Starts of the Week + Week 7 Breakdown, Heating Up! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/19

This is a hard week for fantasy football managers, a lot of low scoring games and a ton of buy weeks. That's why you're here. We are going to help you go through all the news, all the matchups, our starts of the week and is boom boom time, baby. I'm back. Make sure you subscribe and enjoy the show. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's for about time. Yeah. Will he play tonight? I don't know. Welcome into the show, the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Jason Moore is here, Mike, the Fantasy Hitman. I'm Andy Holloway. Is Trevor Lawrence? Is Prince Valiant playing tonight? I don't believe so. That was the first thing Jason said to me as he walked into the studio this morning, or one of the first things. He said, I don't think Trevor Lawrence is going to play tonight.

Yeah, I mean, he's pushing to play. You know, it's possible. But teams don't usually activate quarterbacks to their active roster just, you know, for depth. They do it because they need a quarterback playing. And so we'll see. It's a short week. He's got the knee issue. It's certainly not impossible that he plays tonight. But I think fantasy managers should be prepared to... Not to have Trevor Lawrence and some C.J. Bethard action. That would be the backup. And, you know, what would that do to your guys' expectations for Calvin Ridley and Christian Kirk? Are they just benched? Kicks them right in the crotch. Oh, yeah. I mean, it really does. Look, I wouldn't care so much about it if the matchup was delicious. Right. But it's not. So I do care. And it kicks them right in the crotch.

It does. We're going over a lot of matchups today. So I'll be curious if we find some nasty boys that you might be interested in. I'll throw one out right now. Hit me. Joshua Palmer, would you rather play him against Kansas City or would you rather play Christian Kirk? With Bethard, you're saying. With Bethard. With Bethard against the Saints. I would go Palmer. I would still play Kirk. Okay. All right. Now is the beginning. We'll get into the matchups. That is today's show. Along with starts of the week, I'll be honest. One of mine is pretty scary. Oh, brother, I am. You got nasty boys? We got six teams on by. Yeah. This is the time. Got injuries everywhere. That you are, you're diving into the numbers. You are looking at the process of where can I find someone to fill in? And who is the.

Who is the cleanest of the nasty boys that I'm willing to put into starting roster? Because, oh, man, I don't know if you guys saw it, but someone tagged me, or he tagged us on Twitter saying, uh, should the, like, I'm the commission. What do we think about this? Because, you know, we always say you start a full roster. And this was a dynasty league. And this team with the by weeks and the injuries was literally like, Three players short. Three players short of a, on a dynasty squad. And it's like, what? I mean. Now, does the dynasty squad have only Houston Texans? I mean, is this the whole roster of Texans on by? That is shocking. No, there are so many teams on by and then just with the injuries. It was, it was a wild squad to see. I mean, I'm hit.

My dynasty team. Oh, Jason is making a face. Did some waiver action happen? Well, I was going to say it is drop it like it's hot day. So check your waiver wire. But the point being, oh, yeah, Kyle found the tweet. So you guys can look at the team. My dynasty roster. I don't have. Yeah, I don't care about you. Mike's not happy. Well, I want to finish the point. All right. C.D. Lamb. Garrett Wilson. Jamar Chase. Like the bedrock of my dynasty squad. No. No, the NFL in its infinite wisdom. is letting them all rest this week. Well, did you see that we go from like, I think we have no buys next week. Yeah, of course. Why? And then we're back to like, because we took care of them. Then we go back to six. Why spread them out? Why would you do that? Ripped the Band-Aid off. So speaking of, I mean, Jason, what was? Yeah, I was grimacing because our waivers went through and I really, really, really wanted Joshua Palmer. I upped my bid a little bit. You still got a Josh. I did. I wanted both Josh's. I wanted Josh Downs and Joshua Palmer, but Andy outbid me.

For Joshua Palmer. Speaking to the point. You fart face. The bi-week point. Thanks. It is one of those weeks where you're fighting. Like I had a bunch of fab saved the whole year. And then the buys hit and the injuries hit. And I spent almost all of it just to survive. So, yeah, it's tough. We'll see. Boom, boom kicker on the show today as well. Follow us on X at the FF Ballers at Andy Holloway. At Jason FFL at FFF Hitman. And then Mr. Moore, Mr. Wright, we have a discount. It's discount o'clock because the DFS pass. It's that time. We have reached one third of the way through the season. And the DFS pass, the heralded, much acclaimed, potentially award winning. DFS pass now 33% off. That's not fair. I made up my own award and I gave it to the DFS pass. Oh, fantastic. Best DFS pass.

