Starts of the Week + Week 5 Games, Smooshed! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/8

We're waiting on news from Jamar Chase going through concussion protocol. T. Higgins did not practice with a groin injury. My policy on the Bengals this week. I had some people text me asking me the same thing. I'm playing Dante Myers no matter what if both those guys are out. If both of them are out, he has a must start to me. I don't think so personally. I don't think he's a must start. He is talented. He's explosive. I don't think he's 10 targets because.

You're going to, first of all, the tight end does very well against the dolphins. The dolphins don't do enough to where you continue passing. So you basically, in most of these games, it feels like you get a quarter and a half, maybe a whole half that you're really throwing the ball. I mean, how do they, if you don't have Chase and Higgins, you've got to do something to take the lead. I have enough confidence in Dante Myers, who once Chase came out, got nine targets last week. I get what you're saying. Yeah, the dolphins. They have to get ahead.

Somehow, and I think Myers will play a big role. Yeah, but if Gassiki gets a touchdown or Chase Brown gets a touchdown, then the wide receiver core is, honestly, I think you might be being bailed out here because, like, T. Higgins, obviously you're going to start in all games. It's probably not going to, like if he was active, it's probably not great. Right now, the Dolphins.

adjusted fantasy points, they are dead last. They're the worst matchup for wide receivers. Not because they shut people down because you don't need them. No, you might be right there. You're making me second guess the level of conviction. I do think if they're both out, you can play him, but maybe there's more risk than I originally thought. Yeah, it's more of a matchup thing to me. Dante Myers is very explosive and an exciting guy to plug in a lineup if those other two guys are gone. And I'm certainly not saying he can't do something.

really special and great. You can start him, but I just don't, I'm worried they're not going to need wide receivers in this game because the dolphins are not good. So speaking of that, you have Mike Gassicki in seven games without T. Higgins since 2024 averages 49 receiving yards per game. It's a decent matchup. Mike Gassiki has always, or almost always come through when T is out. Are you?

Throwing him in? Yeah, I think so. I think Gassiki deserves a start. I mean, I wouldn't throw him in over really good options, but if you're talking about the tier of like, okay, we don't know what we have in Kenyon Sadiq, yeah, I would throw Gassiki in over him. Do you guys know the most points Miami scored in any single game this year? Was it last week against Minnesota? 20? No. They only scored 10. Oh, wait, what am I thinking of? Am I wrong about that?

I thought the Vikings barely won. It's 10 to 15. Oh, I added it. I gave them both an extra 10. How about the week before against Kansas City? How many points do they score? Three. Ten. Ten. Okay. What about San Francisco? Ten. No, it's 13. No, come on. What about the Raiders? 13. So they have not surpassed 13. So to Jason's point, like if you stink. Your first point was that, hey, this Bengals defense isn't actually special. It's just more middle of the pack now.

So maybe at home they can find a way to 14 points. But, yeah, they're, I mean, they have an implied point. Against the middle of the pack. Oh, maybe they can find a way to 14 points for the first time this season. And you're, look, you're not doing it, but we got to call it or I'm going to call it out just because it's fun. The Bengals, over and over, they get killed by the tight end position. Greg Dulcich, if you are a very desperate person, maybe just more like a DFS situation.

But it's like he should get, he should get five or more targets. Las Vegas, the Raiders, three and one. My Raiders, taking on the two and two New England Patriots in New England. Their favorite three and a half points. Overrunners 45 and a half. This is, this is like, one of the things that happened this offseason with the Raiders that we were in love with was the acquisition of Tyler Linderbom. Dude, it, it's so easy.

