Fantasy Football - Starts of the Week + Week 8 Breakdown, Big Bye Decisions - Podcast for 10/23

Yeah, they won't turn it off. All right, Miami 1 and 6 taking on the 3 and 3 Atlanta Falcons where they're cozy in their nest at home. The Vegas line Atlanta minus... Bird joke. It was a bird joke. Yeah, it was. It was a bird nest joke. Atlanta minus 7 and a half. The overrunners 44 and a half. The end for Mike McDaniel is... It's coming. It's coming. I thought it was supposed to be last week. Yeah, I mean, it's about timing now. Okay. So we'll see. I don't know why my voice is correct. You're going to find hair in funny places. There's a time in your life. You're going to be a lot of changes. There's a comedian whose voice does that constantly. And it's really funny. It's like all his rants are like a prepubescent boy rants. The second week in a row, lefty, lefty, Michael Pinnock Jr. to a turn to ball over. Mere match. And we just talked about it. The Falcons have just been so much better at home. At home, Michael Pinnock's Jr. is averaging 287 passing yards.

Yeah. They are three and three. I'm guessing they had three games at home. They have had trouble on the road. Yeah, Kyle's confirming that that is the case. You know, Mike McDaniel was the offensive assistant over in Atlanta. They did lose week one at home and then one on the road against Minnesota. They lost by three points at home to the Tampa Bay Botaniers in week one in a in a close game where their defense still looked very, very good. But at home. They beat the commanders. They beat the Buffalo Bills. They look outstanding. And then on the road, they got shellacked by the Vikings. They got shut out by the Panthers. And then pretty much owned the Vikings. Oh, that's right. That's right. They won that game. The opposite. It's a hot Thursday. Yeah. So 22 to 6. That at symbol. So for, hey, by the way, we didn't misread the ad symbol. We just. We read it. Red.

the one put in the dock. That's what we did. And then we talked about it way too much. What did you think of Darnow Mooney last week? I was very upset by him. Because he's three for 68. No, no, no. I was very upset. I thought he looked really good. That was what was upsetting. Drake London. Which hurts Drake. Yes. Drake London is who this offense needs to run through. He has obviously put up some outstanding weeks recently. You know, two weeks ago, 16 targets, 10 for 158. Mooney was back. He still had 28% of the targets. It just didn't work. It didn't work out as well. He had somewhere else to go. To be frank, Mooney should have been a talked about more on the Waver Wire show. He's a valuable wide receiver that will get work when he's active.

in the right matchups. This one might not be the perfect matchup because I don't think the Dolphins offense is going to do much. They're beat up, they're banged up, and the Falcons defense at home has been great. They're number two against quarterback. So I don't think two is going to put up a bunch of points, in which case, great Bijan game, less passing for the Falcons is my expectation. Beat up is more severe than banged up. Like on the scale? Yeah, for sure. If you're banged up, you've got a hurt toe. If you're beat up, you're bruised and battered. Yeah, you're in a walking boot. Okay. That's booted up. Right, which Bryce Young was not booted up. Yeah. Did you see that? I did. Didn't practice. Play Bijan. Still play Drake London. Kyle Pitts on pace for 85 receptions. He is certainly fine on a 16 by week. Yeah, this week it's okay. To a, I mean, this offense.

Where are you with Waddle right now? I mean, I feel like, you know, you came out after the injury. He was the wide receiver four, I believe. And then the wide receiver 17. And then last week it was just kind of, you know, it's Cleveland. It was on the road. And it was a disaster from the jump. I feel like Waddle. Bad weather. I feel like you don't want to, yeah, bad weather. I don't, I feel like you don't want to overreact to, look, you got to play four quarters of football. And Jalen Waddle's their best wide receiver. Yeah, Waddle's a great play. My only worry with him was injury.

because, you know, he left that game. There was reports that he was injured. Looking at the week eight injury report from the Dolphins, he is not, you know, he wasn't even listed on the Wednesday. So he seems fully healthy and good to go. Well, let's see. I'm seeing a tweet here from Omar Kelly. Oh, yeah, he's one of the best. And he says this is six minutes ago. Jalen Wall didn't work with the wide receivers while the offense was out there. Goodness gracious. He was doing a rehab assignment, which means he's battling an injury. Yeah, that was six minutes ago. Wow. He was not on their injury report yesterday, so that's wild. Yeah, that's about Waddle for you. Devon H.N. is one of three players in the NFL this year with 400 plus rushing yards, 200 plus receiving yards. CMC. Bijan H.N. He's a machine. Yeah, he's been awesome. And, you know, that you don't mess around with anybody else. Darren Waller went to IR and Tua, you know, I could, I'd start nobody over Tua.

