Starts of the Week + Wk 11 Matchups, Pounce Back Candidate

He's been an RB two or better three of the last four weeks and really surprised us last week. Because he's so good. I mean, that's just... And 21 touches doesn't hurt. It doesn't hurt. Thank you, Lions coaches, for finally getting involved. I almost thought about having Caryon Johnson be the player who's going to be on championship teams because he's a late drafted guy that's a second half of year player. His schedule stinks. Yeah. Rest of the way, his schedule's terrible. But I... I like him in this game. I don't know that it matters. I think that the...

They're going to have to use them. And if you give him the ball, he will be productive for fantasy because he's great. Honestly, the argument for Kerry-on-Johnson's success is very, very similar to David Johnson's in Arizona. Both teams stink. Both teams' offenses are probably going to struggle the rest of the season. Schedule problems, talent. Carry-on Johnson will be David Johnson light to me because he has to share some of the load with Claire Blunt and Theo Riddick. But he's the only running back that you can start on Detroit this week.

And look, you're going to start Kenny Galladay. Those smooth routes are going to deliver. They did last week. I hope Marvin Jones is active for the sake of Kenny Galladay because it's not going to be, there's just not going to be a lot of offensive snaps if he's not. Yeah, it could be TJ Jones. That's what the whispers of the bushes are saying. And me. If Marvin Jones is to miss. On the wide receiver side of the ball, the pass catchers, do you have...

any level of excitement for Funches or DJ Moore. Funches has. He's got a solid matchup the last six weeks.

The Lions defense is dead last against fantasy wide receivers, 27th against the quarterback. If you were to look, we've got, we've got, you know, data in our show docs of the season defense in the last six weeks defense. And if you look, it's a complete inverse of being bad at stopping the run, but pretty good against wide receivers, tight-ins, quarterbacks to a complete flip where you're terrible against those, but you're actually top 12 against the run. This is not an accident.

happened. If you look at the data specifically when they traded for Snacks Harrison, that flipped everything. All of a sudden, they were able to stop the run, but since teams couldn't run on them, they were like, oh, you know what? I can't actually throw the ball on them pretty easily. So that's where I think your DJ Moore, Devin Funches, Cam Bounceback is not a bad play here. It's just predictability on which guy will have the effect or whether Cam Newton's going to make all of his.

Hay through the air with Christian McCaffrey. Or Greg Olson. Yeah, baby Josh threw this in here. Devin Funches is averaging 1.9 yards after the catch, which is dead last of all qualified whiteouts. And that's because Devin Funches is the size of a tight end. It's very similar to what we used to see in Kelvin Benjamin. Yeah. So if you had to pick a wide receiver to start for Carolina, then who are you picking, guys? It would still be Funches for me. I'm going to stick with the targets.

over the talent. Yeah, I think I go DJ Moore. Yeah, the targets not really there either. 13 targets total in the past three games combined. Is that still greater than DJ Moore's? Probably. Yeah, that's, I don't know if it is. Yeah, it might not be. I mean, 13 is a pretty low, pretty low number there. But yeah, I have funchus about 10 spots higher than DJ Moore.

in my rankings. Last question. DJ Martin receptions over the last three games. I mean, but it's not been great. Last question. If Marvin Jones is healthy and active and practicing, which will keep you up to date on on this show each and every day, are you going to play him in the game? No. You're not. I prefer not to. Yeah, I think that there's a lot of players. I mean, he'll be in that wide receiver three range. So can you start him? Yes. I'd rather start John Brown.

The Marvin Jones. Yeah, I would as well. Yeah, I mean, I'd water bet you if I thought Marvin Jones was going to play, but he's not. The Titans, five and four, taking on the four and five. Colts, Colts are two point favorites at home, 48 point over under. The Titans odd season continues. Divisional matchup. Marcus Mariotta, I know we like him. Right now he's playing a lot better, and that's helping Corey Davis. It's helping Dionne Lewis. It's helping everybody involved.

