
Week 2 begins tonight and The Fantasy Footballers are back with a new episode to help lead you to victory! After a Thursday Night Football preview on yesterday’s show, get a fantasy preview of a handful of Sunday matchups! Plus, big-time injury news and
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Mike Wright
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Jason Moore
Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast coming to you from pristineauction.com studios with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.
Andy Holloway
Oh, welcome in. Welcome to the show the Fantasy Footballers. Back again, I'm Andy Holloway, joined as always by Mike the Fantasy Hitman Wright. Jason Moore is here. It's Thursday, September 12th. We've got football tonight.
Mike Wright
Yes.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, it's gonna be great.
Mike Wright
And honestly, it's been too long since the last time I watched football.
Andy Holloway
That's fair. That's fair. It's been a whole days. It's been a whole number.
Mike Wright
Like I said, too long.
Andy Holloway
Jason is with us.
Jason Moore
Hello, world.
Andy Holloway
He is still at a kind of a different.
Jason Moore
I think we just need to accept this is the new me. You're never getting better.
Andy Holloway
Somebody posted a picture of the show with Morgan Freeman's head in place of yours to illustrate what our podcast listeners are receiving this week. It's a special offer from us.
Jason Moore
I've never looked better.
Andy Holloway
That's very true. How old is Morgan Freeman?
Mike Wright
Dirt.
Jason Moore
He is.
Mike Wright
He's old as dirt.
Andy Holloway
82.
Mike Wright
He's an old man. He's an elder statesman.
Andy Holloway
82. He's 10 years older than Tommy Lee Jones. Did you know that?
Mike Wright
Spoiler.
Andy Holloway
Welcome in. We've got a great show today. The forecast, which is the Week 2 matchups, we begin that today, our starts of the week on the podcast, Jason's Boom Boom Kicker, which is a. Oh.
Mike Wright
My goodness, what a home run that was winning people.
Jason Moore
And research and dedication to the craft of kicking has paid off.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, yeah. So got a lot of news to get into as well. Some news broke this morning. We got to talk about. Also have a very funny but neat announcement. There's a Lizard King shirt now.
Mike Wright
Yes, there is.
Andy Holloway
So now I. We have friends over at Rotoware.
Mike Wright
Great people.
Andy Holloway
They're not a sponsor of the show or anything. I just reached out to him and said, look, we got this lizard thing going on right now with the Lizard King and you should probably make a shirt and they did. So you can go over there and buy it now and it's. You can also go to just lizard Kings shirt dot com. No, wait. Did you know that that URL was not taken?
Jason Moore
This exists.
Mike Wright
Oh, wait, that was available.
Andy Holloway
It was available.
Mike Wright
Oh, man.
Andy Holloway
You believe it. Sammy's people are slipping, trying to make it easy. And we'll get. I think we get like a small reptilian currency royalty from the shirts. I don't know. It's a really funny looking shirt and I figured you got to do it now because he's not hurt yet.
Mike Wright
That's true.
Andy Holloway
Right?
Mike Wright
We're actually paid in like flies.
Andy Holloway
Oh, is that how you pay? That's how the lizards get paid.
Mike Wright
That's lizard currency. Yeah.
Andy Holloway
This show is really a problem for everybody. But you can check that out at rotoware Twitter. You can follow us heffballers. And the quick question of the day. Who's been the hardest player for you to rank heading into week two? A lot of reaction from week one. A lot of overreaction from week one. Players picked up off of the waiver wire, players dropped. Is there somebody that's been very difficult for you to rank heading into week two, knowing truth from lies?
Jason Moore
Yeah, for me it's been Cameron Newton. Cam Newton is a guy that, you know, I loved coming into the season. Obviously he got injured late in preseason and looked terrible week one. So the question now is, you know, is there a problem with the shoulder because he wasn't throwing far. Now he says absolutely not. He seemed good in earlier camp and preseason action, but we have one game where he didn't throw the ball far. He was dinking a knock and all game. He also didn't run the ball. He finished with a career lowest negative 2 rushing yards. So I'm concerned. But it's also one game we talked about before he bounces back from bad games. He's always been a very boom bust type of weekly player. So I think the matchup at home tonight should be great. But I'm hesitant. So that's, that's why he's been very difficult for me.
Andy Holloway
I think you have reason to be hesitant. And the funny thing is, as we talked about last year, once the shoulder injury happened, those, those short intermediate targets to Christian McCaffrey went through the roof and he was insanely, you know, productive. Like he had a different level of production over the back half post shoulder injury. Well, in game one, he didn't throw the ball downfield a ton. And you have this massive production from cmc, but I would be hesitant about Cam Newton. I would be hesitant to, you got to kind of wait and see is he, you know, is it going to take a couple weeks to emerge from the foot ankle injury, the foot problem from preseason or not. So I get that.
Mike Wright
I in the, in our league of records, I have Cam Newton. He was the late round player I took. And then with one, with my very last pick, I grabbed Josh Allen just because of the Stallion running wild last year. Let's see what he has. And now I'm in quite the pickle of do I start Cam Newton who looked rough or do I, do I start Josh Stallion who's in a super plus matchup?
Andy Holloway
Yeah, he's in New York facing the Giants.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
So no, that's an interesting one. I'm going to throw Vance McDonald out there.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
And that's because. Not because I don't have any confidence that he's going to be a productive tight end through the course of the year, but because going into week two you have a bunch of tight ends that you have to rank him over or behind guys like Mark Andrews, T.J. hawkinson, you know, the O.J. howard thing tonight. So I have McDonald at eight on the week right now. So a top 10 tight end. But he's difficult to rank because of the lack of involvement in Week one.
Mike Wright
And it wasn't because he wasn't out there like Vance. McDonald ran the seventh most routes at the tight end position in week one. So he was out there. The ball just wasn't going to him. It was going to Moncrief nonstop.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, I would say that the Steelers, the Buccaneers, the fantasy options on those teams, you know, as a whole, they underwhelmed in week one. But I think both teams are going to come back to some sort of mean here. And so he's been difficult. Mike, do you have a name you want to throw out there?
Mike Wright
It's going to be a running back who's going to be very difficult to rank all season long. That's Todd Gurley. Because you know what the upside of Todd Gurley is. Last week, 14 for 97, only one target and one reception. But much like Vance McDonald, Todd Gurley was out there running a bunch of routes. It wasn't that he was off the field, but then you had the Malcolm Brown scored. But if you go back and watch, it was they didn't sub Malcolm Brown in to get those carries. He just happened to be on the field when they got down, when they got to the end zone. But they didn't then sub Todd Gurley in, which is a little bit of a red flag. And like the, the variance of Todd Gurley is he can be anywhere from the number where number one, the underwear.
Andy Holloway
He can be anything from the underwear to the shorts to the box and.
Jason Moore
Breeze, a sports coat.
Andy Holloway
He could be anything.
Mike Wright
He could be the number one running back any given week. Or he can be like a middling running back, too. His, his ceiling and floor are so unique.
Andy Holloway
It doesn't it come down to touchdowns with him?
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
Okay.
Jason Moore
And receptions. And those were the two things that he didn't get this last week that I do not think are prescriptive for the season.
Andy Holloway
And when you, I mean, when you watch the game, when you see the film on Todd Gurley, I saw a lot of things I liked out of this game. I saw a productive, fast, quick player that contributed in a big way. Didn't find his way into the end zone. Distorted kind of the reality. But you're right. Week to week it may be, you know, a little unpredictable because of them managing his reps. And yeah, Malcolm Brown was successful. Right. Like, you're not in a situation where they're like, yeah, we need to manage your reps, Todd. And then Malcolm Brown fails around the goal line and then you're like, well, they're going to have to turn back to him. No, Malcolm Brown got it done. They won the game. So let's get into the news.
Jason Moore
News and notes from around the league presented by Sleeper.
Andy Holloway
All right. The Chargers are going to be shorthanded in Detroit. Hunter Henry suffered a tibia plateau fracture. That sounds new.
Mike Wright
It sounds very elevated.
Andy Holloway
Yeah. Yeah. Fantasy owners need to move on from Hunter Henry. Most likely, if you have an IR spot, you can put him there and wait for him to return. It's a four to six week absence. According to Adam Schefter, it's his left knee. This is very unfortunate for Henry and for the team that expected to get this guy back and have him contribute on it. You know, they don't have Tyrell anymore. They don't have Melvin Gordon, they don't have Antonio Gates. This was supposed to be a big opportunity for him. And so with Henry out, in my mind I go, well, you know, Mike Williams has got his shot. Silver lining to make a huge mark. I mean, we saw Keenan Allen flash in week one. He's. He's a monster. We already know that. But he could use some help, right? Mike Williams is there. Well, he didn't practice on Wednesday. Mike Williams didn't practice. They signed Another wide receiver, Anthony Lynn, said he absolutely is concerned about Mike Williams availability in week two. And so here we are with a couple of Chargers that are banged up.
