get an extra man.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not sure that we learned much about the New England defense. I mean, Jameis Winston was ineffective for the most part of this game. He pulled together a fantasy game at the very end, you know, and Brady disappointed. This game was not the barn burner you hoped or expected.

[Mike Wright]

Football.

[Andy Holloway]

And no, you really need The Rams and 49ers bring them back. But essentially this defense should have given up a 68 yard touchdown to DeSean Jackson down the sideline. You had Cameron Brait drop a touchdown, drop a couple other plays. They had three field goals that they missed. And you know, it's hard to read into it too much. Like I would still be playing people against the New England defense with, with some confidence.

[Mike Wright]

That's the big question.

[Andy Holloway]

People are wondering, but Mike Evans disappointing performance. It was Nice to see DeSean Jackson over 100 yards for the first time. Mike, you brought it up. Play calling was an issue. You don't understand why they didn't. They ran one slant to Desean Jackson.

[Mike Wright]

It's ridiculous.

[Andy Holloway]

And it went for 50 something yards.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, and why not go, hmm, the fastest man on the field. Perhaps we should just try and get him the ball and see what he can do. They finally did that one time.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, you look at what Andy Reid does with Tyreek Hill in Kansas City. Hill doesn't get the ball in every play, but they're running him back behind the line of scrimmage. They're threatening, they're faking the screen passes there. They didn't utilize the speed in the way that you should because Derek Cutter's.

[Mike Wright]

Like, hey, this, this offense was great back in 96. It's going to keep working.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I remember him in 96. I think he was the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils out here. And we, I don't. We ran him out of town.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know if he actually sounds like that. That's just.

[Andy Holloway]

No, that's his actual.

[Mike Wright]

I imagine a man like dirt Cutter has a, has a growl in his voice.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Mike, I'm going to let you know a little secret here. It is actually Friday.

[Eric Dickerson]

Go.

[Jason Moore]

Put clan Friday.

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, thank you, Jason.

[Mike Wright]

I'll let you know a secret. I knew it was Friday.

[Andy Holloway]

Ah, all right, well, look, every Friday we say thank you to the Foot Clan, our supportive community over [e-mail] and we give away a $40 gift card to shopballers.com where you can get fantasy footballers shirts and gear and all of that stuff. And James Shipley is the winner today.

[Mike Wright]

Congratulations, James. We appreciate your support, my friend.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. So congrats, James. You get the gift card and you can check out our [e-mail]. don't forget to check us out on Twitter at the ffballers. We're also on YouTube, iHeartRadio, the fantasy footballers.com is the website and you can always find new and exciting stuff. A reminder, Mike will be on Periscope an hour before game time on Sunday morning, once again giving you last minute answers to your questions and the breaking news after the show. Yesterday we found out that Rob Gronkowski was going to miss the game. We actually found that out on the footcast, our extra episode and broke the news there. But that was a big surprise escalated.

[Mike Wright]

Very quickly from Rob Gronkowski has shown up late on the injury report, which is generally bad. And then you throw on top that it was a Thursday game but you know, well, okay, Gronk has a thigh problem. He'll be all right, though. He'll be out there.

[Eric Dickerson]

He's traveling with the team.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, of course he's gonna, no, he's not gonna play.

[Eric Dickerson]

But let's just hope it doesn't escalate like last year. Last year was a very similar situation where it was like, oh, Gronk is unexpectedly injured. Oh, he's out this game. Oh, he's on ir. He's done for the year. Let's, let's just get back Gronk.

[Andy Holloway]

It was a well executed risk for the Patriots to sit him, give him 10 days off. They still win the game. It looks brilliant now.

[Mike Wright]

And Adam Schefter has reported that Gronk is expected to return week six.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. So also before we get into the news and notes and the in or out injury reports, things like that, from time to time we do like to read a review from the listeners on the show. Jason takes care of that for us. And we're going to do it right now.

[Jason Moore]

Reviewasaurus rags.

[Eric Dickerson]

This one comes in from Nick Shem. The reason I enjoy my job as a chemist. 5 stars. Life in the lab is occasionally boring. I wait the whole morning for this podcast. It actually makes my day and helps my fantasy tremendously. Only bad thing is the hour they air goes by too fast. Oh, so sorry. Love the podcast. The only one I really enjoy when it comes to fantasy football podcasts. Well, Nick, shim. I enjoy your chemistry.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. Shout out to all my scientist friends out there. Love what you're doing.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, it was great. Just this morning, your wife posted on Facebook the school pictures of your kids.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

And let them pick their backdrops. And I guess this is a thing you can do on school pictures.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I think they green screen.

[Andy Holloway]

You got a cool school, man. My kids got like the plain old.

[Mike Wright]

White, but public school for the win.

[Andy Holloway]

Your daughter picked a chemistry background, right?

[Mike Wright]

My daughter is super into science. So that was not ingest. That was scientists. I love it. I was a big science guy growing up, so I'm trying to. I'm trying to shout out for fostering.

[Eric Dickerson]

By the way, go science.

[Andy Holloway]

Hot tip. If you want that hour to go by a little slower, do what I accidentally did in the car this morning. I accidentally flipped it over to half speed and then listen myself. Listen to myself talk about the Buffalo Bills matchup like a drunk person. If you put it on half speed.

[Eric Dickerson]

We'Re just all inebriated.

[Andy Holloway]

Do you guys have any thoughts on the libations?

[Eric Dickerson]

Taylor?

[Andy Holloway]

Yep, it was pretty funny. So let's get into the news.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

I'll be honest, Brooks. I didn't look at the news before I hit the button because I thought maybe we had a lot.

[Mike Wright]

Big news.

[Andy Holloway]

Big news, guys. Life as a kicker is fun. Young Way KU has been waived by the Chargers. They signed Nick Nova.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, they got Boom Boom. Nick Novak. The original boom.

[Eric Dickerson]

The original boom boom.

[Mike Wright]

The original boom Boom. Nick Novak is back in town. And I'm gonna use a little bit of projecting here, guys, which we do. You know, we project things on the show.

[Andy Holloway]

Young Way ku, starting kicker for the Tampa Bay Buckeye.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I was. Next week, I was gonna go Nick Folk. Yeah. I would expect him to be cut.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Because this is multiple weeks now of Nick Folk failure.

