The Extra Point: Week 1 Lineups, Survivor Picks, & Amari Cooper’s Retirement (Ep. 1691)

Summary

FantasyPros: The Extra Point

Episode 1691: Week 1 Lineups, Survivor Picks, & Amari Cooper’s Retirement
Date: September 6, 2025
Hosts: Chris Welsh & Andrew Erickson

---

Overview

This episode of FantasyPros' “The Extra Point” marks the kickoff for the 2025 NFL season. Recorded live on Discord with audience participation, Chris Welsh and Andrew Erickson provide hard-hitting, crowd-driven fantasy football analysis. Main themes include key lineup decisions for Week 1, breaking news on Amari Cooper’s retirement, actionable survivor pool picks, and a cascade of detailed listener Q&A covering start/sit dilemmas, dynasty trades, and positional strategy.

---

Episode Highlights & Key Insights

1. Amari Cooper’s Surprise Retirement

• [02:03] Breaking News: Andrew Erickson confirms live that Amari Cooper has retired… Again.
  • Welsh jokes about being fooled by a fake Schefter account previously.
  • Quote: “He took one look at Dante Thornton and was like, yeah, I’m good.” — Andrew Erickson [02:59]
• Fantasy Impact:
  • Immediate lesson: Deontay (Dante) Thornton is named as the startable rookie to watch.
  • Discussion about Cooper showing up for “camp,” but clearly wasn’t in top shape (“Maybe he was pounding down on the Buffalo wings” [03:20]).

2. Week 1 Start/Sit Questions and RB Debates

• [05:45] Listener Q&A:
  • RB2 decision: Scatterbo vs. Jordan Mason.
    • Easy consensus: Jordan Mason (red zone role, higher upside, better offense).
    • Quote: “Jordan Mason is going to lead the league in rushing according to Erickson.” — Welsh [06:09]
    • “Mason is the easy bet... Better projection for overall red zone opportunities.” — Erickson [06:35]
  • Aaron Jones vs. Jordan Mason: Close, ranked back-to-back, uncertainty remains until usage is seen.

3. Dynasty Trade Talk: Garrett Wilson's Value

• [09:43] Caller Trade Query:
  • Debate: Trade away Garrett Wilson for Tetaroa McMillan (slam dunk yes), for Emeka Egbuka (less certainty).
  • Quote: “If you can get Tetaroa for Garrett Wilson, I’m slamming that.” — Welsh [09:59]
    • Andrew agrees: Selling Wilson before week 1 is wise due to anticipated negative sentiment after a tough matchup.

4. Roster Management in Shallow and Deep Leagues

• [12:02] 8-Man, PPR Cut Question:
  • Candidates: Bill, Colson Loveland, Najee Ali.
  • Advice: Drop Loveland (backup TE not needed) + Najee (just a handcuff).
  • “Najee has the least amount of value.” — Erickson [13:29]
  • In shallow leagues: Always prioritize upside, avoid excess depth at TE/RB.

5. Wide Receiver Start/Sit & Depth Chart Intrigue

• [15:31] Bateman, Xavier Leggette, or Bill Crosby Merritt?
  • Solution: Play the receivers (Bateman, Leggette); avoid RBs with murky depth/usage.
  • Commanders' RB depth chart explained: “Anthony Lynn...has A backs...B backs... the website doesn’t let you construct the depth how it’s actually used.” — Erickson [17:34]
• Packers’ WR Room (Matthew Golden): [31:24]
  • Reed expected to play through his injury, limiting Golden’s upside to flex-only.
  • “I think Reed is playing...I think that’s what he’s going to do all year. I’m never going to practice. I’m just going to play.” — Erickson [32:08]

6. Tight End Strategy: Tucker Kraft vs. Tyler Warren

• [39:14] Rest of Season Outlook:
  • Kraft favored due to stable QB play (Jordan Love) vs. Warren’s uncertainty (Daniel Jones/Anthony Richardson).
  • “Ultimately, the quarterback decides it for me. It’s Kraft.” — Erickson [41:16]
  • Kraft's consistent involvement likelier than the rotational WRs in Green Bay.

7. Survivor Pool Strategy: Denver the Top Pick

• [43:03] Survivor Picks:
  • Team consensus: Denver Broncos over Titans is the week’s safest survivor play.
  • Avoid division games to sidestep unpredictability.
  • “Try to avoid division games...that’s where weird things always happen.” — Erickson [44:34]

---

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On dynasty risks:
  “You just got to make the decision based on those guys are healthy. Najee I would say has the least amount of value.” — Andrew Erickson [13:29]

• Lineup philosophy:
  “In [eight]-team leagues play upside. There’s just such incredible depth...” — Chris Welsh [14:30]

• On Cooper Kupp’s season outlook:
  “He’s probably going to miss a lot of games...not hopeful for Cooper Kupp attached to Sam Darnold.” — Andrew Erickson [27:03]

• Tucker Kraft’s consistency:
  “The constant too is Kraft over those wide receivers. …Craft is the one that's always going to be out there.” — Chris Welsh [41:16]

• Survivor pools:
  “How often [will] you use the Broncos? You don’t need to save the Broncos.” — Chris Welsh [44:54]

---

Rapid Fire Listener Q&A Segments

Flex/Start-Sit Priorities

• Flex Rankings Example [20:08]:
  • Mason > Olave > Travis Hunter > ETN (Mason, for TD upside. Hunter is “fun,” Olave & ETN are safer PPR options).
• Rashad Bateman and Xavier Legette over Bill Crosby Merritt [15:45]
• RJ Harvey > Ricky Pearsall for Flex [28:08]

Trade & Waiver Advice

• Trade McLaurin/Blue for Cooper Kupp/McMillan?
  • “It’s all about Tetaroa McMillan.” — Do it if you want Tetaroa. Ignore Kupp’s name value [23:06].
• Jacoby Myers as a buy-low
  • “I think he’s probably a pretty sharp buy-low candidate…” — Andrew Erickson [35:23].

Streaming Defense

• Buffalo D for Week 1?
  • Drop and stream matchups, targeting Rams, 49ers, or Commanders defenses [29:09].

Drop/Add & Roster Moves

• Drop Keon Coleman (over Ollie Gordon) for a kicker if you have Achane [48:44].
• Drop Devin Neal over Bryant for a kicker in dynasty.

---

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Time | |---------------------------------------|------------| | Amari Cooper Retirement | 02:03 | | RB2 Debate (Scatterbo vs. Mason) | 05:45 | | Dynasty Trade Analysis | 09:43 | | Roster Cuts in Shallow Leagues | 12:02 | | Bateman/Leggette/Crosby Sit/Start | 15:31 | | Commanders RB Depth Chart Explained | 17:34 | | Tight End Debate: Kraft vs. Warren | 39:14 | | Survivor Pool Picks | 43:03 | | Quick-Fire Start/Sit and Waivers | Throughout |

---

Final Takeaways

• Amari Cooper’s retirement clears paths for young WRs, especially Deontay Thornton.
• In small leagues, always cut backup TEs and aim for high-upside RBs/WRs.
• Sell Garrett Wilson for elite prospects before his tough Week 1 matchup tanks value.
• Jordan Mason is a strong Week 1 upside play in a complicated RB slate.
• Denver Broncos are the safe Survivor pick, especially in non-divisional matchups.
• Tucker Kraft has long-term TE stability; Jacoby Myers remains a sharp buy-low.
• Defense and bench management: Always be aggressive in shallow leagues, streaming D/ST weekly, and chasing breakout rookie WRs only if opportunity/targets are clear.
• The show is highly interactive, with Discord listeners helping drive the entire format—prompting live, actionable answers.

---

For full analysis, live interaction, or to ask your own questions, join the FantasyPros Discord at fantasypros.com/chat. Good luck in Week 1!

Transcript

[Chris Welsh]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[Ty]

Hey guys, let me tell you about the easiest catch you'll ever make. FishingBooker.com with top rated fishing guides across the world, verified reviews, seamless booking and 247 support, FishingBooker makes it easy to plan the perfect fishing trip. So whether you're chasing trophy fish, watching your kid reel in their first catch, or just taking in the sunrise on the water, fishing Booker makes it happen. These aren't just daydreams, they're your weekend plans. Visit fishingbooker.com and book your trip today.

