Week 8 Matchups + Big Bird Battle, Wheel of Shame! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/27

We've got one heck of an episode for you today. You do not want to miss the Wheel of Shame later in the show. We're breaking down matchups, important injury news. Everything you need to win your week. Make sure you like, subscribe, enjoy the video. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers podcast. What was that? Is that a new musical? It's the podcast. Yeah, a lot of people don't realize this. This is show 1491. We are nine episodes away from show 1500. And that will be fantasy footballers, the musical. I mean, every show, every sitcom does contractually, if they have a long enough run, they have to do a musical episode. And one of the first songs on that episode is actually, once upon a time I sat Gabe Davis.

Are you performing that one? Yeah, I am performing that. It's a solo. I'm performing that in a lot of places. Oh. I have, look, you know I love Gabe Davis. He was on, he's a highly drafted player for me. I've got him in several leagues and I'm with many people out there. You know, we said we wouldn't play him. I was a man of my word. I didn't play him. He got 12 targets and was awesome. So, I mean, I. It's always tough as a fantasy manager like when you bench a guy, you kind of root against him, even though it should not. You shouldn't. You want your player to show up. You want to have made the right decision. Yes. That's all it is. And look, Gabe Davis, he had a big game. Nine for 87 and a touchdown. Obviously was a massive focal point for this team to not throw the ball to digs for, you know, every single play. I can't see a game in his game log where he's had more.

He had a 14 target game in week 18 of 2021. Otherwise, this is his highest. That being said, this is the Gabe Davis experience. I mean, I'm looking at his player profile on our website. His consistency rating. Do you want to take a guess? I'm going to guess it sounds like it's a D. Oh. Yeah, he's better than you thought. Wow. 29% of the time he scores more than 10 points. Last night was one of those times. That stings when it's on the island game and you want to get off to a good start. And look, we all said to sit him. And it didn't work out. So that was an L. I looked quickly through his career game log and that appears to be his third game ever with a double digit targets. He also played 99% of snaps in the game. Khalil Shakir had a career high game. Dalton Kincaid had a career high game. I mean, it was the, what will the Buffalo Bills look like?

without their two go-to tight ends because they've been running a lot of 12. They basically ran 11 personnel so that third wide receiver and it turned into Shakir. Yeah, good point. 31 for 40 for Josh Allen. Two touchdowns through the air. Had one on the ground. Ran the ball a ton. 41 yards on the ground. It was really a pretty flawless performance minus one tipped ball interception. The running game was. basically non-existent. You know, James Cook in the end, they had 14 carries, but that number was very low before they started to burn the clock at the end of the game. Latavius Murray looked like Latavius Murray. Like you shouldn't have been given goal line opportunities. I mean, he's like a grandpa out there. Like in running back age, Latavius Murray is a great grandfather. Yeah.

And James Cook sharing stories from days of all. Yeah, he's like he's telling James Cook how it was back in the day. James Cook is so good. You know, it's, it is very frustrating. Let's talk about that at a high level for a second because teams, what happens is they practice and then they play like they practice. And so if you go out on the practice field every week and the goal line packages are Latavius Murray. people just need to understand they don't pivot that stuff on the fly very almost never like if all of your goal line packages latavus murray's in there and he fails on the first one it's not likely they're like hey james cook that stuff you didn't practice get out there and it's unfortunate they have to make that change fundamentally at practice because the change still needs to happen i mean do you do you think that you know the san francisco 49ers when they're practicing their goal line packages

Don't have Christian McCafferty there in practice? No, they do because that's their best player in that situation. It's really frustrating when these teams, you know, especially when it's the smaller back. It's like this old school mentality of, yes, I need a big back who can move the pile in if we're inside the five because it's a bunch of beef boys out there and the small guy can't get it done. And I just don't think that's remotely true. I, you know, it's not like. It's not very often that the play is run it up the middle and it's a big strong back that's just pushing the pile, a couple extra inches. Like that happens sometimes. But that's not usually, even when the big back scores, it's not how it happens. And that's not why it doesn't happen. It's like put your fast, speedy, tackle avoiding back in there and score touchdown. One of the plays that Murray failed on was getting to the edge. It was running out left and he wasn't fast enough.

