Fantasy Football - Week 2 Matchups + Start/Sits, Delicious Garbage - Podcast for 9/12

Well, I was going to look at countering, but I left it there. You're good. Yeah, I thought it was okay. People probably want to know what it is. I don't remember. Do you? I believe I offered you Travis Hunter. Oh, it was the third round pick. And Nick Chubb for Keon Coleman and a third round draft pick. Yeah, the third is way too. People might not understand the value of our league, but a third is way too much for that. But it was a fair trade. I don't think it was bad. Way too much or fair? It's a tough. It wasn't. Is that what you were laughing at Al? Exactly what I was thinking. When I say it's a fair trade. When I say it's a fair trade, I mean it was not. Well, let's see if we can get some done. It was not an egregious offer. No, I mean, Travis Hunter. If I offered you Travis Hunter for Keon Coleman, straight up, what would you do? I, oh man, that's interesting. Because we know, we know what the draft looks like. What week is Waldron fired? Okay, that's my biggest question.

Man, that's a good question. I thought about it. And then I was like, I don't know if I want to do this. I don't either. Wow. So I didn't. Don't ask me. Mike, what do you think? I'm not involved. All right. Jonathan Taylor, you play him. Dobbins and Harvey, I would expect to see pretty much the same thing as last week personally. I think Dobbins will be a good play when he scores for Denver. And Harvey will be a limited snap, high upside player. Do you have any difference of opinion from week one to week too, Mike? I don't think so. There was some press conferences where they were talking about, we had some disappointments on offense and then highlighting that they were very pleased with RJ Harvey. That doesn't mean he's going to get in there more. It's bidet. Six targets in the first half. If that's really what Sean Payton's going to do for the time being, which is bizarre, but this is how he's going to run the offense. Until.

Harvey is a sketchy play until we see that transition to being Dobbins and RJ Harvey at the top. Cortland Sutton, a 24% target share in week one. Yeah, Gordon Sutton's every week. But do you play Franklin Mims or Brian or just wait? I think you wait. I think you have to wait. The Marvin Mims snaps of the preseason did not continue. And he was down to a halftime player. So I mean, look, 53% of snaps for. Mims, I guess, is... It's still an upgrade. That's an upgrade over last year, but it was not the hope that we saw in the preseason. And you don't know if that's him still coming back off that injury. He suffered late in the three season and he's getting worked back into the role that he had prior to that injury or whether this is, it's basically Cortland, Sutton, and then packages with everybody else. And honestly, that's what I expect going forward unless someone just demands that they are winning on every route. I think it's going to be...

Mims and Franklin and a little bit of Pat Bryant until, you know. We only got one touchdown from Knicks last week, too. So if we can get a better performance for the offense, we'll have this discussion. Those guys are best ball players. Tyler Warren is a dog. Yes. Play him. And then Evan Ingram or Johnny Smith this week? What would you do? Jonu. Yeah, I don't think I don't want to mess around with the injury, right? Correct. Carolina's 0-1-1. They travel to Arizona 1-0. Vegas line, Arizona minus six and a half at home over under 44 points, gives Carolina 19 implied points, Arizona 25 and a half. You'll be happy. The game's in a dome. We've got, well, maybe. Maybe they'll have the roof open. But probably not because it's hot. It's a little hot. It's a little hot. All right, we're home. The Cardinals are home. The Panthers. Everything that happened in week one for the Panthers was depressing to me. There just wasn't any semblance of what we saw at the end of the year with Bryce Young.