[Chris Welsh]

What's up friends and welcome into Fantasy Pros. This is the fantasy football podcast that is live on the Discord. The extra point with Mr. Andrew Erickson. I'm Chris Welsh. We've got a live studio audience and we are taking questions. The producers are you all week one stuff, not Thursday. We are going to be talking about everything that is going down. Whether you guys got trades start and sits. We've got a chat that's going on as well. It is a podcast produced by the people, for the people and with the people and you could be a part of said people. If you join us over on our Discord fantasypros.com chat, you can chat with other fans, get access to exclusive AMAs that wind up on our podcast feed like this one. We've even got a schedule for you. But Boggs and Fitz, 5pm Eastern every Tuesday. This is through the end of the month of August, but it's probably still September Worm and fits at 5pm Eastern on the first Tuesday of every month. And guess what? Erickson and I, every Thursday at 2pm Eastern, we are here for you. Come and get your questions answered, be on the show and be a part of all the fun stuff. Fantasypros.com chat and guess what? You can be a part of this show. It's kind of free 99. You just gotta have like the free Fantasy Pros account. You attach it into Discord and boom. There is a premium element that you can be a part of as well if you want. And it unlocks and it's a skeleton key. You can just walk into every door. Right now we've got a specific room that you can be in, but the room is pretty cool. So come and join us. Fantasyprose.com chat oh hi. Andrew Erickson. Hello. How are you?

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm doing good, Welsh. Doing good. I want to break some news here while we're live in the Discord. Guess who decided to retire again? Guess.

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, who tried to? Who? Who just Unretired Amari Cooper.

[Andrew Erickson]

Bingo. You got it. So last time we talked about Amari Cooper Welsh, you got played by the fake Adam Schefter.

[Chris Welsh]

I 100. I got sent. I got sent out, as they would say.

[Andrew Erickson]

But this time, you nailed it, man.

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, okay. Good. You know what was tricky about that, too? He never retired. I just thought he retired because I got sent out. So for me to get that is impressive. Can you say Deontay Thornton to the moon? Yes. Deontay Thornton. Worth a pickup. Yes, he is. Not that Amar Cooper is really, like, taking anything away from it, but Thornton was listed as a starter. What did Cooper do? Like a weekend camp was. I mean, that was like a fantasy camp. He spent, like, five days and then he was out. That it?

[Andrew Erickson]

He took one look at Dante Thornton and was like, yeah, I'm good.

[Chris Welsh]

I'm good, dog. I'm good. I'm out. All right. There were some.

[Andrew Erickson]

Let the young bucks eat.

[Chris Welsh]

There were some unfavorable pictures that were out there, by the way. Like, that he wasn't in the best of shape. Yeah. That he wasn't, like, in the best of shape. You know what I mean?

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm not surprised. But, I mean, last year he was in Buffalo. Maybe he was pounding down on the Buffalo wings. Maybe it wasn't. I mean, he did hurt his wrist, so maybe use that as an excuse. Time to bulk up. Gotta eat all these Buffalo wings. So. Yeah. Dante Thornton. Yeah. Is it Deontay Thornton or Dante Thornton?

[Chris Welsh]

I'm gonna go with Deontay Thornton. I mean, don't listen to me. Yeah, the apostrophe is why I'm doing it.

[Andrew Erickson]

Does have the apostrophe. But, yeah, he's going to be a starter. And. But. And the Patriots may not have Christian Gonzalez Week 1. So on the outside, there are worse rookies that you could draft.

[Chris Welsh]

Fire it up. Fire it up. We're gonna fire this bad boy up there. So. So there you go. Some breaking news. So all of your Amari Cooper shares. Down the drain. Poop down the drain. Very sorry. That will probably not be the bulk of the questions we have. It's. It's week one, man. NFL is here. We are so excited. We're recording this before the Thursday night game. Excited to talk to you guys. So let's not waste any more time. We're going to try to get to as much of it as possible for everybody that potentially could be new. I can't imagine a ton, especially for this show, you would just stumble upon. You're like what's the extra point? This show is done in the live discord where people can raise their hand. We go to the audience to speak to you first. That's like a priority thing. And then we will go to the chat. There's a possibility we never get to the chat because we have so many awesome people that just want to talk with us. And that's cool, man. That's really cool. So hopefully we get to chat with all of you and hopefully some of you listening on the podcast will consider coming hanging out because you do get, you get about a day before return. You know you're going to get this live if you're hanging out a full day before it ends up airing. So we'd love to have you in here. And let's kick off the season episodes officially with our boy Chinzer and his Hollow Knight avatar. That I remembered the name. What's up? Wow.

[Andrew Erickson]

I was worried the off season would have been kind to you. You were gonna know.

[Chris Welsh]

It's never kind to me, my friend. But I did remember that this is.

[Andrew Erickson]

Actually a big day for Hollow Knight. The sequel came out today, broke down all the game stores.

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, really? Oh, really?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes. Steam, PlayStation Network, all that stuff. Xbox, everything went down. It was a big anticipated release for Hollow.

[Chris Welsh]

Wow, that's amazing. For Hollow Knight. If anyone wasn't here last year, took me about roughly eight weeks to be able to remember his avatar. Every time I was like, hey, look, it looks like the. It looks like Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. All right, no Hollow Night, but I know there's some NFL. What do you got?

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, I don't want to get kicked off and bring the Thursday night game.

[Chris Welsh]

But don't do it.

[Andrew Erickson]

Backs for my RB2. I won't talk about Tilliams, but there's two running backs I have that I want to or I have to start either Scatterbo or Jordan Mason. And I probably need the higher upside pick because I'm. The projections are not kind to me, which, you know, I don't really agree the projections, but what would you. What do you think is the higher upside between those two?

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, I mean, I think this is a pretty slam dunk. I'm going to. Before I say it, I do think there's a decent possibility we get one of those just like cheap Scatter Boo like at the two yard line handed off to him and let him run into guy touchdowns. This is Jordan Mason, though. I mean, Jordan Mason is going to lead the league in rushing according to Erickson. So this is an easy play.

[Andrew Erickson]

Little league and rushing touchdowns.

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, I thought it was yards you had. It's touchdowns.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, not yards. No, it was not yardage.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay.

[Andrew Erickson]

It was touchdowns. So, yeah, I think Mason is the easy bet here. Better offense, better projection for just overall red zone opportunities. And we know that Mason most likely will be the red zone guy. Scatterboo, we think, will be using the red zone, but Terry's still there and Brian Dabel still loves himself some Devin Singletary as much as he can help. So I'll go with Mason.

[Chris Welsh]

Who. Who do you have higher, Aaron Jones or Jordan Mason this week?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think they're ranked back to back. I don't know. I think it's gonna basically flip flop. It's gonna depend on. Well, if the Vikings are in a negative game script, you'll probably see more of Aaron Jones.

[Chris Welsh]

But which one? Which one do you have.

[Andrew Erickson]

The rank back to back? Because I don't have. I'm not bullish on it because like I said, it's gonna flip flop every single week. Probably who's the better guy. It's going to depend on how the game script or it if Mason scores a touchdown or not.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, I don't disagree with you, by the way. I'm just saying, like Aaron Jones is ranked a bit higher, I believe than Aaron Jones is ranked a bit higher than Jordan Mason right now. And I'm kind of with you that like I don't 100% know. I want to see what this usage looks like because I think we've been built up that this is going to be a shared backfield and oh my gosh, Jordan Mason looks great. And then all of a sudden, you know, week one is going to be some 70, 30 split in favor of Aaron Jones and we're like crap, you know, so like before I can jump with both feet in, I want to see it. But if I were taking a shot this week, I actually am comfortable throwing out Jordan Mason. But regardless of the point, like this question, it's not close. It's. It's easily Jordan Mason over Scatter Boo because all the same things. We had a question. What would the Scatter Boo? Our boy Redbeard Red Beard. What's up, dude?

[Caller/Listener]

What's going on?

[Chris Welsh]

Yo, what's up, brother? What do you. What do you got?

[Andrew Erickson]

Two things I got.

[Caller/Listener]

I want to know how I did guy with quin Sean Juckins in a dynasty league was little worried and I picked him up for 26. Second round pick.

[Chris Welsh]

I like that. Did I see two? He was at practice today Erickson, do you see that? I don't. I haven't seen the contract but there's. Yeah. I mean did I get sent out again? Did I get NFL Sentel that there was a picture of him?

[Andrew Erickson]

I did not see any. I did not see any quid. John Judkins, news today. So you can trust. Well here.

[Chris Welsh]

Don't trust me. No.

