Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 4 Matchups, Muscle Hamster

The Buffalo defense has looked great this year. Top 10 in rushing yards and passing yards allowed. They are the second hardest to play against if you're going by fantasy points given up to the quarterback position. But that's just such a fake stat because week one, they played Josh McCown. Week two was Cam Newton and week three was on the road, Trevor Simeon.

Okay, Cam and Simeon, maybe they're okay. But I just don't think they've really been tested by a team that could test them. And I'm not saying they're a bad defense, but I don't think they're this top five scary, not that anyone's benching that Ryan. So you're not benching that right. But my point is more on the Tyrod side. I think the Falcons will score. So Tyrod will have to do work. Yeah. And it's just a matter of does he. And if he does, it'll work out for you. Does Lishol McCoy return to form this week?

Oof, the Falcons run defense has been pretty solid. Ninth in the league right now. Yes. But Shady's volume is just so safe. I mean, these last two weeks, you haven't gotten the explosion game that you want from LaShawn McCoy, but he's still been very safe. And I know it doesn't feel like it, but go back and look how many points he's scoring. Oh, yeah, he's still fine. He's still fine. He's a weekly start.

Charles Clay, we talked about him as a stream candidate at tight end. If you flip to the other side, those of you that were, you know, excited about Austin Hooper's explosive week one. You're talking about Austin Deucer? Nope. Austin Hooper. Austin Hoover, tied in for the Falcons. We said at the beginning, you throw a lot of things out there. Austin Deucer. That one wasn't the one.

Can we keep keep them coming? We'll find the one. I mean, Austin Pooper is a lot. No, no. Yeah. Awesome Pooper is. No, I'm not even referring to poop. I'm talking about two targets a week, Austin Hooper. Oh, that's dual meaning then. Yeah, that's fine. Okay, that's what you want to get your mind in the gutter in that potty humor. Then you, I'm above that. 280 club is above that nonsense. But Austin Hooper, two targets every single week.

All right. So the Falcons tight ends have been targeted only seven times this year. Which means I'm not playing Austin. That's the worst in the league. That's what I was getting at there before we got sidetracked. Good call on the pooper thing, Brooks. But if we can keep it above brow, that'd be nice. Yeah, Brooks. Brooks, I really appreciate that. This is a high class show. I'm just jumping in with Mike. We were all thinking it, though. He's trying to get in the 280 club. I know what he's doing. Until our Monday Duds segment. Yeah, all right.

That's a fair point. We do have a poop segment on the show. It's part of who we are. It is. All right. Where do we go from here? What about the running backs? Okay, so again, you've got the second, in theory, the second hardest schedule as far as fantasy points against the running back with the Buffalo Bills. They, again.

You're not sitting, you're not sitting, Donata Freeman. The discussion ends there. So what about having Coleman? Because I've started him every week in, you know, one of my dynasty leagues. I think Coleman's okay. I think you're going to need to pass through the air at times against Buffalo. And Coleman's been effective on limited touches again. Last week he was pretty good. I'm okay streaming or playing Coleman as a flex play this week. Freeman is basically leading the league in touchdowns per attempt.

in the sense that he's been hyper efficient in his utilization. So what about Mohammed Sanoo? And I know that initially from the name value go, ah, but Muhammad Sanoo's been, he's been a startable fantasy asset, six for 47, week one, five for 85 week two, only four for 28, but had a touchdown last week. I mean, on, on the season, he's just, he's right in the middle of those wide receiver threes, which that's a playable guy for fantasy. Are you?

willing to jump in with Sanoo this week, or are you concerned because of the bill's defense? Well, let's give an example. J.J. Nielsen is a player who's been boom and bust. Mohammed Sanoo has been somebody who's got a six, seven, eight point baseline. That's far. So who do you start? Isn't that a lot about, you know, your opponent? Do you need that? I don't think Sanoo is going to blow up for a 20 plus point game. I don't like the Sanoo type players because I like the safe.

startable. Maybe they're not going to blow up, but they're going to have a high enough baseline. But Sunu's baseline, I think, is like six points on a normal week, whereas, you know, on a normal week, and obviously we're not just talking about these first three weeks, a Jarvis Landry type where maybe he doesn't blow up, but he usually has a high enough baseline in PPR leagues. I think that you've got a higher floor than some players in Muhammad Sanu, but it's not high enough.