Fix your offensive line and everything looks great. Kurt Cousins is not fleet of foot and yet is pressured the second least among any quarterback in football. When you let a veteran quarterback stand back there and pick you apart, this is why he's leading the league in touchdown passes. I mean, it hasn't worked in the running game in terms of efficiency, but it's worked, in my opinion. Ginty has been viable every single week. The efficiency, the big plays. Maybe that's Mike Washington's game, but Ginty's been the...

running back 5, 26, 20, and 15. He's RB 10 on the year, and he's never had fewer than 15 rush attempts in a game. Eight targets for Genti last week. Eight. He's on pace right now for 102 targets. So he has a do everything back that frees up, you know, your offensive line to play action and use these tight ends in Michael Mayer and Brock Bowers and Ian Thomas. This has been an impressive offensive product put out there by Kubiak.

which is what we hope for, but we said, do you have the personnel to do it? Right. And I don't even know if the answer to that is really yes on offense, and yet he's still doing it. No, they're getting it all done even without Jack Bish available. Incredible work. Incredible work. You thought it couldn't be done. When he went down, I was like, it's over. On the Dynasty show this week, we actually had a really fun kind of informative segment where we were drafting NFL play callers, current active NFL play callers, and Kubiak, I believe he was...

Fourth. We're very, very bullish on his designs, his systems, obviously last year with the Seahawks, but it goes back many years. And what he's getting out of this offense right now is fantastic. And I love the consolidation. I mean, the fact that you know you want to start Brock Bowers and you're not afraid. Gentie, even if he's inefficient, you're going to start him. And then you can be done. I will say just real quick, Jalen Naylor got a concussion last week.

Trey Tucker did have eight targets. It's not bad. And on Wednesday's... Trey Tucker, Dante Myers. Trey Tucker. Hold on. Part of the Wednesday's practice report, three Patriots cornerbacks were absent, including Christian Gonzalez. Oh, fantastic. So Trey Tucker's very interesting. Yeah, if you make sure you're following the news. I think Tucker's interesting regardless, but if Gonzalez especially is out, then all right.

You think New England handles this game or no? They're at home, their favorite. Drake May got his mojo back. Romeo Dobbs had a couple touchdowns. You're the Raiders guy. What do you think? How do your Raiders fare here in New England? I feel like I think New England's going to win the game. I mean, I want to see. Before Drake May, did. Did New England start last year with a loss to the Raiders? They did. That was the Raiders only win. Yeah, I don't know. I don't have the conviction this week that New England's going to lose this game. I like where I saw in defense last week.

Maybe if those corners are out, you've got a problem. But I don't think they're all going to be out. And, you know. I feel like this is a real pickum game. So, like, if I'm picking the line because New England is three and a half, I'll be on the Raiders side. I'll take the field goal. But I expected to be pretty close. That being said, that those close games are usually really good for fantasy. You know, as the game goes into the fourth quarter and, you know, they took the lead. Now we've got to get the lead and you get a lot of passing volume. That's the opportunity we have here.

Yeah, the overrunner is not terrible. What about the running back situation for New England? Remandre was limited on Wednesday, not a full out, according to the report I have. Travian Henderson, it's been, you know, one hit and a lot of miss. But if he's alone, then you play him. Then you got to go with Trayvob. If he gets all the volume, he will get too explosive plays. I mean, you saw last year when Remandre was injured. And they brought in Jamal Williams for a workout. That's not.

I mean, it could just be coincidence on timing, but the Ramandre Stevenson knee injury could rule him out this week. The last two weeks, he hasn't had the big play. Eight for 23, 14 for 42 on the ground. We'll see what happens this week if Ramandre is limited. Would you play, if Ramonre is active, are you benching, Trevo? Are you flexing it? I play him over Damien Pierce. Yes.

Okay. That shouldn't really be our benchmark. I'm just saying that the... If you've seen my dynasty team, you understand why you're in my lineup? There's a bar. Are you playing Mike Washington Jr? or Damian Pierce, Mike? Because that's the actual decision. I probably play Washington. Oh, gosh. One of those guys can house it from 50. Yeah. The thing that I, the thing that I loved, like, so last year, there were three games that Ramandre missed. And in those games, you had a game with...

five targets on the game with six targets for Trayvion Henderson. I don't know why they don't throw him the ball as it is currently enough. I mean, they really use Ramandre as they're passing back far more, but that's what excites me about the opportunities that Henderson would receive if Ramandre's gone. Matt Collins left the game with a non-contact injury this past week. Calf. Calf, pay attention to it. Romeo Dobbs. Maybe we're starting to...

