Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 8 Matchups, News

Le Garrett Blunt, I think, is okay. What do you do with James White? He only caught two balls, no carries last week. He had a fine fantasy game because one of them was, you know, a nice long touchdown. So he was fine. And you go, oh, he's been really good. But two catches, no carries is not a guy I'm usually happy about starting. I don't, I feel like you probably have to play him. I mean, you kind of are probably in the boat where you've been playing him.

And he's that flex guy? I don't... Asking for a friend. Yeah, right. I know. I know. All right. Well, I'm going to ask for a friend. How do you guys feel about Julian Edelman? He's really been a letdown. We were expecting really big things from when Tom Brady got back. Meanwhile, he's just... We're not seeing any 2013, 2014 Julian Edelman. I mean, he's not getting it done. He's not getting any touchdowns. He's... Why?

double digits, even in our half-point PPR, because he's not getting volume. Well, what's crazy is he got the volume last week. Every time I looked at the screen, he was grabbing another pass for three yards. He got nine receptions this past week, but only 60 yards, and like you said, no touchdown. I am fine with Julian Edelman. He was really, really involved in the offense. He just didn't break anything off. We've seen weeks prior where he is...

broken off long things. I don't I don't look at Julian Edelman and think he's lost a step to me. I know that, you know, he's missing some practice with the foot. But when I watch the game, he looks fine to me. They're still going to him in the offense. I still trust that it will come around personally. I know Brady wasn't here the whole year. The Patriots have only thrown the ball 48% of the time. The bills only throw the ball 47% of the time. That's 29th and 30th in the league.

So both of these offense have been leaning on the running game, not the passing game as much. Do you like Gillesley if McCoy sits? Sure. Yes. Sure. Yeah, I do. And, you know, Gillesley has shown a propensity for big plays. So you're kind of hoping, I don't think the volume will be anything close to what McCoy would have gotten. I think Bush, we saw him on the field last week. But big play, possibility. Yeah. All right, let's talk Jets and Browns, 43 point over under. That's low. And then, you know, you have, we talked about McCown, Fitzpatrick.

From what I read today, Ball is moving good in practice, so he should supplement Matt Forte this week, Forte coming off the big week. Do you buy into it for another week? Yeah, I'm glad you do too. I think Forte's in for a very big week this week. He's been getting the touches. You know, Powell might be moving around good, but the report coming out saying Powell's moving around well is really because of the fact that he's dealing with a turf toe injury. You know, if you're healthy, you don't just have reports coming out going, hey, you're...

This guy's looking like he can run. So my point being that that'd be a lot of reports. Because he's struggling a little bit with an injury, I don't see any reason to not give the ball to Matt Forte a bunch again. And Forte has had the volume. It's been his efficiency. And it's a lot easier to be efficient when you're running against the Cleveland Browns. There, watch, go back and watch the play if you can on Jeremy Hill's big touchdown. You watch.

a play that any other NFL team, Jeremy Hill would have been tackled for a five-yard gain. But the safety takes such a horrific angle. That reminds me of you playing lineback on our flag team. I appreciate that. I mean, it feels like the safety ran forward and then did a 90-degree turn instead of just trying to do some geometry of a straight line is the fastest way between two points.

And so I'm just saying that there is. You probably appreciate that because I compared you to an NFL player right there. Well, I mean, I've seen myself play linebacker. It's pretty good. All right. We moving on to the next matchup or is there somebody else who want to discuss in this game? Are you playing prior? How do you feel about prior? I feel I feel good. What? What? Did you just pull off a trade mid show? Maybe. You just traded for Andrew Luck while talking?

How did you do that? I told you I'm gifted. Wait a minute. That's very interesting. Wait a minute. What? I just see this alert come through my phone. I'm like, wait a minute. He's sitting right here. Our trade deadline in our league is 10 minutes from now for the entire year. Wow. You think I'm going to let this show get in the way of picking up a good player? Is that the kind of example I'd want to set for our listeners who are, hey, I'm in the middle of working?