[Eric Dickerson]

No, you can't.

[Mike Wright]

You can't.

[Andy Holloway]

You.

[Mike Wright]

You can't keep throwing them out.

[Andy Holloway]

Josh Norman is out in week four. Rib fracture, minor lung damage for Josh Norman. Just Broke this morning. So that will affect maybe the way you look at the matchup for this week.

[Mike Wright]

That's huge.

[Eric Dickerson]

Also, Paul Perkins is out as well, so make sure. Oh, Golman is a decent low end starter this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he's a flex curiosity. Also, Jack Doyle's not practicing with a concussion and we're going to go ahead and get into the rest of. In and out.

[Eric Dickerson]

What's it going to be, McFly?

[Mike Wright]

Are you in or out?

[Andy Holloway]

All right, quarterbacks, in or out? Sam Bradford, Marcus Mariota.

[Eric Dickerson]

I'm going to say out on both of these guys. Yeah, but they're. I mean, this is one where it's certainly not a. Not a done deal. Either one could start this week.

[Mike Wright]

But the hard thing is Sam Bradford is Monday night, so.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, so you're not going to wait.

[Mike Wright]

You can't wait for Sam Bradford.

[Andy Holloway]

Find a better option.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

In or out time Montgomery, the 425.

[Eric Dickerson]

Game Eastern on Sunday, everything points to him being in. I am, I am calling shenanigans. I, I plant my flag that he will not play. And, you know, sometimes my flag burns to the ground.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he's going to be out. That's what I'm taking.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'm going to go out.

[Eric Dickerson]

Good. Join me.

[Andy Holloway]

Jamal Williams, he's practicing in full.

[Mike Wright]

So Jamal Williams, the man who was declared going to miss a multiple weeks, is going to play.

[Andy Holloway]

Would you rather start him or Aaron Jones?

[Eric Dickerson]

Aaron Jones.

[Mike Wright]

I. Man, I don't even.

[Andy Holloway]

I would go Aaron Jones because if Tymont is going to miss, you're looking at some passing volume for Jones.

[Eric Dickerson]

But you're.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I mean, Jamal Williams, clearly he won the. He won the job in camp.

[Eric Dickerson]

He won the job in camp. But he has clearly never looked as good as Aaron Jones looked last week.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, to us. But I'm saying the coaching staff has said, Jamal Williams, you're the backup. I mean, he's the only other player. Aaron Jones had not seen the field until time Montgomery went down and then Jamal Williams went down. I'm just saying I'm. I don't feel confident at all starting either Jamal Williams or Aaron Jones with Montgomery. Misses.

[Andy Holloway]

Ezekiel Elliott suffered bruised ribs against the Rams. Practicing in full. In or out?

[Eric Dickerson]

He's in.

[Andy Holloway]

Wendell Smallwood, I think he's out.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, he hasn't practiced for a couple days now. Knee issue is probably out.

[Andy Holloway]

Deep league. Corey Clement.

[Mike Wright]

Deep league they have. Sproules is gone. Pumphrey has been missing the whole year on ir.

[Eric Dickerson]

If Wendell Smallwood's gone too, Corey Clement will Get enough opportunity, pick him up, stash him. If he has a decent week, maybe you can package him and trade him.

[Andy Holloway]

Carlos Hyde, in or out?

[Mike Wright]

I'm going in.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Limited last week, but still came in and he's a beast.

[Eric Dickerson]

Agreed.

[Andy Holloway]

Jai, in or out?

[Eric Dickerson]

He's in. He's still not practicing. But he didn't practice last week. I. I don't see him missing this game.

[Andy Holloway]

Matt Forte, going out.

[Mike Wright]

Still with the turf toe.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yep.

[Andy Holloway]

Perkins. We just said he was out. C.J. prosise.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Out this man. C.J. pro size is really unfortunate that we've. I don't think we're going to be able to see what he can do at this point.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, I agree. I mean, his injury history and his lack of being able to get over the little nicks and bruises has proved frustrating. But I am excited to see McKissick this week. If CJ Prosise is out, then McKissick will be involved because that was why he was, you know, brought in last time.

[Mike Wright]

And this is one of those things that we. McKissick flashed on the screen to everyone watching that game, looked like the most explosive runner. He's a converted wide receiver. He can catch. Still only got 10 snaps. So this is one of those things where we saw it and we're looking at the coaching staff saying, what are you doing? But he's still only got 10 snaps. So McKissick is. He's not a play for me. He's just. If you picked him up, just hold and see what happens.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Wide receiver, in or out? Devonte Adams.

[Mike Wright]

I think. Yeah.

[Eric Dickerson]

As of now, he's not cleared. So I have to say out.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Michael Crabtree.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going back in.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he's pretty much guaranteed to play.

[Eric Dickerson]

I agree.

[Mike Wright]

Marquis Lee, he has not practiced Wednesday or Thursday. You have to check the report if he. Because if he shows up limited on Friday, you would expect him to play. But if he's out. Alan Hearn.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yes. Alan Hearns definitely gets a bump.

[Andy Holloway]

What do you think is going to happen? In or out?

[Eric Dickerson]

For me, I think Lee is out.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I do, too.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. In or out? John Brown.

[Mike Wright]

I think he's in. Play.

[Andy Holloway]

J.J. nelson.

[Mike Wright]

In play.

[Andy Holloway]

Kenny Britt.

[Mike Wright]

I'm going to go out.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, I will as well. Kenny Gollum.

[Andy Holloway]

He'll be out again.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Come on, man. We got to get those smooth routes back on the field.

[Andy Holloway]

We talked about Jack Doyle. I think he's gonna miss this game. He was limited on Thursday, didn't practice at all Friday. Ben Watson. Do you think he's in or out?

[Mike Wright]

He'll play.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, I think he's in.

[Andy Holloway]

Tyler Ifert.

[Eric Dickerson]

No, he'll still be a couple more weeks. That being said, he is someone worth because of his injuries right now, he's worth looking for on the waiver wire. People will inevitably have to drop him because of certain, you know, especially while people are dealing with bye weeks and short benches. I picked him up in a league where I'm fine as barfy as the tight ends as a whole have been. Eifert, when he comes back will be an advantage over other teams.

