Week 1 Matchups + Clyde Debuts, In-or-Out - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/11

I'm not looking at this matchup. If you draft the Cardinals... You don't have an ability to pivot on those days. If you drafted them, I'm saying I'm still playing them with full confidence. I'm not overly concerned about the matchup. Yeah, George Kittle is a must start. I think the beneficiary, if Debo and Ayuk miss, you will probably see some Kendrick Bourne, but you're also going to see some Jordan Reed. And the Cardinals were... We'll see what Isaiah Simmons does and what this secondary can do to protect against the kind of...

ridiculous numbers that they gave up to the tight-in position last year, which they were dead last in the league, gave up 16 fancy points a game. But having Kittal and Jordan Reed available to them, I can see both of them getting a lot of utilization this week. Absolutely. You know, one thing that I'm just now thinking of, this is more of a draft season question. But the fact that Jamal Adams and Isaiah Simmons both were added to NFC West teams in part to really try to...

up the defense against tight end. George Kittle, that's four of his games that might be a little bit more difficult than what he found last year. I'm more concerned about the Seahawk match. Let the rookie prove himself. But Andy, you're right. I was going to bring up Kendrick Bourne's name. Not necessarily, I'm not plugging him into a redraft season long, but he is a sneaky snart because he should see Byron Murphy who.

Byron Murphy, the cornerback for the Cardos, he was put in a really tough situation last year as a rookie, but he got torched. I mean, he allowed 10 touchdowns last year. They're moving him in, the Arizona is moving Byron into the slot, but I think Kendrick Bourne, it will not shock me to see him come down with 40 with a touchdown this year. Yeah, sneaky. Sneaky. All right, Dallas, the Cowboys traveled to Los Angeles.

The Rams get to show off their brand new stadium with no fans inside of it. And believe it or not, at home, the Cowboys are three-point favorites, which makes this. Andy's almost upset of the wig. I had to double check that line. I guess it surprised me. Mike, we were talking this morning. It surprised you as well. Yes. You know, the Rams at home. Look, I love Dallas. I think they're going to have a great season.

I am kind of surprised the road favorites by a field goal. It's a high over under, 51.5 points should be a good game for fantasy players, although deciding what to do at the running back position for Los Angeles is the more difficult part. If I were picking one, it would be Malcolm Brown. Yeah, I mean, no, no, it's as easy as Tampa Bay.

I'm not going to play the game. I'm not starting Cam. I'm not starting Malcolm Brown. I agree that Malcolm Brown will be the first man up. I think it will go Malcolm Brown, Cam Acres, Daryl Henderson. That's how Jason answers all-start sick questions on Twitter. I won't start anybody. He just says none of them. I think you're right. I think you're right.

Yeah, I mean, the reality is where you've never been wrong. Nailed it. Where you drafted Cam Acres, you have other options. And I don't want to start them here because, look, I don't think the Rams offensive line is good, especially in the middle. And I think that Dallas's defensive line might be one of the best in the league this year. They look great. So it's a worrisome matchup to me in the trenches when the Rams have the ball. Vegas agrees with you.

Yeah, I mean, I, you know, you're almost upside of the week. I picked the Cowboys to cover, so we'll, one of us will be wrong. No question, no question. Dak, you're playing them. Zeke, you're playing them. Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup, both slammed into your lineup. Yep, yes. Starting them both. Okay. And then we get to see, you know, Woods and Copper in your lineup, but Tyler Higby, that'll be interesting. How often are the Rams running 12 personnel?

