Fantasy Football - Starts of the Week + Week 9 Breakdown, Awww Shucks! - Podcast for 10/30

The fantasy footballer studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. It's football time. That was more staccato than usual. I liked it. We're at the point of the year where I don't know what's going to happen, but I can't keep doing it the same way. Yeah, it makes sense. Thursday, October 30th. Welcome in one and all the fantasy footballers podcast. Mike, the fantasy hitman, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Deucers Alley. Got an upgrade today. Full of deucers. Full of deusers. Well, not completely full. Yeah. That's why. You got the big deucer. You got the old deucer. And then the young one's not here today. Thank goodness. And we've got a busy show. We've got starts of the week. Did you say the big deucer?

Yeah. He did. He did. No. Oh, he's working on that, Andy. I, I, you know what? I genuinely just meant it like, because it's like the primary like don't understand. Yeah. Like it's like, um, it's kind of a joke right. It's Deucer's Alley. Right. Producers not. It's not a dump. Yeah. But I kind of meant it in the dump context. Oh, so it's like a big not the scale size. I promise Jeremy takes bigger dumps than Papa Josh. I told he once told me he's like a four time a day guy yeah nobody's more regular each time in our produce each time up out of the bowl and yet he doesn't have the toilet that part's not true up out of the bowl you have to clarify like people are like they might think that's true it's called a joke if anybody out there has been lifted out of their toilet by their excrement randy marsh style

Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot. If that happens, I want to know. I don't want a picture. I just want to know. This is the worst start to a show here. We got a long show today, boys. Let's keep it. Let's get into it. Mike is just, yeah. Because I was like, I had, I got a, I got a text about some leaks that were happening at my house. And so then I, like, I just heard big deucer and it brought me back into the show. So I didn't know what was happening. Okay. Yeah, that's what was happening. We have starts of the week, the fantasy forecast, NFL news to cover. And dumps that come up out of the water. Do you want to remind us when the trade deadline is? Either of you have that right in front of you. I believe it's Tuesday. I want to say, no, not not. Yeah, let's just look it up. It's quickly approaching. I know that there's some rumors about the Patriots acquiring a running back. Tuesday, November 4th. It's this Tuesday. Which has to.

destroy Mike's heart and soul there are i already knew they were dumb so yeah the new england patriot's going to get a running back hold on they're dumb yeah but they drafted the guy you love and trade on henderson oh yeah so were they dumb to draft that guy no they're dumb because of the mismanagement you see that flaw in the logic though they can't be both yeah they can't be of course you can be both You can go get something and not know how to use it. So you're saying that their GM is smart and their head coach is stupid. Correct. I think it might be the opposite. And what's their record? Oh, not undefeated. Yeah, I mean, just because you're winning games doesn't mean you can't be better. So do you, I mean, from a, we're a fantasy football show. Yeah. Do you genuinely believe that they're doing the wrong thing? Yes, I genuinely do. So when he fumbles on the goal line, that was the right thing?

Okay, so Romandre hasn't done that multiple times this year. I'm not defending that. I'm not defending Ramandre. No. You're defending Trevion. My point for Henderson is we haven't had a chance to truly see. Like, give him real work. Find out what happens. I would agree with what I mean. I do agree with you. Now obviously from a fantasy football context, I very much want Trevion to be unleashed to be given a ton of work. I would agree with you. that if they were to give him 10 for 75 against the Cleveland Browns, that's not exciting. If they were to give him 60, 70% of the workload, give him a lot of opportunities a game, I think they would be more productive in a yardage standpoint. And, you know, it would be good for their offense. However, as much as I hate to admit it, hate to ever talk about it, there are the truths to the old world coaching.

you know, defense, run game, slow the ball down. Remandre slows the ball down. Yeah, I mean, clock management, pass protection, all that crap is real. And it's like, I don't know, I don't know how many drives they might have been more explosive and how many drives might have ended in a sack or ended in something that, you know, is, is a, is a worse play than the. explosive nature when Trevion Henderson has ball in his hands. There's a lot that goes into it, right? And generally, what we can guarantee is that 99.9% of the time, if a superstar exists, they're playing football. They're getting a ton of snaps. Like, Ken Walker's another example. If Ken Walker was doing everything he was supposed to do, he would be playing a ton. He's just not. Perhaps. I mean, it's, we're like five years in on that one. I mean, the NFL evaluates by so many different.

