Starts of the Week + Week 9 Breakdown, Boom Boom! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 11/3

Foot Clan today's episode. There's so much to talk about. We got news to catch you up on. It's never not working. The week nine matchups, the boom boom kicker, the starts of the week. You don't want to miss a minute. Make sure you leave us a little comment. Tell us what you like about today's episode. Like the video and enjoy. The Fantasy Footballer Studio is brought to you by Samsung Galaxy. Visit Samsung.com to learn more. The Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway. Jason Moore and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. It's Eagles time because I refuse to call this football. It's going to be bad. Welcome in. Just getting word Brandon Cooks also declined to participate this evening. So I believe Nico Collins and Brandon Cooks are almost all of the receiving yards for the Houston Texans. Both will be missing.

Smash O.J. Howard. I want the Philly defense so bad this week. Oh, I've got them. Yeah. For fantasy. You won't get them from Jason. I did try last night. Impossible. Not from my cold dead hands. So, uh, yeah, Thursday night of football. So let's see here. I mean, this is really a cold open for us, but very cold. But we're, uh, you ready for some Chris Moore, Philip Dorset? Action tonight? I mean, you had me at Philip Dorset. Yeah. Yeah, we have a busy show. So, Mike, good news. We do not have to talk about it. Never not working news and notes. Fantasy forecast starts of the week, the boom boom kicker. I don't know your expression on your face, Jason.

Oh, I was just running through what Mike said and realizing what is about to happen, which is Damien Pierce is going to touch the ball 30 times. They don't have a choice. He's going to get screens and dump-offs and hand-offs no matter if they're up or down or whatever and I'm playing against them. Yeah, but are they going to be very valuable touches? I don't know. Not likely. Especially when sexy Rexy sweeps in and steals the show. I hope so. A couple things at the top. Twitter at the FF Bullers. Follow us over there. Follow Mike at FF. Hitman. Jason is at Jason FFL. I'm at Andy Holloway. And our fantasy football community where you get access to a ton of very valuable in-season tools, including the streamfinder tool. It's just, it's invaluable on the decision-making process throughout the week to be able to go in.

determine not just what you're doing this week, but what you're going to do in weeks to come. One of my favorite tactics and fantasy is making sure I pick up a defense a week early, so I don't have to pay up. big time on the waiver wire for them and different things like that, you need quick and easy tools to do so. Yeah, this is also the time of year where you do start looking ahead. Like in draft season, we talk about like, don't worry about the playoff schedule unless you're in best ball or something. That's too far away. You don't know anything yet. Right now, start looking at the playoff schedule. If you're, if you're on your way and you're, you know, six or two, seven and one, or you're just making trades and you're wanting to take a look. You can look at the strength of schedule. You could.

Select it for playoff weeks. You can change it to schedule-adjusted defensive ranks so that you can have really good data for who might win people championships this year. So check all that out at Jointhefoot.com. You also get a bonus weekly show, some other premium perks and resources. Bonus. Thank you, Mike. What else was I going to say? Jason, do you mind if I, you know, share with the listenership? The note I got from you yesterday? Oh, please, please. Yeah, no. And maybe, you know, with the producers who are all here this morning. Yeah, you know, there was some traits. A lot of traits in our league of record because we are in, you know, very passionate fantasy players. And it's almost like, you know, a small spark starts a fire of trades in our league. Somebody makes a deal. I made two of them yesterday.

to just solidify my position as the best team in the league. And it looked like my division was great. It didn't work. It was great because the other player who's tied with me atop the division, they're selling. Yeah, they're out this year. And so it seemed like I was going to be all alone. So I, you know, I made a couple of blockbusters to compete. You threw up the three. I can't who's the Laker player, the GIF? I don't remember the player, but everyone knows the GIF where he threw up the three turned around, put his hands up. He's signaling for the three as it rattles out. Oh, Nick Young was. Yeah, it was Nick Young. What was his nickname, though? Stupid guy. No, he had a funny Nick. But anyways, I got, you know, Jason, he had his visceral reaction to me making some trades starting to compete. Swaggy Pete. And when I got back home, I had a note from Jason.

