Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 2 Matchups, News

Is he worth, if he's sitting on your waiver wire, he's worth grabbing and seeing how week two goes. Absolutely. If he's on waiver wire, he is worth a pickup. Okay. Let's look here. We've got Demarius Thomas news. What's going on with Demarius Thomas? So they, Demerius Thomas, we've been watching. We're on hip watch with him and allegedly. Hip watch. Hip watch. Hip watch. Allegedly during practice. Hip watch.

You always give him the easy ones. I knew there was a joke there. I just couldn't get to it. He was seen grabbing his hip, grimacing during practice. However, Coobes has said that he should be starting on Sunday, and I think he'll play through it. Okay. All right. We'll see what happens. I mean, monitor. It's a great matchup if he plays. Whenever veterans miss or are limited on Wednesday,

That's just a, okay, I need to keep an eye out for Thursday and Friday. A lot of speculation in San Diego about who receives the Keenan Allen targets, the catches. Philip Rivers talked about Tyrell Williams. Oh. So we need him to catch a bunch of balls this year, a bunch of balls and have some huge days and big gains. That's interesting. He's an athletic freak. And so, you know, if he does end up getting involved, if the targets go his way, he is a fantasy relevant player. That's why we recommended picking him up.

Kindle Wright returned to practice. If Kendall Wright played the rest of the year, would you care? Nope. I would care from the standpoint of Tajay Sharp. You would? Yeah, absolutely. I think Kendall Wright, if he plays, he's going to be getting six to eight targets a game, and that's six to eight targets a game going away from someone else. Not expected to play week two. True. Tyler Eifert said yesterday he's still only running at half speed. It's likely a few more weeks before Tyler Eifert is back. I'd tell that to people too.

About your speed? If you watched me on the combine, I was just running half speed. That's right. Yeah, I remember that. I remember that. Now I have an explanation. That's really good. So we're going to jump right into the match. One other piece of news, just because I just looked it up. I was curious myself. Julius Thomas practiced in full. I am. So that's worth noting because he had the ankle injury. Yes, that is good. So we're going to talk through half the matchups, and we're going to give you our starts of the week for week two. Fantasy Forecast.

All right, time to dive in, everybody. Let's start with the Thursday night game tonight. Don't make me do it. You don't want to talk about Thursday night game? Yeah, look, come on, NFL. Put some high-scoring teams on Thursday night. The Jets and the Bills? Come on. You don't want to see Rex Ryan without his lap band? Here's the deal with the Bills and the Jets. So this is expected to be a low-scoring game.

And that was before the news that Sammy Watkins might not play. Well, he's going to play. That's what we reported, at least. Sure. Yeah, I mean, I still think there's a chance that he does not play. Some of the beatwriters have said that there's a chance based on how he's been practicing that he doesn't play. He says he's going to play. But, of course, the player is always going to say that. Regardless, if he's in, he's hobbled. If he's out.

the team is hobbled even more. You have Charles Clay who we should get an update on but was also struggling. He's questionable, but he got in two limited sessions Tuesday and Wednesday should be good to go. So you've got a hobbled team here that just went and played the Ravens. The bills would concede the game and just we wouldn't see one tonight. White flag it. I don't think so because I think Rex Ryan is on the very hot seat. Yes, he is. He needs to win. This is their home opener, right? They were.

On the road for the ratings? You said he gained 30 pounds since Rob Ryan came to his staff? No, is that true? Yeah. And then he had his lap band removed because there were complications with Rob Ryan's lap band. Wow. And so he did it in solidarity, which means he's going to be getting larger. I've gained 30 pounds since Jason joined the show. That's true. That's true. So there's an impact of weight on your, you know. On your colleagues? On your colleagues. Are you starting? Now, Ryan Fitzpatrick is a streamer.

consideration for me this week. He's always a consideration, but I'd look somewhere else this week. He gets production out of Forte and Powell out of the backfield. You got Marshall and Decker the best in the business in terms of, you know, just giving him that 200 to 2 kind of baseline. Yeah, I think he does have that baseline. The question here is amount of interceptions. He's been notoriously bad against Rex Ryan teams in the past. I believe it was the bills last year where he had that.

