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

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's football time. Will! Yes, it is. Thursday, October 23rd. The Fantasy Footballers podcast, Jason Moore, Mike Wright. Mr. Mom returns. Skoll, my Vikings fans, my brethren. Yes, yes. You were not on the show yesterday. Correct. They're so good, man. That's what I hear. You don't know the fact that that's my almost upset of the week. I didn't even, I, dude, you miss one day. You miss one day, and I feel like I have no idea what's going on. Like, where's the game? Is it in Minnesota?

What's the line? No, I have no idea. I don't know what's going on. Okay, I'll catch you up. I could look it up, but I'm not going to. It's not in Minnesota. It is in Los Angeles. It's the Chargers is who they're playing. That part I knew. Okay. And there are three and a half point underdogs. Oh. And so that was that was the pick. That was the almost upset. I can dig it. So there you are. Football tonight. We're just one week removed from an incredible. that Thursday night game that nobody saw coming with the old men. Is Aaron Jones playing? I believe he will play. It is not a guarantee. He's trending towards playing currently listed as questionable. And I assume that a breaking news segment will interrupt me as I speak. How do we convince him? Realistic chance to return tonight. Let's let's, two hours ago. Yeah. Realistic chance to return. You don't like that. As a Jordan Mason manager.

prefer it not to, Mason is still playable with it the first game back for Jones. What if the man, Aaron Jones, just wants to play some football tonight? I think he does. Is that okay? Dude, the Vikings could use some help on special teams. Okay, okay. Maybe defense. You can check out the community, the foot clan at join the foot.com. Join us and get access to premium tools and resources throughout the season, our in-season app. The expanded StartSit tool, the lineup optimizer customized waiver wire tool, and we are working on a trade tool that will hopefully hit the Foot Clan here in the next few weeks. We'll see. We're trying to make sure that we launch a great product. So that's the plan right now, but we are testing our new trade tool and all of those tools available at Jointhefoot.com along with an extra episode every week. Let's talk some news.

News and notes from Around the League. Presented by Progressive Insurance. That means you also, if you didn't listen to yesterday's show, Mike, because you were playing Papa Bear at home. Hookie? Yeah, you're playing hooky. You also missed, we gave the Falcon the opportunity to read the disclaimer for progressive. He did exactly as you would expect. I can imagine. legal actually let me know that we can't do that anymore is that is that accurate yeah this is not a formal disclaimer if the letters are all jumbled exactly okay yeah those are big words those are a lot of big words in succession a lot of big official words there it was great and then he did the mailbag as well to try to like kind of redeem it which was worse we had to memorize that though we did not want him reading mailbag because the mailbag drop those that are listening on the podcast

We made sure that your hearing wasn't damaged. To be fair, I was overruled. I said not to edit it. I felt like it was a danger. Andy cared about drivers and people on the road. But if you, what you heard was not nearly as bad as what we heard. Yeah, yeah, it was bad, Mike. No, I believe it. Hassan Haskins formally out for this evening. Oh, silky. Luscious Lachs, Vidal Sassoon. Yeah. Wait, what? I, uh, what? Luscious Lox. No, no, no, no, it was the accent. I can't imagine that Vidal Sassoon is American. He's some kind of. Well, it might be a, I mean, you're just of his descent. He's got a foreign accent like the one I just did. Exactly. Clearly he was from Austria with Arnold.

Vidal Sassoon Schwarzenegger. Let me wash your head. So, okay. Get to the bottom. Bidall Sassoon, place of birth. Yeah. Hammer Smith, London in the UK. We, let's be very clear. We did not for a minute think that he was American. Okay. We just didn't think what you said made sense. Okay, do it again, but London. Yeah. Oh. Bad start. Bad start. Okay. Hold on. I got to get, I got to get into my little lad. I got to get into the English. I got to get into the, the mood. Yeah, the Queen's English. Beans on toast. Okay. Beans on toast. Let's just lox. Videl se soon. There you go. All right.

Dude, that was so British. Thank you. Thank you. I like how you got into it, though. That was smart. You got to find your phrase. Yeah, I've heard people, they need the one phrase that can lock them in. Right. Beans on toast. Man, they eat some stupid food there, but I look at it. I understand that people are super disgusted by seeing it. I bet that thing rips. Those beans on that toast. I had it. Not bad, but they eat some stupid food. They eat some, I'm sorry for everyone that is in London. You just want there, so you're an authority. I'm pretty much. They eat some awful. They have, what's it called? It's like black, it's like blood sausage. It's interesting. It's disgusting. Sounds terrible. I mean, it's worse. And you like a lot of stuff. Oh, yeah. I eat garbage from the dumpster. That vegetable is Australia. Vegetamite is Australian.

