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

I don't think it'll happen week one either. I think their flight has been delayed. My hope for an almost upset there is in what we see, a 48 over under, a higher scoring type of game, a game where there are some plays that are broken wide open. We talked at length about Yeldin. I don't know if there are any other big start-sick questions here. Would you guys feel very comfortable starting? Let me ask you this question. Julius Thomas is...

annoying somehow always not excited to talk about him yeah would you start him or jared cook in this game at tight end i think that there are the higher scoring game i think there are better options out there um you know if i'm starting guys i think they're both outside of my top 12 they either one if you have to start them you're you've got the chance that they put in a good fantasy game here and and that's kind of the problem that i always have with julius thomas is he's so touchdown dependent and so

He could get a touchdown, and then he's absolutely fine. Anytime a tight end gets a touchdown, he's fine. That's what Kyle Rudolph keeps saying. I expect a different game script. I think Green Bay will get ahead early, and that has always been good for the fantasy output of the Jaguars offense, but that is more in the realm of Alan Robbins than in Julius Thomas when you're down and you're slinging the ball around.

All right, we got the Chargers heading to Kansas City to take on my Super Bowl champion. Oh, wait, Super Bowl contending. Contending. Sorry. Kansas City Chiefs. Last year was not kind to Phillip Rivers in matchups against the Chiefs. He threw a total. Let me count here. Zero touchdowns against the Kansas City Chiefs last year. Both of the games were in the second half of the season when Keenan Allen was out when Kansas City was on a roll. And I believe Philip Rivers was throwing the ball to...

Who was it? Dontrell Inman? Yeah. And Danny Woodhead, of course. Oh, of course. Did you guys see that article that Danny Woodhead wrote to his younger self? I saw, I didn't get a chance to read it. It was pretty cool. It was pretty cool. I mean, he was passed on by everybody. The only reason, I mean, he basically dominated in college after being passed on by Nebraska. And nobody was interested in him. He was not invited to anything. Nebraska eventually gave him a pro day. Makes the NFL. Major injury year one.

fight, fight, fight, fight, fight, you know, long odds for Danny Woodhead. And really, now he's going into his ninth season somehow. But when we look at this game, there's a built-in water bet here in this game already because Mike and I, we have our projections for week one. We see things, look, we just talked about how week one's a little bit of a crapshoot. Yeah. A lot of our rankings are aligned. This is an area where, look, we're not going to go chalk so that we have three guys that align.

That's not what this show does. We're trying to give you our honest opinions. Sometimes they're very different. I don't know if I've ever seen them as different as this week. Ever. Because I have Keenan Allen very low. Somewhere in the late 20s early. I'll verify where they are right now. Okay. Keenan Allen, Jeremy Macklin, Mike and I have them at diametrically opposed rankings. I have Macklin, I think, at eight, Keenan at nine. You have, you have Keenan Allen at 34.

and I'm sorry, I was already in the search. You have Macklin at 5, yes. No, that is not true. I didn't know how this has a, okay. That one has an update. We have updated. We have Macklin at 8. Mike has Keenan Allen at 9, and then we have them reversed on the other side where Mike doesn't like Macklin and I don't like Keenan Allen. And so are you fine doing a straight up Macklin, Keenan Allen, Waterbet? Absolutely. We'll put that on the board. Waterbet. If this was a Fandings debate of the week that I was going to vote on,

I would be on Andy's side with Jeremy Mack. So here's why I like Keenan Allen. It's a matter of they're not going to be able to run the ball, the Chargers. And they're going to, I think the game script ends up in a classic Chargers fashion with Philip Rivers picking the team up on his back in the second half and having to sling it out. For zero touchdowns. Maybe. Maybe for zero touchdowns. And he, and I actually, I don't have Keenan with a very high chance to score.

Why, and it's not that I love him. I mean, nine, I guess I like him a reasonable amount. But for Macklin, I think that it's a Spencer Ware game. I think Ware is going to absolutely dominate the Chargers. And I don't see a need for them to feed Macklin at all. I think that they can get up rather quickly and that Alex Smith will just, will game manage and let Spencer Ware take them to victory. Let's talk about what I've, there are a lot of decisions to be made in this game.

This is probably one of the biggest games for decision-making fantasy purposes. You said you're sitting rivers down. You don't want to play them against the Chiefs. Correct. So Spencer Ware versus the field, so to speak, we have Spencer Ware ranked very high this week. He's our consensus 10. Both of you have him at 9. I'm pulling him down. I have him at 18, which is still an RB2. Okay. So Spencerware is startworthy. Yes.

Yeah, I love Spencerware this week. Mike and I have them, like you said, top 10. Melvin Gordon, do you play him against the Chiefs? Week one. I don't think so. If you can avoid it, I would. He's down in an RB3 category right now. I think the game script is slightly better for a Danny Woodhead because, again, you're not going to be able to run easily against the Chiefs, but I don't think it's a really great game for Woodhead either. They would be in flex consideration in that RB3 range, but I'm hoping.

that I have a better option, maybe a wide receiver, to flex in there above a guy like Melvin Gordon. If I'm in a standard league, I'm sitting them both. There's been a lot of hesitancy I've seen from fantasy owners about Antonio Gates this week. I think that is manifesting itself because of how good Kansas City was against the tight-in last year. And so people are saying, do you play Gates or do you go Dwayne Allen? Ooh, that's an interesting one. Well, I know my answer, but we'll get to that in a little bit. Yeah, I think I would, oh, man.

I'm starting Gates. I have a lot of confidence in Gates this week. Yeah. I would not. You know, Gates, I brought up the numbers before. Outside of Rob Grankowski, Gates has the most touchdowns of the tight-in position over the last, I believe, 17 starts, 21 starts, something like that. He's still doing it, but people really don't like playing him. It's like the Frank Gore of the tight-in position. You don't really want to start him, but he kind of should always probably be started. To me, I don't have, I'm not going to be put off by the Kansas City matchup.

