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

Our kids were way younger. Patrick Mahomes has never lost an AFC West road game ever. What? He's in the AFC West. That's impossible. Yes, so it is Mahomes. Yeah, it's him. It's not us. You play him. You play Pacheco. I'm convinced. Now, Pacheco has been on start of the week list for two consecutive weeks and hasn't delivered the big performance. This week, it's the same story. I mean, he's going to get a bunch of work, but he. But RB 14, RB 13. That's, yeah, I mean, it's fine. He's been a top 15 running back for five straight weeks. Yeah, yeah, sure. It's just a start, but he is someone that is in all of your lineups. What about Rashi Rice? Because there's a lot of excitement. You know, you have the built-in intangibles of, you know, young athletic rookie with upside. It's not like Robert Woods is getting more snaps every week and you're like, oh, it's Robert Woods.

This is a player that has probably more to give. Yeah, I mean, he went from 30% snaps, 49% snaps, 59% snaps. That's what you need to see to have the confidence to put him in there now. The matchup is okay. It's not like the best matchup in the world just because Denver is a bad defense. Sometimes that backfires on wide receivers and just a passing game in general because you run a lot successfully. But I'm totally willing to start Rushie Rice because... it appears like he's going to be Patrick Mahomes' number one wide receiver. It's kind of wild. Even when you count the insanity that happened to Denver earlier in the year, they're only the 17th best matchup against wide receivers. In fact, the last three weeks, they put up the best performance, and then they were in the top half for two consecutive weeks. So this is where that 70-point game is going to start to distort the truth about your matchups.

So it's a good point. Now, those snaps for Rashi Rice, they came at the expense of Cadarious Tony, who's down to 19 percent. Too high. I believe it is too high. Now, Kelsey, I would play him. I guess the matchup's okay. Russell Wilson, Giovante Williams, Jerry, Judy, Cortland Sutton. Now, Sutton has like five touchdowns. I looked at this. It's fine. This guy. It's the fakes. It is the fakesest, like. quality fantasy asset of the season right now. 850 and 12 is his pace. Yeah. On 70 catch. He's currently the wide receiver 21. He's been a pretty good start most weeks. And I'm just, it's like, but it's not real and it's not going to keep happening. I would play him over Judy. I would play him over Judy as well. Which is something we weren't saying earlier in the year. But I, you know, it's one of those things where a lot of times you look for expected fantasy points.

That's a really, we've got an article that comes out every week talking about the expected fantasy points versus the fantasy points being scored. And he's the poster child right now for he shouldn't be scoring as much as the opportunities he's being given. So I'm still not, I'm not putting them in like he's the wide receiver 21 by any means. To me, the biggest storyline on Denver, and I want to throw this to you guys for broader perspective. When I was looking up like wide receivers with a lot of targets to haven't scored, I flipped over to the running backs earlier, and I was like running backs are a lot of carries that haven't scored. Giovante Williams is at the top of that list. Like he's not gotten into the end zone even one time this year in the passing game or in the ground game. You know, it's fair to say like you're going to come back slower off of a major injury. The last two weeks has been over five a carry. Jaliel McLaughlin's opportunities have gone down. Like, you know, when you talk about second half sleepers, is this a player in contention? Because I haven't been, I haven't been impressed.

like eyeball tests with Williams, but the numbers are saying he's performing at a better efficiency level. Yeah, I mean, I, but did you say no? I said no because I don't believe in this offense as a whole. And he hasn't really looked special. And with McLaughlin coming on, I think that McLaughlin looks like the better back. So he's coming off now. I believe that right now you're talking about getting a at best 50%. of the running back room on a bad offense. So I'm just, I don't see the, I don't see the path for a big explosive great second half of the year for Giovante. Obviously, you know, more time away from the injury is good and that's the pathway. But I'm just not excited about the Broncos offense. Is that because they have one carry inside the 10 all year? That is a good example of why I'm not excited about the Broncos offense. But they also can't.

