Starts of the Week + Brutal Start/Sit Decisions - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/28

On today's show, the news, the matchups, the starts of the week, the boom boom kicker continues. Make sure you subscribe. Leave us some comments and enjoy. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Hey, it's football time. I liked it. Got many people to wake up. You got me. You woke me up, Mike. Got to wake myself up. Hey, welcome into the show. Look, I now know what time it is. Thank you. You are welcome. Yeah. America. Football O'clock. Thursday episode of the show. Mike Wright. Fancy Hitman here. Hello. Getting you ready for Thursday night of football. Jason Moore, in the building. I'm Andy Holloway. And, uh...

Yeah. Did you point Jason? No, he was, I, he thought I was going to give him a little room to say hello and I didn't do it. And he just, he moved on. Yep, I just swallowed my hello and moved on. But here we are highlighting it. Yes, but I'm sure it would have been great. It would have been, try it again. Jason Moore is here. What's up on, everybody? Oh, come on. Well. Deucers Allie, we've got to shut that door. Got Al Borland, Judge Giammati and Papa Josh in the building. For those that don't know, Papa Josh is the one that helps with the two or three bugs that we've ever had. And then, you know, with some of our products. And then you email him and he goes, I got you. He also runs the Discord, or as he calls it, the Discord. Yeah, it's really annoying. Yeah, he's older. But he does a great job there. He's older than the rest of us. If you want to join that community, which it's.

It's hopping, it's popping, it's thriving. Ballers Discord.com. Papa Josh, I'll put you on the spot here. Can you give us a total count of members in the fantasy footballers community discord that we have? Of course I can. It's 44,800. Oh, brother. 44,800. Sounds like it should be 45,000 to me. Sounds like we got to get that thing up to 55,000. Jason bringing. Bringing it. That's good stuff. All right. Let's talk fantasy football news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Aaron Jones, Christian Watson, expected to play football tonight. However, feels a little sketch with Christian Watson. They expect them to be on maybe a limited amount of snaps. I would not be surprised if it was very limited. I would be trying not to play it. Yeah. When we were breaking down the matchup, I was.

pretty excited. Like, let's get Watson out there, see how he does. But hearing that, it's pretty difficult to put him out. Yeah, he is the type of dart throw where if you are in a pinch and you have to, he can Marvin mims this thing. Sure. He can be out there for five snaps and end up with a great fantasy day because of his athleticism. But I do agree the right approach with Christian Watson is to not start him this week because there's also the chance that he goes out there and, you know, the first time he runs a full go route, it just creeps up again. It becomes a stop route. Exactly. So how do you feel about Aaron Jones? I mean, they're both dealing with hamstring issues. So are you taking the same approach with Aaron Jones? Or is it because he's a running back, you just don't have a choice? That's probably going to be your outcome there. I mean, what would you do if it was like Aaron Jones starting him tonight or just hanging tight, giving them a week and playing like Damien Pierce against Pittsburgh?

Where would you go there? I'd go upside. I'd play Aaron Jones. I think I would go Damien Pierce. The matchup for running backs just isn't good. So the combination of him possibly being on a snap count, possibly re-agravating the injury, and being in a tough matchup against the Detroit running game, I'm okay putting him in, you know, if I don't have another starting. option, you know, it's like Pierce. Right, like a Pierce level option, but if I can bench both these guys, I would prefer to. I was going to ask you, you know, with Christian Watson being active, does that throw any shade on starting Romeo Dobbs tonight? No, not at all. You want to throw on the Detroit Lions, not run on them. He seems to be the first read. And so when Christian Watson is fully active, not on a snap count, I think in the right matchups, which this is, I'll still be starting Romeo Dobbs.

All right, we got a little snip-snap situation this morning. First, we had a report that David Montgomery is not expected to play. Now we've got the report that he is expected to play, which was a correction issued by, I don't have the name here. But that was an official report. So we're expecting to see some David Montgomery out there. Is he going to be out there in your line? Yeah, probably. Dude, the running back situation is dire. Okay. There's Tom Pelliserra. Yeah, Montgomery's playing for me. Anthony Richardson full practice should be back. Austin Echler limited in Wednesday's practice said the issue is with his ankle right now and it's about turning and making cuts. He can run full speed. He isn't sure about Sunday wants to play. Oh, come on, Austin. Come on, Austin. We need you. Yeah, a running back being able to turn and make cuts, though seems pretty important to the position. I've never played running back, so I can't. Well, John, Joshua Kelly can't.

