Transcript of Week 2 Matchups + The RETURN of Fantasy Faceoff - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/13

Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Oh, welcome in. Friday episode of the show, Mike Wright, Jason Mahr, Andy Hollow, The fantasy footballers podcast, back with you. We had a Thursday night football game. We got a lot of matchups to talk about. We got news. And the return of fantasy face-off because the people were The people were vocal, and they wanted it back. I don't know if it's because they wanted DFS lineups. I don't know if it's because they wanted to see us ridiculed. Probably both. I think it's more of the latter.

I think it's more of the latter, but I will say that Look, I missed it. I missed it, too. I really enjoyed putting together a lineup for today's episode.

The shame begins again. Next week, we'll make our lineups today, and then the shame will be bestowed because the people The people want to see us look stupid.

Can't wait.

And normally, that means for us, we're very sweaty and uncomfortable.

Yeah, I can't wait to see what terrible things you guys do to my face this year.

Your face is getting bigger every year, and so the mask sizing is- Yeah, it's almost impossible, Mike.

Yeah, well, I would say the- What's the back of your hat?

What's the amount of- Oh, this one?

I think we're on two buttons, guys.

Are you on two?

Oh, this one's a three burger.

Have you ever gone, Would you go full open?

Oh, Oh.

Yeah. You might have to soon.

If your head gets large enough.

I think if I can convince people that's a fashion trend, you could do that.

Like after dinner with your belt. You just go, I'm living free.

I will say.

After a big meal, he likes to open his hat.

I like to unbutton my pants and take off.

It's more like after reading a book because then the head swells up.

Did you see? My son shared with me that there was a guy who every day he went into the library and he rented 10 books, and he'd bring them back the next day and rent 10 more. But each time through makeup, he would make his bald head slightly larger. And so every day when he would return to the library, his head would become slightly bigger as he would rent 10 more books from the library.

This is so much work for a silly joke.

It was all just, how long would it take for the person to notice that he was bringing the books back, and his knowledge was rising and rising.

That's incredible. Sorry. What a bit. I was going to say, I think I'll go snaps open before I ever go one button. Really? Yeah.

The one button, the structural integrity, man, that thing, whatever, the snaps, I don't know.

They're wiggling all over the place because it's just the one button.

In other words, you are one step from open right now.

Well, no, he's on three.

No, I'm on three. Oh, you're on three.

A lot of hats are two buttons.

I was going to say, I got pictures of a hat that's on two from you.

I have purchased many a hat where I put it on two, and I'm like, Never wearing this hat again.

Just too much fantasy football knowledge up in that noggin, Mike.

When I get a haircut, that can help it a little bit, but not very much.

All right, the community, head over to jointhefoot. Com, get access to the new Ultimate Sporting a ton of extra advanced stats and tools, the StreamFinder, a lot of resources for you this year. Join thefoot. Com. Check that out. We had a Thursday night football game. Yeah, we did.

Let's start with the good stuff. Let's start with the good stuff. Because you can't transition back.

The good stuff was Devon Achan seems healthy. He played, he started, he played way too long into the game.

Did they think he was Derek Henry? What are What are you doing out there?

He had 29 touches in a game where we weren't sure he was going to play. Then Jeff Wilson went out injured. Which on Twitter, you're reading, This is what happened.

Jeff Wilson went out with, I think, what was it? An oblique? I can't remember. Yes. Okay, so he went out. That's why H. N. Was still playing late into the game. But it's like, Why don't you put Jalen Wright out there? Let the rookie get some touches.

He was also coming... Oh, no, he wasn't coming off of an injury, right?

No, he was a healthy scratch in week one. I mean, not my decision to make. That was-It was great for fantasy.

It felt highly questionable. It is unbelievable. At the end of this game in PPR, Achan outscored James Cook, who was in his own right, unbelievably awesome. He was awesome. I can't even imagine how many fantasy points he would have scored if the game had stayed competitive because it felt like the game just started in three touch downs for Cook.

Good for those two. James Cook was the story. H. M. Played a ton. Nothing I said about the game was right. I was wrong about everything. Yeah, it was. Tua was a terrible start. We gave you the numbers that he's put up against Buffalo. He threw three interceptions, two of them, inexplicably to players that had not been on this roster or played or had snaps with Tua that he threw anticipatory throws to that didn't know the play. I mean, Robbie Chosen was one of them. He He didn't go down the sideline. He cut the route off. Tua threw it up the sideline. The other one was to Dubois.

Yeah, Dubois.

Dubois. I don't know what to make of the game overall in terms of Buffalo. Buffalo looks great. Maybe Arizona is better than we thought if they almost beat Buffalo and Buffalo, but the defense was incredible. They only threw the ball 19 times.

Yeah. Tua being so bad when he was healthy during the game led to Josh Allen having a very subpar fantasy outlook.

Which is their recipe, just to be clear. This is what they love to do. This game script, run the football and play defense, I think is the way that Buffalo wants to win the ball games this year.

It was great to see Kincaid get forced into the action. It was very early that it was two immediate targets to him, and then he got, unfortunately, kicked in the head, just an inadvertent kick to the as he was getting up, so he missed some time. Then Keion Coleman with the Goose, which is, I think, far more a product of just what happened with the game. I don't think he would have been shut out had the script gone a different way.