And it said, quote, good luck this season, glad you are back in it, always more fun with you to compete with. Yeah. As a true gentleman says. Oh, man. What reverse jinx are you up to? I am just trying to be. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm trying to be the best version of myself I can. I was, I was a little surprised. Did he send you a pizza? He hadn't sent me a pizza yet. But look, it's spirited competition. We've been in the same division for 15 years. So we will continue to do so. So look, it's going to be fun. I don't have the heart to sell ever. I realize this. Like I just, I want to go for it. It opens me up to more pain on a regular basis, but I can't not go for it. And I'm going to give it my all. All right, let's move on. Never not working.

Presented by Head and Shoulders, Scamp Shield Technology, available at Walmart. It's everybody's favorite segment. Yeah, it's great. This is where we do a deep dive and check out some, you know, all sorts of different storylines and statistics. And for this one, we're going to be talking about, you know, the difficulty of the sample size that is the NFL. You only get 17 games. You want to react. You don't want to overreact. And the midway point is a good way, a good place to start looking at have trends from the beginning locked in, have they flipped. You know, like we've talked about, you know, the Bengals, their pass rate had kind of changed over the last month. The Seahawks, their improvement. We wanted to focus on what looked like juicy matchups for your fantasy players. And maybe on the over, if you're just looking at overall points given up.

They still can look like that. Which I just want to throw this out here as groundwork for what you're saying. The reason this is important is because every platform that you play fantasy on will show you the opponent and it will color code the opponent. Yes, they will. And that will make your brain think I've got it made in the shade or I'm in trouble. But it's over the course of the whole year that they're giving you that matchup grade. So it's important to have a more narrow view of what's happening with these teams. Yes. So for example, let's take a look at the New York Jets. And Andy highlighted the streamfinder, a tool that if you support the show, you can go check out for yourself. But it's extremely helpful for this type of a thing because we color coded as well. So you can.

quickly highlight the trends. At the beginning of the year, you remember those Joe Flackle games where he was throwing 40 times a week? That's because the New York Jets were getting just roasted by other teams. You know, quarterbacks were putting up huge points. But over the last month, the New York Jets are third against fantasy quarterbacks, as in the third worst matchup when you adjust for schedule, things have totally turned around. And that includes like a game against the Miami Dolphins. The Green Bay Packers. These aren't just nobody's coming in here and getting shut down by the New York Jets. So you need to pay attention to the Jets are no longer looking like that juicy matchup. The same for the Baltimore Ravens. When the season started, it was, oh, baby, here we go again. The Baltimore Ravens offense is going to be high-powered. Their defense is going to be just disgusting. And it's going to give us just...

These huge shootouts every single week for Lamar Jackson and company. Like I said, started the first three weeks. Here we go. But since week four, Baltimore, ninth against quarterback adjusted for schedule. And theirs can be really distorted. If you remember that week two against the Miami Dolphins. Monstrous. They poured on so many points against the Ravens that it was going to skew their total number for a very, very long time. And you've got to wrap your head around. No, it's simply not the case. And they just add a Rokwon Smith. Yes. And they've improved their defense as well. So pay attention. The Ravens are not. If your platform is giving you green means go against the Ravens, you may want to consider that for your fantasy quarterbacks. And then the Tennessee Titans against running back, the first two weeks, the most fantasy points allowed to the running back position.

And that was, okay, well, Sequin Barclay, okay, I get it. But then the Buffalo Bills. And at that point, it was, here we go. The Titans, fire up your running match against this team. A couple down weeks, well, I'm still looking at those first two weeks. But at this point, the Tennessee Titans have turned it around, or, you know, Jonathan Taylor, the Washington running backs, Damien Pierce last week, just shut them down. And they are no longer. that situation where you have the first two weeks skewing where they are, even if like the platform shows, well, it's a middle of the pack. No, no, no, no, no. It's been very, very bad for fantasy running backs against the Tennessee Titans. So you have to adjust. You have to always be prepared to shift your thinking of how a defense. Because defenses can change their situation in just a few weeks. Once they get that fire in the momentum and or a player gets healthy and you're not.

