Starts of the Week + Week 8 Breakdown, Triple Clown - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/24

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. I, big football time. We're back. Heck yeah. This is great football time. Last Thursday sucked. But we're back, baby. We are so back. It does seem on the surface. Like it'll be a more exciting experience this Thursday. No, it's not surface. This is deep. Yeah, I mean, the Rams. Be careful. Be careful. I will not be careful. Living on the edge over here. Well, we got players returning from injury. So, you know, we don't want. We don't want to become a downer. Well, that's why it's going to be an upper. We've got. I just don't want them to get hurt again, Jason. They can't get hurt on the sideline. No one wants them to not get hurt again more than yours truly. That is.

I have puka everywhere. I don't know if you could handle it. I, I, you know what? It would be a blessing in disguise because it would just, it would confirm that this season is over. It's like move on. Trade for picks. Yeah, at this stage it feels like you have kind of singed, cinched. Sinched? Is that a, singed is a word. It's just not the one you're looking for. Hinged. Hinged. Your, you're like playoffs. Hitched. There it is. There we go. First try. You cinch your pants. You singe. Your brows with a flame. It hits your wagon. Yeah. Yeah, that's the one to Pooka Nakua in terms of like, you know, he's your glorious leader leading you to a championship. Yeah, I mean, it just so happened. He was, you know, already one of the keepers in my keeper lottery in our main league. And then in other, in other drafts, it was one of those situations where I was very happy that I preferred the running backs near that one two term. We talked about during draft season.

preferred those guys, which has turned out to be very wise over the wide receivers that were there that were very disappointing in the second round. But the wide receiver I liked the most of that group when I was in that situation was Puka, who, you know, he looked good for a minute and then got injured. So the news this morning is that Pookas not only got the 21-day window open, but there is a chance. There's optimism. There's optimism. There's a couple-day window. That he will play tonight. So 1 p.m. I believe Pacific is the time that both Hawkinson and Pooka Nakua have to be activated off of the IR. So we'll know well ahead of game time if they are playing right now. A little bit of optimism that Puka could suit up and skepticism that Hawkinson will. Well, we'll talk about it. We've got matchups today. We've got starts of the week. We have news beyond those two names.

We have one week until the Halloween episode of this show. Very nice. Very nice. We have, yeah, that's coming up. That's always a good time. Not too old to dress up. No. What? Yeah, that's what I'm just saying. No. Jointhefoot.com. You can use the ultimate dashboard over there. We've got the bonus weekly episode of the show. Bonus. We have premium tools. Especially right now, the streamfinder and the strength of schedule are very valuable week to week. You can get access to that and the premium community and everything at joined the foot.com. Let's jump right in. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. So Cooper Cup is good to go tonight. Optimism around Puka. Jordan Whittington is out. Already been declared out. Which I appreciate after last week's nonsense.

Yeah, and I think with Puka and Cooper Cup, we were not messing around with that anyways. Mike Evans will be, the MRI confirmed he'll be out at least four weeks, potentially back after the bye week. You know, that's shaky. There are a lot of NFL buys coming up, week 12 and week 14. So the two of the three weeks where Mike Evans might be really valuable to you are weeks that you're going to have to sit there like Mike said and watch the practice reports after four weeks and say, is he going to play? Is he not going to play? And is he going to get.

hurt again because he has frequently re-injured his hamstring and clearly doesn't know when he should be playing. And is he going to be listed as doubtful, that kind of nonsense where it hurts your actual league having to have him on your bench, not in your IR? Bryce Young will be starting this week for the Carolina Panthers against the Denver Broncos defense. Are the Broncos the best play of any position this week? Yeah, I'd probably start them. like over Bruce Hall. Yeah. Like if it's in a super flex option. I use the QB1 this week. I'd go with the Broncos. There should always be the choice to start a defense in place of anybody else at all positions. If you want to start five defenses. Always flex the defense. D.K. Metcalfe. So this is not a benching of Andy Dalton. Andy Dalton. I don't know if we were reported or not that he was. We mentioned. So he was in a car accident. Oh, yeah. We mentioned nobody went to the hospital. However, he did sprain his thumb.

in that car accident. So this is an injury that we don't know the severity or the length of time, but it is not a performance of Andy Dalton is getting the bench and Bryce Young is back. This is Bryce Young the back up getting the start because of an injury to the start. Bryce. It's your chance. Don't throw away your shot, man. He could definitely stay in this spot. It's not like Dalton's been playing well if he performs, which you won't. And I'm feeling. Return to practice. What? 21 day window open this week. I love your Adam Thielen voice so much. Like, it brings me joy. I know that other people have to enjoy as much as I do. There's something about every time that your Adam Thielen voice comes up that, that I see Adam Thielen waking up. Every single time it's, he's stirred awake from a sitting nap. That's what it's. And I can't stop it. Like that is, it's, it's like a seance. I just, Adam Thielen's name is drawn out of you. And he just, he shows up.

