Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 1 Fantasy Forecast, TNF Preview, News

Uh-oh. If you are a Mike Evans owner, you should be worried. Yeah, you should. Wouldn't you agree? Yeah, he set out of practice on Wednesday again with the hamstring that was not considered to be a problem. Uh, you, this, uh, this, this, this bodes well for a backup plan. And Vincent Jackson looks great. I'll say the backup plan is Vincent Jackson. Yeah. Yeah. So that might be my start of the week. And it already was, but we'll see. Tomorrow we're doing our official. Official.

official starts of the week. That is a great segment. That is my favorite segment of the week. So Mike Evans didn't practice, have a backup plan. Rams camp. Trey Mason didn't practice. So Benny Cunningham likely to get the start there. It's not a high ceiling type of situation for Benny Cunningham. But he gets to run against Seattle. Like I said, not a high team. But if he catches enough passes, he could put up a okay fantasy week.

In Friends with Zach Ertz news, Ladarius Green has a possible concussion, which puts him back in the same old, same old potential tight-in camp that, I mean, people have asked me when I say I liked Antonio Gates this year, right? Like Antonio Gates is being undrafted in leagues or he's being drafted late, number two tied in last year, very consistent, third most consistent tight-in last year. People are like, but Ladarius Green. Well, I feel like that's the same.

But, you know, but Zach Gertz, but Virgil Green, but, you know, let me see it first from a tight end. And Green has now got a concussion, which could hamper him a little bit in the early season, and then Gates will be back. So, I mean, Gates is fine to me. Yeah, I've never been on the Green train. Yeah, and that's a Stevie Johnson alert over in San Diego.

I just want to... Or Pina Allen. I'm really curious. That's a game I want to watch to see how those two guys are used and whose... Is it just going to be like a 50-50 usage and they're both used the same? Or does one guy really come out on top? Where I say Stevie, it's because I think he will be in the slot. And that's where Antonio Gates actually does a lot of his damage is from the slot, which is...

Which is why Green was an interesting option to start, because if he plays out of the slot and Philip Rivers goes to him. But Stevie Johnson, man, sneaky. Yeah. You underestimate the sneakiness. So Julian Edelman is absent from the week one injury report. Freaking Patriots, man. I watched the, what is it, doing work or what is it? Do your job with the Patriots? The video, I think Edelman cut that up. It was on last night. It was great. I got to record that. Every time.

We just talked about all the controversies and stuff. Every time I see anything on the Patriots with their coaches, with Belichette, I like fall in love all over again. Like I love, like the, what is the show on NFL Network, where they profile one per football life? I just threw a Sharpie against my computer. A football life? They did the one on Belichick. It was great.

It was just great. And then they did this one last night, and it went through the whole 2014 season. It went through all of those formation changes that they made in the playoffs against Baltimore and against the ones that are now banned. Yeah, but if you see what they did, it was nothing. It wasn't crazy. It was sneaky.

It was sneaky completely within the rules. Oh, yeah. I mean, Alabama did it last year. I didn't say it was cheating. Tons of them did it. And it's more on the defense for not recognizing it because they declare the eligible. They declare the ineligible. I just thought it was pretty neat. The whole thing, you know. I want the Patriots to lose two years in a row so that they can be on hard knocks. I would love. I mean, that would just be incredible. That's not happening. I know. Yeah, after the criticism that they get.

For anything. All right. Out of Giants camp, last bit of news here. ESPN Giants reporter Dan Graziano believes there's a good chance Victor Cruz does not play until week four. Mike has added a hashtag to this news bit and it says, show me your rubies. Ruben Randall baby. Yes. Late round. Randall. He's probably on your waiver wire and he is available and it's the number two target in the in the Ben Macon. He is a very good. Come on people. He's pretty good. I am excited though. The weight is.

Finally over. The NFL regular season kicks off today, which means that it is time to get up off of the couch and get down to the stadium. Do you have your tickets yet for opening weekend? Because it is not too late. And if not, you need to download the Seatgeek app today. It's the app that we use here. I've used it myself personally, and I love it. You download the Seat Geek app, and you can get $20.

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purchase. Every ticket is backed by a 100% guarantee. Go get that app and enter promo code footballers today. And before we get to the previews, we also want to talk quickly about Fandual. Fandual is the leader in one week fantasy football with more winners and more payouts than any other site. They're paying out 75 million buckaroonies every single week this football season. It's a salary cap format. Pick up any players you want for just one week. Entry fees start at $1.

Anybody can get in on this action that's very cheap. You can get in on... I think you can win upwards of $100,000 this week. And it's fantastic. Tweet us your lineups. We want to check out how people are doing. And this is what I need you to do, Foot Clan. This is the important part. Go to fanduil.com, click on the microphone in the upper right-hand corner. Use our code, ballers. That's ballers. Special offer for new users. Every dollar you deposit. Fanduel will match it with up to $200.

As you play, I mean, this is free money for fantastic, fantastic fun. Double up. We've been asked. We've been asked to speak to DFS and we're doing that. We have a daily dose segment coming out tomorrow with DFS News. Chris Meena of the Fantasy Sports Network will be on this show every week giving his most valuable insights to the DFS landscape each and every week. So let's go ahead and get into the game previews. Fantasy Forecast.

