Starts of the Week, Wk 1 Matchups, Super Bowl Picks

If he speaks to the money itself. Well, that's what you're saying he has in his life. It's just, it's really unfortunate because this was not the player that, you know, was in camp, was in the locker room six, seven years ago. It's not the same player. He had a very Jerry Rice-like persona for many years. Hardest worker in the league, kept his head down.

you know, breaking records. And now, I mean, is he addicted to the, to the Twitter sphere? I mean, I don't understand what's going on. I mean, my honest take is I think he has concussion problems. Like, if you remember that hit, he took from Vante's Perfect, where Perfect was claiming he didn't have a concussion. But if you watched Antonio Brown, not many guys get hit like that. I mean, that's, that's why I'm saying. I think Antonio Brown's friends need to.

find him some help. The thing that's so difficult is how good of a player he is mixed with this altercation. It's breaking on the show. I don't have any more information than Adam Schefter's tweet. Right. And it's breaking on the show. And you don't know how Antonio Brown responds to a suspension. Does he show up in week two? Does he rebel against the suspend? Does he ever play for the Raiders? Yesterday it wasn't huge news, but it was Brown was he had.

IG that he was mad that the team was fining him for skipping some practices. This is bad news for the Oakland Raiders in Antonio Brown, but I still like to spend it very positively pick up Darren Waller. And you need to mention Tyrault Williams. Yes, sure. You know, it's not just Darren Waller. Tyrol Williams will inherit a ton of targets from the...

proposed Antonio Brown situation. Williams has been great in camp, been great in the preseason. That also means, look, Kyle Borgognioni, our editor-in-chief over here who does some, he's just a beast, does great work, great research. Also one of the best dishes at Olive Garden. Oh, yes. He did some research on vacated targets and found that it is pretty prescriptive to say that teams with large vacated targets

the first season following that, you know, the higher numbers, they tend to target the running back a lot more pretty much across the board. So this is, yeah, Josh Jacobs also should be a beneficiary here because they're going to need to dump that ball off all over the place. All right. We got to get to start to the week and we got to wrap up this Rams Panthers matchup that got, once again, you know, Antonio Brown.

He doesn't care. He will disrupt anything you're doing. He will do that. For team or for podcast. He's like, wait, are they not talking about me right now? Goodness gracious. We can make it pretty quick. The Rams, I'm starting all three wide receivers. You're confident with Cooper Cup in week one. That's the part that I think people will want to know the most because it's first week back from the ACL. They just paid Higby and they got Everett. And do they lower the reps for Cooper Cup coming back into week one? I'm not as confident as you on the road.

It's certainly possible, but I would still start him. I think you'll get enough work with that high opportunity to score. What I am fascinated to watch is from the Rams side, does Todd Gurley come out and have a Monster Week 1, and the victory lap from the Todd Gurley truthers will be incredible. Well, it's not a great matchup if things hold true to last year.

Panthers were definitely top 10 against the run. They were beatable through the air. So this should be one where Robert Woods, Brandon Cooks, Cooper Cup, they are all okay, including Jared Gough. I am fine with Jared Gough. Obviously, if you drafted him, you're probably going to be starting him. Same with Cam Newton on the other side of the ball. Obviously, Christian McCaffrey's a go. The real question is, are you fine week one? You know, there's a lot of breakout potential here for DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel. Those two guys' names.

They get talked about all over the place. Huge breakout potential this year. But are you going to take that shot week one, or do you wait and see with these guys? Yeah, I, you know, my rankings say I'm waiting and seeing what you have in Curtis Samuel. Yeah, I agree. If you have the luxury to wait, you've got other good options, go ahead and wait. And you probably do, right? I mean, the value of Curtis Samuel in drafts meant that maybe he's a flex play for you. Maybe he's not. Maybe you drafted him in the range where you're making that decision. So depending on where you got him,

I don't mind the play at all. If you need to play DJMora or Curtis Samuel, they should be the primary pass catchers for Cam Newton at home. But I would love advanced knowledge of what's going to happen, you know, and you don't get that. So Cam Newton, you're confident in this matchup. Yes, he's back. He's back. He's ready to go. This Christian McCaffrey, youngster, decent play this week. Yep. All right. We're going to need to move on. We're going to get into all the other matchups tomorrow.

It's time for the starts. Starts of the week. All right. Week one, starts of the week. We'll begin at the quarterback position, and I'll let the fantasy hitman himself kick it off. Oh, it's me. Look, my start of the week at the quarterback position, it's James Winston. The over under on this game of Tampa Bay and San Francisco is absolutely bananas. And on top of that, it's.

Last time I saw it, it was a pick-um. So I expect huge things from both San Francisco and Tampa Bay. They both have bad defenses. Things could certainly change from last year. I just don't see that really happening. And San Francisco, they allowed the fifth most points per game last year. So I love it. James was a late round guy you could take, and this is a smash place for James.

All right. Jason, who do you have at your quarterback start of the week? So I'm going a little deeper here, those two quarterback leagues. You want to know, you know, the matchup play. I like Kirk Cousins. There's so much information about running the ball. And this is a matchup against the Falcons that can actually score on the Vikings. It's not a prime time game. So I think Kirk Cousins will be okay. Now, if it turns out that he doesn't have Stefan Diggs, then I would pivot.

I would move to, I mean, I would play James over Kirk either way. But I think if he's a full go with both Adam Thielen and Stefan Diggs, I think Kirk Cousins comes out, has a really solid performance week one. He was pretty great for a lot of the year last season, especially early on. And we tend to forget that. All right. And I'll go outside the top 12 on the week and go with Kyler Murray against Detroit.