Got gold. Yeah. No bronze here. Yeah, that's not fair because we are technically not a third the way through the DFS pass the season. No. The DFS pass goes into the playoffs. So when, when NFL playoffs are happening, you could still play along and have some skin in the game and have. Do you want me to undo it or just leave the Disney? We'll leave it. We'll let it ride. DFSpass.com, take advantage of that, a chance to get in there for. Two-thirds of the price. All right. Into the news we go. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. So one of the pieces of news that I do not see in our show doc that I'm going to lead with was the comments from the son of the daughter of Susan McVeigh. Oh, oh, okay. Sean, you know I'm a Sean McVeigh. Yeah. They asked him point blank.

in a press conference, like, is it fair to expect Zach Evans is going to start the game? And he said, I wouldn't say that. He said that all four players are going, they're going to be able to evaluate it this week. And when he says all four, Zach Evans, Royce Freeman, Daryl Henderson, and Miles Gaskin. And he named them all. He said them by name. So right now, you know, we don't know who's going to get the majority of the reps. And in a lot of leagues, all the fab was spent on Zach Evans. None of it was spent on Royce.

I saw somebody just added Daryl Henderson named Jason for zero for zero dollars familiarity with the system. So, you know, I don't really know how dependable Zach Evans is going to be this week. And you need to be willing to make a pivot if you find out more later in the week. Yeah, I think Zach Evans is exciting. You know, he's the fast, speedy rookie that you hope you can just hit a home run with. The fact that, like, in our league, he went for 78 fab while Royce Freeman and Darnell Anderson were unclaimed is a ridiculous gap. It's a mistake. And, you know, it makes it very difficult. His comments, I know, I know he's a dirty, dirty liar. And so we're going to really be tested this week. Maybe he's trying to make amends and just let everybody know. Hey, look.

this is what's happening. I want fantasy managers to be aware or maybe, you know, if he comes out and it's all Zach Evans, we will know just what a filthy mouth he has. Or because Zach Evans has been the one who's been on the roster for the entirety of the year. That matters so not at all. Really? Completely. I mean, literally you have that example with Arizona giving Damien Williams a ton of work last week. I mean, four carries in his life for Zach Evans. Sometimes players play roles. Darrington Evans. Was he on the roster forever? Yeah. No, he wasn't. They just added him. He wasn't on their practice school? No, they added him to the, I don't remember if he was on the practice squad the whole year. But I just, look, I didn't spend foul on Zach Evans because I was afraid of this. If you want.

continuity. If that's, you know, you want someone that knows the system, the person that knows the system the best is Darrell Henderson, aka Darnell Anderson. Darrell Henderson has been in this role before. So if he comes out and is the guy, I wouldn't be shocked. Yeah, and they did. They added him to the roster and all of a sudden he was getting more carries in the first half than Freeman. So it doesn't mean that Zach can't do it. He has the most upside as a player. When you draft a, he's a young, fast, talented, highly, you know, scouted player. So familiarity does matter. It's a scary situation. Yeah, I think the addition of Henderson is, like, I think that's the biggest threat. To me, the probability still lies that it'll be Zach Evans and Royce Freeman as the predominant running backs. Gaskin the addition, that's whatever. But Henderson,

Henderson could go in and be like, yeah, I remember all this stuff. Let's set the line. Eight fantasy points. You think Zach Evans is above or below eight fantasy points this week if you had to make the estimation right now? I'm going to take the under. So then what sucks is, the matchup is good. It's a simple question. Yeah, no. It's not, no, it is. Over under eight points. The ending answer is a one word answer. So that's simple. I will go. I will go under. I'm going to go under as well. Roshan Johnson remains in the concussion protocol. He did not practice on Wednesday. So we're so waiting to hear is it going to be Roshan, Freeman, Evans, that combination for Bob. Foreman. You called him Freeman again. Foreman, yeah. DeMonte Smith added to the injury report on Wednesday. The team added Julio Jones.

