Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 6 Matchups, News

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary
Episode: Starts of the Week, Week 6 Matchups, News
Release Date: October 13, 2016

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Introduction

In this engaging episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright dive deep into the intricacies of Week 6 in the NFL season. The trio provides listeners with valuable insights on player performances, matchup analyses, and strategic advice to optimize fantasy football lineups.

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News and Notes

The episode kicks off with a discussion on the latest NFL injuries and updates that could impact fantasy lineups:

• Jordan Reed's Concussion Concerns:
  Andy Holloway raises alarms about tight end Jordan Reed, who is being evaluated for his fourth concussion in the NFL, following two in college. Jason Moore emphasizes the importance of monitoring Reed closely, stating, “If he misses this week, I start to get scared that this might be multiple weeks” (04:31).

• James Starks and Eddie Lacy Updates:
  Mike Wright shares that James Starks is doubtful for Sunday's game due to a knee injury and personal circumstances. In contrast, Eddie Lacy is expected to play, having recovered from an ankle injury. Jason Moore advises dropping Starks from fantasy rosters, noting, “the combination is almost certainly not going to happen” (09:37).

• Other Player News:
  The hosts briefly touch on the status of other players like Theo Riddick, Latavius Murray, Sammy Coates, and Eric Ebron, providing updates on their availability and potential impact on fantasy teams.

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Starts of the Week

The hosts present their top player recommendations for Week 6, categorizing them by position:

• Quarterbacks:

  • Brian Hoyer (Jacksonville Jaguars): Andy highlights Brian Hoyer's impressive streak, stating, “Brian Hoyer taking on Jacksonville 300 plus yards for three straight games” (25:06).
  • Carson Palmer (Arizona Cardinals): Mike Wright favors Carson Palmer, citing Arizona’s defensive vulnerabilities: “The secondary of the Jets is horrifying. I expect Carson Palmer to be back and to be at full health” (46:20).
  • Tyrod Taylor (San Francisco 49ers): Jason Moore supports Taylor, predicting a strong performance against Buffalo: “Tyrod Taylor... has the legs and the touchdown opportunities on the ground” (47:05).

• Running Backs:

  • Jamal Charles (Oakland Raiders): Andy believes Charles is back in form and a must-start this week: “I think Jamal Charles is back... I'm going to give you Jamal Charles” (48:24).
  • Christian McCaffrey (Seattle Seahawks): Mike Wright praises McCaffrey’s consistency: “Christian McCaffrey is a legitimate running back” (50:16).
  • Ryan Matthews (Washington Redskins): Jason Moore advocates for Matthews, emphasizing Washington’s weak rush defense: “Ryan Matthews is a talented running back... start him” (51:09).

• Wide Receivers:

  • John Brown (Arizona Cardinals): Mike endorses Brown for his matchup against the Jets: “John Brown is back fully from that concussion problem... expect him around a hundred and a full touchdown” (52:16).
  • Cameron Meredith (Chicago Bears): Andy recommends Meredith as a flex play due to his improving performance: “Cameron Meredith... he can do something with” (53:09).
  • Jimmy Graham (New England Patriots): Jason supports Graham for his favorable matchup against Atlanta: “Jimmy Graham... has been able to do this before” (58:33).

• Tight Ends:

  • Delaney Walker (Cleveland Browns): Mike highlights Walker’s excellent matchup, noting Cleveland’s poor defense against tight ends: “They've given up over 500 yards to the position” (59:22).
  • Jimmy Graham (New England Patriots): Jason Moore praises Graham for his involvement and matchup: “Jimmy Graham is clearly involved... I think you can start him” (58:33).
  • Kobe Fleener (New Orleans Saints): Andy suggests Fleener might see more opportunities against Carolina’s weak defense: “Fleener is a great play... he can have them readjust this offense” (56:14).

• Fantasy Forecast:
  The hosts analyze key matchups, offering forecasts and betting insights:

  • 49ers vs. Bills:
    Jason predicts the Bills to cover their spread, emphasizing their strong defense: “I think they’re going to cover... take the over on their line” (19:16).
  • Jaguars vs. Bears:
    Andy and Jason discuss the potential low-scoring nature of this game but recommend strong starts like Brian Hoyer.
  • Rams vs. Lions:
    Mike supports Todd Gurley for his favorable matchup despite potential competition: “I think this is going to be his opportunity to keep the streak going” (31:10).
  • Steelers vs. Dolphins:
    The Steelers’ defense is lauded for their recent performance, with Jason recommending Drew Brees’s receivers against Miami’s weak pass defense: “I like Jimmy Graham” (36:11).
  • Bengals vs. Patriots:
    The Patriots’ strong pass defense makes this a challenging matchup, but AJ Green remains a solid start for Jason: “AJ Green is a very strong start” (38:58).
  • Panthers vs. Saints:
    High-scoring potential is noted with the Saints’ prolific passing offense, leading Jason to favor playing multiple Saints players: “I like Jimmy Graham... it’s a back and forth” (43:39).

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Strategic Insights

• Player Confidence and Performance Trends:
  The hosts emphasize the importance of tracking player trends and matchup specifics. For instance, Jamal Charles's return is seen as pivotal for fantasy success, while Alex Reed’s concussion history raises concerns about his reliability.

• Flex Position Decisions:
  The debate around starting between high-name players and those with better recent performance is explored. Andy discusses balancing past reputation with current form, highlighting the challenge of choosing between players like Alshon Jeffrey and Cameron Meredith based on recent production (28:04).

• Quarterback Evaluations:
  The discussion includes evaluating quarterbacks not typically in the spotlight, like Brian Hoyer and Tyrod Taylor, who present high fantasy potential due to favorable matchups and recent performances.

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Conclusion

Wrapping up the episode, the hosts encourage listeners to engage with their fantasy communities, utilize their rankings available on thefantasyfootballers.com, and participate in ongoing leagues. They also highlight upcoming segments like DFS (Daily Fantasy Sports) picks and tease future discussions on player performances and matchups.

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Notable Quotes:

• Jason Moore on Jordan Reed:
  “We need to remind people the reason for Rule 86... He had two concussions in college. Could be serious concern.” (04:45)

• Andy Holloway on Cameron Meredith:
  “Cameron Meredith... he can do something with.” (53:09)

• Mike Wright on Carson Palmer:
  “I expect Carson Palmer to be back and to be at full health and get to right the ship.” (46:20)

• Jason Moore on Tyrod Taylor:
  “Tyrod Taylor runs for 50, I'm not surprised at all.” (47:05)

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Timestamp Reference Legend:

• MM:SS

Note: For brevity, only key timestamps are included. The full podcast transcript provides a comprehensive view of the discussion.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, Foot Clan. Week six is here and our rankings are up on the website thefantasyfootballers.com youm can also head over to jointhefoot.com if you want to see our premium projections and our flex rankings. Let's get to the show.

[Jason Moore]

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from the fantasyjocks.com studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

[Andy Holloway]

The place to be is right here.

[Mike Wright]

Oh.

[Andy Holloway]

With the three of us on the Fantasy Footballers podcast, you know that.

[Mike Wright]

I did know that. And shout out right now for the YouTubers. YouTubers real quick. We are all wearing. We are team Jason today.

[Jason Moore]

Wow. This was not planned.

[Andy Holloway]

Now, we all wore the exact same double stuffed T shirt.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I will say this. It was a strategic choice by me as we got the. We got some shirts in the mail yesterday. I knew, knowing Jason, you knew he'd wear. I knew he would wear his own personal shirt.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

And I said, well, I'm gonna wear it.

[Andy Holloway]

You just play right into his narcissism.

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Jason Moore]

Hey, it's a double stuff. Double stuff.

[Mike Wright]

It's a triple.

[Andy Holloway]

Triple stuff. Double stuff.

[Jason Moore]

A triple double stuff.

[Andy Holloway]

Welcome to the podcast. We have a great one for you today. We have our starts of the week on the show. Our Week 6 matchups, we get those kicked off on the show today. We also have our news and notes. Catching up on some of this injury madness going on. Always interesting towards the beginning of the week. Guys, missing practice. Oh, did they miss practice in a bad way or a good way?

[Mike Wright]

Like, spoiler alert, everyone missed Wednesday's practice.

[Andy Holloway]

It seems that way. Certainly guys like AJ Green people see that red Q show up that questionable tag. Well, he seems like he's okay, but we'll get into that. What else do we got going on today? Got a good quick question.