Falcon. Good Lord, man. Read a book. Someone cut his slack off. My goodness. What does that mean? All right, listen, I want to get back to Kamani Vidal because he's going to be alone, but I don't really love him tonight. Do you? Volume will be fine. I do think that both of these teams can be run on. So, yeah, he's an okay play to me. Okay. Yeah, I, I mean, top 20 type. Okay. All right. Aaron Jones questionable with the hamstring might return. Lamar Jackson. Return to a limited practice on Wednesday. You know, I had told Jason yesterday we were talking about this. I think there was a lot of alarm that he hadn't practiced. But to me, when I think about my franchise quarterback recovering from a hamstring injury, every day you get to rest it is a better situation for you playing well on Sunday and not re-aggravating it. And it's not like he is the type of player that...

Like, well, he's got to practice. Yeah, he needs a bunch of work to know the playbook. Right. He is clearly in charge of this offense, knows what he's doing. I think the more physical rest you can give him, the better. DJ Moore. DeAndre Swift and Cole Kameddle did not practice on Wednesday. We'll monitor those. Calvin Ridley did not practice. He had missed last week with the hamstring. Chris Olavay did not practice. This one is a little bit more interesting. He's... He's still reported that he's expected to play. But I want to pay attention to it and monitor it because it was like a late addition ankle injury. Yeah. Yeah, it was when I saw that, I kind of giggled. Not because I want him to be hurt, but because you and I had had a perspective. In the shower this morning, I was like, if he misses, I'm going to reoffer that trade. Yeah, he had Jason been trying to trade for Marvin Harrison with some bigger pieces and then.

He hadn't realized that he wasn't going to have Marv this week. And then the, and Olabe was a part of it. Do you ever have Marv? No, no one has a question. Brock Purdy limited on Wednesday with the toe injury. Ricky Pearsall did not practice. Man, Ricky. I wanted to make, like, Pierceall was in the finalist for second half sleeper. I like that. I'm like, he's been forgotten completely. He was leading the league in receiving yardage before the injury, but also like Ricky Pearsall's story in the NFL, and I'm not talking about the shooting. Of course. Talking about after that.

it's been a lot of injury. That has been a problem. So we'd love to see him back out there, but nobody's really stepping up. If Kendrick Bourne can come off the street and put up 100 plus yards in back-to-back weeks, it's right there for Pearsall. I agree. But he's got to get back. Josh Downs limited on Wednesday with a concussion. We think he'll be back. We don't know. Christian Watson said, quote, my plan is to play. Yeah, okay. This makes sense. He basically has to, right? His 21-day window was opened two weeks ago, so I think if he doesn't play this week, he can't play. Okay. Then his plan should be to play. Right. Yeah, week eight against the Steelers, Watson should be back. Nico Collins, Christian Kirk, didn't practice. Kirk missed a week. Nico with the concussion, we'll be watching that. Normally with the protocol, you've got to practice kind of on Friday to get back for Sunday. Michael Pennix Jr. limited with a knee. I thought he had a foot or toe situation. I think it was always the knee. Okay.

He's at home this week and is a decent streamer if he's active. I think I might have added him as my starting quarterback in place of Jaden Daniels this week. I mean, it is. Jaden Daniels being out just adds to the bi-week situation, making it harder. Really stinks that he's on Monday night football. Yeah. I mean, would you rather play Michael Pinnis Jr. or Mariotta in... place of Jaden with the running. The matchup is not good. The weapons are not good. So like Mario for Mario, um, I, I have the exact same in the listener league. I've got Jaden Daniels and I was trying to make that decision of like, so I went after, um, Marioota was there and I was like, I'm going to prefer flacco over him. I won't know on Sunday. So I'm going to have to start somebody and I, I don't want to run Marioato without weapons and a tough matchup. Okay.

