Starts of the Week + Week 4 Breakdown, Jason's Curse - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/26

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. It's football time. And I mean it. I didn't really meet it last week. I think we mean it today. Oh, I mean it. I like this. I like this game. It's a fun game. Yeah. Welcome in. Rico Dattles breakout. Oh, gosh. Do we have to start the show like that? Yeah. Look, if he doesn't break out tonight, then next week will be the Rico Dadole break. And I see what you're saying. And it will not happen. I wish I had a button that when Mike says Rico Dattle's name and I push it, a stranger walks in and wheels him out. Like wheels Mike right out of the studio. Yeah. Into like my honor of after the Rico Dattle breakout? Over to the ring of honor where you reside. Over to the room where you wait for the breakout. Yeah. You wait in the room.

Until that happens. And you can come right out when it happens. Oh, we'll have like a robe in that room, like a king's robe. And you could come out looking real good. Or we'll see you in week 18 when you're allowed to leave after it didn't happen. All right. No food. No food in the room. Welcome into the fantasy footballers podcast Thursday, September 26th. Thank you for joining us. We've got lots of matchups today. We've got the parley partay. We've got news to talk about, starts of the week. And, yeah, I'm here. How you doing? I'm doing fantastic. Your voice sounds a little better. Yeah, I think it's slightly improving. Yeah, that's great. You look a little worse, but... That's age. Oh, okay. You did age a lot since yesterday. You're the oldest I've ever seen you. Yeah, that's true. We are... I'm ashamed of that. That's...

That's the one. That's the one I'm ashamed. That is the joke that you're ashamed of. That is absolutely. That is the highest level of dead. No, that's like grandpappy. And that's why I'm ashamed. It reminded me, though, of the, you've been busted for years, bro. The, the Mitch Headberg joke of when it's like, someone had you a photo is like, hey, this is a photo of me when I was younger. And he's like, well, yeah. Every photo's give you when you're younger. It's fair. That's fair. How we, let's go to the deucers. How are we doing, Al? I'm doing great. You're doing, oh, in the black today? Yep. Okay. Made it change for today. Good. Good. Papa Josh still bald and the falcons still constipated. Into the news we go. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Not every show makes their production staff feel so loved. But we do. But we do. The commanders have ruled out Austin Echler already for Sunday's game against Arizona due to a concussion.

He was playing really well, and he was helping this offense that forgot how to punt. Yeah, I mean, honestly, every time he's touched the ball this season, I thought, man, this is Ackler two years ago. If they had chosen to just make him a workhorse, I think it would have been great for fantasy. Unfortunately, slash fortunately, fortunately, Brian Robinson has looked equally very good. Like, they have two quality backs. I think that is helping Jayden Daniels quite a bit. Yeah, I'm worried about, like, I love... Brian Robinson this week in that role. The offense does a lot of around the line of scrimmage work. That was a lot of, like I went and watched every Jaden Daniels pass again yesterday or last night just to just go through it, you know, see what Cliff Kingsbury is doing in the offense. There were a couple of the, like the two incompletions were deep shots to Terry McLaren that didn't work. Then he completed 21 other passes. A lot of those were screen game to Diami Brown.

close to the line, scrimmage, Zach Hertz, that type of stuff. So losing Echler hurts, it hurts. And then Arizona's run defense has been good so far this year, but Brian Robinson is a start for sure. Alvin Camero did not practice due to rib and hip injuries. It's a Wednesday practice. But am I remembering, like, there was a, was there a play where Camaro? Went down. Not like, not down down, but you were like, oh, he got hurt. Where he kind of got up and looked like he was shaking something off. Yeah. So, I mean, look. It was, I'm guessing his rib and his hip. He played through. But it was when you see it happen and then a player misses Wednesday, just pay attention. AJ Brown, Devante Smith. Both didn't practice on Wednesday. They're also missing right tackle lane Johnson who's dealing with a concussion. We're previewing the game today.

