Fantasy Football Podcast 2016 - Starts of the Week, Week 6 Matchups, News

over the deep bomb. And look, I was, I guess I was one of the last play of the game, though. I guess I was wrong. Well, fourth down. I mean, fourth down, you have to try to get the first down. I was wrong. There were plenty of Bears fans that came back to me and said, hey, we don't want Cutler anywhere around. Cutler threw to Jeffrey so much because he always took the deep shot. He didn't take, you know, what is the expression? You know, you have to land a few punches before the haymaker, so to speak. Sure. So their mentality was, hey, we want Hoyer back there.

What do you guys? Talk to me about the Bears wide receiver court. What is Cam Meredith rest of the season? What is Eddie Royal? What is Alshon Jeffrey? Because Meredith 9 for 1.30 last week. I'm throwing out. I'm going to toss it to Jason. But I want my bold prediction out here. Alston Jeffrey is going to score this week. And I will take your bold. That didn't used to be so bold. I will take your bold prediction. And I will say he probably won't. The reason is because Jalen Ramsey has been.

legitimate. The rookie cornerback, I expect he will be the guy on Alshan Jeffrey. The fact that you have Brian Hoyer who has been looking at Alshon Jeffrey as a third or fourth read, as far as total targets, he's been third or fourth, and then you've got a good cover corner on him. I think that for this game says that Cam Meredith and Eddie Royal have more value. I think Cam Meredith is actually a pretty good play this week with...

because of those things considered. Alshan's still amazing, and he should get the ball more, but I think this is going to be a difficult game to do it, so the other weapons will be there. And the main weapon, if we're talking bears, the weapon that has changed his team and help their offense entirely is Jordan Howard. And Jordan Howard right now is a must start in any matchup, good, bad, or otherwise, and the Jaguars run defense does not scare me. I completely agree with that. And for Zach Miller, he's an okay start, but.

I'm not expecting much. The Jaguars are actually pretty solid against the tightness, especially when it comes to fantasy scoring. Here's a crazy stat for you. The Bears have only run the ball on 32% of plays, which is 30th out of 32 teams in the league. The league average is right under 40%. So Howard is doing a lot with these carries over the last couple weeks. Two plus 100-yard games. Let me ask you, start sit, Ivory, Yeldon, and Hearns on the other side of the ball. Because we know you're rolling Robinson out.

But do you start sit, Ivory, Yelden, or Hearns? I sit, sit, sit, Ivory Yelden and Hearns personally. And that's mostly true. However, and I know in our listener league, I'm actually having to start Christopher Ivory this week. And I'm not proud of it. But by weeks and injuries have forced the issue. I'm not proud of it. Yeah. Let me ask you guys a philosophical fantasy football question. Because I see it here with Jeffrey and Meredith.

I've seen it earlier this year with Michael Crabtree and Amari Cooper. How do you mentally overcome, or should you, the name versus production battle? You know, Crabtree, more productive, other than the last game, more productive, harder. Like if I have them both of my team, I find it almost impossible to not put Cooper out there every week. You know, when I see Jeffrey and Meredith, let's say Meredith comes out with eight catches this week. Jeffrey has four again.

and Meredith is coming off that 9 for 1, 30, and 1. How do you overcome that? Right. Why would you keep starting Alshan over Cameron, Meredith? Like if you had them both, why wouldn't you start Cameron Meredith? It's certainly going to take this week. This week it's an easy choice for me. It's still Alshan. I've only seen Cameron Meredith once. Now it was very, very impressive. Second year guy, so you're not talking about like a has-been at least. Right. But I'm just saying I don't have the confidence to start him over Al-Shon Jeffrey this week.