[Mike Wright]

Well, that's, I'm the, I'm on the title I for truth or bandwagon over here. Do you really think that he will come back and be effective? I mean we're on multiple years now.

[Eric Dickerson]

Of I think of playing this game. No, I think when he comes back he will be effective. Absolutely. But I think it'll be a couple weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. You're still coming off a season in which points per game were better than Gronkowski when he actually played. So he's got a little bit more, a little bit more grace. I'm going to give him until I won't.

[Eric Dickerson]

I mean the other, the other options right now at tight end are just so gross.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Eric Dickerson]

He doesn't even have to do anything that special. Just come in and be involved.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Yeah. And just a reminder, there will be some Foot Clan game day alerts on jointhefoot.com on Sunday morning, updating you on the final kind of active inactive status of many of these players. And we're going to go ahead and move into the games.

[Jason Moore]

Fantasy forecast.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. The Jacksonville Jaguars are heading to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers. The Steelers are 8 1/2 point 50 favorites at home in this matchup. A 43 1/2 point over under I think reflects the conservative viewpoint that look, the Steelers offense is not moving the way that we expected them to and the Jaguars pass defense is the best in the league right now and so they're the best pasty and the worst run D. That's the current situation, which surprises me a little with the pieces they have come. He's normally been a run stopper but this is a game where I'm still looking at Le'Veon Bell as the main benefactor of the matchup and I do not, I do not take the approach that, you know, Big Ben's going up against the best past D. The offense isn't churning along the way. You expect it And I know it's a home game, but Big Ben thus far is something like 18th in fantasy points at the quarterback position. So I'm sitting Big Ben in this game, regardless of the fact it's home game.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah. We talked about this around the studio yesterday. I believe I'm in the minority, but I'm not as afraid of Big Ben as kind of some of the numbers dictate that I should be. I've got Big Ben right now as my number eight quarterback this week, so I'm willing to start him. I know the matchup is tough. I mean, the Jaguars this year, if you look at the fantasy points given up against quarterbacks. Listen to this run. Eight points, 17. Which is. Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Eric Dickerson]

Six points, five point, three points. I mean, that they've just been destroying quarterbacks. So that's where I'm saying some of the numbers say, well, Big Ben's offense hasn't been moving and this defense has been great. But if you look at those three quarterbacks they destroyed, you're talking about Tom Savage, Joe flacco and Josh McCown. So I. Some of that has to be the fact that those are three of the, I don't know, about three worst quarterbacks in the league right now, but when.

[Andy Holloway]

You destroy quarterbacks to the tune of single digits, three out of four weeks.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah. No.

[Andy Holloway]

What is the upside of a better quarterback?

[Eric Dickerson]

And they have the pieces that dictate that they should be doing that. Right.

[Mike Wright]

Boyer and Jalen Ramsey. And Jalen Ramsey, shutting people down.

[Andy Holloway]

So you're starting Big Ben over Cam Newton against Detroit.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

You're starting over Philip Rivers against the Giants.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Over Sean Watson, over Mariota, over Hoyer, over Palmer, over Wentz. That's the current lay of the land. And I get it. I mean, at home, if they get it going.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Three of ceilings much higher than other quarterbacks, so. Makes a lot of sense on, you know, Antonio Brown. You're rolling him out there. Mike, you know what I'm going to say.

[Mike Wright]

No, I don't.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going to talk to you about Martavis Bryant and his actual value through four weeks.

[Mike Wright]

We have one good game. Okay, we are. And that's the numbers of the numbers.

[Eric Dickerson]

Can I ask you a question about that? Good game. Did that good game come in his only game at home?

[Mike Wright]

It did.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yes, it did.

[Andy Holloway]

That's. That's really cool.

[Mike Wright]

The defense rests.

[Andy Holloway]

That's.

[Eric Dickerson]

That's the only. That's literally like the only argument you can go with is, yeah, he's praying for that home split.

[Mike Wright]

The home road splits are real for Big Ben. This is going to be a really tough matchup for Martavis Bryant.

[Andy Holloway]

Martavis Bryant or desean Jackson rest of season.

[Eric Dickerson]

Oh, man, I'm going D Jacks.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, D. Jacks. He also got a little bit nicked up towards the end of that game.

[Andy Holloway]

He did come back in on the last play, but he left the field with some ice on his forearm. I think he just got smacked in. He always gets.

[Mike Wright]

Well, he went, he got kind of that tackle where you can't brace yourself when you're going down. But Winston has looked. Yeah, he's looked rough. But so, oh man, I can't decide between the two.

[Andy Holloway]

But I think you have to.

[Mike Wright]

I lean to Sean Jackson.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Unfortunately. But this literally this one week, if he comes out for another home game and has success, then that trend just of that's what you expect from our Tavis Bryant to have success at home, kind of struggle there on the road.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it'll be very interesting to see if that Jaguars number one ranked past he holds up in Pittsburgh. Bortles, Fournette and then you talked about Hearns. You know, if Marquis Lee misses this game, are you willing to start Hearns at all? Because I mean the Steelers are the second ranked pass defense.

[Mike Wright]

I would still flex him just in but I wouldn't wide receiver one or two.

[Andy Holloway]

Fournette, you're locked and loaded.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Bortles, you're probably avoiding.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Especially on the road against that pass G. We're going to move on to the next matchup. Before we do, I want to thank one of my favorite sponsors of this show and that is Casper. And I have personal experience with the Casper mattress. Look, this is an obsessively engineered mattress, but what I like is that shockingly fair price. I've had this mattress for a couple of years now. They give you a 100 night free trial. So if you don't like it, they pick it up. Actually, if you don't love it, they pick it up and they refund you everything and make it easy. And I'll tell you, we love our Mattress. There's over 20,000 reviews. It's got a 4.8 star review. So if you are looking for a mattress, you really can't go wrong with the Casper mattress. I personally love it and essentially look, no risk. So here we go. You get 50 bucks off the Casper mattress. All you have to do is go to Casper.com mattress. Footballers use that offer code footballers and terms and conditions apply. But this is an absolutely great Mattress. I personally love it, my wife loves it. And I'm telling you, you're not going to regret it.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, and this one goes out to all the business owners and business leaders out there. Ask yourself if you've ever said any of these things, why is it taking accounting so long to close the books? How come I'm not getting sales information on a real time basis? We beat our revenue goal, but we lost money. What do you mean? We're getting audited. Things like that. Well, then it sounds like you've outgrown your business management software. QuickBooks and spreadsheets may have worked fine at the beginning, but there's just too many mistakes, too many delays and you can't get fast answers. So that's why we want to tell you about the number one business management solution for growing companies. That's NetSuite from Oracle. NetSuite lets you see what's going on with your business in real time. Revenues, expenses, customers, orders, even hr. You can run your business from a dashboard on your phone. With hands on help. You're up and running fast. That's why thousands of companies across America use NetSuite. It's 10 times larger than its nearest competitor. It is the last business system you'll ever need. So go to netsuite.com fantasy to get a free guide called Overcoming youg 5 Obstacles to Growth. That's NetSuite. To get your guide and find out how NetSuite can simplify your life, go to netsuite.com Fantasy all right, let's move.