Mike Wright
Yeah. And I'm with you just to backtrack a little bit for Hunter Henry. Anthony Lynn, head coach of the Chargers he said the team is hopeful to have him back this season. That's, that's not very confidence instilling and four to six weeks is not, that's not a length of time I'm willing to wait for Hunter Henry who is hasn't played now in like a year and a half. I'm not going to sit him on my bench and wait and hope for the upside. I'm going to move on. I'm going to use that roster spot.
Jason Moore
I agree. And our injury expert Matthew Betts, for what it's worth, he thinks the four to six week timeline is very optimistic. He thinks that's best case scenario. There's a lot of things that could come out here if they find cartilage damage or anything else that could make this a longer recovery process.
Andy Holloway
And then we got very surprise news this morning.
Mike Wright
Somebody's been smooching.
Andy Holloway
Well, first thing I did when I heard this news, I wanted to see if J.D. mcKissick was on the jets roster. Adam Gase it's funny, but it's disturbing. Sam Darnold will miss Monday's game with mono. He's out and it's a Monday night game. He's done. He's gone. He's not going to play on Monday. Trevor Simeon, the backup of illustrious John Elway fame will get the start. And now on Monday night against the Browns, you have no Sam Darnold. And then Lev Bell has a source, a sore shoulder. He's not going to practice today. They're monitoring that as well. You know, you expect him to be out there but we don't know he's going to get an mri Quincy and new ones out as as the big.
Mike Wright
Time Robbie Anderson Supporter of the week this, this crap sucks, man. Robbie Anderson goes right before the season draft season has happened. I've already got Robbie everywhere. He hurts his calf and then he has tough matchups. Now his quarterback is gone. Like this is the worst.
Jason Moore
His quarterback will be gone for a couple weeks. Here they have a week four by.
Mike Wright
And yeah, at school when someone will come down with mono. You don't see him for a month.
Jason Moore
Exactly. So this is going to cost him a couple of weeks. Maybe he's back in week five after.
Andy Holloway
They'Re by I mono Feels like an old disease, right?
Jason Moore
Old being, like, not age.
Andy Holloway
Just like. It's like.
Mike Wright
It's an old fashioned.
Andy Holloway
It had its time, and it doesn't happen anymore. And. And like, to me, I hear, oh, he's got mono. Can't he play through mono? See, the reason I'm not educated, the.
Jason Moore
Reason I feel like that you say it feels old because we don't hear about it anymore. The reason is because we're not in high school anymore.
Andy Holloway
Oh, it's like a baby.
Mike Wright
Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Jason Moore
Oh, it's the kissing diseases.
Mike Wright
High school's like, oh, don't share water bottles, kids.
Jason Moore
It was, like, cool to get mono.
Andy Holloway
Cause you were.
Mike Wright
I take it then neither of you ever. I did not get it.
Jason Moore
No, I never had.
Mike Wright
That was not an indictment on your high school smooching life. Although it works both ways.
Andy Holloway
Hey, bro, I got a cold sore. All right.
Mike Wright
Yeah, that's to be proud of.
Andy Holloway
I'm proud of that cold sore.
Mike Wright
I never had it, but I knew several people who did, and really?
Andy Holloway
And they were knocked out.
Mike Wright
Yeah, they're bedridden for weeks because they're so tired.
Andy Holloway
I remember Corey from Boy Meets World got mono. I remember that story.
Mike Wright
I did not remember that episode.
Andy Holloway
Yeah. Couldn't smooch Topanga, Mike.
Mike Wright
No.
Andy Holloway
All right. So disturbing turn of events there. Antonio Brown. Update on him is basically, we're pretty much in a limbo state. There's a chance, according to Ian Rapaport, that He plays Week 2. The NFL is not meeting with the his accuser until next week. She is meeting voluntarily with the league. She can produce evidence, and, you know, the league can make a determination. Now, the league is not subject to any sort of rules and regulations as it pertains to him being criminally accused or anything of that nature. If the league can produce.
Mike Wright
Well, that's a civil suit.
Andy Holloway
It is. But if the league can produce enough evidence, it's up to the commissioner to then decide if he belongs on the commissioner's exempt list. This is what happened to Adrian Peterson ahead of his charges with the child abuse case. And the league can make a determination of conduct detrimental outside of any civil or legal determination.
Mike Wright
Right.
Andy Holloway
It's up to Roger Goodell. So, you know, there could be a window here where you say Antonio Brown will be on the field for week two.
Mike Wright
I'm not playing him this week.
Andy Holloway
Okay. So that. That would be the fantasy question there. Do you play Antonio Brown against Miami? I wouldn't either. I mean, you've got him on your league of record roster. Jason.
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
That's been a roller coaster ride for you.
Jason Moore
I mean, anyone who has. Antonio Brown's been on a roller coaster ride. He's the wizard of Oz. It's been a circus show, an absolute ridiculous ride. But, you know, I do think there's a chance if he does play that he actually has a good game. I know it's. It's difficult because he's coming into a new system. He doesn't know it intimately, but at the same time is the Dolphins and he's Antonio Brown.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Jason Moore
And what's quarterback's Tom Brady.
Mike Wright
What's a little different to me is you can draw parallels to. They traded for Josh Gordon last year and I was pretty hyped to play Josh Gordon right away. The team actually has options this year. I mean, Dorsett has balled out. Julian Edelman is stable. He's not. He's not suspended. He's not injured right now. And they just. And Gordon is there. I mean, they have players that they don't have to force this issue.
Andy Holloway
If you want to talk about players difficult to rank, I should have brought the Patriots up in general.
Mike Wright
Sure.
Andy Holloway
I'm actually having a hard time with all of them this week. Like we said it on the footcast.
Mike Wright
Yesterday, I'm trying to put them all number one and I just. I can't do it.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, you. You kind of look at the matchup. You look at what Vegas has this game at, which is like an 18 and a half point line or something to that extent. Now I probably have that in front of me. 19, it's up. It's at 19.
Jason Moore
I believe it opened at 15 or 14 and a half.
Andy Holloway
Now, even if you win, even if you win 19 to nothing, there's points to be scored, but you kind of have trouble understanding what the team's going to do with that. And so they're difficult for me to rank on the foot cast yesterday, which is our bonus show. JoinTheFoot.com you can, you can get that show. Mike and I were talking about this and I basically said, look, I'm the biggest Sony Michelle supporter there is. I think he's a just an incredibly good, gifted player. We've had internal debates here with Al Borland and myself, but you saw what he can do in the playoffs week one. He had 15 carries but was horribly unproductive. And if here's my place with Sony and this is important, if you have Sonny Michelle, you need to play him this week.
Mike Wright
I agree.
Andy Holloway
And if Sonny Michelle doesn't perform in a game where they're 19 point favorites and they're against Miami. Then it puts Sonny Michelle into a very strange category because you part of being great at fantasy is the predictability of it. I need to, as a fantasy owner say I can play Sony Michelle in A plus matchup. I need to know that. And so if he distorts the predictability of himself in fantasy this week, it's going to be a real problem. Now I think he's a big time start this week. But that, that, you know, if Rex Burkhead is heavily involved or if Sonny Michelle is tossed to the sideline or unproductive in this matchup, it is. That's when the warning flags are going to go off for me.
Mike Wright
Sure.
Andy Holloway
Darius Guice is expected to be sidelined for six to eight weeks. He's likely to undergo surgery to repair a torn meniscus.
Mike Wright
I saw a report of him visiting Dr. James Andrews and if you talk.
Andy Holloway
About a fantasy reaper, that guy's got it on me.
Mike Wright
If you have been in the sports world for any length of time when your player name is associated with Dr. James Andrews, run away.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, I don't think he plays again this season.
Jason Moore
I was going to say the same thing.
Andy Holloway
Adrian Peterson is needs to be rostered. I think he can be started in a lot of weeks, this one included.
Mike Wright
Personally, I think yeah, I think you can start him.
Jason Moore
Do you.
Mike Wright
I mean he was a waiver wire grab and Chris Thompson was also a waiver wire add. Do you prefer Thompson or Peterson?
Andy Holloway
I think, I think it's hard not to answer Thompson in a game against Dallas, but they're at home. They surprised Philadelphia at the top half of that game last week. Adrian Peterson will run with a aged chip on his shoulder after the healthy scratch last week.
