Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 11 Matchups, Disappointing WRs

And I'd be okay playing Jamal Williams if Time Montgomery is out, which he hasn't practiced all week. Let me ask you this. Are you still excited to play Javoris Allen if it comes out that Danny Woodhead is in fact playing? No. No. Jason was quick on that one. I mean, I'm not saying that. And Terrence West is back in practice. So let's bring them all back. Yeah. I'm not saying that when Danny Woodhead comes back, that Buck Allen's going to be irrelevant. But I will.

Is that like a wink wink? I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that if Danny Woodhead comes back, I'm not putting Buck Allen in my lineup. Because I, you know, we don't know the future, but there is a possibility that he loses 100% of the passing game work. And that's where he's been, you know, old reliable. So I'm not, you know, you got to monitor the Danny Woodhead situation. That being said, I think Alex Collins is going to keep that.

you know, first second down roll until proven otherwise. So I'm fine with Alex Collins in this game. Even with Terrence West returning to practice? Yes. Alex Collins, get this. Number one in the league in terms of the highest percentage of his rushes being over 10 yards. So he has 93 plays. 93 carries, but he has rushed for 10 or more yards on 17 of them. It's pretty good. Impressive. He's a rumbler. Yeah.

You can rumble down field. Packers' defense has allowed passes of 20 plus yards on 32 of 295 attempts. That's one of the worst totals in the league. Is there any upside for the pass catchers in Baltimore in Green Bay in the weather in this game? Joe Flacco's throwing the ball. Are you excited about playing Jeremy Macklin as a flex? Not excited. Yeah, I'm not excited about it. But I think you can do it. You're willing to click the button? Yes. I am willing to, you know, this is one of those deals where if you don't have any better options, he is a startable.

asset, but you're not, you're just, you're not projecting much for him. All right. Let's talk about this game in Houston, all right? This is a Pickham game right now. I think that's because, look, the Cardinals, the Texans, they have quarterback issues. Cardinals are four and five. They're taking on the three and six Texans. The season's falling apart for the Texans. It's on its way for the Cardinals, 40 point over under. There was some news this week. I think people are curious. David Johnson got the cast off, getting some range of motion back.

He is very ambitious to play this year. David Johnson does not want to miss the entire season. Yeah, well, the players want to play. Yeah. I can't imagine. But is there any fantasy relevance there? Yeah, I can't imagine a scenario where he comes back to great fantasy relevance or the team allowing him back. I don't know, maybe. Because the Cardinals, they're still technically in the wild card hunt. This is a matchup that they can win.

on the road playing against the Texans and now I would put him back at 500 who I mean crazy things have happened now guys I'm not counting on it though I just saw we got a one star review on iTunes oh no impossible because we recommended David Johnson oh well wait wait we and the world yeah yeah

Well, it's a little late. Week 11. This one could have come in a little earlier. They said before I listened to you, I always made the playoffs, but you guys recommended David Johnson. Now look at me. Well, I apologize. I apologize for the sadness that has taken over that person's soul. It's because you guys are homers. It's because we're homers. Oh, yeah. Thanks, Brooks.

Blaine Gabbert, Drew Stann, we still don't know who's starting. A decision is supposed to make. Oh, we're starting all the Cardinals tomorrow. I recommend all of them. I pump the brakes on Larry Fitzgerald. You don't touch another pass catcher there really. And so is it, do you feel confident starting Adrian Peterson as an RB2 this week against the Texans number one ranked against fantasy? No. Ryan defense. No, I don't. I really don't. It's on the road. I mean, he's going to be an RB2. You've seen the volume, right, this past week.