Even with Julio. Without the, Julio banged up. If Julio's out, then he'll play. Yeah, he's banged up. He's always banged up. That's what he do. All right. No, Julio's a fine start this week. All right. I love these games. Steelers, Ravens. Always exciting. Always fun. I will take the under. The divisional match. Yeah, it's a 42 point over under, and I'm with you on that. The Ravens are actually three point underdogs at home in this game. We have not seen, we've talked about it at length. We have not seen the offense we expected from Pittsburgh.

We didn't see any offense at all from Baltimore last week. It was absolutely atrocious. We also saw an unexpectedly large amount of carries for Alex Collins. We saw Javori's Allen kind of, even though the snap count was in Allen's favor by the end of the game, we didn't see the production we hoped for. But that game, I almost, you know, whether it's Watson or Allen or even Macklin, you just kind of throw that game out. I mean, you cannot, that's not a template for the rest of the year. It might keep you on the,

doubting their offense side of things, but what are you doing with the Baltimore offensive pieces in fantasy? And do you have any confidence anywhere on that roster? Because I don't think I do this week. No, I do not. Of the running backs, I would still play Buck Allen because he got the five receptions. That's what I'm looking for. I know Terrence West has the touchdown upside of the three of them, but I'm not playing West. I'm not playing Collins and I'm okay.

He's not a fully confident start, but I would play Buck Allen if he's on my roster. Yeah, Buck Allen and Jeremy Macklin. I'm willing to start. Terrence West and Alex Collins, I'm just going to keep a look at it. What about Ben Watson, though? I mean, the garbage, the touchdown was absolutely filthy, nasty, disgust, and garbage. But you went for it. Well, you're speaking of garbage time. Yes. Yeah, it was a garbage time touchdown. But the week before, you saw a really high volume. Are you?

Which Benjamin Watson are you expecting this week? Watson's also near the top of the league in first down completion, so he has been a go-to for Flacco in those circumstances. And they did not have very many first downs last week. Because it's going to be a lower-scoring game, in my opinion, I lean on not leaning on Ben Watson this week. You lean on not leaning on him. That's genius. I'm like floating. Genius. All right.

Levion Bell, here's an interesting stat for you. He's been targeted 17 total times. That's ninth most at the running back position. Lev Bell, David Johnson, they fell in that kind of, you count as two category because of their passing game involvement. Now, you do, I kind of want to get into this because depending on your answer, it may affect how you view Love Bell rest of the year. And we all love Love Bell. We all made them a top three pick if we had to redraft running backs today. But if his targets stay at that level.

Is that because of, you know, healthy weapons? Martavis is there. You have Juju Smith-Schuster caught a touchdown. You had, you know, other weapons for Big Ben? Or is this just anomalous in the first three weeks getting back into the flow? Well, he's, I mean, yes, he's ninth compared to running backs, but he's six, four, seven. I mean, that's an absolute fantastic target? That's a target or is that reception? Those are targets. So.

Well, okay, you want his receptions are three, four, six. I mean, that's still fantastic. A six four seven target count, that's great if you're trying to play a passing down guy like Theorritic or Gio or Buck Allen. I'm happy with those targets. And then you go, you add on for Lev Bell that he will rush the ball at least 10 times. And then you have those games like week two, 27 rushing attempts. Now the efficiency has not been there for Levian Bell.

But he skipped everything. He skipped preseason training camp. Still got to get in the flow of things. So my confidence level with Leviom Bell is still very high. The usage is still where I want to see it. Yeah, I mean, it's a relative thing, is the question. It's not a matter of you talking me into Levion Bell as a player. Last year, 7.8 targets a game during his games. This year it's 5.6. So it's relative to what Levian Bell has been is my question, not whether or not he's a good player.

