Starts of the Week + It’s Football Time! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/5

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's football. It's time to play the game. The answers are about to be here. It's time to play the game. Spectacular. Oh, we ride, boys. Thank you, everybody. We ride at dawn. I hope everybody in there. In their vehicles. Oh, they were all doing it too. With their eyes closed. Well, not if you're driving. No, no, no. Eyes open, drivers. You could do it for a second. Talk to you behind the wheel of the Prius. Open your eyes. It was electric. It is football time. Welcome into the show. Yes. I have a different hat on today than I normally do. You're looking good. Where does one find a foam trophy hat? It.

It goes out of the main frame. And it's spectacular. And my co-manager has a matching one that he'll be wearing the day. Beautiful. We have our League of Record draft happening right after the show. Moments from now. Then we have Thursday night football. And we have tons of matchups. We've got Super Bowl predictions. This is a big, big show. We got starts at the week. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's football time. And so let's jump right in. Head over to the website if you want the week one rankings and the start sit tool. That's fantasy footballers.com. The fantasy footballers.com. And you guys want to start off just giving your Super Bowl predictions because I already tweeted mine. Yeah. I mean, this is the time of year where we call our shots. I did not, I had not seen your tweet. I know you had said earlier. You said like a month ago you had the Lions winning the Super Bowl.

Yeah, I mean, I don't have it. It is the facts. It's what's going. Right, right, right. I'm just revealing the future. You're revealing that the lions are going to win. Like one of those orbs that you look into and you see it and the lions will beat the Chiefs in this upcoming Super Bowl. And so I think we were just look, we were looking at the same orb, but from opposite side. I think you read it backwards because I have the Chiefs. over the lions in the Super Bowl. So we got the same picks. Yes. So you go chiefs. I'm going lions. I'm having them do the, remember everybody wanted the Patriots to finish the perfect season? Not everybody, but a lot of people, history. And this would be the, you know, three in a row. Oh, yeah, for the chiefs. And this will be ruined by Dan Campbell. Nice. So you guys are looking at an orb, you forgot that the anchor being for our multiverse is already gone. So you're looking at something that doesn't exist.

It is the. Nerd alert. It is the Baltimore Ravens beating the Green Bay Packers. The Baltimore Ravens over the Packers. I'm curious if the deucers back there, you don't have to give me the whole Super Bowl, but just a winner of the Super Bowl. Kyle is in the house today. Oh, look at this guy. He's in town. And Kyle, do you have a Super Bowl winner you want to reveal? I'm going to say the 49ers finally get it done. Okay. All right. And then Papa Josh. I have to agree. 49ers. Oh, okay. Boring. And we'll see. We already know the answer here. Yeah. Who's the Super Bowl winner there, Al? It's the Green Bay Packers, baby. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Uh-huh. How's them fart smelling back there? Dropping bombs. Smelling like three consecutive franchise quarterbacks. I saw a, uh, a great tweet. It was, it was really fun. Um, that.

basically charted the Super Bowl odds for teams versus compared to, it was Sam Hoppin who tweeted out, and it was compared it and grafted it to their fans' optimism of their chances of winning in Super Bowl. And the two funniest ones to me were the Bears and the Cowboys, because the Cowboys have decent-ish odds of winning the Super Bowl. Their fans are like, no, no, absolutely none. And the Bears have... really no odds of winning Super Bowl. And they're like right in line with the Chiefs and the Lions. It's like the Bears, the Bears think like this is happening this year. Good for you, Bears fans. No. No. No. No. No. I love that they have the excitement, but that's the, I mean. This is like if you have been without food for so long and then you call a really mediocre meal the greatest one ever made. Like.