Yeah, this was a hamstring issue. That's what it was listed as. And if you were going to not practice with a hamstring, you have a greater than 50% chance of not playing in that week. So you need to be prepared. He was originally going to be my start of the week. The matchup is great for the Eagles. And you expect a ton of points this week in that game. You know, I was really looking forward to a bounceback. And now my teams that acquired Devonta Smith recently. are looking to have a different starter prepared. Yeah, makes sense. And, you know, maybe Dallas Goddard gets more involved. Jeff Wilson returned to a full practice. It seems like Jeff Wilson will be next man up behind Rahim Mostert. I would rather start Jeff Wilson than Zach Evans for sure. Wow, in week one of Wilson being back. It's week one for both of them. I can see that, yeah. Okay. Kyler Murray, limited on Wednesday. They said the plan.

Yeah, at least Arizona reporters are saying the plan is to have him back in two weeks. Okay. So not this week, potentially next week, but he has a 21-day window. Aaron Jones returned to limited practice. Should people be trading for Hollywood Brown right now trying to acquire him? They should be doing that anyways. Right. That's what I mean. He's a great start this week. He's been, hmm, nice. He's just a really good player and his ceiling is about to, you know, he's. He's going from a single story to a two-story house soon. Okay, the ceiling. I get it. Yeah, that's good. Vaulted. It's got to be vaulted. Because the adding a second story doesn't necessarily mean that you're seeing. One of the rooms has the full vaulted ceiling. No, I like it. I'm in. I have a two-story home. My second story is actually, but that ceiling is much lower. That's an eight foot. But it raises the roof.

From the outside. I'm raising the roof. I think that going after Hollywood Brown, though, you have to have a certain... You have to have a certain roster set up. Hollywood, I agree that he's a good addition right now, but to look long term, if Kyler's not back for two weeks, Kyler's acclimating to a system he's never played in. I think it could still take some time, so this isn't an immediate fix to a roster. Devante Adams. There was a big kind of press conference answer from Devante Adams yesterday, and I went back this morning and watched it. Did you? Yeah, I didn't watch it. I've only read the quote. You guys both need to listen here because the quote that came out of it, of a long answer was perfect for Twitter slash X. It was essentially, I'm not here for wins and losses. I'm here for greatness.

My benchmark is not wins and losses. It's greatness. And that's going around and people are like, what in the world? This is terrible. You're not a good leader. Because his production in the last two weeks has not been good, but the team won last week. And it's a non-starter. I mean, the whole thing, if you listen to the answer, and I posted it on my account on X, everything he said is fine to me. This is a competitor. He compares it to like Kobe having that. mentality of like his main point is the offense isn't doing very well and he would like to be a fundamental part of making the offense perform well on a on a weekly basis and he believes he has the skill ability he's not there to hang out he wants to dominate he wants to be involved so that they don't look terrible on offense that's basically what he's saying the and it's real good for fantasy yeah it really is good for fantasy because this is a true squeaky wheel

issue and I love squeaking wheel. This wheel ain't squeaking, man. This is a 19 target wheel now, I think. So I know Jason in the listener league you acquired Devante Adams. I did. I wasn't there. I'm sure as a reaction. It was part of it. Yeah. And look, I have similar offers out where I'm interested in Devante Adams. Trevor Lawrence questionable. Gonna go through the pregame workout tonight. Jamal Williams questionable. Expected to play first time we're going to see Camara and Jamal Williams. It will diminish. I mean, like, Camaras are getting so many carries. That's going to come down a little bit. Yeah, and the Saints are down three starting offensive linemen? That's not good. No. I mean, I'm still playing Camara. Don't read too much into that. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USA.com slash insurance. Fantasy forecast. Well, we've been talking about it all week.

Bengals, Cowboys, Jets, Panthers, Texans, Titans, all taking the week off. A little break. A little break ski. Lazy. And you need to be prepared for some lower scoring games this week. The implied team totals this week, 21.3 on average. It came from Hayden Winks. The NFL average the last few years, it's been a lot higher than that. Warren Sharp tweeted this morning. Viewest touchdown since 2010, lowest. percentage of, you know, big play since 2009, not as entertaining with a lot of large margin victories and a lot of lower overrunners this week. But this is, I mean, this is nasty time for the Foot Clan. When things get hard, you are going to be better than your opponent. That's exactly right. This is the season, even though it's like, oh, it's yuck. It's not as fun. This is when the Foot Clan wins, you know? We're going to help you decide who to.

