Starts of the Week + Week 6 Breakdown, Prayer Yards - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/10

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's football time. Ooh, I almost forgot. I wasn't sure. You hit me with the double pointer. No, no, no. That was a 15-yard penalty on me. No, no, that's why. It was a double pointer. It was definitely... 15-yard penalty? Not a 15-yard penalty. 15-yard penalty? Not a 15-yard penalty. If you see what I did there, one's a gun, one's a pointer. According to the NFL. First down. I find that to be rather ridiculous what's going on in the NFL. Yeah. I mean, I understand the point. I get the intentions, but execution right now is real poor. If I'm signaling first down, for those listening at home, I was giving Mike the signal to make sure he got the, it's football time. Yes. Because this week is flying by. I don't blame you. I barely comprehended that it was already football again.

But I'm probably demonetizing our YouTube video right now. Welcome in, one and all. Mike Wright, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers back with you, Deucer's Alley, full of deuce. We've got Al Borland, Papa Josh, the Falcon, in the building. Look, listen, you guys are the producers. And if you're watching the YouTube, you're on the camera. There is a major lighting issue right now in Ducer's Alley. There is like Al Borland in the pitch black darkness. Yeah. Then there's the glistening helm of Papa Josh. But then like the falcon is like fully lit. That's his white shirt really accenting that. Is that what that is? I don't know about that. I feel like I'm seeing a lot of our. A lot of our life. I mean, he is the youngest. He's feeling himself over there. Yeah, he's got the stash. All right. That's enough. Four heads a little greasy.

That's the light. That's the light. All right. We have NFL news to talk about today. Starts the week. Mike and I with you today and we'll get into the matchups. So I'm excited. It should be fun. We've got big decisions to be made. We want to help you win your week. You can watch the show if we're still allowed to be on YouTube after my illicit obscene. Obscene start to the show. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. Subscribe. Click the bell. You'll check out Sunday live. I'm going to be joining you. remotely this Sunday for Sunday live. Making it happen. So, okay. What's the cackles going on there? Well, the cackles, they turned. Oh, now the lights off. He turned the light off and left him in the dark. All right. See you later. This is the perfect start to the show. Fixed it. Yeah, no, you did. You did. You should take care of the guy next to you as well. Then there'll just be one deuce or left. Yeah, there you go. I apologize. This is quite the start to the episode. I know we're going to talk about some football. We're going to do it right now.

News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Oh, now all the lights just continue to go off. Oh, dude Sele is closed for business. Oh, no, Jeremy's still good. Yeah, double the light on the one producer left. The true slowdown for almost missing its football time is I saw what time it was and I remembered, oh crap, I have the wrong. defense. Like I have not put a claim in for the defense. So I was trying to get one in. Ooh, man. Indiana Jones style right under that door, grabbed my hat and got it in, brother. So you were in the middle of putting a quick waiver claim in, picking up the Tampa Bay Buccaneer defense? That was just like the best one I could find with no time left. Yeah, Spencer Rattler. Yep. Yeah. Not a bad idea. I got a snake, man. That was close.

Well, congratulations, Mike. Also, if you didn't see the graphic, we got it updated. Good work. Yeah. I got a snake, man. Spencer Rattler bringing the drop back. All right, okay. Somebody wrote in and said yesterday, they go, that drop was, I hated that drop. What? They're like, I hated that drop, and I was so happy it was gone, and somehow they brought it back. And you got to blame Spencer Rattler for that. So. Todd Downing is taking over play calling duties for the Jets from Nathaniel Hackett. Oh boy. This is the most. Oh boy. This is the most encouraging news of everything that happened with the Jets this week to me. Because you felt it was bad with Hackett? I did not feel like the fix was going to be made just by transitioning from Robert Sulla. I felt like you needed the offensive side of the football to be remedied. Whether Todd Downing will be that, I don't know. But here's the truth.

