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

pretty much averaging than half a touchdown a game on the ground. And he faces the Cleveland Browns. The Cleveland Browns give up. Who does he face? The Cleveland Browns. All right. Their defense is a delight for fantasy. And so I have no hesitation starting Dak Prescott. You've got Des Bryant back. This should be a monstrous game.

I'm going with Philip Rivers. Okay, there is a perception that Tennessee is an upper echelon passing defense. It hasn't been the case over the last three weeks. Tennessee has given up eight touchdowns, including three in each of the last two weeks. The quarterbacks, I understand, Bortles, bordled up a few garbage time ones last week against them. But look, Philip Rivers is the top 10 quarterback already on the season. Tennessee's defense is softening up. This game's out.

At home in San Diego, I really love the potential for Philip Rivers and would start him with confidence this week. Love it. So we've got Rivers, Dak Prescott, and James Winston. Let's move on to the running back position. I alluded to it, the man to own in Philly. And this is a bit of a leap, right? You have sometimes he started the weeks or shoe-ins. I'm surprised you're starting Ryan Matthews. I'm not starting Ryan Matthews. I'm going with Darren Sproles. Darren Sproles 15 carries last week against Dallas.

No toothaches. All of his teeth are clean and healthy. No plaque. Look, Darren Sprouls is just Darren Sprouls. He does what he does. 6.7 yards from scrimmage per touch. That's fourth in the running back position out of 42 qualified. He just plain gets it done. He always has, and no one wants to give him the rock. It's like a just-in-for-set circumstance where the mindset is you can never give him a workload, but he's...

produced. And look, Doug Peterson came out and said this week, it might be time to kind of say out loud that he's the guy as opposed to saying it just. And he was a coward. Yeah, and said he's going to get Ryan Matthews going. I'm going with Darren Sprouls. I think he's worth your consideration this week as well. I am looking at that decision of Ryan Matthews and Darren Sprouls in my Money League. What's it? PPR? It's a half point. And I'm starting Darren Sproul. If I had to choose between those two guys only.

I would also choose Darren Sproles. I don't necessarily agree about the start Darren Sproles. He certainly could have a big game. I just think it's a tough. You guys both have him outside. Well, Mike has him at 22, Jason 28. I'm at 15, so clearly my start of the week.

I will take it next. I'm going with Carlos Hyde. People worried about the injury. He is practicing in a non-contact jersey and you might go, is he back? Should I worry? Are they going to? Can he play in that? Do they let you play in the non-contact? If that would be my, I would move it to the must start. Number one running back of the week. That would be incredible. You can't touch him. No touching. So Carlos Hyde is going to be fine. He was.

He missed the Tampa Bay game. He had the buy week. Given those two things, the fact that he's already had a buy and he missed a week, he's already got six touchdowns on the year. And he faces the New Orleans Saints who have given up 12 touchdowns on the ground alone. So Carlos Hyde is a guy. I think we haven't got to see him with, you know, Colin Kaepernick's getting more into the offense. They're running him more, doing more of the zone reads. I believe that.

He's going to fit this system really nice with Kaepernick. He should have a great game. I would not be afraid to start him at all. Now, you kind of ruined my stick here, Jay. You didn't really read through my starts here. I did not. Because I was going with a combo, a co-co-combo of Dr. Ingram and Mr. Hyde. Oh. I'm starting them both. Ingram and Hyde Tower? No, no. Hyde. Oh.

Just that game. Well, you took two. I stole one. Yeah. So I won't talk about Hyde anymore. But look, Mark Ingram, I'm still starting him. I still have confidence that Sean Payton will not be a... Ingram came out today and took full responsibility for his own benching and said he's known since peewee that you can't fumble if you want to play. But that's what you want to see, right? Yeah.

From a coaching perspective, if you want to put a guy back in the game, he takes responsibility for his own bench. Mark Ingram is still the starting running back for the New Orleans Saints, and they still get to go take on the San Francisco 49ers. Those things have not changed. No. And the 49ers are the worst running defense in the history of the entire world. Is that factual? I think I looked it up. I'm being hyperbolic, but they are for sure the worst rushing defense on the year.

So I like Mark Ingram in this contest. And I'm just, I still have the confidence to throw them out there. That's all I'm saying. All right. Let's move on to the wide receivers. Jason, you want to kick this one off? Sure. I'm going to go with the one. I love it. We got to stay in the flames here with Devante Adams. I love it. He's clearly become an important part of the Green Bay Packers offense. He has now the absolute trust.

of Aaron Rogers and he's going up against Indianapolis in a game that should just be juicy. It's 54 points is what Vegas is set to over under at. That is the highest. Have we, have we seen it that high this year? I can't, I don't know if we've seen it over 53 and a half.

I remember a 53 and a half. I do as well. The point is Vegas is saying, look, they believe this game is just going to be points flying on the board. And even if Devante Adams does not get a touchdown like he did not last week, if he goes out and gets 12 catches again, sign me up. So I believe he has a really good game. And I do think he will get a touchdown this week. So start your Devante Adams. What has helped for Devante Adams is Aaron Rogers. You know that massive protection.

that he gets, where he has eight seconds to throw the ball. When he throws it, the camera kind of cuts away, but if you saw what he was doing, he's down there, he sits, he holds a vigil, he lights candles, and he's praying that Devante Adams will catch the ball. He does this every time. He really helped him a lot. Every time he throws on the ball, so that's been paying off. He is catching the ball. I know. 12 of 14 targets last week. Yeah, the one who stinks. So who's your start of the week at wide receiver, Mike? I'm going with Creep.