So we'll talk more about that. This was unfortunate to see this morning. Bad timing. Yeah. Who was my hungry for more yesterday? It was Bucky Irving. Rookie Sensation. Well, Bucky Irving did not practice. He was downgrade. So yesterday was limited. Today downgraded hamstring injury. Now it feels like the odds are against Bucky Irving playing football. Yes, very much. I think he'll play again. I'm back, baby, I swish. Tank Dell did not practice. Ribs, hand injury. Pay attention to that one. 49ers, always injured. Debo Samuel did not practice on Wednesday. We would not expect him this week. George Kittle did return to a limited practice. That is good news for the hamstring injury return. Yeah, we'll see if he takes the T. Higgins approach of, you know, getting in some full practices here. That's what you want to see before the game.

It's the right direction. As long as that approach does not lead to playing and being unproductive for fantasy, which is also the T. Higgins approach. Evan Ingram did not practice on Wednesday. Gabe Davis. What did Evan do in that pregame warm up? I think in the pregame warm up, he ripped the hamstring off the bone. Did he forget to warm it up? He didn't do the stretch. You got stretch, man. Yeah, I thought that's what he was doing. Can you hurt it in a stretch? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You never heard you're so stretching? Gabe Davis Limited. Trey McBride didn't practice concussion. We've got a lot of concussions this week we're dealing with. I would expect all of the, like, especially Devonte Smith and Trey McBride. I'm expecting them to miss this week. That's how I'm approaching this weekend. Justin Herbert did not practice with the ankle sprain.

It'll come down to the wire probably. It will, however. He talked about how there had been mention of him taking this week off, getting the bye week, but that it's not trending that direction. So right now it looks like he's going to play. And then Dave Canales said running back Jonathan Brooks after our long discussion yesterday about the Panthers, who were Mike's hungry for more team. He's in the final stages of returning to play. That's positive news. Again, we have. We do not know what the real timeline will be to turn things over to Jonathan Brooks. But at least we're getting positive news because we definitely could have got something here that was like, oh, no, he's going to stay. He's going to stay out for a few more weeks. When you use that language, do you actually believe they will turn things over to Jonathan Brooks? Or do you believe, like, are you just saying the majority of the timeshare? The majority of the timeshare. The majority of the timeshare. Chuba is playing very well. I'm just, I'm saying.

He becomes the one and Chuba becomes the two. That may not happen this year. Okay. Any other news breaking there, Al, that we need to cover, discuss, talk about? Nothing right now. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Starts of the week. All right. It is week four. Yes, sir. Four. And we've got our starts of the week on today's show. We'll start with Mike. Let's kick it off at quarterback. At quarterback, CJ Stroud against the Jacksonville, Jaguars. It has been not the start that you would hope for had you spent that really high pick on Stroud, QB8, 1625. And in fact, he has scored 0.1 more fantasy points than Daniel Jones. But this is the week. Texans carry the second highest team applied total of the week. Stroud and Nico are, they're going to cook the Jaguar.

We're in week four. Maybe you're a little shaky about Stroud. This is the confidence play. If I got him, I'm starting him. I love this. I went to put him in as my start of the week, and you had him. All right, Jason, who's your quarterback start of the week? It's Joe Burrow against Carolina in Carolina. I had mentioned before that I wanted to wait until Joe Burrow had his big like, I'm ready, I'm healthy, that we're going to pass a lot game, and then I'm going to start him going forward. He had it last week. And we've seen this before with Burrow, right? He starts slow, offense, sputters, and then they just let him rip. The Bengals are number one in pass rate over expectation across the league. He's coming off of 324 and 3 when he was the quarterback 3 on the week. And this is, you know, this is the second highest total of the week this matchup. Through three weeks, Carolina ranks 29th in schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. Joe Burroughs a must start.

