Week 2 Matchups + Wheel of Shame, BLARF! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/15

Sure. You'll need both. He's hard to find. Yeah, yeah, okay. You don't say that about Zayflower. No, I don't. He's also hard to find. I've got my takes. Oh, yeah. Take lock with Josh Downs. But you admitted it last week. Like he was on the field a lot. Seven targets. Yeah, I think he's kind of hiding right now from fantasy players because the performance. He's hiding for the defense, yes. Sorry. Sorry, Josh. Thank you, Mike. I think he's worth a cursory pickup ahead of a potential breakout. He is. We know Michael Pittman can disappear. So Josh Downs might have a week. And Josh Downs was referred to by Reggie Wayne as the best wide receiver in the drafts. Jason, is this the team you can't handle? I mean, if Josh Downs is the wide receiver and then Zach Moss is the running back. Yeah. I am far more open to Josh Downs actually being a good player. I don't.

I did not believe that Josh Downs would ever amount to anything for fantasy football for his entire career before, you know, he was ever on the field. But I see the talent. And part of that was a weight, a size issue for him. And the draft ends up as a third rounder. Right. You know, he wasn't. The fact that he was a third rounder in his size, historically, it just doesn't work out for fantasies. I still don't believe it will. But after week one. The fact that he played his way into the starting role right off the back. McKinsey had one snap, I think. Yeah, and he's, he looked good. So I'm open to Josh Downs being a very good player. I think he is someone that needs to be on your radar, and you should be picking him up in deeper leagues for sure. All right. San Francisco at 1 and 0 take on the 1 and O, super impressive first week, Los Angeles Rams. The Draft King Sportsbook line, well, Draft Kings didn't find it all that impressive because San Francisco, seven and a half point road.

favorites in this one. Yikes. The over under is 44 and a half. I think a lot of that has to do with the history, right? Kyle Shanahan, I mean, and the players on the rosters, but like Shanahan's had McVeigh's number. Eight and three against Los Angeles historically. Matthew Stafford was arguably the most impressive first week pass or 24 for 38, 334. He didn't have the touchdowns, but just in terms of, you know, PFF quarterback rating. He looked great. He was behind Tua. Brock Purdy looked great as well. I mean, he's been a machine in this offense. You know, you don't have a lot of start questions with San Francisco. You're playing all of the players, McCaffrey, Debo, Ayuk, Kittle, play him. Yep. On the other side, we just found out Puka Nakua mispractice. We were disappointed in Van Jefferson. Tutu Outwell seems like Tutu Outlier. And then Tyler Higby was a disappointment. So.

He can do that. Are you going to play any of the past catchers before we talk about the runners? Man, I don't think so. I'm not even confident if Puka plays that I want to play him. If he is dealing with an injury against the San Francisco 49ers, if he's out, I don't feel like I want to really go in on two to out. Well, I mean, the one player that I would consider is Tyler Igby, who very much disappointed week one. But if they don't have Puka, they got to throw the ball to somewhere. But at the same time,

It's still the Niners defense. I'm not excited about any of the pass catchers there. And I'm less excited about the running backs than I am the past catchers because the 49ers run defense is great. And now we know that like I liked Cam Acres before the season. And the reason I liked him was because the end run of last year, he was 70 plus percent of all opportunities for running backs of snaps. He's the dude. and it looked like there was a depth chart that said he's going to be the dude. Well, that's not the case. Kyron Williams is he could be the starter. I don't know if he's the starter of the backup. Week two will probably illustrate that for sure. But what we do know for sure is that it's two headed. Whoever the starter is is not just a workhorse. They're not getting 70 plus percent of snaps and 70 plus percent of the rushing attack. Now.

70 plus percent of routes, that seems to be Kairns. Yes. Cam Acres was not running routes. So I leaned Kiron over. He was walking them. Yes, I lean Kiron over Cam. But if this is split against the San Francisco 49ers run defense, I'm OUT. I'm looking elsewhere. Yeah, I'm playing Zach Moss over Kiron. I'll tell you that. This week, it's much better for Zach Moss. They did come out. The team didn't. But the Indianapolis Starkey Mountains that he will function as unquestioned lead back in that offense. All right, the Giants, O&1, taking on the O&1 Cardinals. Cardinals, an impressive loss in week one. Giants, a depressing loss in week one. Draft King Sportsbook line has the Giants' four-point road favorites. The over-underer is just above the blarf level. It's 40. Well, here we go. This is a game that I don't.

