Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 11 Matchups, Boom-Boom!

over the last few weeks. And I know I'm a prior owner. He's had very good first halfs in a couple weeks. But the problem with the Browns, no matter who's starting a quarterback, McCown, Kessler, soon to be Griffin III, who knows? Maybe all three of them will start. The Browns only throw for about 218 yards a game. So what you are counting on with prior generally in the past few weeks is if he scores, you're happy. And if he doesn't score, you're disappointed. The volume.

hasn't been there for Pryor that gets you to the point where you're really excited about him as in every week one, right? Where he ends up kind of in that one bubble right now in terms of the statistics. Look, the Steelers defense, they don't sack the quarterback very often. So your hope is, okay, McCown, Kessler, settle back, throw a couple deep balls to Pryor. He's been pretty dominant at that. If you get that, you're going to be happy. So...

Do you start prior this week? I do start prior. He's still the centerpiece of the offense. The last two weeks, he's had five receptions in both weeks, six the week before, and two of the last three weeks, he's had a really good fantasy game. So I'm not worried about Terrell Pryor. This game Vegas has is a 49 point over under. So when you say you're kind of relying on touchdowns,

Cleveland's best opportunity for a touchdown every single game is Terrell Pryor. You know they're going to get at least one touchdown two, probably. I think there's a good chance that Terrell Pryor scores here. Let me ask you this. Would you start Charles Pryor this week against Pittsburgh, or would you start Steve Smith-Signor against Dallas? I think I would start Steve Smith-Signor. I don't think he has as high an upside necessarily, but...

You know, he is, he's very safe as far as, you know, six, seven, eight receptions. I usually lean towards the safe route. Okay. All right. Very interesting. Otherwise, Crowell and Duke Johnson, you really, you know, the Steelers have not been, they're middle of the pack against the run. I'm just tired of hoping. Yeah. For those two guys. So I find myself more down on Isaiah Crowell than the consensus is, you know, look, he's.

He's been getting involved in the passing game, which is kind of weird and great. The last couple weeks, in the last two weeks, he's had seven receptions. If that keeps up, great. But I'm just so surprised because in the last two weeks, he hasn't even had 10 carries. Just 10. Just like the low, not really, you know, even a split.

You can split carries and get 10, and he hasn't had it in two weeks. Clearly the confidence of Hugh Jackson is not there for him right now. And that offense doesn't do anything. The reality is that they're getting down into big holes on a regular basis. And I think the Steelers should be able to do that as well. And that kind of doesn't help Isaiah Croyle's game. Thankfully, he is still getting involved in the passing game. But that's not his forte. I wish they would use Duke Johnson a little bit more so I could have confidence to start him, but I also don't.

All right, Ravens Cowboys. Ravens traveling to Dallas, Dallas seven point favorites with a 45 point over under. This is Doc Prescott's team. Further confirmed this week with the Tony Romo press conference. We know about Zeke's incredible year so far with over 1,000 yards on pace to break Eric Dickerson's record. And we know about Des Bryant's big game. So I wanted to break this down. You know, Mike wants to talk about Cole Beasley.

Right. And make his comments. But I looked at the split over the last couple of years when these guys play together versus when Des Bryant's off the field. And I'm probably going to tell you what you already know. But Cole Beasley isn't Cole Beasley with Dez on the field. But Andy, we've seen two games where he's been good with Dez out there. Yeah, yeah, that's true. And good is okay. But you don't get the upside. I mean, if you look over the last two years.

When Des is out, he averages over 11 fantasy points per game. He averages more receptions, almost four game. And his touchdown percentage, his potential, is twice. He scores twice as often without Des, then he does with Des. Oh, that just makes sense, right? Right. You know, the best Red Zone weapon is Des Bryant. Maybe in football. Sometimes you see, you know, splits and they're interesting, but there's not really sense behind it. You can't make sense of it. This one.

Look, if Des is in there, that's taking shots away from Cole Beasley. I'm not starting Cole Beasley right now. Mike isn't here to disagree, so I think we recommend looking. Would you start Woods and the aforementioned Eli Rogers over Beasley because of their upside?

Yeah, I think I would, especially against the Ravens. The Ravens have a pretty good passing defense. Very good. And so I don't expect this to be a high scoring game. You've got Vegas saying it's middle of the pack, 45 points. So yeah, I'm not, I don't think the upside is there with Beasley. Probably at the end of the week, Woods, Eli Rogers, Beasley, they're all around the same. But I think Eli Rogers has the potential to have a great game. All right, in terms of.

Zeke, you know you're rolling him out there. Do you start DAC in this matchup? Like you said, the Ravens are first against the run, fifth against the past. Pretty good defense, but Dallas is at home. So your confidence level in DAC is what? My confidence level is he's in Dak going forward is very high. I think he's legit.

I think he is legit as a fantasy quarterback. But against the Ravens, I take most all players down. We just talked about how Big Ben had a terrible game against him. And Big Ben is a better quarterback. So we have him outside the top 12. All three of us do. Yeah. I think I've got him 17th this week. And it's not because I don't believe in him, don't like him. It's just.

The matchup says that this is going to be a game where I think Ezekiel Elliott is going to have to run the ball, and they're not going to do much with DAC, and they're not going to be able to have a prolific passing game. It just doesn't seem how this game screen. They probably don't need to. They probably don't need to. I mean, the Ravens, they're going to be pushed when it comes to their rushing defense. Basically, Cowboys, I'm starting Dez, I'm starting Ezekiel Elliott, and that's it. Okay. And I'm tempering my Dez's expectations.