turn and we still have to start him sometimes. So go ahead and give me Austin Eccler. Like literally. Forrest Dump was the only one where this wouldn't have been in him, wouldn't have impacted anything. Yeah. I mean, look, as long as it's a, a draw play where it's right up the middle, just give, do that over and over. I can't imagine not playing him. Oh, yes, of course. Jimmy Garapolo mispracticed due to the concussion protocol. We'll monitor that. Some updates here. Debo Samuel missed practice again. I was following up on this report. I have a vested interest. And I don't think he's going to be out there against Arizona. He's not just a rib injury. Kyle Shanahan came out and said it's a knee injury as well. Brandon Ayuk is going to be back. And they play Arizona. They're 14 and a half point home favorites. That's the last I saw. And so this would be a game that you could potentially.

miss. And so I don't know if that downgrades your view of Brock Purdy, two touchdown master. But, you know, Debo was very, very good last week. And what's funny is he had the rib injury earlier in the game and then he came out and he still scored a 40-yard touchdown. And I just, I have doubts. So like if you were, if you were deciding between starting somebody tonight and waiting on Debo, I am, I'm about 30% chance of him playing. Yeah, I would agree. I wanted, you know, in preparation for. Today's episode, I wanted to make Brandon Ayuka a start of the week because of the Debo injury. We've seen when one of these guys is out, the other one dominates. That being said, Brandon Ayuk is dealing with his own injuries that he's coming back from. I believe he basically hurt both shoulders in this game. So the real start of the week is George Kittle. And we won't make him a start of the week on today's episode because who's not going to start George Kittle if you have him? But congratulations, because he's probably going to be the number one tight-in this week.

There are, yeah, there's high probability he is heavily targeted and involved. And if he gets in the end zone, he'd probably be number one. James Connor limited. It's Wednesday. We don't run James Connor out there on Wednesdays. No, that's to be silly. And then Rams head coach, Sean McVeigh, said the hope is for Cooper Cup to return from injured reserve in week five. Okay. We actually have history here. We have the ability to look back at Sean McVeigh. And what he said about Cooper Cup returning in the past from an injury. Okay. He's pretty truthful, actually. He's pretty truthful. He's within a week or two, his estimation. So if it's not week five, I would think Cooper Cup's out there pretty soon. Yeah, I do think Cooper Cup will be back right away. And when he comes back, my assumption is he's going to dominate. I mean, we've seen what Puka has done as a rookie with Matthew Stafford. Matthew Stafford has looked excellent, far better than I think we...

presumed he would look coming into this season, especially missing his number one target. 2-2 has been good. So when Cooper Cup is back out on the field, if he's healthy, if he plays and doesn't re-agravate it, he's going to be a top-five guy. And, you know, I am fine trying to trade for him right now. If a team is struggling, they're 0-1-3 because they drafted Cooper Cup in the first and they didn't have them or whatever and they need a win now. This is the time. I also, and maybe you disagree with me here, I think it might be time to dip out on Puka.

The last two weeks, the Rams, some of the issues that they're going to deal with all throughout the year are starting to manifest on the offensive side of the ball. And if Cooper Cup comes back, like Tutu's been very effective. You've got Puka. You saw Higby get involved. I guess I have a little bit of concern about consistency levels for Puka. I'm not saying you can't play him. But I would not be shocked if one week, you know, Cooper Cups good every week and then one week it's two, two, and one week it's Puka. It's just something that I would be keeping in mind if I had Pook on my roster. It's certainly a situation where if you can sell him high, there is, you know, and capitalize on it, then so what? If he stays great, you got the value out of him. But I don't think he's going to disappear by any means. I believe he will be pretty much a wide receiver two, three after Cooper Cup comes back.

Bryce Young, good sign. He is ready to go. He took the field and practice on Wednesday. So, Mike, how you feel about that stream of the week? I hope you baby oiled the steel underpants so that they can be removed without chafage. Look, they protect when they're on. Not the easiest things to get off. Right. But are they bolted in? No, no. Okay. No, but. Four rivets. I will say this. If Bryce Young is starting, I formally withdraw my Andy Dalton stream of the week. Now, part of the reason you liked Andy Dalton was the matchup. Yes. So Bryce Young out there, do you still have confidence in feeling or chart? Nope. I mean, somewhat because the matchup is so delightful, but Bryce Young has, he has looked.

