Fantasy Football - Starts of the Week + Week 1 Breakdown, It’s Football Time! - Podcast for 9/4

Mike talked about the pace of play for Kellynne Moore offenses, first, first, second, fourth, fourth, eighth. That is their neutral pace of play. It's a lot of extra snaps. So whether Spencer Rattler can handle it? Yeah, that is the question. It's like you can do that when you've got Jalen Hertz and Dak Prescott and, you know, veteran quarterbacks. Can you play that fast with Spencer Rattler? I don't know. Do you want to? Do you want more snaps? I can see, Al. He's close. Yeah, there it is. Alvin Camara, are we just, is this the like put the blindfold on and just play them every week? Absolutely. Close your eyes. Plug your nose. Chris Olave is it a similar situation where you're just like. I think it is. I think Chris Olave is just such a. That was Mike making a sound now. Oh. I know. I had, I think everybody in this role studio. Would you thought something was there was a sound effect that played. But it wasn't. It was your mouth. You were just like making a groan in a place that is reserved for fantasy football.

I mean, like where I have OLAVe, there's just so many players. I'd play Ridley over Olavee. Yeah, I would play Rydley. I'd play Adunzea. Would you play Travis Hunter over him? Probably. I would. It'd be more fun. I wouldn't have to watch the Saints. You don't have to watch. The biggest problem is that I genuinely look at Olave and Rashid Shahid identically in terms of whether you could start one or the other. Wow. I don't see any differential. Like I have Olave down in my tier with. like downs, Jennings, Cedric Tillman, Romeo Dobbs. I mean, those, I don't think it's crazy to play those guys over OLAVe. Last year, OLAVe was 7.6 points per game and games played. Shaheed was at 11. The year before, he was at 11.7. Obviously, he's better than he was last year, the concussions, the smaller snap games. Maybe it's a little bit higher in reality. But it's close. And I, and Shaheed at least offers you the 75-yard touchdown. Yeah, I mean...

And Brandon Cooks, I haven't heard a, if you told me he didn't ever show up to training camp, I'd be like, I believe that, because I haven't heard a thing about him. I don't think he's going to be relevant at all. And the Cardinals defense is one to watch. That was the entire emphasis of the offseason. Acquire guys, you know, like Josh Sweat, you know, give him that big contract, draft a bunch of defensive pieces. Will Johnson in the second round, cornerback? Yes. I mean, we'll see if it works. But this was the emphasis of the team. Let's talk about the Pittsburgh Steelers going to play the New York Jets. Yeah, this one's fun. With a sweet over under of 38 and a half. Oh, it's less fun. Pittsburgh three point favorites. This is the lowest. 38.5. Blarf. Lowest week one over under in the last five years. Lowest week one over under in the last five years. I do not. Which side you're taken? Of the two teams? No, the over under. The pepto.

Oh, I'll take the under and I'll take Pittsburgh to win it. And I think I'm not sure. I'm not sure the Jets can do anything on offense in this game. I mean, the way Justin Fields has looked in preseason. Elijah Vera Tucker just went down. Yeah, they are, yeah, their offensive guard. Yeah. Yeah. Like unexpected. That's one of those things where it's not like a year. A lot of, yeah, out for the year. And a lot of times it. People lose offensive linemen, and that sucks. This off season, you lose an offensive lineman. This is not this off season. This is like this week right before the season starts. They don't have a contingency plan, signing trade for, draft pick type of guy to come in and replace the guy they lost. Yeah, it's just a mess like the, you know, Arian Smith? Yeah. Yeah, because some of you out there are like, what? Who? Yeah, there's reports that Arian Smith will be, like, heavily counted on this year.

for the Jets. He's a wide receiver they drafted in the fourth round. Because outside of Garrett Wilson, it's Josh Reynolds in the boys. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I turned Lizards healthy. So outside of Garrett Wilson, it's Josh Reynolds in the boys. Which is why we do like Mason Taylor, rookie tight end. Meowson Taylor, thank you, Mike. He does not have the dog in according to you. So he's one you're not going to play this week, but you'll keep an eye on, see if he is targeted. more than we expect because they do need someone else to throw the ball to. Are you Jason Moore? Yes, I am. That was too long a pause. This one needs the emphasis. All right. Are you starting Caleb Johnson in week one? So.

