Halloween Show! + Spooky Starts + Week 9 Breakdown - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/31

to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's football time. I hope it is. It's probably not. I remember what the game was. For fantasy football purposes. Yeah, we got some guys. If you've got guys, you care about it. Suddenly you care about the game. Look, I'm going to get the, uh, yeah, get the elephant out of the way. Yeah, let's, uh, let's talk about what's going on here. Obviously not quite as dressed up as I was last year. Happy Halloween. You look a little worse than you did last year. Well, well, less lipstick for sure. Yeah. Which, you know, that can mask a lot of, uh, imperfections. Yes.

We're a year older, you're wiser. You know, we're grown-ups. Yeah, this is... I told you we were trying to order some stuff. It didn't come in. Apparently overnight shipping is not overnight. You know what I mean? I warned you. I know. We've become a little bit laxadaisical, and I'm really sorry. And if you're listening, that's fine, right? You don't care. You don't lose out on anything. But I'm sorry. We do have a great show. You can follow us on Twitter. Huh? What is happening? Where'd the lights go? Ducers. Hello. Hello. Hello. Do we have some lights here. Can we turn the lights back on? Happy Halloween. What? What? What the world was that all about? They got the power back on and you guys look a little bit different. Mike, we got a problem over here. You're telling me, brother. Oh boy, we've got.

We got the costumes in. I guess so. I guess they shipped them pretty fast. This is one of those classic costumes. Every kid, every Halloween dresses up like me. As the blue medical tint. The hero or at least the feature. The 2024 MVP of the season. The MVP of 2024, the blue medical tent. How you doing everybody? Andy, nice to have you here. Yeah, no, very comfortable here. You look great. You look a little wide. I'd start losing the LBs, but. No, I'm a home for most of your fantasy players. You look like you're pushing about six, seven hundred right now. Mike said the angle that he has on me right now.

I look I look pretty special. Mike is suffering as the bone zone. Yeah. Ken Bone Walker in the house. Some mistakes were made with this mask. I now have, uh, there's just, there's snot dripping into my mustache. Oh, nice. We only have about an hour left of the show. I love that you now seem like a wheel of shame, torture, punishment, but for the whole show. The bone zone. Get in the zone. And then laser Mayfield over here. That's right. That's right. Throwing lasers. Throwing lasers? Are those prescription laser glasses? They are prescription laser glasses, but not my prescription. I can see nothing on this show. Your beard looks outstanding laser. And you even threw a Mohawk in. Yeah, you know, look.

Baker Mayfield no Mohawk, laser may field Mohawk. Yeah, no, it looks very good guys. Let's do the show. We've done it. Mike is ready to wrap this thing up. Let's jump into the news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Mike had his own choice here on what to dress up as, and he went torture chamber. He punished himself. I don't believe he thought he was. No. I thought I was taking the easy way out. Yeah, you maybe wanted to try that on a week ago or so. There is an articulating jaw on your skeleton mask. Very nice. It looks great. That was outstanding. All right, listen, we got some news. Thursday Night Football is tonight. So I know there'll be some folks with their phones out walking around the neighborhoods collecting candy with their kids. Alan Lazard is out. Oh, no.

Okay, there you go. Bryce Young is starting, Mike, in week nine against the Saints. That's a spooky surprise. Yeah, so the Saints, you know, we'll see. Dave Canales, when he came out and talked about this, if you, if you watch the press conference, did he apologize? No, he said Bryce Young is going to start at the end of this week. They're going to take in everything that they have, all the new information and make an evaluation after the week. So unlike the Joe Flacco situation where they said like he is our starter going forward and we're going to, you know, work on Anthony Richardson behind the scenes. This is Bryce Young is only starting this week. Next week they'll figure out if Dalton is healthy and if Bryce Young has played well. Basically what he was saying is if Bryce Young goes out. Is it an escape hatch? And looks great. Bryce will keep the job. That's the way I interpreted it. But he's like Bryce is not the starter. He has not earned it. Go do something, Bryce.

