Starts of the Week + Week 3 Breakdown, Akers Reaction! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/21

But, Glenn, we have a really, really great episode for you today. We are glad you are here. Make sure you subscribe to the channel and just enjoy it. Hey, this is Patrick Mahomes, quarterback to the Kansas City Chief, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's football time. Yes, it is. We're back already. Yeah, I mean, I'm not going to complain about it. Uh, nope. Welcome into the show, the fantasy footballers podcast, Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway at his football time. We've got a Thursday night game previewed it yesterday. Mm-hmm. We've got a Thursday night football shalacking on the way. I was going to say sometimes we.

Sometimes we've been surprised. Yes, that is true, especially on Thursday night games. Sometimes we can, in the past, Thursday night games, a lot of times they can seem exciting. And then. I'll tell you. I'll tell you this. And then the game happens. You go, oh, that was kind of crappy. I took a more traditional route to all of my showdown lineups tonight, though. I didn't, I didn't bet on a surprise. Let's put it that way. I think you're right. I think there could be a shalacking on the way. I hope not. And that's just because the Giants didn't score for six quarters until the Cardinals executed the plan we put into place, which was accomplished the number one pick. Yeah, you combine that with losing Saquan and the San Francisco 49ers defense. It doesn't have a rosy outlook, but, you know, come on, Giants, surprise us. The left side of your offensive line.

Oh, yeah, they're missing that. Now, is that where that Bosa guy is, or? I imagine they will. Tonight it will be. They will figure it out. But lots to talk about. Yeah, they will. And we have, we've got a lot on today's show. Ducers are here. We got backwards cap alley today. Oh, we're backwards hats. Well, Brooks is. The other guys weren't. It's because he's an American bad boy. Yeah, he is. I mean, when I think of Brooks, and I think they named him Brooks for the alliteration because bad boy was coming. Bad boy Brooks. What's you going to do? Oh, boy. Is that a pack of smokes rolled up in your sleeve? Oh, yeah, it is. When you think of Brooks, you think of bad boys. I wish he was in a leather jacket. He's like, can I push the button to leave Ducer's Alley for goodness sake?

so he can hop on his bike and ride off into the sunset. Oh boy. All right. We've got stuff going on. Head over to Footclan giveaway.com. We're giving away a signed CMC jersey. Big news here and what better day to announce it. But by popular request, we have created. It's football time. And it's football time t-shirt. That is available. The shirt. Yes. The shirt. Shopballers.com. Andy Schneider, our designer extraordinaire, put up a shirt today. So you can pick up your It's Football Time. I've got two of them on the way already. I have no doubt. Both of them black, Jason. Oh, yes. I need to keep that closet consistent. All right. And you can follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers on Instagram. Instagram.com slash fantasy footballers. And you can watch the show on YouTube. YouTube.com slash is it fantasy footballers, Brooks? The.

It's the fantasy footballers. He took that out of the dock and you need to put that back in for me. What else do we have going on? We got news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Oh, do we have news? Yes, we do. Cam Acres has been traded to the Minnesota Vikings. It was a sixth round pick swap. Oh, I'm sorry. It was a sixth, seventh swap. But also, please state the year. Yeah, is, is it, it's next year, right? It's 2024 or did they just push it all the way out to 2025? Keep going. Wait, did they wanted a 2026, 6-7 pick swap? A 2026, 6-7 swap. So congratulations, L.A. You did it. You got something. You got something. You got a one pick better than the seventh round.

Three years from now, that is, that is crazy. So when you, when people are like, hey, the Vikings traded for Cam Acres. Did they? Right. Not really. So I will jump in because I imagine everyone is waiting for my reaction to Alexander Madison. Boston. Number one, no, it's, it's definitely not a positive move for Alexander Madison of Camacres coming in. But I do believe. that this is a far more of an indictment of like Ty Chandler and the backup running backs. Go back to the preseason and the Vikings kept saying over and over. We don't know who our second running back is. We know our starter is Madison. Who's number two? And then Ty Chandler, he had himself, you know, a really big preseason performance. And we all assumed, oh, whoa. Okay, clearly Ty Chandler is the number two on this team. And they still didn't.

immediately say this is our guy but Ty Chandler's not getting on the field like that's where it's interesting to me of the of course the community the fantasy football community wants to immediately say the Vikings have bailed on Alexander Madison well I'm looking at the larger story of this coaching staff had Madison last year like they've been around him for an entire season They gave him the contract knowing that Dalvin Cook is going to walk, saying we are comfortable moving into next year with you as the starter. And are they really going to give up on that plan in two games? Maybe. I mean, Alexander Madison has been incredibly inefficient, but he's also not getting opportunities. Is he not getting opportunities because he's inefficient? Or is he inefficient because he's not getting opportunities? That's a real chicken or egg thing to me.

