Week 2 Matchups + The RETURN of Fantasy Faceoff - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/13

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Friday episode of the show. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballer's podcast, back with you. We had a Thursday night football game. We got a lot of matchups to talk about. We got news and the return of fantasy faceoff because the people were.

The people were vocal and they wanted it back. I don't know if it's because they wanted DFS lineups. I don't know if it's because they wanted to see us ridiculed. Probably both. I think it's more of the latter. I think it's more to the latter, but I will say that, you know, look, I missed it. I missed it too. And I really enjoyed putting together a lineup for today's episode. So the shame begins again. Next week. We'll make our lineups today and then the shame will be bestowed because the people. The people want to see us look stupid. Can't wait. And normally that means for us, you know, we're very sweaty and uncomfortable. Yeah, I can't wait to see what terrible things you guys do to my face this year. Your face is getting bigger every year. And so the mask sizing is. Yeah, it's almost impossible, Mike. Yeah, well, I would say the. What's the back of your hat? What's the amount of? Oh, this one? I think we're on two buttons, guys. Are you on two? Oh, this one's a three burger. Have you ever gone? Would you go full open? I, oh.

Yeah. You might have to soon. Like if your head gets large enough. I think if I can convince people that's like a fashion trend. You could like after dinner with your belt. You know, you just go, right. I'm living free. I will say after a big meal, he likes to open his hat. I like to unbutton my pants and take off. It's more like after reading a book because then the head swells up. Did you see my son shared with me that there was a guy who. Every day he went into the library and he rented 10 books. And he'd bring them back the next day and rent 10 more. But each time through makeup, he would make his bald head slightly larger. And so every day when he would return to the library, his head would become slightly bigger as he would rent.

More books from the library. This is so much work for a silly joke. It was all just how long would it take for the person to notice that he was bringing the books back and his knowledge was rising and rising. That's incredible. Sorry. What a bit. I was going to say, I think I will go, I'll go snaps open before I ever go one button. Really? Yeah. Oh, just. The one button, the structural integrity, man. That thing like, the, the, the, the, the. whatever, the snaps. I don't know. They're just, they're wiggling all over the place because it's just the one button. So in other words, you are one step from open right now. Well, no, he's on three. Oh, you're on three. A lot of hats are two buttons. I was going to say, I got pictures of a hat that's on two from you. I have purchased many a hat where I put it on two and I'm like, never wearing this hat again. Just too much fantasy football knowledge up in that noggin, Mike. Yeah. When I get a haircut, that can help it a little bit.

But not very much. All right, the community. Head over to join the foot.com, get access to the new ultimate dashboard and a ton of extra advanced stats and tools, the streamfinder, a lot of resources for you this year, join the foot.com. Check that out. We had a Thursday night football game. Yeah, we did. And let's start with the good stuff. Let's start with the good stuff. Because you can't transition back. The good stuff was Devon A chance seems healthy. He played. He started. He played way too long into the game. Did they think he was Derek Henry? Like, what are they doing out there? He had 29 touches in a game where we weren't sure he was going to play. And then Jeff Wilson went out injured. Which, you know, on Twitter you're reading, this is what happened. Jeff Wilson went out with, I think, what was it, an oblique? I can't remember. Okay, so he went out.

That's why A. Chan was still playing late into the game, but it's like, why don't you put Jalen Wright out there? Like let the rookie get some touches, but he was also coming. Oh, no, he wasn't coming off of an injury. No, he was a healthy scratch and weak. I mean, not my decision to make. That was. It was great for fantasy points. It felt highly questionable. It is unbelievable. At the end of this game in PPR, A. Chan outscored James Cook, who was in his own right, unbelievably awesome. I can't even imagine how many fantasy points he would have scored if, you know, the game had stayed competitive because it was like, felt like it was the, you know, the game just started and three touchdowns for Cook. So good for those two. James Cook was the story. H.C.m. played a ton. Nothing I said about the game was right. I was wrong about everything. Yeah, it was. Two was a terrible start. We gave you the numbers that he's put up against Buffalo.