But it was- I mean, the pass attempts. The total attempts in the need to throw the football. If Buffalo is in a plus situation moving forward where they're heavily favored, you're not going to be able to count on wide receivers from Buffalo. That's just going to be the truth of the matter. I mean, Shaqir looks the best of the group, but five for 54, that's fine.

His value is never going to be great for fantasy. Even if Shaqir ends the season as the number one target in this offense, he's going to be pretty much irrelevant. He's not a deep threat in a countdown machine, so I would still lean towards Coleman. But this is what we saw at the end of last year. They want to run the ball nonstop. What was exciting, and I think hopefully prescriptive, was the fact that when they got down on the two-yard line, it was James Cook.

Yeah, that was very exciting.

They didn't bring in Ray Davis. They let James Cook have it. And lo and behold, your good running back can still do it in short yardage.

I think he could have run that one in backwards, the way they opened up a line for him. H. M. Was great. Everyone else was a disaster on Miami. Tyreek Hill, terrible. Jalen Waddle, terrible. Waddle was about an inch from a really good game if he crossed the plane on the-But now, looking forward, Tua, the headline that we buried here is that Tua-We were putting it off. Tua was concussed brutally in this game. And the future of Tua Tungavailo on this team. Honestly, I think he's probably going to play football again. I think it'll be six weeks or something. It'll be a long period of time. I'll be shocked if he walks away. Not that he shouldn't. I think you're talking the person versus the player, and the person is more important, and we all don't want to see something tragic happen on the field or in his future.

Yeah, even the head coach told him he's the quarterback of his family. And so that's what he's got to think about first. I don't think anyone out there would blame him for walking away from football. He will almost certainly be medically cleared to return to football. If that's the case, then he will have the decision to make. I'm guessing, like Andy, if I had to make my bet, I'm guessing he's missing 2-4 weeks and is back.

For this team, Skyler Thompson hadn't played since 2022, I believe Ryan Tannehill is available out there. There's a lot of talk about him, but this is huge implications for what this offense wants to do and what Tyreid Kehl can do and what Jalen Waddo can do. If you don't have the main crux of throwing the ball deep in these timing routes, you're going to have major issues. Major. You're going to see screen passes to Tyreid Kehl every week, 15 times, and you're going to see a lot of the running game, which maybe that's good for Achan and Moster when he gets back. But overall, it was demoralizing. As a fan, it was demoralizing. And shame on every single person that tweeted about to his copability. That's not the point right now. You're on a football field running faster than If anybody of us can run, making decisions faster than anybody can make a decision.

Honestly-i'm trying to get a first down as well, where it's like you really can't slide there.

That's the problem. That's what makes me so angry about it, is that if he slides there and doesn't get the first down, The whole world is going to come out and call him whatever. You're soft. You don't know what... Put it out there for the team. Go hit him hard. Then if he does it, he's also stupid because he put himself out there and put the risk. I think we all agree, two of us should be sliding. With the history, but making split-second decisions at the NFL level, it's hard to do. It's hard to do with everything that happens from a momentum standpoint in the game. Frankly, none of that should matter in this story right now. I don't let it irritate me very often when I see the idiots because I know that they already exist and they're doing idiot things all over the place. But it really bothered me last night.

Yeah, this is a man in his life. This beyond football. We'll have to wait and see what his decision is. In the meantime, Jalen Waddle takes the biggest hit because Tyreek Hill will be the number one target. The screens will go to him first. He is so unbelievable that you can have an inaccurate quarterback, throw him the ball downfield, and it's 10 yards away, and he'll just go run to that spot instead and grab it. I think Tyreek is still someone I'm going to start every week with a backup quarterback. Waddle is someone I'm probably going to bench until I'm shown otherwise or until Tua is back. And HM, I'm not worried about at all.

No, I mean, HM was outstanding, and he caught a million passes again. And if this team is in negative game scripts, he's going to catch a million more. So for Mike, on a my guy perspective, James Cooke, through two games, looks like a league winner, and Jalen Waddle is TBD because of injuries. And Waddle looked good in week one, week two.

He looked good in this game, too, until the two were injured.

I want them to bring a veteran in. Somebody that knows what they're doing, that can execute a downfield offense. If you're Mike McDaniel, you have to bring somebody in that's going to throw the ball downfield to give yourself a shot. You don't have the defense.

I don't know that that person is.

Well, I But that person is the example of... Ryan Tannehill could come in and run a run-first offense that takes play-action shots down the field, just like he did in Tennessee. That's what the offense was in Tennessee. Hand-off, hand-off, hand-off, play action, deep shot to A. J. Brown, Cory Davis. That's what I would like to see in Ryan Tannehill coming to this team, whether it's him or not. If we had Jameis Winston coming in, if we had Joe Flacko coming in, those are guys that could execute downfield. Now, those are on rosters. I'm just saying, of the players available out there, bring somebody in that can utilize your strengths at wide receiver, in my opinion, if you want a shot to stay competitive in the division.

