Fantasy Football Podcast 2015 - Week 3 Fantasy Forecast, Starts of the Week, TNF Preview, News

Two more games here before we get to the starts of the week. Let's go through the Buccaneers at the Texans. Is there somebody in this game? Now, I'm very high on Mike Evans this week. I'm probably much higher than both of you guys. He's going to be on a full snap count this week. I really, really like his chance. Like, I've been trying to get him in every single league because I think I like his opportunity to really, really bounce back and have a huge game. No ASJ there, probably. And I like.

Uh, Vincent Jackson. I like his opportunity now. Let me ask, is there a waterbed to be made here? So let me just, let me highlight the difference. I have Mike Evans and I will be, this will be one of those moments of the show that you remember as being terrible for me or great. You guys have them at 20 and 27. Jason, you're the 27. I assumed I was. I haven't met five this week. That sounds like a water bed to me.

But where do we have Vincent Jackson versus... You guys have Vincent Jackson at 13 and 21. So you guys should be very confident betting me Mike Evans versus Vincent Jackson. I'm fine doing it. All right. That's a one-on-one right there. No, that's not a one-on-one for you. What do you mean? You can't force him into a bet. First of all, you two... I just took a bet with you. Let him speak for himself there. I did. I'm speaking to Jason saying you have Vincent Jackson at 13.

So put your money where your mouth is. The nice thing about it on this is because you and Mike have already made a bet, I get to have a free... You haven't? I haven't hit the button. He hasn't hit the button. I'm waiting for it to be a manly bet with men. Let's do it. Yeah.

Water bet. So much resistance for standing up to your own rankings. No, it's not a matter of that. It's a matter of I really like hedging all my bets and being right as often as I can. In which case, I got to see you get wet if I was right. I get to see Mike get wet if I was wrong and I get to stay safely on the sidelines. But you guys don't let us. You always withstand your victories so well. All right. So more guys from this game. If you need to start a running back for the Texans and Foster is that you need to start Chris Polk.

percent you need to start Chris Polk. Alfred Blue had, I think, five, six carries last week. Polk had the most touches by far, and he is the guy to own. That was a game flow thing, though, when they were down and late in the game where all of a sudden they completely turned it over to Polk. You really think that Polk ends up with more touches this game? 100%. All right. That's not worth the water bet, but I actually think Alford Blue has been so ineffective this year. I think Polk's the guy you have to start. And he's a, I have him as a sneaky start this week. If you have to have a running back that you're running out there,

I'm okay with you running Polk out there, which I guess I'll probably stand alone on, but it's the Buccaneers, and if Foster's out, I like that. Yeah. So let's talk about, we already talked about Evan. So Hopkins, if he's out, who benefits from the wide receiver position? And do we care? Do we care at all? Probably. Shorts is actually getting a ton of targets. So if anybody shorts, I'm not, I don't feel like I'm plugging him into any of my.

Season long, but as a DFS type guy, he's a sneaky guy for tournaments. Yeah, and we will have, we'll talk more DFS tomorrow, too. We'll have our daily dose segment. So the Buccaneers defense has only given up 200 through the air. This is a low scoring, probably the lowest line in Vegas. So I wouldn't expect, I think Texans D is an amazing play this week, obviously. Colts at the Titans. We'll get to talk about Moncrief real quickly here. This is an Andrew Luck. He's my number one.

I know everyone's freaking out about Andrew Lutt, but I think this is the week that you see a fix coming. Do you guys agree? I do agree. If it wasn't too easy, he would have been my start of the week. Andrew Lott? Yeah. Yeah, I have him as my number one quarterback this week. So what's wrong with Andre Johnson? He's old. Is that really what it is?

I think so, and I also think it's a matter of the fact that he was in essentially one offense for his whole career, and now he's had to switch, try to learn a completely different offense from really a different position than what he's played his career with less tools than he had. And there's other weapons there that already have rapport, have a year under their belt with Andrew Luckin in that offense, so it's hard to step in and become a star. He's really going to be a role player for the rest of the season.

