Week 9 Matchups + In-or-Out, The Fourthiest!

really present in this matchup no no i wouldn't say you can be confidence present is the running backs and the tight ends that that's that's where i want in this game in a lower scoring game i you know you don't expect one team to be just completely rendering the other running back uh game scripted out and because there's decent defenses that are that are more susceptible to tight ends and the landscape yeah i think that's all there is to cover in this game

All right, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the Seattle Seahawks. This game's in Seattle. They're five and a half point favorites. The Buccaneers are two and five right now. Seahawks are six and two. Look, we know for fantasy purposes, the Tampa Bay offense has given you two elite pass catchers. Mike Evans, Chris Godwin. They're both going to be heavily targeted. But outside of those two guys, I don't think you can touch anybody in this matchup. What do you guys think?

On the Tampa Bay side? Correct. I mean, are you confident enough in James Winston on the road? Yeah, I was going to say Seattle is allowed. Are you even legally allowed to say, oh, yes, with James Winston? Is that a, I feel like they're going to come in here and arrest you. Look, he's going to throw interceptions because that's what he does. And then he'll end up with a perfectly fine fantasy day with, with upside of what if he actually doesn't turn the ball over three times, then you get an extra six points.

So, yeah, I'm confident in playing James Winston against the Seattle defense. Yeah, I completely agree. I mean, last week he was actually 8 for 53 on the ground. Did you see that? He can move when he needs to. Yeah, and he was a top 10 option last week. And that was after the horrific beginning and against a pretty good defense. Three of his last. Tennessee, right? Yeah.

Three of his last five performances have been a quarterback one. And now you look at Seattle. I know this is in Seattle. I wish it was in Tampa Bay for more confidence than James. But you're talking about five straight weeks that Seattle has given up a top 12 quarterback performance. Their defense just isn't that great. And, you know, Russell is going to get it done against Tampa. So James is going to have to keep up. He's our quarterback one consensus ranking on the week.

Leads the league in passing touchdowns. Russell, not James. Russell, yes, I apologize. Thank you. Chris Carson, you're starting him. Yeah. We saw the rise from the dead from Rashad Penny last week. He actually had eight carries, 30% of snaps, 55 yards. How many? Was that Beaker over there doing a 55? He looked like he was passing on, so I was just throwing it in there. Yeah, that was very quiet. It's Rashad Penny. It's kind of cute.

like Rashad Penny. It's 55, Mike. It has nothing to do with Rashad Penny. D.K. MacKaff, two touchdowns last week. That was basically all he did, but he's involved in this offense. Look, his red zone targets, I'm doing this from memory. I guess I should check our red zone report, right? We just put it up for the Footland. Brand new red zone report. He is, if he's not the number one red zone targets in the league, he is two or three. He's right there.

He's been phenomenal, and this matchup is good. I think you can absolutely start DK Metcalf at home here, and obviously Tyler Lockett is just phenomenal. Yeah, Russell Wilson has a 138.8 quarterback rating when targeting Lockett. Remember last year, what was it perfect? Yes. When targeting Lockett. That can't happen again. This year, it's the third best for a wide receiver quarterback combo and 85% catch rate. It just comes down to Tyler Lock. It's a really, really good.

wide receiver and Russell Wilson is a really, really good quarterback. And over the years, they have developed that thing that certain quarterback wide receiver combos have that mind meld of just you see a broken down plate and they know what to do and they're in sync. So, you know, they're not back street boys. Is Russell Wilson your NFL MVP through the first half of the year? Who else would you put in that category? I think it is Russ. Other players in that category.

I mean, it's not like Jimmy Garoppolo's been the sole cause of that record. And, you know, Mahomes has been hurt. I mean, Brady's been fine. Deshaun Watson should be in the conversation for sure. Some people are saying Christian McCaffrey, but. Yeah, I think that'd be fair. Lamar Jackson? Yeah, Lamar, I think he should be in the conversation. But it's Russell. I think it is. I think it is. Anything else from this game you want to get into?

Yeah, I mean, I feel like it's really easy and obvious for everybody except EK Metcalf and we're saying start him. Yeah. The Lions at 3-3-1 take on the Raiders in Oakland. Raiders at 3 and 4. They are two-point favorites at home. This is a 50 and a half point over under. This seems like, and I'm taking this from the four shows we've done before this this week, our serious show, this seems like the matchup that we're trying to find pieces for.

Yes, both of these teams desperately need a win. And when you look at how their offenses specifically stack up against the opposing defenses, which sometimes can be a trap game, but more often than not is just a fantasy output extravaganza, I would say this is the game.

where I expect a high score. I expect both quarterbacks to be good. The passing weapons. And I would include, obviously, Josh Jacobs, he's my start of the week. I'm very confident because Detroit's running game has been terrible. I love this game. This is the one I'm going to be watching closest this week. Yeah, Detroit's giving up 131 rushing yards per game. And Josh Jacobs has looked really good to me. I like Derek Carr. He's the start of the week. Jason, you've got Matthew Stafford is the start of the week. I hope this game, you know, not every...

perspective shootout comes to fruition. But if this is a trap game, that's going to suck. Yeah, because of the confidence that we have in these players. Where I don't have any confidence is knowing what on earth the lines are going to do with the running back rotation or how often they'll even use the running backs in this matchup. There could be clarity because Paul Perkins was sent back to the practice squad.

And Trey Carson. Where he's most comfortable. Sure. But in Trey Carson, Trawlala, he is dealing with an injury. He's supposed to practice on Friday. So today. But that could open things up a little bit for for Smooches and for Ty Johnson. More so Ty Johnson. And I know.

