Starts of the Week + Week 7 Breakdown, Fool’s Gold - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/17

the Detroit, Minnesota game with over 50 points. That one scares the tarnation of me because both of those teams have really good defenses. So I could see how it goes bad. This one, man, the pace of play, everything you guys were laying out in your starts of the week. I really am excited for this game. Gino and Kirk Cousins both starts of the week. Bijan Robinson scored twice. Algier was dominant. He's a question mark for this game in terms of who you'd rather start. Algier or someone like Moser or Giovante or Madison. You know, I do think that this team liked what they saw. They've always enjoyed riding the power back when it's working. I don't think it'll be working as well as it did against Carolina last week. Most of those other names I think I would go with ahead of Alger, but he is someone you can start. Seattle's defense 22nd against the run. Kenneth Walker, start him up. I mean, the Falcons defense has been really good at slowing down.

opportunities for the running game. Walker. So was Detroit. The question is, does Ken Bone continue to get the usage that he has been getting, which is 21 targets in the last three games? If the targets are there, then even if it's a bad game on the ground, it won't matter. Yeah, the last two games on the ground were bad. He's averaging 2.7 yards per carry over the Giants in the San Francisco game, and Atlanta's pretty good between the tackles. But he's had eight targets in each game. which has made Mike very happy. Yeah, tingley is what I was going to go with. Drake London, Red Zone Monster, D.K. Metcalfe, right into your lineup, and then the Mooney, JSN, Lockett, Pitts, those peripheral options. Somebody's going to hit. I just think the predictability is going to be difficult. You know, if it's Pitts, it's not Mooney, maybe. If it's Mooney, it's not Pitts.

Lockett's kind of got a ceiling, it seems, in this offense where I could have paid up for him as a spot start this week and chose not to off the waiver wire because I do feel like he's kind of a four for 60 guy in this offense. Yeah, that's fine. And if he scores, I'm happy. And if he's not, I'm not happy. Mooney over there, his D.K. reception line is four and a half right now. Like that. I'll take that. I think that's healthy enough. Would you play them over J.S.N. Yes. It's, and J.S.N. is a fine play. That's the thing of this game. Everybody could have a great game. Sorry, not every player at the exact same time, but pieces of this game, there can be many. There can be several really good games in this atmosphere. So that's why they're playing. You're playing that game of probability and hoping that your player is the one who goes off. Last three weeks, Drake London,

double-digit targets. He is the wide receiver of five on the season. Oh, it's happening. He is scoring at Will. Would you rather have him than Devante Adams' rest of the season? Oh, that one's close. I think I would rather have Drake London. As Mike just alluded to, I did break the curse of our CD. It's not odd. It was your trait. Well, no, no, no, but you guys. We had nothing to do with it. I, I, I, Rieck Wollin. It was our magic. We'll have to monitor or see if he's going to be active. If Rik is out, oh, even better. I mean, that is, that is perfect for Drake London. If Rik is in, it might be better for Darnel Mooney. Tennessee, one and four, Buffalo four and two, Draft King Sportsbook line. Buffalo at home minus nine and a half. Oh. The over under is 41. Tennessee's got 15.8. I mean, or.

Real points. Yeah, Josh Allen and then the Josh Allen impersonator who, you know, he's like a bad Elvis impersonator. Like you know immediately it's not Josh Allen when you watch. Alan may or may not have Cooper in this game, but nevertheless, you know, it's not been a past heavy offensive game plan for Buffalo and it probably will not continue to be. James Cook will be monitoring if you picked up. You know, Ray Davis last week, congrats. Back up running back for Monday night. Oh, yeah, no way he gets a start, but he'll get carried too. 23 opportunities last week for Ray Davis. And looked so good. You know, that is a player that if Cook's, you know, if Cooks back in, Ray Davis is on your bench, right? Yes, correct. And the Titans defense has been the one bright spot keeping them.