I'm not sure I want to. It's not putting that fire in your belly. It's going on one of the outside TVs, Mike. We need to make sure this one's not near the middle. But, you know, I expect the Giants to fix some of their issues. Part of that is a trust in Brian Dable. Part of that is a distrust of the Cardinals. Kind of, you know, they caused turnovers, three on the road against Washington. That really helped them stay in the game. But their offense is not capable. I saw some numbers that were interesting highlighting how the Cardinals pressure rate was actually not really significant. They just, when they got through, they were getting a quarterback. Five sacks, was it? Yeah, I mean, like, on the stat sheet, it looks great. And so you can't take that away from them, but it's a, that's a, that feels more like that's on the quarterback.

making bad decisions, not taking the read that is there trying to force something. And it's Sam Howell's, what, his second start. I mean, so those things, you had to, Sam Howell, if it were anyone other than the Arizona Cardinals defense, you know, if against Sam Howell in that opening matchup, you would have been excited to target that defense, much like you, like, well, I'm going to pick up the Colts this week and play him against C.J. Stroud or whoever's. against the Carolina Panthers. I'm going to keep playing them until that quarterback shows me that they're good. So it's not surprising to me that Sam Howell took that many sacks. James Connor, Hollywood Brown, where are you with those guys right now? Connor is a, he's a volume-based running back to. He has talent, but he's still.

It's just you're playing him because he's going to get all the work. I think he's a little bit more of a flex option. I do worry a little bit about this calf injury. Wednesday practice being missed. I expect that to be the entire season for James Connor. Thursday practice being missed with the calf injury. We actually just had a quote. It just came out. Oh, let me hear this. Jonathan Ganners said running back. James Connor dealing with the calf injury is doing good. Okay. Superman does good. It might not change your opinion. That was from, that was from Gannon. I certainly think you could start him because he is like Mike said, he's a volume play, but I see him more as like a flex option, an RB3 than an RB2. And also I want to highlight what a great matchup this is across the field for Sakewan. Saquan Barkley should have a complete monster get right game. The Cardinals gave up the, you know, the most fantasy points to running backs.

You look at Saquan splits. Saquan in wins was 17 and a half fantasy points last year versus loss is 13 and a half. Home road on the road. He was 19.2 fantasy points per game versus 13 at home. This is a road victory for the Giants. So he should eat here. How about Hollywood? Hollywood had five targets, but it didn't look good. Michael Wilson ran more routes than Hollywood. I'm not playing a single Cardinals. Zach Kurtz had the most targets. Pass catcher, including Zach. He did. Daniel Jones, startable in this one? Yeah. Sequin Barclay. Yep. And what about this laundry list of running back names? Shepard and Slayton and Hodgins, or sorry, wide outs and Campbell and Hyatt and Waller. No need. No need. Just hold off until one of them actually separates, but it should also be a get-right game for the Wallerists. The New York Jets travel to Dallas to take on the Cowboys.

Both teams want to know the drafting sports book line Dallas minus nine and a half. The over under is 38 and a half. That gives the Jets 14 points. Before the Rogers injury, this game line was minus three for Dallas. Now it's almost a 10 point line. And this just comes down to the fundamental reality that no one can conceive, even the most imaginative minds, those that have written the greatest fantasy novels in history. none of them have been able to conceive how Zach Wilson will score on the Cowboys. They have not been able to construct a storyline that says he will get from point A to point B short of the defense steals the ball from Dallas and gives him a 15-yard field. That's possible. If he dumps off to Brees Hall for a 99-yard touchdown reception, that could happen. News came out this morning from Robert Sala that Brees Hall will continue to be on a pitch count. So that's worth noting.

This is not a good matchup for Brees Hall. No. I'm not saying bench him. I think if you saw what happened last week, you're going to take your chances on a big play. But there is the chance that this game ends up being a disappointment for Brees Hall managers. Yeah, absolutely. You don't look at the Dallas Cowboys and think, man, what a great opportunity to score a bunch of points. The Cowboys defense. has been great. Last year was very good. You can run on them a bit, and I do think that the Jets' identity now shifts to being Brees Hall and Dalvin Cook and running the ball as much as possible. So I'm fine starting either one of those guys as an RB2, not expecting big things. And, you know, this is going to be a defensive game. I mean, you have two great defenses here. Yeah, it's 38.5 point over under. Both of these.