get there when Corlin Sutton's getting all them touchdown. You know what I mean? I have more optimism than Jason for Giovante over the second half. To me, I think it looks like we're going to narrow it down that it's going to be Giovante and McLaughlin and P. Ryan will be just a kind of a bit part player in the offense. P. Ryan has not looked good either. And I agree that Javante doesn't. He still does not look. like the Giovante that got drafted. But I think over the second half, the opportunities are going to go up. It's weird that P. Ryan jumped ahead of McLaughlin last week. It was weird. It wasn't a massive jump. I think it was like 25 to 17. Yeah. So, but it was like, it just seemed like they were ready to completely make the transition away from P. Ryan to McLaughlin. And then last week it didn't happen. We'll keep an eye on it this week. But also, all of this is irrelevant because this is a terrible matchup.

It sounds like somebody is boarding up like their houses outside of our studio right now. We're getting ready for the zombies. Is there a storm coming? Al, can you board up some stuff for us? There's somebody doing some work on the roof. Oh, that's not. Santa? Not yet, Mike. Oh, wait till Wednesday. Christmas season starts Wednesday. The Baltimore Ravens are five and two. They take on the one and six Arizona Cardinals. They are. We thought they were. So just for perspective, like Baltimore is nine and a half point road favorites here, whereas Kansas City is seven point road favorites in the previous game. The overrunners 44 and a half. Baltimore's offense looked unquestionably dominant last week. It was the first time. Do that. It was the first time they looked that way. Yes. But it was fantastic. I mean, they just, they smashed the lions.

Now, a group of ravens to give you some more bird facts. Oh, it's a murder, right? A group of ravens is called an unkindness. What? It's a murder of crows, Mike. Oh, crows. The first time you failed at bird knowledge. Oh, man. I hold up my bird knowledge in such a steam. But it is interesting that like crows, which are dark black birds. Yeah. It's a murder. And then the ravens are dark birds and they're an unkindness. So it's like when dark birds. What's a group of doves? I'm on it. Take a look. A group of Cardinals can be called a college. Oh, they're very smart. Why do we need so many words? Yeah, why can't you just groups? Yeah. But in this one, I will say this may be a murder of Cardinals. Ah, I see where you're working. I mean, this is going to be bad. The Cardinals at this point, like they were barely capable of.

having enough, like they barely had enough pieces to move the ball and it was an impressive beginning of the year. But then you remove James Connor from the offense and you remove Zach Ertz, who I know it's Zacherts. But if you keep taking pieces away from an, you know, an offense that doesn't have a lot of pieces, there's just not a lot of upside. Yeah, the Baltimore Ravens defense has just been very, very good all season. Even when they've dealt with injuries, they've been very good. They're a super well-coached team like always. without the talent on the cardinal side of the ball. I mean, you could start Hollywood Brown. He hasn't been good the last two weeks. That's what I was going to ask. But the opportunities are still there. The talent is there. You know, I believe I would still be. Revenge game. I believe I would still be starting Hollywood Brown. But outside of him, I was going to ask the nobody. When you're looking at the Ravens defense, you know, over the last six weeks.

Worst matchup for quarterback, six worst for wide receivers, third for tight ends, and yet 18th against running backs. And people are trying to find guys to put in there in Amari DiMarcato after the full fab dumped to get him. And then he did not get opportunities, even though he was running routes and played the most snaps. Last week, Keonta Ingram with no opportunities and demarcato. 13 carries, 58 yards, had five targets. He had 80% of snaps. I mean, he was. So if you have like an emergency, then you could get him in there? Oh, that's busted. Yeah. Would you play? I kind of like it. I kind of like it. Mike's all right. I kind of like it. But the point being, if it feels, feels bad, but the numbers were that is, that's full work horse. Single Terry or demarcato in this match?