It's, you know, the Cardinals are heavy favorites in every game where they're six plus point favorites. Here's Kyler's numbers. 251 passing yards, 71% completion percentage, and the Cardinals covered the spread in 8 of 12. So hopefully he looks better. He was very sick last week. We are going to take solace in the fact he was sick because we were sick when we watched it. There is some good indications that maybe they're going to use Marvin Harrison a little bit better this year so far through week one. Kyle tweeted out, the Borgogan tweeted out the difference in his routes and the uptick and crossers and crossing routes was cross your fingers that that can, I'm sorry. Yeah, I'm sorry. I, no, I can't power it through. I'm sorry for that. But we need that to stick. That was the problem with Marv last year is everything they drew up for him was difficult. And we need him to get easier, just.

pitch catch and then let your top five talent do what he does. I think it was really heartening. Going back and looking at his utilization made me excited for Marv going forward. And I think in this matchup, you can pretty much start every single Cardinal that's questionable. Kyler is a great start this week. James Connor, goodness gracious, the Carolina Panthers are the worst run defense we've ever seen at this point in time. Marvin Harrison is locked in. And while I don't. And Trey McBride. Yes, Trey McBride, of course. Well, I wouldn't sit there and recommend, hey, start Trey Benson. I think in a pinch. Yeah, if you're like on a, if you're a zero RB team that has to start someone, you can easily see how it could get done in this match. I agree. 33% of snaps. That is the tied for the highest snap percentage of his rookie year, Trey Benson. Chuba, you play him because he's a good running back and it just works out for Chuba no matter what happens. Tett McMillan, the targets were there, the production.

He dollied it. He had nine targets that caught five of them. Okay. I like it. I like it. Redemption. I had to put that. Oh, yeah. He was working. He's one of eight first round wide receivers to see nine plus targets in their first game. We knew he would be the guy. Jason, you admitted yesterday you have, you went from Xavier Legate Apologist to despise her in 24 hours. I mean in 22 seconds. Just watching the game. Like I really wanted that one play was was just preposterous of the like all wide receivers drag the feet and he was just like doodoo do I'm gonna stroll through this catch. He had five yards. Yes to get that second foot down. And he's just like, I'm gonna run right out of bounds. He's not a good wide receiver. I mean, I.

I wanted. He's not. He's a good athlete. He is a great athlete. He was so impressive his final collegiate year. He's a first round NFL draft pick. The opportunity is in front of him going into year two. He reminds me situationally a lot of Keon Coleman. Yes. And it's like, okay, I'm going to bet on those guys. I'm going to take shots. And I drafted a lot of Keon Coleman. I drafted a lot of Ligette. And I feel like one weekend we've got our answer. One of them stepped forward. and one of them stepped out of bounds. Thank you. I was hoping you'd go there. Philadelphia 1-0 taking on the chiefs in Arrowhead. Chiefs are 0-1. Vegas line here, Philly minus one and a half road favorites. I don't know if we have an answer to this question, Kyle, if you're listening. I mean, when have the chiefs been home underdogs?

like in the Patrick Mahomes era? Yeah, like have we had that in years? That has to never have been. He's going to look it up. I don't know if it's ever happened, at least in several years. This is the Super Bowl rematch. And we've got the Eagles' favorites. So 46.5 point over under. This is, you know, Patrick Mahomes was pretty good in week one from a fantasy perspective, right? He was 24 for 39. He ran a ton. Six for 57 on the ground. We don't know if we'll have Xavier worthy or not. We think we probably won't. Hollywood Brown dominated target chair in his absence. Juju will be involved. I've already told you Tyquan Thornton will. 42-yard touchdown in this game. So that means you're starting him over most questionable pieces. See, I was asked that question. And what I, what my response is a guaranteed 10 points. It is a guaranteed touchdown. But.

When I make a touchdown guarantee, that is really, it's a really a heart decision. So if you want to move them up in your ranks via your heart and believing, you can do that. Not your analytical ranks. Yeah, a touchdown guarantee. I mean, this is, he's also going to catch a pass on the first drive just so you know. Okay. If you need that. Is it the touchdown? No. No. Just a catch. See the first touchdown of the game? Um. We'll find out. I got something to watch in this one. So I wonder what we'll see from Travis Kelsey this week. Man, week one is, like, it's devastating, honestly. The fact that Worthy goes out immediately, and then Travis Kelsey ends up with four targets, two for 47, yeah, he caught the touchdown. But.

