Starts of the Week + Week 11 Breakdown, Upside & Pain - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/19

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Yeah, and another reminder, join thefoot.com. That's our fantasy football community, extra episodes, premium perks. This is the kind of insider area for everybody listening to this show. So you can check that out at join the foot.com. Fantasy forecast. You guys ready? Week 11. Oh, we're in week 11. Hoof. Hoofta. Did we talk about the fact that, yeah, look at us. Look at us. Who thought we'd be here.

Did we talk about the fact that the NFL has put all teams into the advanced COVID protocols? Did we bring that up on the show? Yeah, we hadn't mentioned it on the show. But the NFL is now going proactive with the situation that's going around the country with the numbers going up. So good to see them trying to get out in front of it. Yeah, we've had to put in some intensive protocols here from time to time as well. So as Mike waves from home.

All right, the week 11 buys, the bills, bears, giants, 49ers. Let's kick this thing off. The Philadelphia Eagles at 3, 5, and 1 taking on the Cleveland Browns who are 6 and 3. Yeah. Look at that. Look at us. They're good. The problem is their losses were so drastic in such beatdowns that we don't look at them as good as what they are. Or they...

can't play up to the competition and aren't a real threat. Why not both? Why not both? Browns are three-point favorites, so they're getting respect from Las Vegas there, 47 point over under. I don't know. Against the Eagles? Yeah, that's not. That's probably disrespect, right? Well, the Eagles are a weird team, too, because you just don't know what they represent as an opponent. Look, I know that they're not a great football team.

But then you've had these games where they show up and they press Pittsburgh, right? And they've had opportunities to compete. And I'm not going to pick them to upset the Browns here necessarily, but I think it'll be a competitive game. We saw Nick Chub get back into the lineup. Nick Chub is incredible. He breaks off a 15-plus yard run every 10.5 rushes right now, which is the highest rate in the NFL. And he's the only person that can make, you know,

Turning to Cream Hunt look like a bad decision on certain plays because he's just so explosive. Philadelphia is allowing the seventh most rushing yards per game. We know the game plan for Cleveland is to run the football. So Hunt, Chubb, 100% this week, right?

Yes. And every week. Every single week you're putting both of them in. I know people might be scared of, oh, Chubb is back. Now Hunt's going to have his volume go down. That didn't happen. Over 100 yards last week. It's not going to happen. They are a true one-two punch that is just even more brutal on a defense than what a lot of teams talk about, oh, we're going to have a one-two punch. This is unfair. And then turning to the other side at the running back position,

Miles Sanders, you're going to play him every week. It's his backfield. Last week was unfortunate, right? Boston Scott ends up with a long touchdown. Corey Clement gets the one carry he gets every three weeks, happens to take it into the end zone. But Miles Sanders' confidence rest of season, if he's out there, you're very excited about him. Yeah, it's a 10 out of 10. You know, barring injury, which you've got to throw that in there considering how banged up he's been. Every week, he should be a great option moving forward.

What about the quarterbacks in this game? Are you avoiding both of them? I am avoiding both of them. Baker-Mayfield, I want to keep my eyes on because I still want to see him play in a game without O'Dell Beckham with not horrendous weather. You know, it's like since he's lost him, all of his home games have been atrocious. So I'm watching him, but I'm not going to play him. On the other side, Carson Wins is a guy who he puts up fantasy points from time to time, but at the same time,

He, his floor is so low that he can really hurt you. I don't feel like he's, the risk reward is not worth it to me to have an upside game where it's like, okay, he's the quarterback seven. I don't think he's going to be, you know, the quarterback three or above on any given week. And the floor is, oh, he's the quarterback 30 because he got sacked a bunch and held onto the ball and fumbled and threw picks.

The Browns are only giving up 16 fantasy points per game right now to opposing fantasy quarterbacks as well. They control the clock. They have their identity. I'm with you. I would avoid both of these guys. And I would avoid Jarvis Landry. I would avoid Richard Higgins. These are not players that you can count on right now. Yeah. Both of these teams have good defensive lines, good pass rushes. Wince is 32nd and completion percentage under pressure.

Baker's 33rd in completion percentage under pressure. So, yeah, I think this is a game where you focus on the running game. Now, the nice part for Carson Wentz, at least, is that the Cleveland defense, while they're stout and they're good, the way they get it done is not through pressure, pressure on the opposing quarterback. So I would say, I generally agree with you guys, but this is one of those games where this won't, this one will not surprise me if Carson Wentz ends up in the top 12.

Travis Fulgham, Jalen Rager, decisions at wide receiver for the Eagles. I think a lot of people are very gun-shy with Fulgum after the disappointing five targets, one for eight. You said don't be. You're back in this week? I'm back in with Travis Fulgum. Interesting.

You're very bullish on Winson this passing game then. Well, I'm bullish on Travis Fulgum. I'm saying I'm not playing Carson Wins if I can help it. I'm just saying it won't surprise me in this particular matchup if he does well. I mean, up until this past week against the Giants where the Giants can shut people down every once in a while. We were hopeful, again, this is just reiterating, that Fulgum and the Eagles took on the Giants a couple weeks ago, and he was able to come through with 5 for 73.