Yeah, makes sense. Any other news we have? A.J. Brown didn't practice due to a hamstring injury. It's new news. We'll keep monitoring. Most Wednesday not practicing things are just completely irrelevant to me. I don't pay much attention to them. All right. That was News & Note, sponsored by Progressive Insurance Quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers, not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. Let's get into the starts. Starts of the week. Presented by U.S. Bank. Our confidence plays this week, all the more important with six teams on by. I imagine most lineups, a flex spot is going to be a player you're not particularly comfortable with this week. A lot of, like I said, quarterbacks taking the week off, six teams on by. Your opponent's probably in the same situation.

We want to give you some confidence plays. Let's start at quarterback guys. Jason, you want to take it away? Sure. I'm going to do something I don't usually do. I don't love doing starts of the week on Thursday night football. I did it last week with Jalen Warren. It worked out all right. I'm going to do it again tonight at quarterback. Justin Herbert, I think, is a great play this week. He's the quarterback four on the season. He's putting up ridiculous numbers. He's on pace right now for 4,600. and 32 passing touchdowns while doing something far more exciting that he doesn't usually do. He's on pace for career highs and rushing, 73 rushing attempts for 452 yards. No quarterback in the history of the NFL has ever rushed for 450 yards while throwing for 4,600 and 32 touchdowns. So whether that happens or not, that's just what he's doing already. And the Chargers...

They currently rank third in passing rate over expectation. So in those neutral game scripts, what are they doing? I know that... It's very low T. It's low T, but it's, you know, it's high H. It's putting the ball in Justin Herbert's hand. Yeah, it was a Herber, Harbaugh, whatever. Okay. Quarterbacks. They are... The strength of this team right now is to pass the ball. They have great weapons. You know, they've got four legitimate... great weapons, and that's not even counting my dude, Trey Harris, who is awesome and will someday be awesome. The Vikings are a pretty good past defense, but they do rank 24th and schedule adjusted fantasy points given up to the quarterback position. So I think you could start Justin Herbert this week. I'm going, Bo Nix, baby. We're taking on the Dallas Cowboys. It's what we want. It's the highest over under the wind. I'm taking the Denver Broncos, baby. You don't need to say anything. Well.

I'll add a couple. We should have, we should. There's a lot of Broncos in this section. I was going to say, we should just literally every Thursday have a start of the week as whatever team is playing the Cowboys. Start all of them. Unless it's Bill. Right. No, what? Mike. Mike. Did we get a new, did we final? We didn't finalize it. I was going with the, I was going with the sad shoulder shrug though. I'm just a bill. Uh, Cowboys. 31st in yards per pass attempt, dead last in adjusted completion percentage, dead last and schedule adjusted fantasy points to the quarterback position. It might take until the fourth quarter with the way that the Broncos and Bo Nix have been playing, but good news. There's a fourth quarter. Yeah, no, Bonnix got to follow that up. Jason doesn't like it, but this is the week for me. I don't love it, but Christian Watson helps.

Jordan Love. I'm going to go start of the week. Jordan Love at Pittsburgh. You have to pick your spots with him. He has a, he's had a lack of true blow-up games this year, and it's masked how efficient and good he's been at quarterback. And we've talked about this at length yesterday. He was my second-up sleeper. 15 yards per attempt right now, fourth and pass success rate, number one, and expected points per dropback. You know, this is not the Steelers defense that we used to have. Just asked Jason. He had negative one points from them last week. 31st and passing yards per game allowed.

30 first and schedule adjusted fantasy points. That's wild. The quarterbacks are doing major work on Pittsburgh and Christian Watson coming back. Jordan Love, he has played well. They just haven't asked him to do as much. Still dealing with the recovery of injury for Josh Jacobs. We'll see what happens in this one. But I like Jordan Love, especially on a week with so many buys. Yeah, I'm going to go with J.K. Dobbins. We talked about it. They played Dallas. The Broncos, I mean, J.K. Dobbins. He has been good. uh had a disappointing week but he's been uh top 24 running back in six of seven weeks so far the only guys that can claim that right now are daubins josh jacobu a chan bjean cmc and jonathan taylor that was that was a pretty long list but it's a long list of only but it's only like jonathan taylor the stud of studs yeah bjohn studs that's that's that's that's bejean robinson is the stud of studs okay

