Week 1 Matchups, In-or-Out, Notpportunity

then where is he going to really succeed? And this is a guy who, look, he runs the ball enough, runs touchdowns in, and so far in his career has never not been a quarterback one at the end of the season. So yeah, I think Dak has been left for dead and he's a good play. Michael Gallup, is he a sneaky snart, as we would say?

in this game in your flex spot. If you believe in Dak and you believe that, you know, Amari Cooper hasn't practiced a lot, plant out fastias, Michael Gallup has certainly looked like he's leveled up a little bit with training camp in the preseason. Is he sneaky? It's, he might be, the last time Dak took on, uh, when we saw him in week 17, no, there was an absolute monster game where there was a plenty of production that could have gone through for, for, for Dak, which Michael Gallup could be the recipient of some of that. So.

He's sneaky, but I don't know if I could actually do it. Okay. Well, yeah, and it's one of those things. In week one, you're playing the guys. You drafted Gallup so late, so unless you're responding to an injury, you're probably not needing to play. That's exactly what I was going to say. Could he be a sneaky start? Yes, but there's no reason to yet. You play the team you drafted. All right, Sunday night football, Steelers, Patriots. The Patriots, five and a half point home favorites. 51 point over under. That means Vegas is given 28.5 points.

to the Pats, 22, to the Steelers. I brought up Sony Michelle. I think he is just an outstanding play this week, and there's a chance you're making a decision about Sony if you got him in the fourth, fifth round. I love him this week. He's my start of the week. Talking about the rest of the offense, though, for New England, it's more question marks than you might believe to start a year for them. No gronk, obviously. Julian Edelman, Mike, I'm sure you feel comfortable playing him. 100%.

Josh Gordon, comfortable week one, game one, throwing him out there. Comfortable, no. You think he'll get full snap count? I do. I think he will, but there's definitely a world where he doesn't. But like if I was saying, if I have Gordon, I'm going to play him. That's what I'm saying. More confidence in Gordon than Gallup, no doubt. Yes, oh, certainly. Okay, well, both are starting wide receivers, you know. Got to bring them both up.

Yeah, I mean, look, I want to bring up Juju real quick because Juju is a guy that you're going to start. You drafted him in the back of the first, early second round. You're going to start. This is a terrible, terrible matchup for him. New England historically takes away the number one receiving option from every team. And that includes the Steelers. Look at Antonio Brown. Antonio Brown, since 2014, he's had four matchups against New England, and he scores.

six fewer fantasy points per game in those matchups. They'll double, they'll triple. I thought you couldn't block out the sun. Look, that's the goat. I mean, Antonio Brown is as good as it gets, and he's been limited against the Patriots. For those reasons, like, here's a deal. The Patriots scheme away your best option. And I think they're going to choose juju to scheme away, which means I'm okay. I think James Connor is going to have himself a fine game, and they're going to say, we want you to beat us.

On the ground, slowly, you know, no big plays for Juju. We're going to take him out. They've got Gilmore. They've got double and triple teams that they'll throw his way. And did it? We made a water bet yesterday on James Connor. I believe that he'll struggle in week one. This offense finding its way without Antonio Brown and company. So we'll see what happens. Did we do top?

Was it top 15? Yeah, that's not a great bet for me. That's why Mike popped in on. In my head, I thought top 12. I should have made a top 12 back because you would have both taken that. I would have felt a little bit more comfortable there. But other pass catching options on either side of the ball, Pittsburgh, Vance McDonald. You probably drafted him to play him. You got to put him out there. But if you, like, we have to see how the Moncrief James Washington split pans out. It's what side are you on right now?

I still lean Moncrief. I think that's where I'm at too. But it's very similar to what for Green Bay, like Marquez and Geronimo, even though we're split and we're each picking aside, we didn't want to play either of those guys last night because you want to see how it's going to shake out first. And you certainly don't want to take the gamble in a matchup like this against New England, which is, you know, allowed the second lowest completion percentage to quarterbacks.