collapse game at the end of the season with three interceptions that ruined their chances at the playoffs. The big question here, guys, is LaShawn McCoy, because he has a tough matchup. We all like the Jets defensive front. You know, you combine Joe Bernard and Jeremy Hill and what they did against the Jets last week, and it was not good for fantasy owners. Now you have LaShawn McCoy, who on one hand, he looks like he's the entirety of the offense. On the other hand, it's a very bad matchup, and so I want to pose some decisions.

for you gentlemen this week. Would you start Spencer Ware or would you start LaShawn McCoy? Spencer Ware against Houston or LaShawn McCoy against the Jets. I would start LaShawn McCoy against the Jets. What about Ryan Matthews against Chicago or LaShawn McCoy against New York? Shady. Shady. You still would play Shady? Yeah. I think I would probably go Matthews there. Since our rankings went up, the most asked about guy for my rankings, my initial rankings, has been LaShawn McCoy.

And look, I think that the Jets have improved up in the front this year. But last year, Lashon McCoy, 19 carries, 112 yards, 5 receptions for 47 yards. And I haven't given Shady a bunch of yards. I've got his carry total. He's under 4 yards of carry, but like Andy said, I think he's the offense. I mean, and Tyrod Taylor is going to have to dump it off to him. I expect 4 to 5 receptions. I expect, you know, 60 or so yards on the ground with a chance to score.

And I'm not afraid of starting with Sean McCoy tonight. It should be a running back heavy game. And the guy that I like... Flip it to the other side. Yeah, the guy that I like the most out of all players in this game, I'm still... I guess the guy I like the most is still Brandon Marshall. Tough matchup, low-scoring game. I'm always starting Brandon Marshall. He's a locked and loaded. Look, you got him. You play him. If he has a bad week, please go trade for him. If he has a bad week this week...

You've got to get them on your roster. It's Matt Forte. But Matt Forte is the guy that I unexpectedly like the most here. I think because it's low scoring, you're going to have a lot of groundwork on both sides of the ball. Matt Forte was the Bell cow last week. He was clear. Bilal Powell did not sniff near a 50-50 split as was expected. And the Buffalo Bill's real strength, I think right now, is more their secondary than their D-line. So Forte should be, I mean, I think this is going to be a game where...

Defense scores almost as much as offense. And so if you get a defensive turnover that puts you down on the five, you got a good chance for a score. All right, Blaine Gabbert. Blaine Gabbert and the 49ers, the undefeated 49ers. They travel the country. They head to Carolina. They take on the Panthers. The Panthers coming off that very close loss. You know, this is not a good game for San Francisco. I am not excited about Hyde, and he's the only one I think about starting on this roster.

I'm steering clear of all 49ers. You know, I think Newton has a bounceback game. Jason, you really like J. Stu this week. I really like J. Stu this week. We'll talk about them later. I mean, the 49ers defense has instilled a little bit of fear in fantasy players because they shut down. They shut down Todd Gurley. Right. You know who they shut down week one last year?

Adrian Peterson. And then they stunk the rest of the year, especially when they went on the road. So I'm not worried about that. Now, Navar Bowman cannot clone himself. Oh, Bowman. He's so good. He is really good. But here's the deal. When the 49ers don't have to worry about a quarterback playing football.

You can put 10 guys in the box and say, okay, Todd Gurley, try and beat us. Exactly. You don't have to worry about Cam, right? You can't do that to the Panthers. I like Jonathan Stewart a lot. I will say this. Week one, I was impressed with the target totals for Kelvin Benjamin. He had 12 targets, which put him tied for fourth in the league after week one behind Alan Robinson, Jordan Matthews, and A.J. Green, you know, it just speaks to the fact that they're going to go to him. They have plays drawn up specifically for that.

extremely large frame of his and where do you have benjamin this week i have kelvin benjamin as i'm i'm surprised that i have him technically rated as a wide receiver two um he easily could be a wide receiver one mike has him as a wide receiver one at eight i do i have him the lowest yes you have him the lowest i really like kelvin benjamin i think he's going to get the targets in a game like this chance to score though i expect them to be up

I expect it to be a much easier game. And so there won't be the need for Kelvin as much as there was against Denver. The thing to remember, though, whenever we give that statement is you have to get up somehow. Yes. You have to establish a lead before you can sit on the run. Which is very easily why I like him. Let's talk about the Ravens traveling to Cleveland, taking on the Browns. This is a chance for the Ravens to start the season, 2 and 0.

