Starts of the Week + Week 5 Breakdown, BOGO - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/8

as impressed and excited as I am for Joe Burrow, Joe Mixon, and company. Lamar talked about the knee thing. You're still playing him. Yeah, you're playing Lamar Jackson. You're benching Joe Burrow this week. Are you? Yes, I'm benching Joe Burrow because there's guys like Teddy Bridgewater who are certainly on the waiver wire that I am streaming with full confidence over Joe Burrow. Here's a very difficult player to know what to do with because he's only averaging 10 opportunities a game.

His name is Mark Ingram. He's the RB 41 on the year. J.K. Dobbins is the RB 42 on the year. Gus Edwards is the RB 54 on the year. Gross. This is not, you know, I think was it last week, Ingram got into the end zone on a goal line carry. It was either last week of the week before, and it was the first one on the year. That's where he made his hay last year. You could trust lower opportunities with Mark Ingram last year because it always equated to touchdowns in either the passing game or inside the five.

It's been much harder to figure out this week, but this seems like a matchup that you probably can put him in your lineup. Yeah, I feel like you should be able to put him in your lineup. He's been top 24, two different times. So half of his games this year. That's not great, but that's all based on the touchdowns. And if you're trying to project a touchdown to come, it's going to be against the Cincinnati Bengals. So I think he's someone that you can put in your flex spot this week if you need to.

You're starting Joe Mixing with the same type of attitude you have towards Miles Sanders. It's not the best matchup. Yes, that's perfect. Mixon had six catches last week. I wanted to bring that up, which was double, I think, as high on the year. So that was nice to see six targets, six catches. Maybe that saves him in this tough matchup against the Ravens defensive front because it's a tough one. Tyler Boyd is the best start at the wide receiver position for Cincinnati, right?

Correct. Yeah, Boyd and Higgins are both in play with the expected 14 points that the Cincinnati Bengals are going to have to overcome. They're going to have to throw a lot. They've already been throwing a lot. And we know that Joe Burrow, Boyd, and Higgins can get it done. Temperature check on Hollywood. This is it, man. This is it.

Yeah, I mean, I thought he looked good last week. He was involved. If you actually take a look at the, you know, we talk about behind. Wide receiver 39 last week. Sure. I mean, he didn't get a touchdown and, you know, you were maybe disappointed. He was so close to a touchdown. Yeah, he was one inch from a touchdown if you watch that game. But if, you know, if Lamar Jackson is limited at all in his mobility with the knee and he has to air it out more, the matchup is good, the targets have been there, the.

percentage of routes run are there. The percentage of target market share in the offense is way better than his rookie season. I think you can start Marquis Hollywood Brown in this matchup, and I genuinely think in most weeks you still can. Nine straight weeks without a top 25 finish for Hollywood Brown. So we'll keep monitoring that. I agree that you can start him, but the peripheral metrics.

They don't matter as much to me as nine straight games of not getting what you hoped for from Hollywood. Well, I mean, that's not true, though. I mean, you're saying that, you know, that's not true. Well, what was the arbitrary rank, you said? It wasn't. Arbitrary rank. I said nine straight games not finishing inside the top 25. The top 25. So, you know. Yeah, which is a normal. I mean, top 24 is a normal metric, a wide receiver one or a wide receiver two, which I think is what you drafted him to be.

Right, but if he goes out there and scores 12 or 13 points, are you saying that he, you know, that he was like a bust that week? He was the wide receiver 39 last week, and you said you were happy with the production. Yeah, I mean, I guess we'll wait and see on the course of the season. I do know that everything that you hope for, you know, as far as the market share of the offense and the routes run are there. You watch the game and you go, he's the wide receiver one for this team. You've been disappointed in.

pretty much in Lamar Jackson so far. Thankfully, he got that 50-yard run, but if Lamar Jackson's passing comes through, it's going to come to Hollywood Brown, and the Bengals are a juicy matchup. Yeah, Lamar Jackson is averaging 192 passing yards a game. That is, as we say in the business,

I know coming into last week, he was the worst in the league. He was behind Sam Donald. He was behind. 192, man. Come on, Lamar. Let's get it. Let's get it going, buddy. Mark Anders, yep. Yeah. AJ Green, nope. The Miami Dolphins at 1 and 3 take on the San Francisco 49ers at 2 and 2. The 49ers are 9-point favorites in this one. We talked about mustard and Garapolo being limited with the chance to come back.