But there when I go is he's, yes, he's being inefficient. Why wouldn't you try Ty Chandler out? Like, why wouldn't you put the backup running back on the field to see what they can do? And they just, they never did it. It's been all Alexander Madison. So that's what leads me to believe that this is more of a replacement for Ty Chandler. But now that Cam Acres is going to be there, over time, you have a guy who could. actually take over Madison's job, but I still think it's Madison's job. I don't necessarily agree with that. Is Madison the one? Sure. I think certainly to start, they're not going to bring Kamakers into the new system on short notice and throw them ahead of Alexander Madison. Camakers is not someone that you could possibly think about starting until after you have witnessed the Vikings make a complete shift and changeover.

But also, I don't know that Alexander Madison is someone you can really start while you have a competent backup or someone that the Vikings are talking up as a very confident backup. You know, their press conference today was talking about how excited they are to have him there, the downfield runner. They've also said we have not lost confidence in Alexander Madison. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But the thing is, so yesterday, hopefully this news broke around you. before, you know, making the trade, I talked about if you're one of those teams that lost multiple running backs and you're just, you've got nobody, maybe go try to trade for Alexander Madison on the cheap. Hopefully you found out this news before you pulled the trigger on any of that because I, right now I'm kind of hands off both of these players. Madison wasn't great on his own and he was playing 75% of snaps. Now I expect them to go to 60% of snaps and not get better.

Yeah, and again, I guess I disagree with Mike. I think he's terrible for Madison. I mean, I think it puts him in the category of, I mean, he needed massive volume to maybe help you. He was one of only two running backs to fail to record a single mistackle force through two games in the NFL. Minimum 15 attempts. Yeah, and so, I mean, I don't think it's a surprise. I mean, they were dead last in EPA per rush. They needed help. They flirted with some guys in the offseason. I don't think you can have any confidence. I mean, they say they haven't lost confidence in Alexander Madison. I have as a fantasy player because you're looking at them as a volume play. So, I mean, if you think about some other volume situations in the NFL and how would you approach them if Madison was added to those backfields. You know, if, I'm sorry, if, I'm sorry, if Acres was added to Tampa. Sure. Would your confidence?

be decreased in Rashad White? Of course, yeah. Yeah, I mean, unquestionably it would be. So, you know, I don't think that you can argue anything that it would be good for Madison. It's just a matter of what do you do with him now? I don't think you can trade him for anything. I think running backs are hard to come by. If he was on the waiver wire, you'd pick him up. It's just one of those things where you're going to have to wait, watch. I think people want to know what to do with Cam Acres. is Kaymaker's going to be a viable player for your roster at some point in time. And the odds are probably low there too. Yeah. Because they're throwing the ball so much. They're throwing the ball at the highest clip of any team in football. That was the other point of, I mean, they, again, are they not running because they can't run? Or are they not running because they've been so successful passing the ball? It's both. I mean, it's absolutely both. And so I am definitely, I'm not saying that this is positive for Alexander Madison. Like,

I'm not on that side. I'm like, oh, no, he's super secure. I just, I think it's more of a, we got to get another running back in here besides Madison. And Ty Chandler is not that guy for this team. So, but if he, if Madison's dropping down to 60% of the snaps and the play, the approach to the offense doesn't change, then it's catastrophic for Madison. Like if you're saying, we're going to take our 10 rushing attempts. And we're going to move those down or we're going to split those between Madison and Acres. And Acres can be out there for passing work as well. I think Acres is a better running back and he'll win the job. Yeah, Acres. It is certainly possible. I agree completely that Acres is the better running back. This staff has used Madison as a complete backup in the past when they had Dalvin Cook. This is also, you talk about adding somebody to fix Chandler.