Do you feel the same way about that situation as the Colts? Because I don't. I feel like Bryce should probably just start the rest of the year because the season's done. It's over. They traded away Deante. They're moving forward. They're going to give young guys opportunities. Jalen Coker, Jonathan Brooks. Why not have Bryce out there? I mean, I would agree. If I was the general manager or the head, well, not the head coach. The head coach, I would certainly put out Andy Dalton. That's my job is to try to win games. But if I'm the general manager, I want Bryce Young out there because he gives us the best shot at the 101.

to replace himself. Oh, man. All right. The Jacksonville Jaguars, Travis ETN is still limited with the hamstring. Their optimistic co-play, Brian Thomas Jr., limited. Very important player for fantasy teams. Don't know if he's going to be out there. If he's out there, do you have any worries about, you know, the fact that he's got the rib injury and his performance, or would you just throw him in the lineup? Well, I would just play him. Speaking as a medical professional, I would say a little nervous, but I'd be, he'd be in my lineup. Hopefully he doesn't come and see me during the game, is all I'm saying. Jordan Love didn't practice, says he thinks is realistic for him to play this week, even if he doesn't practice at all. Okay. I do have concerns starting Jordan Love this week with the injury based upon how he played with the injury before exiting that game. So if he doesn't practice all week because of this injury and then has to go out and play in a tough game, I'm not thrilled to play Jordan Love.

There's going to be a risk of him coming out for sure. There's certainly a place where I would still start him over fodder off the waiver wire. But if you have another good option on the roster, I would look that direction. What about his weapons? I think the like Dobbs and Reed, that's the bigger question. I actually would pivot away from all of them, I think, if I didn't have Jordan Love. I wouldn't feel confident in any past catching weapons. I'm saying like Jordan Love plays. Oh, Reed's in. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah, Reed's in. Like, I think I'm still going to roll Stafford regardless this weekend over Jordan Love, but like I have Romeo Dobbs and I'm fighting with, does he make it in the lineup or not? You've got to open up your bone mask. You've got to open the bone mask up. Is this better? Yeah, there we go. Now you're like, you're like inside a grave. Oh, yeah. A casket. It looks worse, which is better, and now you sound good. Yeah, that's pretty good. Okay. Your commentary is.

Bone zone. I can. Okay, here I am. Josh Jacobs didn't practice on Mike, only another hour. Didn't practice on Wednesday. Monitor that. D.K. Metcalf didn't practice. I know they're hoping he can play. He's got the MCL. It's still TBD. He's got two of them. Well, okay, that's fair. He's got the MCL injury, Mr. Blue Medical Tint. You know, I don't think he plays this week. I'm, I'm, I'm going to guess he misses this week and is back next week. Lamar Jackson didn't practice. They called it a rest day. So there you go. He gets those from time to time. It's usually toilet related. Yeah, Falcon knows about rest days. Yeah. Falcon takes a lot of rest days. It's in his contract. He doesn't work Wednesdays. Yeah. All right. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. It's time for the starts. Starts of the week.

We've got some confidence plays for the upcoming week of football at quarterback. My start of the week is going to be Joe Burrow. And I feel like people need the confidence play with Joe Burrow right now. He is the quarterback five on the year. That part is simple, but he's got three straight games outside the top 12. Sure hope T. Higgins plays. Well, I think he'll be back. Burrow right now through the season, highest completion percentage of his career. And the big part here, the Bengals and how Joe Burrow plays at home. They're seven and a half point favorites. His teams have averaged 28 points per game as touchdown favorites in his career at home. And so the Raiders defense, it's not intimidating. What am I hearing? What in the world am I hearing? They're cackling. What are you guys cackling about back there? Is this just the costumes? We're serious people.

I asked a question. Can't you take my advice seriously as a tent? So this is just you laughing at the costumes? I can't. This is who we are, man. We are serious people with a serious job, serious games this week, and I'm hearing laughter. Yeah. Unbelievable. That was a serious start of the week. My start of the week this week will be. Unserious? Not as serious. I mean, it should be Laser Mayfield, but it's going to be that. Yeah, laser. It's going to be Dak Prescott, who I've been talking about him as the second half star, just like last year. This week, the Dallas Atlanta game, it carries the highest over under of the week. There is 52 points. And DAC is averaging 39 passing attempts per game. That is number one in the NFL. And oh, yeah, the Falcons are allowing the highest completion percentage in the NFL. They rank 26 against fantasy quarterbacks. They've allowed two plus passing touchdowns every quarterback they've faced over the last month.

There's going to be a lot of points scored in this game. This starts the beginning of the Dallas Cowboys passing attack trying to get them back into the playoffs. I'm going Sam Darnold versus the Indianapolis Colts. Look, it's the Sunday night game. We got a 46.5.0. Hey, I'm serious. Stop laughing at me. Now, lift up your teeth. Talk. Look, the Vikings have a 26 point. implied team total. We love that, and they have hit their implied total in all but one game this year. Sam Darnold, I expect at least 250 and 2, possibly more. Okay, at running back, it's never a sexy choice, but Tony Pollard is the pick against New England. He's averaging the ninth most opportunities per game. He's touched the ball on 31% of Tennessee's offensive plays, and the Patriots defense is 30th in the NFL and schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to running backs.

