Week 1 Matchups, In-or-Out, Upset of the Week

every throw he didn't place anything where it should be when he hit a guy had no velocity no velocity everything was this i did see someone said he was throwing toilet paper rolls yeah on twitter that's the problem is he looked like something was wrong exactly i wanted after the game yeah something to come out and say my shoulder or my something was hurting nothing after the game spoke of why all of his passes had no heat on it 19 targets for julia

Yeah, one away from the NFL record, I believe. Now, Mike, you struggle with Steve Sarkesian in the Red Zone offense. Oh, my goodness. Let's talk about that briefly, because I don't know what you're supposed to do. Because what happens is, Hulu Jones, he has his breakfast, lunch, and dinner between the 20s. I mean, he threatens with the deep speed. He's a, the crossing routes in the middle of the field, and he's just always open there, and he just gobbles up yardage.

But when you get into that pinched 10-zone range, they double and triple-team Julio Jones. And look, in the playoff game last year, forcing it to him didn't make a difference and didn't work. Forcing it to him last night didn't work. So what do you do? Is it about inventive play calling for him? Yes. It starts with that. But first of all, Julio was off the field for a ton of those plays. He was there at the end, and they were, and they just got where they went overboard with forcing it to him. Because Kevin Coleman.

I think it was running a slant on that final play and was wide open. So they got out of control of trying to get to the star player on the final play. But Julio being off the field, running the exact same jumbo package where you have, the Eagles know exactly what you're going to do. And my problem with that is that is old school football. We've seen.

The good offensives, they've moved on. They've moved past that where you just say, yep, we're going to run, try and stop us. Well, and you see the Eagles do that. The Eagles have got motion all the time. They're doing a lot of different things. You spread it out. I mean, the play where they had, they went jumbo, and then they went two tight ends wide. I mean, what are you doing? Granted, that should have been a touchdown to the Freeman. But Matt Ryan just missed it. All right. We have so much to get to. We can't stay on that game all night. Obviously, Matt Ryan struggles.

Whether you buy them as a major problem or not, did not affect Julio Jones. That's the headline there for fantasy owners. Julio had a monster week. He's going to continue to. It's just a matter of can he score? He almost broke one of those long, that one across the middle. And the concerns on the Freeman-Colman split, turns out that Freeman hurt his knee through the game. It does not appear to be serious. We'll update you earlier next week, but that was the cause for why Freeman was off the field so much. Yeah, thanks for bringing that up. Let's get into the rest of the injury news. What's it going to pay me to fly?

Are you in or out? Oh, we're back. In or out? Sonny Michelle, Patriots running back? He's got a knee injury. Do you think he's going to be in or out? I think he'll be out, week one. Regardless, there's no way you can play him. Out of your lineup, yeah. Marshawn Lynch, the groin injury? Yeah. McGroin. In. Marlon, Matt? I'm going to say out. I think out. He got back to practice on Thursday, but I lean out. All right. Wide receivers, Will Fuller with the hamstring? I think he will play, but this is trouble.

Don't start him. This is trouble when a speedster has hurt his hamstring early on in the preseason, once he opens it up in game, what's going to happen? What's going to happen to the Texans offense if no Will Fuller, you know, who's the beneficiary outside of Hopkins? Bruce Ellington. That's it. Yeah. That's all you got. Bruce Ellington's pretty good. Maybe Kiki Kootie. Maybe he might not play. He's probably not going to play. Josh Gordon, in or out.

And on a pitch count. And they're, yeah, they're calling for a snap count for Josh Gordon. We'll see. We'll see if that actually happens. Jermaine curse doesn't matter. Sorry, Jermaine. Vance McDonald and Austin Saffarian Jenkins. So Vance McDonald, it's, uh, I think he's going to be out. I think Vance will play. I think this is them limiting his reps, but I would not play Vance McDonald's week one. Right. Chargers defensive end, Joey Bosa could miss week one against the chiefs. This would be good news for Pat Mahomes.

The whole chief's offense, this would be very good news. A reminder on Sunday morning. Yeah, baby. You'll have game day alerts if you're a member of the Foot clan over at join the foot.com as well as Mike's Periscope slash YouTube slash Facebook slash Twitch. This guy. Mike will be live on Sunday morning. That's all you need to know. Mike will be live and you got to follow us on one of those locations. You're on the social media. You got to be alerted.

You're going to see this guy. Especially YouTube, people. Yeah. We are 97. Yes. The March. Something thousand subscribers. The March. Foot Clan. The March is on. The final countdown is on. Mike has never apologized for enjoying awards. No, never. Never. Never. Never. You know, when we won the podcast awards and back-to-back years, Mike did a dance. He loves it. He's an award. It feels good.

Man, it feels good. So what I'm saying is, is when you hit 100,000 subscribers on YouTube, they send you a silver play button plaque. It's just a physical award. It's really not that important. And yet. Completely meaningless in real life. We'll lift our spirits high. Yes. Moral boost. Just letting you know, we're not above it. We're very content. We're happy. Mike is pointing at the camera.

If you're watching on YouTube right now, you better subscribe. Get us there. All right. Before we jump into the rest of the fantasy forecast, I'm so excited to talk about these matchups. But first, let's take a minute. Let's thank Fanduil for supporting the show. Look, the football season's underway. We know it. And depending on how each and every week goes, it's fun to have a week-to-week game. It's fun to take the edge off a bad week. It enhances the week. When someone disappoints you, it enhances your week-to-week experience.