I'm going with Kyler Murray against Washington at home. He's my number one ranked quarterback on the entire week. The Cardinals have the highest implied point total of the week against Washington. The team that Joe Burrow got going against last week. They are a pushover on defense. And so I think you have a number one overall week from Kyler Murray. At running back, I'm going to round house the Thursday night curse in the face. We're just rolling with it. Devin Singletary tonight against the Dallas Catholic. We often talk about, at least off the show of like, man, a start of the week on a Thursday is. Risky business. It can be very risky business, but I'd love Devon Singletary tonight. You ain't scurred? No, I am not. I will not be attending church to get that scared away. Look, Dallas is thorough run funnel. And Devon Singletary is a workhorse running back right now. RB10 this past week against Cleveland, RB19 against Washington, a late round pick who is coming through for you.

And, look, highest yards per carry allowed. That's the Dallas Cowboys. Yeah, you know, I wonder if this Dallas needs to wake up. We know that. So Devon Singletary tonight for Mike, Jason. For me, I'm going with the aforementioned Brian Robinson, Jr. He has looked so good on the season. The Arizona Cardinals, you might think about them last year and say, oh, it's just a gimmie matchup. Schedule adjusted, they've been pretty good. They're top five against, you know, and fantasy points given up to the running back position. However, they lost an important defensive lineman this last week, and Brian Robinson has all the work to himself with Austin Echler out. He's averaging a career best 5.2 yards per touch right now, and his role inside the red zone is as good as it gets. He has eight carries inside the 10 through three weeks. That's the second most in the NFL. Right now he has his many double-digit fantasy.

games as Jemir Gibbs since the beginning of 2023. And I never thought I'd say this guy's name in this segment. I've kind of made it my life goal not to, but the opponent he is playing has given up 121 rushing attempts, which is the most of any team since 2013 through the first three games. Is Najee Harris of the Pittsburgh Steelers taking on the Colts. I brought him up on the ready to roll segment. He has touched the football on 33% of Pittsburgh's plays. We know the recipe. And the recipe this week is probably some short fields thanks to Anthony Richardson. Najee Harris primed without Jalen Warren or very likely with a limited or no Jailin Warren. I think Najee Harris is a just must play that's going to get 20 touches. Now I'm going to combo with Jason's quarterback start of the week. T. Higgins at the wide receiver position against Carolina. If you got him.

We're starting him. It's the second highest, like Jay said, second highest over under the week. The Bengals are favored by four. In the first game back, we didn't see the total production, but 90% of the snaps. He's a full-time player. He is a good player. I don't think it is a, look, Washington certainly help, but I don't think it is a strange thing that Joe Burrow and the offense really got it together once they were at full strength. So if I got T, look, the Panthers have allowed five touchdowns to wide receivers in three weeks. And this game, this is the game I am excited, most excited for this entire weekend. And that's a wild thing to, it's a wild place to beat. Yeah, I mean, last week, Burrow just barely missed him on a touchdown. He was open in the end zone, found him, targeted him, but he overthrew him and he had to come down with it out of bounds. My start of the week is Deontay Johnson, baby. He's back. He's got a quarterback that can get him the ball in Andy Dalton.

38% of his team's targets last week, targeted on 40% of his routes, and the Canales came in, and he talked about like, Deontes are one. We're going to scheme plays for him. He is our first read. He literally said that. And then his 13 first read targets last week were second only to Rushie Rice in week three. So he is the ex-receiver for this team. He's the first read. I expect him to be peppered by the red rifle. He's a wide receiver two now. All right, I'm going to go with a combo platter, actually, at wide receiver. And they're both Chicago Bears. DJ Moore and Roma Dunzei against the Rams. We talked about DJ Moore in the tradeaway candidate segment. Mike brought him up yesterday. But the target counts. DJ Moore is tied for fourth right now in the NFL, 8, 10, 10. And I'm adding Adunzee to the mix here. Adunzee is fifth in separation score. He looked very good despite recovering from the MCL injury.