[Mike Wright]

We got some articles going up on the site. Got our quarterback one primer. We'll get the matchups that we will talk about here. There'll be an article about that. And if you missed the starts of the week, which you shouldn't because you're listening to the podcast.

[Andy Holloway]

They're on there, too. They're on the website later today.

[Mike Wright]

Maybe you forgot what they are and you want to check it out.

[Andy Holloway]

Don't forget, you can find us on twitter @the ff ballers. Head over to the website, the fantasy footballers.com for all those articles and you can submit questions to the show on there and join our community, our fantasy football community [e-mail]. guys, quick question of the Day. Which teams running backs are averaging the lowest yards per carry? I think you already know the answer to this one, but we can talk about it again. What teams? Running back. So I guess what team. What team. It was worded this way, but I mean, really, it's. What team is averaging the lowest yards per carry on the season?

[Mike Wright]

I have a couple guesses. I don't know 100%, but I have a couple guesses.

[Jason Moore]

I'm the exact same. The teams that come to mind are the Vikings, the Rams, and the Jags. Those. Those three teams.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, really? What comes to mind for me are the Jags, the Giants and the Lions.

[Andy Holloway]

It's the Vikings.

[Mike Wright]

It's still the Vikings.

[Andy Holloway]

It's still the Vikings. They're still averaging 2.6 yards per carry.

[Jason Moore]

You know, the reason that people don't think they're still doing poor is because they've started scoring touchdowns.

[Andy Holloway]

They're a winning team. They're a dominating team.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Five and, oh, five and.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, they look great. Their defense is amazing. And the running backs are not killing you in fantasy. Asiata and McKinnon.

[Mike Wright]

McKinnon had a good game two weeks ago. Right. And Asiata had a good game last week.

[Jason Moore]

Just shows you how bad Adrian Peterson was.

[Mike Wright]

He buried him.

[Andy Holloway]

How bad? Yeah. You know, Asiata is a weird guy because. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

You're a weird guy, ace.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know what to do with him. I mean, sitting there on waivers in our league. I mean, this is a five and O team with, you know, a platoon at running back. I feel like I'd rather grab Asiata than a flyer on a four set or somebody.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, the thing with Oziata is, you know, I feel like he's not all that different than a Jeremy Hill type. You plug him in, you hope for the touchdown, and if you get it, you're happy. And if not, he's going to crap your team.

[Andy Holloway]

And the last two times he's got it. Last two games, he's got it. That's the guy that they go to for that.

[Jason Moore]

I wouldn't start him this week.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no. On by smart.

[Jason Moore]

News and notes from around the league.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Jordan Reed being evaluated for a concussion. He had two of them in college. He has four now in the NFL.

[Mike Wright]

This is bad news.

[Andy Holloway]

Six years, six concussions. Uh oh.

[Jason Moore]

We need to remind people the reason for Rule 86. The reason for Rule 86, which is when Jordan Reed is playing, you start him, is not because Jordan Reed is so good. It was a part of it well, sure, that's half of it. But the reason it came up is because Jordan Reed was very often not playing football because his injury history was robust and he had a hard time coming back from injuries. They tended to last longer. And now this being his fourth concussion in the NFL. He had two concussions in college. Could be serious concern. You got to watch the protocol. But if he misses this week, I start to get scared that this might be multiple weeks. What about, what about you guys?

[Mike Wright]

I think he's going to miss. I think he'll miss this week. I have Jordan Reed in a couple locations. I have already executed a backup plan.

[Andy Holloway]

A couple locations as in teams?

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Okay, I've got him for Washington. I've also got him for the Eagles field.

[Mike Wright]

But I'm grabbing somebody that I intend to start this week.

[Jason Moore]

Who'd you grab for the listeners, I grabbed Charles Clay.

[Andy Holloway]

I love the Charles Clay.

[Jason Moore]

I love it.

[Andy Holloway]

Ever since Watkins went down, the targets have been, I mean, Clay's had, I think, back to back weeks with five catches.

[Jason Moore]

I believe back to back to back. I'll bet that.

[Andy Holloway]

I believe you're wrong.

[Mike Wright]

I know it's at least two.

[Andy Holloway]

It's two. Robert woods and Charles Claire, the pass catchers, they're outside of Lashawn McCoy. I mean, that's and claves an athletic guy. Clay's the kind of guy who can make a big play, can be a guy in the seam that Tyra Taylor finds for one big play and it changes your week.

[Jason Moore]

So Charles Clay is back to back to back. He missed a game, right? Was he. Was he out for Arizona?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I believe he missed something.

[Jason Moore]

If he missed that game, then it's three in a row.

[Andy Holloway]

If he missed that game, it is not three in a row because he did not play that game.

[Jason Moore]

He's just active. I'm saying in week two, he was five. Week four and five, that's fine.

[Mike Wright]

I don't remember if he had missed. That's how much we lost.

[Andy Holloway]

Cam Newton's Clay. Cam Newton returned to practice on track to start on Sunday. I love Cameron Newton this week because he plays New Orleans, their collegiate defense. I'm a big fan of that. I think this is a week for. For Cam and for Jonathan Stewart and for this team to get on track. I'm going to buy into that narrative. I believe it.

[Jason Moore]

I do.

[Mike Wright]

You're going to buy into the numbers?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, look, he's the number one guy for me and Jason this week. So Cam Newton back at practice. A.J. green was back at practice today as well, Jamal Charles practicing fully, says the training wheels are coming off.

[Mike Wright]

This is a tough one. I, I know what my Twitter is going to say this week. It is going to be 75% people saying, do I start Jamal Charles?

[Jason Moore]

And you will get very different.

[Mike Wright]

You will get different answers from the three of us. I am playing, I think I'm in the middle. I'm the, the Mama Bear here.

[Jason Moore]

You have him 18, right?

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So I have him as a, as a middle round or mid tier running back to this week. But what's nice is the matchup is good. Jamal Charles seems to have full confidence that he's ready to go. But I don't know if you're in a situation. Let's say you have Jamal Charles. You probably have somebody else who can start for you. If that's the case, I would start that other player. If you have just been scratching and scraping by with running back garbage, then plug him into your lineup.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Mike Wright]

That's my official stance.

[Andy Holloway]

I have them rated. I'll talk about it more later. Let's put it that way. Yeah. Dolphins expect Arian Foster to play on Sunday. What do you guys expect from Arian Foster? I actually have him ranked. Ranked around 24 this week, which seems.

[Mike Wright]

That's fine with me.

[Andy Holloway]

Not bad.

[Jason Moore]

Did you say that? Were you going to say that seems high?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know. I thought you'd think it was high.

[Jason Moore]

You know, I figured you thought I.

[Andy Holloway]

Would think that you thought that I thought that you thought I thought that.

[Jason Moore]

You thought that I would think that. But the reality is, for me, I have Arian Foster rated the highest of the three of us. I have him at 15. So high end RB2 for this upcoming week. I think that what we've seen from the Dolphins is they have some serious offensive woes while Arian Foster has been gone. They haven't been able to get it together. Aaron Foster was used well in the passing game. I expect they're going to need the passing game going this week against Pittsburgh if, if the Steelers come in and start the boat race. And so I think Arian Foster will have enough usage through the air to be a reliable start this week.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's talk about Eddie Lacy. This morning it was reported that his ankle is quote, good. So I expect Eddie Lacy to play. I statted him this week. James Starks is missing practice all week due to a death in the family and he won't be back until Saturday. He still has a knee injury. He still has a knee injury, so I would say that Starks is pretty darn doubtful. For Sunday, it was. You're going to miss the whole week of practice.

[Mike Wright]

It was very bizarre. Yesterday, the blurb came out that said Eddie Lacy far more likely to play than James Starks.

[Jason Moore]

What?

[Mike Wright]

What is. Yeah, I saw Eddie Lacy get hurt and James Starks finished the game.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, that was very weird. I'm sure on waivers, a lot of people picked up Starks for the hope that Eddie Lacy would miss and Starks would be the guy with just the news. As it is now, I mean, you would need just James Starks to be the starter and have Eddie Lacy miss the game in order to start Starks. Yes. So I would say at this point, you can drop Starks and look for another option on waivers, because that combination is almost certainly not going to happen.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The only other running back they have on the roster is a practice squad guy, so it's. It's those two and nobody else.

