Starts of the Week + Week 5 Breakdown, Squeaky Wheels - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/5

On today's episode, we're going to break down the matchups, and we're going to tell you exactly who we will be starting, who we will try not to start, including some starts of the week that you do not want to miss. Make sure you subscribe right now. Leave us some comments about how your teams are doing and enjoy. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's football time. Yeah. We went extra growly today. Yes, we did. Is that because of the matchup? Yeah. It's a growly matchup. Uh-huh. It's a hot one tonight. Thursday, October 5th, welcome into the fantasy footballers. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. I think it'll be a great one, actually. Great episode? Or a great game? Both. Amazing.

This is the kind of Thursday on a matchup that on paper looks a little worse than I think we'll get. I think both teams are ready for a shootout. That's what I'm hoping for tonight. Maybe saying it out loud will make it happen. I don't know. But Sam Hal, Justin Fields. I mean, we had a ton of good performances. We previewed this game yesterday. Had a ton of good performances from Chicago Fantasy Options last week. Sam Hal looked good against Philly. Yeah, I mean, we talked about the previous week. What a putrid matchup. It seemed to be the Broncos versus the Bears. But in reality, those can be a lot of fun when you've got two bad defenses. The problem I have with this game is the commander's defense is too good. I mean, they're not great, but they're too good for Joseph. Oh, don't make the mistake of me thinking the Bears could win a ball game. That's not because they're not like the dead worst. Right. I was really hoping for Joseph Fields they'd play the.

At least the second worst. So we've got that going on tonight. Come on, Justin. I'm excited. We've got starts of the week on today's show, getting into the matchups. Quick mention here at the top. We always talk about the Foot Clan, greatest people on the planet. And I wanted to invite those of you out there that are not a part of the official Foot Clan supporters of this show. Head over to join the foot.com. You'll get the privilege of the honor. of supporting this podcast and Jason's eventual haircut. We can talk about that in a minute. But you also get some perks, bonus weekly podcast, premium in-season tools, including the Streamfinder, the Target and Market Share reports, the snapshot tool, the expanded StartSit tool. You get to play in the Mega Bowl every year as a supporter. You get a free copy of our book, digital copy of the book. You get access to our Discord server, which is the kids say popping.

Do they even say that anymore? I don't think so. They say it's dripping. Dripping. Yeah. With conversations. We get game day alerts, Foot Clan leagues a lot more. Oh, is it lit? Is that it? Oh, no. That's not lit anymore. That's busted. Yeah. That's dog water, as my kids would say. Is that what? Yeah. Okay. Join thefoot.com. If that was an enticing pitch for you. Jason, you did not receive a haircut and you're in the same state you were in yesterday. Yeah, because I am a man of principle and I'm not going to put a hat on my head to go to a barber. In fact, I went there yesterday and I had to leave. I didn't get the haircut. I didn't get the haircut because it turned out I had a scheduling conflict, rescheduled it for today. But as I walked out, I went back in. I said, oh, hey, help settle a debate.

On the podcast, we were talking, and some people think, like, oh, it's perfectly fine to wear a hat. You're going to get a haircut. Some people think, oh, you shouldn't wear a hat. Do you have an opinion? So I asked my hairstylist, and she says, oh, thank you. It is a nightmare when people wear hats because the cowlicks make it very difficult to give a good fade or anything like that. So it is definitively answered. Stand corrected. Oh, good for you, Mike. No, new information. I stand corrected. So there you go. America. That your hairstyle is just terrible and doesn't know what she's doing. I was, I absolutely, I thought for the first time in 15 years, Mike was just humbly bowing down to the truth. I was shocked. I was proud. I thought we were kidding.

Just and then he gave it all up. I was happy. He just insulted your hairstylist. I was happy for America to learn and have an example of growth and instead vitriol. He's wearing two hats next time. You know how many hats I can wear? At least five. I'm going to put a vacuum sealed hat on there. Suck that hair right in. But you didn't even get to have a haircut. No, so now I got to look like this again. Sorry. I mean, it can't take that long. No. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. It's all right. It's been a while. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Almond Ross St. Brown, Jason. You said you were not worried unless you heard that he was dealing with a different injury. And guess what? It's a different injury. I'm worried. It is an abdominal injury. Amen. And non-participant on Wednesday, this seems highly questionable. It's us.

