Fantasy Football 2017 - Week 5 Waivers, QB Streamers, MNF Takes

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It is Tuesday. It is Waver Day. And it is October 3rd. So we are going to break it down. And I'm excited. Andy Holloway here with Jason Moore and Mike, the fantasy hitman right. I am as excited as someone who was down five points with the Kansas City Chiefs DST on the final four seconds of that game. My eyes just went.

I went googly eyes when I saw Houston pick it up and then make an effort to run it in. I had done the math before that drive where, okay, even if they go to overtime and they kick a field goal and then a touchdown scores, I can't lose the over under bet because I bet the under against you, Andy. I was like, okay, so it's impossible for me to now lose. And then when that Kansas City DST, when Justin Houston decided instead of.

laying down with the ball and having the game be over to run in the touchdown. Would you have laid down? And they said, oh, they're calling the kicker back out. That's what the announcer said to kick the extra point. I'm like, no, that would be 50 points. It was a 49 and a half point over under. Number one, there's no way I'm laying down if I'm just in Houston. You get, as a defensive player, you have probably a handful of times you can score in your entire career. I'm taking that to the house. Undoubtedly, not everybody saw the game last night. And.

The final play of the game was a desperation snap from the 25-yard line. Hook and ladder, throw the ball around, lateral it all around. The play bounces all over the place, and it ends up being a loose ball at about the 10. And Justin Houston, instead of falling on the ball, Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman, he picks it up and rumbles into the end zone. And then they don't kick the extra point. They take a knee, which teams generally, they take a knee. Sometimes they kick it. Most often they take a knee.

That affected the over-under, which I had a bet with Jason on Monday night football, the over-under bet, and I took the over, he took the under, and it ended up at 49 points, and the over-under was 49.5. Yeah. Which is just incredible. So I lost that bet, which means that I am not going to get out of any waterings this week. We all get a water this week. So very entertaining, interesting game. Trell Pryor showed a little something for the fantasy owners last night. But here's my quick question for you.

I have my answer, but I'm very curious. We have not talked about this. Quick question. Is Alex Smith now in every week starter at the quarterback position? Through four weeks, he's been very, very good. I can break the numbers down for you if you'd like. Sure. Through four weeks, at least in our league scoring system, he's the number two overall quarterback with a 46 point week, a 20, a 20, and a 33. And, you know, yesterday.

Very interestingly, seven carries, 56 yards and a touchdown. Yes, including the one where of Kareem Hunt owners just lost an entire chunk of hair as they tore it from their head. That was a good play, though. It was a great play. Andy Reid. It was a great NFL play. It was terrible for my fantasy team. I almost tilted during that play. That is good for Alex Smith owner. So what do you think? Every week start? I think that he is at this point, you got to say he is very, very close.

But he plays Denver twice. I'm not playing him against Denver at this point. Lucky for fantasy owners. One of them is week 17. One of them is week 17. So that does not matter for most people. And that's the game in Denver. Right. So celebrate your good fortune there. But Houston, yeah, doesn't, doesn't terrify me. Pittsburgh is, at least it's a home game. Oakland. Light him up. At this point, how can you argue? Alex Smith is bawling out.

The scramble throw to Albert Wilson on the sideline, the laser beam was incredible. I mean, Alex, I feel like Patrick Mahomes has come in here and lit just that fire under Alex Smith's butt. We're like, Alex. You're going to have to start throwing the ball. And he's.

He's done that. Well, the weapons, I think, are what really matter. I mean, Kareem Hunt has helped the offense so much. They just continue to move the ball and score points. That's what gives you fantasy points. So I think Alex Smith is a safe start. I would still, I mean, because of where you got him, you know, obviously, if you've got a great court, if you're rocking Tom Brady and you've got Alex Smith too, then no. But, you know, he's going to be a top 12 finish.

type of guy almost every single week other than the Denver week. Mike talked me out of Alex Smith in our dynasty league. I apologize. Because of Simeon's home matchup and I played the stream of Simeon and I won so I didn't matter. But Alex Smith, here's what Alex Smith is. Also helped when Josh Norman left the game. Sure, sure. Just saying like at Kansas City they were moving a little bit towards the beginning. Then Josh Norman went out and that's kind of when it opened up for them.

Alex Smith this year, it's like you have a six-sided die. And when you roll it, which is starting Alex Smith, you're going D&D. It either lands. With a 12. It either lands on Tyree Kill or it lands on Kelsey or it lands on hunting yardage. Like your odds of a great game with Alex Smith have just gone way, way up. And so, yeah, for me, he's an every week start now. You laid out the schedule pretty well. I'd probably if I had to start him at home against Denver.