[Mike Wright]

And Lacey's looked good. Yeah, he's eating up.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well, Theo, he's eating up.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, come on. Sorry.

[Andy Holloway]

Theo Riddick didn't practice on Wednesday with an ankle injury. What are you guys hearing about Theo? Are you worried?

[Jason Moore]

Not at all.

[Mike Wright]

It's Wednesday.

[Andy Holloway]

Latavius Murray didn't practice on Wednesday. He also didn't play last week. Do you expect him to be back this Sunday?

[Mike Wright]

I expect him back, yes.

[Jason Moore]

I don't. I statted him out. I'll change it later.

[Andy Holloway]

So we'll find out later in the week. Sammy Coates didn't practice with the laceration on his hand. That is the reason for the big bandage. Slash, cast, whatever. Want to. Whatever people want to say about it.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Would have been nice if they said a big bandage.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. Seriously. I heard the, you know, he was walking around with his big cast. I'm like, what did he break? And then. Oh, it's a. It's a cut.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, it's on.

[Mike Wright]

Well, it's a good cut. I've heard you're talking multiple stitches so that he sliced it up, but as far as Sunday, he's going to play.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Mike Wright]

I feel confident.

[Andy Holloway]

Eric Ebron didn't practice on Wednesday. I don't think he's going to play.

[Jason Moore]

No, it's looking less and less likely. The original reports were that he might miss a couple of weeks he missed last week. So continue with that report.

[Andy Holloway]

Virgil Green is going to play tonight. Lot of hype early in the off season. Along with another guy, Latavius Green. Latavius Green. I'm sorry, what did I say Latavius. You say a name sometimes and it's wrong. And you know it's wrong, but you can't stop.

[Jason Moore]

I do that all.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

That was very Jason Ladarius and Virgil Green.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

Not brothers.

[Mike Wright]

Nope.

[Andy Holloway]

But brothers in the position. Who would you rather have rest of the season? Because I think I would take a flyer on Mr. Ladarius because they're saying he's going to play in Week 7. He's just a better player than Jesse James.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I would certainly rather have Ladarius Green rest of season. Virgil Green was never brought in to be their pass catching tight end. He has been an excellent run blocker. Ladarius, on the other hand, was signed immediately for a big contract. When the news was coming out to that team that Martavis was being suspended, they wanted him to come in and be an offensive weapon. We've seen Jesse James as a successful fantasy tight end. He's got three touchdowns on the season. So, you know, they want to use that position. And the truth is Green is a far better pass catching, big, strong, athletic guy over Jesse James. So, yeah, I think Green is worth a stash right now.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so we've got the, we got the fantasy forecast coming up in the starts of the week and like I said, I'm going to talk a little bit about Jamal Charles later on. I agree he's a huge question mark because I've, I, you know, there are decisions you make in fantasy football every year and people who make, make them and they get them right. It can define and change your own season. If you can go buy Jamal Charles and he's going to be Jamal Charles, you might win your season because you're going to trade less than what you know you'd pay for a premium running back right now. So I'm looking forward to talking about that. We just had our another draft yesterday. We certainly did because we do this every week now. I want to get an actual vote on Twitter for this because.

[Jason Moore]

Not fair.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, because you're.

[Jason Moore]

You guys.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

It's not fair to you guys. I clearly got the best team every.

[Andy Holloway]

Single week we play. Draft. Now, draft is a, it's an app for your phone. You can, you can download it. It's free. And what's nice is, you know, we spend months talking about the draft season. I mean, literally months talking about drafting. Everybody loves the draft.

[Mike Wright]

I have the best night of the year.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So what's nice is we get to every week have another draft against each other. We do a league where it's like 1v1v1. So me versus Mike versus Jason and you draft five players and it's kind of a quick hitting draft inside the app. And so I, we drafted ours yesterday like we normally do. For this Sunday, I want to vote, I want to know who thinks, you know, who the listeners think has the best team. Here's my team. Cam Newton, Shady McCoy, David Johnson, AJ Green, Amari Cooper for this one.

[Jason Moore]

All right, let me tell him the winning team. Okay. The winning team is Drew Brees at home with Le'Veon Bell. DeMarco Murray with his juicy matchup. I love it. Kelvin Benjamin. I did that because you have Cam and so I'm playing against you when he throws all his touchdowns. Cam, he's throwing them to me.

[Andy Holloway]

He's. Cam's throwing them to Cam. That's good, Good insight.

[Jason Moore]

Kelvin. And then Odell Beckham because I still.

[Mike Wright]

Believe those teams are fine.

[Andy Holloway]

That's his dad though, right?

[Mike Wright]

Those teams are fine. But the winning senior, look, my team, I'm going with the Carson Palmer, John Brown stack. I'm going with lamar Miller and C.J. anderson. I have some bold proclamations for Lamar Miller coming up a little bit later. And of course, Antonio Brown, the best was fantasy wide receiver in the game.

[Andy Holloway]

I can see a strong narrative for either. For any of these teams. I will admit seeing Love Bell and DeMarco Murray on Jason's roster does not make.

[Mike Wright]

I'm not happy about it.

[Andy Holloway]

Does not make me happy. But I don't know. I think Cam, I think Cam can come out, blow it up. So we'll see who wins this week. I assume that we're water betting again.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what's fun about winner take all.

[Jason Moore]

Like the draft versus, you know, say salary cap is like I drafted Kelvin Benjamin because you had camp. You know, there's that, that draft strategy that's enjoyable preseason.

[Andy Holloway]

So, yeah, so we, yeah. So if you, if you're playing with us, it's been fun so far this year. If not, just grab the app. It's completely free. Put in ballers when you sign up though, because it'll auto add you to our leagues with us and all the other listeners. So it's kind of nice we had them build that in for us. So it's nice and easy. Grab the draft. We said, hey, draft, that's iOS and Android. Chop, chop. So.

[Mike Wright]

Or hook it up.

[Andy Holloway]

Play draft.com playdraft.com ballers.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. So, all right, we're going to talk fantasy forecast now. Sound Good.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Get into these gang fantasy forecast.

[Mike Wright]

Before we get into the forecast, just a quick bi week reminder. Minnesota and Tampa Bay are not playing this week. Next week. Carolina and Dallas aren't by and then week eight and week nine. Prepare your body. The bipocalypse is coming because it is happening. Week 8, Baltimore, the Rams, Dolphins, Giants, Steelers, San Francisco are up by Week 9. Cardinals, Bears, Bengals, Texans, Patriots, Washington.

[Jason Moore]

Week 9 has been the the week in all my teams. It just so happens that the guys I drafted, I looked at my team two weeks ago and I had two. Two of my starting guys were available for me to play in week nine.

[Mike Wright]

So that's.

[Andy Holloway]

The NFL has ever just thought about the fact that like you just take one week off in the middle of the year for all the teams you know, you play eight.

[Mike Wright]

No way would they do that.

[Andy Holloway]

You play eight, you take a week off. You more.

[Mike Wright]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

What if they could get an extra game in the regular season that way?

[Mike Wright]

Maybe.

[Jason Moore]

I don't know.

[Andy Holloway]

Because there is an aspect of like.

[Mike Wright]

Can'T take a week off.

[Andy Holloway]

There's an aspect of fairness though, as to when teams get to take their week.

[Jason Moore]

I agree with you. I think the current buy system is just stupid. Like why. Why do you have some teams getting a bye week in week 13, which is ridiculous, and some in week four?

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I mean. And they've rumored like if they were to add a game or two of the regular season. They've talked about two buys.

[Mike Wright]

Yes. So that makes sense. But just saying, I've had a lot of people, you know, hey, I'm going to trade away my depth for this player and that's. It's good if you had upgrade your starting roster, but make sure you're looking at week eight and week nine, that you can actually fill a starting lineup.

[Andy Holloway]

If you had two buys, you'd start to have to think about that a lot for your teams, like if that ever came to fruition. So any quick updates for tonight's game before we get into the rest of the matchups? We talked about the Cardinals. I'm sorry, not the Cardinals. We talked about the Chargers and Denver on yesterday's show.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, we mentioned Virgil Green will play tonight and all accounts have Trevor Simeon playing tonight.

