Starts of the Week + Week 5 Breakdown, Winkies & Twinkies

They have hands. They, you know, they say hands, but they're paws. Yeah. Like they say otters hold hands. They hold paws. Buccaneers, Saints, Buccaneers, two and two, Saints three and one. Had trouble with this game, too. Saints three and a half point, home favorites, 47 point over under, coming off the really impressive performance on the road from Tampa up in Los Angeles. The monster performances from Winston, from Evans, from Godwin. I just think you can bank on production in Tampa.

in the passing game. Yeah, I'm in. You know, so I think Winston, Evans, Godwin, Howard, what do you do with Howard? Oh, goodness. Do you put yourself out of your own misery? Do you release him? Do you move on? Howard or Eifford? Howard or Jimmy Graham? What do you want to do with O.J. Howard this week? If I had Howard and Jimmy Graham, I would go, Jimmy Graham. Howard and Eifford is a legit, disgusting question that you have to say, okay, you know,

What's the likelihood that one of these guys gets a touchdown? Oh, this year and last year, the Saints were pretty darn good against tight-in and pretty bad against wide receiver. That's pretty much recipe of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They've been thrown to the wide receiver and ignoring the tight-in. And if one does get it, is it going to be OJ Howard? Or is it going to be Cameron Bray. I mean, granted, you could say Uzama for Eifer, but as gross as it is, I think I lean Tyler Eifford due to the matchup.

I still think Howard is going to have a big game soon. I just don't know if I want to be around to wait on it. I'm not dropping Howard. Because of how weak the tight-in landscape is, I still believe the talent. I know it's hard. Here's coming up for Howard. You have, so you have the Saints, then you have Carolina, then you have a byweek, then you have Tennessee. Gross. That is rough, man. Why don't you do this?

If you've got OJ Howard, go look at other teams that have no tight-in. There's always four or five teams in every league that are just, they're scraping off the waivers every single week to find a tight-in. Look at the guy who picked up Tyler Eifford and see if you could trade him the name of O.J. Howard. Just sending screenshots of last year. I'm not willing to move on. Sorry. No, I'm not. I'm not. Obviously, if you have a better option sitting out there, if it was a Will Disley question, it's obvious. But I'm not moving on if I, I know I'm going to have a few catches from Howard.

Howard so far, I think, has to be one of the top busts of this season. That's fair. That's very fair. And the thing in the back of everyone's mind is, well, Bruce Ariens tends to have problems with tight ends, and so is this a real thing? It makes it easier to buy into the fact he's just going to end up a bust the whole year. Bridgewater.

Averaging 178 passing yards per game. Oh, fire. Tampa Bay has given up 318 a game, although that's because Jared Gough had over 4,000 in the last game alone. It ups the average. It's like when a rock and a hard place, this is like a piece of paper meets a napkin. If something's got to give here, I'm going to bet on Bridgewater throwing for under 200. I would agree with that. I would agree with that. Come on, this is going back a long time, not to mention they're running an offense.

that's based on a great defense. You can't let Bridgewater make mistakes, and you can't let them throw the ball too much, and guess what? It works. They win with that recipe. That'll be the recipe in this game, too. It's going to be Alvin Camara. It's going to be a stone cold defense that we saw last week, or the hopes of it that we saw against Dallas, and they're at home. So, you know, what can you do with 178 passing yards? You can start your Michael Thomas, you can start your Alvin Camara, and then in this case, as we move on to starts of the week,

Mike believes you can start your Jared Cook. Interesting. Starts of the week. All right. Let's start right there, Mike. Why not? Sure. Tight in start of the week? Yeah. And look, it is a little bit gross because of what Teddy Bridgewater has been doing. I'm just following the process. It's a little bit scary. And Jared Cook, he had six targets this past week. It's...

It's not the easiest thing to find a tight end who can get that many targets. And Tampa Bay is the second worst team against the tight end position. They're at home. You're talking about a 47 point over under. I'm not forcing Jared Cook in there. But I think that he's at least safe to get to a few points and has the option to or the probability to score a touchdown. It's in there. Yeah. And I've brought mine up already. It is Tyler. I know that it's somewhat low-hanging fruit and also gross.

in the sense that he hasn't been great. He is on every waiver wire out there. But I genuinely believe that the Cardinals, look, they've known about their problem for weeks and they haven't been able to fix it. And I think because they don't have the personnel to fix it. You've got Tyler Eifer. He's already got a touchdown this year and he dropped a touchdown last week. We'd be feeling really different if he's already got a touchdown in half of his weeks and now he's facing the Arizona Cardinals.

it's, you know, hopefully for us as Cardinals fans, it will change. I just don't, I don't believe it will. I love Jimmy Graham this week. Jimmy Graham is my start of the week at the tight-in position. This is opportunity more than talent. This is Jimmy Graham effective last week with Devante Adams off the field. He will soak up targets. You're not going to see MVS soak up targets. It'll be Jimmy Graham might very well lead the team in receptions, yards. He could. And touchdowns this week. He's tied for the league lead.

at the tight-in position in red zone targets. They look to him down there, and without Devante Adams, they're going to look there frequently. If you're looking for any one of these three, it's Jamie Graham. All three of us know, Jimmy Graham, greater sign than Tyler, Eifford, or Jared Cook here. All right, then let's go to the wide receiver position where I'm going to go with Will Fuller. Will Fuller has the most air yards in the NFL without a touchdown. It's coming. I said it's a get-right game for Houston at home.