Well, he has historically been one of the few players Bryce Young can get the ball too, so helpful. D.K. Metcalf didn't practice on Wednesday. He's expected to miss Thursday's practice. You're going to be keeping an eye on him. And if he was to miss a week due to the MCL, Jason and Lockett would be. I thought you were going to go Bobo. No, no, no. You're not going to go-go for Bobo? Not a go-go for Bobo. No, no. I'm a no-no for Bobo. His last name is Bobo. It is funny whenever the... All I hear is Bobo the clown. That's it. Nothing else. That's all anyone hears. I mean, we don't pick our last name, man. Like Scataboo? But you can change it. Just letting people know. No, that's not something you do. Reach out to Chosen Robbie Anderson. He knows the way, the laws. He's still Anderson, though.

He's changed before. Hasn't he flipped them around? Oh, he was Robbie Chosen. Yeah. Jaden Daniels didn't practice. No rules, man. You could do what you want. I didn't hear it that. Sorry. Jay Daniels didn't practice on Wednesday. He's going to be seemingly a really, you know, down to the wire type of situation. It is such a brutal situation for Jaden of he plays the Bears. So the matchup is already rough. But Jane Daniels, like if Jane Daniels were not hurt, this. Okay, whatever. I don't care. I'm going to play him against the Bears. But he is hurt. It's his ribs. It just takes one. If you had good shoulder. Jaden Daniels. And you're, you've probably won some games, right? For sure. And you've been reliant on him. And you had the opportunity. I feel like something. No, no, no, no. This is just totally. No, I'm just hypothetical. I just. And you need. Are you trying to trade for. No, no, no. No, no. You need. He's trying to trade me a quarterback.

To replace Jaden Daniels. Gotcha. And you need to kind of get over the hump. You'd probably give a very small amount up to fix your problem, right? For who? I don't know. Hypothetically. For who? Maybe the same game. Oh, Caleb. Yeah. Oh. Oh. So here's one one thing I think is interesting. Meanwhile, Kirk Cousins is on the waiver wire. Just like. Kirk Cousins has won good game all year and he's been seven to 12 points. Who was that good game against? I forget. Oh, it's the team he's playing this week. Anyways, the interesting thing, like tonight's game, the quarterback against quarterback that could be potentially traded for each other, that's so fascinating. The Jaden Daniels versus Caleb Williams, if he can get the start, if he does, there's still a chance he starts. You have to factor in, like offensive rookie of the year. It's probably going to be one of those two players. Right now Caleb Williams is four and two.

And he got off to a slow start, but he's been playing some good ball. He's actually scored more fancy points in both of his last two starts than Jaden Daniels. That's what I'm saying. Like by the end of the year, you know, right now it seems like, oh, Jayden Daniels running away with offensive rookie of the year or maybe Malik neighbors, but it's usually going to go to the quarterback. This is a massive prime time, you know. I think you're right. I think it's a good point. It's very important for Jane Daniels's, uh, beginning legacy, if you will. It's also really important for my.

Chicago Bears DST play. Yeah, you want the Marioota? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, offensive rookie of the year, it's Daniel's the leader right now, then Williams neighbors. Marvin Harrison is still the fourth highest opportunity. Well, there's still a gap. I'm sure the, you're going to get much better odds there. But it is interesting. He's tied with Brian Thomas Jr. Get out of here. I mean. The Marvin Harrison reaction, this is the negative of our fantasy football universe is like, you know, good game, Hall of Fame, bad game, career over. And we, you know, there's a long way to go on the Marvin Harrison story for Arizona. And there's literally no way that the rest of the season, if Marvin Harrison is healthy, they don't improve. Like that is a guarantee. Like I will.