[Andrew Erickson]

This track records not necessarily great in this, in this specific realm. So we'll have to check the news. It.

[Chris Welsh]

Well, Mary Kate, Mary Kay Cabot, this is the. Let me. Hold on. I mean Mary Kay I think also said like he might be playing but yeah, I'm looking here. I think that might have been sent out here because it was reported from her that there's a lot of.

[Andrew Erickson]

There's a lot of fake Brown's reports with Judkins out there on the ether said something to be careful, man.

[Chris Welsh]

Got it. Got to do multiple scrolls here. All right. Yeah, I think that's fine. I think if you, you got them for pretty low cost there, there's major upside in a dynasty. You know, you can kind of move past what like this year is. You're obviously playing to the long term. So that was a good job, man. What was question number two?

[Andrew Erickson]

All right.

[Caller/Listener]

Garrett Wilson. And with Justin Fields, I've got a guy that's peaked interest in wanting Garrett Wilson and he just got Tet and Orbuca is either one of those interested in getting off of Garrett or keep Garrett for the rest of the year.

[Chris Welsh]

I mean it's a slam dunk. If you can get Tetaroa for Garrett Wilson, I'm slamming that Igbuka is a little bit tougher. Garrett Wilson's really tough. You, you, I and Fitzy kind of playing slam game, slam ball on the jets during the ranks episode. If people haven't listened yet, it's a really tough matchup this week. There's just a lot of big questions. There is something to say that like at the end of the day if Justin Fields can only complete like 10 passes and throws like 18 of them, like, okay, this is a problem but Garrett Wilson's going to get everything. The dude should get double digit targets every single week. It's just what, what is it going to look like? I'm saying this to all say that like I don't think I would do the egg buka even though we know there's like a lot of upside there. Like Garrett Wilson is the Sol, but I would take Tedaroa in a heartbeat. What say you, Erickson?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, that's What I recommended on the featured pros this week, you know who's a player that you're trying to sell before the season starts and it was Garrett Wilson. For me, just looking at the week one matchup, it's terrible. And I think that the sentiment around him after week one is going to be very, very negative. And I think that you'd rather not wait and see if he can pull through. Maybe he does. Maybe he sees 20 targets and he catches 10 for 80 yards and you feel great about it or not. Terrible. But if you could flip him for Tetrah McMillan right now, I mean if McMillan has a breakout game in week one, that that opportunity to buy him with Garrett Wilson is going to be slam shut in week two. So that's what I would recommend.

[Chris Welsh]

Totally got sent out on that Judkins thing. God. Oh no, I didn't do anything with it. I was just. It was a morning scroll and the person very slickly by the way, they tagged Mary Kay Cabot in their post with a picture Gutkins. Very, very slick Sintel job. But I didn't do anything with it. Unfortunately I said something here. So he's still. God knows what he's out there doing, but he ain't playing with the Browns right now. It's still a good play. All right, Wolf of call Street. Very good name. What's up? What's up Wolf?

[Caller/Listener]

What's up guys?

[Andrew Erickson]

Can you hear me?

[Chris Welsh]

Got you. Great man.

[Caller/Listener]

Sweet. So kind of a. Just a general rest of season outlook thing. I'm in an 8 man PPR. Kind of curious who you guys would drop in my situation. I'm one of those annoying league mates that always drops the kicker in defense to get a couple extra training camp guys. I'm kind of between Colson, Loveland, Najee, Ali and Bill. I'm pretty set at wide receivers, super stacked, don't really need any help there but I'm really thin at RB2 so my thought process was just go for somebody with real high upside. I do have R.J. harvey who's, you know, I'm expecting to start a little slow but maybe grow into my RB2 rest of season. But yeah, kind of, kind of need to drop two people to get a defense and kicker. So I'm between Bill, Colson, Loveland, Najee, Ali and I was thinking Najee and Ali are the obvious ones but they have such high upside if you know something goes wrong in that backfield. So yeah, just wanted to get Yalls thoughts.

[Chris Welsh]

Who's your starting tight end?

[Caller/Listener]

I have Mark Andrews in that league. So I feel pretty good with likely hurt at the beginning of this season at least. And waivers are deep too. Like Pitts is on waivers. If I drop Colston.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, I mean I was going to jump right to Hugh Erickson on this, but like it's a eight man. You don't need a backup tight end. So I'm going to say Loveland is the easiest cut of all of them. But what do you think the next cut is?

[Andrew Erickson]

You can play the they all have elite upside, but I think Nashi right now is more or less a handcuff. I don't know how much standalone value he actually has, so that's who I would drop. I want to see how this cross Gamera thing plays out in Week one. If he's inactive, then you can put him on your IR spot whether he's healthy, scratch or not. If he's rolled out, you can put him in IR spot because he was dealing with a shoulder injury. I don't we want to remind people of that. Towards the end of the preseason he was dealing with that. So that might also be white. The depth chart thing with the commanders, that was kind of weird. So that's how I would play it. I'm not concerned about Najee coming back to burn me to a crisp again. If obviously anything can happen. Hampton could get banged up, but you know, you could see Austin Eckhart get banged up, you know, in Week one and then you're like, oh, why'd I drop Bill? Like, it's really hard to play that well. Of course I dropped the guy I drop. Of course the starter is going to immediately get hurt. Like, like you feel like that's always going to happen, but it's out of your control. You just got to make the decision based on those guys are healthy. Naji, I would say has the least amount of value. Yep.

[Chris Welsh]

And 18 and eight team leagues play upside. There's just such incredible depth that's on. I mean it does sound like you guys might be like holding on. Like might have really deep benches if you're you said something about likely. Maybe you just put them on the IR or something. But for the most part, 18 leagues tend to like have just so much depth. Najee just doesn't really qualify. Like I would much rather like said Ali and Bill and let's see what happens in Week one. Then hold on to someone like Najee who you're just like never going to get out there. But Loveland is the super easy one to get rid of. Cheefer for life. Chief is waiting for Friday patiently. And we are patiently waiting for Chiefer to come up on the stage. Come up on the stage. Cheefer Chiefer for life. Oh, you might sell the bag. We'll come back to you. Three, two, one. That's a bad sign for the Chiefs for this weekend. Just sold the bag. Couldn't step up. But you can re raise your hand and we'll bring you back up. But first we're going to go to Brandon. What's up, Brandon? Unmute. There we go.

[Andrew Erickson]

What's up guys? I think you guys already kind of answered my question about Bill Crosby Merritt, but I need to start two guys this week for I'm gonna give out three names. Rashad Bateman, Xavier Leggett and then Bill Crosby, Merritt.

[Chris Welsh]

You need to start. How many?

[Andrew Erickson]

Two of those guys.

[Chris Welsh]

Two. So it was Bateman, Crosby and what was the other one?

[Andrew Erickson]

Xavier Leggette. Leguette.

[Chris Welsh]

So I'm so sorry, what are you saying? Leggette and Crosby or Bateman?

[Andrew Erickson]

No, I say I probably just play the receivers. Yeah, I don't think you can play Cross Camaro with any sort of confidence. I mean, if you, if he plays more week one, I think that's great. I think that's still a win if he gets good usage in week one. But I don't want to risk it, especially against the Giants. They have a really good defensive line that's not going to be a pushover like it was last year with Dexter Lawrence back in the middle with Abdul Carter. I think that defensive line is going to be fierce and I'm not trying to play these Commanders running backs. Whereas Leguette, I mean, there's no Coker. They're playing the Jags. He got targets last year and he's a former first round pick. And Bateman, the Buffalo Bills secondary is ravaged with injuries right now. Like Lamar Jackson might throw like six touchdowns in week one. So Rashad baby just has to catch one and you'll feel great about starting him. So yes, wheels up for Ravens pass catchers.

[Chris Welsh]

I completely agree. I'm. I think the running back situation with the Commanders is super dicey right now. Where do you sit on both sides of the info that was floating out there? Where was it like Tuesday it's he, Bill is fourth on the depth chart. Wednesday he was running behind Eckler. I mean, it kind of sounds like you're just like, I don't care at this point. We need to see like that's kind of where I'm at right now like I think Chris Rodriguez is probably a better bet to start than than Bill Crosby merit but also I think Mick Nichols was second on the depth chart. So it's like if you, if you cannot start any of them outside of Echler, I think that's probably a pretty safe thing for this week. But where what side are you on on that like he's fourth on the depth chart or that we are going to see him run more as a.