You know, when I pump the brakes on Adrian Peterson, he still had 21 carries, which is great. This is a longer week of rest. Part of my argument was not just that they're playing against the Seattle Rush defense last week, but it was that he had a very short time after 37 carries to rest his body. Now, because of that extra short week last week, and they played Thursday night, he's got an extra few days to be prepared for this game. So I'm not excited to play him.

because the Houston, Texas have a great rush defense. But he will get enough volume to be, you know, an RB2. So I'm not saying don't play. It's a game script thing there where, like, I don't know if he's going to be that successful. The blueprint for being the Cardinals is obvious. You just stop being here in Peterson. They can't do anything else. But the other side of the ball that we're going to talk about now, Tom Savage, Lamar Miller, the Andre Hopkins, and that offense, they're not doing very much. And so as opposed to a situation like in Seattle where you can get.

into a really, really upside-down game script. At least the game script could be neutral. It could be neutral or there could be a scenario where the Cardinals are leading in this game as opposed to the odds that you had predicted correctly about the Cardinals with Seattle. All that being said, RB2, RB3 fringe guy for me right now. I agree. The real question here that I think a lot of owners are going to have, and maybe they won't because, you know, you're talking about the number one wide receiver for fantasy football in the season.

But we had a huge discussion this morning about can you sit DeAndre Hopkins in this game if he's going to be matched up against Patrick Peterson. Andy, you have this decision in our league of record. You're toiling because you have other good options. It's only if you have other great options. But let's just bring up Crabtree, who is my start of the week at the wide receiver position this week. And you bring up Crabtree plays New England. Then you bring up Hopkins. And I'm looking at myself and I'm going,

This is a must win. Do I possibly, like the start your studs philosophy, right? You always put Hopkins in there. But the variables to this equation, not only is there the Tom Savage variable, who, by the way, if he comes out and I think he plays poorly in the first half, you could have a complete switch halfway through this game. I thought it was going to happen last game after four turnovers. That's a variable. Patrick Peterson.

Look, Hopkins doesn't move into the slot the way Doug Baldwin does. We looked up that line. Yeah, he'll be shadowed by Peterson. He'll be shadowed by Peterson. Now you go look at how Peterson is done against the wide receiver ones on the year. He's faced Des Bryant, who was like two for 12, but he had a touchdown. Mike Evans. Mike Evans scored his one play. He had a big play, but it wasn't on Peterson. Right. You had Alshon Jeffrey, completely shut down by Patrick Peterson. And you had Piergarsan shut down by Peterson.

But you had a couple situations where they scored a touchdown, Hopkins number one in the league in touchdowns. What do you do? How do I ascertain? Because here's what's going to happen. If I make the call right, the way I think it should be, which I think is Crabtree. I think Crabtree is a better play than Hopkins this week. Okay, maybe I'm right. But if I lose with Hopkins on my bench, that's going to be a tough pill to swallow. The mental exhaustion, the mental game certainly factors into it. But I think when you...

In your particular situation, which other people may have that as well, because Crabtree is a, you know, it was a fifth, six-round pick. Crabtree falls into Start Your Studs for me. So I'm okay playing Crabtree in a much better situation, a better matchup than Hopkins. So I would play Crabtree over Hopkins. But other than that, I mean, there's not a ton of guys who I think fit into the category of Start Your Studs who you probably have multiple ones of them.

Would you rather play Hopkins at home against Arizona and Patrick Peterson or AJ Green on the road against Denver? Green. Yeah. I think. Wow. That's a man. I would rather start. Yeah, I would go to AJ Green. Now, that being said, you might look at the Cardinals. You might look at the Cardinals defense and think, well, wait, wait, the Cardinals passing defense against wide receivers.

They're not very good. They're bad. And that's true, but it's never the number one because the Cardinals' defense have Patrick Peterson locking down whoever the opposing teams one is. And then they've got just garbage around him letting everybody fly. And this week, I think that's going to be Bruce Ellington. You have Will Fuller out.

He's not playing this week. That's kind of what the reports have been. And Bruce Ellington, who was, you know, a guy that I think two years ago before he got injured, Matt Harmon was really high on him. Eight targets two weeks in a row. Takes out of the number two spot.

