Fantasy Football Podcast for Week 5/6

Summary

Fantasy Footballers Podcast Summary: Week 5/6

Release Date: October 7, 2014

In this engaging episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, hosts Andy Holloway and Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright provide a comprehensive analysis of Week 5 and 6 happenings in the fantasy football landscape. From injury reports to strategic waiver wire pickups and standout performances, the duo ensures listeners are equipped with the knowledge to dominate their leagues.

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Introduction

Andy Holloway [00:00]:
"Welcome to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. I am Andy."

Mike Wright [00:25]:
"I am Mike. We have this hilariously fact-filled and opinion-driven show where we weekly tell you how to win your fantasy league."

The episode kicks off with Andy and Mike reflecting on a busy week in fantasy football, setting the stage for the in-depth discussions to follow.

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Injury Report

Andy Holloway [01:30]:
"It was a tough week for the injury report."

Mike Wright [01:33]:
"The big ones out there are... it depends on what you think the biggest one is. But Monte Ball going down is obviously a headline injury."
[(02:10)]

• Monte Ball's Groin Injury [02:10]: Monte Ball is sidelined with a groin injury, with conflicting reports on his recovery time ranging from two weeks (Denver sources) to four-eight weeks (medical experts). Andy expresses concern:
  "I have a juggernaut team there for a while and I don’t know, they just have collapsed with some injuries."

• Calvin Johnson's Ankle Re-injury [05:57]: Calvin Johnson re-injures his ankle, causing frustration among owners dependent on his performance. Andy notes:
  "I think he's going to miss a couple weeks though."

• Other Notable Injuries:

  • Jimmy Graham [06:53]: Shoulder sprain, likely short-term.
  • Rashad Jennings [07:21]: ACL sprain, expected to miss weeks six and seven.
  • Jake Locker [08:54]: Thumb injury, replaced by Chris Whitehurst.

The hosts emphasize the ripple effects of these injuries on fantasy lineups and the importance of strategic benching and waiver pickups.

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Player Highlights

Andy Holloway [09:29]:
"The huge one was Greg Olsen. He has been so good this year."

• Greg Olsen [09:29]: Olsen is lauded for being Cam Newton’s primary receiving option, consistently benefiting from touchdowns.

• Julius Thomas and Martellus Bennett [10:06]:

  • Julius Thomas [10:06]: On pace for an impressive 28 touchdowns, Andy remarks:
    "He's earned that because of his involvement in a Manning-led offense."
  • Martellus Bennett [10:13]: Though having a quieter week, Bennett remains a steady presence.

• Golden Tate and Brian Quick [10:59]:

  • Golden Tate [10:59]: Stepping up due to Calvin Johnson’s absence, Mike highlights his steady improvement:
    "He's very underrated by the fantasy community."
  • Brian Quick [11:31]: Demonstrates consistency with a monster game, earning a solid start this week.

• Kendall Wright and Justin Hunter [12:07]:

  • Kendall Wright [12:07]: Surprising performance with two touchdowns.
  • Justin Hunter [12:20]: Secures the starting slot, showing potential to fulfill draft expectations.

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Everybody’s Favorite Segment: Pooped Their Big Boy Pants

In this segment, the hosts discuss players who underperformed, evaluating whether fantasy managers should be concerned.

• Alfred Morris [17:56]:
  "He squelched this week."
  Despite high expectations, Morris failed to deliver, leading to doubts about his consistency.

• CJ Spiller [18:12]:
  "I am concerned actually about Spiller."
  Spiller's reliance on big plays makes him a risky option for fantasy managers.

• Michael Crabtree and Kelvin Benjamin [19:06]:

  • Michael Crabtree [21:10]: Despite potential, Crabtree’s foot issues and inconsistent performance raise red flags.
    "I have Crabtree stock, and I'm concerned."
  • Kelvin Benjamin [19:17]: Remains a viable option unless Calvin Johnson's injury worsens. Andy advises:
    "You can't bail."

• Other Underperformers:

  • Brandon Marshall, LaShawn McCoy, and others were also scrutinized for their lackluster performances this week.

---

Waiver Wire Pickups

Mike Wright [23:46]:
"So we have grabbed the waiver priority as brought to us by FantasyPros and we will evaluate to see if we agree."
[(23:46)]

The hosts explore top waiver wire options, debating the merits and potential impact of each.

• Ronnie Hillman [24:09]:
  "Hillman is a potential roster-changing acquisition."
  Despite being rated as FantasyPros’ top pick, Andy and Mike consider Hillman a long-term solution amidst uncertainty with Monte Ball’s status.

• Brandon Oliver and Andre Williams [25:05]:

  • Brandon Oliver [25:14]: Viewed favorably for immediate impact, especially against run-deficient teams.
  • Andre Williams [26:05]: Highlighted for his opportunity due to team injuries, making him a valuable short-term pickup.

• Ranking the Waiver Wire Picks:

  • Mike’s Ranking: Andre Williams > Brandon Oliver > Ronnie Hillman
  • Andy’s Ranking: Andre Williams > Brandon Oliver > Ronnie Hillman

Both hosts prioritize immediate impact over long-term potential, aligning with a "win now" mentality.

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Start of the Week

Each host selects their top starts for the upcoming week across different positions.

• Quarterbacks:

  • Andy [35:10]: Eli Manning – Favorable matchup against the Eagles.
    "Their offense has been doing quite well and they’re coming up against the Eagles who just got torched."
  • Mike [35:36]: Joe Flacco – Faces a struggling Buccaneers' defense.
    "Joe Flacco is a start for me."

• Running Backs:

  • Andy [36:27]: Ben Tate – Strong performance expected against the Steelers.
    "The Cleveland Browns are playing the Steelers... he's looked good."
  • Mike [37:00]: Also favors Ben Tate, acknowledging the risk but trusting the matchup.

• Wide Receivers:

  • Andy [38:31]: Torrey Smith – Anticipates a high-yards game against Washington.
    "He catches passes when he’s playing and he is the better between the tackles runner."
  • Mike [38:22]: Tori Smith – Believes Flacco’s offense will target him more.
    "He is a great wide receiver and can put up over 100 yards in a touchdown."

The selections reflect a focus on favorable matchups and recent performance trends.

---

Fantasy Footballers vs. The World

In an interactive segment, Andy and Mike present start-sit dilemmas and compare their choices against the consensus from FantasyPros experts.

1. Golden Tate vs. Kelvin Benjamin [44:37]:

   • Mike: Golden Tate
   • Andy: Leans towards Kelvin Benjamin
   • Consensus: 56% prefer Tate; 44% favor Benjamin.

2. Reuben Randall vs. Brian Quick [45:59]:

   • Both Hosts: Reuben Randall
   • Consensus: Randall leads with 52%.

3. Frank Gore vs. Andre Ellington [47:31]:

   • Mike: Frank Gore
   • Andy: Chooses Andre Ellington
   • Consensus: 56% support Gore.

4. Ben Tate vs. Ahmad Bradshaw [49:41]:

   • Both Hosts: Ben Tate
   • Consensus: 86% back Tate.

5. Michael Floyd vs. Andre Johnson [50:57]:

   • Andy: Michael Floyd
   • Mike: Andre Johnson
   • Consensus: Michael Floyd prevails.

Notable Quote:

Mike Wright [44:37]:
"Golden Tate all the way for me."

Andy Holloway [44:58]:
"I think the last week was just a little blip."

This segment underscores the importance of aligning personal insights with expert consensus to make informed lineup decisions.

---

Listener Questions

Andy and Mike tackle queries from their listeners, providing tailored advice based on their in-depth analysis.

1. Jeremy from Arizona [53:00]:
   "Should I trade Kaepernick and Greg Olson for Jay Cutler and James Jones?"
   Response: Both hosts advise against the trade, valuing Greg Olsen and skeptical about Cutler’s reliability.

2. Mark W. [55:05]:
   "Should I trade Calvin Johnson and DeAndre Hopkins for Steve Smith, Niles Paul, and Rashad Jennings?"
   Response:
   Andy: "No."
   Mike: Agrees, emphasizing the unparalleled value of Johnson and Hopkins despite the offer.