[Andrew Erickson]

2 so the way I see the way that the depth chart was released I think was kind of misleading because I think that McNeil McNichols as the RB2 was more of a explanation of he's Austin Eckler's main backup. That's what his role is like. He is the B back. Anthony Lynn, who's the running backs coach for the Commanders. He has A backs who are the guys that early downs in between the tackles. Goal line A backs are Rodriguez and Krusky Merritt. The B backs are the receiving pass downs, third downs. That's Eckler and McNichols. So but the, the way that the depth start is constructed on the Commander's website, it just doesn't let you have it doesn't let you like set that up because you can't have two starting running back RB1, RB2. So that's the way that they put it. So I think it's just a little bit misleading like Rodriguez, it's really more of Rodriguez versus Cross Key merit. Like I don't think McNichols is really a factor unless Eckler were to get injured. So that being said, to your point, it could be Rodriguez in Week 1 because he's the veteran. But will that last? I'm a bit skeptical just because Corey Krasnamet was the talk of the town since OTAs. So if it's not week one, I think that he eventually will take over that a back role and it will be a 12 punch between cross key Merritt and Echler as long as he's healthy.

[Chris Welsh]

How do you manage your fantasy team with all those commander running backs if Erickson is not here for you in the moment? My playbook Sync your league instantly to my playbook to get customized advice on how to manage your team throughout the season. See your league's top available players, power rankings and more for free. Check the Are they playing tool each week to get the latest game day availability odds for all injured players. If you're premium, you unlock all kinds of helpful waiver trade lineup and league analysis tools. You can Even auto start your team's optimal lineup each week with autopilot. Sync your league and dominate every week of the season with my [e-mail] myplaybook or on the Fantasy Pros app. Do it today. Let's roll back in to our people. We've only got a couple more here, so if anyone wants to raise their hand, they can get front of the line. Otherwise, we'll be getting to the chat. We've got Ronin Premium member on the Fantasy Pros Discord. What's up, Ronan?

[Andrew Erickson]

Gentlemen. How you doing?

[Chris Welsh]

We're doing good.

[Andrew Erickson]

Dude.

[Chris Welsh]

It's week one football tonight. What are you talking about? It's great. How are you doing?

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm doing all right.

[Chris Welsh]

Well, let's get you better. What's up?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, well, got two flex spots to.

[Chris Welsh]

Fill and I think I got most of them, but I'm trying to fill.

[Andrew Erickson]

The last one with guys. I have guys like Olave, etn, Travis Hunter and Mason. I'm kind of in a coin flip at this point. 4852 in terms of expected points, so kind of feeling who should I drop in that last slot?

[Chris Welsh]

Okay, so one more spot. Olave, Hunter, Mason. What was the other one?

[Andrew Erickson]

Format, Travis etn.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay, etn and then. Yeah, what's the format?

[Andrew Erickson]

It's half ppr.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay. Half ppr. I think this is between Olave and Travis Hunter. I think the upside. Well, there's something to the upside of Olave. What do you say, Erickson? I'm always jumping in first here. I'll shut the hell up and go, but what do you. I think it's between A, Lava and Hunter, but tell me otherwise or which one?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think in half ppr, I'm just trying to find the guy who has the highest odds of scoring a touchdown. Because that ultimate, like, if whichever one of these guys scores, you're going to be like, all right, that was a good. That was a good flex decision. So for me, it's probably Jordan Mason. I think he has the best touchdown odds of that group. A lot. I mean, are the Saints going to score that many points? No. Travis Hunter, yes. He's really exciting. Second overall pick. But we'll see how the usage is. First, start with Trevor Lawrence. Carolina, again, not a great defense, but see what the Jack. And then ETN is more of a receiving back than one that they're going to necessarily grind between the tackles. So I will go with Jordan Mason. Okay.

[Chris Welsh]

I like that. I do think there's some touchdown equity that could be stolen from a guy like Aaron Jones, but I'm with you on that. They're all kind of close. I think that's what makes it so tough. I think I'm leaning Olave just simply because, like, he's every. I mean, he's the receiving option outside of Camara. It's them. It's a good point. You know, like, how much will they score? Presumably they're going to be down the whole game and they're going to be slinging the ball. So I think I'm probably playing a lot of it. I want to say Hunter. I think Hunter's the most dynamic of all of them. Panthers offense, defense is bad.

[Andrew Erickson]

He's probably the most. He's probably the most fun player to play. If you're really trying to play, like, like the fun element of it, probably Travis Hunter is the guy.

[Chris Welsh]

But you also could say, like when he said he was, what, like 48, 52. If you want to do the. The pure upside play, that might be Hunter, because the Panthers gave up the most receiving touchdowns on a per game basis last year. You've got, you know, Brian Thomas, who's going to take up so much coverage. If you. We know, or at least we've talked about what the slot roll in a Cohen offense looks like, and if that's going to end up being Travis Hunter, you might be surprised. So I think if you want to, like hail Marriott, it might be Travis Hunter. The other two guys are probably a little bit safer. So you make your judgment on what 48, 52 percentile means to you. Like, you're just trying to get, as you know, close to the point factor and take any big swings. Or if you want that big swing. It might be Hunter there, but I mean, good options to have, man. All right, Konoso, another premium member on the Fantasy Pros. Discord is next up. What's up?

[Andrew Erickson]

Hey, guys. How you doing?

[Chris Welsh]

We're doing good, man. What do you got?

[Andrew Erickson]

Got a quick trade that I got presented.

[Chris Welsh]

I give up McLaren and Blue for Cooper cup and McMillan. What do you think? So Tet cup and you give up McLaurin and Jaden Blue Ericson, I can't answer this question. Why?

[Andrew Erickson]

Because I can't trade for Cooper Cop. I just can't do it.

[Chris Welsh]

Who cares about Cooper? Okay, okay, let me rephrase the question. No, Lena, let me rephrase the question then for you. Would you trade Terry McLaren to get tea McMillan?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay, then the trade's done. What are you talking about? You're going to be like Oh, I don't want to trade Jaden Blue for Cooper Cup. Who cares about those other pieces?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, all right, that's fair enough.

[Chris Welsh]

All right. God, why do you.

[Andrew Erickson]

I just don't want. I just don't want Cooper cup on my.

[Chris Welsh]

Then release him. Then cut him. You can cut him right after if you want it.

[Andrew Erickson]

That power moves he. Trade for a player that immediately cut him.

[Chris Welsh]

That's. It's all about assuming that's tea. Yes.

[Andrew Erickson]

It's all about Tether McGillan. Yes. Yeah, it's all about. That's what it's always been out there.

[Chris Welsh]

It's always been about just Tetero and McMillan. What? What do you think? Give me Cooper Cup's line this year. Let's stop for a minute. Let's have a little heart to heart. What's Cooper Cup's line look like this year?

[Ty]

You can make a difference in someone's life, including your own, with a job in home care. These jobs offer flexible schedules, health care, retirement options, and free training. They also provide paid time off and opportunities for overTime. Visit or oregonhomecarejobs.com to learn more and apply. That's oregonhomecarejobs.com.

[Matt Jones]

Hey, this is Matt Jones and I'm Drew Franklin, and this is NFL Cover Zero. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining, and twice a week. That is exactly what you're gonna get. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Looks like something that should not be sold. Oh, my. So that was my other big Colts takeaway. They sold that?

[Chris Welsh]

Yes.

[Matt Jones]

Might want to go back to the Colts stadium.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, I might want to go back.

[Matt Jones]

To the drawing board on that.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah.

[Matt Jones]

I thought the shape we had with pretzels was working pretty well.

[Andrew Erickson]

It's worked for generations.

[Matt Jones]

We're just here trying to enjoy it. We hope you all will join us throughout the year. And let's go. I hope I'm as youthful as Pete.

[Caller/Listener]

Carroll is at his age.

[Matt Jones]

He's a young 73. He is a young 73. He is spry.

[Andrew Erickson]

I wouldn't fight him.

[Matt Jones]

I would listen NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Chris Welsh]

I'm Dan. He's Ty.

[Ty]

Hello.

[Chris Welsh]

And we're the solid verbal college football podcast.

[Ty]

College football season is here, and you know what that means.

[Chris Welsh]

Your team is going to break your Heart three times probably before Halloween. Uh huh.

[Ty]

But fear not. The Solid verbal will be right there with you through every soul crushing loss and impossible comeback.

