Week 4 Matchups + Weekend Winners, Wheel of Shame - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/29

Welcome to the fantasy footballers YouTube show where you can see Andy Holloway humiliated at the end of this episode. Make sure you skip ahead and watch him be an idiot. Subscribe. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Friday, September 29th, the fantasy footballers podcast.

Welcome one and all more matchups today. The fantasy face off. Hmm, delightful. Yes, yes. He wants to take his face off. No, it'll be good. I've missed it. You've missed it. The wheel. Dressing up. I've missed the wheel. Yeah. Mike is just sitting in second place every week. It's great, boys. He doesn't, you know. First couple weeks I got a dub. Jason flipped the script on me this week. He gets the dub. I mean, and Mike's just, you know. First the worst. Second the best. Guys, second place is delightful. You don't have to do anything. That is correct. Man, yeah, welcome in. We have a lot to talk about a Thursday night game to react to. We'll go exclusive 10 minutes to Al Borland today on the reaction to the Thursday night game and just let him talk and talk and talk about that matchup.

You excited about that, Al? That sounds like as big of a nightmare as the game was. Okay, yeah, fair enough. But we're happy to have you with us. Twitter was what it always is, a binary reaction. Of rational, level-headed discussion. Yeah, I mean, it's whatever Twitter feels in the moment is the eternal perspective on whatever's going on. But, yeah, there was a lot of reaction to the game. I mean, the Lions, they came out and. They stomped the Packers. Yeah, yes. And it was even more impressive because the game began with a Jared Gough interception in Lambo. So the momentum was certainly on the side of the Packers to begin that game. And they just, they squashed the Packers. I mean, the pass rush destroyed the offensive line. There was not a running game for Green Bay. I mean, five carries for Jones and Dylan. Yeah, it's, it's 27 total yards rushing.

Very difficult to run on the Lions. And when you get down to boot, then you've got to throw the ball. It didn't work out. The nice thing is I think a lot of fantasy managers, you didn't play A.J. Dillon because Aaron Jones was active. And Aaron Jones, in a bad matchup, just back from injury, I think a lot of people benched Aaron Jones as well. Possible. Jordan Love had a nine-yard touchdown run, and he ended with negative two rushing yards. That's impressive. The two targets. for Aaron Jones was that was the real boggling thing of the uses. We knew. We knew snap count was a possibility. Yeah, yeah. But even still with that, I don't know what the snap counts are currently. I don't know if we have that information. But it still is bizarre to only give Aaron Jones two targets in a game that you are losing bad the whole time. The main storyline of this game was the fact that the Detroit Lions went full Monty.

And 32 carries was a career high for David Montgomery. Well, I mean, when you're fresh off an injury. So 32 carries, 121 yards, three touchdowns, doing his best Jamal Williams impression from last year, and was fully dominant. I mean, this was not 32 carries of inefficiency. This was slicing, dicing, and destroying the defensive line for the Green Bay Packers. or rather following a great offensive line. The storyline with David Montgomery's career thus far has been producing as much as he possibly can behind a really bad Chicago offensive line. You're seeing what he's capable of behind a line that kind of imposes its will. Yeah, I mean, David Montgomery is a better player than Jamal Williams. Just straight up, those two, if they're next to each other, you would draft, you know, for your backyard team off the fence, you'd say, give me David.

on my team. And so now, right, because you're really close. It's a backyard. Hey, Dave, come on over. Sorry, Jamal. But now he's, he's in that role. He's going to succeed in that role. And shout out to my co-manager and listener league. I didn't even, too many leagues. I didn't realize he was on the bench. He's active. And so he's like, he put him in over Brandon Cooks. Nice. Very well done. And you didn't know until the game was going? No, no, no. He texted me. I was like, hey, we should do this. I was like, yes, we should. Jamir Gibbs with 12 touches in this game, 8 for 40 on the ground. He caught four passes. On the year, Jamir Gibbs has 18 targets in the passing game to David Montgomery's three. But this was not, you know, this is an interesting discussion because the lack of utilization of Jemir Gibbs is disappointing.

Without question. It's not what I expected to begin the year. He obviously had the bigger touch week last week with David Montgomery on the shelf. But it's succeeding for the lines. Like the game plan, not seeing Montgomery in preseason. Clearly this is a 1A, David Montgomery. And then Jemir Gibbs is fitting into this role now. 2B. Yeah, 1A, 2B. Jemir Gibbs is on the edge of RB2, most likely in the flex type of. consideration moving forward. And you are hoping, you know, last night was the perfect recipe for David Montgomery, positive game script from the jump, efficient running game, didn't need the passing game in the second half. I mean, if you had Amun Ra, thank goodness you got that first touchdown because the, you know, the targets for Amman Ra and Sam Leporta, who both had a great first half, were basically non-existent in the second half. Yeah, it's. But let's have some totality of perspective on Gibbs. Sure.

