Week 3 Matchups + Wheel of Shame, The Yeti Rises? - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/23

On today's episode, there is a lot. We got to break down that crazy Thursday night matchup, a whole bunch of injury news to cover, and of course the rest of the matchups, and you do not want to miss the end of the show. Jason Moore, he may have switched his favorite team. You'll have to stay tuned to find out what that's about. Subscribe to this channel. Leave us a comment and enjoy the show. The Fantasy Footballer Studio is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Visit Samsung.com to learn more. the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Friday, September 23rd. I looked Jason Moore directly in the eyes when I introduced the show. That was a welcome specifically for Jason. Wow. The Andy Holloway welcomed me into the show. I am so...

Happy, hey, check this out. I chopped liver over here? What's going on? No, I was about to just introduce you. Okay. Mike, welcome to this show. We missed you yesterday. And because we missed you yesterday, we missed it's football time. We let the people down. We really let them down. I'm going to say the, I am, I'm not a Hyundai yet, but there was multiple disturbances in the force yesterday that, that rose me from my, my slumber. Number one was just an overwhelming sense of emptiness where something needed to be there. And it just wasn't. And of course, it turns out its football time was very lacking. And then there was a much larger disturbance where it felt like I was giving some analysis that definitely was not something I would say. I don't know what you speak of. I haven't looked into it further. But it just was a real.

You had great analysis. Oh, did I? Yeah, you know, it's great stuff. Starts the week. We, you know, we took the mantle. You were, you were down and out. Yes. And as your friends, we wanted to share your insights. Good. I hope it was really helpful information that I would give. No question about it. A couple things here at the top before we recap last night's game and move on to more matchups. And, of course, Jason having to bear the shame of his rather... Very excited today. I don't know, pint-sized lineup, we'll call it from last week. I mean, this was... It was a Hafer. I'm excited for this week's shame. I've turned all the fear into excitement. Okay. Yeah, your psychiatrist told you to take that approach for... Right. Just to stop the tears. Okay. Sunday live. Every single week.

Mike, the fantasy hitman. If you go to ballerslive.com, you can get connected over there. But Mike will be live Sunday morning, Twitter, YouTube, and now TikTok, Mike. Yeah, baby. We figured it out. So do you have to do a dance for some of these questions? I don't know what the, does it require movement? I hadn't thought about that, but I will, I'll work something up. What's the latest song that's going on? I don't know, but you need two dances. You need a. You need a stardom dance and then you need some sort of sit-em move. Okay. I'll work it out. And maybe something with like a rainy day schedule. You know, if the weather's coming in. Well, Trey Lance is not playing this week. So I imagine it'll be clear skies across the nation. It is Friday. Foot Clan Friday. Shout out to the Foot Clan. Appreciate each and every one of you. And every Friday we say thank you with a giveaway.

To a supporter at jointhefoot.com today, the winner of a $100 gift card to Fantasychamps.com is Zerk 36. That is the name. Zerk. Zerk. Zerk. Zirk 3.6. It sounds like a Power Rangers villain. Yeah. Zerk. Let's go kill Zerk. Yeah. Okay. It's orphan time. But congratulations. You win a $100 gift card. Now we get to transition into what, I've been looking forward to the most on today's show. Oh, man. The Cleveland Browns beat the Pittsburgh Steelers last night, 29 to 17. Doesn't sound right for what the game was. And, uh, well, let's, let's look at the score with five seconds to go. The most consequential part of the night. Now, Jason and I, we have a, uh, a legal record matchup head to head. And Debbie Jason's just heavily favored, but I know what buttons to push to get the fear.

to kind of circulate within you. And that's the Buffalo Wild Wings button that you push at the end of the game? That is right. So I did push the Buffalo Wild Wings button at the end of the game. That's a good reference. I'm watching this game, and we're getting to the point where, like, Cleveland's defense was pretty good in the game. You could easily say that Pittsburgh's offense was really bad, but they weren't, no sacks. I mean, like, the first sack came like, I don't know, two minutes left in the game on one of these drives that Mitch Trubisky was trying to get down the field and no turnovers. And so I played the Cleveland defense against Jason and we're sitting here with like two points. And a couple minutes left in the game and I call Papa Josh. I'm like, let's go play some war zone. You know, Kyla Murray's on. Let's go play with him. Of course he's on. Yeah. I mean, he's always on. So we go on and Papa Josh. Are you on the microphone, Papa Josh? I am indeed. Okay.