[Chris Welsh]

Join us all season long, all year long as we ride the rollercoaster of this ridiculous sport.

[Ty]

Whether you're a die hard fan or a casual observer, we'll help you make sense of all the chaos and of course celebrate the madness. Tune in for previews, recaps, bits you you won't hear anywhere else and all the emotional support you need as a college football fan.

[Chris Welsh]

We don't just love college football, Ty, we live it.

[Ty]

Listen to the Solid verbal college football podcasts on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chris Welsh]

Don't be rude.

[Andrew Erickson]

40 or 450.

[Chris Welsh]

How many games is that?

[Andrew Erickson]

I don't know. It doesn't matter. He's gonna probably miss a lot of games. He's probably not gonna be great in the games he plays. That's this Cooper cup stat line and I would have easily picked Jaden Reed over him and but because Jaden Reed has a Jones fracture, who knows how many games he's gonna play this season. So yeah. Yeah. Not not hopeful for Cooper cup attached to Sam Darnold.

[Chris Welsh]

Well yeah. Now I want to look here. Holland fantasy pros football. What what do you think his projections are on fantasy pros?

[Andrew Erickson]

It's probably much higher than what I just gave out because that was off the cuff and I mean three touchdowns. If I had said three touches for Trey McBride would be like man, dude, that's a bold prediction. It's gonna catch three touchdowns this year.

[Chris Welsh]

It's being so nice. Let's see. Featured NC I don't know if I can get. I'll. We'll come back to that because I don't want to hold up the whole show for this but I do want to find the projections.

[Andrew Erickson]

It is week one. Gotta get these people questions.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, well okay. Okay Ericson. Let's go Sammy. Aces is in the house. Erickson's ready to go. None of no more of my nonsense. What you got Sammy?

[Andrew Erickson]

Hey, I got a flex question and then a defense question hit us PPR flex either RJ Harvey or Ricky Piersol. Harvey.

[Chris Welsh]

You you're super comfortable with Harvey. Week one.

[Andrew Erickson]

Super comfortable with the Broncos destroying the Titans.

[Chris Welsh]

So yeah I probably slight lean to Harvey. Just on the the running side I think there's no doubt that Juwan Jennings being active hurts a little bit for for Ricky Pierasol and we just kind of don't know it's actually similar to like an Aaron Jones, Jordan Mason thing where it's like Ricky Piersoll looks like this great upside. We know what you know, could be kind of like Jordan Mason, but then you're going to just have like the stalwart of. Of Juwan Jennings, who has been like a target hog. So all of that to say that. Yeah, I'm fine with R.J. harvey. What was question number two?

[Andrew Erickson]

It's a defense. So I picked up the Bills initially in my draft, but obviously real rough first week, but I just go ahead and straight drop them. I could pick up the commanders, 49ers or RAMs or should I try and hold on to them? You don't need to hold defenses. No, that's not how I. Not at least that's how I play. I just stream them. It's you play matchups. I mean, they're playing the Ravens this week and like half their secondaries hurt. So take the Rams.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah. Only time I'm holding defenses is like in a. In like a guillotine, you know, a chop league. That would be something I would probably potentially do if it's like a deeper one. If you're just trying to like, you know, you want to have. It's really, really important to get them, but otherwise it's not. All right. So going back to our Cooper Cup, I've got it. Now you tell me what you think the projection is on him. You gave your projection 12 catches, 14 yards and negative two touchdowns for the year. What's. What do you think the fantasy pros projection is?

[Andrew Erickson]

Or like 65 catches for like 800 yards and like four touchdowns.

[Chris Welsh]

Pretty close. 75 catches, 846 and five and a half touchdowns. What do you think the week one projection yards are on Cooper Cup? Because this one. I might have just set up a bet for you. I might have a bet for you for the prop show on Friday. Oh, yeah, you're. Yeah, you're very good. Yeah, it is. It's like 53. It's like 53 yards under.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, it's going. It's going under.

[Chris Welsh]

The undertaker. Yeah, I love it.

[Andrew Erickson]

I'm just going to bet Cooper cup unders every single week till they just stop. Till I just keep. They just don't let me any.

[Chris Welsh]

You know, that's what. We didn't we do that last year with Brian Thomas. It was. We bet overs for like eight weeks until they finally like caught on. It was like, like every week.

[Andrew Erickson]

Every time I told. Every time I open the betting pros app, it Always shows me Brian Thomas is my highest profit player.

[Chris Welsh]

Of course, of course I did the same thing like Juwan Jennings in the first couple. But yeah, Brian Thomas was like the bet that keeps on giving. So maybe Cooper cup will be that. So just wanted to throw that out there. Bond. James Bond in the house. Well, it says James Bond, but yes, Isaiah Bond too. And that's shout out to Tupac in the avatar. What's up?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, it's more of a Duke shout.

[Chris Welsh]

Out, but we'll go from there.

[Andrew Erickson]

Thanks for taking my guys. A big fan. First time on a pod.

[Chris Welsh]

Just a quick PPR question regarding the packers wide receivers. How are we feeling about a guy.

[Andrew Erickson]

Like Matthew golden and a possible trade for Jacoby Myers, especially now that Amari is re retired.

[Chris Welsh]

So what? Explain the Jacoby thing. You mean like the. The packers acquiring Jacoby Myers or like you going to get in fantasy?

[Andrew Erickson]

In fantasy. Sorry.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay, let's start with the Packer situation, which I hate. I hate the Packer situation though I suppose like week one, it just does feel a little bit better because like assuming Reed is not going to play out there, golden gets to kind of jump into a starting role. How do you assess Matthew golden early on with no Reed?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think Reed is playing, so.

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, is it just not practicing?

[Andrew Erickson]

So okay, he's just not practicing, but. No, but this is. I think this is what he's going to do all year. It's. I'm never going to practice. I'm just going to play. He should have gotten surgery on this Jones fracture and then missed the first two months of the year, then came back healthy. But he said he's going to play through it. So I would expect him to be out there on the field and unfortunately I think that's going to hurt the other receivers on the packers offense just because he is out there and he's going to see some volume. Probably not enough. And I don't know how efficient he's going to be if he's playing through an injury. So I think the packers it's a wait and see for Week 1.

[Chris Welsh]

Matthew Golden. Matthew golden, wide receiver, 40 in consensus ranks ECR over under for you. Oh, just right.

[Andrew Erickson]

I mean, I think that's spot on. Yeah. I mean that's not startable. Right. Your wide receiver, 40, you're outside the top three receivers.

[Chris Welsh]

It's like flexi. Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

Which I. I get. I mean he's a rookie receiver playing in a game with a high total 49 and a half. But I don't think that necessarily like oh, this is Matthew Goldman. Weak wheels up. Maybe if Reed is inactive, you feel a little bit more comfortable about plugging him in. But right now I think he's looking on. In on the. He's looking outside of your lineup, most likely. Yeah.

[Chris Welsh]

The only thing that does make it interesting too is like, everybody's pro Jordan Love this week. Like, if, if even if Reed is active, I have no interest in him because I think you're already limited because of the wide receiver snapshare thing. And then also you're probably going to have even lower snap share because of the injury. But beside the point. My point is, is if Love is ranked so high, someone's gonna end up eating in there. So maybe Matthew Golden's a little bit. Yeah, Tucker. Well, Fitzy was anti Tucker Kraft a little bit though. Remember, he had him at like 11 or 12. He didn't like him this week.

[Andrew Erickson]

Tucker Craft for your own risk.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay, there you go. I was wondering what was going to happen. What were you going to say there? There's so many different angles. Were you going to slam fits? Were you going to be pro Tucker? It could have been anything.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, I can't slam fit. I mean, he's the one that's been the superior in season. I mean, we'll happ. We'll see what happens in week two of the ranking show when we show up after week one plays out. Jerry Judy gets 200 receiving yards. I look like a dummy.