If he blows it up again, and Alshan is once again third or fourth in the pecking order, then that's a trend that's enough for me to move forward with a different option than Alshund. And what's been good with Alshund, so that we're not just throwing cold water, is that maybe he's only getting four receptions in a game, but usually it seems like those four. It's like 85 yards. Exactly. So he has been okay for fantasy, certainly not where you drafted him, but he's not completely...

destroying your team that's a tough thing though right to to make the transition with the name versus the production and when do you do that during the year it's it's a tough thing for me especially if a guy has put up monster seasons before like a lacy right like you got lacy on your team and if he struggles playing a guy that's i don't know

Asiata or something, you know, that's probably a bad example, but another middling guy. All right, let's move on. Rams, lions, 43.5 point over under. That's low. Yep. And then you've got the Lions favored in this one. I do not have high hopes for Stafford. He is very low on my quarterback rankings this week. Nor do I have much hope for anybody outside of, like, you know, Marvin Jones and Theoretic on the, on the offensive side of the ball.

Yep, I completely agree with that. This is a game, though, that I'm, I have confidence starting Gurley. I think this is, what will be interesting here is the reports are Benny Cunningham is coming back. Now, everything transformed for Todd Gurley's fantasy purposes over the last couple weeks because Benny Cunningham was out. Todd Gurley is getting, is it five targets or five receptions a game? I believe it's five targets a game. Yes, I believe that is correct. I'll bet.

Before that, when Benny Cunningham plays with him, he gets two targets a game. He doesn't even get third down work. Now, will Jeff Fisher make the change and say, hey, my offense is better if I let the best player of my team stay out there? Or will he revert a what seems like a normal Jeff Fisher move? Say, okay, Benny Cunningham, you're back. You're back in on third down 75% of the time. My money is on Gurley receiving.

targets the rest of the season. He does more with them. Benny Kenningham was not getting them. He was on the field. He's still getting the third down work. I realize that. But I'm just saying, I think you've seen something with that offense that they're going to have to make that adjustment. Man, I hope they do. And honestly, I think all three of us, not from fantasy.

Okay, take fantasy out of it in production and a desire for Todd Gurley to do good. When we watch it as just football analysts, their offense is clearly better with Todd Gurley out there on third down. The reason he has more receptions than Benny Cunningham did when he was out there is because he's a better weapon, clearly, obviously. I just have so little faith that Jeff Fisher will actually make that move. I mean, he kicked the field goal down seven on the goal line. Did you guys see that the meme of Jeff Fisher and...

The line graph? The line graph where it's like... Flowchart. It's like, what do you do if you're Jeff Fisher? If you are above 500, it draws, lose a game. If you're below 500, win a game. 500, do nothing. It's like... It's funny. People won't like that if you're an L.A. Rams fan. Yeah. Hey, they're leading the division. We got nothing we can say about it. Yep, that's... Yeah.

Wait a couple weeks. Oh, famous last words. Who do you think wins that game, by the way? I'm going to take the lines at home. I will as well. Oh, you were thinking about it. You were thinking about the almost upset? No, no, no. Don't be silly. Steelers taking on the Miami Dolphins, Big Ben, Lev Bell, Antonio Brown, Sammy Coates, Jesse James. The outlaws are in Miami.

What can you do here? I mean, this is... Start everybody. Look, if I was in one of those survivor pools, I'm taking the Pittsburgh this week. Are you? Yeah. I mean, the dolphins are seven and a half point dogs at home. Yeah? I don't think they have a shot. And look, famous last words, I'm sorry, but I think this is a game where I have not been impressed with Adam Gase as a head coach. I've been disappointed. I don't think Arian Foster is going to fix everything for you.

So I'm firmly not selecting this as an almost upset of the week. The question I have for you, Mike, Sammy Coates, the big signing, assuming he's healthy. Do you go out there and roll him out? Is it two, a flex? What do you look at with Coates this week? For Coates, I prefer him to be a flex this week. Big Ben is on the road. We've talked about his splits, and they are drastic. Everyone gives Drew Brees crap for being amazing at home and average on the road. Big Ben is right there.

with him for fantasy. Beyond that, he's got a wider split than Drew Brees. There you go. Straight from Jason's mouth. Okay. But look, for me, I think he's a fine flex play. I still have him as, I have him ranked as a wide receiver too. I like this game. I like this game for almost everybody involved. And that includes the dolphins because I see the shaping up as the Steelers getting up, you know, decent.