That is an 11% target share for Travis Kelsey for a team that then fully featured Hollywood Brown. It was. It was early. It was early when it happened to Worthy. So you can look at this and say, hey, let's design some stuff to get Kelsey involved again. But the thing about Kelsey is you don't even fully design it. It's the, okay, here's the route. We know we're going to go to Kelsey. Go do something. They got shut down. Yeah. They got shut down. Most recent example, obviously, these teams played in the Super Bowl. In that Super Bowl, you had Xavier Worthy, who had eight for 157, and two was the star and Travis Kelsey over there, four for 39 in the Super Bowl. So are you playing them? I mean, he's a low-end start for me. There are guys, I would play Juan Johnson over Travis. Kyle Pitts. I play Pitts over Kelsey. Hawkinson. I play Hawkinson. Brent Strange. That one I'm, I think I would.

I think Strange's floor is higher, but Kelsey's, I would go Kelsey. Did you say Fanon? Nope. I would play Kelsey. I'm not as bullish on Fanon after one week. I am super bullish on Fanon rest of the season, but this, this week I'm not confident enough yet. Isaiah Pacheco, do we have a Pacheco problem? Since returning in week 13 last year, six games played total. He scored 26 fantasy points. 3.7 yards per touch. He has not looked. Like the Pacheco of old. I think on a per touch basis, he's okay, but he is not getting the utilization. I mean, he had five carries. They are splitting this work up three ways now. If they just split it up between him and Hunt, you cannot play him. If they're splitting it up three ways, you certainly can't. And if you're playing against the Philadelphia Eagles.

He's like a must bench. Like honestly, I think Trey Benson is a better play than Pacheco. I was going to say, I feel like we have a pretty good barometer of Ken Walker versus. Yeah, Ken Walker for sure. Okay. The answer, by the way, they have not been home underdog since 2022. So it's been a really, really long time. Mahomes or Herbert? Oh, I'm Herbert. I'd play Herbert. Baker or Mahomes? Baker plays Houston in Houston. I would play Baker. Me too. Justin Fields against Buffalo. Yeah, I don't play Fields. On the other side, simple enough, Jalen Hertz, Sequin Barclay, J. Brown, Devante Smith, put them in your lineup. Dallas Goddard might miss the game, giving some more targets to the wide receiver position. Historically, they have done very, very well. At what point would you pick up Dotson? Like, let's say you come out and Dodson is... This morning and my guillotine league, brother. It had to be done.

Wow. I was going to say probably never, but maybe. For context, people, a, three catches. A guillotine league is, is, are we 17 or 18 teams? 17 teams. So that is a very, very deep roster. But I think the, I think Goddard being out is at least interesting for Dawson. Sunday night football, the Falcons at 0.1 taking on the one and Vegas line has Minnesota minus 3 and a half. The overrun is 44 and a half. One thing I noticed this week was the, you know, J.J. McCarthy was not a high draft pick in fantasy. But man, was that fun to watch. And so people I've noticed really, really want to start him. They really want to find a way to get him into their lineup. I, you know. I think this week it's okay. I'm not going to force him into my lineup, but I think that, like, Bo Nix or J.J. McCarthy, I think is a.

a fair and interesting question. He's a consistency score of an A. Who? Oh, boy. 100% of his game so far. How's the first half consistency score? Oh, that doesn't matter. It's how you finished, brother. Offensive player of the week. Yeah. Just outpacing Daniel Jones from the AFC. Yeah. It is interesting. This is a matchup you certainly can roll the dice with. So if you want to play and have fun, I think I think JJ McCarthy is a fine play. The Falcons defense is not nearly as good as the Bears defense that he faced last week. This is their home opener. They're favored by three and a half. They're projected for 24 points. A lot of, you know, feathers in the cap of being a fine start. So Jefferson's in, Hawkinson's in. And I think Hawkinson's important to say, like, he had a terrible first week. And I am holding. Oh my gosh, I hope his numbers were better than Nojoku.