Look, knowing all of the offensive players in the NFL for fantasy football, that's a task unto itself. But when you mix in knowing every single defensive player, that's a whole other beast. And people out there, I do not blame anyone for not knowing all the defensive players, but one player can come back, change an entire situation for defense. So always be looking at the trends. How is it just, was that a one-time blip? Or do we now have new information about this team? And I'm no longer targeting them. And if you want to know actionable advice for what you do with this information, if you understand that Tennessee is a tough run defense now, that changes what player you might be flexing this week. You might think that you need very little upside from a flex position. If you think you're running back is going to dominate a defense that's green, that might not be the case. So it lets you kind of fine tune.

that situation like they play kansas city this week yes you know we're we're all getting a little excited here for isaiah pacheco named the starter last week was was getting the snaps can things start to turn and he's running into a it's still the chiefs and they're going to put up points but it's a very difficult matchup for him on the ground all right jason anything to add to the equation here no just make sure you're keeping your eyes on the trends and don't get skewed by those first couple big weeks. Otherwise, you know, when you have those outlier weeks, you'll think T.J. Hawkinson's going to be good every week because he's, you know, he had a 45 point single week. Yeah, and I'll say it works in reverse, by the way. Difficult looking matches might not be as difficult later in the season. So when you see the red, go look in the short term, see if it's a better matchup than you think. It's also a good way to persuade people on certain trades. Ah, they got a hard matchup this week. You know, there are some things you can do there. So a reminder.

Get up to 100% dandiff protection that is never not working with head and shoulders. Scalp Shield technology available at Walmart.com. Use it every time you shampoo and see the difference. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Guys, I'm dying right now because Brandon Cooks has been reported at least by Ed Werder and a retweet by Adam Schaefter. And Rapaport. And Rapaport. He's not playing tonight. But I'm sitting here on the sleeper platform four minutes before waiver goes through and I need him out. I need them marked out and I don't have him parked out. I think Al was correct that perhaps you do not have the official out from the team. No. Hey, I was the same. No, I know the rules only matter when they apply to others. I assume that the official out will be coming in about five minutes. I was going to say, I'm going to get the OUT right after waivers process.

Whatever, man. But no Brandon Cooks. Not that you really wanted to play him against Philly with all of this tumult. So it is clarity for you early in the day. And you can make other plans or move him onto IR or whatever because he's got a quote, wrist problem, guys. I can't believe they didn't trade him. Yeah. I mean, I get it. I don't know what to do here because he signs a two-year extension with them this past off season to make, what, $12 million a year or something like that. It's a lot of money. Sure. And then it's like, I'm supposed to feel bad that he didn't get traded at the deadline from the team he just signed a two-year deal for. I don't know behind the scenes, but why sign the deal? When you're signing the deal, they are also pumping you up and they're pumping up the team. These are the changes that we're making. This is the culture shift. We're going to be a winning franchise next year. And if he believes that, I mean, I've got.

What is it? I've got ocean fund property in Nebraska to sell you or something. I mean, Houston wasn't going to turn it around this year. Well, it seems like there's, again, stuff behind the scenes we don't know from the last couple of weeks. The fact that he's been missing practices, less involved in the gameplay. It seems like there was discussion about him leaving to a winner. And that didn't happen. And so he's not happy. Very, very upset to the point of not practicing. apparently hurting his own wrist. Well, and I don't even know the implications for his pay if you are unhappy. You'll miss a game check. And then you think he'll come right back. I don't know. Well, you know, he did say don't take a man's kindness for granted. Covered for the lies for too long. Those days are done. Cross the line with playing with my career. Bow and arrow emoji. What?

What are you doing? This is why we need Twitter in our lives. What are you doing? All right. I can't stay with Brandon Cooks. We've got too much to cover. Jonathan Taylor did not practice on Wednesday. Tweek the same ankle that held him out two games earlier in the year. Frank Reich said the team will weigh his progress as the week progresses. They signed Jordan Wilkins off the practice squad. They brought in a bunch of running backs to try out for that. And there was some reporting that this is going to be expected over the next couple of weeks is that he's probably not going to be practicing much. We don't know if he's going to play. I think there's a good chance that he misses this week. Yeah. And I agree there's a chance for that to happen. But working out players for the practice squad, calling one up from the practice squad, that's going to be part and parcel with the Naeem Hines mood, too, though, right?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, they did get Zach Moss back. So, I mean, it was a one-for-one players. That's true. That's true. It's, yeah, be prepared that Johnny Taylor's going to miss. And if that's the case, Dion Jackson has been excellent for fantasy purposes in his one start without Jonathan Taylor. Yeah, maybe. It was so many receptions. No, that was in the past. I can say that. Oh, yes, yes. He was the number two fantasy running back in his one start. That's all I'm going to say. Very accurate. Do you have the receptions in front of you? A lot. I think it was 10. Yeah, from Matt Ryan. Different quarterback, different situation and a terrible matchup. You're saying he could hit 15 or 20? Against the Patriots. Look, people need running backs. I'm looking across the table at somebody that. Yeah, I wish I had Dion Jackson to play. Thinking about Justice Hill is an option this week. So what are you doing?