He's looked at the worst of the rookie quarterbacks. Yeah, I think you can still throw Adam Thielen in your lineup as a PPR option. He obviously much better with Andy Dalton than he is with Bryce Young. But I'm not completely off, especially, you know, Draft King's value. He's still undervalued there. I think he either quarterback would be a good value. But it's like DJ Chark is, would have been an exciting DFS play this weekend if Andy Dalton was the quarterback. And I think if Bryce is in. It's not that it can't still happen. It's just your probability goes down. Less enticing. Yes. Now is today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Deucers, let us know if you hear anything else from the practice report area throughout the rest of the show. There is one practice report injury that. So please tell me if my, I don't have a memory like you, Mike. All right.

I don't have a steel trap, but this is Tyler Higbee, Van Jefferson. They didn't practice on Wednesday. They were listed with Achilles. Have you, I feel like I've never seen like Achilles like, oh, it's a, it's going around. Well, like it's usually I tore my Achilles. You can strain it. Have you seen that? Is that common? I don't know that. You mean in football? Because I mean, Achilles tendonitis is very, very common. I mean as like a normal missing practice. Like you don't miss practice for ACL. You know what I mean? You can miss for MCL. Like Brandon Cook's just missed. I feel like I haven't seen that in a while. It's, I don't think it's. It's not uncommon that we do see it, but it, I mean. It is worth noting though. Anatomically, it checks out. With those two guys out, and obviously Cooper Cup not able to come back this week, Puka and 2-2 looking real good. All right. Let's move on to the forecast. Fantasy forecast. Oh, boy. We're doing it again.

We're playing some football in London. Oh, yay. The Falcons at two and one take on the... Is it the London Jaguars? Uh, soon? Sure. They may become that. This is, it's an attack on the entire West Coast. Yes, it is. A.k. A.K. A. Best Coast of the United States of America. Yes, it is. What are we doing here? 6.30 in the morning? Mm-mm. Not for me. Not my football. Not my football. Are you going to pull the TiVo out of the closet and get this thing on delay? I would love this game. I would love to go to London and watch this game. If I'm not in London, don't do this to me. Kyle, you probably know time zones. What time is the game in London for the Londoners? That's what I'd like to know. Kyle's frantically. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah. You report back to us. Yeah, report back after you do the research. Falcons are two and one. Jaguars.

One and two. Sportsbook line here from Draft Kings, Jacksonville, minus three, over under his 43 points. This is also the game in which the, is it Disney and ESPN Plus are putting the fully animated? I don't know how that's going to happen, but I think we're going to watch. It's live. Yeah, we're going to watch Toy Story characters play football, I think. I don't know if it's Toy Story characters or it's just, it's taking place in Andy's bedroom. Yes, that is the accurate. That is what it is. It's also 2.30 p.m. in London. Oh, so that's a really good football time. That's also when they wake up. Yeah, so we've got the Falcons and we've got a disappointing Jaguar's offense that probably will be without Zay Jones. So Calvin Ridley looked really, really good in week one. He is leading the NFL in drops.

He has gone from a target share of 34% to 20% to 18%. And this is a revenge game for Calvin Ridley. Do you have any wavering concerns about what you've seen the last couple of weeks? Maybe a lower floor is possible for this offense than we thought there was? Yeah, yeah. I do have concerns. The Jaguar's offense and Trevor Lawrence has not looked completely in sync the way that we hoped they would come out on fire. That being said, they started slow last year and were much better the second half of the year. That could happen again. But they're playing against a very slow pace of play type of controlling team in Atlanta. So I do have worries in this game for Jaguar's offensive players. All right. So through three games, the Falcons defense is fifth against running back, seventh against lightouts. So they've been pretty good. And part of that is slowing that game down, fewer possessions. You know, it's the mustache way.

So Ridley, I'm sure you're playing METN is in your lineup. Christian Kirk is a player you can certainly throw out there. And then Evan Ingram is Mike's start of the week. What are we doing? Whoa. Oh, no, that's on today show. It might be, is what I've heard. Stay tuned. I really blew it. Wow. Oh, boy. I'm going to pick a new one. Okay. I'll get back to you. It's always for the best. Trevor Lawrence, confidence level in starting him, or would you, like, if you drafted Trevor Lawrence, are you at the point where you're trying to play the wire? No. If you drafted Lawrence, I mean, perhaps you also have Kirk Cousins, and I would play Kirk Cousins against Carolina over Trevor Lawrence. But the wire is like, no, not yet, not yet. Yeah, you're not going to play the Brock Purdy.