And what are we seeing out of this offense this year? Is Gerald Everett going to make Mike cry in week one? No. No, he will not. If you draft to Tyler Higbee, I'm playing. If Jason, you were smirking, what was going on over here? I'm skirking because I don't know any take that I felt so confident on.

for such a long time and have and then have completely felt. You're afraid now? Yes. Like I was not in on Higby. I think Everett is pretty much a one B to Higby. All of Higby's damage came when Higby, whenever.

wasn't getting snaps on the field. So I was anti-Higby, and now I'm starting to second guess it. So yes, if you drafted him, you are playing him. It's not a bad matchup. I think one of these two tight-ins will have a huge week. Yes. A huge week. I mean, Dallas struggled against the titan position as well last year. Mike, you have Blake Jarwin as your start of the week. I don't have the Cajonies to start Blake Jarwin in week one on the road. That's fine. Me and Falcour will be fine starting Blake Jarwin. When you have Falcour, you don't need anybody else. That's true. Yeah.

What did we decide he was? He's a dragon. Oh, the dog dragon. Yeah, the dog face dragon. People got very serious about Falcour, by the way. Yeah. When we were speculating about what you know that a dogging? I don't know if he's a dogging. He's writing it on. It's people's childhood. When you start messing people's childhood, they get upset. Monday night football time, the Steelers. They go to New York to take on the Giants. Steelers are five and a half point road favorites. It's a 46 point over under. I like.

I like the Steelers in this matchup. I agree with Jason, James Connor, start of the week. Eric Ebron, start of the week. You pick two Steelers, Jason, and I'm with you. I get it. It's a great matchup. It's a great situation for both of those guys. You have some question marks at the wide receiver position in Pittsburgh. You know, if you drafted juju, you're going to play him. But beyond that, you know, Ebron could be the second most valuable target this week. Yeah.

I think Deontay Johnson is going to play. I mean, at least, and I'm basing that off of, you know, he put an IG post up that's like close to 100 or something like that. So he's going to play. I'm going to let the sleeper, you know, lay in the bed a little bit longer. I don't need to force Deontay Johnson into my lineup. Make them up in week two. Even though this matchup against the Giants is pretty juicy, I think I'm going to.

I'm going to press the pause on Deonti Johnson. I'm not going to force him in yet. Did you see what the judge did he? Oh, that was confusing. Joe Judge? What did he do? He was so upset with practice. He made him do it again. Brand new practice. Joe was coming off the field and just read, re-roll it. Who does that sound like first year to a new team recently that is like just the players are starting to get upset with them? The media is talking about how he's just so hard-nosed. Do you remember?

A couple years ago, the first year for Matt Patricia coming from that Bill Belichick tree is just, oh, he was. He was. He said he loved it. He loved that they ran it back. He thought it was great for the team. They needed it, but I don't want to put something out there that they didn't like it. I hope it succeeds, but that's a dangerous path that you are walking. If you run your team like that and you don't win. Well, just remember, if you do something wrong, you want to do it wrong twice. Yes.

But Daniel Jones, this is going to be tough. Pittsburgh's one of the best defenses in football. But we'll see. I mean, he's going to have his full assortment of weapons on the outside. You know, Sterling Shepard, Darius Slayton, Evan Ingram. These are, you know, having all of these weapons, he's going to have an opportunity if he can withstand the pass rush from Pittsburgh. Yeah, and Evan Ingram, I think he is in a great position here. I mean, Golden Tate, I...

It sounds like he's going to play now. He was dealing with a soft tissue issue. But if he's hampered at all, Golden Tate's absence or, you know, taking some snaps off, that's a big benefit to Angram, who then would, you know, slide him over to the slot, get a mismatch, have Angram hit a home run. Yeah, I mean, Pittsburgh's defense being so good against wide receiver says they're going to need Evan Ingraham in this matchup. I do think he is as good a start as you can find outside of Saquan.

But, man, I just don't like starting anybody against the Steelers right now. It's fair. Yeah. Tennessee, the Titans, they take on the Broncos. Titans are two and a half point road favorites. The Broncos we've talked about, you know, they could be without Coralyn Sutton or with a limited Cortland Sutton, which is a problem. Bad luck Broncos lately with Von Miller and with Cortland Sutton. And they have a new offensive coordinator, Pat Schumer, taking over this year.

