Starts of the Week + Week 6 Breakdown, Iffy Starts - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/12

I would be, you know, your tight-end options, you know, changes. Every team is different. I'm not going to chase that. The commanders are very good against tight-ins thus far this year. They are, but I think the fact that they are bad against wide receivers and Kyle Pitts has been playing frequently as a wide receiver, that gives me a little bit more confidence. I'm not, I'm not. Logan Thomas. I'm not jamming Kyle Pitts into the lineup, but I think that he is in play. Logan Thomas for Kyle Pitts. Same game. I'd go Logan Thomas there, but not by a wide margin. The matchup is very good on that side. The Falcons giving up almost the most points to opposing tight ends. I saw Jahan Dotson hit some waiver wires. Don't blame anybody for that. Yeah. It makes me sad, but it looks like this offense is willing to distribute the ball to Byron Pringle and Diamie Brown and Curtis Samuel. And Curtis Samuel.

Curtis Samuel right now is a better player to roster than John Dodson. It feels like it. You talked about Brian Robinson already. Sam Hal, any interest? Falcons have been pretty stout. They're at home. It's not the worst 12th adjusted against fantasy quarterbacks and Sam Howell. He's been getting it done for fantasy, but like if Stafford is out there, I'd much rather play Stafford. Worth noting that Johnny Smith has been limited in practice. Johnny Smith's targets over the last four weeks, six, eight, six, seven. If you were to miss, that would be a big opportunity for Kyle Pitts to maybe get a little bit more work. Sure. That he would obviously let you down on. Minnesota, one and four, Chicago one and four. Oh, baby. And have circle the drain game. The Drive King Sportsbook line, Minnesota minus two and a half. The overender's 43 and a half. Who wants Caleb Williams more? I mean, there's a lot of teams going after it right now.

Yeah, I think New England is pretty interested. New England, Carolina. Well, I mean, Carolina, yeah. But I'm saying like they're playing like they think they have it. Kurt Cousins against the Bears without Justin Jefferson. I am still really excited about that. I think he's going to be able to get it done. Hawkinson, huge weapon for him. He's obviously in your lineup. I believe Addison and Osborne are both solid plays this week. It would not surprise me. at all if KG Osborne had a better week than Addison. Yeah, I can see that. I think, you know, it would probably come with a touchdown. But both of those players, you know, like I said yesterday, cousins, the Vikings, they throw the ball, at least thus far, more than any team in football. And so I'm in on both of those players. The Bears defense, they don't just like giving up fantasy points. They love it. I was going to say they also give them up.

on big plays, which is Addison's territory. But they also, yes, they love it. Yeah. Where are you at with Justin Fields? It must start. Okay. Yeah, he's in must start. He was in, I mean, kind of subterfuge of my own plans here, but I thought about sending some offers out to Al Borland this week, which would have involved sending Tua away. But just, you know, Justin Fields, the last two weeks, you brought it up. He's got the numbers of Patrick Mahomes this year. It's just all coming two weeks. Yeah. Number one fantasy quarterback last week, number three the week before. Yeah. And it's, we got the running going this past week, 57 yards on the ground. But we need to see that. Mr. Fields. Give me at least 40 yards. Well, it's going to be a little easier if you don't have any confidence in your running game. Right now you have Khalil Herbert that's set to miss the game.

You have Deont de Foreman, who I, he was inactive last game, right? Yes, he has. Because Homer and Rochon and Herbert all got hurt in that game. So Deont de Forman right now looks like the first man up, but now, right? He's first man up and last man standing. Both, yeah, but Rochon could play. He could. He is in the concussion protocol still. He did not practice Wednesday. Yeah, let us know if you hear anything on Thursday, Brooks. His, his game reminder, it was Thursday, so there's extra time for him, but. Does it change your confidence in like? flexing Freeman if Rochon's active, I assume it would. Freeman? Foreman? Foreman. Oh, I was like, Devonta Freeman? Yeah, he's playing there too. Yeah, it certainly changes the confidence, but we don't know for sure what this split is going to be. Like, of all the options, none of them would surprise me. Like, if Rochon Johnson comes out, if he clears concussion protocol, and he's 75% of the snaps and he's like, the guy, he's a workhorse running back for the Bears,