And I'm going to ask the same question with Pierce Strong. People's desperation plays. I would go demarcato over both of those options. Yeah. Both of them, the problem with Singletarian Demarcato is both of them could vanish in snaps. Like it could just transfer right back over to a different running back. But of them, I would take the chance on Demarcato. Trey McBride is in play if you're desperate to tight end to me this week. I know that the Ravens are very good against the tight end position. But in a non-competitive game, I think there's just going to be, like the Cardinals throw the ball to the tight-in position more than almost anybody. I still am taking a shot there's a second. I think if you're in a full PPR, sure. I don't think McBride has a great game, but I could see him with, you know, eight or nine targets. That being said, this seemed like a pretty good week for picking up tight ends off of waivers. Schultz was regularly out there. Ferg. Concade was out there.

While I agree with what you're saying about Trey McBride, I think there are better options available. Lamar, of course, Gus Edwards, my start of the week. Zay Flowers, my start of the week. And, you know, you can kick that. Like, would you rather play Demarcato or take a shot with Justice Hill with them as heavy favorites? Oh, that one's, I'd probably, I'd probably play Justice Hill because I would go, Justice Hill. I'd be afraid the Cardinals are going to throw another random. Yes. back out there. Yeah, I would take 50% of snaps against the Cardinals, then 80% of snaps for the Cardinals. And a really important one, Jason. Mark Andrews or Travis Kelsey, if you had the choice? Just a classic starts it conundrum for a lot of teams. I'll go Travis Kelsey. Yeah. Who do you have in the dynasty match? I've got Mark Andrews. Who do you have? Travis Kelsey. Okay. Cincinnati's three and three taking on the five and two San Francisco 49ers. The DK Sportsbook line now, San Francisco minus four.

So I believe this went from five and a half to three and a half. And now it's at four, which tells me maybe Brock Purdy's expected to play. The overrunner is 43 and a half. Obviously, you know, they move the lines based on betting. So here we are. The overunder is down. And so the expectation of kind of a bigger performance for the offenses has changed. You know, San Francisco was on fire. Five straight games of 30 plus points. The last two games has been 17. Cincinnati's defense is not a slouch defense. I know it hasn't been great this year, but they've had a couple of big performances. You know, the funk that the 49ers are in. Are you worried about it when it comes to players like Brandon Ayuk, who should be alone, should have opportunities? Is he a full start? He's a full start, yeah. He's a full start for me as well. You know, it's I don't know at what point in the game the Brock Purdy's

head injury happened and so this is just full speculation but like brock purdy looked not great toward like at the end of the game where it was should have been some easy completions to especially brand and i you so i'm curious if if that played a part you know yeah let me let me try to find a tweet is there actual numbers on it yeah there were there were numbers on it and uh here here we go um he was 19 to 24 252 and a touchdown was zero interceptions prior to the concussion play. Afterwards, he was two of six for 20 yards and two INTs. Yeah, there you go. And we, I mean, we saw that from Tua last year. Very interesting. That's actually really interesting because there were a couple of plays that I was shocked he missed. Not even the interception ones, but like Ayuk on an in route. Yes. It was confusing. It was.

Imprecise. It was train land stuff. Hey, hey, take it easy. I'm sorry. But it's one of those things where what is happening. I can't explain what happened to Brock Purdy at the end of the game. Well, now we have a little bit of hindsight that we can add in there. The San Francisco defense is a very dangerous one. The last couple of games were on the road. Now they're back home against Cincinnati. And the offense for Cincinnati has been, well, not what we hope for. Warming up. Maybe. It's tough to warm. It's warming up. They're not heating up. Like the temperature of this offense, is it going to be warmer at the end of this game or not? Because the 49ers are formidable. I don't want to face them if I'm in offense, but are you, like, is this a get right game for the 49ers? A get right game for the 49ers? Yeah, I mean, because if you believe that, if you believe that this is the kind of game where a good team bounces back from a couple of losses on the road, they come home, the crowd, and then they just.