keeping them close enough in games where Brian Callahan can be furious with the mistakes that Will Levis makes. The games are close enough to where it is in the balance on a regular basis and Will Levis ruins it. Never had a tweet watched or seen more than the Calvin Ridley Target tweet this past week because the world has felt that pain. Some people want to be, he knew what he was getting into and he signed there. It's his fault. You know, they started Will Levis. This was that the team didn't draft the quarterback. They could have, by the way. They could have. They had like, what, the six picking the draft, something like that? I mean, where were they? They took an offensive line. I don't remember. Go look that up. They were a top ten, right? I will go look. This was a team that could have made a decision to go a different direction. They were picking at seven. Yeah. So, I mean, that's.

They could have taken J.G. McCarthy. Or, I mean, former, or not former, first round pick, number eight overall, Michael Pinnock's Jr. The point was that this team made a wrong decision. They got rid of Malik Willis and then they didn't draft the quarterback and then they hung their hat on Will Levis. And it's not, it's not been good. You know, they've talked about like it just hasn't looked the same as it did in training camp. And I think that Will Levis. was a little bit of fools gold you know it looked good it looked like hey we've got he's got great arm telling he really does he's got great athleticism he flashed last year during games he had big games oh his first game was yeah i mean will levis is fools gold like he's he is fooling people that he's um great but i mean 10 turnovers seven interceptions keep in mind they've already had their buy so this is in five games played

He's turning the ball over twice a game. Even though you've got a good defense, you can't win with Will Levis. So how are you approaching this for fantasy football? Because for me, it's Tony Pollard. Yes. His D.K. rushing lines at 63 and a half. And you can run on the bills as we saw, you know, whatever, basically every game this week, but really last week. And that's it. Like I will not subject myself to. the pain of anybody else. If Ridley has a game on your bench, that's fine. That's fine. Yeah. Because you maybe have some hope. Brian Callahan coming out again saying how integral he needs to be. Eight targets last week. Wink, wink, wink. Yeah. So what would you say? Like three targets? I would say, I would say one. Really? I think there were, I think there were three targets. Yeah, that's fine. Not catchable. One. Do you know that, do you know that he's listed with zero catchable?

Well, that's dumb. He had one that was definitely catchable. I know. He caught it and it was stripped. Yeah, if you catch it and it's stripped, it has to be a catchable target. But the metric literally said three or zero that I saw. Look, we are, they have the buy, right? So we've had five games of the Will Levis experience. Just kidding. We've had four, right? Because one was Mason Rudolph. So we've had four games with Will Levis and Calvin Ridley. One was incredible. Three were nauseating. But I do, you have 17 games in a season. They've played four together. So does it improve? I don't know. But you have four games. That's all I'm saying. If it does. It's happening on my binge. This game really is actually pretty easy because if James Cook's, if James Cook plays, he's in, otherwise it's Ray Davis. Josh Allen's always in. Tony Pollard's always in, especially in this matchup. And then I don't think you want to deal with any receiving option other than.

Don Kincaid, who is only because he is in the tight-in position, you're going to keep rolling him. I mean, otherwise, you don't want a wide receiver here, right? And on either side of the ball? No, and I mean, if I had the honest truth, I'm just going to be straight up. If I had Amari Cooper and he's playing, and I'm sitting there with, do I play valet or Bub Means over tonight or wait on Cooper to see what happened? I'm going to wait. I'm going to tell you, I'm going to wait. Because even if he doesn't play a full allotment of snaps. Okay, let me give you a couple other names. I'm going to try to capture one big play. That aren't that low. If you had Josh Downs with Anthony Richardson. No, I'll play Downs. Christian Kirk, been up and down. No, no, no, no, I'll wait on Cooper there. Really? Okay. DeMario Douglas in the same game. No, I'll wait on Cooper. Okay. Xavier Worthy. You're a little higher on Cooper than me. But not much, and I don't blame you there.