Like, I like McDermott. I do think he's a good coach, but he has some unfortunate old school tendencies of, like, Latavius Murray is the goal I'm back, not going for it on some fourth downs where you're like, dude, you should really go for this fourth down. You have Josh Allen. You want to run, like, a quarterback sneak, push with Josh Allen. You want to have him throw? And he's like, no, no, no, we're going to. We're going to surrender and punt here. Shout out to friend of the show Warren Sharp, but Bill's goal line offense in the last two years, number of 32 in efficiency per play, 31 in touchdown rate, 31st in points per drive, and Josh Allen has completed 34% of goal line passes. So whatever practice you're doing is bottom of the league practice around the goal line. So Rashad White was the leading receiver and runner for the Tampa Bay attack.

seven for 70 in the receiving game. Nine for 39 on the ground. No one else got involved. Chris Godwin. He broke the streak. We brought it up on yesterday's show or the day before on the preview. He hadn't scored. He hadn't scored in like 60-something receptions. It was a pretty long streak, but his touchdown reception was, it was very nice. It was nice. It was full arm extension almost looked like a. barely fingertip grab. It was great catch. And then Jason, you and I are facing off in the Dynasty League. And you're 7 and 0. I'm 6 and 1. These are the juggernauts of the league. And I've got Josh Allen. Wow, what a performance. And then, but Mike Evans, I mean, he did no targets in the second half until. Yeah, until he caught a touchdown off a helmet. That was pretty cool. I was super happy. I mean, yeah, you responded with just. Just kind of just civilities. Real balance. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm a kind and gentle fantasy. You said have a safe drive into work. Right. That's what I said. It would be a shame if you got into a traffic accident. I don't know if I've ever been trash talked like I was last night. Yeah. So bad start? Well, yeah, you got here. Oh, no. No, that's not what I meant. Yes, bad start to the week for me for sure. I really want to beat you this week. Anything else from this game you guys want to discuss? It was a, it was the, you know, a blowout considering it was 24 to 18. It was a strange game because, you know, we talked about is this the Bills get right game? And for the majority of the game, you're like, yeah, I mean, there was at the beginning at least the bills kind of hung, or I'm sorry, the Bucks hung tight of the bend don't break, give up a bunch of yardage, but then stop them for a field goal.

And the bills were up so much. It was, well, yeah, they're definitely back. But then I don't know if it was they pulled the, you know, like they stepped off the gas and thought they could just coast. But it was like there was a Hail Mary. The final game of the play or final play of the game was a Hail Mary that the bill, the bucks would have won. If Godwin turned around a little earlier, he was, he was there for a game winning catch, which was crazy because you go into the fourth quarter 24 to 10 and it just seems like it was the most lopsided game ever.

I've never seen an in-zone Hail Mary literally just land on the ground. Yeah, no, but straight down in between a bunch of players. Everybody forgot the ball was on the way. No one could, maybe the lights were in their eyes. All right, it's Friday. Put Clan Friday. All right, every Friday we have a giveaway for a supporter of the show over at Join the Foot.com, the illustrious, incredible foot clan. Today's giveaway winner is. Password is Taco. That's the username. Password is Taco. Okay. You probably don't want that as your username because now everyone knows. We're giving $100 to Fantasychamps.com. To password is Taco. Congratulations. Thank you for supporting the show. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Unnecessary drama in Miami, Tyreek Hill. I'm good, baby, he said. And really through, you know,

all of our concerns into the garbage after even Tua had said at some point we'll get Tariq back. That was his quote. Yeah. And he meant the next day. Tua, you're supposed to say indefinite. Right, because we don't know. We understand what that means. Yeah, the reports were that when he got back out to practice that he looked absolutely fine. He was doing his normal drills at normal speed. So there's no worries with Tariq Hill. Nor are there with Rahim Moster who had the veterans stay off and was back in practice. T.J. Hawkinson, upgraded to a limited practice on Thursday. It's a good sign. Mm-hmm. Here's where there is not a good sign. No, no, no, no. Deontay Johnson, another DNP, the hamstring. When you hurt your hamstring, to the degree where you have to go on IR, and you're gone for a month, and then you come back, and you hurt your hamstring again, I'm not playing, I'm not playing that game. I mean, I've got them in a couple leagues. I've already made the, like, this is at the stage where I have somebody else in the lineup.

And if I'm pleasantly surprised today, then I can adjust. Sure. Aaron Jones returned to a limited practice. Luke Musgrave did not practice with an ankle, Packers, players. Dalvin Cook talking about being traded. Good luck. Yeah, who's trading for you? They've watched. Bro, you got your money. Yeah, be happy. He said he's adjusting to not playing. It's an adjustment. Yeah. And it was an adjustment that the Jets needed to make to make sure he didn't play. Yeah, keep adjusting. Maybe, you know what? with how he's looked, if they could trade him, the bills would love to put him in on goal line situations. I mean, they would just be like, man, you look really slow. Let's get you. Wow. If they traded for Dalvin Cook, I don't think that's a zero percent chance. Put the brothers together. You know who's in there on the goal line. Oh, man. Yeah. Daniel Jones is out. Okay. And we've got matchups today. We'll talk about Cream Hunt's health, Jerome Ford's health.