How about the Terrence West, Kenneth Dixon conundrum for fantasy owners? Because last week, Dixon five catches on seven targets. Terence West had the majority of the carries. I'll tell you, I'll tell you straight. Your face tells me that you're not excited about starting either of these players. You're reading my face wrong. Wrong. Yes, you are reading my face wrong. The reality is I'm not excited to say what I'm about to say. I am very curious. I think this is Dixon's breakup.

I think it's time. I think it would have happened last week if he was completely healthy going into that game. You know, you did see Terrence West with the bulk of the carries. He's still got 21 carries to Kenneth Dixon six. But that was with a Kenneth Dixon who, you know, didn't practice most of the week. And, you know, you're not going to try to shove him up the middle when he's, when he is probably going to use better words there.

But when he is injured, you're not going to put him between the tackles. They still used him. He had five receptions for 42 yards. He is clearly the better looking prospect when you watch the film and you watch both of them run. Kenneth Dixon is the guy that will win out. Is this the week that it happens? You know, maybe not because Dallas's defense is good.

And so I'm not necessarily saying you need to be starting Kenneth Dixon. ProCise or Dixon? I would definitely start ProCise over Dix. Rawls or Dixon? That's closer. And I think I would go Dixon here because if it's any kind of PPR format, I think I would play Dixon over Rawls personally. But that's about where it is for me. All right. Let's go ahead and move on now and talk about this Jacksonville, Detroit game up in Detroit. The Lions are six and a half point favorites to me.

I'd take the over on the 47 point over under from Vegas. I like the potential. This game is indoors. It's a Bortles in Stafford, extravaganza. You've got a defense in Detroit that's been pretty atrocious. You've got a defense, you know, outside of the past defense in Jacksonville, they've been pretty bad, and you know that they can be scored on. So to me, this game has the potential for a lot of points, and they're going to be distributed. So where do they go? What side do you want to start on here?

Yeah, let's start with the Lions, because I think when I look at where are the points going to go in this game, the player that sticks out to me the most is Theo Riddick. We'll talk about him in a little bit. He was going to be my start of the week. Unfortunately, you had already claimed him. I stole him. We are both in agreement that Theo Riddick is a very good play this week. The Jaguars have not been great against the run. They have been giving up touchdowns. And Theo Riddick has been really good. Yeah, he's been running really well. Over five of carry the last two weeks. So, you know.

That's where I think it's going to come from the most part. That doesn't necessarily take anything away from Stafford, though, because Theoretic can be getting it done through the air. Stafford's numbers can be fine. The question always becomes, whenever you talk about the Lions, is it Golden Tate or is it Marvin Jones? I would start both this week. Really? Yeah, I'd be okay starting both. Because you're not, you probably don't have them both on your roster. You're sitting there saying, could I start Tate? Could I start Jones? Let's see where we have them ranked.

This week as a consensus. By the way, the week 11 rankings, you can find them all on the website, the rankings tab at the fantasy footballers.com. This week, it looks like we have Tate in the wide receiver 2 category. And we all have him ranked ahead of Marvin Jones right now, but they're very close. They're both in the wide receiver 2 category. So some guys we like more. Maybe that will help. When we say, oh, start them, the question is over who? I would like Dante Moncrief. Sure. Prior? Prior. Prior.

Michael Thomas. Crabtree. For sure. Crabtree. I'm never going to sit. But I'd probably start these guys over Diggs who faces Patrick Peterson this week. Yeah, I can see that. I have Diggs a lot lower than you guys, but I have Tate higher than Diggs. Over a Mike Wallace. Yeah. Yeah. So hopefully that's some perspective. I like the matchups. I like the potential for points on the board in this game. On the other side, I really like Alan Robinson. No team in the league.

has allowed a higher percentage of the passes to be caught than Detroit has to wide receivers. They are a bad, bad, bad passing defense. Now, I do hear Darius Lay is going to be out there again this week. That's the rumor that he'll be back. So some people have said, okay, well, then do you take a shot with Marquis Lee if you need a deep league flyer? I'm okay with that. Lee's catch totals have been fine. He doesn't score, though. And so I like Robinson.

I like Bortles enough to stream him. I'm not excited. I think he's going to make his mistakes because that's what he does. But look, I think this is one of those games where the only one that I would really say stay far away from right now is Yeldon and Ivory. I agree. And I look back at this, right? Like, let's say out of all the potential starts that you had between Yeldon and Ivory, when they've been healthy, they're 16 times.

this year that you could have started one or the other guy. There's only been five times out of that 16 when you would have been moderately happy with the result. Right. Where they didn't crap your team. Double digit games. You've got five of 16. So your odds are low when you choose. Not only do you have to choose the right one, but you already have a less than a 33% chance to even get it right. And the way that those splits work is you can't.

You can't know if it's going to be a Chris Iver game or a T.J. Yeldon game. So I agree. I would stay away. The one other player that I would start, he was almost my...

my start of the week is Julius Thomas. He's got three touchdowns in the last four games, and the lions are terrible against the tight end. If this game goes how you expect over Vegas's line, I think, you know, if Darius Slay is on Alan Robinson, Julius Thomas is in prime position for a touchdown, you could definitely do worse than him this week. And he, you know, I think he ends the week as a top 12 tight end. All right. You ready to move on to the Titans in the Colts?

Yes, now that, that is a game I'm excited about. Vegas agrees. 53 points as the over under is their expectation of about where this game finishes. We have seen the Titans just on complete fire. They are scoring as much, if not more than every team in the league over, I would say from about week five on. Their combination of Marioota and DeMarco Murray.