Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Matchups, Debate, News

Andrew Luck's going to be or Aaron Rogers or Cam Newton. But we look back at previous years. I was just saying we're not, we don't know exactly what it's going to land, you know, the end of the year. I think at the end of the year, I think at the end of the year with the improvements New Orleans has made to their defense, they are one of the worst defenses in the NFL. And that's, that's fair. That's a fair statement. And so I would play Derek Carr in a heartbeat. Okay. Who did you tell him to pick up? I said, um,

I said I think Winston's a good play. I actually, I don't think Carr was actually part of that group. Oh, okay. Would you play Winston? Winston, I have ranked at 18, and I do. But would you have the courage to put them in. Yeah, I would. If I had Winston and Cam, I would. I said I probably wouldn't. I said I'd probably just play Cam. I don't think I have the courage. You have to draft. You have to take another spot on your roster for a week to do that. I think I'd just try to get through week one with Cam. That's what I would do. Sure. So, um.

Let's talk about the running backs. Jonathan Stewart, C.J. Anderson, or they start where they do this? Repeats previous conversation for the running backs. Look, I'm okay with C.J. Anderson in this situation. Jonathan Stewart, though, is going to be a tough start for me. If you have somebody on your bench, maybe you grabbed where. I'm playing where over Jonathan Stewart. I mean, there's a lot of guys that I would prefer to play over Stewart. Anderson, like I said, I feel.

okay about it. Stuart's going to get volume. He'll get volume. He just might not produce. I mean, it might be one of those 18 for 50. Yeah, and so you're really hoping he gets a touchdown. Okay. And so you guys have, where's C.G. Anderson this week? I have him, I haven't at 24. So does Mike. Jason has him a little lower. You have him at 35. I believe you have him at 35. Oh. And I have him at 24 and Mike has him at 18. You're correct.

You're correct. I was, I was looking at the consensus. I was looking, all right. He is our 24th. Makes more sense. Yeah, so he's a borderline RB2 this week for C.J. Anderson, you know, when it comes to running backs, when you win the game, running backs, like if we knew for sure who was going to win a game, that team's running backs usually have a much stronger fantasy output. That's just provable. In a game like this, even though all three of us said we believe that Denver's going to win.

This is going to be a close game. You can't just go, one team's going to win this. And so start that running back. This whole entire game can be broken down into these are the guys that I feel comfortable playing. Demaris Thomas, Greg Olson. And I'm okay with C.J. Anderson. But other than that, I mean, you're talking about a run defense last year between the two. Panthers are fourth. Broncos were third. Last year, past defense Broncos were the first.

Panthers were 11th. It's going to be a low-scoring game. People have been asking about Demarius Thomas, so I'm glad you brought him up. You're comfortable playing him. All right, let's move on to the Buccaneers taking on the Atlanta Falcons. The Falcons are favored at home by three points. This game's an indoor game. You have James Winston and Matt Ryan. You have Doug Martin and his counterpart Sims, and then you have Devonta Freeman on the other side.

And then you have guys that I have projected for a very big week, Mike Evans and Vincent Jackson, taking on Julio Jones and his friends. Julio and Friends. So how do you see this game breaking down from a fantasy perspective? Who are you comfortable with? What are the decisions you making here? I'm comfortable with a lot of guys in this game. I think that this game will be, it's not going to be one of the highest scoring games of the week. It'll be up there, though. Yeah, exactly. I don't think it's going to be a low scoring game either.

Doug Martin, Sims, Freeman, Julio, Vincent Jackson, Mike Evans, I think all of them are startable. And this is one of those nice games where where you drafted these players in your startup league fantasy draft is pretty much the exact value they're going to be getting for this game because these are kind of too middle of the road to lesser than teams. So I think the matchup is...

fine for where you drafted them. Yeah, I think this game will be a high-scoring game. I mean, Vegas has it at 47 points. These two teams, they met in shootout type of games last year. And if you're starting a tight-in from Tampa, or would you ever start a tight-in from Tampa? I'm not starting Safarian Jenkins until I see it. Yeah, I wouldn't. But if I had to pick one, it would be ASJ.

