Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Week 5 Matchups, Daily Dose, In-or-Out

I'm not a huge fan of Joe Flacco this week, so it's ironic you bring his name up. But I would not be playing Matt Ryan in a single quarterback league. There are plenty of quarterbacks I would prefer that you can probably get or hopefully already got off of waivers. I would rather start Carson Wins or James Winston or Kirk Cousins or Brian Hoyer. Those are some names that I would prefer to have over Matt Ryan in this game. Look, I threw shade on Matt Ryan last week at Carolina and I was flat wrong.

So I could be wrong again this week. Props to him and the Atlanta offense, they look amazing. But you have to question how much of it was that and how much of it was, you know, the Panthers not really being the defense without Josh Norman as they thought. Did you see that the Panthers starting cornerback? The starting cornerback that was on Julio got cut. They cut him because he got burned so much. He's gone. I mean, if you've got a guy that is.

You know, your starting corner that you're willing to cut. It's one of the reasons why I'm moving Winston up in my rankings from where I started him is because they are completely, Ron Rivera said they're completely reshaping their secondary. So Josh Norman's kind of important. All right. Back to this game, though. Like what you're saying there. How do you like Julio?

Yeah, you know, if you don't, if you're in the middle with Ryan, you've got to be in the middle with Julio, don't you? Yeah, well, not necessarily. I mean, we've seen plenty of weeks last season where Matt Ryan had, you know, he was outside the top 15 and Julio has a fine game. It's kind of like last night. Larry Fitzgerald was fantastic, but Drew Stanton's one of the worst quarterbacks in the league at the end of the week for fantasy purposes because just the share of where he's throwing the ball went to one target. So I think Julio, I think I've got him statted as my wide receiver 12.

So barely a wider receiver won this week. Let's break down the other side of the ball. What are some of the trends we see with Denver when they play at home versus on the road? What are we expecting from Thomas, Sanders, and C.J. Anderson, which are the main fantasy starts in this offense. I guess I will continue because I know I have been throwing shade on Twitter. This week, look.

You don't like Twitter, huh? Yes. Take that bird. You know, when it comes to Emmanuel Sanders, he's been on fire. There have been arguments made out there that he is actually the true number one for the Broncos over to Marius Thomas. And if you look back the last 10 games, it's kind of hard to argue against that. But as I mentioned earlier about the monstrous banana split, that's...

Emmanuel Sanders, and really the Denver Broncos, because the Denver Broncos are a, since I didn't go back through the Peyton fantastic years, but since last year, they run the ball at home, and they throw the ball much more on the road, and that affects Emmanuel Sanders greatly. Emmanuel Sanders, in the last 19 games, he has averaged 19 fantasy points per game on the road and 7.8 at home.

So for me, this week in a matchup that I think they're going to be able to run the ball, I worry about starting Emmanuel Sanders as a locked and loaded. You know, he's been a top five, top 10 wide receiver the last couple weeks. Yeah, and on the other side, you have, you have Demarius Thomas, who's going to go up against Desmond Truffant, who is a spectacular cornerback for the Falcons. So I have, right now I have Thomas up, if you're looking at my rankings. I have him, I'm going to move him down a little bit. So I'm still comfortable starting both.

Broncos, wide receivers, regardless of quarterback position. If it's Simeon, if Simeon gets knocked out and Paxton Lynch comes in, like I alluded to, the Falcons are just giving it up to opposing quarterbacks. So I'm still okay playing them, but you've got to temper that expectation. Does the Atlanta offense do enough in this game to where it's not just a kind of a running C.J. Anderson-oriented match-up? I think they can.

They're tricking me again, but I'm buying it. Well, it's just tough. I mean, you get week five, you have enough data behind you. You start to really see where things fall. So let's go ahead and move on. Before we move on, I'm just going to throw this out there. I think Devons and Freeman is a fine start this week. Yes. Oh, yeah, with the Tevin Coleman. There's a lot of questions around him. Maybe you should bring up the Tevin Coleman situation. Kevin Coleman with sickle cell anemia. They're saying they're going to play him in Denver, which is a dangerous thing to do.