Kevin O'Connell is familiar with Cam Acres. He pursued Cam Acres because he'd worked with him in L.A. Yeah. So to me, the prescription here for fantasy football players is you're going to hold on to Madison. You're going to hold on to Acres. You're probably going to be not excited and not wanting to play either for a while. But in a couple weeks, hopefully there is clarity to one of them winning the job and the other being relegated to simply a backup on the – you know, on the depth chart. Derek, you can still play Maddo. Like, I don't think Acres is playing this week. So if you were already, if you were going to be playing Madison this week, I think it's still the same plan. Which the game this week is a, it should be a shootout game. Derek Henner, we'll preview it today. I will echo Mike there. Since we disagreed with Mike on his total how much this hurts Madison take, I do think you can play Madison this week. Derek Henry was limited in practice with a toe injury. Wednesday, but.

First time I've heard anything about that. Yeah, that is not good. I will look up there last year's practice reports. I don't remember off the top of my head if they were listing him as injured, you know, as a specific injury last year when he missed Wednesday practices. This is bad because I think the matchup is just so juicy for him this week. Austin Echler did not practice on Wednesday. Get healthy. Any other thoughts? No, I just need them so bad. I've lost quite a few. I started with... Well, let's go, Justice Hill, dealing with turf toe. Could keep him out this week. He was my, he was my Eklah replacement. Well, actually, he was my J.K. Dobbins replacement. But I lost... Zach Moss was my Ecclid replacement. Oh, man. Yeah. I don't have a running back. I'll still win.

Bryce Young missed practice again. Second straight day. Ankle injury. Something to watch. They play Seattle. I was picking up the Seattle D anyways. The funny thing here is that I think a backup could be better for their offense. That's often the case with a rookie as they acclimate. So we'll see. Isaiah Pacheco didn't practice. Hamstring injury. Something to monitor. Cadarius, Tony, wouldn't you know, missed practice with a toe injury. and Odell Beckham didn't practice. We'll see if he's available this week. And Sequin officially out for Thursday night. Brandon Ayuk will be a game time decision for this one. Jason, did you say yesterday you believed he'll probably fight his way under the field? So I was not listening to you at all. I'm trying to find last year's Derek Henry practice reports, which apparently is very difficult to find one-year-old practice reports. But why don't you tell me again what the question was?

I was just asking if Iyuk you thought would be out there tonight. I do think I yuk will be out there. And again, I wouldn't play him. Also, Aaron Jones did not practice. Aaron Jones didn't. Christian Watson looked like he might be getting back. Yeah, he was, I think, doing more of an individual drill thing. But if, again, missing a Wednesday practice because of a lingering hamstring injury is not a good sign. It's not a good sign for the weekend. They did say it was a minor. hamstring injury when it happened, but you might be without him for another week. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Fantasy forecast. Well, let's give Jason a few more minutes to figure these practice reports out. Yeah, I'll be back by the end of the show, fellas. As we hop into the Tennessee matchup, the Titans, they take on the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland. You have...

A Draft King Sportsbook line, Cleveland minus three and a half. The overrunner is 39 and a half. It gives the Browns about 22 points and the Titans 18. You have a banged up Derek Henry. You have no Nick Chub anymore for the Browns moving forward. So we'll get to see the Jerome Ford situation. It's a bad, bad week to validate the pickup of Jerome Ford. Bad bad. And Barida. All the pickups have just had such bad matchups. I mean, it's pretty, you can be pretty assured Jerome Ford's going to have a bad week. Yeah, the Titans have been great against the running back position. And it's been a long time. Multiple years in a row, they pick up right where they left off last year. They have looked great against running backs. And part of why they are so good at shutting down the running backs. It's not just, like, they've got a good rush defense. But part of it is also they've got such a putrid secondary that teams are like,

Huh, do I want to have a hard time running the ball or should we just easily throw on them? And that's kind of what the game plan plays out. And then you lose Nick Chubb. I think this is going to be a pass-happy approach. I think, yeah, I think you're right. Deshaun Watson, I think he's going to have a big game. Yeah, I've totally softened from the reaction visually of that last game and moved into the matchup phase. And I think this is going to be a good game for Watson. He's going to have to, if he's going to have a good game, he'll have to throw it 60 times.

