Week 8 Matchups + Spicy Starts, Wheel of Shame - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/25

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Friday, October 25th, Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers. We had a Thursday night football game. We've got news. We've got the forecast. We've got matchups. We've got the wheel of shame. We've got a lot going on. And I just want to say.

Right here at the top, I saw nothing. You saw nothing? I saw nothing. The end of the game? You are team ref. I saw nothing. Yeah, I expect nothing. Then big ref. I want to, let me give you my perspective of this. The player should sell this thing on the field. If you can't overcome a little tiny twist of the head. You aren't a football player NFL style. We don't mess up. We're the ref. Man, that sounds pretty big ref over there. You know, Mike, yesterday you came in. You gave us a real good. It's football time because you knew it was going to be great. Honestly, we really did have an awesome. We had 58 minutes of awesome football. Well, look, I appreciate what Kevin O'Connell did at the end of the game. And if you're not familiar with how the game ended, the...

Rams were ahead by eight points. The Vikings got the ball back late with under two minutes to go, backed up near their own end zone. There was an egregious face mask that took place in the end zone that somehow every referee was blocked from seeing. There were only, what, three or four people in the entire world who didn't see it? Well, but it did. One of them was looking straightforward towards it? In their defense. It happened far away from where the ball was. Like two and a half feet. Yeah. So look, the face mask took place. It was not called. It turned into his safety. The game was over. Yeah. Kevin O'Connell came out and I think did what a head coach should do in this situation. Didn't dwell on it. Said, you know, we're not going to just focus on one call. The game went, you had whatever, 58 more minutes that you could have put yourself in a better position. You never want, I mean, that's the line, right? You never want to be.

in the spot where one play, one penalty costs you the game. Well, you don't want to be the head coach where you just lost the game and now you're going to lose money because you come out and tell the truth about what the refs did. They were not able to, I mean, they came down and they look like the most perfect offense ever. This has been the Vikings, by the way. I believe Sam Donald's over 80% completion in the first quarter this year. The script, like every coach has got the script, you know. to start the game. And Kevin O'Connell's scripts are real hot. They're like nice. Yeah. But you can't script the whole game. We've learned that. You can only script a quarter. Yeah. It's all you could do. You run out of ink. Defensees obviously make adjustments. The first four drives of the game were touchdowns. It was awesome. But we're burying the lead here, fellas. The lead story of this game is Pooka's back, baby. Yeah. Oh, I hope you played them. But listen.

A lot of people out there had puka, they weren't sure there were reports of he'll be limited, and maybe you didn't play him. You should not be unhappy. You should not be sad. He got away with an injury-free game where he showed he is that dude, and the win gives you a little bit of peace over the Stafford-Darnold trade not happening, which is probably the biggest puka fear I had. Yeah, it doesn't seem realistic for that to happen when, you know, they did acknowledge teams have called about Cooper Cup. But this team rattled off a ton of wins at the end of last year. Now they've got their pieces back. Yeah, this is great news. Even their punt returner was really good running the football in this game. I believe he's on pace for 24. He got his job back at the end. Touchdowns. He got to return one of the late puns. Yeah. I think it was like the last. It's a high leverage. The final punt. High leverage situation. Yeah. Kyron's pretty good. He's great. He is great. He's unbelievable. No Blake Corum, but he's decent.

Yeah, so great game. Kyron was great. Aaron Jones didn't get into the end zone. He was efficient, but he was not, he did not have a big fantasy day. No, but he was the workhorse. This was. Which has been the case now. If you look at Ty Chandler's, his snap counts, they've been in nothing. Yeah, but this one was 46 to 2. Yeah. Ty Chandler is like straight up insurance. What's the tool song, Jay? Oh, yeah. What is that? Is like 46 and 2? Is it? Yeah. I was like, that's the song. Justin Jefferson was 8 for 115, did not find the end zone. Puka 7 for 106. Cooper Cup did score 5 for 51. He looked like he was kind of ironically the one that got off to these slower return. Just didn't quite look like himself. But Puka played 32% of snaps. Well, and you said this yesterday when