Bill O'Brien came out, said they need to get him the ball more. He was very relevant on the field last week, and I think he played. He was relevant while Fuller was injured too. Very sneaky start this week. I've got him starting in our listener league. I'm excited about him. I'm with you, Jay. Because the Cardinals run a program. I don't know if you guys have even really heard of this. They run a program where they go out to all the local high schools and they fulfill the dreams of these guys, like get some early experience. They let them play. The cornerback on the other side? Yeah.

That's exactly how they run things. It's more of an internship. Yeah, exactly. You want to play across from Patrick Peterson? See what it's like? All right. So that being said, what do you think of Lamar Miller? What do you think of Fadorowitz back in the tight-in rotation there? Yeah, I'm not excited about Fadorowitz because you also have his name is escaping me right now. Stevenson, Anderson. Anderson. Stephen Anderson. Oh, well, that's why. There you go.

So it's not like a, I'm not back with the Matt Hatter. Lamar Miller, I think, is, he's fine as the volume play. Both of these teams, the Cardinals and the Texans are good, fantasy speaking, against opposing running backs. I wanted to circle back quick to Larry Fitzgerald while you have pumped the brakes on him, because I got a question in on Twitter that said, okay, Andy's pumped the brakes on Fitz, and Juju is a name who's been talked up.

on this show because we think he's emerging. But, but the rankings do say we would play Larry Fitzgerald over Juju Smith-Schuster or a guy like that. So I just wanted to, while you're pumping the brakes, I want you to talk about, you'll talk about those guys like, would you play Parker or Keenan Allen or these, these types of guys over fits?

Yeah, it's very easy to look at the Texans defense and see what they're giving up to the wide receiver position on the year and make fits and auto start in that situation. And I'm okay with that. If you want to roll with Larry Fitzgerald, that's fine. But we looked at it yesterday. The home road splits are massive, 12.2 fantasy points per game home road split for Larry Fitzgerald. Better at home. He's on the road in this game and then you have the variable of the Cardinals quarterback situation. For me,

It was just a simple, it's a confidence level thing. What do you need from that position? What's the better upside? Those are the things that determine Juju versus Larry Fitzgerald. Who do I think has the higher upside this week? I think it's actually Juju Smith-Schuster. Oh, for sure. Yes, he's the two in that offense, but you're playing a Tennessee defense that gives up a lot of points. And he's at home? What's the ceiling for the Cardinals on the road here? Are you scoring 20 points?

I think Pittsburgh can score 35 points. At least that's the upside there. So look, you're mitigating risk. Maybe you're saying I want to guarantee myself, you know, five for 50. I think Larry might be a better guarantee of five for 50 than Juju is. But this week, I lean Juju for the upside. And it's really hard to tell with a new quarterback. You know, I know we said.

We don't know who's going to be the starter, but it's going to be Blaine Gabbard. The news from Stanton, if you look at him talk, and he's like, you know, what percent are you at? And he's like, oh, I can't give a percentage. It's probably would be about as bad as my completion percentage right now is what he said. 15. Is that what he really said? Yeah, that's what he said. You know, but it does, it does make me wonder, like, because of the Houston.

defense at wide receiver. Maybe John Brown is another sneaky play, kind of like the Bruce Ellington, John Brown. I think we saw some of that in preseason. Yeah. Yeah, we'll see. You're not going to feel good about it. No. I'm excited for this game. The Rams and Vikings, Jared God, Case Keenum, both team seven and two. Vikings, two and a half point favorites at home. I apologize. I would play Big Gresh, though.

If you're in a desperate situation, even with them going to playing. You always say that, but I don't know if everybody knows who you're talking about. Oh, thank you. Germain Gresham, Big Gresh. Tight in. Arizona Cardinals. Yeah. Getting more involved. Okay. Can we talk about this other more exciting game? Yes, this is a much better. Vikings, Rams. Vikings, two and a half point favorites. All revenge game. 46 point over under. Yeah. Jeff Fisher's not there. His revenge game is going to be different. Wherever Jeff Fisher lands someday.