He's a good player. Yeah, I mean, and if Cooper was out and he had Shakir, or you could get Shakir on the, you know, for nothing because that manager doesn't want him anymore and you could start him in place of Cooper? Yeah, could be worse. Dalton Kincaid, limited with the collarbone. I hope, I hope Cooper helps. You know, you talk about, you talk about in this economy. I mean, Dalton Kincaid is the tight end 11 right now. That's, eh? I mean, look, Titan 11 is a streamable, startable, not good enough asset for fantasy. He played 80% of snaps last week, caught six passes, just 51 yards. If I'm the Dalton Kincaid manager, I am looking to see if I can find some other. Yeah, you're picking up Pat Faramuth off the waivers in hopes that Russell Wilson. Oh, did I see that? Because you are the Dalton Kincaid manager, and you did pick up Pat Pratermuth off the waivers, just because you got to keep. And what do you think?

I don't blame you at all. You got to keep shooting your shot. You know, it's like in a couple leagues. You currently has more points to Dalton Kincaid. And with Russell coming in and then having no one else to throw it to, it's worth a shot. Yeah, you've got to grab those guys. You've got to go out and get Hunter Henry and hope that maybe he becomes a rest of season target for Drake May or pick up T.J. Hawkinson if he's still on waivers and hope that he comes back healthy. You've got to keep shooting your shot while you've got middling tight ends to hopefully find the second half of the season breakout.

All right, let's take a break and come back with some more matchups. All right. Let's jump in. Cincinnati, two and four. Cleveland, one and five. Hooray. DK Sportsbook Line, Cincinnati on the road, minus six. The overrunners, 41 and a half. Cleveland with their, you know, projected at 17.8 points. I'm sure they'd kill for that. The return of Nick Chubb. Is that what we want to make this game about? I mean, that's exciting. That's exciting, and that's where my eyes will be when they're on that side of the ball. I don't, you know, no one can tell you other than, you know, the Brown's OC, is Nick Chubb going to get five carries, three carries, 15 carries? Is he just back? Are they saying, hey, thank goodness, we've got Nick Chubb. O.C. Ken Dorsey said the workload for Sunday is, quote, still a work in progress. We want to make sure that he's available for the long term. So he doesn't even know. But that does sound like you're talking about a handful of carries.

I would not be starting Nick Chubb. Would you play Pierce Strong? No, I don't think so because you still are going to have Chubb in there for some carries. Even if you lose Jerome Ford and he's gone, like let's give Chubb seven carries. If you take seven carries away from Pierce Strong, I just, I'm not excited about that, even though it's a decent matchup against the Bengals' mediocre defense. So do we go Nogoku and no one else? Jerry Judy is a question mark. We've talked about some wide receivers that are, you know, here's a funny one. The Amari Cooper bills, he's active versus Judy. I think this week I'd probably go Judy. Sitting on a 19% target share. Yeah, but obviously, which you got to cut it in half. You cut it in half. That's a nine and a half percent. Judy or Michael Wilson on Monday night.

For the Cardinals. We need more info on Mars. Info? Info. Information. Do we have anything on Marvin yet? Why can't we stop it at M4? Sure. I mean, that is the next letter. Right? You know, you stop at info. That's totally fine. You say M4. Yeah. They're like, what? That it sounds like you're in for a beaten. It's just stupid as why. Okay. All right. I'm just trying to help. Calvin Ridley or Jerry Judy. Jerry Judy. The question of your life. I'll go, Judy. If you have that decision to make, you should go click the exit league button. No, no. You stay the course. You keep fighting. I know. Scratching and clon. Just got to make the playoffs. Didn't get lucky. Did you going to see this stat here that Kyle had put in for us that Joe Burrow has never won in Cleveland as the Bengals starting quarterback? And I don't think the Bengals have won in Cleveland in seven years? Something like that.

