Week 2 Matchups + Ketchup Mode, In-or-Out - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/18

DJ Morris signed jersey. So congratulations. We'll get that out to you. You can sign up at pristineauction.com. Use the code ballers for $10 off your first item. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. All right. Let's talk injuries, because that's fun. AJ Brown has been diagnosed with the bone bruise. In his knee, he will be sidelined, possibly beyond week two against the Jaguars.

And Mike yesterday or on Monday. Yeah. You had your stream of the week as Ryan Tannahill. Without A.J. Brown, are you concerned? Concerned. The matchup is still decent against Jacksonville. And we at least saw, you know, Corey Davis pulled his best undertaker sit-up Giff and like returned, showed that he can get it done. So if you're locked in with Tanyhill.

I'm not like, oh, no, I need to eject and grab, like, you know, tie rod off the waiver wire. I'm not doing that with Corey Davis and Janu. There's enough that can get done. Let me ask you this. Would you prefer Tana Hill without A.J. Brown or Matthew Stafford without Kenny Gallaudet against Green Bay? That is a fabulous question. And they are currently sitting back to back in my rankings. Let's throw Drew Brees without Michael Thomas in there, too. Man.

Uh, I would, of those, I'm going to take Drew Breeze, but I don't think Drew Breeze is on your waiver wire. Fair enough. So then, what did you say? Stafford or Tanahill? I have Stafford one click ahead of Tanahill right now.

All right, Jason, what's the latest on Michael Thomas? Because this high ankle sprain, even on the broadcast last night, the Thursday night game, they put up some of the injuries on the screen, and it says Michael Thomas out multiple weeks. That's what they wrote on the screen. Yeah, well, originally. Thomas, you will be out multiple weeks. We have told you. Yeah, originally he was going to play through it. It was minor. Then it was serious. He was going to be out multiple weeks.

Now Michael Thomas said he felt fantastic at practice on Thursday. So there is a little glimmer of hope. I do think he's such a lie. He's going to miss this week and I think I'll play the week after. I, man, I'm not calling for a guaranteed miss this week. But I will say this. If he plays this week, I am willing, if I've got a good option, I'm willing to bench Michael Thomas, which is a hard thing to do. The number one wide receiver in everybody's draft. Monday night.

Oh, gross. Yeah, he's, Thomas is a bench for me. Yeah, you have to bench him at that point because unless you have both him and Emmanuel Sanders. That's the only way I can imagine that you could. I want that sound bite for the future. I want Jason's, oh, gross. Yeah, I mean, that is, that is unfortunate. That is a Monday night game. So yeah, prepare and pivot ahead of time because he will be limited. It's just, he's still a human being.

And sometimes we look at these superstars and we think, well, they're injured, but they're so good, they'll just play through it. And the reality is he's not at 100%. Okay. Chris Godwin, in or out this week. I'm preparing that he's going to be out with the concussion. We'll see, though. He did return to practice in some regard today. So he's trending towards being in. I lean in. George Kittle, in or out? I've been saying out, and I think he'll miss this week.

Yeah. Jameson Crowder. Don't really care. He missed Thursday's practice. He's certainly going to be out of my lineup. You don't care because of the San Francisco matchup and the injury. Yeah. Hopefully you don't have to play Crowder. Yeah. Desperation, PPR baseline play. How do you feel about the report, Mike, that the injury happened in practice, not during that long run? That's fine. You buy it. Well.

It may have gotten worse in the practice. There you go. There you go. Hey, lots of other players. What we have now is the Injury Blitz podcast produced by Matthew Betts, our injury expert. After the Friday practice reports, which we're recording this before them, the injury blitz hits Jointhefoot.com for the Foot Clan Premier members and gives you a little extra insight into any of these injury-related decisions. So we encourage you to check that out. It's on to the week two matchups.

Fantasy forecast. All right. Yesterday we handled, we got through a lot of them yesterday, Brooks. Yes, we did. Eight games. So if you don't hear it today, guess where it was? Yesterday. Yesterday. Yesterday. The Denver Broncos take on the Pittsburgh Steelers in Pittsburgh. The Steelers heavy favorite, seven and a half points of 40.5 over under. That does not afford many points to the Denver Broncos in this one.

They punted on almost half of their drives last week, and they did not play the Steelers last week. The Steelers is one of the best defensive lines in the game. Best defenses overall. This could be ugly. This could be an ugly one. Yeah, this game is rough because you have a lot of big name, big time fantasy players here. On the Denver side of the ball, if you want to chase the volume with Melvin Gordon.

It's okay to me, but he is a low end to... Look, Melvin Gordon and I have... We have a very checkered pass, but I think that the two of you guys can... It's so true. I think that the two of you can agree with me when I state as a matter of scientific fact. Sequin Barclay is a better running back in the NFL than Melvin Gordon. Yes. The Steelers completely shut down Saquan Barclay and the Giants on the ground. Now, will Melvin Gordon get enough?

targets to overcome, it's possible because Sequan salvaged his day sort of in PPR leagues. And Melvin Gordon should see a ton of volume. Philip Lindsay's dealing with this minor turf toe, whatever it is. I'm not expecting him to play. And I don't expect Royce Freeman to get as many touches or looks as Philip Lindsay was scheduled to have. So Jason, how confident are you?

plugging Melvin Gordon in as a running back too, or are you downgrading him to like flex? Yeah, I mean, you said it well. He is a volume player chasing volume. He's going to end up with 15 plus touches in this game. That's my belief. I agree. It's a very difficult matchup. 16 and a half implied points for the Broncos says not a lot of scoring that happens, but they are going to score. They're going to score some points. Maybe. And it's just as likely Melvin Gordon falls.

in the end zone as it is that Noah Fant gets in the end zone. I don't love any Bronco in this matchup. But yeah, as a low end, RB2, I think you can play Melvin Gordon this week. James Connor's practicing in full. Benny Snell had the big week last week. Some talk about him deserving, you know, more of an opportunity. I mean, if you compare Gordon to James Connor. I would rather play Melvin Gordon than either James Connor or Benny Snell. I agree with that. I shake my head of the Steeler. I'm, man.

