Week 9 Matchups + Bad Jokes, Luton Free Zone - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/6

Share an interesting stat or two with you guys. The Vikings Wide Receiving Corps. Last five games, Target-wise, Adam Thielen 37, Justin Jefferson, 34. Air yards, Adam Thielen, 425, Justin Jefferson, 423. Nice. Both of these players are startable this week. Absolutely. I've got Justin Jefferson as my start of the week. And then on the other side, I have Hawkinson as my start of the week. I think he's going to be great.

Do you take a shot on a Marvin Jones? We've talked about that a little bit. He's more of a flex play if Stafford is in the lineup, right? Oh, for sure. I don't want to rely on backups in the game where they will just want to run the ball. But Marvin Jones is certainly in play this week. I've got him around wide receiver 25. So he's in that flex category where you can put him in. He should have enough to where he actually has a floor this week of.

40, 50 yards and four or five receptions, but he always has the multi-touchdown upside. And on average right now, the Minnesota Vikings are giving up the second most points per game to the wide receiver position. There's only been one team, one set of wide receivers that was disappointing against the Minnesota Vikings. That was week two. That was the Indianapolis Colts. And if you remember the game script of that game,

It got out of hand for the Colts. I feel like Philip Rivers threw the ball like 15 times in that game. So Houston wide receivers, the Seattle duo, Atlanta, Green Bay. They can be beat. So yes, Marvin Jones is in play. All right. Moving on. Hashtaget basement battle. Houston Texans 1 and 6 taking on the Jacksonville Jaguars at 1 in 6. Texans are...

This is a big line for a 1 and 6th point road favorites. It's a 50.5 point over under. And look, I get it. Jake Luton is going to make his first start. I don't think the Houston Texans have a food allergy this week. Nice, nice. Luton free? Yeah. That's right. I went there, everybody. Yeah, but you did it strategically, creatively. I appreciated it. Thank you. Six foot six rookie.

Jake Luton. That's his best quality. That he's tall? Yeah. Well, I don't know. Doug Meroon coming out, throwing Munchu under the bus, saying Jake Luton's got a better arm than in Gardner Mention. It was a pretty savage move there by someone who, like, I think a coach is posturing for his job, but like.

There's no reason not to get him out there, to be honest. I mean, if you're trying to figure out whether you need to draft the quarterback or whatever the case may be. I'm perfectly fine with the move. But you got to be a jerk. And Gardner Minshu has been a piece of the puzzle of why they have been so bad. He is not the sole reason why they have been so bad. I think Jake's a lot better in every way. Like, well, why didn't you start him earlier, Doug? Fair point. I mean.

The Houston defense allowing the highest quarterback rating in the NFL right now. I mean, Houston's defense is great for fantasy across the board. This is one of the biggest question marks is what do you do with all of these options? You're DJ Chark. I think I've seen more questions about DJ Chark this week than anyone else. And it's a huge question mark. I do not want to play DJ Chark, but you can and you could very well end up lucky because the matchup is great.

Charke is talented, but it's like, do you want to gamble with gluten? I don't. Yeah, we know what can happen. Processed wheat, very difficult to digest. I mean, DJ, look, we got a situation or a connection here. Luton, tall. Yeah. DJ Shark, also tall. Throw it over everybody. I think it could be a Chanel week. It could be. You know what's very interesting, and I'm just going to throw this complete talking point out there. It may have no relevance. Michael Gallup had, like, his best.

He was the leading wide receiver in Dallas when Ben Danucci came in, and Cooper disappeared. And here was Michael Gallup showing up. You know, these backups and the rapport they build with, you know, rookie, that's a rookie, rookie connection, Mike. If you've got height or height, you've got rookie rookie with Chanel. I don't know who to pick and you're leaning on Jake Luton. I do think someone will be all right. I mean, this is a game where.

You know, Houston is a bad defense. Yeah, that's exactly right. Someone should be fine in this game because it could be multiple different options. And there is the reality that Luton just stinks so much that he, you know, doesn't support other options. I'm pivoting. I'm not going to start them. I'm not going to start Chark or Chenol or Keel and Cole. It could be Cole. Then what about James Robinson? We, we.

highlighted earlier in the news of like Zeke. I know the matchup is much better here for Robinson and the Jaguars against the Houston Texans, but we have, we've seen what happens to a team when their quarterback play goes from competent to disaster. We've seen it multiple times now after the Nick Mullen's game last night. Yeah, and your running backs, the production just goes away.

Compared to what you are used to, Robinson looks like a legit player. I mean, he's been breaking tackles. He's been incredibly impressive. Are you just smashing him in your lineup? Are you benching him? Are you playing and adjusting your expectations? Where are you at with Robinson? I'm definitely not benching James Robinson.

I don't have the expectation that he's going to continue to smash the same levels. You know, a couple weeks ago, he was 12 for 29. Didn't look great on the ground. But he's been, look at his targets since pretty much the whole season, six targets, four targets, seven, four, six, he gets enough work. Now, the quarterback change says,

that might not happen. So there is concern and expectations need to be adjusted. The nice thing is they're not going from a prolific offense with a great back Prescott. And then down to, they've been playing with a struggling quarterback with a broken thumb who's looked bad and James Robinson has been smashed. So I am starting him and just adjusting my expectation. I'm with you. And he was 13 for 48 against Houston earlier in the year, seven targets in that game. Look, Vegas has an implied point total of 22 points for Jacksonville despite the rookie.