Nobody wants to start Ty Johnson, especially after getting burned last week. But he still was the snap leader, even though he did not have the carry lead that was Trey Carson. But he had, you know, 8% more snaps than Trey Carson. And if he's out, you get to those situations where you say, okay, would you start Ty Johnson or Frank Gore? That's easy. That's Frank Gore. But you get a little lower and you say, would you start Ty Johnson or Miles Sanders? Obviously, to me, if Trey Carson...

you know, is not suited up. I would, I would be on the Ty Johnson side. But what if he is? If he is, then I'm staying away. If, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, if, I'm going to say, yeah, I don't need you guys. I got, I got, I got, I got, I got those guys that are further away from the line of scrimmage. I'm going to throw them the ball. Almondola's filling that role as well over the last couple of weeks. I don't think it's a coincidence that you lose carry on.

And then Amadola's PPR value, I think he's at eight receptions in consecutive weeks. The target counts are in the double digits. He's filling the underneath for all the Golden Tate type of friend to Matthew Stafford. And so he's a PPR flex play to me this week. He's far from a guarantee at the position. But you could do worse. He is heating up. He is.

Although Danny Mendoza's heated up a lot. You don't want to get too hot. He will overheat. He'll break down. He will overheat. Doesn't he have the health bar? Yes. Isn't that Danny Mendoza? You don't want to see a big hit because that health bar will go down. Once it gets to zero, he's out of the game. It's like Rex Burkett. Burkett has the same situation. Yeah, he does. If he's heating up, he takes it a couple days off. But the nice thing is, you know, we joke about Danny Mendola's.

fragility. But the reality is he was injured a couple games ago. He was in the 30% snap counts. Now the last two weeks he's been up in the mid-60s where, you know, he started the year and obviously he started the year on fire against the Cardinals. So it seems like he's just back to full health. Again, that can change in the blink of a hit. But, yeah, I would say Danny Amandolin, a full PPR is a good play this week. Tyrae Williams, you can play him.

When he plays, he generally scores, and he's certainly their best option. I will say I'm kind of excited to see what happens with Hunter Renfro over the second half of the year after the breakout performance last week. And you talk about matchups that kind of fit. The lions are just giving up points to everyone. So Hawkinson, Mike, you're the highest on Hawkinson this week. You think that there's an opportunity here. There's the matchup to, I mean, the Raiders are 30th against fantasy tight ends. That's bad.

It is. It's not the worst. It's close. But it's pretty bad. It's just, I'm with you guys. I want pieces of this game. And yeah, Hawkinson, his floor is, is porous, but matchup plus over under. There's a bunch of holes in his floor. Hawkinson. That's what Mike just said. There's so many holes inside the floor. Hawkinson was like Swiss cheese. Yeah. You ever trying to live on Swiss cheese? That's what Hawkinson does. Have you?

No. Oh, okay. I do not recommend. I am not a mouse. Look, Hawkinson was almost my start of the week. I'm actually pretty confident in his performance, but I didn't choose him because... Hogstrap. The dropinson that we've seen, you know, I think the opportunity is going to be there for him to have a good game. If he could just figure catch the ball. He is, I don't know if you've noticed. He was actually wearing the...

He's jealous of Darren Waller in this game. He was actually wearing the pajamas that Mike wore yesterday. So he's trying to catch with the flippers. And that's not easy. No, take them off, Hawk. All right, the Browns at 2 and 5. Take on the Broncos at 2 and 6. Hi, how are you? My name is Brandon Allen. Let me introduce myself. There is a picture of Brandon Allen in our dock. Is that from you, Brooks? Did you put a picture of Brandon Allen so that we could know that he exists or what? It's Kyle. Yeah, it's to compare his, quote, chicken haircut.

With Paxton Lynch, another young Broncos quarterback. A chicken haircut. Yeah, it's not good. It's, uh, it does remind me of Paxton Lynch. Yeah, it's our editor-in-chief Kyle there. Is there just like a barber in Denver that's doing one cut? Is that what that is? His whole gimmick is. Come on down to Clux are us. Watch how fast I can finish your hair. Ready, sit down. Now you're done. Get up and go throw some picks. This is very petty.

Yeah, that's not fair. And I blame Kyle. I have nothing to talk about with his actual football prowess yet. The truth is, you know, he was drafted a couple years ago. He's been on three different teams in three different years as a practice squad type of backup. Third times the try. Yes, as they say, third times the try.

You cannot have confidence in Brandon Allen. Now, if he comes out in surprises, sure, but you have to assume he's going to be bad. That's what probability says, which means it hurts literally every Bronco. It definitely hurts Cortland Sutton. Now, he is himself, I think, starting to become a beast type of player. You've seen plays where he can just break a tackle and go. So I'm still okay starting him. You're holding your breath, though. But you're holding your breath doing it. I think it hurts the running game as well because...

If I was the opposing defense, I'm going to say prove it, Brandon Allen. Without question. And Vegas has the Browns as three and a half point road favorites. This game's in Denver. It's only got a 39 point over under. The Broncos only have a 17.7 point implied point total. And I don't, I see a lot of comparisons here with, you know, Flacco goes out. Here you're facing Brandon. You got Brandon Allen. And what McLaurin's facing if he ends up with Dwayne Haskins in that offense.

You certainly can't bank on slut and you can't bank on McLaren with backup quarterbacks. It gets a little scary and it gets scary for the running backs too. Like you said, they may just hone in on the running game. You've talked about the Brown's defense getting a little healthier over time. They need this game. They need this game.

So I think the Browns win this game. Mike, I know you're in the same boat. Have either of you seen a real update or Brooks? Maybe you can look into this. Royce Freeman, I know he left the last game a little bit banged up. And so I'd like to have some information before the end of the show on what his practice situation is. And find out. I know he gooseed this past week, but I still am interested in having Deshaun Hamilton on my bench with the,