Which would get me two and a half more fantasy points than he scored last week. Wait, did Tua really have negative two and a half fantasy points? That is correct. Wow. Yeah, two ahead. In our league, negative 2.9. He was 12 for 100 with three interceptions. He also fumbled the ball three times. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. That's hard to do. And yet through all that, A Chan still managed to score over 11 points. Against Cleveland. So he's still, he's still. matchup-proof. It's pretty, yeah. I mean, A-chan is a great play. Waddled TBD on the injury, I guess, and then that's it for the Falcons, or for the, for the dolphins. The Falcons defense, right now, if you adjust for schedule, they are number one against tight ends, number two against running backs, number three against quarterbacks, number four against wide receivers. One of the most difficult matchups in fantasy. The New York Jets are 0 and 7. They get to take on the Cincinnati Bengals, the resurgents.

Vegas line Cincinnati minus six and a half. At home, overrunners 44 and a half. Here comes our hero, Joe Flacco. Jamar Jay. I mean, T. Higgins was the name we brought up on the second half sleeper list yesterday. You know, Sauce Gardner's not even playing in this game most likely dealing with a concussion. If he plays, you know, it doesn't really change how I'm starting and sitting these guys the way that the Jets defense has played this year. You know, Joe Flacco is a streaming candidate, 45 plus pass attempts in both of his starts. It's like the numbers are really profound. And we were trying not to knee-jerk reaction this and say it was just going to become, you know, so much better with Joe Flacco, who struggled immensely in Cleveland. Like Flacco wasn't doing anything in Cleveland to provide fantasy value for anybody. But so far, Jamar Chase and T. Higgins each have two times as many receptions per game and receiving yards per game with Flacco than Brownie.

It reminds me more of the, what was it, two years ago, Joe Flacco experience, where he was on the Browns, where he was surrounded by a good team. Like that offense, it wasn't just Joe Flacco. It was he had, he had, you know, Amari Cooper was not washed out yet. So that, that's where I'm like, oh, man, it sure seems like this is something that we're going to want to buy into. It does occasionally wear off. Yeah. When stuff like this happens. But, I mean, literally, that's like getting eight quarters of Chase and Higgins with Browning. Mm-hmm. For the production that's Flacco is giving them. On the other side, I mean, you already talked about Chase Brown at length. So to conclude the Cincinnati side, and you play both wide receivers, and it's pretty easy on that side. But on the jet side, it's just a complete. Foof, man. Travesty. I mean, they're trying to keep a competitive advantage. Mike, you've got the new...

What, the budget magician? Aaron Glenn. Hmm. My guy. I'm trying. He literally came out and said that it was an advantage. Like, I want to like Aaron Glenn. I really, like the, the dance of just, I know they ended up losing that game, but it was like the passion. I just, I love it. He's with his guys. And it has been a disaster. And then you go to one of one of my most hated situations of football, the, Oh, we have a competitive advantage. We don't know if it's, uh-oh, uh-oh, guys. Is it Justin Fields or Tyrod Taylor? The Bengals don't care. I kind of get it. I would get it if they were different styles of play. They are very different styles of play. Tyrod and Justin Fields? Massively different styles of play. There is one of them. Justin Fields is a genuine threat in the running game. Tyrod Taylor is a pocket passer. So to me, those are- Taylor doesn't run as much as feels. They both, one of them is like,

compost garbage. And then the other one is just the garbage you can't put it. Which one is the compost? I don't know. It doesn't matter. They're both. They both stink. There you go. So it's probably going to be to Rod Taylor this week. Breece Hall was limited on Wednesday within the injury. Breeze Tall is the only guy you can play. You can play him, but it's not with a lot of joy. I think, I know that it's going to be very difficult off of a bust week, but I actually think Mason Taylor is. Meowson Taylor is fine. Last week, he had a good matchup against Carolina. They're 29th against tight ends, and it didn't work out. He was like three for 30 something.

It was unfortunate. Justin Fields played as bad as you can play. I believe Tarad Taylor will be the starter this week. We don't know. But regardless, Mason Taylor is needed. The Cincinnati Bengals are the worst of the worst. They are the, they are the matchup where you target tight ends always. And the fact that he is so needed here, I think Mason Taylor. I don't think that's wrong. I think that's right. Process is, I get it. Yeah, but I will remind you. You laid it up. Taylor, meow, had a good matchup last week. Fields was terrible. Taylor played 54% of the snaps last week for the Jets. No, that's not true. That's not true. 93% of snaps. I think you must be looking at a wrong number. Okay. I've got 93% for, no, no, no. No.

