Starts of the Week + Week 10 Breakdown, Cake or Cupcake - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/12

No matter what. It doesn't matter if it's Echler or Justin Jackson. It's like, hey, Coach. Coach Lynn. Justin Jackson just went out for the game. You think this is the time I get my shot? No. No, Josh. You're our number two running back. We've got Kalin Belage here. We scooped them up from the Jets. Yeah, I mean, it does make it murky, like you said, between trying to figure out if they would play.

Kalin Belage or Tremaine Pope in this matchup. If I had to guess, how do you possibly guess? Because I would guess Pope. What I saw from Pope before he got injured was really good. He was very good for their team. And then he got injured. And then they brought up Kalin Belage. So it was Pope ahead of him. But then Belage did really well. Belage still can't catch, though.

That is true. Drain Pope caught five of his seven targets. It's only got 28 yards on that a couple weeks ago against Denver, but I would put the money on Pope. Fellas that did not practice on Wednesday, Antonio Gibson has a shoulder injury. For him, it's just Wednesday. We're not going to panic just yet. More concerning, though, Kenny Galladay held out, and he already missed a week. Joe Mixon has missed two weeks.

and had a buy week. It had the buy week and then mispractice. That is a very bad sign. Make sure Giovanni Bernard is rostered in the week. Darrell Henderson, same thing. Knocked out a couple weeks ago, had the buy week to rest. Still have to monitor that. Then the other guys we're not yet concerned about, but stay tuned. We will update you when we can. Also, if you want more information about injuries.

We do fantasy football here. But we have someone we work with. His name is Matthew Betts. He is a certified PT. And he puts out a weekly episode, breaking down injuries, giving his opinion from the medical side of things. And that is a podcast that is exclusive for some supporters over at jointhefoot.com. So if you want in on that, it's been incredibly helpful. The feedback on it has been tremendous. So if you want to check that out, that would be.

Jointhefoot.com. Jason, are you ready for some matchups? Or do we have more news? Well, we've got a little bit of updates on the Thursday night game, the game tonight. T.Y. Hilton will play. Jack Doyle. Hooray. You know, you say hooray, but it's like this matchup is so good for wide receivers. I mean, I don't love Philip Rivers, but he's got to done before. I'm not playing T. Y. Hilton, but I wouldn't be surprised if he actually made a little bit of noise. Moe Alley Cox.

dealing with a knee issue. He practiced him full. He should be good to go. Probably because his knees are so gigantic. Yeah. I mean, you try to have that big. And then in unfortunate sad news, Corey Davis's brother just passed away. We have not heard whether or not this will put Corey Davis's status in jeopardy. But if you have him right now in your lineup.

You need to at least be aware that there's a chance. Maybe he could not play. Just pay attention to the news and leading up to game time. Fantasy forecast. All right. On by this week, the Falcons, the boys, Kansas City, and the New York Jets. The first matchup we want to talk about the Houston Texans versus the Cleveland Browns. We have a 49 point over under. The Cleveland Browns are 5 and 3. Houston is 2 and 6.

And that means that the Cleveland Browns are favored by just over a field goal. We got three and a half points. What are your storylines that you are looking at from this game, Jay? Well, I was very excited to see what Baker could do without O'Dell Beckham. That was one of the things I was looking at the most because the Houston Texans defense has really just been bad across the board. It doesn't matter if you're saying, well, are they bad against the running game or the passing game or tight-ins or quarterbacks or what? Sure. Sure.

Yes, they are bad against all of those positions. And so I was actually really excited to see this Brown's offense click with the passing game coming from the running game. Unfortunately, one of my storylines for this game is, again, this being in Cleveland, projects to be a bad weather game with 22 mile an hour wins. So, you know, the passing game, you're probably dealing with more short stuff, which is fine, right? You've got Jarvis Landry and Austin Hooper. Great options.

But I do think that kind of gets in the way of the barn burner I was hoping for. Because when I looked last week at this matchup, this Houston, Texas Browns matchup, I thought was going to be a fantasy bonanza. And it seems like, you know, I'm still going to play the receiving game. But I'm tempering the expectations on both sides of the ball. Superstar running back, Nick Chubb, like we talked about in the news. He could be back this week. If he is activated.

He has activated for your fantasy football lineup. What does that do to Kareem Hunt? We've seen Kareem Hunt and Nick Chubb in three games. Opportunities for Kareem Hunt, 1911-19. Nick Chub being on the field, or I should say being active, has not stopped Kareem Hunt from eating. No, you play both of those players. Correct. This is Al Borland's between the trenches matchup of the week. What is? Look.

I saw that in our show dog. I didn't read it because I have no idea. Did I miss a meeting? No, this is. Al Borland's getting a segment now? This is a Borgogan special. Kyle, the editor, has deemed that. But basically, it's the biggest discrepancy of the week. Cleveland is third best in adjusted line yards. Their offensive line has been really good. Houston's defensive line is 31st best. So the gap should be wide in the running lanes.

should be open for the Cleveland Browns. And Al Borland is messaging me. He's claiming he had no idea what this was. Yeah, you know, I apologize. I said Kyle, the editor, put this in. Malarkey. I know it was out. I call nonsense on you. Al Borland put this in. Absolutely. On the other side of the ball for the running backs, David Johnson, he was in the concussion protocol. He got knocked out last week that turned into 81% of the snaps going to Duke Johnson. 20 opportunities.