They were my kind of pick, I think, in the bold predictions to make the playoffs. I think we all have said we like their bounce back chances this week. There are so many pieces on the Ravens that we could dedicate a show to figuring their offense out. You have, you know, Terrence West and Justin Forsett at the running back position. You got Wallace and Aiken and Perryman and Steve Smith. And then you've got Pitta now who had a lot of snaps in week one.

Break down what you're doing with the Ravens this week. Are you starting these guys? I'm guessing you're starting Forset. Yes, Forset is a start for me. All we have is the data from week one. And years and years of data of the Browns just not ever being solid. So if you have a Ravens offensive player, I'm probably going to start him. Forcet, I would have as a two.

I think that Steve Smith, Signore, it could be a sneaky start. He got targets and he got receptions, but he did not get yards last week. I think that can all turn around. And my question is, do you have confidence starting Dennis Pitta? No. No, not yet. I don't think there's a reason to. I don't have a problem with his matchup at all, but I just don't think that there is a reason to start him when there are so many good tight-end options available.

In my deeper leagues, including my dynasty league, I put in claims on Pitta. I feel like it's worth seeing. It's worth seeing what happens with him. I kind of agree with you, Jay. I mean, I think there are teams that are going to be asking the question of, oh, do I start Dennis Pitta or Vance McDonald? Or do I start Dennis Pitta or Kobe Fleener or Barnage because they were disappointed in those two weeks? You're saying, let's just wait on Pitta. Yeah, there's three guys that I like for the Ravens that I would be willing to start. And I agree with Mike. One of those would be Steve Smith. I actually think with this kind of a matchup, he could.

kind of get a little rejuvenation. And the other two are Justin Fawcett and Terrence West. I think they'll split the rock, and I think they'll both do well. While Mike Wallace had a good week one, Bashad Perriman was back practiced fully. So I think he gets more snaps. He only played like 20% of the snaps, something real low. So if they're just working him back slowly and gave him the Wednesday off for those reasons, then he might play a little bit more, eat into Mike Wallace. So those are the guys on that side of the ball I would care about.

Now, Josh McCown takes the helm for Cleveland, which means only good things to me for their passing offense. I still think they're going to be, because of Hugh Jackson, a offense that is predicated on the run. I think you're okay starting Isaiah Crowell as an RB3, RB2 candidate. Duke Johnson will be more involved in my opinion under McCown. They had a good rapport last year. And then you have the variables of, you know, Coleman and Pryor and the different options, you know, Barnage in the receiving game. So.

Yeah, don't get, don't bail on Barnage just yet. Please don't. And so I had 12 prior as my burner spot in our league of record during waivers. And the Josh McCown news was so interesting to me that I decided not to drop him for one of the, these hotter waiver wire guys. I want to see what Pryor can do with Josh McCown bombing it out to him. Last year, Gary Barnage and Duke Johnson were the huge beneficiaries. Duke Johnson averaged five.

receptions a game with Josh McCown. He's the guy that I think gets the biggest bump up. And you got to keep in mind, like, they're not going to be running the same exact offense. I mean, are you doing read options with Josh McCown? No. Like, that's just not going to be one of their play calls. And that was very common with RG3. So this is kind of, you have one week to kind of rebuild. I think you're going to see a vanilla offense. That's Gary Barnage. That's Duke Johnson to me. Yeah, I kind of, I think Terrell probably is worthless. Maybe.

So we'll see what happens. He might be, but I don't blame you for holding on to C, but then when Flash Gordon gets back. Yeah, absolutely. So before we get into the Titans and the Lions, I want to thank our sponsor, Pristine Auction. We're talking about them frequently on this show because they're the best memorabilia site on the internet.