Tyrodrod. Oh, you're saying quarterback. Not Mason. I thought you're saying Mason played the whole game. I'm saying he had half a game with Terrod Taylor. Fields was terrible and we want to put all the blame on field. Taylor played half the game at quarterback. And Taylor was still the other Taylor. There's too many tailors. Yeah. I bet Mason Taylor's three for 31 came in that half though. It did. It did. He was shut out. Yeah. So no, I, and Gary Wilson. Six for 60 and that's a fine play. Are you playing Garrett Wilson if he's active? Yeah, if he's active, he's too good of a player. Especially in this matchup against the Bengals. Would you play Arronday Gadsen tonight or would you play Mason Taylor? I would play Gadsden. Yeah. Yeah, I think I would too. I'm going to chase the dragon. I'm really hopeful for Gadsen. Well, and you don't want to watch the Jets. That is such an advantage. Cleveland's two and five. They take on the New England Patriots who are five and two. The Vegas line is New England minus seven. The overrunner is 40 and a half.

I was doing a live stream last night and somebody was like, why is Mike Rable so stupid? I said he's not. He's not. He's not stupid. I said it would be a discussion. He is stubborn though. He can, I mean, is it stubbornness or is it good coaching? When you're five and two and two, if you're two and five, we can have the discussion about the coaching. Totally fine. You know, if you have a bad running game and you're two and you're two and you're two and it's working, you're not. So. Get over it. It's just... Get over it. Trayvion's not going to be the dude right now. If an injury happens, maybe he's the dude. If Ramandre fumbles six more times in a game, maybe he's the dude for a little bit. If whatever they're waiting for in practice starts happening and they give him the ball more, he will be there when he should be there. Vrable is a great coach. Whatever's going on behind the scenes is not... Trayvion is not ready yet. If I'm in a Dynasty League, I talked about this on the Dynasty show that came out yesterday, I'm...

I'm taking my second round pick for next year, and I'm offering him in every league for Trayvion Henderson. There's a good player who's on what will now be a good team going forward is not his time yet. No, and if he had been drafted by the Bears with the next pick, it might have been his time already. Oh, man. That world would have been glorious. Yeah, yeah. So. The Vegas line, New England minus seven at home over under 40 and a half in this one. It is Cleveland and Dylan Gabriel trying to get through the New England Patriots. That'll be hard. I mean, the Cleveland defense was unbelievable last week. I don't feel like we really... All season. I don't feel like we really said much about them. Like it was all... The story line was how bad two it was, right? And it's like, oh, Dylan Gabriel doesn't throw the ball down the field. They demolished the dolphins. It was...

31 to 6. Yeah, it was, they were one of the highest scoring fantasy football defenses. It's not going to be easy for New England to score in this game. I agree. They will win. I think they will win, but it's not going to be, you know, I don't think it's one of those fire up all of your patriots with, with excitement. I don't know who I, I don't know who I'm starting. Drake May? No. Oh, my boys are Romandre? Yeah. You know, you two. Your boys love Ramandre. No, no, no, no, no. This. Why you lump? me in with Andy. No, you're just too late. I see the... We drew a line in the sand. The Hendo people said if you're not with us, you're on Ramandre's side. There is a huge fence, Mike. This is the Great Wall of China that I'm standing on. I'm standing on the Great Wall of China. Ramandre's over there. Henderson's over there. I am straight up on that fence and this is a big one. Well, it was easy last week. Are you playing Andy's guy, Ramandres Stevenson? I mean, look, he had 18, 18 opportunities last week. Sure.

Or 20 opportunities, 18 carries. Against the Tennessee Titans. You're not going to... The Browns are the number one scheduled just a defense against running backs. I am looking to not play Ramandre. I don't think you get a choice this week. It's probably true. It's perfect. It's perfect for Ramandre. You don't want to play him. But if you're going to get 75% of running back snaps for an at-home team, that's a seven and a half point favorite, heck yes, you play that. Would you play Ramandre or Aaron Jones if he's active tonight? Ramondre. I play Aaron Jones. I'll play Aaron Jones. Oh, what about, oh, you're going Aaron Jones? I would go. I would go. What about like Woody Marks against San Francisco who took over the opportunities? I would not. I'm playing remandre. You know he was 14 opportunities two weeks ago for 1.8 fantasy points. Oh, I know it. I know it. Absolutely. And it was against New Orleans. Like he's like, they haven't been home in three weeks. But he's the equivalent of the Cleveland.

