Week 5 Matchups + Wheel of Shame, How Bizarre - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/8

For the game. The week prior, 168. The week prior, 102. This is yucky poo-poo pants. All right. Here's a fun fact. The Patriots have had a different leading receiver in each game this year. Aguilar, then James White, then Kendrick Bourne, then Jacobi Myers. Oh, Mac Josie spreads the ball around. I mean, it could be Nikol Harry this week, but it probably won't be. Yeah. It could be Brandon Bolded. Johnny Smith. Hunter Henry.

Well, this is just keep naming Patriots. Confidence level, though, it's highest with Damien Harris. And then are you playing the tight ends? They both scored last week, right? Yeah, I'm not going to play the tight ends. I don't look the direction. You know, we talk about.

how bad the offense has been for the Houston Texans. The offense has not been good for the New England Patriots. They're not putting up a ton of yardage, a ton of points. It'll be nice this week. I, you know, maybe, maybe. I mean, obviously the Texans aren't good. So if you want to take your shot, but all those other tight ends I named earlier, I would rather play over these two options.

Chicago Bears, two and two, taking on the three and one, Las Vegas Raiders, Drafking Sportsbook line Raiders minus five at home. Overrunners 44 and a half in this one. Justin Fields will get the start now and forever in Chicago. Derek Carr, he didn't have a great game. He did bounce back in the second half, and my goodness, he was really close to another deep bomb that would have given him three touchdowns in that game.

I like the Raiders to win this one. I don't think that the Bears will get enough done without David Montgomery to be their linchpin of the offense. Damien Williams will get a lot of work, but I don't know if they'll have enough on the offensive side of the ball to get past the Raiders in that defense. Yeah, that's going to be very interesting to see what is this Bears offense now that they are fully committed to Justin Fields? Will they change how they're running? Like, will they formulate it?

appropriately around the skill set of Justin Fields, and what do they do that their superstar running back is not out there. I imagine that we'll turn into some more running for Justin Fields. There's other streamers that I would prefer over Justin Fields this week, but he's definitely on, you should be paying attention to watching and seeing what he ends up doing. But like Alan Robinson and Darnell Mooney against this Raiders defense that is currently seventh against fantasy wide receivers, are you?

I mean, I guess you said you'd play Mooney over Cooks, but in general, are you trying to find other options? I would personally be benching both of these guys if I have other options. You don't know what you're going to get in either player. You saw, you know, a heavily targeted game to Darnell Mooney, but that's one game. That is incredibly small sample size. He's also limited with a groin injury in practice today. So Mooney might... If Mooney is out, then I think you can...

confidently flex Alan Robinson. But otherwise, I don't want to start either of these guys. I would, you know, here's the tough part. We're at the, we're at week five. We've had enough of the season. We've seen a couple of games. And you've got to answer questions like Jacoby Myers or Alan Robinson. Right. Which just seems so crazy. And, um,

I think I would lean to Kobe Myers over Alan Robbins. I mean, both have the rookie quarterback situation, but they're not equal. And so far, the wide receiver position has not done well against the Los Vegas Raiders. And keep in mind, they've played some great wide receivers. It's not like, you know, the Raiders have just faced nobody's. Let me ask you a question, Mike. This is kind of a temperature.

check on Damian Williams and the start potential. Are you playing him above Cordero Patterson against the Jets? Ooh. Oh, that's a great question. What seems like secure volume for Damian over the guy that just keeps scoring touchdowns in a plus matchup. Without Calvin. Without Calvin Ridley. I guess I'll play Patterson there. What about Damien Harris at Houston over or Damian Williams? If.

Scoring format will matter there. Like if it's PPR, I would go with Damien. Or with Williams. Yeah, I'm going to take Damien and that one for sure. Nice call. Lock it in. I would take Damien Williams over Damien Harris this week as well. Damien Williams or Antonio Gibson. Oh, Gibby. Gibson. Yeah. You guys, are you feeling good about Gibby? I'm feeling great about his athleticism. He's very strong and fast. On the other side of the ball.

You can't play Edwards, unfortunately. The team just does not game plan for him. Henry Ruggs is a dart throw as always. Hunter Renfro is just, he has five catches every game. He's about as safe as a PPR option can get. Not exciting. No, you know, he's definitely not exciting, but maybe if your lineup needs a little bit of balance. And the, but kind of the note I want to give here for the Raiders is I think Kenyon Drake should be stashed.

especially if you need a lotto ticket. I mean, we're seeing this a lot with, you know, the running backs on unfortunately suffering injuries. With Peyton Barber out with Turf Toe and Josh Jacobs has already been shaky this year. I think that Drake is someone that on Sunday morning you should just throw on the back of your bench just in case. I do think Jacobs will have a solid game this week.

