Starts of the Week + Week 4 Breakdown, “Having a Trouble” - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/1

Scotty Miller is, he hasn't practiced the last couple days. If Scottie Miller is out, Justin Watson becomes a really intriguing deep play. He will be in the slot. He will be on the field. He will take the place of Chris Godwin. And Chris Harris won't be playing for the Chargers. So if you're in a deeper league, he is interesting to me. Yeah. I mean, and maybe you see, I hate to even bring it up. But he was on the field for more snaps. He was targeted more often last week.

And if there's multiple injuries, you could see a floor game from Rob Gruncowski this week. I mean, if it's Mike Evans and Justin Watson, how can you not think about Rob Grunkowski? Does Rob Grunkowski, have you seen a man run more awkwardly than Rob Gruncowski is running this year? Yeah, I mean, you guys have watched me play football. So yes, you two have, but I, for an NFL athlete, I understand. Like, he's always looked, he's, he's.

He's never looked like fundamentally sound when he's running because he's such a big lumbering dude. But this year in particular, you're like, that guy is running three miles an hour. Ever since he went like full-time brace on the knee a few years back, he's looked bad. What do you guys feel? He was the 16th tied in last week. Six for 48, didn't get into the end zone. It is a viable play. You are not wrong. You were not wrong. That's dangerous, but you're not wrong.

Right. It could happen, and you can try that out. I will watch you. Seven targets last week. No, you are right. If those players are out, they're going to need the tight ends. Now, it could end up being O.J. Howard instead of Grancowski or Cameron Brayt in the end zone. Who knows? But I think that this is a question for Tom Brady. I know Chris Harris is out, but the Chargers are still a very good defense. They've got a good pass rush, you know, a couple weeks ago.

Granted, with Chris Harris, they put a three-quarter lockdown on Pat Mahomes, which is not very easy, obviously in division. But I do think Tom Brady is someone I would be looking to pivot off of if you're missing, you know, two-thirds of your best receiving weapons. Michael Thomas was limited on Wednesday. Do you think he plays this week? I do. I would still prepare that he is not going to play, but next week would be inevitable then. Surprisingly, DeAndre Hopkins missed practice on Wednesday? I think that's a vet day.

Yeah, he has been an Ironman in his eight-year NFL career thus far. I think he's missed like two games ever. Kareem Hunt, this one's a little bit more concerning. Didn't practice on Wednesday. Stefanski said he was day-to-day. They did promote Dantrell Hilliard from the practice squad. Yeah. But, you know, we'll see what happens. It's, you know, day-to-day sounds good. If he said week to week, that would sound bad. But.

Whatever it sounds like is irrelevant by comparison to transactions being made. Pulling up, Don Trell Hilliard says they are preparing to be without Cream Hunt to me. Now, that's not a guarantee. He doesn't play. But, you know, I always trust, you know, we say follow the money. I trust the transactions more than I trust the coach speak. I don't know how frequent it is for them to call up.

a practice squad running back midweek if a guy misses a few days of practice. Yeah, it feels very early. Usually the practice squad player is called up on Friday. So I just don't know what that means. You better be ready. Yeah, I agree. And then that makes Nick Chub a, I mean, not that you're not playing Nick Chubb, but set up for success against Dallas. Chris Carson Limited with the knee injury. Carlos Hyde limited with the shoulder injury. Is Travis Homer somewhere on the radar?

He could be, yeah. He's somewhere on that radar. He's like a mouse squeak. Oh, yeah, that's the... That was the radar, yeah. He was right on the edge of the circle. You've seen radar before. I have seen a movie. The hunt for Red October was on when I was a child in my house. You pulled a hunt for Red October reference? I liked it. Thanks. Yeah, I mean, look. Isn't that Sean Connery? Yes, it is. Sean Connery.

It's good news that Chris Carson is... I am the last one. I am the last sub. I am the last. No, I think I went Dragon Heart on that. I think that was the last dragon. Chris Carson should play. So Carson was expected to miss this week. I am William Forrest. That is bring up an excellent point that bad news from Sean Connery doesn't sound nearly as bad. No, that's how we should all receive it. We should always...

The Titans and the Steelers. They're getting pushed back. See, though? Oh, okay. That's pretty cool. Oh, they're getting pushed back. Yeah. And I trust it. Back to the news. Can you trust any of these running backs for Seattle? That's the question. I think you will be able to by the time we get to Sunday. Yeah. Who would you expect right now will be the primary? I still think it's Carlos High. I do, too. Yeah.

George Kittle, Jared McKinnon back at practice, D.J. Chark back at practice, James White, back at practice. Mackinck. Mackin. Being back, that's a pretty big deal. I wasn't expecting him. Yeah, he practiced in full. So he's a go. He's just, you know, Jeff again. Absolutely. He's a startable fantasy option this week. Jared Cook, Mike Williams, John Brown, Henry Ruggs, Deshaun Jackson, no practice. We need to watch Cook pretty closely. It's not very fun if he's your starting tight end to have to.

add another tight end to the roster, but you might have to do that. Could be a Jimmy Graham or a Grancowski or some of the, we got some starts of the week. We're bringing up today on the show. Those are two very interesting names. Which one would you take out of those two? I would go on the Jimmy Graham's. I would too. Okay. Yeah. After last week and Nick Foll's optimism, that type of thing. Mike mentioned it. Thursday night football updates. Philip Lindsay, unlikely to play.