Mike Wright
Stale chip.
Andy Holloway
At this point he will have, let me ask you this, he will have 15 carries minimum in this game. Adrian Peterson with 15 carries, Chris Thompson with five receptions. Which do you want?
Mike Wright
If it's only probably Thompson.
Andy Holloway
Okay, Jason, how do you weigh in there? I know that you know vocally I.
Jason Moore
Would rather have Thompson in there because of game script.
Mike Wright
If even with that, like it wasn't even a negative game script for Chris Thompson last week and he still got a bunch of reception.
Jason Moore
It's not that the game script has to be negative for him to be valuable. It's that if the game script is negative, Adrian Peterson's not right. So that's why Thompson's side juju, Smith.
Andy Holloway
Schuster, James Conner were limited in practice. But you know, there's James Conner's got an illness. Juju with the toe. You expect juju to get some rest ahead of the game on Sunday?
Mike Wright
Yes.
Andy Holloway
Is that a Sunday night game? I can't remember if that's Sunday night or not.
Mike Wright
Doesn't look like it, no.
Andy Holloway
Okay, good.
Mike Wright
We got Philly Atlanta for sure.
Andy Holloway
Just better for availability. So Darius Geist, though, do people. You got to drop him if you can't throw him on an ir.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
I just can't imagine waiting for Darius Geist compared to all these other players you can wait for.
Jason Moore
I would drop him because if he comes back in six to eight weeks, he's going to not be good for fantasy just like he was week one.
Andy Holloway
Yeah.
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
He was not valuable at all. And he got. And Adrian Peterson was inactive.
Mike Wright
Right.
Andy Holloway
So I think that's about it. A.J. green, out of the walking boot, ran on a treadmill Tuesday. This is a good sign after week one.
Mike Wright
Yes, it's a good sign. And I will say the most impressive thing about this to me personally is AJ Green just having it inside him to run on a treadmill, because I would rather not.
Andy Holloway
You are not a fan of treadmills?
Mike Wright
No running on it, Jason.
Andy Holloway
That's a really weird.
Jason Moore
I'm blown away.
Andy Holloway
I don't really understand.
Jason Moore
I don't get it.
Mike Wright
What is running?
Andy Holloway
Oh, you just don't like running.
Mike Wright
Yes, yes.
Andy Holloway
Well, see, he plays wide receiver for the Bengals.
Mike Wright
I know. And I'm just speaking from my personal experience. Running on treadmills is the worst.
Andy Holloway
You're just impressed with him.
Mike Wright
Yes. Now, that's like. That's a man from my experience.
Jason Moore
Running on pavement is even worse than the treadmill. Oh, yeah.
Mike Wright
Well, it's because you got to go on the street.
Jason Moore
Exactly.
Andy Holloway
Yeah. Well, this is interesting. In and out tomorrow, all of the injury Updates and then JoinTheFoot.com if you want. The foot Clan Game day alert Sunday morning. Remember, Mike is on Sunday live one hour before kickoff on all of our channels, whether it's Periscope, which is Twitter, or whether it's Facebook Live, Instagram Live.
Mike Wright
The YouTubes.
Andy Holloway
The YouTubes, which is YouTube.com the fantasy footballers. The fantasy footballer. The fantasy footballer is one of my favorite places to go. You can tell News and notes is always brought to you by the sleeper app. Don't miss a single piece of impactful fantasy news this year. Get the sleeper app today.
Mike Wright
Today's episode is brought to you by 20th Century Fox's new film, Ad Astra. In this movie, Brad Pitt stars as Roy McBride, an astronaut who travels to the outer edges of the solar system to find his missing father, who disappeared in space years ago.
Andy Holloway
Gotta find him.
Mike Wright
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Andy Holloway
Send him into space.
Mike Wright
Absolutely. I mean, Tommy Lee Jones and Brad Pitt.
Jason Moore
Enough said.
Mike Wright
Unbelievable. Ad astra hits theaters September 20th.
Andy Holloway
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Jason Moore
Fantasy forecast.
Andy Holloway
It's your weekly reminder to take your Thursday night fantasy football players out of the flex, put them in a positional spot, running back, wide receiver, so that you have flexibility if some of these injuries, you know. Did we know Sam Darnold was going to come down with mono? No. So at this point, anybody can come down with mono. Who knows who he's kissed?
Mike Wright
Oh, my goodness.
Andy Holloway
Right?
Mike Wright
Yes.
Andy Holloway
So give yourself some flexibility. That's the smart way to go. And then a quick update. Injury wise, Greg Olson is expected to play tonight in the Thursday night game.
Mike Wright
Are you playing him? If you're desperate, sure.
Andy Holloway
Yeah. The target totals tell me I should. Sure, yeah. And the passes close to the line of scrimmage.
Mike Wright
Trust me, there's people out there like you had Hunter Henry and that news came out after the waivers ran.
Andy Holloway
So Greg Olson, Waller, Jimmy Graham. I mean, I'll take Greg Olson in that one.
Mike Wright
Man, that's tough, but that's close. Yeah, I guess.
Andy Holloway
Jimmy Graham, Greg Olsen or nothing. What do you say? Take the zero, Mike. If you had to choose a treadmill or those two Titans.
Mike Wright
Oh goodness.
Andy Holloway
You'll take the tight ends, huh?
Mike Wright
Yeah, I hate treadmills.
Andy Holloway
Okay, well, we know that now. All right, the Chargers at 1. And I'll take on the Lions, who.
Jason Moore
Tied their inaugural game of two undefeated teams.
Andy Holloway
Oh, well played. Don't the Lions feel defeated?
Jason Moore
Oh, yeah.
Andy Holloway
I mean, 24 to 6, fourth quarter lead.
Jason Moore
Pretty embarrassing for them if I'm being honest.
Andy Holloway
And my axe. The Lions implied point total in this game is 22. The Chargers 24. It's a 47 point over under Philip Rivers. Matthew Stafford, you have to imagine with the Philip Rivers like I don't want to stream him in this game, not.
Mike Wright
In, not in this one. I don't want to stream him on the road against the Lions in particular. But now without Hunter Henry and Mike Williams, Philip Rivers, he's a wily vet. He certainly can succeed. But in the game of probability, I'm out.
Andy Holloway
Now Matthew Stafford was the quarterback for last week. He only had one top 12 performance all of last year. He has new weapons. TJ Hawkinson, he plays a role in this offense. He does. Marvin Jones is healthy. Kenny Galladay carry on out of the backfield and then you know, your boy Danny Amendola has had a big catch last week.
Jason Moore
So this is not the matchup to stream Stafford.
Mike Wright
I completely agree. He's not. Stafford's not going to throw the ball 45 times or whatever it was in this game that the Lions are not going to run 80 plus plays because they're not facing the fastest offense in the NFL, Arizona and then adding on an overtime to it.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, and in week one, the Chargers only gave up 16 and a half fantasy points to Jacoby Brissette. They're a good defense at the running back position. Since we're not interested in those quarterback streams. You have Austin Eckler.
Mike Wright
Oh, yes you do.
Andy Holloway
Now he's a major Beneficiary from Hunter Henry going down from Mike Williams being potentially limited.
Jason Moore
Yes.
Andy Holloway
So Austin Eckler is a must start candidate this week. Justin Jackson, I think is sneaky in this game. I think his utilization will be better than week one. This is just my opinion. You know, you're probably in a position where you could start somebody else. I mean, I imagine we'd all go. Adrian Peterson over Justin Jackson. Yes, I would, just from a workload standpoint.
Mike Wright
But yeah, he didn't, he didn't get enough touches for me in week one to be excited about the sneaky play.
Andy Holloway
All right, Jason, you didn't have to speak to Carry On Johnson on Monday. Yeah, you barely got the voice to speak to him now. But he's the running back. 19 on the week by our consensus rankings last year or. I'm sorry, last week he actually ran 21 passing routes. The Marlon Mack experience against the Chargers last week was incredible. Do you expect a bounce back here? Are you tempering expectations?
Jason Moore
Yeah, I mean, I can tip our expectations from like just the best out there in the world, but he should have a bounce back game. This is a plus matchup for him. The Chargers are very difficult to beat through the air and they give up points and fantasy points on the ground. The utilization of Carry on, while he's clearly in a timeshare was still pretty good. He had 16 carries, ran 21 pass routes. He didn't perform up to expectation. Now he's at home. I think this is a bounce back game. I'm absolutely fine. I think Kerryon started in most, most leagues. You'd be starting Carry On.
Andy Holloway
I assume all three of us who start Austin Eckler over Carry On John.
