Starts of the Week, Wk 2 Matchups, Boils + Beasles

Prior, Annoon, Anderson, curse, and Bilal Powell out of the backfield. Yeah, very interesting. Aaron Rogers called his injury a sprained knee, no commitment to the Vikings game. We'll update you tomorrow. David Johnson, limited in practice. Doesn't seem to be a concern about his availability. Same with DeAndre Hopkins. Otherwise, Kenneth Dixon, big news. This is the big news. Kenneth Dixon, running back for the Baltimore Ravens, who had 15 carries last week to Alex Collins 7.

He's been placed on the injured reserve. Alex Collins is a target to me. Very similar. If Kenneth Dixon had gone on the IR one week earlier prior to the start of the NFL season, I would have been all in on Alex Collins because now his role is secure. If he fumbles or if, you know, he's not getting it done, that that wafer thin loyalty to him is kind of just...

It has to be there now. Finway fare. Finway fare. Someone don't know that reference out there. Yeah. I love that you went with the word wafer. Along with Alex Collins, though, we talked about him on the waiver show that saying Buck Allen needs to be added for your team. Starting to look even better. If you said, eh, I'm going to pass for now on Buck Allen. If he's still on your waiver wire, you need to add him. I have waiver regrets.

I'm not grabbing Buck Allen. I'm spending too much. No, I understand I spend a lot on Kittle. That was a team decision. You had Beverly Hills. I know. I feel like I almost did our listeners a disservice with my expenditures there. But that should illustrate the fact that every league is different. What you're trying to do in every league is different. And that's why we can't just tell you go spend $20. If you're in a league where you, look, for the record, the second team bid 40.

On kiddle. On kiddle. So I don't get kiddle. If I don't bid 44, it was a high spin. Well, you could have done 41. That is true, Mike. Thank you. Or 42. I don't want to talk to you anymore. Here's the thing. I bought Philip Lindsay in that league, and I regret not buying Buck Allen. For cheaper? Yeah, because later in the day, you find out, you know, that. You didn't have that information at the time. No, I didn't. But I also, after it happened, I'm going, man, should I have gone Buck Allen? And then that got pushed a little further. So a reminder.

Look, it's Thursday. The Thursday night game is tonight. Make sure that you take your Thursday night players out of your flex spot and put them in a dedicated roster spot. This gives you flexibility for all the injuries that we'll be talking about. So if you have a guy, let's say you are committed to playing. You're playing Alex Collins. Yeah, you're playing Alex Collins. He should be in your running back spot tonight, not your flex. Even Buck Allen is a better example because the thing is,

If he is the worst on your roster, that doesn't mean he has to be in the flex. If he's going to play tonight, put him in the running back position so that should that other running back or whatever position you're moving them to get injured between now and Sunday, you have more flexibility in that flex position. I made this mistake. I started Devante Freeman.

in the flex spot last week. Yeah, week one, it's real easy to do it. Yeah, and listeners were like, wait, I thought you're always telling us. I was like, thank you. That's a good reminder. Get your Thursday night players out of the flex and into the position. Sesame Street. Everybody makes mistakes. Everybody makes mistakes. That's one of their models? It's just one of the things I remember learning is a small child from Sesame Street. And it served me well, Mike. It's proven very true in my life.

All right. Without further ado, let's get into these matchups. Fantasy forecast. All right, excited to talk about week two matchups. It's just nice to have one week in the books to see what teams are doing. Let's talk about the Panthers traveling to Atlanta to take on the Falcons. Falcons are six-point favorites at home in this game. The Panthers are 1-0. The Falcons are 0.1.

Let's talk about the upside for the Carolina offense in this matchup. The Panthers did not show us a lot on offense last week. They were at home against Dallas. It was a low-scoring affair. What are your thoughts on this Panthers offense? And who benefits the most from Greg Olson missing? From Greg Olson missing, I think the primary beneficiary is Christian McCaffrey. He should be the lead here. I mean, Christian McCaffrey.

would be all three of our starts of the week if he wasn't obvious. And, you know, everyone is starting Christian McCaffrey. We don't usually talk about the primary guys. But with the injuries to the Atlanta Falcons, their two best linebackers, their two best defenders are done, done for the season. Yeah, one linebacker, one safety. And they were already.

a team that really struggled to pass catching running backs. So Christian McCaffrey, despite the offensive line concerns for the Panthers, fire him up with extreme competence. With Greg Olson last year, McCaffrey averaged 5.7 targets, 3.9 catches, 36.7 yards, and 0.14 touchdowns per game. Without Greg Olson, those numbers jumped up to eight targets a game, six catches a game.