It's a little suss for sure. I'm not going to freak out at all until we have Thursday's practice reports. Very common for people to miss a Wednesday practice. The fact that it is a new listed injury means you just have to pay attention to it. You can't ignore it. If it was just the toe, I would completely ignore it. Now it's like, okay, we've got a new injury. I will say this. Amin Ra. There are players who are just tougher. It's just truth. There's human beings that play through injuries and are tougher and there are. Watson's. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Watson's as we call them. I love it. No, it's fine because it's Deshawn Watson. You're allowed to bodybag to Sean Watson over and over. But, you know, like- You weren't medically cleared. Get in there. Yeah, yeah. A lot of people would have had surgery for this. Hold on. Is my money still fully guaranteed?

Well, technically, yes, that's good. Because I'm going to take the weekend off. You're right. Amun Ra is much tougher. It's a little worrisome because Dan Campbell came out and said he equivocated on his availability for the week. It's interesting also the added layer of we've had long discussions, Waverwire show, Jameson Williams. Like, Jameson Williams is back and Amon Ra might be out this week. So that's just a wrinkle of... potential relevance for Williams in week one. I mean, where do you turn? I mean, Sam Leporta, but he's in your lineup. So it's like all of a sudden, if Amon Ra missed, Josh Reynolds would become very interesting. For sure. I will say it. I think that if Amin Ra does miss, that's the, you have to unleash Jemir Gibbs. And if you, if y'all didn't see it, Austin Echler does a show with Matt Harmon where they talk fantasy football.

And Echler gave his pro perspective of why is Jemir Gibbs not getting on the field? And it was a very intriguing insight from a, look, I trust Austin Echler knows what he's talking about because he's an elite running back. So he kind of laid out some things that Gibbs was doing right, what Gibbs was doing wrong. But those short area targets, I mean, like I don't see. Nine targets in a game this year. I feel like you have to let Gibbs work in that. He would be my replacement for Ammon Ra. It makes sense. And the TLDR is what everybody really honestly, if they admit to themselves, already knows about the situation in the backfield. That David Montgomery is about a running back right now. Yes. That's the truth. We all watch it. He's getting more out of his touches. I mean, he's...

More decisive. He's a better running back right now. Gibbs has the higher ceiling and potential and explosiveness and electricity and all the intangible words that don't equate to reading the blocks or fighting through arm tackles right now. So, Mike, I'm glad you said it because I wouldn't be caught dead saying it myself. But Gibbs should have a chance. All right, Cooper Cup officially listed as a limited participant. However, Sean McVeigh came out and said he's not limited. He's unlimited? He just said... Oh, no, don't do that. That's rough. He just had a normal practice. And he said he's not limited. He said he Ron Burgundied the practice report and just said it, but it's not true. So Cooper Cup's fine. The odds of him being out there this week seemed very high. Whether he gets a full allotment of snaps, whether he's... I mean, we found out this morning Debo was out there as a full decoy last week with no targets.

That was super disappointing to hear. And they didn't need Debo, which is what helped him stay a decoy. I do think that because of the matchup here for, you know, for Cooper Cup, he's not going to be a decoy against the Eagles. They're going to, I think they're going to need him. Yeah, if he's out on the field, he's in my starting lineup. Kyron Williams missed practice in full, but McVeigh said it was precautionary and believes he will play this weekend. If he plays, is Kyron right back into your lineup? Absolutely. T. Higgins didn't practice. Listed his day to day. Mike and I were talking in the studio yesterday. I said, I can't imagine he doesn't miss at least one week. Mike said maybe more. Yeah. Well, the idea that he's day to day is just hog swallow. Yeah. What? Oh, man. He's not playing this week. Dude, Jason without a hat is fire. Seriously. Jason without a hat is it's like the inhibitions are kept underneath the cap and he released them. My brain's going everywhere.

Oh, my goodness. Don't cut that hair, man. You are Samson right now. Cancel this appointment. Oh, boy. Chavante Williams didn't practice. You know, the fab world went crazy for McLaughlin and Chavonte seems like he could miss. Debo will be playing at less than 100%. You talk about needing him. They're going to need him against the Cowboys. I am trying not to play him after what happened last week. Yeah. It just, like I'm going to play Damien Pierce over him. Damien Pierce against Atlanta. I am mad that they didn't bench him last week because if they had, I wouldn't have had 0.9 points on my team. The teams with Christian McCaffrey approve. Depot has a decoy. Goodness. Yeah. It is sensational. Keep him, keep him so injured and out there. Just him screaming, hey, throw me the ball. Did you? You got four touchdowns last week. Was that enough for you? It wasn't. Hey.