I like the Titans to cover in this game. But we will get to see whether or not we get a continuation of the Ryan Tannehill, Derek Henry, A.J. Brown, you know, fantasy gold mine that we had at the back half of last season as they made the run to the title game. So, you know, it's going to be interesting. You know, a lot's been made of the fact that this year.

More than any year ever, there were no tackling drills. You had a couple of scrimmages that were full go, and players have not really been able to practice tackling. And a lot of pundits are saying that's going to be an issue come week one for certain teams. And I just think two of the hardest people to tackle are Derek Henry and AJ Brown, and that was the second half of the season when there's plenty of practice. They're just not.

You need your practice to tackle those two guys. So I love both of them. Practice in a prayer. Yes, practice and a prayer. I like both of those players this week. But obviously you drafted them to start them. So I don't think I'm saying anything crazy. Yeah, I mean, low passing volume matchup here. I mean, Denver last year averaged just 31 passing attempts per game. Whether they let Locke do more this year, we'll see. And then Tennessee, obviously, they're built around Derek Henry. So you're going to have to take advantage of your shots. A 41 point over under. That's low.

So start decision-wise. I mean, at this point, Melvin Gordon or Philip Lindsay, you're probably going Gordon in the debut. Yeah, I probably would. But that was looking through this matchup in week one, you know, with limited information. My only question here is, do you start Melvin Gordon? People grab Philip Lindsay. He was a zero-r-be target. And by the sound of it, he, you know, is...

working his way back into a 50-50 timeshare. That doesn't mean he'll get the valuable touches. Melvin Gordon still would project as the goal line guy. He would project more as the limited pass-catching work that Drew Locke has shown for his running backs. But are you playing Melvin Gordon with any sort of confidence? Melvin Gordon or David Montgomery? Because there's a confidence issue there. Oh, my goodness. So that's a situation people could be facing. I would go Melvin Gordon.

You know, I think that it's possible for David Montgomery to be limited. And Melvin Gordon, he was paid a lot of money to come in and be the starter. And I'm going to wait on all the camp reports to matter until after seeing, you know, I'm going to follow the money, follow the transactions. And, you know, a lot, you know, Mike, you have talked about Melvin Gordon not being efficient or that great of a running back.

But I think a little bit unfairly. Melvin Gordon is a good running back. He, you know, he doesn't have the efficiency metrics that we might love. But there's a reason he just got paid a ton of money. And it's because he is a good running back. So I'm going to start Melvin Gordon in that situation. Well, and he could end up with being a huge beneficiary of a game that gets out of control too, where he is the past catching back in Denver. He could have four, five, six receptions.

And that could be enough. Philip Lindsay or David Montgomery, Jason? David Montgomery. I just wanted to make you pick David Montgomery today. Real quick before you move on, Noah Fant to me is, like I regret making Eric Ebron my start of the week because I love Noah Fant right now.

So he's my co-starred of the week, if you will. But did you feel that way before the Sutton injury? Because you have no, no. You shouldn't have any regrets. Well, sure. It was, it was in part due to the Sutton injury. The matchup is pretty good. I think they're going to need Fant to play well. And I think he will. But I wanted to ask you to this question because I have, this is, this question comes in from Jason Moore of the fantasy football. Yeah, I've heard of him. I can't figure out who to start between Hayden Hurst and Noah Fan. Hayden Hurst. Hayden Hurst.

You can't figure it out? I can't because I, no, I can't. This is why, this is why Noah Fan is apparently a struggle in the week. Why you hate and Hearst? No, it's not a hatred there. It's loving fantastic. Listen, the important thing, and I stress, I stress this, Jason, at the end of the day, just don't make the wrong call. Then I'll put Noah Fantin. Got it. All right. We have a brand new segment this year on Fridays. Here we go. Drop it like it's hot. Presented by Monkey Night Fight.