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

The Jake Luton move I'm doing this week. I mean, he's had his moments, but he's going to have some more, and he's not going to want to remember them this week. Pittsburgh is just such a ferocious defense. T.J. Watt & Company will be coming fierce at Jake Luton. So what do you do with the options in Jacksonville? I think you play James Robinson because you always do. And...

Honestly, I was going to make James Robinson my start of the week because it was a bad matchup, and maybe people wouldn't know. But I thought, you can't. I mean, he's a top five running back. He's been unbelievable in all matchups. You absolutely have to start James Robinson. That's a no-brainer. There's no chance I would not start him. And the matchup is irrelevant. He's actually been the reverse rookie wall situation where he's somehow, despite quarterbacks in the record.

He's gotten stronger as the year has gone on, and 119 rushing yards three weeks ago than 99 than 109. I think he's just really good. And the team has to use him as their sole offense, and so he breaks off enough plays to be relevant. DJ Chark, though. Yeah. Chris Thompson is hurt again, right? Yes. Yeah, no, it's James Robinson. Yeah, Chris Thompson is on the IR. And when we saw, when Chris Thompson missed some action earlier on,

That's when you saw James Robinson's targets go way up. So not that Chris Thompson was really involved, but he is a good pass catcher, and you put him on the field in those scenarios. But now that all that work goes to James Robinson. Yeah, the current roster is James Robinson, dot, dot, dot, Daria, Gumba Wale, and Ozigbo. So Robinson's going to get all the work.

You are playing DJ Chark, Jason? I am playing DJ Chark. I know that the matchup isn't the best with this pass rush and a great defense from the Pittsburgh Steelers. But DJ Chark has established himself. And what I love is two weeks ago, you had that deep ball from Jake Luton. We weren't sure what we were going to get in Jake Luton at all. We heard that he could throw a great deep ball. And then he hit Chark on that big play. Well, you don't predict that. The next week, though...

I loved the fact that we saw it again. Now, it was a super windy game in Green Bay. So they did not connect, but they are going to take their shot. And if I get a shot or two of a deep ball from someone who could throw a nice deep ball to DJ Chark, who's got 4-3 speed and his frame, I think, you know, that's where you have a big fantasy game. And, you know, he's been up there on the target counts. So I think I'm okay starting DJ Chark even in this.

minus matchup. I don't think he's going to have time to sit back there and take a deep shot. So I think I'm out on track this week. I'm concerned. I mean, I just have a different opinion than you do. Mike, how do you weigh in on track? Are you playing him as wide receiver two? Yeah, I would play him as wide receiver too. Pittsburgh is a dominant defense, but where they are beat is at the wide receiver position allowed the ninth most 20 plus yard pass place.

They're 20th against fantasy-wide receivers. It's a shocking thing when you see it sandwiched in there with Pittsburgh. Fulgum had his big game against them. What's that? Fulgum had his monster game against them. It's one of those really weird things because the pass rush is so good. You'd think they don't have the time. But where they've been beaten this year are on the big, deep balls. I guess it's because they're so good down short that the only time you can do anything as an offense is to take a shot.

And they, well, they end up in a lot of situations of playing more preventative back-end defense, too, because they've had leads and they've had the waste of clock. I mean, they're 9-0. Big Ben, yep, James Connor, you have to. Juju, Deontay, Claypool. Yep, yep, yep. Ebron, yeah. I mean, that's every player. It's all Steelers. Yeah, I mean, there's not much to talk about there. No, the biggest question mark's going to be James Connor, whether or not he's.

going to be good. He hasn't been good in a couple of weeks, but I still think you have to start him. All right. Let's move forward. The Tennessee Titans is six and three, taking on the Baltimore Ravens, who are six and three now. Ravens are six and a half point favorites in this one, 49 point over under. I don't know how to feel about Baltimore any given week because you are just waiting to see something from last year. This is the week.

At least a game or two. This is the week, Mike? Yeah, this is the week. The Tennessee defense is not what they had hoped for. And this is the week, man. I like Lamar Jackson a lot in this matchup. Unfortunately, the running backs, good luck. I mean, that's a hero start if I've ever seen one. I'm not playing any of the running backs if I can help it.

but I do feel very confident in Lamar and Mark Andrews this week. The running backs, we have them all outside the top 30 in our consensus rankings this week. Dobbins, we have ranked highest, just the upside, the hope for a big play. But yeah, we talked about them earlier in the week. It's too hard to predict. Hollywood, you know, you said all that about Tennessee. Is there enough there for you to take your shot on Hollywood?

I'm open to it. The problem is just like the running backs, I don't, you can't feel confident which wide receiver it's going to be. Willie Sneed was the one who came through last week and it's, you know, it's fun to see Willie Sneed back. And the thing about Sneed is he is a, he's a good wide receiver.

He just, he is part of this Baltimore Ravens offense where there's not much going around for the passing attack, especially when Lamar Jackson is so focused on Mark Andrews, and rightfully so, Mark Andrews deserves targets. But it's, the confidence for me is the Ravens are going to score a bunch of points. And unfortunately, Lamar and Mark Andrews are the only ones that I'm going to.

start if I can help it. I agree. I think Hollywood is one of those big upside cheap players in DFS that you can take a shot on, say, call your shot, this is the game versus, I mean, in a normal redraft league, I'm not sure that you're even rostering him enough to play. Now, if you, if he's on your waivers and you're struggling with a matchup, you can say, okay, look at the guys on waivers. Who has the chance at a big game? Well, Hollywood does. So then you could, you could pick him up and put him in, but I don't think he's a reliable.

option at all. We at least saw him go off Hollywood, that is, against Tennessee last year in the playoffs. You know, seven and over 100 yards. Is that back when Lamar could pass the football? Yeah. Look, I was encouraged last week. I know it was crazy rainy for that Patriots Baltimore game, but Lamar looked better. He looked more focused to me during that matchup. He threw for 249 yards. I mean, outstanding.

