Starts of the Week + Week 3 Breakdown - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/19

last week. Yes, he was very good. On seven touches, he had 64 yards. He had a 36-yard run, but they didn't put him out there like you would have expected. So if it is a salt away the game, like if Ford's a part of the first half process of getting ahead, then I think you'll be happy. And you could be happy with both even. Malik Neighbors is an auto star each and every week. Last week was ridiculous. The target share on the year is 38%. And you know what? 30% is outrageous, Fookland. If you don't know, like, that's like, that's the elite of the elite. That's what you want. 38? 38%. I mean, right out of the gate, Malik neighbors, lock him in. We're not going to have to talk about him a lot on these shows because he's an auto start. Yeah. On the other side. Hanging with Mr. Cooper has been so far this year. 17 targets. You love it. You love it. It's awesome.

How does he have... Five catches on 17 targets is... He has 17 targets? It's been outrageous. Like, they are... And, you know, we talked about all offseason. Jason, you brought it up many times. Like the numbers, the splits for Amardi Cooper with Deshawn Watson were always great. Yeah, last year. And so 17 targets, I always, like, here's something I always do when I'm looking at free agent options, especially beyond waiver day. Early in the season. I am looking at the stats. I'm not looking at projection and projected points. I want to see who's targeted last week. I sort by target. It helps me find diamonds in the rough at tight end or wide receiver. Players that are on the field getting involved. Cooper's got all of that. After week one when he struggled on efficiency, Stephonsky came out and said, hey, Cooper's a pro, which he is. He's a pro wide receiver. He just goes out and does his job. But is this the make or break game? Because I think it is.

I think this is the game where if he goes out there against the Giants and lays an egg, you're really, really worried. Yeah, I mean, it depends on kind of how it comes. If he lays an egg while the team runs the ball a ton and they're up and they don't need to pass, I will still hold off. If they come out and, you know, he ends up with another. 7, 8, 9 targets and a bad game against this defense, then I will be much, much more afraid. But I will say that I'm echoing what you are saying. When you are getting those targets, you are open. That is still a good thing. I don't think Amari Cooper has forgotten how to catch the ball despite each of the last two weeks. He had an egregious, very valuable drop in each game for fantasy. This sounds like me last week.

It does because that's why I traded for him. I thought he was a buy-low target. The targets were so high, it was like, oh, they just didn't connect in week one, so I'm going to go buy them on the low, buy them on the cheap, trade high on Jameson Williams. We'll see how it works out. But Cooper or Tank Dell. See, I'd be playing Cooper in this matchup. I'll go Cooper. Waddle, or with a new quarterback or Mari-Cuper. I would definitely go Cooper. DeMarcus Robinson against the 49ers. Cooper. Cooper. So we're all staying around. Hang it. I would go Dell over Cooper, but yes, on the others. Okay, okay. And then Judy's looked quietly pretty okay through a couple of weeks. You need a spot start. Judy's getting targeted. Something you can look for. No David Njoku this week. We're moving on. The Packers are one-on-one. They take on the O&2 Tennessee Titans in Tennessee. The D.K. Sportsbook line, Tennessee favored minus two points of runners 38. Run versus run. Run versus run, baby.

Malik Willis revenge game or is Jordan Love back? We'll find out. But this game, you know, obviously the odds probably change quite a bit if Love's out there. Yeah, I mean, this is a game. It's very difficult for us to talk about and get anything. Emotionally. Not knowing. I mean, it's very easy. If Malik Willis is the starting quarterback, then you are playing Josh Jacobs under all. I mean, you're playing him no matter what, but he's been, he will be the game plan. And then I'm not starting any other wide receiver. I'm not starting Malik Willis. They're just trying to hide him and allow him to manage the game with a rushing attack. I'm not sure that's going to work against Tennessee the way that it can work against Indy last week when you were in Lambo. And then obviously things change, right? Like if Jordan Love is there, now you could start talking about getting Christian Watson and Jaden Reed back in your lineups.

If he's not there, there's no way I'm playing. Jayden Reed was one of those did not practice on Wednesday, so he's in the pay attention. I'm still not a Christian Watson fan in terms of starting Christian Watson. I don't want to start him this week. I mean, 13 yards on the season through two weeks. How do you start that? And a touchdown. Yeah. No, I mean, how do you possibly start that? I'm not looking to start him. I'm saying he is completely, all wide receivers. if Malik Willis as the quarterback are unstartable. Yeah, to be fair to Christian Watson, who had zero yards last year, or last week, I'm sorry, Jaden Reed had nine more yards than Watson last week. Yeah, last week we know the situation, but you're coming off of a year of inconsistent Christian Watson. Then week one, he gives you 13 yards. He did score. Week two, he didn't do anything. I think there are so many better options. Okay.

