Week 4 Matchups + TNF Pain, Wheel of Shame - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/27

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. He's back, baby. Had no idea if I would be. There are no dry runs over here. We just figure it out. We figure it out live. We're doing it live. Welcome into the fantasy footballers, Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway, back with you Friday, September 27th. And deucer's alley, one deucer short. Oh. I see owl. Yeah. I see Papa Josh. You can always see him from the glisten. I see a falcon bump. The falcon is not here today. Where could he possibly be? But we did a good job of representing him. We all know he's in a bathroom somewhere. Okay. All right. You know, we really got to find a more concise flushing sound that doesn't go forever.

Can we fade the flush? Fade it. Fade it. Fade the flush. Let it do its work. Oh, thank goodness. Another great intro to the show. That flush could have represented what I had to do with bleach in my eyeballs last night. I mean, that was, what the world was that? Thursday night fart ball. That was the, it was the worst. I'm not kidding. I'm not kidding. I enjoyed none of that. I actually am thankful for a good night's rest. Very sleepy after watching that game. So boring. Oh, like a melatonin dose? It was, I was pure melatonin in the eyeballs. That was, it wasn't even, because I've seen, I tweeted this, I've seen worse football. There was some good football being played, but somehow the most boring, worthless, awful.

just trudge fest um i was on a radio show this morning uh and and jody was saying it was like groundhog day every single every single drive was the same you knew what was going to happen it just kept over and over and over the giants get the ball and they go very slowly very very slowly they can't be stopped until they're down on the other end of the field and then they're going to kick a just kill me It was like I've never been less happy with, I've been saying this all morning. I have C.D. Lamb. He was, he had 22 fantasy points in our league. That's great. He had 20 fantasy points with 11 minutes left in the second quarter, which meant I watched the rest of the game and those plotting stupid drives. And by the way, those drives included no value for Devin Singletary if you played him. Dude, the other weird part of the game is because I agree. I hated so much of the game.

Maybe part of that is because the game started with such excitement of, look, we had the Rico Dattle touchdown, my baby. Congratulations, Mike. This is a big moment for you. But here's the problem. It's just like C.D. Lamb, in the first quarter, had like almost 10 fantasy points. And then they never saw the ball. And C.D. Lamb has this huge touchdown. The Cowboys don't do anything. The East Coast dads missed nothing if they went to bed at halftime. I'm saying what's so wild is, like, Dack had a very serviceable game. It was, what sucks is it was on the way to an elite game. But it was just, it was okay, 220 and 2. Rico Doudal, 11 for 46 on the ground, one for 15 with a score through the air. Good game. Cidie Lamb, good game. Jake Ferguson caught all seven of his passes. You said neighbors? Malik neighbors. Awesome game. The only guy who didn't have a good game.

is the guy that should easily hit the easiest path to have a good game. 14 for 24 on the ground for Devin Singletary. He was atrocious. And the, you know, Daniel Jones completed a ton of short passes to Juan Dale Robinson, who Jason described as the worst. Yeah. I like to think of him as the DeAndre Swift of the wide receiver position. He does, he is actually really talented at getting open. He's a good player. Near the line of scrimmage. Like, that is, I mean, he can separate behind the line of scrimmage amazingly. I have never seen someone do less with more opportunity than him. That's fair. He had a lot of important plays. Like, he could have picked up this fourth down. He could have scored. He breaks one tackle on the third and goal where they set the play up by, you know, neighbors ran the defense off. They swing it to Wondale. If he breaks one tackle, he scores, and maybe.

maybe somebody wakes up to watch the rest of the football game. I feel like I've never in my life seen someone get 11 receptions and they're almost all screens and not break a tackle. I don't know if maybe in the, you know, PFF tracks all he had one broken tackle or whatever, but he didn't. He didn't get any yards from it. It was the third lowest fantasy production on that many receptions in like 15 years. So he basically, like this was what Elijah Moore was doing in Cleveland last year. I mean, name a wide receiver that is the most mediocre, just a guy, veteran, you know, third stringer who's just been around for six years from team to team. Name any wide receiver. Can you think of? No, I don't know where you're going. No, no, no. Like Rondale Moore? Well, no, no. I'm just saying like, like Reynolds, Josh Reynolds or any just a guy that's out there. It's like you'll break a couple tackles. If you get the ball 11 times, you.

