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

Gronk, you need to pump thy brakes. Pump the brakes. I wait until the last possible moment to rank him this week. I've done it the past two weeks. I've ranked him high the past two weeks and I get it. It's Jacoby Brissette. But the routes he's been running, the limited amount of routes, the fact that they were desperate for points against their rival Buffalo last week, they scored nothing and they didn't send him out on more passing routes. I'm pumping the brakes on Gronk until I see.

Old Grunk. Here's why I would start Grunk, because two weeks ago when he was even more hobbled than he is now, he played almost no snaps, and then they got near the goal line. And he came in, and they targeted him, and he was a giant monster of a man who was pretty much open, but Jacoby Percett couldn't hit him. And when they get down there on the five, which will happen a lot, I think this game, I think they're going to bring him in, and Tom Brady's going to hit him and go, hey, Jacoby, that's what you do. He's got a giant target radius. Just throw it anywhere near him.

I agree. You have to monitor it. You have to be careful. I would have a backup plan. I would certainly try to sign Martellus Bennett in case the news shifts poorly. But if they say, yeah, he's okay to go, he might be a little bit limited. You're smirking. Is there Grom? Well, this isn't, you know, a definitive report. But the Giants are prepared to bench or suspend Odell Beckham Jr.

if his antics oh stop continue no they aren't no they are not i have where did that come from is that bleacher report that sounds like a florio report it does but it was it was important that i brought it up where's the source look mike it's not about the source on this one it's about jason's face because i just traded him

Odell Beckham Jr. I paid a lot to get Odell Beckham Jr. Look, should owners be worried about that side of the equation? I've heard from talking to a friend of mine who's, you know, been around the game a long time. He says he doesn't feel like Odell Beckham Jr. is the kind of guy that translates battle motion into good play on the field. Oh, I think you can see that in the scoreboard. I mean, you look at the games where he's been least effective. They're the games that he's popped his lid off the most.

Popped it right off. Look, he has had his issues. He says he's not having fun playing anymore. You know what's going to make it more fun? Like, I mean, hypothetically, O'Dow Beckham Jr. or Alshon Jeffrey this week? Beckham. Beckham. I know. I'm just joking around. I'm joking. Come on. Like, get into the game here. Don't you understand? You're sitting here trying to analyze the report and I'm trying to troll Jason and you're doing nothing to help. I'm trying to be a professional that this report is garbage.

Have you seen? All right, never mind. We'll move on. I digress. We're talking Eagles, Lions. Oh, wait. So the Patriots Browns, that's not you're almost upset of the week? Thanks, Mike. Andy's almost upset of the week. Patriots Browns, you heard it first. No, no, no. It's the Eagles Lions, all right? The lions are at home, but somehow.

I guess everybody is living in Winsolvania now because the Eagles are three-point favorites in Detroit. But Andy, Carson Wins is the best quarterback that's ever played in the history of the league. Well, according to the amount of fab spent on him in our league this week, he is. Carson Wince, the report came out this morning that they might try working more runs. That's dumb. Drawn up runs. Because.

They're interested in injuring their franchise quarterback. No, Wince is an athletic guy. I think when you say runs, you're talking about maybe what you saw from Ryan Tannahill a couple of years ago where some of the read option action really, you know, safe stuff. Yeah, if you do some read option with a slide, I can get behind that. Yeah, so let's talk about this. My almost episode of the week, I think the Lions can hold their own at home. I think you saw them struggle last week, and so the reaction is...

panic in the streets, but Stafford has been good outside of last week. You have a lot of weapons for him when it comes to Marvin Jones and Theoretic, and you're obviously struggling between the tackles, so I think you're going to see a lot of passing volume from Stafford. I think Tate can get back on track this week. He could. I don't expect it.

I expect an okay game from that. I think you got, you still got Bolden, Ebron's out. I mean, they're going to have to lean on Tate more if Ebron is out. That's fair. I didn't factor in Ebron. So you guys on board with my almost upset? Almost upset.