I mean, it really depends. 38.5.5. It really depends on your league. Like there's one league where I am. No, no, no. I would not want to start Caleb Johnson. This is what I was saying earlier. There are players like a Keenan Allen I would start over him. But it's really not a matter of, do I start him? No, I would start Caleb Johnson over Cream Hunt for sure. It's just who is your other option? I think most people, where you got Caleb Johnson in a draft, you can start other players. Ramandre Stevenson. Oh, that's a. That's a really good name. That is that's coin flip. I think I would probably go remandre. I think he'll have more volume than Caleb. No, I'm going to go Caleb at that point. Okay. Nick Chubb against the ramps. Man, that's tough. That's really tough because you don't even know. Nick Chup. Yeah. Goodness. I don't, I don't. There's nothing. No further. No further. It is not. No, no, no, no. Let's be clear. It is not a.

Betrayal of Caleb Johnson to give him the time necessary to become something. Like to start a player that you know is going to get guaranteed working week one is intelligent. It's not foolish. And I'm not, no, no, no. I'm backing you up. I'm saying Caleb can be great and you can sit him for a couple weeks. I think Caleb Johnson. Well, let's let's just talk specifics here. How many carries do you think Caleb Johnson gets in this game? Five. I would say eight. But that's like on the high side. I was going to say six. Yeah. So five to eight carries, that's not what you want for fantasy football at all. And a player who does not profile the catch and he passes, you can't just take five to eight carries. Yeah. So, you know, it's, you know, I talked about it a little bit with Trayvion Henderson where I'm, I'm a little bit more nervous to start him, not as nervous as Caleb Johnson, but that doesn't mean they're bad players. It just means you've got to give them time. Exactly. Yeah. And it's a low over under. All the, all the circumstantial stuff around the game.

is a negative. So are you willing to put Jalen Warren in? Yes. With all of the. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Jalen Warren should be starter. Like he's an RB2 to me. Okay. D.K. Metcalf, we get to see the dominant target share, hopefully. What an incredible player. Mike is really just something happened over the last week where he just really. Yeah, I drafted him. So now he's awesome. Yeah. I will say. It's not the best. matchup situation. Yeah, Sauce Guard. What how? Come on, guys. This is, we're talking about D.K. Metcalf. I love D.K. Metcalf this season. Mega millionaire. D.K. Metcalfe. I do expect him to still get targets. Unstoppable. But he is going up. I mean, this is a defense that the Jets don't have a bad defense. And you've got Sauce Gardner as a lock down, uh, cornerback. And there's no one else.

to guard on this offense other than D.K. Metcalf. You're not worried about Roman Wilson and Calvin Austin. So, you know, if I'm planning for this team, I'm just shutting down D.K. Metcalf, which lowers him to a flex option to me. Anybody else to talk about in this game? Johnny Smith had been missing practices, so we didn't get a lot of, you know, reports of Johnny Smith formations. But I do think in week one, we may walk away from this game going, ah, son of a gun. There's Johnny. There's John who again. There's John who again. Maybe. Because there's a lot of weird stuff they're going to do in this offense that features John Newsmith. And similar to the Jets, they don't have other places to throw the balls. Yeah, I pluralized it. Pause? I thought I caught an ass on there. I wasn't quite sure. Yeah. Is that what the Steelers' new plan is? Multi ball? Multi. I don't think they're using one single ball for an entire game, Mike. Oh, I stand by what I said. Yeah, he does. That's it. He's right.

You were technically correct, which is the best kind of correct. One more. New York Giants, Washington commanders, Vegas line, Washington, minus six. The overrunners 45 and a half. Okay. Here we go. A battle in the NFC East. Washington won both games last year, although they were both very close. 21, 18, 27, 22. They were, if I remember correctly, tougher games for Jaden Daniels with that defensive front. And the defensive line. I'm in love with it for the Giants. Yeah. You know, first time we're going to see Debo Samuel in a commander's uniform. We've got the running back situation that has been. Jaden, they played in week two. Okay. And he was coming off of the, you know, the home, the opener where he was QB3. So he was QB3. Okay. Yeah. What's the other one if I, let's see if my memory is good. Week nine, he scored just under 20 fantasy points. So he was a QB one that week.

