Starts of the Week, Wk 5 Matchups, Hinesquarters

If they were not playing the Buffalo Bills that week, they would have lost. Say what you want about play calling. They don't have playmakers that are active right now. I mean, Geronimo Allison is questionable. Randall Cobb is likely to be out, but he's questionable. Devante Adams with a calf injury. I mean, if you're leaning on a trifecta of rookies at the wide receiver position. Good luck. I mean, what are you supposed to get out of that? And so Rogers, do we need adjusted expectations? Or, you know, he goes into Detroit.

controlled environment. Do you have any concerns about getting a top, you know, a high performing game out of Rogers? Let's say you're in a position to have Rogers or Mahomes or Rogers or Cam Nude. Man, this is the ultimate test of faith of how much do you believe in Air Rogers if his top three wide receivers are in fact out? I would pivot, man. I would play somebody else. I will not.

You won't? You'll still play Aaron Rogers? I will play Aaron Rogers over Patrick Mahomes this week. We're talking about it with the top three wide receivers out. If Devante Adams is gone, if he is out, then I would probably, probably still play Aaron Rogers over Pat Mahomes this week against Jacksonville, but it's definitely a close, difficult decision. I don't think Devante Adams is going to be out. I think that his calf issue, they're working through it, and I expect.

right now that he's in. So I'm operating under that assumption, right or wrong. And if he is in, I'm definitely going Aaron. There is a bit of an update on Devante Adams. Maybe it'll change your opinion. Oh, no. That means it's bad. He did not practice on Thursday at all. He suffered the injury on Wednesday. And so a little bit more.

concerning when you have a mispractice after a midweek injury. Allison's still in the concussion protocol. Randall Cobb did not practice again today. I expect him to be out. So it is a little shaky. It is Aaron Rogers. It is hard to start anybody over him. If Devante Adams is out, that is definitely rough. Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams, time Montgomery in the backfield. Aaron Jones, I think you can start. Agreed. Agreed.

Ty Montgomery, I think you can start as a flex option in any kind of PPR or half PPR league. Especially if some of these wide receivers are missing. Yep. And Jamal Williams. He's on the team. Detroit has Matthew Stafford and company trying to battle back to Packers and save their season. Carry on Johnson? He's a running back what this week? He is a running back two.

Running back too. I mean, he's just, he's not giving up a lot against the running back thus far this year. Yeah, but Kerry, look, we need the Detroit staff to come out and basically pull of Vance Joseph and say, you know what, we are wrong. We've been doing it wrong. We've been giving our most talented running back, not enough work, and we're going to fix it. But that's not going to happen. So Kerry on Johnson is just a.

A running back to the low end too. And I also think that the Packers rush defense. This is another one of those that might be a little too early to really say that they've been strong against the run. They played Buffalo this last week while Shady was injured. Didn't give up much, but Shady was injured. And they're dealing with Chris Ivory. They dealt with Minnesota when Dalman Cook got injured. And then when they played against Washington, they gave up 140 yards of two touchdowns. So I actually think that Green Bay is...

Not that scary. If Caryon Johnson comes out and gets the start, which he got last week, there's no reason in the world I could see they would be like, oh, he played really well. Let's put him back on the bench. If he gets the start, he gets more opportunity. He needs the middle and the finish as well. Yeah, the finish probably won't be there. And that's so frustrating because if the Packers are up, honestly, if the Packers are up, it's great for.

Carry on to be on the field over Blunt, but it could be Redick situation. That's the thing. I think it would be Reddick if they're actually down multiple scores. So you might say that if Devante Adams misses the game, that's good news for Carryon Johnson. You're starting all three lines, wide receivers, Golden Tate, Marvin Jones, Kenny Galladay? All three, firing them up. Okay. I don't think that we need to cover anything else in this game right now. We'll keep you up to date on the wide receiver situation heading into tomorrow and with the game day alerts on Sunday.