And by saying it out loud is going to take it away from me as an opportunity in any of my leagues to do it. But Brees Hall is the player you need to go get. Okay. You go get him now. Players that have him are disappointed, they're not going to give him away. We're not crazy. But if you can get him, go get him now. That's what I'm going to tell you. Because I think that this offense is going to change for the better because Nathaniel Hackett is not the answer. And so he was a middle of the pack offensive coordinator with the Titans, but they also went 12 and 4, I believe, that year or 12 and 5, and they ran the ball successfully. It was Derek Henry. You've got to get Breece Hall going in this offense. I know the offensive line is a problem, but this is a schematic choice as well. There was also matchups. I mean, that you, Breece Hall is supposed to be one of those running backs where.

matchups be darned. It doesn't matter. He's still going to have himself a good game. I mean, that was Denver and Minnesota. I mean, who at this point, like, who's a scarier defense for Jets, not counting them, but like for the Jets to play, that's about as bad as it gets. So. But yeah, we could have a, could have a buy low opportunity for Brees Hall here. Well, and the big story yesterday was that Nathaniel Huckett was about to get demoted for Todd Downing. And then, you know, five minutes later, they changed the head coach. But. And they stole that from us. They did steal that from us. I mean, I don't. I think that Aaron Rogers is, he's done what he's done to fix himself as a villain when possible. But I don't think he had a lot of saying what happened. I really don't. Michael Pittman. Hey, guess who's on my League of Record team, everybody? Michael Sitman, because multiple weeks, back injury. IR is a possibility, everybody.

I... What is happening? Why is everyone going on the IR? Well, I mean, it gives them an extra roster spot. I'm just like these. In my day, these were men. And they were hurt and they played. You know, there's a lot of injuries when Mike Wright is tempted to go to the back in my day, which is not an often occurrence. Listen, Josh Downs is the elite. talent at wide receiver on this team. And I do mean that. I think Josh Downs is a better wide receiver than Michael Pittman. I really believe that. Very different areas, very different types of wide receivers. But this to me gives you clarity. This gives you the confidence. This gives you the week in, week out ability to start Josh Downs regardless of quarterback. Michael Pittman being sat down, you know, Alec Pierce. That's what I was going to ask. That dart throw becomes a higher probability of hitting the board. And Josh Downs, you know,

We're going to talk about the game today. I like Josh Downs a lot. I like what the team is saying about him. They've come out and just talked about his work ethic and the fact that he's advanced his game so much. Aiden O'Connell and Spencer Rattler are getting starts this week. So Aiden O'Connell for the Raiders, they figure out the midweek, mid-year. Yeah, the competition's over. Spencer Rattler will get the start against the bucks. I did love his comment about the fact that Crystal Lave is different, and my plan is to get him the ball as often as possible. That's what we're talking about, Spence. This has happened. Good for you. With backup quarterbacks, they have come in. And the backup wide receiver. And they, well, they come in and they target. They hyper target sometimes. And this could be really good. It wasn't good with Derek Carr. It was okay. It was okay. Not for Alave. For three games, it was okay. Gus Edwards did not practice. It's Wednesday, but.

Again, keep your eye on it. Malik neighbors doing better. Yeah, he didn't practice. Still a DNP right now. Don't love that because that was, it was a Thursday night game. Am I remembering that right? It was. And so it was, you have. Ten days so far. You can have a little bit of optimism that he's going to make it back for the following game, but he did not. And now we're at Wednesday of the next week and he's still not practicing. Do you have any, like if you had to place a bed on whether he's out there? I can't even do that. The nice thing is if he plays, you just put him right back in. But you better be at least preparing to have an ultimate. Devin Singletary's trending in the right direction was the report that I read. Still limited in practice. Zach Moss didn't practice. So Chase Brown, Mike, you brought him up. He was high on our waiver list. And then Audrick Estimate of the Broncos was designated to return from injured reserve. Yeah, this one is not.

as exciting because Javante Williams quietly, if you have not been paying attention, which I think the only people really paying attention to Javante are those that have them on a roster. No, you're not seeing him. You're not like, oh, I'm worried about Javante. Things have been better. Things have been a little bit better for him. So the estimate takeover is probably on hold right now. But it's still, it's a long season and I think that is still a possibility. All right, that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We will talk about some more practice reports in the matchups today. But first. Starts of the week. So I just talked about him. So let's start it running back. I have Bruce Hall is my start of the week. Okay. This was not a player that you thought could ever make this segment of the show. But right now, the level of despair associated with Bruce Hall and his yards per carry and all of that. Yep.

Buffalo is the matchup you won. Despite how horrendous it seemed compared to expectation, he's still the RV 16 on the year. You've got that little bump, the new head coach, and the new identity on offense. And I think getting Breece Hall going is going to be a priority. I think it's one of the reasons why Nathaniel Hackett's not causing playing plays anymore. Not causing problems anymore? Yeah, so I'm going to go on Breece Hall. I'm going to go with Tony Pollard against the Colts. It's kind of, you could just say it's a blanket statement almost for the Titans against the Colts because it's a great matchup. But highlighting Tony Pollard here, playing the Colts, it's been fantastic for all running backs, not named DeAndre Swift. Pollard, look, three top 24 weeks, nearly 70% of the running back attempts and a 15% target share. All this 1A, 1B, hoot nanny, throw that in the garbage because Tony Pollard has been the guy and he's been excellent.

