Fantasy Football - 2nd Half Sleepers & TNF Preview + BREAKING NEWS! - Podcast for 10/22

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. To the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. Wednesday, October 22nd, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, and a cardboard bear today. Mike is, he was going to be here. He is Mr. Mom this week.

single dad this week his life is out of town everything was smooth everything was fine then one of the kids got sick it happens and so he is taking care of that and we are here today we've got second half sleeper picks on the show a Thursday night game to get into some news to catch you up on your questions to answer yeah no it's gonna be a good show we just saw waivers go through in all of our leagues right before There's a new manager for Brock Bowers in the chopped league. Yeah, you got seven days. That team is doomed. I mean, it's.

virtually impossible for it to happen again, but I have to imagine everyone in the league is rooting for that to happen. There's a reason I only bit a little bit. I couldn't believe. I've been on the edge of chop for like three, three weeks and I was like, this is the thing that would push me right over the edge. It's so funny because he's not playing this week. Right. Well, that was my hope. Maybe that breaks the curse. He can't, he can't hurt you on by, but still it was fascinating to me how much clearly the curse. has factored into real bids because he should have gone for a lot of money. Yeah. He's going to come off the buy and be one of the best tight ends in fantasy football. That's my belief. Yeah. For a bunch of teams going out that week. Right. That's how it feels. There you go. Megalobole leaders right now through seven weeks. Pook Nukem, number one, overall out of 20,000 plus players on the Megalabole. So congratulations.

Pook Nukem in first place. Smokey the Bear, though, hot on his heels. Oh, only you can prevent forest fires. I am in 4,713th place. With what record? 12 and 2. Okay. You can find us on X at the FF Ballers. You can follow me at Andy Holloway, Jason at Jason FFL. Don't give out Mike's. No, don't you do it. Okay. He has got to be here. He's got to earn it. Yeah, we deleted his Twitter because he's not here today. Right. uh youtube dot com slash the fantasy footballers make sure you subscribe just in case a ws goes out yeah that's true we had the show on monday where we couldn't post the podcast because the entire internet's hinging on one u s east a ws server and uh well google doesn't use a ws so youtube was up and the show was up and we were waiting to post the podcast for like what five hours guys

The producers were clicking the button to try the upload again. Every five minutes. Every five minutes for five hours. And yeah. So you want to subscribe YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers and then click the bell and then you'll be alerted when Mike goes live on Sundays for Sunday live, which is an hour before kickoff. Gets you ready with the last minute news and unfortunately meteorology reports. Yeah, yeah. Thankfully, it does not appear as of this moment to be as bad of weather as it was last week for some of those games. I'm just seeing this news that to Rod Taylor, who had a chance to start on Sunday, is considered day to day with a knee injury. Yeah, he has not been a model of health. He is a backup that it seems like every year, every year he is needed. The starter goes down.

only so that Tyrod can go in and go down. It does seem that way. It has been that way for a while. So we'll see who we get in New York. But let's talk some backup options. Backup options presented by progressive insurance. All right. Well, the most dropped players on sleeper over the last 24 hours, Justin Fields, Caleb Williams, Emmanuel Wilson, Hassan, Hassan, Sean Tucker, Michael Carter, Whittington, McCaffrey, Mike Evans. Poor one out. Sad. Cameron Johnson. Michael Mayor, Darren Waller, A.J. Barner, Mason, Taylor. So most of those make sense to me. Yeah, I would say most of them. Waller probably should hang around if you got an IR spot. Yeah, it's right. I mean, a lot of leagues don't have IR. You're going to miss more than likely at least two weeks. And with the bypocalypse where six teams are on by, you might just have to do that. I mean, Jeremy's over there with...

going to have to drop a starter. He doesn't have anyone on his bench to be able to drop to find a tight end right now. So you're going to have to make a trade or something, Jerry. That's right. Yeah. I would say make a trade with me. Or do nothing. None of that's going to make a difference. We have backup options for you, though. So if you didn't get the waiver ads that you wanted, we were just going through all of our leagues. We definitely missed out on some players we wanted. Here are some backup options you can pay attention to. And, um,