[Jason Moore]

No, no, no. Huge news. I do think Emmanuel Sanders has a very good game. His home road splits for touchdowns are incredibly different. So I think he's got a good chance getting in the end zone tonight.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's move on. The 49ers travel to Buffalo to take on the Bills, Colin Kaepernick is back behind center for San Francisco. Carlo has been very consistent for fantasy owners this year because he just has such a workload and he's been good. He gets into the end zone. They do enough on offense, but I think you can kind of throw an aspect of what you've seen from San Francisco into the wind now because, you know, Jeremy Curley, much talked about number one receiver, is he still with Colin Kaepernick? Do they run read option with Colin Kaepernick and let him take off with the ball? Does that help Carlos Height? You know, these are the questions that are coming to mind for me. The Bills are right now, their defense is on fire. You know, they're 13th against the run, 17th against the past on the year. But they've won three straight or. Right. Three straight games, including a shutout. In that. In that mix, they're at home.

[Mike Wright]

The 49ers have to go completely across the country, right?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. I mean, Buffalo's at home on a winning streak. Great defense. I know a couple of us have. Buffalo is the highest ranked defense this week.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, yeah. I mean, it's been a while since the Bills have been favored by eight points and, you know, I think they're going to cover. I think I would take the over on their line.

[Mike Wright]

Very interesting that I get a lot of the questions of Colin Kaepernick. Is he an upgrade, a downgrade for Carlos Hyde? What do you guys think?

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think he's a downgrade. I don't necessarily think he's an upgrade, though, either. I think, you know, you have to take the pressure off of Kaepernick. If he struggles, I think Hyde's going to get the ball. It's not like Gabbert. I mean, Gabbert was putting up pretty terrible numbers. I mean, I don't think it's a downgrade, but I also think that there are certain things that happen and you. We can talk all about all the potential, but what's the actionable fantasy football reality here? You're not benching Carlos Hyde. You're not changing what you're doing with Hyde, and you're not playing anybody else on that team.

[Jason Moore]

I was going to say, I think the actionable thing is the question of do I stay in the flames with Jeremy Curley? The answer right now should be no. He might be great, but he could be completely unused because there's a new quarterback. So on the other side of the ball, we talked about Charles Clay. I think he's a great, great play this week could have been my start of the week this week. The San Francisco 49ers are atrocious against tight end. That's good for Tyrod Taylor in this game. I think LaShawn McCoy is going to.

[Mike Wright]

He'S going to eat, he's going to full honey baked ham.

[Jason Moore]

He's going to swim upstream like the slippery fish he is and yeah, go right through the 49ers. So for me, I even like Robert woods in this game. I'm starting Bills in this game. I'm, I'm only starting Carlos.

[Mike Wright]

I will, I will say this for Jeremy Curley. I don't have the confidence to start him this week, but the way I've seen Colin Kaepernick play quarterback in the past, assuming he keeps the job, he makes one read.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

If Jeremy Curley is the first read on the, the predominant amount of the time that Jeremy Curley is still going to be great for PPR and flex.

[Andy Holloway]

I want to see though if that's going to be Vance McDonald or Garrett Selleck. Here's all you do know and it's a sad truth. Tori Smith isn't going to catch a lot of passes. That's what you've learned from his time in San Francisco. So do you guys have other thoughts on, on this game?

[Mike Wright]

Nope.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, before we grab, we're going to jump into Jaguars Bears. I do want to thank today's sponsor, SeatGeek. Look, it is the literal first place we go for tickets for a game or for a concert. This past week, Brooks, our production coordinator, grabbed some Red wing tickets on SeatGeek. It was his first time using the app. They give you 20 bucks back if you use it your first time.

[Jason Moore]

We used it last night.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I was going to say yesterday promo code.

[Mike Wright]

You got to put your promo code in footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

Right? Right. So but yesterday Mike and I said, hey, let's go to the Monday night game. Yeah. And then like two minutes later we had awesome tickets at a great price on SeatGeek. And so that's no lie. That's, that's the first place that we go to look for tickets. We've got it on the phone. We, we use it all of the time and tons of our listeners have, have used it and loved it as well because they make it so easy. So to get your $20 rebate, like we said before on tickets, go to go to your app store, Download the free SeatGeek app, go to the Settings tab, click the add a promo code that's what you got to do. And then you put the promo code in footballers and they'll send you $20 back. So for instance, yesterday I think we can just you know, say we bought some what middle upper deck tickets. Yeah, 49 bucks a piece.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

To see the Cardinals and the jets on Monday Night Football. And Mike's gonna get $20 back because he hadn't used it on his phone or on your account. I always buy him through the company. This time you used your own account and get. You're going to get 20 bucks back on that. So download the free SeatGeek app, enter the promo code footballers today and let's talk about Jaguars and the Bears.

[Mike Wright]

Let's do it.

[Andy Holloway]

Do we expect this to be a game that now the Bears last week was the first week I think they gave up 300 yards to Andrew Luck. It was kind of a high flying high yardage total type of game. The over under Vegas has for this one this week is 47 but it's in Chicago. Do the Bears keep bortles under 300?

[Jason Moore]

Hmm.

[Mike Wright]

I think that they do. I would agree actually. The. I mean I know you have Jacksonville coming off of the bi week but.

[Andy Holloway]

You have confidence in my friend Gus Bradley after a week of extra preparation.

[Mike Wright]

I don't, I don't know if that. I don't know if he's taking a week of preparation. I think he might just be taking a week off.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, well he's going to have a lot more weeks off if he doesn't start winning ballgame.

[Jason Moore]

This is a really interesting game because you have Vegas with a pretty high line in this game. 47 points total is what they're expecting to be scored as the over under and but you have two teams here in the Bears and the Jaguars that have have both given up so few yards through the air that it's really surprising. Last week coming in we talked about the Bears hadn't given up 250 through through the air so far on the season. Well, neither have the Jags. Yeah, that kind of blows me away. But two bottom dwelling teams when they play each other it's not too uncommon for them to kind of just go back and forth scoring. So this is a game hard to read. You certainly have plenty of options. Right.

[Mike Wright]

I'm saying despite the Jaguars they're not allowing a bunch of yards. They are allowing a lot of passing touchdowns. So I still have confidence to roll out Hoyer. He was Jason's stream of the week. I like him.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, Hoyer is my start of the Week, I'll just tell you that. Right?

[Mike Wright]

Whoa, spoiler.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Because look, we're talking about this game. Hoyer's got three straight weeks of 300 yards and two touchdowns and he's doing it without turning the ball over. One turnover in three games on a fumble. No interceptions. The question I have for you guys is what do people do with Alshon Jeffrey, Eddie Royal and Cam Meredith? Because Meredith last week came out, had his first full time gig, so to speak, opposite of, of Alshon. We looked at the numbers on Alshon in the three weeks that Hoyer was quarterback. I believe he was third, third and fourth in targets on the team. This is a guy in Hoyer that takes the sure thing over the deep bomb. And look, I was, I guess I.

[Mike Wright]

Was on the last play of the.

[Andy Holloway]

Game though, I guess I was wrong. Well, fourth down, I mean fourth down, you have to try to get the first down. I was wrong. There were plenty of Bears fans that came back to me and said, hey, we don't want Cutler anywhere around. Cutler threw to Jeffrey so much because he always took the deep shot. He didn't take, you know, what is the expression, you know, you have to land a few punches before the haymaker, so to speak.

[Mike Wright]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

So their mentality was, hey, we want Hoyer back there. What do you guys talk to me about? The Bears wide receiver corp. What is Cam Meredith rest of season? What is Eddie Royal? What is Alshon Jeffrey? Because Meredith nine for 130 last week.

[Mike Wright]

I'm throwing out. I'm going to toss it to Jason, but I want my bold prediction out here. Alshon Jeffrey is going to score this.

[Jason Moore]

Week and I will take your bold.

[Andy Holloway]

That didn't used to be so bold.

[Jason Moore]

I will take your bold prediction and I will say he probably won't. The reason is because Jalen Ramsey has been legitimate, the rookie cornerback. I expect he will be the guy on Alshon Jeffrey. The fact that you have Brian Hoyer, who has been looking at Alshon Jeffrey as a third or fourth read, as far as total targets, he's been third or fourth and then you've got a good cover corner on him. I think that for this game says that Cam Meredith and Eddie Royal have have more value. I think Cam Meredith is actually a pretty good play this week with because of those things considered. Alshon's still amazing and he should get the ball more. But I think this is going to be a difficult game to do it. So the other weapons will be there and the main weapon, if we're talking Bears, the Weapon that has changed this team and helped their offense entirely is Jordan Howard. And Jordan Howard right now is a must start in any matchup, good, bad or otherwise. And the Jaguars run defense does not scare me.