Jason can vouch. I can vouch for this after the fourth touchdown. And maybe after I saw Chris McCaffrey on the side getting two physical trainers working on him, massaging his neck, massaging his arm. I was like, shit him down. Oh, you were done. Shut it down. You had had enough. But then they got to the goal line and then I was screaming. Give the men his fifth. Oh my God. And they tried. They tried. No, they didn't. They didn't give him the ball. Oh, they did. No. Yeah, he had a carry on the goal line. They had a carry on about the tin. Yes, he got them to the goal line, but then they went juice and then. Yeah. And I lost because Purdy got the sneak. Austin Echler. You should have been rooting harder for Christian McCaffrey. I was. I was. Austin Echler expects to be back for week six. It's good news.

He should be pretty much at full strength there based on the expected timeline. It seemed like he might have suited up and now he gets the extra week off with the buy week. So, I mean, not that you would have benched him, but I wouldn't be concerned. Like if you're playing DFS linups, I think he should be at 100% performance. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Let's jump in. Fantasy forecast. Well, well, well, London, we meet again. You guys excited to. Set the alarms this weekend, Mike? It's happening again? Yeah, yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, we've got Jacksonville 2 and 2 taking on the 3-1 Buffalo Bills. Bills listed as the home team in London. The Draft King Sportsbook Line Bills minus 5 and a half. The over and under is 48. That's nice. It's been a rough start to the season for predictability on the Jacksonville side.

And that pretty much goes for everybody. I mean, Lawrence and Ridley and Kirk and the injury to Zay Jones. And then honestly, hate to say it. Hate to admit it. Most consistent player right now on that roster is starting Evan Ingram every week. That's right, baby. So things aren't working well for Jacksonville. How dare you? I mean, even Travis E.T.N. who has looked, you know. He's looked the same he looked last year. He's like he's shot out of a cannon every time he touches the football. He's been good. I mean, he's the RB 18 on the year, but from a consistency perspective, he's only got one touchdown, which came in week one, 55 yards rushing last week. I'm not going to hit that. I will. All right. So this is a really tough matchup. Atlas Jason said it again. Yeah, he's living wild and free.

Using words like hog swallow. I'm not wearing pants. No, I believe it. I believe it. Buffalo's defense has been really difficult to score points against. And I know they lost Stradavius White, but that has happened before, and they've been a very, very good defense. So it doesn't give me a lot of enthusiasm with regards to sealing performances for Jacksonville. Yeah, I mean, the hope here is that because you're playing against a. Bill's team that projects to score a lot of points that the passing game will come to fruition here for the Jacksonville Jaguars. That's, you know, that's just a common view whenever you've got a wide receiver against a high scoring offense, but it often doesn't happen. You know, we view that way with the Kansas City Chiefs. It's like, oh, good, you're playing against Patrick Mahomes. You're going to have to pass all day. Same now with the bills. But these defenses are really good this year. Look at Miami.

Yeah, exactly. Tyree Kill had his first bad game of the season. Two had an under 20-point game. I mean, they were the best offense in football. They just scored 70. Yeah, this isn't a great matchup. This is a top 10 defense against wide receivers. So I think you have to manage your expectations and the fact that you are really in a roulette. Now, the last couple weeks, it's gone towards Christian Kirk, but it could easily swing back to Calvin Ridley like it was week one. You know, this is a situation where I think you need to be looking at options. Hopefully you have a lot of depth.

I don't think they are must starts, like force them in. I think there are situations where, you know, if you're like, would you start Calvin Ridley or, you know, Michael Pittman, if that's, if you've got that luxury, sure. I would be looking the other way. For perspective, I know that week one is very impactful on the emotions of fantasy players. Calvin Ridley since week one is on pace for 39 receptions. Too small a sample. Yeah. Three games. Two, three, two. I'm just saying it's been, I'm giving you the other side of that first week where, look, hasn't been good. Mm-hmm. So, T-law has been disappointing. I mean, I... I would be trying hard not to play him this week. Ingram and E.T.N. are going to be in your lineup. And I'm with you. Yeah, he's been disappointing. And we had the hopes of a shootout against Kansas City in week two. Mm-hmm. And they scored nine points. They are kind of dysfunctional right now. On the other side...