Sabijian minute. A chance scataboo, Jacobs. My point is all those guys are like, you don't even question. You don't think, should I start? Should I pivot to someone? And then there's Dobbins, who's there with them. And he's been really good. He is clearly the leader of this offense. The Denver offensive line is outstanding. The Dallas defensive line is outstanding for the other team. So they're giving up everything to everyone other than Bill. I am going to start J.K. Dobbins, no problem. And I'm going with Chase Brown against the Jets. Okay. With the matchup, it's not great. However, we are. Second half sleeper for Jason. We, I like it because we're chasing a heavy home favorite here. The Bengals currently six and a half point home favorites. And the receiving floor, it's actually okay. We have the eighth most targets of the running back position. And Joe Flacco. I don't know how much you dove into, because I wasn't here for the show of.

second half sleepers that I had. Yes. He was on both of our list as like not our main names, but you and I both had him on our. Flacco. Yes, Flacco is my belief in Joe Flacco is at an insane and irrational point right now of like I picked him up as a backup. I have Bo Nix this week and for the League of Record. I picked up Joe Flacco. I spent over $10 a fab just to make sure. Because no other person's crazy enough to spend $10 of your fab on Joe Flacco. Especially when you're not starting them. But the schedule for the Cincinnati Bengals moving forward is redonculus in terms of schedule adjusted points to the quarterback positions. I think that, and that trickles over to Chase Brown, of course, just saying I wanted to get my piece in of where I am with Joe Flacco. And it's frightening to believe in such an old man with such a bad offensive line.

Mike Tomlin doesn't come out and get angry about situations like this very often. I think he knew what we're knowing now. He is so calm, cool, and collected, and he was so pissed. He was so pissed about that Flacco move. He knew what it meant to get Flacco more than we knew. All right, Mike. Oh, speaking of Tomlin and the Steelers, we mentioned yesterday that the Aaron Rogers was going to Green Bay. This game is in Pittsburgh. Yes. Well, we don't know. Maybe he's going to do like just a little round trip. Right. Flight just to check in and then go back to the game. Yeah, a little typo over on this side of things. Sorry about that. That at symbol. We had, we had wondered if he was going to get booed. Aaron Roder. Probably not going to get booed at home. No, I don't think he'll be cheered. Unless, yeah, I mean, if he's not impossible. It's not. Mike, you'll be happy. Jordan Mason is my start of the week. Confidence play against the Chargers and true.

Run funnel. We reviewed that yesterday on the show. Both teams are the same in that regard. But 29th in yards before contact, the Chargers. Over the last six weeks, the 28th best in fantasy points allowed to running backs. Jordan Mason is going to get the majority of the work, even if Aaron Jones is back. I like the almost upset, and I like Jordan Mason to get into the end zone maybe twice in this game. Maybe two times. We'll see. That'd be a lot. My wide receiver start of the week, Roma Dunesay. He is coming off of a couple of disappointing weeks. Dudes. Wide receiver 58, wide receiver 63. But this last week, the Bears had easy work. They ran the ball like 700 times. They didn't need to throw it that much. They were in the lead. This game against Baltimore, and I'm hoping that Lamar is active. I still think he will be. They need him desperately. There's a 49.5 point over under in the game. That's awesome. The Ravens are beat.

up on defense. Their 28th and schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to wide receivers. And they play man coverage 39% of the time, which is the third highest rate in the NFL. Rome is great there. 35% target share, fourth highest in the NFL at that coverage. I think this is a perfect matchup for Roma Dunes A. If I've got them and I'm questioning two bad weeks in a row, I absolutely plug him in. I'm stacking my Denver, Bo Nicks. I'm going with Cortland Sutton. And I really just want to highlight, like it has not been this The floor has been low, but the ceiling has been pretty good here for Cortland Sutton, one of four wide receivers this year with five or more weeks of 13 or more fantasy points. You know, JSN, Puka, Ammonra, Cortland Sutton, and you, obviously those guys are plug and play. Sutton may not be there yet, but in the right matchups, you put him in and you take that ceiling. Well, I am confident he'll be back out there, and I want to highlight how good he's been.

Chris Olave against Tampa Bay. Two touchdowns last week. Only Jamar Chase has more targets than Chris Olivae on this season. Only Pickens and Devante Adams have more in-zone targets, which seems hard to believe. It's been a functional offense for New Orleans at times. And so you have to throw on the Buccaneers. That's going to be the game plan. Camara's been banged up. They just lost Kendra Miller. 24th in yards per attempt allowed. The Buccaneers, that's how you beat them. Monitor the injury. That was a surprise yesterday. But the fact that Nick Underhill, the most trusted beat rider in New Orleans, instantly said he's expected to play on Sunday. I'm going to keep him in there for today. Yeah, at tight end, this one is is.

