Fantasy Football - Starts of the Week + Week 2 Breakdown, Bounce-Backs - Podcast for 9/11

because Jaden Blue is the, he is the threat to Javante. I don't think it's not going to end up being Miles. It's just how long does it take for Jaden Blue to get integrated into this offense? Javante over Jalen Warren? I'm fine with that. Yeah, I'm fine with that. Tony Pollard against the Rams defense. You guys talked up the Rams defense. I'd probably play Javante. That one's really tough because Pollard looked so good, but the Rams defense is good. I lean Pollard there. I don't want to get fooled by two touchdowns from Giovante week one. And also, the snap percentage was absolutely elite for Giovante. But remember, they brought in Miles Sanders, and then he fumbled the ball. You think he got benched? If Miles Sanders had one carry, it would be too, too many. But my point is, I wonder if the numbers were just inflated week one, if they benched Miles Sanders for losing the fumble there. They should keep benching him. Well, sure, but maybe they don't. Yeah, okay.

CD Lamb, George Pickens, put them back out there. Jake Ferguson. It was a big dud in week one, five for 23. The targets are there. Should have caught a touchdown, though. I think you can go right back to him. He always should have caught a touchdown, man. Is that his whole? It is his superpower. The way that Jalen Wattle gets injured every game and then comes back every game, no one ever has more in zone red zone targets than Jake Ferguson with. No touchdowns. Like you can't just for. Dude's tired of getting blown up. You can't forever say like, oh man, if you look at the behind the scenes metrics, he should have like his expected touchdowns is like 800 more than he has. Well, are you playing him? Yeah. Sure. No, I mean, I think, you know, the targets, the offense, the, I presume they are favored. Yeah, they're four and a half point favorites. Yeah, he's a fine low end start. But honestly, a lot of the guys like Juan Johnson, I would play over him. Yeah.

I can agree with that. Malik Neighbors Limited on Wednesday. That's probably going to be a thing all season long, but he's going to play. Wondale Robinson did not practice on Wednesday. He should be able to play, but not for your lineup. And then Theo Johnson, how disappointed were you in the drops, Jason? I was very, I was playing on prize picks and I had a projection of one and a half and he didn't hit it. He didn't, he didn't get more. He should have. He certainly should have. He just had two super drops. I mean, like, like the guy's never caught a ball in his life.

looking drops. Those are still probably better than the ones where Judy and Tillman throw it up in the air. Those drops are... Yeah, when you drop it, let the ball go to the ground. They just bat it down. That's like a pop. That's a pop. Yeah. Chicago, we got to watch them on Monday Night Football. They go to Detroit to take on the also winless Detroit Lions. The Vegas line, Detroit minus six at home, the over under 48 and a half. Ben Johnson's return? Do we think it'll be a good one for Chicago? Oh, man. This game is fascinating. We did talk about Caleb having good numbers against Chicago fantasy-wise last year. Yeah, I don't think this is going to go well for the Chicago Bears. The Detroit Lions were borderline humiliated by the Packers. They were dominated, at least by the Packers in week one. The coaching staff came out. They were talking about it. Morton was talking about that we've got, you know, our job is to fix problems. We've got to be better. This is.

a matchup that I think will tell the Lions we need to run the ball a lot more. I expect the Lions to run. You saw what happened when the Vikings turned to the run in the second half as the Bears started getting a little bit tired and Aaron Jones wasn't working. So they brought Jordan Mason and he just started gashing them. That's the heart of the Lions at home. I think they're going to run all over the Bears. DeAndre Swift received 100% of the teams running back. carries in week one play 81% of the snaps. The Lions defense, normally pretty stout against the running game. DeAndre Swift, you just start him because the workload's going to be there? Yeah, it's a, and the passing game. It's a floor play, but he'll get you, he'll get you close to 10. In week one, Gibbs saw a lot of work, not a lot of production. Montgomery had 11 attempts for 25 yards, four catches for 18 yards.

played on 37% of snaps. If you look back to last year, that's about what he does. I mean, 38% two years ago, 34% last year, 37% in week one. It kind of seems like Detroit Monty is Detroit Monty, which is play him. And if you get a touchdown, you're happy. And this is a game he probably scores. Yes. Is that fair? I think that's very fair. I would not move too far off of Monty from a bad performance last week in this matchup at home favored against a run funnel defense. The matchup here, you know, just to zoom out, I think we're going to get some answers here of if one of these teams, whichever team lays an egg should one of them do it. Yeah, they'll be on two. But the panic. Like if Chicago goes and upsets the Detroit Lions on the road. Oh, yeah. Like that will be panic in the streets. Or if the bears with all everything they put into it and they start owing to, then you're just going to be like, what do you do with these, what do you do with these,