Now, before this last game against the Giants, which was on the road, Fulgum was on four straight games of 70 plus yards. He's a good wide receiver. He's the number one wide receiver despite the Rager is back, despite the Dallas Goddard is back. Alshund Jeffrey is, you know, he saw a target this past week. But Rager is a good player, and I would not be hesitant to get him back out there as a wide receiver too.

I think that was a Fulgum there? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, yes, Fulgum. I think that was a Freudian slip because Rager is a good wide receiver and he is my hesitation for Fulgum. Both of them were on the field 88% of snaps this last game. Rager out targeted him and it just, it gives me pause to say, I'm not sure.

Who? I want both of these guys on my roster, but I feel like we need more information to know who's going to have the better game. Would you play Marvin Jones this week, or would you play Travis Folcomb? I would play Marvin Jones. He's been super hot. Mike, I would go Marvin Jones there. All right. And then Dallas Goddard, Austin Hooper are both of these top 12 options this week. Yes. I laugh. Yes, they are top 12 options because tight ends are so, so bad. Dallas Goddard.

has been very disappointing. You wanted a monster breakout when Zach Ertz was gone. He got hurt. He came back. He was disappointing his first game back. But he's been out there. He's been running routes. He's getting targets. And I still think you can start him. We'll actually talk about him later. Will we? We might. The Atlanta Falcons at 3 and 6 taking on the New Orleans Saints at 7 and 2. Saints are 5 point favorites. It's a 50 and a half point over under in this one. And, uh,

You know, these two teams year after year, you tend to get some surprising games. I don't know what to do here, but I think I'll do this. Andy's almost upset of the week. What do you think? What's your take? I think James Winston knows how to lose games. Atlanta's been playing so much better of late. And, you know, Matt Ryan will have Julio Jones in this game. I think it will be a very...

Fun one. Now, will it be fun for fantasy players? It's a 50 and a half point over under. And the entire outside of Alvin Camara on the Saints side, you do have this murkiness to what are we going to get out of James Winston? I know they haven't announced a starting quarterback. I think we all know it's going to be James Winston. And, you know, do you have a read on what they're going to do with Taysam Hill? Are they going to utilize him? I know he was a...

He's a high ceiling waiver pickup at the tight-in position because if they choose to give him more opportunities, you know, he's going to be good for, you know, some touchdown potential. They use them with Breeze, but will they use them this week? Yeah, I mean, it's one of those things you pointed out accurately that last year when Teddy came in, they stopped using Taysam Hill. He's the backup. You know, if he gets injured, now there is no backup quarterback. So.

We don't know what's going to happen, but if I have to project game one with James, I think James is a good enough quarterback with these weapons, with Jared Cook and Emmanuel Sanders and Michael Thomas to be able to run an offense. But their defense has been great since they're by. They've gotten back to the elite defense they were in the last couple of years. And if I'm Sean Peyton, I'm saying I'm going to make this more of a defensive game, run the ball, safe passes, short.

game. Alvin Camara. Alvin Camara short passes to Michael Thomas. I'm going to focus on that and try to keep the turnovers away from James. That's how the Saints win this game. And so I think you could be a little bit disappointed in James as far as a massive ceiling. I am not worried at all about Michael Thomas. I'm not worried at all about Alvin Camara. And Jared Cook, he's a tight in that obviously you could start. Yeah, Mike, you feel pretty good about Cook this week.

Yeah, well, the matchup is there, and James has gone to the tight-hand position before. I wanted to just quickly touch on for Taysam Hill. I agree with Andy. The way I'm projecting it is your starting quarterback has five fractured ribs, had a punctured lung, and you can't mess around with your backup quarterback, putting him in on these packages. When he's your third string quarterback,

Sure, that's not a problem. So I am projecting that we will see less Taysam Hill than we have. But it's fantasy football, so you have to leave room for the opportunity, the possibility that you're projecting it wrong. And people want to know where would I slot Taysam Hill, what they want to know, where we would slot Taysam Hill as a tight end option. I would say Kelsey Waller, Hawkinson, Andrews, and Gronk are, I'm playing them ahead of Taysam Hill.

But those five guys, like, if you want to, after that, if you want to take the shot on Tayson Hill, if you're on the ESPN platform and put Tayson Hill and you're tied in, I'm okay taking that shot after those five guys. Yeah, I think that's about where I'd have him too. And the truth is, I'd love to see some sort of sign, something from a beat writer, something from the head coach.

over the back part of this week to give me more confidence heading into Sunday. Something about him being part of the starting quarterback. I know. I think we're going to know who the starting quarterback is obviously before game time. It will be announced at some point. Even if it's an hour before kickoff, they'll watch warmups and see what's going on. If Tayson Hill is not the quarterback, then I personally am far lower on him at tight end. I probably wouldn't play him.

You'd prefer a couple catches from somebody else. Jared Cook, Dallas Goddard. I'd prefer a tight-in. It's not enticing to you. The idea of getting a big game at a tight-in if you have to go out there and throw like Higbee or... I don't think... I think the injury only hurts doesn't help unless he becomes the quarterback. We could have done this all year long. We could have thrown Taysam Hill into our tight-in spot last week or the week before, the week before. And it's worked two or...