It's not a name that I want to bring up and get accused of being a homer repeatedly on, but it's the play of the week for me. He's at home. We know the collegiate resume. We know last year over 1,000 yards rushing 12 touchdowns on the ground. The Cardinals have a, what I've written in our dock is a disgusting defense. There are going to be loads of opportunities for Kyler, garbage time, opportunities. You know, they're going to have to win a shootout in this matchup.

And we, I'm excited to see the very pass heavy, very play heavy Cliff Kingsbury offense in week one. I think Kyla Murray this year is going to have more passing attempts per game than most quarterbacks in football. And then you get to put the rushing yardage on top of it. And we know.

You know, in a four-point touchdown league, every 40 yards is a touchdown for the quarterback. In a six-point league, every 60 yards is a touchdown when you're on the ground. And I was there for Cam Newton's debut in the NFL 400-plus passing yards, had a rushing touchdown in his debut as an NFL rookie in 2011. That sounds like the line that Matt Stafford's about to put up on Arizona. It's very positive. The Cardinals defense, it's depleted. Yes.

And I don't trust Vince Joseph to make it not, he can't make it not depleted. He can't scheme his way into that. It could be the worst in the league with their two starting quarterbacks, including Patrick Peterson, which they have neither of them. Yes. So Kyler Murray started the week at the quarterback position. I'll go right into my running back start of the week. Let's unleash the B. Sony Michelle against Pittsburgh. They are at home. They are six point favorites.

The Patriots running backs averaged 103 rushing yards per game last year, and the Steelers gave up 96 a game. I don't expect this, you know, do I think the Pittsburgh Steelers linebackers are going to improve this year? I do. But week one in New England is a tough task at hand. So I think we see Sony Michelle kind of continue his playoff performance into week one.

On the other side of the ball, I think James Connor has a struggling week one against the Patriots defense. Look, if you want to take a week one, Al against James Connor, we can do this every week. Can we return to this? Yes. I think James Connor is going to have a good week one. Yes. So let's figure out the bet because I think James Connor struggles in week one, Patriots. Struggles how? Like not top 15 type of running back on the week? Sure. Oh, yeah. Oh, done. I'm in. Both of us. Yeah. Waterbed. I was in before the buzzer.

There you go. It's official. All right. My running back start of the week. It's real easy. Mark Ingram, he's playing Miami. They give up the second most rushing yards per game. 145 rushing yards per game. Ravens heavy favorites. There's not much else that needs to be said there. Yeah. For me, we got the drop ready. Let's go. Look.

If he comes out and stinks week one, if he has a great week one. What are you doing? No, no, no. I'm saying I'm getting all of that feedback on my Twitter. So he might as well be my start of the week. And also it's not just for that. It's for the fact that the Arizona Cardinals' defense was terrible. But their offense could be great. So that just means more pace of play, more offensive opportunities for the lions. They are on the road and they are favored by Vegas. This should be a carry-on Johnson feast.

It really should be. It should be. Look, I'm taking the ride and hopefully I'm landing at the top of the mountain, playing the flag very high. All right. I will piggyback on Mike's quarterback start of the week. I'm going Chris Godwin at wide receiver. Nice. I believe Bruce Ariens will come out and establish what this offense is against San Francisco.

which is basically an offense with three pass-catching options. And one of them is Chris Godwin. He'll be peppered with targets. How dare you? First eight. Agumbo Wale is coming for everyone. I don't see that week one, Mike. I'll go Godwin over a go.

Boale. All right. The 49er secondary gave up a passer rating of 105 a year ago, 35 touchdown passage, which was second worst in the league, gave up 25 points a game. Love that 50 point over under. Give me some Godwin in week one. All right. My start of the week, look, I said if you've got the opportunity to wait and see and you've got great options, go ahead. But I actually think you can start Curtis Samuel this week. If you look at the actual matchups,

I don't think they're going to be viewing him as the one. This is a very, very high score in Vegas over under. He's at home. You haven't seen him yet. So if you want a sneaky high upside play, like I could see a situation where Curtis Samuel comes out week one and is a top 10 wide receiver in the NFL because he has a bomb touchdown. He's lightning fast. His routes are great. So if you want a high upside play, that's why I'm making him my start of the week. He, you know, we haven't seen it yet.

So it's risky, but give me those diabetes. I hope somebody, I mean, there are new listeners that have no idea what on earth you meet. Keep listening, you'll catch on, my friends. All right. Okay. You live a very sugar-dance predictive life. That is true. Okay. My wide receiver started the week. My sweetie, Didi. Didi Wesberg, he's in a.

Unbelievable situation. He already looks like Nick Foll's favorite target. Nick Foles favors the slot wide receiver even before having Didi Westbrook on his team as the primary pass catcher. The game script is incredibly in favor of Nick Foles having to throw the ball a ton. The Jaguars will not be able to slow this game down and try and grind it out with four net. This is a game they're going to have to pass. So I love Didi. Yeah, you have to. And you're my sweetie. He's your sweetie. Didi's your sweetie.

I just love, we're in the CBS Telethon League, where we had the St. Jude draft, and we're playing it through for the whole season, and, you know, Hunter Rinfro just got picked up by Jake Sealy in that league. That's the Antonio Brown reaction, Hunter Renfro. The accountant. Yes, the state farm agent. All right. Oh, goodness. One more. Tight-in start of the week. I'm going with Jared Cook.