Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 2 Matchups, Players to Watch

So you're starting Crowell. You didn't see much from Duke Johnson in week one. And do you start Buck Allen? Would you flex Buck Allen in this specific matchup, not knowing what his role will be absent of Danny Woodhead? I would. Yeah, I would as well. When you're talking flex, and I mean, maybe you're in that situation where you have to running back to Javori Sound, and I'm okay with that. They were at least committed to him. I don't expect him to out rush.

Terence West. Terence West is the much better runner, but can I put you on the spot with a Buck Allen question? Sure. Buck Allen in this matchup or Rob Kelly against the Rams? Kelly. Okay. Last one. Buck Allen in this matchup or would you go with Gio Bernard tonight against Houston? I think I'd go Buck Allen. I would go Buck Allen there as well. Buck Allen or John Brown? Flex question. In the flex.

Oh, that's tough. I'm going to go John Brown. So that would be a matchup dependent one. If you're going up against the beast and you want a high upside, I think John Brown has a real shot to have a great game. But if you need a safe floor, if you're the favored guy in your matchup, then I would go Buck Allen. I think he has less of a chance of putting out zero to two fantasy points than John Brown does. We should circle back to John Brown here in a couple of matchups. We're going to talk about the Cardinals. I have some thoughts about.

Some good starts in that game. All right, the Bills traveled to Carolina to take on the Panthers. Bills had a buy in week one, face the Jets. And the Panthers are seven point favorites here, 43 point over under. Highlights from this game. I think Tyrod Taylor is a very okay start in this game. If Tyrod Taylor is almost always an okay start because of the rushing floor, you're guaranteed 40 rushing yards.

from Tyrod Taylor. And you can look at that however you want. You know, that's almost, that's a touchdown. If you're in a four point, that gives you some leeway. He can throw two interceptions because you know that they're going to get wiped off by rushing production. So Taylor is lucky. He gets to throw two. Just say like, however you want to look at it, you're plus four points. Here's the rushing leaders. It's an extra hundred passing yard. Here's the rushing leaders at the quarterback position for week one. Russell Wilson, 40 yards.

Tyrod Taylor, 38 yards. Then it was Cousins with 30, Marioo with 26, Dak Prescott with 24. Matt Stafford was 10th with 15 yards, and Cam Newton was not on the list. Cam Newton, I believe, Rush for ball. I think he had like either three rushes for six yards or six rushes for three yards. I mean, it was minimal. Cam Newton, to his credit, I think that he's...

Being wise in this situation, he knows that he cannot get hit on that shoulder right now because it's going to hurt. And he doesn't want to have any setbacks here. I mean, you've got to protect your body. You saw the impact on Russell Wilson last year when he was hobbled. He couldn't run. He couldn't take chances. And it impacted his fantasy numbers. Yeah, I mean, the good news is the Bill's defense is not great. So I think the opportunity for Cam to have an okay game, the way that he had.

last week against the 49ers is is there. He's an okay start. Definitely not someone I love right now, but, you know, you're going to be, you're going to be all right. Let's talk about a point of concern here for Buffalo. I don't know if you guys already looked at the stats, though. If you have, have not, don't peek. How many times were the Buffalo Bills wide receivers targeted in week number one? I already looked. Do you know the answer to that question? I do not. Total target for the wide receiver position.

Total tart. Well, so I'm going to assume low. How low can you go? I would guess, I don't know, 17. You would be wrong. Very wrong. Eight times. The fewest in the NFL, eight targets total. Reminded me of some of these, what was it, Tennessee Titans a couple of years back when there were Delaney Walker targets and nothing else. That was back when, what?

You had, who am I thinking of on the outside in Tennessee? What, when Wright was there? No, he went to Philly and the name's escaping me. Green Beckham? Oh, Green Beckham, yeah. So Buffalo, we can talk all we want about how much we might like Jordan Matthews or Zay Jones or Andre Holmes who had a touchdown last week. But eight total targets. Yeah, it's not going to get it done. And yet, that might get it done to like one player. And yet Tyrone Taylor was 14 yards of completion.

It's funny because that's not even receptions. That's just total targets. That's the times. How many drawbacks did he have? And then he looked at wide receivers eight times. Charles Clay, baby. Charles Clay. Charles Clay and the running backs. Those two are where you're going to get the production from the Bill's offense. Unfortunately, Charles Clay is once again banged up. So you need to monitor him this week. That's the truth. He always is because I love the upside of Charles Clay. I love...

the option for you to start in this week. If you were a player that, you know, you had a mediocre tight-in performance in week one, Clay was the pickup. Yeah, I do worry a little bit. I mean, the Panthers are usually good against the tight-in. I mean, you know, when you've got the middle of the field covered with the guys that they've got, Luke Keekly out there, they know that Charles Clay is important, and they have the guys that can guard him. So I don't love...

the start of Charles Clay this week, but I do like Charles Clay rest of season a lot. All right, Greg. Say, are you comfortable rolling out both McCaffrey and Stewart this week? We were last week because it was against San Francisco. I think the bills are a shade or two above San Francisco. Sorry, Bill's fans. Oof. Jonathan Stewart was fifth in the league last week and yards after contact. And if you look at total carries rushing attempts, he's in that top 10 as well. He had 18 rushing attempts in week one. And so.

They've also said they're going to limit the reps for Christian McCaffrey. They don't want to, I think the metaphor was they don't want to take all the wear off the tire, so to speak. So I think you can start both. I really do. And I think McCaffrey, you're looking for him to produce fantasy points in the passing game, seven targets last week. Are you, is there anybody else in this game? Calvin Benjamin. I love Calvin Benjamin in this game. This is a big bounceback opportunity? Yeah. Would you buy him now?