He threw three interceptions. Two of them inexplicably to players, to players that had not been on this roster or played or had snaps with Tua that he threw anticipatory throws to that didn't know the play. I mean, Robbie Chosen was one of them. He didn't go down the sideline. He cut the route off. Tua threw it up the sideline. The other one was to Du Bois. Yeah, the boys. Du Bois. I mean, they had him. I don't know what to make of the game overall in terms of like Buffalo. Buffalo looks great. Maybe Arizona's better than we thought if they almost beat Buffalo and Buffalo, but the defense was incredible. They only threw the ball 19 times. Yeah, it would, Tua being so bad when he was healthy during the game led to Josh Allen having a very subpar fantasy outlook. I mean, the- Which is their recipe. To be clear, this is what they'd love to do. This game script, run the football.

And play defense, I think is the way that Buffalo wants to win the ball games this year. It was great to see Kincaid get forced into the action. I mean, it was very early that they, it was like two immediate targets to him. And then he got, unfortunately, kicked in the head, you know, like just an inadvertent kick to the head as he was getting up. So he missed some time. And then, you know, Keon Coleman with the goose, which is I think far more a product of just what happened with the game. I don't think he would have been shut out.

Had the script gone a different way, but it was... I mean, the pass attempts. Total attempts in the need to throw the football. If you're not playing, like if Buffalo is in a plus situation moving forward where they're heavily favored, you're not going to be able to count on wide receivers from Buffalo. That's just going to be the truth of the matter. I mean, Shakir looks the best of the group, but five for 54. Yeah, his value is never going to be great for fantasy. Even if Shakir ends the season as the number one target in this offense, he's going to be pretty much irrelevant. He's not a deep threat and a touchdown machine. So I would still lean towards Coleman. But this is what we saw at the end of last year. They want to run the ball nonstop. What was exciting and I think hopefully prescriptive was the fact that when they got down like on the two yard line.

It was James Cook. Yeah, that was very exciting. They didn't bring in Ray Davis. They let James Cook have it. And lo and behold, your good running back can still do it in short yardage. I think you could have run that one in backwards, the way they opened up a line for him. H.M. was great. Everyone else was a disaster on Miami. Tyreek Hill, terrible. Jalen Waddle, terrible. Waddle was about an inch from a really good game if he crossed the plane on the... But now looking forward, you know, Tua, the headline that we've buried here is that Tua... Well, we were putting it off. Tua was concussed brutally in this game and the future of Tua Tungavailo on this team. I mean, honestly, I think he's probably going to play football again. I think it'll be six weeks or something. You know, it'll be a long period of time.

I'll be shocked if he walks away, not that he shouldn't. I think you're talking about the person versus the player and the person's more important and we all don't want to see something tragic happen on the field or in his future. Yeah, even the head coach told him he's the quarterback of his family. And so that's what he's got to think about first. I don't think anyone out there would blame him for walking away from football. You know, he will almost certainly be. medically cleared to return to football. And if that's the case, then he will have the decision to make. I'm guessing, like Andy, if I had to make my bet, I'm guessing he's missing two to four weeks and is back. So, you know, and for this team, Schuyler Thompson hadn't played since 2022, I believe. Ryan Tannenhill is available out there. There's a lot of talk about him. But this is huge implications for what this offense wants to do and what Tyree Kale can do and what.

you know, Jalen Wado can do, like if you don't have the, you know, the main crux of throwing the ball deep in these timing routes, like you're going to have major issues. Major. You're going to see screen passes to Tyree Kill every week 15 times. And you're going to see, you know, a lot of the running game, which, you know, maybe that's good for A. Chan and Moser when he gets back. But overall, it was demoralizing. It really, as a fan, it was demoralizing. And, you know, shame on every single person that tweeted. about to his copability. That's not the point right now. Like everybody, you're on a football field running faster than any of us can run, making decisions faster and anybody can make a decision. Honestly, I'm trying to get a first down as well where it's like you really can't slide there. That's the problem. That's what makes me so angry about it is that if he slides there and doesn't get the first down, the whole world's going to come out and call him, you know, whatever.