metrics that go beyond, are you efficient? Otherwise, Gus Edwards, you know, what, every seven a carry for five years in Baltimore? I mean, even the JCP thing is actually a good example of this because they didn't give JCP all the work. They gave Chris Rodriguez and Jeremy McNichols a bunch of work. And everybody yelled at Washington. They're just like, what are you doing? This is stupid. This is your best player. You got to play them. Oh my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. Finally, they're like, okay, we'll do it. They get nothing. He was super efficient before they gave him everything. They get nothing now. It's just it's frustrating and we all want to see. I love Trayvion, the person, the player, the man. Maybe what we actually want is we just want Trayvion Henderson to be awesome. Why don't you just do that? I want an opportunity. I believe he is good. I have not. I have not. What's an opportunity though? An opportunity means 15 touches. Yes. That's what an opportunity. Fifteen touches. Give him real targets. I think they tried to do this a little bit this year.

Oh, man, I don't, I don't remember them giving him enough work at all. He's fumbled. Remandre is fumbled. They have more trust in Romandre right now. I mean, that was his first. And then they're going to add a running verse. That was his first fumble of the year. Oh, I was thinking of Gibson, I guess. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Wasn't it Trevion that had never fumbled in college? Yes. Yeah. Oh, boy. And was a slap in our faces. Yes. In college. A lot of the reason, it's super ironic because a lot of the reasons Mike was so in on Trevion this year were actually.

targeting past protection and yeah past protection all security and pass protection to hallmarks and you knew you're like rabel cares about these things and then somehow not with him that's right part that's for us like I trust they I really do trust my label me too I trust them tremendously there's stuff happening at practice that makes him literally play another five minute back and now at the trade deadline they're looking to get another running back Yeah, something is happening and I trust variable. Yeah, there's not enough. There's not enough. But that does not mean that Trayvion Henderson is not an explosive running back. Would you? Would you trade a second under all conditions to go get him in a dynasty league? Yes. I would, yes. Currently. Would you trade a first, a late first? I don't think. Yeah, probably would. Would you rather have Caleb Johnson or Trayvon Henderson in a dynasty league? Henderson. Trayvion. Okay. Just curious. Didn't expect this conversation to go this way. Yeah. We want to get back to toilets.

We can do that. Jointhefoot.com is our fantasy football community if you want to head over there. And you can check out the premium in-season tools, the lineup optimizer. You know, it's a great way to, you know, you jump in the ultimate dashboard. You get spot starts, waiver pickups, all customized to your league. You can import all of your leagues and have a quick tool to get between them. And we're going to be adding some new tools very soon. You get a bonus episode of the show every week, which we'll record today, the Footcast. And you can learn more about that at join the foot.com. Let's talk some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by progressive insurance. Oh, Shucks. What? Oh, Tyler Shuck is getting the start. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Hit the button. I'm not calling this one.

Oh, well, I didn't think they would revolt. I wanted just a grunk busted, but okay. You got fully booed. Tyler Shuck's going to start for the Saints. Honestly, this isn't a boo for me. This is a, okay, Spencer Rattler, you gave him another real chance, and it's looking like it won't get to the level that you need. So try out the second round pick. The question is going to be, what does this do for the weapons? What does this do for Camara and Oliva? That's it. Right. My guess is that it's very, very neutral, just a sideways step to where you're still going to have a lot of targets and not a lot of production. The hope is that this change and potentially a secure trade, which has been rumored or Shaheed. Yeah, I was like, what are you talking about? You know, hopefully this is a positive. There's, you know, they're able to move the ball more. What we do know is that Kellan Moore pushes the pace.

So the opportunity for fantasy goodness with the Saints is definitely there. If Shuck has it, this will be fantastic for fantasy, but more than likely it's a sideways neutral step. It is good if you, I think there's two players that I kind of bend opposite directions on. I think it's probably negative for Olavei. I don't know if your volume can go up from there. You can't go up. I think they're going to manage Shuck differently than Rattler. It could be good for Kamara. in the fact that, you know, Derek Carr's magic way of moving the football, he understood the assignment, right? It was check the ball down to Alvin Camara over and over and over again. Maybe Shuck can get back to that. We don't have the targets that Camara needs to be successful right now. We don't know his tendencies. Right. So I'm with Jason. I think it'll just be sideways. Terry McLaurin. This is a bummer, man. The commander's wide receiver who just came back from a quad injury, just re-heard his quad.