You make one guy miss. Okay, but so I will, in the defense of Wondale Robinson, he's doing, he's running the plays that he is being asked to run. And it's, Daniel Jones is the one who can't get the ball down the field. And so, look, he had opportunity after opportunity to break a tackle. But hold on, listen to this. He's the first guy who a shoestring tackle actually meant a shoestring. Playing, playing the game of taking one play away from a player. It's a, it's a dangerous thing. Malik Neighbors was awesome, right? Yep. You realize his longest catch of the night was that huge 39-year reception. Wondale Robinson was 11 for 71. Malik was 12 for 115. Without that 40-yard catch, Malik is 11 for 76. No, I get it, but it was different. It's play calling. Yeah, I mean, this is what they're doing. But when you were actually watching it, Wondale had.

Like, like, Malik was getting the ball, like getting tackled. Wondale was getting the ball in space, space evaporated, and he got nowhere, no extra yards. Yeah, anyways. It feels like we are focusing on the negative because we didn't enjoy the experience. And we're going to say it. It was so weird. We're going to say it. We wanted a better game than this. Nobody wanted to see 57 field goals. And all the penalties. It was sweet, fancy Moses just, you know what? At some point, refs, you're, it's done. Let them hold. Dude, just at some point, you go, well, we got to swallow these flags. We're done. We've, we've thrown the maximum amount of flags. We can throw. There should be a max flag. There should be, you've got like a utility belt and you have a limited amount. Yeah. Yeah, you don't get those back. You don't pick them up. If you use them on trash calls, you lose them for the big ones. 100%. I mean, it was. And then there's like a money, a money flag, like the money ball.

That one's worth double the penalty yards. And you don't know how much of this is, look, it's Thursday night, so they have less time to prepare. Maybe the teams are tired. Maybe there's, you know, there's more holding and all that. Well, the Malik neighbor's injury. I don't know if you guys. And Michael Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence. I mean, like this was a Thursday night. This is not the one they show when they pitch the. You know, the players union on Thursday night football, they don't show them this game. Right. Yeah, no, it was a pretty brutal slug fest for injuries. But man, I just, Malik neighbors took so many monstrous tackles in that game. And I was really surprised earlier in the game when he was like bent over his neck and he hit his head and he was kind of slow to get up. Then no one checked him on that. He did a good job of faking that thing out. Yeah, I mean, maybe he did a good job of popping up. But at the end of the game, important to note if you aren't aware or didn't see it.

He did leave, was ruled out at the end of the game with a concussion. So his status, I mean, at least he's got 10 days. He has the extra time. But, you know, most people miss the next week. But guess what? That was Thursday. This is Friday. Put Clan Friday. Oh, every Friday we give away $100 gift card to fantasy champs.com and a fantasy footballer's t-shirt to somebody that supports the show over at join the foot.com. And today's winner, Tristan. Simmons, Tristan Simmons, congratulations. You have won $100 to Fantasychamps.com. Congratulations. What a way to start your Friday. News and notes from Around the League. Presented by USAA Insurance. You guys ready for the rundown? Give it to us. All right. Jordan Love, limited on Thursday. He's, as of right now, they're calling him a game time decision. Very annoying. But it's like, okay, so just if Jordan Love,

plays is he into is he a top 10 plays the top 12 guy this week against minnesota no no it's a very difficult matchup but it does change the wide receiver options i mean i'm probably playing read either way but i'm more excited about read if love is is there i was going to say it doesn't change my start sits at wide receiver either against minnesota i'm playing read no matter what it changes your upside like you said but yeah i i know you are very anti christian watson christian watson to me goes from a flex option with love to just not

playable without him. Okay, I agree with that. That makes sense. Alvin Camara returned to practice on Thursday. All right. Deonté Johnson scared everybody. He was, he didn't play on Thursday with a groin injury, but the news came out later that he didn't practice due to field conditions. But isn't it his field? Like he was not his. Well, I'm just saying like this is their, their, their field, right? Aren't the. The. The field conditions are so bad he's like not practicing. What about everyone else? Well, yeah, clearly he was dealing with something and they didn't want to risk it. He had a. On the rainy, muddy field. I believe he was dealing with some type of groin injury back in August. Okay. So you guys aren't worried about this? I know. I'm not. I mean, you have to monitor it. Yeah. But I'm, he's in all my lineups. By the way, update on Bucky Irving, who missed practice. He is testing himself today early in practice. He says he is going to play on Sunday.