fantasy defenses should be played as well. Don't be afraid of Dallas's offense, you know, when looking at playing the Jets defense. The Jets' defenses, I mean, they just shut down the Buffalo Bills who are a great offense. And if there's someone turning the ball over at the same pace as Josh Allen, it's Dak Prescott. Yeah, my concern is just you're going to get the defense on the Jets. Shouldn't have given up the points, but then they had the short field. That's my concern. But Dalvin Cook or Breece Hall, who would you pick? Brees. I'm going Brees. I want the explosive. Garrett Wilson is a what this week? A wide receiver three-ish. Three-ish. Yeah. So that would be some tough start-sid decisions. Brooksie, why don't you look up some of the most popular Garrett-Wilson-based start-sid decisions on the site? How about Garrett-Wilson or Azay Flowers? I was just looking at that. I said look them up. I did not say bring them up on the air. Yeah, we don't want to answer them.

I would. I'm going to play Garrett Wilson. I'm going to play flowers. All right, Jason. Split the tie. I will play flowers. I think against Dallas, I don't, I don't want Garrett Wilson. Blarf. Yeah, I mean, it stinks, but I think Gary Wilson has a DJ Moore or Garrett Wilson. I'll go DJ Moore. I'll take my start of the week in DJ Moore. Brandon Cooks is a game time decision. He should probably be a bench decision right now for you. Yeah. And just keep your eyes on Jake Ferguson. Absolutely. Don't. I wouldn't play him. No. But I'd look at him. Yeah, just see what it looks like. See what he looks like. Mike Evans or Garrett Wilson. Mike Evans. Mike Evans. Yeah, I agree. Washington commanders. Oh, boy, here we go. This show might be the longest one ever. The commanders are 1 and 0. The Broncos are 0 and 1. The game's in Denver. Bluhr. That's a key point here. The Draft King Sportsbook line. A lot of blarfin going on. Denver minus three and a half. The overrunners 39.

And look, all these numbers, by the way, I mean, the matchups certainly dictated, but the unders destroyed. Like last week, last week, if you went, if you were a sportsbook type of person and you just took individual unders on every game, you did very well. Here's what I want to start the conversation with. Ron Rivera decided to come out and share that he was going to buck conventional wisdom. He will try to avoid altitude sickness. By slipping into Denver just before the game. For science. He has decided that there is some study out there that tells you elevation doesn't affect you for 24 hours. Tell that to the bag of chips you drive up the mountain. Okay. Tell that. I mean, I go up to a mile high here in Arizona very often. The first 24 hours is without question the worst. You get out of here.

You get out of your car, you walk, and you're like, oh, my God, you can't breathe it. And then after, guess what? After 24 hours, I am acclimated. I think he read it wrong. I think he got this report and actually just completely missed a negative in there and was like, ah, I've got the key. I think you want to come a little early. It confuses me as to whether the commander's going to get boat raced. Well, to be fair. That quote was actually from 2021 for a previous time that they went up there. So they've already experienced this. They went up there, snuck in, you know, followed the science, scored 10 points in that game total, then got and got beat. So I think do it again. Why not? I am not a scientist, but I have had the same experience as you guys of when I.

travel to a place that is a much higher altitude than where I live, immediately I am like, oh man, it's hard to breathe here. That's just my own personal experience. I don't think that this game, regardless of altitude acclamation, looks like a very fun one for fantasy players. No, you want the Denver Broncos defense. That's the most fun thing. I mean, what do you do with Jehan Dodson? He was targeted heavily. McLaren's still dealing with the injury. I'm still willing to play. Are both of those guys going into your lineup? McLaren included? Yeah, probably. This was a Broncos defense that last year was very good against wide receivers. Week one, they kind of, they got dismantled by, was it Mike Evans? Which? What was the Broncos? Raiders. Oh, yeah. Jacobi Myers. Yeah.

But you gave him 35 fantasy points to the wide receiver position with Jacoby Myers and Adams last week. Yeah, I'm still playing them. What about the Manders guys or Garrett Wilson? I'm going to pass this one on to Jason. Yeah, Jay, what do you think? That's really, really tough. I think because you are split with McLaurin and Dotson in the elevation on the road, I would go with Wilson. So that shows kind of I'm a little bit down on the. Washington pass catchers. I'm really down on all the pass catchers in this game. On the Denver side of the ball, I mean, if you're starting one, it's clearly Cortland Sutton. He is the one. Jerry Judy, you know, if he's active, he's going to be on a snap count, they say. Marvin Mims was not very involved. Now, that's a none of them for me then. Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think in this game, I really want to start.