targets is like his opportunities you got to just cut him 50% and that's what you should expect and then you go well he was inefficient i don't care about if the fantasy points put him in the top 20 like they've done for two of the last three weeks i don't care how he does it yeah if it's if it's a falling into the end zone if it's a screen pass that that works out i just don't i don't understand what team you have out there in the world where you can bench a starting running back at home as seven and a half point favorites and play a flyer. I'll play an empty spot. Well, I know you will. Although you just said you play him over Aaron Jones. I don't know what's happening. I do think, you know, booty's been good. He's just, I feel better about him making a big play than I do about accumulation via Stefan Diggs in this game. But I don't know if that's the right thought. So you tell me. The booty has been very efficient. Uh,

I mean, last week, he had 55 yards. I mean, hey. On two catchers. Two catch and not just two catches. It's two targets. And a touchdown. The two weeks ago, five targets, that's his, that's the second most targets he's seen all year. So do you, are you out on the wide receivers in this game? I think, I prefer, I prefer to be out. If I had to start one, it would still be Diggs. Diggs has had seven or more targets in three of the last four games. I think he's the one. Personally, I would like to bench my Patriots in this matchup. I do, you know, I really like that they are at home. That will be helpful, but the Browns, the Browns defense is legitimately scary. Matthew Golden against Pittsburgh or a Patriot wide receiver. Golden. Golden, yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. By the way, Drake May right now is 116.4 pass rating, which would be the highest.

ever by a quarterback under 24 so on the on the dynasty show i did i did my film review of drake may and i i don't think i've seen better film like you like there's nothing he could do better than what he did on every single play not true he completed 12 of his last 13 passes of 20 plus yards that means he missed one yeah could have done that better wasn't his fault um probably not he If you want to play Drake May, whatever, do it. He's going to run the ball. You know, he had 62 rushing yards last year. Michael Pinnock's at home, Drake May. Drake May. I would go Drake Me. Yeah. How do you go away from that? Yeah. They're implied point totals 23.8. I get the matchup. Drake May is, Drake May is just in. Play him forever. Yeah. He's plug and play. Judkins in logout? Judkins and Fanon and log out? Yep. If Najoku's not going, obviously Fanon.

Pretty good matchup. And if Nojoku's back, you're off a fanning? Yeah, if nojoku's back, they split too much. I mean, you've got two tight ends on pace for over 60 receptions and over 600 yards. That's incredible for a tight end on a team. But if they're both doing that, then neither is special. Okay. We'll take a break and get into the next, the second Giants Philly matchup. Lowe's Nose Sundays are for football. So tackle your home improvement projects by Saturday. and earn your Sunday with great deals on cobalt power tools, pit boss grills, LG appliances, and more. Then, once your to-do list is done, get ready to kick back, relax, and enjoy the game. Shop in store or online now and earn your Sunday with help from Lowe's, official partner of the NFL. With the U.S. Bank's Smartly Visa Signature card, you earn an unlimited 2% cashback on every purchase. That's right, every purchase.

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who are seven and a half point home favorites. Over under is 43 and a half. You know, the Giants had the very impressive 3417 victory. It was the coming out party for Scataboo and Jackson Dart. It was two weeks ago and it was in New York. With no Jalen Carter. Yeah, yeah. It's not going to be quite. Do you see Vic Fangio, their defensive coordinator talk about lessons learned on Jackson Dart? I did not. He came out and he was in a press conference. He basically said, Every quarterback needy team in the league has to be kicking themselves right now that they didn't take Jackson Dart. He is a believer. Yeah, okay. I mean, I think I am too. You're going to have rookie mistakes no matter how well you play. I would say that what? You basically put Jackson Dart into a situation in New York that is not an advantageous one, not a ton of weapons that are like proven.

He's having to piece it together with, you know, Wondale Robinson and Lil Jordan Humphrey. And he's still getting it done. It's because of his legs. The dude is running. He is averaging 8.3 fantasy points, not rush attempts, 8.3 fantasy points from the rushing work. That is for context here. Josh Allen in his career is averaging 6.8. Lamar 7.2, Jalen Hertz, 8.2, and that includes all of his tush push touchdowns. He's going to get hurt, isn't he? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Jackson Dart can't play 17 games this way. No human can other than Camp Scataboo. I know everything worked out for fantasy. Last week against the Denver Broncos, just with, I mean, how drunk that game got. But at least needs to be pointed out, you know, on the road against a very good defense.