So that's wild. And they want me to do it? Six point favorites. What almost upset this? Sure, Nick Chub effect. Andy's almost upset of the wig. What are you doing? Jason's face tells me I'm right. I was surprised. Six points? Six points at home? Cincinnati's two and four. What if I told you Watson's D.K. passing line is at 184. I would say that's a little high. The Brown's defense is 10th against quarterback, six against tight ins, 12th against running backs. They give it up to wide receivers. And the Bengals have quite a few of those. But we'll see. We'll see what happens here. It's going to be a dirty game if Cleveland wins it. But Joe Burrow, Jamar Chase, T. Higgins, you play them, Chase Brown. Yeah, Chase Brown. Right now, D.K. rushing line 53 and a half. You're starting him over Zach Moss, but are you?

Are you starting him over other viable options? Yes. Really? Yeah, you're a little bit more bullish? Yeah, like the, so let's say Tank Bigsby, I'll take Chase Brown, Bucky Irving, which we need more, probably need more information here with Rashad White, but I would lean Chase Brown. Ty Chandler as a spot start against Detroit, I would take Chase Brown. We do have news. We have an update. Marvin Harrison Jr. is practicing. Okay. Okay. That's great to trend towards playing. And especially with the Monday night, if he's practicing now and it's a Monday night game. That's a far cry from what we got from neighbors and Oliva this past. Yeah, you got some hope. Anything else you guys want to talk about in this matchup? Deshaun Watson, you starting him? Don't want to talk. No. Deshawn Watson or Will Levis. Oh, don't ask that. Houston 5 and 1, Green Bay 4 and 2, the Draft King Sportsbookline, Green Bay minus 3 at home over under his 47 and a half. I want this game.

Sure. I want this game. This will be fun. Jordan Love, C.J. Stroud. Love has 10 passing touchdowns over the last three starts. He's number one in fantasy points per dropback against zone. He's got a league high 8.2% touchdown rate. It'll probably come down. But, you know, explosive plays are kind of happening here. We do have a wide receiver room that's all like. Yeah, what's going on here? Jaden Reed limited with an ankle, Kristen Watson limited with an ankle, Dante and Wix limited with the shoulder. Romeo Dobbs is healthy. Yeah, he is. His receiving line is 43 and a half. Would you play Romeo Dobbs or Jerry Judy? Robes. Dobbs in this matchup, you expect both offenses to be able to score. Dobbs has been, you know, he is, you know, he's really the number one wide receiver for this team as far as obviously routes run. He's involved. Got two touchdowns last week.

I think he's a fine start this week. Okay. Stroud won't have Nico for a while. Diggs. Tank Dell was seven for 57 and a touchdown last week. Yeah, signs of life. His receiving line is higher than he even had last week at 61.5. I think this matchup plays very well for him. If you look at targets per route run, targets, all the behind the scenes metrics, tank Dell was running more of the Nico Collins stuff with Nico out. It's a very good start this week. Joe Mixen, of course. Oh, for sure. He is so good. All right. Sorry, my. No, no. I told you he's looked unbelievable. Where are you right now with C.J. Stroud on this season and the expectations on all of that. He's doing exactly what I thought he would do. He's a great streaming option. But truly, this isn't a great matchup. You're on the road. You are the underdog. And.

There are good options in the secondary here for Green Bay. So with Joe Mixon's emergence, I think that C.J. Stroud is a questionable, like, not like, oh, you've got to bench him, but you've got to look at your options because if I had C.J. Stroud and Baker Mayfield, that's an easy baker to me. What about Stroud or Sam Darnold coming off the buy against Detroit? Oh, man. I'm going to go Stroud. I'm going to go talent there. Tucker Kraft, after the disappointment last week, he was limited with a groin injury, and would you play him or Pitts? I'm going to, if I had both those guys, I would lean towards Pitts because of the matchup. I would rather have. I like Kraft a little more. I would rather have Kraft rest of season. Like if I had to make a transaction as part of that, and I don't have both players on my roster, I'd rather have Kraft, but the matchup against Seattle's. I don't blame me there. I think just Kraft is like, it's still.