[Chris Welsh]

But we could also. You should have like a picture of you with the quote under it and you could show it on the show that says fade Tucker Craft at your own risk. I think that's. We'll have the. The art team do that. So. But. But my, my only coming back to it was like the. One of the reasons you could potentially look at golden as a little bit better of a flex option is you have high, high pro Jordan Love in this game. And even though the packers are actually favorites, I think two and a half right now, if the Lions were to push this game and get ahead, then the packers are just throwing more and that works well. Like Jordan Love talked about Matthew golden looking like the Christian Watson. And what do we know about Watson? Yes, he could disappear, but also big, huge plays. So I don't hate Matthew golden as a flex option, but I don't have him. I think I probably have. I'd have to look at my ranks right now. I would say like maybe slightly over that 40, but that's in like the 38ish range. So he's like just outside of wide receiver three. The other question was buying on Jacoby Myers. What's your interest? In a very funny interview he did too where they asked about the trade. He's like, yep, I asked. They said nope. We moved on and he's all good to go. But now it's just him, Thornton and Bowers in there. Do you like going to acquire Jacoby Myers right now?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I think, I think he's probably like a pretty sharp buy low candidate because that this kind of like hit us tanked his stock a little bit just because he requested a trade and just kind of put that out there and it created some type of panic of, well, can I trust Jacoby Myers? Because before this trade thing, Jacoby Myers just looked like the safest bet you could make at wide receiver in the rounds that he was going. So yeah, I think that you don't have to get, you don't have to trade away a lot to acquire him. And I think that he's a really good, steady asset to have on the Raiders roster that, you know, I think could at least be an average offense with Chip Kelly high paced. And I think that he's clear cut. The number one receiver again, Brock Bowers playing tight end, but number two pass catcher on the Raiders and Geno Smith, you know, has is good enough to fuel fantasy success. And Jacoby Myers was productive last year. He's productive the year before then, so. And now he's trying to play for a contract. So he's motivated to go out there and ball out like buying on low on Myers.

[Chris Welsh]

Weirdly enough though, like the whole like Cooper retiring could put like a tiny little boost onto his like value. People might be like, oh, there's like, not that Cooper's ever going to do anything, but it's just perception. People might be like, oh, there's one less guy. Look, there's no one out there.

[Andrew Erickson]

The GM said that it was really, it would mean he was lying. But they, he just said it was a coincidence that they were like talking to Mari Cooper for like two weeks. It just happened to be on the same day that, that Jacoby came in and was like, hey, like I want to trade. And they're like, no, it's like, have a great day. They also signed, they also signed Amari Cooper. So I think that when we saw them both happen back to back, you're like, oh man. Like Jacoby hates the Raiders and Cooper. And that obviously ended up not being the case because now Cooper is not a Raider and Jacoby is a Raider for at least the rest of the season.

[Chris Welsh]

I imagine the Jacoby Myers situation was just like the Homer meme where he comes out or actually there's two. It's bushes and out. But then there's also the go in the bar and take the hat and walk right back in. He's like, all right, there's Jacoby. Guess I'm not getting traded.

[Andrew Erickson]

Myers has you covered for all the Homer Simpson memes.

[Chris Welsh]

Uh huh. Simpsons have you covered for all the Jacoby Meyer trade needs that are out there. We have got you for your live watching needs more than ever before at Fantasy Pros. I don't know if we've ever had so many live offerings and we want you guys to come hang out with us and do it over on Twitch. Twitch TV fantasypros. Because the team here at Fantasy Pros, we are with you now Sunday through Tuesday every week on Twitch. How does that work? Sunday through Tuesday, we're like, it's essentially. I think, I think they meant Sunday through Saturday or Sunday through Friday because I think we have an offering every single day except for Friday here. We have got out of bounds with Pizza Pia, myself, Bogman that is returning this week, 2pm Eastern on Twitch. Me and Bogman doing some Madden 12pm Easter. That's 2pm Eastern, 12pm Eastern. Me and Bogman on Tuesdays are going to be playing Madden where we play the games for the coming week. Looking at a sim schedule as well. We've got fantasy football Q and A every Sunday at noon Eastern. And then lastly we recap Sunday's action at 7:30pm Eastern. Okay, so now I see this. I guess we change up our stuff, but we got lots and lots of live on Twitch. So head over to Twitch TV FantasyPros. Give us a follow so you never miss a stream and ask your questions live. We got so much going on. Things change on a dime. We are here for you with lots of great live streams and hopefully you guys want to come hang out and I'm on half of them. So come and hang out with me. Keep me busy, please. All right, Bucks man. Bucks man. Back in the house. Start Bucky Irving. Yes. Start a Mecca Buka.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes.

[Chris Welsh]

Hey, how's it going? Yeah, what's up, dude? What do you got?

[Caller/Listener]

So I'm in quite a few leagues this year and one of my goals was to try and get Trey McBride. But in the the leagues I didn't get them in. I waited and drafted Tyler Warren and Tucker Craft back to back. So I guess my question is which one of those guys, do you see.

[Chris Welsh]

Finishing best rest of season between Kraft and Warren? Right. Not McBride. Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

Okay. Yeah.

[Chris Welsh]

All right. Yeah, I love that. That was my strategy too, is like try to get Warren and Craft. That really didn't work at the back half of the year, by the way. Like, that worked really awesome in like early August and before that. And then by the time it was like August 20th, it was like Warren was going ahead of Kraft and you no longer really able to do that. But it was really great strategy. So he's asking rest of season, I guess, who did you have hired? Did you have Warren or. I think you're a Tucker Kraft guy.

[Andrew Erickson]

Well, I'm also a Jordan Love guy and not a Daniel Jones slash Anthony Richardson person. Like, that's the, that's the tiebreaker for me is look at the quarterbacks. Do we, do we expect the Colts quarterback to throw for 30 touchdowns this season? No, I, I don't think so.

[Chris Welsh]

Maybe in Madden.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, maybe in Madden. You're just dropping Hail Marys with Richardson after every single play. Whereas Jordan Love two years ago he threw for 30 touchdowns. So I think that is the way to put the rank for Craft ahead of Tyler Warren. Even if they're both very good on the field and they both maybe warrants he's a little bit more volume because he rises above a little bit and they just feature him more. But maybe you're looking at the weekly upside. I don't know if we're ever going to see Daniel Jones or Richardson pass for 300 yards in a game where you can see that, see that week one for Jordan Love and I think Craft is going to be a big part of what they do offensively because of, you know, the injuries at some of the wide receiver positions and Matthew golden as his talented as he is a first rounder, not a target hog. You're at the college level, so he can be really efficient, I think. But is he commanding 10, 12 targets every single week? Maybe not. And that benefits Kraft, I think, for the rest of season. But I think it's, I think it is still close just given the talent profile of Tyler Warren and the opportunity. And he also has like the tush push type of thing going on where they could use him at the line as a rushing threat instead of using Daniel Jones or Richardson. So he has a lot of touchdown equity. But ultimately the quarterback decides it for me. Is Craft. Yeah.

[Chris Welsh]

And the constant too is Craft over those wide receivers. You know, those wide receivers are going to go into those rotations of different Tunes use all the time. Like Craft is the one that's always going to be out there, so more of the constant and if they become a little bit more pass heavy. So Tucker Craft would be the play here. Lando, Lando's in the house. What's up, Lando?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yo, can you guys hear me?

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, we got you good.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yep. Appreciate it. Got a question. Somebody dropped Jake, Drake May, and I currently have Jordan Love and Dak Prescott. 10 man, full PPR. Feel like I should pick up Drake May for Love. Wanted some of your guys input mainly for week one.

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, mainly for week one. So I cut you off there. So if this is based around week one, I think you're pretty high on. I think you have Drake May the highest of all those guys, right?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I'd pick up Drake May.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, I'd be down with a 10 team. You have a lot less of a need to do the two. I've been more to quarterbacky than I have in previous years. Dak with, you know, a Caleb or Drake May. I really like that pairing 10 team, you kind of just don't really need to do it. So you're a little bit better set. Remember the question earlier where it was like, hey, Ali and those type of guys, like, I would rather in a 10 man hold more of those players after week one if somebody pops than to have backup quarterbacks because they're going to be such good ones. But to your point, like, I would rather have Dak and Drake May and May over Dak this week. Dak is a. It's a tough one. How it. However it ended up, by the way, however good or bad that it ended up being just Erickson, you're just like, Thursday, it's happening. Father man. What's up, Father man. What's going on, guys? How are you doing today? We're doing good. How you doing?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I'm great, man.

[Chris Welsh]

I'm allowed to pretty much set, man.

[Caller/Listener]

But I got a surviving question for y', all, man.

[Chris Welsh]

I got burned by the Bengals last year and I don't think I could do that crap again, man.

[Caller/Listener]

So I got got Denver over the.