You know, for me, there were kind of two names I wanted to just float out there. Check to see of Harold Fanon was dropped. Yes. Just due to kind of reaction to the roulette of tight ends. It looks like 29% of leagues he's out there. You know, through seven weeks, he has the fifth most targets of all tight ends and the fourth most receptions. You had a weather game last week, so he didn't perform up to, you know, what you hope for. But he's on pace for almost 80 receptions. That's probably going to go up with no Njoku. Oh, yeah, for sure. I think he is a great start this week. He is used in the area of the field where you're actually going to get targets because, you know, the Browns aren't pushing it downfield. So like downfield to the Browns right now is Harold Fanon. It's like 15 yards. Yep. It's really juicy. The other name I was just going to throw out is because they're going into the buy week.

Just, I mean, Bam Knight's going to be everywhere. And we're talking, like, people are stuck starting really bad players. Bam Knight had a ton of opportunity in the last Cardinal game, and Trey Benson is not eligible to return until week 10. The trend in Arizona has actually been to give Bam Knight more work and Michael Carter less work. That is what has happened. And so 17 opportunities last week. He had scored two previous weeks. Last week, 57 yards on the ground. You know, I don't think Bam Knight or Michael Carter are very good, but a starting running back for a period of time, including Dallas right after the buy week, pick them up during the buy. Yeah. If you have the ability to do it and stash them on your bench. That is, that's something that I think people need to take advantage of. The player I wanted to highlight is another player going on to buy. It's Matthew Stafford. He is the type of player. I expect to be dropped in a lot of leagues. He's not.

been, you know, he wasn't drafted super high. He hasn't finished very high in fantasy for a number of years. And with all the buys and him being one of the players going on by, I would imagine many leagues he's dropped. I would scoop him up. You know, it's been with Devante Adams around the goal line, it's been not just Kyron Williams. And that has made all the difference for Matthew Stafford. He's been great the last few years. But for fantasy purposes, The touchdowns have come on the ground, and that's just wrecked him. The last month of football, Matthew Stafford is the quarterback four in fantasy points. He was the quarterback two, five, and five in three of those four weeks. So going on the rest of the season, they've got a good schedule. I think that Devante Adams makes a difference. And I've got a couple other names to throw out there. Now, there's been new talk this morning that I saw that it is legitimately concerning.

that rumors are that Lamar really might not play this week. Now, currently, the over under, the Vegas lines of how many points they're expecting to score, the Baltimore Ravens being favored, the expectation appears that Lamar is playing. So I don't know if that line has moved this morning with more rumors that maybe he misses. However, there will come a time, I think, this year where... the tight-end position, whether that's likely or Andrews, it matters with Lamar there. I mean, the Baltimore Ravens have kind of been deleted from our thought process because the last month without Lamar has been so bad. They're not going to be that bad. They are going to be a team that is scratching and clawing to get back in the playoffs. And the best part is their defense is wrecked. You know who it reminds me of? A lot. Last year, the Cincinnati Bengals.

They started, what were they? They were probably one in five, something like that. I think they were one in five. And their defense was healthy and awful. And you saw people win championships with that Burrow Chase stack because they were scratching and clung almost made the playoffs. And they did it because MVP caliber play from Joe Burrow. When Lamar comes back, he's going to put that team on his shoulders and he's going to throw a ton of yards, ton of touchdowns. the weapons there, yeah, you got flowers, but I think Andrews and maybe Isaiah likely, who hasn't really had an opportunity yet to do anything this season. Those are guys I'd be looking at on the waivers. That was backup options sponsored by progressive insurance. Quote today at progressive.com. Let's talk some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by progressive insurance. Well, no team has really been more hurt on the offensive side of the football than Dan Quinn and the commanders. When you don't have your quarterback or your...

Best two starting wide receivers. I would say that that is a tough position to be in there. It's fair. I mean, the 49ers say, you know, hold my beer, but at least they have Christian McCaffrey. Yeah, they've lost their quarterback. They're starting wide receivers. They're starting tight end. Yep. And their entire defense. Yep. They're getting some back, though. In fact, when we get to second half sleepers, I have a name from the 49ers worth mentioning. Dan Quinn said the plan is for Terry McLaren and Debo Samuel. They have a full week of practice ahead of their Monday night game against the Chiefs. That's great.