Denver, again, Denver gave up yet another passing touchdown this week. They're near the top of the league and passing touchdowns given up. They have a completely stout, one of the biggest surprises in fantasy in the real NFL is how stout the run defense in Denver is. Teams have been able to score against Denver through the air, not necessarily a high production situation, but it's happened. So I'm not going to overplay that. And I wanted to actually talk about this, too, before we get into.

News and notes, and then we're going to get into the waiver wire, and we have our streams, quarterback streams of the week on the show today as well. But I wanted to talk about this, and this leads into it, and you guys might have a difference of opinion. But the chasing of points and the worry about certain matchups should only go so far. This week, if you took Chris Thompson and you paid for him on the waiver wire or you were just enamored by the success,

And you started him over a guy like Amir Abdullah because you were afraid of Minnesota's rushing defense. You got burnt, and you got burnt big. Abdullah had a nearly 100-yard game, scored a touchdown, the volume for Abdullah, 20 carries in that game against Minnesota. And you would have traded that for the most recent situation, which, look, I was wrong a week ago about Chris Thompson's decrease, but the math was going to come to fruition. If you only get a handful of touches, eight to ten touches a game,

Unless you take three to the house or, you know, have some monstrous play of a game, it just evens out. Yeah, you can't sustain that. You don't chase points. You chase the volume. And, you know, Amir Abdullah has been getting...

15 plus touches every single game. This last game against Minnesota got 20 carries had the touchdown. Yeah, I mean, fantasy is about opportunity so much. And I would say even more so at the running back position. That's probably the most important position to look at volume and opportunity. But to be fair, I would have played, I would have most likely played Chris Thompson. Really? Yeah, over Amir Abdullah against the Vikings. Yes. The shocking thing for Chris Thompson was not that you knew the carries were going to be low. We only got six carries.

But it was the targets. He had 5-7, 7, and then he dropped to 2. And when Rob Kelly, he was expected to play, but you know it was going to be a questionable situation with the ribs, ended up tweaking his ankle. I expected Chris Thompson to be a safe five target guy. Yeah, I guess the way I saw it was both were bad matchups. I mean, you're in Arrowhead.

at Kansas City. If they're both bad matchups, skimming the guy that's going to touch the ball 20 plus times. That's why we're here to talk through these things. News and notes from around the league. All right, that Sleeper Bot Alert hit yesterday and updated us to the Derek Carr situation. Jack Del Reel said that Derek Carr has a transverse process fracture in his back will be out two to six weeks. This is a major issue for the offensive pieces for Oakland.

Obviously, with E.J. Manuel now starting. Derek Carr, I believe this is the same type of issue that Tony Romo had in his back. He thinks he can get back sooner than later, but you're looking at a couple of weeks where, I mean, it's just not pretty in Oakland right now. Marshall and Lynch has been borderline unusable. He had had nine carries and six carries the last two weeks, so single-digit carries. It's not going to get easier for him with E.J. Manuel under center. Michael Crabtree, injured.

We'll see if he plays this week. Amari Cooper is currently the 71st ranked wide receiver in fantasy football. One reception, two receptions the past two weeks. And so what are we looking for? I mean, if you have to start somebody, let's say Crabtree is out there, do you have enough confidence starting him as a wide receiver two this week? Do you have enough confidence with any of these players? I mentioned Jared Cook before the show because...

Cook's targets went up with E.J. Manuel in there, and he's getting those targets. But what do you do with Oakland? I'm still okay. Let's say Michael Crabtree is cleared to play. I will still play him just taking the, using the process of Michael Crabtree is the possession receiver. I don't have to worry about E.J. Manuel going deep and being accurate with a deep ball and just, you know, those short to intermediate routes. So I would be okay with him. How?

This is really tough on this match. Do you really bench Amari Cooper? I know the numbers are terrible, but can you really bench? Yeah, let me lay that out. Let me lay that out for you. I just traded for Amari Cooper in our league of record because I still believe that this season he's going to be fine. I mean, we knew coming off that Denver matchup that he wasn't going to have a good game. And he has, while he's been a good wide receiver, he's always had big games and dud games.

That being said, this would be a week where you can absolutely bench him. Unless you have to start Amari Cooper, I don't think you want, look, the matchup itself, if Derek Carr was there, you'd be going, man, can I trust Amari Cooper against Baltimore, who has given up two passing touchdowns to wide receivers on the entire year, and now you take Derek Car out, you put E.J. Manuel in. Can Amari Cooper have a good game? Yeah. If you have to start him, could you be fine? Yeah. But I'm not.

striving. I'm not calling for like, hey, you need to start Amari Cooper because he's going to bounce back to what his norm is in a tough matchup with E.J. Manuel as a quarterback. So he's a lower end. He'll probably be in my 30s and my ranking, and you'll have to make a tough decision this week. And I think that you need to adjust on Amari Cooper now. He hasn't had a hundred yard game since week eight of last year.