If your quarterback's playing poorly, it just trickles down to everybody. So confidence level on Marcus Mariotta as a streamer this week. I think we all feel pretty comfortable. Where is he on your rankings this week? Marioita? Yeah. I have Marcus Mariotta. Because I got him outside the top 12. Yeah, he's 20 right now for me. But I don't think this is a bad matchup. I mean, when you've got a guy ranked 20, you're like, oh, he's not a quarterback one.

But the problem is there's 20 good options, and any of them can finish as a quarterback one. The matchup here is pretty good. You do wonder if, you know, how much are the Colts going to be able to score on the Titans whose defense has been really good? They've been number one against tight end, which, of course, is the only position Andrew Luck throws to. But even though we're 11 weeks in, it's a little bit of a misnomer.

Because I remember Andy and I were looking this up in the studio a couple days ago. And it was like everybody that that has played against the tight end, the teams that they've played just haven't had tight ends at all. And when they did. It's great against them, but it's like Buffalo. Yeah, here's their list. Miami. So no, no tight ends. Houston, pretty much no tight ends, especially week two. Jacksonville, no tight ends. Then Philly. Well, you got Zach Kurtz.

And they gave up 12 receptions and 125 yards to the tight-in position. Then Buffalo again, the Chargers, the Cowboys, and then the Patriots last week without Gronk. So it's like they're first, but. Yeah, I would be willing to start both Ebron and Jack Doyle only because Andrew Luck throws the titan so often. Now, Kyle, our editor, he went through all the game film over the last two games, looked at the Red Zone routes run.

Ebron ran nine red zone routes. Jack Doyle ran eight. Those are the numbers that care about the most. So right now, there is a connection between Andrew Luck and Eric Ebron. That's why he's on pace to break the tight end or tie the tight end touchdown record. I'm willing to start him. You do risk. I mean, you run risk. He ran 38. He was on the field for 38% of snaps after being 100% player before Jack Doyle returned. But he's come out and said, hey, he's cool with that.

Well, because he's catching touchdowns. Exactly. If the touchdowns disappear, Eric Ebron is not going to be cool with it. Yeah. So they're going to give them more touchdowns. I hear it's fun to score touchdowns in the NFL. It's funny. I still have Jack Doyle one spot ahead of Ebron in my rankings just from a, you know, it's kind of that conversation we had earlier. Would you rather chase the receptions or the touchdowns? And if you can chase receptions and targets, which you can with Jack Doyle, I think the baseline, the odds are more in your favor.

Is Corey Davis the truth in this game? Is he a wide receiver 2 or a wide receiver 3 rest of season? Oh, rest of season? I think he's a 2 rest of season. I'm going to go 3 because he just, he finds a way of disappearing. He does. But for me, it's the confidence in Marcus Marietta being actually back too competent. And you think that continues too? Yes. Huh. On the basis of just health. Okay. Got it.

Marlon Mack last week, 12 for 29. Not good. Titans are, they're difficult to run against. It's not a good matchup. I'm not loving Marlon Mac this week. Marlon Mac or Carry on. Carry on. For sure. Marlon Mac or Joe Mixon against Baltimore. Mixon. Yeah, Mixon's every week, no matter what. Dionne Lewis in this same matchup or Marlon Matt. That's a very interesting question.

Dionne Lewis is, his floor is very safe to me because of the opportunities. He's the number one guy. He's the primary running back for the Tennessee Titans, but he is a bit capped. Dionne Lewis. Wow. Is this baby Josh, really? One rushing touchdown for Dionne Lewis? And that's horrific. And Derek Henry still has that role.

is able to succeed, apparently, because that's what Derek Henry has done the past couple weeks. So Dionne Lewis is safer than Mac, but he doesn't have the huge upside. Dionne Lewis still had 20 carries. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. He's great. His floor is excellent. And this is the type of matchup where he could be involved in the passing game more. Like last week, they, you know, they were in charge. So I think this is a good Dionne Lewis game. All right. You guys ready to move on to another matchup? Yep.