Fantasy players, like the wide receivers for Chicago. If they put up a game very similar to week one, it's going to be awful. Well, let's talk about the wide receivers on both sides, starting with Jameson Williams. He played 97% of all snaps. He was out there. Had the four catches, I think it was just 23 yards. Are you kind of Jason with your view on Green Bay, how they performed in week one, at Lambo? Are you just kind of... Whatever you were going to do in week one with Detroit players, you're doing that in week two with Detroit players? I think you probably are. James and Williams, to me, you might have a better option, right? This is not a good matchup. The Bears passing defense has been really good last year, really good this year. And they should actually be healthier in week two than they were in week one. Or at least they could be. Debo tonight or Jameson Williams. I would play Debo. Interesting. I think that Jameson is just a little on the cusp and the matchup isn't great here. Obviously, he's got the talent.

You could throw him in your lineup and just have an explosive single play that wins you your week. But he is a flex option. Abuka. I'd go to Bucca. Yeah, it'd be really hard to sit to touchdown Abuka for week two and play Jameson after a tougher week one. I hope to see the Detroit Lions at home, golf and Jameson and Amonra get things going, the running game get things going. On the other side of Dunezay did have nine targets. He was six for 37 and a touchdown. That was the target high for the team. DJ Moore had five, but they gave him three carries. He's been used in weird ways. I still like Adunze more myself, but I don't blame anybody for going DJ more. Yeah, I'm not even sure who I like more, but I like neither. This week. Yeah, I want to see more from Caleb before I can confidently start receiving options there. You know, you might have Luther Burton more involved. You might have Colson Loveland more involved. If you take away the...

unbelievably great touchdown design. Oh, man. Like that play. That was so good. Those, those specific situations are what Ben Johnson, like the, you know, you're missing those on your fourth and short or whatever. That play design on the goal line was just brilliant to let Adunzee be, no, you're on the goal line. So open that Caleb can't miss him. You're on the goal line and no one's within five yards of you in the end zone. I don't know how that's possible. Obviously, he could do it again and again and again, but he only had 37 yards is my point. He led the team in targets, so it's hard for me to trust any receivers there. Colson Loveland is a cut candidate for you? Yeah. I had him in a league where I chose to hold on for one more week, but absolutely he was on that bubble of like, if there was another waiver wire ad out there that was worth it, I would have cut him. We need more snaps and everything before we.

get into that and pay attention to Caleb Williams rushing totals week one six for 58 and a touchdown so almost he looked he almost had two touchdowns that turned into the adunes a throw but um he he was he was able to get out of the pocket and take off and you know it seemed to me when watching this game that the prescription for Caleb was like if those big plays aren't there like quickly look underneath quickly looked at swift in the in the flats quickly look to the tight end position Try not to hold the ball too long because that was it. He was setting records taking sacks last year. Well, you saw it in the beginning of the game. He came out and they had a plan. They had a script. Drop back, get the ball out, looked awesome. And then as the game got more competitive and the script went by-by, then it looked like rookie year, Caleb. The Rams at 1-0 traveled to the Tennessee Titans who are 0-1. The Vegas line here lost Angeles minus 5 and a half.

The over-under is 41 and a half. That gives the Titans just 18 points. You know, Brian Callahan had the very embarrassing press conference, not understanding that an elbow does equal two feet. Sean McVeigh obviously gets it going on offense for Los Angeles. Cam Ward, pretty tentative in week one. They were 28th in pass rate on first downs. They were doing the boring, boring handed off every single time. The problem with that plan is you get behind and then you look even worse and you just, it kind of was the opposite of what we saw with J.J. McCarthy struggling in the first half. I feel like they just went hyper conservative with Cam Ward and needed to give him more opportunities. I had a lot of people jump out and get all over us for saying, hey, he wasn't inaccurate. There were a lot of drops by his receivers. It kind of depends on the metrics you look at. Sure. Like catchable target rate, which was very bad.

That one was bad, but there were... Yeah, he wasn't good. And I don't blame him in his first game against the Denver Broncos defense, but he wasn't... He only completed one of 12 passes over 10 yards. So that should tell you. 43% passing completion rate, and he threw a lot of short ones. Yeah, blame who you want, but Cam Ward, it was a debut performance against the tough defense, and we seem to... You know, the Rams are probably a tough defense as well. I was going to say he's got a follow-up performance against a tough defense. Now he's going to be at home, which might be a little bit nicer, but the Rams looked awesome. They completely shut down C.J. Stroud, and I expect them to completely shut down Cam Ward. They scored 12 points last week. I don't think there's anyone outside of Tony Pollard that I would want to play in this game. Tony Pollard is not a great play. Still know Ridley, then?