3. Jason from a Cave [56:31]:
   "Should I trade Pierre Thomas for Kendall Wright?"
   Response:
   Mike: Prefers Pierre Thomas for his high ceiling in PPR leagues.
   Andy: Echoes the sentiment, highlighting Thomas’s boom-game potential.

Notable Quote:

Mike Wright [56:47]:
"I like Pierre Thomas. He is a guy that can go out and give you a boom game."

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Conclusion

Wrapping up the episode, Andy and Mike encourage listeners to engage with their content, submit more questions, and apply the strategies discussed to clinch victories in their fantasy leagues.

Andy Holloway [59:16]:
"Drop a review on there. Let us know what you like and we will be back next week with more tips and information for you to win a fantasy football league."

Mike Wright [59:23]:
"Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers podcast."

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Key Takeaways:

• Injury Management: Stay updated on key player injuries and adjust your lineup accordingly to mitigate risks.

• Waiver Wire Strategy: Prioritize players with immediate impact and favorable team situations to bolster your roster.

• Player Performance Analysis: Focus on players with consistent performances and strong matchups to maximize weekly points.

• Expert Consensus: Leverage expert opinions from sources like FantasyPros to validate your start-sit decisions.

• Listener Engagement: Utilize community advice and personalized tips to refine your fantasy football strategies.

This episode serves as a valuable resource for fantasy managers looking to navigate the mid-season challenges, offering actionable insights and expert-backed recommendations to elevate their game.

Transcript

[Andy Holloway]

Foreign to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway and Mike Wright. What is happening? What is going on out there in. I guess it's not radio land.

[Mike Wright]

No, it's a new world.

[Andy Holloway]

Podcast land.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. There you go.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know if I want to live in podcast land.

[Mike Wright]

Welcome to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. I am Andy.

[Andy Holloway]

I am Mike. We are correspondence for fantasypros.com and we have this, this hilarious and beautiful fact filled and opinion filled show the Fantasy Footballers where we weekly tell you how to win your fantasy league.

[Mike Wright]

That's right. And man, was it a busy week in terms of everything that happened in the world of fantasy football.

[Andy Holloway]

Big week. How did it go for you?

[Mike Wright]

I had a Good week. My two teams that are important to me are 50 and 32 right now. How are your teams doing?

[Andy Holloway]

I am doing okay. My important leagues. Well, I had a juggernaut team there for a while and I don't know, they just have collapsed with some injuries and some no shows two weeks but brutal. I will speaking.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, speaking of injuries, news and notes.

[Andy Holloway]

From around the league.

[Mike Wright]

There were a lot.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, it was a. It was a tough week for the injury report.

[Mike Wright]

So the big ones out there are. I guess it, it depends on what you think the biggest one is. But Monte Ball going down is obviously. That's a headline injury.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, that's a big one. The. He has injured his groin.

[Mike Wright]

Ouch.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, if we had that, that Simpsons bit right there, that would have been perfect. But he's. And then the reports are all over the place on this so we're not really sure who to trust. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

People in Denver seem to think it's gonna be short.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, they were saying two weeks and I don't know man, he went down in a heap. Was apparently had. Was on crutches. And so from Denver, I heard two weeks. Then there's. I've also seen some medical experts on who spec. They work in fantasy and they give their medical advice on Twitter. And I've seen anywhere from four to eight weeks.

[Mike Wright]

Well, I guess the question then is kind of regardless of those timelines, Monte Ball wasn't a guy that's playing well. He was not in terms of fantasy. So what is. If you're the Monteball owner now? I mean, what do you do? Are you spending big money on one of these replacements? I mean you, you probably have to.

[Andy Holloway]

Because if you have Monteball on your team, you got him in the first round or high second round.

[Mike Wright]

So who do you spend on? I mean who do you. If you, if you're in a league that has fab dollars, let's say you've got 50 bucks to spend and you had to break it down across the available Denver Bronco backfield.

[Andy Holloway]

The Denver Bronco, because that's the problem.

[Mike Wright]

No one knows who's going to be.

[Andy Holloway]

It is a minefield and it seems like a trap.

[Mike Wright]

Right. Because people are going to go out and spend a bunch of money on Ronnie Hillman.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, maybe for sure is happening.

[Mike Wright]

And then you've got guys like C.J. anderson. Right?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And the, the conundrum was that C.J. anderson was inactive during the game, so he wasn't even. And we've. So that is. That. Is he behind on the depth chart? I've heard he was deactivated because he's not as important to special teams.

[Mike Wright]

And Joanne Thompson was active.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. Undrafted free agent. Who. He is a. He is another bulk of a human. He's very large.

[Mike Wright]

So. And, and we all know that numero uno on the priority meter for Peyton Manning is pass protection from their running back.

[Andy Holloway]

And it's the. Where it's really difficult is Hillman has been given that opportunity several times where, if you remember there was reports last year Hillman was going to be the starter.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

We, like, none of us knew who the starter was until Game one, when they, when they were doing the flyby and the presentation on the, on the television and they said, marino starting. And we're all like, oh, no, Marino.

[Mike Wright]

Because the problem is everybody knows that a running back in that offense is relevant.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

The problem is, is which running back. And honestly, if I, you know, it is the reason we're. We're speaking into the microphones is because we have opinions, and so we should probably give ours. But if it's me and I'm making a decision on this backfield, I am putting a lower amount of fab spend on CJ Anderson.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

And that's my recommendation because I believe that when he was in, when he was active, he got the. In between the tackles work and he split time with Hillman and Hillman was kind of.

[Andy Holloway]

You think of him as a change of pace back.

[Mike Wright]

I don't have a problem with Hillman, but the value difference on how much you're gonna have to spend to get Hillman versus C.J. anderson is so high.

[Andy Holloway]

So let's say that you're high. Waiver priority. It's not a fab system.

[Mike Wright]

Right. Which is most people. I suppose. So do you blow your waiver priority on one of these Guys, you have to, right?

[Andy Holloway]

You have to.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Yeah you do. Although I would not put any of these guys at the number one waiver pick of this week. So. Yeah, and I guess we'll get into that.

[Andy Holloway]

I was going to say we're hitting waiver wire.

[Mike Wright]

Well, it's hard not to with these big names.

[Andy Holloway]

So let's go back to the injuries.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, let's go through these real quick. Calvin Johnson re injured his ankle. Annoying as crap for every single Calvin Johnson owner because we've seen him before. And what's worse than a guy who goes out there hobbled. I mean I have Brandon Marshall in one of my leagues. It's so annoying to have a guy go out there and you're like, well I can't play. I can't not play Brandon Marshall. I can't not play Calvin. If I bench him, I'm an idiot. But man, he is.

[Andy Holloway]

I think he's going to miss a couple weeks though. One one for sure. But multiple injuries would not shock us. We also looked at the schedule and there by. Detroit's bye week is in three weeks. So.

[Mike Wright]

So we're wondering, we're wondering if.

[Andy Holloway]

Does he come back?

[Mike Wright]

If he's a couple weeks out, do they keep him out that third week or not? I would doubt it, especially if they're in the race. But it's possible. We're not seeing Calvin for five weeks, so that's trouble. And it bumps up the stock of Ben Tate. Yeah, Golden Tate.

[Andy Holloway]

The golden one.

[Mike Wright]

Some, some other big injuries. Jimmy Graham disappointed owners because that game was a shootout. That game went to overtime and Jimmy Graham got knocked out with the shoulder sprain. That looks to be not severe.

[Andy Holloway]

That's what I hear too.

[Mike Wright]

And he's on a bye week, so that's couldn't be better timing. If you're the Jimmy Graham owner, hold on tightly and pray. Rashad Jennings finally. What? Cuz you've been talking about him getting hurt.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Ah yeah. Well, the workload caught up to one of these guys finally. ACL sprain, right?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I. And they're talking about a couple week injury and which hit the Giants by week is eight.

[Mike Wright]

So it would help me out till then.

[Andy Holloway]

It would not be shocking to see Rashad Jennings back week nine.

[Mike Wright]

But I mean well, he'll miss. Yeah, he'll miss week six and seven and then he'll be back.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's the. Yeah, we're talking about the same injury that Ryan Matthews has, right?

[Mike Wright]

MCL sprain.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's What Matthews had.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. And honestly, I think the two week estimate didn't really come from the team. I think that really came from Rashad Jennings, who experienced this injury previously in his career.