The news report was breaking that he's going to play a limited allotment, which he did. 32%. You said verbatim, the plays that he plays, they're going to go to him because that's when he's on the field, they're just going to design plays for him, take advantage of it, and then get him off the field. They did. DeMarcus Robinson scored twice on two catches just to, you know, twist. Yeah, if you're mad about anything, just be mad about DeMarcus Robinson. Yeah, because this is the one time you couldn't have. You wouldn't have played DeMarcus Robinson. You would have tried to play him all these weeks. You didn't have other receivers. He finally gives you two touchdowns. You know what's ironic about this? I think this is actually the offense that is best for DeMarcus Robinson. DeMarcus Robinson is not an insurance wide receiver. He proved that. Like when these two guys went down, he can't step up and be a one for an NFL offense. But I drafted a lot of best ball shares of DeMarcus Robinson coming into this year based upon what he did at the second half of last year when they had Puka and Cup healthy.

He was around, you know, the defenses are focused on those two guys. Yeah. And DeMarcus Robinson could be a great three here. So going forward, you know, a DFS play or deeper leagues. A deep league where you just, you know, I've seen people have the tweets where it's like, no, I'm in a deep league. Yeah, I got to get people who are not rostered who I could throw in a lineup for a start. I think going forward to Marcus Robinson might actually be that better with Puka and Cooper than he was when he was, you know, quote unquote the one. It is Friday.

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Calvin Ridley remains sidelined on Thursday. Whoops, that is not good. I mean, we hope that the Wednesday mispractice was a veteran day of rest when you completely do not practice on a Thursday with a foot injury, which I believe Calvin Ridley has dealt with a foot injury in the past. It's a little bit scary. I know he was your second half sleeper, but that. I don't remember that. That's good. Yeah, this is concerning to me. I mean, I think most people probably weren't starting Ridley, maybe with Hopkins. being traded out. They're like, okay, I can start him. I would pump the brakes on Ridley if he's actually got a... Ridley has Masonitis. Yeah, okay. That's fair. I mean, but you're going to have Levittitis when he comes back. But that's at least, at least he'll throw it down the field. I'm looking to see if we have any practice report updates for today on Calvin Ridley. Because they don't have the under Hopkins, by the way. They can't like borrow him for one more week now that Ridley's going to be out. Not that their passing game can work. But I'm like...

I search for Calvin Ridley, right? And I'm getting the top tweets. And I don't like that. The third one is, quote, I can't believe Andy Holloway doubled down on Calvin Ridley. This will either be the biggest fantasy comeback or bust of all time. Again, you didn't have to do it. Right. That is true, Mr. Dell. Travis ETN, limited again on Thursday, hamstring injury. My position on Travis T's T.N. has prove it on the field before you are going to prove it in my lineup. Yeah, they've said he's a game time decision. I doubt he plays. I really do. I think they're going to, with how well Bigsby's been playing. I mean, I don't have any inside information. It just seems like if he's limited and he's a game time decision, and this is a hamstring that you can reaggravate. If he plays, do you play?

play him. No, if he plays, I don't play him or Bigsby personally. Okay. Um, or, or Dearness Johnson. I'm, I'm, I'm just out on the Jaguars running backs. If he's out, I think you're going to probably end up playing Bigsby feels like it could be a trap. Uh, the nice thing about Bigsby is he's good at, um, playing the running back position. So, you know, he can make the most of the tight portion of the game to a tongue of i loa cleared concussion protocol will start in week eight versus arizona here we go tyreek hill uh was added to the injury report on thursday but then later declared healthy yeah i mean all this is pretty frequent with uh hill yeah jlin wattle still limited on thursday with the quad injury but very exciting

This is good news. Zayflowers returned to practice on Friday. He had missed Wednesday and Thursday. He was a Monday night football game. So when you talk about, you know, giving a guy a break, giving him an opportunity. And he hurt himself in the game. But that's why I was very concerned of like once he hurt his ankle. I don't know if he did anything else. He was in the game. But it was, oh, is this? He went back in the game. He was able to play. And then it swelled up. And now he's unable to play the following week. But it's at least.