[Mike Wright]

I completely agree with that. And for Zach Miller, he's an okay start, but I'm not expecting much. The Jaguars are actually pretty solid against the tight ends, especially when it comes to fantasy scoring.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's a crazy stat for you. The Bears have only run the ball in 32% of plays, which is 30th out of 32 teams in the league. The league average is right under 40%. So Howard is doing a lot with with these carries over the last couple weeks. Two plus 100 yard games. Let me ask you start sit Ivory Yelden and Hearns on the other side of the ball because we know you're rolling Robinson out. But do you start sit Ivory, Yelden or Hearns?

[Jason Moore]

I sit, sit, sit Ivory, Yelden and Hearns personally. And that's mostly true. However, and I know in our listener league, I'm actually having to start Christopher Ivory this week and I'm not, I'm not proud of it. But bye weeks and injuries have forced the issue.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm not proud of it. Yeah. Let me ask you guys a philosophical thought fantasy football question because I see it here with Jeffrey and Meredith. I've seen it earlier this year with Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper. How do you mentally overcome or should you the name versus production battle. You know, Crabtree more product other than last game, more productive. Harder. Like if I have them both on my team, I find it almost impossible to not put Cooper out there every week. You know, when I see Jeffrey and Meredith, let's say Meredith comes out with eight catches this week, Jeffrey has four again and Meredith is coming off that nine for one. 30 and one do. How do you overcome that?

[Jason Moore]

Right. Why do you. Why would you keep starting Alshon over here? Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Why would like if you had them both, why wouldn't you start Cameron Meredith?

[Mike Wright]

It's certainly going to take this week. This week it's an easy choice for me. It's still Alshon. I've only seen Cameron Meredith once now. It was very, very impressive second year guy.

[Andy Holloway]

So you're not talking about like a. Has been at least.

[Mike Wright]

Right. But I'm just saying I don't have the. I don't have the confidence to start him over Alshon Jeffrey this week.

[Jason Moore]

No.

[Mike Wright]

If he blows it up again and Alshon is once again third or fourth in the pecking order, then that's a, that's a trend. That's enough for me to move forward with a different option than Alshon.

[Jason Moore]

And what's been good with Alshon so that we're not just throwing cold water is that, you know, maybe he's only getting four receptions in a game, but usually it seems like 85 yards. Exactly. So he, he has been okay for fantasy. Certainly not where you drafted him, but he's not completely destroying your team.

[Andy Holloway]

That's a tough thing, though, right, to. To make the transition with the name versus the production. And when do you do that? During the year. It's. It's a tough thing for me, especially if a guy has put up monster seasons before, like a Lacy. Right. Like you got Lacy on your team. And if he struggles playing a guy that's, I don't know, Asiata or something, you know, that's probably a bad example, but. So another middle middling guy. All right, let's move on. Rams Lions, 43 and a half point over under. That's low. And then you've got the, the Lions favored in this one. I do not have high hopes for Stafford. He is very low on my quarterback rankings this week. Nor do I have much hope for anybody outside of, like, you know, Marvin Jones and Theo Riddick on the, on the offensive side of the ball.

[Mike Wright]

Yep, I completely agree with that. This is a game, though, that I'm. I have confidence starting Gurley. I think this is what will be interesting here is the reports are Benny Cunningham is coming back. Now. Everything transformed for, for Todd Gurley's fantasy purposes over the last couple weeks. Because Benny Cunningham was out, Todd Gurley is getting. Is it five targets or five receptions a game? I believe, I believe it's five targets a game.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, I believe that is correct.

[Mike Wright]

I'll bet before that, when Benny Cunningham plays with him, he gets two targets a game. He doesn't even get third down work. Now, will Jeff Fisher make the change and say, hey, my offense is better if I let the best player on my team stay out there, or will he revert? Allah. A what seems like a normal Jeff Fisher move. Say, okay, Benny Cunningham, you're back. You're my. Now you're back in. On third down 75% of the time.

[Andy Holloway]

My money is on Gurley receiving targets the rest of the season. He does more with them. Benny Cunningham was not getting them.

[Mike Wright]

Benny Cunningham's not getting them. He was on the field. He's still getting the third down word.

[Andy Holloway]

I realize that, but I'm just saying, I think you've seen something with that offense that they're going to have to make that adjustment, man, I hope they do.

[Jason Moore]

And honestly, I think all three of us, not, not from fantasy. Okay. Take fantasy out of it and production and a desire for Todd Gurley to do good. When we watch it as just football analysts, their offense is clearly better with Todd Gurley out there on third down. The reason he has more receptions than Benny Cunningham did when he was out there is because he's a better weapon, clearly. Obviously. I just have so little faith that Jeff Fisher.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I do too.

[Jason Moore]

Will actually make that move. I mean, he hit the field goal down seven on the goal line.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you guys see that? The meme of Jeff Fisher and the line graph. The line graph where it's like flowchart.

[Mike Wright]

It's a flowchart.

[Andy Holloway]

It's like what do you do if you're Jeff Fisher? If you are above 500 it draws lose a game. If you're below 500, win a game. 500. Do nothing. You know, it's like. It's funny. People won't like that. If you're an LA Rams fan.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, they're leading the division. We got nothing we can say about it.

[Mike Wright]

Yep.

[Jason Moore]

That's.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Jason Moore]

Wait a couple weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

Famous last words. Who do you think wins that game? By the way, I'm going to take.

[Mike Wright]

The Lions at home.

[Jason Moore]

I will as well. Are you thinking about the almost upset.

[Andy Holloway]

No, no, no. Don't be silly. Steelers taking on the Miami Dolphins. Big Ben, Lev Bell, Antonio Brown, Sammy Coates, Jesse James. The Outlaws are in in Miami. What can you do here? I mean this is start everybody. I look if, if I was in one of those survivor pools. I'm taking the Pittsburgh this week. I'm going to. Yeah. I mean the Dolphins are seven and a half point dogs at home.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think they have a shot and look, famous last words. I'm sorry, but I think, I think this is a game where I have not been impressed with Adam Gase as a head coach. I've been disappointed. I don't think Arian Foster is going to fix. Fix everything for you. So I'm firmly not selecting this as an almost upset of the week. The question I have for you, Mike, Sammy Coates, the big signing, assuming he's healthy, do you go out there and roll him out as a 2A Flex? What do you look at with coats this week?

[Mike Wright]

For coats, I prefer to prefer him to be a flex this week. Big Ben is on the road. We've talked about his Splits, and they are drastic. Everyone gives Drew Brees crap for being amazing at home and average on the road. Big Ben is right there with him for fantasy.

[Jason Moore]

Beyond that, he's got a wider split than. Than Drew Brees.

[Mike Wright]

There you go. Straight from Jason's mouth.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

But look, for me, I think he's a fine flex play. I still have him as. I have him ranked as a wide receiver, too. I like this game. I like this game for almost everybody involved, and that includes the Dolphins, because I see this shaping up as the Steelers getting up, you know, decent on the. On the back of Le'Veon Bell and the pass catchers and then some vintage Ryan Tannehill garbage time. I know. It's a. It's a.

[Andy Holloway]

When you see everyone on the. On the Dolphins, though, are you pretty much just talking about Landry? Do you like.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Jason Moore]

I mean, everyone on the Dolphins named Landry and maybe Foster.

[Andy Holloway]

Like, I have Landry rated high this week.

[Mike Wright]

I had to get there. I had to get there. I like Ryan Tannehill this week because of.

[Andy Holloway]

That's bold. I know that's bold.

[Mike Wright]

I understand that.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. I would say that's fire, but fire implies, like, ooh, cool. Like, this is hot. This is just sour. It just makes me pucker and squint and go, and that's sweat.

[Mike Wright]

When you start him and you're watching the game in the first half, that's what you're going to do. I just. I like the game flow for him to have to come back. So. And I like Landry a lot. So you're correct that I. I guess I was being hyperbolic, that I love everybody for the Dolphins. I think Foster is a fine play. I think Landry is a great play.

