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

I like him. I continue to like Brian Hoyer. Yeah. I have Hoyer just outside my top 12. He hasn't done anything to say that he's slowing down yet over 300 and two touchdowns. And then you have a great matchup again. No reason to bench. It stinks that Kevin White is out because he was clearly the favorite target. But I think Hoyer will get along just fine. All right. New franchise traveling to Miami to take on the dolphins. The DeMarco Murrays are in town.

Do you see they updated their logo? It's just Jamarco Murray's face and snap. I mean, what, three carries last week for Henry? Yep. DeMarco Murray dominating targets. Dominating everything. Efficiency. Life. Number one running back. And I think at this point. Losses. Yeah. Well. Come on, Mike Muller. See, Philly dominated losses and DeMarco couldn't do anything.

That's true. So I'm, you know, and you don't normally see running backs outside of like an Adrian Peterson from years past be able to do it always being down. But Marcus Mariotta, I'm going to put him at top five most disappointing players this year. He is because it's not just the fantasy side. You had big expectations for him. I expected him to take a step forward and he has been he's been turnover prone, bad throws, inaccurate.

making mistakes, mental mistakes, things that I did not expect out of him. James Winston took a step forward. Marcus Marietta took two steps back. Winston is not taking a step forward. He's taking a step back. Winston has taken a couple forward, but then he takes a couple back. You're saying in this year? If you had to tell me what I was going. Winston has been, he's been Fitzpatrick levels of turnovers. I mean, he's just been.

Yeah, I wouldn't say he is. I just wanted to get to the song. With all due respect, I agree. Mariotta doesn't get to throw to Mike Evans either. Right. So Tajay Sharp, you know, he's been faded at this point. Kindle Wright. I mean, you can't start anybody other than Delaney Walker, maybe, and DeMarco Murray. Yeah. On that side of the ball. I completely agree. And now they're traveling to Miami. I just, I fade everybody with DeMarco pretty much. Tanahill, Ajai, Landry.

The beat goes on for... Give me Landry. Give me Landry just about any game, any matchup. I'm fine with that. I believe his catches this season are 7, 7, 10, and 7? That's... But how many catches has he caught? Oh, Jason. This is a question for you. Let me do some math. 197. 197 caught catches. Yes. Very impressive. Landry is the only guy that you're confident to start here.

The Titans defense has been pretty okay, especially against the past, 12th in the league. They tend to keep these games to be a little lower scoring, and I think Vegas sees that as well with a 43.5 point over under. Not high expectations. Wouldn't feel good starting Devante Parker this week or stills.

And I wouldn't feel good starting any of the Dolphins running backs. If Arian Foster is healthy and practices the rest of the week in full and gets the start, I would not feel confident starting him against the Titans. And anything less than that is worse. I think if Drake or Ajai, you don't know, and you're not going to know until the game is over, who is the guy there? Maybe you assume it's Ajai. And if it is, maybe you're right. But it's in a bad matchup.

I don't, I'm staying away from the dolphins running back. Yeah, I have them currently ranked back to back 27, 28 this week. If I have to play one of them, I would prefer to go with the Jai. There was the report that Adam Gase has said, uh, hey guys, sorry about the four running backs. That doesn't work. It's never worked. It's never going to work. Yeah, that was awesome. I zeroed out Damien Williams this week. I think I think I gave him no touches as well. I think, I think Damien Williams doesn't touch the field. I don't think Pete touches the field. Yeah. Good.

Which that's at least a check mark for Ajai, a small check mark. Sure. But it's there. Yep. I think Drake's more explosive. Ajai is going to have better odds at getting that touchdown. So one more matchup and then the starts of the week, fellas. So let's talk Texans. Let's talk Vikings. Oh, look, I'll take the under. I'll take the under on the 40. On the 40 points. Yeah. Ooh, that's bold. Put me at 23 to 10. Okay. You know what I mean?

I think I'll take the under. The Vikings defense is decent. They're all right. No, they've been, they've been incredible. And I just. The Vikings are at home. Yeah, they're at home. Seven point favorites almost. We have not seen, we have not seen the Houston Texans travel well. We haven't seen their offense really. Well, they overpack every time. Yeah, that's a big mistake. You got to leave some of those. They drive to the wrong hotel sometimes. Yeah.

So, you know, I'm not liking any of the Texans. I mean, I'm not in love with any of them. I would start, I guess I would still start Fuller Hopkins and Lamar Miller if I needed to in kind of that, you know, third tier, that flex category. But I'm not loving any of them or expecting a big game for any of them. I think that's a fair summary. I'm putting Ryan Griffin.

on the radar for people this week. Griffin, when Osweiler is frightened and afraid, it was the Ryan Griffin show. I think they'll be losing. I think you're going to have an opportunity to just, I mean, the Vikings are going to give up the underneath passes like they did to Victor Cruz, who led the team last week and Bobby Rainey underneath because they were, I mean, I see that scenario being the exact same this week. And, you know, on the Minnesota side,

I've been telling people to sell digs since he blew up. The volume's never there for digs. For the whole season, he can have these big games, but I will say he's been fighting through groin injury, so I think that's really limited him. He's also fought through being, you know, slightly undersized for that number one type of wide receiver. I saw him targeted a couple times and didn't quite, you know, match up with Bradford last week. I think Rudolph is a guy that has a connection with Bradford.

Sure. And I'm not, I don't want to, mind you, Diggs is going to have his good games. I'm just saying yesterday I was talking to somebody, okay? And I was comparing Doug Baldwin with Stefan Diggs. Because the argument being made to me was that, look, Diggs is ranked the same as Baldwin right now. Oh, in total points? Sure. Yeah, yeah, your fantasy ranked through four weeks because Diggs has had a couple big weeks. I'd rather have Baldwin all day every day than I would Stefan Diggs. Do you guys disagree with that?