They are. Let them have their hope. I don't. It's just ill advice. Like the bears, don't get me wrong. I think the bears are going to be great. They have set the foundation for a long run of competing for the division. But the amount of people that have found it very posh to just go out and say the Bears are going to be the Super Bowl winners or they're going to be the NFC representatives with a rookie quarterback. I just find that to be really hard to believe. And it sets your quarterback up to where you're not allowed to have.

a pretty good okay year without being a failure. And I'm worried about that for Caleb Williams' sake. I think you go out there and the popularity of making the Bears the Super Bowl winner this year is just shocking to me. Yeah, and probably because you're getting a good payout if they win. Do you think that's why? And it's just in the hope. I'm all for hope. I just want it to be somewhere in the realm of possibility. I love that they can have that. excitement, but you don't want it to become delusion. I do know several Cowboys fans and you could have, you could put the best players of every team on the Cowboys roster and they will be like we, it's going to be a failure of a year. Because there's been. That's what happens. 25 years, however long it's been. It has. They made the playoffs and they, everything always sets up good for the Cowboys. Now, they've made the playoffs more recent. I believe you said it's been 25 years since they've made the playoffs. Oh.

Correct. I think it's been a couple months. I meant one a playoff game. Yes. Winning a playoff game. Dallas is plus 1,900, Chicago plus 3,500 to win the Super Bowl. So there you go. There's our predictions. Lines over chiefs, chiefs over lines, ravens over Packers. That would make Al Borland very sad. Oh, that's too bad. We have football on Sunday as well as tonight. Sunday live returns. I am not speaking out of turn there, right? No, you are not. We will be back. Our faces will be tilted off and we'll have a good time. So what time is Sunday live? 30 or an hour before kickoff. Okay. That is the proper amount of time to tilt. Oh, yeah. No, the show doesn't run an hour. No. For those that home we've never attended, the event that is Sunday live, but it's an hour before kickoff.

If you want to make sure you're aware of when Mike is going live on Sunday morning, head over to our YouTube channel, YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers, subscribe, click the bell, and then you'll be alerted when Mike is going live. He normally handles the latest news that is going on that morning, including injuries. All of the most popular start-sit questions on the website. Am I missing anything? It'll take. questions from the actual people that are in the live stream. So you might, if you've got your specific start sit, you might get that answered. And then, you know, all the, all the, all the actives are based, you go live right after all of the actives and inactives have been, you know, officially reported. All right. Let's jump into the news before we get into our starts of the week in the matchups. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance.

Okay, Jamar Chase participated in Wednesday's practice. Okay. There were quotes from, there were quotes from, uh, borough. Yeah. That really made it seem like that he's back, that he's playing. Like he, you know, I don't have it in front of you, but it was, he was, Chase is quote, ready to go. It's great to have him back. We need him to be at our best. That doesn't mean he's going to be there. No, but it, I don't know, the ready to go is a vote of confidence. To me, that's just the kind of thing to get him to sit out another practice. Watch what you say, Joe. You're not wrong. For me, it's, we're on practice watch for today. If Jamar practices today, he's going to play. Maybe. No, that's my official stance. Okay. The Rams wide receiver, Puka Nakua, practiced in full. Okay. Justin Herbert, off the injury report. He's going to be there for week one against the Raiders.

Brock Bowers ready to go for week one against the Chargers. Would you play Bowers or Schultz? Oh, asking for a friend. I think I'd go with Schultz. Bowers have been nursing a foot injury the past week or so, I believe. But he will be playing. But again, it's a rookie tight end playing his first ever game. Jordan Addison. Kevin O'Connell said that he feels pretty good about him playing in week one. He had a high ankle sprain on August 14th. I don't know where you guys are at with Addison right now, temperature chance. Yeah, I mean, I would not be starting Addison in week one coming off of the injury. I mean, Addison is a borderline player right now anyways. Like I think he's a borderline flex. Yeah, a borderline flex. He's a flex decision every week. I want to see it. I want to see him at full strength before I am automatically putting him into lineups.

All right, that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. And a little bit of a pivot to our Thursday episode. We are moving. I like it. We're moving the starts of the week up to, we're going to reveal them ahead of the matchups for the first time. And we don't have to be coy during the matchup. Correct. Instead of us being like, we'll talk more about him later. Hint, hint, wink, wink. We will just share our starts of the week right out of the gate. So let's get to it. Starts of the week. All right, I'm going to hand the baton off to one of you guys to kick it off at the quarterback position. Let's go with Jason. Yeah, I'll start. I'm going with Tua. Tua Tunga Viola is awesome. That's how I think I said it in my heart. You nailed it. Don't worry about it. Moving on. Jason has always said it properly. But for some reason today, Kyle chose to write to his name in the show doc.