[Chris Welsh]

Titans right now, man. Y' all thinking anything else or what do y' all thought? Yeah, they're the number one. I believe in all the land. The number one pick team for Survivor this week is the Denver Broncos, which, you know, that goes. But. But I think you're good with it. We've already. We've kind of. We did this bit, Erickson, where I was like, hey, I kind of like the Bengals against the Browns. But the defense sucks, though. How often are you going to use the Bengals? Is one of the reasons. I think it's kind of interesting. But like, I'm in a Survivor and I have the Broncos this week.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, I also would use the Broncos. I think that they're, I think they're live to cover the spread at eight points at home, I think that they could win by double digits. We know one thing about Sean Payton from last year, and when they faced bad teams, he destroyed them. No team had a higher winning margin by average than the Denver Broncos. They won their games. They won on average by 19 points. Just look at the game logs against the bad teams. They beat the Chiefs that rested their starters 38 to nothing in week 18, a meaningless game. They just like, no, we're going to destroy the Kansas City Chiefs and their backup players. And that's what they did. So I think they're going to destroy the Tennessee Titans. So. And I think that Peralt made this good point on one of the betting pro shows with Survivor. It's just, and I agree with him, try to avoid division games because that's where weird things always happen.

[Chris Welsh]

Great point.

[Andrew Erickson]

In Browns, Bengals. It seems like the Bengals should win, but at the same time, it's the Browns and we've seen the Browns give the Bengals fits at times. They have good defensive playmakers. Miles Garrett. So I would just try to avoid division games when it comes to Survivor. And obviously Denver and the Titans not in the same division. So I think you're good to go.

[Chris Welsh]

And also the same token of like, how often would you use the Bengals? How often use the Broncos? You know, like you're not, you don't need to save the Broncos. So I think that's a, it's a good play.

[Andrew Erickson]

Make it to week two.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, make it to week two and you and you know, 40 billion other people are going to be trying to do the same thing.

[Andrew Erickson]

I think the thing that's funny too about the Bengals, I don't remember what happened. It's like, imagine how smart you must have felt last year. Let's say you faded the Bengals and then you went to them in week two and then they lost again. I was so smart. I'll go right back to the Bengals. And then they lost again.

[Chris Welsh]

One thing I do, by the way, because I have two different guillotine type leagues. I've got. Well, actually, I actually have three, which I don't know how that even happened for me. Two of them are the single elimination but the one I do, it's an industry. I've talked about this. A pentathlon. It's five events. Derek VanRiper from the Athletic started it. Fitz, he's in it with us. It's me and Bogman, share a team, blah, blah, blah. But one of the events is a Survivor. But that Survivor has a 3 elimination and I really like that because then it's around week 10, you have to start picking two teams. So, like, what can be really tough. This is just a suggestion. If you guys ever want to start or join or whatever, the single elimination in like, how fun are. Yeah, I'm talking. I just convoluted my things. Survivor and Guillotine. Apologies. I just completely convoluted in a Survivor pool. That's just. This is what I'm talking about, not Guillotine in that we have the three elimination. And so if you get your one team wrong, you're not done. And then move to doubles later. I think that is a more superior format than just one and done in one of those leagues. I know some people like it, but it's just like, okay, my money's gone and, you know, maybe the league. Unless you're doing some giant like 500 person one that could be done in week eight. Very much like three elimination and then go to double picks later in the year, way more people are involved in it and that's a cool way to do it if you want to do one like with your friends. Apologies, Guillotine and Survivor cuts. I completely convoluted. I'm doing all those. I have a lot of league this year. What do you think about my idea? Superior or no? You want your single elimination or do you want to do my triple with double picks starting in week 10?

[Andrew Erickson]

I mean, I think whatever you can do to extend the life of the play. Right? This is supposed to be fun. So I think that single elimination, I get it. But also like, if you get a lot, it just sucks. Or you're like, well, it's over. Like, that was fun and now it's over. So I like having it lengthen out the process for. For more. More action.

[Chris Welsh]

I've got two Survivors, three Guillotines and then just a slew of other. Just Super Flex over here, Dynasty over there. I just, I got a lot of different formats and then you just look at your best balls and you're just like, you're the good child. You're the good child. Best balls, you're the ones. I just don't have to worry about and I'll just come back and check in on later. I don't have to do weekly maintenance for it. It really is. It's the good child, I feel.

[Andrew Erickson]

I don't think we're in a situation where especially with all the ways that you can absorb fantasy and sports betting, I don't think we're in a situation where, man, I don't know how I can get to have more fun about this game. How do I make this game? How do I get stake or skin in this game? It's. It's pretty easy to do now.

[Chris Welsh]

There was only something for me, man. I don't know. Nick. Nick Lowry. What's up, Nick?

[Andrew Erickson]

Hey, guys. Doing well. How are you?

[Chris Welsh]

We're rocking, dude. What you got? Beautiful. So I have two leagues where I have to drop someone for a kicker and one where I need a little tight end help. So it's between Keon Coleman and Ollie Gordon that I have to drop on a team where I have Achan. In Dynasty, it's between Devin Neal and Pat Bryant to get a kicker. And then in my other one with a tight end question, it's whether or not to go with Ferguson or Loveland.

[Andrew Erickson]

Week one.

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, it's so much. Okay, so you want to go first?

[Andrew Erickson]

I think that I would go with dropping Keon Coleman. If you have hn, you can't drop Ollie Gordon because, yeah, HN goes out week one, re injures his calf. You will never forgive yourself.

[Chris Welsh]

Hate doing it. Hate dropping Keon Coleman, though. But you got to do it.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, but even if Keon Coleman goes for 100 yards, like, it could be a flash in the pan and then he could go back to nothing in week two. So you just can't take that risk.

[Chris Welsh]

Agree.

[Andrew Erickson]

That's what I would do with the Dolphins situation and then I would drop Devin Neal.

[Chris Welsh]

Yep. Easy, easy. Not getting rid of Brian. And then Loveland or Ferguson. Well, it was lovely. Lovely. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Didn't catch that. Didn't. Didn't get that there. Snuck that little Thursday in there.

[Andrew Erickson]

You Nick.

[Chris Welsh]

All right, let's do. Let's try to hit a couple. We'll do a little rapid round in the chat here. This has been building up. As we've said, when you come in, you just raise that hand, baby, and we are going to start answering your questions if we can get to them or no, raise your hand and you can talk. But you can put them in the chat. But that's a little bit dicey. So let's do a little bit of rapid round as we go through here PPR flex option Tyreek or TMac? TMac TMac definitely TMac. Oh there's a two point conversion question very good for putting on there. Is it worth picking up drop Addison for Thornton? Absolutely not.

[Andrew Erickson]

No.

[Chris Welsh]

All right let me look here. Okay I think Douglas Amainor would be a better ad instead of Woody Marks they gave their team this was maker Bayfield. Which one was it? IO Manor.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah and he kind of for some reason he gives me some like Tank Dell type of vibes not because of the way they play but if Cam Ward takes like a C.J. stroud rookie season and he brings along a day or a kind of a later round wide receiver rookie how you manor when that guy plays? When that guy's on the field he balls out. So I know Ridley looks like the guy he's the main guy but I man aren't I think he's a starter. I mean he won the job over Van Jefferson so like so far so good. Let's check it out the box of things we need to see from ascending rookies.

[Chris Welsh]

Are you looking at the chat at all is to you okay well I'm asking Dart we're gonna do Darth's question. I just wanted to know. I don't know have you. Do you know what that avatar is?

[Andrew Erickson]

Darth Savage.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, the avatar.

[Andrew Erickson]

You know what that is?

[Chris Welsh]

If I said Aqua Teen Hunger Force does that register anything?

[Andrew Erickson]

It does. I've definitely heard that before but it's not registering anything after that. Once you say whatever this is I will be like oh right. That's what that is.

[Chris Welsh]

You probably won't if you don't. It's just. It's Carl from Aqua Teen Hunger Force but and I've probably done this before I've 5000 shows or whatever in the last 5 years but my best impression in the world is of Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force. I'm not going to do it. You can come back next week if you want me to do it but my best impression is from Aqua Teen Hunger Force so it just sparked all of that seeing Carl but Darth says asked Andrew this earlier this week but was curious how Welsh felt. If you guys have time would you rather start this week? Week 1 Drafted Quarterback Late Full PPR 10 Team A Herbert B Field C Young D Pennix or E Caleb Williams to clarify only the Justins are on my roster. This would ooh and Justin. You snuck that one in here. I think it probably would have been a. That's A little bit of a two point conversion question. What did you answer?