It wouldn't surprise me. If Foreman takes Cleo Herbert's job and Rochon remains the pass catcher, third down type of player, it wouldn't surprise me. So Foreman is in play no matter what for me because just people need running backs. But if Rochon Johnson misses, then despite the Vikings being pretty stout against running backs, at least compared to wide receivers, Foreman is a is an RB2 kind of must play. Just pure volume. Let's say Foreman's alone, and you have to stare down the Zach Moss decision against Jackson. Would you take the timeshare that is inevitable between Taylor and Zach Moss, or would you just take the, it kind of feels like the decision you make with Damien Pierce every week. Like Damian Pierce is the guy with the battle line. I think I'd go Foreman. Okay. I think I'd go Foreman over Moss. If he's alone.

Foreman, if you remember last year, he had some big games. Yeah. Which I hope Rochon's back because you have Down to Foreman. Justin Fields. Yep. Would you play Justin Fields or would you play Joe Burrow after what he did last week? Fields. Okay. And Cousins on the other side or Fields? That's a tough one. I'd still go. Oh, man. The matchup is so good. Here's my concern. Yeah. My concern with Justin Fields this week is that. He may not be able to reprise the role if they have nothing on the ground. Like play action game I think is going to be really important. And if they shut that down because they don't have Khalil Herbert, you know, I'm not sure he's going to be able to force the ball to DJ Moore and have the success avoiding interceptions like he did last week. I'm still going to go fields there. DJ Moore, you must start him. Darnal Mooney, send him to waivers. Cole come at. Sure.

It's been really good. Touchdown, three touchdowns in the last two weeks. There you go. Let's move on Seattle. Real quick. What are you doing with Madison? Yeah, let's talk about Madison. He has been solid, not spectacular. Yep. The snaps have gone down as you would presume when you trade for Cam Acres. But not that Cam Acres is doing anything special, but bears 31st against... running backs. I'd play him over Foreman. I'm playing Madison. Yeah, I'd play him over Forman. I'd play him over all the kind of like committee messes. Yeah, I think Madison's a strong RB2 start still. I wouldn't say that if I didn't think he looked good. But the last couple weeks, he's running pretty hard, breaking some tackles. He actually has looked better than he looked to start the year. And their offensive line has figured some things out. All right, the Seahawks are four and one. They take on the two and three Cincinnati Bengals.

The Draft King Sportsbook line here, Cincinnati minus 3, the overrunners 45. When I was going through the games, this to me was the hardest game to project. Cincinnati's sitting at home. You guys talked about it, bounce back performance for Burrow, Chase. It was against the Cardinals. They don't get pressure on you. Like the struggle with Joe Burrow was that you're getting pressure on him and he was not able to move. Now, he seems to be healing. There were some times in the game against Arizona that he moved around the pocket. There was one play. One play in particular where he, I believe he ended up getting sacked on it, but he looked, I mean, he broke or avoided a few tackles and just bought himself a whole bunch of time before the inevitable sack. But it was like, oh, Joe Burrow, look at all, hey, you can move. This is great news. And then it turned into a big game. Also, hyper-targeting your number one wide receiver.

It turns out can be a good strategy. So you guys said, you know, Arizona didn't have anybody personnel-wise that could compete with Jamar Chase. Yeah. They shadowed Chase. Yeah. It did not. Like after how many receptions do you do you bail on your, uh, your, your number one corner or whatever shadowing Jamar Chase and they just moved to a zone or something? The answer was, uh, higher than 14 because they never did it. Seattle does run a lot of zone coverage, 86% of the time, more than anybody in the NFL. They also give up 39 fancy points per game to wide receivers. Don't worry about Chase. The question is whether you could go take a shot at home on a peripheral wide receiver option. T. Higgins has been limited. Mike, you were saying you are worried about him playing. Yeah, they have their by week coming up next week. So with T. Higgins, broken ribs, he...