Jason Moore
Yes. Austin Eckler is going to be a.
Mike Wright
World beater, but I'm with Jason. I think that Carry on bounces back this week. Like I said, Stafford's not going to throw the ball for 45 times in this matchup.
Andy Holloway
Oh, he's got to make a play. He's got to do what Sony Michelle needs to do to have a week this week. You know, getting 14 carries, making zero plays, not going to help you in fantasy. So carry on. I think he can do that. I think there are brighter days ahead. Keenan Allen, we've talked about the wide receivers here. You really can't turn to somebody else in this offense. A Travis Benjamin, Dontrell Inman. You don't want to mess with it. You've got better options in week two. I would much rather play even, you know, Robbie Anderson with Trevor Simeon right Jameson Crowder with Trevor Simeon, I'd play them both over the Travis Benjamin, Dontrell Inman, you know, dart throws.
Jason Moore
Yeah, I agree. But if Mike Williams plays, are you just in or do you worry about the knee issue?
Mike Wright
I worry about it, probably. I worry about it.
Andy Holloway
You do worry about the entry? Yeah, I would play him. I think he's got a great opportunity, you know, in this game, if he's healthy, I'm going to flex him. Kenny Golladay is wide receiver 21 on the week by consensus rankings. Marvin Jones is wide receiver 40 on the week. What do you think of these guys in this matchup?
Mike Wright
I mean, Kenny Galladay, you're playing him every single week. Marvin Jones. The actual target share for Marvin Jones was, was disappointing from what I was hoping for and expecting. I thought he would be a great value in drafts because Amendola came in, got a bunch of targets and so did the rookie TJ Hawkinson. And honestly the, the outlier for Danny Amadola was the huge touchstone, like the big catch. But I really think that Danny Amendola's target volume will be safe. We've, we've seen Matthew Stafford rely on golden tape the exact same way. Whether or not Amadola can produce that remains to be seen long term, but the target volume will be there for him.
Andy Holloway
TJ Hawkinson is going to be interesting this week. Last week the Chargers only gave up 4.6 fantasy points across Ebron Doyle and company in Indianapolis. There was a bobble touchdown by Eric Ebron.
Jason Moore
How dear and company it should have been. And Gigantor.
Andy Holloway
That is correct.
Jason Moore
Leaving Mo Ali Cox as comfort.
Andy Holloway
I'm so sorry. Fantasy owners will be in a very precarious position to. TJ Hawkinson has a subpart week two performance because of all the investment we've seen in the waiver wire. And I think it's very possible that he does. I mean, he scored a touchdown last week. It's a tough matchup. You know, he's a great blocker. He's going to be out there on the field.
Mike Wright
I'm hesitant just like you, Andy, but if I paid to pick him up on waivers. You paid. I'm playing him.
Andy Holloway
Paid and played.
Mike Wright
We're going to see what happens.
Jason Moore
Tight ends are one of those positions where matchups can be very telling. This isn't a great matchup for him. So I agree with you, Andy. If he has a poor performance, which is in the realm of the possible outcomes here, don't worry. I'm still in on Hawkinson. If he has a bad week this week.
Andy Holloway
All right. Colts, Titans. This game has a 44 point over under. That's pretty low. Titans are three point favorites. Titans defense looked outstanding last week. Constant pressure. Cameron Wake was the defensive player of the week, destroying Baker Mayfield. The Colts have to go to Tennessee. Jason asked me yesterday, you know what side I fell on this. We've got a little inner office picks pool. I'm firmly on the Titan side. I think they take care of business at home here. I don't trust Brissette to go on the road and beat the Titans defense. So you know from a quarterback position last week you didn't want to play Brissette or Mariota. I don't think you want to play either in a 44 point over under this week.
Mike Wright
Nope. I still don't want to play either of them.
Andy Holloway
Now you had huge games from Marlon Mack and Derek Henry. So this week Derek Henry, Jason and I have him at 9 on the week he had. Even if you take away the 75.
Mike Wright
Yard reception, still a great game.
Andy Holloway
Great week for Derek Henry and they won. They won the game with the recipe of Derek Henry. They've been doing that for a little while. So I think we. We all believe Derek Henry is a solid start. As a side effect or as a little boost to that. He's averaged over 6 yards per carry against Indianapolis in his career.
Mike Wright
It'll be interesting to see Dion Lewis and his utilization in this game was. Echler was an absolute menace against the Colts in the. In the receiving game at the running back position.
Andy Holloway
What about Marlon Mack who had a Monster League leading 174 rushing yards in Week 1? The matchup is not as juicy on the road against Tennessee, but it was a very impressive performance. They need him. What do you think about Marlon Mack this week?
Jason Moore
I think he can be started, but you have to temper your expectations. Don't get excited about last week. Last week, like we said, the Chargers are a team that gives up fantasy points on the ground and that's what they did last year. The Titans were the third best against running back as. As far as giving up fantasy points. They don't. Their defense looks amazing now. I think it's both are true. The Titans defense is great, but the Colts are going to want to run Marlon Mack through their powerful offensive line and win that way. So they're going to force the issue and I think you can start them but just temper your expectations.
Andy Holloway
All right. At the wide receiver position. I quizzed both of these guys in the office yesterday. The Titans scored 43 points. I asked how many receptions did their wide receivers have in week one on their on that beautiful path to 43 points.
Mike Wright
Did Jason get it right?
Andy Holloway
Jason didn't get it right.
Jason Moore
He got seven.
Andy Holloway
He got seven.
Mike Wright
What an idiot. They're way too high.
Andy Holloway
They had four. Three receptions by A.J. brown, one by Adam Humphries, and that was the end of the story. Delaney Walker played a big role. He'll do it again this week.
Mike Wright
Walker is going to smash.
Andy Holloway
You cannot count on Corey Davis, Adam Humphreys or AJ Brown. This is not an offense that is going to produce consistent production, a wide receiver. If this week Corey Davis has three catches and A.J. brown has zero, I will not be shocked or surprised in any way.
Jason Moore
And you cannot count on Mariota either. He had a great week one. He's trash. He held onto the ball. He just is. And whoa. And he held onto the ball.
Mike Wright
Touchdowns for Mario coming up. I've seen this before.
Jason Moore
He held onto the ball way too long. You know, a 75 yard screen to the house is really going to help your fantasy points. I don't think that happens against Colts.
Andy Holloway
I agree with 100% of what you said. I think he's trash. Oh, so Eric Ebron, Jack Doyle, Mo Ali Cox taking a shot at tight end here. Do you take it on which guy?
Jason Moore
Ebron?
Andy Holloway
Yeah, he's the touch.
Jason Moore
I mean, he basically caught a touchdown this last year.
Andy Holloway
It's just not a good matchup for the Colts at all. The Titans last year only gave up 216 passing yards per game. That was six viewers in the NFL, Jacoby Brissette finding his way as the starter.
Jason Moore
So the one guy that you will be watering, Mike and I over today.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, we're going to do that today.
Jason Moore
How do you feel in this matchup about Ty Hilton who balled out?
Andy Holloway
Yeah, I mean, you start him. You start him because he's Ty Hilton. So I think he, you know, hopefully you can flex him because you drafted him late because of all the reaction. Andrew Luck leaving. It's probably not going to be as good as it was in week one. But the matchup wasn't good in week one. I mean, the Chargers have a pretty good secondary. Ty Hilton found a way. He can find a way in this game.
Jason Moore
Okay.
Andy Holloway
Do you guys agree with that?
Jason Moore
I think we have to agree after week one.
Mike Wright
Yep.
Andy Holloway
And we can all. The water speaks, man. The water speaks.
Jason Moore
Ty Hilton. We never. There was no question of like, we don't think Ty Hilton's a good player. He's amazing. It was just. We've seen an entire season with Jacoby Brissette. It was so hit and miss. He had two big games with Brissette, but then most of them were trash. But with Frank Reich, I think better offensive line, it's all a game of probability. And right now the odds look to be in the favor of Ty Hilton.
Andy Holloway
Don't you notice that some head coaches have this amazing ability and it's this secret weapon that they use and it's called getting their best players the ball.
Mike Wright
Yeah, I've seen it.
Andy Holloway
Isn't it really neat? Yeah, when certain players do that, like when, I don't know, David Johnson lines up and runs 15 routes in a game like as a wide receiver and then catches a touchdown pass.
Mike Wright
Are you saying Mike McCoy is a bad coach?
Andy Holloway
What I'm saying is if I ever become an NFL head coach, which at this point probably unlikely, but if it ever happens, what I'm going to try to do is get all my good players the ball and see what happens. Yeah, I'd rather lose with my good players.