you know, type of guy. That would be one of the waiver pickups. You're going to still roll with Trevor Lawrence is thus far, for what it's worth. The quarterback 20 on the season. He has three touchdown passes in three games. That is a depressing total. He should have more. And he was the worst. He was quarterback 32 against Kansas City and 18 last week against Houston. I don't think it gets better for him this week against Atlanta. Yeah, Falcons currently 12th against fantasy quarterbacks. And just the way that the Falcons slow the game down, your opportunities deplete. Desmond Ritter is who they play at quarterback in Atlanta. Currently. He is one of the people responsible for Drake London and Kyle Pitts not being startable. Kyle Pitts has been successful one time in London. I was going to bring it up. That was like the, he had a hundred in a touchdown, I think, right? Rookie year? Yeah, I'm not going to chase it. But isn't this more of a Drake game?

I mean, what am I missing? His last name is London. Oh, I mean, he's going home, baby. Okay. And it's a good matchup. You know, last year, this was a team that gave up almost 30 points a game to the wide receiver position. So I don't know. I think this is a, I mean. I'm not touching Drake London. In London. No, no, Jason. You don't get very many opportunities to do this. People are listening to us. For advice. Truly, though, with the advice, this is a good matchup. Two weeks ago, he was six for 67 and a touchdown. Had six targets this last week. Two for 31. No, it didn't work out great, but Drake London is a talented wide receiver. I don't think this is a guy you have to bench in a matchup that is a plus matchup personally. You see him as just you're not starting him. There's enough wide receivers out there. I don't have to. I feel like you would start.

2-2 Atwell over Drake London? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I would. And that's not to say Drake London could not give you a game here there, but he feels like he feels like the wide receiver equivalent of if that guy falls in the end zone, you're happy. It's like starting Matt Breedah. Like if he doesn't score, you're probably unhappy. And that's been the case for Drake London for the majority of the. Cortland Sutton against Chicago or? Yeah, I would play Cortland Sutton. DJ Moore against Denver. Definitely DJ Moore. Yeah, you're not going to find a name. Christian Watson. Yeah, I'll try Watson out. Really? You would play Christian Watson on a limited snap count. What's Drake London's floor? Drake London's floor is the same as Christian Watson. Zero. Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. Drake London is going to play 93% of snaps and still has a zero floor. Look, I feel like every time I give fantasy advice on Drake London, it's taken as.

an insult to the person. Drake London would put up 1,300 yards on the right offense. He's an outstanding player. You can't catch balls that aren't throwing your way. You also can't catch balls that are throwing your way in this offense. I mean, Kyle Pitts last week had nine targets, I think. He doesn't have catchable passes. Yeah, it's... Drake London, if he scores, you'll be happy. If he doesn't score, you'll be unhappy. That is the policy with Drake London. Okay. What about Tyler Algier? Here's a player that has been getting a lot of work. Last week did not. We see him getting obviously more working games where they are winning. I was curious on this line. When I saw that the Jags were minus three, I was a little surprised. But Andy, you are the line smith. What do you think is the outcome of this game? Jacksonville wins the game. Okay. It's a home game for them, Jay. Oh, yeah.

And for Drake London. Tyler Alger, I'm trying to binge. Yeah, okay. I mean, the reason I asked is because I think that Tyler Alger is a player that you want to play only in games where you assume Atlanta will win the game. Okay, yeah, it makes sense. The next matchup that we're looking at Miami, 3 and 0, they've been on fire. Taking on the Buffalo Bills. There's a big boy game. Yeah, in a lot of ways. I mean, the bills are two and one, a couple of bounce back performances, and the Draft King Sportsbook line has Buffalo's two and a half point home favorites. The over under is 54 points. Sensational. Sensational. Yeah. No, it's great. I mean, I almost am afraid of being too excited for this game. I know. I feel like it's such a trap. I don't want to be let down. I want this to be the shootout.

that Vegas is expecting. You know, both teams are on fire. The offenses, you can have a ton of confidence. Like, we're going to talk about two players in this game later on in the show. But when you look at the landscape and we're going to have Jaylon Waddle back in this game, you're starting everybody. Tua, Josh Allen, Mostert, and James Cook. You know, if you want to put Devon A. Chan out there, I don't blame you. You probably spent a ton of fab on him. And it's not like, like as of right now, it's going to be the same recipe in the backfield, which is going to be plenty of touches for H-Chan. He's going to be started in 90% of leagues. The leagues where he was picked up, he had to be spent up to acquire, and that means the team needs them. You're going to throw them out there. And this isn't as bad a matchup as you think. We brought it up right now. The Buffalo Bills are allowing the highest yards per carry of any team in the league. That is the specialty of the dolphins. And digs.