It's good news. And if they plays, I'm playing him as usual. Bucky Irving didn't practice against, didn't practice on Wednesday or Thursday. He did warm up and we've seen it practice on Friday. We'll monitor that. Jonathan Taylor and Chris Olavet joined the full practice club. Yeah. So. Well, I mean, these are two important players you need back. Chris Olave, a full, a full practice on a Thursday in concussion protocol signals that. He will probably tomorrow have the meeting with the independent neurologist and presumably be given the green light. That is the normal progression that almost always happens at this stage. So I would expect to have Chris Olavie. And then Jonathan Taylor, high ankle sprain, missed the three games. We talk about it. High ankle sprains are usually zero or three games missed. He missed it. Fully practicing. He's back. We told you it was mild.

We have D.K. Metcalf not practicing Wednesday or Thursday with an MCL sprain. He was going to try to practice today was the last thing I saw. Jaden Daniels didn't practice Wednesday or Thursday, not spotted at practice today. I would say he is Jaden D. Yeah. The report. But the reports were D for Doubtful. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. That's the old adage that everyone knows. Yeah, it's just, it sounded exactly like doubtful. Yeah. In addition to him not being present for practice today. Dallas, the big D. Yeah. It's the big doubtful. For sure. That's what I always think about the big D. So Jaden Daniels was not at practice. However, there were three other quarterbacks there. So it's.

I would be blown away if he plays football this week. He's downful? I would say the full word. Yeah, I would say he's doubtful. That's exactly what I'm saying. Debo returned to limited practice. So to George Kittle. Sunday night, have a plan. Did not practice Wednesday or Thursday. John Jennings didn't. Doubtful for this week. He's Daniels. He's, yeah, Juan D. All right. Ladd McConkey didn't practice Wednesday or Thursday. He has not looked himself at all. He had such an opportunity without Quentin out there and them desperately in need of help, and he's not been a video. Yeah, he's playing through an injury, but he's clearly injured. He didn't look great. And the fact that he's missing practice on a Thursday completely, I don't think this is a player. I want to start until you see him healthy again. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll catch you up with any other news that breaks.

during the show the illustrious deucers and uh you know it's a full oh wait it's not a full allotment over there we're missing one again two i see i see papa josh i see all one two no i don't i don't see all three of them papa josh are you here i am here okay al i am here okay falcon we needed we need a falcon insurance Yeah, we're taking out a big policy. We are, we are just, we are hemorrhaging. We don't know where he is. We're not saying where he is, but we don't, you know, they're not. I'm not saying where he is. The betting market does have odds. We've got the forecast we're jumping in. It's time for fantasy forecast presented by Draft King Sportsbook. You know, the big D is a different, it's a different thing for the Falcon.

You know what I mean? Honestly, growing up in the right household with our stomachs, it was the big diarrhea. 100%. And it has caused some issues with the vernacular. Okay. Yeah. Cool. Oh, you're saying that's what you called it? Yes. The big D? I just thought you were saying that's what we experienced a lot. No, this is 100%. Yeah, like if you go to my father and you say, what is the big D? He'll say it's diarrhea. Of course. Of course. Of course. Without flinching. What kind of context would one exclaim something with that phrase? Well, in my household. Yeah. How did that go? Play that out for us. You just got back from another Chipotle dinner out with the family. And you're like, oh, got the big D? Oh, okay. If my son came and asked me, I would say, please leave the room. That's what I would say.

Yesterday we covered the Eagles, Bengals, Ravens, Titans, Lions, Cardinals, Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, Falcons, Buccaneers, Packers, and Jags. So if you don't hear us talk about those teams, that is why you can go to yesterday's episode, listen in. Get our breakdown. Eight matchups left, starting with the Indianapolis Colts, who are 4 and 3 taking on the 5 and 2, Houston, Texans. The drafting sports book line, Houston minus 5. The over under is 46 in this game. Here we go. What are you two laughing? We're laughing because if we were letting it go, man, you said Indianapolis super weird. I did. He said Indianapolis. Yeah. And so we just gave each other a look like, did he say it wrong and we both confirmed. Did I, did my, did you catch it? No, I did not. You never been to Indianapolis? I have not. It's the new Francis Ford Coppola movie. No? Oh, that's a good joke. Houston won 2927 in week one. This is when we saw Anthony Richardson.