dominate. Like, that's what a good team does. I don't think they're going to flat out dominate the Cincinnati Bengals. They've been struggling. The Bengals have been getting a little bit better, and Joe Burrough should be the healthiest he's been all season. T. Higgins should be the healthiest he's been all season. I think this will be a battle. And I'm willing to start players on both sides of the ball. I'm not afraid. All the normals. I'm not afraid of starting Joe Burrow just because this is a tough matchup. On the road, it's hard, but he is good. He's got his weapons. I'm also willing to start T. Higgins, who hasn't been good yet, but the reports from this bi-week and practice were that T. Higgins is finally looking himself, and that's very important and needed for the Bengals. Are you wanting, like, are you going to be aggressive in trying to go get T. Higgins right now because the value is low? Or do you feel like this is a,

I can let it ride for one more week of low production and then try and scoop them up. No, I would scoop him up now. Even though the 49ers have a great defense, they are, if you adjust for schedule, they're 23rd. They average giving up 31.2 fantasy points to the opposing wide receivers. So T. Higgins could have a fine game this week and then people will be much less hesitant to trade him affordably. The Bears are two and five. They travel to take on the Los Angeles Chargers in Sunday night football. Tyson Baygent will get the start against Justin Herbert. And if the Bears win the ball game, they have a better record than the Chargers. Oh, yeah. What's going to happen? I did not realize that I was rooting for the Bears. The drafting sportsbook line is Los Angeles minus eight and a half at home. The overender is 46.5.

Three of the four losses for the Chargers have been one-score games. That's their specialty. That's what they do, man. Herbert is the quarterback eight on the year right now at home. He's been the quarterback 5, 5 and 6. He's going to be played. You're going to play him against the Bears defense. It's not been a good defense. Austin Echler, you know, Jason mentioned the fact he was a little squeaky. There's a lot of frustration in Los Angeles. And you've got a situation here where, I mean, you saw the splits last year. when Keenan or Mike Williams was missing, the amount of targets that went to Austin Echler were outrageously high. Well, you've got no Mike Williams. You've got no practicing Joshua Palmer. If you're down both those players, Austin Eccler is going to be used in the passing game a ton. They just won't even have a choice. I can't. Last week he had two targets, which is like the only time he's had two targets in like three years. So I understand him being frustrated about that. That being said, Joshua Kelly had the big run.

Echlor hasn't quite looked himself. Keenan Allen is a must start. The problem here is Joshua Palmer. I'm just going to be transparent. I was thrilled to have spent Fab and picked up Josh Palmer. And then he goes out and you flex him and he puts up over 100 yards. He didn't score and he still had a big week. It's like I've got, I felt like I got myself a guy. No sign of injury on the field whatsoever through the game. Not that I saw. Now didn't practice Wednesday, Thursday. And it's a knee issue, so it's not something you, it's either right or it's not right. You're not going to want to play through it and make it worse. I mean, is there, is he, if he practices Friday, you're fine. Yeah, yeah. If he gets back to a full practice, then you go, okay. Limited. Limited, I'm, I'm going to be a little worried, but he's going to be out there. If he's, if he is. Problem is it Sunday night. Yeah, I mean, you've got to have another pivot option.

But if we know... There's a pivot option out there. Huge? Huge. Oh. Huge. You want to do that? It's going to be huge. I think I would do it. I think I would do it. Oh, I would do that pivot. Yeah. Yeah, I would do that pivot. I mean, the bears aren't a good defense. And so the Herbert should be able to still get it done with limited weapons against the bears. I'd love to say, well, this opens up a window for Gerald Everett, except for he's been limited with an injury. So it takes... They could dominate on the ground in this game and not do as much through the air. Deonta Foreman, Roshan Johnson. Roshan's going to play. He's out of the concussion protocol. He's listed as healthy. Darrington Evan's been involved. Travis Homer's healthy. Deonta Foreman, he scored last week three times. And looked great. He was very good. I'm starting Deontaforman this week with Roshan active. That's how I... Single Terry or Forman. Forman. Yeah, foreman. Cream Hunter, Foreman. Hmm.