And so early on in practice, they say it's not limiting him yet. We need to monitor that as well. Roma Dunezay added to the injury report with a hip injury. He was limited. Like Deontay, I mean, Deontes is excusable, but you just don't like to see the people practicing on Wednesday and then not on Thursday, although it was limited. What if we just don't practice? A.J. Brown, Devonte Smith. That's worse. Not practicing on Thursday. I think we're expecting them both to miss the game. Yeah, that's the current expectation. So fire up your job on Dawson. Couldn't even get it out. No. Dallas Goddard, it is. Let's go, Goddard. All right, big names for the matchups coming up today that we need to talk about. We got news that Nico Collins was added to the injury report with a hamstring injury. Mike making the bitter beer face at the moment because he was not only.

in line for a monster performance, but he was Mike's pick during our Parte Parley. Yeah, so tread carefully, everybody. Justin Herbert remained limited with the high ankle sprain. Trey McBride already ruled out with the concussion. Devante Adams added to the injury report on Thursday with a hamstring. This is the fourth or fifth hamstring of the week. Big hamstring is. Big hamstring. Collecting checks right now. Sometimes it's the groin. Sometimes it's the hamstring. And I don't know if the weather conditions. You know, they tend to the hamstring. Yeah, I mean, we, you know, you saw this a couple weeks ago when, when in the middle of the week, AJ Brown was added to the, you know, Thursday injury report with a hamstring and he's missed weeks. So I wasn't he like immediately out though? Yeah, I mean, it is the weekend, but he was, he was D&P. It is very nice to see that they are limited with that. David Nujoku ruled out as well.

We were talking about Jake Ferguson's performance last night. Oh, man. Seven catches on seven targets, 49 yards. Yeah. In this tight end economy, guys, that's the top five showing. That is a monster performance. In this economy, I love that line, but no new joking, no Trey McBride, because we certainly didn't need them this week. Nah. I know Al Borland and I are facing one another in the league of record, and he's got Trey McBride, but never fear. Zach Ertz is here. Yeah, baby. In this economy, Zackertz is a pretty good guy to pick up. He had to get his mentor. You could do way worse. Because you know what? Guess what? Evan Ingram, unlikely to play. Next week looks promising. That is a quote. Yeah. Okay. George Kittle. Here we go. Here we go, baby. He expects the returning week four against the Patriots. Fantastic. I doubt.

Debo makes it back. There was some optimism this morning. He returns. Yeah, he returned to a limited practice yesterday. If I had to put my bet right now, I think George Kittle plays. Debo doesn't, but monitor it. Let's talk about the relevant thing that that pertains to as a Joanne Jennings manager in many leagues. A return of Kittle and a return of Debo. What do you do with... If they're both there, I don't think you can start Joanne Jennings. I know he had the monster performance, but this is a matchup against New England that is not a great matchup. Plus, you are favored by a ton. So if they get out to that lead and Jordan Mason has a good game to say, I'm going to take... What would Joanne Jennings be then? The third, the fourth read in the offense. I mean, he... You're not playing him if Debo's active? If Debo and Kittle are active. Now what if Debo? I mean, I think... If it's just Kittle, I think he's a flex play.

Okay, Debo is back at practice this morning. David Lombardi 40 minutes ago said he has a chance to return a week earlier than expected, but a lot rides on how the practice goes today. So we'll find out and we'll update you. Mike is there with you on Sunday morning on Sunday live. And we'll hopefully avoid any real surprises that morning to send Mike into a tornado of... Nah, man, that's what it's all about. That's the good stuff. Any other updates? I'm sure there's a hamstring of... Coming up on us. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. All right. Before we jump into the rest of the fantasy forecast, we also have the fantasy faceoff on today's show. Lots to talk about, lots of start-sit decisions to help you with. I did want to invite everybody to head over to join thefoot.com, become a member of our fantasy football community, gain access to the

every channel in the Discord server, a bonus episode of the podcast every week, a ton of in-season resources like the Streamfinder tool, the expanded StartSit tool. The strength of schedule. On Monday, we're going to talk a lot about the changes on the defensive side of the football, but the strength of schedule tool is starting to become very valuable. And then, of course, the brand new ultimate dashboard, which gives you a customized waiver wire ranking, gives you spot starts based on your league, gives you a lineup optimizer. All brand new for this year and for our supporters at join thefoot.com. We'll take a break and then we'll jump in. It's time for Fantasy Forecast, presented by Draft King Sportsbook. All right, the fantasy forecast. Getting ready to go here. Yesterday we covered the Saints, Falcons, Rams, Bears, Vikings, Packers, Steelers, Colts, Broncos, Jets, Eagles, Bucks, and Bengals, Panthers games. And I can't hear forecasts without...