Pollard and Ridley are starts of the week on the other side of the football. Josh Jacobs is locked into your lineup. I would say, yeah, Josh Jacobs is locked in. If you are prioritizing an insurance running back for this weekend, for me, it is Emmanuel Wilson. I think Jacobs is fine, but if he's going to carry the ball 30 times yet again, your window for getting hurt is much higher. More open. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like if you're going to jump into an analogy, you need to finish the analogy, Mike. The window being higher is kind of nice. That just means you've got tall ceilings. You know what I mean? Like that's irrelevant. But is the window open if it's up high because you can't get up there? Well, you don't want it open because how are you going to shut it? It starts raining. So just the higher window that you can't even go through? No. So yeah, leave the window open, Mike. I'll throw a rock at it. Okay.

The Bears are one and one. They take on the O and two Indianapolis Colts. Colts are on two, huh? Well, yeah, they went to Lambo and got almost upseted to the tune of getting upset. Good job. Yeah. Good job, Andy. Drafking Sportsbook Line Indie minus one and a half over unders 43. You've got two basically rookie quarterbacks that have looked, I mean, Caleb's looked pretty awful. I certainly think he would look better with Keenan Allen, and he has not been available, Do we really expect him available right now? I think we're on red alert here for Keenan Allen. If you don't recall, last year he missed the final four games of the season with a heel injury. He has missed last week with a heel injury, and he is not practicing currently because of a heel injury. So this is, I think we're in a really bad situation. I mean, the real problem.

when you think about like Keenan and like Cooper Cup so far this year and you talk about oh they the Cooper Cup had 21 targets looked great but at 31 getting hurt becomes easier Keenan Allen staying hurt becomes easier to recover yeah and and that's that's the real problem with age at the wide receiver position Richardson his passing line is 190.5 yards that's really low We know Chicago's defense is legitimate, Jason. You're pretty worried about Richardson. I am very worried. This is when I was talking about Gino, who I picked up and I've got Brock Purdy. I also have Anthony Richardson. Obviously, boom, bust. You know, you look at your matchup and you say, do you need to play with fire this week? Because he could rush for two touchdowns and throw a 75-yard bomb touchdown in this game. I'm afraid because I do view him, Andy, like how you constantly...

reference him as a rookie. He is new to NFL football. He's kind of new to football. Right. Yeah. I mean, really, if you look at the total games played in college, everything, he's, he is still so raw. And when you go up against a very, very good Bears defense, we've been talking about how good they are, their top 10 pretty much across the board in almost every measure, I think they're going to be able to get to him. I think they're going to be able to confuse him. And so I worry about the turnovers. But it's also one of those, like, tell me what to do with Anthony Richardson, guys. I think you hold him this week. I think the matchup is tough. The game's almost a toss up despite them being at home. Like Carr, Mike is playing Carr. I'd play Carr over Richardson. If I had Carr, that's easy. I would play. How about Gino Smith or Anthony Richardson? I just think that there's a tremendous.

risk that we saw on display last week. I mean, he miracleed his way to a garbage time touchdown. Late in the fourth quarter, he was negative fantasy points in our league. He ended up okay with that last drive, but... So far, he's completing 49% of his passes. He's averaging 200 passing yards a game. Now, I expect... And he's averaging 46 rushing yards a game through two weeks. I expect Josh Downs. I expect Josh Downs available this week. He practiced in full at the end of last week and did not play. It'll help. Right. I mean, it can't hurt to have another good wide receiver out there. You are at home this week. That's a big question. I mean, is Anthony Richardson an auto start every week to you, Mike? I mean, to me, it's not the case. I, no, I guess he's not. He's pretty close. Do you feel like Jaden Daniels is? Jaden Daniels, I think is the quarterback five right now? I think because that's the argument. Like most of the time people are asking me start to sit with Jaden Daniels and I'm just like, just play Jaden because like,

He can be okay even if he doesn't throw a touchdown. But right now I don't feel that way with Richardson because he's making so many mistakes. Like the Washington offense is not a risk-taking offense. No, it's not. But the Colts offense really is. And the question here is like if the Colts, I mean, they are favored. That's, it's a wild. But they were favored last week against Green Bay. And I said, watch out. So who's winning this game, Andy? I think Chicago wins a game. Okay. The comparison of Richardson to Daniels is, I mean, it's even closer than you're probably remembering. Daniels was QB3, week one, Richardson was QB4. And week two, Daniels was QB19 while with 13 points and Richardson was QB 22. Now that's closer than I thought. It's like, so to think of Daniels as an auto start and Richardson not is.