And he's in a plus matchup. All right. Let's go to quarterback then. I'm going to stay in the flames. Start of the week. Kirk Cousins. All right. We just saw Caleb Williams have a monstrous game against Carolina. It is a great matchup. And I'm not sure you knew this. I mean, we had our fantasy draft redo. But Drake London and Darnel Mooney are both in the top 15 at wide receiver through five weeks. Mike, you made a point of. talking about Darnell Mooney, watching every clip of him. Yeah, he was an off-season sleeper. In Chicago, and you believe that he could come into Atlanta and make a difference. 16 targets last week. The offense is currently, it's Kurt Cousins. It's the passing game. And Carolina has the weaponry now with Andy Dalton to actually keep up in the game. So I think Kurt Cousins, you can stay in the flames and start him without any hesitation.

And then I'm going Caleb Williams against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Jags right now through this short season are giving up 7.9 points above expectation. If you don't know what that means, that means think of what a quarterback is scoring on average and give them an extra eight fantasy points. And that's the worst right now in schedule adjusted points by over two points a game, which is that's wild to see at this point. They've been so bad. It's been very hot, very cold for Caleb Williams. But when it's hot, multiple 300-yard games already for the rookie. And I think that we're, I think we're going to go back to back here with Caleb good games. It's not the fairest thing to do, but with a rookie, you can do it. His last three games, if you just paste that out over the year, Caleb Williams is sitting at 4,600 passing yards. That's great. 28 touchdowns and only 11 interceptions.

His QB rating's been 104 over that stretch. He's still rushing for 300 yards, and he's got two top 10 finishes in fantasy. It was. So he went from despair to like, oh, okay. That's honestly, I've struggled a bit with Caleb Williams. The first two weeks were so bad. He completed 48% of his passes in week one. He only had 93 yards. Then 174 yards against Houston. You should be able to do better. He had 44 on the ground. But it's that that's the imprint of especially when you have Caleb Williams doing that and Jaden Daniels doing what he's doing. You're like, oh, well, Jaden is awesome and Caleb is not. But Caleb has been, two of the last three games have been excellent. And I'm going to stick with him one more week. All right. And then he gets a biweek in Washington and Arizona. So things could look a lot better here. Can I borrow a pair? Oh, you need some pants?

Oh, brother. I do. Deal underpants. Who's this for? Well, look, if you pick anybody on the Cleveland Browns. You better have a diaper inside of that titanium underpants. Yeah, I mean, so my wide receiver start of the week. You've got to soak some stuff up. It's Amari Cooper. Thank you. It's Amari Cooper who is still number four in the National Football League in targets. We said 45% of his targets have been uncatchable. You're facing Philadelphia. who have struggled on the back end. They're actually starting a new nickel corner. Another white guy in the house on the secondary. All right. The Browns are going to be passing all game long. And to me, Amari Cooper, it's a priority for this team to, look, you need to use them if you want to win ball games. And you need to use them if you want to showcase him for a trade. Like if you think you're going to get Amari Cooper out the door, that's why he's number four in targets. They have just missed on, I mean, two weeks ago.

They had an 82-yard touchdown called back on a phantom holding call. He had a monster game in week two. Amari Cooper's targets, when you stack those up, I know that the source of the targets is not good. But look, I mean, Malik Neighbors does not have a top 15 source of targets, but it comes to fruition that he has a big game more often than not. Amari Cooper is going to have a big game this week. I'm going with... And he's hungry for more player of this week. Jalen Tolbert against Detroit. It's a plus matchup. We've seen Tolbert two straight weeks with a 20 plus percent target share. He is their full-time number two wide receiver, not target, for the Dallas Cowboys while Brandon Cooks is out. And like the Bengals, I'm sorry, look, the Tolbert here is just in such a good situation of.

The steady rise that we have seen over this season and finally coming through with the promise of the third round pick. And I think that he can go right from the waiver wire right into your starting lineup. This is the second week in a row where my hungry for more was then picked as they started the week by one of you guys. It worked out really well for Brian Thomas. So I'm hoping, Mike, this is a pattern. And we can get a big game from Tolbert because I am starting him in a couple of places. All right, what do we got? Tight in?