It's still low volume. I mean, he had nine targets against Minnesota. That was the where it was like, oh, hey, Tucker Kraft is on the scene. But three targets, two, three, nine, five, four. That was an emphatic nine. Right now the number two search on our website, Tankdale or Brian Thomas Jr. I'm going to go Brian Thomas. I'm going to go Tank Dell. I think the matchup, so Mike, you got a tie break this. I would. I think I'm going Brian Thomas. Okay. You're fools. It's very close. They're within three spots of my rankings right now. I will say getting back to the Tucker Crap question. The Texas defense has been very good. Even when you adjust for schedule against Titans, they're not giving up much to that position. So it's not the start that I would love this week. Let's talk about the Miami Dolphins who are two and three taking on the three and three Indianapolis Colts who will get back Anthony Richardson.

The DK Sportsbook line here. Indy at home minus three. The overrunners 43 and a half. What? Are you surprised that that is the line? I'm very surprised. Yeah. That they're not heavier favorites? No. Okay. The implied team total for both of them. Over 20 for both. Yeah. That's a lot, you mean? It seems like it. I don't. 43 and a half seems right? I don't blame him for thinking that just based on how the Miami games have gone as a whole. Here is what Miami has scored on the year. 20. Okay, that was sweet. That was two. 10, 3, 12, 15. 10, 3, 12, 15 total point. They got the buy week to get it right. Maybe. Did they get Tua back? No, but listen, we put it out on Twitter. Give us some metaphors to describe the last month of Dolphins football without Tua. Okay. We got one entry. Azores said, like mowing your lawn in the rain. Okay. That would be a bad experience. Yeah.

Can't imagine having to do that. Oh, this one. Dustin says, like, sitting on hold with American Airlines. That is, that is what it is. That's the right one, Dustin. Oh, my gosh, because I've been there. Um, Asa says, like poking your dead pet hamster waiting for it to wake up. Just do something. Going yard said, uh, like watching a dog poop in a beautiful open meadow. I don't think, I think that's better than the dolphins have been. And then weelow said like getting a root canal via your rectum. Okay. Let's. That's a deep root canal. That's a panic alarm. I knew not to hit the button again. So, yeah, it's not been good. Tyler Huntley, Pro Bowler, gets a shot off the by. See, what I thought you were reacting to was the fact that the Colts are barely favored in this game. No. When you're at home, when it's Tyler Huntley, this is the Anthony Richardson line. I believe it. I think if Joe Flacko was the quarterback, you'd have.

you know, a four and a half point line or something like that. So Anthony Richardson looks like he is going to start. He has a DK passing line in there for 193 and a half. So that is the expectation right now. He's going to be the starter, which means Michael Pittman Jr. Josh Downs. What do you do? Downs I'm fine with because of volume Pittman. No way. I'm not touching that. The dolphins, even schedule adjusted, are the number one team in fantasy. against quarterbacks. They give up 9.4 a game. The number four against wide outs, the number four against tight ends. Do you know why? Because they like to let people run the ball. It's because they're never in the lead, ever, and the other team is able to run the ball. When those two things happen, this is just like what happened with Carolina last year. It was like it wasn't that they can't get scored on by a quarterback or wide receiver. It's that they don't need to. And so I expect that to happen again. The fact that the line is a little bit closer here is maybe.

helpful like I would love. If I'm starting Anthony Richardson, you are praying for a pick six right off the bat. You want that pick six. You want two pick sixes immediately because then they will have to throw the ball and keep up and score. I think they had to put Joe Flacco in then. No, they'll let him finish the game. Then it moves to a different discussion. Like you said, right now Dolphins 30th against fantasy running backs giving up over 26 points a game. Breaking news. They don't have any. Johnny Taylor. Johnny Taylor did not practice. Trace Serman, the second string running back, who has not been very good, did not practice with a knee injury. Tyler Goodson is sitting there waiting for someone to take the chance. Against a good Tennessee team on the road last week. He was 8 for 51, 6.4 a carry out of 33 yard long.

