Fantasy Football - Starts of the Week + Week 5 Breakdown, Big Bye Decisions - Podcast for 10/2

The Fantasy Footballer Studio is sponsored by Walmart. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Ah, welcome in. Hey. It's football time. Thursday, October 2nd. It is football time. We have a game tonight. We have. Some of the 49ers will be there. Yeah, it's a total of one and a half teams competing.

Good luck, Juice. Yes, seriously. Juszczyk will get the ball. Oh, Juszczyk will have to touch the ball. It's... Get after it. They're fielding 34 players tonight between all three teams. It's going to be wild. Interdivisional game. And the Rams take on what's left of the 49ers. We previewed it on yesterday's show, but we didn't know at the time that there would be three more players ruled out of this game. So we'll talk about that momentarily. Oh, no. What about... Dude, is Kyle Juszczyk... Should he be staying away from Christian McCaffrey? Of course he should. Everyone needs to be able to...

Kyle, hey, just keep your distance. He is siphoning... McCaffrey is... Everyone's health. So then he can... I mean, this is the... Yo, so... I'm not trying to... I'm not trying to, like, jinx Juice. I mean, he's been there for a really long time. Juice has been there for... He already got hurt this year. I was going to say, like, he's been pretty healthy for the duration of his career. He really has. He must be avoiding the potholes and the landmines on the practice field. But, yeah, Kyle Juszczyk, one of the active 49ers this evening. So we'll talk about who is ruled out momentarily.

A reminder, the Start-Sit tool, the weekly rankings, the new rest-of-season rankings. The rest-of-season rankings we'll be releasing on the mobile app as well. And you can learn more about them at jointhefoot.com. But all the other stuff, all of our articles from an incredible writing staff, thefantasyfootballers.com is the website. All the resources you need to give yourself an advantage each and every week. Go check those out. We'll jump right into that news, though. News and notes from around the league. Presented by Progressive Insurance. No Brock Purdy. No Ricky Pearsall. No Juwan Jennings. No Brandon Ayuk. No Jordan Watkins. No Jacob Cowey.

No Trent Taylor. No George Kittle. It's ridiculous. Go Sky Moore. I mean, that's Demarcus Robinson, Kendrick Bourne. Jake Tonjes. If I was taking a shot on one player, it would be Demarcus Robinson tonight. I'd go Christian McCaffrey. Okay. But, I mean. Is there a. He's on all my teams, guys. Over Demarcus Robinson? I know. What is the, like, ironic feeling right now for you where this entire team is decimated. Yeah. And Christian McCaffrey, what, he missed three of five years? And then the other two people won the championship? Mm-hmm. And here he is surviving slash siphoning the life. No. And totally healthy.

It. It's a weird place to be because on one hand, I would like the other guys healthy because McCaffrey is doing all of these things. Meanwhile, not scoring boatloads of touchdowns like we're used to. And not having really explosive plays on. At least in the running game. The run blocking has not been what it has been in the past for the 49ers. And then on the other hand, you're like, I need the other guys back because he's getting too much work, guys. How many rushing touchdowns does McCaffrey have so far through four weeks? I'm guessing zero. He has zero. Oh, it's zero.

They're all receiving. Yeah. He has zero rushing touchdowns right now. Has not finished outside of the top 10 yet on the week. What a stud. Half PPR, 18.7, 19.7, 19, 23.1. I was looking at his price picks projection. His rushing and receiving combo was in the 120s. It's just. And he's going to get it. Well, look. It's wild. Maybe 49ers. Maybe that's 49% of your roster is active on a weekly basis. I don't know if that was the basis. I thought it was a callback to the old gold rush. No, no. It was roster percentage. You've got literally nobody has put the name Jake Tonjes into our doc.

All it says is Tonjes McMaskerball. Yeah. He'll be active. I think he's an interesting play. He is. You're going to have Mac Jones, who has been limited due to injury. Yeah. So Christian McCaffrey is on pace for 183 targets. Targets? Targets. Wow. 132 receptions, almost 1,300 yards. Five NFL wide receivers have ever hit those three marks in a season. Yeah, it's insane. Wide receivers. Are the Rams going to win the ballgame? Yeah. Yes. It seems on paper that they should. Who's the backup quarterback here? Beyond Mac Jones? Beyond Mac Jones. Because I'm looking at a depth chart. I see Curtis Rourke.

Never heard of that guy. Who's out? He's ruled out. Let's see. Yeah, that's what I see, too. I think the backup quarterback might be Christian McCaffrey. Yeah, you could go. Let's do it, 49ers. You could go to like a full wildcat. Just give him more touches. That's what he needs. All right. We got an update yesterday. It was mid-show. Trey Benson was ruled out and then put on IR, and then we found out he's going to undergo arthroscopic surgery for a meniscus four to six weeks. Michael Carter's the starter. Correct. Yeah, that is what it seems like. I mean, it is.