The Rams secondary is probably the worst in the National Football League. And you saw Caleb Williams. It didn't matter what the turnover worthy plays were. He takes shots down the field. And the Rams have given up the second most fancy points to opposing wide receivers through three weeks, the highest yards per pass attempt. We saw Caleb connect down the field. And I think that these targets and then the connection he has with Roma Dunes A leads to this week. Being a very good game for both. Okay, so what does that mean for Caleb Williams, in your opinion? Is that, is he, I mean, if both of these wide receivers are going to be good, is Caleb Williams a startable fantasy streamer this week? I think he could be a sneaky stream that nobody really needs to take the chance on. I agree with that. Okay, that makes sense. Like, why do it? Like, Gino. So maybe pick them up off of waivers, wait for him to have maybe a good game and then trade them to someone who believes. There you go. Yeah, trade them to the Bears fan. My tight-in start of the week, look.

We're back into the mucky bucky, everybody. I don't know if Andy's head shakes is. I love this start. I don't think you need underpants at all. I think this is the no underpants start of the week. I'm protecting myself. Say the name. It is Tyler Conklin of the New York Jets. Tyler Conklin is going to be great. Conk, baby. It's taken on the Denver Broncos. This is not just chasing last week's production. That certainly helps for a confidence boost when you go five for 93. against New England, but they're playing against Denver. I'm still starting Garrett Wilson, probably, but I'm very nervous about the Patrick Sartan experience. Conklin is on the field so much. He's run the third most routes at the tight end position. It just finally came through. The process finally hit last week.

And then last year, Denver was dead last against the tight-end position of fantasy points allowed week two. The Muth and Darnell Washington combined for almost 13 points. Kate Otten saw eight targets. Conklin, in a world of nastiness at the tight-ed position, I think Conklin has a safer floor. Kongk, Kank, baby, also as a reminder, or if you are new to the show, if you start Tyler Conklin. Yeah, these are rules. And you're watching the game. Every catch, you throw out a... Is this what, like, were the people, were we not conking loud enough? I, I, I, this is why I'm telling the people. It's a chicken egg situation because you can't conk unless he catches. You can't con, right. You can't pre-conk. But when he catches, say conk, conk, you will enjoy your game more and we will be together. And you'll be at, you'll be at the, uh, you'll be at the, uh, you'll be at the sports bar watching and you'll hear a conk, conk on the other side. You'll be like, that is important. I know. I know, I know, I know we're together in this. Um, my start of the week.

Dalton Kincaid at Baltimore. Nice. For my team. It's, I hate that you have him because he's going to have a very good game. It's been a slow burn, a slow burn for all the tight ends, special for Kincaid. He did get in the end zone on Monday night football, but here's been the common thing. Three for 41 and a score. Good enough for a tight end five on the week. Monster game. You know, he's been the clear... Just give me a competitive game for Buffalo, though. Yes. One quarter of football is all that Dalton Kincaid is getting to play in a normal neutral pass rate. The last two weeks, he's been the clear first read early in the game and then Buffalo pulls away. Right now, now the bills go on the road as two and a half point dogs against Baltimore. This should be a competitive game where they need Dalton Kincaid and somehow the Ravens have morphed into a pass funnel. They have given up the most passing yards allowed in the NFL.

And tight ends have been a big part of that. Brock Bowers was nine for 98 against the Ravens. Last week, turd Ferguson. That was where he had 11 targets went six for 95, which is Jake, Jake, Jake, Jake, Turk Ferguson. That's not an insult. It's just a good name. It's funny hat, funny hat. It's a big hat. So I do think Dalton Kincaid. is needed in this game. The scheme fits him and he'll have a great week. That's good. My start of the week is turd Ferguson against the New York Giants. Jake Ferguson brought up yesterday as a trade for candidate. He gets peppered with targets. He's the only reliable, um, every down pass catcher for this team outside of CD Lamb. They rotate through Tolbert and cooks and turpin and other options, but Jake Ferguson's out there all the time and, um,