The trade deadlines coming up. No, you're not. Work is in the middle of playing fantasy football. That's right. Also, shout out to the night shifters, as I'll call them, who last night were helping me debug a few things on the fantasy footballers.com and getting back and forth with me letting me know how things are going. Shout out to all of you. Prior, I feel, is, I haven't seen any reports yet on how his hamstring is doing, but assuming he's on the field. He seems to be fun. I like him. He played through it last week.

I like him. Yeah. I like him against the, the jet secondary. Man, if McCown is back. Very quick. Oh, yeah. If McCown is back and Pryor's healthy, this is a great matchup. Very quick detour, because we should talk about this. Because I really want to know. Part of it is asking for a friend. But a lot of friend questions today. Prior, long term.

Keeper League, Dynasty League. What is prior long term? They're talking contract extension with him. Before this past week was the 10th ranked wide receiver. I have him. He's big and tall. Yeah, I have him in a dynasty, in our main dynasty league. And I lost C.J. Anderson. So I was looking for a running back. And I thought, oh, you know what, Ty Montgomery is out there. Let me look at see if I can get, you know, Ty Montgomery and to fill for a couple weeks at running back.

while I wait for C.J. Anderson to come. And I had the question of like, okay, what do I think of Terrell Pryor? Would I offer Terrell Pryor for a need at my running back, who is also, you know, a young, longer term, wide receiver with a good quarterback. And it dawned on me, no, of course not. Like, Terrell Pryor is a freak. He is a true monster out there. When you watch him, he's good. He's a good wide receiver. Now, he's on a bad. Did they just replace Josh Gordon?

Yeah, that's what it seems like. I mean, he's on a bad team for free. With a bad quarterback right now, I mean, and probably forever. But, you know, his talent is one you hang on to. So if you're in a league where you're talking long term, dynasty or keeper, I think Terrell Pryor is for real. I think the Patriots missed on him. Can you imagine if he was on that Patriots offense, that big body down the field? Yep, they'd be happy about that.

All right, let's move on, guys. Let's talk. We're on to Lions and Texans. Correct. All right. The Lions take on the Texans. This is in Houston, 45 and a half point over under. The underwhelming Brock Osweiler. Is this a game where Hopkins has a chance to bounce back in a big way? Do you like Hopkins and Fuller in this matchup? I like Hopkins a lot. I do. I like the passing game for the ranking was really low. It might be, but I'm saying I like the upside of Hopkins this week. I feel like it's.

if it's ever going to happen. I mean, when we're picking out our streams of the week, everyone's looking at that Brock Osweiler versus the line matchup going, oh, man. Yeah, I know. Can I do this? It's the worst passing D in the league for fantasy purposes.

Can I possibly recommend Brock? And the answer was no. For the record, nobody could recommend him. But for me, Darius Slay is, I believe he's going to be out. That's still too early to know definitively. But he was dealing with an injury. If Darius Slay is out with the, I mean, they were all with Darius Slay. They are the worst ranked passing defense for fantasy purposes. For me, I do like Will Fuller.

a lot, and I like DeAndre Hopkins a lot. Those two guys should be productive this week, and they're playing at home. So, you know, everything is coming together for them to have a good week. We've seen weeks for both players this year already, where they've been good with Brock. So why wouldn't it happen this week? I expect it will. All right. All right. Let's talk about some of the other big start sits in this game. You know, if Redix active, I think we all agreed we'd start him, right? Yes. Yeah.

You talked about Tate. The impact of Riddick being back means that Tate doesn't get some of that kind of, what, short passing game work that they were utilizing him in? Well, maybe. I'm just, I'm saying that's a question that has to be asked. It's not, okay, Golden Tate is back because it, I don't think it's, there was a direct correlation. Yeah, Riddick went out. Golden Tate was good for two games. Yeah. No, you're right. You know, the Texans have had a good past D on the year. Are you confident in Marvin Jones this week?

