Starts of the Week, Wk 9 Matchups, Facturate!

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And you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. To the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Coming to you from Draft.com Studios with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. We're back. After the day off. From the future. No, we took yesterday off, man. Oh, because of Andy, Ryan, and Jeff. Jeff. Yeah.

There were a number of people who thought there were really going to be three guests hosts. And there were. And there were. So that was one of you. Clearly, you're very, very wise. Now, I understand, like yesterday was the day to go to YouTube, to listen to the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Today is the day to not go to YouTube. Absolutely not. Do not go. Do not subscribe. There is a guest in the middle of the table.

I look like a fool. I mean, I hate my face right now, and I tell you, fuck, claim, the beard will be coming back. Because when you have no chin, but you got a big neck and you got the turkey gobbler, it's not good. But for the people, for Halloween, you know, you had to. You could have kept the mustache. I should have kept the mustache. That wouldn't have helped the gobbler. But I chose marriage.

Over mustache. And we've all been playing Red Dead. You could have gotten the spirit and gone old outlaw with the handkerchief over your face. Yeah. You could have shown up. Looks like you're about to rob a stage coach. I'm a fat baby-faced man right now. I look like, look like an idiot. Oh my goodness. It's just the truth. Thursday, November 1st, welcome to November. We have matchups on the show today for the upcoming week.

A little bit of news to catch you up on, but mostly it'll be fantasy forecast today. And we have the starts of the week. So we're getting you ready to win. That's great news. I've got to overcome piles of biweeks. And I know many of you have to do the same thing and find some spot starts. I mean, this is the week where a spot start is going to come in handy, which part of that's going to be projecting injury. Because if somebody's out due to injury,

and you happen to sneak one of those guys on your roster, that could be the best spot start situation that you can find. I mean, Alan Robinson, for example, is he going to play? Is he not going to play? Taylor Gabriel's banged up. Does that make Anthony Miller a start? You know, you can, can you buy a win? Right. And it's easier to buy a win. You know, a lot of times you're like, oh, you've got a lot of buy players. You don't love who you're starting, but the reality is so does your opponent.

Everyone has hurt this week. So it is those fringe level players that are going to make the difference for half of the teams out there right now is did you pick the right fringe level player? So I'd say this is probably the most important show of all time. And that's why you shaved. I shaved just for the importance of the show. The importance. Strange. I want to get into a quick question centering around a very important player. Before we do that, I want to remind you you can follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers.

You can win a sign Saquan Barkley jersey over at footclan giveaway.com. And it's free to enter. There are a number of cool ways you can enter, including voting for us. So if you vote for us for the IHeart Radio Pindcast Awards, that counts as an entry. So you get a chance to win the Saquan-Barkley autographed jersey. And you can see all that at footclan giveaway.com. The rankings are up. Our initial rankings for the upcoming week.

And I think that's, I think those are the headlines. So here's what I want to talk about today because I know. I don't want to talk about it. Look, Lev Bell has not shown up yet. And so I wanted to take a second in the quick question to talk about potential scenarios. And piggyback on Jason's thought that, look, James Connor is going to start another week. That's what Jason's been saying for a while now. And the trade deadline came and went, Lev...

That wasn't clearly the only thing he was waiting for because he didn't show up at, you know, 401 p.m. Eastern with the team. Now, I'm aware of...

some different scenarios. Now, November 13th is the date that I have down as the last day that he can report and still be eligible to play this season. And still occur his free agent status. Correct. If he could show up past that, I believe, and play this season, but then he wouldn't... He wouldn't get a year. Right. So he wouldn't be a free agent next year. And so... Yeah, it's really, it's the 13th of November. That's right. So if he... Now, his other option, so that would

You say, okay, he wants to be a free agent, get the big money contract next year. He has to show up by November 13th. Sign his franchise Tinder and show up. There is another world here, a very realistic world where he holds out the whole season. If he does that...