Play him. Alan Cook, Diggs, Davis is scored in three straight? I believe that is true. I will verify it. Now is that too small of a sample or are you riding at? Too small of a sample to say when he's going to have 17 touchdowns on the season. Yes, he has scored in three straight games. He is on fire. So rules say you have to play him. This matchup is not a bad one. Jacksonville's middle of the pack against wide receivers. So I just stay in the flames with Gabe Davis. Yeah, I think you play him. It's crazy. His target totals are not.

They're low, but he's scoring. Dalton Kincaid, Dawson Knox. Both of them seem like risky business at this point. They do, but the Jacksonville matchup is, it's okay. They're currently 27th against fantasy tight ends. And Dalton Kincaid did run more routes than Dawson Knox. I think for the first time of the year where they had basically been dead even about, but maybe it was. the matchup or maybe it is the first round tight end is starting to separate. The Houston Texans at two and two take on the Atlanta Falcons who are two and two. The Drafking Sports Book line, Falcons minus two. Mike, you're shaking your head. Yeah. The line's too small for me to hit the button. Okay. I have a standard and they're very high. Three points? Yeah, three or more. The over under is 41. No, I mean, that's an easy one to me. It's too easy.

Houston's going to win the game. I mean, Atlanta's offense is abysmal. However, it could be a pretty fun one because the weakness on the Houston defense is going to be the running game, and Bijon is going to dominate in this one. Yes, yes, please. Whether they can try to focus on the run and stopping the run and forcing Desmond Ritter to do the thing he hates to do the most, which is throw the football, apparently. I don't think he hates it. He just hates being accurate. Well, he's not good at it. Right. That's the fact. You can like things you're not good at. That's true. I like golf. I'm terrible. Yeah, that's a good point. I don't get paid millions of dollars to play golf. Bejon, play him. That's all I want to play in Atlanta. Yeah, I actually. But you could take the shot on Alger. That's what I was going to bring up. If the game script flip the right direction. But the opportunities have gone down four straight weeks. Yes. I would be trying.

Yeah, I don't think anyone is like really wanting to play Tyler Algier. Like, oh, yes, finally. His opportunities, week one, 18, week two, 16. Still pretty good. But then we saw it really shift over to Bijan, 10 opportunities two weeks ago and nine opportunities. Tyler Algier with nine opportunities is never going to be good for fantasy football. You need to be 15 plus opportunities. But the difference in those. games is that the last two weeks against the Detroit Lions and the Jacksonville Jaguars, they were pretty much blown out. They lost 6 to 20 and 7 to 23. This was a situation where they had to pass more and they couldn't just run all day on their opponent. Now, you say you believe the Houston Texans are going to win this game, that the Atlanta offense has been too bad, but what the Atlanta offense prefers to do, wants to do, and does well is run the ball. And that's still what the Houston Texans suck at.

So the Atlanta offense might, like they're stopping the run. Yeah, yeah. And so the Atlanta offense might be okay here today. And if they are, I think you're going to have, you know, double the amount of total carries that you saw the last couple of weeks. And Tyler Alger will be involved. So when you're in a pinch, he might be on waivers. I think he is someone you could plug in as that like emergency flex or. Really, you wouldn't flex him as an emergency running back when you need a running back. Would you play Tyler Algier or Kenny Gainwell against the Rams? Algier. I'm going to retract my previous statement. Of the Texans winning this? I don't think Texans win. I think Atlanta wins. I'm going to flip it. So not an almost upset. I think Atlanta can do this at home against Houston. Houston having to travel. They're still a very young team. Yeah. And Damien Pierce was limited with a knee injury.

at Wednesday's practice. We don't have any alarm about that yet, but something to monitor. Maybe a reason to put Devin Singletary kind of like tucked away on a bench because if he were to miss or something were to happen, then you would have somebody to start. Nico Collins is the wide receiver seven on the season last week with nine targets. Seven catches, 168, two touchdowns. Falcons have been respectable against the run and the pass this year. I think, you know, do you, what are your feelings on Tank Dell right now? Because he went from the new hotness and everybody's favorite way of wire pickup to a basically a nothing performance that now throws a little bit of shade into whether you can start him every week. I'm still starting him. I don't know that I'm still necessarily like forcing to start with Tank Dell. I certainly want him rostered looking for a good match. I think that's a really fair question.