No, I'm not personally. Marvin Jones over the last few weeks. What does that decision look like then? If you're not confident, I still play him. Is there some start sick questions that I throw some names out there maybe? Sure. Marvin Jones versus Jordy Nelson this week? I'm taking Jordan. Jordan. Okay. You guys are pretty confident that Jordy's just had an off day. Jordy's been great on the year. He had a game where he wasn't needed. He had been progressing downward for four straight weeks. With touchdowns and all of them. No.

Not with touchdowns in all of them. The past couple weeks, he has not. Oh, has it been two weeks where he hasn't got a touchdown? I'm just saying he's been progressing down. He's progressing downward. Marvin Jones, Ty Montgomery. I'm going Ty. I'll go, yeah, Montgomery. Marvin Jones, Amari Cooper? I'm going Cooper. And Marvin Jones, Doug Baldwin. I'm going Doug Baldwin. So there you have it.

I think I'll go Jones there. I have Marvin Jones as kind of a low-end wide receiver two this week. I think I've got him 25. And I'm not like anti-Marvin Jones. I mean, I just said I would start a bunch of people over him. But there's plenty of leagues where I would still start him. He.

You know, he could be good. But if you want to talk about a guy who's progressing downward and, you know, you bring that up with Jordy, you have to kind of bring that up with Marvin Jones. Sometimes we're so caught up in those first three monstrous weeks where he got out and he was the number one wide receiver. I mean, last week he only caught four balls. The week before that was two. The week before that was four. I mean, that's just not what you thought you were getting. For a team that's been winning. Right. They've won three in a row. So to me, you know.

To be fair, though, Mr. Jordan Nelson, he had a touchdown in two of those three games. Sure. Sure. Well, he's been all right. I mean, I'm not bodying him. He's still a wide receiver two in my ranking. I think Fedorowitz is an interesting play this week. I do not. I do not. I think Fedorowitz has been really good when Ryan Griffin was out with when Griffin came back. I think you kind of saw him eat into Fedorowitz a little bit just when I was watching the game. So personally, you ever seen the Lions play D?

Well, I mean, it's a good matchup. The answer is no. It's a good matchup. Eric Ebron. Is Eric Ebron back? Not from what I've heard. Eric Ebron is back in practice. So that means that he has a decent chance to play, right? I don't love the matchup, though. So if you're coming off of an injury, playing against the Texans who have not given up a lot to the tight end, I'm not going to play Ebron this week. Mike, you want to take this next one?

I'm out of gas here, man. Sure. We got the Chiefs and the Colts. This game is in Indianapolis. It has a 50 point over under. As we call that, the Flaminion matchup. It's delicious. It's delightful. And you want a part of it. You got Alex Smith versus Andrew Luck. I like Andrew Luck a lot. He's my number one quarterback for the week. It looks like it, look, he's.

He's been performing very well. Dante Moncrief? Dante, yes. And Moncrief is back. That was a big missing piece for them. Moncrief was great for a week and a half or whatever it was. So I like Andrew Luck to continue rolling. I think that Alex Smith is an okay stream. I mean, anybody who's playing against the Colts, they're an okay play. Is he just the weekly, arbitrary, like,

honorable mention stream of the week. Yes. Alex Smith. Like that's what he is. When the chips are down, you break the glass and you pull Alex Smith out and just start him. In case of quarterback's debacle. Yeah. In case you're in trouble, break glass. Start Alex. Start Alex. Do you like Alex Smith? More or less than Marcus Mariotta tonight in the Thursday night game. I think I like him more. More. Okay.

We have them ranked very similar. Their consensus actually tied for 15 in our ranking, so I was curious about that. You like Smith more than Dak Prescott taking on that Philly Dee? I do personally. I think Dak could be in a little bit of a trap. He's looked so good. When the emotions and, you know, just the recency bias all swirls together. I mean, you can forget that he is still a rookie. And Philly's D.