You know, you're soft. You don't know what, you know, put it out there for the team. Go hit him hard. And then if he does it, he's also stupid because he put himself out there and put the risk. I think we all agree, too, it should be sliding. Like we all, with the history, but making split second decisions at the NFL level, it's hard to do. It's hard to do with everything that happens from a momentum standpoint in the game. And frankly, none of that should matter in this story right now. And it really. I don't let it irritate me very often when I see the idiots because I know that they already exist and they're doing idiot things all over the place. But it really bothered me last night. Yeah, I mean, this is a man in his life. You know, this is beyond football. So it, you know, we'll have to wait and see what his decision is. In the meantime, Jalen Wattle takes the biggest hit.

Because Tyree kill will be the number one target. They will, you know, the screens will go to him first. And he is so unbelievable that, you know, you can have an inaccurate quarterback, throw him the ball downfield and it's 10 yards away. And he'll just go run to that spot instead and grab it. So I think Tyreek is still someone I'm going to start every week with a backup quarterback. Waddle someone I'm probably going to bench until. You know, I'm shown otherwise or until Tua is back in A-chan, I'm not worried about it all. No, I mean, A-Cham was outstanding, and he's going to catch a million passes again. And if this team is in negative game scripts, he's going to catch a million more. So for Mike, on a my guy perspective, James Cook through two games looks like a league winner. And Jalen Waddle is TBD because of injury. Yeah, yes. And Waddle looked good in week one. He looked good in this game, too, until the.

The Tua injure. I want them to bring a veteran in. Oh, it would be great. Somebody that knows what they're doing. That can execute a downfield offense. If you're Mike McDaniel, you have to bring somebody in that's going to throw the ball downfield to give yourself a shot. You don't have the defense. I don't know that that exists. That person exists. That person is the example of Ryan Tano. Ryan Tannhill could come in and run a run first offense that takes play action shots down the field just like he did in Tennessee. That's what the offense was in Tennessee. Handoff, handoff, handoff, play action, deep shot to AJ Brown, Corey Davis. That's what I would like to see in Ryan Tannahill coming to this team. Whether it's him or not, you know, if we had James Winston coming in, if we had Joe Flacco coming in, those are guys that could execute downfield. Now those are on rosters. I'm just saying like, of the players available out there, bring somebody in that can utilize your strengths at wide receiver.

in my opinion. If you want a shot to stay competitive in the division. I mean, that'll all come down to Tua's health of what, like, how large of a move does the team want to make? Because if you're going to go after Flacco, which would be, I mean, that would be great. This, this offense would work with Joe Flacko, but you have to trade for him. You have to trade for James. The backup quarterback situations for a lot of these teams, it's always a head scratching. situation for me. Because I know you don't, you don't want to overinvest in a backup quarterback, like give a bunch of money to a guy that you know or that you hope never has to take a snap for you. But then these situations happen, you're like, well, you got to go get someone. Shouldn't the next player up be the person who you are confident enough in that this guy can carry the team for six weeks? I don't think there's enough humans on the planet that can allow backups. There's not enough starters that are really actually good. So getting a quality backup is.

Darn here impossible. They kept Skyler. They let, you know, Mike White was on this team last year. They let him go. I believe he's on Buffalo's practice squad. He was a name that was that at least made sense because you would just go get him. There were 66 different quarterbacks that started a football game last year based on what I'm seeing here from Pro Football Network, which means that to your point, Mike, the investment, like Jason said, maybe there's not enough of them. But spending money on one is worth it. All right, let's talk about some other big news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. We went from thinking Hollywood Brown would be back maybe soon to Hollywood Brown undergoing surgery to repair his SC joint, which probably means his season is over. So I don't think we're going to see Hollywood Brown anymore this year, honestly.

At the very least, it's going to be months, and then it will be irrelevant. Yeah, I just, you know, this is the Hollywood Brown. It's unfortunate for him, but this is exactly the last three years. He never gets a chance to be on the field healthy and do what he does. Jordan Love didn't practice, trending to not playing. Jake Ferguson did not practice. We'll wait and see on him tied in for the Cowboys. CMC was limited again on Thursday. He has been trying to go, but I. Again, I think that this team is going to... This is just protecting. They're going to make a judgment call on Sunday about, you know, what they got the third best performance of the week at the running back position out of Jordan Mason. Yeah, and they're playing against Sam Darnold. And the following week, they are divisional against the Rams. Like, I really expect to see CMC in week three, not two. And part of my horrible other mistake last night of being scared of A. Chan...