Try to describe for me the sound I made with the final play of the game. Because I was watching it live while we were playing some war zone. And what did it sound like to you? It was jubilation. I'm not sure it sounded exactly like that. That was the death of a seagull. Yeah. No, that's the post-chipole sound you made. No, it was a very hearty giggle because on the final play of the game, The Brown's defense ends up with a fumble recovery and a touchdown puts up eight extra points. And Jason, you took that very poorly. I didn't like it. When you're when you're favorite in a matchup, the way that you lose is so often the defense. Like the unexpected.

Wow, you got a good score from your defense. And the fact that, so I was at my children's performance for the second half of the football game. So I was kind of following along on my phone. And after the bows, things were over. And I pull my phone out and I look at our matchup. And there are 15 seconds left in this game. And he scored two fantasy points. I was like, fantastic. And then I just, I put it away. I didn't even think about it. And then I found out later, I was like, you got 10 points. No, we're not partying here. This is bad news. This feels like an abuse of the party lights right now. Yeah, that last play, which was this like lateral disgusting fail pile. Can I spell, Mike, spell it out for them what actually happened on the play in terms of break it down. So I mean, they went hook and ladder. I mean, they didn't have really much choice. They had to score a touchdown. And.

So what ended up happening, so we got the Browns DST. That's a fumble recovery and a touchdown. So we have a plus eight points. I don't know if they were credited with the causing the fumble, because sometimes there's the plus one for causing it, plus one for recovering it. So seven or eight points, we'll see. Deonti Johnson did get a catch for eight yards. So. Congrats. Nice. Naji lost four yards and was credited with the fumble, so he lost 2.6 points. And Chase Claypool also lost a few yards, so he lost, you know, about half a point. Well, and I saw multiple people with parlays and things that had Steelers plus seven and a half. Yes. Saw many, many of those also saw the draft kings winning lineups.

Did you guys see that note? What did the Cleveland defense lead somebody to victory? So the people at the top were splitting the milly and they were going to be splitting about a quarter of a million dollars. That was the split. They weren't splitting that. They were splitting the million and they were going to take about a quarter of a million home. And then the touchdown changed those lineups to win about $700. Oh, because how many ties? Because they got out of first place. Oh, my goodness. Well, it was brutal. It was brutal unless you had the Cleveland D and then you were happy. Nick Chubb 23 for 113 and 1. He's a stud. Yeah, he is. And I had somebody on Twitter say like, you know, footballers, why is it crickets about Nick Chubb? He's the best fantasy running back out there. No, he's not. Right.

He might be the best running back out there. Which we've said many times. If you look on our website, we give you a consistency metric for Nick Chubb. 64% of the time over his last 17 games, he's given you more than 10.5 points. That's a pretty good consistency for running back, but it's certainly not the best. And, you know, This game doesn't look as pretty on the fantasy score sheet if Kareem Hunt scores either of his goal line opportunities, which he didn't. He was stuffed twice on the goal line. They had to give a fourth down to Nick Chubb, who did get in. Otherwise, Nick Chubb, no catches in this game. That touchdown was the only one he had, so he's great. Yes. But translating that to fantasy, he's not at the top of the list because he doesn't catch the ball.

Well, and you want him in matchups like this where the other offense isn't going to score a lot because he is not game script proof as, you know, if they're down multi-scores and they've got to throw the ball more, that's really not his wheelhouse. So this matchup turned out well because, and this is worth discussing, the disgusting offense of the Pittsburgh Steelers. They are not able to do much. And, you know, I don't think this was. the Brown's just shutting them down. I think this is Mitchell Trubisky in a bad offensive line that on almost all matchups going forward is not going to be pretty. Well, you're right. And it's a problem. And there's going to be continued calls in Pittsburgh for the rookie to have an opportunity. Deonti Johnson in two consecutive weeks, very frustrated on the field. Still managed to put up eight for 84. But.

Touchdown opportunities are going down. Naji Harris, I don't think, has been over 60 yards in any of the three matchups. Yeah, the nice thing, Naji looked good. Like, he, you know, he had a problem getting through the offensive line for a lot of these carries. But his touchdown run in particular was, that was vintage Naji Harris, stiff arms, two defenders, and then just exploded. I think a cornerback as he, you know, paraded into the end zone. So he at least looked good. And the opportunities are still there, but he won't, you can't get the volume that Najee needs if this team is always going to be coming back from, from a deficit. And Ms. Trubisky is not the quarterback who dumps it off to Najee Harris all the time. Three catches yesterday in a, in a game where it seemed like Najee Harris.