And RB2 type of performance. If the Raiders win this game, and Andy, you said you've got them winning this game. Mike, do you see it go in that direction? As does Draft Kings. Right. So usually Josh Jacobson victories is a very good fantasy option. Cleveland Browns at 3 and 1 take on the Los Angeles Chargers at 3 and 1. The draft king sports book line chargers minus 2 overrunners 47. This is an exciting game. I think there is a...

defensive, Brown's defense narrative for this game, how solid they've been, how they may stifle the Chargers. But then there's the, look, Justin Herbert's just been outstanding. Yes. Seven touchdowns over the last two weeks. Keenan Allen and Mike Williams are going to threaten any secondary. And then Jared Cook's been involved. Austin Echler out of the backfield is always a threat. So do you have any hesitation on the charger side of the ball, staying in the flames with these offensive options simply because they're playing

the Browns who have been really good against opposing wide receivers. You just saw them shut down to a degree, you know, Adam Thielen completely, and then Jefferson, they slowed down a little bit. Yeah, I don't have an ounce of hesitation, but I have completely different expectations. There are, you know, I don't see a world where you're just going to have 40 points put on the board, and Mike Williams and Keenan Allen both dominate. But I can't fathom benching Echler, Keenan Allen.

or Mike Williams. Those three are kind of, they're auto-locked. You're going to have good weeks and bad weeks, ups and downs, and right now they are, you're going to have all of it in your starting roster. Just manage your expectations. If you're going up against a great opponent and you've got, you know, Mike Williams there, maybe you need to swing for the fences with your flex. Okay. Anything to add there, Mike? Just if they're able to kind of hold Keenan and Mike Williams and check, does, where are you, Jason, with Jared Cook?

You may have a tight end situation. I don't know if Jared Cook is on our waivers, but let's just let's just pretend that he was. If he was there, would you be picking up Conklin or Jared Cook? If he was there, I'd be picking up Jared Kukke. Ironically, that was a player I traded away for Hawkinson.

But, you know, he's been out there over half the snaps every single week, the week before, 72% of snaps. And he's gotten enough targets, 8-5. He had a down game two weeks ago, and then seven last week. He's involved in the red zone. I think Kukuk is a waiver-wire guy that you should, you know, if he were on the waivers, I'd be willing to play him. Nick Chubb, always in your lineup. But his NFL numbers never match his fantasy production. Cream Hunt.

Leads Cleveland with 121 receiving yards this season. He'll probably be their leading receiver. I think one thing that can't be dismissed here is how good the Los Angeles Chargers defense has been as well. This is a game where I'm curious, I would imagine the line might have opened higher, but this could be a defensive matchup. Both of these teams' defenses have met and exceeded expectations so far this season. Yeah, Chargers number two against opposing fantasy wideouts.

Disappointing game for Beckham. Baker was managing and is managing an injury. I did something very exciting yesterday. Oh, that's awesome. I took away a temptation in my life. I have had Odell Beckham Jr. at various points in the last two years. And the name still bears so much weight that I am always tempted. I have a hard time benching him in games like this. So I traded him away. Smart. So I don't have to worry about it anymore.

and because I would have had him out there again, and I don't think it's going to be a great week, but you look at the weapons they have right now, and you go, how does Beckham not do something? Right? I mean, they don't have Jarvis Landry, and they're going to need to throw the football. To be fair, to Beckham, two weeks ago on his debut, he looked great, like the player, and he just missed this past week. It's so bizarre how there's just...

Something is just not connected with Baker and Odell. The Giants take on the Cowboys in Dallas. The Draft King Sportsbook line is Cowboys minus 7. The overrunners 52 and a half points. I think this is the matchup that I'm the most excited about for this week. It'd be easy to say it's Kansas City, Buffalo. We just heard that that game might have some rain in it. A little bit rain. A little bit rain, as we say.

Brooks, you caught the How Bizarre reference under my breath. Yeah, cruising down the freeway in your hot, hot car. How bizarre. But Daniel Jones has been better than advertised so far this year in terms of being able to move the offense. And Kenny Gallaudet has helped that equation, and he's been better as well. Cadarius Tony had six catches for 78 yards last week. Sequin Barclay looks to be himself in the overtime win. Angram looks to be himself.

Yeah, the same old, same old. But what are you doing decision-making-wise on the giant side? Are you where I'm at where Gallaudet is a start in Tony as a kind of more of a desperation flex? That's where I'm at. Yeah, I want in on this 52.5 points. You have Daniel Jones as your start, right? Yes, I do. Yeah, so here we go. Here we go with Daniel Jones again. Mike Wright has Daniel Jones as his start of the week. Is that right?

That is accurate. And it's a division game. And sometimes division games, like promises, they could be crazy. We saw it last night with the Rams and the Seahawks going into halftime with 10 points on the board. But this is, you've got to trust the process of the bookmakers. They know what they're doing. These are two offenses that can move, two defenses that can give up points as well. So I want in on this wherever I can.

On the other side of the ball, Dak, very efficient last week, four touchdowns on only under 200 yards. Zeke is locked into your lineup. I will say this. I could see, you know, and I'm looking, especially at DFS or dart throws on my team, like this could be a game where Tony Pollard gets the fourth quarter, right? Like if the Cowboys take care of business, they're at home, they're heavily favored, you could see 10 plus opportunities for Pollard, which, you know, he's been the yards per carry leader in football.

Been very efficient. I don't hate Tony Pollard this week.

Yeah, I mean, if you want a matchup that you could play him in, you know, being heavily favored at home is always nice. I think you could maybe make an argument that it's the super high scoring games where maybe they're down, where Tony Pollard might be more necessary. That's what it sounds like because you view him as the scat back, the satellite back. But the reality is if you look at the routes run and how they're using Zeke, that's not really just the case. The case is not like...

that Pollard is their passing downs back, and Zeke isn't. So I would agree with you. I think Tony Pollard could be a flex option in this. He could. It's hard to get a grasp on Pollard when he will or will not go because you had the game against Philadelphia where it was 41 to 21 by the end, but it was a shellacking.