What are you going to do it running back? Don't you worry about it. Okay. All right. I'm, I'm not sure. Keenan Allen, hamstring got worse during the by week. That's, I mean, the frustration is immense right now because he missed a lot of time and then couldn't get back healthy. So he's not going to play. The way he has spoken about this new reaggravation is that he felt really, really good in week seven, but he wasn't 100%. And now? He is not going to come back until he is 100%. Now, it took him over a month to get to really, really good, but not 100% going into week seven. So I expect he's going to miss several weeks, but it's TBD. It's just a matter of how long it takes a body to heal. Someone in our MVP show in the offseason brought up Josh Palmer as a potential league winner. Josh Palmer is alone. I mean, Keenan Allen.

Mike Williams, they are both going to miss time. That was Josh Norris, I believe. Yes, it was. And I believe our view of that MVP pick was like, somebody's got to go down for Josh Palmer to step up and do it. Both of their main targets are down. Austin Eccler is going to be, you know, the offense. So Palmer, he did clear the concussion protocol. He will be playing, we believe. And DeAndre Carter is a dart throw. I mean, you need to at least. Cast your eye in his direction. Gerald Everett will be more and more involved in the tight-in position. Absolutely. Cardinals, James Connor, limited on Wednesday, Darrell Williams placed on IR. They are back to the rotation of potentially Eno with Connor, Eno with Ingram. You know, this is. That's Keontay Ingram. That's right. And so James Connor, I mean, I, it's hard to.

Hard to say he's going to be out there and hard to say what to do with him even if he is. Difficult to start a guy who's been missing this long and every single week. He's a game time decision and not able to go when he comes back. Very hard for me to imagine putting him into my starting lineup. Obviously it was six by weeks. You might have to. There's worse options starting. But if you can let James Connor come back to his first game on your bench, that would be my advice. Cooper Cup did not practice on Wednesday. So this is Rams updates here. Cam Acres plans to return to the team in practice on Thursday. Man, this, that situation is so funky. It is. And then on top of all the question marks, you know, they signed Malcolm Brown. They have Daryl Henderson. They have Cam Acres maybe coming back. Don't forget about a Rivers runs through it. Yeah, Ronnie Rivers, who's the darling of some fab waiver wires for some reason this week. But Kyron Williams, looks like he may be elevated.

To the active roster, Rams feel pretty good about it, according to the athletics, Jordan Rodriguez. Yeah, Kyran. was a good running back in college that all three of us really liked his film. He ran slow at the combine and weighed in. Very slow. Very, very slow. Backwards. And he didn't weigh in as a heavy guy. So sometimes, you know, the slow backs that are bigger bodied, whatever, you forgive it. When you're a smaller slower guy. He's still running the 40s. It is rare to succeed. So he fell to the fifth round, fell in fantasy dress, but he was a player.

that looked great on film. We all liked and now has an opportunity to come in and say, well, everyone else sucks. Let me have the first dibs. But it is a crowded backfield with a bad offensive line. So I'm not my, he's a good stash, someone to be aware of, but I don't anticipate he comes through, you know, gigantic for fantasy. Any other news breaking this morning? Not yet. Nothing. Do you guys have anything else you need to? Oh, Cordero Patterson, return to practice. He feels about 90%. Yeah, I thought we had mentioned him. He was designated to return, but we did get the quote that him saying he was 90%. We still don't know if he will play this weekend. All right. Please play. That was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Let's take a quick break and then we'll be into the forecast. All right, it is time to dig in. Week 9, here we come. Let's break it down. Fantasy forecast.