Now, the Titans D has actually been very productive statistically through two games. Their matchups have been a lot different than the Colts, clearly. I want to talk about Dante Moncrief for a second because... Moncrief! Here's an example of a trade offer that somebody sent across for a question. It was a Brandon Cooks. The Moncrief owner wanted Brandon Cooks Plus. I don't blame him. You don't blame him? I don't... Rest of season. Moncrief?

Yeah. Yes. You like Moncrief more than Cook's rest of season. Yes. Give me Moncrief. I like Moncrief a lot, but I would also take Moncrief who I like and approach the Brandon Cook's owner and say, would you like Moncrief? And if you had him, I could get cooks from you. Easily. You could get cooked. And I would do that. I'm not feeling confident at all in Brandon Cooks. I'm fine with that, but I think Moncrief has been a, there has been a perfect storm for Moncrief through two games. And it's called...

garbage time and T.Y. Hilton's injury. And so I think Moncrief's production, if you saw it, if you got rid of the kind of comeback garbage time production last game, he had an okay game. He had like a 40-yard touchdown. It wasn't really garbage time last week. What I mean is that the Colts have been playing from behind for 90% of their season. Yeah, but that's fair. And Hilton has been hurt. And Hilton, he hadn't produced greatly until Hilton went off the field again.

At the end of last game. No, he was still getting targets. Who was? Moncrief. But he didn't produce at that level. He caught three or four passes after Hilton went off the field, including his touchdown. I'm just saying I think Moncrief is a mirage. I do not. I don't think Moncrief's a mirage, but I still like Cooks. And Cooks to me is somebody that I think you can buy extremely low. You can get them very cheap right now. Yeah, I would take Cook's rest of season over Moncrief, and I wouldn't even think twice about it. But that is why...

There's three of us with three different opinions, so I'm curious how that will pan out. All right, we're going to get into our starts of the week. Starts of the week. All right, we're going to have to blitz through these guys. Let's start at the quarterback position. Mike, who do you have is your quarterback start of the week? Tavrod Taylor, 40-yard rushing floor. That is just a glorious thing to have. Say it again, because you saw that fast. 40 yards. That's how much he's rushed each of the first two games, at least 40 yards. And that is a tremendous cushion.

into your fantasy production he has he has capable weapons in the receiving game he has capable weapons from under his hips that are his legs and they are glorious legs and he just Miami is is very beatable I don't I understand it's down in Miami but Tyrod Taylor is just he he he

He makes things happen. And the Miami defense, their secondary is just in shambles right now. All right, Jason, who is your quarterback start of the week? It's Alex Smith, which we've got a waterbed on. I believe that it's going to be a high-scoring game in Green Bay. Alex Smith doesn't really turn the ball over. He's going to have a safe game plan. But we haven't seen Jeremy Macklin break out yet, and I think this is the type of game with a lot of points going where he can break one long and get a touchdown. You've still got Jamal Charles able to grab touchdowns from Alex Smith in the air.

course, you've got Zeus. So with the weapons and a high-scoring game, I feel like Alex Smith has a bounce-back game here. Another guy running the ball like crazy is my start of the week, Cam Newton. He is running with the conviction of a man who has no wide receivers. And the reality is, is he had a very big game last week. I don't know what his floor has been through two games, but it's got to be higher than 40.

And he's taken, I think, 10 and 11 carries in their two games. So I love him at New Orleans. New Orleans defense. That team right now is on both sides of the ball is disheveled. And I think Newton just has the ability to come out and have a great game. Greg Olson was heavily targeted last week. He'll be involved. And I like Newton. I think he's my fifth quarterback this week. So let's go to the running back position. I'll go ahead and start us off. It is T.J. Yeldon.

T.J. Yelden at New England. He had 25 carries and three catches in both of his games. Dernard Robinson is out for a while, and T.J. Eldon passes the eye test to me. And New England's defense on the ground doesn't pass the eye test to me. So I think Yeldon is a sneaky play. And we'll get into it tomorrow when we talk about this game. But I have some almost upset of the week thoughts about this one.