That'll all come down to Tua's health of How large of a move does the team want to make? Because if you're going to go after Flacko, which would be great. This offense would work with Joe Flacko, but you have to trade for him. You have to trade for Jamis. The backup quarterback situations for a lot of these teams, it's always a head scratching situation for me because I know you don't want to overinvest in a backup quarterback. Give a bunch of money to a guy that you know or that you hope Never has to take a snap for you. But then these situations happen. You're like, Well, you got to go get someone. Shouldn't the next player up be the person who you are confident enough in that this guy can carry the team for six months?

I don't think there's enough humans on the planet that can allow backups. There's not enough starters that are really actually good. So getting a quality backup is darn impossible.

They kept Skyler. Mike White was on this team last year. They let him go. I believe he's on Buffalo's Practice Squad. He was a name that at least made sense because you would just go get him.

There were 66 different quarterbacks that started a football game last year, based on what I'm seeing here from Pro Football Network, which means that, to your point, Mike, the investment, like Jason said, maybe there's not enough of them, but spending money on one is worth it. All right, let's talk about some other big news.

News and notes from Around the League. Presented by USAA Insurance.

We went from thinking Hollywood Brown would be back maybe soon to Hollywood Brown undergoing surgery to repair his SC joint, which probably means his season is over. I don't think we're going to see Hollywood Brown anymore this year, honestly.

At the very least, it's going to be months, and then it will be irrelevant.

Yeah. This is the Hollywood Brown. It's unfortunate for him, but this is exactly the last three years. He never gets a chance to be on the field healthy and do what he does. Jordan Love didn't practice, trending to not playing. Jake Ferguson did not practice. We'll wait and see on him, tight in for the Cowboys. Cmc was limited again on Thursday. He has been trying to go. But again, I think that this team is going to- This is just protecting. They're going to make a judgment call on Sunday about what... They got the third best performance of the week at the running back position out of Jordan Mason.

Yeah, and they're playing against Sam Darnold. And the following week, they are divisional against the Rams. I really expect to see CMC in week three, not two.

And part of my horrible other mistake last night of being scared of Achan. Coming off of injury was the confidence that Mason would get to start by himself. We'll see if that happens. If it does, Mason should be awesome. Yes. He was the running back three last week. Addison did not practice again on Thursday. Ken Walker did not practice oblique injury, which is what Jeff Wilson went down with last night.

We'll have to monitor today. Pay close attention. Obviously, Friday practice is more important. But if you're not practicing on a Thursday, not even a limited participation It has to be full.

To have any confidence of playing Ken Bohn-Waaker on Sunday, it has to be a full practice today. If it's limited, then he could trend to actually play, and I'm going to be terrified to start it.

And against a really tough Patriots defense.

What else do we have, injury update-wise, guys?

Tee Higgins, not practicing yesterday, not seen practicing today, so he is definitely trending to be out.

Mike, would you just trade him off your roster so he can play football? You are the reason 100%. Is that me? Is that me? Is that me? You are the reason 100 %. Is he me? Is he me? 100 %, you're the problem. He's holding out until he's off your roster. And I don't blame him. I wouldn't want to be on your roster either. I want to be on mine. Trade him to me.

Dalton Schultz, Limited.

Hey, come get him.

Roma, Dunesday, Keenan Allen didn't practice. Uh-oh. Malik Nabors popped up on the injury report, which was concerning after I made him the start of the week. And then today, Brian Dable said he is good. No concern. I watched an interesting little interview with Kyle Rudolf. Did you guys see this?

I did not.

He was just talking about Daniel Jones because he played in New York. He played against them. He was just saying, This is not the guy that I played with. The confidence is gone. The confidence he has. We know Daniel Jones. One of the reasons I think that in the beginning, I think Mike, you maybe were the most vocal about his potential upside in fantasy when he was playing well and giving you those occasional games, it's because of the skills there. He can run the football. He has the physical arm talent. But Kyle Rudolf is just like, This is not the player that I played with. He's like, He doesn't understand. They can't protect him. That's been a part of it. Yeah, he's always been- Shell-shocked. So he's gunshot. Yeah. Then they went out and got him, Malik Nabors. Cool. You got him a weapon, but you took away the weapon in the backfield. Saquon Barkley was part of what gets you the opportunity to throw the football and keep a confidence on its toes. We saw what Saquon did in week one. So it was interesting to see Daniel Jones and Bryce Young have no confidence right now, and I'm not sure Watson is very far behind.

Confidence plays such a huge factor. You saw Tua talk about this when he had Brian Flores as the coach and the change and what that did for his career. You saw Andrew luck talk about how important confidence is everything for the quarterback position. If you have one leaky part of you that's not confident, then you need to walk away, which is why he walked away from football. It was about that. It's unspoken. You can't really analyze it or quantify it. That's the word I'm really looking for. But you certainly see it with Watson and Daniel Jones. Those two look like- And Bryce Young, yeah. Yeah. His is, I think, more than just confidence.

I don't know.

I don't think he has special physical traits.

Oh, I think he does. I mean, he went number one overall. I think he goes to the other team. He's probably fine. That team is broken. Carolina is. What they do to their players, the amount of times we've had optimism about players. You see, I'm Darnal playing pretty good right now. Carolina Panthers is awful. Baker Mayfield is a star in Tampa. Carolina, he was awful. Frank Wright got half a season. They are broken fundamentally there.

