Starts of the Week + Week 4 Breakdown, Confidence Canoe

Look, no one wants to be just another guy, not in fantasy and definitely not in your career. The good news? There's ways to stand out from the competition. Southern New Hampshire University has over 200 degree programs you can do online. You'll learn from instructors with actual experience in the field, not just drawing on whiteboards. And you'll gain practical career-ready skills along the way. Ready for your breakout season?

Visit snhu.edu slash footballers. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Every football fan is different. Some won't wash their lucky mustard-stained jersey until the season's over. Some insist they can't sit down on third downs and some pick their favorite team because, I don't know, just like football fandom, nobody's life is exactly the same. And that's why State Farm

gets to know you, not as a policy number, but as an actual person. So they can help personalize a coverage plan that's just for you. Whether it's game day or just another Tuesday, State Farm has you covered. Hey, foot gland, did you know that two-thirds of guys experienced noticeable hair loss by the age of 35?

I unfortunately do. And most guys assume that losing their hair is inevitable as they age. But what you might not know is that there is an FDA approved solution designed to stop hair loss and maybe even regrow hair with Roman. Roman makes it convenient to get FDA approved hair loss treatment right from your phone or computer. Go to get Roman.com slash footballers to start your free online visit, chat with a licensed doctor from the...

comfort of your home. And if the doctor decides the treatment's right for you, Roman's dedicated pharmacy can ship your treatment to you with free two-day shipping. If you want to stop or prevent hair loss, starting treatment early is key. Roman is giving our members free online visit. Roman's hooking them up. They're hooking them up. Free online visit, free two-day shipping. When you visit, get roman.com slash footballers. That's get roman.com slash footballers.

For a free visit to get started, get roman.com slash footballers. Hi, this is Kyle Rudolph, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Coming to you from pristineauction.com studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Week four is upon us.

appreciate good friend of the show Vikings tight in Kyle Rudolph introing us in. Yes. He's joined us before. Great guy. I also think that it's possible he would be the greatest children's book reader of all time. Oh. Very well pronounced. A very slow cadence. Did you notice that? I mean, it was clear as day. It was clear as day.

He's living in Minnesota. Good Minnesota boy. Once upon a time. Yeah, we look for very different things in our children book reading. You're looking for like diction. I'd be looking for animation. So he's not a fit for the animation side. Exactly. What about bedtime stories? Yeah, there you go. Our children, then they're putting them to sleep. You're welcome, Kyle. You've got your retirement figured out. That's a new app. Kyle Rudolph reads you to sleep. Get on that calm app.

Welcome in Thursday, September 26th, the fantasy footballers podcast. Yeah, that's what it is. Boom, boom kicker on the show today. Starts at the week. Fantasy forecast news. Some mailbag if we have time. Quick question of the day. Who's the hardest player for you to rank in week four right now? Oh, that's easy for me. It's Wayne Galman. Because we don't know exactly what he's going to be. There's so many things lined up perfectly, right? He's at home. Their favorite.

He's the only guy in town with any kind of talent. Opportunity is so much more valuable than talent at the running back position. All that being said, it's a bad offense. You know, it's not. Is it? It was not bad last week. Sure. I know that they scorched the earth last week with the rookie sensation. Yes. Daniel Joe. Yes. But I have a hard time.

believing in Wayne Gallman. You know, he's still, right now in my rankings, a very startable asset. We're starting him in one of our leagues. 25 on our consensus rankings. So, but he's difficult. I think he's difficult because I don't know what kind of dependency the team's going to have on him. That's part of the question for me. Running a ton of routes last week, one target or whatever it was. Right. But we also, so far, haven't seen them at anybody. I mean, Elijah Penny is going to be the fullback there.

Wayne Galman's there. They've worked out some guys like Zach Zinner, no J. Ajai in sight. So right now I think 25, I feel good with 25. Don't you feel like that's probably? I think you can easily outproduce that. He could. He could. I'm going to go with Robert Woods. This is fair. I think Robert Woods is a difficult player to rank right now. I don't think Robert Woods, the player is any different than what he was last year. I do think that it's very normal.

for players like Brandon Cooks, who are now in year two with Sean McVeigh, and Cooper Cup, who is an up-and-coming superstar in the league, I think it's possible for those players to take a step up. And that could mean that Robert Woods maybe is a little bit different than what we've had in years past. I think he's still going to have his days. I think he's still going to have his games. But maybe, you know, three weeks from now, maybe we're looking at this team a little bit less like,

you know, 1A, 1, B, 1C and a little bit more defined. So he's a little bit difficult for me to know what his upside is right now. Yeah, and mine is very similar to that. Mine is the player who's hard for me to rank. It's Sammy Watkins. It's the lizard king. Oh, bloody. He's been cold-blooded for your fantasy team. The past couple weeks, he came out. He was an absolute sensation, a week-winning player in week one. Then the opportunity was there with Tyreek Hill going to miss time.

