Fantasy Football 2017 - Starts of the Week, Week 3 Matchups, Under Pressure

Because it's not going to happen for Ed Dixon. Yeah. I mean, I think it, I actually think it could happen. So I don't want to say that we've seen Ed Dixon be valuable in the past and he'll have that role. But he's not just a plug and play Greg Olson replacement. Exactly. So my biggest question here goes to Jason. Yo. As the resident Devin Funch's truther for some freaking reason, you keep supporting this guy. Yep. Why? Devin Funt. He's been.

To be fair, he's getting snaps this year. And now Greg Olson is gone. And Kelvin Benjamin's a little banged up. Eight targets last. I'll bet it.

Last week, seven or eight for sure, had a decent game. This week, the opportunity is there in a plus matchup at home, bad defense. No Greg Olson. A sleeper action for Jason. A sleeper action would definitely be Kelvin, or would be Kelvin, would be Devin Funches. Now, I believe Kelvin Benjamin steps up. We've got to monitor his health because, you know, he was a little bit banged up. We'll talk about him in a little bit. Seven targets, by the way. So he was four for 68th.

Yeah, four for 68 last week on seven targets. And now Greg Olson is out of there. I think he is a definite sleeper candidate. If you're, he's the type of guy to me where if you're doing DFS and you want a tournament play, low ownership, cheap, affordable, could have a big game. Let's, Mike, I want to put you, I want to ask you Jonathan Stewart versus any of the starting running backs for New Orleans. For the Saints? Yeah. Oh, man.

It's a really tough matchup for the guys on the Saints. I think I would still play Ingram over Johnny Stewart. I mean, Stewart's snap counts, they're trending the wrong direction for me. And meanwhile, Mark Ingram has been a usable guy, especially in PPR. He's a running back two. He's getting five to six receptions a game. And Jonathan Stewart was, he was 15 for 40 last week.

So I would play Ingram over Stewart. I think that the upside is there. They're shifting to Christian McCaffrey. Stewart was only on the field for under 38% of snaps last week. I would play Stewart over Ingram, and I'm an Ingram truther. I just, I really believe that the Panthers defense is legit. We don't know for sure because week one and two was the Niners and Buffalo. That sounds like a lot of dump offs. You're making the.

The point here that we don't know for sure because of their matchups, I hate it. I mean, the Saints have been pitiful, but their matchups have been Minnesota where Bradford was just slicing and dicing and then the Patriots. So they faced the inverse situation. You wonder if maybe it's a little more balanced. Do we need to double down on the? No, we don't need to double down on the Saints Super Bowl. We've, Mike, we've.

You understand we have transitioned that into that they will eventually win another Super Bowl. They are future Super Bowl champions. Yeah. 2029. Double down. You can double down all you want. I'm getting, I'm going, I'm taking my money out of Vegas on that one. All right. The Steelers, the Bears. The Bears are seven and a half point underdogs at home, 44 point over under. Big Ben versus Big Glennon.

So what do we really hope for in this match? He's very tall. He's enormous. He's enormous. Very tall. He looks like he could toss several haybells. What if him and Brock teamed up? How tall is he? Mike Linen? He's enormous. How tall are like, have you ever seen that? Draft sized? Yeah, draft. Yeah, like, have you seen a giraffe? He is 6'6. Yeah. Oh, I see the photo. He is a giraffe.

Yeah, no, no, no. Okay. That's not what I was infaring, but, okay. But Mike Glennon, no, Draft Glennon. Draft Glennon. Oh, my gosh. Do you realize the amount of, um, wallpaper, wallpaper. I mean, light bulbs. The, the air, air filters that are in the ceiling and gutters. Oh, my gosh. They take over the gutter business. All right. So football wise. So football wise. We are not nice. Um, Jordan Hauer.

One of the biggest disappointments in fantasy football. He was limited in practice, which puts him on track to play if you're already practicing on Wednesday. Do you buy into the Tariq takeover? I buy into Tariq being awesome. Yes. I don't think he's going to take over the running back position. But I buy into Tariq Cohen being a just an absolute 100% startable piece. He is leading the league right now in targets to the running back position. And he is.

I believe it's second. Is he second in receptions or targets? I've told you guys about this. I believe he is first in targets, maybe second in reception, something like that. But the nice thing is you're pairing that with this extreme talent. When you see him with the ball in his hands, he's...

You know, he's so fast and quick. He just beats guys to the corner. I think he is a valuable asset to their offense and to any fantasy team. I mean, I would start Tariq Cohen in most situations. Mike, give me a rest of season thought on Martavis Bryant compared to where you were before the season began. What is he rest of season? People ask that rest of season question a lot, so I'm posing it to you here.

for Mr. Bryant. I think he's still a wide receiver too. He'll be, I mean, he's a weekly start that you know sometimes will be disappointing, but then the other games, he just absolutely explodes. And maybe it will be as easy as you see, it's a road matchup. Okay, maybe I'll, maybe I won't play Brian. Maybe there's a better option on my bench because he's going on the road. But we're still too early in the season.

He's just getting reacclimated to the offense. So I'm still very comfortable playing him against the Bears. Jason, would you start Martavis Bryant against the Bears on the road? Or would you rather take Terrell Pryor on Sunday night against Oakland? That's great. Those are two guys that I spoke a little ill of in the offseason. And of those two, I would definitely take Terrell Pryor. I think Kirk Cousins. Who would you take? Terrell Pryor. Just making sure.