I don't think so. No, I think you just watch Ridley and you watch Io Manor. Yeah, I'm not dropping. I would have signed Iow Manor. I would certainly keep rostering Ridley. This isn't the matchup form. I'm just going to watch. I mean, we love the 32% target share for Calvin Ridley, but need more catchable. Yeah, and then Iow Manor is at 37% of first read targets. Puka, Devante Adams, play them. Always. Kyran, play him. And there you go. That matchup's not very complicated. I love the Rams. I love the Rams. Every week, here's what we say. It doesn't matter the matchup. We just say, go ahead and start Kyron, Puka, and Devante. Then, like, let's not worry about anyone else. We never say Stafford. No, because Stafford, because you want to know why? Because Kyron Williams gets a touchdown on the goal line every week, no matter what, no matter how inefficient, ineffective. When they get down there, they go, I know what works, Kyron at the goal line.

And it works every time, and that means Stafford doesn't close. Oh, my gosh. He did do that in week one, didn't he? 100%. He just did what he does. For some reason, I forgot it. I was like, except for week one, but no, he did. New England, oh and one. Miami, oh, and one. The Vegas line, Miami minus one and a half. They are favorite in this one. Oh, all right. All right. The overrunners, 43 and a half. That's not a lot. Did that change? Because we talked about the New England, they were favored in so many games. Did that flip?

Or was this already? I imagine Miami stayed favored at home in this one. It's close, though. Okay, Kyle's confirmed. He was already this. Okay. New England, Tua's had their number. Seven and no against New England in his entire career. Tua had a brutal week one. I imagine it gets better in week two at home. It couldn't have looked worse in week one. So I think, you know, we've seen enough of Tua. Not every game's been like that. I think it gets a lot better. So that means better things for A. Chan, for Waddle. Yes, for Tyree Kale. But it's really a matter of where you slot those guys in compared to other options now. It's not an auto start situation anymore for either of those guys. I mean, I was more like Tyree Kale, we've seen the trajectory. Wasn't shocking that it was a tough week. It was much more disappointing to have Jalen Waddle sitting at 4 for 30 in a game where and go out half hurt again. I mean, it's just.

I'm kind of getting done with that song and dance. The Chicago Boys or the Miami Boys? I kind of lean the... I'm on the Miami Boys side. I... We've seen... No, I'm going to take Chicago. We've seen... All right. Let's think about this. To be clear, all of this displeases me. Total receiving fantasy points. These are what has... Total receiving fantasy points. Dolphins versus... Bears, me versus you. Wait, wide receivers are you talking, including tight ends? Tight ends running back. Just the tandem. Okay, just the tandem. Yeah. More just more under Dunez and Hill and tight. Oh, and oh. You don't feel so good no more. I don't feel great about this. He was trying to sneak. Yeah, I wanted a chance number or something there. Oh my gosh. That's why I said receiving. I'll take, but I'll take the two pack. The two pack of Miami. Two v. two. Oh, man. All right. I want to hear you say go dolphins. Then I'll hit the button.

Go Finns. Waterbed. All right. A chance definitely a start. Where are we with Trayvion? I believe that Mike Rable came out and said, look, we need to get him into space. Last week you saw that as, you know, he had six catches, but it was for 24 yards. Didn't have enough space after the catch. No, he really did not. Played 35% of snaps. The, Henderson. Is he a buy? I don't think you can. But yes. He absolutely is a buy. Go see if you can get him. Ask you if you could buy Caleb Johnson. When we were watching, yeah, you can. Well, you can just buy him off the waivers. Yeah, if you got like too fab, you can get Caleb Johnson. If you're disappointed in a player, like people drafted Trayvian high. It is possible to leverage a high performing week one player for a low performing week two players. Especially if you did not watch the game. When you look at the underlying metrics and you're like, well.

Ramandre was the dude. You know, he was playing so many more snaps, got so much more work, which, which he did. But when you watched the game, there was, it was like, oh, it's coming. It's, you know, you just watched each handoff and go, yeah, it will not be long until Trevion Henderson is at least 50-50. And that's, I think, all he needs to be a regular fantasy start. The question, do you start him in this game? I think so. Henderson? You can flex Henderson, yeah. Yeah, if you're in a half or a full. I play them over Remandre, I'll tell you that. Yeah, Ramandre played 65% of the snaps, had 10 opportunities. Trevion had 11, and it was just, I mean, Ramandre is 7 for 15 on the ground. Henderson's 5 for 27. It's a matter of time. I have a league where I have to play Ramandre. I actually have two leagues that I have to play Ramandre. Oh, I'm so sorry, man. Do you care about this? Do you care about this?