That one's tough. I'm going to go, I'm going to go Foreman. Based on our website, Foreman managers are panicking because there are tons of start sick questions. Yeah, it's, it's an impossible situation. And it's not zero percent chance that Rochon would get a bunch of work and we're like, oh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why you were getting playing time before. There is the, there is the outcome here where Rochon comes out and is the starter plays ahead of Foreman and Foreman is a backup. That, that certainly could happen. I, I project that the opposite happens. I think Foreman will be the first and second down back and that Rochon will be the change of back, change of pace back, the two-minute drill guy, and that Foreman is the one you want for fantasy purposes and has the better chance at a touchdown. The wide receiver 5 on the year, D.G. Moore, the good over the last two weeks without Justin Fields for the majority of that is that he had 17 targets. The bad is that he didn't finish in the top 24 in either week.

You only had 50 yards in each game? Yeah, the yards, the average depth of target for Tyson, Bejant, Bilbo himself, 2.1. Ew, that is. That smells like garbage. That's some stinky, stinky caca. Now, you can't blame him because they might have just built the offense to protect him from himself. Yeah, I mean, I would not expect Hobbits to have a higher ADOT. No, no, no, no. To be fair. Yeah. They're pretty small. And a lot of passes get knocked down at the line of scrimmage. Yeah, I mean, how far can a Hobbit really throw? About 2.4 yards? Is that what it was? DJ Moore's in your lineup no matter what? Yeah, yeah. With those targets, it's doubtful that you have a better option. Okay. If Josh Palmer was active, DJ Moore or Josh Palmer? DJ Moore. Okay. Just making sure. The Raiders, three and four taking on the Detroit Lions at five and two.

The Draft King Sportsbook line, Detroit minus 8, the overrunners 46. Jared Goff is Mike's start of the week since the beginning of 2022. Golf is averaging 27.3 fantasy points per game at home. Yep. I mean, I know I've used the phrasing of Get Right game many times this week. But here's another one. I mean, Detroit got absolutely embarrassed. And I do trust Dan Campbell to get them ready to perform at home. You know, Alman Ra, he's going to be back out there. He's been dominating the targets. Jamison Williams should get more work with Marvin Jones out. It's hard for me to see this game going differently than Vegas has it going. Yeah, this is a team with a lot of pride who's looked great this year and they got humiliated. Absolutely humiliated. Now they're coming back home in a winnable matchup. You really do expect them to put pedal to the medal to not take the Raiders lightly.

for this. It's not a trap game anymore when you're coming off of a brutal beatdown. So I agree with Andy, who agrees with Vegas. The Lions should really roll here. Is Josh Reynolds a spot start for you? For sure, yeah. Josh Reynolds has been pretty solid a bunch of times this year. With, you know, Marvin Jones retiring, that's going to open up more. you know, just opportunities to be on the field for, I'm guessing that it's going to be spread around a little bit. Jamison Williams snaps should rise. You're going to pay attention to that this week. But it's also an opportunity for the other wide receivers to rise as well. I'd play Reynolds over Jameson. Yeah, me too. And I was really disappointed that this was the Monday game and couldn't be part of the slate for our next segment because I wanted Josh Reynolds in my lineup. On the other side of the ball, you have,

Fat Thor. Josh Jacobs is... I'm so happy you've embraced Fat Thor. There's nothing you can do. Yeah. I mean, he was Fat Thor. It's like it was done. He is the RB 15 on this season. He gets more opportunities per game than almost anyone. He will get a pile of them in this game. Even Fat Thor was still super strong. Yeah. He's still Thor. He's still Thor. He's just out of shape. Yeah. But Devante Adams and Josh Jacobs and Jacobi Myers. It's your triple starts there for the Raiders. And Jimmy Garoppolo is expected to play, which does, you know. That matters. He is very good at throwing it to just a couple of people. And I love that about him. And so handsome. He has that too. Anything else from this game, Sam Leporta? Of course you play him. Yes, agreed. And I think Michael Mayer.