Sure.

I don't think Bryce Young has a chance to succeed in Carolina. But you obviously view him as deficient more than that. I think he's a Tim Couch at this point. The guy, you just get drafted to a team that has-Wrong place.Wrong place. We talk about quarterbacks. We like going through offensive coordinator and offense changes. How about a rookie with no You get rid of Christian McCaffrey, you have no weapons. You've got no line, and you've got no coaching. I just don't know how well you can do. Then once your confidence is shot, you're shot. That was today's News & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usaa. Com/insurance.

Put Klan Friday.

We have a winner of a $100 gift card to fantasychamps. Com I'm in a fantasy footballer's T-shirt. That winner is Richard the Werewolf.

Wait, wait, wait. We're literally giving this to a werewolf? That feels inappropriate.

I don't know. A werewolf is mostly normal until the full moon.

Yeah, but if they're wearing the shirt-while that happens, don't do that. You don't get an extra. There's no insurance for being a werewolf.

No. So congratulations. Richard the Werewolf is the username over at jointhefoot. Com.

Also on this very scary Friday the 13th, boys.

How ironic.

Is that Friday the 13th?

We are indeed Friday, and it is the 13th.

Is that bode well for all of our server projects over here? Oh, man. All right, we'll take a break. We're coming back with the forecast. All right, we'll jump in.

It's time for fantasy Forecast, presented by DraftKings Sportsbook.

There is more football. There's more football than last night. There's more opportunities to come back if you were on the other side of the James Cook explosion. I mean, I faced him in our League of Records. I feel lucky.

Oh, you should.

You should that it wasn't worse. Because it was 29 points. It was 29 points in the blink of an eye. And it was compounded by the fact that I had Dalton Kincaid, who got kicked in the head, and then James Cook scores the next play. I got very little from Kincaid, a lot against me. But 29 at halftime and ending with 31. I am very content. I had counted 40. At that point in time, I'm like, I've got 40 against me on Thursday night. I have no shot. I don't have a great shot, but I have a shot when he scores 31.

You always have a shot. Do not give up. Last week, to start the week, Andy, I believe you played against Lamar and someone else that just both went nuclear, and you felt like your week was over after the first game. Your week is never over after the first game. Keep fighting.

Yeah, you just need a big performance to counter-effect James Cook. We covered six matchups yesterday Today, the Saints, Cowboys, Bucaneers, Lions, Colts, Packers, Jets, Titans, 49ers, Vikings, Seahawks, and Patriots. Nine matchups in the fantasy face-off today Let's start with the New York Giants and Daniel Jones at 0-1 traveling to Washington to take on the Commanders in DC. Draftkings Sportsbook Line, Washington minus two, over under a 43. What do you Are you making a make of the fact that the Washington commanders are barely favored at home here? Is this just a product of that defense? Yeah. Is as bad as it gets?

I really do I do think that defense is as bad as it gets. All the confidence or lack of confidence talking Daniel Jones, it's going to be easier against the Washington commanders. We talked about it starting this week. Any given Sunday, any team can be any team in the NFL, no matter how outrageous it seems. And the defense is really, really bad. They just don't have the talent. They did that on purpose last year. They got rid of their defensive line so that they could end the season poorly and draft Jaden Daniels. So it's working, but it's a process that's going to take years to fix this defense. Malik Nabors, even Daniel Jones and Superflex, I'm all about those guys in this matchup.

Jaden Daniels has a rushing line right now set at 51.5 yards, which is wild.

That seems right. That is the equivalent of a 120 28.75 passing yards for fantasy football. That's why you start players like Jaden Daniels.

He scrambled on 25% of dropbacks.

He should- Look, you love the scrambles, but you love the read option at the goal line even more.

Two of those, right? Yeah. So Jaden Daniels- Which was it.

There was no option.

No, no, no.

Defense. Jaden Daniels, there's no option.

There's no read.

Yeah, there's no read. The read is, fool you again.

He's going to run it. I told you guys yesterday, my son made the rookie mistake, drafting by himself, of drafting Brian Robinson.

Drafting B Robinson.

B Robinson at four overall in a draft with his friends over the weekend. Brian Robinson outscored Béjian in week one. Brian Robinson in this game is very interesting to me. I think that-Yeah, that's fair. With them favored and the involvement that he had, I do think he's going to be a solid Rb2 in this game. Jim Daniels, you can start. Would you start Daniels over Stafford against Arizona? I would.

Yes, I would.

What about Baker against Detroit or golf against Baker or Tampa?

I'd still stick with Daniels.

I've got Daniels ahead of all of them.

Terry McLaurin, four targets, two for 17. You could definitely chalk up week one as Coach Quinn came out, said he doesn't want Daniels to run as much, wants him to throw the football.

No, you You shut your mouth. You shut your mouth, Coach.

I do believe that if he throws touch downs to McLaurin, it will also count for him.

It will. Sure, but just don't tell him. He said he wants him to have his reads, and then if it's not there, throw the ball away and go to the next down. What? No, scramble and pick up a first. What are you talking about, Coach?

Yeah, that's a little wild.

So is McLaurin on your bench this week?

Mclaurin is-No.