Let's talk about the Buccaneers at 3 and 6 taking on the 2 and 7 Giants 52 point over and under. So despite the teams playing, the records involved, Giants are 1.5 point favorites at home after Eli Manning put up a nice performance last week. And there are fantasy points to be had in this game. There are players that you want and you want to start. We'll talk a little bit about Eli Manning and his upside this week. Right now he's our consensus quarterback 15 on the week facing a Tennessee defense that...

It probably takes it as a great compliment to be even referred to as a defense at this point. But what do we expect from both sides of the ball? Especially, let's start with Tampa. Ryan Fitzpatrick last week, 403 passing yards, zero touchdowns. Strange game. Mike Evans, the Sean Jackson, Chris Godwin, Adam Humphreys, O.J. Howard. Where's your confidence level on these past catchers after last week's kind of strange performance? I'm completely the same for me.

so anomalous to throw for over 400 yards. I mean, you like that part. Yeah, you just got to take the probability. And a guy who throws for 400 yards, the fact that he didn't have at least two scores is extremely shocking. So I'm still good playing all these guys. Ryan Fitzmagric, you still stream him. Evans and Evans is right back in there. I think the more interesting question is,

Jukwiz Rogers and Peyton Barber because we're in dire straits here. People need running backs to play. Payton Barber has been fine, been 13 for 61 on the ground this past week. However, the big outlier, if you want to know where Ryan Fitzpatrick's yards went, you had Tampa Bay Buccaneer players and you went, wait, he had 400 yards, but my guys sucked.

Eight receptions for 102 yards for Jaquiz Rogers. Break the glass. Are you going to keep the glass shattered or are you picking it up? That really depends, I think, in this matchup on what you expect from the Giants at home. And the fact that they're favored in Vegas, the fact that the defense struggles, you do have some upside to Jquiz Rogers. Like if you're staring down to Jquiz or.

T.J. Yeldin this week or Theo Riddick, are you playing him over both those guys? Ooh. PPR League, Theoretic or Jaquiz? Yeah, I mean, at that point, I would. I have Theo just slightly higher. I was going to say, I think I would still go Theo Riddick here. You're exactly right. It depends on what you believe in the Giants. And I don't believe, even against Tampa, I'm not sitting here thinking that the Giants are going to put up 35 points and make the Buccaneers have to.

come back and dump off to the running back a bunch. If that happens, which could, I mean, Sequin and O'Dell Beckham could torch the Buccaneers. And if that happens... They will, by the way. Sure. And if that does happen... I think they're implied point totals around 27. Then Jaquiz would be a fine play. But it's hard for me to put a lot of faith in the Giants offense right now. Yeah, I mean, I think the key, at least for me, philosophically speaking, as a fantasy owner, if I'm playing...

players on bad teams. I'm not messing around with the lower tier because I'm not going to roll the dice as much on those players. So I'm staying at the very top of these performers. The Sequin Barclay and O'Dell Beckham, my confidence level on Sterling Shepard and Evan Ingram is more of the dart throw, is more of the coin flip, even if the matchup's good, than it is confident. Sterling Shepard.

I think we should talk about him because he's been sneaky good as far as, you know, he's getting the targets that you look for. He's getting receptions. I mean, if you look back over the last several weeks, he's usually getting about seven targets plus, and this is a really good matchup against Tampa Bay. I think Shepard could be one of those fringe flex-type plays on a bi-week where you're deciding.

Do I like Shepard this week? Do I not? I think if you're in that position where you're comparing him against other players on your bench, I would usually lean Shepard in that situation. I'm less confident. Mike, where do you stand on that? I mean, I think with Evan Ingram's return, you know, if Shepard doesn't score last week, he only had three targets on the day. Corey Coleman had one target. Sure. Do you feel okay with him? I still feel okay with him. Last week, yeah, it was rough, only three targets.