I mean, it's always, everything depends on the cost, but if you can get him. $18. If you can get it, because, I mean, you're buying him low. It wasn't a great week in what looked like a fantastic matchup. So if you can steal. He had one catch last week, 25 yards. I'm certainly interested if I can get him low. Yeah, last week he was targeted five times. So that's something where, you know, the opportunity was there. The production wasn't. Maybe it's a good buy low. The Cardinals.

Oh, the Cardinals. They take on the Indianapolis Colts. Oh, the Cardinals. Now, the Colts are at home, and yet they're seven and a half point dogs in this matchup. It's nice to see somebody else believing in them Cardinals because these three homers here, I don't think we have a bright, a bright future plan. The over under is 44. The over under is 44. I'll take the under. Carson Palmer, Jacoby Brissette or Tolzine. We don't know yet.

And this is going to be the start for Kerwin Williams, but the RBBC of Williams, Chris Johnson, and Andre Ellington. That was news, though, that yesterday that Arians came out and said Kerwin Williams will be the starter. And that Chris Johnson was signed. So Chris Johnson is there. Third on the depth chart right now. Yep. Andre Ellington will be utilized in the passing game. Let's talk a little bit about, I think we've already said. Like if you had to start one running back from Arizona, I guess I'll ask you that question. Who would you start?

That would be Kerwin Williams, and he should be okay. I mean, the Indianapolis Colts are one of the best teams to play against. With the game script, I do expect the Cardinals still to win this game, which then could limit Andre Ellington as a pass catcher. And you're just looking for and hoping for a rushing touchdown here. And you've got to go, the probability is Kerwin Williams.

Frank Gore, Marlon Mack, the backfield in Indianapolis. I know Mike yesterday, your pump the brakes was the entire Colts offense. Yep. Is, I mean, are you holding true to what you said? You're not starting a single player on their entire offense. I am not. I am willing to start Dante Moncrief. Oh, I know. How can you start Dante Moncrief? I don't understand. Here's how I could catch last week. Fool me once. Here's how. Six total receptions for the wide receivers for Indianapolis last week. Sure. Here's how I could.

choose to start Dante Moncrief. It's a combination of what you saw in Arizona with Detroit last week. Okay, the secondary cornerback for Arizona has been a problem for a while. Justin Bethel is not a great cornerback. He's slowly getting better, but he's still a matchup that you target in fantasy football. I think that will be Dante Moncrief. And you saw when Jacoby Brissette came into the game, oh, lo and behold, Dante Moncrief gets a 50-yard.

And it was a good pass and a great reception. I believe that Jacoby Brissette, assuming he's the starter, will be able to, you know, take advantage of the bad matchup for the cornerback with a good wide receiver. So I don't love it. I'm not saying, hey, get your Moncrief in. I'm just saying if you're in a situation where you're choosing between a couple lower guys, I think Moncrief has at least the opportunity to score a touchdown.

The Colts are going to score, right? I guess there's no guarantee right now. The only way I'm playing Moncrief is I know something has happened in my life. I have ingested something poisonous. Right. I need to get it out of my body. I need to vomit to save my life. Right. I'll plug Moncrief in because that will induce some.

visceral sickness inside my body and I'll be safe. So that's the only way I'm doing it. It feels like we're playing the same clip from last week where Jason said to start Moncrief over Hilton, which by nature you're saying right now, you're saying the only start I'd do is Moncrief. Are we going to water bet Moncrief again? No, no, no. I would start doing. Hilton and Moncrief to me are darn near the same. But what if what if I? Because Hilton will be the number one target, but he'll have the better coverage. The number two target will have worse coverage.

So you're starting Hilton? Yeah, I mean, if you look at the rankings right now that I have, Hilton and Moncrief are lower end flex type of possibilities to plug in. That's how I see. More like impossibilities. Am I right? Well, all right.

Okay, let's take a break here. Before we get to the next game, I want to tell everybody a little bit more about PlayDraft. You've heard us talk about them forever. They are our studio sponsor and we play them all the time. We'll do a draft against each other tomorrow. But you hear us talk about, you know, draft over at Playdraft.com slash ballers. And you might want to know, well, what is it? Like how does it work? If you're not familiar, they are drafts that last for just one week and there's no management. You just set it. You forget it.

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All right. I just want to update the Foot Clan real quick. Go for it. Because people were asking me, we had talked about, we're doing, you know, a food bet with draft every week. And someone like, well, because the footage was supposed to happen yesterday. Yeah. And I was on the clock. It was my turn to eat something gross. So we go out. Andy orders me some, what were they? Garlic muscles. Garlic muscles. I have a rule that.

that states my food must have between two and four legs. Yeah, nothing from the sea for Mike. Like full on Swanson. So I knew this was a... So this was a bad choice. And the waitress comes out with the regular lunch. There's no muscles. And I'm just... He had been sweating profusely. I am George Clooney from Perfect Storm, like in the shadows. I have slunk down into the booth hoping that this just will just disappear. Then Andy says, well...

We're waiting on the muscles. And then her face says, oh, no, I have forgotten this. And so the muscles don't come. But the payout for the muscles was, you know, an apology. And then she gave us a piece of cake. Yeah. I feel like I have done my service. You have not. It'll be today. Here's what I'm saying. To the team. Well, here's the thing. I got you free cake. You did get me free cake. Since you both lost last week and normally on a regular week,