Mclaurin or... I guess this is too easy. Jamieson will Williams. You're going to go Williams? I would, yeah. Find me a lower... Christian Kirk or Terry McLaren.

That's where I would go, McLaren.

I'm okay going Terry there. His of the weak ones where we remind people, Try not to freak out. Terry McLaren and his usage and it looking like the same Cliff Kingsbury offense that we saw in Arizona that can be very destructive at times for fantasy football because it's uncreative and players just go to one side and He's a player who he should have a good game. He should have a good game against the Giants. If there is a poor game from Terry this week, I'm going to be really freaked out.

There are a lot of wide receivers out there that are started that I would start Terry McLaurin over. A list of the players that I would start Terry McLaren over: Jaden Reid with Malik Willis there, Deontay Johnson, Calvin Ridley this week, Lad McConkey, who I love. I would start Terry McLaren in a really plus match up here against the Giants over those guys. I'm not going to overreact to one poor week. I think Jaden Daniels can get him the ball. I think Terry McLaren is a good wide receiver. Like you said, Mike, if it goes poorly this week, okay, maybe the red flag is starting to go a little higher. But no, I think it's okay right now.

Devon Singletary last week was... They had a tough week on offense. What do you think this week for Singletary? Would you play him or Brian Robinson?

Brian Robinson. I play you, Robinson. But I do think Singletary is a fine- Yeah, he's a fine play.

Fine volume play. Wanddale got a bunch of targets last week. Are we just going to ignore that?

I am not, personally.

I'm willing to ignore it because we've been here before, but I get it.

I'm going to ignore it because so many came in garbage time, like when the defense was just letting all the little dink and dunks go. I don't expect this game to get out of hand. I'm not going to ignore it season-long, but I don't want them in this matchup.

All right, the Chargers are 1-0, taking on the 0-1, Carolina Panthers. The DraftKings sportsbook line is Los Angeles. The Chargers minus five on the road against the Panthers. The over-runer is just 39 points. It gives the Panthers 17, the Chargers 22. You sure about that Deontay play? No. He said to sit Deontay.

Oh, for Terry. For Terry.

I'm with him on that. Deontae's debut was not good. I mean, there isn't confidence on the Carolina side. You talk about it's our job to break these matchups down. I don't think we have to look very far on the Carolina side of the ball to break this match up.

I don't think you have to look at that side of the ball. Can we put- I mean, genuinely, I wouldn't start a single player on that team. I wouldn't start Chuba. I wouldn't start Xavier Liguet. I I wouldn't start Deontae. I wouldn't start Thielen.

We're talking 12-team league.

Yes, 12-team league. I wouldn't start any of those guys.

The highest drafted players in the Megla Bowl that were dropped after week one in the group of the top five, Deontae was one of the top five. Because having Deontay means you do potentially have to watch the Panthers play football.

A funny anecdote. I received a trade offer in League of Records for Tee Higgins. It It was... Well, I guess it's giving away who the manager is.

I would like to hear this for the sake of the foot claim.

But it is very funny because the offer was Deontay Johnson, plus a pick swap for next year in my favor, of course, for Tee Higgins. I'm Dude, I am not looking at all to get Deontay Johnson. Rejected the offer. The offer, the exact same offer came back with the pick swap, but no Deontay. I'm like, That's actually a better offer.

I I'm going to have to drop someone. I don't have to drop someone.

I don't have to have Deontay.

Wow, that's funny. That's where we're at with Deontae Johnson right now.

There you go.

Now, Deontae's line is 46.5 receiving yards, so it still seems like he's expected to be-Deontay or Waddale in an emergency?

Wandaile. That's easy, Wandaile for me.

Well, man, gross. I abstain. I refuse. It's neither. I would probably go Deontae there.

I probably would, too. Herbert, Bryce Young, face off this week. J. K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards are both great starts. I would put them both out there. Gus Buss is my start of the week. Beep, beep. Jason, you talked about McConkey.

I love McConkey. I'm not excited about him in this matchup.

In week one, by the way, the Panthers gave up 32.2 points to runningbacks, like fantasy points in week one, and just 21 to the quarterback position. So Herbert and McConkey are out for you? Yes.

The passing game as a whole is out. If you look at what the Panthers did last year. Last year, you could run all over them, and you could pass all over them, too. This is not a scary secondary, but they were number two in fantasy points given up to the quarterback position. Ten fantasy points a game is what they gave up to the quarterback. Elite. They were number two against wide receiver, number one against tight in. It's not because they were awesome. It's because they were unneeded. The passing game is unneeded against these Panthers.

That happened with Houston two years ago.

Yes.

Houston- Yes, it did. Had a horrible secondary and didn't give up a lot of fantasy points because you didn't need to.

Why throw when you can just run the clock out because I've got a good lead?

Let's get to next week, everybody.

The Cleveland Browns at 0-1 One taking on the 0-1 Jacksonville Jaguars, who blew a 17-3 lead against Tua and the Dolphins in week one. The DraftKings Sportsbook line, Jacksonville minus three. The over-under is 41.5. That's not a lot. It's not the Miami-jacksonville game of last week. That was a dud compared to the over-under. So we get to see a couple of former Clemson quarterbacks who have a ton of money wrapped up in their contracts, face off against one another. I The situation with Cleveland right now is tough because Amari Cooper was a huge letdown in week one. Now, part of that was his fault. He dropped a shutdown. A bigger part of that was Watson, who looked inept, who looked incapable, who looked like he lost the confidence of his team.