Dante Moncrief. Love it. Look, the Green Bay, the secondary, they are very beatable. T.Y. Hilton is banged up, may not play, but even if T.Y. Hilton plays, he could just be a distraction as he was last week. Moncrief, back from his shoulder, scapula, injury. He's the go-to red zone target for Andrew Luck.

He scored again. So in two full games this year, Moncrief has scored. And he would have scored twice if there wasn't a ridiculous holding call on a 45-yard touchdown last week. He's been my guy all year. We finally get to unleash him again. So I'm starting Dante Moncrief. I'm going to go out on a limb here and start Stefan Diggs this week. I...

I don't believe that Diggs is somebody that you can rely on week in and week out, and I think he's going to hurt fantasy owners in the long term if you are relying on him as a one or two. That being said, this week's matchup against Detroit, what I saw from a seemingly healthier Stefan Diggs last week, I'm going to go with it. And it's a bit of a gut play. It's a bit of the fact that Detroit's defense has given up 19 touchdowns to the wide receiver position this year, which is most in the league. I like that the game's at home. He looks offense. I think, I mean, he looks.

He looks offense. He looks healthier. And the offense should perk up at home. So you have. If he comes on strong, then we're going to look for more guys in the future that look offense. You want to look offense. I was going to say looking offensive can help you play football. Yeah. He wasn't looking offensive. He's looking offensive. He's looking offense. I'm going with digs. I'm going with digs after eight catches on 13 targets last week. I'm going to, I'm going to give you my tight end.

And this is an endorsement of Zeus. Travis Kelsey's must start of the week at the tight-in position this week. With Foles in the game for the majority of last week, Kelsey was seven for 101 with a touchdown. Here's the thing that's nice about Travis Kelsey. He has the fourth highest reception rate on targets amongst tight-in. So he is the definition of a safety blanket for an incoming quarterback. I like it for, I like Kelsey to have a consistent week. He's my start of the week.

I like it a lot. I'm going to go with my guy in Kobe Fleener. I thought about it. He's had some big games. He's had some bad games. How do you know when those games will come? Well, I think one good indicator of that is if you look at it's two monstrous games, one came against Atlanta Falcons, really kind of easy to beat secondary. The other came against Carolina, a really easy to beat secondary.

And now he gets the San Francisco 49ers. Sign me up for some Kobe Fleener. You know, we say it before, but he's the type of guy where in a sea of mediocre fantasy plays at the tight end, where you're hoping for kind of touchdown, I would much rather play the upside chance of Fleener with the chance that he goes out and just has four fantasy points than other guys. But this week, I expect.

he will get it done. It was a very, I'm going to temper that slightly, just with this information. Now, I agree with you. He's more about efficiency than he has quantity. Last week, Josh Hill played a career high in snaps. 61. 60. 80%. Do you know what the snap count was for Kobe Fleener last week? 34%. It was the exact same for the Carolina game. Carolina game, Josh Hill vastly out snapped him, and that was when he had six for 74 in a touchdown. That's just the role that those.

players have been playing snap-wise. Well, he certainly can't block. Yeah, you're not bringing Kobe Fleener in to run the ball. No. Maybe this was like a package deal. High Tower comes in and you just put Josh Hill on the game. All backups. Yeah. So Mike, round out our starts the week. All right. My start of the week. A question for you and the Flint clan, everybody out there. Who's playing the Detroit Lions? That's the Minnesota Viking. That's the tight end. I'm going to start.

Kyle Rudolph, look, Detroit is absolutely the bottom of the barrel when it comes to defense against the tight end position. You're talking a tight end. When the team has played Detroit, which they do that frequently, a tight hand has only not scored twice. Wow, he's really looking offense. Two of eight games, the Lions have not allowed a touchdown to the tight end.

Kyle Rudolph is, that's what he does. He's a touchdown machine with Sam Bradford. So that's my start of the week. Well, you know, I'd close the show out if it were not for a very, very important segment. Jason Moore's Ironclad, locked and loaded, 100% guaranteed boom, boom kicker of the week. Nobody has more respect for the kicker position than Jason Morris. So Jason, give us your locked and loaded.

100% guaranteed boom boom kicker of the week. Well, you know, last week I went with the old guy, 43-year-old. Anthony Hopkins? Adam Bennett-Terry. Sorry. The number one quarter or the number one kicker. Sure. And he stunked. So this week, I'm not going with him. I'm going with a 41-year-old kicker.

Who's number two? And that's Matt Bryant. Actually, he should have a monster's game. Mike has had a theory that has been proving true week and week out, which is the Thursday night game. One of the kickers on the Thursday night game. Pick the favorite team. Pick the favorite team and that kicker has been performing, given that that kicker is also currently the number two kicker on the year and that he meets my requirements of being over 40 years old. Sure. Matt Bryant. Matt Bryant's your. Locked and loaded. Boom, boom.

Kicker of the week. AARP kicker of the week. Yes. All right, that does it for today's show. Remember, this afternoon on Twitter at the FF Ballers, we're going to have a special. Just let me get to it. Let me get to it. I said on Twitter, at the FF Ballers, you follow us, and then you'll see the Periscope pop up. It's very easy. All right. You can do it on Just Periscope. I'll take them out back. We're going to celebrate our 300 show with some giveaways, answering your fantasy questions.

Mike will be, I think you're saving the beard for 300, right? Oh, yes. Yeah. Is that what I heard? Stay tuned for that. And also stay tuned for, I can grow a full giant beard overnight. Okay. So don't be surprised when it's back tomorrow. All right. It's like Westworld. They take you in and they put you back together. And your beard, your beard is back every morning. Hey, shout out. Fantasy Jogs. Thank you for sponsoring the studio. The promo code is Footballers. See you later.