Let's talk about the final matchup of today before our starts of the week, and it's a doozy, the 3-1 Jaguars. Take on the 4-0 Chiefs. Chiefs are three-point home favorites in this one, 48.5 point over under. Look, this, when you're three-point favorites and the line's that big, the Chiefs are going to score against this Jaguar's defense. They're going to find a way to manufacture points. I think that this game is the potential to be...

More than we expect. Now, does that mean that Mahomes is an auto start? Close to it. Close to it when he's at home in this matchup and has the ability to, like last week when he was pretty much shut down, still put up an okay fantasy day with the rushing touchdown and the passing touchdown. I know that Mr. Tyreek, the freak, is very excited to go up against Jalen Ramsey. Most people are excited. It doesn't always work out. It's like the Mike Tyson.

quote, you know, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face. Yeah, you're excited until he's got to cover you. It's funny because he said he goes, I hope he presses me. He says, I hope he comes up and presses. Honestly, how do you press? They'll just go right past you. That's a great matchup to watch. It'll be exciting, but the Jags defense, just to give you context here, they were number one against quarterbacks last year. They're number one against quarterbacks this year. They were number one against whiteouts last year, number three.

This year, look, they're great. They don't give up fantasy points. That's just been the situation that we have. So I do think there's a ceiling here, but it's going to be a great battle. Do you start? Let's start on the Jaguar side of the ball. T.J. Yeldin. Yes. Oh, yes. He saw 21 opportunities last week. He's averaged 17.8 per game, and Leonard Fournette is gone. Yeldon's an auto start. 100%. Yes. Now, if you're a fantasy owner making a decision, would you rather, you know,

How high on the list is Yeldon for you? I mean, are you starting him over James Connor? No, not Connor. No, not that high, but are you starting him over Sony Michelle against Indianapolis tonight? Nope, not that high either. But Mark Ingram, Mark Ingram on the game back? I've, that's my sandwich. That's my T.J. Yeldon sandwich. I've got Sony, Michelle, T.J. Yelden, Mark Ingram, in that order. Right. In half point rankings. Yeah, he's a lower.

Lower end running back one to me. Well, he's going to catch the ball, and he's going to have opportunities. Keel and Cole, Dante Moncrief, Dedy Westbrook. Moncrief and Westbrook decided to have big games last week. Cole had an off week to put some confusion in your minds. If you had to pick one, who was it going to be? Well, I mean, if you can only pick one, I'm...

Man. I'm going Keel and Cole if I have to pick one. As am I. I am still sticking with the guy that I think gets the more valuable type of targets who is also talented. Dante Moncrief gets the valuable targets but is not as talented, drops a lot of passes. The volume of targets leans towards Dede Westbrook. So I would, in my opinion, I would go Cole, Dedy, then Moncrief.

Could you start them all the same way that you start all of the Lions wide receivers? No. The Chiefs are allowing, listen to this, 451 yards per game. That is on pace to allow the most yards in the history of the NFL. Which we know won't stay that way. Andy Reid's defenses, very similar to the Patriots, often start horrifically bad and then get better as the season goes on.

Yeah, but they are at a start worse than that. No, no, no, you can't. But you can't keep that pace. I mean, I guess someday someone will break the record. Maybe it's, maybe it's happening right now. But, you know, they're at home. They, the, the, there's going to be some slight rain, some 10 plus mile an hour wind. I just don't think this is.

I mean, yes, I'm willing to start most Jaguars in this situation against Kansas City. I love playing against Kansas City right now. But it just might, you know, because that defense is so good and the conditions aren't necessarily perfect, I don't, I don't think this is a guaranteed barn burner. It's a hopeful barn burner, but it could just be a, you know, a back. Just a burner. Yeah, just a barn. A barn simmers. It's like a shed burner.