Probably not the right move. Like that's not being fair to the actual stats. Right. But I do. I mean, I guess I'm looking. If I had Daniels, I'm playing him this week. Talking through this, I think it is more likely I play Anthony Richardson. The ability to have a monstrous game, you're going to have to take the lumps if you want to get those weak winning performances. His legs are why we drafted him. And I do think with the pass rush of the bears being very, very good. He might just need to run a little bit more. I really want to see him running more than I have. I don't think you can start any wide receiver there. No, no. Michael Sitman, Jr. Yeah, get him. Get him. I mean, he's not start a nice. Citral. Huh? We can do it with everybody. Yeah, who else? Josh sit downs. Yeah, exactly. See? It's so easy. You just put the word sit in front of their name and the joke works out. Michael. Kylean Grantsit.

Now, do Alec Pierce. That's the one I was skipping. I don't know how to do it. This is not an indictment of those players. It's an indictment of a man completing less than half of his passes. Well, and you, I mean, you saw the line. 190 passing yards is the line. If you're going to split that up between a bunch of different players, you're not really sure where it's going. Oh, owl throughout Al sit Pierce. Okay. All right. It's fine. Look, we're not my joke. Okay, then give him a busted. I've got to find it. Busted. All right. How you feel now? The bar was so low. I don't know how. Yeah, you managed to walk right into it. You start Jonathan Taylor for sure. DeAndre sit. Oh, man. This show's so good. Sit him down. DeAndre Swift stinks. He does stink. However, so does the Colts rushing attack. Yeah. They stink so bad. You mean the defense? Yeah.

Yes, the rushing defense. The rushing defense. They are, I mean, we saw them. Last week it was different, right? You had Josh Jacobs. You had a good offensive scheme and system. The offensive line is awful in Chicago. It's still, the Colts know exactly what they're going to do. If only the Colts could have known and prepared for a rushing attack, obviously they did. They didn't have the personnel to stop it. But DeAndre Swift genuinely is bad. Yeah, I would not play him this week. Why would you want to go? Back to that well when you could, I mean, Carson Steele or DeAndre Swift. I would go Swift. I would go Swift. I would not, man. Oh. Is this, are you calling the DeAndre Swift breakout game? No, not at all. I'm saying that he is a flex option. Like, if I had Mike's team, he'd probably be playing. So you know what I mean? If you're in dire straits. JK, I'm not J.K. Dobbins. Gus Edwards or DeAndre Swift? Gus Edwards.

Okay. I'll go swift. All right. You guys are more bullish on giving him another shot this week. The matchup's good. The performance so far has been bad and the offensive line is still bad. So I'm on the sit side. DJ Moore, 29% target share through two weeks, which has led to frustration for DJ Moore and a fantasy output of wide receiver 44 and 31. Yeah, I still think you can start him and him alone in this matchup. You've got 18 targets through the first two weeks. They're obviously prioritizing him. And he can break one off for a big play. I mean, that's big D.J. Moore or D.J. Moore. Cooper. Cooper. Yeah, it's good matchup. Let's take a quick break. Come back with the more exciting matchup of undefeated teams. All right, boys. Houston, Texas is 2 and 0. Minnesota Vikings at home. They're 2 and 0. The drafting sports is a big line, though. Not giving them the credit. Minnesota. Can't get.

No respect. Yeah, Houston minus two on the road over under is 46. Mike, who wins this game? Minnesota Vikings. Oh, all right. So you're getting, they got respect there. Yeah. Houston minus two. No, man. No, I'm on the Houston side. I was expecting the Houston answer. I don't, it's not a disrespect to Minnesota. It's a respect to Houston. They're two and oh. Both teams have played very well. The Sam Darnold, you know, Willie Pumpkin story continues. It's going to be a tough matchup right now. The Texas defense, third against running back so far in 2024, fifth against tight ends. And so you're going to see, you know, you're going to see push come to shove when it comes to putting pressure on Sam Darnold, seven sacks last week against Caleb Williams for the Houston defense. And can Sam Darnold continue to not make mistakes and make good decisions and get the ball under the hands of his playmakers? And we don't know if.