Figure things out with Drake May, nine targets. He gets deep shots. He did score twice. The matchup against the Raiders, they've been holding wide receivers under their expectation. So I don't love that. But if Matt Collins is out, Romeo Dobbs is pretty much a top 24 must play. Agreed. The Minnesota Vikings in their miraculous 4-0 start, despite not scoring touchdowns in two other four games.

Take on the New Orleans Saints who are one and three. The game's in New Orleans. Minnesota favored by one and a half. The overrunner is just 42 and a half. So this one's tough because there's just a lot of players that you've been very confident in. Yeah. You know, Tyler Shuck, obviously, Devon Vele has been a worthy play. Juan Johnson's the tight in three on the year. And obviously Olave, who he didn't practice on Wednesday, which.

Might alarm you because he left early on Monday night. But you got to remember it's a short week for them. A rest day is what they've come out and vehemently said. This is not about the knee because they knew those questions would be there. They said it's a rest day. But if there's another non-knee rest day on Thursday, I will be worried about the knee. Exactly. Elave is going to be started no matter what if he's active. He's too good. The matchup sucks. Everything could go bad.

But the other guys, Shuck, Camara, Velae, Juan Johnson, I think that there are probable pivots in most situations for those guys. The Vikings defense has just been too doggone good. They're number one against quarterbacks, number one against running backs, number six against tight ends. They're just, they're awesome. There's a reason why Minnesota's four and a... And what's crazy here is the Saints... Because of the defense. The Saints who have looked really good this year. Like, they're...

They're passing my eye test other than getting boat raced at home on primetime this last week. Yeah, they failed the eye test on that one. It feels like they're about to be one and four. Yes, they will be. Yeah. And it's, you know, John Johnson, is he a start this week? Do you stay in the flames? Minnesota is so good against the tight-in position. Pretty much. I don't know. He is, to me, like, he's okay. Colson Loveland, I would play over him. I'd play him over Sadiq. What about?

Fanon. No, I would play Fanon. Yeah, I would try to stay. I would play Gassiki. I would play Isaiah likely. And then after those guys, that's basically where I go, Juan Johnson. He's my 12. We do have the precedent of last week. Oh, the Garbage Man can. Yeah. Even if they're down, there may be opportunities there. I wouldn't touch a running back on New Orleans with a thousand foot pole right now against Minnesota. And we'll monitor the Oliva situation. Chuck, I'd be trying to find another option because. I agree.

He could have an okay game, but his ceiling is very capped by Minnesota. Aaron Jones has been a top 24 back in all four weeks, guys. He's just sneakily part of this operation, right? You don't have the best quarterback in football. You do have a great defense. Run the ball. Yeah, I mean, with Jordan Mason on IR, they really don't have, they don't believe in Claiborne to come in as a rookie and protect the quarterback and do those things. Aaron Jones.

You know, we talk about these older veterans getting off to pretty hot starts to start the season. Maybe they fade down the stretch. It's still early. I think Aaron Jones is just a fantastic start. It was almost my start of the week. Kyler's on the Malik Willis plan right now. One touchdown and three starts. So, you know, he's not an option. No. And the question I have for you is with Jefferson potentially returning, how do you view Jefferson in the grand scheme of rest of the season? Like,

Like Kyler, I don't think, maybe he gets a little bit better as he acclimates and they figure out what he does better. You take a big breath and you hope and you pray. I mean, whatever you thought in draft season is what, you know, when we were looking at the back of the first with Justin Jefferson, we were a little bit more hesitant because we knew that it could go poorly with Kyler. Now, early in the season, it was like, okay, obviously Justin Jefferson is still him.

And when Carson Wins was there, he was fantastic. But with Kyler, I do think you're going to have a nerfed version of the best wide receiver in football. And then Hawkinson, if Jefferson's back, are you benching him? Are you playing Loveland? Are you playing Joe Onsen? Yeah, I would play those guys over him. Just not chasing 13 targets if Jefferson's back in there. Correct. And then Addison is a full bench. Yeah. And that being said, if Jefferson doesn't play this week.