I was going to ask the question, do we now view, we're four weeks in, do you have to look at Jemir Gibbs and try to think about the game script? Think about, is this a game that the Detroit Lions will struggle against a superior team? And that's not saying the Lions are bad. Or a competitive team. Or a competitive team where they actually have to. throw the ball a whole bunch more because Goff only threw the ball 28 times. It's, uh, it is discarding to have to see 34 points for the Detroit Lions. And Jared Goff had a subpar fantasy day. It was a bad fantasy day for golf. Yeah. I mean, the, the issue might become that if you are saying, you know, you've got to take into account the matchup prior to this game, you would have said this is going to be a competitive game, a divisional.

In Lambo, this is the type of game. Towards the end of the game, they're going to need to throw. They're going to need the most out of their most efficient player. The problem is the lines might be really, really good. And if they're really, really good and they start, you know, imposing their will with their awesome offensive line, it could spell bad news. I mean, you look at last season, right? They had DeAndre Swift, and they had Jamal Williams. And Jamal Williams was the better fantasy asset all year long, even when Swift was healthy. Which, looking at the lions. upcoming schedule. If they are truly that good and Gibbs is going to have to rely a little bit on game script, you buckle up because it's going to be rough. Here we got. Next week we got the Panthers at home for the Lions. Then it's on the road against the Buccaneers. That's two matchups that the Lions should be fantastic. Then you get the Ravens, but then you get the Raiders. That's rough, man. We spent almost all of yesterday.

throwing out scenarios with bottom-of-the-barrel running backs. Jamir Gibbs is start-worthy in the flex position. Yes. In most weeks. But every week. Yeah, almost every week. And I think, you know, he has a scored in four weeks. Ian Hartett's had a good perspective post that came out yesterday talking about, you know, through the first four weeks, rookie first round running back since 2014. Touches-wise, Jamir Gibbs is tied with Christian McCaffrey through four weeks. When McCaffrey arrived in Carolina, they had. An incumbent, right? It was Jonathan Stewart. And we saw almost the identical type of utilization in that scenario. It is not what fantasy managers or myself hoped for, but it is a long season. And he is a very talented player. He's a more talented player than Kenny Gainwell in a timeshare. He is a more talented player than a lot of timeshare running backs. You know, I'd rather have Jamir Gibbs than Jalen Warren, okay, or Kenny Gainwell or probably even more than Damien Pierce.

Yeah, I think over the remainder of the season. And he was the RB20 going into this game. Yeah, he hasn't been bad. He just has been disappointing for what the hopes were. But again. Where he was drafted in fantasy drafts. First month of the season. Mike said it really well yesterday. Actually, I think it was on our footcast recording when we were talking about Jonathan Taylor. And it's just you've got to keep in mind. It is a long season. Everything feels like what happens the first month. That's what's going to happen the rest of the way. It never is like that, unless you're Christian McCaffrey. And then it's just every week. Yeah, it's great. It is like Romeo Dobbs, another big fantasy day. It didn't look like, you know, if you streamed Jordan Love or you played Romeo Dobbs, the first half of that game, you were like, well, week five, everybody. But garbage time is a spectacular thing. I mean, they've had to mount comebacks in multiple weeks now. And, uh,

you know, it worked out. Jordan Love wasn't spectacular, quite the opposite, but he did end up with two touchdowns in the game. Any other players or storylines that you want to talk about in this one? I mean, just the Romeo Dobbs, I know they were, it was mounting a comeback in the second half, but 13 targets after a last week we had a double-digit target performance as well. That seems like great news for Dobbs. Christian Watson, if you took the risk. You at least got 25 in a touchdown. That certainly could have gone a lot worse. And then Leporta, man. He's such a good player. He is. He looks fantastic. It was, again, for every Detroit pass catcher, the game script was so unfortunate because golf and the lines were playing very, very well, but they didn't need to throw the ball. Yep. Sam Leporta over 50 yards again. Looks the part.

