Starts of the Week + Week 8 Breakdown, Business Time! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/26

Starts of the week on today's episode and the boom boom kicker. Lots of matchups we are going through. Make sure that you subscribe. Stick with us through the rest of the week, through the rest of the season, and let's get those hashtag footclan titles. To the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's football time. You got the right sport this time. Very nice. Let's go Stefan Dix. Welcome me in one and all Thursday episode of the show. Where my mallards at? How's Deucer Zally doing? We have Papa Josh in the building today with Judge Giammati Al Borland. Doing swell. Papa Josh spent a good part of his morning bragging about the fact that he wears medium shirts.

Yeah, that's true. And not largest. Because we tried to give him a large shirt. And he's like, I wear mediums. And then he flexed for so long. Fun, fun fact. You can wear any size T-shirt you want. Incorrect, brother. No, no, no. No, no. Incorrect. All right. I guarantee we can get a medium on you, just like Papa Josh gets a medium on. Should we do that? That's a fun science experiment. And no, we should not do that. Like the Ubleck? it's like just because you wear a medium doesn't mean that like if you go to a tailor and you're like I wear a medium and they're like okay but you should not I did tell him I said just because you used to wear mediums doesn't mean you have to keep wearing mediums and then he perceived his rebuttal was flexing in all sorts of ways like I'm pretty sure I could get my child's t-shirt on it doesn't mean I should wear it to be fair to Papa Josh yeah

If I was, you know, he works out. Yeah, yeah, sure. I'd wear mediums too. Yeah, and he's like, what, four foot five? All right. Don't think you could get on this show and flex and you're not going to get dunked on. Welcome in one and all so much. Yeah. Yeah, you old bald turd. Yeah, we got it. Yeah. Just to eat it. So shiny. Yeah. Oh, man. You suck. NFL news matchup preview starts of the week. Boom, boom, kicker. We didn't have time to talk about Josh, that's for sure. Before we jump into the news, Papa Josh does run the fantasy footballers Discord channel, which you can find at ballers discord.com and hang out with a ton. Now there's just, I'm sorry. There are pictures of people in medium shirts. See?

They're wearing the heels. That should not be that are coming through our Slack channel right now. Shame on you. We got work to do. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Let's talk Dolphins. Tyreek Hill, Raheem Moster, did not practice on Wednesday. Tyreek Hill was a hip injury. Mostert the ankle. Generally, this team has given some veteran days off, but these seem a little bit. worth paying attention to? We're getting deeper into the season where you completely understand the veteran day of rest. But it is news because they have not yet done this. Like most are who you would be like, oh yeah, you should he should never practice on a Wednesday. You can make that argument, but he has been. You look back at the last couple of injury reports. So you got to pay attention here. I think there's actually quite a few missed practices. I'm.

slightly worried about because it's like the first time are you worried about tyreek um i i don't know today's a big day yeah i mean it's it's all about today i don't have any insight on the actual injury so i'm only worried because losing tyreek would be you know a devastating loss for fantasy yeah and uh that would translate to the whole offense i mean it may it would affect tua in huge ways yeah i would we got to get in more information but If I had Tyreek on my team, I would at least, I'd be making sure I have a backup plan. Kyler Murray, Cardinals quarterback, returned to a full practice on Wednesday. Mike, you have another tidbit to show. Yeah, we found a report that he has been practicing without a brace, which has been the plan, and the plan is to play without a brace, which is.

I mean, that's fantastic. When you're talking about a mobile quarterback, I mean, just putting a brace on the player, there's a whole bunch of mental stuff of like, well, maybe you don't fully trust your knee. You're still concerned about it, which is understandable to have a devastating injury that you've been in rehab, essentially, for almost a year. And when they're playing with a knee brace on, you physically can't move the way that you can without a knee brace on. So this is, pretty exciting stuff. It doesn't, the article talked about they're not going to speculate and say that Kyla's going to play this week. It's not an impossible thing. I do not expect him to play this week. But next week it would then jump up to a higher probability. And the week after that, that's, to me, that's a lock. Well, that is a lock with the 21-day window. That's when I expect, like, for sure he's back by then. It's a tough couple of matchups.

this week and next week, but it's great news because it's good in just the confidence of where he's at right now. The fact that he's practicing without the brace now says he's confident in the surgery. Aaron Jones, DNP, Matt LaFleur said he's a bit sore to be expected, ramping him up, hopefully. We'll talk about that game today. Brock Purdy, this is huge news. He has entered the league's concussion protocol. Sam Darnel expected to start on Sunday against Cincinnati. Yeah, I mean, if you're in a 2QB league, you hopefully already paid attention to this news as it broke last night and picked up Donald today in waivers. If he is out there, you know, could be a worthy start. You've got a lot of arguments about how much is the system. How much is it Brock Purdy? But the line has moved two points in the favor of the, towards the Cincinnati Bengals. So the start will be Brock Purdy this, or will be Sam Darnold this week.