Are you almost on board with my almost upset? Almost. I could very easily see the Lions winning this game. If I had to pick a winner, I would probably pick the Eagles. I think their defense have been saying for a while is underrated. I worry a little bit about a Marvin Jones trap game here. He's been so on fire that he's an automatic start. But we haven't really seen anybody carve up the Eagles cornerbacks group. And so, you know, there's a little worry there, but it should be a close game.

Yeah, so let's take a look at the Eagles running backs. Ryan Matthews is practicing in full. Doug Peterson declared that he's healthy and he will remain the starter. So we have a disagreement in this office that are you still, Andy, that you think that Ryan Matthews will not touch the ball very much? I don't think he gets 15 touches. I think I actually, since the way we do rankings in this.

in this office as we go through and we individualize and stat players. He gave him 14 touches. I sat at Ryan Matthews for nine carries. Oh, that's... Okay, so you're burying Ryan Matthews. He is buried. Okay, because nine carries, that's not a starter. No. Yeah, I come, you know, and that's where Mike brings up the disagreement. I have nine carries for Wendell Smallwood as well. I'm on the complete other side of this. We saw before he had a... Other side from me or Mike. From you in the sense that, I mean, I have the water bet with you.

You know, a couple weeks ago, we saw him get 22 carries. He had been very good for the Eagles, productive, got important touchdowns when they needed it that were difficult to get. And then they're coming up against their by week. His ankles were hurt, Wendell Smallwood was running well. I don't, I think it was wise of them to shut him down in that game, give him two weeks of rest. Now coming back, the fact that he's saying he's the starter. I expect Ryan Matthews.

Like I said, to get 15 carries and Smallwood will be involved as well. This is going to be a team that wants to run the ball. Yeah, we just disagree on this guy. I mean, when he went 9 for 32, he saved that week. With the awesome touchdowns. With the two touchdowns on 9 for 32. Yes. And guess what happened after that game? He got injured. He's my starter. He's going to be my starter. He came out and said all the things he's saying this week. But that was an injury. That was the ankles. He came in.

What do you mean that was the ankles? He came in and said he's our super, he's our starter. Yeah, but. And he got two carries. And you're saying that's because of the injuries. That's right. And I'm saying that Wendell Smallwood and Kenyon Barner, who was awesome. And Darren Sproles, who was awesome. I think you're, I think you're a fool to play Ryan Matzies at the start of this week. I think it is just, I mean, he's the fun thing about fantasy football. He could surprise you, but he hasn't done it since week one. I don't think it would be a surprise.

Yeah, it wouldn't surprise. Lines of the 23. Mike, are you in on this bet then? For 15 touches? Yeah. I haven't started for more than 15 carries. So I'll get in on it. Yeah. I realize I don't have the button to put it. That's all right. I love Zach Gertz this week. I know it's his first week back, but we were talking about in these, talking about this in the office. They are coming off of a buy week. So.

Hopefully there's been extra time for Ertz. And week one, we saw that he was the number two passing option behind Jordan Matthews. So I like Jordan Matthews in this game as well. But I think Zacherts returns to being the number two guy. And so I think he, if you got him, he's a must play. If he's on your waiver wire, pick him up because he is a must play for me. All right. Anything else from this game you guys want to discuss? The running, we still don't have an update on Dwayne Washington, really. I believe he's not practicing today. I don't think he's going to play.

Yeah, so you have Theoretic and Zach Zenter. Zach Zinner is a speculative ad to me this week just because if you need a, if you're in a deep league and you just need a body, I mean, Zach Zinner is the Matt Ozziata of this equation here. Sure. Maybe he is, I don't think Riddick's going to get it if they're on the one. I think it'll be Zach Zinner to get into the end zone.