This is a game with a 51 point over under, which is great. Vegas is expecting a lot of points. Yeah, we had a 46 point over under last night, Jason. No, I was just, I would, I'm not Vegas. I would slam the under. I do not expect this to be some super high scoring game. Yeah, I'm with you on that. Texan Saints, Monday night football double header. The Saints seven point home favorites, which puts them at, you know, the game's a 52.5 point over under. That puts them at 30 points. That's the highest implied team total of the week. Yeah.

Breeze, Camara, Michael Thomas, Jared Cook, Jared Cook's from the start of the week. They're all playing. What about a flex play of Latavius Murray? Are you in on that with a 30-point, you know, implied point total? Yeah, I mean... Texans are pretty good against the running backs last year, only giving up 18 fantasy points per game. Yes, it's not the best matchup, but it's the best situation. When you're at home...

favored by a touchdown. Those are when the running back touchdowns come. And you look at how they used Mark Ingram. That being said, Alvin Camara is so good down near the goal line. You just can't tackle him. They scheme him to have enough room to just make one or seven guys miss. He can do either. Latavius or Miles Sanders this week? Oh, Sanders. I would go Sanders as well. Kenyon Drake or Latavius Murray? Drake. Drake. Darius Geis.

Or Latavius Murray. Guys, so I guess I'm not playing Latavius Murray. All right. Well, the Texans did allow the lowest yards per carry in the league last year. Only gave up 62 yards per game on the ground. So maybe you're right. Yeah, I mean, you're saying the Texans run D. I mean, correct. Jadavia and Clowny is one of the best run defenders in the league.

And he owned. So I do expect them to be a little bit more susceptible to the run. All right. On the Houston side, you're starting to Sean Watson. You're starting to Andre Hopkins. This is not rocket science. But Will Fuller, Duke Johnson. Will Fuller? I'm super excited for Will Fuller. In this game? Yes. In this game, would you have Kiki QT who still is limited and may or may not play? And Will Fuller's healthy. They've said he's ready to go.

He'll be in his normal role and his normal role when he's healthy and he's playing with Sean Watson. That role is scoring touchdowns. The more time that passes, the less comfortable I feel by Duke Johnson in week one. I think Carlos Hyde will be used. I think that you're facing a Saints defense that allowed the fewest rushing yards per game in the league last year. That's not an exciting 55 though. That's a depressing 55. And so.

You know, for a team that is still finding its way throwing to the running back, which is something that Duke Johnson does well, you know, I'm starting to wonder if your ceiling is not very high on Duke this week. Yeah. I mean, I don't think that Duke Johnson ever really had a great ceiling in this offense. Yeah, but there's an argument to be made that in this offense.

Carlos Hyde just arriving if there's a time for Duke to make his hey, it's going to be earlier than later. I'm still playing Duke. I'm just saying this ceiling-wise, we haven't seen rushing touchdowns from this team in forever. We haven't seen receptions to the running back in forever with this team. So I wasn't in on a ceiling for Duke, but I think he is like Lamar Miller. If Lamar Miller was still around in the starting running back for this team, I'd say, yeah, I'm going to play him. It's not.

exciting but oh no no no jason we interrupt this message with more antonio brown no here's a sense that things are changing quickly according to ian rapaport there is a chance he not only does not get suspended but actually plays

this week wild time well that's good news it's not sure but it's all part of the it sounds like terrible frightening news because this is the last game we have to preview and it's monday night so i hope we have clarity as a fantasy football community as to whether or not this is going down to the wire with antonio brown it's really really simple for fantasy i mean it's it is this simple if there's no clarity by sunday morning you do not take the risk on antonio if they're not saying he is playing then you

replace him in your lineup and deal with whatever happens. If he happens to play on Monday and go ham, you're fine taking that loss. You have to be a smart fantasy owner. If there's not clarity Sunday morning, don't get cute unless you want to get cute with someone else in the Monday night game. If you're going. Tyrell Williams. Emmanuel Sanders or, you know, someone like that, then sure, you've got the time to be flexible, but otherwise get him out of your lineup. I just want to throw this out there. Brooks has made, you know, the effort to.