deliver a couple of big plays. His passing prop in this game is 186. He has the lowest adjusted completion rate, the highest off target throw rate, the lowest catchable throw rate. And he's playing a defense that, you know, at home, I'm just not encouraged by what we've seen. Like I know Jason, you got rid of Anthony Richardson. You did manage to acquire $2 a fab. That's right. Anthony Richardson. I could have just cut him to the waiver and instead I got richer. Yeah, sure. But look, Richardson to me is not even makes sense. He's not, he's not an option. I apologize. No, he is not. The Colts are super easy, man. I think he is an option for some. I've seen questions where you're like a quarterback two. As a quarterback to, look, in a lot of leagues, the guys that you want to play are, for instance, for instance, here's, here's the one. Patrick Mahomes.

Yeah. Or Anthony Richards. Yeah, Mahomes, for sure. Easy. Okay. How about Aaron Rogers? Yeah, Rogers. I'd play Rogers. So those are both Richardson to me. And here's why. Richardson obviously has a very, very low floor. He can, you know, he can go out there and score 5.1 fantasy points like he did against Chicago. 8.8 last week, 5.2 the next week, 9.9 the week before. 26.1, like he did week one against the Houston Texans. He has a ceiling. that a lot of these quarterbacks just don't have. So Rogers can score 26 points. Mahomes can score 26 points. Mahomes hasn't scored 20 points in like 20 games. I mean, that's slightly hyperbolic, but I think he scored it once in the last 20 games. So this is a player who still has boom potential. I agree. Everything we have seen is. Are we going to have this conversation every week, though, genuinely? I'm not saying that as a, I'm just.

When don't we have it? We are going to see it every week because. No matter what? No, not no matter what. We're going to see it every week because he is going to put up 20 plus points in one of these next two or three games. I mean, it's just you can't have those physical attributes, the ability to throw the ball 80 yards down the field. Houston, Minnesota, Buffalo, New York, Detroit, New England, Denver, Tennessee. It's a bad stretch run. This is why I was going to cut him. This is why I traded him for $2 of Fab. I'm just saying there are teams that, like, you're going up against the tough opponent. Your team looks like you are the big underdog. I would throw Anthony Richardson in there for the chance of a 30-point game. That's all I'm saying. I get that. And there's leagues, of course, you're going to play him. But, like, in a 12-team league where you're looking at the waiver wire and it has, like, legitimate options. I would have gotten started Donald. Bonnix is a better start. I would play Bo Nix. Bo Nix has been pretty good with his rushing ability. Drake May.

I'd play Drake May. Not against the Jets. I'd put that, I would go Richardson there. So the May, Drake May is where we're at. Yeah. Jonathan Taylor should be bad. Play him. I'm cool with that. He's, he is a full play. Other than that, I can't play the wide receiver. No, no, you can't. If you were going to play a wide receiver, your best bet might be Alec Pierce. And that is a pure dart throw. You got to connect on a bomb. I don't think you could start Pittman. I'm okay starting Pittman. If I have to start any of them, that's who I'm starting. The gamble with Richardson is that in four or five games, he's been 10 or fewer completions, so you have to distribute that among the options? That's why I would go Alec Pierce, because four or five, you know, if you've got five. Oh, I play Pierce too. I'm with you on that. If you've got five completions, four of them might go to Pittman for 40 yards, but one of them might go to Alec Pierce for a 60-yard touchdown.

Joe Mixens played three full games this year. He's been the RB2, the RB2, and the RB3 in those three games. He's wild. And he's looked the part. He's breaking tackles. He's looking fast. He is a must start every week. He's healthy. Sorry. And so the question is just, I think personally, I'm definitely starting Stefan Diggs. My start of the week in Take Dell is not like anti-Diggs. He has earned those quick and easy targets. I'm also starting Take Dell in this matchup just because. The Colts have a beatable defense. And I think the coaching staff, the Stroud himself, everyone is trying to get Tankdale involved. He hasn't looked bad to me on film other than the drops. He's dropped three really important balls. I think what's interesting to me is I think the Texans are in a position. And this is where my view is different than you with Stroud in this game, is that the recipe to win without Nico Collins is the running game. It's to successfully run and play defense. And I think that's the identity of this team at this point in time. Defensive head coach.