Probably will be a game time decision. He was out there at least at practice, you know, saw one short video of him next to Jamar Chase doing the simulated run and catching passes, which he had to, you know, at least raise the arms. That's very different than knowing that an elite athlete's about to hit you in the ribs. So I think he'll miss one more week just because of the by week you get to rest them up for three. What's tough is Higgins has been one of the players. that has destroyed people with the I am active and yet not here for your fantasy team. So keep that in mind. He could be risky. Yes. If he's out, do you play around with Boyd or Irwin? If you're desperate, they're possible. The Seahawks dead last when you adjust for schedule against fantasy wide receivers. And Tyler Boyd was, I mean, he got you some points last week. He was, what do we got?

Six for 39. Not a great yards per catch, but seven targets. All right. Seattle's coming off the by. Average 32.7 points for game the previous three weeks going into the buy. They're four and one. Gino, though, has not been fantasy relevant. Like the team has been winning. They've been scoring points, but Kenneth Walker's been scoring most of them. Yeah, it's a Matthew Stafford situation. Yeah, he's only got one top 15 finish. Metcalfe? Yes, Cincinnati allowing the highest average depth of target in the NFL. Locket over 10 yards, yeah, and I'd go back to Lockett. Lockett has been disappointing, but I'd go back to them. Will they throw the ball to JSCN beyond one yard? No, they can't. There's a, there's a rule. Force Field. Yeah. The 49ers are 5 and 0. They take on the Cleveland Browns that are, they're 2 and 2. The driving sports league line, San Francisco minus 7 on the road. The overrunners 37 and a half. This game's a little like.

maybe saying this doesn't matter to your fantasy decisions. But I will say this. Kyle Shanahan, when playing a Jim Swartz defense, I don't know if you saw this, Mike. He's one and eight historically in his team's average 15 points a game. Oh. The Browns have been the best defense in football coming out of the buy, a couple weeks to prepare. I think they're going to lose, but I think it's going to because they don't have a quarterback. Say they will be victims of their offense. Yeah, that's the way it feels. Like I would not. I don't think this is a ceiling game for Christian McCaffrey. Agreed. I don't think this is a ceiling game for the wide receiver core. I think this is a drag out, beat up, you know, probably, you know, 21 to 7 type of win or 24 to 7 type of win for the 49ers. I'll take that the chance at three touchdowns. The problem is, is if Watson's gone, do you play a, do you play a Brown? I mean, you have Jerome Ford now limited.

in practice due to any injury. I would have no confidence in Elijah Moore or Najoku. If it's Walker, which we presume it will be, I'd still probably play Cooper. It'll depend on your options. Let me give you some guys here. Let's go. We talk Zay Flowers against Tennessee or Amari Cooper. With No Watson? Yes. Zay Flowers. Okay. Jacoby Myers against the Patriots. Jacob Myers. You were dead. I'll give you props. You were dead on with Jacobi Myers. Great for a great situation. Like this was one of those situations where, you know, you come into the season after one week and you could overreact. But Mike, you saw it. You saw it clearly. You knew that this was like, Jimmy Garoppola is out there. And I've seen it now in recent weeks. It's like he's going to throw it to Jacob Myers or he's going to throw it to Devante Adams. And he's not going to look at anybody else. Or he'll throw it to Jacobi at the detriment.

Or I'll throw it to the opposing team, but those are the only three options. The sneaky play of KJ Osborne against the Chicago Bears or Amari Cooper with no Watson. If there's no Watson, I just have no confidence going up against this defense with the 49ers. That's a big downgrade. Just for those that are going, what are you talking about? He had six targets without Watson in the last game. He had one catch for 16 yards. These weren't Walker targets. No. But Walker targets aren't that good, brother. They are exponentially better than what we saw in the field last week. Okay, we saw PJ Walker last year. He completed 59% of his passes. Okay. He threw three touchdowns in six games. Okay, okay. And three interceptions. So DTR was a new level of low. Yes.