But under 20? 19.9. And how many points in the first one? 13.4. 13 to 19. I mean, those are, they're fine, but they're not two of his good games last year. It would have been, I think that's looking at it real quick. That's his worst game where he played all the snaps. This was a Giants defense that was number nine against quarterbacks last year. They gave up 15.8 on average, and Jaden didn't really surpass that. Ninth against whiteouts, second against tight ends. Their one defensive problem was the running game, which might be broken across three different players in Washington. It doesn't mean you don't play Echler. I think that's okay. But you could end up a little disappointed, I think. And just to follow up on that, because we reported the unauthorized depth chart that they released where Bill was dead last. There was a report yesterday of, okay, for watching how they are.

ordering in terms of, you know, running all of their, the practice. It was Echler and then Bill. Bill. Bill Crosky. He can touch MC Hammer. Okay. Okay. Unbelievable. That one been in the chamber for a few days? Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. Got to have some. ammunition loaded um six point favorites though at home washington high over under i'm not saying anything like you can play jaden daniels of course home opener um debo do you think it's a strong start for debo considering uh the fact that they're going to hand them the football they're going to get him the screen game i don't think it's going to be a great start over under 10 fantasy points if you had to set it up right now half ppr i'll take the under mike what about you i i'm

I feel okay with him this week. I'm far more bearish on Debo bouncing back than you guys are. So under the 10 points this week? Yeah. Okay. What else do you have to say about the Washington side? The Washington side? Terry McLaren, just back out there? Yeah, Terry McLaren, you know, he'll have to be started. I'm going to start Austin Eckler and this. You know, you look at defenses of really bad teams, right? And the Giants were a terrible team last year. They project to be a losing team this season, although their defense is very good. And when you look at good defenses on bad teams, a lot of times what you see is what you saw last year and what we expect this year, which is the running backs still have great success against them. You can't pass on them that much. And it's not just because of their defensive personnel, but it's because you're in the lead. You took a lead. That other team can't do much, so you just keep running the ball. More opportunities for the running game, fewer opportunities for the passing game.

fewer opportunities for the quarterback. And that's kind of what I expect on the Washington side of the ball. Unless Russell Wilson can surprise and could come out looking, you know, a hot start this year, the way that he started well when he got the opportunity last year. That would be the only way that I think we get more that we like out of this game is if Russell Wilson comes out. Looks good. Maybe Theo Johnson is kind of a week one breakout player. He's the second year tight end from the Giants that I really will have my eyes on. I mean.

Otherwise, I don't expect it to go well. Malik neighbors, reminder, he was trailing or tied in 90% of all routes last year, and it might start that way again this year. I imagine Washington is going to win the football game, but I am excited to see what the Giants have in store on the offensive side with a different quarterback and whether Malik neighbors can get it done. So Mike, other expectations from Tracy or Scataboo or the running game in New York? I don't know the full expectations, but that's just, you know. One of the week one things that we will have the eye on of does Scataboo immediately break into it? Or is Tracy going to be a workhorse for at least a few weeks? All right. We'll cut it off there. We'll get into more matchups tomorrow. That was Fantasy Forecast, presented by PrizePix, the largest daily fantasy sports platform. Download the prize picks app today and use the code footballers and get $50 instantly in lineups when you play $5.

So tomorrow we'll have more matchups, and we will also have the fantasy face-off again tomorrow. And then we'll get into the weekend. You'll get week one, football, finally, and some wins and some losses and some surprises and some crazy waiver wire, and we'll hit studs and duds and waivers early parts of next week. It's also a good time to remind people, if you were an ultimate draft kit buyer, if you used Ultimate Draft Kit, there's a lot of you out there, the UDK or the UDKK Plus. That season is over, right? The draft season from February to now is over. What we are doing as a courtesy to anybody that bought the UDK or the UDK Plus, if you want the in-season tools and resources that we have available, the premium tools and resources, including the lineup optimizer and the waiver wire tool. Fourthcoming trade tools, rest of season rankings, stuff that we haven't even had before that we're going to have this season that's all in the ultimate.

It'll be in the ultimate dashboard, which is part of being an ultimate Fookland member. And look, you know, to tell you the truth, if you get, if you upgrade now, it basically comes with the UDK for next year. Yeah, because you, you can take your UDK, the amount that you paid for it and basically just apply it towards an ultimate membership, which is a year round membership that includes the UDK for next year. DFS pass. All of that stuff. Everything we ever make, including the extra episode every week. That cutoff is normally today. It's on kickoff. We're going to extend it a couple of days, and that'll be it. And then that credit will not exist anymore. So you can go to join thefoot.com. Make sure you're logged in with your UDK account and just click on the ultimate package and you will get a dollar for dollar credit. A couple of pieces of news, which I'm sure we'll report it again tomorrow just because it's so late. But Christian Kirk, Houston Texans, not practicing again.

today so that you know like jalen knoll is someone to keep an eye on and the walleris again not seen practicing he's he's ramping up yeah any day now oh my gosh he's got one of those he and 11 targets maybe he's got one of those kawai linner no show jobs maybe he doesn't actually play maybe he doesn't actually play maybe thank you for joining us it's football time everybody we'll catch you tomorrow enjoy the game tonight Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join thefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FF ballers.