Week 6 Matchups + Lev Bell to Chiefs! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/16

play because I don't want to deal with this weekend and week out. And I feel like because Dan Quinn's job was on the line, he had to have Julio out there before he, you know, if this was a secure job and, you know, your team is winning the games and your contract is five more years, I think they never would have brought Julio back out. Julio's difficult because players of his caliber don't need to practice to play. You know, if this, yeah, DeAndre Hopkins had this happen a couple weeks ago. He didn't.

practice all week long, he just shows up on Sunday and plays. So that's always a possibility. I actually think he will play. The confidence level is not high. Do you start him if he plays, Andy? I probably do. Yeah, yeah. Melvin Gordon back at practice on Thursday after the DUI situation, we think he'll be starting for them. I guess so. DJ Chark didn't practice, Mike. DJ Chark, I do not expect him to be out there. And similar to, I guess part of the Julio Jones thing,

I don't remember if we've talked Falcons yet or not. If Julio Jones is out, Matt Ryan is out for me. Yes. If DJ Chark is out, Gardner Minshu is out for me. Yeah. And I agree with you on that. And I saw Matt Ryan hitting lots of waiver wires this week after what's going on there. He's been a tough year for him. AJ Brown didn't practice on Thursday. I'm not worried about that. This was Tuesdaynight Football.com that he had to deal with. So another day off.

And Deante Johnson returned to a limited practice on Thursday. Okay. Mike's start of the week is all Pittsburgh wide receivers. So Deontes is one of them. If he plays, I'm playing. All right. Any other injury news you guys want to cover in particular before we get into the forecast? A follow up for the Cleveland Browns. Baker Mayfield was limited, but it does sound like, or he was limited on Thursday. It sounds like we have a bit of more positive report on him, which bringing that up.

Not for Baker Mayfield, but for Odo Beckham and Jarvis Lander was back as well. And I would add that John Brown was listed as a full participant, which is great, but it was a walkthrough. And this was, you know, off the heels of a late Monday night football game. So make sure you're paying attention or Tuesday night. All right. This episode of the fantasy footballers, before we get into the forecast, we want to thank our sponsors brought to you by head and shoulders in Walmart. I don't know if you guys knew this one. Guys are confident they don't settle for anything less than 100. You're darn right. 95? No.

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sore muscles a lot. It starts at only $199, which is a great deal. Go to theragon.com slash footballers right now to get your gin for today. That's t-H-E-R-A-G-U-N dot com slash footballers. Fantasy forecast. All right, a reminder, Seahawks, Raiders, Chargers, all on by. We got eight games to cover in the...

Remaining week six matchups on today's show. Yesterday we covered the Texans, Titans, Bengals, Colts, Broncos, Patriots, Washington, the Giants, the Ravens, the Eagles, and then the Browns and the Steelers game. All right, well, not a lot of wins to go around in this first matchup. Let's start here. The Falcons at 0.5, the Minnesota Vikings at 1 and 4. Vikings at home, 4.5 over under. Oh, so close. Mm-hmm.

You know, he said super, super relieving, the Theragun, they relieved Dan Quinn of his duties. And he is no longer, they're super relieved of Dan Quinn. And I want to know what's in store for this offense the rest of the way. We've seen, we've seen the Falcons string some, you know, games together in the past, even with the bad starts. Matt Ryan, we just talked about it. If there's no Hulu, you guys are out on Matt Ryan this week. Personally, yeah.

And then we really like the passing options on the other side of the ball. I mean, Kirk Cousins streaming quarterback this week. Absolutely. We don't expect, you know, Dalvin Cook out there, but Alexander Madison, he should get the bulk of the workload at the running back position. Full confidence with Alexander Madison this week. Yes, 100%. He finally gets his shot. I know. We finally get to see it where last year, Dalvin Cook, unfortunately, went down to injury.

And Madison went down at the exact same time. So this year, we picked up Madison or you were stashing him and you get to use him. And it could not come at a more perfect matchup for maybe a hurting fantasy team here. And if you look at the team's, it's not just Madison the player. The team has full confidence in him. There was a Gary Kubiak was talking about him. And apparently they call him Matt, which is a little strange. All right.