wanting to pause for just a minute and throw the best wishes and prayers out for everybody in the Florida, southern part of the country right now with the hurricane making landfall. Stay safe, everybody. We're thinking of you. Jacksonville, they get to travel out of Florida. They're going to Houston. Jacksonville, O and three, Houston, two, and one. The game's in Houston and the Drafking Sportsbook line here. Houston minus six and a half. divisional game, the over under's 45 and a half. Jason, you're shaking your head. What's your reaction to this match? My reaction to this matchup is I think you've got to ask the question, do the Jaguars figure it out? Because right now they look like they're confused almost. You know, they've got personnel for a pass rush. They have no pass rush. They have personnel for a great offense. Their offense has sputtered. They seem like on both sides of the ball, they've kind of been figured out. And this dates back to the second half of last season.

Now, a divisional matchup, these two teams know each other better, and that means that the Jaguars know the Texans a little better. They've faced Strout a few times. They might have something up their sleeves for them. So you just have to ask yourself, is this the week that the Jaguars figured out? I don't think so. That's just me. You know, you've got to ask yourself. Do you think they do? I do not. Not in Houston. Last year, the road team, however, won both of the matchups between the two. So it just goes to show the divisional matchups can be quite different.

Jacksonville's up against it. You know, the way you describe their team personnel and problems, that screams coaching. That screams coaching and game plan to me. Problems at the quarterback from a confidence standpoint. But, Mike, do you believe that Jacksonville has an opportunity in this game? Are you trying to avoid Jacksonville players in the Houston matchup? They're 10th against the run, Houston so far this year, after being fifth against the run last year. potentially caps ETN's upside, but I know no one's benching him. Well, ETN is a, like, it's just your volume and you're hoping for the touchdown. That's where I am with Travis ETN right now because of how bad the offense has been. It is like, Brian Thomas, I'm going to play him. He had his, I think, career high in targets last week. Let me verify that. Brian Thomas, I mean, week three, yeah, nine. Oh, nine. Nine targets. I mean, it was, it was a throttling from the Buffalo Bills.

But like Brian Thomas has been good enough through three weeks and he's a rookie should be improving. Christian Kirk is like what is going on? I think this is an issue of the Jaguars of do you not know how? Do they forget on a week to week basis of who Christian Kirk is, what his abilities are? Because week one, four targets, one catch. Week two, three targets, one catch for negative one yards. And then in the route from Buffalo. Oh, hey, 10 targets, 8 for 79. It's so impossible to know what to do with Christian Kirk because historically for the Jags, since he's been there with the big contract that people thought he didn't deserve, he's been very good for them and he's been very good for fantasy. But he vanishes at the beginning. You have to take a, you know, a larger viewpoint. I mean, I would expect still with no Evan Ingram that.

They are going to involve him more than three targets. Last week, though, you kind of have to crumple up because what happened was... That's where I don't know what to do. I think you're looking at a flex option here for Christian Kirk. If I were to start... Mooney or Kirk? I would go Darnell Mooney there. He's leading the Falcons and receiving cards. I would also go Brian Thomas over both. Brian Thomas might not have had the targets that Krisha Kirk had last week, but when you watch him play, I'm waiting for the breakout because he is, he's just really, really good. Right now he ranks third in yards per out run behind only neighbors and bowers for the rookies. He's looked really good. So right now the situation, ETN, like you said, you might be touchdown dependent. Kirk, waiver. Brian Thomas, you can flex.

Would you play him or Pickens against Indianapolis? I'm assuming we'll go Pickens. Pickens for sure. On the other side of the football, and no one's starting Trevor Lawrence. I'm not sure Jacksonville should either. Stefan Biggs. Well, look, this is what we're going to talk about. Nico Collins was limited. If he plays in this football game, which I think he will right now. That's where I'm at. I think so too. It should be incredible for him. Tank Dell is, I did not practice and is not expected to play. Stefan Diggs is receiving lines at 60 yards. He's got 24 targets. Last week was a big week for him. He's had a disappearing week. He had the touchdown week. So through three weeks, what's your confidence level in Diggs in this game? It's very high based on Tank Dell. Right now, I'm expecting Tank Dell to not play. That was what they said even a couple days ago is that the expectation is he's probably going to miss this week with a painful rib injury primarily. And so if he's out and there's two guys here in a game where I think it lines up.