So, to be clear, before we leave this matchup, if you have Jamal Charles, sit him down. Even if he's active, he's not going to get enough touches. Yes. And I just want to throw this out there because he hasn't been talked about at all in forever anywhere. But should Charkandric West end up with a major role in this game, the fantasy community, will be lighting some shorts on fire? Yes.

All right, we are going to jump now into our starts of the week. We're going to cover the rest of the matchups tomorrow. Do you guys have these things figured out? Are you got that week one confidence? Yes. My body is ready. Starts of the week. All right, one of my favorite segments, probably my favorite segment of the entire week. That escalated quickly. Look, yes, it's my favorite segment. It's okay. I mean, I like it. I love it. It's my favorite.

I said it's one of my favorite, probably my favorite. Yes. We just like throwing things on you mentally. Okay. Moving on. All right. Let's start with Mike. All right. I'm going to start at the quarterback position. Look, I'm riding the snake. I'm sending in the car. Sending in the car. Send it in the car. I didn't know it was ready.

There you go. All right. Look, the Vegas agrees with me. They have this over under at 51. They expect a lot of points to go on the board. A lot. And the actual, the Saints are favored by one. So the implied team total for both teams is extremely high. I want in on this action. So Derek Carr is a, I think he's a top five guy for me. So he's my start of the week. Yeah. I said earlier he was my number three.

quarterback this week. That is why the matchup is great. His first two years, he's proven that he can do it. And if you look at his game splits between easy matchups and difficult matchups, he really does well against the easier matchups. So I expect he'll have a good game here. I'm going to do my next start of the week because it pairs. It pairs perfectly with this. And that's at the wide receiver position. Oh, let's stay with quarterbacks. Let's give our three quarterback starts of the week. Fine. I mean, feng shui, man. I was just trying, I was trying to connect it. All right.

Then I'll do my quarterback. My quarterback is a very, very similar reason to Derek Carr. That is Matthew Stafford. And the reason is because that Vegas over under is 50 and a half points. What we've seen going back, I think, until like 2005 or 6 is that these week one Vegas lines, when games are very, very highly rated on Vegas lines, they tend to outdo that.

That go over. They go over that. So there's a lot of those games that go for crazy high points. And when I look at the matchup between the Indianapolis Colts and the Detroit Lions, I see two offenses that want to.

work fast, that have the capability of scoring points, and I see two defenses that can't really do it, and two run games that can't slow the clock down. So I just think there's going to be a ton of points scored in this game, and Matthew Stafford should be fine. I don't think they're going to be punching in touchdowns with Zach Zinner. I think he's going to be throwing touchdowns to...

you know, even if it's to Abdullah or to Marvin Jones or to Eric Ebron or Golden Tate. So Matthew Stafford to me is my start of the week. All right. My start of the week at the quarterback position is Kirk Cousins of the Washington Redskins. I've got him going into Pittsburgh. I think it'll be a high scoring game. I think it'll be a very entertaining game. And I think Kirk Cousins can keep the momentum up, do enough this week to warrant his very high rating in my rankings. I'm as my number three.

Quarterback this week, making him my start of the week. Mike has him at five. Jason does not have the same opinion, but I like Kirk Cousins a lot this week. He's my start of the week at quarterback. Let's go ahead and shift over to the running back position. There's really only one thing to say here. You know it. Oh, we're going to get. Mike has been insufferable with the awakening rhetoric. Wasn't there another quote yesterday? Yeah, there was.

Uh, teammate Doug Baldwin was asked, who has been the most impressive player for the Seahawks over training camp in the preseason? He said, it's been Kristen Michael. He's had an awakening. So it just doesn't stop. Even the team is getting on it. Mike, look at the camera and give him what you've been giving me every day. Yeah, this nonsense. I have to turn. I, he's always doing that when I'm not looking. And I, and I,

And I turn and I just see him. He's been staring at me using his fingers to open his eyes larger. That is. Whenever there is a piece of C-mic news. Now, I say all of this because Christine Michael's my start of the week. Oh, it's unbelievable. What is the happening? Oh, it's a great time to be alive, everyone. This world is crazy. But look, I love Christine Michael this week. I think Thomas Rawls is going to be on a very limited snap count. Pete Carroll's already come out and said, look, this is Thomas Rawls' second preseason game.

That's what the coach has said. What does the starting running back get on a second preseason game? They get about 15 snaps if they're lucky. I think Kristen Michael is going to run wild in Seattle. Against the dolphins. Look. I'm on board at least for one week. Seattle's favored by 10 and a half points at home. Points will be put up on the clock. They will be in a lead. The running back.

for Seattle will be great. That's why I said early this week that Thomas Rawls was locked in to be at least an RB2 because I assumed he was the starter. Whoever the starter is will be great. I think all three of us have Kristen, Michael, ranked very highly. My running back start of the week, I'm not going quite as high on our rankings, digging a little deeper, and I'm going with a guy who has had some ups and downs this offseason in Ryan.

Matthews for the Philadelphia Eagles. The reality in this game, it's not going to be necessarily a super high score, but I...

The matchup is great against the Cleveland Browns. Nobody's scared of that Browns run defense. And in addition to that, you've got a rookie quarterback who is, you know, they're probably going to try to set him up in Carson Wentz to succeed, try to run to open up the pass. So I think the volume will be there for him to put up a decent RB2 week. So I'm saying if you've got Ryan Matthews, you know, if you've got Ryan Matthews, but you drafted Melvin Gordon way ahead, don't do that. Put in Matthews.