Fantasy Football - Starts of the Week + Week 4 Breakdown, Big Trade! - Podcast for 9/25

I mean, even they're like, oh, we should not be throwing the ball right now. So you have a international matchup here. Aaron Rogers, Carson, Wins. You know, Jalen Warren and Jordan Mason have been super impressive on the season. Yeah, they're both must plays for me. Yeah, Jailen Warren, if people aren't aware, one of eight running backs to be top 20 in all three weeks. I mean, he's been getting all the work. His utilization is wild. He was a 50% workhorse. last week, meaning percentage of total team rushing attempts and targets. He played 80% of the snaps and Aaron Rogers does what Aaron Rogers wants. And he has, he said a couple weeks ago, we've got to get him more involved in the passing game because every time he touches the ball in the passing game, special things happen. Well, he went from two targets week one, four targets week two, six targets week three. These trends continue. I think Jay and Warren would be making a ton of headlines if he could just get into the end zone right now. Yeah. Because he's managing to finish top 20.

in spite of no rushing touchdowns on the season. He's a must play. Jordan Mason, that's a must play as well. Which, it reminded Warren was, Gainwell got the touchdown, but Warren had some opportunities, and then they ended up putting game won it, and they ran a trick play. So what is the truth about this Steelers' defense? Because they struggled like crazy and weak on against the Jets. They were awful in New York. They were not great. 31 points given up in week two against Seattle at home. Last week they forced a bunch of fumbles, only gave up 14 points to the New England Patriots. Are they good? Are they bad? I mean, they're the highest paid defensive football. I think they're bad. Yeah, I think that they have some talent. They're ball hawks. They're, you know, Ramsey's going to go after turnovers. And I think they can cause turnovers. Obviously, they can get sacks with Watt as well. So from a...

fantasy perspective, I think the defense is a playable defense this week against Carson Wentz. Do you like them more this week than let's say Washington against Atlanta? No. I think I would like Washington. In Atlanta? Yeah. Okay. However, from a standpoint of can they stop the opposing team? Not really. They turned the ball over three times or four times last week. But that was also like they gave up plenty of yards. They didn't look great. And you had two. fumble prone players in Antonio Gibson and Ramandre Stevenson that lo and behold fumbled again. Kind of sounded like fumble pros because like the professional fumblers, which also applies. Yeah. Yeah. It's been the story of Gibson's careers. He gets opportunities because somebody else fumbles and he's like, watch this. I feel like this is a strange temperature check situation at the wide receiver position. Where are you with Jefferson? Where are you with Metcalf? I mean, we're three weeks in. We haven't talked a lot of Jefferson at all.

Yeah, he, he's been quietly okay. I mean, it's not Justin Jefferson, the guy that you drafted early in the first round. Addison's back. But in week one, you know, 12.8 points, 9.6. Somehow he scraped together 9.6 points. So 3 for 81 in that horrific game against Atlanta. And then last week, 5 for 75. Again, a weird game script for Jefferson. Still made it to 75 yards. So my confidence in Justin is still sky high. You like him more than Chase rest of the season? I think so, yeah. Yeah, I do. Yeah, interesting to have that conversation. D.K. Metcalf, does he feel like the breakout is coming? Does he feel touchdown or bust right now? I mean, this is the worst matchup for wide receivers in all of football. Minnesota's number one against them. Ironically,

over the entire season last year. They were the worst. So I think the truth is somewhere in between. They are going to be a very good run defense. D.K. Metcalfe very necessary for this offense. And, you know, it was a weird game last week where he only got four targets. I don't. You like him more than Marv tonight against Seattle? On the road. Or not on the road. Sorry. Overseas. I think I would play Marv over D.K. this week. D.K. or Devante Smith at Tampa? I would play Marv. Or I would play D.K. There. So if you were, D.K. or DeVante, you'd trade for Marvin playing. Correct. Okay. The last one I hear is Jacoby or D.K. And that's Jacoby for me. Jacobi is, I'm really happy you made him a start of the week because his disappointing week last week and Trey Tucker's breakout. Like, Jacobi is the one and he's going to have a great game.

