Starts of the Week + Wk 10 Matchups, Cougar Bait!

They're about the same tier for me. I think that the upside for Smith is higher because he will give you the big playability. It really depends on what Des has left. Yeah, and how he's utilized. But I would still order them, Michael Thomas, Trey Kwan Smith, than Des Bryant. Yes, as what I. So, you know, don't go nuts over Des Bryant. What I would do personally, because I do not believe Des Bryant, maybe Des Bryant over the course of the season takes a touchdown that would have gone to Michael Thomas away.

You know, maybe he keeps the chains moving a couple of plays and gets... Extra scoring opportunities. Exactly. So I think it's a wash. But I would go make a somewhat cheap offer in every league for Michael Thomas. Because some owners, I've seen this on Twitter, I've seen this as questions are coming into me. They just think Michael Thomas is done. They think Des Bryant is coming in, and now Michael Thomas is no longer the one, which is...

Because of the name of Des Bryant. Like people that don't listen to this show might think that. Yes. And so I'm telling you, if you're out there, go make a cheap offer for Michael Thomas. Like Brooks. Brooks might think that. See if that owner is tilting. If that owner is tilting and you can steal a Michael Thomas. Michael Thomas. Big news this morning. Darren Sproles aggravated the hamstring injury. He's going to miss week 10. This guy. What? I feel.

I had not heard that. I feel so bad for him. I heard, oh, he's finally ready. He's back. He re-agravated this morning. If he didn't read the write-up from Sproles over the offseason of why he is coming back, it was a great piece, emotionally powerful. Before the season. So honest. So for him to have dealt with this, I mean, not that we were expecting Sproles to be a huge fantasy contributor this year, but he's been the man for a long time.

huge respect for Darren Sproul, so this is very unfortunate to see him lose his season and possibly the end of the career. Oh, this has to be the end of his career. Yeah. Well, no, because he's just going to miss week 10. So I don't think it's the end of his career. He just aggravated it and we'll see what happens in week 11. We've got to fly through this news. We've got a lot of matchups to get to. Alan Robinson practicing in full for week 10. That's great news. Doug Baldwin did not practice. He has a new injury, a groin injury. Bad news.

You can't count on Doug Baldwin this year. No, it sucks. Leonard Furnett is practicing in full. That's great. For week 10 against the Colts. Vikings have claimed Amir Abduloff of waivers from the lions. Chug, chug, chug, chug, chug. Yeah, you got the express going again, Mike? The express is in the train graveyard. Yeah. Sam Darnold is out for week 10 against the Bills. Josh McCann will start at quarterback for the Jets. We'll talk about the Jets' Bills game.

It'll be the last preview we do on today's show so we can hold our comments for that. But that is your quick news report. Don't forget, Mike, is on Sunday live. Last minute news advice starts it. Anything you want to ask, last minute, one hour before kickoff on Sunday on YouTube. You can find us YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. You can also watch it on Instagram, live, Facebook, Periscope, and Twitch. We'll have more injury news in and out tomorrow. And...

I got through that pretty quick, right? Yeah, good work. Let's do the forecast. Fantasy forecast. Next time you miss a show, I'm going to tell you your career is over, Jason. That's what I'm going to say. You realize he's missed a lot of games, though. This is another game he will miss. Well, all I'm saying is they didn't say he was going to miss more than this week. They didn't put him on IR. Sure, but we know. So saying his career over makes it's a little sad for Darren Sprouls to go, he tweaked his hamstring, his career's over.

I guess what I'm saying is... And you could be right. I don't believe he plays next year. And so his career is over after this season. So, yeah, hopefully he gets back next week or by the end of the season. This is not the way you wanted his career to finish. And this will be the finish of his career, is my opinion. He could come back and be a Super Bowl champ. That's true. Let's aim for the stars for Darren. Okay. Okay. Might land on the moon. Wait.

If you're aiming for the stars and you only hit the moon, you have failed. I have run out of gas. Isn't that the phrase? Like aim for the- No. Yeah. No. That's a thing, isn't it? Aim for the stars land on the moon? Something like that. Do these people know how far away stars are compared to the moon? That's not the phrase. You can go ahead and look that one up. I'm on it. It's a little different than that. Teams coming off back from the by, Bengals, Cardinals, Colts, Eagles, Giants, Jags, let's get into the matchups.

The Lions at 3 and 5 take on the Bears at 5 and 3. The Bears are at home and 6.5 point favorites. This game is a 45.5 point over under. Now, the real story may be how many times will Matthew Stafford be Matthew Sackford? Minnie is the answer. Kalil Mack is practicing in full. The answer is mini. Yes. But this, look, we said we're kind of...

Pumping the brakes on offensive pieces. Go ahead, Jason. Don't you aim for? So it goes. It's inverse, right? It goes in both directions. There's plenty of to say aim for the stars. If you fail, you'll land on the moon. And then the original quote, which is the one we know. Aim for the moon. Shoot for the stars. Is shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.