I would play a retired... Which one would you play? I'd play a retired Ronnie Brown. You wouldn't go to like Arian Foster? You're... I mean, sure. Okay. I think he's trying to say how low you would go. Yeah, I would play a retired committee back. All right. Right. So, I mean, Joyke Bell, welcome to the lineup. I miss Joyke Bell. Um... That was like a fun year. Stefan Diggs was not very involved. Kishon Booty continued to be heavily involved. He's probably one of the number one guys I'm keeping my eyes on this week. I picked him up. I paid a lot to pick him up. That doesn't necessarily mean I'm starting him this week. But if he comes out and leads the team in targets, the way that he did the second half a year with Drake May and the way he did in week one, then from here on forward, I will see him as the... Do I need to speak to a therapist about Ronnie Brown's name coming into my head that quickly?

Is that a problem? No. What did you think when it came into your head? Why? I did say why. Yeah. Wildcat Ronnie Brown. I like it. Your ram just fired off. I found something. That's right. My ram. What do you guys think? So Stefan Diggs ran 33 routes. He's on the field for 41% of the snaps. But in that time, he did see seven targets. He caught six of them for 57 yards. Pay attention. It didn't really look like himself in those targets to me. He looked more like just kind of an underneath option later career. Of taking, like it's going to take Stefan Diggs some time to recover from the knee injury. It just wanted your temperature check. Yeah, he was six or 57. I mean, that's not bad on 40 some odd percent of snaps. If he works his way to 70, 80 percent of snaps and becomes the number one for this team.

That wouldn't be shocking. It would be fine for a PPR league. But I don't think he has the ceiling hopeful upside that someone like Booty might have. All right. Let's take a break. We'll jump into some more matchups. Foot Clan draft day is on the way. You got your rankings. You got those sleepers. You got you can't miss picks. But you know what? You need sometimes a backup because, well, even the best fantasy football team in the world doesn't go according to plan. Sometimes those starters, they don't show up. Wouldn't it be great if you could have the same peace of mind everywhere else with Progressive?

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concern into the mix, I think, for expectations for San Francisco's offense. Saints are at home. Christian McAvery did not practice on Wednesday. They're resting the calf. He should literally sleep from now until 10 minutes before the game kicks off. However long it takes him to stretch and warm up, that's when he should just be in like a chamber. Yes. That's a funny idea. He can't get hurt if he's just in a sleeping pod. Well, I mean, don't tell him what he can't do. Jason can hurt himself. I have to imagine the way he was able to handle 31 touches last week. Was it really 31? Yeah, I mean, he was, he was a, he was Christian McCaffrey, he was just the entire locomotive of the train here. And he has been clearly siphoning the health of other players. It, it, the, and he's going to run out of players to take help from.

It's draining too fast. So Jennings, Kittle, and Purdy were three, so 31 touches. That's the three he took from? Yeah. And so I'm happy Pierce Hall's out wide. You know, he's a little further away from the running back position. Oh, you're saying it's a proximity thing. That's right. That's what I'm saying. And he sucks. Is he a vampire? It's going to be an O-Linman issue. How is any O-Lignment injuries right now going on? Soon. Okay. Yeah, McCaffery, you know, he was not great on the ground last week. No. 3.1 to carry on 22 carries. He was great in the passing game, and you will have Mack Jones behind center. I mean, it doesn't change how you're playing Christian McCaffrey. I think there'll be a couple fewer targets personally because I think Purdy just, he's got that internal clock that goes straight to Christian McCaffrey after a certain amount of time in the pocket. Mac Jones, if he was wise, would do that. I think we've only had one game in the last three years where Purdy,

wasn't on the field and McCaffrey was, and I think McCaffrey had a couple fewer targets in that one game. It's not a good sample. So that's just my speculative view. This is the guy Shanahan won and Mack Jones over Trey Lance, the speculation that that was originally his target. Now you might get the chance to see how that works out. Ricky Pearsall was going to be my start of the week. I think his metrics have been really great. The last four games dating back to last season, he's number three in the NFL in total yards. It's scary with Mack Jones there. But Mac Jones did hyper-target Brian Thomas Jr. last year. To me, that says I'm going to go after the most talented guy on my roster and just see what happens. And if that's the case, I don't think that's hyper-targeting Ricky Pearsall, who's good. I think that is actually just constantly checking it down to Christian McCaffrey. We also saw Brian Robinson's acclamation. It was 24% of the snaps and 11 opportunities. You could see that go up a little bit.