Mike Wright
My offense would be full on Bill O'Brien style. At least when it comes to targeting.
Andy Holloway
You just get on the wall to Carlos Hine.
Mike Wright
No, I, I give Hopkins 20,000 targets every week.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, he's pretty good. He's pretty good. He said that, you know his future tackling efforts, which he got the WWE SmackDown penalty. He will go more of like a two hand touch or tag style next time.
Mike Wright
I love it. And then when DeAndre Hopkins gets body slammed, he's like wait, what? What?
Andy Holloway
Yeah, Cowboys.
Mike Wright
Well, hold on, hold on. Because we glossed over but Delaney Walker is in an absolute smash position. The Colts give up the most yards to the tight end position last year and not by just like they happened to be the most given up. It's by was almost by 200 yards.
Andy Holloway
Like they were trying to set a record.
Mike Wright
Yes. So yes, Delaney Walker played him. He's going to be great.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, he's best friends with Mariota on the field. The Cowboys at one and O take on the Redskins. The Redskins are at home. The game's a 46 point over under. Cowboys are five point favorites. So look, I loved everything I saw from the Cowboys last week and I'm not changing that opinion.
Mike Wright
Agreed.
Andy Holloway
I'm all over in this week. I like Amari Cooper, I like Dak Prescott. You're obviously starting Zeke. You're not touching their tight ends and you can flex Michael Gallup. In my opinion, after that week one performance, if you believe that this Offense is going to keep doing what they did.
Mike Wright
I completely agree with this. I mean, you saw Dak going. Going deep all the time last week, which was a breath of fresh air, and he had the weapons that he could succeed doing it. Meanwhile, you saw desean Jackson just taking Washington to task last week.
Andy Holloway
So Amari Cooper, Amari Cooper, I believe, will be a very consistent receiver this year. I think the recipe there is perfect for him now with Kellen Moore downfield passing him and Gallup, I really do believe that. I believe that this offense is going to do enough to keep him consistent on the season.
Mike Wright
That we shall see.
Andy Holloway
Yeah. On the Washington side of the ball, Case Keenum, he was the quarterback six last week.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
So you like the fact that he was stretching the field. You like the fact that he was throwing the ball a lot. You know, Adrian Peterson will be his running back today. But let's talk about Terry McLaurin, Paul Richardson, Trey Quinn, you know, is scary Terry, a flex consideration for you, Jason, this week?
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Mike Wright
Oh, sorry.
Jason Moore
He is a flex consideration. You know, you had Terry McClaurin and Marquis Brown those first two, you know, rookie breakout week one weeks that you scooped up off the waivers. You want to know if you could play them. I think you can play both guys for different reasons. Terry McLaurin you could play because I think he's the wide receiver one here. Now, it's not a great matchup. It's a worse matchup than the Eagles defense. So they're, you know, I think you're not going to just see a monster game every week, but if you're talking about a flex where you need a guy, I think you'd be okay. He's on the field 93% of snaps. I'm not excited this week. He's not a must flex. Whereas I think Hollywood Brown in his matchup.
Andy Holloway
Well, let's put it to the test against some of these free agent pickups, you know, John Ross, McCall, Hardman, Terry McLaurin. What order do you have those guys in for your flex position?
Mike Wright
Ross, McLaurin, Hardman.
Jason Moore
I would say Ross McLaurin, Hardman. Because while McCall Hardman has a giant ceiling, he also has a floor of zero of nothing.
Andy Holloway
Yeah. What bet did we make yesterday or two days ago? I thought we had a week two water bet. Brooks, do you have that? Do you know that one? I have a YouTube gentleman. Yeah.
Mike Wright
You goaded me into something.
Andy Holloway
Well, it's because you were very, very surprised. It was. It already was a. It was Hardman versus John Ross.
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
So.
Mike Wright
So you're not concerned at all that head coach Andy Reid has already said that they're both going to split?
Andy Holloway
No.
Mike Wright
Okay.
Andy Holloway
No, because I, because I watch week one. So if they split the Tyree kill snaps, I mean you don't have an offense that's going to have two wide receivers on the field all the time. So splitting those snaps is, you know.
Mike Wright
Well, they didn't. He wasn't saying snaps but the opportunity. So I guess in plays drawn up.
Andy Holloway
Well, I just, I really like McColl Hartman so I. What I was going to do is make a water bet regarding McColl Hartman, but me and you already have one with John Ross. So Jason, if you would like the.
Jason Moore
Same bet, just watch one of you.
Andy Holloway
With Terry McLaren because he's your guy.
Jason Moore
I do love Terry McLaren, but I'm not going to make a water bet based on the matchup. I think the Cowboys, you can play him, but he's not a must. He's not a must Flex. He's a guy that I grabbed. I'm not playing him this week because.
Andy Holloway
You just want to see what happens.
Jason Moore
But I want to see if he can really break out, be something special.
Andy Holloway
The Seahawks take on the Steelers in Pittsburgh. So 46 and a half point over under Steelers are four and a half point home favorites. It seems like a great opportunity for them to bounce back against the secondary that looked really sketchy in Week 1, even at home. The Seahawks gave up 48 fantasy points last week to wide receivers not named A.J. green. John Ross, you know John Ross and TYLER Boyd & Co. And you know, with Cincinnati. So look, I think juju is a must start this week. No doubt about it. I don't think anybody was going to bench him. Big Ben, interestingly enough, I think has a bounce back game in this one. Jason has him at QB9 on the week.
Mike Wright
I agree.
Jason Moore
He's. Look, I mean we've talked about it for years. His home road splits are astronomical. He plays better at home. Fire him up.
Andy Holloway
All right. Do you have any interest in a sneaky Jalen Samuels start this week with James Conner dealing with the illness? Is there any interest there? He had only two rushing attempts and one reception in week one. I think I answered my own question.
Jason Moore
It's all about the illness. I mean it's one of those things, you just monitor it. He should be fine if Connor is starting. If he's out there, then no, I'm not going to play Samuels.
Andy Holloway
It's interesting. Last year Big Ben flipped the script on his historical averages the home road splits. He was actually 346 passing yards on the road last year, 296 at home. That is not what he had done previously. But this is a look. It's a new big bend, new offense. They're finding their way. So Russell Wilson, he's our consensus QB14 on the road against the Steelers. The Steelers got absolutely decimated by the, you know, the New England Patriots last week giving up 54 fantasy points to the wide receiver position, which was somehow worse than Seattle the week before. I like the over in this game. That's a 46 and a half point right now.
Mike Wright
Russell Wilson, I mean, you can, you can start him, but once again, Russell only threw the ball 20 times, but he is, he hits on big plays frequently. Tyler only had two targets last week, which was very bizarre. Luckily, unluckily, one of them was basically a drop. The other one though was a massive touchdown. So Tyler Lockett was fine for fantasy and Russell Wilson was also. Also ended up being fine. But are like, Jason, what's your confidence? Because we have been a little opposed on Russell Wilson. You're like, yeah, he's an automatic and I lean more of the side of it's questionable.
Jason Moore
Yeah, I mean, I still believe in the talent of Russell Wilson to overcome whatever game flow issues or, you know, play calling issues exist. I think Russell's going to be fine more often than he's not. He's not always a great play. For some weird reason. He gets off to a slow start in every season, finishes on fire every season. That's weird. But it has like four years in a row now.
Andy Holloway
So only 20 pass attempts. Week one, under 200 yards passing, four rushes, but only for eight yards. There's your slow start for you. For Russell Wilson, I'd probably try to avoid him on the road against Pittsburgh here. Okay, Chris Carson, seven targets last week, six receptions, 35 receiving yards. Rashad Penny had a total of only seven touches in this game. Chris Carson set the earth on fire. So far through one week, the narrative of Carson being involved in the passing game came true. What do we think about this backfield?
Mike Wright
It's Chris Carson. I'm not playing Rashad Penny until I see otherwise. But Chris Carson was an absolute workhorse. We said Russell Wilson threw the ball 20 times, seven targets to Chris Carson. Like the offense is.
Andy Holloway
We only had 14 completions and six of the 14 were Chris Carson.
Mike Wright
The offense is Chris Carson. Like that's, that's what it's going to be until the foreseeable future.
Andy Holloway
Jason, any Thoughts on that? You want to add or do you want to talk about Connor on the other side? Obviously you're starting Connor if he's healthy.
Jason Moore
I completely agree with what was said about Carson. Love him. He is the offense. It is important to remember. This game was in a torrential downpour, so I think Russell was throwing a little shorter closer to the line. I don't know that I still believe that here going to use Carson in the passing game. They obviously were putting him out there.