Probably. I can agree with that. But I don't really want to start either of these guys. All right. The Lions are 23 against the run this year, 21st against the pass. Did you guys discuss Jordan Matthews at all? I just quickly had said that I like him a lot this week. Detroit's giving up 282 and three touchdowns per game through the air in four weeks. So the points will be scored by Carson Wentz and the past catchers. I guess sometimes you've got to move on and talk bears. And we're going to do that right now. Bears travel to Indianapolis, take on the Colts.

Look, this is one of the higher overrunners of the week at 48 points. And it makes sense because you have an offense, obviously, with luck and those whiteouts that even when they lose, they find a way to garbage time a number of yards and scores. And you have a Bears offense that gets to face the Colts defense. Colts defense is 24th against the past, 18th against the run. Very, very excited about Jordan Howard. Yes, I agree. Hint, hint, for a segment later on.

I completely agree with that. I'll throw out the nugget. Jordan Howard has rushed for 10 or more yards on 7 of 34 carries. I mean, that's spectacular production while the Colts are just not stopping the run. We saw them last week where T.J. Yeldon, who has been averaging 2.0 per carry, had a monster game because the Colts defense, the way they approach the run is the offense snaps the ball.

and they separate. Like Moses has come in and said, uh, just, this is how we're going to do it. Just split. We'll let him run for eight yards. And then we'll try and tackle them. Safety. Safeties are in charge of tackling their running back. Yeah. They want their patting those tackles. Yeah. Three of their four games have given up more than a hundred yards rushing. I expect that it'll be, uh, four out of five.

And there's not a lot of competition for the ball right now with Jordan Howard. So I completely agree. I mean, look, the Colts, they've allowed first downs on 32 and a half percent of their plays. That's insane. That's near the bottom of the league. That's great for a running back, right? You get those first downs. You keep grinding that game out. Yeah, just more opportunities. You give up first down. So that guy's going to get it on first and second down. And Kadeem Kerry is listed as doubtful. Oh, wait.

That was last week. And then it's every week. You have Kevin White obviously gone. Yeah. And Eddie Royal has stepped up. I'm going to talk about him later, hint, hint. I think he's a great. All right. A great play. Look, Alston Jeffrey from the target numbers, we talked about it yesterday. He averaged, you know, he's averaged like 9.8 for his career. He's only been in the sixes this year. Still averaging 79 yards a game. Just hasn't gotten to the end zone. So we'll see if he has.

He was limited in practice yesterday, which is his standard procedure. It's Wednesday. It's just a matter of can he really get healthy? Because if he can't get healthy, he's going to have to come in and basically give you a few plays and hit on those. I mean, if he's healthy, it's a different story. For the Colts pass catchers, I think Hilton is a perfectly fine play. I don't know if I would fire up Dorset. The Bears have actually had a pretty solid.

uh past defense i mean they're they're not allowing a ton of yards through the air so i have uh i know luck is at home but i have him you know as far as andrew luck standards i have them a little bit lower this week yeah chicago has yet to have uh the opposing quarterback throw for 250 yards that's i mean they haven't given up 250 on the year so even though the the bear's defense has had a lot of injuries and and they're really maligned uh publicly

They've done a pretty good job with their secondary. Run defense is bad. So old man, Frank Gore is still fine. Frank Gore is a great player. Gore has been so consistent. I mean, if you look at what Frank Gore has done and you look at what, let's say, Lamar Miller has done. Right. You know, they are very similar from a what you can expect on a weekly basis standpoint where you just kind of solid, tried, true, a nice guy to have in your lineup. And he just keeps doing it. I mean, he's no John Coon.

Don't get me wrong. There's only one John Coon. There's only one John Coon, but yeah, Gore. And he's the worst. Gore this year's right around that, you know, he's averaging a point more than Lamar Miller. Note to self, always draft John Coon in best ball leagues. Okay, next year when I'm playing in the ML10, I am getting John Coon for a couple of those monster games. Well, yeah, we hadn't seen this for a couple years, right? Yeah, he's back. He's back. Okay, Brian Hoyer.