But without his existence, we would still look at PJ Walker as a level of low. Agreed. Going against the 49ers. So, look, Marty Cooper is not a must bench. If you think those six targets will turn into three catches instead of one, don't expect the ceiling. Don't expect two touchdowns in this game. Debo, Brandon Ayyuk, if you've been playing them, you probably play them. Do you play? I mean, this is going to be a defensive war. These are the two best defenses in football right now. Sure. So do you think the, but you think that the 49ers are going to cover that seven? No, I don't. Well, Watson is the, let me know what's going on with Watson. Yeah, they'll probably cover it without Watson. And if you have not seen the photo that David Najoku posted. He burned his face off. He burned his face off. It's gone. It is a rough, rough injury. And he played football. No further comments.

Yeah, I mean. About the Cleveland Browns. It's so weird. I got a comment. It's so weird, man. What is happening? No further comments. Here's some comments. I can't stop. The dude burned his face off. Do you think there's something non-injury related here? No. I don't think so. You think Watson? I don't. I don't think so. Do we have nothing on Watson today? I'll check. You better. I do believe. I do believe that Watson is hurt. And I'm not, I, it's, I'm not, I can't question the toughness because I don't know. Like, if I'm him, I skip the Ravens and 49ers. That was super smart. I wasn't, was a risk mitigation. It was a good point to the schedule, but as a quarterback who's not been playing very well for, for Cleveland, the Cleveland Browns, if you have two tough matchups and your shoulders hurt and you can say that my shoulder hurt so I don't want to play.

He has a great update for you guys. OK. O.C. Alex Van Pelt said it's still up in the air if Deshaun Watson will face the 49ers. He's doing everything he can, though. That's what they say. That's good. Good job. Brock Purdy, I think you're not. I don't really want in on that this week. Just because the passing volume is always low and Cleveland is just shutting people down. They are. Purdy is just so. He's a stud. Brock Party's a stud. Do we want to? I mean, we don't have time to talk about the whole thing, but do you think Purdy is not a system stud? I think that he is, the system is elevating, but I think that the NFL just, they missed. They missed on a, like. It feels like if he landed somewhere else, you don't get to see anything. Probably. And it's hard when Jimmy Garoppolo was so good in San Francisco. He wasn't.

He wasn't this good. He wasn't this good. No, he wasn't this good because he made more mistakes. Exactly. And Purdy deserves a ton of credit. I just, they make everybody look good. I mean, Nick Mullins had good weeks. I mean, you had. But I am at the point where I am considering to acknowledge that they made the right decision to go to the overtray. Good, good, good, good. I'm almost there. There was a long discussion about Purdy on the Dynasty podcast, by the way, if you want to. Check that out out there, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Show. And you should. The Panthers are 0 and 5 and they're taking on the 4-1 dolphins. Good golly. The drafting sportsbook line here, Miami minus 13 and a half. The over-under is 48 and a half. Massacre? Yep. The nice thing is that Miami, while they will destroy the Panthers, they will probably allow Adam Thielen to have a pretty good game. Oh, he'll...

No matter what, Adam Thielen will, he'll get a bunch of catches and he will, they'll be in catch up mode and then he'll get a garbage touchdown. Probably, he's done that like three times. Oh, yeah. The little on the one yard line garbage touchdowns? Last week, it was, I believe, four receptions on the final drive. You're not playing to win, but on the final drive and the touchdown. It was just the stinkiest of the garbage, but every week. It will just continue. There's no reason to think it won't. Miles Sanders didn't practice. I don't think you can't play him until. Chuba's interesting. Yes, I can agree with that. It's an okay matchup against the dolphins. But Miles Sanders, even before I didn't see this, did not practice it with a shoulder. So this is a new injury because he's been dealing with the groin. But Miles Sanders is a player who I'm not dropping, but he is on my bench until I watch with my eyeballs a game of the Carolina Panthers.

where Miles gets a bunch of work and looks good. Yeah, and, you know, looking at his game log, I mean, he had one year, he had one week where he was the RB12 this year, and it was a game he went nine for 24 on the ground. He just happened to get into the end zone. Otherwise, he's been pretty disappointing, dealing with injury. Yeah, the, Mike is right. Chuba, though. Chuba has looked better than Miles. Dolphins, defense, 26 against opposing running backs when adjusted for scheduled. So it could be opportunities there for Chuba in the passing game. He could be a flex-worthy surprise start this week. Yeah, he could. The only thing that Miles has done has stopped Chuba from having true fantasy value. But if he's going to miss with his shoulder injury, then Chuba is in strong consideration for me. Yeah, had the question about DJ Chark. To me, he's as much of a dart throw as Jonathan Mingo. Mingo had his best game as a pro last week. Both of them are dart throws that I'm trying not to play. Tua, of course, Tyreek and Waddle, yep.

