Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - 300th Show! + Starts of the Week, Week 9 Matchups

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Calm. Jason, you chuckled. What is going on? Well, I am just saying before you hit that next button, you need to hit a different button. Oh, breaking news. You read me loud and clear, brother. Jonathan Stewart. Oh, no. Missed practice today with some undisclosed injury. But come on, Jay Stu. Uh-oh. Wow. Oh, and our waivers just ran. I looked at the clock at the exact same moment. I was like, can I get Cameron Artis pain real quick?

I could have really used him. Well, perhaps you can get Cameron Artist Payne. He is worth a pickup while we do not know yet what's going on. The injury history of Jonathan Stewart says that he's probably out at least six years. Was that just on his schedule? Did he just say, oh, you know, he was on his way to practice and his Apple Watch went off and said, you're scheduled to miss practice today. His Apple Watch probably broke his wrist. He's like, oh, wait, what was that other injury that just came out yesterday, Mike?

Oh, yeah. What was it, tooth injury? Ryan Matthews apparently missed practice with a tooth problem. A tooth. Look, and I'm not going to, I'm not going to fault the man. If you've experienced tooth pain, it's pretty horrendous. But it's just, it's a first that I've seen. You're telling me Doug Peterson does an eye roll for a second right there. Ryan Matthews, I.

I try. I try to carry the banner for you, my friend. You got to give me something. Yeah, well, my starts of the week are going to reflect that toothache pretty, pretty well. Are we ready to move on? Did you have a thought, Jason? I did have a thought because you're talking about this hard to carry the banner, and we had the Cubs game last night. You realize now that the Cubs have won the World Series that in all major sports, the now longest title drought is our.

Arizona Cardinals. Wow. They are second on the list. Well, now they're first. Thanks, Cubs. All right. Let's get into week nine. Fantasy forecast. A few quick updates for Thursday night football. Kevin Coleman, if you didn't hear yesterday, he is out for tonight. So it is the, I almost said you quiz Rogers. It is the Devonta Freeman and Tehran Ward. Taran Ward would be the backup slash, you know, he'll get some carries. He had him last week.

Doug Martin de Quiz Rogers are out. That's Anton Smith, in my opinion now. At this point, it's not exciting, but it is what it is. And then Russell Shepard is doubtful. Is that correct? That's what I've heard, yes. Cameron Brayt comes into the focus a little bit there. Well, and pronounced with an unfreece. Certainly. Certainly.

Teams on by this week. Arizona, Chicago, Cincinnati, Houston, New England, and Washington, just to remind you, you play a player from those teams, and you'll get 0.0 points. You're a dummy face. And next week, if you're planning ahead for your biweek, Buffalo, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Oakland, so this is the time you can go buy a player that maybe, I don't know, maybe you got an Andrew Luck and you need to grab somebody. Or that has a good match of next week at the quarterback position? Or if you have someone on Buffalo, Detroit, Indianapolis, Oakland.

This week is a good time to trade them. You're coming right before the buy week. If you can get a guy who's already passed their buy, sometimes with different options, it's too late to do on Thursdays, but that's a trick to use for the next few weeks. I agree. It's especially nice. You know, maybe it's Derek Carr's turn to, you know, maybe trade him against Denver. Yep. All right, let's get into the first matchup. Steelers at Ravens. All right, Steelers, Ravens, divisional matchup, 43.5 point over under. I expect us to be.

A fight. I expect this to be a fight. You got Big Ben. We just talked about him back on the field. Here's what I want to know, guys. Yesterday on the radio, I was asked a lot of questions that were this guy. Okay, Anton Smith or Terrence West? A lot of people asking Terrence West questions. Maybe they're scared off from this last performance. How do you feel about Terrence West starting him tonight against the Steelers? I'm still...

Sorry, not tonight, but Sunday. Yeah, yeah. I'm still comfortable doing it. Look, Kenneth Dixon is my guy. I nominated him in the election special to be a breakout. I'm not saying that this is happening this week. And by all accounts, Terrence West is still the starter. Dixon is probably going to get more involved this week. But like I said, West is still the main guy. And the Steelers run defense is beatable, especially for fantasy. So at Ravens at home, I think West is still a fine play.

Oh, there's, go ahead, Jay. No, I just want to throw in my agreement with that. I don't think West is done because of his last game against the Jets. That was a good run D. I think Terrence West is still the lead dog there. Yeah, I mean, if they give him the ball, which he's the leading candidate by far for carries, you're going to have some sort of production there. So what are the other storylines from this game? We already talked about Laderius Green. How do you feel about Sammy Coates in this matchup?

I think I'm okay. Especially if it's Big Ben back. You had Coates who is, he's essentially been resting the broken finger and the laceration now for three to four weeks. I know he's been in and out of the game a little bit, but you had the buy week. We haven't seen an update on how the hand is doing, but it's, I mean, it's got to be better. So I'm okay throwing him out there if you have to. I would probably rather throw it if you're going moonshot.

Was Steve Smith-Sinor missing Mike Wallace, the deep threat for the Ravens going against the 26th worst passing defense in the Steelers? I would rather have Mike Wallace. I would rather pivot over to that. Okay. Yeah, I mean, Joe Flacco, 44 past attempts a game. That's first in the league again. They're throwing the ball. And Mike Wallace should be on the other end of that? Anything else from this game you guys want to focus on or should we move on? Moving on. Yeah, you know you're playing love bill. At Browns.

All right, Cowboys Browns. Jason with the hot tip starting Love Bell. Yeah, just word. Word of the wise. You're going to start him? Yeah, I'm going to start him over. Everybody. Do you well? All right. The Cowboys, the Browns. The Browns are seven point underdogs at home in this game, 48.5 point over under. And all signs point to Cody Castler starting this matchup. Yes. Congratulations.