[Jason Moore]

I will agree with just those last two comments and the one thing that I would put out here, in fact, I'm going to check and see if I got him. Had a bid on him this morning. But I actually really, really like the Pittsburgh Steelers defense in this game. The last two weeks, they have upped their sack ability. You know, they got off to a slow start when it came to getting sacks. These last two weeks, they've been great. The offensive line for the Dolphins is atrocious.

[Andy Holloway]

It's been really bad. Sixteen drop backs last week for Tannehill. Eight of them were hits or sacks. So he doesn't even have the chance to get the ball down the field. That. That has been the problem.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah. So I am a big fan of the Steelers defense this week.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's move on. To the Bengals and the Patriots. I, you know.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you sound sad.

[Jason Moore]

I think he's. Are you. Are you pre sad for the Bengals right now? Is that what it is?

[Andy Holloway]

Look, it's another situation. I'd love to say I think that they're going to be in it, but how in the. I mean, look, they are nine point underdogs.

[Jason Moore]

That's nuts.

[Andy Holloway]

47 point over under. Andy Dalton, though, has averaged 300 yards a game this season, which makes him third. Can he do it against his Patriots past defense? It's just middle of the road. You know, if you think the Patriots are going to be up, you, you would think that, you know, Green would have an opportunity here. What is your thoughts on the passing offense for the Bengals?

[Mike Wright]

This one's hard to read. It's hard to get out of the recency bias of. They went down to Dallas and I thought, okay, this will be a competitive game. I think the Bengals can squeak it out. And they were getting just blown out. Andy Dalton was a garbage man. I don't consider Andy Dalton for fantasy purposes having to get his points in garbage time. That's where everything came for Andy Dalton last week. So to, to have that just resting on. On your back and you have now you have to go to New England. I'm with Andy that this is bad news here for the Bengals, which to me, Dalton is still going to be okay. But that means that Jeremy Hill, who is. He's practicing but he's injured. We saw him get knocked out of the game last week. Jeremy Hill is a sit for me.

[Andy Holloway]

He's an absolute sit for me as well. Now the, the deceptive thing here is if you look at fantasy points given up to wide receivers, the Patriots have only. They're like the sixth best. Right. Like. Or how do you. How do you say that properly? Right.

[Jason Moore]

They giving up few.

[Andy Holloway]

They're a. They're not good for wide receivers. So wide receivers that play New England.

[Jason Moore]

Have a hard time.

[Andy Holloway]

Have a hard time. However, number one, wide receivers who play New England actually average 10.5% above the league average rates. And so while they are not giving up a high volume to wide receivers altogether, I do not think it is a bad game for AJ Green. You mix in the potential of garbage time and the quantity of yardage that Dalton has been putting up and I think Green has a very good game. Now. He's. That's kind of stating the obvious most often with AJ Green, but based on that number, which by the way, credit to Football Outsiders, DVOA model on that, but 10.5% more to number one wide receivers than the average. So I think that makes AJ Green a very strong start. Not that you'd ever sit him.

[Mike Wright]

Let's move over to the New England pass catchers because I think that's the most interesting thing. Edelman, 30 something yards on 10 targets, not a strong game. We have the concerns about the foot for Julian Edelman. Then you have Chris Hogan, who had a monster game, was only four receptions but over 100 yards. Did have to get checked for a concussion twice. So are you still starting Julian Edelman with full confidence? And are you starting Chris Hogan?

[Andy Holloway]

I have Hogan doing this most weeks. I mean, three for 70, you know, four for 81. You know, stuff like that, taking the deeper shots. I will say this, the only question mark with Edelman that if you want to write a story about it is they had to lean on him so heavily last year with the injuries. You even had Gronk out at times. Didn't have Martell's, Bennett didn't have Chris Hogan.

[Jason Moore]

Amendola was out a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

Amendola was out a lot. So, you know, is this game plan specific? I think Edelman's the focus still. So I'm fine starting Edelman. I'm confident in Edelman. I do think that you might have a few more outlier games with Edelman than you did last year just because there are more weapons.

[Jason Moore]

I have Edelman as my wide receiver. 14. I have absolutely zero worries about him. He got 10 targets last week. He's an excellent wide receiver. If people are down on him, I would be trading for him now. You know, hey, Brady came back and he didn't get it done. He's not the guy. It's Chris Hogan. I'd be trying to say that, that type of stuff. But Edelman, I have no, no fears about him whatsoever. I'm happy to start him. And Mike, I believe you've got him in our league. If you disagree, please trade him.

[Mike Wright]

No, I don't know.

[Jason Moore]

Disagree. Disagree and give him to me. I want. I'm just. I like.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we've got. We've. We've got the Panthers and the Saints in the dome, 53 point over under in this one. And that might be low. That might be low. The Saints defense has allowed two rushing touchdowns per game. That's dead last in the league. What do you do with Jonathan Stewart coming back often? Injury. Is this all? You know, signs point to start him. Do you worry about him at all? Do you think they've taken enough time with him. Will he get a full workload?

[Mike Wright]

I think he will. I think they've taken their time. They made sure that he was healthy and a telling sign will be is Cameron Artist pain active or inactive? Because when Jonathan Stewart is healthy, Cap is a healthy scratch since they do basically the same thing. So they'd rather have an extra special team or extra special player for a different position. I think Jonathan Stewart gets a full workload. I think Jonathan Stewart is going to golden corral. Feast upon the New Orleans.

[Andy Holloway]

So you like? I do Jonathan Stewart quite a bit this week. Greg Olson last week set a career high in passing yardage. He's an auto starts.

[Mike Wright]

I'm sorry that Derek Anderson will not be starting.

[Jason Moore]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

Greg Olson players Calvin Benjamin rest of season. What is he?

[Mike Wright]

I'll put him at a low end wide receiver one. I mean, he's been burning me lately. We talked about this because Jason has him very high.

[Jason Moore]

I have him as my number two.

[Mike Wright]

Wide receiver this week and we're just wait, we keep waiting and waiting for Kelvin Benjamin. I think he's still a fine play, but I'm just, I don't have that confidence that you had after the first couple games, so. But he's still a one to me. Still one?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, he's a one to me as well.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason, I know you're going to talk about Cooks in a little bit, but the Saints wide receivers are averaging 223 receiving yards per game. That is first in the league. I know you're going to talk about Cooks. Let's talk about Snead. He came out on fire. I, you know, I think I told people, go trade him because I mean, he's just in an offense with multiple weapons. They seem to love Michael Thomas. They're using Michael Thomas around the goal line as well. How does this break down this week against a Carolina defense that's struggling right now?

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I mean, when you've got the ancillary.

[Andy Holloway]

They're in the dome.

[Jason Moore]

They're at home in the dome. When you've got the ancillary weapons of Willie Snead and Brandon Coleman or Coleman and Michael Thomas. Michael Thomas, Cooks and Fleener, it's difficult to know which one to start. But I think in a game like this, you're going to want to put your Saints players in. I would, you know, if I don't have. If I'm looking at my flex and I've got a couple guys with question marks where I go, you know, they could be okay. I look towards the game and this is the type of game. Do you guys remember the last time that Carolina came to New Orleans? Last year?

[Mike Wright]

I do not know what cam did I do.

[Jason Moore]

331 yards, five touchdowns. Yeah, I mean, decent.

[Andy Holloway]

Pretty.

[Jason Moore]

Pretty.

[Andy Holloway]

All right.

[Jason Moore]

But the point is here is this is a game where the Carolina Panthers are going to be able to get their offense together. And at home, Drew Brees is going to be able to say against this struggling Carolina defense, I can come back and score on you. So it's just going to be back and forth. And I like players in those games. So I'm fine starting just about. And by just about, I really pretty much mean everybody. Everybody except.

[Andy Holloway]

Let me ask you a question. Michael Thomas, if you had to start Michael Thomas or Kamar Aiken.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, that's a great question.

[Andy Holloway]

Who would you start?

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to start Michael Thomas over Kamar Aiken. I expect that Kamara Aiken will see more targets, maybe even have more receptions, but the touchdown opportunity is going to be higher with Michael Thomas than with Kamari.

[Mike Wright]

I agree with that. And as far for Willie Snead, I'm just. I still buy in. I still believe he had the two monster games and then he had the toe injury. So he missed a game. I don't think he was fully back and.

[Andy Holloway]

But what is bot. Look, that. That doesn't mean anything to me. I think what does buying in me.

[Mike Wright]

I think that he's a fine.