And then Mostert is the guy. He's the guy. Oh, yes. The question is, what is your confidence? Assuming we get the all clear from, like, Jeff Wilson is going to make his debut. Are you playing Jeff Wilson? That bothers me more than if Jeff Wilson sat. If Wilson sat and then I'd say you could play Ahmed as a flex. If Wilson's back, I think you'll see both players. And that's a problem. Yes, I think you'll see both of those guys maybe in that role, at least as of right now. Ackman's back at practice. It's been a while for Wilson. I just would be surprised if they give him everything in that two role. Not necessarily everything, but it's looking at the match. Well, what's your opinion? The matchup is great. And the line, again, is essentially two touchdowns that the dolphins are favored to win by. If the dolphins are up by two touchdowns going into the fourth quarter, I think Jeff Wilson is going to get.

some time. And I think he'll also get some time before that. He'll be a part of the, you know, part of the blowout before them. But I think that he's a low end flex, not high confidence, but assuming we hear enough good news over the next couple days, I'll be willing to play him. The dolphins have 93 plays of 10 plus yards this year. Good grief. As someone who has Tua, it's very fun to watch knowing that every play. The worst part about Tua is that you get around the 10-yard line and they score on the ground all the time. Can we get the tap pass going? Yes, seriously. Can we not, we don't need to swing it around. Just tap it. Just tap that pass. Yes. I totally agree. Coulter 3 and 2. Awesome. I mean, like, let's look at, let's really, let's be honest about it. Let's be honest. In the play, who touches the ball first? Quarterback. Right. The quarterback has to get the ball to the running bag.

So you want points for choice making a decision? I want points for rushing touchdowns. For the quarterback. For the handoff. I don't want the yards. Just give me the touchdown. Oh, I thought you were going to say like points per handoff. Points per positive handoff. Yes. If the play goes forward, you made the decision to hand it off. You could have kept it to yourself. Selfishness. Selflessness. Yes. All right. The Colts are three and two. Jacksonville's three and two. D.K. Sportsbook line. Jacksonville minus four. The overrunners 44 and a half. signs of life last week from the Jacksonville offense, the impressive upset. Now they don't have their home crowd, the beef eater crowd, to lean on because they went two and oh in London. Beefy. You know, Trevor Lawrence, Calvin Ridley? Yes, please. Yeah, yep. Travis Ztian has looked great. He has. Looks great. And Christian Kirk is settling into wide receiver two, three territory. Yeah, and Zay Jones, Jay Jones was back and immediately a part of the game plan.

this past week. Caught the touchdown. Yeah, that was pretty. Caught the touchdown. It was a great play. He's got hands, man. Zay Jones, yeah, he's a good player, but he did not, I mean, he left the game because of a knee, got an MRI. They said the results were positive, but he did not practice on Wednesday. I would, I mean, he probably misses again. And if, if Zane Jones is out, Christian. Positive for a sore knee. Right. But I'm saying, if, if Jones is out, then Christian Kirk. is a full confidence play. If Jones plays, you're probably still going with Christian Kirk. The apparently week one was just an anomaly and they went, oh yeah, this guy that we gave all the money to, we should probably let him play more football. But with Jones out, Kirk is a very strong start. This matchup, divisional one, 44 point over under, Gardner Minshew back at quarterback. When Minshu plays quarterback, it gives me more confidence in both Pittman and Josh Downs. Totally agree.