Alex X, Madison, I don't know, but they go with Matt. Anyways, he, the quote basically was saying, when Madison is in, I changed nothing. It doesn't, my mentality for this offense changes zero percent. That's nice to hear. Because he has full confidence in Madison's skill set. Yeah, he'll be very valuable in this game. The Falcons defense is vulnerable across all positions. And so we like pretty much everybody in Minnesota. Adam Thielen has been a.

an absolute monster this year. Especially in the red zone. Seven of seven for five touchdowns in the red zone. If I'm Kirk Cousins, you know where I'm going in the red zone? Adam Thieland. Yeah, where it's 100% taking it up to 100 in the red zone. And then Justin Jefferson, I think I did have the question today, and let me pose it to you guys. If you had Thielen who you have to start and Justin Jefferson, are you comfortable in this matchup just playing both of them with the same kind of?

you know, flex mentality you have with Jefferson? I am far less comfortable playing Justin Jefferson if Julio Jones does not play. And the reason why here is because the, look, you just said it. Minnesota wants to change nothing with Alexander Madison. And if they're in the lead and if they're able to, you know, be controlling this game, Kirk Cousins is not going to throw for a whole bunch of yards.

This matchup looks so juicy because Atlanta's just been bleeding points. You want to know who they're bad against as far as fantasy position? All of them. Play your running backs, play your quarterbacks, your tight ends. Oh my goodness. Yes. But the reality is if Atlanta can't keep up. And usually that's not an if. They always keep up. But without Julio, that offense does not see in the same. See, I think they keep up.

Well, and that's the question. Because this is Minnesota's defense and Vegas has this as such a high over under, the implied point total of 25 for Atlanta. You know, they're not, Vegas is not counting on Julio Jones in this game. So without Julio Jones, you are confident that the Falcons will keep up. Okay. So who outside of Calvin Ridley then is going to get the job doing? Who knows?

No idea. Somebody. Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley, you can play. Yeah, he's a strong start. He's the RB 10 on the season. We have him at 13 this week. Minnesota's giving up the eighth most rushing yards. Whether it's Gage or Hearst or Zakias or Brian Hill, I have no idea. Like, I don't have any confidence on deciding because every week we've tried to take that shot on Atlanta's secondary options, and it's gone awry every single week. Yep, it has. The question.

Jason, I mean, you kind of glossed over here. You talk about tight ends are a great play against Atlanta. Irv Smith, tight end for the Minnesota Vikings, second year Irv Smith. And he shares, you know, the tight end position with Kyle Rudolph. But 31 routes for Irv Smith this last week. He actually was the tight end 13 because he turned five targets into four for 64. He's an interesting player.

Is Irv Smith someone you are willing to dive into the barf of the tight end position and play? That sounds disgusting. Well, it is disgusting every single week. I would never dive into the barf. He's very similar to me to my start of the week, Darren Fells, in the sense he's a waiver guy that this late into the season when all the Hawkinsons and the fans have been picked up.

and they're already rostered. If you've gone to buy with Darren Waller or Jared Cook and you need someone, I think you can pick up bigger. But I would rather go fells because of Kyle Rudolph. If Kyle Rudolph gets the touchdown in this game, nobody's going to be surprised. Yeah, and just for context, I know last week was nice. It was against Seattle, and Irv had a total of two receptions in the preceding four games. Yes. So.

Could be anomalous here. I think he's a very talented player, but in this offense with Jefferson emerging. I love Big Irv. Yeah. So he's just more of a watch for you, Andy? Yeah. Watch from the sideline, not on my bench, I don't think. Okay. The Chicago Bears at 4 and 1, taking on the now 3 and 2 Carolina Panthers. Get it done, Carolina. And the Panthers are favored in this game. They are one-point favorites at home, a 44.5 point over under. They are getting it.

Done. The magician's not going to like that very much. No, but yeah, it's a little bit of 4-1 Mirage with Chicago. I don't think that they're a bad team by any means. I don't know if they're this good. And then Carolina... That was a big win last week. It was a big win. Absolutely. And they deserve respect their defense especially. This will be one of those things where Carolina has been able to do a lot on offense over the last three weeks with this winning streak, including Mike Davis.

You know, we see what Robbie Anderson's been able to do on the year. But how does it match up with the Chicago defense? Chicago has been outstanding against opposing fantasy quarterbacks. I think that probably takes them off the board or takes Bridgewater off the board. Yes, it does. I mean, they held what was Brady at? One touchdown. Yeah. 200-something yards. It just poor game. And so, yeah, Teddy Bridgewater.

It's really an exciting story with what Teddy Bridgewater has been able to do this year with the Carolina Panthers. But he's out for fantasy for me this week. Mike Davis is 100% in. He's been unbelievable. And now, you know, get a little revenge game narrative action. Oh, yeah. Go show Chicago that they made a huge mistake of letting him go somewhere else. Did you hear what?