We'll talk about Kenneth Walker and Tyler Lockett. Those are today's matchup, right, Brooksie? Yes, sir. And Josh Palmer, he didn't practice again. That is frightening. You are right. There's going to be a huge opportunity with QJ. I mean, they're going to need someone to catch the ball. Yeah, Jalen Guyton's coming back finally. So, yeah, huge opportunity. There's also the news that Brock Purdy is. practicing. What is going on with this? I mean, it was funny because it was reported that he's in concussion protocol and that Sam Darnold will be the starter. But I think maybe that I mean, I still presume that's going to happen, but it isn't a 100% guarantee. I don't think it's going to happen. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think it's going to be Brock Purdy. And I think he had to go into protocols, but he's been out there practicing and they're waiting for that clearance. And that might not come.

that might be what he can't do, but I think he wants to play. Yeah. So that threw some cold water on our DFS lineups later today because Sam Darnold and DFS is 4,300. Yeah. Which changes everything. We don't have the liberty on a Friday to put Darnold in because we would have. You'd have to be like, if he doesn't play, I'm pivoting this to this, this to this, this, this, this, you know. It's basically like you're putting in Malik Cunningham of the Patriots and hoping that he gets elevated. and maybe it gets a snap or two. That was today's news and notes presented, as always, by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Fantasy forecast. Well, no bye weeks, so we covered a ton of matchups yesterday. So if you're looking for the Rams, Cowboys, Vikings, Packers, Falcons, Titans, Saints, Colts, Patriots, Jopens, Jets, Giants, Jags, Eagles, Commanders. Those matchups were discussed yesterday.

Today we're starting with the Houston Texans who are 3 and 3 taking on the only winless team in football, the Carolina Panthers, at 0 and 6. So, Jason, first thing, I mean, by the way, Houston, 3.5 point road favorites, over under is 43. Houston coming off the buy. Both teams coming off the buy. This is a tough one for Cardinals fans because the Cardinals are 1 in 6, and they're the only one-win team in football. Carolina is the only winless team. The Cardinals have the Houston pick. But if Houston wins, which is this is one of those games where, I'm sorry, if Carolina wins, Cardinals slide into a tie for that first selection. Yeah, I mean, certainly rooting for. Oh, you're certainly rooting for the Carolina Panthers to win this game. I mean, this is, this would be great for Cardinals fans to win. I'm really interested in this game going into the by. Frank Reich talked about changing who's going to call plays. And I think that there's going to be some.

pretty wholesale changes here to the Carolina offense. So this is something to keep your eye on. I don't think we pivot. You know, you're not going to take what Adam Thielen has been doing and bench him. That's, that would be outrageous. That would be a bad process. But pay attention because if it comes out and Adam Thielen goes from, you know, look, since week two, nine targets, 14, 8, 13, 13, he is getting everything. If it comes out and he's got six targets this game, then I will take that immediately as a new normal. I don't expect that to happen. But I'm going to be paying attention to it. I think the fair-minded conversation around Thieland, regardless of the offensive coordinator thing, is just that his numbers were so outrageous. So I think you could make the argument that trading high on Thielen, regardless of that potential change, is the wise thing to do. He's an older player. You know, I can remember a couple of Larry Fitzgerald.

age 33, age 34 seasons where the first half of the season was on fire. The second half changed that. I think he's their best receiver by a lot. Yeah. So it's hard to say like their play calling is going to pivot to players that can't perform at the level that Thielen is performing it. But I certainly think it means something for the running game with Chuba Hubbard. Mike started the week who has had a lot of opportunity even with Miles Sanders injury. Sanders has not delivered. on the hopes of the offseason. So, you know, I've seen people want to ask us questions. I mean, they've asked questions about Miles Sanders. Like, where are you with that? Is that a, you know, what if he's on your roster right now? What if you have Chuba? Because you picked him up in light of the injury. So that's very likely that there's a lot of teams with both of them. Who are you playing? I would play Chub. If I have both, I'm going to play Chuba over Miles. Until Miles proves to me that he is.