[Andy Holloway]

Too short.

[Mike Wright]

Be careful. Yeah. Reggie Bush making the Lions backfield now look a lot like the Panthers backfield, which is. Yeah, that's kind of a. That's fair because Joy Bell's got a concussion and Reggie Bush's ankles hurting. You got Drew Stanton knocked out for Arizona. Not that you were starting him, but it just.

[Andy Holloway]

It affects their wide receiver.

[Mike Wright]

Exactly. It devalues Michael Floyd, Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown, Zach Stacy. Looks like he's going to be back. He hurt his calf, but that's a dicey situation because he was up there for splitting time with Cunningham. Anyway, what else do we got? Some Donald Brown's injuries. Obviously significant when we get to our waiver wire pickups.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he had a concussion knocked out of the game. So his, his status for this week is not known yet because it's a concussion. Some guys come back in a week, some guys need a couple weeks. And Jake Locker hurt his thumb which gave. Gave way for, for Whitehurst to come and drop bombs.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, absolutely. Well, let's, let's talk about some of the highlight big names of this week and whether we think these guys are here to stay or whether they are one week wonders. Huh?

[Andy Holloway]

All right, so let's, let's look at.

[Mike Wright]

Tight ends, big tight ends this week.

[Andy Holloway]

The huge one was Greg Olson.

[Mike Wright]

He has been so good this year.

[Andy Holloway]

He has been great.

[Mike Wright]

He's pretty much done what we said. Oh, he's the only receiving option for Cam and yeah, he's pretty much what is.

[Andy Holloway]

He's benefiting a lot from touchdowns, but I don't, I don't see that necessarily stopping.

[Mike Wright]

No, I think that's fine. I mean you've seen it consistently week after week and it having a premium tight end. What is he about number three right now behind Julius and I think he's four. Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Julius, Jimmy and Martellus.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, and Martellus had kind of a lower week too.

[Andy Holloway]

Julius had a big week as expected from. Against the.

[Mike Wright]

You know how many touchdowns he's on pace for Julius Thomas?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he had two last week. He had three week one.

[Mike Wright]

I don't know, like 28. 28 touchdowns and it's like if anybody could do it.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I would say that's impossibly unsustainable. But in that offense with Manning, unbelievable.

[Mike Wright]

So both those guys are starts every week?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You weren't Sitting those guys. Other big performances. Golden Tate stepped up huge, which he has. He has been ascending since week one. He's been super steady. He just wasn't getting touchdowns. He finally got a touchdown last week and if with Calvin out, I think Golden Tate is a.

[Mike Wright]

You've been a little back and forth on him, right?

[Andy Holloway]

No, I've been all. I've been waiting and he. I just say he's very underrated by the fantasy community and I would say that's football community in general because he was stuck in that Seattle offense where they just weren't throwing the ball. He was very consistent and he has great hands, but he just wasn't getting volume and he'll get volume in Detroit, especially with Calvin out. Brian Quick had another monster game.

[Mike Wright]

Is he a every week start now.

[Andy Holloway]

At this point you double digits every.

[Mike Wright]

Week for Brian Quick. You have started. Yeah. I think his performance has been surprising and he has just got a connection with Austin Davis. Yeah. And they have San Francisco this week. So you starting him still? I'm still starting Quick.

[Andy Holloway]

I probably am. Of course, everything make depends on your team makeup. But if you picked up Quick, you are probably playing him.

[Mike Wright]

Absolutely. Yeah. He's. He's been really impressive.

[Andy Holloway]

Anybody? Kendall Wright had a. The normal PPR machine but he scored twice. So he had a.

[Mike Wright]

That's not. Yeah, that doesn't happen too often for him. But big week by Kendall Wright. Is he your favorite Tennessee wide receiver?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, he's still Hunter. Hunter had a huge week too, but it was really just that one bomb.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

But Justin Hunter did get the most, I believe. Anyway. I think he had the most snaps of any wide receiver in Tennessee. News kind of broke out before the week ended that he was going to take the starting spot.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Which the. The draft Nick community was very high on. Justin Hunter. I can't say.

[Mike Wright]

A little Alshon Jeffrey Field.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I can't say I was. But now that he's starting, if he maintains that starting spot, he could turn into what people thought he was.

[Mike Wright]

Problem is quarterback position.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. There's a big problem. And there's talk of going to Mettenberg the next couple weeks.

[Mike Wright]

Yep. Oh my. I had to play that because we had multiple players that were killing fantasy teams.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes.

[Mike Wright]

That are now back.

[Andy Holloway]

They are back.

[Mike Wright]

Welcome back, Lacy. Welcome back to Fantasy Relevance. Demarius Thomas. Welcome back. Welcome back, buddy. Demarys Thomas, in a huge way, absolutely humongous games. Demarius Thomas put up two touchdowns, a Denver Bronco record of receiving yards to 26. I think it was and he got a 77 yarder called back. And then Eddie Lacy came out and just really literally put his foot in the ground.

[Andy Holloway]

He gouged. And now I will say this about the good both of them. Thomas. There was for me it was. You were not actually really concerned. There was that I guess that mild doubt growing of maybe there's just too much going on for demarius to get his. His comeuppance. But that's squelch Lacy. I actually still have a decent amount of concern.

[Mike Wright]

Well I was gonna ask you about him. Eddie Lacy or LaShawn McCoy Rest of the way.

[Andy Holloway]

Lacey.

[Mike Wright]

Lacey. Okay so I think okay because Eddie Lacey because so but let me go ahead. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

What I was of the game, the Minnesota game which was a another fantastic Thursday night edition of football. Can we please get rid of Thursday football. And you hate that.

[Mike Wright]

I love it.

[Andy Holloway]

Well here's I love watch football every.

[Mike Wright]

Day of the week.

[Andy Holloway]

I would watch football every day of the week too. Just don't think you want it to be football. The product is not good. And I'm I'm all for.

[Mike Wright]

I think Minnesota in Lambeau is losing that game on Sunday and losing it on Sunday night. It's on Monday night.

[Andy Holloway]

Well if they had played Sunday, Teddy Bridgewater was going to play and that's.

[Mike Wright]

A pretty good point.

[Andy Holloway]

It's going to be different. But my point is let's just go double headers on Monday. It's more fair to the teams like double head. It might not be fair to the east coast people but I live on the west coast so I really don't care.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Who cares about them?

[Andy Holloway]

But anyway, so Lacy, he started the game with two back. Not of another back to back but the same drive yards but they were 30 yard run and 20 iron. And then he did nothing for a very long time. And Green Bay was it. Rodgers was carving them up. He was destroying them. And you could tell that with the way that Christian Ponder, former first round pick Christian Ponder was playing. It was. He was awful. He was playing so poorly that the.

[Mike Wright]

Like how one of our friends said like that they were looking for Kirk Cousins to come in and play in the middle of that game.

[Andy Holloway]

The but the defense quit and you could tell the defense quit when and that's when Lacy really got his damage done. So that would be my only concern about Lacy.

[Mike Wright]

I think. I think that's okay. But I think the reality is the rub on Lacy so far is he was just getting what people gave him or not. Not even that.

[Andy Holloway]

And I think that's still what he got for the most part.

[Mike Wright]

Well, at least he got it. So I was really happy to see what that means for Lacey going forward versus Starks because they said they wanted Starks involved. Starks had as many carries as Lacey in this game, but it was obvious Lacey was the guy that was moving the chains, the guy that was getting in the end zone. So a couple other big weeks you had Peyton back at the top of the quarterback Austin Davis, he's been fantasy relevant. I don't have the guts to start him, but bye weeks coming up. I mean maybe you grab a guy like that if he has a matchup. Although his schedule is brutal. I'm sure you've.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. The Rams schedule does not look good coming up.

[Mike Wright]

So let's.

[Andy Holloway]

And the last one was Russell Wilson.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, he's such a good player.

[Andy Holloway]

How does. How do they ever lose?

[Mike Wright]

We're Cardinal fans. What would you trade for him?