And Jaden Daniels is a full practice. It's the Grandpa Simpson Giff. You know, you watched it. Yeah, comes in, hangs a hat. You watched that game and there were just a ton of mistakes by non-Terry McLaurin wide receivers. I mean, Jalen Lane had multiple chances to get first downs. He couldn't do it. They were driving on the first drive of the game. You think the momentum's all in their favor. And Debo just lets it bang off his face mask out into the sky for an interception. They need Terry McLaren back. Yeah. He's not been the same fantasy quarterback without him.

No, he has not. And Terry McLaren, in his short, short stint back healthy was really good. Went and got an awesome touchdown and was like, oh, and then re-agravated. So this was one we were waiting on. We didn't know because the game was, you know, they were losing by a lot. Maybe he didn't come back in. The fact that he's ruled out already for this week, and it's a re-aggravation of an existing quad injury makes me feel like he's, like, I wonder if he's dropable. And I don't want to, I don't want to overstate it because they're, this news is not that they're putting them on the IR. If they put them on the IR, then I would say dropable. You got six weeks left before playoffs or whatever. But it, it's just worrisome going forward. I don't know. Three or four. I think he missed. Three or four games. And it's like if you are, he missed four. So is he missing four again because of a reaggravation? Because four didn't get it done. In four weeks is their bye week.

So if he misses three more and then has a buy and comes back, then he would be there for the start of the fantasy play. You know who they play in the fantasy championship week? It's a team you really like. Yeah. Oh, baby. You don't think you can't drop. You can't drop that. You can't drop that. They're playing against Dallas? Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah. They're playing against Dallas. Should probably be trying to line up your. Oh, yeah. Your starts against Dallas in the fantasy playoffs. Yes. I mean, when you hear my start of the week today. There's only one circumstance that is even permissible. Yeah, I know, and it's disgusting. And it's acceptable. We got Minnesota, the Chargers, and Washington. All right. If you got that buy week, if you're one of the best, a lot of leagues out there have, you know, buy week for the first two teams. Oh, man. Mike is not going to get to play Jefferson if he's got the buy. Oh, no. Yeah, I know. Pooka, limited in Wednesday's practice. I saw some video. He looked good. Marvin Mims didn't practice with the Broncos.

Big names for the matchups we're getting into today. Drake London returning to a limited practice. Ramandre didn't practice with the toe injury. The time has been now for seven weeks. I mean, it seems like this is the week where either they trade for a running back and put just a nail in the coffin on Trayvion Henderson or Trayvion Henderson is. pretty much forced into getting the opportunities. Yeah, right, it's Terrell Jennings time. By the only, the only reason that I, that we kind of debate what was going on, I want to be very clear. I am actively rooting for Trayvon Henderson to succeed. I am just not willing to fall on the, like, the coach is dumb, the team is dumb. I'm putting it all on Trayvion to earn the spot. I'm saying, go do that. I think that's fair. Go earn the spot and dominate, and that's what I'm rooting for.

That's what I want from him. It might be this week. I want it from Harvey. I want it from any of these young players. I want them to go earn it. Say Caleb. I want Caleb to do it. Thank you. Yeah, because I don't. Jalen Warren for life. Well, yeah, you, you make sense. Yeah, Jalen Warren is vastly better than Romandre Stevenson. It sucks because last year I was very anti Jalen Warren on the on the starting him because he was never hitting 10 fantasy points. But I and I love Caleb Johnson. So I'm kind of anti Jalen Warren this year. But dude, I love Jalen Warren. That guy, that guy's a dog. Jalen Warren loves 10 fantasy points this year. He is such a smart football player. Like everything he does, literally every move on every play, every decision and pass protection, every cut, it's just the right move. I adore that guy.

Josh Downs didn't practice. Now it's a hip injury for Josh Downs. Goodness gracious. And it is a juicy matchup this week. Yeah. If Downs is fully out, I would say that like honorary start of Alec Pierce, like spot start. Sure. And then no one practiced for the bears. They just, the wide receivers, hip, heel, groin, concussion. Beans, potatoes. Well, that would be DJ more Roma Dunes at Luther Burton and DeAndre Swift. Yeah. Well, I will say this. My wide receiver start of the week and Mike's tight-in start of the week will make a lot of sense here in a second. That was news and note sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quotes today at progressive.com progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third-party insurers. Not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits and conditions. It is time for starts. Starts of the week. Presented by U.S. Bank. All right, Mike, why don't you kick it off?