[Andy Holloway]

On to the Seahawks and the Rams matchup. This game is in Los Angeles. The Rams are only one and a half point dogs in this one. They're three and one on the season. And I'm really excited for this game. I'm very excited to see how the Rams offense moves. I think it's going to be a close game. I think it's going to be a heck of a game. The Seahawks, you know, Chris Carson is out. He's out for the year. So now you're looking at trying to wade through the confusion that is the backfield in Seattle with McKissick and Lacey and Rawls. Lacey, Is Rawls going to be active?

[Mike Wright]

Good luck.

[Eric Dickerson]

Who's it going to be?

[Andy Holloway]

Because the reality is my money's on Lacey.

[Mike Wright]

That's it.

[Andy Holloway]

By a lot.

[Mike Wright]

I can't blame you. He's the one who got the call last week. Thomas Rawls was a healthy scratch and so Raw or Carson was above Rawls. But I mean, it's A mess. I mean, I think even Pete Carroll is just flip flopping every single week on who he wants to play and who he thinks should be the starter. So while we can you pick someone out of this backfield that you. You are leaning towards like, and he's leaning towards Lacey. Do you still have. Do you feel comfortable at all plugging him into a fantasy lineup?

[Eric Dickerson]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

The Rams. The Rams running defense is terrible.

[Eric Dickerson]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

So if I needed to flex somebody, I'd be fine flexing Lacy this week. I really would. I'm going to be waiting for the last possible news to figure out how this thing breaks down. But Lacy is the. Is the guy right now. That's my opinion.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Right now.

[Andy Holloway]

You paid him to be the guy. And if you need to flex a player. Look, I mean, you're making decisions all over the map this week with the bye weeks. You're missing players. I think Eddie Lacy is somebody. I'm fine starting.

[Eric Dickerson]

It's just as likely, I think maybe, you know, 51%, 49% that it comes out and Thomas Rawls is the guy completely. And Lacy's the backup. And whoever it is, I would agree with Andy. They should be a fine start. You can run on this son of bum Rams defense right now. They haven't been able to stop anyone. And so whoever it is should be son of run. I see what you did there, but it's the, you know, if you start, if you throw in that kind of desperate flyer high upside in Lacy or Rawls, you need to realize that either one of them could wind up with a zero point and the floor is zero points.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, and that's not.

[Andy Holloway]

That's Hunter Henry level.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Goose. To have a floor of zero points is. That's just not something I want to deal with right now. And I know it's. It's rough the bye weeks, but I would. I would be scrounging and desperately digging through the junkyard. If we just hoping that, like someone left a shiny penny on the ground, I could pick it up and throw it in my fancy lineup.

[Andy Holloway]

If we're calling Hunter Henry Goose, then Philip Rivers needs to be maverick. Isn't that perfect? Come on now.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's a maverick. You guys are dangerous.

[Eric Dickerson]

I love it.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Russell Wilson, you're rolling him out there. No doubt about it. He's in the top. He's in my top six this week. Doug Baldwin, do you have confidence in him in this matchup?

[Eric Dickerson]

I do. I think he's gotten over his health issue and he's A guy you have to start.

[Andy Holloway]

What do you do with the wide receivers on the Los Angeles side? Watkins Cup, Woods.

[Eric Dickerson]

I sit them.

[Andy Holloway]

All of them.

[Eric Dickerson]

I said all of them.

[Andy Holloway]

Because even though the rams have averaged 35.5 points a game, the best in the league.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah. Will get involved. But the problem is when you've got the combination of so much, you know, so many question marks when it comes to who's getting the targets, where's the market share going? And you combine that with a really tough defense in the Seattle Seahawks, you just can't accurately predict who it would be. The upside isn't there. I'm sitting everywhere if I can.

[Mike Wright]

Here's the problem. You go back two weeks, really high scoring game, 41 points put up by the Los Angeles Rams. Sammy Watkins goes ham 106 and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, Cooper cup in that game, two for 17. So you go, aha, aha. It's Sammy Watkins. You go to next week. The rams put up 35 points. Sammy Watkins has 1 for 17, and Cooper cup is 5 for 60 with a touchdown.

[Eric Dickerson]

Exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

You're just going to play Ty Gurley in all my positions, Running back, wide receiver. Is that fair?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Double the points.

[Mike Wright]

That's.

[Andy Holloway]

I got a water bet for you guys.

[Eric Dickerson]

Ooh.

[Andy Holloway]

You'll probably take it. I guarantee. I guarantee an Eddie Lacy touchdown in this game.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Either of you want it?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I will take it.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason, you went in on this. Double up.

[Eric Dickerson]

Let's do it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Waterbed.

[Andy Holloway]

That's. That's what I want to be. I want to be me and Eddie Lacy in a convertible heading down the freeway together.

[Mike Wright]

I am shocked at the.

[Eric Dickerson]

I can't wait at the. No team wait for the gold line down there. When they roll out Russell, they fake the handoff to Eddie Lacy and they roll him out on a bootleg and gives a nice.

[Andy Holloway]

No team. No team in the NFL have given up more rushing touchdowns than the Los Angeles Rams. So prepare yourself for Eddie Money.

[Mike Wright]

All right?

[Andy Holloway]

All right. The Ravens take.