as Tua Tungo by Lululua. Yeah. That was me that wrote it in there that way. Okay. I didn't want to, I mean, spelling it is a whole nother. It's the first step of saying it correctly. But go on. Restaurant. Look, this is a game I think that we are all very, very excited for. The Miami Dolphins against the Jacksonville Jaguars, I think both defenses are mid and both offenses have the. the ability and the talent to be very, very good. Last year, the third most passing yards ever for an all-time opener was Tua against the Chargers. And so this is a team, I think, at the beginning of the year. We've seen it two years in a row where they start really hot. It's hard to prepare for this offense. You know, their quick strike offense. Now you've got Waddle. You've got Hill. You know, they're saying they're healthy. They're ready to go.

I really think, I mean, if you drafted Tua, maybe you drafted Tua and Daniels or whatever. Tua would be very hard to keep out of my lineup this week. Yeah, that should be. We'll start with this. It's week one. Start your studs. These are just a couple of, I have some lower tiered guys that maybe I'm trying to give you a confidence boost here. Should you be in a larger league or something went wrong during your draft? But my quarterback, it's Jared Goff, top five, bold prediction, apparently the Super Bowl winning team as well. You also made him the MVP of the National Football League in your bold prediction. I certainly did that. He's at home. He's in the dome. He's playing against the Rams who. The dominator? Okay. Just letting you know. No, I'm letting that sink in. I like it. The dominator? I mean, this year and every year. Yes. So.

The game, it has the highest over under of the week. The Lions have the highest implied team total right now. It's a revenge game yet again, and the Rams allowed the seventh most points to the quarterback position last year. So this is a, Goff is someone you could have drafted later, and maybe he slides right into a week starter. I was the last one to get my names into our starts of the week, and golf was at the tippy top, obviously. Kyler Murray. I'm going to go with Kyler on the road against Buffalo, high over under on the week, full off season, a year recovered from the ACL, nothing but positive vibes, second year in the offense. And over the last three years, Kyler was already a top 12 quarterback, 61% of the time. That is the fifth highest rate among all quarterbacks when he plays and he's healthy. He is a very, very good fantasy option for your football team. We're going to see Tray McBride out there again after the...

Fantastic finish to 2023. The debut of Marvin Harrison. Michael Wilson begins the sophomore season. Greg Dorch is out there and James Connor, of course. The Buffalo defense is not what it used to be. They gave up a lot of, you know, a lot of plays you didn't expect them to give up last year and they've lost personnel. So I think Kyler gets off to a really, really good start. And Buffalo's fairly heavily favored at home. So I think Arizona. with that defense, they're going to be in a position where the way they win this game is a shootout. Yeah, I mean, their defense is trash. And I think we're all really excited for the Cardinals' offense because of how bad that defense is, which sets up my start of the week really well at running back. It's James Cook.

I mean, we saw last year with the change to the offensive coordinator change to Brady, how good Cook was down the stretch, how much they were running the ball. Buffalo averaged 37 rushing plays under Brady. That's number one in the NFL. With an NFL high, 208 of those in that span coming with the game tied or Buffalo leading. They will be leading in this game. James Cook should eat opponents last year. They ran the ball. 521 times. He should eat opponents last year. Oh, he ate his opponents. Well, he's a cook. I guess. Right. It's doing the cooking by the book. Cannibalism. But they ran the ball 521 times versus Arizona last year. That is the seventh highest of any team over the last decade. Six point home favorites. It's amazing how punctuation is important even in sentences. Like when you say them out loud. James the cannibal cook.

All right. I've got Javon. Eat them, James. I've got Javante Williams against the Seattle Seahawks. Somaget P. Ryan is gone. His boatload of targets and receptions are gone. Yes, Jaliel McLaughlin is going to fill in here. But I think that Javante has a chance to come out and establish himself early as a true workhorse running back for Sean Payton. There are a handful of running backs like Javentz, Mere White, Zach Moss. Yes. In that in that lower tier drafted. that one week could change your entire outlook. Like if you got the benefit of one week of numbers, they would probably get moved significantly in the draft tiers. Giovante fits into that category. I think people need to hear this from you. So last year, second among all running backs in targets per route run because this is the Peyton offense. I expect rookie Bo Nix to be checking it down a ton and it's just the matchup. Seattle last year, 32nd and first downs allowed 28th in points per game.