So that's exciting. I just was going to mention the chiefs are 10.5 point favorites right now against the commanders. Yeah, right now I don't think we have information on Jane Daniels, whether he has a chance to play or not. The expectation and that line says, I think, as of this moment, that it should be Mario. Buccaneers head coach Todd Bowles said Bucky Irving and Chris Godwin are getting better, but didn't know whether each could play. in their play or return to practice this week. And they have a bye week next week. You know, this is three weeks missed for Bucky Irving. They didn't put them on IR. So usually that means you're trying to get a player back before four weeks. However, with the buy next week, I would not be surprised at all. You know, I don't know how true it is or isn't. Like we talk about this and they're they're all human beings. So maybe there is truth, but like you're playing the Saints.

You're, you know, the Buccaneers are going to play the Saints, and I feel like you go, do we want to rush them back? We can beat the Saints without Bucky. No, and then give him another week for the bye week. Yeah, yeah, it's a very different report than the McCorn and Devo going to have a full week of practice. Kevin Stefansky says he's hopeful. David Nogoku will play in week eight remains day to day. Hmm. So he could be back sooner than we expected. That would suck. That would be awful. For Fanon? Yeah, for, because Fanon and the Joku. If you combine, like if you look at just tight-in stat team tight-end, the Browns are hot this year. I mean, they are, they're on fire. You just can't start either one of them because they're both getting a good chunk. Neither is getting a great chunk together. It would be great. So please either one of you don't play. They should take turns. Stay fresh. Just like every other Sunday is Fanon and every other Sunday is Najoku.

Or they both wear the same jersey each week. Oh, and then so every play. Every play just gets attributed. I'm fine with that. The Jets are moving forward towards naming Tyrod Taylor the starter to Rod Taylor, sorry. But the reports is like they know who the quarterback is going to be. They don't want to publicize it. Don't want to give the competitive advantage. No. They also have not named their starting wide receiver. They don't have them to name. So they're like looking for wide receivers. I think they're doing open tryouts right now. You see the comments from their owner? Yeah. Where it's like he said they'd look good if they could just complete a pass. And then they also said with this quarterback, but like the quarterback's on your team. Yeah. That's rough. Aaron Jones. Vikings running back designated a return from injured reserve. He's got a 21 day window to return. Was limited on the walkthrough, but he's going to come back soon. Soon. I think they really need him. Yeah, they definitely need him. He's a different type of player than Jordan Mason, obviously.

Yeah, soon would be very, very soon. A couple days. You're saying, do you think I'll be back in a couple days? I do. I think he plays this week. That was news and notes, sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive.com, progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third-party insurers. Not available in all states or situations, coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. I was just thinking about how fun it would be to listen to the Falcon try to read the disclaimer at the end of an ad. Oh, bleh. Do you know what I mean? That would be so fun. Do you want to give it a, I would love to. You want to give it a rip? You see the showdown there. Yeah, you're kind of, you're employed. Let me just hear it. All right, let's go. You can get through this perfectly. Oh, Mike. Let's go. You got this. Progressive quality insurance. Yes. And third party insurers not available in all states or situations coverage subject of policy terms limits and conditions. Okay. You got, you got out there. Yeah, you started real bad.

with different words, but the rest of it was pretty good. Yeah, good job. I am proud of you. You see that coming, did you? Reading is not for everyone. Reading's not for everyone. Okay, I don't know why I did that. Sorry, buddy. All right, we'll take a break. We'll come back with Thursday night football. This episode is supported by prize picks. You make decisions every day, but on prize picks. Being right can get you paid. Don't miss any of the excitement this football season on prize picks where it's good to be right. Price picks is the only app that offers stacks, meaning you can pick the same player up to three times in the same lineup. I've been doing that to great success with Justin Herbert. You want to pick more of a quarterback's passing yards and rushing yards and touchdowns. Now you can do them all in the same lineup only.