Because he's completing about half his passes. Well, I will say this. I think he's going to have a good game at home. Deshawn Watson looked like straight putrid garbage last week. Justin Fields looked worse. But when you're talking about fantasy versus reality, these are... Mobile quarterbacks that can put up big games in the right matchup. This is a right matchup. I almost made Deshaun Watson my start of the week. I didn't because of how bad he looked, but I still think you absolutely can play him. Week one against Cincinnati, he was the quarterback five. He still didn't look great. But this matchup is very good for him, very good for Mari Cooper, very bad for the running game. Tennessee's rush defense has not allowed a running back to hit 60 rushing yards since week three of last year.

Impressive. So that's, you're asking Jerome Ford to do a lot in that situation. It's a pass funnel D and that puts. I mean, Ford can still get it done in the passing game. That puts Elijah Moore on the map with the target share. It puts Amari Cooper squarely in the must start category, in my opinion. And then David DiJoku. haven't liked the involvement over the last two weeks. So I have in leagues where I took the shot on him or stacked him with Deshaun Watson, I've moved to the Zach Gertz category, I've moved to the Leporta, I've moved to other options. I don't know if you guys are in the same boat. Yeah, I think Najoku has proven through two weeks. He's a streaming option. You play him in the right matchups. This matchup isn't bad. So I don't think that you need to move on from Najoku this week. We, you know, we just talked up the passing game, and I think Najoku could have a.

a decent week right now, you're averaging 12.7 fantasy points through the first two weeks given up by the Titans at the tight-end position. So if that goes mostly to Nojoku, you'd be very happy with that. It's not an almost upset pick. It's something different, but I think Cleveland crushes Tennessee this week. Really? I really do. Derek Henry's banged up. Their defense, to me, Cleveland's defense has impressed me tremendously through two weeks. They lost last week, but it was on the back of two. Pittsburgh defensive scores. They're number two in the league in terms of fantasy points given up to quarterbacks. It's 11 points that are given up. The number four against fantasy wide receivers, which does not give me confidence. Like we've watched Ryan Tanna help play football. He looks terrible. We've watched Hopkins. Looks pretty terrible. The Chick-a-Conquot, not really. If he doesn't get the big play, he's invisible.

I just don't think they can score this week. So here's my... Do you have a different view? I do have a slightly different view. My counter argument to that would be that last season we saw the Browns really, really bad at stopping the run. Now, through two weeks, they've looked okay, but they played against Najee Harris, and they played in a rainy game in week one. So we haven't, I don't think their run-D has been tested this year. And if you want to test a run-D, you put up King Henry. And you say, hey, Derek, why don't you take the ball 30 times and see if the Cleveland Browns can stop you? They probably can't. And here's something I found out this morning. I had no idea. I told Mike to double check my work because it just seemed really surprising. Derek Henry, four consecutive years, year after year after year after year after year, has been significantly better on the road than at home.

I don't, it's surprising. Usually, you know, you want your running backs and home favorite winning games. But when they go on the road, they give the ball to Derek Henry. So this is going to be a real test for the Cleveland Rundee. Yeah, and well, the toe's going to be something to monitor as well. He's got nine more. Because the snaps have been, you know, we've seen Tajay Spears involvement. And by the way, I was reading you the numbers for the Browns defense last year inadvertently. where they were number two against quarterbacks and number four against whiteouts. This year they're number one against quarterbacks. They're giving up seven fantasy points a game to the quarterback position through two weeks and number two against whiteouts, just 16 points. So they've been they've been stout and I think at home, that's just my take. I think they're going to dominate. I could see that. I 100% could see them dominate. It's just a matter of Vrable slash Henry. So are you? Usually surprised. Are you with what we know of the Tennessee defense? They don't give up.

running backyards. Are you taking all of that fab you invested in Jerome Ford? And are you willing or courageous enough to set that down on the bench and play somebody like Zach Moss against Baltimore? Play somebody like Giovante against Miami or Madison, who you talked about earlier against the Chargers in a high over under. Because this game, it's got a low over under. It's a blarf game, as Mike would say. Yes. If I did the fab dump for Jerome Ford. I imagine I don't have those options. You could have Moss for sure. Yeah, Moss is a possibility. It's true. Like usually if you go and look at your leagues, someone paid insane amounts to, you know, everyone went out and put 25, 35, 40. And then there was one person in every league that was like 65 or 85 on Ford. And the reason they did that is because they.