He completed 46% of his passes, and he ran five times for 11 yards, 2.2, which we talked about it. You quarterbacks can't really run on Denver, but it's the question of, okay, you're facing an elite defense on the road, and you're completing less than half of your passes. You just wonder, did something get seen on tape? Jason, you were... You helped the Foot Clan out in a big way two weeks ago with Cam Scataboo and the confidence play against Philly. I think at the time we didn't know Jalen Carter was even going to miss that game. Right. Cam Scataboo on the road here, you're not moving away from a top 24 guys, six straight weeks, are you? There's no chance that you have a roster that you can bench Cam Scadaboo on any week. Hide your crayons. Hide your crayons. He's going to eat them all. Or ship your crayons to New Jersey so that he can eat them all.

or I guess they're in Philly this week. So, but yeah, Cam Scataboo way, way, way to. They've got Cranes in Philly. Way too involved. The last month, he has not had fewer than 20 opportunities to touch the ball. That's an insane number. So are you done there? Is it, are you comfortable with Dart? You comfortable with Scataboo? And then the only other thing in that game. What about like Wondale versus like Alec Pierce, who had the big week? No, I don't, I don't think I'm playing Wondale. I am going to be watching Darius Slayton. He is a guy that I'm not starting. I have picked up in a couple of leagues. I hope he is starting. He was a limited participant with that hamstring injury on Wednesday. If he plays, I'm paying attention. I think he will be good in certain matchups the rest of the season. Okay. Mike, do you agree with that? I do. The real question is Dallas Goddard. He's so funny. I saw Goddard or Gadsden.

And it was like, I basically just said, look, I'm a sucker. I'm going to follow the athleticism of Gadsden and see if we can. No one cash in on that versus the touchdown luck of Goddard. No one believed in Dallas Goddard for the first six weeks of the NFL season while he was the tight end one. And then everyone was like, all right, I guess we got to. I guess we got to believe. And then he goes out there and scores three fantasy points. Gotcha. Yeah. He's only going to do whatever you don't want. So just cut him. Yeah, I mean, you might not have a choice this week. He's a weird tight in. I mean, he's played enough football to know that you get Goddard games from time to time. Would you play him or Pitts at home? Pitts at home. Okay. DeMonte Smith, AJ Brown had huge weeks last week. AJ Brown monitor the hamstring injury, probably not serious, but also these guys have been banged up, both of them over the course of the...

you know, before the season. Sequin Barclay, we've had lots of discussions here. He's the RB 17 on the season. He has not broken a 20 plus yard run, which is pretty wild considering how, I mean, he had 11, 15 plus yard touchdown runs last year when you include the playoffs. He didn't do that one time the year before in New York, and he hasn't done it one time in 2025, and he had 11 last year. It was one of the few points that you could say in the off season when we were like, well, you like Saquan early in the draft, but it's pretty hard. It's pretty hard to score from 20 plus yards away all the time. Hasn't happened. Does it start happening? You guys do not look like gentlemen that have strong answers for this situation. No, I mean, would you trade Cam Scataboo for Saquan Barkley? What?

Because that question I've seen, and that one is a real... I would keep Barclay. No, no, no. That's the opposite question. If you had Cam Scataboo, would you trade for Barclay? Oh, would... Yeah, I think I would. Straight up. And Jason, you said no? I would rather have Scataboo. I believe that your highest game totals will come from Barclay. Barclay's not a bad back. He's going to have his touchdowns. He's going to have... big monstrous games. And I think it will be difficult for Cam Scadaboo to have monstrous games. He, you know, he already had, you know, a multi-touchdown game. That's great. But you just don't think that these giants are going to regularly do that. But his floor is so, so high. And right now I think Barclay, he's not involved in the passing game. It hasn't been for basically two years. And he's been inefficient. I mean, you look at like, here's some guy. Who has

More yards per carry on the season. Saquan Barkley or Woody Marks? We were just... Yards per carry. We just made fun of how the attempts in Houston are, you cut him in half, and then Woody Marks is inefficient, because he's running for 3.3 a carry Woody Marks is. That's what Saquan's running for right now. I mean, to the Barclay's best game this season has been 16 points. Scataboo has passed that three times. It's a wild one. It is. Didn't think we'd be here. But here we are. Did we, we did not talk Buffalo Carolina yet. Buffalo 4 and 2, Carolina 4 and 3. Games in Carolina, Buffalo minus 7. The over under is 46.5. Okay. The bills, they get a buy week to recover from back to back losses. I don't think that's going to help Carolina very much.