T.J. Hawkinson, you already heard it. Mike started the week. He made the case for that. And you're not really starting to tight ends because there's too many of them in Pittsburgh. Are you throwing Addison right into your lineup? No, man. No, no, no. I've got Marv anyway. So obviously I'm not done. No, I know, I know. The Commanders 2 and 1. I just talked about this game. They're going to Atlanta. Atlanta's 1 and 2. It was a depressing week for the Atlanta offense. It's also a Dan Quinn revenge game. Case you're tracking revenge games. Washington minus one and a half on the road. Over under is 45 and a half. Washington won in overtime last year against them. What are we thinking about Jaden Daniels this week? Are we going to get him back out on the field? And does it change the way you project this game? I think he will start, but honestly, I mean, he doesn't even know. He said he's feeling better, but he's not sure if he can go. He's limited in practice, but he is practicing. It's a situation where if Jaden Daniels starts, you start him.

And honestly, if he doesn't, I think Marks Mariotta, he's fine for fantasy. He runs a lot despite being, you know, an older veteran now. He's got nothing to lose. Well, and he's six for 40 on the ground, number six overall quarterback. Yeah, so I think you start the Washington Commanders quarterback. As far as how it changes the rest, I presume better for every other possible player that, you know, if you wanted to play Bill Crosky. Or if you wanted to play Debo Samuel, you're hoping that Jaden Daniels is active. Well, Terry McClure might not play in this game. He's a DMP on Wednesday dealing with the quad injury, seeking other opinions. I would consider him highly doubtful for this week. Same. So I think Debo is a very comfortable play. And I think the bigger question marks in this game have to do with the Washington running back room.

and then how we're feeling about Drake London. So let's start with the running backs. We know the story last week. You know, Kroski Merritt, one target. It wasn't like the other guys got any targets, though. I mean, no targets for McNichols, none for Rodriguez. Well, and they were blowing him out. So, I mean, I don't think we know for sure that he's not going to be involved in the passing game from what we saw last. You want to see another week? I'd like to see a week with Jaden Daniels. That's kind of what I want to see for the passing game for the running backs. But Bill.

And then Chris Rodriguez and then McNacles, that's the order? Yeah, Bill is the only true startable one to me. And you're playing Bejohn. So I wanted to talk about Drake London briefly to get your opinion on some of these numbers. Right now, if you want to look at the stats for Drake London, spending less time in the slot this year, his average depth of target is down to just 7.7 yards because we have seen these... you know, put it in the flat offense that they're running with Michael Pinnix. You know, he was above 11 in each of the first three seasons. That is concerning because it's not just, hey, Pinnix needs to become a better passer, which he clearly does. He's dead lasting completion when he's pressured, basically. He's got to become a better passer.

But then you also don't necessarily trust him to get the ball weight on the field or when Drake London does accumulate right now, he's not accumulating big plays. Right. I will say that, you know, he's done a lot of his work out of the slot as far as fantasy success in his short career. Last week, really good matchups at the cornerback position this week, as in they were really good corners, bad matchup. This week is kind of the opposite. So I expect a bounceback game for Drake London. Would you rather play Debo in this game without McLaren or Drake London? London. I play London.

All right, New Orleans at 0 and 3 take on the 3 and O Buffalo Bills. They are playing the game. There was some talk that they would just skip it. Just simulate it. Just for safety sake. Player safety and it's not going to change anything. Now Buffalo, I mean, last I looked it was 16 and a half. Now it's 15 and a half. Oh, oh. So the betters, they like the Saints. Well, there ain't no way. They can win by 17 points. Right. It is. It's a hard line to pick genuinely when I was, you know, when I was making my picks because the bills, unlike some other teams, they take, they, they do take their foot off the gas sometimes. And they'll rest like, does Josh Allen play in the fourth quarter? I don't know. But if he doesn't play in the fourth quarter, can the 21 point lead become, you know, right? Yeah, but he's a 14 and then you cover. Right. Exactly.