Yeah, so I'm going to stick with the rookie running back as my start of the week, and I'm going Melvin Gordon. Melvin Gordon, I watched every single snap of last week for him just in a row, and he looks amazing. He looks powerful. He's running guys over. He's breaking tackles. He looks like why they traded up to get him in the first round, and he's going up against Minnesota, who had a fine game last week. I mean, they were really good. But you know what they didn't have last week? They didn't have any power rushing against him. They had joick bell.

And Joyc Bell looks like he's coming off of two surgeries. And the powerful back, like a Carlos Hyde? Joich Bell had two carries. That's my point. No, no, no. My point is they didn't have a power running game at all against Minnesota. It's not like Minnesota stopped the run. It's there was no run. You're saying they didn't have an opportunity. Exactly. So people are like, oh, they only gave up 50 yards running. Well, yeah, they...

They ran the ball three times. But the week before, against a powerful runner in Carlos Hyde, they were destroyed. And over the last, since the beginning of last year, they've had a very weak run deep. And I think Melvin Gordon, with how he's running, is going to be a perfect storm here. So I like Melvin Gordon. Now, for my running back start of the week, I have put my money where my mouth is. If you listened to the previous shows, I traded.

for C.J. Anderson, and I like Anderson to bounce back. I think this is the week. Detroit has a very soft run, D. They gave up 97 yards and two touchdowns to San Diego, 150 yards last week against Adrian Peterson. And Peterson even fumbled multiple times on the goal line. So the running back points are there to take against Detroit. And I like Anderson. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen this week, and I am going down with this ship.

Yes, you are. Because I'm starting him. All right. Give me your wide receiver, Mike. My wide receiver, Michael Crabtree. And it is simply a matter of volume. 24 targets. That's fifth in the league. Wow. I didn't realize that. There was a huge amount last week. Granted, I think it was 16 of his targets. But week one, eight targets. And I agree with Jason. I think that Joe Hayden will be more focused on Amari Cooper.

And I think despite I don't really like Derek Carr this week, but you can still like a receiver if you don't like his quarterback. I like Crabtree. I really like that. Just getting force-fed targets. All right, Jason, who's your wide receiver start of the week? Brandon Marshall, you've got Eric Decker a little bit hurt. Brandon Marshall, just like what you were saying, he's getting a ton of targets this week. And Fitzmagic has always really targeted on one wide receiver and just peppered him.

over and over and over. So I think that coming up this week, the Eagles D has been susceptible to some of that, and Brandon Marshall is a guy that going forward needs to be looked at as essentially a wide receiver 1. I'm going with Mike Evans. I talked about him earlier. He's very, very high on my list this week, which I know is a leap for some people because he hasn't produced yet this year. But he's coming off an injury. He was on a pitch count last week, and there's no Austin Severian Jenkins anymore. I think he will get...

major opportunities in this offense to succeed this week. And if there's one thing I know about Winston is he has the ability to connect with bigger receivers, he's willing to throw the ball up to them, and Evans just playing comes down with the ball. So, all right, moving to tight end, I'm going to say Jimmy Graham. Jimmy Graham versus Chicago.

There's a lot of factors here. One of the perceptions about Jimmy Graham that is wrong is that he is being used to not run routes for some reason. His percentage of routes run is the exact same in Seattle as it was in New Orleans. He is running routes just as often. It has been a target issue, which is, I think, a little bit of an outlier issue with the – obviously that offense runs – a different offense than Drew Brees ran. But at the same time, it was just, I think, an issue where first week –

He had, I think, six catches in a touchdown. Last week, he wasn't targeted a lot, and he was a little upset about it. I think he's peppered with targets against Chicago. I really like Jimmy Graham this week. He's my number two overall tight-in. I surprisingly really agree with you because the squeaky wheel gets the oil, and he has been squeaking and crying over there, and I think he's going to get targets. And if I'm a Jimmy Graham, if I'm a Jimmy Graham owner, this is what I do, if you are correct.