[Andy Holloway]

Couple firsts. It would be a lot. Yeah. I mean he's just so good, so smart. That last. The pasta lynch, where he's scrambling for his life. We thought he was just throwing it out of bounds which would have been huge for Washington at the moment. Just killed the clock and no, it was a, a perfect pass to lynch and he got about 30 yards.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. All right, let's move on to everybody's favorite segment.

[Andy Holloway]

Everybody's pooped in his big boy pants.

[Mike Wright]

Oh my goodness. So let's go through and talk about some players that pooped their big boy pants this week and whether you have any long term concerns over them. Let's do it. Alfred Morris.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh man, he squelched this week. He squelched his drawers.

[Mike Wright]

Well, do we expect much different from him going up against.

[Andy Holloway]

That's. That's no concern.

[Mike Wright]

No long term concern. No.

[Andy Holloway]

He was. Seattle's just so good and I don't know they.

[Mike Wright]

What.

[Andy Holloway]

What about.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, what about CJ Spiller? He had his first non double digit week as Buffalo running back. I would this year.

[Andy Holloway]

I am concerned actually about Spiller.

[Mike Wright]

The little bit of a mirage with the return touchdown. A couple weeks. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And he just. Fred Jackson's playing great. Fred Jackson, he has sprained up. Yeah, he sprained his ankle but I think he's good to go. And the. It's. And that's a similar situation. That's that where that's all about pass protection. Fred Jackson is a much better pass protector than Spiller.

[Mike Wright]

He's also a. The short yardage back and he's the two minute back. Jackson is so you are limiting what Spiller can do on a week to week basis so you're more reliant on the big play.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, you're. You're. When you play him, you're just hoping for a home run. And that's not how I like to rely on my running backs.

[Mike Wright]

How about. Let's. Let me give you some wide receivers here and you tell me worried or not. Okay. Kelvin Benjamin, he's still a wide receiver too.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I'm not really worried about him. Calvin, you have to be concerned with the injury for sure.

[Mike Wright]

Are you bailing on him?

[Andy Holloway]

No, you can't bail. What are you gonna.

[Mike Wright]

What if you're a team sitting at three and you're three and two. Three and two. Two and three and you need. You know, maybe you're two and.

[Andy Holloway]

How about. How about this? Would you trade Calvin Johnson for LaShawn McCoy?

[Mike Wright]

I would. I would trade. Oh, man, that's brutal. No, no.

[Andy Holloway]

You'd keep Calvin.

[Mike Wright]

Well, yeah, I would do that. I mean, because I. Running back Value. I think I would do that trade right now and just buy low on McCoy because both those guys being healthy, you can't do that deal. Right.

[Andy Holloway]

I mean, the deal is not that bad because, I mean, if you're looking at draft position, Shady's a top three back, but then Calvin's a top seven pick usually.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So.

[Andy Holloway]

So it's.

[Mike Wright]

Would you do that?

[Andy Holloway]

As far as value, I. I'm a running back guy. Where. I think you can find wide receivers. Where. There. Where there's. There's people who think the exact opposite of me. Where they think you can find running backs, which is, I guess, somewhat true because running backs get hurt so much, but I prefer to have the. The running back.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, so you're. Yeah, that's. That's another interesting question because he. He's not on our list of guys that pooped their big boy pants this week, but he has been all year long. And Shady.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

And he had, you know, he had an okay. The week. This week, no touchdowns, 80 yards rushing. He.

[Andy Holloway]

He barely made it to the bathroom. He made it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, but just barely.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. That was a. He was prepping while running. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

That was really close. He was tempted. Long term concern over Brandon Marshall and his low numbers last few weeks.

[Andy Holloway]

No.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't think so.

[Mike Wright]

They did say they wanted to target him more. Michael Crabtree.

[Andy Holloway]

I have Crab. I have Crabtree stock. And I'm concerned. Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Is he a panic alarm guy? Is. Because he is to me.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

For where he was Drafted. I think Crabtree cannot be somebody you rely on as a. Because he's borderline wide receiver one. Right.

[Andy Holloway]

When he's fully healthy.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

Not. Let's see where. I think I got him the fourth or fifth round, but I. So he's not drafted. He's not drafted as a one, but he's this foot problem. He's had bad feet.

[Mike Wright]

I just hate the 49ers too.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I hate that, too. But when. When they're clicking Kaepernick to Crabtree is really unstoppable. But there's this foot thing is a. I'm very concerned for his foot.

[Mike Wright]

Well, let's. I'm gonna go through these real quick so we can get to our waiver wire segment. But worried or not ready. I'm ready for this. Pierre Garcon.

[Andy Holloway]

I am worried. No.

[Mike Wright]

Roddy White.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. I'm. I have concern for that entire.

[Mike Wright]

Keenan Allen.

[Andy Holloway]

Keenan Allen, yes.

[Mike Wright]

Worried. Percy Harvin.

[Andy Holloway]

No, I'm not worried for. Because of what I think he is. Where he's a low end. Wide receiver 2. Wide receiver 3.

[Mike Wright]

All right, last one for you, Larry Danelle. Oh, put up a. This is brutal. Right?

[Andy Holloway]

Goose.

[Mike Wright]

The goose is what happens when titans break out. They break out and then they break.

[Andy Holloway]

Back in, and I. I'm not worried about him.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

But that was.

[Mike Wright]

That. That's brutal. You think you got a guy that's just out of this world and then.

[Andy Holloway]

Because he was.

[Mike Wright]

I know. But then the defense adjusts and he doesn't. He only got one target. That was the other thing. Got one target and he dropped it. So let's move on here.

[Andy Holloway]

Put me in, coach. Let's go. Say real quick.

[Mike Wright]

He doesn't seem to.

[Andy Holloway]

Dinelle does not seem to have the best hands. If you watched the Washington game where he scored three times, he missed a couple. No, it wasn't that he missed them, but they're. They're not like he doesn't go up and snatch the ball. It's. I kind of pat the ball, juggle it a couple times, then I catch it. So his. His hands don't seem to be great.

[Mike Wright]

We have not seen enough of him to put him into that top tier category yet.

[Andy Holloway]

No, for sure not.

[Mike Wright]

So put me in, coach. Let's talk about waiver wire pickups. It is your number one waiver wire pickup.

[Andy Holloway]

It is a huge waiver.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. This is where we want to really help you out. I mean, we want to give you guys that are worth signing and not just, you know, blow the waiver Wire smoke up your butt.

[Andy Holloway]

So we have grabbed the, the, the waiver priority as brought to us by fantasy pros and we will evaluate to.

[Mike Wright]

See if just we agree.

[Andy Holloway]

We personally agree or not.

[Mike Wright]

So the consensus number one player from fantasy fantasypros.com is Ronnie Hillman.

[Andy Holloway]

It is.

[Mike Wright]

Do you agree with that?

[Andy Holloway]

Here's, here's what I will say is of any of these guys because I think ball is out for a long time and even when he comes back he wasn't playing great. So do the, the Broncos really say okay hey Monty Ball, you're back, you're. You're the full time running back again even though you were not doing that.

[Mike Wright]

Well and we know the running back in Denver is going to produce.

[Andy Holloway]

So Ronnie of any of the guys available is a long term solution. That's I think that's why he has to be the number one guy.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, that makes sense.

[Andy Holloway]

It's. He's not could be along. He's not a band Aid. He is a, he's a potential roster changing acquire.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that makes sense. It does. Do you feel like that's not the case with someone like Brandon Oliver?

[Andy Holloway]

No, it can't be.

[Mike Wright]

Is that just based on Ryan Matthews going to come back or do you.

[Andy Holloway]

Think that yeah, Ryan Matthews will come back. Donald Brown has been highly ineffective but he's going to come back. You it. Oliver has. I don't know if he can be that full time guy and the he did he put up huge numbers on the jets who are known for their run defense. But there was some, the jets had some injuries on their line and it's which I think contributed to all of the breakout his success. I still like him because I think.

[Mike Wright]

For he's my number one waiver.

[Andy Holloway]

He's.

[Mike Wright]

And that's because I think I'm looking, I'm not looking at any of these guys as long term fixes.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

And so because of that I think I like Oliver a little bit more than Hillman over the next three or four games.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. And we both of us do have that the, the win now mentality of.

[Mike Wright]

But if you're going to blow a waiver wire position.