You know, we probably won't have Addison back out there. No. And I still have questions on Houston. Look, I know they're a Super Bowl favorite. But, like, citing currently the Houston defensive numbers, they played Anthony Richardson, and they barely beat the Colts, and they played Caleb Williams and the Bears. Like, is the Houston defense as good as advertised? I don't think we know that yet. I think stopping the run, they're as good as advertised because we saw that last year. That begs the question about Aaron Jones. He had a bit of a down week last week. He also didn't get as much of the work. Ty Chandler was involved. He got injured in that game, which is part of why he didn't get that work. We'll see. He was limited participant Wednesday. I expected him to play. Well, is he in your lineup against this Houston defense at home? I think so. He's in my lineup over Swift. That's not saying much. Yeah, I mean. Charbonnet or Aaron Jones.

I'm going to go with Aaron Jones there. Ty Chandler last week got involved as a result of, you know, they wanted him involved. He had 10 carries last week. He had 11 opportunities the week before, but last week he averaged 8.2 a carry with a big 25-yard run. 10 for 82 and your long was 25. That means you were getting... You were being a very efficient running back. I do think they want the committee. I mean, and so there's going to be a little bit of... volatility in that backfield. Jefferson always forever and ever. He's in your lineup. But, you know, we'll see what Donald has in this game. Stroud, you're playing him. Mixing, injury watch right now. Didn't practice on Wednesday. Not considered a long-term injury. Mixon's a very tough guy, but I don't know. Right now I'm sitting.

Like what are your odds of him playing? My odds of him playing are 25%. I think he'll take a week off with this ankle sprain and let Cam Acres run into a Minnesota Vikings wall. Minnesota so far last year, this year, about 15 points given up to running backs. And the problem with just rolling Cam Acres into your lineup is that it's not just Cam Acres. Like even when Joe Mixon was there, Daray Agumboale was a third downback. You might have Damian Pierce back. Yeah. Jay, how are you feeling about Tankdale right now? His line's at 49 and a half yards for this game. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the behind the scenes metrics, he is, don't look at snaps, look at route participation. When they throw their in-11 personnel, he is almost identical with the other guys. When you look at the air yards, the opportunities, the target, like he's actually there. He's had a similar to Amari Cooper, except thankfully he is young and you don't think he's given up on his.

career um he's had a couple weird drops you know we would be viewing him completely differently if last week when he was he didn't have negative three yards when he was streaking down the field and cj stroud gave him the softest most layup catch and he should have taken it for i believe it would have been a 65 yard possible touchdown if he doesn't get run down um we'd be like oh tank tell he's back he must start and it That play happened. They found him. He was wide open. He just dropped the ball. So I'm not out on Tank Dell at all. Yeah. The only thing with Tankdale on that wide receiver core in general is just the fact that there's a little bit of unpredictability beyond Nico Collins. Like the fact that one play defines your entire day for Tank Dell would be my kind of pushback. It's just that one play should not define whether Tank Dell is a good starter. 100%. And I would say it like this. Before.

Before week one, Andy, you were talking a lot about how, like, you're not down on these guys, but you recognize that it is not going to work out every single week for these three players. It's just, it can't. So it's the other two. So, right, sure. Maybe, maybe Nico has established. You leave my sweet Nico alone. Nico has established that he's great. But I do think if, if Tankdale has a monstrous game, that could come at the expense of, of Nico. But my point is, Over the course of 17 weeks, there will be duds. It's just the fact that it's week one and week two that we think it is what it will be. If these weeks were week five and six after, you know, it's going to happen like this. So, you know, I think he's a buy low candidate. Right now, I'm looking at the wide receiver stats for 2024. Godwin number one, Nico number two, read number three, Jefferson four, Shaheed five. Always fun to look after two weeks, isn't it?

C.J. Stroud, quarterback 8, quarterback 16 so far. Give me the temperature check on C.J. Stroud before we move on. Luke warm. The Minnesota Vikings defense is very, very good. We saw C.J. Stroud last year that he was, his splits between top defenses and bottom defenses were. And home road. Very, very wide. And then, you know, he didn't have a great game last week against a very good Chicago Bears defense. So on the road against a very good Minnesota Vikings defense, I don't think he's a must start. Stroud or Richardson. I would go Stroud. I'd play Stroud. I knew that would be not so fun for you. Philadelphia, one and one, taking on the two and oh, talking to the league, New Orleans Saints. The drafting sports McLean, here's the respect. New Orleans minus two and a half and the overrunners 49 and a half. Last week before Philadelphia blew it, Philly was favored.

By two and a half, a five-point swing. Was that, Kyle, was that line before the Saints also beat the Cowboys, though? This was on Monday. Okay, so Monday morning. That's so stupid. Five-point swing for one game? For one play. If Sequin doesn't accidentally drop the, it was a dumb play call in hindsight, but it worked, the play totally worked. It was wide open, an easy catch, game is over, Philly wins, and they dominated. That would be the story. And betting, like people betting that line, knowing that Phillies, you know what? It wasn't one play. It was one play. And then the next drive where you're like, oh, the Saints are going to have a good time against that secondary. 100% that drive was where all of a sudden you go, man, Philly stinks. This is part of why Derek Carr is my start of the week because you see the, the defense exposed. My point is you don't see that if he catches the ball. That drive doesn't exist. We have.