Mike Wright
Didn't stop Andy Dalton from firing downfield.
Jason Moore
No.
Andy Holloway
Are you touching any other wide receivers on Pittsburgh outside of juju this week? Dante Moncrief had a lot of targets. He had one of the worst games I've ever seen a person put on display. Big Ben came out, said I have full confidence in him. But drop passes, wrong routes, bad plays.
Mike Wright
It feels bad. If you want to play Moncrief in a DFS lineup, I think that that's perfectly fine. You can't argue with 10 targets.
Andy Holloway
John Ross blowing up against them last.
Mike Wright
Week and you can't argue with last week was one of the worst games I've ever seen from a wide receiver. If Moncrief adds three or four receptions to his targets, the Steelers aren't getting boat raced. It's a completely different game. But I think that that was probably the worst.
Andy Holloway
He was 3 for 7 on 10 targets.
Jason Moore
Yeah, I would split, I would split some of those DFS lineups between Moncrief and James Washington because, you know, if you're stacking them with Roethlisberger, we've got a lineup optimizer in our DFS pass this year. You could thumbs up those guys and just have them kind of cycle into your lineups. And I, you know, I think Big Ben has, you know, a deep bomb touchdown. If he does, it's probably Washington that gets it over Moncrief. They both have the ability.
Mike Wright
Right.
Andy Holloway
All right.
Mike Wright
And Metcalf is worth a flex.
Andy Holloway
Well, I wanted to talk about Metcalf to finish this out. We've, we're not starting Will Disley on the tight end and we've Talked about Vance McDonald already. You can see the, you can use the start sit tool. See where we have Vance McDonald seventh most routes run in week one, but not an effective week. I think he was two for 40. But DK Metcalf, maybe we're not talking about him enough. You know, Lockett came down with the deep ball last week. He was invisible before and after. So Metcalf starting the game six Targets, three of them were deep passes. Is Metcalf, you know, was he ignored on the waiver show for no reason?
Mike Wright
He was. It's not for no reason. He was mostly ignored because his counterpart rookies had absolutely blow up games and they're going to be the more interesting guys to talk about. But Metcalf, I think he's worth, he's worth a flex here.
Andy Holloway
Over the last two years, Russell Wilson's been sacked 98 times. That's the most in the NFL. And the Steelers, the Steelers have the most sacks in that span. Oh no, they couldn't get to Brady last week. They're going to be, it's going to be hungry. They're going to be hungry. The Vikings, the Packers. This game's at lambeau. It's a 45 point over under. I said I believe that Aaron Rodgers will be a top 10 quarterback this week. Our consensus ranking has them a little bit outside of that. Cousins only through 10 passes last week. What are your thoughts on the quarterbacks in this matchup?
Jason Moore
Woof.
Mike Wright
Bus your girlfriend. Like this is rough man. Like you have Aaron Rodgers in a negative matchup. It last week was, you know, different.
Andy Holloway
That's on the road against Chicago.
Mike Wright
That's different than being at home versus the Vikings. But the Vikings are still really solid on defense. And their defensive front. You saw what they did to the Atlanta offensive line is like, I mean I guess I'm playing Rogers but. But he's a low end quarterback. One it's the hard part with Aaron Rodgers is a streaming option where you know that the matchup is better and you see how those things work out. It's really difficult to stream a player mentally as a fantasy player. It's very difficult to stream a quarterback like Derek Carr. Derek Carr is at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. The last two games Derek Carr has been at home against the Chiefs. He's putting up massive, massive fantasy numbers. You're talking three touchdowns a game, 300 yard games like huge numbers.
Jason Moore
But playing him over the name over.
Mike Wright
Aaron Rodgers, that is, that's like, that's a mental exercise for a fantasy player.
Andy Holloway
I like Aaron Rodgers this week. I, I really, really like it. I think he throws three touchdowns against the Vikings this week.
Jason Moore
That would be impressive if he does. You have to like MVS then.
Andy Holloway
I do. I obviously I'd like Devonte Adams to bounce back but I just like the packers at home in this game. Call it, you know, Packer colored glasses. I don't know why. Look, I have no shares. I have no bias. I have no reason to want them, but I think that it's just going to be a lot better game for them at home in this matchup. Last week the vikings gave up 42 fantasy points to the wide receiver position in their dominating performance. Obviously the Falcons had to keep trying to claw back, so it's a little bit of a distortion there, but I just like the packers in this game personally. Now Dalvin Cook looked amazing week one. He's a must start. Aaron Jones a little bit less so for fantasy confidence. He's our RB22 on the week. I do think he's going to have a pretty decent game in this one, but you know you're going to have options when it comes to Aaron Jones as opposed to Dalvin Cook.
Mike Wright
I think Aaron Jones is. You play him, but he's a. He's a lower running back. 2 For me this week.
Andy Holloway
Adam Thielen, Stefan Diggs, Mike, where are you at with these guys? The packers allowed the fourth most fantasy points to wide receivers last year, but in Week one they looked really, really good on defense. It's a different secondary. They're at home. I'd start, thielen said. Digs. That's what I would do.
Mike Wright
I am highly concerned for both. I agree with that take. If I have to choose between one of the two for some reason, I'm going to start Adam Thielen. But and I don't expect Kirk Cousins to throw the ball 10 times. But with the new OC Kevin Stefanski, targets have gone way, way down for these Minnesota Vikings wide receivers. And clearly the team is not only content, but they are very happy to have Kirk Cousins only throw the ball 10 times if they can do so.
Jason Moore
Yeah, I don't think they're going to be able to do so on the road in Lambeau against the packers. I am 100% fine with Adam Thielen this week. I am more concerned with Diggs, MVS.
Andy Holloway
Or Hollywood Brown this week.
Mike Wright
Wow.
Andy Holloway
Hollywood's facing Arizona.
Mike Wright
I'll take the upside of Hollywood.
Andy Holloway
All right. MBS or Scary Terry against Dallas?
Jason Moore
I think I go MBS there.
Andy Holloway
MBS or DK Metcalf against Pittsburgh?
Jason Moore
Mbs.
Andy Holloway
All right. I think I'm MBS on all three actually. But let's go ahead and move on to one more matchup than our starts of the week. The Bills. The Giants. This is a 43 1/2 point over under. That's a low one. The bills are 1 1/2 point favorites on the road. Josh Allen leading the comeback after leading them to a deficit in that game, which is kind of the. I don't know his M.O. right. Little hit and miss. Got it done. Has some weapons. Josh Allen this week. Mike, I know you're thinking about starting him in some leagues.
Mike Wright
Yeah. And he is my stream of the week. I think it was the best option that was readily available in waiver wires. And it was only one week. Trying not to overreact what Dak Prescott and the Cowboys did to the Giants. However, I've liked playing my quarterbacks against the Giants before, and now you throw in Josh Stallion, who's got the nice baseline of rushing and has the upside now with. With some passing options that he can actually connect with with John Brown. So I'm playing Josh Allen with confidence.
Jason Moore
So I wanted to ask you this earlier. You have to decide today anyways. You have to decide between Josh Allen and Cam Newton.
Mike Wright
Right now. Allen is in my starting lineup.
Jason Moore
There it is.
Andy Holloway
And if he's in your starting lineup at about, you know, game time tonight.
Mike Wright
He will be decided.
Andy Holloway
He will be your starter. Jason, I know you love Devin Singletary this week against the Giants on the road. We're going to talk about him shortly. But you are the highest. You have him at RB19. Mike, did you want to say anything about Devin Singletary this week? Where's your confidence level? They came out and said, okay, yeah, Frank Gore is our starter, but I don't care about that. Yeah, he didn't even start. Literally, he's your starter. He wasn't even the first running back on the field in that game. So it's. He's a nominal title.
Mike Wright
He still got. He got more touches. Am I remembering that correctly?
Jason Moore
Frank Gore.
Mike Wright
Yeah.
Jason Moore
Yes. Frank gore.
Andy Holloway
He had 11 rushes for a total of 20 yards in that game.
Mike Wright
It was bad.
Andy Holloway
However, turned it on in the second half.
Mike Wright
It's not outside of their own possibilities for head coach Sean McDermott to stick with a player who is performing very poorly. Allah. Nathan Peterman is our starter over Tyrod Taylor.
Andy Holloway
Devin Singletary, you're playing him over Gore?
Mike Wright
Yeah, yeah, I will play him over.
Andy Holloway
Gore, but four carries, 70 yards last week, I think he'll be more involved than he was in week one because that was part of the recipe of coming back and winning that ball game 100%.
Jason Moore
We'll talk about him in a little bit.