He's getting the first reps in practice. He came out and said literally, it's wild. I mean, his quote was something like, it's wild. I was on the practice squad a week ago. Now I'm starting. I mean, that's literally his quote. And he was the starter last year when this type of thing happened to the Cardinals. Demarcato is not a bad play, but he's not their number one running back. He will catch the ball. He'll be the two-minute drills. And Kyler doesn't have a lot of receiving options. So I would, if you put the overrunner on Demarcato having four and a half catches, I mean, I think

that's about, I'd probably be. I think it's a good line because I don't know how to go more or less than that one. And against Tennessee, you're favored. You are at home for the Cardinals. Michael Carter is not a bad play. No. And obviously, if you had Michael Carter and you had Amari Demarcato, who Demarcato was the guy who people were picking up, not Michael Carter, we would all start Michael Carter, right? I would personally. I would probably start Michael Carter of the two. Yeah, I would as well. Baker Mayfield, Sterling Shepard, Mike Evans, Bucky Irving all didn't practice on Wednesday.

This has been pretty routine for Baker, managing some injuries. Shepard didn't do much last week in the absence of Evans, and he's managing a foot injury. Evans still out with the hamstring. Bucky Irving not fully ruled out yet, but seems like he is on the low side of probable. Yes, very low. Low side of probable? Yeah. No, I... Does that make sense? Yeah, it makes complete sense. Okay, I said something. You could have made it easier and just said he's doubtful? Yeah, that's what I was thinking. But doubtful is the low side of probable. Hmm. We don't have probable anymore, right?

No, that's gone. It's just questionable and doubtful now. Terry McLaurin could need another week to heal or two from the quad injury. Didn't practice. The team has signed Robbie Chosen, a man with a thousand teams and names. Yeah. But this is... It's interesting because Debo Samuel also mispracticed. It's listed as a heel injury. Could be a veteran's day off. But we're going to monitor that, the fact they added another wide receiver. He's added to the practice squad for now. Right. So we'll see if he gets called up. Dave Canales said Chuba Hubbard came out of the game with his calf worse than at any point last week

and didn't practice on Wednesday. This one is bigger news. Hopefully you saw it on the social medias because we didn't have information on this before waivers ran. But Rico would be next man up. And he's already playing a good amount. He would be an okay volume play should Chuba miss. And I think that Rico should be stashed regardless. We hate these calf injuries. They turn into things. And the fact that he was a... If you remember last week it was Thursday he popped up with it. He didn't go into the practice week with it. He got injured in practice. Goes into the game and your coach is saying he's actually...

He's worse now. That is not great news for Chuba. It's a good chance Rico is the starter this week. Seems like it. He needs to be rostered everywhere. Right now he's only 22% rostered. Pretty good matchup. I believe they play the Dolphins this week. Yep. Sunday morning. Yeah. Rico's playable if that's the case. Braylon Allen is officially on IR. Could have surgery. Might be season ending. They signed Khalil Herbert. And we'll monitor all the other injury report. If you don't know we have a special Injury Blitz episode by Matthew Betts. It's an extra bonus show. As part of the JoinTheFoot.com perks.

And it comes out Friday afternoon with all the injury updates from our on-staff medical professional. All right. That was news and notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. You can quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. It's time for the starts. Starts of the week. Presented by U.S. Bank. It is week five. It is time for the start. Let's kick it off at the quarterback position. Jason, why don't you lead the way? Sure. I'm going to start with Daniel Jones, who last week was pretty disappointing against the Rams.

Threw a couple of picks, especially late as he was trying to come back. Would have been fine if his receiver, who he threw a bomb touchdown to, had held on to the ball while he crossed the goal line. That would have made things feel a lot different. He's currently even including the bad fantasy output last week, the quarterback seven on the season. He's looked really good to me. Watching him, he looks like a baby Josh Allen out there. He's running the ball well. He's rifling it well. The Raiders' defense is not very difficult, very predictable. They're running zone at the second highest rate in the NFL at 89%.

They cover three at 54% of the time, which is highest in the NFL. And Jones versus cover three, third highest completion percentage, number one in yards per attempt, number one in passer rating. I think it's a good matchup for him. He's at home. Those nerd stats over there. Nerd stats. It's funny. I was just curious. They're identical in size. Oh, are they? Yeah. And obviously you didn't mean it by size. But I'm just saying like I was just looking it up. Exact same height. Exact same weight. Literal play style is, I think it's the jersey. I think it's like him in this white jersey.

You start to think about. It just kind of looks like him sometimes. Speaking of white jerseys. The Bills are wearing those. The all whites. Oh, those are fresh. The all whites. What are they called? Like the ice out. The rivalry jerseys. Yeah. They got a name for that. It's like ice out. Glacier ice. I don't know. Probably. They're nice. All right. So you're going Daniel Jones. I'm going to go ahead and I'm calling this a nasty boy week. Oh, you got it. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. How nasty? Oh, we need underpants? You let me know. This one always requires some form of underpants.