perfect for CJ Stroud. We talked about the Jacksonville Jaguars. They play a lot of man and they don't have a pass rush. That is where CJ Stroud can just sit back there and utilize great wide receivers to torch them. This would have been a great game for Tank Dell. It should be a great game for Nico Collins, who is awesome against man. And I do think Stefan Diggs will eat in this as well if it's just the two primary targets. Cam Acres looks like he's going to get to start again. And I want to go back to that question of Camakers because we have a slight update here. Okay. Just a partial? Well, James Palmer said Nico Collins was limited yesterday, but he's at practice. Joe Mixen is also out here as well. Whoa. That's the first time Mixon has been seen since the ankle spring. He was. No one could find him. Like Waldo. A couple days ago, he was listed as week to week.

I don't know that this, even if he gets, you know, a limited here. Eliminate on Friday. That probably speaks to him sitting out at least one more week. But, so you got to have the conversation then of, I'll still expect Joe Mixing to be out. And then with Damien Pierce not practicing as well, I think Kamakris is, he's a fine flex. Yeah, and foot clan members, we have the injury. Blitz podcast that comes out after we record this show. Matthew Betts, our injury expert, goes through all these big questions. So, you know, if you're part of Join the Foot, you know, you can take a look at that and add that to your podcast routine. Cam Acres to me, if he's alone, is a must start. Yeah. Oh, for sure. I mean, last week we talked about he was an okay-ish flex option because they were playing against the hard Minnesota defense. He got a touchdown.

This week against Jacksonville, so far, they're 29th on the season, and fantasy points allowed to running backs, averaging 25.6 points per game to opposing running backs. So yeah, Cam Acres is 100% in if. And what if Mixon, they're like, hey, Mixon's going to play, but he's going to be limited. The matchup is so good. If Mixon's going to play at all, if he is active, I will probably play Mixon and not play Cam Acres. All right, the Washington commanders at 2 and 1 travel to Arizona to take on the 1 and 2 Cardinals. And the Draft King Sportsbook line here, Arizona minus 3 and a half. The over under is 50. 50. I'm 50. Last time Arizona had a team implied point total this high in a 50 plus game was December. So this is like 27 points. Is there implied total? Washington at.

23 and a half. You said December. Yeah. Of 2021. I'm sorry. Sometimes I skip words. That was an important one because that's the... That wasn't a word. That was a number. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. It's been a long time. A number is a word. It is. But if it's written as a number, I wouldn't say it's a word. Oh, but I would. No, I wouldn't. If you write the number one or you write the word one out, I'm not saying... You don't write words, right? No, you can write numbers. A number's not a word? Al, Al, not that I trust you, but what do you think? I think Jason said it well. If you, if you write the number, the numeral one, it is not a word, but if you write O-N-E, that is a word. Yeah, I mean, Roman numerals. Those aren't Roman words. They're numerals. Right, yeah. That's true. And which is crazy because they're letters, which is like, blah. A number is a word such as T-W-O-N-I-N-E. Yeah, yeah. Or a symbol such as 1-3-47. All right, so it's a symbol.

A word is a symbol. No, no, the number is a symbol. Number is a symbol. And that number specifically symbolizes that it's been a long time since the Cardinals have been protected for 50 points, bringing it back around. So here we are. Jaden Daniels last week, so impressive. Probably not as impressive as the stat sheet as a passer. because a lot of their offense was like Daniel Jones at one point last night was 22 of 26 or 24 of 28. Did you think Daniel Jones was the best pass you've ever seen? Probably not. And last week there were two great downfield throws that Jay Daniels completed. Yeah, we're very good. I'm just saying like just be careful with your expectations. Arizona's defense so far. You know, it's okay. This game has a great over-under. There's a lot to look forward to.

Kyla Murray and Jane Daniels are both starts. Kyler's my start of the week. The passing line for Daniels is 212. And I certainly wouldn't feel confident enough throwing the over up there. That feels seem to me high. It does. I mean, he's been above that two of three weeks, but that does feel, I don't know. You got to get at least one of those huge downfield shots to connect. This is certainly a game where you hope it's not a trap game because this appears to be one where you want pieces on both sides of the ball. You want to put Brian Robinson in without.