Oh, they're very similar. Three for 15. That's worse. You're right. That's worse. Big week. Sorry. Go on. No worries. But Hawkinson, I've got to give it at least another week. I will have him in my lineups if I drafted. They were, their rate of passing was much lower compared to what we're normally seeing with Kevin O'Connell. It might take a couple weeks to get that back up to speed. We did not see anything from feeling. He had no catches. He had a two-by conversion. Jordan Mason was Mike's start of the week. Aaron Jones was the RB 12 on 11 opportunities. If you were staring that decision down, a lot of people probably took Aaron Jones and maybe got Mason later. Who would you start, Jason? I would start Aaron Jones still. I think he's the vet. I also. Oh, I know he's the vet. Yes. I think he gets the veteran treatment and we'll have the first opportunities.

This run defense, I think, is still even a little softer. And then the passing work to me is still what scares me on the Jordan Mason side. Jordan Mason, I think, has a higher probability of getting a rushing touchdown in this game and would be a great start for that reason. But outside of, like, if he doesn't get a touchdown, he could end up with 70 yards, have a great game, look great. And you'd be really disappointed in fantasy if he doesn't catch the ball. So that's where I'd rather have the... more ways to score for Aaron Jones. Let me ask you a question. If you had to rate the Falcons offensive performance in week one, one is the biggest sad face possible, and 10 is you're grinning from ear to ear. On the count of three, I want to hear the number that you would define from what you saw on film. So 1 to 10. Okay. Can we use decimals or there's got to be whole numbers here? Whole numbers. Three, two, one, six. Okay. So we're kind of in the middle. You did not participate?

Oh, no, I was setting you up on the host. Sorry. Do you want an answer for me? I would love your answer. Five. Okay. Okay. So Bijian, let's talk about Bijan for a moment because we may have seen the reception mask something interesting in week one. He was amazing in the passing game. And if that continues, you're never going to have a problem. He was six for a hundred through the air. But he was only 12 or 24 on the ground. And the bigger thing that has been brought up or maybe not brought up enough, split the work with Tyler Alger in the backfield. He split the rushing work. Just to be clear, it's stupid. It is stupid to, I wonder how much of that was game plan. Obviously, they know the Tampa Bay Buccaneers very, very well. They know Vita Vaya. They know how difficult it is to run on the Buccaneers defensive line. And so during that game, Bijan wasn't sharing the field that might. He was 83% of snaps. You love to see that. He was just half the time. He was a wide receiver. And then he split the running back carry. So I,

This will be a really interesting test to see if does it go more 70-30 rushing attempts, or is it still more 50-50 rushing attempts, which would then be very, very stupid? Well, they are facing a terribly, terribly difficult rushing defense, probably worse than last week. I mean, you're going to have Jalen Carter back, and we don't like running on the Eagles. Oh, I am a fool. I am a fool. The Vikings? You scared me. Oh, I was wondering what I was. I thought Carter got traded. The Vikings are a good run, Dee, for sure. They were six against the run, and I put Philadelphia in their place. Yeah, in week one, they were sixth against the run. Last season, they were third against the run. They're a very difficult run team as well. So hopefully the nice thing that we saw from last week is that if you're in a difficult matchup for running backs, then just throw them the ball. Just get them out in space. So I...

