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

Uh, no. Did you see that Pete Carroll said, uh, in his rose colored way that he wished that Eddie Lacey could have been active this past week? I did not see that. Oh, my goodness. That's just mean. You know you're the one who controls that, right, Pete? That is, is he just saying, I wish we could have 60 active player. If we could have 60, he would have been there. Oh, I just wish. I wish I could. That's what it's like with, oh, man, I wish I had a way to give Isaiah Crowell more carries.

Are you the coach of this professional football team? Guys, I don't call the plays. Out of my hands. Out of my hands. There's nothing. There is nothing I could do. No, I sure wish I hadn't to put him on the inactive list. What? Yeah. All right, two more guys from this game that I think are, I'm willing to start one of which was almost my start of the week. And I can tell you, if we did our starts of the week on Friday, and I knew for sure the status of Vante Davis, really good cornerback for the Colts, if I knew he was out, then.

Higgins, the wide receiver for Cleveland, I think he's going to do work this week. I really do. I'm confident to start him if Vante Davis is out. And so, you know, as a streaming option, I think Deshaun Kaiser, if Davis is out, is a serviceable option here. Here's the biggest annoying question you have to ask in now week three of the fantasy football season. With that being said, Richard Higgins, he was a target monster last week. Do you start him over T. Yilden or Dante Monkrie? Oh, yeah.

I start him over Moncrief because I'm done with him. Moncrief, you're bench until Andrew Luck is back. Moncrief. I can't wait for him to be able to slap that base and score touchdowns again, but that will not happen until Andrew Luck is back apparently. Slap that bench. Oh, I like that. Slap that bench. It's a lot more funky than funky. I want to. Funky. I would start Richard Higgins.

But if I lost my matchup with T.Y. Hilton on my bench, it'd be a difficult mental exercise the remainder of that day. Yeah, I mean, and maybe a year. I don't know that I would start them over TY. I think TY is still, they're both good. Oh, man. I hate this, man. Andrew Luck come back. It's such a shame to have good players. Did you have any dreams, Mike, about Richard Higgins? Maybe something that can give us some insight here.

No. Not a psychic. Higgins. And I think that Higgins is a good wide receiver. I think he was a great pickup for this waiver wire run. And I guess, I mean, if you're ever going to play Higgins, this is a very good matchup to do it. All right. Well, here's the deal. We've got one more matchup to go through. And then we're going to do our starts of the week, guys. Buccaneers, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Minnesota Vikings.

I'm not throwing a line out there because a line doesn't make sense right now, not knowing what Sam Bradford's status is. And really, that's with this entirety. The big storyline here is, does Sam Bradford play? If he plays, he's at home. If he's at home playing, we've seen what he's capable of with Stefan Diggs, Adam Thielen, with Dalvin Cook, with Kyle Rudolph. What is your kind of...

ranking adjustment that you're making with these players. Do you start any of the pass catchers in Minnesota if Sam Bradford is on the bench and it's Case Keenom at home against a very formidable overall defense in Tampa Bay that played from ahead last week. And so what do you think? I think you can still start them. I mean, last week it was no, on the road against the Steelers. I didn't want anything to do with it. Keenham's first start. Let him get some actual real.

I guess he was technically practicing to start last week, but just some more time. The fact that you're at home, I respect the Tampa Bay defense, but I think that their corners can be beat. So I'm okay, far more okay this week playing Diggs and Thielen compared to last week. Yeah, I look at Tampa Bay, and I think that their past defense is better than the rush defense.

If Case Keenham is playing, I'm probably not starting Diggs or Thielen. It will be nicer being at home for Keenum being able to call the plays out and be heard. But I just don't trust that after what we saw last week. What did Diggs have like two receptions? Yeah. And he's a volume, guys. So I have a hard time starting him if Sam Bradford's not there. Running wise, you know, Dalvin Cook will talk about him in just a minute. I mean, I'm all in. Okay.

Jaquiz Rogers was Mike's pumped the brakes this week? False. He was mine. I pumped. I pumped those brakes. Okay. I don't know which one of you is which. I know. We sound the same. I don't know. One of you guys did it. Binched him. Wasn't me. Okay. De Quiz, though, you want to sit him down. Tough matchup. The Vikings right now are the 11th ranked run defense. We know how formidable they are. They're at home.

And you're saying the matchup's just not, it's not juicy. Yeah, look, I wouldn't bench him in all situations. You know, if you've got him and Joe Mixing, I would wait a week again to see on mixing. Hopefully this is the week, but at least you know the volume will be there for quiz. The problem is on the road against the Vikings. I don't know that the efficiency will be there with the volume. Now, one last question. Oh, okay. I'll say I expect Xavier Rhodes will be covering Mike Evans. And Rhodes is a.

a monster. He's a shutdown guy. This is not a, this is not a bench Mike Evans question. This is a, my question was going to be, what is Deshaun Jackson? Exactly. Is Deshaun Jackson a must start in this situation? Because you expect to be playing up against Trey Wayans. I would start him. I mean, I must start is too relative for how down in the rankings he is. So I would say like, I would start J.J. Nelson over Deshaun Jackson. Right. I would as well. Against Dallas. So that's where my line would be. I would start Martavis Bryant over to Sean Jackson.

Okay. But I do think that he's one of those flyer-worthy players this week. I kind of want to know what is he going to be. I don't know yet. New team, the second fiddle for the first time in the last few years. I don't know what he is. I would start Deshaun Jackson over those other players we were talking about where it's like, okay, T.Y. Hilton, you know, Dante Moncrief and Higgins and Fonte Davis is there. Then I would take a Deshaun Jackson guy over them.