I don't know if you have an option because of where you had to draft James Connor. But if you have any type of option, you're like, Naheem Hines. If you scooped them up the way to wire. I just did this. I just did this. I went with Cream Hunt on Thursday night. I didn't want to mess with this situation with James Connor and Benny Snow. Yeah, try and give it a week if you can. That's a putting James Connor in your lineup.

This week is that is a hero play. If I had to choose one, though, I would put James Conning over Benny Snell with the passing down work. Benny Snell saw none of that last week. All right, we know Lindsay's not likely to be out there. Juju is in your lineup. Deontay Johnson. Deontay Johnson, an opportunity, I think, in this game to make a mark. He had 10 targets last week.

Yeah, he's my taking it up to 100 player this week. I believe with the targets and the possible offensive line injuries. Big Ben wanting to get the ball out quick this week. Deontay Johnson is a flex play for me. If you don't have a better option, I expect him to be fantasy relevant this week. All right. Noah Fant had a great week one. Do you look at Noah Fant?

This week, can you just put them in your lineup? Jason's making a grimacing face. I get why. I'm grimacing because, you know, in our main dynasty league, I have to decide between Hayden Hurst, who disappointed week one, Noah Fant, who was great, but in this matchup against such a good defense, it's really hard to want to throw Noah Fant in my lineup. Who would you take out of those two players? I would play Hayden Hurst.

I think it's going to take one big play. Fant could get one big play in this game, no doubt. Is Cortland Sutton playing? Does that make the difference? I think he makes a big difference. I think he does play this week. If Cortland Sutton is out, I'm very happy to play Noah Fant with his wheels up. If Sutton is in, he will be limited. So that's more of a like, yeah, this defense, how many opportunities is Fant going to get? But he's probably still in. But Hearst.

Hearst is playing that he's a huge cowboy game. Yeah. That's why I went with him. I'm riding that rocket. Carolina Panthers take on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Buccaneers are heavy favorites. Nine and a half points at home, a 48 point over under. You know, you look at week one in Tampa, you know, they lost to the Saints, but that's a tough matchup. Saw some good, some bad. Not vintage Brady. But a lot of people are expecting a huge bounce back this week.

against the Carolina Panthers and that defense that they're in the bottom five. The Carolina Panthers are expecting a huge bounceback week from Tom Brady. They are. They are. But Carolina competed last week. They had a chance against Las Vegas. How do you see this one breaking down? Were you impressed with the Tampa Bay defense in week one? Yeah. I mean, they picked off from where they were even better, I thought.

from just watching film, then what you saw at the end of the previous season. The beginning of the season, the Buccaneers were a terrible defense that was, you know, someone you wanted to hyper focus on and target. But now I think this is just a solid overall team, which leads me to believe that they're going to run the ball a lot in this game.

They're going to be able to have success on the ground. The Carolina Panthers have allowed 30 rushing touchdown since week one of last year, and their defense has gotten much worse than it was last season. They have basically half of them are rookies out there, and you can run all of them, and that's why Ronald Jones was your start of the week. Mike, I like it. I'm questioning whether I can even throw Leonard Fournett in my dynasty lineup as well. Do you think you can? No.

I'm sorry. Peyton Barber? Yeah, I'd play Peyton Barber over Leonard Fournett. I am concerned with, well, let's talk at the wide receiver position on Tampa first, and then I'll talk about the other side. But Mike Evans, we expect him back in there? Yeah, the report is he's, quote, back, he's over the hump of the hamstring injury. Whatever that means. But yeah, I'm playing.

I'm playing Mike Evans against the Panthers. Scotty Miller was my taking it to 100 player. I think he's going to have a great opportunity this week if Chris Godwin misses. Even if he doesn't. Yeah. Even if he doesn't miss, I think Scotty Miller has a great opportunity against the secondary. Panthers, they're vulnerable. I am concerned about DJ Moore in this game. I am concerned about having the bounce back week. I don't think it's going to happen. I mean, Tampa was very impressive to me. They're secondary in week one. You saw what happened to Michael Thomas. It wasn't the injury.

that slowed Michael Thomas and opposing wide receivers in week one scored 15 fantasy points in the win for New Orleans. I'm concerned about being able to count on DJ Moore as anything more than a wide receiver three this week. Yeah, I agree. I don't know that he'll be shadowed or if he's not as clear cut of one as Michael Thomas was. But Michael Thomas was shut down in week one. This was before the injury. So I agree with you. DJ Moore is not someone that I'm...

expecting a big breakout from this week, but he is still the primary receiver of these three. I'm just not in love with any of them, but I was impressed, and I think it's worth noting that from week one, I was impressed with the Carolina Panthers offense as a whole. So I don't expect them to not be able to score at all. There will be fantasy points here, but it's hard to rely on, you know, when you've got three wide receivers that it could be,

It's just low odds when you roll the dice. And so I would just start Christian McCaffrey. If DJ Moore isn't the top producer at the wide receiver position this week, are you going to see panic from fantasy football players? Absolutely, you will. And I will target DJ Moore in trades to acquire him if he has a down week this week. It's interesting because we're just establishing what this offense is with Teddy Bridgewater, with Christian McCaffrey not being heavily targeted.