Jalen Hertz not listed on the injury report, so any speculation about his knee, you know, nothing significant. Chargers, Echler, full participant on Wednesday. All right, we love that. That's a good sign. And then. Which, yeah, and did you guys follow all the Echler stuff? Like there was some comments after the game that made it seem like Echler is pretty frustrated with the workload? With his coach. Oh, really? And then, you know, he kind of had a follow-up. But the follow-up was, it was that of a fiery man. Interesting. Which Echler is. That's a man who needs a, he doesn't have a contract for next year. He doesn't. And it's just, it's nice. Echler cares about his stats. Yeah. Like, he likes fantasy football. Obviously, he's going to want to win his football game, but he is a man who cares.

that he's on the field and he's producing and helping his team. I think we should call NFL players that care about their stats businessmen. Because that's really what they are. I mean, it's a business. You can't say that. And when teams treat it like a business and then the players look, you have to, what else do you have to bring to the table? Exactly. You slide the stats across the table as your resume for that contract. Look at my intangibles coach. Right. Yeah. Look at this heart. You're like, so the thing we can't measure? Yeah, that's the thing. Please pay me. We've all seen the videos of like the backroom, you know, agent or GM talking. And they're, they are throwing out the stats. They're like, this is a guy who had 750 yards last year at the tight end position. You need it. And it's like, oh, you're right. And then they sign him. So be, be businessmen players. Yeah, they are, they are a businessman. Uh, Gerald Everett, Josh Palmer. Mm-hmm. D&Ps on Wednesday. Okay.

after what Josh Palmer did this past week was not happy to see that he did not practice on Wednesday. Is he in that group of people you're worried about Jason? Yeah. He's a Sunday night game. That's a significant issue and it could be a huge opportunity. Oh, man. There is a lot of huge opportunity that's already happened and not come to fruition. Like all Wednesday practice reports, you've got to pay much more attention to Thursday. It could be a day of rest, but. Palmer doesn't strike me as someone that would usually get that kind of treatment, especially since he's kind of in a newer role for him in the offense. D.K. Metcalfe, full practice. And he did come out and say he's expected to play. Lockett? Kenneth Walker. Yeah. Both full DMPs. I know that Zach Charbonnet was limited. Yeah, he's been hurt for a few weeks. But.

He did practice in a limited fashion, and Walker did not. Right. You definitely need to make sure you check on Charbonnet's availability on your waivers. He is someone that has been rostered the majority of the season, but the last few weeks while he's not been practicing, he's hit plenty of waivers. This is Kenneth Walker last week, did practice on Wednesday. Lockett last week. Lockett had a weird practice week where he, like, didn't practice on Friday or something. So it's just a situation to monitor, be prepared with Charbonnet. Thursday night football, Baker and Chris Godwin will play against the bills tonight. Dawson Knox, likely to be placed on IR, which would be a prolonged absence. And Dalton Kincaid will have a shot to be heavily involved. And David Montgomery will not practice on Thursday. They do play on Monday night, but the by week is next week. Jason's already shaking its head. He knows the game plan. I know the game plan. The game plan is that he does not play. The thing I hate the most about it is please play.

Please just rule him out early. Because it's the Monday night game, I'm worried that I'm not going to be able to, you know, before the Sunday games happen, put him on IR and pick up someone in his place. It's just unfortunate. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Fantasy forecast. Well, Brooksie, it's going to be a long show. We don't have any buy weeks this week. We've got a lot of matchups to talk through this week. Staying on brand for the NFL this year, zero games over the 46.5 point total, which is kind of wild. Right. However, 10 of 16 games are between 43 and a half and 46. So no super low. Yeah, it's not a putrid week. The Rams, 3 and 4, take on the 4 and 2, Dallas Cowboys. Drafking Sportsbook line, Dallas minus 6. The over under here, 45 and a half. We've still...