No, I completely agree with that. 100%. The dangerous, the overall ranking, which is good when I'm trying to sell a player. And it is nonsense when someone's trying to sell me a player. Darn right. Darn right. Welcome to trading. All right. A little snat. Snat. Something's got to give. Yeah, as you say, a stat nugget from this game. Bradford has a pass rating of 105.5, which is third in the league. Hey.

Sammy Biscuits. Texas defense has allowed the fourth worst passer rating. So something's got to give. I'm going to go with the home team. Yeah, I would personally do go with the home team. So I do think it will be the under, though. Any final thoughts or can we move on? Just real quick. I think Jerich McKinnon is still a fine play. The run defense for the Texans is not as strong as you would assume. In fact, they're 27th. And allowing yards for game. It's not my start of the week. McKinnon is number 10 for me this week.

Yeah, if there are some of those tight ends on waivers that, you know, we mentioned earlier, the Cameron Brates, Zach Ertz, if he's available, I would play them over Kyle Rudolph this game. The Houston Texans have not given up 35 yards in a total in a game to the tight end position. That's against Travis Kelsey, Zach Miller, Delaney Walker. Those are all good tight ends. Notable guys. All right. All right. Let's move on. Starts of the week.

I love our starts of the week, especially when they're Steve Smith. And he goes out and blows it up. All right. This week, let's start with, let's start at the tight-in position. We'll work backwards here. Tight-in start of the week. Mike, why don't you kick it off? I'm going with the aforementioned Gary. Hey, remember me? Barnage? Yeah. He's coming off games of 5 for 66, 7 for 57. Nothing. He hasn't blown up yet. But since Cody Kessler has taken over.

Barnage is getting regular usage, which is what you want out of a tight end. You got old Billy B coming in here being crafty with his defenses. And I think that could mean that the rookie has to go short to Gary Barnage even more than he normally would. So Andy was talking about scared Osweiler going to Griffin. I see Scared Kessler going to Gary Barnage. I think he's good for six catches in this game. I really do. I'm on board with you on that one. I'm going to give you mine. I'm going with Cameron Bray.

Yeah. Cameron Brate, he's got a Monday night football game. He is going to be up against it. That offense is going to be up against it against Carolina. And I think this is going to be one of those scenarios where, look, Cameron Bray has been the number two-eyed receiver for that team. The pass catcher, number two pass-catcher for that team. He has five catches in each of the last two weeks. He has two touchdowns between those weeks. And for me, seeing what they're doing with him without ASJ on the field anymore, where they're not splitting time, I mean, there was a lot of hype about Brate when it looked like ASJ would be down.

the depth chart. Now ASJ's gone. Who, by the way, might play for New York this week. Really? They could use a pass catcher, too. But Cameron Bray, he's my start of the week at the tight end position. I just think you're going to see enough volume there to get it done. So, Jason, I know I disagree with you on yours, so go ahead. Well, you know. Nice intro. My tight-in start of the week is the aforementioned Zach Ertz. I believe they held him out on purpose through the buy week. When you got a guy coming up. You mean they didn't play him in the by week?

I'm saying before the by week, they weren't going to rush him back so that he could have the extra time to heal up through the by week, come out strong. He's set to play week one, like Mike said. He was six for 58. He was the number two target there.

You've got a great matchup as well. Did you know that on the year the Detroit Lions have yet to have a game where they haven't given a touchdown to the tight end? In fact, they've given up six touchdowns just two tight ends in four games. I think the matchup aligns. He should be safe if he doesn't get a touchdown because he's got volume. And I think there's a great chance of him getting a touchdown. The only worry here at all is...

Are they bringing him back slowly from injury and he's going to play half the snaps? Maybe that's your worry, Andy. If that happens, then sure. But I believe from everything that I've seen that he's just back and he's playing and he's starting. It's not the same situation as like a Tyler Eifert that's missed the whole offseason and preseason in camp. And now he needs to get brought back slowly. So I am fine starting Zach Ertz this week. I love it. I have him top three as of right now. All right. I'm going to give you guys my wide receiver start of the week now.

I'm going to go with Amari Cooper. And this is a bit of a law of averages play. This is also the play where Jason Verrett is gone from the San Diego defense. Feel bad for him, but he's out for the season. He's a special talent. Amari Cooper is a special talent. I don't think you're going to see this balance of touchdowns where right now. Every touchdown at the wide receiver position has been Michael Crabtree. Carr, Derek Carr, number three quarterback.

San Diego's defense has given up a lot through the air. And I think this is the week that Marty Cooper and Crabtree C success, but I'm going to make Cooper my start of the week. And if I do choose between the two, I'm actually choosing Cooper this week. Oh, very interesting. I'll jump in here. I'm staying in the fire with Steve Smith, Senor.

Washington is very, very beatable. You have home flaco, like I said, it's much better than road flacko. And this is just a matter, Steve Smith has been ascending. You want players who are moving up. 11 targets the past two weeks. He showed that vintage Steve Smith, I got gasoline coming out my butt.

of infurious anger when he threw that guy down his scamper face. I've never heard that described that way. Well, you would be angry if it was happening to you. And that's why Steve Smith is very angry. That's impressive. But he had a great 50-yard touchdown. He's going to keep getting the targets and he's clearly healthy.

Yeah, no, I think all three of us like Steve Smith. He was very close to my start of the week. I'm seven in my ranking. My wide receiver start of the week is almost more of a stream of the week. I went a lot deeper. I'm not talking about this guy being like you've got to get him in your lineups, but I believe that Eddie Royal is a fine start this week. Because look, you've got the Colts matchup, right? The Colts have been pretty decent against wide receivers despite their injuries to their secondary. But they're not.