Behind center. I can't imagine they score 22 points without James Robinson having a big role. Deshaun Watson, yep, you're playing him. He's been great. In fact, he's been the quarterback six, the quarterback one, and the quarterback nine in the Bob Free era. When Bill O'Brien has departed, Deshaun Watson's been outstanding. He's got weapons. Will Fuller still there. Brandon Cooks, Randall Cobb, David Johnson. Those three guys, I'm starting all three. I'm starting with...

Oh, did you say? I did throw Cobb in there, but you're talking about Fuller Cooks and David Johnson. Yes, I am. Fuller, cooks, and David Johnson, I'm starting all three. I'm happy to do that. David Johnson was almost my start of the week. He's a great play. The Jacksonville defense is bad against running backs. David Johnson's been a top 12 guy in all the games since Bill O'Brien's been gone. So, yeah, he's a must start. All right, man. The Las Vegas Raiders at 4 and 3 taking on the Los Angeles Chargers.

How did you get here? I had two and five. It was outstanding, right? Yeah. Chargers one point favorites at home in this game. Can we double check that line? That's a little surprising to me. Really? That's surprising to you. Well, it's a tremendous compliment from Las Vegas. Well, not the Raiders, but from the actual bookmakers, it's a great compliment to Justin Herbert and what he's done for this team.

for the charges to be favored in this game. I mean, the Raiders just won last week. They have a four and three record, and here they are underdogs on the road. 51.5 point over under. I don't know. Seems feels like a compliment. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's, this is, we've talked about it yesterday. We had a lot of starts of the week. Both quarterbacks here are Mike and my start of the week. These teams are the worst and second to worst at, you know, against the quarterback position over the last five weeks. And so.

I love this game. This is a game that I think... Send in the car. Send in the car. Send in the car. Grow the herbs. Let's go. Herbert, Carr, both in our top 12 this week. Put him in your lineup. And, you know, Justin Herbert is a fun quarterback to have on your roster. He really is. Because it just seems like the game plan, regardless of the score and what quarter they're in, they're willing to let him...

threatened down the field, which is just such a great thing to do for, you know, because that's his special sauce. I mean, if you take that away from him and you make Justin Herbert a game manager because he's a rookie, right? Rookie, in quotes, you take away what makes him special and the ability for him to do what he's done. So three plus touchdowns in four straight games. And like Jason said, Las Vegas dead last in terms of the...

defending the quarterback position. They don't hit the quarterback. They don't sack the quarterback. And you're not going to sack Justin Herbert getting out of the pocket. He is a smash play. Herbert, while the Chargers record is, you know, it's not great. And Justin Herbert himself really only has the one win. Last week was the first time they had a, that Herbert has lost by more than one score. It's like Cincinnati. The Chargers have been close in every single game. Yeah. And they were.

winning that Broncos game until they fell apart. All right. Justin Jackson, I think, is a great play this week. We've got him in the top 12. He had a monster performance last week against a pretty formidable run D. He got a lot of opportunity, 20 touches. He's a very strong start. Yeah, we've seen Justin Jackson now. Two of the last three weeks, he's seen over 20 opportunities. So I think he's in a great spot. The team is recognizing.

Joshua Kelly has fallen off since those first couple weeks where it looked like, oh crap, it's going to be Austin Echler and Joshua Kelly. So the fourth round rookie has disappointed. Meanwhile, Justin Jackson continues to impress. Five or more targets in three straight weeks for Justin Jackson as well since he's been back on the field, which is nice to see. Josh Jacobs, we talked about it in the news and notes dealing with an illness. This is a matchup that he can exploit if he can get on the field.

If he can't, if for some reason Josh Jacobs misses this game, you know, are you interested in playing the backups against this Chargers defense? Not especially. I think if he misses the game, there's going to be some dump-offs that you could, you know, maybe you get some PPR points from Richard. Reshard. But I'm not interested in picking them up and playing them. I think you're going to have a lot more Waller.

if Josh Jacobs is gone. And this could be one of those downfield games that Derek Carr's been wanting to get back to. Whether it's Nelson Agilor, whether it's Henry Ruggs, I'm open to both of those options. Yeah, they both seem like they are potential starts. Jason has Ruggs as a taking it up to 100 player this week. Keenan Allen, you always play Keenan Allen. Oh, yes. But Mike Williams, four targets over 20 yards last week. That is his game.

And if you give Mike Williams four opportunities down the field, I like my odds of having a nice fantasy week. So it's not as reliable a start as other wide receivers, but it is an exciting start against the Raiders in this one. Since returning from his injury, he suffered the injury in week three, missed week four. So in those last three weeks, he's been a top 10 wide receiver in two of those games. Unfortunately, the one in the middle against Jacksonville,

He had one reception for four yards. I feel like that's the anomaly. You've got to just toss that one out. Not that he's going to be a top 10 wide receiver every single week, but he's going to be far more involved in that weird three target game. I mean, you're like six plus targets for Mike Williams. And the fact that that's what I'm going to project. And the fact that those are 20 plus air yard types of throws, you just need to connect on one or two of them, and you've got to find Fantasy Week.

No question. The Steelers, 7 and 0, taking on the Dallas Cowboys at 2 and 6. Steelers are Mondo favorites. That's the official term. 14 point road favorites. It's a 41.5 over under. That is not a lot, which means Dallas has an implied point total of fewer than 14 points in this game. Oh, that's, now that's a commending from Vegas to give them that many points. Oh, you mean another? Yeah. It's a compliment? It is.

It feels that way. It certainly does. Now, we did see a game like last night with Nick Mullins playing awful. Garbage time is a spectacular thing. And a lot of the time, that's the, what goes into the equation here. But, I mean, Pittsburgh is just set up to. I'm not predicting anything good from Dallas. No. How could you? The last three weeks, they've scored 10 points.