healthy, ready to go. I mean, he's been inches Sanders this year. Yeah. Oh, man. Go ahead. Go ahead. Bust it. That's rough. The first three weeks were okay-ish for fantasy football, but they really slowed down. That includes him playing through the injury. So if I have to pick the two of them, I still have confidence in Chuba. So if I have the two of them, that's where I'm going. And my other note for the Panthers would be. If rookie wide receiver Jonathan Mingo is out there on the waiver wire, he's someone who I have interest in, like Jason brought up, we have a new play caller, things could shift around, and it's the buy week. He's a second round wide receiver, so this is a day two pick going into the second half of the season. If something's going to happen with him, this is about the time it would. I don't know if it will for Mingo. I don't know if Bryce Young and is, is, uh,

ready to take that step for him. But he's an interesting guy that could have a real second half takeoff. I wanted to look at Bryce Young a little bit because that's another thing that should change a little bit over the course of the year, acclamation, right? First two weeks of the year, Bryce Young, 4.2 per attempt. Yeah, he looks insane. But the last three weeks, it's been at six. And I know that that's not a high number. Like C.J. Stroud is up there at 7.8 or whatever. But I think that there is, I mean, he had a three touchdown game. He's completing over 63% of his passes. So like that is the other potential situation for them. Houston, Indianapolis, Chicago. The next three weeks for Carolina, there will be fantasy points scored. It's just our job is fantasy players to identify who's scoring them. Damien Pierce, the matchup is good this week. The matchup is very, very good. The Panthers have not been able to stop the run, which is.

Kind of wild because they were like coming in last year. They were good at stopping the run. That's a Steve Wilkes, Frank Reich changed to me. Where are you at with your confidence of, because look, Pierce, it should be great, but the last time we saw the Houston Texans, it turned into the Devon Singletary show with his highest, you know, opportunities of the year, highest snap share. He had two targets. I don't know what Pierce had in that game, but it was. Pierce had. He had one more attempt than Singletary. And no targets. And a bunch, I watched it. It was three goal line chances too. So I think both guys are in play, but I'd rather play Pierce. Okay. You're still on his side? I'm the same way. And it will be a committee. The coaching staff came out and talked about using both guys a lot and that that's going to be the new normal. So we saw it and they said it. So it's true. We saw it. We said it. It's true.

That is true. Nice. Dalton Schultz. Tankdale is back. Confidence level that Dalton Schultz could surprise. Low. I think that Tankdale being out was a big part of Schultz's success. If I've got him and there's... Taysam Hill. Probably, I'd go Tassum. Trey McBride. I had those two players and I chose Taysam Hill. Okay. So you taste them and then Trey McBride. I would go Schultz over at Bride just because of the matchup against Baltimore, who's usually really good against tight ends. Nico and Tankdale, both in your lineup? Yes. Thielen, of course. And Robert Woods is a missing practice. Yeah, he looks like he's going to miss. He missed Wednesday and Thursday, trending to be out. So that would be an uptick for Tankdown for sure. I know there's been injuries, but Robert Woods, do you know how many targets he's on pace for this year? A lot. 122. What? Yeah, it's... I discovered this last night because I was starting to look at...

I was like, I wonder what wide receivers have a ton of targets and not a lot of touchdowns because I was looking for second half upside sleepers like Godwin was, right? Like a lot of targets, Jerry Judy has some. But Robert Woods is sitting up at the tippy top of targets. It's so bizarre because. But he's not catching a lot of them. Because Nico Collins. 51% of his passes. And Tank Dell are the hotness. And Robert Woods is seeing pretty much just the same opportunity as those guys, but he's not coming through. All right, quick break back with another matchup.

The Cleveland Browns at 4-2 take on the Seattle Seahawks, who are also 4-2. Draft King's Sportsbook line here, Seattle minus 3.5, the overrunners 38. Truthfully, the two most surprising four-and-two teams are Cleveland and Pittsburgh. They both have just, like, muscled their way to victory on the backs of Miles Garrett and T.J. Watt. That's the second and third most surprising four-and-two teams. I forgot about the Steelers. That's who plays in Pittsburgh. Oh, I thought you were talking about these two. I thought you said the Seahawks and the Brown. No, no, no. I was saying I followed up that statement by saying Cleveland and Pittsburgh. I'll be honest. I didn't listen to it. The single thing you just said. But yes, I agree. Pittsburgh is number one and two on the list. Don't forget the Steelers though. Yeah. Well, then I'm going to add the Seahawks. We don't edit this podcast. The Seahawks are surprising as well to me. To be four and two? Yeah. Because they haven't looked good on offense. Right. Okay. That's fair.