It says something about your past catching options in San Francisco, I think, this week, where if Gropolo's back, it gives me more confidence in kind of rolling the dice with Debo Samuel. Like, if Gropolo's back, I probably played Debo over somebody like Higgins. Do you, are you confident in the snaps? We saw 34% of the snaps last week for Debo. He's still coming back. So I'm saying, like, you'd play, you would start Debo, like, over his twin, Brain and Iyukin?

I would, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I think Debo is just going to get further integrated over the course of the year. But again, it's relative to what you have to start. You brought up Higgins being in play. I'd rather play Debo in this Miami matchup where Miami is just, they're just getting beat up. Would you rather play him or, let's see, Golden Tate in that matchup against Dallas where they're going to have to throw up. I play Debo. Give me Tate. All right.

All right, Jerich McKinnon. We're going to talk about him a little bit later. Mike is a big fan this week. I got a top 24 finished every week of the year. If Moster is active, are you fine putting him in your lineup? Yes, I'm with Jason. It'll still be Moster's first game back from the knee injury. The team has shown the faith in Jerich McKinnon. There was the big questions.

when all the injuries happened for McKinnon was, well, what are they going to do? This guy has torn his ACL two years in a row. Are we going to try and limit his work? Are we going to try and protect him? And then this past week, we saw 22 opportunities for Jerich McKinnon. Meanwhile, my name is Jeff. He did nothing, absolutely nothing. So the team is ready to rely on McKinnon, and I think they can work Mustard in for a week. McKinnon looks good, and I'm so happy that he looks good.

Yeah, and most are coming back. You know, maybe they'll give him 8, 9, 10 carries. That's all he needs. That's sure. You go back to his game log and you're like, oh, he had 10 carries. He was the running back 8. Oh, he had 10 carries who was the running back 4. Oh, he had 6 carries. He was the running back 12. He's just so fast that, you know, especially if he's not the main guy and they're bringing him in when you're not expected to. He just takes off and he's in the end zone. See, what's unfair is they actually bring in one of those circus cannons.

I don't know how the defenses don't see it, and then they load mustard up. He's so fast. You don't know how the defense misses it. Yeah. Every time they don't see that and it's happening. Guys, the canon! You could actually sneak one on the field if you hit it behind Mojali Cox. I mean, you could do that. That is not a lie. I need to get Jonathan Taylor out of one of those things. Here's a real question for this week. Outside of Devante Parker, is there anybody on the entire Miami?

offense that you're willing to start against this top-notch 49ers defense in San Francisco. Yeah, that is the Miles Gaskin question is very tough. So, like, I right now I have Miles Gaskin ranked outside of my top 24, so that's not somebody like I'm super excited to play. But let's say you are a Waver Wire of Warrior these days. You got Miles Gaskin against San Francisco, or do you go DeVantza Freeman against Dallas? Oh, that's a good question.

I think you're going to get 10 points out of both of them probably. Chase Edmonds versus the Jets. I play Gaskin. Yeah, I really hope to not play those. I think I would take Devante Freeman over Gaskin. Devonte Freeman, Gaskin, Chase Edmonds in that order. The only other player that I would be willing to start from the Miami side is Ryan Fitzpatrick. I mean, he's just been a top quarterback almost every week he's played for the last.

long period of time. And you, you know, you look at this last week, right? San Francisco 49ers, they played Carson Wentz, who's terrible. And Carson Wentz because of his running was a top 10 quarterback. And Ryan Fitzpatrick is, you know, is a mobile quarterback, which is insane.