All right, let's get into the starts. Starts of the week. All right, I'll kick it off. Kick it! With my quarterback, Maddie Stafford. Oh, at Atlanta, we talked about the matchup. No Vic Beasley. He's been very solid. I'm impressed with him. He has weapons. And the thing is, last week, it only started in 43% of leagues.

The Giants matchup I think was intimidating. He didn't have like an impressive fantasy day yardage wise. Still got it in the end zone. The opportunity to put up much larger yardage numbers. The need to is going to be there in this matchup in Atlanta, controlled environment, really like Matthew Stafford this week. So I think you can start him with confidence. My start of the week is a guy that will be my pump the brakes next week. It is.

Derek Carr. That's calling your shots. Derek Carr, I love this matchup. So does Vegas. Vegas has this as a 54 point over under at Washington. It's a nighttime, prime time game. The weather is supposed to be, you know, 75 without wind. I mean, you're talking.

perfect setup here for a monster game. Derkar has shown this year that he is a legit great quarterback, and you've talked about this before, Mike, when he has good matchups, he takes full advantage. He struggles a little bit more when he's in division against those chiefs, against those charges, against those Broncos, which happened to be three of his four next games, and the fourth in there is the Ravens. So get a good game and sell them. Fun fact.

Every quarterback in the AFC West has finished in the top 10 every week this year. Oh, my. So Carr, Smith, Simeon, Rivers, all top 10 quarterbacks, both week one and week two. That is a fun fact. It is, isn't it? That's so fun. All right, my start of the week, I'm doubling down because he's my stream of the week. Smoking J. Cutty. Wow, we're going smoky and snapback. Yep. Oh, man. We're playing the deplorables.

And how did I miss this, by the way? Send in the car. Send in the car. I apologize. Send him in this week. Yes, thank you for apologizing. But Jay Cutler, the Jets giving up the third most quarterback points. And that includes a game against Tyrod Taylor. Tyrod Taylor got it done through the air against the Jets. So I have full confidence firing up Jay Cutler. I'm streaming him all over the place. Some big Devante Parker plays.

quite possibly. Why don't you just, let's go wide receiver. All right. So I'm going stack. I'm going stack of tech, heck, heck, right here with Devante Parker, an average depth of target of 19 yards with a 27% target share. That is, that is nice. That is a recipe for success. He gets to take on the Jets just like Jay Cutler, which is, you know, not a coincidence since they're on the same team.

I get, here's my one word of caution. Morris Claiborne, maybe he's, maybe he can play football because he was up against Amari Cooper last week. He was a lot of the reason that the ball just kept going to Michael Crabtree and Claiborne is likely to be on Devante Parker. That's not enough to scare me away from starting him because the target volume is there. The big plays are there. The touchdown upside is there.

I love Parker. I tried to trade for him. Brian, you suck. That was a shout out to our league. Yep. Very nice. I hope he's listening. Jason, who do you have as your wide receiver start of the week? I've got a reluctant Kelvin Benjamin. Look, Kelvin Benjamin, he was involved last week.

It's called the starts of the week, man. The essence of the start of the week is to emphatically put your stamp on somebody. Do you need to make an audible? No, well, my audible would be Keenan Allen. I'm all in on Keenan Allen if you're afraid of the Kansas City Chiefs don't be. I think Keenan Allen is too integral to that offense. But I am still sticking with Kelvin Benjamin. Six for 77 last week. Greg Olson goes down.

They're at home that are against a beatable New Orleans secondary. Whippable? The whole, the whole thing here is just Calvin Benjamin's help. So I will just throw in the audible where if he is, you know, if he is limited later in the week. Devin Funches, got it. Jason's start of the week. Then it would be Keenan Allen. I'm going to go with J.J. Nelson.

Yeah, he was one of my favorite pickups last week. I'm going to give him my start of the week this week, offensive player of the week in the NFC. And look, it's a shambles situation for offensive opportunity in Arizona. David Johnson's out. And you're talking about Chris Johnson getting a start. He's not a pass-catching weapon. Larry Fitzgerald's been underutilized for whatever reason. In a great matchup last week, only three catches. And J.J. Nelson has the ability to get behind the defense.

to do 80% of what John Brown can do in the offense from a route perspective. And I think that there's a rapport there with Carson Palmer. So it's one of those, I'm putting them in my lineup. Maybe I don't love the name attached to it, but I think you're going to love the production again this week. Trevor Simeon made that Dallas secondary look the fool. Yes, he did. So I love it. And that game's at home in Arizona. So I like that as well. I'll go ahead and give you my running back this week. It's Gilly.

You're darn right. It's Gilisly. Mike Gillisly. And the reason he's allowed to be a start of the week, maybe you say, oh, he's an auto start. Look, you're probably intimidated by that Houston run defense. You also probably got Mike Gillisley, fifth, six round. Maybe you found another option. Maybe you drafted another player that you're thinking about starting there. Maybe you signed Givorius Allen and you're going back and forth between Alan, who I think is a good start this week.

and Gillesley, who's my start of the week, I don't think you need to be afraid. Last week, he had 18 carries in a game that they were in control of. Houston, I'm starting the Patriots defense in this game. I don't think they're going to be able to move the ball at all. This is, you know, they took 10 sacks against Jacksonville, and Houston was gashed by four net in that matchup with Jacksonville. So I think Gillesley is going to be the wear down running back in this game.

You know what? I bet he scores a touchdown again because it's just a pretty good bet. Yeah, that's a really good bet. I would have expected you to call for the double up. Yeah. Two touchdowns. Gilly would have been my start of the week. I love it. He's favored by almost two touchdowns at home. I always love those running back. I don't know this. Do you know that reference? Oh, you don't? It's Saturday Live. It's great. We got to get a drop of that. All right. Here we go. My start of the week is Dalvin Cook.