Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 1 Matchups, News

But are you starting Tyrae Taylor with confidence this week against the Jets? I sure am. We'll talk about him a little bit later. Okay. I think that Taylor's, as long as he starts, I think that Taylor is a fine play. I mean, especially with heavily favored at home. Jordan Matthews is expected to play the Jets side. Here's the difficult thing about week one, right? We know that there's massive, massive turnover with.

with defensive units, with coaching, with philosophies on how they want to approach things the Jets want to lose. And just all kinds of different things have shifted up. And the data that we have to go on is last year's defense because we have nothing yet from this year. So the thing about week one is... Yeah, if Mike and I thought that the Saints defense was the same as last year, neither of us would have made them a contender. But you...

When you're making your start-sit decisions this week, play the guys you drafted to start. That's how I approach week one until I'm proven otherwise. I'm playing the guys that I meant to start. The only confident starts for me on the Buffalo side is actually LaShaul McCoy. And then I like Charles Clay. Yes. If you waded on tight-in, I really like Clay this week. I moved him up in my week one rankings.

On the other side, where's the confidence? Where's the starters? Powell. That's it. Yep. I mean, Forte is probably a fine play because he's going to get more snaps than people have hoped and expected over the entire offseason. So I think that he is a fine flex play. The bills were real bad against the run last. They were 29th against the run. They gave up 1.3 rushing touchdowns per game, which was second worst in the league.

So you could have a situation where Powell is very involved, but then Forte takes a touch. Yeah, I wouldn't. I mean, I need to go back and look at my rankings, but I believe Forte will be higher this week than Powell. Okay. All right. Can we move on? Yes, please. The Atlanta Falcons travel to Chicago to take on the Chicago Bears because they're from Chicago. That's how it works. Falcon's seven point favorites in this one, 49 point over under.

We get to see the defending NFC champions for the first time in 2017. Look, you're starting Matt Ryan in this game. You're starting Freeman. You're starting Julio. Are you starting Kevin Coleman in this match? I think he's a fine start. And again, defenses have turned over, but I don't think that the Bears have done enough to upgrade from their 27th.

run defense last year. So I think that both Freeman and Coleman are fine plays. Freeman is the preferable guy, but Coleman is a fine running back three type for me, but he always has massive upside every single week. Yeah, last year the Falcons running backs averaged just under 56 receiving yards per game, which was second best in the league.

Both of those running backs contributed in the passing game. How do you feel about the Falcons defense in this game? Do you feel like there's an opportunity there with Mike Glenn in his first matchup, or I mean his first start as the Chicago Bear? Are they kind of a sneaky streaming play on defense? I've drafted the Falcons in almost every single one of my leagues. That's right. You took them in our league of record, didn't you? Yeah. And their schedule after the Bears is pretty good as well. They're a young defense. They have.

Very athletic guys up front. I mean, if you watched the Falcons last year, but of course they made it to the Super Bowl, you realize that, yes, they lost the Super Bowl, but they were shutting down Tom Brady for three quarters. I mean, it ended poorly, but three quarters of dominating the Patriots. And Mike Glennon and the Chicago Bears are not the Patriots. They're just.

I think that the Falcons are going to be a very underrated defensive unit for fantasy this year. Yeah, there's still pieces of the bears that I would play. Obviously, Jordan Howard is an automatic stars. Did you say fangs? I did. Bears have fangs? Not really. You know, a sneaky start from the bear side of the ball to me is a bear with fangs would be terrifying. That would be terrifying.

If I'm out in the woods and I turn around and there's this bear and he's got these big fangs like a saber-toothed tiger. I'm an extra afraid. True blood. Thanks for that, Mike. We've got to draw some things on Jay Gris next time he's in here. No, but I was going to say Zach Miller, I think, is a sneaky star. Yes, thank you. The Atlanta Falcons for all their youth and, you know, they've got a great defense. They're not necessarily a defense that keeps.

the yardage down. Yeah, and I don't expect them to be able to cover the tight end well. Zach Miller has always been productive when he plays, which is rare. I believe he plays this week, so he should be okay. White or right? I'm going right. There's some news this morning about, you know, the confidence of the Chicago Bears offensive coordinator that Kevin White can be a number one. So they envision him as a number one. It's just a matter of what did you just do? I tried to flick.

Another bug away. We are being overrun in the studio. I was trying to flick him away. I just flipped him on my iPad. He was already on your iPad. All right. I think we were talking about Kevin White, so being distracted is fine. Kevin White, look, he's worth a pickup. He's worth a wait and see.