Yeah, we do, unfortunately. I'm going to go with the invisible to the fantasy world, Cole Commet. You are blowing my mind right now. I am because of the fact that he's the tight in six on the year. Well, yeah, because he had that 20 point game. But he is. You can't take that away from him. But who has 20 point games at tight end. I mean, Cole commit. Cole commit. That's who. That's right. He's on the field 85 to 90% of the time. So that's a check mark. for a tight end in this economy. Big plays. They are in the repertoire for Colquette. And get this, Jacksonville, who they're facing this week. They're coming off of three straight games giving up a ton more points to the tight-in position, that whole points over-expectation number for the tight-in. So I think Colquette is a really solid start probably every week, but this week especially. And I'm going with Trey McBride thinking that the game, it's,

We're getting there. We are getting there with Trey McBride. It has just been steady, but we haven't had the game that you drafted him for. That is definitely what's being felt by the fantasy community right now because we had Monday Punday Tremick divorce being submitted. So people are, and this was, and so when I got that, I looked at the box score. He was fine. And he was fine, but that's the thing. You didn't draft him to be fine. Yeah, yeah. Six for 53 is... I know. That's perfectly fine, but... Yeah, this is a big endorsement here. Taking on the Green Bay Packers. The Packers are slightly worse against tight ends than wide receivers. And the tight ends have done, again, they've done okay. Titans, Vikings, the Rams were all multiple points over expectation versus Green Bay. And it was right off the concussion. And he had the injury designation going into the week right into nine targets. And, I mean, you had...

the weirdness of an entire drive deleted by a 50-yard rushing touchdown by Kyla Murray. Those are some yards that that Team McB certainly could have got in on a 26% target share on the year. Again, we haven't gotten the big game, but the numbers for McBride are, they're still very good in terms of peripherals. We just need it to hit. All right, those are our starts of the week for this week, and we'll take a break and get into. this week's matchups all right it's time to jump in this is what week six mike we're cruising we are uh before i jump in i do want to remind everybody they can use the ultimate dashboard to optimize their lineup go to join the foot dot com sign up to support the show get an extra episode every week get access to our discord channel get access to the streamfinder tool

and all of the resources that we have available in our premium tools and resources. And then, of course, the ultimate dashboard with a custom waiver wire sheet, spot starts. It's all built out for your league, and that's join thefoot.com. It's time for Fantasy Forecast, presented by Draft King Sportsbook. Okay, you ready? Let's go back to London, Mike. You sound like you're from London. Jacksonville, one and four. Taking on the Chicago Bears who are three and two, the Draft King Sportsbook line here. Bears minus two. The Runders 44 and a half. We just talked about several pieces of this game. You know, Caleb Williams, your start of the week, DJ Moore, it's been great. It was interesting watching DJ Moore and the press conference. Did you see his comments on Caleb? I did not. It was very funny. I mean, DJ Moore had a big week.

He basically said Caleb Williams right now is being a little bossy. If they don't do... Like Springsteen? If they don't do exactly what they need to do in the run around and practice or on the field, he's letting him know about it. He's letting him know about it. And DJ Moore even made the comment of like, he's like, whoa, whoa, you can't talk to me like that. I'm older. I'm the older brother. But then at the same time, he was just commending the leadership and saying like he has been telling them what they need to do. It was good to hear.

DeAndre Swift has been awesome for two straight weeks, Mike. Is it continue against Jacksonville, who is 27th this year against the run? It freaking better. It just comes down to, you know, for the big game. If they get down by the goal line, they've kind of been splitting opportunities for Swift and Rocheon Johnson. And DeAndre Swift continues to show the world that that is not his strength. So we have. Just pulling it up here. Four, four attempts inside the five this past week against Carolina. Four of them. One touchdown. Like, Dad, come on, brother. We got to get that number up. But Rochon could vulture a touchdown or two away. But overall, DeAndre Swift is a strong play. So DJ Moore, your confidence, Swift, Williams, Colquette is the start of the week as well. On the other side of the football, we saw some signs of life from the offense, Brian Thomas Jr.

