Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 5 Matchups, News

on the ground of all teams in the league, and they're giving up the second most yards through the air of all teams in the league. That says pass the ball. Cam Newton's not practicing. You need to monitor him closely, make plans. We just don't know. He has the extra day with Monday night being the game they play. So Packers, cornerbacks, Sam Shields, out. Is that confirmed? For week five against the Giants. That's a fist pump for Odell Beckham. It's a fist pump for that whole offense. That's why I have Eli Manning.

quite high this week. Tight end rundown real quick. Jared Cook, four to six weeks. He's out. Eric Ebrun, not expected to play. Zach Miller didn't practice. Kyle Rudolph didn't practice. Clive Wofford didn't practice. And Antonio Gates was spotted at practice stretching. How long do you think that takes a guy at Gates's age? Longer. Stretch? Yeah. I mean, on a scale of one to Jason stretching. Jay.

Well, if you have not heard this story before, Foot Clan, Jason is literally the, he's on record. He's in Guinness, the book of records for being the least flexible human being on the planet. Well, he actually does not stretch. Like when we used to play flag football games, he doesn't stretch, right? I have never stretched before a game pretty much in my life. I mean, I've done a butterfly once or twice. But when I do, you can barely tell that I'm stretching because I am not a limberman. Randy Mostyn's stretch.

Yeah, me and Randy, we have a lot in common. Straight cash, homies. Fantasy forecast. All right, the only Thursday night football update we have for you from yesterday's show is the fact that Palmer was declared out, and we've talked about that at length. A reminder that the Jaguars, Chief, Saints, and Seahawks are all on by, so you should temper your point expectations from all of their players. It's a good, good warning. Very likely to be low. All right, let's get into the matchups.

Let's start with the Washington Redskins traveling to Baltimore, taking on the Ravens. Ravens are favored at home, 45 point over under, and a lot of storylines in this game. I mean, you have sometimes these teams that have very few fantasy relevant players. I see this game, and I say, wow, you have questions about the carry difference between Terrence West, Javorious Allen, and Kenneth Dixon making his debut. You have...

An incredible, like, with Matt Jones, if you look at Matt Jones, not only the insane stats you gave me yesterday about him being pro football focus is what, number one rank running back. If you look at the snap counts, I mean, you just look at, I mean, Robert Kelly gets nothing. Correct. This is not, I mean, this is Matt Jones show. Good or bad. Jones and Thompson. Yeah, and Thompson. But Thompson scored last week through the air, and he's a passing down guy. I mean, he'll get three or four carries a game. So.

Let's start on the Baltimore side with the running backs. How do you see this breaking down, Mike? You are a Kenneth Dixon owner. Yes. What are you going to do this week? Tell me exactly because I'm playing you. I'm very unlikely to play Dixon this week. I think that Terrence West showed the team enough. I mean, he had great game. 20 plus carries over 100 yards, got a touchdown. And there's reports. They're going to ease him in. Now, I mean, that everything could.

Just do a complete 180 and Dixon could be the guy immediately. I just don't see it working out that way. Now, Jim Harbaugh did not say. He came out to say that Terrence West was not going to be declared the lead back, right? Right. Yeah, but Terrence West will be the lead runner. But like I said, Terrence West is not a pass catching is not his specialty where Dixon excels at that. I think I'd said on an earlier show, a very telling sign will be.

Is Buck Allen actually active or not? He was inactive the first two weeks. If he goes back to inactive, then Dixon might be an okay flex play, but I'm not expecting a big game. I expect it to take a couple weeks. Yeah, we've talked Dixon up a lot for a while, and so I think there's a lot of listeners who are excited to have him. You can't start him this week. It wouldn't shock me if he ended up having a productive game, but you can't.

We haven't seen it yet. He's coming off of an injury. You can't start Kenneth Dixon. I think that would be foolish. And if you hit, it would be more of a lucky, lucky start. Now, the Ravens are fifth against the run, third against the pass. Is that right? Yeah, the defense has been pretty strong as far as yardage.

That's yardage. Yes. I know a car tore him up with four touchdowns, but I think he had about 200 yards. Okay. And the Ravens' defense has allowed 20 or more yards on just six of 84 receptions this season, which ranks first in the league. That's only 7% of plays, which is basically half of the league average. So they're not giving up big plays, which is the forte of a guy like Deshaun Jackson. Right. Well, now that being said. So how do you...

That being said, Deshaun Jackson owner, how do you see, I mean, a bad week from D-Jax last week on the road against a team that doesn't give it up deep? And with, you know,

Good corners. Yeah, I think Deshaun Jackson could do more than just get deep balls, but that's where you get those huge giant blow-up games. This is from Scott Barrett, but over the last three weeks, Cherise Wright, the corner for the Ravens. He's given up 16 receptions, 205 yards, and five touchdowns to opposing wide receivers. Prior to this season, the second most fantasy points Wright ever allowed to an opposing wide receiver, Deshaun Jackson.