No, he is. He definitely is worth a pickup and a wait and see for sure. If Alshon Jeffrey was still on this roster, everybody would draft him and they'd draft him fairly high and say, oh my gosh, he'll figure out the Brian Hoyer to Hopkins connection. It'll be Glennon and it'll be Jeffrey. My concern for Kevin White is in no way Mike Glennon related. It's Kevin White related. Yes. Yeah, but the talent is still there and the reason he hasn't been able to get it done.

is injury. Yes. So, I mean, it's a rare situation for a guy to have played so little through the first two years and still be going. But because of his draft capital as a high first round draft pick, he gets the opportunity. He is definitely worth... That was like 10 years ago. Two years ago. It was definitely worth a wait and see. They're 25 years old. And if you can't do it now is the...

you know, he has the opportunity to do it. So I'm just saying like he's a player. Yeah, it's fair. If you talk about Robbie Anderson, this guy's got a lot more talent than Robbie Anderson does. And he's got a better quarterback throwing the ball. When he was in last year, he had a game of different quarterback, of course. But last year, I mean, nine targets, 14 targets. So yes, I will concede he is worth a pickup and a stash. But if you play him, you're asking to be sad. And yeah, that's probably true.

And I would hold off on Tariq Cohen for now. Of course. Just, just, he's a, he's a hold. Hold. All right, before we get to the next matchup, I want to thank today's sponsor, Draft, the studio sponsor, Play Draft. Look, they are the type of fantasy that you're used to, where you get to get together with other people and steal away picks.

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I'm sorry, let's talk about the Ravens and the Bengals. Let's talk about the Baltimore Ravens and the Bengals. Bangles at home, three-point favorites. I guess I'm a little surprised at that line. I would expect it to be a little bit larger for the Bengals at home. This is a 42.5 point over under, which maybe explains that a little bit. They're not looking at this game like it'll be a high-scoring affair in Vegas.

This is a team in Baltimore. We've talked about them earlier when we talked about the tight-in situation. They have just been a team that has to throw the ball early and often in these matchups over the last few years. Flacco coming off the injury, but healthy will start. They say, as they've been saying, that they want to run the ball more, that they're committing. Greg Roman's there now. They're committing to running the ball. Can they do this? Do you have confidence starting West? Woodhead.

Uh, yes. I mean, I have confidence. What is your feeling on the Ravens offense in general? Offense in general. Uh, it's cautiously optimistic because I believe in Joe Flacco as a real life quarterback. But the fact that he's a real boy. The fact that he is, he hasn't played, he hasn't spent any time with the team really this, this off season.

except for a couple practices. I mean, you have some caution. Are you going to have the same caution the first week Andrew Luck plays? Because he hasn't practiced. I certainly will. Andrew Luck's a bit of a better quarterback, especially for fantasy purposes. So it might be a little bit of a different situation. But the Ravens are, there are never players that you are overly excited to play. But the upside is real. Danny Woodhead.

is he's just, he just sneaks up there to running back one potential on a weekly basis, especially in a PPR. Terrence West is, he's not going to be exciting, but he's just, he's going to be a nice key cog in your offense. Macklin, you know, he, he could be great. We've seen Joe Flacko continuously over target his wide receiver one with Steve Smith. I mean, then Kamar Aiken took over and was a,

very usable guy. And Jeremy Macklin is still a talented wide receiver. However, we haven't seen anything. So I'm cautiously optimistic, but I'm plugging these guys in. Yeah, I'm much less optimistic in the offense. I do hope that Jeremy Macklin gets the targets and shows that he can, you know, do what he's done because I have him everywhere. He was dropping so late in drafts. I mean, if he, come on, Jeremy, be a clean piece of cake.

with the Baltimore Ravens. Outside of that, I mean, if I were Mr. Harbaugh, I feel like you have to run the ball because you're going to win with your defense. I think their defense is still okay. They've got a decent pass defense as far as personnel. Their safeties are nasty. Oh, yeah. Weddell and, you know, they've got good cornerbacks, Jimmy Smith and Brandon Carr.

So I feel like they're going to try to run the ball. And that's good for Terrence West. I think he should be okay in this game. On the other side of the ball for the Bengals. If you drafted Joe Mixon. Are you starting Joe Mixon? It's not the best matchup for him. You drafted him to start him. But I do believe he will get enough touches to. I think he has.