[Andy Holloway]

Is he a wide receiver 2 rest of season? Is he a wide receiver 3 rest of season.

[Mike Wright]

He's right on that cusp. Wide receiver, two wide receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

But he's not the one we got in week one.

[Jason Moore]

No, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

No, no.

[Jason Moore]

Starts of the week.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, Starts of the week. I'm going to start at quarterback. I'm going to give you my guy. I mentioned him earlier. It's Brian Hoyer. Brian Hoyer taking on Jacksonville 300 plus yards for three straight games, two touchdowns for three straight games and only one turnover. And while Jacksonville hasn't given up a ton of yards, I think this is going to be his opportunity to keep the streak going. And they give up, you know, nearly the most points to fantasy quarterbacks on the season. So I'm going to stay with Brian Hoyer. I think I have him around five or six this week, which is very high. But I look three times. What do we say?

[Mike Wright]

He's on fire.

[Andy Holloway]

You do it thrice, you're on fire, you're in the flames. I'm staying with Brian.

[Mike Wright]

You guys know who has more fantasy points at the quarterback position than Brian Hoyer over the last three weeks? Yes.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, no, I do. It's Ben Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan and that is it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's it. Yeah. Wow. I mean, what a world. Yeah. Sometimes you sit back and you look, there's so many players that want to play professional football. Whole universe of potential collegiate athletes and you sit back and you see Case Keenum and Brian Hoyer and Charlie Whitehurst played last week.

[Jason Moore]

You can do it too.

[Andy Holloway]

Just believe it's almost the opposite point. It's like no one can do it. So you have to, you know, it's just incredible to me. So Mike, who's your starting, your quarterback start of the week?

[Mike Wright]

Carson Palmer.

[Andy Holloway]

Love.

[Mike Wright]

We have the New York jets coming into town. The New York jets are giving up over 320 passing yards a game on average. They've given up 16 passing touchdowns so far. You have the. We talked about the road trip for San Francisco. The jets have to make that road trip over the West Coast. It's a little easier to travel that way. But there's just so many factors for pointing me towards a great game for Carson Palmer. The secondary of the jets is horrifying. The run defense is still okay. So I don't expect David Johnson to run wild, but I expect Carson Palmer to be back and to be at full health and get to right the ship, so to speak, for Carson Palmer.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason, you have an interesting quarterback start of the week.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, I went a little bit dangerous here, but I'm going to go with Tyrod Taylor this week. We haven't, we haven't talked too much about Tyrod Taylor. I don't think our show has been, you know, super high on him. Compared to other analysts. Tyra Taylor is a boom bust quarterback, clearly. I mean, you look back at last year and what he did and you get a, you get a week of 14 points or 16 points and then 30, you know, he has those big blow up explosion games and if he's going to have one, I have a feeling that San Francisco traveling across the country, their offense is so fast paced with Chip Kelly's system that their defense cannot keep it together. Buffalo's on fire right now. That crowd in that stadium is going to be raucous. You've got the legs and the touchdown opportunities on the ground for Tyrod Taylor. If Tyrod Taylor runs for 50, I'm not surprised at all. And that gives him a baseline where he's a fine start. He gets two touchdowns. I mean, look, the last, you know, the last four weeks, four touchdowns, two touchdowns, two touchdowns, two touchdowns given up to the quarterback by San Francisco and they're on the road. So I think, look, if you're looking for a big blow up game, if you're like, hey, I'm streaming the position or you know, I've got Andy Dalton or Tyrod Taylor, but I need a big game, I think that game has a, has a good chance of coming from Tyrod Taylor this week.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, let's move over to the running backs. I am taking what these guys think is a risk here. Yeah, I'm going with Jamal Charles. He's taking on Oakland 23rd against the run. But the gist here is that I think Jamal Charles is back. Now. What does the start of the week mean? It doesn't mean you start him over every player on your team. It means that I think he start worthy this week and I put him. Look, if you're fighting that decision of, you know, Terrell Pryor in the flex or Jamal Charles because you don't know what you have, I think you can confidently put Jamal Charles out there in front of a Terrell Pryor type of guy. I think if you are in a bye week situation, you can roll out Jamal Charles as a 2A running back too. I think he's going to get the ball this week. I think it's going to be a shootout type of game. Oakland has been playing great. Derek Carr's been playing great. I think this game has the potential to be a very high scoring game. So I'm going to go and give you Jamal Charles. I'm going to try to trade for him later today. So there's your confidence.

[Mike Wright]

Thanks for the warning. I appreciate it. My start of the week, I'm going with the woke one. Kristen Michael up in Seattle against Atlanta. They are six point favorites at. Thank you. Six point favorites at home. They're coming off a bye week. I expect Seattle to really handle their business in our league. Scoring. We are a half point PPR. Christian Michael is averaging 16 and a half points a game since he has been the starter. He rattled off a 28 point game and a 19.3. Christian Michael is a legitimate running back. Atlanta is very susceptible to the running back position. So I just, I see Seattle controlling this game and riding the back of Christian Michael.

[Andy Holloway]

Climbing on.

[Mike Wright]

Yes, climbing on and saying take us to the promised land, my friend.

[Jason Moore]

All right. My running back start of the week this week is a guy that I have been very bipolar on. I feel like I've understood my position on him very clearly.

[Mike Wright]

No one else does.

[Jason Moore]

But I've been able to predict him pretty accurately so far this year, and I'm sticking with my thoughts on Ryan Matthews. There's no reason that Ryan Matthews doesn't have a great game this week. I thought last week he was going to come back off that by and dominate the touches, and he did. While he didn't get to the 15 water bet, he actually did get to the 15 touches. But they were, you know, the Philadelphia Eagles, bizarrely, were super down early, and what did they do? They actually got Ryan Matthews involved for the first time in the passing game. He caught five balls last week for his first touchdown. He's got four touchdowns so far this year, and that's including the games where, you know, he did nothing. But Doug, Doug. Peter. Oh, yeah, but Jason. Yeah, what you got?

[Mike Wright]

Doug Peterson said everyone's going to be involved. It's going to be a full committee.

[Jason Moore]

That's fine. He could say what? He could say whatever he wants. He said. He said that Ryan Matthews is going to be the guy. He said it's like every other week he goes back and forth. But the reality is Ryan Matthews is a talented running back. Is there any disagreement that when he's healthy, he's talented here?

[Mike Wright]

No. I was setting you up to say that Wendell Smallwood and Barner didn't touch the ball.

[Jason Moore]

Oh, you're saying a couple weeks ago. Yeah. Wendell Smallwood, Kenyon Barnard, they didn't touch the ball. And here's the reality. The Redskins rushing defense is not bad. They're terrible. I mean, four out of the five weeks, they've given up over 100 yards. And some of them, we're talking well over 150, 167. You want to know how many yards they gave up on the ground to the running backs when they didn't give up? 100 in their only week. 96. So. And okay, well, maybe they don't give it up and, you know, they don't give up touchdowns. Nope. They've given up seven touchdowns on the ground. So Ryan Matthews, start of the week. Put them in.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we're moving on. Wide receiver. Mike, you want to kick it off?

[Mike Wright]

Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

You got your stack?

[Mike Wright]

I'm going with the full. Full Cardinals stack. Call me the homer. Whatever. Don't at me, bro. Because he's taking on the Jets. Here's the last two games of John Brown with Carson Palmer, 6 for 70 and then 10 for 144. I think that John Brown is back fully from that concussion problem at the beginning of the season. And like I said, the jets are giving up 320 passing yards a game and 16 passing touchdowns so far over the year. Think John Brown is a spectacular start. I have him ranked extremely high. I expect this to be the. We thought 10 for 144 was a breakout. Maybe he doesn't get to 144, but I expect right around a hundo and a full touchdown. Not a half touchdown. A full touchdown.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you don't want those half. Look, I'm staying, staying bold here. I'm gonna go with yeah, I need.

[Mike Wright]

To, I need to put on my fire retardant suit here.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm making Cameron Meredith a flex play this week. Start of the week, Cameron Meredith nine for 130 and one. Second year guy, first opportunity to step in for Kevin White and played better than Kevin White. He seemed to be the first read for Brian Hoyer very, very often. I really liked what I saw from Cameron Meredith. So I think you can flex him out there. I'd rather play him over. You know, you're making decisions on guys like Tavon Austin in your flex. I'd roll Cameron Meredith out there.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, and I think you said that very well. He stepped in for Kevin White and he played better than Kevin White was playing. Kevin White's an athletic freak, but he's raw. He's not a great route runner, he's not a super good football player yet. Cameron Meredith, he doesn't have those same talents, but he doesn't, he got the same targets and he's playing better NFL football.