Andy Holloway
John Brown, would you play him in this game?
Mike Wright
Yes.
Andy Holloway
Is that the. Is that where the list ends for Buffalo wide receivers?
Mike Wright
Yeah. Cole Beasley didn't get enough targets for the PPR machine, so John Brown's the only one I have confidence in right now.
Andy Holloway
And then what about Sterling Shepard? He didn't practice on Wednesday.
Mike Wright
With concussion, he may not even play.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, he's got to bench your giant wide receivers.
Jason Moore
Mercy, oh mercy.
Mike Wright
He's going to get 15 targets in the first quarter.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, I mean at the tight end position, you got to love Evan Ingram this week. Absolutely. All right, it's time for our starts.
Jason Moore
Starts of the week.
Andy Holloway
Well, let's just start at the tight end position because my start of the week is Evan angrel. Last week 11 for 116 and one. He's the first tight end ever with 10 plus receptions, 100 yards and a touchdown. And in a week one. Congratulations. You are a target vacuum, Evan. And you are a wide receiver in a tight end body.
Mike Wright
Yeah, he is an athletic beast. The best part of Evan Ingram is that in a neutral game script, the Evan Ingram is the go to pass the pass catcher besides Barkley. And then in a negative game script, Evan Ingram is still still the go to pass catcher.
Andy Holloway
Second most tight end routes run in week one, 42 of them. And we already know he can't block. So just go catch the ball, Evan. Be our fantasy football hero and pay dividends on the six round draft price and everywhere that we got you. So Jason, your tight end.
Jason Moore
So we all saw TJ Hawkinson come out be awesome last week. His first ever performance against the Arizona Cardinals. TJ awesome.
Andy Holloway
Is that what you just said?
Jason Moore
It's not what you said.
Mike Wright
No, but that's what it made me.
Andy Holloway
We've been really searching for the proper nickname. We put it out to the Foot Clan. We had the incredible Hawk yesterday as well. But yeah, TJ Awesome.
Mike Wright
That's my favorite.
Andy Holloway
So far so bad.
Jason Moore
My point is he is not my start of the week. My point is he did this against the Arizona Cardinals. My start of the week is Mark Andrews, a guy I loved from long into the off season. He's got all the talent to be a true breakout tight end. He showed it. Week one.
Andy Holloway
You loved him so much, you traded him to me, Jason. And that is for John Ross, which looks better now. It does.
Jason Moore
Here's the thing. He's going home against the Cardinals. You light him up. There's no reason, no hesitation. I think he has another great week.
Andy Holloway
Highest yards per target for a tight end in NFL history through his first 17 games. This is why I kind of lean his way over Darren Waller. In general, the big play capability of Mark Anderson.
Mike Wright
Certainly.
Andy Holloway
I want to win a week with you, Mark that's what I want to do. Mike, your tight end start of the week. Oh, look who it is.
Mike Wright
It is Darren.
Andy Holloway
Darren.
Mike Wright
I am the walrus. I love him this week. The matchup at home. I brought up Derek Carr's stats when he's at home against the Kansas City Chiefs. They are noice. Darren Waller had a fantastic game. Look, this is basically Darren Waller's first real experience the NFL. Jon Gruden just shoveled a bunch of praise on him after the performance. He doesn't get taken off the field. He was a target machine. The matchup is great and he should see plenty of Kendall Fuller. And last week that DB gave up seven receptions on eight targets for 94 yards. I think Darren Waller is a top five play this week.
Andy Holloway
We'll get into a couple injury updates right after the start. So remind me guys to talk about a couple guys. All right, wide receiver start of the week. I'm gonna go Cooper Gallup combination starts of the week. I love both of them.
Mike Wright
I like playing two players in one spot too well. I want you get both their points.
Andy Holloway
I want to give players that I have Amari Cooper the start of the week confidence and I want to give players that picked up Michael Gallup the flex confidence. You do get double points if you have both of them, Mike, you get points for each player. Okay. So I love the Dallas Cowboy wide receiver core this week. I love what I saw in week one. I'm going to keep it on into week two. I'd start gallop over pretty much every single one of those waiver wire pickups. Certainly over Hollywood Brown, Terry McLaurin, John Ross, McCall Hardman. I love it.
Mike Wright
Don't blame me. Who do you got, Jay?
Jason Moore
I have my guy. Robert Woods. Yes. Jared Goff had a bad week one on the road, but Robert woods did not. But Robert woods did not. He had 13 targets because he is the number one target for that high powered Rams now. They are going home this week for their home opener. The matchup is great. The over under is great. You know, there's, there's very little reason not to like Robert woods and I expect him to come away. Now when I say the matchup is great, right? It's the New Orleans Saints. It's a team that could score. It looks to be a high scoring battle both directions. But this is the Robert woods specialty where he's just, he's not their best wide receiver. You know, he's not the guy they scheme with their great cornerbacks to take away, which means he's the one that just keeps getting the ball over and over and over and over and over.
Andy Holloway
It only takes two passes to score in the Saints. That's what I learned this past weekend.
Jason Moore
Anyways, if you got 4, 3 speed.
Andy Holloway
Oh, my gosh.
Jason Moore
Which Robert woods does not, Sean Watson.
Andy Holloway
Is going to destroy the league. That's an aside. But with Kenny Stills, Will Fuller, and if they can stay healthy. Wow.
Mike Wright
Yes.
Andy Holloway
All right, Mike, who's your wider. Oh, gosh. You need me to hit another button?
Mike Wright
Look, it's the Lizard King. He's the start of the week, every week for the foreseeable future while Tyreek Hill is missing. And he is the number one wide receiver for Patrick Mahomes in the Kansas City Chiefs. And the matchup on top of that, the matchup is fantastic. Against the Raiders, we said, like Moncrief, that was one of the worst wide receiver performances I've watched in a long time. Joe Flacco looks terrible, yet somehow there was production to be had. Courtland Sutton with the hundred plus yard game. Sammy Watkins looks extremely healthy with his run after the catch ability right now. So Lizard King, I'm going to slither them in as a wide receiver.
Andy Holloway
Yeah, I think people will notice.
Mike Wright
I think I got a chuckle from the crowd back there on that one. Thank you, Brooks.
Andy Holloway
They're all Lizard fans because of the shirt. Because we told them we'd buy them a shirt. You know, they're easily bought, easily bought loyalties. Lizard King T shirts is all you need.
Jason Moore
Is this all I had to do to get everyone on board with Sammy.
Andy Holloway
Just buy them a shirt.
Jason Moore
Just get a shirt. Earlier in the.
Andy Holloway
I think also 198 yards and three touchdowns doesn't hurt. Two.
Mike Wright
It was only two.
Andy Holloway
It felt like three, didn't it felt like four, felt like five. All right. My running back start of the week is. It's an interesting one. It's actually Leonard Fournette.
Mike Wright
Okay.
Andy Holloway
I think they're going to take the pressure off of the Secret Garden as often as possible. And there's just nobody else. I mean, Leonard Fournette last week wasn't particularly spectacular, but the volume was there. He looked okay on the field and he's just going to have so much work. I wanted to give him a little shot in the arm in the starts of the week. He's playing at Houston. There's no way that you can just put the entire offense in the hands of Gardner Minshew. So Leonard Fournette, I want you to be confident that he's a player that I actually look to acquire this past week. Not because I think he's sexy, but because I think he's productive for fantasy owners.
Mike Wright
I love that. I love those six targets.
Andy Holloway
Yeah.
Mike Wright
For a guy who's going to get as many attempts and I don't have.
Andy Holloway
And as an aside, I just don't think there's predictability to the wide receiver core there at all. You're going to have Marquise Lee starting to work in more and more in the offense. D.J. d.J.
Mike Wright
Chark.
Andy Holloway
D.J. chark had this massive like yards per target, you know, down the field that's unpredictable. And Chris Conley unpredictable too. So. All right, running back start of the week. Jason.
Jason Moore
I am going deeper here because I'm not deep at some of these other positions, but I'm making Devin Singletary my deep start of the week. He's a guy that, I'm telling you, you can flex him this week. You might not be confident, you know.
Andy Holloway
Because now they should be because you made him your start of the week.
Jason Moore
Yes, I'm trying to find someone that was. Because coming after week one when I was looking at my starts of the week, you know, I almost went Leonard Fournette, you know. But I have other higher end players. I wanted to look at someone that hasn't necessarily broken out yet that could. And Singletary has all of the behind the scenes metrics. This says he will because you look at the snap counts, right? Frank Gore, he's the starter. Frank Gore played 28% of snaps. Devin Singletary played 70% of snaps.
Andy Holloway
It was so great.