I think Kirk Cousins could have a bounce back game this week. I don't, it's hard because he might not have Jordan Reed, but Oakland's defense isn't that great. Whereas Ben Rothlisberger on the road is not usually the touchdown throwing machine. Martavis Bryant is very touchdown reliant usually. So I, you know, that's, that's where I, I would easily lean towards trail prior. It's not to say that Martavis couldn't have the better game. So staying in this game.

I think the best answer to the quick question today would actually be Levy on Bell. Who has the most pressure to perform? If he goes to Chicago and puts up a dud after two dud weeks, you know, for Levy on Bell. It's so amazing that it's a multi-teen week is a dud for Lev Bell. Yes. But I get it. And people want Lev Bell.

They don't want Lev Bell. Yeah, I mean, they want a guy who's going to finish the week number one or number two at running back. And that's how he's ranked this week. I think in all of our rankings and in most experts rankings, you're expecting a monster, monster week. So if he goes out there and puts up a dud, I'm going to be trading for Levy on Bell. I was going to say you're going to see the value drop. The Falcons take on the Detroit Lions, 2 and 0 match up here. Both teams 2 and 0.

three-point underdogs at home in a 50 and a half point over under. I've been personally very impressed with the play of Matthew Stafford just from an NFL perspective through two games. Slow start against Arizona, but since he got it together in that matchup, it's been lights out managing that offense. Amir Abdullah had his career high in rushing yardage last week against the formidable Giants rushing defense. I think it was, I don't know.

a great sign for Amir Abdullah's ability to produce fantasy-wise. You'd love to see him get in the end zone. But what kind of decisions are we facing this week in this matchup where inevitably we're expecting a lot of fantasy points? Yeah, this is, Vegas has it over 50 total points scored, which means it's pretty juicy for fantasy options. I think with the, with what you've seen out of the Falcons offense, still.

you know, performing. They're still humming. No, they're humming right now. I will, I will grant them that. You're going to also have the Detroit Lions offense have to pick it up. I know when we get to our starts of the week, each one of us actually picked a Detroit Lions. So hopefully the Lions perform. And I expect them to. If I had a.

Jason's almost upset of the week. This would be the game where I think that the Lions are going to give the Falcons a lot of trouble. And whenever a team gives another offensive powerhouse team trouble, well, then they just keep going back and forth scoring. I think this will be a shootout. I want pretty much every piece I can get on both sides of the ball. When you're talking about Mohammed Sanu or Taylor Gabriel, those are, you know, guys that I think you could spot start.

I would rather start Jay-J Nelson over either of those guys, for example. No doubt about it. I think my take on this game and those starts of the week would have been severely impacted by Vic Beasley. And him being out for a month now, what we saw from the pass rush was very impressive against Green Bay. But it changed when Vic Beasley went out. Matthew Stafford should have enough time at home to get the job done. So you're looking at.

Marvin Jones. You're looking at Golden Tate. And then Kenny Gallaudet, Mike, would you flex him in this matchup with such a high over-under? Yeah, he's worth considering a start. But again, he's still not a top two option in the passing game. He might not even be top three when you factor in the running back. So it's a lot of all or nothing for Kenny Golade right now. Speaking of nothing, the Browns take on the Colts this week in Indianapolis, 40-point.

Over under Colts are one point underdogs at home against the Browns, which may be the saddest statement that has ever been registered. They're at home against the Browns. And they are underdogs. Yeah. They're underdogs. Oh, man. Deshaun Kaiser, Jacoby Brissette. There is a massive cap on the offense for Indianapolis. Mike spoke of it last week when he pumped the brakes on the entirety of the offense.

I mean, Jacoby Brissette is leaps and bounds better than Scott Tolzine. And whatever the opposite of, he's still so far away from Andrew Lux's production. It's not even funny. So Frank Gore, very productive last week. What are you guys looking at here? Are you starting Jack Doyle in this game? I mean, he seems like the one guy that you can actually trust right now in this offense. Jack Doyle is a great start. The trend of start all your tight ends against the Browns. It's continuing.

and Jack Doyle was actually competent with the beef brisket throwing in the ball. So I'm very confident starting Doyle. I've picked him up in not only our league of record. I picked him up in my Money League, and I will be playing him in both spots. I love Jack Doyle this week. But I also, I mean, you touched on him, but Frank Gore is.

to me pretty much a must start. I mean, I think Frank Gore is locked and loaded. He's going to get the work. He has looked good so far. The Browns, you might have thought after week one, oh, they shut down Levi-on-Bel. Maybe they had like a wizard cast a spell that their running game could get better. But no, they didn't because last week against Baltimore, you saw Buck Allen, Terrence West. I mean, to the running back position, 29 total carries for 130 yards and a touchdown. Are you taking air?

Are you going to take care with the Crowell on the other side of the field? Yes, I want Crowell. I want Frank Gore. Both of these guys have good weeks this week. Crowell would have been the second candidate for my by-low yesterday from DeMarco Murray. He said he talked to Hugh Jackson about his lack of carries. Hugh wants to get him the ball. Wanting to and being able to is different. But Isaiah Cruel is a starting running back, the starting running back on this team. He's young, he's talented, he's got the opportunity. This is the make-or-break game for Isaiah Crowell. So I would rather get him.

Much like even Christian McCaffrey. I'd rather get McCaffrey or Crowell right now at the price right now because then he goes up next week. And so that's my perspective on those players. It's tough with Crowell because you had, he had a pretty good year last year. And then you have this off season. Coach Jackson, oh, man, man, I should have gotten Crowell the ball more. I know I got to do that. I got to do that, guys. Do it. Okay, so giving the ball.