So hear me out. I totally understand the hesitancy. However, the snaps were still very high last week at 71%. So he has made the transition to being their primary tight end. Not every tight end is going to be good every single week. He wasn't great last week. But I don't think that means that the Raiders were not great last week. Would you play McBride or would you play mayor? Because I'd on the McBride side. I'd go mayor. Okay. That's tough. The matchup is. With tight ends, I like to focus on the matchup more than other positions. So I'll go mayor. Breaking news. A couple of injury updates for you. Zay Jones is out. Deontay Johnson says he's going to play. And Kyla Murray on whether he'll be activated this week, Jonathan Gannon said, quote, we'll see. Oh, man. We'll see. What if Kyler comes back this week? It's not going to, it's not going to happen. What if it does? See, now this one actually makes sense.

To say we'll see. Yes. I was very vocal in my opposition to Jonathan Gannon being a buffoon at the beginning of the year saying, I don't know who's going to start. Is it going to be Tune or Dobbs? Ridiculous. But if a team doesn't know if they're playing Josh Dobbs or Kyler Murray, that's a very different situation. One more update for you. Jerome Ford surprised the organization with how he ran on Thursday despite the sprained ankle. After testing it during practice, the brands are listing them as questionable. It's zero or two games. I mean, Jason was, Jason said it. Oh, three. I'm sorry. After Jason said that more reports came out and said he's missing at least two. And now he's a threat to miss zero. What do you think actually happens? I think he plays. I think if he's at practice looking like he looks, Pierre Strong is, I think they want.

Ford there. Someone facing Kareem Hunt, this is very good news. Very good news. Cream Hunt also not listed on the injury report. So he's good to go. Didn't have to tell me that. I didn't tell you. I was telling the people. Fantasy face off, presented by Draft Kings. Well, well, well, if Mr. Yeah. If number two. Number two. Oh, we ended up at number three this year. We got to replace that number two. We do. Oh, there is... Oh, Arthur. There is a new beehole amongst the race. Shall we officially declare a new beehole? Yes. From the ashes. From the ashes. The falcon beehole will rise. Adam Gaze, congratulations. This is a big day for you. You're off the hook. We're removing the number two from your moniker and we are appropriating that to a true beehole. A true, true butthole. I mean...

Arthur Smith. You stink. Kyle. Kyle is going as Arthur Smith? What? For Halloween? Nice. Okay. All right, dude. I love it. That's a good one. We better see it. All right. Into the fantasy face off. Jason. Bradless and all. Jason narrowly defeated me last week. Mike at the bottom. I was not narrowly defeated. You were. I was just defeated. Broadly defeated. Let's spin that wheel, Mike. Wheel. of shame. All right. Let's see what you boys got. Let's spin the wheel. I saw a shark nato on there. Yeah. Rainy day. Cowboy. Happy trees. Mom. Mom's the word. Mom's the word. Mum? Oh, that's a you. I got bad eyes. All right. So Papa Josh is coming out onto the side. I don't. Hat off. Yep, hat off. I guess this is just going to be.

It looks like you're getting a mummy face. Looks like you're getting a live mummy wrap. A live mummy wrap. So you are just. I'd appreciate it if I could breathe. I don't think breathing is too super necessary, but I will say he does need to see, but barely. If you can make sure that that goes, you know, right. This looks like you're going so tight. Just cut, cut his circulation off. There you go. This is different. So while this happens, we're going to have to reveal lineup live because this mummy is going to take maybe 40, 50 minutes to get done. Yeah, just go right over that nose. There we go. Yeah, baby. Cover that face. We've never had, Mike, how is this? Unpleasant. Well, you look stupid, so that's cool. Let's start with the lineups. All right. Let's start with the lineups. Andy, who you got? I'm going with my quarterback. What is happening?