Got a text from Al Borland saying I should have traded Waller for LaPorta after he watched a couple of those highlights. But, all right, it is Friday. Put Clan Friday. Today's winner of a $100 gift card to Fantasychamps.com is Foot Clan supporter, Abel D. Abel, congratulations. You will be able to redeem that very soon. at fantasy champs.com. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. There was a report this morning. It comes from ESPN, Stephen Holder, saying Jonathan Taylor appears ready to return from the PUP. He's eligible after this week. Oh, man. Here we go. It did put the fear of God in me with regards to Zach Moss's spot on my roster. I have no Moss and no Taylor anywhere.

I get to sit back. You're just sitting in the audience? Yep. I get to eat my popcorn and see what happens. Broncos wide receiver, Jerry Judy remained limited on Thursday with a knee injury. Rashad Bateman. Odell Beckham Jr. Old Dell Beckham Jr. Missed practiced again on Thursday because wide receivers are not something that the Ravens like to have. Well, to be fair, they don't like to have running backs either. That's true. Gus Edwards, he did practice in full dealing with the concussion. Justice Hill. return to a limited practice. So now you might have both players back against Cleveland. So many people need Justice Hill. I don't know if this week's going to be the ride you want. No, it doesn't matter. We need his opportunities. Yeah, I mean, that's true. Anthony Richardson practice in full should be back. Big names from the matchups coming up later today. D.K. Metcalf held out a practice on Thursday. Jimmy Garoppola Limited.

Devante Smith didn't practice due to illness. And then we did get some early practice reports this morning. Deshaun Watson spent time with the trainer this morning. We don't have any more information than that sore shoulder all week long. So we'll see how he is doing. Miles Sanders was limited the last two days with a groin. That's not good. Does not have a helmet on. That is not good considering that that was the same. issue. He was held out of the preseason and some of training camp for. He had a groin issue. So if it's a reaggravation, man, you might be wanting everyone that is running back thirsty, might want to go to their waivers right now and look for Chuba Hubbard. That's a good point. Yeah, Chuba would be a good start. You get more work in total than Miles. And Chuba has, Chuba's looked good this year. He really has. Shout out to Chuba. Yeah.

That was today's news and notes. They play Minnesota, right? That is correct. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Fantasy forecast. Well, let's start with that matchup. The Minnesota Vikings at 0 and 3 take on the Carolina Panthers at 0.3. I saw some stats this morning. Kirk Cousins start to this season, passing for over 1,000 yards, over 9 touchdowns. The completion percentage. His performance has been... historical. There are only nine other quarterbacks that have ever had that type of a start to a season in terms of the yardage and the touchdowns. None of the other nine have started worse than two and one on those seasons. I was going to highlight. The Vikings are my second team. I know the Vikings fan base. The O and three, it's Kirk Cousins fault. Yeah. He is on pace right now for six.

thousand and 91 yards and 51. He's not winning games, Jason. And 51 passing touchdowns. Not good enough. Well, he does get a chance to go on the road and play the winless Carolina Panthers. The Draft King Sportsbook line has Minnesota as four and a half point road favorites. The overrunner is 46 and a half. And, you know, I think they're going to be able to get it done. It's time to break through. Bryce Young, been practicing, is expected to take over at quarterback. We saw the illustrious Andy Dalton. He was set up for some success in this matchup, but we should get Bryce Young. And I think Bryce Young will get better as the season goes on. Kirk Cousins, like I said, he's been a must start and you continue to put him in your lineup this week. Although the Panthers defense, I've been impressed with it over the course of the year, making their own three start all the more frustrating for Panther fans, I'm sure. Yep. Miles Sanders, we just talked about it. If he's out, Chuba Hubbard is in.

The Minnesota defense has been pretty good against the run, mostly because it allows teams to pass on it. But Chuba can catch the ball. Adam Thielen is my start of the week on the Carolina side at wide receiver. DJ Chark and John... And that is with Bryce Young, right? Yeah, I'm totally fine with Bryce Young. He had a good week the week before. DJ Chark had 11 targets, but what is the status of that hamstring? Because that is unfortunate. It honestly, it doesn't even... changed my thinking on it. If Bryce Young is the quarterback, I'm not putting DJ Chark out there. Yeah, the 11 targets were in the Andy Dalton game and you would expect those to be better. So I would agree with you. With the combination of the hamstring, limited Thursday with the hamstring issue and Bryce Young expected to play, I don't think you need to be looking DJ Chark's way. There are plenty of other options. I had just the hottest.