If this were Big Ben, Najee Harris would have had six, seven receptions. Yeah, I mean, you can't get volume when you can't get first downs. That's just the drives over and you no longer have opportunities to touch the ball. When the change to the rookie comes, and I do believe it will happen. It will happen. I don't think that is the solve that you're looking for. Rookie, can he picket? I like Kenny Picket. I think he is much better than Trubisky going forward, a better prospect. And maybe it does bump it up. 5, 10%, but it's not going to, you know, it's not going to rescue this offense. On the other side of the ball, David and Joku, 9 for 89 with the score looked fantastic. This was the guy that we thought we could see during the off season. It's fantastic that it happened, but week three, if you drafted David and Joku, you already, you already dumped into the waiver wire. Jason's face is telling me, he did that.

No, no, no. This is telling me that Kyle Pitts game is coming. Why does that make you sad? Because I'm playing against Kyle Pitts. Andy's team is going to erupt. He's living in a full paranoia. Wow. But my point is this. He wants to beat me so bad. Get it together, man. I do want to beat you very, very badly. But no, my, my point is that. The metrics behind the scenes, routes run, you know, usage and participation of the offense, those numbers were really, really good for David and Joku, but the targets and the receptions and the yards, they just weren't there. And so it's one of those things where the same thing's happening for Kyle Pitts. Everything behind the scenes, the usage, the routes run, the participation in the offense is fantastic.

his good games are going to come. Well, the hard part was a lot of people bought it into Pat Frymuth, and he only had two catches, and they were both on the final drive of the game. Saved. Which, still, two for 41, not what you want. And so that's worth mentioning. George Pickens had a huge catch down the sideline, but again, not an option right now in this quarterback situation. Awesome catch. One of the best I've ever seen. Did you guys, yes, the catch was sensational. I mean, he definitely pushed off on that play, but who cares? That's what they do. But did you guys notice that? So George Pickens.

Before the game, he had the, he talked to the media, which is, or someone put it into the media. I don't know exactly how the comment got there, but of him saying, look, I'm always open. You need to throw me the ball. He was also mad on the sideline later. Did you notice how the offense started for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 12 personnel with George Pickens off the field? Yeah, I mean, you don't do that with Mike Tomlin. No, you don't. I'll say, and then Jalen Warren. I wanted to mention Jalen Warren real quick, running back depth piece for Pittsburgh. But got some opportunities in this game. One huge play called Back. Yep. That was a monster pass catching situation. It was 4 for 30 on the ground. I only say that because Benny Snells never looked close to as good as Jalen Warren did. And so if something happened to Najee Harris.

you probably have somebody that would actually put up some points. Yeah, we've been talking about Rashad White, or I have as a great stash player in case of an injury. Jalen Warren's one of the few guys that you know, should the starter go down, he's going to get the full workload. The difference, obviously, is that we just talked about how this offense is not going to be great, so it's still a limited workload. It's still an RB2, and I'm surprised we've gotten this far into the show, and Jason has not yet victory lapsed. His boy. Hanging with Mr. Cooper? Amari Cooper. Hang in with it to Mr. Cooper. Yeah, baby. Off of the atrocious week one, then week two, 37% of the targets, 35% of the targets against Pittsburgh looked good. Jacoby percent looked very competent. Last night, I don't know if that's a product of the Steelers not being able to get the defense that they want with T.J. Wad out. But Amari Cooper, if he's going to get 35% of the targets, that's top.

12 numbers. He's really good at football. He's a really good wide receiver. Now, if I can trade him high, I'm doing that because I don't trust. You're not just keeping? Well, I'm happy to be under 200 yards half the time. Exactly. 100% right. Berset is going to be at 200 on average every week. And you just don't want to split that up. If you can trade high on back-to-back hundred and a touchdown weeks, you got to cash in, even though I think Amari Cooper's great. Yeah, what were we talking about? Cooper versus Garrett Wilson. Uh, yes, yes. Yeah, we'll see how the rest of that goes. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Some of the injury updates and news will cover within the matchups, the individual matchups on today's show. But Christian McCaffrey, uh, sent panic. I'm sure through, this was the other disturbance in the force. Yes. At home yesterday. Dealing with some ankle stiffness. Now off the injury report and we'll play, but a little bit of fear. I'm like Carolina.