That is great. Unbelievable, Lamar. What are you? Joe Montana? In the pouring rain, though, man. What did Cam Newton pass for? Yeah, he needs the rain to be accurate. Tanna Hill. Not a great matchup on the road against Baltimore. Probably find somebody else. We haven't met 19 on the week. Derek Henry, every week you play him. A.J. Brown, the same. You are looking for big plays from A.J. Brown, and he delivers more than he doesn't.

What do you do right now with Johnny Smith? I mean, hasn't topped 40 yards since week three. Ferkser has more targets and receptions than Johnny since then. Oof, that's tough. Firkser is really upsetting because Jonu had everything necessary to be a breakout fantasy tight in this year, which we needed. And then he's splitting the targets. And I don't see that going away. So I don't think you can rely on Jonu. All right.

Anything else from this matchup you guys want to chat about? No, I'm not playing Corey Davis. He's a fine wide receiver three in certain matches, but this isn't the one where I'm taking the chance. Okay, yeah, the matchup's mighty tough. Let's get into the starts. Starts of the week. All right, all right, all right, it's time. It's week 11, starts of the week. Obviously, mine will be great, but what do you guys have in store? Mike, why don't you kick us off?

All right, I'll start at my quarterback. I kind of alluded to it, and it's wild that we are in a place where this guy needs to be named a start of the week. I am going with Lamar Jackson, who is at home versus Tennessee Titans in the past three weeks. We have seen Joe Burrow. We've seen Phillip Rivers. P. River as a quarterback won in this matchup. We saw Nick Foles throw for 330 yards and two touchdowns against this defense.

And I liked what I saw from Lamar last week. So he has, in fact, my start of the week at the quarterback position. I'm going with Deshaun Watson. He's got a tough matchup against New England, if you look on paper. But he has been outstanding since Bill O'Brien left, and they opened up that offense. He's been a top 10 quarterback every single week except this last week when the weather was outlandishly bad. And he was still the quarterback 16. But if you look at the New England Patriots defense.

They look so good. They're giving up a few fantasy points. It's just because they play super slow. They're the slowest team in the league. But thankfully, the Texans have a fast pace of play. On a per play basis, are Kyle the Borgogan, did some research here. The Patriots are a really bad defense. This is why they're playing so slow is to hide their defense. They're last in yards per attempt, last in yards per play, second to last in pass success rate, last in defensive DVOA.

30th in past DVOA and 31st in rushed DVOA on a per play basis. So if the pace of play is picked up by Houston, I think Deshaun Watson can have himself a game. Are you concerned that New England will be able to slow the game down, though, moving the ball on Houston's defense? I think that if they do, if they come down and score and have a long drive, Deshaun Watson's just going to air it out. And he's going to go, I would say he takes it up to 100 with Brandon Cooks. All right, I'm going to go deeper.

This week, I am not going to be pushed away from this quarterback because of the injury concerns. I'm going to go with Matthew Stafford this week. I know you guys have a difference of opinion here. Matthew Stafford has been great, and he's done it without Kenny Gallaudet. Out of the last three weeks, he had a number three overall finish. Last week against Washington, he had a number six overall finish. The only week in the last three that he struggled was the week where he was.

COVID sequestered for the whole week and didn't get to come in and do any practicing. And he's taking on Carolina. Carolina has given up a top 12 defense or a top 12 performance for consecutive weeks. They are the worst, dead last in football over the last five weeks in terms of fancy points given up to the quarterback position. I think they're going to move the ball fine against Detroit. Teddy Bridgewater and Company has done it all year long. We like Mike Davis and Matthew Saver is going to have to air it out again.

Whether Gala Day is back or not, I like Stafford this week, and I like what I've been seeing from that offense. So DeAndre Swift and company will help. Matthew Stafford, I'm going to go out on a limb with Matthew Stafford this week. And DeAndre Swift is my running back start of the week. Since week four, this guy has been a fantasy monster. And it feels like he hasn't because he hasn't been on the field, but the opportunities have been there.

We're seeing since that week four breakout 15 opportunities a game. You saw the snap counts jump all the way up to over 70% this last week against Washington, which we had not seen him anywhere close to that throughout the entire season. And that was after the team named him the main guy, the main starter. And that turned into over 20 opportunities on that game and the matchup. It's the Panthers, man. They're allowing the fourth most points per game to running backs.

I love Swift. I love him this week. My start of the week at running back is Cream Hunt. You cannot be scared off of Chub being back. He's been better per game with Chub than without Chub. The Philadelphia Eagles defense is good, but it just doesn't matter. This is the heart and soul of the Cleveland Browns. He needs to be in everybody's lineup. Last week, he had 23 opportunities.

as the backup. Goodness. This is unbelievable. This team wants to run the ball. They will. And when Chubb is wearing down defenses and then you put Hunt in, it's unfair. I'm going to go with Damien Harris. Oh, dude, I love it, man. I love it. It just, what Harris has done here has made me just so sad of what happened at the beginning of the year where he was crushing at training camp and then got hurt. Like he was, Harris was one of our favorite late round picks and it just.

Well, just so you know how good he's been, over the last three games, you paced that out over a season. That's 277 carries 1,500 yards on the ground. He is who they wanted Sony Michelle to be. No doubt. I mean, he's just so much more aggressive. He's stronger. He's looked outstanding. Houston's defense, third worst against the run this year. They've given up top 12 numbers. Top 12 numbers to opposing fantasy running backs for four consecutive weeks.