Draft Kings lineup with Andy Dalton and DJ Chark. Oh, really? Yeah, because with those two guys, you can play every superstar on the salary. I had, and it got blowed up. I had DJ Chark in my lineup as well, and it is a disheartening reality when you look at the, when you got the hamstring plus the Bryce Young situation. Yep. And the lack of kind of being able to throw the ball deep, it's concerning. On the other side, wheels up, Justin Jefferson, Jordan Addison, T.J. Hawkinson. We're going to see Cam Acres debut. We should see Cam Acres debut. So the question is, I do not think anyone is even questioning, can I start Cam? You don't start Cam Acres, even though it's a plus matchup so far on this season. You just don't know what the workload's going to be. Yeah, the question is, what does it do to Alexander Madison? And can you start him? Alexander Madison was Alexander the great last week?

had a fantastic game despite fumbling after every play was over? Yes. I mean, most people just drop the ball. Alexander mad at him. Ooh. Because the team is mad at him out on every carry, but he was productive. The team did issue, or the coach gave the warning that went out in the public got it to of people better stop fumbling or you're going to hit the bench. And I mean, it feels very directed at Madison, but it's also not. It's not just him. This whole team has a fumbling problem. Are you playing Madison? I am. The matchup, look, the Panthers run defense, 32nd and expected points per rush attempt, 29th in fantasy points allowed to the running back position until it certainly comes with risk of maybe this team really, really loves Cam Acres, and they're already ready to make that switch.

But with last week's performance, moving into this one with a little bit of momentum, I'm playing Madison as a running back too. The Pittsburgh Steelers are two and one, and they take on the one and two Houston, Texas in Houston. The Draft King Sportsbook line, Pittsburgh minus just two and a half. The overrunners, 42 and a half. Houston was great last week. Pittsburgh's starting to get it going a little bit. The offensive line in Houston still decimated. I saw Laramie Tunzel, not going to be back out there. It did give me the... small hope that when that offensive line gets pieced back together a little bit, we could have a brighter future for Damian Pierce because the offense has been able to move the football with C.J. Stroud, Tank Dell, Nico Collins. I think we've all been impressed with those three players in this offense. We haven't been impressed with Pierce because the offensive line has been so just damaged. Like a fully healthy Houston offensive line wasn't going to be.

top tier, but Damien Pierce right now, if you're in the running back landscape, you're probably playing him this week. Yeah, I mean, you might have to, but I'm playing Damian Pierce this week. What if you just scooped up A-chan? Oh, I would play A-chan over Damian Pierce for sure. Andy? I don't think that there is, I can't make the path for Damian Pierce to score 20 fantasy points. So you shoot for the upside? Yeah, I mean, I just, I can't figure out a way that A chance scores less than Damien Pierce, either. What about Breece Hall against Kansas City? Yeah, I'm going to play Damian Pierce in that situation. Thus far, the Steelers have given up a lot of points to running backs, and they're at home, and I, Breece Hall has a floor of zero. It's been a disaster. Final.

No, no, no, no, no, no, Jay. I'm starting a breeze, baby. You know it. Okay. I did try to get out of that. I did, I did try to pivot away. You didn't want to be on the record. Sneaky. But what about the both running backs on the other side? Because the Houston Texans are a terrible run. So this is a week where, you know, you've been, you've been very frustrated with Najee. Najee has just been terrible. obviously you're going to start him when you're getting the opportunities he's getting in this matchup favorite. Like, Naji, you should start. And I presume you would start him over Damien Pierce, correct? You probably should, but, I mean, you look at the numbers for Naji. I mean, four fantasy points, four fantasy points, six fantasy points. Yes. Oh, that's what I said, putrid. You should because there's more likely that he scores a touchdown in this game than I think Pierce does, but. Yeah, I mean, Pierce is.

Five fantasy points, four fantasy points fell into the end zone and was okay. Yeah, I mean, look, that's... But the question is Jalen Warren. I think you can flex him. But would you play Jalen Warren or Damian Pierce? This is... I'd play Damian Pierce. Okay. The offensive side for Pittsburgh also includes a couple of, you know, at least one wide receiver dart through every week. George Pickin, 16 targets. I think he can be in your lineup. The Muth got loose, scored a touchdown. You're going to play him. On the other side, it's been the, you know, Nico Collins had the big week, 149 yards. Tank Dell's had a couple of big weeks. You know, both of those players are flex-worthy consideration type of guys. I'm not putting Tank Dell in a must-start category yet. No, no. You still need to grow and see it. And I don't mean that as in like get taller. He is small. That would be helpful too, though. It would be. He is not the big guy. Nico's the big guy. I think the real question is if you, you know,