Don't give me anything crazy. Steel underpants. Yeah, just steal. Okay. Because it's a permanent. You let me know if I've got to get the blacksmith back out here. I'll let you know. I do want to make a brief comment about starts of the week. It's a good reminder every year because I got some comments this past week where somebody started. I think they started like Matthew Golden over DK Metcalf. And they did it because they felt like the start of the week meant you start them no matter what over everybody. That's not what the start of the week is. The start of the week is a player that they still slide in on our rankings in a certain

spot, but we believe that they have the high, like high upside. They're a good start, but it doesn't mean that you bench a player that you, that has a much higher, you know, projection for the week in light of a start of the week, just to get them into your lineup. This is more like, Hey, go play this player. Uh, if you have the opportunity to play them, if you're making a decision, we like them this week. Uh, Justin Fields is a permanent steel underpants play of the week because Justin Fields can be the number three, number six, number five quarterback of the week.

Like he's been twice. He can also play three quarters and score four fantasy points like he did against Buffalo in week two. He was outside of the top 32 quarterbacks. Yeah. He was a quarterback 35 in a week. He started and played three quarters against Buffalo. That's amazing. He is a, he's always a steel underpants play, but it is Dallas. Um, as volatile as Justin Fields is, he is so explosive in the running game. He has an elite wide receiver in Garrett Wilson. He will have Brees Hall available in the screen and the check down game all game long. And the Dallas past defense looked last week.

It was Jordan love. He had a great week. Start of the week at quarterback against Dallas. I'm playing it back with Justin Fields. It is a safe start this week. It really is the steel underpants. You don't even have to wear them. I don't think it's an option. Am I not comfortable? No, no. There's a lot of changing. Are you telling people to Donald Duck right now? I think you, you could do that if you wanted to. Okay. I do. I want to talk to the people who have lost their quarterback. Maybe Lamar is out and you're like, I don't know what to do.

Brock Purdy was your backup plan for tonight. That's not going to go through CJ Stroud, a name not brought up very often on this show because his fantasy value is that of something that belongs in the toilet. I don't, I can't remember the last time he was in the segment. Yeah, I cannot either. But here's the thing. He's playing Baltimore and it was not that long ago. When we hear Baltimore Ravens, it's you associate them with, oh, that's a, that's an elite defense. They're scary. I don't want my players going against the Baltimore Ravens. We're back to the couple of years.

Yes, you do. Yeah. We're back to a couple of years ago where it was. No, actually you target the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore 30th in schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks. 31st in passing yards per game allowed. CJ Stroud is going to have a decent game. I'm not calling him to be a top five guy, but he is playable as a top 12 guy. And that's just with his arm. And CJ Stroud is actually running a little bit more. He's 12th or he has 12 total quarterback scrambles. And that's tied with Caleb and Baker, who we associate more with running.

Stroud, you know, we threw four games on pace for 72 rushing attempts. We'll take that to boost the baseline just a little bit more. And I think he's going to have a good game through the air. Okay. CJ Stroud makes an appearance. All right. David Montgomery is my running back start of the week. In week three, he won you your week and mine. He was awesome. How about the next week? Oh, in week four, he lost you the week and mine. And that's really why I'm telling people, like, you need to start him. Last week was the Cleveland Browns. They have shut down everybody.

They shut down Derrick Henry, who looked unstoppable. They shut down the Detroit Lions, which are usually unstoppable. They shut down Josh Jacobs. And so, yeah, he had a very bad week last week. Nine for 12. Pure diaper gravy. Nice. But this is a prime spot for Detroit, the running game, the game script. In Cincinnati, they have a 30-point implied team total, highest on the week. You know they're going to be able to run on them. Cincinnati is allowing the six highest yards before contact per attempt, second most missed tackles. They're going to be up. They're going to be running the game out.

They don't need to have, you know, two-minute drill Jameer Gibbs in. This will be a 50-50 timeshare. Gibbs and Monty should both have an awesome game. So if you've got Montgomery, make sure he's in your lineup. Well, you just talked about Baltimore. I'm going to go Woody Marks. You talked about C.J. Stroud. Woody Marks is emerging. Not just as a running back, a rookie running back that impacts fantasy, a rookie running back that can catch the ball. I mean, he was 4 for 50 in the receiving game. I think C.J. Stroud has found his kind of maybe, you know, alternate option to the slow Dalton Schultz.

He doesn't have a lot of options in the receiving game that have worked out outside of Nico Collins, who's been a little disappointing. And this was a big week, and we're chasing it with Woody Marks. Baltimore's a great matchup. You talked about it at length. And the Ravens cannot stop the run. You talk about everything about nothing. No, they're dead last in fantasy points allowed to running backs. They are the best matchup for running backs. And I love the comments from, you know, Houston's head coach coming out and saying, look, can he handle more? I like hearing that when you've gone out and he's the number one waiver wire pickup.

So I'm going to go with Woody Marks. And I'm going with a classic here. We're going Alvin Kamara. Okay. Super Kamario. Is he still on the same? He got that button. He's still there. I don't have the button hit for me. Oh, we got it twice. Super Duper Mario. I'm guessing our producers didn't expect me to hit that button. That really makes me feel like I took. You got to hit yours again. No, I don't. Man, that was a lot. That was too much caffeine. Yeah. I don't know if he's going to be that super. That was pretty lengthy there.