I mean, when you look at Dak Prescott and Matthew Stafford from a fantasy perspective, you have had very few opportunities to start these players and be happy with it. You did get a really good week from Dak before the buy. Stafford, we keep thinking that these prolific Cooper Cup and Puka numbers and Tutu performances and his performances. We keep thinking that they will equate to something in the fantasy realm. I do not think that this week. I mean, facing Dallas on the road with no history of being able to put multi-touchdown games together, he is very much out of my streaming consideration. I'm in agreement. Unanimous? Yeah, that's fair. Not against this defense. Dallas is currently the sixth seed right now. The Rams, they're still in the fight. Darrell Henderson.

Thinking we omitted the news that he had been reverted to the practice squad. A player is able to be activated from the practice squad three times. And then after the fourth time, they have to be on the active roster. So we expect activation and what, decent performance. Yeah, this is just normal business transactions to maximize. your roster construction because he came off the practice squad, NFL rules allow him to go back there a couple weeks where other teams cannot claim him off of the practice squad. So it's just a smart transaction. Do you guys feel like he's going to get more snaps? I mean, I know he got 18 carries, which was, that was, you know, that's very solid for a game basically off the street. It was 60% of the running back attends for the Rams. But we only saw two targets. Like, what is your confidence just

playing Daryl Henderson as that running back two or a flex type of play against a Dallas Cowboys team that is currently 10th and schedule adjusted points to the running back. I'm still okay playing Daryl Henderson because there's, you know, the running backs are hard to come by right now and while it's not a great matchup, I do think he will continue to get the 60-40 split. He got only two targets, but he got all of the targets out of the running back room. He is involved in all phases of the game. Yeah, and we saw James Connor have a big week against Dallas. It's not impossible. Royce Freeman last week, 12 for 66. To answer your question, I think the split you saw last week is what I would expect this week. Okay. On the other side, you know, you went from a fast pace of play offense in Dallas last year along with efficiency to now the dead last in neutral situation pace of play. It has really cut the legs out of...

you know, Pollard and Lamb and even the Cook's Gallop situation. And, you know, Jake Ferguson has been not what we hoped. So, and DAC, obviously. So in this matchup in particular, you know, the Rams defense has been pretty good this year. You know, they seem to have drives or, you know, defensive opportunities that they take advantage of and then they disappear for a drive. You know, what are you doing? You know, Lamb is going to be in your lineup. Pollard is going to be in your lineup. Although I have gotten a lot of messages about do I swap Pollard for this guy? Do I swap Pollard for that guy? Like, I feel like people want out of Pollard for some reason. I actually think it's fair. Pollard has been okay, but he's been a disappointment for what you thought you had when in week one he was a top five running back scored more than 20 fantasy points. Look like, wow, he's going to be great.

You know, you look at the last several weeks before the buy, and he had a couple of stinkers with an average game. He's still on a solid offense. He's still receiving the lion's share of the work, and he's still talented. So this is a player you're going to start every week. You're going to want him. But, you know, we brought up a couple weeks ago. There was like the Pollard Bijon trade, and obviously Bejon got sick. this last week, but I'm still firmly more on. I think there are higher upside players like if I could turn Pollard into a Austin Echler who's been struggling or Bijon from a bad. You would do that? I would do that. You would do it for Echler? Oh, yeah. Really? Mike, Mike, are you in that camp? That's, I wouldn't do that. That's a very tough call. You would rather have Pollard than Echler. Yeah, Pollard's been good. And this is an offense that I trust. I'm we're talking about the...

Chargers at 2 and 4 being, you know, you could have a head coaching change. You've got an ankle injury with Echler. You don't have Mike Williams. They have not been able to put up big numbers, and Pollard's still been pretty darn good, and you're getting a lot of snaps. Now, Sequin. I mean, Pollard, the last three weeks was 14 points, six points, and seven points. Yeah. Yeah, what was Echler? Well, Echler was coming off of a high ankle sprain where you expect a couple of down weeks. I'm just, that just blows my mind. Like, it's so easy. I'm like, it's not close to me. If we were doing, you know, the redraft today, I can't fathom that we would be drafting Pollard ahead of Echler. But, I mean, it's a decision that everyone has to make on their own. I've just, I would firmly be on the Echler side. Yeah, I'm on the better team side of that one. C.D. Lamb, you know, you just keep riding them. But Brandon Cook's Michael Gallop. You know, that's.