I think they figure it out this week. Kenny Still's unlikely to play in this game, giving Will Fuller even more of a target share. He's on the field all the time. It just hasn't happened yet. I'm banking on it this week. Will Fuller, I think you can put them in your lineup. I'd put him out there over, Aud and Tate and those type of fringe guys, Scary Terry. I'd be playing Will Fuller. Yes, I agree. My start of the week is Larry Fitzgerald. We talk about, hey, maybe Kishon Johnson gets a little bit more involved while Christian Kirk is gone. But you know who's

definitely going to be heavily involved is Larry Fitzgerald. That's against the hapless Bengals defense in a game that should be back and forth, quick pace of play. Larry Fitzgerald is the wide receiver 16 on the season so far this year. He just broke the number two all-time record for receptions, and he was depressed after the game because of this showing. I think he wants to come out and ball out. I'm making Larry my start of the week.

And I'm going with a confidence play just that boost because this wide receiver, he's on people's teams and you're like, do I actually play this guy? It's Alan Robinson. I get that they have the backup quarterback Chase Daniel in there, but the matchup is solid against Oakland. And Chase, look, he's been very serviceable for when he's had to fill in for Trubisky. We're talking a couple games last year. And this, look at last week against Minnesota.

Seven targets, seven receptions, 77 yards. We call that the jackpot. Alan Robinson is just two involved, at least seven targets every single week. He's getting the target share for Chicago. He is the alpha in this offense for the passing game, and I think you can start him. All right. You guys want to move on to the running backs? Sure. All right, Joe Mixing.

I'm taking Joe Mixin. This is the breakout week for him. Arizona giving up the fifth most rushing yards and football. He's at home. He's looked apart to me, especially over the past couple of weeks. I thought he did well for himself against the Buffalo defense, did everything he could use in the passing game. You haven't seen Joe Bernard on the field. This seems like a game where they're actually favored at home without John Ross. Joe Mixon is a confidence push for me.

Yeah, and I'm giving a confidence push to make sure that you start Melvin Gordon this week. It's not to say that he's going to have his best game of the season here. He'll split time with Austin Echler. I think we could share this one, Mike. My running back start of the week is Austin Echler. And I completely love it. I went to make my start of the week, Melvin Gordon and Austin Echler.

But you already had Echler. You could start both of these guys. Look what Leonard Fournett did to the Broncos last week. The Broncos have given up over 600 rushing yards in four games. The wide receiving core for the Chargers is depleted. Everyone's injured other than Keenan Allen. Melvin Gordon got back to practice last week. Justin Jackson is injured. Start both these guys. They're going to have great weeks.

All right. And then quarterback, Mike, who do you have is your quarterback start of the week? I'm going from streamer to starter. I'm taking Jacoby Brissette as my guy with the Kansas City matchup. They're giving up the eighth most points to the quarterback position. The over-under is ridiculous as it always is in Kansas City Chiefs games. And in our NFL League 1 matchup, that's who we are going with. We are playing Jacoby Brissette. I'm going to go.

with a little deeper pick here. I like it. And it's actually Jimmy Garapolo at home against Cleveland off the by week. I think he's going to have an impressive performance. I believe in that extra week of preparation. And players getting healthy. And Dante Pettos. I believe in. It's going to break out. Jimmy G. Finding a way. So I'm going to go with Jimmy Garoppolo. A little bit of a deeper play. He probably fits in that streaming category.

Certainly, but I'm going to make him my start of the week. And I'm going to go a little higher up with Carson Wentz, a guy that I think Carson Wentz owners have not always known what to do with him, even though if you look backwards, hindsight being 2020, he has been top 10 in fantasy every single week. At this point, you have to consider him a guy that you start on every matchup, and this is against the Jets. It's a winnable matchup. You've got Alshan Jeffrey back.

I can't imagine not starting Carson Wins. All right, that's it for our starts of the week. One more very important, very well researched, very astute, very practical segment. Jason Moore's Ironclad, locked and loaded, 100% guaranteed boom, boom kicker of the week. Oh, this week's a banger, don't be fooled. Coming off the bye, it's the Niners Robbie Gould.

I just realized. I guess it would have been counterintuitive to your he's your start of the week. He should be in the nomination for the scary start. I agree. Yes. He must kick better in October. Am I right? He has to. What do you think? I mean, October is here and I may gould my start of the week. This is deep dive research on kickers. You're just realizing this right now, right, Jay. No.

What? It's ridiculous. How dare you? All right. That's going to wrap it up. In or out tomorrow, the rest of the matchups. A reminder, game day alerts. You can find those at join the foot.com for all of our foot clan supporters. That's every week on Sunday, an hour before game time. You've got the Sunday live on all of our social channels. So make sure you follow us. Go to YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers, and you'll catch Mike an hour before kickoff live answering questions, getting you ready.

for week five. We want to thank our studio sponsor, Pristine Auction. A signed Derek Henry jersey yesterday on Pristine Auction, JSA certified. Did it go for under 75? It sure did. 54-05. Yeah. 5405. Derek Henry, Jersey. Derek Henry, don't do me dirty. Please. That is it for today's episode. Thanks for everything, Brooks. You bet. You're a good, beautiful man, Brooks. Yep.

We'll catch you tomorrow. We'll see you next time, Footland. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com. And follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers. Today's episode of the Fantasy Footballers brought to you by Mugsy jeans, the most comfortable men's jeans ever made, Mike.

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