Who to start and how to dig through trash and find that gold. Yeah, the Las Vegas Raiders are three and three. Devante Adams' squad. Travel to Chicago taking on the one in five bears, D.K. Sportsbook Line, Las Vegas minus three on the road. The overrunners 37.5. And that is somehow the second lowest total of the week. And you will have, most likely, Tyson Badgant. Bilbo Badgent? Yes, Bilbo. We've seen the tweets, poor fellow. When you said Tyson. I was like, who's this? Yeah, I know. I know. That can't be his name. As Kyle has told us, he holds a butt ton of Division II records. Nice. Ah. And he'll be the guy. And so he's who you're depending on to provide DJ Moore with fantasy value. So I, look, let's start it off right away. Are you turning back to DJ Moore and the fact that he is.

The bona fide one here with Bilbo? Or do you go to the Christian Kirk, Joshua Palmer area? No, I'm not going to drop all that way down because of Bilbo. What we saw was, I mean, obviously it was a very short period of time. But when Bilbo came in, he was targeting DJ Moore like crazy. So I expect DJ Moore will have one target. Yeah, he's the, he's the target. And the matchup, you know, it's, not the worst. I would say this. The Raiders defense has looked much better the last few weeks than how it opened this season. We need to pay attention to that. DJ Moore is not like you've got to get him in your lineups, but I would rather play him than the Palmer's or Christian Kirk with Bethard. Craig Reynolds? We didn't mention it, but Craig Reynolds was banged up in practice. I saw it.

Two injuries too. To and four for Mr. Reynolds. Toe and hamstring. Oh, yeah. That was a, it was a full, did not practice. And Jemir Gibbs was supposed to be back. So, I mean, I don't think it's funny because, you know, on Tuesday, and this, this happens. You gave this perfect example earlier how last week Mike emptied his fad, getting demarcato. And by the end of the week when games needed to be played, you benched him. That was the right decision. I mean, you can't just have the sunk cost fallacy to, well, I pick these guys up. Zach Evans and Craig Reynolds right now look like bad starts. Yeah, potentially. Until we get more information. If Reynolds is practicing in full for two days, it changes. If Evans is taking all the first team reps, it changes. But on that side of the ball, I mean, that's Cole Komet. You know, we had the.

down game last week, which is, look, welcome to tight ends that break out. They don't really break out. They just break through for a couple weeks, and I wouldn't trust him. No, it's like for Cole Commet, you're looking for touchdowns, and this isn't a seasoned veteran coming in here to be our backup quarterback, so I would try to move away from Commet. Okay, and then we know the running back situation right now. Deonta Foreman last week got work. Darrington Evans got work. Travis Homer's supposed to be back. Travis Homer was on the active roster, which is a place that Darrington Evans wasn't and Deontiformin wasn't. Yeah. So to me, the flow chart would be if Roshone clears concussion protocol, I want to play him. I know that the quarterback situation is not great, but where the running backs, where the Raiders are against running back schedule adjusted, they're 27th.

So I'm going to take the work and the opportunity and a decent matchup that they can get it done. And if Roshan is out, I think that Travis Homer likely just takes what Darrington Evans did last week and then Foreman stays in what he did last week. So they, if Roshan's active, I like it. If he is out, it's two really high risk plays leaning that. you're just hoping that there's a P.I. You're really hoping Darnel Mooney draws a P.I. in the end zone and then Foreman falls in. I, you know, on a week like this week where you've got a bunch of injuries, a bunch of bye weeks, I think you should probably be starting, Roshan if he's active, or Deont de Forman, if Roshan is not active. I am more pro Deont de Forman than I think you two gentlemen are. He still had, I know you say it was garbage time, but he still had 15 carries last week.

I believe he will get the bulk of the carries in this game, and the Raiders are a good matchup on the ground. Okay, with the flowchart, Rochon's out, Tyler Algier against Tampa Bay or Deontiformin? Deontiformin. The Raiders side of the football, Jimmy Grappolo didn't practice with the back injury. Do you guys have any other updates on Jimmy G's availability? Anything we've heard? The way that they were talking about the injury, I... had fully expected him to miss this week. I saw something that was positive that made it seem like he was going to. They said it wasn't as bad as it could have been, but that doesn't, I don't know that the means he plays. Yeah, I think it's still too early to know for sure. I want to let people know Josh Jacobs is number one in the NFL in opportunities per game right now. So Josh Jacobs is getting all of the workload and that matters. Like I had some people coming after him in my dynasty league.