I will promise you that Marvin Harrison's performances will improve over time. And then you say, well, some players improve over time and their ceiling is capped. Where's Marvin's ceiling? That's why he's still in the conversation. Yeah, this is a fantasy football problem. And this is why, you know, on our on our bust episode, Marvin Harrison Jr. was my bus pick because he was going at the one two turn, which was insanity. You have to, you have to have a top eight wide receiver at that point. anything else and it's going to feel like a bust. Marvin Harrison has not had a bad start to a rookie season. He's had a horrific start to a rookie season for someone drafted at the 12th or 13th pick in your draft where you were relying on him to be a superstar. That is not fair to the young man. And then Malik neighbors kind of shown him up. Yeah. And then, you know, neighbors finally has a bad game. And that's a tough. I mean, every week you're going to be staring down this. Who'd you rather have in a dynasty? Do you want Harrison who hasn't performed yet?

with the quarterback who will be there or neighbors on the team where he has performed with a different quarterback on the way. That's a great question, Neighbors. That was the answer as well. Oh. Okay. I heard the question mark after Neighbors. I don't know. I liked it. Yeah. I was just, I'm giving you props for what a difficult question. But it's 365 from now. Let's return to it and see what happens. All right. The 49ers, please watch their practice reports today, Thursday, tomorrow, Friday. Injury Blitz podcast from Matthew Betts, also part of the Jointhefoot.com perks because Deboe, Juan Jennings and George Kittle, none of them practiced on Wednesday. It's too early to be freaking out. Has Kittle practiced this year? I feel like he is. He does his practicing on the field. Yeah, I'm not worried about George Kittle. He's just been too consistent, too dominant. And if you, if you didn't see, I think it was on IG.

There was a kid worried about the injuries in his fans of football. It was awesome. It was really cool. Debo commented on this kid. He's like, I'm good, three exclamation points. Yeah, the kid's crying about like, Debo's in the hospital. And then he's like, CJ Strauss has done nothing. Did CJ Stroud comment back? Oh, no. He's going to comment with his play this week. I'm going to comment on C.J. Stroud and our parlay parte later. Yeah, we're on opposite sides of that one. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Starts of the week. You know he's not starting today? No way. My gosh. Where'd he go? Are you kidding me? The flak the falcon has flown the poop. The falcon has flown the poop. I can confirm he's not pooping. What is he doing? Yeah, he got a bloody nose.

Oh my gosh. You don't need to tell us. I think you, no, no, you definitely needed to tell me because what you said with the excuse was I was going to judge it and say you're a liar. Right. No. Going with a bloody nose. You can actually prove it. It's either a masterful lie. I'm going to need to see some tissues here. I thought he was showing me a booger at first. I was like, dude, I don't want to see that. And then I realized it was blood. This is so grotesque. It better be flowing like a faucet. I mean, I don't want that nose in here. That's fair. That's fair. But I mean, I feel like you've got if you talk about like injury risk of.

football players. Oh, yeah. I mean, the Falcon is listed as D every episode. What is the percentage of routes run for the Falcon? He can't be, can't stay on the field, man. I mean, he's like, he's okay. He's the Jalen Waddle of the show. He's got some talent, but it's just like at some point, we're going to have to cut him. Move on. He's leaking from somewhere. I mean, if Dennis Allen were here, he'd say I have no, no idea if this guy can produce. That's right. Dennis Allen. All right. Jason. All right. Starts of the week. So we just talked about CJ Stroud. We might be on opposite sides, but I have CJ Stroud as my start of the week. He has been very, very disappointing this season. I think he's coming off like five fantasy points last week. He's had a couple big games. With Nico Collins. One of them was in week one against Indianapolis. That was on the road. He completed 75% of his passes, went 234 and 2 was the quarterback 8. This week he is at home.

He is against the Indianapolis defense that has not been very good. In three career starts against the Colts, 21 and a half fantasy points, 20.6 fantasy points, and 18.7.4 point per passing touchdown. So he has a safe floor. I think he truly does still have a ceiling outcome in this game. And the Colts defense, they're a train wreck. They are. They're 28th and scheduled adjusted fantasy points to the quarterback. 29th, the total yards allowed per game. And we talked about this in the offseason. We talked about this yesterday and through this season. CJ Stroud, one of the worries about drafting him so high where we did, was his splits. Yes, he can dominate a game. But if you look at his splits, both home and road and good defense versus bad defense, he dominates.