And I don't doubt that they do, but they're not going to ride him hard in a situation that could cause catastrophic, you know, ramifications. So I think you're going to have, and we've seen that people are able to do a little bit more. It's not much.

but a little bit more on the ground than through the air against the Denver Broncos. So if Devante Freeman ends up with that 65% share of the volume, he's been great, and they have to pay attention to Julio and other options. So I think he's an okay start this week. Bengals, travel to Dallas, take on the Cowboys. This game's nearly a push. The Bengals are actually favored by a point in Dallas, 45 and a half point over under.

And look, push comes to shove for Dak Prescott once again. This offense has been riding Ezekiel Elliott. You haven't seen more than five to seven carries for Alfred Morris on any given week. Elliot has been over the 100-yard mark in back-to-back weeks. And look, they're going to be without Des again, but they're getting it done. It's kind of a middle-of-the-road defense that's been playing well. They're at home.

And in terms of rushing yards per game, like I said, Ezekiel Elliott is number one at 103 per game. So the Dallas offense, where's the fantasy value for owners? Because can you stream Dak Prescott this week? I think he's an okay stream. There's likely a better option, but I'm not afraid to throw him out there. Yeah, you're by far the highest on him. You're at 15. I'm at 20. Jason's at 24. Yeah. So he's an okay stream if that's where you need to go.

For me, from the Dallas side, of course, Elliot's every week play. But for me, of the past catchers, I know that Butler had a decent game, but it's the touchdown. I mean, he was around that 50-yard area, the 5-for-50. Those, that's, that does, 5-for-50 doesn't get it done. Well, that's, that's called Terrence Williams.

I mean, that's where it's hard for me to decide between the two. You're flipping a coin on which guy gets the touchdown. So don't start either. That's why I don't start either of them. I'd rather not. I go with Cole Beasley. I'm going back to Beasley if you're in a PPR situation. He wants seven for 50.

Right. He doesn't want five or 50. If you're in a PPR situation that Cole Beasley's getting it done on a weekly basis. And I did bring this up earlier. Point per red beard. That is what that means. I did bring this up earlier in the year that I do think Cole Beasley is even more valuable in difficult matchups because you've got to get the ball out quicker. I don't expect his yards per catch to be anything great. But if you're in a full PPR, I mean, how is he going to crap the team if he gets eight catches? Exactly.

All right. So on the other side of the ball, I want to know what you guys think about the Hill Gio breakdown at running back. Now, wasn't Jeremy Hill a start of the week yesterday? He was. He was mine. I like Jeremy Hill a good bit. I think that he can be very successful in this, in this particular game. His carries have gone up. I don't know if we said that on this show, but yeah, we did. We did. Okay. So his carries keep increasing every week. And the Dallas run defense, they have not given up.

you know, a lot of touchdowns, but they've given up a lot of yards per carry. So this could be a good game for Jeremy Hill. I would prefer him over Gio. I think Gio's an okay start here as well in a flex. He's been involved in the passing game as you would expect. Now, Mike, you have Andy Dalton the highest of the three of us. You have them at nine. We both have them at 15 and 16. Tell me why you like Andy Dalton in this game. It's AJ Green. Really? I mean, I think that's no matter what the week, Dalton can succeed.

His yardage totals throughout the year have been tremendous, continually going over 300 yards. Last week, he just didn't get the touchdowns. And the Cowboys defense is not to be feared. 19th as far as allowing yards. So I just, I think that he's a fine quarterback one, low quarterback one play this week. Bill's travel to L.A. to take on the Rams. We've got the law firm of Woods, Austin, and Britt. Yeah. Which is good for nothing.