They've struggled a little bit in the passing game, and they're winning. This is an interesting week. PJ Walker is going to get the start again, we presume, right? I mean, Watson is going to take some more time. Walker is not a good quarterback. He's okay. He's fine. He's not the quarterback that when he's in there, like, I have Amari Cooper, and I'm going to play Amari Cooper because he gets targeted every single week. And, you know, we had a hundred-yard game with PJ Walker the week before. But I don't go into my week saying, yay. It's PJ Walker instead of Deshaun Watson. But Cooper's in your lineup. And then Kareem Hunt. Kareem Hunt was limited this week. He's been kind of limited a couple weeks in a row. It looked like it was going to be all Kareem Hunt. What's the latest on Jerome Ford? So we did see video of Jerome Ford, who was listed, what was it, the low grade high ankle sprain? Exactly. And he was back in practice doing drills. That doesn't mean that he is.

going to be ready to play, but it means you need to be paying attention. Yeah, it was mostly individual drills. I'm watching them right now. But if you picked up Pierre Strong in the hopes that he could be a fill-in for you at the running bat for an RB2 or something like that, if Jerome Ford is playing, that that's done. Can we not make the players wear the giant Lego helmets when they're doing individual drills? I'm guessing it's a union thing now. So pay attention to that. Cream hunt's probably in no matter what because Jerome Ford if he's back out there. What's worse? A high grade low ankle sprain or a low grade high ankle sprain? Oh, I think a high grade low ankle sprain would be worse. Elijah Moore, 7.2 worthless targets per game. Don't play him. And yeah, sell him, trade him on the basis that he gets a lot of targets. It will work out.

better than playing him. On the other side, Kenneth Walker didn't practice for a second consecutive day with the calf injury while Zach Charbonnet is a full practice. You could have Zach Charbonnet's debut opportunity against a terrible matchup. Yeah, it is unfortunate. The Cleveland Browns have just been so good against running backs. Last week, they had some. cracks in the armor, but I'm still trusting what we've seen on the whole of the season with the Browns. If Walker doesn't play and Charbonnet is active, which Charbonnet should be active. He's practicing in full. Then I'm starting Charbonnet. He's a quality player. It's not like you're, I mean, are you not starting Kenneth Walker because it's a bad matchup if he's active? No, you're going to start Kenneth Walker in any matchup. And I think Charbonnet is good enough where he, if he is alone.

Without Walker, I'll treat him the same way, even if he's not as good. Would you play him over at Amy and Pierce? Yes. Because of the exclusivity. Correct. Okay. I think that makes sense. I think I'd take the ceiling opportunity, and he can catch the ball. Yeah. Gino Smith is kind of off people's board this week. I think it makes sense. The defense for the Browns, yes, last week, Minchew had a good one. Two of those were rushing touchdowns. Well, and you might not have Tyler Lockett. You might not have Tyler Lockett. He did not practice Wednesday. He did not practice Thursday. This is a hamstring. If you've got a hamstring problem keeping you out of a Thursday practice, it feels unlikely to play. Did he miss Thursday last week with a hamstring? What's funny is I think he actually missed Friday last week with a hamstring. So it's, I'll look that up right now, but it was.

It was one of the more unique situations I've seen where late in the week you miss a full practice with a hamstring and then play. Yeah, let's figure out what happened last week. Is he, because of the matchup and because of the fact that targets will be distributed across Metcalf, JSN, Lockett, and company, is he, is it worth just taking them off your board not worrying about it? Like there's enough options out there, like Rashi Rice or. I think if you have a decent option, I would pivot out of Lockett. My bigger question is how do you guys feel about JSN? Not that great. Yeah, this isn't the matchup for it. To verify last week, Lockett was limited on Wednesday and Thursday, did not participate in practice on Friday and then did play. So you don't know what you're. All right. You know, he's maybe going to play then this week if he did the same kind of thing last week. But with the bad matchup.

with the aggravated hamstring. I'm going to go ahead and bench lock it for any decent option. Kansas City is six and one. They take on the Denver Broncos, who are two and five. The Draft King Sportsbook line is Kansas City minus seven. The overrunners 47. To me, and I know the game's in Denver, like that's a shocking line to me. It is. I think seven is. And the Broncos played him tough last time, too, on the road. Now they haven't beaten them. for 16 consecutive games. That's a lot of games. That's an insane streak. That's eight years, right? Yes. Unless there was a playoff game. This was like the beginning of the fantasy footballers was the last time we probably saw that happen. Are we the reason? No, it's Mahomes. Oh, okay. You think you think? I think it's more Mahomes. Give us a little bit of credit here. A little bit. A little bit, a little bit Mahomes, a little bit us. Yeah. Yeah. Obama was president.