Tyreek, Waddle, and Gay Davis can all be played with confidence in this matchup with the high over under. The tight ends, it's tough because you don't really play anybody on the Miami side and then you have two tight ends on the Buffalo side. Yet the dolphins are terrible against tight ends. They were last year and they were bad this year. 100% Dalton Kincaid should be started. And that's coming from me who has been the... Shade tosser. The shade tosser on Dalton Kincaid's fantasy value. Last week, Kincaid had a massively disappointing fantasy production day, but you just look at that game. That game, the bills just, they didn't need to pass the ball. They didn't do much in that respect. Yeah, they didn't play. They sacked the quarterback nine times and turned the ball, you know, intercepted them four times, a pick six. Like, they destroyed Washington. So Dalton Kincaid was unused.

This is a matchup where you expect, look, these teams played three times last year. They averaged 55 points. Dalton Kincaid is a great play. Yeah, last week, like you said, Dawson Knox, one catch for 11 yards, Dalton Kincaid was two for three. They weren't used, like you said. Throw that game away. The snaps. Knox, 60%. Dalton, 51%. That's a fake game. Throw it away. All right, the Denver Broncos at 0 and 3 take on the 0 and 3 Chicago Bears. All righty. We've got a drafting sports book line here. Denver minus 3 and a half. The over under is 45 and a half. Oh, man, disrespect to these defenses. I mean, 45 and a half. You expect it. When you go, hey, we're going to put maybe the worst team in the league against the second worst team in the league. You expect an over under of like 37. This is 45 and a half because these defenses.

be trash. I agree. And yet that means fantasy value is to potentially be had in this game. It's been gross to watch. To be fair to Russell Wilson, his numbers other than victories have looked okay. So I think Russell Wilson is streamable this week. I mean, the bears are a really, really bad defense. 100%. And inversely, Justin Fields is streamable this week. The Broncos have been. the worst defense in football. So you have two streamable quarterbacks here. Would you play either of them over Jordan Love tonight? Yeah, yeah, I would. I would probably play both of them over Jordan Love. What about Fields in this matchup or Gino Smith against the Giants? So we've brought this up a couple times this week. Here's the approach to Fields. Personally, I am playing Justin Fields over Gino Smith, over Jared Gough, over C.J. Stroud.

If you want to bench him for your mental health, please do. If you need a break. If you need a break, it is totally acceptable to put him on your bench. And if he has a great game, go, yes, good, they figured it out. But you don't have to deal with a fourth bad game in a row should it happen. In the end, we want fantasy points. I think this is a matchup where he'll score them. So I'm okay with. Uh, Justin Field. Do you know the head coach most likely to be fired according to the odds right now? I'm going to guess the bears since we're on this matchup. He's number two. Oh, okay. Yeah, I wouldn't be that obvious. Uh, but. Most likely to be fired. Yeah, Matt Eber Flues is at plus 225 is the first coach to be fired. Rivera is third. Staley is fourth and Peyton is now ninth. What? What?

They can't fire fire. That's impossible. Peyton is 30 seconds. Well, I mean, you got like Andy Reed and stuff, but yes. Josh McDaniels is number one. Oh, yeah. Of course. Killeh Herbert, this could be a game where he has more opportunities than the 11 he's been averaging. I'm not, I'm okay starting him in this game. I know that that. Wow. That's a surprise. That is a shock. I think that this is an okay game to put him on the field for. He was the running back 21 in week one. The opportunities have not been there at all. Seven attempts the past two weeks. I think he gets into double digits. Take that for what you will. If you want to stay away from this game again, you probably need a break from Khalil Herbert too. Yeah, I wouldn't be starting Khalil Herbert. One of the most shocking.

lines here is the fact that Denver on the road the oh and three Broncos who just gave up 70 points are three and a half point favorites on the road should they play that out and win the game you you probably just not getting much from Khalil Herbert they're splitting they're splitting too much he's not getting work in the passing game I'm I don't want it okay you're out you're out on her I'm out you're in Mike it makes sense and it it just it comes down to opportunities. Both Khalil Herbert and Rochon Johnson are talented running backs that I don't know what the heck they're doing with these players. If your quarterback is playing as poorly as Justin Fields is, how are you giving your starting running back seven carries the last two weeks? They get into a lot of trouble taking sacks and then you're not handing the ball off on second and 16 and third and 16. They probably should.