All right, it's time to preview some NFL football, give you the fantasy implications of these matchups, guys that we like, guys we don't like. Now, I want to preface this section by simply saying this. I do not believe it is wise for the average fantasy player to over-emphasize defensive matchups in week one and two and three of the new season. And that is simply on the basis that, yes, we do know which, we know kind of at the extremes.

We know which teams are going to be very good on defense or should be very good. We like Carolina. We know Seattle is consistently good. However, the middle...

It changes a lot. A lot of players step up. You have a rookie class that comes into a free agency. A lot of changes happen. And so this is one of the reasons why you never draft the defense too high in a draft. And this is the reason why we don't overemphasize it in the beginning of the season. Now, the matchups with defenses, that's going to be very important later in the season. And so I just want to make sure we preface that. So Steelers and Patriots, Thursday night football, it's going down tonight. I got to ask a quick question about this matchup. Big Brady or Big Ben.

Oh, man. I'm going to go with Brady, and here's why. I think that Big Ben, not having Martavis Bryant, not having Levium Bell. I love Big Ben this year, and I love the defense he's going to be thrown against tonight. But I think that Brady has something to prove. The running game is, you know, we don't even have any idea of who's going to be running the ball for New England. And we know that the Steelers defense isn't that good. So I think Brady is going to be lighting.

up the world today, and Julian Edelman looks healthy, so I'm going Brady. I know the over-under is very high, so if you have anybody involved in this game, you want them in. There's going to be fantasy points scored. I'm not a season-long Tom Brady guy, but I will take him tonight in this matchup versus the Steelers. I think that Danny Amadola is a sneaky play this week in PPR. Brandon LaFelle is out.

And out for a while. And Aaron Dobson has always underwhelmed. So who's going to be there? I mean, Amandola, it's going to be the short man patrol with Edelman and Amidola, just dinkin and dunking. And will, the question is, can the Steelers with an entire offseason put a plan together that stops Rob Grunkowski? Nope.

Nope is the answer. The Vegas. History says that doesn't happen, and they obviously struggled last year. They were 27th against the past, so we'll have to see if they improve in that regard. If you're in an 18-man league and need a tied-in, Scott Chandler is a flyer from the darkness. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I agree. And then are you starting DiAngelo Williams tonight if you're a love bell owner? Yes, I'll start him. He's going to get, the reports are that he'll get the ball, he'll get some touches. DeAngelo Williams or Shane Varene.

Williams. Burring. Berne. DeAngelo Williams. This is standard. I'm asking for standard. DeAngelo Williams. Danny Woodhead. Woodhead. Oh. See, I go Williams in all of those situations. Yeah. Williams, we think, is guaranteed some more touches, but I might go. Vegas is saying there's going to be 51.5 points. That's the over-under right now on the total spread. So there's going to be a lot of points put up in the game. That might bode better.

for Williams in that situation clearly. I just think it's going to be a passing matchup, is my whole thought. I think neither team is going to run the ball, but about two times each. All right. Last bit of, well, speaking to the run game before I move on to the next matchup, but I'm starting, this is hypothetical, I'm starting a Patriots running back tonight, and I need him to deliver fantasy-wise, or I'm going to lose my matchup, and it's going to be embarrassing. Where are you doing this? And when I say hypothetical, I'm speaking. Oh, I'm speaking.

Hypothetically. I know my answer. I don't lose matchups, Mike. Obviously, it's hypothetical. What's your answer? My answer is Dionne Lewis for the exact reason I just gave. I think this is going to be a passing game. I think they're going to have their passing back in, and I think Dionne Lewis is going to be the guy who's getting those short dump-offs. The hard part is that the reports and the speculation lean now towards Dionne Lewis, except in week three it was Brandon Bolden, who was in there getting all the snaps.

which we know for Bill Belichick means absolutely nothing for us as fantasy players. I would love to kind of discuss the running backs more, too, but we'll have to move on to the next match. I'll tell you, I'm covering my eyes while I click the submit button, and I'm putting Dionne-Lewson. I think it's Lawrence Maroney this week. It's not bad. It's going to be James White out of nowhere. All right, let's talk about a, what I think will be a very exciting game to watch because you've got the debut of Rex Ryan as the Bill's head coach. The Colts and the Bills, they're in Buffalo. This is not a,

You know, this is probably a bad matchup for the Colts as bad as it gets with the first game out of the gates going into Buffalo. Rex Ryan will be pumped up. That team will be pumped up. You're not sitting Andrew Luck in any situation, are you? No, I'm not. I've gotten surprisingly a high volume of, do I play Andrew Luck or do I play Sam Bradford? Tom Brady. And I say, well,

Personally, I would rather have Sam Bradford in my lineup, but are you really going to sit your first or second round pick down? I was going to say, do you want to pull your hair out of your head and cry into the night if you sit Andrew Luck down and he has a big game? Andrew Luck is the kind of guy who can get multiple touchdowns against any defense. But the question is, do you like T.Y. Hilton or Andre Johnson more in this particular matchup?

I like T.Y. Hilton, because I think against a good defense, I mean, you've got to have somebody that's going to break something off to have a lot of fantasy relevance. Andre Johnson probably ends up with more receptions this game, but they're all going to be small, you know, quick, you know, six, seven, eight, nine, ten yards, and a quick tackle. So I like the matchup of just the opportunity, you know, if the ceiling. If luck throws a nice bomb for a touchdown, which is absolutely capable against any team, it's