44 yards a game and 0.44 touchdowns per game. It was a massive leap with no Greg Wilson on the field. Not to mention they already, you know, you have the evolution of a young rookie. Yeah. The other massive upgrade was Devin Funches. If you take a look at the 17 games, one from this year in. Oh! Last year full season and the one game from. Devin S. Devin S. Grumptious. Of course. The most delicious waiver wire ad.

of last year. He jumps up nearly five PPR points a game when Greg Olson is out of the lineup. So I'm, he's the replacement of the big target. Yes. When you want to fire a ball, you know, you're Cam Newton. You want to fire a rocket.

into a tight window and you're just looking for a big body and Greg Olson isn't there, it's funches. And if you look at the snap percentages and the utilization of targets from week one and in preseason, the fears that I know I had. I thought DJ Moore was going to come in and right off the bat, take over the number one wide receiver role. It is not happening.

that quick. Clearly, Funchus is going to be the number one this season. So, yeah, Funches and McCaffrey, I like them both. Let's say Marquis Goodwin misses. Would you rather flex Devin Funches in this game on the road or Dante Pettis, like between those two? Sure, that's a great question. I'd probably go Funchus. I would too. I think it's a much safer play, but Pettis has.

He's got a ceiling. He's got the eyebrow factor. Yes. But I would still play funches. All right. Atlanta. This should be interesting. Matt Ryan struggled in week one. Julio Jones had 19 targets in week one. You don't have questions about starting Julio Jones. You do wonder about the health and utilization of Devonta Freeman. Jason, you have him in League of Record. I saw him on your bench.

Yeah, until we get great practice reports, I'm... He sat out Wednesday. Exactly. I'm saying, you know, until he's practicing in full, he was hampered a little bit last year with a similar injury, and it affected the play. So, you know, most of the times, I think if, for most people, if Freeman is active, you're still going to start him. He's too involved. He's probably too high a draft pick. You're going to have to...

to roll with Freeman. If you have the luxury of having, I don't know, let's say a super dominant, unbelievable team that is better than everyone else in your league and you can bench Freeman like I can, then I would do that. Now, by dominant, you technically mean winless, right? Yes, yes. I do mean 0 and 1.

It is so hard to troll when your own one is it. It is so hard. Even though you probably have a right to. It makes it very difficult. You got to feel confident in Cam Newton this week, by the way. I mean, Cam Newton right now, we all have him as our fourth ranked quarterback on the week. The only players that we have ranked ahead of him right now, Big Ben against Kansas City, Drew Brees against Cleveland, and Deshaun Watson. I think the real question in this game that people might have is Matt Ryan. There's no chance. Ben, Jim.

No chance I'm starting Matt Ryan. Carolina's defense looked very solid in week one. It's a hot take, in my opinion to say, Bench him. They're six-point favorites at home. Right. I question it a little bit. I definitely like Matt Ryan next week, but I don't know if I want to, you've got better options this week. It's not to say that Matt Ryan can't explode at home. He's got great weapons, but it is to say that there are so many, so many great.

quarterback. Matt Ryan or Tyrod Taylor. Tyrod Taylor. Okay. That makes it pretty easy. Exactly, because he's available. The interesting thing, Matt Ryan, the next three weeks is at home. It's Carolina, New Orleans, Cincinnati, all at home. So we'll see what Matt Ryan's made up for this season. We might see that over the next three weeks. Sure. Entirely. Yep. All right. Before we get to our next match, I want to tell everybody about pristine auction. They are the...

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Mistakes. That's what I said earlier, and let's talk about the bills. I'm glad you said multiple, as in mistakes. Plural. Yes. Plural mistakes. Look, the Chargers and Bills, they're going to play football this week, and it's going to happen in Buffalo. The bills are seven and a half point home underdogs. Wow. 43 point over under, which is not high. They're not expecting Vegas being, they're not expecting a lot of points.

coming from the bills from the bill yeah i took the chargers to cover here um last week was a disaster uh it was it was nathan peterman's fault last year was the nathan peterman experiment against the chargers the five interceptions and a half they're pretty bummed i've heard yeah they thought peterman was going to start yeah the charges are disappointed charges are pissed at the ravens you can start your philip rivers you're going to start your melvin gordon yep um by the way

Melvin Gordon, 41 receiving yards per game since week 11 of last season. That is the fifth most in football. I've been telling Jason for years. Melvin Gordon is a fantasy beast. If a regular running back flexes one arm with his running ability and then you flex the other arm with your receiving ability, there's only a few that do the double flex. This is very true. And Melvin's a double flex guy. Yeah. Keenan Allen is an obvious must start. This is the matchup last year that he