I don't know if 31 touches is going to be, frankly, sustainable for McCaffrey. It won't be sustainable, but it'll go north. It'll be like 45 this week. Just everything. I'm surprised he's not playing quarterback. So if you took an over under on 31 touches, I'm going to take the under. No, you have to take the under because that's an absurd number, but he will get way too much work. I don't think you're playing anybody else on that team. I think it's Pearsall's CMC. And that's it. Yeah. Joanne Jennings on the other side. Your start of the week of tight end. You're not going to throw out Tongis McBasketball. Tangis McBasketball will not be out there. I just need to get the name in. Alvin Camara. Play him. Close your eyes. Don't watch. Correct. Yeah, I hope he gets more work in the receiving game. That was the only thing that was concerning. He looked good on the ground. Had a great touchdown run. And shockingly, like his snap percentage.

blew me away. I thought this is the year where he's going to be like 50% of snaps, but heavily involved in the receiving game. And it was like, nah, how about you play 80% of the snaps, Camara? Alave, 13 targets. I think Olave, I feel like you have to whisper it, but Olave, I'd, if you can buy him cheap, I would probably do it. Find some start sits for me with Olave. He go, how about him versus both the. uh dolphins and the bears guys i would play i feel like alave is a better play than the four of them i would chase the volume okay buffalo is one and no they take on the one new york jets the jets who have three starts of the week despite being six and a half point home underdogs the over under is 46 for the record i have none of them you would like it on record yeah noted how about your dynasty team do you have any of them i might have breeze hall yeah uh we've got fields hall and wilson

It's a consolidation in New York. Yeah, it really is. That's what makes you, and the fact that they could move the football and that Buffalo was willing to let people move the football on them. We did get the news that James Cook was limited with a hamstring injury on Wednesday, so we're monitoring that. Keon Coleman's still limited. He was dealing with the groin injury. They're going to protect him. I imagine he'll play. He played 94% of the team's routes. He only averaged 69% last year. And so Keon Coleman or Pity City after what you saw in week one from both of them. Keon Coleman was, he was really good. They're both, I think, going to be. 11 targets. Weekly important assets. That being said, Pittman against Denver will have a much more difficult week. So I would go Coleman here. Jerry Judy against Baltimore or Keon Coleman, Mike. Oh, man. I think. I'm really chasing Coleman. I think I'd go Coleman. Not chasing him that much. Let's talk about a trade offer I made.

to Andy and see how you feel. Okay, fine. Let's air it. Yeah, let's air this out. It's, it's not. So you've always hated Travis E.T.N. Say he sucks. Yeah. We went into week one saying, we're going to see who the starter is, but we're not going to overdo the production because it's Carolina. Sure. But then he's the running back three. Mm-hmm. And he produced a lot. I mean, like we're really hard selling Travis E.N. Yeah, this is him simultaneously saying why. I'm buying Travis E.T.N. Yeah, he is. I offered Keon Coleman, the wide receiver two from last week. Okay. And what else? And Austin Eckler. Austin Eckler and Kean Coleman. For Travis ETN? How do you feel about that? That was the trade. That was the whole trade. How loud was his laugh in your face? Really? This way, I want you. So, so that means Mike. Yes. The fantasy hitman. I told you guys in the slack. I said, I have to be in on ETN. And that sucks. Oh, that makes me feel so glad that that's on air. I admit it.

I admit when it's wrong. Yeah, but you admitted it in Slack. Now it's on air. Oh, I would have. Yeah. I did turn it down. I did turn it down, Mike. Yeah. I just. I've got wide receivers. I needed a running back. We, yeah. That's part of the issue, too. It's not the bad of an offer. Everyone needs. I thought you said to me, do I need running backs? You need wide receivers. That's why I, that's what started the whole thing. I have, I have Dobbins and Chub. If you want them, they're available. Ah. So yes, I have quantity. But I would like the quality of ETN over those two guys. Okay. If that was Chubba Hubbard, then yes. But it is, it is a crying shame that it is not Chuba Hubbard. Chubba Hubbard is so good. Because that name is awesome. Chuba is still a very great name. Yes. But if you could walk around say my name is Chuba Hubbard. Chuba Hubbard. Chuba Hubba Chuba. We'd have some good audio drops for that. Fields Hall, Wilson, play them.