Well, I mean, he's, he's been practicing. You've got to see what you have at this point. The season is gone. He hasn't been atrocious. Sure. And that's why you got to keep playing. And what I would say that stinks for fantasy players because I would, as a, if I'm playing Terrell Pryor or Cory Coleman, I would much prefer Josh McCown. If McCown was playing, I would be willing to throw that shot in the dark Cory Coleman play. But I don't expect Coleman to do much.

right now with Kessler active and I need to temper my expectations even on Terrell Pryor. He did have good games with Cody Kessler. The problem now is that he's not the only target with Coleman coming back. I think the combination of all three of them being active with a good Dallas defense just makes me not excited about really any single player over. I would be willing to start Troll Pryor because he's a beast, but I'm not excited about it and I don't.

I don't love anyone else over there, including the running backs. How are you guys feeling about the Crowe? Isaiah Crowell? He's had a couple good games here, getting in the end zone the last couple weeks. So for fantasy purposes, I mean, beggars can't be chooses right now at running back. I mean, with the biweeks, with the players that are injured, with Jonathan Stewart randomly missing practices, I think Isaiah Crowell, it's like Terrence West. I mean, you have volume, probably not an exceptional performance, but.

He's also not going to destroy your team. We have them all rated right about the same, 18, 19, and 20, you know, a low-end RB2, which is great right now, like Andy's saying, considering bi-weeks and other issues. So one of the things I wanted to bring up in this game is, look, Dak Prescott, we all have him in the top 10 this week. Well, we'll talk about him in a little bit, but I think this is a great game for him. Four and seven. I'm guessing Jason is going to be the one talking about him a little bit. Yeah.

Okay. So on the other side of the ball, you know, with Prescott, you have Ezekiel Elliott. We don't need to talk about him. You're rolling him out there in a juicy matchup. Des Bryant, he's a start. It's time to stop. You know, it's nice to not have to talk about Des Bryant. Will he come back? He's back on the field. A great matchup. The Browns are 31st against the run, 25 against the past. One of the things that people overlooked last week because Des Bryant had had a good game, but he only had four receptions. That's what Des Bryant does. But Mike, do you know how many targets Des Bryant had?

Yeah, this is crazy. Did he have double-digit targets? He had 14 targets. That's some poor targets. Yeah. But the point is, is that Dak is looking his way. He is the number one target, and that's only going to bode well as their chemistry comes together. How is the number one target? I mean, the second wide receiver on the team, though. Oh, stop it. Never. You have to give up on me. We need to find a cure for the beasels. Yeah.

That's all he needs. There is no cure. Time to get to. He's in my heart. Time to get a shot. Jaguars at Chiefs. Oh, Bortles and Foles strolling down the road together. Wow. This is going to be exciting. 45.5.5. Do people actually have to over under attend this game? Yeah, they do. In Kansas City. Kansas City is seven and a half point over under. I'm sorry, seven and a half point favorites.

We talked about Charles West and Spencer Ware. Whoever's playing. Whoever is the starter. Whoever's the starter is locked and loaded. You have to love it. The Jags cannot stop the run. They're 27th against the run this year. They've allowed 1.3 rushing touchdowns per game, which is 28th in the league. It's atrocious. I really like Travis Kelsey. He's my start of the week at the tight-in position, so we'll talk about him shortly. What do you do with Jeremy Macklin? Is he just 100% of name?

And anymore? I mean, can you really start him? Look, the dirty cake, Jeremy Macklin, he's, oh, so dirty right now. He is what he is. I mean, if you go in anticipating, I'm going to get four to six receptions and anywhere from 40 to 70 yards, I mean, that's not terrible. It's good. The problem with Macklin is just those expectations that have been built up over years. It's, he plateaued with the Eagles and just,

You know, he's kind of trending down as far as fantasy production. But I agree with you that he's living right now on the name of Jeremy Macklin. But for fantasy purposes, you might have a better option. You might have a better option on your waiver wire. You have a lot of... What is happening? You have a lot of variables in this game that leads me to...

prefer to stay away. I'm certainly playing the Kansas City running back, and I'm also going to roll out Travis Kelsey, as he looked really good with Foles. But on one side of the ball, you have a new quarterback in Nick Foles. You don't know how that might change the offense. Will he go to Jeremy Macklin deeper? Or will he, as many backup quarterbacks, do go to Tyreek Hill and avoid Jeremy Maclin and try to avoid the best defender on the other side of the field? Then on the other side of the ball for the Jaguars, you have a new offensive coordinator.

As Greg Olson is out, will they force the ball to Alan Robinson more? Will they take deeper shots to him? There are just so many things here that are question marks that I prefer to stay away where I don't know it's safe. I refuse to believe that Bortles will be able to garbage time against the Kansas City Chiefs the way that he did last week. So I am still very low on Blake Bortles this coming week. Do you start or sit, Alan Robinson?

that's going to be completely dependent on who is on my team because I have him as a, I believe he might be. 23rd. Okay, 23rd. So, I mean, if you have better options, yes, but he's a start a bull player for sure. Alan Robinson or. Say Macklin or Robinson. I'd start Robinson. I would as well. I was going to ask you Alan Robinson or Mike Wallace. That's a great question. I think if Steve Smith is out, I would probably prefer to have Mike Wallace. What about Alan Robinson or Dante Moncrie?

Dante Moncrief for sure. He's ahead of both of those guys. All right. Any other storylines from this game you guys want to get into? Nope. Jets at Dolphins. All right. The Jazz take on the Dolphins 44 point over under. Dolphins are favored at home in this game by three and a half points. Matt Forte has risen from the ashes yet again.