Jason Moore
He was unbelievable. He was the reason the Bills don't win that game without Devin Singletary lighting them on just getting the Bills going on fire with his runs. He had four rushing attempts for 70 plus yards. He just looked amazing. He also ran the fifth most routes of all running backs. So I believe that he showed enough where he will start to get more work and he doesn't need a ton of work to be startable. So no, I'm not saying he's a start of the week like you start him over other great options. No, you start Leonard Fournette. But if Singletary is on your team and you're wondering with the flex play between him and some wide receivers, that's where I'm saying I think Singletary ends up having a very big week. They're going to use their new shiny toy. They didn't get rid of LaShawn McCoy because of Frank Gore. They got rid of him because they saw what Devin Singletary can do.
Mike Wright
I Got to tell, this was completely uninvolved.
Jason Moore
Yeah.
Andy Holloway
Miles Sanders against Atlanta on Sunday night. Devin Singletary against the Giants.
Jason Moore
That is a perfect example of what I'm trying to say. Devin Singletary there.
Andy Holloway
Okay.
Mike Wright
Wow. All right. My start of the week at the running back position is Austin Eckler. I'm sticking, sticking with my boy. If you listen to our bold predictions episode in Arizona live, I said Austin Eckler is going to be a running back one at the end of the season. We're off to a hot start and that does not fall apart this week. The last three games without Gordon, he's had 60 opportunities. Mike Williams possibly out. Hunter Henry for sure out. Austin Echler is just as much of an engine for this offense as Melvin Gordon would be.
Andy Holloway
All right, Dak Prescott's my quarterback start of the week. I'm going to keep it going even on the road against Washington. I obviously have Cooper and Gallup as my wide receiver starts the week. I think Dak is going to come out and torch Washington. He will end up the number one quarterback through two weeks in fantasy football.
Mike Wright
Ooh, spicy.
Jason Moore
Do you think he'll end up the number one quarterback through two weeks of fantasy football? Well, if he's going to, he's going to have to. He's going to have to battle it out with my start of the week. Tom Brady, who had a great week one and now gets to play the Miami Dolphins. And yes, you can run the ball on them all day, but that's not this Patriots. You, you saw week one, the kind of old school throwback, undefeated season of the Patriots where they're like, I'm just going to score on you non freaking stop. And they can with Josh Gordon, maybe Antonio Brown, Julian Edelman, you like.
Andy Holloway
Would you start all those wide receivers in that matchup then? So you in on Gordon this week?
Jason Moore
Yes. So Antonio Brown makes a big difference, but yes, I would start Gordon, I would start Edelman. I believe Brady has three passing touchdowns at least.
Andy Holloway
All right, Mike, close us out.
Mike Wright
I'm going with my guy, Jared Goff. It combos nicely.
Andy Holloway
You were 3 for 4 on players with drops. Now that, that makes me question your decision making process. Is this all drop related, Mike?
Mike Wright
We'll never know.
Andy Holloway
We'll never know.
Jason Moore
It makes me question Austin Eckler, why he doesn't have.
Mike Wright
Does it have a drop yet? Look, Jared Goff, he is better at home and I'm going to throw out a couple names here who actually aren't on the rants, but Those names are P.J. williams and Eli Apple. Those DBs will be trying to cover Brandon Cooks and Cooper Cup.
Andy Holloway
I feel like it's an important start of the week it's an important start of the week to name because he had a really rough week one. So your confidence in him, he's going to really bolster his spirits.
Jason Moore
He was my start of the week at first, but I didn't want to do the start the golf woods stacks.
Andy Holloway
But you want. Still want credit for it.
Jason Moore
I just. I'm. I'm supporting my friend Mike and saying I believe in your take.
Andy Holloway
Thank you. We did not. A couple things I want to touch.
Jason Moore
On, but I had him first.
Andy Holloway
I mentioned Le'Veon Bell will not practice Thursday. We'll get the MRI. The jets are kind of following apart. I mentioned that earlier. He's actually getting an mri.
Mike Wright
I missed the MRI part. I apologize.
Andy Holloway
But we should have talked about whether you would consider pivoting to a Monday night time Montgomery in any situation, 100%.
Jason Moore
Like I hate to say this because this sucks, but in our listener league, I own Love Bell on the waivers. I dropped Time Montgomery because Love Bell came out week one fine.
Andy Holloway
Before any injury news.
Jason Moore
Before any injury news. And now I got to go fight for Ty Montgomery. But Ty Montgomery, look, you've lost receiving options. He was a receiver. If left Bell doesn't play time, Montgomery is going to get a ton of utilization.
Mike Wright
Agreed.
Andy Holloway
All right, one more segment.
Jason Moore
Jason Moore's ironclad, locked and loaded. 100% guaranteed. Boom, boom, kicker of the week. Sip your drinks with umbrellas and watch the shoreline because I'm killing it this week with the Rams. Greg Zorline.
Mike Wright
That one's questionable.
Andy Holloway
I will accept it. I will allow it. He's been under the weather, so we know he's willing to stretch his rhymes no matter where they need to go.
Mike Wright
Say his last name. Say Greg's last name. Andy.
Andy Holloway
You talking about Zor line?
Jason Moore
It was a perfect match.
Andy Holloway
I appreciate how intricate the first line was. So last week it was Will Lutz, you know, he won the game on a 58 yard field goal. Greg Delay in week two. What a guaranteed production.
Jason Moore
It's kind of clad here.
Andy Holloway
Here's the thing. I want to let people know this before we close out the show. Some people asked the sleeper bowl, the league we're in with Ninja and Tim the chat man and Car, Anthony Towns and juju Smith Schuster. We are a healthy one and oh, undefeated. So we're taking care of business. And we plan on staying undefeated, I think until the end.
Jason Moore
I looked at our schedule and I don't want to lose any.
Andy Holloway
I'm we're in it for St. Jude, man. We got that big check being written at the end of this league and if we can take it down, St. Jude gets a big check. So that's we're in it. What we're in it for. And also bragging rights over Juju and Ninja and company. Want to thank the studio sponsor Pristine Auction at KEENAN Allen signed Jersey 50 $65 yesterday. Get it at pristineauction.com hundreds of daily auctions. Catch you tomorrow.
Mike Wright
Goodbye.
Jason Moore
Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter the FFballers.
Andy Holloway
Today's episode of the Fantasy Footballers is brought to you by our friends at Mugsy Jeans. The most comfortable jeans you've ever, ever had. I mean, they're all I have. That's no exaggeration. Their high tech fabrics are so soft and flexible, they literally feel as comfortable as sweatpants. Do your legs a Favor, head to mugsy.com grab your own pair of ridiculously comfortable jeans today and listeners can use the code footballers for $10 off that is m u g s-y.com with the code footballers for $10 off, your pair of Mugsy jeans.
Episode: Starts of the Week + Week 2 Breakdown, Smooches!
Release Date: September 12, 2019
Hosts: Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, Mike "The Fantasy Hitman" Wright
The episode kicks off with the hosts welcoming listeners and setting the stage for an in-depth analysis of Week 2 matchups in fantasy football. Andy Holloway leads the discussion, accompanied by Jason Moore and Mike Wright, as they delve into player performances, injury updates, and strategic starts for the upcoming week.
a. Cameron Newton
b. Todd Gurley
c. Vance McDonald & Tight Ends
a. Hunter Henry (Chargers)
b. Sam Darnold (Jets)
c. Antonio Brown
d. Other Notable Injuries
a. Tight Ends
b. Wide Receivers
c. Running Backs
d. Quarterbacks
a. Tight Ends
b. Wide Receivers
c. Running Backs
d. Quarterbacks
e. Kicker
Quotes:
The hosts emphasize the importance of flexibility in lineups due to unexpected injuries, such as moving players from flex to positional spots. They also discuss the value of monitoring game scripts and defensive matchups to optimize player starts. Additionally, they touch upon streaming strategies for quarterbacks and the unpredictability of certain offenses affecting wide receiver reliability.
Quote: Andy Holloway: "Fantasy owners will be in a very precarious position to. Give yourself some flexibility. That's the smart way to go." [24:45]
The episode wraps up with the hosts reiterating their player starts for Week 2, sharing final thoughts on matchups, and encouraging listeners to stay engaged with the podcast for ongoing fantasy football insights. They also mention their competitive league status and upcoming segments focused on injury updates and player analyses.
Final Quote: Jason Moore: "Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast." [71:40]
This comprehensive summary encapsulates the essential discussions, insights, and conclusions from the Fantasy Footballers' episode, providing valuable guidance for fantasy football enthusiasts preparing for Week 2.