They're just not, the stars are very far from the moon. So wouldn't it make more sense what I said? It's very scientifically inaccurate in general. Like yours is more like aim for the stars. You settle for the moon like one, one millionth of the way there. No, I aimed for the stars behind the moon and I smacked hard into that moon. Oh, you did not, your navigation was a little. Exactly right. You went straight into a satellite. He's floating. This is an adage. Ah. Ah.

All right. Now that, I see I had to get back to that because I knew Jason wouldn't focus on this matchup without it. Let's talk. Let's aim for the moon, Jay. Lions and Bears. Marvin Jones, do we expect him to improve in this matchup over last week's disappointing performance? I mean, Matthew Staff. This is a tough matchup overall for the Lions. Yeah, I'm not excited to play any of the Lions. You, of course, will be forced into playing them, but.

I just, I've shifted my expectations for this week, and that includes Marvin. That includes Kenny Gulladay. Stafford, Carry on. Stafford. Well, Stafford, I'm not playing. I'm saying, like, Jones and Gaudet, I will still play. Carry on. It was my pump to breaks. Chicago still has not given up a running back touchdown. He played the same exact snaps as Theo Riddick this past week, so I am not.

Excited. I have Karen Johnson as like a lower level running back. I agree. This is also in Chicago, 36 degrees expected weather, wind of 14 miles an hour. I'm just saying it's a cold, windy day against a good defense. It sounds like a day that would be very painful to get sacked 10 times. Yes. And so I would take the under on this on this matchup, which is not good for fantasy production. Could be good for Jordan Howard. Yeah.

This could be the kind of matchup. The Jordan Howard performs well, and I know that you're still confident in him or okay with him. I'm with you on that. I mean, he's an RB2. And is this a blow-up opportunity? Like, that's the question people ask about Mitchell Trubisky in general. Is this a game where he can blow up? Yeah. I think you can get back on track. You knew the spot against the bills was going to be tougher for Trubisky because the bills are actually, they're a fine defense.

They can apply pressure. And then the Bears DST scored twice, removing the option for Trubisky to even really do anything. So I think this is back to Trubisky is a low-end quarterback one starter. You can play him. And because he runs, he's only behind Cam Newton, or at least he was this past week. I haven't checked it. But he was only behind Cam Newton in terms of quarterback rushing. He's still a fine play. And Alan Robinson coming back is also helps.

Yeah, that'll be interesting. The Lions have contained fantasy-wide receivers this year, giving up 26.9 points per game on average. That's eighth best in the league. However, Alan Robinson being back, another weapon for Mr. Trisky. They do give up more. He's our QB consensus number 12. Like, I combine our rankings, and he's our QB12, so he's a fringe. Yeah, and I would say the Lions.

They've done well against wide receivers. They've given up a little bit more points against tight ends. So it's a, you know, that's a better situation for Trey Burton who is, if you've got Trey Burton, most teams are starting them and hopefully this matchup can bear out at home against a team that's middle of the pack against tight ends. You worry about any targets problem, target problems for Burton with Robinson's return or not really. Not really. I mean, Robinson's been there the majority of the year. Burton's just doesn't get a ton of targets anyways. Just hoping he scores. Counting on.

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P-R-I-S-T-I-N-E auction.com make a completely free account and let them know that the fantasy footballers sent you. The 7-1 Saints take on the 5-and-3 Bengals. The Bengals are 5.5-5-point underdogs at home. The game is the highest over-under of the week. This is the game where, look, you're looking for opportunity. We don't know whether Des will be active yet. Is that fair? Do we have any reports on whether he will be? I would imagine he will be. I assume he'll be active. Yeah.

We just talked a lot about him, Drew Bree's big week last week, and the Bengals defense has just plain been bad. For fantasy purposes, they give up, you know, they're in the bottom five at every position in terms of giving up fantasy points, especially bad against wide outs and tight ends. At this point, you're starting all of your Saints on the road. Does the high overrunner give the Bengals a lot of opportunity here? Sands A.J. Green, because we know A.J. Green is not going to be there.

That's 26% of the Bengals targets. Grand Barfield also said that's 35% of their inside the 10 targets. I've had a hard time knowing where to go with Tyler Boyd this week. I was going to say, you know, I might take the over here even in a high over under because the New Orleans Saints will be able to score all over the Bengals. But I'm not, I mean, the line here, the Saints to me, you know, I would, I would.

easily take them to cover because with AJ Green out, I don't know how much the Bengals are going to be able to keep pace with the Saints. The nice thing about Joe Mixin, he's a pass catching back as well, so he's game script proof. He's going to be fine no matter what. Outside of Joe Mixon, I do worry a little bit with Tyler Boyd with Andy Dalton. Andy Dalton, here's what'll happen. He'll throw a couple picks because he's Andy Dalton.