30th in total yards per game. 31st in rushing yards allowed. This was a really, really bad defense. Maybe they have figured some things out, but it's still week one, and that's the data we have to go on. It's a good matchup. All right. I'm going to go with one easy start, one hard start at the same position for the same team. It's the backfield of the Miami Dolphins against Jacksonville. Jason mentioned it, one of the highest overrunners of the week. I think if you drafted Devon A-chan, you are of course going to start him. It should be very good. Jacksonville allowed

The most running back receptions in the NFL last year and A Chan involved as a receiver, very positive. Right now they don't really have. Like you guys have brought up Malik Washington. That is a rookie in week one. They don't have Beckham. They have Braxton Barrios, but you're talking about the top two targets outside and then probably the backfield. So A Chan is a must start. But I want to bring up Mostert because this was the running back two last year. He's older. But the beginning of seasons, very good for the older legs, right? You are not tired yet. In this game, it should be very, very, very positive game script-wise for Rahim Moser. In this offense, you've heard the head coach of the Dolphins come out and talk about, you know, this is going to be a feel the hot hand, feel who's getting you yardage type of backfield. And I think both Miami running backs will be very, very good in week one, which means if you drafted Moster late,

It's going to, you know, be an opportunity for you to either slip him into your lineup or trade him maybe on the, you know, after a good matchup. Yeah, I would certainly be trying to get him in the lineup. The matchup is really, really good. Most should have a great game. At wide receiver, my start of the week, it's the rookie baby. It's Malik Neighbors. This is against Minnesota who last year gave up the fifth most receiving yards, the sixth most. Fantasy points to opposing wide receivers. I saw a quote from Sequin talking about Brian Dayball and his play calling sheet about how on the back of it he has certain plays designed for specific players. And Dayball took over the play calling duty so that when someone gets hot, they can really start focusing. I think this is, he's going to get, the world is going to know after week one that Malik Neighbors is a stud. He's going to have 25 plus percent of the targets.

just be peppered with him. And, you know, you drafted him where you drafted him to start him, I think he proves that he is worthy of that pick right off the bat. I love to hear that, Jason. I bet you do. I'm going with Christian Watson on the road, a big road far away from home, but they're against the Philadelphia Eagles. As of right now, he is healthy. Is the hamstring actually fixed? That's TBD, but right now he's going to be going and the matchup. The Eagles were the team to attack last year, the matchup. Most fantasy points allowed. Most fantasy points to outside wide receivers. It gives you some upside where Christian Watson is going in the drafts right now. This is a player that maybe you're looking at, you're worried about needing some real upside in a matchup. I think Christian Watson is the guy for that. And it's just my faith of Watson being the actual number one wide receiver for the Packers. All right, I've got a.

An interesting name to break out as my start of the week of wide receiver is Stefan Diggs of the Houston Texans. Okay. Against the Colts. We're obviously nervous about the past catchers. Nico seems like he's the one. But Diggs, I've been rising on Diggs over the last several weeks. I've been rising on my fear. Yeah, I think it's very, very. It's very possible that Diggs, obviously Jacobs' situations change for him to make us more in his corner. I don't know if it will continue for Diggs each and every week, but I think this week in particular against the Colts, his debut as a Texan, the fact that he is going to be the guy roaming the middle of the field and that Stroud has really looked to his receivers there, 26% of his targets go to the middle of the field, number one in the NFL, and the Colts play a lot of cover three.

The middle of the field is open. And I think you just, with a player of the pedigree of Stefan Diggs, who has been named a team captain, it's very, very important for that locker room to get him going early. I think establishing him in this offense is going to be a priority for the head coach and for C.J. Stroud to begin to open up the outside for Nico Collins and Tankdale. Yeah, I think that is the plan to get Diggs involved early. The problem is going to be. Every time that Tank Dell houses it, Diggs can't do any more work. So that's just letting you know the way it doesn't work is. Your player is. Del housing it. You could have been on the side with the actual number one wide receiver for the Texas. Just with me. Every time housing it. Yeah, I brought it up. I don't know if I brought it up on the show very much, but just like the likelihood that all three of those players are making you happy is very low, which means that there's a.