We're going to talk a little bit more later about Vincent Jackson. He's going to be featured in one of the segments later on, so I don't want to get too into it there. But I have Mike Evans very high this week. In fact, we all have Mike Evans inside of our top 10. And so I think we feel very confident with the fantasy pieces that you've drafted being started in this game. I also really like Devante Freeman in this game. Sure. I have Devanti Freeman. He's one of my highest. I think he's a top five back for me this week.

He is for me as well. He's my number two. He's my number two bad. Two for you, four for me, seven for Mike. Yeah. And actually in full PPR. Yeah, about the same. All right. The Bills and... What are you laughing at? I like him a lot. Let me see where I got him. Oh, number two. This just was funny. All right. All right. Bills and the Ravens. What do we got in this game? Look, I want... There's some pieces in here I like.

um i am one of a i will give a spoiler alert here for our league of record i am a philip rivers owner i drafted him because on the season i believe in rivers philip rivers is taking on the chiefs on the road as we're going to talk about a little little bit later i don't want any part of that action this week so i have picked up tyrod taylor and i'm going to play him over philip rivers

That's a bit of a spoiler alert. I did not know that for our League of Record. That happened this morning. Is that because you looked at my quarterback rankings this week? Because I looked at my own where I have Philip Rivers very low. Yeah, I have Tyra Taylor number eight this week. Yeah, I've got really, really like the matchup. Feel very confident in that. For fantasy purposes, I'm curious to your guys just take. Right now, Vegas has this 44.5 points. That's pretty much like right in the middle. That's an average game. Would you guys take the over or the under on that?

Because I think I'm... I would take the over. I would take the over. Yeah, and I worry that it's going to be more of an under. I just see two teams that are kind of working so many different things out. But the defenses for both, obviously, the Bill's defense this offseason has just been decimated by injury. They've lost so many guys. That's not very helpful. The weapons are there for the Ravens in the passing game. We don't know who to start, but for Flacco.

Flacco is going to get whoever, you know, the production from whoever catches the ball. Who are you willing to start here? And from a Ravens standpoint? Yeah. I've told people Aiken's the safest. Yeah, I'll start Aiken. If you are in that running back pickle, I'm okay with Justin Fawcett. I don't love it. I would prefer a different option. Let me lay out some decisions that people might be facing. Would you start Justin Fawcett against Buffalo or would you start Jeremy Hill against the Jets?

Ooh, I would start Jimmy Hill. I would start Hill. Okay, I think I'd go fourth set there. Would you start Justin Forset against Buffalo or Carlos Hyde against the Los Angeles Rams? Forcet. I was, one of my biggest surprises this week was how low Carlos Hyde ended up in my rankings. Seems like Mike would choose Hyde. I think I would go high. A lot. Last one here, Chris Ivory against Green Bay or Justin Forset against Buffalo. Ooh. I'm going to make it the Justin Foreset sweep here. You've got the triple. I'll go Foreset in that.

So if you're facing some of those, what about, let me put this one out there since we talked about him. Jonathan Stewart against Denver or Justin Forset against Buffalo. I would go Stewart. Yeah, that's a line I wouldn't cross. I'd go, Stewart. All right, the Bears travel to Houston to take on the Texans. I do not think this game will be close. I think this game will be a blowout. Vegas has the line at 44 right in the middle.