But he can go out there and drop 30, 40, 50 yards on the ground. So I'm not looking to play Fitzpatrick. He's not one of those guys I'm hoping to start. But if I'm in a multi-quarterback league, I'm not afraid of the 49ers, you know, banged up defense when Fitzpatrick has Devonti Parker out there. Colts 3-1, Browns 3-1. Colts are two-point favorites. It's a 46 point over-under. This is the Browns are playing well. They're playing well. Cream Hunt, locked and loaded.

Yep. He was limited with the groin yesterday. I'm sure they're managing reps, but he played fine last week, and you've got to play him. Back home, yeah, he's in your lineup. He's having a bounce back season right now. The Colts, though, let's not ignore the fact. They're a great defense. Incredible. Yeah, they've been outstanding. Number one against opposing quarterbacks, four against running backs, nine against wide receivers, first against tight ends. That is a way of saying they're...

pretty much the best statistical defense against fantasy options this year so far. Yeah, I mean, and you've seen it, right? I mean, they've played against Delvin Cook. They played James Robinson. This last week, we hoped that David Montgomery would be able to do something. The Colts defense has just been so good. You don't start Baker. You know, Baker last week, even though they scored all those points, he really wasn't that good for fantasy purposes.

You're probably not starting Landry. He's only averaging five targets a week. Seems a little banged up. So it's Hunt and it's Beckham on the brown side. Yeah. What are we doing with, I mean, he was the high-priced waiver pickup this week of De Ernest Johnson. What is your confidence level, Jason? Heading into this matchup with the Colts. And on top of that, Dantrell Hilliard still received a...

a handful of opportunities in the cleanup duty this past week against Dallas. So are you, you just spent everything on Johnson. Are you forcing him right into your starting lineup? No, I'm not forcing them into my starting lineup against the Colts. Now, if you told me I've got to make the decision between Deionte Johnson or Deerness Johnson and Miles Gaskin, that's really, really tough to me. That's about how I see him, which I don't want to start either guy. I think I would go for the.

upside hope that Deerness Johnson has. I don't see the upside capability. If he comes out and ends up being the main Nick Chub role in this offensive line and this run scheme works against the Colts, maybe he surprises and has a good game. So I would probably lean him over that tier, but otherwise I would much prefer to avoid this first week matchup. De Ernest worries me. He had no targets last week. He's not going to be involved in that way. And if you get the

Montgomery performance on the ground with no targets. That scares me this week. I'd play Gaskin myself, Mike. Which between those two would you play? I would play Gaskin. Yeah, but you have to remember the game script last week. He got no targets. You know who else got no targets? Kareem Hunt. I mean, they weren't throwing the ball to the running back last game. They were up, you know, 41 to 14 at one point in that game. Jonathan Taylor? Oh, yeah. Yeah, I mean, you've played anybody else on the Colt at all.

T.Y. Hilton, Zach Pascal after the better week, but not really very helpful week last week. Mowley Cox. I think if there's one player that you could start in a pinch, it's a guy we just retired yesterday. T.Y. Hilton, Mike's shaking us head now. Shark tank. I will play Pascal over Hilton. Really? Yes. Why? Because he's actually seeing opportunities. T.Y. Hilton.

I signed Pascal in our League of Record yesterday and wondered if I had the best wide receiver on the Colts. I don't know that talent-wise that he is the best, but let's see. So you've got, you have 19 total targets so far for Pascal. What is T.Y. Hilton up to these days? T.Y. Hilton is not finished in the top 50 this year on any week. Okay, so targets, Hilton has 22 targets, 13 receptions, and Zach Pascal has 19.

targets 10 receptions. Like he's right, he's just right there. There's only one team in the NFL who has given up top 12 fantasy points to wide receiver in all four weeks. And that is the Cleveland Brown. So someone, maybe it's Pascal, but at least the matchup looks to be okay for the wide receiver position. It also looks okay for the quarterback position. Are you going to stream P. River? I will never stream P. River. I don't care if he was playing against the high school.