And you spend, you know, all this time researching, might as well put that research to a good effort. Play some on FanDuel. I'm excited to be playing there this year. It's a new season every single week. That's the gist, right? You get to start over every single week. You get to take the edge off a bad week. Regardless of the outcome, you get a research, build your team over and over again. It's fun to play against your friends on FanDuel. They're all about that.

It's fun to take what you learned the week before and apply it, try to find value on Fandual. Look, we've got the DFS show that gets you connected to what to do over there. And so right now new users can get $20 as a bonus when they make the first deposit on Fandual. Come play with us at Fandual.com slash Fantasy Footballers. That's fandle.com slash fantasy footballers. And hey, make sure that you are aware of the incredible website, pristine auction.

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We know the storyline with Levion Bell. He's not going to be out there. Nope, not this week. Start to James Connor. Yep, but will he, like, be near there? One of the things that's interesting is, you know, Jason last year he finished third among fantasy experts in draft accuracy. We had to lock in our draft rankings yesterday afternoon.

We're all sitting here with, we have to make a bet on Lev Bell. So, hey, we might be wrong, but I want to tell you what our bet is. And my bet on Lev Bell is that he reports this week, does not play Sunday, and is playing 15 games. That's my bet. That's what I did with my- So where did you have him ranked? Four. You had him ranked at four. I moved him down to eight expecting several games missed. I think that that's, you know, if-

You got to keep in mind that Ezekiel Elliott missed six games last year and he was the number nine running back. So even if he misses several, he's still going to be a great back to own. Yeah, so that's what we're doing. That's our bet on Levy on Bell's situation. Here's the situation with the Browns. Their roster is turned over and guys, I'm doing it. Andy's almost upset of the wig. I want to hate this.

so, so much because I think that the Browns are a facade. But, I mean, there's a lot of things here. Lev Bell not being there. Todd Haley, as the offensive coordinator previously for the Steelers, now for the Browns. The momentum is there. I love the Browns in this game. It's the home opener, no Lev Bell, a lot of turnover, a stronger defense. Now, last year wasn't great. We know this. The Brown stunk.

So projecting this wasn't great. Yeah. Sure. Last year, Big Ben. That is not false. Big Ben was ninth among quarterbacks, 17.2 fantasy points per game. They're facing a Brown's defense that last year gave up 18.3 per game, which was third worst in the league. So that's the start your Big Ben. Now, Big Ben's on the road. Yeah, it doesn't matter. Right. I know. And I have him and Tyrod back to back in my rankings. I am starting Tyrod Taylor.

Is that official? Because I know you've been telling me you've been going back and forth. I have been going back and forth because I think they're both going to have good weeks. I think that the floor, the rushing floor with Tyrod, the weapons that he has, new weapons, right? I mean, you get Jarvis Landry involved now. Antonio Callaway is a big play guy. You get him, you know, a swing pass. He can take it to the house. There are opportunities here. And I've heard the feedback, guys. I'm listening, Foot Clan. You think I'm two in on the Browns.

but if I'm in on them at all, this is the time to be in on them. Now's the time you make your decisions. I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I'm going in on the Browns in week one. I know the matchup doesn't look great, but things change year to year, and I like it. So I'm starting my Tyrod. I'm starting my Carlos Hyde. I'm starting my Carlos Hyde is the question I wanted to bring up. Sure. Because the Steelers, when they lost Ryan Shazier last year, that defense, it took a turn. It really took a turn for the worst.

And I don't think they've been able to really replace Sheizier's position. They gave up 104.2 yards per game last year, 20th in the league. And now you have Carlos Hyde, who had a very strong preseason, has the mobile quarterback, which always provides a bump for running backs. So you're calling a start of Carlos Hyde. What's your... I do. What's your range of outcomes, high-level running back to... No, he could be a one this week.

Okay, so a lower end up 10 to 12 range. And yeah, I like, look, there are certain teams, New England, Pittsburgh, Baltimore specifically on defense that even if they have turnover, they kind of get it together. Right. But it takes them a few weeks to figure it out. They got a young secondary in Pittsburgh. They're figuring it out. I don't think going on the road against that front. Look, we were talking so much about the offensive line for Cleveland last year. You got a different runner back there. You've got the Tyrod Taylor factor.

Look, I don't want to keep talking about it, but that's where I'm at. James Connor, range of outcomes for him. If you had to face, if it's James Connor or Carlos Hyde, who are you taking? I would take James Connor in that, but that is not an anti-hyde-take. It's a pro James Connor. They are going to try to...

prove. I mean, the team is here. I mean, the offensive line, the quotes have talked about how Lev Bell, you can miss the year. We've got James Connor. He would have been a first round pick if he didn't get cancer. He's amazing. That offensive line is going to make sure to prove a point that James Connor can get it done. I think Connor is, you know, I've got him at 15 or 16 right now. I've got him pretty high.

Any other thoughts in this game? You're starting you, Antonio Brown. You're starting your Juju Smith-Schuster? Juju is a, I think Juju is a very good start. James Washington has been a little bit banged up, and the matchup is very good for Juju this week. And for Cleveland, we already kind of talked about Josh Gordon. What's your confidence level to play him as a wide receiver 2? Not high for me. Flex. Flex okay? Yeah, it's okay.