The bad defenses at home, very last year's Jared Goff-esque. Now, we talked a lot of that up to being a rookie. You know, it's like, oh, he, you know, obviously the easier matchups are easier. But so far this year, when he's playing difficult matchups on the road, it's been really, really bad. This is a great easy matchup at home. I think CJ Stroud, like if I had him, I'm definitely starting him, even though he's, he had a bad week last week. Yeah, we're not going to agree here. I think this is a, I think it'll be a down week for C.J. Stroud without Nico Collins.

You can't score with Anthony Richardson. The defense will be great, and it'll be a Joe Mixing game. That's my take on this. So we have a diametric opposition on the view of CJ Stratton. Joe Mixon will also have a great game. The nice thing about Indianapolis is they aren't a run funnel. They aren't a pass funnel. They are just a, what would that be? That would just be a hallway, like a tunnel. They're a tunnel. They're not a funnel. They just let. You can go any side of this thing to wherever you want. I'm going to go with Tua coming back from injury. Looks like himself at practice. That's good. They had the great quote from Tyree Kiel saying, here we go. Start me. I'm back. And if you stashed him, this is the matchup. Arizona's secondary on the road, traveling east. They give up the seventh most points to quarterbacks.

They're second to last and completion percentage allowed. And they don't have the speed. They don't have the personnel to keep up with Tyreek Hill. We've seen John New involved in the screen game. We've seen Waddle. You know, A. Chan. I think you can just put two a right into your lineup against Arizona at home. The offense has like been, you know, waiting for something to happen for weeks. And I'm not. I'm not concerned about it. The Cardinals just gave up 349 passing yards to Will Disley. And I did say that on purpose. I mean, like it was Justin Herbert, Will Disley, and strangers. They had nobody. Strangers. Yeah, I mean, it was just. It is what it felt like. It really is what it felt like. And I'll tell you what, man. I've never, ever, ever thought before last week, Quentin Johnson is an important.

part of an offense. Yeah, and we did, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So Mike, who's your quarterback? It's Jordan Love against Jacksonville. It's going to read off some numbers just for the matchup. The Jags are 31st and passing yards allowed per game. 32nd and schedule adjusted points to the QB. 32nd unexpected points added per pass attempt. And Jordan Love is playing out of his mind an 8.4% touchdown rate. Maybe that comes down someday. but I don't think it's happening this week. He is like, I don't, I guess you stay with Lamar, but it's like other than that. I was going to say, who's sitting Jordan Love? Well, it's just about playing him over literally everybody. Literally everyone. If you want to make him the number one quarterback of the week, I'm fine with that. Jordan Love right now is on pace for 4,600 passing yards and how many touchdowns, Andy? Probably 38. 38, Mike, you got to guess? No.

51. You were closer. I mean, he's just doing a bit. Yeah, no, he's been on fire. And I don't mind making him a start of the week when you're really saying he's the best quarterback of the week. My running back is not a good running back. We made fun of him for the first three weeks of the season when it looked like this offense needed to move away from him when the coaches talked about getting other guys more involved. And then DeAndre Swift was like, hey, no, just kidding. The next three weeks before thereby. He dropped, kicked all of us. And he was the running back three, the running back three, the running back nine. He averaged 22 opportunities a game during that span as the clear lead of the bears. And now here's a great matchup. This Washington commander's matchup, we're going to talk about a lot this week. Chicago is a two and a half point road favorite. The commanders are allowing 4.9 yards per carry to opposing running backs. That's 27th best. They rank 21st and schedule adjusted fantasy points to running backs. It's good matchup. You're coming off of a bye.

DeAndre Swift was on fire. I don't want to forget what he was doing before the buy. He should definitely be started. I will go with J.K. Dobbins' bounce back game against New Orleans, who is just incapable. They have crumbled. Sure, you give up 147 and 2 to Sequin. Great, that's Sequin. How about 102 and 1 to Kareem Hunt? How about 203 to the Bucks running backs? How about Javante Williams looks like a competent running back? Maybe even a star against you. They are dead. last against running backs. They're giving up an almost 11 points above expectation. This is not the Saints defense of old. This is an old Saints defense. And I think J.K. Dobbins bounces back in a big way this week. Man, I feel like we're on opposite sides of this one too. The matchup is wonderful. Totally like that. But I am worried about Dobbins because he has not looked good. Like the first two weeks of the season, he looked unbelievable. Kept doing these breakaway runs.