Well, this is... But the bills are going to smoke the saints who are traveling from Seattle on the road all the way cross country now to New York to get smashed. Yeah, I don't really have any, like, inkling that it's not going to play out the way we think it's going to play out. Just because the bills are that discipline, this would be the same as if the Saints were going into Detroit. You know, you'd expect them to execute... They've been two touchdown home favorites ten times in the Josh Allen era. So, you know, at least the numbers wise, they've only hit that, you know, big, like right now they're implied point total is 31 and a half. So they've only hit that 32 plus implied mark twice in those games. Two out of ten, yeah. Two out of ten. So we'll see. But you're starting who you know you're supposed to start here. Josh Allen, James Cook. I don't have a lot of confidence elsewhere on the receivers because. Completely agree.

I think they can win with the two players they just named, and you don't know if it'll be Keon Coleman or Khalil Shakir or Dalton Kincaid or anybody else. Or Dawson Knox or Elijah Moore. I mean, this is, honestly, Josh Allen might not even do that much in this matchup. To me, it's Josh Allen. You're still, of course, starting him. James Cook is going to be, you know, probably the running back one top three on the week. And then I kind of don't want anyone else on the bills, despite how many points they're going to score, because you don't know where it's going to go. And on the other side, Desperation play for Tyler Johnson real quick, if you think that this game could get out of hand and you have backups in the game? I mean, that's a, what? Well, I mean, you guys have talked about starting Tyler Alger in an emergency situation. Sure. So I'm asking the question, if you're salting this game away. Oh, oh, Ty Johnson. Yeah.

Well, you called him Tyler. Okay. I'm sure that's what Ty is short for. I did not know who he was talking about. I'm going to be honest. I was like, you were like, who's Tyler Johnson? Because Tyler Johnson is a wide receiver. Okay. In the league. Okay. Ty Johnson. So it was very confusing. But what do you think? His mother. What about Tyler Warren? Ty Johnson. Now do you understand? No, if anything happened there, I would think it would be Ray Davis. Someone figured out the long form of this name. I'm on it right now. That's all I'm doing. Yeah. Okay. We have. But so the other side, Joanne Johnson is, he's an auto start. Oh, it's just tie. Oh, in your face. Before you go to the other side. His mom was pissed. I dare you call him Tyler. She's like, what the heck are you? Who is that? The wide receiver? Oh, my gosh.

Shut out back there. All right, listen. Don Kincaid has been the number two and number three tied in. He's so weird. I'm just saying he's not, nobody's talked about it, nobody's bought in. If you got a two and three, here's the thing, if you got a two and a three week out of Kyle Pitts. If this exact same thing happens to Kyle Pitts, I feel like we're having conversations. We're all just like, yeah, this is a lie. Because he plays half the snaps. Yeah, 55%. It feels so fragile. Kincaid is a fine start. At the tight end position, you don't need as much. I mean, would you start Don Kincaid or David Nizoku? I'd start Kincaid. Yeah. Yeah, okay. All right. Sorry, you were flipping to the other side. Yeah, I've just, at Joanne Johnson, second in targets and second in receptions among the tight end. He is an auto play. Bill's been really good against tight in so far. Yeah, it's just the way that the offense works and how fast it runs that your, Joanne is in. But what do you do with Alvin Camara?

Alvin Camara is a must start. I see the question. To me, he's a must start. He had a very bad game last game, and I know that the targets are down a little bit, but the opportunities. They're all down a lot of it. The opportunities. Where's Derek Carwin? You need him. Like, didn't he have 20 opportunities last week? Are you on his profile? Yeah, he did. He had 20 opportunities, but I mean, it's 18 carries for 42 yards. He's on the field so much. He's still talented. He's been good the first two weeks and then. Had a bad outing last week. So could he get shut down again this week? Sure. But I'm not going to not start a running back getting 20 opportunities. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. I want you to guess the target pace for Chris Oliva through three weeks. Oh, it's Chris Oliva is a. He's leading. So I'm going to say 205. 209. I mean, he is stupid. It's probably never going to be fantastic for Chris Oliva, but.

I mean, like Jacoby, sometimes you just need those, those targets, those vegetables. Yeah. Give me that fourth quarter. Yeah, like if you need to go, if you need a wide receiver to get volume, I think trading for Chris Alave right now is an okay thing to do. He is, uh, he is not surpass 60 receiving yards in any game and he's on pace for 935 on 209 targets. 209 target pays for not a thousand yards. Those are fantasy veggies. Yes. The Browns are one and two, and they are traveling to Detroit. Detroit's looking mighty fine of late, although they will be, well, we got the Monday night football, right? So they're a little bit of a short week. But they're at home, and they're playing the Browns. And the Vegas line here, Detroit minus 10, over under 44.5, 27 implied points for Detroit, 17 for the Browns. Brown's defense did struggle to hold up over the course of a long game against Baltimore. So...