You know, to me, this is just a must-have tight-in start this week against the Giants, which is an island. Oh, an island game as well. We are riding dirty. So we're riding dirty this week. All right. We're going to take a break, and we're going to jump into the matchups. All right, lots of matchups to jump into. It is week four, and let's get to it. It's time for Fantasy Forecast, presented by Draft King Sportsbook. All right, the New Orleans Saints at 2 and 1 traveled to Atlanta to take on the Falcons who are 1 and 2. The drafting sportsbook line, Atlanta minus 2 and 1 half at home. The over under is just 42 points. That's not a lot, especially for the Saints offense that had done quite well through two weeks. And Atlanta, who seems to get it together every third drive. That's how it feels. It feels like Atlanta's turned off for a couple drives. And then they're like, ooh. You keep seeing really nice drives every now and then.

Yeah. And what's ironic is the only other team I can think of that has looked like that where you go, oh, they're awesome. And then they disappear for a while is the Jets, which the Falcons of the Jets. The similarities between these two teams is crazy. These these quarterbacks that are coming back off of their Achilles injuries. Achilles injuries. So can you can't singleize. Achilles is. Achilles. Achilles. Achilles? No, no. Isn't it your Achilles tendon? It's not like just an Achilles. It's a guy. Yeah, it's named after the guy, right? Yeah. The guy. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know his name. Right. Yeah, the mythical. The mythical guy. But I think it is actually named after that, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Don't look it up. Well, I think what happened is, yeah, I mean, it was his heel that. Yes. And therefore, it's Achilles' heel. Exactly. But at that time, it was just his heel. Like, they weren't like, let's go get that guy's Achilles' heel. Or like, let's go get Achilles' heel.

Right. You don't what I mean? And then it became so famous that everyone's, that's your Achilles heel. Yeah. Okay, so Falcons. We did it. So this is going to be, this is going to be really transition into talking about the game. This is going to be really interesting. You've got a team that for two years in a row so far this season and last year, the Saints were not good against tight end. Kyle Pitts is a big question mark. He had a 50 yard reception last week. The coaches talked about they want to get him more involved. Two for 59. Good enough for Titan 9 on the week. Are you talking about Pitts? I am talking about Pitts. Yeah, trade him right now. Trade him right now. Oh, man. Before this game? I think he's... Trade him for Tert Ferguson. You can get that deal done. I think Kyle Pitts has a decent week this week. And if he does, and you still don't believe in him, which I probably won't, I think you get more for him next week. He's not separating. He's not separating. He's not doing what he needs. He caught a broken play.

He had one big broken play. That's what he did in week one. Um, yes, right. And I guess if you get it, you're good. But I mean, two catches. So talk to me about Drake London, who tell me he's good. I, I can tell you that he's good. I know he's a good player. Drake London is, is, um, is all right. Who's a better player, Andy? Jalen Waddle. Or Drake London. As an NFL player? As in a fantasy. As a fantasy. As like for the rest of the year? For the rest of their career. Oh gosh. Jaylon Wattle. You sure? I'm positive. Oh, wow. If you said rest of the year, I would probably tell you Drake London because I don't know what's going on a quarterback in Miami. But Drake London is not going to be the leading receiver every game for the Atlanta Falcons. So that is going to be the risk that you play.

Last week in a league, I started Darnel Mooney over Drake London as a choice. I lost the bet because Drake London got into the end zone again. He is definitely going to be the red zone preferred option. Now, the Saints defense in the division, low over under, I don't know how I feel about this game. Do you like the Saints defense in this game going on the road with how dominant it's been? Or do you try to avoid that? I think they're a middling. play this week. They're like a low-end startable defense. Their defense is of high quality, but I think the Atlanta Falcons offense should be getting better every single week. Now, I don't know an update on the offensive line, but obviously the Falcons lost a couple of players. I'm going to check on their practice reports. It's still a little too early in the week. That would be the only thing. If they're down those two linemen for this coming week, then I would fire up the Saints. Do you have an answer to that question that's different?