[Mike Wright]

I hope, I hope I'm a wet person at the end of this.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Ravens, Raiders in Oakland, The Raiders are 2 1/2 point favorites with E.J. manuel under center. So let's approach this game that Mike is avoiding every single player. And we heard this yesterday on Pump the Break. So we already know Mike's thoughts, but there are fantasy owners in a pickle. And if you're inside of that pickle and you have to choose between Crabtree or Cooper to start in this game, both are healthy, both are active Both are playing. You are picking Crabtree. Me, too.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Now, granted, I have pumped the brakes. I want nothing to do with this game. But let's say these previous two situations where it's rough. I mean, you have the Seattle backfield. I'm trying to choose between Rawls and Lacy. For some reason, you have both of them. And I pity the fool who has both Rawls and Lacy on your bench. And I mentioned the Green Bay situation of not knowing who to start. I would rather play Marshawn lynch over one of those situations, even though I want nothing to do with this game.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, this is. I think this is a really important game for Marshawn Lynch. I almost went with the start of the week. I couldn't do it. That was too fire.

[Mike Wright]

You think Marshawn lynch cares?

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, he wants to.

[Andy Holloway]

Whether he's the start of the week.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yes. He's listening in, phoning in.

[Mike Wright]

Marshawn, you look a little down. I heard Jason thought about making me the start of the week, and then he didn't.

[Eric Dickerson]

I still love you, Marshawn.

[Mike Wright]

Here's what I'm saying. Even if, like, this is an important game for Marshawn lynch and he wants to win, he's a competitor, but he just. It doesn't seem like a guy who, like Marshawn, is really important that we. That we handle this. And you do it.

[Andy Holloway]

You're like, yeah, I don't really care.

[Mike Wright]

I think he don't really care.

[Eric Dickerson]

I don't. I don't get that vibe. I think he wants to win. He wants to. So here's the reality for the Raiders. The Raiders are in a slump, and they need this game. They need the win, and their starting quarterback is gone. So what they have to do is they. I mean, if I. If I'm the coach here, and especially when you look across the field at the Baltimore Ravens, who have this great passing defense, but this subpar rushing defense, it lines up to say, we need to put this game on. Marchand, we have been limiting his carries. He hasn't been that involved the last few weeks, but this is the game where we've got to just cram it down their necks. And I think if Oakland wins this game, it's going to be in part due to a good Marshawn lynch game.

[Andy Holloway]

It's a compelling narrative to me. I mean, the Ravens defense have allowed or have nine interceptions on the year, which is the most in the NFL. And E.J. manuel, you're going to be prone to that circumstance situation. And with how bad Baltimore's offense has been. You're trying to protect the ball. And that's why I would think even like a guy like Jalen Richard is a potential. He's in the same category as EJ McGuire is for me this week where I think Rashard will have work because the work hasn't been there in quantity for Lynch.

[Mike Wright]

So E.J. mcGuire.

[Andy Holloway]

What did I say?

[Mike Wright]

You said E.J. mcGuire.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I had E.J. manual. Elijah McGuire.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Or as we call him, McGuire.

[Eric Dickerson]

No, it just doesn't work.

[Andy Holloway]

Just doesn't.

[Eric Dickerson]

And that's what makes it work.

[Andy Holloway]

I felt it just on the other side. Elijah McGaugh. Alex Collins is the kind of surprise potential play here with the Raiders. 24th ranked run defense in fantasy. Otherwise, I mean, I, I'm not touching Macklin. I'm not touching Watson.

[Eric Dickerson]

Who would you start between Jeremy Macklin against a bad Oakland Raiders defense with his starting quarterback or Amari Cooper leading the witness. Great. Against a great defense without his starting quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

I am playing Jeremy Macklin in that situation.

[Eric Dickerson]

I would. No.

[Mike Wright]

What a world we live in.

[Andy Holloway]

Dirty, dirty cake. Dirty cake over EJ Emanuel.

[Mike Wright]

Favorite target, 8.2 yards per completion. Worse than the league. Yep. I'm a play that wide receiver over Amari Cooper.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Packers take on the Cowboys in Dallas. Two and a half point favorites the Cowboys are. And it's a 52 and a half point over under. We love Dak Prescott. We love Aaron Rodgers. We expect this game to be an exciting one. Both defenses have the ability to give up yardage and I think this is going to be. Yeah, yeah. They. They have the ability and the willingness to give it up. So we talked about the running back situation already in Green Bay. We talked about Zeke. We know he'll be on the field. So let's move to the wide receivers and let's talk about Des and his potential to break out in the first kind of, I would say easier cornerback matchup of the year for Des. He's near the lead league lead in targets. But the production has not been there that you'd expect from DEZ Bryant. Are you locked and loaded throwing them out there?

[Mike Wright]

Yes. And just, just look back. I mean it's really not that long ago that these two teams met in Dallas and DEZ Bryant had himself a fantastic evening.

[Andy Holloway]

Dinner, dancing.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I mean he. A movie.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And not just one. That's not just at the local cinema. He went down to the. The movie theater where they bring you the food.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

He had himself a nice time.

[Andy Holloway]

Dessert.

[Mike Wright]

I'm looking for Des Bryant to have his first real big game of the season. Two touchdowns would not shock me in this matchup.

[Andy Holloway]

Packers defense only allowing 16.8 points per game to opposing offenses.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I'm not buying into it though.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it's early and. And Dax been moving the ball.

[Mike Wright]

I mean, Dax, by the way, Dak is a top five fantasy quarterback right now. I don't know if I don't understand what that Dak doesn't get the fantasy respect that I think he deserves.

[Eric Dickerson]

He.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, you own him. He does, yes. If you don't own him, people don't look at him the same way they look at Breeze, Brady Rogers.

[Mike Wright]

That's Ryan talking about. Like, if for whatever reason you're trying to float Dak out there in a, in a trade, I think they're going to say, well, yeah, he's no Drew Brees.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And it's the same thing we saw with Russell Wilson though, or even Cam Newton in the beginning of his career. You just, it's just the longevity. You're just afraid of the. You have more time and experience with Drew Brees.

[Eric Dickerson]

Well, people who listen to this show, they don't have any more. They don't have any worries because we've, you know, Dak is for real. He's the only quarterback this year, despite such a tough schedule, who has been a weekly quarterback. One without my really.