You know, what is the Brown's defense and what is that a threat to in your starts-it decisions for Detroit? Is it at all? It's not. Is it a tempered expectation? It's just tempered expectations. Like Montgomery, you're not concerned about that play? That one feels a little nerve-wracking to me. Okay, so he probably goes more into a flex decision. Okay. If you have another great option, you know, like a Jacobi Myers. I played Jacobi. Yeah, I would play Jacoby Myers over David Montgomery. So you could have situations where you bench him after an incredible game. We have so far seen this defense shut down everybody they've played against, and they've played against great running backs. Would you play Cam Scataboo against the Chargers or David Montgomery against the Browns? Scataboo. Okay. Yes. I am very, I mean, you're playing on Monra.

Where are you guys? Is Jameson Williams just a flex decision on a week-to-week basis? Do you like him at home in this one? To me, it's like the downfield throws when we had the start-sid decision earlier in the week. You didn't see Jordan Love able to get the ball down the field a lot. It is a little bit concerning. He'll have a couple shots. I'd try to pivot away if I could. I mean, the targets of at the end of last year have not duplicated for this year. Jameson Williams is at a 13% target share. It's frustrating. It's so weird. It is so weird what is going on with him. You just haven't needed it. That's the truth. But it's still, I mean, you have a pie. You got 100% of the targets and 13% are going to the guy you just gave money to. Yeah. You didn't need to pay him. That's fair. I mean, we just... It's weird. We need to see him involve more. I think the number one starts a question on the week, according to our website, involves Quinn Sean Judkins, who had a big week last week. But you have a Detroit...

Lions defensive front that was number five against running backs last year, number nine so far this year. We know that they're going to stop the run. And we also know that Vegas has this game. Obviously, the Lions heavily favored. The running game for the Browns may become irrelevant over a portion of the game. The number one question is Quinn Sean Judkins or Trey Benson for Arizona tonight. Man. I feel like that's a really hard one. It's a great question. I feel like everybody wants to play quench on Judkins. If I had him, I'd want to play him. Sure. Emotionally. Yeah. I would play Benson. I would be on the, I would be on the Judkins side personally. You did see, you know, Alvin Camara's bad game in week three. That was against Seattle. So Benson, if I have the opportunity to wait and see, I mean, we don't know. Maybe Demarcato is more involved than we think. That's fair. We're kind of assuming.

that Benson's going to get everything now that James Connor's gone. If you've got a Judkins available to start where you can take that break and see what you got in Benson, it's not a great matchup for Judkins, but it wasn't a great matchup for Judkins last week against the Packers. Being on the road impacts the decision for me, though, of the... Sure. Can... And the defense is great, but can they hold the lions down long enough? Because if the lions jump out to a... two-score lead, you will see a lot more Jerome forward on the field. That's just, that's his role in the offense. So we've got one person on the Judkin side, right? Mm-hmm. One on the Benson side and a coward. On the Tray Benson side. Our starts hit tool. Okay. The ultimate dashboard would put Benson in. Okay. But it's funny. I was talking to some people yesterday and they're like, I really want to play this guy, but the ultimate dashboard has this player.

So play that guy. And that's kind of what I wanted to talk about for a second. Like we are trying to give you information. So when you look at the start sit tool, we're telling you who's home, who's away, what's the over under, what's the line, what's the implied point total, you know, how we're comparing how these teams have done against that position group. But let's be very clear. Unless it's a blowout start sit type of situation projected points wise, we just want you informed so that you can make the decision that you feel in your in your gut. Right? Go with your gut. Go with the team and the situation. You know your opponent. We don't know your opponent. So you might be favored. You might be an underdog. You might need a big play. You might need more information. You play Trey Benson.