No, they don't defend you from any fantasy opponent in the court of law. Look, it's not a pretty picture in the fantasy world in this game when it comes to wide receivers because while Britt or Quick have had flashes, you really don't know which guy's going to do it. And if you had to count on somebody, it'd be Tavon Austin out of that entire bunch for me just because of the kind of involvement that he has in the offense. But I don't want to start anybody at the wide receiver position.

How do you think this game breaks down? Because this has to be the lowest over under the week. I don't think I've seen, have we seen an over under in the 30s yet this season? We have now. Yeah. So, I mean, Vegas is certainly not expecting them to do anything on the offensive side. You've got two decent defenses going up against two bad offenses. You know, there's not much I want here. I'm going to start McCoy and Gurley. Who wins the game?

Bill's coming off the shutout of New England, but they travel. The Rams coming back home, three and one. Who wins this game? I'm going to say the Rams win this game. Okay. I got stuck in our dynasty league. I'll take the bills. Just like you did last week. What happened to you in your dynasty week last week? Oh, you're saying how I had to start. Case Keenum? No, I started Cody Kessler? Cody Kessler because my backup quarterback ended up getting injured and my regular quarterback of Aaron Rogers was on by. And there's nobody.

available on waivers in a dynasty. That exact same thing happened to me this week, and Case Keenham is my starting quarterback. So congratulations to me. Sure. He's actually been surprisingly all right in the past couple of weeks. I do think this is a game where you're kind of saying does the momentum travel because the bills have played so well. Now, Shady McCoy and Auto Start, Todd Gurley been very, very bad in terms of yards per carry.

But they just feed him the rock. They feed him. And a huge thing to watch for Todd Gurley, I mean, I'm starting him regardless, is the news on Benny Cunningham. He was limited again in practice on Thursday. So his status for the game is unclear. Benny Cunningham is the passing downs running back. Despite Todd Gurley being able to play that role, Jeff Fisher just has refused to use him until last week when Todd Gurley looked great in the passing game. And you hope that he's teachable.

You hope that Jeff Fisher can learn something new. Can he? What? But here's the thing. The only thing about Benny Kenningham is that he's not on the injury report. He's not? I had not seen him on the injury report. Oh. And so to me, that tells me he's going to play. But if he plays, maybe Gurley gets a couple more past targets because you know what? When you get Gurley in space, when he doesn't have 18 guys in front of him on the line of scrimmage, kind of better. That's his upside. You remember before the year?

What did I tell you the reason was I liked Gurley? It's because I thought he'd be involved in the passing game more than his 31 catches last year. And it hasn't really manifested yet. But it makes such a different. Well, last week, five catches because the injury. Because Benny Cunningham went out. Four weeks into the season, you told me that yesterday. We're still on our way through, right? Things are shaking out. Here's the thing with the past catching role for a Jeff Fisher offense. Before Benny Cunningham went out. So we're five weeks into the season. What do you think the...

Season high in total receptions has been for Benny Cunningham. Oh, it can't be two. Yeah, I would have gone. Three? I'll go three. Three. So, Mike, you were triple and Andy, you were double his high total of one reception. What? So, I mean, that's not a role in this offense. They don't look for that checkdown. They did last week with Todd Gurley. Maybe they get that going anew.

But I just don't bet on new things from Jeff Fisher. Yeah, fair enough. Chargers, Raiders really love this game. This is the opposite. I mean, we got a 50 and a half point over under. I think points are going to be on the board. Jason Verrett is injured. Derek Carr is the number three fantasy quarterback right now. And you have maybe the debut of DeAndre Washington as he's starting running back for the Oakland Raiders last week. Latavius Murray only had 10 touches. Now he's hurt. I can't imagine if Latavius even plays that his touches aren't limited.

tremendously. I agree. And so does DeAndre Washington have sneaky upside here? I'm talking running back two range. Yes. Yeah, he absolutely has the upside, but he also has the downside of if Jalen Richard comes in and gets heated up, I think that they'll go to him. I would expect, you know, that probability says it's DeAndre Washington. But for me, it's not I'm locked and loaded. He's a must start.