I mean, there's some unhappy Eagles fans this week, and they get to go into New Orleans, a tough place to play. The overrunners, 49 and a half with the Saints favor by two and a half. That's some points for both teams, baby. Now, we are working on the shave your head meter. Yes, it is under construction. We will hopefully have it up sometime next week. It's going to be really fun to follow if they start three and oh, man. If they start three and oh, we'll get a little sweaty. No, I'm not toast. I'm just toast. This was, Jason, this was the gauntlet. I know. They're supposed to start one and four. Oh, man. The, oh, man, it's right. And nothing makes a better podcast than somebody's head being shaved either. Mm-hmm. Great audio. All right. Well, this is going to be a test for New Orleans. We're going to find out if they win this game, they're, I feel like they're very legitimate here. And Philadelphia.

is going to pressure their defense as well. But we don't expect to see AJ Brown back on the field. So the offense is, you know, to me, if you ask, I'm going to take back the two things I said before, that probably had everything to do with that line changing is that Monday night football game. They were interviewing AJ Brown before the game. Yeah, that could. And AJ Brown came out and said, I'm probably a couple weeks out. And if Vegas finds out that your number one wide receiver may be the best in the game or a top five in the game.

is not playing, that's going to make a difference too. It's fair. I forgot about that. Jalen Hertz. You're obviously starting him. The tush push got it done last week. Sequan, the most touches in the NFL, the most yards after contact, and has, he must have, he must be enjoying an office of line, moving people around so much. He seemed like if they had just handed on the ball every play, the game, they would have won the game going away. So he's been great. Devante Smith's been great. That's kind of the story for that side of the football, though, right? I mean, it's Hurd Sparkley and Smith. And then there are those of us who have to start Dallas Goddard sometimes when you have lost. Are you starting him this week? I am starting him this week. I like that you. You were just absolutely trashing my team. And Jason squeaked out a win because he's talking to me? Yes. Because Dallas Goddard had the lowest percentage.

comeback against my fantasy. And also because Pacheco got injured. In his defense, I didn't look at his team this morning. And I might have been disgusted by that too. Thank you. And I lost Najoku and Puka. I've got my losses too. The only reason I'm not Mr. Sadface is only because you have more losses as far as players. But Dallas got her. The thing is is, It was very frustrated to watch. Watched all of his snaps last week. It was like, no, he didn't even seem part of the game plan. Going back through his game log last year, there are weeks where he has, you know, three targets and then the next week he has seven targets. The matchup against the Saints, you know, if you look at last year, schedule adjusted, they were 29th. They were one of the teams you target at that position. I am not saying, start to Dallas Guard, he's a great start, but he's a low end, tight end one, and I think the matchup is okay.

I mean, would you rather? I hate to say this, but I don't know if you say any of those words if he doesn't catch one pass on that last drive. I think you say none of those words. No, he throws him to the bottom of the ocean. I think you might burn his jersey on the show. Would you rather play? That might be true. I know. I know. I don't. Would you? I think you feel now thankful to him and. A couple of streaming options because that's Goddard is a streaming option. So Goddard. Mike Gassicki. Or the Cincinnati Bengals who has the matchup with Washington. He was hot last week. Or what about Hunter Henry against the Jets tonight? Both of those guys. So I would play both of those guys over him. I've taken a look at our wire. We didn't have Hunter Henry available. And, you know, I could.

pivot to Pat Fryermuth, but I think the matchup is better for a Goddard. Where is Rashid Shahid in your hierarchy right now? Is he a must start? Is he a must start? Man. Well, he's a must start this week. Amardi Cooper or Rashid Shahid. Yeah, I would start Shahid. Shahid's looked really good. He's so involved and they're giving him carries. They're giving him some screens. It's not all the deep shot. His line is three and a half catches. Like it's not. I mean, I know that's right. I mean, that's about what he's involved. Yeah. But that involvement, Jason, is three catches and four catches. That's Calvin Ridley's line. I mean, that's the, when you're talking about a deep field threat, that's usually about what the line's going to be. I mean, last year, Rashid Shaheed in this offense had three weeks in the first eight where he was inside the top 12. Yeah. Like he had those big weeks. And guess what? He scored. Those were his touchdowns. I do not believe that Rashid Shahid will be a must start.