You get the advantage of knowing what that position, you know, what that player does on Thursday night instead of Sunday morning. So as a reminder, put those players into your running back and wide receiver position. Oh, that's such a good reminder. Put Marvin Harrison into my wider seat. For the NFL to rule CLEM out. Oh, thank you. Is that, do we need to tell them to do that? Apparently. What if he's going to play though? He is not going to play. Yeah, Jason is spinning out right now because he's got. No ability to sign somebody. I can't do anything with my roster because C.D. Lamb is doubtful. Yeah. So there you go. He's doubtful to play for three weeks. Are you guys kind of done with Cleveland whiteouts right now? No. No. Jerry Judy's been outside the top 30 for three weeks, Cedric Tillman. Because of the game script that they will have to throw. I mean, Joe Flack, what, 42 passes per game? Is he seriously all the way up there? So Tillman is, uh, I mean,

Neither of those guys are getting it done. It's been Harold Phantom. We just talked about the receiving totals, but like three catches for Tillman this past week, 26 yards, two for 22 the week before did score. They didn't throw the ball a lot this last week. Yeah, they actually held it in control. You were against a really good Packers. I've talked about I think they're the best defense in the league right now, the Packers D. And so that was tough sledding. Now, the Lions aren't a bad defense by any means, but you usually throw more than you run on them. I'm starting other players.

Yeah, I mean, I don't think you, I don't think on the road. I'm not massed them into lineups. I'm certainly not done with them or thinking that they are going to be bad this season. And the tight ends? I go fanning over in a joku, but they eat into each other's work so much that I think that like I would I would play Dalton Kincaid over either. Hunter Henry? Sure. Okay. We'll take a break. We'll get into some more matchups. Foot Clan the season. Look, it's underway, Al. The season is underway. You got those rankings, those sleepers, you got the can't miss picks. We've got it all laid out on the line. I don't know if you're ready for that, but the best fantasy team out there, we still need a backup because sometimes the starters, they don't show up. We know this. Wouldn't it be great if you could have the same peace of mind everywhere else. With Progressive, you get more than just a policy. You get a playbook full of coverage options that you can count on for your home and for your auto. Want to customize that protection? Not a problem.

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I just want the people to understand like the levels we go to to accomplish very valuable information on this show. Kyle the Borgogan apparently is still digging into Cumberland-Maryland birth records to find the true birth certificate name of Ty Johnson. We go deep. And so this is what he's focusing on for the remainder of probably the day, if I'm honest. So make sure you get that information out there. Hopefully not the day if he's the man I think he is. You think he can get it sooner? Yeah. He may need to get boots on the ground. We may need to go to the records office. 3 p.m. Eastern, it will be done. Okay. Go get them, Kyle. Carolina is one and two. They take on the one and two New England Patriots. The Vegas line here, New England, minus four and a half. The O'Runders, 42 and a half. Patriots, you know, their favorite of home. Carolina had the big win last week against Michael Pennix and the Falcons. You know, I don't know who the Patriots are yet. That's kind of how I'm feeling. Yeah, this game is weird.

I talked a lot about Hunter Henry earlier as my start of the week and the fact that the receiving room, like I know Stefan Diggs got dropped in our league this past week. He's still out there on waivers after waiver day. There was no drop of like it's hot pickup of Stefan Diggs. You guys didn't want, you want Diggs for my team? Yeah, I mean, Kishon Booty. We had a- I can't C.D. Lambs down. Oh, right, right. I would have. We got six for 103 from Kishon Booty in week one, and since then one for 16 and two for 28. Not encouraging.

and then Demaria Douglas, part-time player. So the offense right now, and then you've got the running back room, which that's the big story. Everybody wants to talk about, like, you know, yesterday we got some video, right? We got, the Chavion was getting those first reps. Yeah, it could be something. It could be everything. It could be nothing. Yeah, and it's like, what a tumultuous situation where like, okay, let's say Remandre gets forgiven, which I read an article yesterday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was very positive about getting them on track. according to Mike Vrable. And Vrable's a veteran guy. He likes the vets. Antonio Gibson, same story. But it's also a really weird situation when a fumble ends that players maybe weak or multiple weeks. Like let's say Romandria gets forgiven and gets opportunities. What if he fumbles? Right. Do you remember when Chris Carson had a little fumbling problem for Seattle years ago?