on prize picks. And Footland, if you want to play along with us around the studio parts, we've been looking at usually a weekly projection of about five and a half, six and a half rushing yards on Jordan Love. That one, don't, don't change it. Don't change it out there. Download prize picks apps today and use code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. That's code footballers to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup prize picks. It's good to be right. Falcons a good sport. Oh, he is. Yeah, he's the best. All right, here we go. Thursday night breakdown. Thursday night breakdown. The affirmation. I'd love to see the Falcon breakdown this match. Breakdown this entire game in a solo. Just him and Jay Gris. Okay. Well, the Minnesota Vikings, we just talked about them briefly with Aaron Jones. They're three and three hanging in there with the quarterback situation.

heading to Los Angeles to take on the Chargers at SoFi, the Chargers are 4 and 3, Vegas line Chargers minus 3, over under is 44.5. You know, this is a really interesting game to me because I don't, I feel like the Chargers to a lesser degree, but maybe similarly to the Broncos, a little bit of Jekyll and Hyde going on. There are games in which the Chargers, I know that, you know, there's a lot of things to blame there, the offensive line, the injuries to the running back core. Those would be the significant reasons why they struggle, but at times they look unstoppable. Even in the game they just lost, they looked unstoppable on offense for parts of that game. Once they got it going, yeah. I mean, when they had to put the pedal to the metal, they can. And I think part of that is, that's kind of the issue, is like they try to be conservative. You know, they want to play a conservative.

brand of football usually the hardball defense and and running it's not working and so when they got down by a bunch and we're like hey we're just going to have to go high tempo push the ball down the field that's like that's what they do best yeah and i don't i think i would probably disagree that that's what they that they want to do the slow thing i don't think i buy that narrative anymore coming off of the second half of last year and the first half of this year basically leading in neutral pass rate i think they do want to lean on herbert

They just can't successfully lean on Herbert when they allow so many pressures. They have allowed the most pressures in this last game against Indianapolis, which credit to their defense. 35 times in that game, Justin Herbert was pressured. That is the most since 2019 in any single game. Herbert is so capable of 404 any week. Yeah, 420 and 3 last week. Yeah, you just don't know exactly what week it is going to be, which is like why Bo Nix was irrelevant through three quarters and great for a quarter. That was a perfect microcosm of Denver. They actually looked horrible for three quarters. They just figured out how to turn it on in one game, not the next game. Minnesota, though.

That's what they do. They bring the pressure. I could see this being an almost upset. I could see this being... Oh, for sure. Minnesota taking this one on the road. You know, Carson Wentz, I would say it was borderline awful last week against Philadelphia, and they were still in that game. That's just the way Minnesota plays and the way that they're coached and the way their defense plays, they're just in games that they shouldn't be. And the way that their defense lines up against the Chargers, it's... Man. I learned last week. I just go with it. Yeah, you just follow. I'm supposed to just go with it, right? You just go with whatever you feel. But this feels early. It was early last week. I don't even have it in the board. My board drop isn't even there. I'll bet Jeremy. Jeremy, hit it. Hit it. Jeremy hit that. Hell, that was fast. Andy's almost upset of the week.

Yeah, I'm just going to go with it. I'm going to go with it early. That's how it feels. Yeah, with the spread, I did take the Vikings on this one. I think it's going to be a competitive game. The Vikings defense has been a question to me. The way that the Chargers offense and the Broncos offense has shown up where sometimes they look unbelievable, unstoppable, and sometimes they look, you know, incompetent. That's kind of how I feel about the Vikings defense. At the beginning of the year, I wanted to be like they are. They're one of the top three defense. They just looked, you know. I still feel that way. You still. I do. But they've had a few games. Yeah, they've had a few breakdowns where it's like, ah, they didn't show up. There were big plays last week. That was the problem. On a Thursday night short week on the road, that's where it's like, are they going to show up in a massive way in that setting? Yeah, and Hassan Haskins right now did not practice on Thursday. It looks like Kamani Vidal Sassoon will have the backfield.