This might be a tougher week, though. It's going to be really tough. The bears are just, they stifle the passing game. They make every possession very difficult on you. And if there's one area where I feel like Jacksonville struggles tremendously, it's stringing, you know, they can make a big play. I mean, Brian Thomas Jr. had a monstrous play down the field. But putting a bunch of first downs together, getting all the way down the field, it can be difficult. And so I would temper your Brian Thomas expectations. You're still going to play him. Yeah, Brian Thomas is in for me. If Kirk – I wouldn't try Kirk out now. I'm not going to force Kirk into my lineup. And then the – what do we do here? Evan Engram, limited practice. We got a limited practice on a Wednesday. They think he's going to play. So that would especially – maybe he's on a snap count. I don't know. But that would – when him and Christian Kirk are both playing, it –

tends to take away opportunities from Kirk. So it's just, would you put Evan Engram right back into a starting line? Most lineups, yeah. Okay. Yeah, you're going to take that chance. He's got that connection with Lawrence. ETN's been limited in practice with the shoulder. Tank Bigsby coming off a season high and snaps. It seems like a really tough situation right now. Yes, especially in this game. If you have ETN and you drafted him, you're probably playing him no matter what. But Tank Biggsby's deflects. decision that I think is really hard. And I don't know if I would do it in this one. No, I don't think I would do it either. I don't know if you have some names that you would want to try out there. I'm trying to look at like realistic options. It was like, like, okay, for or tank. So Bucky Irving against the Saints or Tank Bixby. I'd probably play Bucky. Yeah, that's where I lean as well. Travis E.T. entertain Bigsby is the number two most popular starts a decision.

I have been the loudest about the concerns about Tank Bigsby actually, could he be good? And he's looking fantastic of taking work from ETN. I'm still playing ETN over Tank Bigsby, though. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like credit is due to you on two situations that I didn't believe. There was the players I'm embarrassed to love. I'm not embarrassed anymore. No, I mean, you... I'm not afraid anymore. You still believe Tink Biggsby could impact ETI and you still believe that Bucky Irving could impact Rashob White. Yep. So you were right and I was wrong on that. I'm attractive. You're not. You're good looking. I'm not attractive. That's what it... Said Norm McDonald? No, that's happy Gilmore. Oh, that's right. I had some dirty work scenes showing up in my head. All right.

Arizona is two and three. They get a take on the Green Bay Packers. The Draft King Sportsbook line here, Packers minus five at home in Lamba. Over Under is 47. This should be a good one. I think so. I think it'll be exciting. The Green Bay defense, we saw them kind of falter against Minnesota two weeks ago. They snuck by the Rams last week. Jordan Love has been pretty good. You know, on a play-to-play basis, sometimes there's been some things, but. He's providing the kind of offense numbers that you need. Josh Jacobs, Jaden Reed, are your locks. Tucker Kraft at this point. Has to be a lock. Yes, 100%. But the wide receiver crew beyond that, Dantavian Wix was the popular pickup last week. His target share is great, but his catch percentage is not. Correct. He has either been in the wrong place or dropped the ball or Jordan Love has missed him. He has.

You know, he caught five of 13 targets two weeks ago. Two of seven targets this past week, you know, it is a risk. I really think it's a risk. With Dobbs coming back, Wix is somebody that, like, I would play, you'd play Mooney over Wix, right? Correct. I still think Wix is. Tolbert over Wix? Your start of the week, I'd imagine. Yeah, that one's really close because I'm, I still think Wix is, I'm playing him. If I picked him up. against the Cardinals who, look, they're giving up their 14th right now against wide receivers. So right in the middle of the pack, the Dobbs coming back, it creates a little bit of risk, but it's still, you know, it will be the three of them. Christian Watson was limited, by the way. So pay attention to that. Because if somehow Watson is back for this game, that makes things really sketchy. If they're back to the four wide receivers, if it's the three of them, though, then...

I think they're all, even Dobbs, that one is more of a desperation because it's coming off of the suspension of, does he go right back into the role? Or, like, what do you, how do you evaluate this situation, Andy, get suspended because he's upset with the team and he takes action of like, I'm just not going to go to practice. Is this a, could he see some on-field punishment from the team or? Is this the squeaky wheel? They're like, okay, hey, Romeo, we need to get you the ball more. You're right. Yeah, I just view them the way I viewed Romeo Dobbs before this happened. I don't view it squeaky wheel or punishment. I think he just goes out there and is on the field a tonne, and it makes it hard to start Wix and Dobbs and Watson and other players. I mean, we have a good matchup. The Cardinals are not a great defense, but at the same time, it is risky. I mean, Calvin Ridley or Donavian Wix?