Five straight running backs have hit 80 rushing yards. That's a wonderful baseline you have against New England. Was this just Matthew Judon or is it Belichick? Because it's mostly the same crew that shut down running backs last year. Well, you see Jason, from what I understand, and I'm not speaking out of turn here because the head coach has confirmed it. They're soft. Ah, yeah, that's true. They're soft. They are playing soft. My running back started the week, James Connor at home against Chicago. And you look at the Chicago match. Whoa. They're a good defense. I was surprised at this. I'm a little scared. It can be tempted to go with a better option against an easier matchup. But I would not go away from James Connor. The Chicago Bears are an outstanding defense against quarterbacks and wide receivers. They're just middle of the pack against running backs. And if the Cardinals are going to do something at home against them, they're going to want to use James Connor a lot, which they have been. Connor has already been.

awesome. He's been averaging 19 opportunities a game, and he is number one in 10 plus yards. Like runs of 10 plus yards. He's third in yards after contact. Listen to this. So he leads all running backs in the NFL. This is insane. In forced miss tackles, right? That's great. He's number one. You want to force some miss tackles? You do. That's good. Number two is a three-way tie between Najee Harris, Jordan Mason. And Bijon Robinson. Those are guys that you've watched on the field and you've said, hey, nausee breaks tackle. Yeah. They each are tied for second place with 29 broken tackles, forced miss tackles. James Connor is at 47. He's almost lapping the field. So I don't think this is a player who's going to get a lot of opportunity at home against a team where if you're going to do damage against him, it's going to be in the running game. So I'm not benching James Connor this week. I'm not looking at the matchup as too hard.

I'm starting James Connor. I'm going with Chuba Hubbard. Hey, everybody. And the reason that he's even in here is more of a... Every time Mike talks. This is what we become. This is more of a... I have the confidence to actually play him as a running back, too. If you recall last week, I was O-U-T on Chuba Hubbard. And even though Bryce Young is the quarterback, that's fine because the matchup is there, the Saints. 31st and schedule adjusted points. 28th in rushing yards per game allowed. Look, it's... He's averaging 20 and a half opportunities since week three. I think that Chuba is back in as a running back to. Now, that one is very nerve-wracking. I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm the same way. I'm, I'm, I'm the same way as Andy, not as you, Mike. I'm scared of this one. Bryce Young stinks and then I think Jonathan Brooks. Oh, wrong button. We're falling apart. Oh, you, you strapping them on for that one? Yes, he needs. Oh, okay.

My wide receiver start of the week. I went and traded heavy to get this guy with the announcement that Joe Flacco was going to be the quarterback for likely the remainder of the year. And good call there, Mike. I'm bowing out. Josh, the skeleton mask has slid forward. And now the podcast listeners can be more pleased. All right. Look, Josh Downs is the pick for start of the week at wide receiver. Just traded heavy for him in Dynasty. Jason brought him up on Hungry for more, and he's been targeted on 30% of his routes. This is a player that on the field, when you evaluate him as a route runner, his involvement in the offense, he is a go-to-wide receiver for his quarterback. And Joe Flacco, when he's been the quarterback with Josh Downs, Downs's average, 10 targets, 8 receptions, 72 yards. I think he's a machine the rest of the season. That's the truth. And the Vikings, the Vikings are a pass funnel.

They're going to give up yardage to the position. I think Josh Downs is a must play this week. And I hate saying that because I have to play him against him. Yes, you do because I get to play him. I love your start of the week there. I'm going with Chris Olave on the road in Carolina. We saw them play week one. Terrible game for Chris Olave. But it was an awesome game for Rashid Shaheed, which is why it was bad for Olave. There was the blowout that made me start thinking that. You know, I would run up against the 10 victory saints and have to shave my head. I took care of Dennis Allen's job this week. Rashid Shahid is out. It's clear that Olave is far in a way the best option of wide receiver. Last week he had 14 targets. Now he gets Derek Carr back presumably. That's how it's looking. He had 41% of the targets last week against Carolina, who is allowing the highest yards per pass attempt in the NFL. And they break 25th against fantasy wide receivers.