And revenge game, Jason, Duke Johnson. Yeah. So let's break this down. If David Johnson is activated from his concussion or from the concussion protocol, you put him right back in. I will be extremely surprised if David Johnson is active for this game. I would agree with you. If he is activated from the concussion, he's in the lineup. But I think we should look at this game assuming that it will be Duke Johnson.

You know, so what confidence level are you playing Duke Johnson with right now? The last six weeks, the Browns have given up the 22nd most points to the running back position. Yeah, I mean, I have enough confidence. You saw him with 20 opportunities, 16 carries last week. He can catch the ball, although they don't really pass to the running back as much as you would like. But, you know, he's not a must-start player, but he's certainly someone that if you're like,

I've got some bad matchups. The opportunities will be there for him. He will be a three down back. And he's good. He's not a bad back. So I would absolutely play Duke Johnson. All right. Start sick questions, Jason. Duke Johnson without David there or J.K. Dobbins against the Patriots without Mark Ingram. That is a perfect example of where you're saying I don't feel like either as a must start. I would definitely go Duke Johnson there. All right. Duke Johnson.

without David or let's go Johnny Taylor. I knew it. I knew that was the name you were going to give. Did my cackle give it away? I thought it. I was looking at my list and I thought it beforehand. But once you cackled, it was like, oh, yeah, this is JTT. I would play Duke Johnson because of clarity. Just because, I mean, the problem is you won't know that tonight.

Because of the David Johnson injury. I just want to point out. That's a really good point. Just pointing out like where we are with Jonathan Taylor. Yeah. Well, actually, now that you bring that up, I almost wonder if you're backed into, because there is still a chance that David Johnson plays. And if that happens, Duke Johnson is pretty irrelevant. So you might, if those are your only two options, you might be forced in.

to playing JTT. But if I knew David Johnson was out, I would certainly pick Duke Johnson. Will Fuller, you play him. Brandon Cooks, since we ceremoniously retired him. Brandon Cooks, he has been bawling out. The past four weeks, he's the wide receiver six in fantasy points per game. He found his mojo. He got his groove back. You play him without question. I really like Jarvis Landry. I'm going to talk about him in the start of the week section.

Any chance you're playing Richard Higgins, Jason. You like Austin Hooper. I really like Austin Hooper as well. Don't really need to break him down. But Richard Higgins. Six for 110 when Beckham went out. Week 8 was the weather game. Got to kind of throw that into the garbage. Granted, this might be another weathery game. The last six weeks, the Houston Texans.

30th against fantasy wide receivers giving up over 40 points a game to the position. Yeah, that's why I was really excited for what Baker could do in this matchup. But with the weather and with the fact that Higgins has a long history of big games and then disappearing, I don't feel like Higgins is someone that I can trust here. Let's say that we wake up Sunday morning and they're saying, oh, the weather, the wind is just 15. 10 to 15 miles now.

15 is the barometer. That's where it starts to favor the running game over the passing game. If it was 10, then I would be more willing because the matchup is good. But we're close enough. I feel pretty confident. The way that their stadium is, it's like right on the Great Lake there. And wind specifically has an abnormal effect on quarterbacks in Cleveland.

versus a lot of the other windy city, and I'm not just talking to Chicago, games in open-air stadiums. I found that out when we had that massive weather week a couple weeks ago looking at data. So I do get concerned with the wind. Washington takes on Detroit. Washington's sitting at 2 and 6, just a fraction out of the division lead. Detroit sitting at 3 and 5. The lines are not...

fully certified yet because we don't know that it's Alex Smith. I mean, we know. We know. So it's similar to, we know that Christian McCaffrey is not going to play, but they can't put, anyways. So we're assuming that it is Alex Smith. He'll be taking on Matthew Stafford. He has, is this, we've vetted this. He has cleared the concussion protocol Brooks. Yes, sir. All right. So Maddie Stafford is back.

Not a great matchup for the quarterback position against Washington. Their defense holds it down. Seventh against fantasy quarterbacks, ninth against fantasy running backs, second against fantasy-wide receivers. Their weak point is the tight end, which speaks positively for T.J. Hawkinson, who is pretty close to a locked-in smash play, considering that Travis Kelsey is out. If you're talking about rankings, how is T.J. Hawkinson not in your...

Top five, if not your top three. If not your top two. I mean, you got Waller and then I think Hawkinson's next. He's next in my rankings. Yeah, so that's easy enough. Let's talk about the running back position. Antonio Gibson, J.D. McKissick. They are in such a good spot here. The Detroit Lions, the last six weeks giving up the most points to fantasy running backs. Unfortunately, we need more news on Antonio Gibson because he has the shoulder injury.

We know that they don't trust him on third down. The stat was he's seen, I think, one touch on third. That's not the fun one touch, though. No, it's not. But Gibson has been fine on the season. He really has. I know people are disappointed. They wanted him to be just outstanding and do the David Johnson thing where he comes in unexpected as a third round pick and dominates. He's the running back 15 on the season.

He's been solid week in, week out. He has the ability to get touchdowns. I'm playing both running backs in this matchup, assuming that Gibson is healthy. But J.D. McKissick is a guy that... He is in play. Yeah, he should be started unless you've got just great options, in which case, congratulations on having a good pivot on your bench. J.D. McKinsick, a brief look into the future is my start of the week at the running back position. But back to that start sit. Jady McKissick.

Antonio Gibson, we're going to say he's playing. Maybe he's a little bit banged up. McKissick or Duke Johnson without David Johnson. Hmm. Yeah. Like maybe a three-down roll for Duke. Yeah, I think I would take the three-down roll for Duke over J.D. McKissick, but I do like both. All righty. And then over on the other side, you have D'Andre Swift, who...