I think Houston is going to mop the floor with Chicago. I'm sorry if you're a Chicago fan out there. I just don't think your season is getting off to a good start, and I think it's partially because the schedule is a little rough to you right here. You have to travel to Houston, take on a very good defense, and what I think is going to be just a very...

solid offense. I think, I think a very firm, strong, solid offense. Lamar Miller gets to make his debut with the Texans. I have him rated very highly this week. Do you guys feel the same about Lamar Miller? I love Lamar Miller this week. And I'm going, look, number one for you. I got him as my number one guy. I got him opening up against the Bears. The Bears last year were the 22nd best. So I don't know if you can really call it best. But so they ranked 22nd against the run. It was a, it was a struggle all year.

for the Bears. And like we've said, we don't have a ton to go on. We have no current data. So I'm going with the Bears to still have a bad rushing defense. I think Lamar Miller is going to get a ton of work. And I'm with you, Andy, on the game script. I think that Houston is going to win this game kind of going away, which to me, game script-wise, is points to Lamar Miller getting that workload in all.

in all facets of the game. One surprise for me when I was diving into this game doing the research was Jeremy Langford. I assumed I would be very, very low on Jeremy Langford because of the matchup. But the more that I looked into it, the more I thought Jeremy Langford will probably be okay because of his work in the passing game. Those three games that Forte missed last year were, he caught 13 passes.

in those three games combined. And when he played a good defense, like against the L.A. Rams, he had seven receptions for 109 yards and a touchdown. Now, I'm not projecting anything like that. But I'm saying that if the game does get out of hand the way that you expect, I don't think that's going to rule Langford out of this game. And so he should be an okay start, you know, an RB2. And I thought coming in that this was a guy I'm just going to avoid. Yeah, I think if he struggles, do not.

freak out about Langford either. Sure. For week one. And, you know, we should have said it at the top when we started overviewing the games. Week one's the worst. Oh, by a mile. The hardest week to project. I mean, we don't get to go back and look at trends. I mean, we have no trends. We have no perception of exactly how some of the carry counts will break out. We don't understand the defensive, you know, the trends on the defensive side of the ball. And so we have to go based on.

what we have in front of us, which is some of last year's data, what we've seen and heard and talked about on this show and throughout scene and training camp and preseason. And that's how we project week one. But it's going to be a little bit of a bumpy road in the beginning as we get these things established. I'm still good with Alshan because Jay Cutler will feed him. Sure. And I'm with Jason. I'm okay with Langford because if...

Things go bad. He'll get into the passing game. All right. We're going to move on now. Talk about the Packers at the Jaguars in Jacksonville, also known as. Oh. Andy's almost upset of the week. Your Gus Bradley love is off the charts here. I love you, Gus. The Jaguars are five and a half point dogs at home, which is just. That's so weird. Just a shame.

Come on now. It's my almost upset of the week, Jacksonville, at home. You can't stop the gradient. You can't stop the gradient helmet. You can't stop the rattlers. To me, if you are projecting this game, you're saying, and if Vegas is saying it's a five and a half point underdog for Jacksonville, you're saying that the defense for Green Bay is going to show up. And so, you know, last year they were a good past defense.

And so you might say, okay, that's what you need to stop the Jacksonville Jaguars. You have Alan Robinson and Alan Hurons. First round pick, Alan Hurons. Right, from yesterday's show. Yeah. But I think they have enough in the running game. I think they have enough to compete if this game becomes a shootout. And so I'm going to take them as my alma. Look, they're not going to win. They're my almost upset. Or will they? We'll find out. So you're starting Rogers. You're starting Lacey. You're starting Randall Cobb.

Are you starting Jordan Nelson? I'm going to start him. I am as well. Not worry about a snap count on that side of the ball. I worry about a snap count, but I'm still the weapon that is Jordy Nelson. I'm not going to sit it down. Yeah, and they're going to need to figure that out. I just call him a thing. Sorry, Jordy. They're going to need to figure out what Jordy can do. And even if he's on a snap count, Aaron Rogers will be looking to him. And he's the type of player that can break any play wide open for a long touchdown. And if the Jaguars are similar.

to what we saw from their defense in years past, which I will say this, of all the teams on paper for defense, they have improved their defense on paper just about more than anyone else, or at least, you know, they're in that conversation. The world is waiting for Gus Bradley and his defensive genius and the personnel to match up into that, you know, to where George Clooney and Marky Mark might show up. That's not going to happen.