Who do you prefer between Nico and Tank Dell? To me, I have made that transition. Not to where Tank Dell is a must start. You've got to have him in your lineup. But he is ahead of Nico to me. If I had both guys, I'd be starting Tank. Yeah, it's close. If you just want to follow who'd perform last week, I mean, that wouldn't have gotten you anywhere on the transitional week of Nico to Dell. So part of me, for some reason, prefers the bigger physical guy in this matchup. I mean, I kind of lean that direction, but I think both are in play. Sure. I also think that the Pittsburgh Steelers DST will be having a good time without Laramette tonsil there. The Las Vegas Raiders, the Los Angeles Chargers will jump into that matchup next. All right, we're talking Raiders and Chargers. Raiders and Chargers are both one and two. The Draft King Sportsbook line has the Chargers as five and a half point home favorites. The overrunner is 48.5.

Feels like we're talking about these kind of games of the Chargers every week. Yeah, it's a delight. It is an absolute delight what the Chargers are doing because their offense. It's doing enough is scoring a lot of points. Their defense is making sure that they find ways to lose games. Need to score a lot of points. Yeah. Yeah, and you do have, you know, Mike Williams out for the year, ACL tear. And so fantasy players are looking for the... Who's going to step up situation? I do not believe, you know, that Kenan Allen's getting 20 targets a week. No. I don't think that's going to be feasible and they're going to have to turn to other options. Yeah, I would agree. The other options right now, week one, it's probably going to be Palmer as the player that will receive the most targets, snaps in replacement of Mike Williams.

But they have come out and said Quentin Johnston is going to see more action, which obviously, he better. He's your first round pick. And one of your two star wide receivers went down. If not now, when? Yeah, the language around it was he's going to get opportunities on the 50, 50 balls that Mike Williams would have had the chance to go up and get. So you're talking big play potential with Quentin Johnston. You're talking probably more PPR value with Joshua Palmer. In week one, if I had both, I'd be playing Palmer. I feel like that's safer. More routes run and you're probably going to see maybe a little spillover into the tight-in position. Gerald Everett and Donald Parham, it's kind of hard to pick one of those guys. Gerald Everett did miss practice with an illness. If you had to start one of those two, I guess I'm going to chase the touchdown with Parham. It's really difficult because...

Gerald Everett is the one who gets more targets. You know, the two targets each of the past few weeks for Parham. Meanwhile, Everett, six, and three. But it's hard to argue against a couple weeks in a row, or not in a row, but just a couple weeks that we've seen Parham being a go-to read, like in the red zone or inside the five zone. So I think I'd go Parham as well. What's happening in the backfield in Los Angeles, Jason? Why don't you give us the intimate glance at the Austin Echler, Joshua Kelly conundrum? Sure. The conundrum is answered very easily, which is if Austin Echler is able to go. Right now, he's been practicing in a limited fashion. He's not able to cut and turn as well as he would like to be doing right now, but he can run straight at full speed.

If he is out there, you're obviously going to play him. He will be better than any alternative. You're finding off waivers or your bench. Later game. Joshua Kelly is really bad. And the matchup is really good, but the matchup was very good last week. I think this is nothing more than a break glass in case of emergency situation. Latavius Murray or Josh Kelly? I... I think I lean Latavis Murray, huge scoring game projected with the dolphins. And if you're chasing a touchdown, I think it's more likely that Latavis Murray falls in an end zone. What can you really do with the Echler situation if he's the late game? Do you have a gauge? I mean, you're trying to decide on your starts. There's a lot of morning games. Are you just waiting until, you know, Saturday night and trying to make a judgment call then? Are you going to wait through game time?

Yeah, I mean, thankfully, it's not necessarily the last game of the week. You've got a handful of other options that you can pivot to, but you do need to be aware that, you know, look at what your other pivot options are and look at the game time. Because if they are before, if they're in the morning game, all your pivot options are in the morning, then you're going to have to start them if it is not announced yet whether Echler will play. I do expect that by Sunday morning, We will know whether Echler's going to be active or not. Looking through what the schedule is, the afternoon games, Raiders Chargers, I'm not playing Josh Kelly. Cardinals 49ers, so maybe you have Connor. I think that the pickup of just like the full, this is an emergency, I bet everything on Echler, it might be the Pats Cowboys games because there's a chance that Zika is on your waiver wire. He is not a good start this week.