a decent possibility that you're unhappy with some of them quite often. You will be. Whether it's Nico, whether it's Dell, whether it's digs, you're going to have disappointing outings. But it's important to remind players, we talk about this in the truth series. Wide receivers, except the best of the best, except like Amin Ra and CD Lamb, they're all inconsistent. So what you want to go for is the ones that can have big performances. All three of these guys can. At tight end, I'm going with a, I mean, I think this matchup is just perfect. I'm going with Evan Ingram, a guy who I haven't been the most gigantic supporter of during the draft season. You have been downright a hater. Really like your wide receiver and tight in picks today, Jason. This is good. Thank you. Are these my picks? We talk about the dolphins. We want that offense. I want this game in the Jacksonville Jaguars. They're going to have to try to keep up.

He's going to be very, very involved in this game. Last year, the Dolphins gave up the fifth most fantasy points per game to the titan position. The reason why is they run very heavy on cover six. 25% of their defensive looks were... Cover 6. That's the highest rate in the NFL. For context, 9.7% is the average. So it's way above average. Over double. And cover 6 is generally weak against the flats. That's where Evan Ingram lives. That's why I kind of don't like Evan Ingram is because it's just, you know, valueless targets. Here are drumsticks, no flats. Yes, exactly. And he's going to have, if you're in a PPR, man, he's just going to have so many targets and receptions this week.

I love it. Mike. All right. Like I said, Mike is going to go last. Oh, I might. Okay. Because I. Oh, it's disgusting. I'm jumping in. It is disgusting. Dalton Kincaid against Arizona is my pick. While we wait to figure out which Buffalo wide receiver emerges. By the way, I was very close to taking a deep selection of Khalil Shakir in week one. So. Just throwing that end of the ether. For your wide receiver. More of like a DFS dart throw? Yes. But Kincaid, great bet to lead the team in targets. Arizona has no pass rush, but don't worry. They also have no secondary. So they have one player on defense that you can trust. Buda Baker in the middle of the field. Oh, he'll tackle Kincaid several times. Yes, after the catch. So Don Kincaid is my start of the week pick. In Arizona, they gave up the second most touchdowns to the tight end last year. All right.

Start your studs at the position. By the way, did you notice this trophy? I did. On the top of my head. Go to Andy's camera. Let's look at this trophy. Perfect. Very nice. Really is framed there. As Mike said before the show, hold on sit up. He called it. He said, hey, comrade. And if you're looking on YouTube, oh, man, it looks like a very different hat on your camera. I love it. So start your studs. And this, maybe this is more of a DFS. Then start your backups. And maybe this is more of a DFS. Then start some of the guys on the way for it.

Dude, this is all about the process. Start your grandma. It's week one. Let's have some fun, boys. Underpants. We're not even starting at steel. We've got to go right to titanium. All right. Underpants for this. That helps. It's Zach Ertz. Yeah. I know. I know. Oh, I just threw up. I should have warned people if they were eating food to put it down. Do you know who led the tight end position in targets in week one last year? Zach freaking Ertz. The matchup is there. People are saying who does he play for right now. He plays for the Washington commanders. He plays against the Bucks. They allowed the second most receiving yards at second most fantasy points to the tight end position last year. Zach Ertz. Let's go. Cliff Kingsbury to Zachertz is Dennis Allen to Tayson Hill. This guy can't get it off of Zacherts. Somehow Zacherts was keeping Trey McBride off the field, in part because of Cliff Kingsbury.

Look, if the preseason usage is anything for the Washington Manders and Jane Daniels, it was get the ball out immediately. And who do you think that ball is? If it's going out immediately, that thing's going out to Zach Hertz. This isn't an upside play. This is I think Zach Hertz is good for like five for 40 or something like that. Start of the week. Dude, look. I would not be surprised if Zachers has a good game. I would be surprised if anybody. started him in any situation. So do, but the thing is, is you have to drop a player to pick Zach Gertz up because obviously he, he's not, he's not rostered right now. Um, what tight ends, what later tight ends are you willing to drop to like I'm, I'm in a league where I've got Tayson Hill. I got him very, very late. I would as well. Look, I'm talking bigger leagues, not just 12, like a 14, 32. Look.