[Mike Wright]

My point is I feel like the fantasy community undervalues him. If you could trade to get Dak Prescott. I don't usually trade to get a quarterback, but if you can buy him for below mark or I guess even market value because the market value is not set correctly, I would make that move. So I would just, just put a feeler out there if you're. If you don't like your quarterback situation, try and get Dak, but you're going to have to do it before this, this game on Sunday.

[Andy Holloway]

We talked about Randall Cobb yesterday started the week for Jason. Correct, Correct. And then devonte Adams. We don't know if will play.

[Eric Dickerson]

He plays. Do you start him if he plays? I absolutely start him because he's not, he's not coming off of a hurt knee or something like that. This was. He's in the concussion protocol. He's practicing. News came out today that he is still not from the concussion.

[Mike Wright]

He has to clear before the team gets on the plane, which. So you'll know soon, right?

[Eric Dickerson]

Doubtful.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. Sunday Night Football. The undefeated Kansas City Chiefs take on the Houston Texans. Chiefs are 1 point favorites in Houston for this game, 46 point over under a test for Deshaun Watson, a test for Alex Smith on the road against Houston. So this is a. I think this.

[Eric Dickerson]

Is my game of the week. Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

This is a game where I think there will be great fantasy value but you're not certain where it comes from because of the, you know, push comes to shove nature of this game. The Chiefs defense have allowed a completion percentage of 51%. That's the lowest in the NFL. What do we expect from DeSean Watson from this game? Does he have the kind of ceiling we saw last week?

[Eric Dickerson]

No, no, I don't think the ceiling that we've seen the last two weeks while he's been playing inferior, I think it's the Titans and the Patriots now that's his floor is pretty good because he's a rushing quarterback. He's going to get enough yards on the ground where even if he has an average to mediocre passing day, you'll be all right. In fantasy we see that with quarterbacks like Tyrod Taylor, but I think his ceiling is tremendously capped with the Chiefs in town than it then you know, it has been over the last two weeks so I don't think you can expect another top five quarterback performance.

[Mike Wright]

What about Alex Smith? You have shockingly Alex Smith is one of the top quarterbacks in fantasy. He's played a bottom 16 pass defense three times and that's where he is having himself good fantasy production.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

A feast as you would say.

[Andy Holloway]

29 points a game for the Chiefs so far third best in the league.

[Mike Wright]

His one game though against a tougher pass defense which the Houston certainly qualifies as he only put up 15 points. Are you willing to play Alex Smith on the road against the Texans?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, if I'm a Drew Brees owner, I'm willing to do that.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. If I'm a Kirk Cousins owner, I'm willing to do that. If I'm you know, Jack Prescott on her, I'm not doing that.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, these quarterbacks.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. By willing I mean like as part of the stream streaming options who are.

[Andy Holloway]

Generally I think we basically said he's an every week start earlier this week we lean that direction. This will be a test for him. But like I said, when you roll the Alex Smith die and it lands on Kareem Hunt or Tyree Kill or Travis Kelsey or he gives the rushing yardage he gave last week, you're in good shape.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah. Who would you take between these two guys?

[Andy Holloway]

I would take Smith, I think I.

[Eric Dickerson]

Would take Watson because of home road. I mean, right now we've seen Alex Smith, He's. He's come back to life rushing the ball this year, which was always a value to him. But if you look at where he's rushing, you know, when he's been in Arrowhead Stadium, he's had a game with 21 yards and a game with 56 yards rushing. But on the road, three yards and nine yards.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. If they, if they're, If Houston is smart enough to get DeAndre Hopkins, get him lined up facing against Terrence Mitchell. Because the, the Chiefs cornerbacks do not shadow. They're not going to have a problem getting the ball to Hopkins, the most targeted wide receiver in football. So I think I would go with Watson over Alex Smith.

[Eric Dickerson]

Okay, so you start Lamar Miller.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Eric Dickerson]

You don't start Deonta Foreman.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

You don't start Will Fuller.

[Eric Dickerson]

Correct.

[Mike Wright]

Even after the two touchdowns?

[Andy Holloway]

Nope.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I'm not going to do it.

[Mike Wright]

Just checking.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm excited for that game. That's a great game. Monday Night Football, the Vikings take on the Bears and Mitch Trubisky. The Vikings could have Case Keenum behind center. They could have Sam Bradford behind center.

[Mike Wright]

They could have me. Who knows?

[Eric Dickerson]

You're available, though?

[Mike Wright]

I'm on the emergency Rolodex.

[Eric Dickerson]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't.

[Eric Dickerson]

I hope they use a Rolodex.

[Mike Wright]

As I said it, I'm like, people does that.

[Andy Holloway]

What's a roll of dad?

[Mike Wright]

50% of our audience would.

[Eric Dickerson]

What?

[Mike Wright]

He just made up a word.

[Andy Holloway]

I. Yeah. All right. The Bears are winning this game.

[Eric Dickerson]

What?

[Andy Holloway]

That's my belief.

[Mike Wright]

No way.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes, I believe the Bears win this game. What?

[Eric Dickerson]

Oh, he's. He's putting the waterbed hammer down.

[Jason Moore]

Water.

[Mike Wright]

No way. No way. No way.

[Andy Holloway]

Bears win. Trubisky debut victory over the Vikings. Vikings are hurting guys. Dalvin Cook hurting other teams. Dalvin Cook is out.

[Mike Wright]

Not, not worried about.

[Andy Holloway]

They lost last week against Detroit, Mike, and they scored seven points, I believe. And Dalvin Cook's gone. Case Keenel's probably behind center. This game's in Chicago. Chicago has put up a fight in a couple of their matchups with Mike Glennon. Trubisky is going to take care of the ball. He's going to find a little bit more of the offense that we've been missing from Chicago.

[Mike Wright]

That's a lot of pressure on a rookie quarterback in his first game.

[Andy Holloway]

He's at home.

[Eric Dickerson]

Oh, man.

[Andy Holloway]

It's going to be a fun one.

[Mike Wright]

He doesn't know what it's like to play on the road.

[Eric Dickerson]

I feel like Judge Giamatti right now. I'm sitting here listening to this narrative on this extremely polarizing take of no way the Vikings can win and no way the Vikings can lose. And I think, Andy, I think you won me over with some of your arguments there. I'm not getting in on the waterbed.