Okay, but I guess I'm just not, I'm not understanding what you're questioning about Levi-on-Bel. I'm questioning whether he is. A top three? Yeah, whether he's, this is a trend that's going to continue, therefore making him not as valuable as he was last year. I don't think it's a trend that's going to continue. I think their utilization of Levi-on-Bel is as good as any running back in the league.

his volume will come to form. I mean, they gave him 27 rushing attempts against Minnesota and game script this last week in Chicago kind of changed things. Levion Bell is usually about a point or two better on his road splits, especially the rushing touchdowns. They tend to come more on the road than at home. So I love him this week. I still think he's top three for sure. Martavis Bryant, confidence level starting him. I don't have it. Not on the road.

Okay, especially against Baltimore. Let's move on to the Bengals and the Browns, okay? Bengals, Browns match up in Cleveland. Brown's only three-point dogs in this one. Kind of interesting to me. 41 point over under, also not expecting a high-scoring game. No quarterback in the NFL is turning the ball over more than to Sean Kaiser. Good for you, Kaiser. By a lot. And therefore, we like the Cincinnati Bengals as a defensive play this week. Bengals are fourth best in the league right now.

against the pass. They've struggled against the run, which is interesting because the Browns have struggled to run. Crowell in the bottom five in yards per carry right now in qualified running backs. So a lot of questions. I think there are a lot of questions in this game. You know you're starting AJ Green. Yep. And the questions begin there. I think Andy Dalton? Yeah, I'm fine starting Andy Dalton. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah, I would. I'm okay with him. But I mean, you're talking that he's probably in my mid-quarterback twos, which means I prefer other streaming guys. Sure. I'm definitely not saying that he's a must start by any means, but he is a startable, streamable quarterback. So far this year, you know, the Browns have given up, what, five touchdowns to the quarterback already in three games. And Andy Dalton.

looked much better last week. I think they'll still not great. No, still not great, but it's the Browns. So I, I think he is a streamable safe option. Isaiah Crowell? That's the biggest question here for sure. I don't, I don't think I would. I guess based on your roster, you probably have to play him, but I don't, I have no confidence right now in Crowell. I have a little bit more confidence in you, but I don't feel good about it. The rest of the season, Crowell, Abdullah.

I think I would go Abdullah. And I'm the anti-abdula guy. Yeah. They're both getting the same amount of touches a game, basically. I mean, you've got Crowell every week. He's gotten double-digit rushing attempts. He's not being as involved in the passing game this year as he was last year, which hurts him. You know, I don't think Cincinnati...

I think Cincinnati's defenses is really good. And this probably isn't the week where I want to test Isaiah Crowell. So if you can sit him, I probably would. Gun to your head, which wide receiver do you start on Cleveland? I don't know why we've got to be so violence about it. That's the only way that we can possibly start a wide receiver on Cleveland. Kenny. Yeah. Kenny Britt at least has done it several years versus Rashad Higgins that did it one week.

And I mean, do recall for the Bengals that Vante's Burfect is now back. Right. So you're talking about they've been poor against the run while they don't have Mr. Nasty in the middle. No, that makes a big impact. The Los Angeles Rams. Oh, wait. Sorry. I answered the Kenny Brick question wrong. Gundam and I had what receiver would I choose. It would be Duke Johnson. He's their best receiver. Okay. Well, your head's gone now because that is not a correct answer.

Yeah, he doesn't count. You can't start him in your wide receiver spot. I'm just saying that's the one I'm still choosing. The Rams take on the Cowboys in Dallas, Dallas six and a half point favorites. Six for 81. He's a startable guy this one. Defiant till the end. You darn right. Jason Moore. It's coming from you. You're defiant well beyond any of Jason's capabilities. I gave you a wide receiver. Yeah. I did too.