coming off of injury was the confidence that Mason would get the start by himself. We'll see if that happens. If it does, Mason should be awesome. Yes. I mean, he was the running back three last week. Addison did not practice again on Thursday. Ken Walker did not practice oblique injury, which is what Jeff Wilson went down with last night. We'll have to monitor today pay close attention. Obviously, Friday practice is more important, but. If you're not practicing on a Thursday, not even a limited participation. It has to be full. Right. To have any confidence of playing Ken Bone Walker on Sunday, it has to be a full practice today. If it's limited, then he could trend to actually play. And I'm going to be terrified to start him. And against a really tough Patriots defense. What else do we have injury update wise, guys? T. Higgins, not practicing yesterday.

Not seen practicing today, so he is definitely trending to be out. Mike, would you just, would you just trade him off your roster so he can play football? You are the reason 100%, 100% you're the problem. He's, he's like holding out until he's off your roster. And I don't blame him, you know? I wouldn't want to be on your roster either. I want to be on mine. Trade him to me. Dalton Schultz Limited. Hey, come get him. Roma, Dunezay, Keenan Allen didn't practice. Uh-oh. Malik neighbors popped up on the injury report, which was concerning after I made him the start of the week. And then today, Brian Dable said he is good, no concern. So I watched an interesting little interview with Kyle Rudolph. Did you guys see this? I did not. I did not. And he was just talking about Daniel Jones and just how, because he played in New York, right? He played against them. And he was just saying like, this is not the guy that I played with. Like the confidence is gone. Like.

The confidence he has, like we know Daniel Jones. Like one of the reasons I think that in the beginning, you know, I think Mike you maybe were the most vocal about his potential upside and fantasy when he was playing well and giving you those occasional games. It's because of the skills there. He can run the football. He has the physical arm talent. But Kyle Rudolph's just like, this is not the player that I played with. He's like, he's like, he doesn't understand like they can't protect him, right? That's been a part of it. He's always being. So he's gunshot. Yeah. And then.

You know, they went out and got him Malik neighbors. Cool, you got him a weapon, but you took away the weapon in the backfield. Like, Sequin Barclay was part of what gets you the opportunity to throw the football and keep a defense on its toes. We saw what Seekwon did in week one. So it was interesting to see, like, Daniel Jones and Bryce Young have no confidence right now, and I'm not sure Watson's very far behind. Confidence plays such a huge factor. You saw Tua talk about this. when he had Brian Flores as the coach and the change and what that did for his career. You saw Andrew Luck talk about, like, how important confidence is everything for the quarterback position. And if you have one leaky part of you that's not confident, then you need to walk away, which is why he walked away from football. It was about that. And so it's like, yeah, it's unspoken. You can't really, you know, analyze it or judge it. Yeah, quantify it. That's the word I'm really looking for. But you certainly see it with.

Watson and Daniel Jones. Those two look like... And Bryce Young, yeah. Yeah, yeah. His is, I think, more than just confidence. Oh, I think... I don't know. I don't think he has special physical traits. Oh, I think he does. I mean, he went number one overall. I think he goes to another team. He's probably fine. That team is broken. Carolina is what they do to their players, the amount of times we've had optimism about players, is Sam Darnold playing pretty good right now. Carolina Panther is awful. Baker Mayfield's a star in Tampa. Carolina, he was awful. You know, Frank Wright got half a season. They are broken fundamentally there. Sure. I don't think Bryce Young has a chance to succeed in Carolina. But you obviously view him as deficient more than that. I think he's a, I think he's a Tim Couch at this point. The guy, you know, you just get drafted to do a team that has. Wrong place. Wrong place. I mean, we talk about quarterbacks we like going through.

offensive coordinator and offense changes. How about a rookie with no, you know, you get rid of Christian McCaffrey, you have no weapons, you've got no line, and you've got no coaching. I just don't know how well you can do. And then once your confidence is shot, your shot. So that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Put Clan Friday. We have a winner of a $100 gift card to fantasy champs.com and a fantasy footballer's t-shirt. That winner is Richard the Werewolf. Wait, wait, wait. We're literally giving this to a Werewolf? That feels inappropriate. The Werewolf is mostly normal until the full moon. Yeah, but if they're wearing the shirt. Wow, that happens. Yeah. Don't do that. You don't get an extra. There's no insurance for being a werewolf. Nope. So congratulations. Richard the Weirwolf is the username over at Jointhefoot.com. Also on this.