The Denver Broncos defense. I think you could probably start the commander's defense. And the commander's defense, absolutely. 39 point over under. This game has 15 to 16 written all over it. Yeah, if that. Yeah, with some turnovers. So Sunday night football, the dolphins at 1 and 0 take on the New England Patriots. This one looks a little bit brighter. Draft King Sportsbook line, Miami minus three. The overunder is 46 and a half. You don't want to overemphasize what happened with Miami in week one. But. The path is there for this to be the recipe weekly for Miami. They couldn't stop anybody on the Chargers side. Couldn't stop the run game. Joshua Kelly looked like an all-star. And yet their offense was cruising. And so the 46.5.5.0. Under is encouraging. Mack Jones, what he did against the Eagles is encouraging? You know, you're going to have, what, Tehran Armstead is coming back? We'll see. That should help the protection for...

slice and dice to a tongue of Iloa. Sure. Taryn Armstead. Yeah. This is one of those where I'm really curious on the rock and the hard place situation. You have a really explosive offense that we saw in week one with the dolphins, a really dominant defense that we saw in week one with the Patriots and what's going to give in this. I worry a little bit about over-inflating the dolphins offense based on what we saw last year. Last year we saw them go nuclear. Just nobody could stop them. You know, when they were scoring, there was a three-week stretch where they scored 31, 35, 39 points. And then they followed that up. And this is with Tua. These are all Tua games. This is when he was starting completely with 15 points, 17 points, 17 points. When was the? The concussion had happened already before the explosiveness. Yeah, but then there was other ones throughout. And then they're like, I don't remember all the.

I'm looking at the game log right now. I mean, last year was hard to dissect, even in the way that Jason's breaking it down, because the concussion caused you to miss games. But then there was that one. There was also like, you know. There was the mid game. Remember, there was the mid game one where everyone watching the game was saying, too has a concussion. What are you doing? And then he went back in the game. And it was, he looked like a man who would like forgot how to play quarterback. So. I believe that was the Buffalo game. I don't remember all the details of when everything happened. You know, Houston, San Francisco, Chargers, Buffalo, Green Bay, very mediocre in the season before the other concussion took them off the field. But I'm going to stay in the flames with Tua because they were, you know, I know we try to give them two weeks for a chance to be on fire. He almost packed two weeks where the points in a week one. Right. So I'm going to give him the go. He's also 3-0 and 3 starts against New England in his career. On the running back side, though.

Moster is the starter. Ahmed is seemingly the number two right now. Right. And then we had a quote this morning from Mike McDaniel saying, we'll see as to whether Devon A chain is going to be active. That's so weird. He does not currently have an established role in this offense. That may come with time, but the problem is you will get Jeff Wilson back in four weeks. So presumably. So it's a mess. The only one I play is Mostert. And it's not an enthusiastic start for Rahim Moster. Like, would you play Zach Moss with the plus matchup against Houston or Rahim Moster with the negative matchup against New England? I'd rather play Devana A-Chane if he's inactive than Zach Moss. How dare you? Mike, maybe you'd be the one to speak to this. I would still, really, though, I would go Moster personally. I would probably go Moss. The starting running back, like.

He got a touchdown last week. I mean, it's looking at the line for Rahim Moster. It's 12 opportunities for a game when in 73% of snaps, 12 opportunities, and they scored 36 points. What struck me the most in that game was the fact that they look like a team that always wanted to pass the football. And that's what I was getting to of this is that their identity is they're a passing team, which you have Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle. Of course your identity is. going to be focused on passing the ball. So Moster will rely on big plays and actually getting touchdowns. But he had a touchdown, a rushing touchdown this past week. But that's why I kind of lean Moss of, it wouldn't surprise me to see Zach Moss with 20 plus opportunities and some goal line opportunities on top of that, where Moster...

He's just going to be in that 10 to 12 every week. I'm going to change my answer for the sake of the footland. I think Zach Moss is the better playover most with this matchup. Ramandre Stevenson was the RB 19 on 19 chances last week. Zeke got 14 opportunities, including seven targets. Yeah. So give me your kind of gut reaction to the distribution of labor, as you would say, in week one for the running back position for new week. You need Thumbs and Pepto-Bismol for the gut. Ramandra is still the better player. He will do more on the passing work. That's kind of Stevenson's specialty. But it is going to be very, very frustrating of you'll, there's going to be many games this year where Stevenson has.

the most work and Zeke is going to end up with like the touchdown or two and he'll outscore Stevenson. Remondre Stevenson was on the field for 73% of snaps. I don't I don't care about Zeke at all. I'm not worried at all. Zeke's going to have carries just like Damien Harris did. Romandre's a great play. You've got to keep firing him up. The wide receiver room for New England last week they were without Devante Parker. You've got the offseason hopes of Taekwant Thornton were muffled when he went to IR. Kendrick Bourne ended up being the beneficiary because Juju, like, Juju Smith-Schuster looked so uninvolved that, like, you had Booty. Right. Getting some work in that offense and it looked better. Yeah, and we're not talking about like an anatomy part. We're talking about the player, Booty. Kay Sean. Who through the off season was, this guy's probably not making the team. So, oh, no, no, in fact, he is starting for this team. I am, I'll just say it and get out of the way. I'm not starting.