on the on the back of levy on bell and the pass catchers and then some vintage ryan tanyhill garbage time i know it's a when you see everyone on the on the dolphins though are you pretty much just talking about landry do you like yes i mean everyone on the dolphins named landry and maybe like i have landry rated high i i had to get there i'd get there i like ryanne hill this week because of that's bold i know that's bold i understand that

Yeah, I would say that's fire, but fire implies like, ooh, cool. Like, this is hot. This is just sour. It just makes me pucker and squint and go, ooh, I'm starting to sweat. When you start him and you're watching the game in the first half, that's what you're going to do. I just, I like the game flow for him to have to come back. So, and I like Landry a lot. So you're correct that I guess I was being hyperbolic that I love everybody for the Dolphins. I think Foster is a fine play. I think Landry is a great play.

I will agree with just those last two comments. And the one thing that I would put out here, in fact, I'm going to check and see if I got him, had a bid on him this morning. But I actually really, really like the Pittsburgh Steelers defense in this game. The last two weeks, they have upped their sack ability. You know, they got off to a slow start when it came to getting sacks. These last two weeks, they've been great. The offensive line for the dolphins is atrocious. It's been really bad. 16 dropbacks last week for Tannenhill, eight.

of them were hits or sacks. So he doesn't even have the chance to get the ball down the field. That has been the problem. Yeah. So I am a big fan of the Steelers defense this week. All right. Let's move on to the Bengals and the Patriots. I'm, you know. Well, you sound sad. I think he's, are you pre-sad for the Bengals right now? Is that what it is? Look, it's another situation. I'd love to say I think that they're going to be in it. But how in the, I mean, look, they are nine-point underdogs.

That's nuts. 47 point over under. Andy Dalton, though, has averaged 300 yards a game this season, which makes him third. Can he do it against his Patriots? Past defense, it's just middle of the road. You know, if you think the Patriots are going to be up, you would think that, you know, Green would have an opportunity here. What is your thoughts on the passing offense for the Bengals? This one's hard to read. It's hard to get out of the recency bias of they went down to Dallas.

And I thought, okay, this will be a competitive game. I think the Bengals can squeak it out. And they were getting just blown out. Andy Dalton was a garbage man. I don't consider Andy Dalton for fantasy purposes, having to get his points in garbage time. That's where everything came for Andy Dalton last week. So to have that just resting on your back, and now you have to go to New England? I'm with Andy that this is bad news here for the Bengals, which to me,

Dalton is still going to be okay, but that means that Jeremy Hill, who is, he's practicing, but he's injured. We saw him get knocked out of the game last week. Jeremy Hill is a sit for me. He's an absolute sit for me as well. Now, the deceptive thing here is if you look at fantasy points, giving up to wide receivers, the Patriots have only, they're like the sixth best, right? Or how do you say that properly, right? They've given up few?

They're not good for wide receivers. So wide receivers that play New England have a hard time. Have a hard time. However, number one, wide receivers who play New England, actually average 10.5% above the league average rates. And so while they are not giving up a high volume to wide receivers altogether, I do not think it is a bad game for AJ Green. You mix in the potential of garbage time and the quantity of yardage that Dalton has been putting up.

And I think Green has a very good game. Now, that's kind of stating the obvious most often with AJ Green. But based on that number, which, by the way, credit to Football Outsiders DVOA model on that, but 10.5% more to number one wide receivers than the average. So I think that makes AJ Green a very strong start. Not that you'd ever sit him. Let's move over to the New England pass catchers. Because I think that's the most interesting thing. Edelman.

Well, 30-something yards on 10 targets, not a strong game. We have the concerns about the foot for Julian Edelman. Then you have Chris Hogan, who had a monster game. It was only four receptions, but over 100 yards. Did have to get checked for a concussion twice. So are you still starting Julian Edelman with full confidence? And are you starting Chris Hogan? I have Hogan doing this most weeks. I mean, three for 70.