It's not a full barn. It's not going to be like as the flames aren't as high. It's just my lawnmower. For those that are really afraid, I want to contextualize the Jags dominance against opposing quarterbacks a little bit. They faced Eli Manning, Tom Brady, and injured Marcus Marietta, and Sam Darnold thus far this year. None of those are doing what Patrick Mahomes is doing. Right. Thus far. So they do give up more points of game on the road.

You know, they average, they gave up 15.7 at home, 19.7 on the road. And the chiefs are still favored. So is there any hesitancy on the chief side? I mean, all of their stalwarts, you just play them, right? I mean, you pay Mahomes, Hunt, Hill, Kelsey. Watkins is the only one that's a question mark. He did practice in some capacity on Wednesday. Do we know anything else about Watkins situation? Yes. You know that you should not play him.

You know that? Why don't you tell us why you know that? I know that because if you've got a hamstring issue, that's always worrisome to start because we've seen so many times you don't even have to have played fantasy for a long time. If you've played this year, which you're listening, you probably have, you've seen people come in and reaggregate hamstring issues. So there's already a big worry. But then you're going up against the best defense in football. Why, you know, usually most people with Sammy Watkins have other options. He's not.

the type of guy that was drafted where it's like, man, I don't have any other option. So I would rather pivot away from an injured guy against Jacksonville. That's my stance. I don't mind that stance. I do think it matters for Patrick Mahomes. I think it helps Mahomes to have him on the field. I think they missed them this past week. The good news is when you have a hamstring injury, you'd expect them to miss the first practice, and he didn't. He participated. So that is a good sign. Another hamstring update, as, you know, this is going to be a new segment, the amount of hamstrings out there.

Oh, we need, Mike, when you make the sound drop for that, I want only strings. Oh, yeah. No, you can't, can't rock it out. I want violins. Yeah. I want you play the violin. Jason will take care of the ham. Right. I'll do the ham. You do the strings. Yeah. Will Fuller expects to play in week five. Okay. So maybe that. Do you downgrade? Yes. Kiki. The cute one? Yeah. Kiki kiki kooky.

Yeah, I would. I would downgrade him a little bit. Anything else you want to talk about in the Kansas City game, Mike? Nope. Starts of the week. Mike, I'm going to toss it to you. Why don't you kick it off? All right, I'm going to start it off with my quarterback, because I wanted to throw this guy out as another streaming possibility. We gave you three earlier in the week. This guy might still be on your waiver wire. I have confidence in Alex Smith this week, and it's all about the matchup. He has to go on the road against the New Orleans Saints.

But the New Orleans Saints are just giving up numbers. If the Chiefs weren't doing what they were doing on defense, the New Orleans Saints would be the dominant headline. I mean, not that people aren't talking about it, of course. And Alex Smith, he's been all right. He's got two multi-touchdown games on the year. The game where he didn't throw a touchdown, he threw for nearly 300 yards. He's got a healthy Jordan Reed.

And I think that you can stream Alex Smith. Like if you're looking at some of these options where you're like, oh crap, man, do I really want to play Patrick Mahomes against Jacksonville? Look, I'm just, I'm throwing out possibilities for people who are worried about playing Patrick Mahomes. I know your face is shocked. Well, I just, I pictured you saying any other name.

Except for Patrick Mahomes in that situation. Just because I can't see myself playing Alex Smith over Patrick Mahomes. That's fine. But Jason has been on record saying he will not play Patrick Mahomes against Jacksonville. Not that I won't, but that I would be willing to bench him. That's my point. I have Mahomes ahead of Alex Smith, but they're still very close in my rankings, close enough that you don't want to mess around with that situation. I'm not going to blame you for going with Alex. Jason, who's your quarterback?

My quarterback this week is Philip Rivers playing against the Oakland Raiders. We saw last week Baker Mayfield have a lot of yards, a couple of touchdowns. In fact, Oakland has given up five passing touchdowns in the last two weeks. Philip River's been throwing those touchdowns. I mean, if you look at his season so far, maybe you've wanted more yardage like week one when he threw for 424 yards. And over the last three weeks, he's been around that 250 mark.