mostly to himself. He's already been called Doubtful. That would be Haskins by Jim Harbaugh. So that hurts too. And Joe Alt, limited on Thursday with the ankle injury. If he plays, he's playing a little bit less than 100%. Yeah. I think that is a massive deal for the Chargers for Justin Herbert. Both of these teams are kind of run funnel defenses, really good at stopping the pass. average against the run. So I think Vidal Sassoon is a fine start reminder because this is Thursday night football and Vidal is pretty much like a borderline flex player. He's not a guy that you see. It's like you're running back one. If you are going to start and make sure you put him in the running back slot so that your flex is open for injuries through the week or or pivots with, you know, whatever it is. Absolutely. And then based on what you just said, pass funnel situation.

or sorry, you said run funnel. Run funnel, yeah. Because of that, the Vikings ninth against the pass. You have four players that are actually starts at questions in the game with McConkey, Johnston, Keenan, and Gadsden. All four of those were 100% startable last week. Mike wanted Keenan to show him something after this strong start and weak middle. He did. McConkey's been great. Johnston's just getting back into the swing of things, got back into the end zone. And then how do you not play Gadsden if you spent up on waivers today for seven and 164 and you have two straight weeks with the six first read targets and the athleticism? Yeah, it's it's like do you play all four guys even though the matchup isn't amazing? So when you adjust for the schedule right now on the season, the Vikings are the most difficult matchup for fantasy wide receivers. So putting three wide receivers out there, it's not going to work.

No, it's not. It's a roulette. It's going to be, you know, one guy's going to have a good game and two guys are going to have a bad game and you don't know who. I can't sit here and tell you who, you know, which one is going to have the good game. If I had to take a stab at it, I'm going to take the highest odds at a touchdown. And that would be Quentin Johnston. So I would rank them in order of touchdowns, which would be honestly huge Keenan-Lad. You could start all three, any of the three, but I think it will be disappointing. When it comes to Gadsden,

That is kind of the weakness of the Vikings past defense, adjusted for schedule, their 24th against tight end. So I think Gadsden, if you paid up and you got him, you've got to chase the last two games, I think. He has played 75 and 79% of snaps over the last two weeks. So it will be interesting to see if he stays right around there on the other side. Would you rather play Gadsden or Hawkinson? Same game. Gadsden by so much. Yeah, it's crazy. I think that is. Absolutely true. Because I want a chance to be happy in a big way. You know, not just like a, yeah, okay. Well, last week, Hawkinson, I mean, he had a touchdown that was called a touchdown and overturned and he was super upset about it because he felt like it was a catch even after the review. And honestly, I think it was slightly debatable, but.

Had that not been overruled, you would have looked at last week and been like, what a great game. And you would have fallen for a trap there, I think. Because, I mean, you're looking at 1512, 49, 39, 38 and 43 yards. He doesn't, he's literally kind of the opposite of Gadsden. Right. At this juncture of his career, he's no longer, he's going to be a screen game guy. He's going to be a short area guy. Gadsden can give you one play. to outpace the fantasy points of five Hawkinson plays. Where would Jordan Addison rank among those Chargers wide receivers? You realize how good he has been? So Jordan Addison right now, he's been back for three weeks. He's the wide receiver 14, the wide receiver 20, and the wide receiver 10 with 114 yards, 128 yards, and a game with 41 and a touchdown. Undervalued. Also was in strong, strong consideration for second half sleeper pick for me.

on this show when we do it in a few minutes. I didn't pick him because of the quarterback change that is coming for sure. Like Carson Wins is definitely. But the schedule, the schedule for Minnesota wide receivers, you remember why Mike traded for Jefferson? Shut up. I hate that. They're the best. They're the best strength of schedule situation in the league. If you have a wide receiver named Jefferson or Addison, the rest of the year is the best for you than anybody else. And yeah, I've got Van Jefferson, baby. Oh, sorry, not that one. Oh, you said if I had a wide receiver in Jefferson. That plays on the Vikings. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Dang. Addison is hiding in the shadows to have an amazing second half if McCarthy can get it together. So consider that an honorable mention second half sleeper, a player to go acquire. Yeah. In terms of this game specifically, I wish that I had a better, like, like a strong conviction about which wide receiver in.