And yet the Chiefs drives are averaging like two snaps per offensive drive because McColl Hardman and DeMarcus Robinson keep taking 40-yard bombs to the house, not giving Sammy Watkins. They're ruining everything. For people who have Sammy Watkins. But the matchup is delightful against the Detroit Lions. So, like, he should still, top five is still in the range of outcomes, but he's.

been like in the 40s. Yeah, Watkins was number one, week one, and then he was in the 40s, week two and three, whereas DeMarcus Robinson, who was like wide receiver 100 and something week one, he was the wide receiver one in week two, and then he followed that up being the wide receiver 29. So you're like, who's more valuable here, but you still usually, and Pat Mahomes breaks all the usually statements. He does. You still usually want the guy who's getting the most targets, and that is still Watkins. You've seen a little bit of the same impact.

that, you know, the not marching the ball down the field pass by pass has impacted Travis Kelsey too. So not that he's been bad, but just that, you know, if you're not methodically moving it down the field with your best possession guy, which is Sammy Watkins. I think we'd agree with that. Yep. And your best possession tight end. I mean, it's just a product of those big plays, like you said. And then they get big leads. Nobody's kind of keeping up with them. We really need these defenses to be better.

so that Travis Kelsey and Sammy Watkins can score. How about just the other offenses? As a McCle Hardman owner, I disagree with you entirely. I just wanted the other offenses to be better. That's what it is. Come on, Matthew Stafford. Yeah. I like him a lot this week. All right. Hey, we are giving away another signed jersey from pristine auction. We love doing this. I think last month we gave away an Alvin Camara signed jersey. You can go to footclan giveaway.com. Enter for free.

We're giving away a signed Saquan-Barkley jersey. Papa Josh thought this was the opportunity that we needed to go acquire and give away a Saquan-Barkley jersey. To be fair, you will have it forever. That's true, and he will not be out forever. He's out. Look, you can dry your fantasy tiers with a signed Saquan-Barkley jersey. I don't recommend it, but I don't either. The name might smudge. Well.

We're giving one away nonetheless. So footclang giveaway.com. The Blitz, our weekly newsletter is Wayne Goldman. Next up for giveaways? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Probably a less lasting value there. But the Blitz, our weekly newsletter with the five biggest stories and fantasy comes out today. Number one on that list is Melvin Gordon. Mm-hmm. So got some news.

News and notes from Around the League, presented by Sleeper. Melvin Gordon will report to the Los Angeles Chargers today. He will not play in week four. The whole doubt is over. We talked a lot about the implications of that yesterday, but now we have some actual news that it's happening. This is awesome. I mean, this is, look, there's some people. Look, some people out there. I've got, you know, in our listener league.

I have Austin Echler, and I don't have Melvin Gordon. So obviously less awesome for me there. But in general, this is fantastic. You know, he's one of the best running backs of football, one of the most valuable fantasy assets. We don't want to see him sitting out the whole year or 10 weeks. You know, those people who drafted Melvin Gordon earlier are somewhat being rewarded. I mean, if you told me that he was only going to miss four games and then come back.

I would have drafted Melvin Gordon pretty high. Yeah, you had no idea. You had no idea what was going to happen with him. You knew at some point he was going to come back because it was slightly different than Levi-on-Bel. But we were led to believe from very high-up news sources last year. Like, this is, okay, this is the week Levi-on-Bel comes back. So it was just a risk that I think it was still the right thing to...

to avoid him in those early rounds. Now, if you took your scratcher, sometimes you win. And the Melvin Gordon people, the drafters are looking like that right now. We were able to, in a lot of leagues, there were people that dropped Melvin Gordon. Echler did well. He wasn't to be seen anywhere. You know, Gordon wasn't out there. So we picked him up in the Sleeper Bowl league. Somebody dropped him in Sleeper Bowl and had him on our bench. And so very excited to get him back.

There is going to be a press conference this afternoon with head coach Anthony Lynn. And from Ian Rappaport, he has shown up. He's there. Also update on our Sleeper Bowl league. We did beat Juju Smith Shoes for last week. So take that. Juju. I thanked him. Thank you for your long touchdown. Oh, yeah. We thanked him in the chat right after he scored. It was fun. Ninja, you're next. All right. Is that this week? We're playing Ninja this week. All right. Well, he's distracted right now. That's right.

Singing. Masking and not a mask. All right. Dallas Morning News reporting Amari Cooper received an MRI on Wednesday reportedly precautionary. Not a good thing. I mean, I don't want a precautionary MRI. It doesn't say good things about whatever I'm getting the MRI on. You don't get a precautionary MRI when you're one with just like, it's a hundred. Oh, you're scheduled for a Wednesday MRI. Well, I was thinking about getting one.

Right. Just in case. When does it become just a cautionary? What's the difference? Instead of pre-cautionary? Yeah. Like is this step one, then you go cautionary MRI, then regular MRI? I think they're getting this wrong. I think this is a cautionary MRI. Maybe that's true. Pre-cautionary would be, I'm fine. I just want one. That's pre-cautionary. I don't think that we're analyzing the language perfectly, but I've chosen to. Yeah. Nonetheless. Regardless, keep an eye out. It's his ankle. You want to make sure. And this is not the.

This is the other foot. This is a different below the shin injury than he was dealing with at the beginning of the season. All right. Mike Tomlin is optimistic. Vance McDonald will play in week four against the Bengals. I'm not playing him. I think you might not have a choice. I mean, there are situations where you need a tight end. Are you more off of him because of Mason Rudolph? Or are you off of him because of the shoulder? I'm off of him because of the injury.

Optimistic? Okay. Maybe if this was a Sunday morning game, but optimistic that your tight end is going to play on Monday night. I'm out, man. That's fair. I totally get that in fantasy football. You could be very wrong. And Vance McDonnell goes and catches two touchdowns and you feel like crap. But my process would have me benching Vance McDonnell. You have to be prepared. What about Eifford? I mean, what about putting Eifford on your bench is a...

As your pivot move? It's pretty crappy pivot, right? I mean, would you go with Eifford or Uzama? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe we just stare clear and you make other plans. Yeah, that's probably how I would approach it. We do have starts of the week today. So we'll talk through some tight ends that we do like and get into some different names in the fantasy forecast as we preview the week four games. Quick practice report update. Damien Williams.