have nobody to start. So you're probably forced to start him, but specific to those other names, I would start Alexander Madison ahead of them this week. The Falcons are 2 and O taking on the 101 in Detroit Lions in Detroit. Lions are three-point favorites. The overrunners 46 and a half. You've got Dan Campbell and the mustache in this one. And the testosterone be flowing. Oh, man. And who's going to outwork? Right. Who's going to fight harder? Who wants this win more? Here's what I'm excited about in this matchup, the running backs. I'm excited about the Bejohn Robinson, Jemir Gibbs, you know, top selections in the draft, rookies with a ton of upside and potential. I'm excited to see them on the field, on the same field. Falcons defense, it's been bad against the run. I think this is a huge opportunity for Jemir Gibbs. I don't want to sound like a broken record.

projecting the breakout for Gibbs, but it should come this week. David Montgomery is going to miss this game. Jamir Gibbs had nine targets last week. If you repeat the involvement and the progression that you see in Gibbs, it's inevitable. You're going to have a big game. Look, at home, with Amun Ra hurting, with no Montgomery, I think we're going to be talking about Jamir Gibbs. So Amin Ra, is a really important thing for Gibbs. If you look at where wide receivers are used on the field, you know, we talked about this a little bit with the correlation last season between the injuries of the Chargers. Austin Echler and Keenan Allen really affected one another. When Austin Echler, you know, misses a game, like last week, Keenan Allen was the wide receiver won. And when Keenan missed games last year,

Echler went bananas with his targets. But it didn't happen with Mike Williams because they're kind of that same timing route, short, get it out, call this play designed for him. And so if Amun Ra is at 75% and they know that, then I do think Gibbs is more involved in the passing game. I mean, you have injuries up and down this offense. Josh Reynolds missed practice with a groin injury. Ahman Ra missed with the toe. Montgomery missed with the thigh. We're building a whole anatomy situation here. Okay, so let me ask you this. Sam Leporta, their rookie tight end, or the previous matchup in a good matchup as well, David Njoku. I'll take Leporta. I don't blame you there. I'm going to get five catches from Leporta. I just am hoping that he's got some yards and he's in the Inza. Yeah, yeah. I don't blame you. I worry a little bit. That's how I would do it. So.

This will be really interesting to me. My worry with the Falcons, they've done such a good job controlling the clock, controlling the plays. Their defense is not a great personnel grouping, but the way that Arthur Smith is handling these games, his offense is part of his defense. Like it or not, that's why he wants to run the ball so much, take the ball out of the other team's hands, give them fewer scoring opportunities, and he succeeded with it. Now, the Lions last year were... so good at stopping the run. And even this year, while they've given up a little bit more than they did last year, it is their strength. You throw on them, it is very, very similar to the Titans. So I'm just really interested to see if this will hit the over. Or I could see it being a lower scoring game and being really depressing. Arthur Smith is stubborn. Arthur Smith is not going to look at.

the lions are better at stopping this or stopping that. He's just going to run his game plan, and it always works, and they're always in the game, and Bejohn is so good that you can give him the ball in this matchup, and I don't believe you're going to see unless Detroit puts up big, big points early. I don't think you're going to see any kind of game plan change. Desmond Ritter is one of the most annoying players in football to me, because I have to give them credit for winning the ball game. And yet when I watch Desmond Ritter, he makes me want to stab my eyes out sometimes. 7.6% of his passes are deemed turnover worthy by pro football focus, which is the highest in the NFL. And yet, this is like Nick Foles magic. There's only one. He only has one interception. There's no quarterback that I think the ball's been tipped from that isn't tipped more than Desmond Ritter. Are you talking about top 10 fantasy quarterback last week, Desmond Ritter? Oh, please no. Yeah, he was the quarterback 10.

Did he throw any touchdowns? Just snuck it. He did throw one. He threw a touchdown. The Drake. Oh, to Drake London. He also rushed for a touchdown. I don't imagine that you would ever start Desmond Redder, even in a two-quarterback league. No, not right now. But the matchup is good for all receiving options. So if you're talking about Drake London, if you're talking about. Are we talking about Mr. Pitts? We shouldn't be. But I think we are. We are. Eight targets through two weeks. We'll make a bet later or something. Yeah, I'm sure. Jake London, bounced back week six for 67 last week. You know, the fact that Vegas has this game at 46 and a half despite all of those variables. It is strange. It's encouraging to me because, you know, I don't think that Detroit's going to have a problem scoring even with the fact that they're missing some players. So just a matter of whether Bijon goes to work.