All right, my quarterback, we're going with Daniel Jones. He's been a top 12 quarterback at six of eight weeks. We know about the offense, third and completion percentage, fifth and pass the rating fourth and fantasy points per dropback. And they're against the Steelers who started off terrible, tricked us into thinking perhaps they are getting it back going. And then they said, no, we got you. That was a trick. We are bad. We got you. We are terrible. They are dead last in passing yards allowed in the NFL right now. 273. And they're on page for giving up the eighth most of all time. So Daniel Jones in a great spot. I will follow that up. I almost went with Daniel Jones. I wanted to go a little deeper at the quarterback position today just for the sake of pain. Kyler Murray. I couldn't do it. Kyler Murray against the Dallas Cowboys. Wasn't strong enough. If you need a bucket.

Yes. Oh, Jason. We'll get you a bucket. We'll get you a little. Yeah. Yeah, it's not good. 54.5 point over under. In a dome. Do you want to see the Smith on this one? Yeah, let's do it. All right. I'll just give you. Steel underpants. What a world. What a dumb, dumb world that Kyler Murray we have to put on steel underpants for. This is the matchup. Right. I mean, the Cardinals' offense overall on the season, they have had some games recently. And they, you know, Marvin Harrison is looking better than he had looked. You can pick Kyler up off of waivers. This is the perfect spot start if you're a Baker manager. If you're a Jalen Hertz manager, they're going into the buy. If you're planning on flacko and you feel uncomfortable about the shoulder, I think Kyler is a good pivot there. You might throw up Jason, but this is a player who.

We've seen it, right? We've seen greatness from him before. Fantasy greatness. Yes, actual fantasy production. It's been a while. It has been a while. Was he his sophomore year, he was like quarterback? Let's see. We're talking. We're talking a no 20. I'm not, you're right, Andy. I think he is very playable. However, just to dunk a little bit more, we have no 20 point games from Kyler. We have the highest finish of the week at 16, which he has done. Kyle's been the quarterback 16, three times and 22 twice. That's what he's done. Yeah. It's been bad. This is nothing to do with Kyler. This is not a take where you're saying Kyler is good or the Arizona Cardinals are good. This is you just saying if there is a quarterback on a week that plays the Dallas Cowboys, you should probably play. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, and it's a very controlled environment. It's a defense that you can beat. It's, it's, uh,

It's not hard to go 202 and he adds rushing floor. Jeremy, just give him the water. Nice. Andy needed. Al Borland was hiding in the shadows here. I just told him to smuggle me some water. I know you're like, you're trained in. He's just trying to be. He's trained in theater where it's like you can't, you're not allowed to be seen. You can't break in. No one cares. Just give up the one. The instructions were to smuggle water. I will say. That is true. I will say you did an expert job of getting the cup out, right? Mike was talking. No one knew. Yeah. If Mike didn't open his mouth, you would have succeeded. I talked extra long for him to do that. Yeah. Yeah, you did. All right. I'm going to talk about my start of the week because I can't freaking stand Kyler Murray and I want to not talk about him. My start of the week is Jordan Love. Oh, man.

Versus Carolina. We're going back. We're going back. Look, Andy was spot on with Jordan Love being a start of the week last week. And I'm going to stay with that. What an incredible turn of events here. I know. So my argument against Jordan Love has really been Josh Jacobs. Like Josh Jacobs as a running back has been getting so many touchdowns. If it wasn't for Jonathan Taylor being outlandishly high in rushing touchdowns, more would be made. But. He's banged up. Like, I don't know how long until Josh Jacobs gets back to full utilization, but it seems like they are monitoring him. He's not by any means a bad play. But they need Jordan Love. Christian Watson back helps. And if you look at, look, they're 13.5 point home favorites against Carolina. And Carolina right now, I mean, they're not great. Love.

on a per dropback basis has been outstanding. He's third in adjusted completion percentage. He's fifth in yards per attempt. He's fifth in passer rating. It's just been when they get around the goal line, it's been Josh Jacobs. That's how they score touchdown. So for fantasy, but right now with Josh Jacobs being banged up and the expected points that Green Bay is going to have, I think Jordan loves a good play. My running back start, it's going to be Bam Knight against the Dallas Cowboys. Bam! Look, we get one more week before Trey Benson's eligible. We're not sure if he's going to be ready next week or not. I would say he's probably not, but he is eligible. And this is just, it's trying to follow the tea leaves of what's going on with the team of running backs against Dallas. We love it. Michael Carter was released and then re-added to the practice squad. We got, make sure you're following the reports of if there's any news that Michael Carter is going to regain any type of position. But Bam has been the.