I don't want to start those players. It doesn't mean you can't get a performance out of them. It just means I don't have confidence. Yeah, I get it. But Dak and Ferguson are both very interesting to me. You have the Rams 21st against fantasy quarterbacks and 30th. I mean, that is juicy. There was a reason Jason wanted to have was hoping that the Muth would get Luth this past week, which. Kind of seemed like he was going to. And then it was, no, these facts still hurt. But the reason is that the Rams are the team that we target with the tight end position. Cooper cop, Pooka, play them. Yep. The matchup's not outstanding, but they're both going to be fine. And then, you know, I think you end the conversation there. Yeah, I sit two, two. All right. Minnesota's three and four. The Packers are two and four. Games in Lambo, the drafting sports book line, Minnesota minus one on the road. Wow. The overrunners 42 points.

Green Bay has lost three straight games, including a matchup with Denver last week, Minnesota, the other end of the spectrum. They have two game winning streak, beat San Francisco. It's a lower over under. You know, Jordan Love, the team says they haven't lost an ounce of confidence in Jordan Love. I haven't gained an ounce of confidence in Jordan Love over the last few weeks. Yeah, he... He just, you know, we talked about it all season long while he was being really solid for fantasy, which surprisingly four of his six games. He's been a top 12 quarterback. He's so wild. He hasn't looked the part, you know, when you just watch the games. He misses a lot of throws, you know, deep down the field where it's like, it's good read. He's got a guy, but he's just missing him too often for me to have confidence to start him.

Yeah, it's been a little bit rough. I mean, he's on pace to run for about 400 yards on the ground that helps lift the floor. But only a 58% completion. Yeah, and he also has the biggest A dot of any quarterback. I mean, yeah, we like that. So, I mean, you are going to, it's going to cost you a little bit, I think, when you take those shots. But Jason's right. I mean, he's missing as well. And, you know, that says a lot about Christian Watson and Romeo Dobbs and. Jaden Reed and Musgrave where where are you sitting this week at home against Minnesota with those guys? Christian Watson back at a full practice, but last week shows you the extremes, right? Three for 27, didn't score and it hurt you if you started. Yeah, between them, Romeo Dobbs is one of the stranger fantasy seasons that we have going on right now because he's been a top 24.

Fantasy wide receiver in four of six weeks. If you've just been playing Romeo Dobbs as a flex option, more often than not, you're getting good performances. Now it's pretty heavy on the touchdown side, but he just keeps coming through. Are you guys in the matchup against Minnesota, 22nd against wide receivers when you adjust for schedule? It's... I mean, it's not a bad matchup. It's not a bad matchup, but I would order them. Like Christian Watson is the one. So far, if you look at the last three weeks, the last two games played with their biweek in there, that's where Christian Watson has been back playing like 80 plus percent of snaps. So you've got Christian Watson, Christian Watson, Romeo Dobbs, and Jaden Reed all on the field. And it has been, the target leader has been Christian Watson. And I also think he's the most talented, certainly most talented athlete.

for fantasy purposes, what he can do is better than the other two guys. So the combination of him, you know, he's got a 20% market share during that time. Romeo Dobbs has a 15% market share. You're saying over the last two weeks. Over the last two games where Christian Watson's been back to pretty much a full game. And Jaden Reed has had a 10% target market share. It concerns me that since Watson's been back, you have 34 receiving yards for Romeo Dobbs. And that's two games combined. You also have more receptions for Jaden Reed in that span. So it is a little concerning. I'm benching Dobbs if I can't. Okay. I'd play Rashi Rice. Yeah, that's fair. I'd play Wondale. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I think Wondale and Dobbs are about the same tier. I would rather play KJ. Osborne on the other side of this same game. Sure. Obviously, Jordan Addison should be in everyone's lineup at this point. Yeah, he has number two in touchdowns this year.

Six touchdowns for Jordan Addison. Yeah, he's having a great year. Really? You'd go KJ Osborne? I would. Yeah. I mean, Osborne, his best finish was week three. And in the two games with, like, we've had two full games without Jefferson. Am I correcting that? Maybe. I mean, he's on the field all the time. Yeah. And he's got nine receptions in two weeks. I mean, I lean that way because of how one offense is going one trajectory. with another weapon and another offense is moving in the positive direction. That's fair. But what do you do with Madison and Acres? I think a lot of people are asking that question. They added acres off a waiver wires. He played the most snaps he's played last week. Jason, you said he looked good. He did. He looked good in the receiving game. I know he was slightly less efficient on a total yards per carry than Madison, but I thought when I was watching, he looked just as good if not better.