[Andrew Erickson]

I almost wanted E. I think I said B because you don't have to make the roster move because I like having Fields on my team. Week one. I mean if he wasn't playing the Steelers week one, you probably start Fields.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

Because this one match really, really sucks. But we know Fields has a ton of upside if he's running around and really all he needs to do is rip off one big run against the Steelers and that'll probably save his fantasy day. Like that's really all he needs to do is like one big run. It's just a matter of will he get there. So I know that Fitz talked about Herbert on the ranking show and I think that Herbert again offers a little rushing juice. He's not banged up. It concerns me they don't have Rashawn Slater. But you know, I think Herbert I think offers a pretty good floor ceiling combination against the Chiefs. Maybe the Chiefs come out firing. I think that they'll be more aggressive on offense. Maybe we get some points back and forth and I mean just looking at the quarterbacks here, who's the best quarterback of this bunch in real life? Close. It's Justin Herbert by far. So.

[Chris Welsh]

But he also said he has both adjustins. By the way, I just want to point out. So he doesn't have to make.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yeah, yeah, you don't have to then make a roster move either. You don't have to drop Justin Herbert or drop Justin Fields. I don't really want to do so I think Herbert. I think I might have told them Fields earlier in the week, but every time I look at the Jet Steelers matchup, I just think this is just going to be absolutely terrible. I just like every, like how much lower can I move jets and Steelers down my rankings because I just don't want people to rely on these players in their lineups for this week. I know that you'll be forced to play them in some spots in deeper formats, but just don't expect a lot from this game.

[Chris Welsh]

Tko we're going to go to your question in a second. We'll probably end with you. You have your hand raised so you'll be talking. Let's just do a couple more quick hitters here in the chat. DDD start to May Geno Flacco Young May and Young for me.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes.

[Chris Welsh]

Drop Christian Kirk from bench for Adam Thielen. 12 team half PPR.

[Andrew Erickson]

I would not do that. You would not do that.

[Chris Welsh]

Okay, I might do that. To be honest with you. Also, Kirk not practicing.

[Andrew Erickson]

Why add feeling when Addison's gonna come back? I'm gonna support three, four wide receiver weapons between Hawkinson, Jefferson, Addison and Thielen. Is C.J.

[Chris Welsh]

Stroud going to support more than Nico Collins? With Hayden. With Higgins as the number two. I'm not saying Kirk is bad. I'm just not saying. I'm just saying, like, Kirk is not practicing, probably doesn't play dealing. I got three weeks out of like. I just don't see Kirk as like a long term option. But that is a little like, short sighted, you see.

[Andrew Erickson]

You see Thielen as a long term option?

[Chris Welsh]

No, no, but I'm saying, like, if I need. I'm assuming he's making this move because he needs production now. If. If it. If it is all just bent. Well, I mean, why would you drop? I guess I'm presuming. Yeah, I'm presuming.

[Andrew Erickson]

I guess that's why I was confused because I was like, wait, why? I mean, yeah, if you're like, I have to start something now. If Kirk is hurt, then he can't help you.

[Chris Welsh]

Now, that's how I. That's how I was viewing it. To your point. If it's season long, yes, I would rather have Kirk because Thielen has like a timer. His timer starts in week four where it clicks off. Mario said Pickens or egg buka. Week one.

[Andrew Erickson]

Luca, you gotta start Ibuka. He's a top 24 guy. Sweet.

[Chris Welsh]

Agreed. All right. TKO, final one coming up here. Send us out. What you got?

[Andrew Erickson]

You know who that avatar is?

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah, that's the. From the Panda Karate. Panda Ninja Panda Karate. What's the. What's the Kung Fu Panda?

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes, it is.

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah.

[Andrew Erickson]

See? Can you guys hear me?

[Chris Welsh]

Yeah. We got you.

[Andrew Erickson]

Yes.

[Chris Welsh]

What you got? All right, perfect.

[Andrew Erickson]

So I'm gonna give you guys a handful of players. I just need help starting three of them. So I got Tedro McMillan, Marvin Harrison, Garrett Wilson, Keon Coleman, and Jerry Judy.

[Chris Welsh]

I'm starting the top three. I know you said you want to get out of the Garrett Wilson business. The only option is that you're gonna. Are you gonna start? You could. It's a bad defense. You got to start Judy over Wilson. If you do it. I'm not. I'm starting the top three.

[Andrew Erickson]

I think I'm. I think I'm starting Judy. I think I'd rather shoot for the ceiling with Judy in a matchup against the Bengals versus. I think Wilson probably has a safer floor. But if I play Garrett Wilson, he goes 4 for 40. When Jerry Judy could go for 100 yards against the Bengals. I think that that's a bet. And if Judy bombs like he has done in the past against the Bengals, okay, so be it. But I just don't think you're going to miss out on a Garrett Wilson like blow up game where you can't afford to bench him if you want to shoot for upside because he just doesn't have upside this week where a Judy, I think it's pretty clear. I mean if Flacco decides, hey, I'm just gonna dial in on Jerry this week and he's just dropping back to throw lasers to Judy, then you could see him having a big game. So if you need the floor play, I guess you can look at that in your matchup, right? If you are favored to win by a lot of points, then just play Wilson, take the points, move on. But if you're an underdog, I don't think Wilson's going to be able to help you that much.

[Chris Welsh]

Wilson is 22 in half PPR ECR ranks Judy is 25. Is that how are you? I don't know where you have Wilson. Are you going to make.

[Andrew Erickson]

But okay, again, I just like I explained, I think the upside is with.

[Chris Welsh]

Judy, it's a David and Joku week. David and Joku. That's what we want. All right, there you go, friends. That is it for everybody listening on the podcast. We've got our little like extra thing we do after we're calling it the two point conversion where we will answer those Thursday questions and just a couple extras. So another reason to join us on Discord. Discord. Every single week we stick around for everybody. And a little side note, we now have cameras on. So this is like you get to watch. So it's not just listening on Discord. You get to watch Erickson and I as we're doing this show. We'd love for you guys to come and hang out with us and you can do it. Go to fantasypros.com chat, put a little notification in every Thursday at 2pm Eastern. You can join us. You get to listen to it a day before you get to come on and ask questions. You guys produce the show and we're just hanging and answering it, getting you prepped for the week. So we'd love to have you. And we got some other great shows that are in here. So join up on the discord today fantasyprose.com chat as well. Make sure you put a pin in the YouTube and the Twitch YouTube.com fantasypros Twitch TV fantasypros where we got the Sunday morning stuff. I'll be on on Sunday morning on YouTube answering questions. We've got the Twitch stuff. We've got out of bounds coming back on Monday. Madden streams playing the actual week on Tuesday. So lots of fun stuff. So make. Make sure to join us. That is it. You guys have a fantastic one. Good luck in week one. Enjoy these games. For Andrew Erickson, I'm Chris Welsh. We'll talk to you next time right here on the Extra Point.

[Andrew Erickson]

Thanks for listening to the Fantasy Pros fantasy football podcast. If you love the show, the best free way to support us is by leaving a positive review on apple [e-mail] review or on Spotify. Follow us on X Instagram and TikTok Anthony Fantasy Pros and subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com fantasypros.

[Matt Jones]

Hey, this is Matt Jones and I'm Drew Franklin, and this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that?

[Chris Welsh]

Oh, my.

[Matt Jones]

We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're gonna get. Listen NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Chris Welsh]

I'm Dan. He's Ty. Hello. And we're the solid verbal college football podcast.

[Ty]

Tune in for previews, recaps, bits you won't hear anywhere else, and all the emotional support you need as a college football fan.

[Chris Welsh]

Join us all season long as we ride the roller coaster of this ridiculous sport.

[Ty]

Listen to the solid verbal college football podcasts on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Chris Welsh]

We don't just love college football, Ty. We live it.

[Honey German]

Hi, it's Honey German. And I'm back with season two of my podcast. Gracias. Come again. We got you. When it comes to the latest in music and entertainment, with interviews with some of your favorite Latin artists and celebrities. You didn't have to audition.

[Andrew Erickson]

No, I didn't audition. I haven't auditioned in, like, over 25 years.

[Honey German]

Oh, wow. That's a real G talk right there. Oh, yeah, we'll talk about all that that's viral and trending with a little bit of Cheeseman and a whole lot of laughs. And of course, the great Biblas you've come to expect. Listen to the new season of Gracias. Come again on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast.

[Andrew Erickson]

This is an iHeart podcast.