paste in a circus tent emoji next to Antonio Brown's name in this matchup preview. It was good work. Was it you, Brooks? Yeah, the important stuff I'm doing back here. Excellent, excellent emoji work. Broncos, Raiders, Monday night, Raiders. Two-point home underdogs in this one. That actually surprises me. That does meet. Well, can we double check that? That's the case, not two-point home underdogs against the Broncos, 43-point over-under.

Well, I didn't keep a close eye on it, but I'm wondering. No, that's not what I have. I have Oakland as one point favorites at home. This is old. So this is Antonio Brown moving the line. That's what I was going to say. I'm sure the line moved when they thought Antonio wasn't going to play. So that means that we might put them back as the favorites. Based on the last report. Maybe. Here's something that's really funny. So according to what usually happens with Vegas lines, right?

This is a large movement, I mean, a huge movement in the Vegas line based on the availability of Antonio Brown or no Antonio Brown. When Zeke signed and came back the best running back in football, the line didn't move. They're like, whatever. You know, you want to talk about like in the NFL, do running backs matter. Vegas is like, yeah, who cares? They're fine with or without him. Interesting. Flacco.

Makes his Denver debut. Philip Lindsay, Royce Freeman, decisions to be made there. Emmanuel Sanders. There's a lot of kind of mystery about this Denver Broncos offense. Yes. We've talked so much about Royce Freeman being able to potentially step up into this 50-50 committee. Haven't talked enough about Philip Lindsay what he did last year and whether or not he just plain old repeats that as the more electric explosive back in the backfield. It could definitely happen, but we're dealing with a new quarterback head coach, healthy Royce Freeman.

Emmanuel Sanders returning from injury. Do you have any sort of expectations for this offense in week one on the road in Oakland? It should be a madhouse. Expectations for my fantasy team, I will play Philip Lindsay. I'm not playing Royce. I'm going to let them show me that Royce Freeman actually is in a 50-50 timeshare because if he's back down at that 35%, 30%,

sometimes getting a goal on carry, then I'm not interested. Yeah, we played that game last year and lost with Royce Freeman, so I don't blame anybody for doing that. The difference is last year at this time, everything, all the buzz was about this Philip Lindsay kid, and there's really been no buzz from this regime so far through preseason. The guy on that side of the ball that I am most excited about, it's funny how far I've come.

Because early in the offseason, I was not a believer in Emmanuel Sanders' ability to get back from this injury. Because what he has done is impossible. Sure. Like that burger. I'm all the way the pendulum has swung to the other side. And I am fine starting Emmanuel Sanders. You know, I hate to say this, but I will. If I had your roster, Andy, against me, the truth is I would play Emmanuel Sanders over to Sean Jackson over Peyton Parver without even.

hesitating for a second. Well, you, that would, you need to hesitate. Or would I? You need to hesitate with an Achilles. You need to hesitate. Well, sure, but you're, you just said without hesitation. I hesitate with a broken finger. Sure. I hesitate with a patent barber. So you're, you've got hesitation everywhere. I would. You just feel very confident that, that Sanders will be the guy. Yeah, I think he'll be the number one target. He matches what Joe Flacco in this day and age is wanting to do.

Yeah, he's still a downfield threat. I mean, he's still Emmanuel Sanders. He's an all-field threat. Yes. He means line of scrimmage, five yards, 10, 15, 35. It doesn't matter. Emmanuel Sanders beats everyone everywhere. Yesterday we talked about Darren Waller. If Antonio Brown's back, we still like Darren Waller. Do you mean... The Walleris? The Walleris. Yes, I do mean the Walleris, Mike. Thank you for pointing that out. I absolutely mean the Walleris. Where's our Wallerous emoji? I believe that means we have a Walleris and a goblin as our starts of the week this week.