Jameson Crowder is not 100% he is expected to play, which means you can't play Jameson Crowder and you can't reach into the bushes and try and pick Braxton Berrios. What if you have to play Jameson Crowder because your entire bench is full up? Do you have to play Crowder? He's in my lineup and I do not like it. I think if he's starting, you can take your shot. Make sure he's not in your flex.

He is. Thank you. That's a great reminder there, Mike. All right. Any other news that we need to get into? Hopefully not. All right. We're going to get into the matchups momentarily. We want to thank today's sponsor. We're talking about WGU. If you are ready to earn your degree, but you need a university that works with your schedule. That's what WGU brings. It's flexibility. Something that you know all about, Jason. Something I don't have.

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Fantasy Forecast. All right, it's week four, and we're into the matchups, the Indianapolis Colts sitting at two and one, taking on the Chicago Bears in Chicago. Bears are 3-0. The Nick Foles experience begins. The Colts are two and a half-point favorites. It's 43.5 point over under. All right, it's Nick Foles versus P. River. Hooray. And I think it's interesting. I mean, the Colts defense has been pretty good.

of late, and they are 2-1. They are favored on the road by 2.5 points. And so despite the 3-0 record, we're looking at the Colts as the favorites in this game. Jonathan Taylor, I must start. David Montgomery, a must start, and somebody that we'll talk about a little bit later. Question marks around other Colts fantasy options, though. Players like Naim Hines, T.Y. Hilton, Moali Cox, what are you doing with the rest of Indianapolis? They're favorite in this game.

How do you feel about it? Yeah, I don't think that this looks like a Naim Hines game necessarily. T.Y. Hilton is the biggest question mark to me. I think everybody who has him is wondering, can I actually play this player? Now, if you look at the last two weeks, they've been...

trouncing their opponent. The game has just been over, and they haven't needed to throw the ball. They haven't needed to play a lot of their starters late. It took the ceiling away from Jonathan Taylor this last week. It took a lot of what Hilton could have done. I expect this game to be close. I mean, there's only a two and a half point line, and in a close game, you're going to need to throw the ball. I know it's not going to Michael Pittman. He's not playing. I know it's not going to Paris Campbell. He's not playing.

I am starting T.Y. Hilton in this matchup, and it's really, really tough. That should have been my taking it up to 100 player because I think a lot of... Well, a lot of fantasy managers are absolutely benching T.Y. Hilton. I mean, look, fool me once. This is three weeks in a row where he's been terrible. The entire season, he has not been worthy of a start. How do you start a player like that? I think you do that when the other two options at wide receiver are gone, and it's going to be a competitive game where they're going to need him.

Nick Foles gets the start. Neither of these quarterbacks is a real fantasy option, but he does offer a little bit more of a ceiling to Alan Robinson. We have him as the wide receiver five on the week right now. That's a bit high. That seems a little bit high. Yep. But last week, big week for Alan Robinson and the target totals, they'll be there.

I've been looking to see if I can pick Alan Robinson up on the cheap in leagues right now. Sure, listen to Mike the Fantasy of Human right last week. A week before. You said it might be my last chance, and I haven't succeeded. Well, it was your last chance. Yeah, I mean, yeah. I didn't say second to last. Let me highlight something. You can't get in on it. Colts are currently number one against opposing fantasy quarterbacks. Number five against running back, five against wide receiver, one against tight end. They are crushing people.

And last week, two pick sixes in that game against Darnold. They have been outstanding. They are. They have been absolutely great. And this is a defense. Leading up to the season, the defense I said, my number one, I wanted the most. They've lived up to the billing. However, you have to at least have the context of they've played the Jaguars, the Vikings week two dumpster fire, and the Jets. So.

They're good. Right. But I think similar to what we saw kind of with the Patriots last year, where they were a little inflated because they were just playing, really hurting teams in those early weeks. I don't expect them to shut Chicago down. They still seem like a great play this. Oh, yes. Because Nick Foles will make, I mean, we talked about it. He won that game, but he tried to throw a couple pick sixes. I have no idea how he won. Jimmy Grandpa. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, look, I think you can play him. Look, I know we disagree here, or at least I think Mike and I do on Anthony Miller, but my argument for Anthony Miller and Jimmy Grandpa is actually your argument, Mike, from years past, where Nick Foles targets the slot.

That is what he's done his whole career. He comes in and all of a sudden he's hyper-targeting. That's why you like D-D-D-D-D. Exactly. Your sweetie was based on Nick Foll's slot usage. And then obviously he didn't play and the slot wasn't used. But my point here is I think that Anthony Miller is a startable fantasy option, not someone that I'm looking to. Hunter Renfro or Anthony Miller? I think that Hunter Renfro is safer. I think the volume is more secure there. T. Y. Hilton.

T.Y. Hilton. Okay. T.Y. Hilton. Yeah. Jacksonville, the Jaguars take on the Cincinnati Bengals. Jags are 1 and 2. Bangles are 02 and 1. Cat battle. That's true. It's the cat battle. The Bengals are three-point favorites. It's a wonderful 49 point over-under.

You don't agree? No, that's fine. That's a nice over-under. I guess. We just went from 43 to 49, Mike. Okay, I'm back in. Well, and the line opened at 47.5 points. So this is a game that people are betting the over. They're looking at what Joe Burrow has been able to do and what Gardner's been able to do and say, I think these two guys are going to go tit for tech, kit for cat. Oh, okay. All right. I don't have an applause button, but that was one of your best. I have to know.