Josh Downs had 25% of the men's due targets. I think he's a great DFS play. I think he's a very interesting full PPR play. Both of those guys will get targets. If you had to start Jonathan Taylor or Zach Moss, you are starting who this week? Oh, man. I mean, let me be very clear. The matchup is a stinky as the Jags are second when adjusting for schedule against fantasy running backs, allowing under 10 points. So it's not great either way. And for though, like, I'm not embarrassed to admit. Like I legitimately don't know what's going to happen. I don't either. Like I, if you, when I, when I say make an opinion who you'd start, it is a shot in the dark. Because if Jonathan Taylor, you know, they said that they're going to ramp up his work. Look a ramp. Think about a ramp. Yeah. They're long. They could be very high. Yeah.

It could be at one of those really low ramps. You barely can tell you're even walking up. It could be a three degree ramp. Technically, I'm moving up, so it's a ramp. And so if it's one of those ramps, maybe Jonathan Taylor gets 12 touches this week after six. Maybe he gets 10 instead of six. And maybe Zach Moss is the guy again. Now, the matchups sucked for Zach Moss last week. If they had a good matchup last week. I think Zach Moss would have been talked about as a flex play. He was completely off the board because Tennessee doesn't give up any points to running backs. And then, you know, everybody's like, oh, why didn't you tell me to play Zach Moss? I'm like, I, nobody knew that was going to happen. Because I didn't play Zach Moss. No, he's on my bench. I would have won the week. So Jacksonville's a bad matchup, but Zach Moss has been on fire. If I have to pick between the two, I think I still play Moss.

And that's how we'll end that discussion. I think I play boss. That's how we will end that discussion. Let's move on. Welcome to Starts of the Week, presented by Purina Pro Plan. All right. No starts of the week for Jay Gris. All bears, all the time. We already heard Jason starts of the week, Space Mountain and Credit Coaster, Guardians of the Galaxy and Rise of the Resistance. I would read his status message in our Slack channel, but it's not safe for work. It involves Disneyland. and saying goodbye to everybody here. It's pretty rude to be honest. Yeah, I mean, you know, we're not in Disneyland. Yeah, I mean, so I don't. Well, you got to kick me when I'm down. He's really holding it against us. So let's let's start it off, Mike, me and you. Who's your quarterback? I'm going with Matthew Stafford. I love it. From my streamer to my start of the week, Rams ranked third and pass rate over expectation, number one in place per game on a pace of nearly 5,000 yards. It hasn't been the touchdowns, but.

It will be. But it will be with Cooper Cup back yet. We got back up to two passing touchdowns the second that Cooper Cup got on a football field. And the Cardinals are dead last in schedule adjusted fantasy points to the quarterback position. I'm going Kirk Cousins. Bill's giving up our bills. The Bears giving up so many points. Second most passing touchdown. Second highest passer rating. And I think people are kind of like worried about. staying in the flames of Kirk Cousson, I get it, which is fair. I mean, you lose your best target and the best player in the game, but nobody throws more than Minnesota. Fields' recent success could be a real shootout. Minnesota's defense. The reason that Cousins has been throwing for what he's throwing is their defense isn't doing enough. I'm going to go with Kirk Cousins. Running back I'm going with Isaiah Pacheco versus the Broncos. Delightful. He is the running back 13 on the season. Delightful. Am I trying to curse Pacheco by making you a start of the week?

You'll never know. Hmm. But he is my start of the week. Denver allowing the highest yards per carry 5.9 is the highest yards per carry ever through five games. And the Mahomes has not been Mahomesing because they've been going to Pacheco more, which this is a strange defense. But I don't put it past Andy Reed. Strange offense? Yes, I'm sorry, strange offense. But Andy Reed is like, he's a cameoing. He changes things. And if. He feels like I have an advantage right now running the ball. He's going to take it. Well, it's the first time that I've been like, oh, like after Cream Hunt left, everybody's tried to put somebody in the shoes of Cream Hunt and no one's been able to fill them. Maybe we're getting a little of that. My running back start of the week, it's Rahim Mostert and if we have a single running mate for Rahim Mostert. So I'm going to do both of those against Carolina. But Mostert is if no team has given up more rushing touchdowns than Carolina, nine of them.