We talked about this earlier when he cut himself or when he got the cut from the cleat. Carolina beat reporters, please. Over eager. We are fragile in the fantasy football community. Make sure that all context for Christian McCaffrey is given. Do not tweet out McCaffrey added to injury report. Do not tweet that out without letting us know exactly what happened. Jacoby Myers didn't practice again on Thursday. So everybody that chased after him on the waiver wire, I don't know if he's going to play this week. It's looking uncertain. And then Gabe Davis, limited in practice, says he, quote, he's 100% optimistic play. So just 100% optimistic? Right, right. He's just wanting us to know he's a very positive dude. He's in great spirits. I'm 100% optimistic. He's good.

Right? I'm very optimistic about that. Josh Jacobs didn't practice due to an illness. Hunter Infro still in concussion protocol. That one matters because if you're not progressing through Thursday, it looks like you're probably not going to clear for this week. Michael Pittman should be back. Got another limited practice in on Thursday. We're expecting that, right? I sure am. And Jason, you have some sort of snow model update for us. Oh, baby. Breaking news. We're hitting the button for this. I am. This is big time news. Guys, this is where he's out with this matchup. We got, this isn't about the matchup solely. Sure. Just predominantly, not solely, but the, uh, the big news here is that there have been snowflakes hitting the ground in Vermont. We brought this up a while ago. Look, when snow hits the ground in Vermont, Derek Henry.

and the Yeti completes. He is. The metamorphosis happens. It happens. We talked about it all last year. Why is it Vermont? Yeah, I've never heard the Vermont until yesterday. Oh, yeah. This was something that was, it was mostly on the Fantasy Footballers DFS podcast, and by mostly I mean entirely. That is where this originates. There was a huge correlation shown because he is the Yeti and people figured he comes out in the snow and when the snow hits the ground of Vermont. He is awesome. And literally, today we got news that the first snowflakes are hitting the ground. So look, this, I know you're- I like the reasoning was, quote,

Because he is the Yeti. Yeah. Yes. Well, he couldn't become the Yeti until the snow hit. That's the part of the argument we concede. The fact that he is a Yeti. Yeah. He was hibernating. But now he's going to come out. So you're feeling very optimistic. Oh, Derek Henry's going to have a great game. Imagine a Yeti and all that like the size and the muscle and the fur in the summer. No, that would be uncomfortable. He has to stay human form. and then become the Yeti once. I like it, Mike, is now in on this. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I'm in on him being the Yeti. I don't, I still am. Well, don't worry, guys. Our own injury expert, Matthew Betts, we are sending him on location. We will have boots in the ground in the ground, not on the ground. Well, that's right. Because the snow. Oh, okay. You go into the ground. Thank you. He will be there next week for more on the snow model. Okay. Okay. Well, thank you for that report, Jason. I've got to give you the news more often. Mm-hmm.

That was today's news and notes, brought to you by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Let's do a quick break and we'll get into the matchups. You're going to beat me this week, Jason. You know that, right? I do not know that. I mean, congrats. And to you, sir. Uh-huh. Do you like any pizza this weekend? I will happily order you. This is pathetic. Well, no, I mean, I have no expectation of winning, Mike. Even with your freebie from the Browns last night? No, that could never happen. Okay. Let's get into the matchups. Fantasy forecast. Yesterday we covered the Texans, Bears, Raiders, Titans, Chiefs, Colts, Bills, dolphins, lions, Vikings, Ravens, Patriots, Bengals, Jets. So you can scroll down, click on yesterday's episode if you want to hear those matchup breakdowns. Eight games left, the Eagles at 2 and O taking on the Washington Commanders, the Draft King Sportsbook line here. Philadelphia, minus six on the road. Another road favorite, Jason. Over under is 40.