[Andy Holloway]

Trubisky's getting out of the pocket in this one and he's going to be able to find some, some weapons.

[Mike Wright]

I know.

[Andy Holloway]

Low scoring game.

[Mike Wright]

People are very excited for Mitch Trubisky. Mitch Trubisky has only played against third string defenses in the preseason. He was not even the second quarterback being called into the game. I'm just saying that it's a. That's a lot of hope to put on a guy who in, even in college was the starter for one.

[Andy Holloway]

Again, it comes more. It doesn't come down to giving Mitch Hrabisky the greatest game of his career. It comes down to the fact that this has been a very competitive football team with Mike Glennon, who hasn't been able to move the ball through the air at all.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Therefore, I think it's a close game. I think it's a lower scoring game, and I think that the Bears can get it done.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, my. Where I have trouble with Chicago is. I mean, they're winning. Yes. Despite Mike Lennon, because the run game has been great overall for Chicago.

[Andy Holloway]

But the Vikings short down the run game.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly. And I know that the past defense has looked bad for Minnesota, but they have the players there who can shut things down.

[Eric Dickerson]

Last year, Minnesota's run defense was among the tops in the league. And there was a game where we called to shut down Jordan Howard against the Minnesota Vikings, if my memory serves me correctly. And he went full ham, eggs, cheese. He put a tomato on a bacon egg on it.

[Mike Wright]

Just putting a tomato on it would ruin the sandwich, Jason.

[Eric Dickerson]

But he went crazy is my point. He didn't care. I'm not, you know, I think that Jordan Howard has a good game here.

[Mike Wright]

You got the Vikings defense. They've hurried quarterbacks on nearly 12% of drop backs. That's fourth best. I mean, they can get to the quarterback digs.

[Andy Holloway]

Thielen Rudolph.

[Mike Wright]

I would, I still. This is a quarterback specific question because if it's Sammy biscuits, I'm firing everybody up. Even Kyle Rudolph, who's been disappointing. He's doing a lot more blocking lately, which limits, obviously limits his pass catching opportunities. But Diggs and Thielen, I'm still willing to play both of them. Even if it's. If. If it's case Keenum, Diggs is a must start. But yeah, Diggs is must start.

[Eric Dickerson]

You cannot and should not bench Diggs for any reason.

[Andy Holloway]

Murray, McKinnon, who do you start or do you start? Neither.

[Eric Dickerson]

I start Murray and I would probably start him in.

[Andy Holloway]

What do you make of last week where. Where McKinnon was? I mean, it was McKinnon's job after Dalvin Cook went down, but he fumbled. So do you think that translates through to this week where it's just Murray's job now? It just seemed like the depth chart. Jason's going like the depth chart shook out McKinnon's direction before the fumble.

[Eric Dickerson]

I think McKinnon was the.

[Andy Holloway]

Murray's banged up.

[Eric Dickerson]

I think you see this all the time where McKinnon was the number two, but he's going to stay the number two. That's the role that they want McKinnon to be in. He wasn't the number two because he's next man up and next in line. I think he was. He has his role. And now Latavius Murray is going to come into Dalvin Cook's role. That's more the way that I saw it happen. When Dalvin Cook went down, I don't think it was just because of the fumble. And that's what I'm projecting this this coming week. Obviously we haven't seen it yet. With a week of now, there's no Dalvin Cook. What is the game plan? We'll find out this week. So if you want to sit him, obviously there's no problem with that. Wait and see. But my projection is that Latavius Murray will be involved.

[Andy Holloway]

Confident starting Cohen.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I'll still play Cohen. The targets, I still believe that they will be there. Andy, you've said it's a low scoring game. So do you have any confidence starting these Chicago wide receivers?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I don't. I am encouraged for them. I'm excited for the potential of Kendall Wright being kind of a PPR guy, but I need to see that in future weeks before that leap is made on my side.

[Mike Wright]

Sure. And I will repeat it. I saw Trubisky connecting with Adam Shaheen a lot in the preseason. So whether that means it is Shaheen or it moves up to the first string tight end Zach Miller, he's watch. Watch what happens there and how the usage because it could be a huge boost for Zach Miller.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. Makes a lot of sense. That's it for the matchups. We're getting into the Daily Dose.

[Jason Moore]

The Daily Dose brought to you by Play Draft.

[Andy Holloway]

Dang it. We keep the fun of the draft going.

[Eric Dickerson]

I really liked last week having the number one pick getting me some Odell Beckham in the. In the expert draft. I'm at the three spot.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, welcome to the three spot. It's really cool. Now I am the first pick in our draft. Today we're doing a quarterback only draft, so we're each selecting five quarterbacks heading into week five facing off against each other, and the loser will have to eat something terrible. By the way, the loser was you, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it was me last week. Just due to scheduling conflicts, we were not able to pay that out this week. But it will be coming. Stay by the Twitter feed. You'll see my sadness.

[Andy Holloway]

My only objective is not to finish last, obviously.

[Eric Dickerson]

Mike, can I trade.

[Andy Holloway]

And I'm taking Aaron Rodgers with my first pick.

[Eric Dickerson]

Trade you phones.

[Mike Wright]

Which.

[Eric Dickerson]

And I'll. I'll make your pick for you.

[Mike Wright]

Which. Which quarterback were you hoping to get? Aaron Rodgers went first overall to Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

I took Aaron Rodgers. I'm gonna get the baseline.

[Eric Dickerson]

I want Russell Wilson, man.

[Mike Wright]

You do? Oh, well, you can have him.

[Eric Dickerson]

No, I wanted Dak Prescott.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, the guy I drafted. Number two.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Eric Dickerson]

All right, well, I'll take Russell Wilson.

[Mike Wright]

Not falling into your serpentine pit of.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, so I'm going to start with Russell Wilson. The rest of the quarterbacks here, I'm really not inspired by. I'm actually going to reach a little lower. Go with Eli Manning.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, I love that pick. That would have been my target.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he was my target there, too, so you surprised me with that one. I'm going to go ahead and move forward with.

[Mike Wright]

You're not on the clock, bro.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Good point.

[Mike Wright]

Wow. I mean, I have one quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

I never drafted one in all of.

[Mike Wright]

These weeks, and I'm already struggling as who to pick. Oh, I don't necessarily. I'm gonna bind the hope of Cam Newton.