Absolutely must start. I think OLAV is a wide receiver one rest of season because of the Shaheed injury. I'm going lad McConkey. Oh, my little lad. Oh, my God. It's the worst. It's not great. It's not good. It's worse than not great. But Andy, hungry for work player of this week. Look, he was the wide receiver two. I get it. It was two touchdowns. But he just, he has been heating up. His target share for a rookie has been. It's been very good. And now the last three weeks, we've seen that hard dog and G. Roe, they have forgot to visit the doctor for those testosterone boosters. And they are, in fact, going low T and they're throwing the ball all the time with Justin Herbert playing much, much better for fantasy purposes. He's given us those yards. And the matchup against Cleveland, while they are a good defense, like they seem like a scary one, you can actually throw on them. 28th and schedule adjusted fantasy points to the wide receiver position.

You've given a gift to the podcast listeners. We can hear you. All right. We're turning to tight in. I'm glad that's a gift. Yeah, most often it is. He's. I'm going hat. Oh, just a hat. No bone? I got the gloves on, man. Okay. I'm a skeleton. I got. Guys, I'm a skeleton. Look at these gloves, man. I'm known as a skeleton. Oh, this might be worse. Yeah. This hat's never coming off. You need the bone zone. Listen, Sam Leportas, the tight end start of the week for me. Coming off his best game of the year, tons of targets, no Jameson Williams. Packers' defense has been terrible against tight ends. This is the week where you get a good game from Sam Leporta, and then you get a tough decision because you decide whether you want to trade off of that or you want to, what I think will happen. You'll buy in.

because you'll have a couple of great weeks. And the truth is Leporta, much like Mark Andrews, the fundamental truth is he has an asset to the offense. Andrews is around the red zone. Leporta is. And the six for 48 and one last week, almost scored two times. I think Leporta dominates this week. Yeah, I think that's great. I'm shocked that you didn't go with Kate Otton as your start of the week, so we'll make him an honorary start of the week because he is also great. Sounds very biased from Laser Mayfield. Yeah, Laser. That's my guy, Kate Otten out there. But I'm not taking him as my start of the week. I'm taking Evan Ingram with his Cajibillion targets this week against the Philadelphia Eagles. That's only scientifically speaking. That is. The Jaguars pass catchers, they're banged up. And by banged up, I mean, Krisha Kirk is done for the year. Gabe Davis has his injury. Brian Thomas has his injury. I've seen them all. Yeah, they've been visiting you. And you've been rude to some of them. You're like, no, you're not going back in. Out. On the season.

Right now, Evan Ingraham has averaged 27% of his routes as a target. That's tied for third best in the NFL. And the Eagles, they might look on paper. You look at the matchup, you go, oh, they're pretty good against tight ends. But they're terrible against the slot players. Like last week, you saw Mike Gisicki kind of play that slot role, and he was 7 for 73 against Philadelphia. When Kirk was out for the season in weeks 14 through 18 last year, Evan Ingram led all players in the NFL in slot receptions. He had more slot receptions at C.D. Lamb or Amin Ra or Cooper Cup. This is a pure slot-wide receiver role, and I think he's just going to have so many targets that you have to start Evan Ingram this week. And I am going. Yeah, look at this. Mark Andrews against the Denver Broncos because things are trending up for him. No, I'm not.

The touchdowns have been delightful. I'm not just chasing the touchdowns. I am chasing the fact that he's been on the field more and more. He's been averaging four receptions, 50 yards and a touchdown. He's over the last month, that is, 13 points a game. That's right behind Brock Bowers. But here's what was exciting. We were all trying to figure out what is going on with Mark Andrews. And one of the hypotheses was that... That's so not a word, but go on. Is that it was, he's recovering? It's hypothesis. Oh, yeah, that's definitely it. Hypothesis. Last year, look, the ankle injury, he's still recovering from it. Over the preseason in training camp, there was a car accident that he was involved in. And he just hasn't been on the field. We're like, what's going on? Because he's still good, but he's not getting reps. Those have gone up. Week 8, tied for season high in snap percentage at 74%. 29 routes.

That was the highest since week one. In fact, he lined up out wide 12 times, and Kyle is saying that's the most of any game of his entire career. Wow. I think, like, we're not back, but we're back where Mark Andrews is a very startable guy. The Ravens are nine-point home favorites. And the Broncos are allowed the ninth most receptions to the tight-ed position. Where does Andrews slot in and best tight-ins rest of season? Would you rather have Kate Otten than... Mark Andrews. Oh, that's a really good one. I think it's probably still K. Dotten because we just, we don't have all the information, but at least where we're trending right now, that in two weeks from now, you could ask that is a Kdaun or Mark Andrews and all of a sudden we're like, no, Mark Andrews is back to his full allotment. But what about Dalton Kincaid or Mark Andrews? I think that is. I'll take Mark Andrews. Yeah, that's where I am as well. I think I lean that way as well. I can't stand how effective yet boring the Bill's offense can be.