[Andy Holloway]

Right. But it's Brandon Oliver's playing Oakland next.

[Mike Wright]

Right, Exactly.

[Andy Holloway]

So if you're talking about just, just next week and I mean depending unless you're five and oh, I mean you got to win next week and then guess what, there's going to be more guys in the waiver wire likely. So I can agree with Oliver. I think, I think my number one guy would be Andre Williams if he's available for the Giants.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. I love Andre Williams. I love that they trust giving him the ball.

[Andy Holloway]

I have been a big proponent of him all year, so I can't back off now after I've been.

[Mike Wright]

Just called. You said the injury was coming. Yeah, injury came and now Andre Williams has got his opportunity and I think.

[Andy Holloway]

He'S going to succeed. He. He doesn't have the greatest pass catching ability, but he's going to get the work and he's going to get the goal line.

[Mike Wright]

Well, and their line is. Yeah, I mean, I think Rashad Jennings has had an impressive yards per carry so far this year, as well as the workload.

[Andy Holloway]

So it's.

[Mike Wright]

It's opportunity there then.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, so. And that's what. It's all volume and I don't know if Oliver is going to get the volume. Donald Brown could be back this week.

[Mike Wright]

Right.

[Andy Holloway]

And they gave Donald Brown a lot of money. So it's. It's not.

[Mike Wright]

It's not often so ranked those three. What's your rank?

[Andy Holloway]

Williams is my number one because he's. He. I think he's going to be big time for a couple weeks. Oliver, man, I just, I have not. I'm gonna go Williams, Oliver, Hillman. Because I just can't say with 100% certainty that I think Hillman's the guy. I mean, if. For.

[Mike Wright]

With Williams, Oliver, Hillman, like.

[Andy Holloway]

And if you remember. So it was the two years ago when McGahey was dominating for Denver and then he went down with the broken leg and there was this mad scramble for everyone to grab Hillman and it was no Moreno. And then there was just kind of this really small buzz of where Denver was saying, I think was Denver Post or somebody was saying, we think that Moreno is going to get the play. And if you were one of those.

[Mike Wright]

I was.

[Andy Holloway]

If you were one of those, one of those Moreno forward thinkers who, who thought. Who. Who realized that because it was a small. It was a much smaller amount of people who went with Moreno instead of Hillman.

[Mike Wright]

Right. And that's why. That's why I said if it were up to me, I'd take the risk on C.J. anderson out of that backfield.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay. So rank these wide receivers.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Justin Hunter, Devonta Adams, Odell Beckham Jr.

[Mike Wright]

For me, it's Devontae Adams at the top of that list. With Boykin getting injured and Adams in and of itself, he was taking reps anyways. So I think he also scored this week. He did score this week. So I Think for me it is Adams, Hunter, Beckham. Beckham is fine. Beckham is a hot name this week because he scored as well. But there are. It's not like he is taking over for an injured player. You have Doneel, you have Cruz, you have Randall, you have Parker, you have Beckham coming into that situation off of an injury. So for me, rookie wide receiver, he's worth a flyer and you know 12 team leagues are higher for sure. But for me I rank them Adams, Hunter and that's pretty close between those two. And then Beckham, a third option there.

[Andy Holloway]

I think I would. Man. If you have. I'll say this. If you have Cobb or Nelson, Devonte is my top wide receiver priority for sure.

[Mike Wright]

You're going to handcuff those guys?

[Andy Holloway]

I am.

[Mike Wright]

Would you ever start them both if.

[Andy Holloway]

If I have Cobb and Nelson on my team?

[Mike Wright]

No, I'm. No, no. I mean if you have one of those guys in Devonte, Adams.

[Andy Holloway]

Unlikely. But the. What's. When you're talking about ceilings, I suppose of just standalone value with if no situation changes, Hunter has to have the highest ceiling value. But if Nelson or Cobb goes down and you have Adams, I mean I don't handcuff all the time and handcuffing wide receiver seems strange but when you're talking Green Bay's pass happy offense with Aaron Rodgers one of the best quarterbacks in the game, you saw that that.

[Mike Wright]

Was effective last year. If you were a Nelson owner and you had Boykin.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

Boykin came in the same type of situation you're talking about.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And we're starting to get into it where you might want to protect yourself just a little bit.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Let's pick a couple names off this list too. One that jumps out to me because you want guys that have the potential to win your league for you.

[Andy Holloway]

High ceiling.

[Mike Wright]

High ceiling, long term ceiling. Couple names that stick out that have both of those things. For me, at the top of that list is actually Storm Johnson of Jacksonville and that's because the potential for a guy to be an every down back for the remainder of the year, not just an injury fill in is there for Storm Johnson. He's a rookie. He. The coaching staff's impressed with him. Toby Gerhardt is a horrible running back.

[Andy Holloway]

He's also hurt now and is also hurt.

[Mike Wright]

And Denard Robinson is a miniature man and so. Well, I mean he's got. He's got the same issues the Dexter McCluster would have if he's gonna be in every down back so. So Storm Johnson's at the top of that list, if you have room on your bench to stash a guy, I'm not saying he's gonna be all world. That team is underwhelming. But he is a guy that is a rookie. He has upside. Another guy is the bewildering Anton Smith.

[Andy Holloway]

I was just going to say I would much rather take the flyer on.

[Mike Wright]

Anton Smith, and that's fine with me. Anton Smith, though, is coming into where he has to supplant Stephen Jackson, Devonte Freeman, and who am I forgetting?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he's. I think he's ahead of Freeman.

[Mike Wright]

Okay, but jock quiz is still. Quiz is still. And so, yeah. Anton Smith, though, has got. He's averaging something like 17 yards of carry, and he's got four touchdowns of 38 yards or more this year. So I'd be terrified to play that man, though, on my team.

[Andy Holloway]

I just said I don't like to bank on home runs from my running.

[Mike Wright]

Back, but it's the D Jacks.

[Andy Holloway]

But he does it.

[Mike Wright]

He does it every week, so.

[Andy Holloway]

And the. Oh, the. An interesting number that was tweeted out by Mike Clay, I believe was Stephen Jackson has 295 yards on 72 touches on the. The other three running backs combined on 74 touches. How many yards do you think that they have?

[Mike Wright]

I don't know. It's gonna be like 4 or 500 yards.

[Andy Holloway]

572.

[Mike Wright]

They like Steven Jackson. They like watching him rumble around and then fall down. I don't know what it is. It's the dreadlocks flapping against his gigantic body.

[Andy Holloway]

He's just. Ah, man, I loved Steven Jackson so much.

[Mike Wright]

I don't blame them giving him the ball at the goal line. But if you want to wake that team up a little bit, you're gonna have to mix it up. And that team's fighting for in a division that is winnable. Mm. So Anton Smith, man, I. It's hard, like you said, to put stock in. Boom. But if they give him. Let's say they give him 10 carries a game, isn't his odds of doing that gonna just go up?

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, I don't. I. I don't see.

[Mike Wright]

He probably puts all his energy into that one play a game, and now.

[Andy Holloway]

It'S not gonna work out. It's just crazy that he's not getting more touches.

[Mike Wright]

It is. But you do see this with certain guys. I mean, it's a trust factor, right? I mean, it's kind of the McKinnon situation to Asiata. It's very similar in that McKinnon is explosive. You have high, big play potential. Nobody debates that. His yards per carry is going to be hired now. Ziata.

[Andy Holloway]

Right.

[Mike Wright]

So why is Ozzy out of play?

[Andy Holloway]

Well, because he's young and pass protection and I don't. Anton Smith has. Has done it since last year.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, he's young though, too, so.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he's young, but just saying. I've seen him do it several times. To the house.

[Mike Wright]

To the house again this week. 74 yard touchdown pass. So we ready to move on?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, let's move on. Start of the week.

[Mike Wright]

All right.

[Andy Holloway]

This should really be starts.

[Mike Wright]

I know.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, are we bringing back Snart? The snart of the week?

[Mike Wright]

Those are my guys. Yeah, I have the snarts, you have the starts. I forgot about that. You're bringing back bad memories from the last podcast. Or good ones. Who's your start of the week?

[Andy Holloway]

So my quarterback. My quarterback start of the week is old pucker face, sad face, neutral face.