Josh Jacobs, because he's 25, right? He's a pretty attractive dynasty asset. Sure. And, I mean, the opportunities the last four weeks, 22, 28, 25, 30. Efficiency, you know, it hasn't been there for him. I don't care that much. Like, that is so invaluable. Like, you know, offers were made to me with Ramandre. They were made to me with Alvin Camara and all the work he gets. Like, Jacobs is beating Camara in those opportunities and the target number. So. I'm very excited for Jacobs this week. I think it's a good week for him. And then Devante Adams, you know, dealt with the shoulder injury, had the monster game and then two down weeks, not worried about him, put him back out there. You know, there is the off chance that he would get moved before the trade deadline in two weeks. But because this team is probably going to win this game, they'll be sitting at four and three. I doubt it happens. Jacoby Myers has been great. He's been great. Yeah, he's looked great.

He's had the targets. He's had the fantasy production. It's been a wide receiver won each of the past two weeks. Yeah. Currently on the season, he is the wide receiver 14, and he didn't play in week two. A top 12 wide receiver in three of his five games. And he looks apart. It's not just coincidence. It's not like the old, you know, Renfro just was hyper-targeted a couple years ago and you just go with it. Like Myers looks like a go-to receiver. So it is really funny that you've got a low over under. You know, a great matchup against the Bears bad defense. But there's, with this low over under and not knowing who the quarterback is, it's like, but yet I want to play Josh Jacobs and Devante Adams and Jacoby Myers. And I think that you can be looking towards Michael Mayer. Absolutely. Mike is in on that. I think, I think, I think, I think it could be trappy this week. Out of out of, but I get it. I get the matchup. Now, I mean, like.

We are under the impression. I'm under the impression that if Garapolo misses, Brian Hoyer would be the starter. Is there anything out there that suggests that O'Connell would start? Not to my knowledge. That's something that we do need. It'll be Hoyer. We do need to pay attention. Just in case something pops up. I don't. I think Ed and O'Connell's fine, too, against the Bears. He looked rough. All right. Quick break back with another matchup. The Cleveland Browns are 3 and 2 and the Indianapolis Colts. Well, they are 3 and 3. Games in Indianapolis and the drafting sportsbook line. Cleveland minus 2.5. The over-under is 40. Are we celebrating that? I'm not sure. Yeah, we are. But both teams, you know, in the playoff picture, both teams could potentially have backup quarterbacks. Gardner Minshu has thrown the ball 99 times in the past two weeks.

Just a lot of backup quarterbacks right now. Yeah, you know, it's going to be PJ Walker or Deshaun Watson if he can play. And I've seen some positivity around Watson being back out there. I would be thrilled as an Amari Cooper manager to have him back. So, you know, last week, every time I looked at the screen, it felt like some targets were heading Elijah Moore's way. But Elijah Moore has not, I mean, the summary of this season is that he has not turned in. even a wide receiver three week despite being targeted nine times, nine times. Like he's finished 43, 67, 49, 118 and 58. So you can just ignore those targets. Yeah. Yeah. So, Omari Cooper, we're cool there. What about Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt this week against the Colts?

24th ranked running defense. Yeah, you can run on the Colts. I think Jerome Ford is a great start, and Kareem Hunt could be. He did miss practice, so we need to pay attention. No, what's going on there? Yeah, I don't remember the exact injury. I can look it up here, but. Like car trouble? No, no, he was, it was an injury. Times on issue. Yeah, it was like, he just missed it. He just overslept practice again. But I believe he was a non-participant in practice. So we'll see how today goes. I think that's a really important one to monitor with or without Hunt. Even if Hunt is active. I think Jerome Ford is still a good start. He still gets the majority of snaps over Kareem Hunt. He is in the leading role. And while it might be closer to a 50-50 timeshare, it's not just Jerome Ford.

getting everything. He's looked good and this is a very plus matchup on a week where you need guys like Jerome Ford. All right. The matchups for the running back position are so much better on the Cleveland side with the Indianapolis defense. But, you know, now we're staring down Jonathan Taylor and Zach Moss in some sort of committee, some sort of time share. And the Browns are a tremendous defense. They travel well. They shut down the run. You know, I wouldn't love the matchup if one of those guys was alone. Like if Zach Moss had to start by himself. So how are you evaluating Taylor who had 50% of snaps last week, Moss who had 42%. Yeah, I mean, I believe Taylor has taken over the leading role, but it is not yet a situation where he's 75%, where I do think he'll end up. The matchup is brutal. I mean, this is a week where you're probably, I mean, you're probably going to start Jonathan Taylor and get not a ton from him.