Very scary Friday the 13th, boys. How ironic. Is that, we're Friday the 13th? We are. It's Friday and it is the 13th. Is that bodewell for all of our server projects over here? Oh, man. All right. We'll take a break. We're coming back with the forecast. All right. We'll jump in. It's time for Fantasy Forecast, presented by Draft King Sportsbook. There is more football. There's more football than last night. There's more opportunities to come back if you were on the other side of the James Cook explosion. I mean, I faced him in our League of Record. I feel lucky. Oh, you should. You should have it wasn't worse. Because it was 29 points. It was 29 points in the blink of an eye. And it was compounded by the fact that I had Dalton Kincaid.

who got kicked in the head and then James Cook scores the next play. Yeah. And so I got very little from Kincaid a lot against me, but 29 at halftime in ending with 31. I am very content. I had counted 40. At that point in time, I'm like, I've got 40 against me on Thursday night. I have no shot. I don't have a great shot, but I have a shot when he scores 31. You always have a shot. Do not give up. Last week to start the week, Andy, I believe you played against Lamar and someone else that just both went nuclear and you felt like your week was over.

You know, after the first game. Your week is never over after the first game. Keep fighting. And, yeah, you just need a big performance to counter effect James Cook. We covered six matchups yesterday. The Saints, Cowboys, Buccaneers, Lions, Colts Packers, Jets, Titans, 49ers, Vikings, Seahawks, and Patriots. Nine matchups and the fantasy faceoff today. Let's start with the New York Giants and Daniel Jones at 1-1. traveling to Washington to take on the commanders in D.C. drafting sports book line, Washington minus two over under a 43. What do you make of the fact that the Washington commanders are barely favored at home here? Is this a, is this just a product of like that defense is as bad as?

It gets. I really do think that defense is as bad as it gets. All the confidence or lack of confidence talking Daniel Jones, it's going to be easier against the Washington commanders. They're still, you know, we talked about it, you know, starting this week, any given Sunday. Any team can be any team in the NFL, no matter how outrageous it seems. And the defense is really, really bad for the, they just don't have the talent. You know, they... They did that on purpose last year. They got rid of their good, you know, defensive line so that they could end the season poorly and draft Jaden Daniels. So the, you know, it's working, but it's working. It's working. It's working, but it's, it's a process that's going to take years to fix this defense. So, you know, Malik neighbors, even Daniel Jones and Superflex. I'm, I'm all about those guys in this matchup. Jaden Daniels has a rushing line.

right now set at 51 and a half yards, which is wild. That seems right. That is the equivalent of 128.78.75 passing yards for fantasy football. That's why you start players like Jaden Daniels. He scrambled on 25% of dropbacks. He should. Look, you love the scrambles, but you love the read option at the goal line even more. Two of those, right? Yeah. So Jane Daniels. There was no option. No, no, no. Defense. Jane Daniels, there's no option. There's no read. Yeah, yeah. There's no read. The read is, fooled you again. So my- He's gonna run it. Yeah. I told you guys yesterday, my son made the, the rookie mistake drafting by himself. Yeah. Of drafting Brian Robinson. Drafting B. Robinson. B. Robinson at four overall in a draft with his friends over the weekend. Brian Robinson outscored Bijon in week one.

Brian Robinson in this game is very interesting to me. I think that that's fair. With them favored and the involvement that he had, I do think he's going to be a solid RB2 in this game. James Daniels, you can start. Would you start Daniels over Stafford against Arizona? I would. Yes, I would. What about Baker against Detroit or golf against Baker? Or Tampa? I'd still stick with Daniels. I've got Daniels ahead of all of them. So. Terry McLaren, four targets, two for 17. You could definitely chalk up week one as, you know, Coach Quinn came out, said he doesn't want Daniels to run as much, wants him to throw the football. No, you shut your mouth. You shut your mouth, coach. I do believe that if he throws touchdowns to McClaren, it will also count for him. It will. Sure, but just don't tell him to. He said he wants him to have his reads, and then if it's not there, throw the ball away and go to the next down. What?