Yeah, that's right. That's right, Ducers. I remember the drop this time. Good work, host of this podcast. You guys doing well today? Doing great. We've got... How's the alley? What's the smell factor in that alley tonight? Yeah. How are you guys doing? The smell factor. Yeah, how bad does it smell in your alley? Is it peepee? Or poop-po? It always smells great. You guys do go to the bathroom in your seats, right? It's the alley, of course. No comment. They're all wearing hats, too. So it must be very bright in the alley. Yeah. What do you don't have, when you don't have hair? Hal Borland putting on the sunglasses. Good work, everybody. Okay. Well, good, good talk. See you later. Goodbye. The Los Angeles Chargers have four and three take on the four and four Atlanta Falcons, division leaders, champions of Kyle's heart. I love these two teams. These are my two favorite teams of the league, but.

One is in first place. Four and four. When does it turn to where you just want them to run away with it, Kyle? The Falcons. It has to be now. Because you've won the number one pick, but now it's like at this point, do you just want the division? Oh, I love Arthur Smith now. Right now he's fine. Yeah, I mean, aren't you looking forward to getting blown out at home in a playoff game? Because right now they would be hosting a playoff game. That's good stuff. All right. These are, um, Two teams with two different offensive strategies. I believe Justin Herbert has 50 plus passes in two consecutive weeks. Marcus Mariotta has yet to hit 50 attempts on the season. Probably. That's probably not true, but it's close. The Chargers' fifth and pass rate over expectation, Arthur's plan is to win the division, I guess. So you can't really argue with it. I mean, you can. We do all the time. Yes. Arthur with his stupid face on the sideline calling run plays all the time.

I feel like I'm just reciting what happens in the studio on Sunday morning. But, you know, Patterson is coming back. He is a weapon for this offense. Might be coming back. We don't know for sure if he will play. Yes, he's coming back. But for this matchup, still a little bit TBD. And that makes a big difference because people have been playing Tyler Algier. People. that I know close to me. It might have to happen. Might have to play Caleb Huntley. And so whether or not Cordero Patterson is back makes a big difference. And this is a really good matchup for running backs. So if Cordero Patterson is back and active, I think you start him. I know it's hard first week back, but because the matchup is so juicy and they've waited enough time.

I think you're going to want to put Cordero in your lineup. Yes, I would. The question is, if Cordero is in your lineup, are you willing to start Tyler Algier? He would be the next guy behind Cordero. I am okay with it, mostly because of the matchup. The chargers are just atrocious. They're 30th against fantasy running backs, allowing a ton of points to the position. And with it being Patterson's first game back, And Tyler Algeria has been, he's served, he's done what Arthur wanted him to do. Huntley's been a better runner to my eyeballs. And Algiers has been a better pass catcher. So it's just confusing. Like Algeria last, didn't he have like 30 yards rushing last game? I'm like 15 carries. He was 14 for 39. And Huntley had like 91 yards rushing? It feels very much like a, like a Zeke and Pollard situation between those two guys. Huntley looks like he has.

Far more juice, but there's a reason that they're giving Tyler Alger a bunch of work. Arthur's watching the game and seeing that Huntley is the one getting these huge, or not huge, but the bigger carries compared to Alger, but I think that Alger wearing the defense down, that's part of the plan for them, even though it's highly inefficient. So after I did the fantasy football community of solid by benching Kyle Pitts last week, he is now the highest. He's been ranked in our rankings at tight end since week one. Kyle Pitts coming off a good performance, not just mediocre, a good fantasy performance up around just under 17 points, I believe. The hope being that the Chargers will put up points. The Falcons defense is still bad. 31st against quarterbacks, 32nd against wide receivers. And you're hoping that you get more of a back and forth like we have with the Panthers.

That way they have to use pits. Now, it's possible. I'm worried about the Chargers offense because Justin Herbert thus far this year, it's not been, you know, you look at the beginning of the year and you say, oh, he's old-fashioned Justin Herbert. Well, he played the Raiders, and we know what the Raiders are now. And that's when he was the QB5. Since then he has not been, you know, his highest finish is QB8 against Seattle in garbage time. He hasn't thrown three touchdown since week two. Taking away Mike Williams doesn't help you, and the Falcons slowing the game down doesn't help you. So I am a little bit worried. I don't blame you at all for being hesitant on Herbert. Herbert obviously is talented enough himself that you're going to start him in a lot of situations, but there are plenty of other players. You know, if you want to, Tua, you personally have Tua and Herbert on the same team.