There is, you know, a piece of me that can see how that could be worrisome, but I think it's a beneficial thing. It's like Devon A-chan, you don't have to worry about how good he is on the ground, usually, because he's used as much as a wide receiver is. And it wasn't that they were 50-50 in carries at the end of last year talking Alger and Bijan. But Alger is still in a lot of those games after the buy week, got a lot of attempts. I think that what happened was Bijan was. very ineffective. And they said, okay, we'll try Alger. And then Algeria was very ineffective. It comes down to catching the ball. So Bijan's still fine. Kyle Pitts is your start of the week, Mike? Yep. In a world of needing tight ends, I think that he should be an okay play. Now, with the news that sounds like Darnell Mooney might play, that does create a downgrade in my mind to Kyle Pitts.

Mooney and London were limited on Thursday. We'll follow the injury reports today. And we'll take a break. I'll try to remember which teams are playing each other. This episode is brought to you by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. This season, make sure to subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket and YouTube TV where you will get every game every Sunday. all in one place. NFL Sunday ticket on YouTube TV gives you everything you need to win Sunday. Watch up to four games at once with multi-view or follow your fantasy team and watch the game on one screen. You can even catch up to live with key plays. Now get NFL Sunday ticket month to month and cancel at any time. Go to YouTube.com slash fantasy footballers to sign up today.

Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games excludes digital-only games. Base plan required renews every month during the 2025 regular season only. Your membership for the following month can be canceled any time before your renewal date. Terms, restrictions, and embargoes apply. Commercial use excluded, no refunds. All right, are we happy about the Monday Night Football Doubleheader? Because it's spread out. 7 p.m. Eastern, 10 p.m. Eastern. Oh, man. East Coast, get wrecked. Wait. I want to ruin your Monday? Oh, guess what? You get Monday night. Is everyone Tuesday morning? Tuesday morning football. Is everyone canceling work on Tuesday? How do East, look, we're West Coast guys. Best Coast, thank you. And I don't, I really don't know. How does this work? I mean, hold on. Is Kyle on the microphone? Can we record Kyle? He is. Kyle, you're back in Georgia. East Coast.

where Jalen Carter played. And, um, how do you survive? I go to sleep. Oh, you don't watch. Oh, big football fan Kyle. I watch in the morning before you guys wake up. Okay. Yeah, but you don't get to live in the, I just thought maybe East Coast are just, they just always stay up three hours later than most of them do. Kyle is a very responsible father. Yeah. A 10 p.m. start. That's wild. I am happy that it's a that it's a double header, mostly because I am worried about watching the Texans this year for funs sake. Yeah. For funsies. For funsies. They've got such a good defense and right now their offensive line looks so bad that I'm worried that whether they can move the ball or not. And so I think you're going to end up with a lot of really ugly games. Not that like if I'm a Texans fan, I'm not.

pessimistic on my season outlook. I'm just speaking solely as entertainment of football. It's worrisome. Thankfully, this is, I mean, at least last year, the Bucks were a team that we would exploit through the air. Tampa Bay takes on the Houston Texas. Tampa won in week one. Houston lost. The Vegas line is Houston minus two and a half. The overrunner is 42 and a half. This is the early game. So, uh, Yeah, I mean, it was not encouraging a week one, C.J. Stroud and Company, like not having Joe Mixen, finding their way with the running game. Like, I think they do need to commit to somebody a little bit more. They seem to be saying that they're going to do that with Nick Chubb, who actually was pretty good on the ground. When you think about the game script and the fact that this team was, you know, they lost a really low-scoring, nasty game, 14 to 9 against the Rams. They finally started giving him the football. He ended up 13 for 60. They talked about him needing to get going.