[Andy Holloway]

So I mean he's a, he's a big lanky guy too. He's 6 3, he's, you know, 200 pounds. He can go up and get the ball. He's an undrafted guy, but he's young. He's 24, second year guy. And I was, I was pretty impressed. And you're looking at a guy who also, you know, he was getting more involved the week before even with Kevin White. So here's an opportunity for Cameron Meredith in a game that I think he can, he can do something with.

[Jason Moore]

All right, I'm going to go the other side here from, from the possible flex play to I think is going to have a top week and that is Brandon Cooks. But, but Jason, he hasn't done it since, he hasn't done it since week one. Jason, Brandon Cooks is, has been sucking but. Well, he's at home this week but, but Jason, he was at home against Atlanta, a terrible pass defense where he only caught two balls for 13 yards. All right, here is my case for Brandon Cooks. Atlanta.

[Andy Holloway]

The case for Cooks.

[Jason Moore]

Atlanta does not have a good, a great pass defense, but you want to know what they do have? They do have a good number one cornerback. Am I correct in that? Would you guys agree with that?

[Mike Wright]

I wasn't even listening to you. I'm.

[Jason Moore]

Would you agree that Atlanta has a.

[Mike Wright]

Good number one quarterback?

[Jason Moore]

Trafont was on Brandon Cooks. There was no reason not to pass it to all the other wide open players that game. Brandon Cooks did not need to be involved. Now, Carolina has a good team defense, but do you want to know who their number one cover cornerback is?

[Mike Wright]

I would love to know.

[Jason Moore]

Still Josh Norman and he's not even there. Julio Jones tore him up, Mike Evans tore him up. And Brandon Cooks is at home with Drew Brees in a game that's going to have a lot of touchdowns and he's going to tear him up. And so many people are afraid to play Brandon Cooks this week after two complete stinkers. Now maybe he throws up a third. And shame on you, Brandon Cooks. But I'm with you, Mr. Cooks. I'm with you. Put him in. He's going to have a top week.

[Andy Holloway]

Put him in your kitchen. You've got Brandon Cooks. Mike has Brown. I have Meredith, my tight end. Start of the week, it's Kobe Fleener. Hey, look, I dug in a little bit last year. I was looking at Kobe Fleena pretty, pretty long and hard yesterday before I made a trade for him, Ben Watson. That's Jason's thoughts on the trade. I believe I received the word jerk immediately after acquiring him.

[Jason Moore]

Yes, you did.

[Andy Holloway]

Look, Ben Watson's first four weeks last year as a new tight end in the New Orleans system. Three points, two points.

[Mike Wright]

The new starter, he wasn't new to the system.

[Andy Holloway]

3 points, 2 points, 4 points, 4 points. After week four, he averaged 11 and a half a game. This week we're coming off the buy the involvement of Kobe Fleener, who's, by the way, I mean, he hasn't been good, but he hasn't been atrocious because he had a very good week three. I think there's an opportunity. There are a lot of Mike would call them barfy tight ends out there. You've seen guys that you think are great struggle, whether it's Rudolph or Brait or these other players that you've been picking up. I think Fleener is a great play. This week you've got a team, Carolina, that's given up four touchdowns to the Tight end position. And I think Fleener has an opportunity out of the by to have them readjust this offense, utilize them a little bit more, and maybe do what Jason said all offseason, which is get it going towards the middle of the season.

[Jason Moore]

Yeah, no, I like that. And I think it's important because you got so many tight ends that are, you know, you're going, well, maybe I'll just start Jason Whitten. You know, he's more involved than Kobe Fleener, and that's fine. Jason Whitten's floor is okay. It's a little higher. But I mean, so what? You're not going to win your fantasy matchup because you got two more points.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason, two slices of bread and a piece of cheese. I mean, that's not a great sandwich.

[Jason Moore]

No, you got to put butter on that and melt it before it's in.

[Mike Wright]

Melted. I'm in on that.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, yeah, I mean, I'm just saying I want potential for something great at the tight end position to set me up as a differentiator.

[Mike Wright]

My. I would say. I think you guys are not factoring in the John Coon factor.

[Andy Holloway]

Is he playing tight end now or. No, Should I be factoring John Coon?

[Mike Wright]

Because you both love the. The players for New Orleans and I'm just.

[Jason Moore]

You're just saying John Kuhn, six touchdowns.

[Andy Holloway]

I thought maybe he really liked grilled cheeses.

[Jason Moore]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

I didn't know where you were going.

[Jason Moore]

I'm going to go with my tight end start of the week. Andy, can you give me the sad. The sad music? I owe an apology. Oh, a flat apology.

[Andy Holloway]

Not a flat one.

[Jason Moore]

Okay. A heartfelt apology to someone I am proud of and I was disrespectful to. No, it is certainly.

[Andy Holloway]

Is it me?

[Jason Moore]

Certainly not Jeff Fisher.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, okay.

[Jason Moore]

It is Jimmy Graham. Jimmy Graham. Graham. That is my tight end start of the week. This week you have a guy who has back to back over 100 yards receiving at the tight end position. He's been able to do this before. He's going up now against Atlanta. Now, like I said, the matchup is great. I mean, Trufant, he's going to lock down someone there. But you know who's. Who's going to go hog wild is Jimmy Graham. Because, I mean, you've seen Atlanta, they've given up a touchdown every week except this last one. 2. Sometimes in a week, everybody has torched them at the tight end position. Jimmy Graham is clearly involved. He had an extra week of rest. I like Jimmy Graham. I think you can start him. And it was more. More of an apology than anything. I'm sorry that I did not believe that you could come back.

[Andy Holloway]

Neither of you did.

[Mike Wright]

No. No, I certainly did not. He's. He has been fantastic. My tight end start of the week. Delaney Walker staking on the Browns. We did some digging. We came up with a very interesting stat here for the Browns defense against the tight end. They've given up over 500 yards to the position. The next worst team against the tight end has not given up 400 yards. So you're talking. You already have a massive disparity in yards allowed to the tight end. Delaney Walker thrives in good matchups. He is the weapon for Marcus Mariota if. If Mariota is to continue at all what he did last week, which obviously.

[Jason Moore]

Andy believes he will.

[Mike Wright]

He does.

[Andy Holloway]

All right. I did not call him my stream of the week. I was not here.

[Jason Moore]

No, I called him your stream.

[Andy Holloway]

I know. Come on. I'm not. No, I'm not doing that.

[Jason Moore]

You're gonna. You're gonna be. You're gonna regret retracting my start of the week.

[Mike Wright]

But I think we can all agree that Delaney Walker is a great start this week.

[Jason Moore]

I believe in any kind of half point or full point. He is my number one tight end this week, so pretty strong start.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, there's our starts of the week. We'll get into the rest of the matchups on tomorrow's show. We'll also have, I believe, Chris Meaney. Will he be joining us? Or Ben Cummins. We'll have it. We'll have a DFS segment tomorrow.

[Mike Wright]

Maybe it'll be me.

[Andy Holloway]

Maybe we'll have our some DFS picks for you if you're playing on FanDuel. And remember, if you do play on FanDuel or if you're planning on playing for the first time this week, go to FanDuel.comfootballers and you actually get five free entries by using that URL. It's FanDuel.comfootballers, and any parting words today? We've got all the rankings up on the site. You can go check those out. We'll be fine tuning them. You know, there's always that balance. We get emails. Oh, can you get the rankings up three weeks ago for this week? And it's, you know, sure, we could just auto sort by random statistics, but we try to methodically go through, give you the best numbers we can, and then we fine tune them as we get weather information, injury information as things change. We're doing our best and trust me, the time is being spent.

[Mike Wright]

I'm giving mine a fine, sweetest massage right now.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Your rankings.

[Mike Wright]

Yes.

[Andy Holloway]

To massage them into place.

[Jason Moore]

Yep.

[Mike Wright]

And check out fantasyjocks.com the studio sponsor where winners go use the promo code Footballers.

[Andy Holloway]

You need more of, like, a deep tissue on those rankings.

[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.