I think he's an actual... And he will catch passes. I think he's an actual good play. Richardson, obviously, he's not going to throw the ball to the running back as much as Joe Flacco does. For me, personally, I'm sitting here today waiting on Thursday news to see, like, is Jonathan Taylor out again? Is Trace Serman out again? Because then I am making the Tyler Goodson-Jvante Williams decision. Man, I can't... I really would be shocked. Like, I'm right now... I'm just, I'm waiting for that. If those two guys are out, Goodson's probably in for me. I'd be very surprised if Jonathan Taylor plays. The, the news right now is sermon and the last thing I saw, which obviously the Thursday practice report will say a lot, was pretty negative. So, if Goodson's alone, I mean, that would be an easy. Could he be greatson? Yeah, I think so. And I think he would be much better than Giovante. Don't put that type of pressure on him. Just let him be good. Yeah, I guess the bar.

The bar for Tyler should just be Goodson. Yes. Maybe it's more like Good Dad. You know what I mean? Good. Oh, do you move the sun? Yeah, it's not going good to great. It's going, no. Boston. All right. I won't. Look, I will settle for Tyler O'Kson. Yeah, okay. Son. Let's move on. None of you were playing Michael Pittman, are you? Uh, he's, uh, he's in my lineup right now because Marv, I thought was going to be out. So. Hopefully not. Yeah, hopefully not. What about him versus Jerry Judy? I'd play Pittman over Judy. Yeah, I'd play Pittman. His line is 49 and a half. Devon A-chan's line, though, 44. That's not good. He's coming off a concussion. He did have a full practice. Is that right? I think so. Yeah, yeah. He looks like he is going to play.

How does that fit in with the fact the offense can't really move it? And Rahim Moster got 19 opportunities. He was, you're hungry for more. Mostert or Javante? Moster or Javante? I would lean Moster. Bucky Irving or Mostert? I'd go Bucky there. Yeah, I'm assuming Rashad White is out. Yeah, that's a depth chart health thing. Tyree Kill. I'd go most trick. No, I'm kidding. Do you just play him, right? Yeah, you just got to keep playing. What was the target total last week? He was nine targets. No, nine targets, six for 69. I would be thrilled. I'd be thrilled with that. I think you start him. Waddle is someone that. It's a bad defense. The Colts are terrible. And they're terrible across the board. Their offense has done enough to keep the scores high enough to where it's like the other team has to.

Pass has to run. You know. Waddle or a grilled cheese sandwich? Waddle. Yeah. I don't think of grilled cheese? Yeah. I think so. What if I put some tomato soup with it? Okay. I mean, that's two for one. You can't compare two things against one. I just was checking. I mean, I take the two fat. Half a grilled cheese sandwich in the soup or waddle. So you don't get the full sandwich. Oh, that's just going to help my caloric intake. I'll take the half. So, look, waddle. Put him on the bench and just cross the fingers. Because when Tua's back, Waddle or Judy. Oh, just stop asking Judy. Stop asking Judy questions. Okay. I brought him up again. Waddle. Ask something else. Waddle or Pittman. Same game. No, Pittman. I go pitman. I agree. But what are you doing with A-chan? I don't want to leave this game before that's addressed. Like, are you, what are you doing? I, so I've brought this up without Tua there when he is running against stacked boxes. That is not how.

you know, a 190-pound running back is set to succeed. This matchup, though, you know, you look at the last couple of matchups, Tennessee, New England, those were the games that Devon A-chan last played in. Those are not the best matchups. I think Indianapolis is a bad defense across the board. I'm fine starting A-chan. A-chan or Tink Bigsby? assuming you're going to Biggsby. Assuming ETN is out, I would go Biggsby. I do want to highlight because the world, I mean, it's broad, but 7.8 a carry for H.N. last year, 3.3 a carry for HN this year. I mean, that's just apples and oranges. It's not, though, because he played with Tua and got 2.4 a carry with Tua. But that's one of his five games. 2.7, 1.5.