I think this will be a really defining week for whether Nick Chubb is a viable fantasy player rest of the season. Well, the utilization will be there for Nick Chub. They did figure that out. They came out afterwards and said they need to get him more involved. If you look at the rushing attempts broken up over the course of the team, yeah, Chubb only had 48%. But that was still the vast lying charge. Like Daria Gumbulli had 7%. Damian Pierce had 11%. Woody Marks had 11%. So it was mostly Chubb. The issue here, is again, this is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers with Vita Bayer and Jalen Carter. So how can you possibly? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. This is the team that just like they, on the ground, at least, they stopped Algeria and Bijan. Right. Yeah, and they have for years. They've been a tough team to run on. So Nick Chubb, that style stylistically, I don't love it. I do think he'll have the work. I'm not going to, after this week.

use this week's success as a barometer for whether Nick Chubb will be a good fantasy option. I think he'll have better days ahead. Mike Evans, one week in, just play him and see how it goes. Yeah, Mike Evans has never been honestly the most consistent wide receiver. Even over the course of years, when you go back to when you had a wonderful my guy pick of Mike Evans, finished awesome, still had so many down weeks. He had eight targets, 51 yards. It wasn't. You know, it wasn't great, but certainly you're going to keep playing him. The Mecca Abuka, two touchdowns every week. I think we know that will always happen forever. I do have him. He's on pace for 34, right? 34 touchdowns. That's what my projection has. Good. Bucky Irving, 76% of snaps higher than any single game from his rookie year, including involvement in the passing game. I think it's going to be a really nice week for. Yeah, you needed to, if you drafted Bucky, you just after week one was not what you hoped for.

I mean, it ends up not being the worst fantasy output, but you can at least wrap yourself in the blanket of his usage. Oh, man, Rashad White had three opportunities in the game, and Sean Tucker had won. This is Bucky's backfield. All right, Kate Otten, don't worry about it. No. Baker. He's still fine as a top 12 play. Nico Collins did not see a single deep target. They were, you know, Stroud was really under fire in that game. I mean, they scored nine points. I do think they're going to, you know, when you watch film, a lot of this was on Stroud. And I don't necessarily blame him. I mean, if I were taking the snap, I would just start running the other way every time I got the ball. The offensive line is so, so bad. This is a good defensive line across from them. So there's some worries there. But you can throw on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. I expect Stroud to figure some stuff out.

step up in the pocket, look better. Nico is obviously still going to be in your lineup. I mean, he should have been one of our starts of the week just to make sure people are confident and not over worried with a bad week. So why don't you do it? Why don't you do it? Okay, he's my start of the week. I've got two. Okay. Jaden Higgins had his first game, 11 routes. We'll see what happens in week two. He's a wait and see and watch and hopefully. I mean, we all want to see the Texans offense give a sign of life. Right now they seem like they just never showed up.

I'm hoping for over 60% snap for Jaden Higgins. They have not top 23 points scored since week 12 of last year, the Texans. Yeah, I mean, that's how it feels. It is how it feels. Their offensive line is such a problem. I feel like it's offensive. They need to, they need to just be running with two tight ends every single play and let Nico go figure out double coverage. All right, the Chargers and Raiders, they're both undefeated. Los Angeles. Heads into Las Vegas to take on the Raiders. Vegas line charges minus three and a half. The overrunner is 466 and a half. Both offenses look good in week one. You know, Gino was 71% completion percentage, 362 passing yards. He's got players to take deep shots with, right? With Thornton and Trey Tucker. He's got the underneath guys, Myers and Bowers, and we'll see what happens with Bowers this week. He had a 10.6 yards per attempt. If you compare that to...

Look, I said Caleb made some good plays. I think he was at six. So it's nice to, I like it when players are willing to chuck it. So Jacobi Myers is such a good play. And what we saw in week one, especially with the immediate departure of Amari Cooper, you know, that gave me a little bit of worry of like, okay, well, Brock is the one. He's the number one target. Jacobi is probably the two, but now you've got Amari Cooper. Amari Cooper's gone. Jacobi goes out and has 10 targets, catches nine of them. I think he's going to be excellent this season. This week, you might not have Brock Bowers. So Jacobi Myers becomes extremely important. Does that make you have some confidence in starting somebody else as well when they're at home? And you can't run on the charges. You couldn't last year. You probably can't this year. If you're going to wait on Brock Bowers, this is very, very hypothetical. So I apologize if the news you already have it is perfectly fine.