I don't know that he ever had the confidence of his team, but they also played against a really good Cowboys secondary. I'm just saying this right now. I love Amari Cooper this week. I love. He's got a 59.5-yard receiving line at DK. The Jaguars-So by low right now? By low on Amari Cooper. You've got a banged up Jerry Judy. You've got no Najoku, and Jacksville just lost two cornerbacks.

No Joku.

No Joku.

Dang. Nice.

That sucks. Yeah.

Swish. Yeah, I was on the border between Swish and Busted there. I was hesitant.

Was the Busted Temptation because you missed it? I don't think so. But yeah, they lost important cornerbacks that aren't playing this week.

I think Amari Cooper eats. I really do.

Now, you do know that's going to have to come on the other side of the arm of Watson.

I do.

But last year- So if he eats his Watson, is this the redemption game for Watson. Jacksonville, that defense wasn't great in week one.

Yeah. Watson is always someone because of his legs that can be okay for fantasy. I don't expect Watson to have much outside of Amari Cooper. He doesn't have many other talented players. Jerry Judy is going to be out there, but I know he's banged up. In a two-quarterback league, I think it's okay to put in Watson as your quarterback, too. But Amari Cooper should You get the lion's share of the passing work here.

Jerome Ford, he's a R-B-2.

Jerome Ford is a weekly play, and he will never feel excited.

Yes, that's fine, too.

Jerome Ford or Brian Robinson?

Okay. On the other side, Brian Robinson. Oh, Brian Robinson, the running back, not Brian Thomas, who I was thinking of.

Correct.

Robinson. Okay. But I like Brian Robinson.

It's funny because Jerome Ford is always going to not get the answer whenever we're like, this guy or that guy. But he's probably the right answer. Jerome Ford was really, really involved.

Wasn't his touch down like a super garbage time?

Yeah, but he's 75% of the snaps, all the touches inside the red zone.

Yeah, they'll be his.

While Jerome Ford himself is not the most exciting player, the high-value touches, catching the ball and inside the red zone. That's where we want to work, so he's going to get it all.

I've decided that one of my least favorite things that happens in fantasy football is the in-zone pass interference that leads to my opponent's running back getting a free touch. Oh, yeah.

You don't like that, huh?

No. What if you're on the other side, though?

Love it.

It's one of my favorite things in fantasy is when the wide receiver gets pass interference in the end zone, and I know I've got the running back. That is so much fun.

Yeah. All right. On the other side, ETN still had 70 % of the snaps. The matchup, it's not an easy one. And if there's some distribution of work, you're going to be touched down or bused potentially with these two running backs.

I'm still playing Travis ETN. I am stashing Tank Bigsby. I'm not to the point where I feel confident putting Tank in there for will the timeshare of even carries. Will that happen again? I want to see it a couple of times before I start investing in actually playing.

I agree.

Brian Thomas. Not Brian Robinson. Brian Thomas.

Yeah, you play him.

The DK line is just 38 and a half.

It's tough. The Browns defense is really good. I am so excited and all in on Brian Thomas this season. He's not going to be someone that just dominates every single week. So when I look at this matchup, I would rather have him on my bench than out there as a starter. But he's got talent. He beat Jalen Ramsey last week for a breakdown, so maybe he's just that good. Are you making sure he's in your lineup, or are you just using him as like, Well, if I've got a safer option, I'll go that route?

He's in the exact boat that Jamieson Williams is in this week, where you've drafted them or picked them up much later. You're having to make calls like Olave versus these guys.

Did we say Brian Thomas versus Terry?

Yeah, I mean, that one, I'd go Brian Thomas.

Jay, where are you at Oh, man. That is a very tough. I think I'm going to go Brian Thomas.

What about Ridley? Calvin Ridley or Brian Thomas Jr. Is one of the biggest searches because Ridley was higher drafted. Thomas later. Thomas had the better week one. I like Tennessee at home this week, so I'm going to lean Ridley.

I'm going to lean Ridley, too. Not by full confidence, though.

One catch for Evan Ingram last week. We just say, Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about that.

Forget about The Raiders at 01 take on the 011 Baltimore Ravens. Draftkings Sportsbook line, Baltimore minus 8. Over and under is 41, which is low. So that means that the Raiders are projected for fewer points than the Carolina Panthers this week. Just so you know.

Wait, what?

No. 16.8 versus 17 implied point totals.

If I could make a bet on which one of those two teams scores more, oh, my gosh.

I heard you say Ravens. I was like, What? But you said Raiders. You bet I did.

The Baltimore Raiders.

I tuned out about halfway through the word.

Yeah, no, that'll get you. I heard ra. With the Ray part being the commonality. Ravens at 25 implied point total. They are eight point favorites. That is a lot. Over the last five years, when they're eight plus point favorites, they have won 86 % of those games. They have covered the spread only 49 % of the time. So we were disturbed by the Mark Andrews usage. Mike has stuck his nose at your disbelief. Huh? Where am I putting my nose? Mike has jammed his nose.