[Mike Wright]

Eli Manning, you like him this week.

[Andy Holloway]

He's going. They, their, their offense has been doing quite well and they're coming up against the Eagles who just got torched.

[Mike Wright]

The Eagles by secondary is disgusting right now.

[Andy Holloway]

The Eagles, I like that.

[Mike Wright]

I like that star right there.

[Andy Holloway]

The Eagles have been doing okay because of their special teams. They're blocking punts. If they can block three punts for touchdowns, then they might actually win some games. I guess they won this week, but.

[Mike Wright]

They'Re the one of the worst four in one teams that I can remember in terms of one. That's what I mean. Eli Manning, a great start this week. My quarterback start is Joe Flacco.

[Andy Holloway]

Joe Flacco.

[Mike Wright]

Joe Flacco. He's going up against the Buccaneers. And I just, you know, that's another defense that is struggling this year despite its, you know, the reputation of its head coach. So Joe Flacco is a start for me. If you're looking for a guy to step in and perform for you, who's your running back of the week?

[Andy Holloway]

My running back start of the week is. He came back strong. I don't like to say this at all, but it's Benjamin Tate.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, Ben.

[Andy Holloway]

The Cleveland Browns are playing the Steelers. And the Steelers just. They're having lineback. They had to ring back James Harrison, for crying out loud.

[Mike Wright]

Tate, man, he.

[Andy Holloway]

And he's looked. He's looked good.

[Mike Wright]

Their offensive line can run the ball. We've seen it with three different running backs.

[Andy Holloway]

Cleveland's line is amazing. So it's whoever gets the carries there is Going to produce.

[Mike Wright]

This is a. I love this as a start because this is a huge game for the Cleveland Browns. You are at home against the division rival. If you don't win this game, your chances of competing in this division go down the train.

[Andy Holloway]

That's true. So I didn't even factor that in. I just was.

[Mike Wright]

No, I mean that just even adds to him as a great start. So if you're deciding between a couple guys and you have been Tate, I love it. For me, it is a risky start here. I'd go so far as to call it a snart because. Oh, oh, I see Joy Bell.

[Andy Holloway]

That is a snart.

[Mike Wright]

But I think he is. This is the week with Reggie Bush hobbled and him. Joy Bell is obviously. If Joke Bell does not pass the concussion protocol and is not playing, please do not take my advice. But I think he will. I'm pretty confident he will. And I think this week is a great week to go Vikings. He's going against the Vikings, but he catches passes when he's playing and he is the better between the tackles runner and so I like him this week.

[Andy Holloway]

I will say that as bold because he has not been very good.

[Mike Wright]

Well, you know, when you're concussed, that makes it harder.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah. But I'm just in over the season and the Vikings. The Vikings defense is actually okay.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, it is.

[Andy Holloway]

And there will be less.

[Mike Wright]

We'll come back here and call me.

[Andy Holloway]

Out if I'm just saying that there's less and there'll be less strain on the defense because Bridgewater is not Christian.

[Mike Wright]

Ponder and everyone's thankful for that. My wide receiver is Tori Smith. Isn't that crazy? Had you seen that on my sheet here?

[Andy Holloway]

No, but I just.

[Mike Wright]

Painful.

[Andy Holloway]

I just barfed in my mouth.

[Mike Wright]

I know. I think that this is the week because now Flacco is my quarterback start. I think they're going to force feed Smith a little bit to get him back on track and he's got the defense that he's facing to do it. So I would expect probably five catches for over 100 yards in a touchdown this week from Torrey Smith. What are you talking about now? You heard me. We'll come back next week.

[Andy Holloway]

Scroll through my Twitter here. I wish I could find the stat because somebody just tweeted out about how he's in. He's catching like 40 something percent of his targets.

[Mike Wright]

Hey, they don't pay me the big money to make conservative start call.

[Andy Holloway]

We get. We get paid the same.

[Mike Wright]

We both get paid the big Money.

[Andy Holloway]

And we could actually take a hundred percent raise and still get paid the same.

[Mike Wright]

All right, who's yours? I got my bold, bold start. I think yours is pretty bold. My size, pretty bold.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm going. Yeah. I'll admit part of me is a little bit of a homer on this.

[Mike Wright]

One, but Michael Floyd tell everyone that stat you told me.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, Michael Floyd has. Of receivers who are playing 50% of the snaps. He has had the lowest amount of catchable passes. He has had 12 catchable passes.

[Mike Wright]

How many of those did he catch?

[Andy Holloway]

He has caught all 12.

[Mike Wright]

He is a great wide receiver.

[Andy Holloway]

He is very good.

[Mike Wright]

But he has not had opportunities because the quarterback play in Arizona has been.

[Andy Holloway]

Correct all over the line has been horrendous. And I will I.

[Mike Wright]

Is this contingent upon Carson Palmer returning or is this just a start, no.

[Andy Holloway]

Matter what, Contingent on one of those two guys coming back?

[Mike Wright]

I think Palmer or Stanton, I think.

[Andy Holloway]

One of them is going to play if Weapon X Logan Thomas comes in with his 90 mile an hour check passes.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. His heaters.

[Andy Holloway]

Have you. Did you see him throwing the ball at his running back?

[Mike Wright]

Little hard. Little Derek Anderson inside of him.

[Andy Holloway]

Just ease up a little bit, man.

[Mike Wright]

Touch.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, he's probably a little excited, but. And if you look at the. If you believe in patterns, Michael Floyd was huge. Terrible, Huge, terrible. So all signs point to a huge game.

[Mike Wright]

Ah, I like it. He is a super talented receiver. Just needs targets and needs he also another stat for him is he is the leader in the league in terms of losing my mind here. Yards, distance of a catch, longest catch.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

So he's averaging something like 23 yards a catch.

[Andy Holloway]

So the. And it's.

[Mike Wright]

They're.

[Andy Holloway]

They're at home. They're playing the Redskins. The Redskins defense is abysmal. Awful.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

So.

[Mike Wright]

Well, not up front, but secondary is pretty bad. So tight ends, we have. Oh, you're going Baltimore as well.

[Andy Holloway]

I jumped on the bandwagon.

[Mike Wright]

So Owen Daniels.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I like Owen Daniels. He had a pretty good week. And this is just one of those hunch weeks where. Because I like Joe Flacco a lot this week too, but I don't know, I just. I have that.

[Mike Wright]

I like it.

[Andy Holloway]

I have that gut feeling that he's going to score a touchdown. I know fantasy people really like their analysts to say, I feel it in my gut.

[Mike Wright]

And you do.

[Andy Holloway]

But you know what? Sometimes you got to play from the gut.

[Mike Wright]

There you go. And you got the Ravens defense.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, yeah. Buccaneers.

[Mike Wright]

Buccaneers offense. Yeah, I like it. And then my tight end and defense Are Delaney Walker, which is kind of, you know, it's kind of a. Not a high risk in terms of.

[Andy Holloway]

But wait, who are they playing? The Jaguars? Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. I think he's a really good start against the Jags and then the Patriots defense against Buffalo.

[Andy Holloway]

That is. That is interesting.

[Mike Wright]

Bolts are there. It's in Buffalo. But I just don't think that this is going to be a good game for the Bills. The secondary in New England is number one in the league. Kyle Orton is okay. He's much better than E.J. manuel, but I just don't see them moving the ball. The Patriots, which you're not allowed to disagree with me.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I'm just going to say that.

[Mike Wright]

Sorry. No, we're moving on.

[Andy Holloway]

Is clearly obvious if you watch the game that if the offensive line holds up, Tom Brady is still okay, but. So I don't know if the offensive line is going to be able to hold up against Buffalo.

[Mike Wright]

How's that going to affect the Patriots defense?

[Andy Holloway]

I'm just talking about in. In terms of game.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, specified.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. Well, do you like the Patriots defense at Buffalo? Because I do.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah.

[Mike Wright]

They're my start of the week, maybe.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we. Moving on. We are introducing a new segment which we don't have a super awesome sound bite. I apologize for that. But I think. I think this could take over as the new favorite segment of the week.

[Mike Wright]

There you go.

[Andy Holloway]

I really like it. We're calling it.

[Mike Wright]

What are we doing?

[Andy Holloway]

We're calling it the Fantasy Footballers versus the World.