Drake London and Jalen Waddle? Mike? Long term? No, it would be Jalen Waddle for me long term. Okay, so I am definitely trading Jalen Waddle for Drake Lennon and Dynasty now. Wow. Oh, because you're trying to do the opposite. I'm trying to undo your CD lamp curse. Yeah, go for, please, please go do that right now. Let's talk about Bijon for a second. I think it's three weeks, you know, we're three weeks in. His longest run in each of his games, 13, 19, and 7. He has one rushing touchdown on the year. He has caught a handful of passes, but not what we wanted. Yeah, Target, week one, that's the target share we want. 22%, down to 17%. That's still, that's great. But seven percent against the Chiefs, that ain't it. I guess I'm just bringing it up because I've seen a bunch of people get offers for, you know, tradeaway, trade four Bijon Robinson. And, you know,

RB19, RB17, RB17. Tyler Algier has a role on this team. What's the, like, where would he get drafted if you drafted today? Like, Bejohn? Yeah. He's still a first round pick. He would be a, I think, probably a top five pick. He'd be right around where you drafted him. I agree. So you, you've made no adjustment to your view of Bejohn Robinson's. potential in this office? No, I haven't. I mean, he has been a little disappointing as far as high output. Obviously he's been 13, 14, 12. Yeah, those are the fantasy points per game and a half PPR. And that is a, that seems like a floor. And that's an awesome floor. If you're talking about, you know, essentially averaging 13 points as your floor, the office hasn't gotten it together, but his utilization has just been so awesome. You're talking about 89, 75, 82% of snaps.

86, 61, 70% of running back opportunities, 183 and 100% of running back reception. So the talent is there, the opportunity is there. I'm fully in on. Would you take him? Or would you take Alvin Camara? Right now, he was the running back 6-1 and 15. His attempts have been through the roof. I mean, they ran at 26 times last week, 20 week before with Camara. It's not even been a story of targets. It's been a story of just massive opportunities. Camara is still somehow criminally undervalued. I'm happy to hear you put him in the conversation with Bijon. He deserves to be there. He was the running back four on a per game basis once he was back from suspension last season. He's in that conversation. If I were to redraft today, I would still take the youth of Bijon over the age just from an injury fear. You know, I mean, right now you've got.

Camara missing practice. So can he hold up for the entire season? I mean, he usually does, but he also doesn't usually get the work he's getting right now. The auxiliary wide receivers here are Andy, are you going right back to Shaheed? Like the shots were there. Yeah, I mean, he was never going to be a must start guy even with those performances. He was going to be a flex play. Okay. So Shaheed or Calvin Ridley. You know, that's the category of decision making you're in right now. Shaheed or Darnell Mooney on the other side. Mooney's at home. Mooney's line right now is 39 and a half receiving yards. Like, I think that's, I think that's borderline disrespectful. Well, the Saints are a good defense. The over, under is very low. There are a lot of decisions to be made in this matchup. And we talked about pits. That seems like a decision. The quarterbacks, I think we're probably sitting both quarterbacks down in this game. Preferably. But Camara and Bijon are locks, but Shaheed, Mooney.

Those peripheral flexible guys. I'm fine flexing. Olavene in London are, are they locks for your lineup? Is London a lock? Yeah, they are. Yeah, he is. Yeah, it was nice to see. I mean, I know it was a garbage time touchdown the week before, but it was nice to see London score again last week. Is London in the just hold category right now? He is for me. What do you mean as in not trade? You're not saying, I mean, he's starting. I think he made, like, are you going to try and, would you try and trade him off these two weeks? Oh, no. I think the Falcons are just, they're going to heat up. His 24% target share is what I thought he would have when he, you know, when I started him out for the UDK, he ended up as my tight end or my wide receiver 11, I think. And that was with a 24% market share. So I'm going to hold. The Los Angeles Rams at 1 and 2 take on the one and two Chicago Bears. We just talked about this game in the context of a couple wide receivers in the start of the week.