Kendrick Bourne? I don't have the confidence. Mike is starting him. Jason, are you willing? No, I don't think I want to start Kendrick-Born. There's other players I like a little bit better. I think last week, the fact, do we have an update on Devante Parker's health right now? He's questionable last I heard. I don't know if he's going to start this week. He's at practice this morning. He's hanging out. Not sure if it's limited or is he eating chips or is he taking reps. What's he doing? He's there. That's all we know. If Devante Parker. That's some good reporting. Whoever's putting that out. He's here. Maybe that just means he practicing. Yeah. I mean, if Devante Parker is active for the game, I'm certainly not going to start Kendrick Bourne just because, you know, I don't think the opportunity would be there for him. I'm willing to throw him in if Devante Parker's inactive.

Hunter Henry is Mike's start of the week. You can play him at tight end. Yep. Unfortunately, my sister took that so literally, Mike. She was so, I don't know, motivated by your Hunter Henry start of the week that she chose to play him over Hawkinson last night. Oh, yeah, I wouldn't have done that. That's why the rankings are on the website. Well, yeah, she was disappointed. Hey, hey, hey, hey, guys. We don't know yet. That's true. The Hunter Henry's like Hunter Henry could honestly still surpass Hawkinson this week. No. Yeah. He could. Probably not though. No, probably not. Of course. Hawkinson had two touchdowns. Yeah. I think you never know. I'm saying Hunter could have two touchdowns. The Norland Saints are want to know Monday night football game doubleheader. Bluh. Why? Why are we doing this? If you're going to doublehead something NFL, please put them back to back.

Please. Don't do this thing where they're an hour apart and you've got to have both games simultaneously. You heard the man. You heard him. Like, what is structurally? What is the point of this? Like, this is not good for, this is not good for the whoever is showing the game. It's some sort of like, trying to sell advertising. I think it's like a, it's some sort of like ratings test thing that they do. I, I. I know why it is. And we're doing it again next week. Is that what I'm hearing? What? Why? I want to watch all the games at different times. The contract situations for the different networks, this makes the NFL the most money. The reason I know that is because they always do what makes the most money. Yeah, that's probably a good point. I'm going to go ahead and trust them. They're doing just fine. Saints, Panthers. Saints are one and no. Panthers all in one. Drafting Sportsbook line, New Orleans, three point road favorites. Overrunners 40 points. So.

You have a brand new offense in Carolina. New quarterback. The offensive starters, they're all brand new. Bryce Young looked like a rookie in week one. Adam Thielen looked like... What is? Whatever the opposite of a rookie is. And then... A retired player. Jonathan Mingo? It was disappointing. It was. But the office just looked bad. Miles Sanders had a ton of opportunities. I would be... borderline targeting him right now in fantasy. 22 opportunities, I believe, was second in the NFL or close to it. And he finished at RB 22. It wasn't impressive. When I say targeting him, I mean for trade for the season. In this game, it could be rough. I mean, low over under 18 points. You can play him. Moistered or Miles Sanders? Miles. Yeah, Miles Sanders based on the volume. Yeah. But I don't, you know,

This is, I think, a player that you're going to want to target after this week. The Saints defense is good across the board. And it's a divisional game with a low over under. So you're not expecting big things. And really on the Carolina Panthers side of the ball, that's it. It's only Miles Sanders. It's a volume play only. And then you look to the Saints side of the ball. I'm playing the Saints defense in League of Record. It's my favorite of the week. looking at the running back room, Jamal Williams was exactly what we thought he was. He was 18 for 45, didn't get into the end zone, fumbled two targets for seven yards, pedestrian numbers, but tons of volume. Probably the same from him this week. Is that fair to say? I mean, the only thing I will say is that the Panthers were devastated on the ground in week one. Yeah, and it's probably, it comes down to is Kendra Miller recovered for the game? Because it wouldn't surprise me to