[Eric Dickerson]

Ooh, bad idea.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I know it's not my favorite.

[Andy Holloway]

Idea, but I'm gonna go Matthew Stafford and Alex Smith. I feel like with Rogers and Smith and Stafford, I'm just setting a baseline here. I do not want any potential huge busts on my roster because I want to leave those to you guys.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, yeah, that's. That's actually a good idea. I'm gonna. I was gonna go with Jason Guy, but I think I'm gonna. I don't know if you guys are gonna like this pick or not, but I like it. I'm going with the beef brisket.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, Jacoby Brissette.

[Eric Dickerson]

Looks like an okay streamer.

[Mike Wright]

Gets to take on the Colts.

[Eric Dickerson]

All right, so, man, Ben Roethlisberger is who I really want to take.

[Mike Wright]

That's how I thought about taking, but I've already gone with Cam Newton. I don't want another one of these volatile guys. And so you can hear this foot clean. This is excruciating.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Excruciatingly fun. At the same time, I just have. My stomach is a knots.

[Eric Dickerson]

All right, I took Big Ben and now I agree with you. I need more of a safer option. So I'm actually going to go with a guy I have kind of been pumping the brakes on a little bit, Sean Watson. I just think the rushing floor, like I said, I don't think his ceiling is high, but his floor.

[Andy Holloway]

Now, Mike, I have two picks in my queue, and you can't take any of them.

[Mike Wright]

I can't?

[Andy Holloway]

No, because I got. I got to finish up with these two guys I really want this week.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, man.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't steal them.

[Mike Wright]

All right, I'm looking at a couple different names, including Philip Rivers, Deshaun Kaiser. Philip Rivers on the road scares me a little bit, but I'm going to take him anyways.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he was one of my two. I'm actually going to go with Brian Hoyer.

[Mike Wright]

That was my. I think that was my third option.

[Andy Holloway]

And then I have a final pick here that has been destroyed by you. So I need to take a little look.

[Mike Wright]

Don't you take the one guy I want.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm taking Josh McCown.

[Mike Wright]

Excellent. Because I'm going to take Carson Palmer.

[Andy Holloway]

That's fine.

[Mike Wright]

Against one of the worst secondaries in.

[Eric Dickerson]

Football, the Philadelphia Eagles. Well, I like everything, especially with Tyrod Taylor falling to me at the last pick.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, my team is Roger Stafford, Smith, Hoyer, McCown. So I'm going matchups with Hoyer McCown against Indian Cleveland. Mike has Prescott, as I call him now. This is the new nickname. Prescott Dak Prescott, Prescott, Newton, Brissette, Rivers, Palmer. And Jason has Wilson, Manning, Roethlisberger, Watson and Taylor. That was pretty fun. I want to see how that shakes.

[Mike Wright]

Out for Carson Palmer. I just want to bring this up because I dropped this stat on the. On our dfs DFS DFS podcast, which you can find where you just released today. Yeah, the Fantasy Footballers DFS podcast. Check it out if you're going to. If you're thinking about doing some FanDuel or DraftKings or draft this weekend, Carson Palmer is on pace to throw the ball 732 times.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah. That would be an NFL all time.

[Mike Wright]

Record for over 5,000 yards. So for all the people at. Carson Palmer is killing my fantasy team. He's on pace for 5,000 yards, but only 20 touchdowns.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And that's where the kicker is for fancy football. So it's. I was saying on the show, you're like the. That ratio of 5,000 and only 20 touchdowns. What they've. They've got to meet in the middle.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah. The yards are coming down.

[Mike Wright]

Ooh, I'm going. Touchdowns are going up. Probably both this weekend.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, that is it for today's show. Again, you can go to draft.comballers. that was the play draft segment of the show, the Daily Dose. And it's really cool because unlike other companies, we know the guys at draft. We use the product. We love talking draft strategy all in the offseason, so you get to keep doing that. And if you're a new player and you don't love playing on draft, there's a money back guarantee now. So if you don't enjoy the experience, they give you a money back guarantee of up to 100 bucks.

[Mike Wright]

So they care about their players.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And we've talked about it in weeks past where they've been willing to refund money for sudden injuries.

[Mike Wright]

Really bad beats.

[Andy Holloway]

Really bad beats. So draft.comballers, that's all you need to know. You grab the app, use that code ballers, and you can play with us each and every week. Get in on some bets like we do. Do a water bet with your friends and put your money where your mouth is. Or you know.

[Eric Dickerson]

Yeah, that works.

[Mike Wright]

Pay the price your mouth where your money is and do a food bet.

[Andy Holloway]

I thought you meant eat a wallet like you would put your.

[Mike Wright]

All right, I cannot recommend that.

[Andy Holloway]

No, we are done for today. I just want to say this. I mean, I'm. I'm about to head out of town.

[Eric Dickerson]

Get ready, people. Next week's gonna be crazy.

[Andy Holloway]

I've called. I have a. I did put a call in to. To the conservatory and they're bringing in Jay Gris.

[Mike Wright]

That's good.

[Andy Holloway]

And he will be taking my place.

[Mike Wright]

Also, Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

And my pay.

[Mike Wright]

No, I will not wear the shock collar that you have purchased.

[Andy Holloway]

Come on, Mike.

[Mike Wright]

I will not do it. And he thinks I got him.

[Eric Dickerson]

He'll wear this.

[Mike Wright]

I will control him from the road. There's no chains on me.

[Andy Holloway]

So good luck to. Really good luck to everyone out there. Good luck to you. Brooks.

[Mike Wright]

I was gonna about say good luck to me.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, Brooks, is really the one. Can you use that gavel more often this week? You may have to actually, like, order in the court. I mean, there's a reason to hit that gavel.

[Eric Dickerson]

Call order in the studio.

[Andy Holloway]

Order in the studio. And definitely hook the shock collar up if they need it. Okay. I'm tired of this madness. I don't know if I can handle five days. I'm not listening.

[Eric Dickerson]

I'm just gonna sic Jake Rizz on.

[Andy Holloway]

That's smart. Jay Grizz will be here. No doubt about that.

[Mike Wright]

Foot clan. Good luck with your games this weekend. We will see you on Monday for the best shoe of all time. Goodbye.

[Jason Moore]

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