Seven and a half. Here we go. Jalen Hertz looked very good last week, particularly in the first half where they put up all their points. And, you know, in two games, 28 rush attempts for Jalen Hertz. That would be top 12 among running backs. That's nice. That is, he's been great. Three rushing touchdowns. What does he have? One passing touchdown in the year? That's correct. Yeah, just one. Yeah, I mean, it just shows you the, I don't know, the league winning ability. for Jalen Hertz. Because if there is a game where they have to really compete and he happens to throw a couple of touchdowns, the numbers are going to be ridiculous. Carson Wins gets the revenge game here? Yeah, I mean, he's playing against former team. I don't know if he gets revenge. He can't attempt it. Yeah, he will attempt it. Back to that quarterback three finishes by Carson Wins.

The weapons that he's throwing to are very good. Scott Turner has done a great job now that he's got weapons. Curtis Samuel has manufactured touches. Jehan Dodson has looked great for a first round rookie. And it's funny because Terry McLaren almost feels like the odd man out, even though he is the best wide receiver of the group. So if you want to stay in the flames with Carson Wince, and even though the Eagles defense has been very good so far, although I credit a lot of that with Kirk Cousins' own self. Sure. The Vikings as a whole. Yeah. I don't know that that's true. I don't think it was the Vikings as a whole. Well, when Irv Smith drops a touchdown pass down the field, he's included. Okay. I mean, Kirk Cuzzles made a perfect throw down the field and he would have had another touchdown pass. When you have a bunch of fadeaway jump shot, you know, how many interceptions were dropped too by the Eagles. But anyways, I do think that you could start Carson Wentz this week. I would start him over Tom Brady. That's been kind of the barometer check of.

Brady without all these weapons, you know, are you going to start him? And I think, you know, the golfs and the winces, I would rather have. Antonio Gibson, the RB12 and RB15, the first two weeks through two weeks of the season, the Eagles are giving up a lot of fantasy points to the running back position. You're comfortable starting him? Not comfortable. I will play him. He was the running back 15 because he scored and the running back scoring up. for the entire position was way, way down this past week. But we saw the game script completely flipped because they were not in command, so to speak, of most of the game. Thank you. And it was smooches. It was J.D. McKissick. And I expect that this is the game, or this is a type of game, that J.D. McKissick will be on the field a little bit more. You know, 46% of the snaps last week, seven targets. This, I mean, it's, Jaddy McKissick and Gibson are.

What do you think the game script is going to be? Do you think they will be in content? Like it's a tight game or they're going to be up. That's when Antonio Gibson will flourish. If they are trailing, it will be. You're really hoping that Gibson falls into the end zone. Otherwise, McKissick is going to take so much work away. Yeah, I'm happy to start Gibson in either situation. I realize it'll be better, obviously, if they are winning the game and up for Gibson, but he still had 18 opportunities this last week. So the utilization is there. He wasn't super efficient with it, but I'm pretty happy to start Gibson. Andy's almost upset of the wig. doubling down against the Eagles, eh? Yes, sir.

Washington at home. Six-point dogs. I like their opportunity here to keep up on the offensive side of the ball. It's a divisional matchup. I think it'll be close. We'll find out if I can go to 3-0 on the almost upsets. All right. The wide receiver, and so to answer the question, I think Gibson will have opportunities. McLaurin, Samuel, Dotson, all of them are in play for fantasy managers. Samuel, if he. puts another big game up. You're going to have three to start the season. That would be on fire. Yeah, that would be pretty impressive. And it would also put you in a position where, you know, McClorin is not a, not the bona fide leader in terms of fantasy production there. So that might, you know, you drafted him to be that. So I don't know how your view of Terry McLaren will change. Logan Thomas is he on the streaming radar. Yeah, a little bit. Scored last week, right? Yeah, the problem for Logan Thomas is the fact that they have three.

excellent wide receivers to go to. I know he came through last week, but he's still recovering from the ACL. I would, I'd prefer to see more, you know, more routes, more targets and things like that before I'm going to stream. Yeah, it was nice to see him on the field more, but three targets in, uh, or three, three receptions both weeks. You need a touchdown in order to have success. Miles Sanders. Yes, please. 15 and 20 opportunities in the last two weeks. I think this season he's still going to be mostly allergic to the end zone, but the opportunities have been there. Mike, you're into Miles Sanders this week. Yeah, Washington allowing seven and a half yards per carry. And like the opportunities have been there, like you said, 15 and 20 for Miles Sanders. It makes me think Jalen Hertz is going to run even better. Oh, yeah. I mean, Jalen Hertz is going to get his, but they have been going to Miles Sanders. It's a committee, but Miles Sanders is the clear leader of the committee. I agree.