So if that's the matchup, I think D.JX could go off this game. Interesting. That's fair. All right. Are you starting either of the quarterbacks in this game? I think Joe Flacko is still a fine streamer. He's at home, so you get better Flacko. Kirk Cousins, I'm not afraid to start him, but I would personally be looking for a better option. Redskins 25th against the pass leading to Mike saying that Flacko's...

An okay start here. Right. And Jordan Reed's a must start every single week. I think Pitta is, for the tight end selection out there, Pitta is a weekly starter for me as well. Last week, Cousins was very good in the touchdown category, but the yards came down because they didn't need to use him. Matt Jones had a good game. Cousins, I think, was under 200 yards. Right. And there was the rumblings of Joe Flacko is a little upset with the play calling that they are not going deep. If you looked at his attempts.

I think he threw the ball over 50 times and got just under 300 yards. I mean, that's your efficiency there is way down. They're not taking the shots with Mike Wallace where they connected early in week one. So that's something to keep an eye out for. I'm not calling for a big game for Wallace, but it wouldn't shock me. And start your Steve Smith, Signore. Of course. Steve Smith, eight catches the past two weeks, over under eight catches in this game. Ooh, over under. I'm going to take the push. Yeah. I think he triples.

triples it. 888. All right. Dennis Pitta slowed down. Do you start him in this game? Yeah, compared to the tight ends who are out there, I mean, somehow if Ertz or maybe Cameron Brate, they're on your waiver wire, but otherwise I'll roll with Pitta. All right. So we're talking Patriots Browns now. Where is this game? This game is in Cleveland, I believe. Can you confirm that for me? New England is at Cleveland, correct?

Correct. Okay. So we've got the Browns, obviously huge underdogs in this with Cody Kessler behind center and Tom Brady returning for the Patriots. They're 10.5 point underdogs, 46 point over under. Is there hope on the Cleveland side of the ball playing at home? The efficiencies in the run game where the Patriots have been middle of the pack against the run. Give me the lay of the land on the Brown side of the ball.

I'm still playing Crowell. I think that he's still an RB2. If the Browns have any sort of chance to win this game, they have to just wear out the clock. And the way they're going to do that is with Isaiah Crowell. Duke Johnson may be a sneakier start in PPR, but definitely not in standard. Prior, I'm okay throwing prior out there.

He just is involved so much, and there's still always the potential that maybe play some running back, maybe some quarterback, so I'd still throw him out there, a huge upside. Gary Barnage. Gary Barnage is quietly getting his usage up. I think that people have not really paid attention. He's on waiver wires out there. Hey, you talk about a guy who would I play over Dennis Pitta? There's a name. Gary Barnage, I'd pick him up off my wire, and I'd play him. Gary Barnage, a Cameron brate. Brate.

Ooh, that one will probably go break. Yeah, I'm a little worried about prior this week. Oh, I'm not. If they're creative with him, which they weren't last week. Right. See, last week he got matched up with Norman a lot, and so outside the touchdown, he wasn't very good. And I worry a little bit about prior. You saw Will Fuller on fire for this season, come in, face this Patriot defense, basically get shut down, and then come out and play well the next week.

I worry a little bit about, you know, Malcolm Butler being matched up against Pryor. The fact that the Patriots defense hasn't allowed a 40-plus yard gain to any of their opponents on 107 receptions, which is best in the league. I just don't know if the big play upside is there. It's hard for me to project a touchdown for Pryor in this game. Therefore, I don't know if I'd rather start him or somebody else. The way that I look at Pryor is, I mean, New England's putting a points, right?

They are going to, I mean, there are 10 and a half point favorites. Tom Brady's back. They're going to have a massive lead, and I think you're going to need to throw the ball. I agree. The Malcolm Butler matchup is... They had to throw it last week, and they played against Washington. They were down by a lot. I mean, that's where I didn't see it manifest itself, because he did not get behind center of quarterback, and he did not take Wildcat snaps last week. Yeah, I guess I see him as a low-end wide receiver two.

which to me means you, you usually are going to start that guy. I'm, I'm less confident in Crowell than you are. Okay. Yeah. Hey, before we get into the remaining matchups. To the, to the Patriots. Oh, sorry, to the Patriots. Look, fellas, Grave before shave is spectacular. My beard is growing. My beard is flowing. Whoa. And then a lot of that is in part to our good friends at Grave before shave this morning. I grabbed.

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