The running game is dominant. And so I just don't see the need. Now, look, if Richardson comes out and he hits two of those bombs and Stroud's in the throwing situation, I'm going to be super wrong. Well, I think we're both actually more in sync than you think. Even though we are taking different sides on the Stroud's start, I like him this week. You are right. The end of this game, if the Texas are out to a lead, they're going to be able to rely on Joe Mix and win. But I don't think CJ Stroud is going to have difficulty.

having success in the passing game for the first half. I think he's going to carve him up. So that's where it's like, even if you can run, you're going to pass. And when he drops back to pass, he's going to find success. Last week, the Colts did win the ball game against Miami. Yeah. 16 to 10. They've won against Miami and Tennessee the last two weeks. 16, 10, 2017. Okay. There aren't other options here in this game. New Orleans, two and five. The Chargers are three and three coming off the Monday night football loss to Arizona. The drafting sports book here. Chargers minus seven at home. Over under is 41. I heart the Chargers defense in this game. I would love to play them because I feel like the best situation you can have for a defense is the fact that you won't have an opportunity to get blown out. And to me was Spencer Rattler at quarterback.

I got a snake, man. I don't think that that's a possibility. I am fine with the Chargers defense here. I am not fine. I'm not excited about players in this game. I want to read to you six words based upon this season and the six weeks played for the Chargers. The words are, and this is the result of the game, under, under, under, under, over, under. That is the success rate of the Chargers games hitting the over under the line because the way they're playing football is dirty, ugly, boring, slow. And it's been successful enough for this franchise. I'd like to know what's the over under their other implied points though. 24 is there implied. For this week. I'm just saying the like are they hitting their team applied total? Are you asking whether we think they will? No, no. I'm saying for Jason saying they keep hitting the under.

Well, are they hitting what their point total should be? Sure, I can look that up. That's not as easy to find at a glance. But my point is more the game script of the entire both teams. I'm talking about the Saints and the Chargers. This was my issue with the Cardinals players last week. It was like, this just looks like it could get ugly. I want to start Chris Oliva. He's the number one target here. I don't love it as much with Spencer Rattler. You're going to start Alvin Camara. He's the number one option in the whole offense, but it didn't work well last week with Spencer Rattler.

So you're not expecting big games from either of these guys, even though you're probably going to start both of them. That's what I'm saying is like, this isn't going to be a barn burner. Both teams are very, very slope, slowly paced. Well, and then they both, you know, like the chargers struggle in the red zone. So they take up a bunch of time. They move it down the field. They do. And then they kick field goals. They do have their favorite player back more than likely. Taysam Hill was limited Wednesday, full practice on Thursday. So I'll be, I'm not saying I'm playing Taysam Hill, just I'm going to be, I'll be interested to see what does the offense look like when you have Spencer Rattler and Taysam Hill is back. I, I would try personally not to play Olave. I mean, Chris Olave. His lines at 47 and a half. Yeah, I would try not to, I would try not to play him. I mean, this is a player that you take away the game he was injured, right? You don't, who cares, right? That game's thrown out. This is a player that was on.

With their car, right, like on pace for 74 receptions, 935 yards, and three touchdowns. He had, it's just a little questionable with what we saw from Spencer Rattler. I thought that was the worst quarterback play in a full game that we've seen from anybody. Did you go tie the locket against Buffalo? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I would. My point is I would try to find somebody else. I'm not saying you will. But I would try to find somebody else. That hurts my feelings. That hurts because I can't find anyone else, Andy. And so all you're doing is insulting me. Didn't you play Puka? Oh, yeah. Heck yeah. Puka and OLAV. If you had had OLAVe, though, yesterday with the limited snaps of Puka, would you have done it? No, I would have played Puka over OLAV no matter what. I was bullish on Puka coming in even on limited snaps. Also, to answer your question, Mike,