That is a fair question. I would go Jahan Dotson. I want to see a little bit more from Tank Dell. Obviously, we've seen him have big weeks. We've seen him have small weeks. This matchup, it isn't, you know, when you play. It's not good. Yeah, it's kind of the opposite of what we were talking about with Buffalo, where you're like, this is an Atlanta Falcons team you just don't view as a great team right now. But they're very stout defensively. They haven't given up. very big performances, and a lot of that comes primarily in the games where they can control the clock. And this might be one of those. Tankdale or Jordan Addison, who's had two bad weeks in a row. Jordan Addison, bounce back candidate for me. This week? Yeah. That's Kansas City. Is that right? Yes, that is correct. Tankdale or where did the name? You guys are both Nico over Tank, right? Yes, right now. Nico.

Nico, after this last game, you've got three of his four games where he has nine or more targets. That's just, that's really good. Nico, to me, is someone hard to bench right now. Tank or Tyler Boyd against Arizona, presuming. Yeah, I play Boyd. I play Boyd. Cardinals defense is not good enough to. Yeah, if Higgins is out, I would, I would go, Boyd. All right, quick, quick break. You changing? I'm changing. I'm going, Del. I got to see Burrow look like Burrow again before I can. rely on an old Cardinals should help him do that. They should. All right. We'll be back. Shouldn't the Titans have? I don't know. I don't know. Titans have these performances on defense. He also, Burrow did say this, that he came out of the game feeling all right and that like, like injury wise. Shouldn't have said that, bro. He shouldn't have said that. Just saying, because he did, he had the setback two weeks ago. So maybe he'll be healthier now.

All right, quick break back with the Panthers Lions. Caroline is 0 and 4 taking on the 3-1 Detroit Lions. The Draft King Sportsbook line has the Detroit Lions as 10-point home favorites. The overrunners 44 and a half. When is the last time they've been a double-digit favorite? Good for you, Detroit. Good for you. Is this game going to play out the way everyone expects? With Detroit. Hammering the Panthers? Is that what you're talking about? Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yes. Yes. You're positive. Yeah. I'm pretty darn confident. All right. We talked about Amon Ra's situation earlier. So no updates thus far. We've had the team checking on that. Jameson Williams will make his debut likely on 20 to 25% of snaps. Josh Reynolds was limited with a groin injury. He will be a beneficiary of Amman Ra misses. And.

You know, you have a Panthers events that on the course of the year have not given up a lot of quarterback fantasy points or wide receiver fantasy points. It's all come on the ground, which, look, David Montgomery is a must start player, Jemir Gibbs. I think you can keep putting him in your flex. I agree. I agree. I don't think you need to go away from Jemir Gibbs. He's still getting opportunities. He hasn't, when you have an explosive athlete like this, sometimes you have to wait for the big, long chunk play. It hasn't really happened. No, you haven't had the A-chan moment. Exactly. But he has the A-chan skill. We saw it over and over and over. There's a reason he was drafted 12th. Maybe this week? Maybe this week, yeah. I mean, right now it looks like Carolina is, you know, they're 29th against running backs right now. So that's where you want to focus your offense on the other side. Monty. Monty's just going to eat. I tried to trade for him in a couple of leagues this week.

Our league of record, good luck. No, did you try as well? No, I just, that's Vance's team. Yeah. I did try there. You're going to have to try. It was denied. On the other side, not an encouraging match. No, it's. The big worry here is that Bryce Young is just going to have zero time to do anything. I mean, the pass rush for Detroit, it's ferocious. He has, Bryce Young has looked poor. I think that's generous. I mean, this is a player that is, you know, yards per attempt is super low. He's throwing two touchdowns in three games. You know, Miles Sanders has been limited. These are not encouraging starts on the Carolina side for anybody. Even Adam Thielen, who is the wide receiver 10, who I think you have to kind of keep in there because.

He's going to get the volume of potential garbage time. And garbage time has been friendly to him. His target totals over the last three weeks is on 175 target pace. It's 26%. But I don't think it's going to be a ceiling game for him. Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine benching Adam Thielen right now. Like I'll take the L on my preseason stance of Adam Thielen having lost it and not really mattering in this offense. You know, the last three weeks, he's been a top 24 wide receiver. I might agree with you that does it get a touchdown? Probably not, because you figure there's, what, one or two to go around this game with the Carolina offense. But when you've got nine targets, 14 targets, eight targets, three weeks in a row, and you're the first read in the offense, there was a quote after the game talking about why they had to call a timeout, why Frank Reich had to call a time out during that game. And it was talking about how he called a play for Adam Thielen.