They can, the Steelers can franchise tender him again at the same rate of this year. It doesn't go up to a third year franchise tender because he didn't accrue that status. So he would not be allowed to be a free agent. But in reality, I can't fathom them doing that. Right. I mean, it would be a black eye on them. Right. To say, okay, Love Bell, we're going to do what you.

held out from it would take away their franchise tag from being able to actually utilize it if they wanted to use that for a player that I mean if they franchise tag him do they think he's going to show up well isn't there yeah but there's the angle where it's like look we don't want to lose our power and leverage of the situation we're going to do it again hope he signs it and trade him right like that that is an option where they could get something for him sure but you're right there could be and I believe pro football talked about this a little bit there's a world where Lev Bell

and the Steelers, behind the scenes, have a conversation. He says he's not showing up. They wink, wink, and say, we're not going to franchise tag you next year because they don't want to pay him an extra $6 million if he does show up because they're ready to move on. And he doesn't want to come show up, play, get hurt, miss out on the long-term deal. And they wink, wink, say, look. Now, I think that's a CBA violation. But there's still a world where that happens, where they basically say, look, don't show up. We want to save the $6 million. We're fine with Connor.

We won't franchise you. Let's just move on from this relationship. And then fantasy owners that have stashed him, weep into their pillowcases. And fantasy owners that took the chance on Connor around the trade deadline or moved to get him or, you know, have been, hey, I'll take a week or two. Get James Connor a top five guy all year long. Yeah. I think that's legit. So as of right now, let's just assume he shows up on the 13th.

That means that Connor has two more weeks, this Sunday and next Sunday where Lev Bell will not be a part of the team at all, and James Conner's complete bell cow. That 13th date will be really telling as to whether or not he gets the rest of the season. Because if he doesn't show up on the 13th, he's not showing up. He's just, I mean. Right. There's no reason to. Right. And so, yeah, I have James Connor in the listener league. I have had several trade offers.

Suddenly come my way, and I have held on to James Connor. Recommend you do the same. All right, a couple of updates for the Thursday night game this evening. It looks like C.J. Bethard is going to be a game time decision. There is an expectation out there that he's going to play tonight. That's what I think is going to happen. Adam Schefter says he's truly 50-50. Matt Brito will be out there tonight. He's listed as questionable.

Pierre Garsohn, Rahim Mostard, also questionable. Another reminder, it's a Thursday night game. So if you are...

privileged to run out some Raiders and 49ers this evening. Please put them in your starting spots. Oh, what an honor it is. It is a joy. I think there's going to be some fantasy relevance here. I mean, yeah, you've got your defenses. Brita is your start of the week. That's true. Derek Carr is my stream of the week. You know, Jared Cook is a good play. Jalen Rashard and Doug Martin.

are probably fine plays this week. You've barely got it out. Just trying to keep it down. Right. Acid reflux. Yeah. So, but I, we're okay here. I mean, this, this game will be okay. Let's move on immediately. Well, I see, I thought maybe that was some of the candy from last night, too. Did you kids end up with, uh, did they get candy? Yes. Plenty of, plenty of candy for the remaining.

year they yeah they got some candy yeah were you guys rationers as kids did you when you had the Halloween hall did you like spread it out over the next you know years worth of like I've got candy every day look at me look at me and answer that question Andy what did I do take a guess look into my eyes out

Jason is destroying himself today. Self-deprecation levels are on kill. I ate it all as quickly as possible. Did you eat it all last night? I ate several of my kids. Your children? Oh, you darn right. Campus style. You hate your kids? My children's candy. My children are all still alive. I need to get more candy next year. If I eat them this year, it's short-sighted. I ate several of my kids.

My kids are my only mechanism to acquire candy. I need to keep them alive. Wow. Okay. Today's going well. Let's get into the forecast. Fantasy forecast. There are some wild candies out there. I was looking through the kids' baskets this morning. They have all these like sour chili pepper covered. I was like throw those out. What? I was like throw, you're going to throw those ones out. Get out of my life. That's not going to work.

All right, fantasy forecast, a reminder, six teams on buying week nine, the Bengals, Cardinals, Colts, Eagles, Giants, and Jags. This is where you insert a joke about starting those players, getting you zero points, because that's what will happen. Nice. Let's start with the matchup between the Steelers, 4-2 and 1 against the 4-and-4 Ravens. The Ravens are three-point home favorites. The line in this game is a 47.5 point over-under. And look, there are a lot of...

fantasy factors in this matchup. Can you start Vance McDonald? Let's start at the tight-in position. Can you start Vance? Because it's been a real up-and-down season for him. Every time that you've been able to turn his direction and say, look, the snap counts are there. Something like last week has happened. 38% of the snaps. Yeah, I think you can start Vance McDonald, but there are other options that you could probably start over him.