You stop talking about my nose, good sir. Where are you putting that thing? I bite my thumb at you.

What is the expression where you thumb your nose?

You thumb your nose, yes.

What does that mean?

Like you push your- I think it's- Oh, you're like this. I think it's like an old timey- That's good audio. It's an old timey obscene gesture, I think.

You're thumbing Thumbing your nose at the doubters. That's what I was trying to get at. Yeah.

Thumbing your nose is this.

It is? Wait. No, that's from Peter Pan.

No, this makes sense.

When you put the thumb up in the five fingers, and you go, This is thumbing your nose. Is it? Yeah. No, I'm- For the listeners- I was more with Andy.

I'm putting the whole high five, and you touch your nose with your thumb, and you're like, Like the turkey.

That's thumb your nose?

I believe so.

I don't know about that. We got to get our top men on this.

The point is- All right, Kyle, get on it.

Mike jammed his nose up in, you all. Mike made Mark Andrews the start of the week. I have been on record believing that Mark Andrews is going to rebound. I hope it's this game as well. Brock Bowers had a great debut. Isaiah likely was the fab darling. You have three tight ends in this game that could get played this week, and probably will be played this week.

Yeah, Brock Bowers looked very, very good. I have no problem putting Brock Bowers right into starting lineup.

You have made the quickest about face on Brock Bowers after one week.

It's because- Of any player I think you've ever- Yeah, it's because it was week one utilization. It was right off the bat. I never doubted his talent. I've never once sat here and said, I don't think Brock Bowers is good. It's, I don't think he's going to get the ball. I don't think he's going to be on the field as much as you want, and he's got a bad quarterback, all that.

Should I read the definition of thumbing on his nose?

No, We got to get more information on this one.

I don't know. I think Jason was right.

Oh, man.

It's reading the definition. You put the thumb on your nose and you wiggle the remaining fingers. Yeah. All right. It's used by school children, and there's another nickname for it.

Okay.

Derek Henry.

Has to do with a snook.

Oh, okay. I see that phrase.

What is it, Al?

It is cocky as snook.

What? Yeah, there you go.

Okay.

What were we doing back then?

We're reading Wikipedia. That's what we're doing.

I think we should bring that back. Thumping your nose is not nearly as powerful. But I'm afraid to say it.

I did not think for a moment that asking Al to say it would work. Derek Henry. Mike, you took-I took his alt line of 70 plus because of...

This is a wager with history of when Derek Henry is at home, and they win, which the Baltimore Ravens are going to win. And will he be salting the game away? And I think he will. Sure, 30 carries. Like Harbaugh said, that's not in the game plan for Henry, but the game plan for the Baltimore Ravens, when they are up, is to run the ball out. And that's what Derek Henry is in there for.

What's a flowers role in your fantasy roster?

Dude, to be infuriating?

He's a PPR flex. That's what I think. If you are in full PPR, he should be fine. He's a very highly targeted player, but they are usually short to the line of scrimmage. Now, it's not entirely fair to look at his box score from week one and say that everything was short. He had at least one deep pass down the field that he would have had. He could have dropped it, but it was a hard core pass interference that drew the flag and moved them down the field. So you hope they open it up a little bit, but I think he is a talented player, a jitterbug that looks good. And if I'm in a PPR, even a half PPR, I think he's a good flex option.

Bauer's participation with a 25% target share led to Devante Adams having his first 120% game in a while. He's only done that six times in the last 92 games. So 19% target share was where he was at last week. Do you expect him to get more involved this week?

Yeah, I would expect the wheel to run over? Not even be squeaky. This is just a full run over, Garner Minchou in the locker room. Especially when he- And say, Throw me the ball.

He wanted Aiden O'Neill. He liked Aiden O'Neill and wanted him for the reason of his target share with Aiden O'Neill was ridiculous. Minchou is more conservative.

I will say that if Minchou moves to O'Neill, that will scare me a bit for Brock Bowers on the flip.

With a 16.8 implied point total for this team, I don't have a lot of confidence in any of the offensive pieces, including the running back.

What are you doing with the Rbs here?

Nothing. I'm not playing any of the ones.

Okay. If you picked up Madison, you're just going to watch and see what happens.

Madison, to me, is probably someone you don't have to start. I picked him up in a couple of weeks, and I think he'll be the better back in this backfield because of PPR. I think he'll probably have four plus receptions in this game. But against a good Baltimore Ravens defense, I'm not sure that those four targets are going to score a lot of fantasy points.

Yeah, I think that touch down could be distorting our view of his future on this roster, too, because 4 for 43, whatever, I don't know how often he's getting into the end zone.

It's more of a what do you believe about the true belief of the time share between him and Zamir.

I believe they want Zamir to run the ball more. They want Madison to do less. But that game script may prohibit that at times, but Madison is not very good. He's not a very good player.

I think you You said it all fantastically. Also, I don't think Zamir White is a very good player.