[Mike Wright]

Wow. That's us versus the world.

[Andy Holloway]

So what we're going to do, it's basically a start sit game, but we're gonna play where we. I tried to pick five difficult choices.

[Mike Wright]

That owners have to make and then.

[Andy Holloway]

We are going to check our analysis and we're going to see what the fantasy pro's consensus was. Because if you jump on fantasy pros, you can do this to your heart's content. You should say, should I start or sit X versus Y. And then they will tell you which fantasy experts agree or disagree.

[Mike Wright]

And there's over 100 experts on there. So we will give our opinions and we'll see what the expert opinion is and you can choose whether to go with us or with them.

[Andy Holloway]

So first matchup here, number one, Golden Tate versus Minnesota or Kelvin Benjamin versus the Bengals.

[Mike Wright]

Golden Tate all the way. Golden Tate all the way for me.

[Andy Holloway]

Because Calvin's not going to play.

[Mike Wright]

Because Calvin's probably not going to play.

[Andy Holloway]

And let's say Calvin Johnson plays.

[Mike Wright]

It's still golden tape for me.

[Andy Holloway]

I am going to. I'm actually going to lean Calvin Benjamin.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

I think the last week was a. Just a little blip. And the. I don't know. The.

[Mike Wright]

Both on the road.

[Andy Holloway]

They're both. And the Bengals, man, I just. What happened.

[Mike Wright]

They're the Bengals. That's what that meant to me. They're still the Bengals.

[Andy Holloway]

You had two weeks. I know, to get ready for that game.

[Mike Wright]

And that's. See, that's what happens in the playoffs to them too. So as we look onto fantasypros.com I think our disagreement is pretty close on there. We've got 56% of experts agree with me and say to go with golden Tate, while 44% have Kelvin Benjamin. So.

[Andy Holloway]

But that's.

[Mike Wright]

That's pretty close.

[Andy Holloway]

That's good for the game because we have not looked at these percentages, by the way.

[Mike Wright]

No, we haven't.

[Andy Holloway]

And so I was just. I looked at ones that I thought were close.

[Mike Wright]

We're going to end up close. Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

And that. That is pretty close.

[Mike Wright]

Right on. So the second one here that we got is reuben randall. Ooh. Versus philadelphia or brian quick, the up and comer versus the 49ers.

[Andy Holloway]

The en fuego Brian Quick.

[Mike Wright]

This is a tough one. What do you. Who do you.

[Andy Holloway]

This, this is a ridiculous one. I was. I've kind of been on that Reuben Randall bandwagon. Why he just touched down. I don't know.

[Mike Wright]

It's obviously you're picking him here.

[Andy Holloway]

This is a really, really hard one. And the. The 49ers, the. The DB's. You get Reuben Randall, you gotta leave Philadelphia so bad.

[Mike Wright]

So you're gone.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I flip flopped right in the middle of the. Of my Reuben Randall.

[Mike Wright]

Boy, this is a tough one for me. I'll go ahead and agree with you on Ruben Randall, although it's really close. But I.

[Andy Holloway]

But this one is close.

[Mike Wright]

Okay.

[Andy Holloway]

Reuben Randall, 52%.

[Mike Wright]

Wow.

[Andy Holloway]

To Brian Quick's 48%.

[Mike Wright]

See, one of the nice things about using fantasy pros for this too is if you've got experts that you agree with and you like, you actually get to see what they choose individually too. So if you are a fan of. I think you. You're talking about Mike. Mike Clay earlier. You can go on and see who Mike Clay thinks is better between these two because they just compare the rankings. So that is another good decision by you. A very close one. We both went with Reuben Randall over Brian Quick this week.

[Andy Holloway]

Moving on to number three. Number three. Frank Gore versus the Rams or Andre Ellington. Versus Washington.

[Mike Wright]

Whoo. Well done on this choice here. This is. This is tough. I am going to go with Frank Gore.

[Andy Holloway]

Really?

[Mike Wright]

Yes, I know. I think you were expecting me to say Andre Ellington. I think Ellington's week last week was obviously to find. I mean he's a. A great player, but he had two touchdowns and they were both.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, one of them was that. You don't like me calling things fluky, but the passing long touchdown was Logan Thomas. I mean that throw was.

[Mike Wright]

80 yard touchdown was.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't know how the defense had magical powers.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah.

[Andy Holloway]

There was a. There was a window of one by one and it fell. Fit right in the window. And I think the defense couldn't believe that it fit through the window and they kind of stopped and Ellington ran it in and his other touchdown was off of a turnover where they were just right there. And for me, Ellington's not usually a touchdown guy.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, for me it's just a matter of. I think Gore will score this week and I think that the 49ers have had success the last two weeks because they've gotten back to the run game. So I'm going to take Gore against the Rams after.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm gonna go with Ellington because of just seeing what. Not. Not just one week, but this is fresh memory of what lynch was able to do catching the ball against Washington yesterday. Was he. He was pretty nice. And that's what Ellington does. He. They pretend he can run up between the tackles, but he can't. I don't. Why do we continue to pretend he can do that?

[Mike Wright]

I think it. Yeah, it's that keep them off.

[Andy Holloway]

But anyways.

[Mike Wright]

So let's. Let's take a look at the experts who have Frank Gore at 56% over Andre Ellington. So 56% of effort of experts believe Gore will have a better week. As do I. If you agree with Mike, go ahead and start Ellington. See where that gets you.

[Andy Holloway]

If you like to win.

[Mike Wright]

That gets you.

[Andy Holloway]

If you like to win. He'll go with me.

[Mike Wright]

I like this next one. You got Ben Tate against Pittsburgh. Who's your start of the week. So if you abandon him now, I will call you out on that.

[Andy Holloway]

I actually did. I had not factored that into this. I didn't do my starts of the week pick.

[Mike Wright]

There you go. And then this Ben Tate against Pittsburgh or on the Thursday night game, Ahmad Bradshaw vs.

[Andy Holloway]

The Texans Thursday night people. Thursday night blowouts.

[Mike Wright]

Oh, who do you got? You've got Ben Tate.

[Andy Holloway]

I have to go with Ben Tate because I already said Ben Tate. Shoot.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I. I'm gonna lean Ben Tate, too. I have no clue. I have a feeling the experts are gonna go the other direction, but let's go ahead and take a look. Wow. I am very wrong. 86% of experts have Ben Tate.

[Andy Holloway]

Oh, I thought you were gonna say over the.

[Mike Wright]

No, 86% have been Tate over Ahmad Bradshaw. Probably has a lot to do with Houston's stout defense of late. They had a good performance last week. Interesting. 86% think tape. I do as well.

[Andy Holloway]

I think the Colts are going to mop the floor.

[Mike Wright]

You think it's gonna happen?

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I don't think it's gonna be close.

[Mike Wright]

That's funny.

[Andy Holloway]

And so Bradshaw getting a couple of his dump touchdowns would not surprise me at all.

[Mike Wright]

All right, let's go to our last one of the fantasy footballers versus the world, Michael Floyd.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, I apologize. This was.

[Mike Wright]

He was also your start of the week, Andre Johnson.

[Andy Holloway]

Well, I'm going Michael Floyd.

[Mike Wright]

I would side with Andre Johnson on this one. He's been getting targets, just not performing and not getting touchdowns. So I'm going to Take Andre Johnson vs. Indianapolis on Thursday night, and the.

[Andy Holloway]

Consensus is Michael Floyd.

[Mike Wright]

Michael Floyd. What's the percentage? Cool.

[Andy Holloway]

But, I mean, that's at least good. Well, I guess the. The Ben Tate one was not close.

[Mike Wright]

But the other four, yeah, those were pretty tough decisions. Remember, you can go on and check anybody like he said you could. Like Mike said, you can go on. And if it's Larry Fitzgerald versus desean Jackson, you want to go see what the experts have to say.

[Andy Holloway]

And you can actually filter it from standard PPR and half ppr.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, that's very convenient. So it's a nice tool because I know as a fantasy owner, for me, I always want somebody to validate my decision on Twitter. We look around online because you like to get that bump of confidence when your gut tells you to do something. And so you can go on there and like, if your gut was saying, hey, let's start Ben Tate this week, hey, you go on to fantasybros.com and you get a little pat on the back.