The last month, he's not looked good as a running back. And you worry about this. Achilles coming back. And, you know, we've seen it where he looked, he looked okay against Denver. 25 for 96. Yeah, I mean, that's still sub for Perry. And he got the work. He's going to get the work. I love that. Getting the work, this matchup, there's a lot of reasons to like Jacob Dobbins this week. I just, I guess I'm not saying that this is someone you shouldn't start. I'm just saying, I'm throwing up the yellow, the yellow flag of like, I'm worried. If he come, put it this way. If he comes out against the Saints.

And, like, is bad? I think you need to, I think then it goes to a red flag, like maybe sit him for a while. Sure. But then I'm going to go with Javante Williams. All right. Jvante Williams. Can't say it too loud. Uh, J. W. W. Yeah. What? We're just, everyone's did. J. W. DW. Yeah. Yeah. But he's playing the Carolina Panthers. 17 opportunities. That's what we love. The. The Adrick Estimate concerns that I had earlier in the year. He has fumbled on both games where he had an opportunity. And Denver's 25 point team implied total is their highest over their last 40 games. The Carolina Panthers are bad. I liked this play even before it was Bryce Young. You could hand the ball. If you handed the ball to Giovante every play, you'd win by three touchdowns. Yes.

That's the way it feels in this game with Bryce Young starting in the defense. Now I don't think Sir Tan's going to be back unless I've got, unless there's an update in the last 24 hours that he's going through protocol and going to make it back. I don't think he'll be out there. I take the week off if I were him. I don't think it matters. I'm going to take a quick break, come back with wide receiver and tight in starts. Now again, yesterday, hold on. Yesterday you made a statement to me. And it was, I get it. but you don't have to do this. Right. No, I thought about this with this because it's identical. You did not have to pick Calvin Ridley as your second half sleeper. You're doubling down. You don't have to do it. You're asking for pain, but you believe in it. And if you believe in it, you should do it. We don't have to do it. In fact, I think maybe it's more. We need a disguise you can put on for certain parts of the show. Yeah, this is. Just like a groucho glasses? Yes, just something I can put on so you don't know who's saying it. I think it's order that. Owl.

I think it is worth saying this part of it for the Foot Clan. When we do something like this, what I'm about to do and what Andy did yesterday, we aren't trying to double down on our priors. If anything, we want to get, you know. I'd like to be out of it. I would love to escape. I would love to smoke bomb and be gone. Sorry, it was wrong. But it's because we believe it and because, you know, hopefully it is right. So I'm going to need kind of some, I don't need unobtainium. You need some pants? I need like second level of underpants. You all level two? Yeah, level two. Teenium underpants. Yeah, that feels right. It's snug. It's a little, it's actually more comfortable than I thought it would be. But I'm going with Tank Dell. We just talked about CJ Stroud. It's the stack for me. It's now or never. And I want to remind everybody that wide receivers outside of, you know, Justin Jefferson.

You look on a season, and most of them have about half their game's good and half their games bad. When they come in a stretch, you're like, this guy sucks. He's done. But Tank Dell is at home in a good match. Is this where he starts the half that are good? Exactly right. Last year against the Colts, that's where he started his breakout campaign with 10 targets, 7 for 72 and 1. The Colts are a pushover defense. Talked about that earlier. If you throw away the last two games, which were throw away a bull, Will Levis and Tyler Huntley. They rank 29th against the past, 25th against wide receivers. The matchup is really, really good for him at home. Do you feel the same about him in this game that you were just saying about Dobbins against the Saints defense? Like if the struggle, if the matchup's so good, make or break is the right phrase, right? Make or break. I think this is, but both of these guys, I guess I see the reason to have them in the starts of the week. We're saying the process says you should still start this player. Ignore the emotion. Exactly. Follow the.

signs and signals of a good opportunity and then if they fail if they fail we will have groucho marks and we will strip we'll strip the tape all right i'm going to go with darnel mooney against the bucks uh he has been pretty boom bust but he's the wide receiver 16 on the season and like we hopefully the bucks can do something and that that's the fear that's the fear here for anyone who is on the falcons But we saw him dominate the bucks just a couple weeks ago. And the buck's secondary still remains bad. So I think that he is a strong play. Jaden Reed against Jacksonville is my start of the week on the other side of the Jordan Love start that Mike threw in there. We've seen the boom weeks, but we haven't seen them over the last three weeks. Still sitting at wide receiver six. I think you need a tap on the butt that Jordan Reed is going to be okay.