Oh, it's the worst. It's the absolute worst fantasy because they're very good. They're winning games. They're, they're, they're, I think they have like a 100 point point differential. They've been awesome. And yet for fantasy, it's like, stop. It's just low opportunities. You don't want to throw the ball when you're up and that's not fun. When it's like, if, if Mark Andrews and Dalton Kincaid are both getting between three and four receptions a week, Kincaid's averaging three and a half right now. Mark Andrews are far more valuable targets. Just average depth of target and then touchdown opportunities. And then throw in touchdown opportunities. So I lean Mark Andrews even though it's been a slow start. Well, we're going to take a quick break and we'll come back with the fantasy forecast. Well, it's a big week of games that we've got to break down. Mike has broken out of his skeleton face.

That lasted all of, what, like seven minutes? I had to, look, the YouTube people got what they needed. Right. And now the podcast people. That's fair. I think that's a good call. This is for the people. And just so people understand this before we jump in. Jason is blind. I am struggling to read anything on my laptop. He's wearing a pair of Tron laser glasses for those listening at home. You can go to the website. Laser. You can go to YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers. And check it out. I mean, I'm just, that's the thought process. But he is blind because he needs prescription glasses as an elderly man. Yeah. If you were to walk around this studio desk and look at my laptop, you would laugh because I have it zoomed in. Let me see this. It's, it's.

It's the biggest font you've ever seen. And you still can't read that? I can see it. Wow, this is, I'll go all the way around here. Oh, I'm sure they can read it clear. There we go. That's, that's the size we're working with here. Yeah, that's, that's good stuff. All right, let's jump in. It's time for fantasy forecast presented by Draft King Sportsbook. It's like two words per screen. Yeah, I can read Dallas Cowboys. I know they're in this matchup. We have two bye weeks, two by weeks. The 49ers and Steelers taking time off doing their Falcon thing. All right, Dallas at 3 and 4, take on the Atlanta Falcons at 5 and 3. That's our first matchup. We're going to look at Drafking Sportsbook line Atlanta minus 3 over under 52 beautiful points. That's a good deal. That's a reason to be endorsing Jason's start of the week for Dak Prescott. Now, if he doesn't do it in this game, as the quarterback 18, I think there'll be some worry. For sure.

That'll prove the dysfunction has reached a very deep into the roots of the offense. The dysfunction is not just offense. I mean, obviously they've lost a lot of pieces on the defensive line, but the whole team right now for the Cowboys is kind of imploding. The reason I'm so bullish on DAC is because you've got years of deck getting it done. You have last season of Dak getting it done. You have C.D. Lamb dominating. He was incredible last week. They need him, and this is not a bad team and a bad franchise, as much as we joke about the issues that Jerry Jones has, which he does. This is not a team that is just going to fold and go away. I think Dak has to put more on his shoulders and be better, and I think he'll step up. I mean, his passing yardage line from Draft Kings is 264.5. So you're already at a baseline where the expectation...

is a really nice output. On the other side, at home, Atlanta, high over and under. Kirk Cousins has been like a stick of dynamite that you light, and it goes off every fourth time that you attempt to. Oh, you got some duds? Yeah, I mean, sometimes the fuse goes out on the way. I don't think it goes out in this game. Dallas has obviously been a troubled defense. They, you know, they've struggled Bijon. There were some comments, and I want to give credit to Coach Speak Index this morning. There were some comments that they discovered from the offensive coordinator, Zach Robinson, that just came out and said verbatim. Zach Robinson said, one, Bejohn's a young player. He's getting better, learning blitz pickups. Two, we believe in the philosophy of having multiple backs and keeping them fresh so that they're effective later in the game. So it's not necessarily something we don't know.

but hearing it vocalized as opposed to maybe they accidentally are doing this. You know, Bijon has been a little bit like that stick of dynamite as well. Sometimes it looks amazing. We just heard he's tied behind James Connor. Second and forced tackles missed. Very impressive when you're not getting the allotment of snaps that James Connor is getting. But just something to keep in mind is that Bijan's probably not going to give you very often the Kyron, the Henry, those type of weeks. But he's still going to be probably a low-end running back one every week. Yeah, Kirk Cousins, going back to him, the stick of dynamite. When I look at the games, I think he's playing outstanding ball for the last month. The question is just how do the touchdowns go in? And I worry a little bit in this matchup because the Cowboys, you have just been able to run. Their defensive line is so banged up that teams have ran the ball like crazy. So I think if you get around the end zone.