more productive of the running backs for Arizona for fantasy football, and this is a great spot. I'm going Kamani Vidal, Sassoon against Tennessee. It's so silky. He's been awesome over the last three weeks with Nohampton. He has been silky smooth, Mike. He has been everything the truthers wanted him to be. He's doing it right now. Just one of those guys that just earns it. You know, he just earned the spot. Yeah. He just earned it with four running backs going down ahead of him. Earned it with the opportunities. He's averaging 20. If Hendo could do that this week, I will take it. Yeah, he's averaged 20 opportunities a game, 69% of the snaps, 15.3 fantasy points per game. Chargers, heavy road favorites. Titans rush defense has been a constant punching bag in fantasy. Go with Kamani Vidal this week. Yeah.

I'm going to go with Travis ETN, which is always a scary start, but I think he is good this week. He's playing in a dome in Las Vegas against the Raiders. It's been meh for ETN. We're going near a month since he got off to such a hot start. However, the last three games have been really, really tough matchups when it comes to rush defenses. Kansas City, Seattle, and the Rams are really good rush defenses. Trevor Lawrence is not a quarterback that's going to overcome. a great defense. The Raiders, they're not a great defense. They have a great defensive player. And you might look at their rush defense and say, oh, right now, no running back one has surpassed 66 rushing yards on them, but that's fine because Travis Etienne is getting involved in the receiving game. He's had a ton of targets this year. And really, when you look at who the Raiders have played and their game scripts, like over the last six weeks, the Raiders are 26 and schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to running backs.

I don't think this is a scary matchup. And the workload, you can't just look at the raw data of like carries and targets. Look at the percentage of running back carries and the percentage of running back targets. It has been ETN's show. You might look and be like, oh, he's really going down in utilization. He's not at all. It's just their games haven't gone well for them in tough matchups and they've had to throw the ball more. So I think this is a good start to get ETM back in your lineup. All right, we'll take a quick break and come back with our wide receiver tight-in starts. All right. We are in the heart of the fantasy season and the injuries are already piling up, ACLs, stingers, and turf toes, oh my. In fact, the only thing right now that feels good is having the perfect backup ready to go. So wouldn't it be great if you had a perfect backup in real life too? With progressive, you get more than just a policy. You get a...

playbook full of coverage options that you can count on for your home or for your auto you want to customize your protection no problem you can build your coverage just like your fantasy team making sure you've got the right players in every position and a backup plan when you need it most and when life throws an audible like that fumble in the driveway or a hailstorm at home progressive is there with 24-7 support don't get caught without a great backup. Visit progressive.com to quote today. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third party issuers not available in all states or situations coverage subject to term policy limits and conditions. All right, wide receiver time, Mike. My wide receiver start. I mean, I kind of go back and forth on this guy, but this is a week that I want him in the lineup for sure. This DK Metcalf against the Indianapolis Colts. You know, it's been a weird season.

But he's scoring a lot. The targets are not always there. But I think this is a matchup where they may have to target him more. To keep up with the Colts, you've got to score. Opponents are throwing 66% of the time against the Indianapolis Colts. That's the second highest in the NFL because the Colts put up so many points. And I think that they will not struggle to score points on the Pittsburgh Steelers defense. And so facto. We got D.K. Metcalf here as a good start with some high volume. I'm hoping for not just the bull crap. We get four targets and maybe we get a touchdown. I want to give the confidence play to Jalen Waddle this week against the Baltimore Ravens. He's been really good in three of the four games where Tyreek has been gone. Wide receiver 4, 17 and 4.

Last week against Atlanta, it was great. He is a must start. This is a Thursday night football start. And the Ravens, we know this story. They're 29th and schedule adjusted fancy points to wide receivers. I can't imagine a game where Jalen Waddle is not getting a significant amount of target share. Oh, injuries as well. I was trying to predict. No, I mean, he'll limp off three or four times and then limp back on. Yeah. My wide receiver start of the week. Michael, yeah, Michael Pittman Jr. This makes me so happy. Oh, this is, this is border. I mean, to your credit, this is borderline, not even a start of the week. Well, yeah, he's the wide receiver seven on the season right now. Did you guys realize that? Yeah, yeah, because we set it on the show. Oh, okay. Cool. I wasn't listening. I mean, he's, he's been the number one target for the number one offense. And you don't.