I think both players are like I would put Madison ahead of Acres. I would be willing to start Madison in a plus matchup. The Packers haven't stopped the run very well. But I think Acres is like a sneaky, nasty, you know, thank you, Mike, a player that is startable this week and you could end up with a decent game. You know, another player that did not practice was T.J. Hawkinson yesterday. He went down a couple of times in that game. One time was a little different than the other one. At least on the, when I was listening to the broadcast, they were saying they went back and said, no, we saw him kind of limping after the play. So it wasn't just a full, it wasn't a full, we got to stop the clock. Somebody go down. It was your hurt. Just go down. Man, what are you doing? It was so funny to have the camera catch.

the head coach. Kevin O'Connell telling him, like just screaming on his player, Hawkinson, go down. It's like, oh my gosh, what's the NFL going to do? But then you realize, like, he saw Hawkinson hurt. Yeah. And he was protecting Hawkinson. So it wasn't really. And that wasn't even the injury that he ended up suffering. I mean, later in the game, you had a player kind of crunched down on the foot. He did leave the field. He came back. Those are tough situations because you don't know how bad that injury is when you're running on adrenaline in the back of a game.

I hope the foot's okay because he's been so productive. Yeah, this is a, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is one of those situations where you're just, you're not even, uh, if I am the T.J. Hawkinson manager, there's four or five guys out on waivers that are all equal tight in plays. I'm just leaving my roster with T.J. Hawkinson there and monitoring the practice reports and should it look bad, then Sunday morning I will make the transaction I need to make to pick up a, uh, Logan Thomas, Tray McBride. Exactly. Group. Yeah. Kirk Cousins, top 10 quarterback in five of seven starts. You're playing them on the road in this one? I'm not opposed to it. I'm not really, really excited to play it. But, I mean, let's be honest. Are you ever really excited to play Kurt Cousins? I'm not opposed to being excited. Really? Okay. Okay. I'm kind of opposed to being excited in this match. Top 10 and five of seven starts.

He's been great. Yeah, I mean, he doesn't normally have a good time in Green Bay. So I'm more opposed to being excited than I was a minute ago. Awesome. I just thought about it and I've changed my mind. I'm not opposed to being surprised. There we go. I'm not opposed. I'm pleasantly surprised. That's such good advice by us. All right. Quick break back with some more matchups. Let me give you a. follow up asking for a friend to the Minnesota discussion a moment ago. Kurt Cousins, yes. Kurt Cousins against Green Bay on the road or Joseph Burrow on the road against the San Francisco 49ers. I got mine. I know my answer. I will. I will go Joe. I will as well. Which is another way of saying I will go Jamar. Oh, Brooke. Brooks. He's going cousins. Look at this guy. Yeah. Look at this guy.

All right. They're saying T. Higgins is looking good at practice that he's back to full strength. T. Higgins, Joe Burrow, I mean, Kirk Cousins had a good game last week, right? Yeah, because Kirk Cousins is playing great, and Joe Burrow is not. But who did he play last week? The San Francisco 49ers. So I think Joe Burrow can do it too. What happens if Darnold dominates? Oh, man. Yes. Yes, please do it. Please go out there and throw 303 and look perfect. Atlanta, let's talk about this game. Four and three taking on the two and four Tennessee Titans. The Draft King's Sportsbook line is Atlanta minus two and a half. The overrunners 35 and a half. Yeah, banana ram. That is the lowest of the year. We're going to be seeing Desmond Ritter against some combination of Will Levis and Malik Willis. This is also, Arthur Smith was the coordinator for Mike Vrable.

So you have turd burglar. Yeah, I almost wrote this this morning, but I saved it for the show because, Mike, you were kind of in some Twitter exchanges about Arthur Smith. And then everybody wants to throw the record in the face of those that criticize his usage of Bijan or Pitts or Drake London. And it presumes that because he's four and three, he couldn't be five and two or six and one or seven and oh with better decision making. I understand his job is not to cater to fantasy football players. And he should not. No. However, I do believe after watching enough of Arthur Smith spit in the faces of fantasy players and press conferences, and there'd be no way to prove this. But I genuinely believe this could be the first coach in the history of this show and fantasy football that might overtly make a poor decision to...