[Andy Holloway]

If you were thinking about start a Ben Tate, you are correct.

[Mike Wright]

There you go. That's what that means.

[Andy Holloway]

You are Ben Tate, number one running back of all time.

[Mike Wright]

That's right. If you. If you don't get performance this week from him, it's not your fault. It is the expert's fault. So let's go to our final section here. Before we close it down, let's answer some questions from you, our faithful Listeners.

[Andy Holloway]

Absolutely. Number one on the board.

[Mike Wright]

You got the emails pulled up?

[Andy Holloway]

I sure do. Kind of. They're kind of pulled up. Let me get them.

[Mike Wright]

Pull them up. All right, we got any. Any good questions.

[Andy Holloway]

First one from Jeremy in Arizona. He says, should I trade Kaepernick and Greg Olson for Jay Cutler and James Jones?

[Mike Wright]

Colin Kaepernick, Greg Olson for Cutler and James Jones. That is a big fat no for me.

[Andy Holloway]

That is a big fat no for me as well.

[Mike Wright]

The.

[Andy Holloway]

I love Cutler. I've loved him all year. He's been doing.

[Mike Wright]

He sucks.

[Andy Holloway]

He's been doing well. He does.

[Mike Wright]

He's a fantasy. He's a good fantasy quarterback this year.

[Andy Holloway]

Love, turn the ball over.

[Mike Wright]

I can't stand him as a real life quarterback.

[Andy Holloway]

And Kaepernick has been okay. But Greg Olson. The difference between Cutler decepernick is. And James Jones has actually played well. We've kind of. We forgot about him because he was on a bye week. But I'd rather have Greg Olson. The tight end is tumultuous at the bed. You're laughing. What is going on?

[Mike Wright]

I'm laughing because I'm seeing the next email that's in here that says ask the question and I want to ask it to you. Do you drop Michael Floyd to sign Ruben Randall? And I'm laughing because Michael Floyd has been. Is your start of the week and he's also your.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay, here's. Here's what happened. I don't control these things. Well.

[Mike Wright]

No, I mean the emails are the emails.

[Andy Holloway]

Michael Floyd is the best wide receiver in the universe.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. So clearly you do not drop him for Ruben Randall. Huh?

[Andy Holloway]

No. Here's why. I guess that's a legitimate. You at least have to ask because he's been. He's had three just stinkers duds. I mean, and they're bad. And who knows what's going on with the quarterback.

[Mike Wright]

But Palmer, you don't bail on him now, though.

[Andy Holloway]

I don't.

[Mike Wright]

That's my dude. That's my thought is I don't bail on Michael Floyd. And a lot of that has to do with depth chart to me. Like Reuben Randall on the depth chart to me versus Michael Floyd. Floyd's probably the number one in Arizona.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, I think so.

[Mike Wright]

That's where that decision comes to me. So sorry to cut off your hyping.

[Andy Holloway]

That's all right.

[Mike Wright]

Let's go ahead and look at one from Mark W. From.

[Andy Holloway]

Where's he from?

[Mike Wright]

Let's see. He's from Pittsburgh. So we've got. Is this a trade Question.

[Andy Holloway]

Yes. Yes.

[Mike Wright]

Okay. So it's a big trade, big trade question. Calvin Megatron Johnson and Hopkins from Houston, who's been hot. Yeah. Were hot from Hopkins. DeAndre Hopkins. Calvin Johnson for Steve Smith. Niles Paul and Rashad Jennings. Do you do that deal if you are the Megatron Hopkins owner, Do you trade those two guys for Steve Smith? Niles Paul.

[Andy Holloway]

No Niles Paul.

[Mike Wright]

Neither do I, by the way.

[Andy Holloway]

Is. I mean, Hopkins has been great and just for the other side. Steve Smith, too, has been very strong. I don't. I think he kind of tailors off. I don't think he can keep up the pace. Niles Paul is going to lose his job to Jordan Reed, most likely. And as soon as this. Yeah, it might be this week, might be next week. However, Jordan Reed likes to get hurts and Rashad Jennings is already hurt. So this is a bunch of.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. A bunch of injured guests work. So I don't know, but probably stay pat.

[Andy Holloway]

The best player in the deal is Calvin Johnson. I usually like to have the best player in the deal, so I'm going to keep Calvin Johnson.

[Mike Wright]

I like it. Yeah, keep. Keep your best players and then sign some good ones off of waiver wire.

[Andy Holloway]

All right, we got one. One last question from Jason. Jason did not put a location, so we will. Jason from the web will put him in a cave. A cave.

[Mike Wright]

Jason from a cave.

[Andy Holloway]

Jason from a cave under the earth.

[Mike Wright]

That's why he needs our help.

[Andy Holloway]

Which is surprising that he has wi fi signal down there.

[Mike Wright]

But he is.

[Andy Holloway]

He has asked, should I trade Pierre Thomas for Kendall Wright? Now? Talk about two sell high guys.

[Mike Wright]

That's Pierre Thomas.

[Andy Holloway]

Pierre Thomas.

[Mike Wright]

I wasn't sure when I saw this email whether it was Pierre Garcon.

[Andy Holloway]

No, it's Pierre Thomas.

[Mike Wright]

Would I trade Pierre Thomas for Kendall Wright? No, I like Pierre Thomas. I think Pierre Thomas is deceptively valuable in fantasy football because he is a guy that can go out and give you a boom game and he generally catches enough passes if you're in a half ppr. PPR league to be relevant. Now, if you're.

[Andy Holloway]

Here's something to factor in. The Saints are on by this week. Let's say. Let's say you need to win this week.

[Mike Wright]

The Saints are on by. You need to win. Well, I think it's close enough where you can make that deal if you need to.

[Andy Holloway]

Okay.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. So to answer that question, if you're filling out a flex position and you got to get a guy to start. Sure.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah. And I'm. I like. I like Pierre Thomas. But he's just. He is so inconsistent. Mark Ingram's coming back from his hand injury, allegedly right after the bye week. What does that do with his Cadet back to the bench, or does Cadet keep playing? Do they have four running backs now? The Saints care less about your fantasy team than Bill Belichick, which is hard to do.

[Mike Wright]

We're on to Cincinnati. That was my run. We're on Cincinnati.

[Andy Holloway]

Where? Why are we going to Cincinnati?

[Mike Wright]

Well, on to Cincinnati.

[Andy Holloway]

And they were.

[Mike Wright]

They were.

[Andy Holloway]

And they were big time.

[Mike Wright]

I'm pretty happy with how we played. I'm pretty. I'm pretty pleased.

[Andy Holloway]

Did you see the. There is a. I wanted to score more points, but there's a viral. Viral Image going of 15. There's a new Rob Lowe campaign for DirecTV.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah, I've seen that.

[Andy Holloway]

Where they don't want you to be the unattractive Rob Lowe with the comb over who strikes a strong resemblance to.

[Mike Wright]

A Bill Belichick with the few hairs flopping over the top of the head.

[Andy Holloway]

If you haven't seen it, look it up. It's pretty funny.

[Mike Wright]

Ron to Cincinnati.

[Andy Holloway]

This is how you should do the whole show.

[Mike Wright]

Ron to Cincinnati.

[Andy Holloway]

Hey, hey, Andy. Should I trade Pierre Thomas for Kendall Wright?

[Mike Wright]

We're on to Cincinnati.

[Andy Holloway]

There it is. All right, so let's conclude the show. Like I said, we're the Fantasy Footballers. I hope you enjoyed the show because we like to make it.

[Mike Wright]

Yeah. Send in your questions. We're happy to help.

[Andy Holloway]

You can send them to the fantasy footballersmail.com.

[Mike Wright]

That'S right. You can also visit us on the web at the Fantasy Footballer Doctor. Subscribe to us on itunes. Help us move up the podcast ranks.

[Andy Holloway]

Yeah, drop a review on there.

[Mike Wright]

Drop a review on there. Yeah. Let us know what you like and we will be back next week with more tips and information for you to win a fantasy football league. I'm Andy. We're on a. I know.

[Andy Holloway]

I'm Mike. Thanks, everybody. Thank you for listening to another edition of the Fantasy Footballers podcast.