depending on David Najoku, but I do not believe Najoku plays this week, and if that's the case, I will be plugging Harold Fanon into my starting lineup through seven weeks. He has the fifth most targets and the fourth most receptions among all tight-ins. You might not realize this because he hasn't been getting in the end zone. Dylan Gabriel isn't good enough to throw touchdowns, but he's on a 17-game pace of 78 for 704 yards. There's only the literally in the history of the NFL, Bowers, Laporta, and Shockey, Jeremy Shockey going back. Those are the guys who have hit 70 and 700. And now you have David Najoku, who is in his own right on pace for 65 and 600, who is probably not going to play. I think Harold Fanon is great. The Patriots are a fine matchup. They don't, they're not one of those.

perfect matchups for a tight-in that can't guard them, but they are just average. They don't shut down the tight-in position. They've allowed the eighth most receiving yards to tight-ins this year. So Harold Fanon, you know, if Najoku's out, definitely start him. And then if he's not out, my start of the week, look, I would double down from what I did last week. The goose of George Kittle. You're still playing George Kittle every week. If he's active, he's in your lineup. This is a brutal tight-in start of the week layout and schedule for us. Like I said, when you miss one day, you don't always know what's going on. But I had Juan. I liked him. I liked that the business was back. We had seven targets, five for 79, targeted on 23% of his routes. And then I've been doing a little quick checking. Apparently he was in a red contact. No contact jersey yesterday. Do you want to just hop on the back of my start of the week? Just go. Yeah, please. Do you want to just, do you want to rock a little Tucker Kraft against Pittsburgh? Oh, you know how I feel about Tucker Kraft. Yeah, yeah. Throwing Kate on.

Yeah, yeah, you could. Kate Otton's a great start this week. Sure. Kate Otton, start of the week. Nice. Who's he playing? Who knows? New Orleans. I think it's best to, like, Joan Johnson is unfortunately entirely capable of giving you a great week at any moment, but also entirely capable of being historical Juan Johnson. This week is solid. But obviously if he can't play, then he's not. No, he'll score less. If he doesn't play. Tucker Kraft against Pittsburgh, he has been a beast yards after the catch again, two years in a row. Steelers giving up the fifth most of the tight-in position, and it is the other side of the Jordan Love start of the week. So that will conclude.

I think all of our starts of the week unless somebody got hurt in a matter of the last five minutes. That was starts of the week presented by U.S. Bank Smartly Signature Visa card. Visit usbank.com slash smartly card to learn how you can earn cashback on every purchase. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply. We're going to get into our fantasy forecast momentarily. We'll take a quick break and be right back. All right. We are in the heart of the fantasy season and the injuries are already piling up, ACLs, stingers, and turf toes, oh my. In fact, the only thing right now that feels good is having the perfect backup ready to go. So wouldn't it be great if you had a perfect backup in real life too? With Progressive, you get more than just a policy. You get a playbook full of coverage options that you can count on for your home or for your auto. You want to customize your protection. No problem. You can build...

Your coverage, just like your fantasy team, making sure you've got the right players in every position and a backup plan when you need it most. And when life throws an audible, like that fumble in the driveway or a hailstorm at home, Progressive is there with 24-7 support. Don't get caught without a great backup. Visit progressive.com to quote today. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party issuers not available in all states or situations coverage subject to term policy limits and conditions. Fantasy Forecast, presented by prize picks. Well, the Bills and Ravens come back from the by week. The Cardinals. And half the NFL goes on to the by week. Jaguars, Lions, Raiders, Rams, Seahawks, all taking the week off. How happy are you that the Cardinals are off this week? It's a relief, I suppose. I just love the fact that on Sunday I don't have to watch. No, it's good.

It's nice. They should take more by weeks, honestly. I think Al said the other day when we were talking about it moving to 18 games and then maybe two buys. Why can't we just, can we just take a week off of football? Like the whole league, like the machine? The money printing machine? Take a week off. They don't turn money printers off. You're right. The reason they're going to 18 weeks is for more money. It is not for player safety. No. It's not for quality of life for these guys. It is so they can make more money. Yeah, they probably won't do that, huh? No. Miami one in six, the Falcons. They'll do like an in, they'll go NBA. They'll be an in season tournament. What a stupid. Well, that's where I was going to actually, I was going to joke about those like pro bowl games move into like that week, but then it's like that's not a by week for players if they have to do stuff. So.