Maybe. Maybe true. All right, we're going to take a break, come back with the last five matchups. The Rams take on the Cardinals, both teams sitting at 0-1. Both had tough week one matchups, the DraftKings Sportsbook line. Arizona minus one at home, the over-under is 48. Kyler Murray is fine, by the way. People were a little worried that he popped up on an injury report. He's okay. He's going to be okay. We have a divisional match up here. Mike made Stafford his start of the week. I am, for whatever reason, probably wrong, based on last night's projection, but I just have more hesitancy around Stafford going on the road without Puka than I think you two do.

Well, there's two parts to this. My hesitancy is the offensive line. The offensive line for the Rams just got decimated in Detroit. They lost at least three starters, possibly four starters. I mean, it's like that line is just their makeshift now already in week two, so that's scary. However, my confidence comes from Sean McVay and the fact that he's able to scheme these things, and he's had the Cardinals number just... I feel like the Rams own the Arizona Cardinal. Because they do. And so I love... I mean, obviously everyone's starting Cooper Cup, but Cooper Cup is my literal Water Shaver 1 for the week. I think he eats, and there's no one on the Cardinal's defense that can stop him.

Stafford was the quarterback seven in Arizona last year. It was the second best fantasy performance of the year.

His average is against the Cardinals are exactly in line with what you want from a streaming type of a quarterback.

So, Kyren, put them in. If you are more desperate at quarterback, go with Mike's start of the week in Stafford. We have Cooper Cup.

Yes.

On pace for 357 targets.

That's a funny one after week one.

Yeah, it's wild. He's going to be obviously heavily involved. Demarcus Robinson, he was already There's a lot of them out there 92% of the time last week, so he's going to be fine. The question will be other weapons, their offensive coordinator came out and talked about Tyler Johnson, and that he's going to be the man. They said he is the man that's going to need to step up.

Which, dad, if you had Look, I still prefer DeMarcus Robinson, I believe, because he's a vet. He was already good, and he already had a role in this offense. Regardless of if Puka was playing, DeMarcus Robinson is one of the full-time wide receivers for this team. Now, After the game, we saw a quote come out of, and I believe it was McVeigh who said it. It was like, We have Cooper Cupp, we have DeMarcus, and then we have three other guys who are going to have to step up and fill in. That was the immediate reaction. To see now this coming out from the coaching staff of saying, No, Tyler is actually the guy. It's a deep play, but I think that you can have some confidence in playing.

Keep your eye on Wittington, a rookie wide receiver who got so much buzz this offseason. Everyone around LA was like, Did they find another Puka? He's going to get the opportunity. I don't have him on rosters. I didn't pick him up.

He's on I think that's more of a dynasty play.

Yeah, I agree. But if he hits in this week, I would go hard after him next week.

So Kobe Parkinson is my start of the week.

Yeah, you got to play him. Sorry, this isn't forcing I'm Kolbying, but I'm saying people are struggling at tight end, and I think he is one of the top 12.

Kyler, on the other side, I have this one decision, one of our popular searches on the website, the Start, Set, Tool. Kyler or Jaden Daniels. I have that decision in a league. That's brutal. I'm going Kyler at home in this matchup. I have so much more trust in Kyler as a passer, and he's going to run the football as well.

And then the big question mark in this game, the biggest storyline in this game, or for the Cardinals, is Marvin Harrison Jr.

Yeah, in the office- Kyler had 57 rushing yards last week, by the way. In the office, we all were very tuned into and hopeful of Marvin Harrison Jr. Being the player that they drafted at number 4 overall. But we were like, Hey, let's project his line. I think I was the highest at 4 for 64. So the optimism is not fantastic.

What's his line?

That's exactly where I was going to go, that the DK line is at 58 8.5, and I think I was the only one who was even slightly above it.

That's because we're terrified, Mike.

Yeah, that is.

We're trying to protect ourselves.

As far as lines go, I'm very optimistic to see this one.

Thirteen for 300.

They're changing. I I like seeing a 58.5-yard line. That says they expect him to be far more involved in the offense than he was week one, which I think the whole world does.

Do you want to hear something that is to the optimistic side for Marvin Harrison? Yes, please. The Cardinals did not play their starters in the preseason. So you have a rookie. I think he got one drive in the very first game. He never got to play again. So you're talking about game speed on an NFL field. The first experience he had going out there and putting the pads on and doing it with Kyler was in Buffalo in week one, where clearly, we would all admit that he had hesitancy in what he was doing on the field. And so I do think that that means the acclamation period is going to be a little bit different. Okay, couple of names. He just didn't get out there.

A couple of names. Marvin Harrison Jr. Or Jamison Williams.

I will take no further questions at this time.

Please respect my privacy.

I think you asked me that one yesterday, and I hopefully gave the same answer today. I would play Marvin.

Okay. And what about Tankdell or Marvin?

I feel like I want to be part of the Marvin game, so I guess I'll go there. Okay.

I'm the other two guys, but I get it.

All right. James Connor was the Running Back 10 last week. Yeah, he's in. And the Rams gave up 31.5 fantasy points last week to the Running Back position. Trey McBride led the team in targets. It was not fun targets. They were just little dinks, dunks.

Yeah, tight in getting nine targets is great. He's talented. He's in.

The Steelers take on the Broncos. Draftkings Sportsbook line here. Pittsburgh minus two and a half.

The Oh, 36 and a half.

It's gross. Barf. It's gross. Can we get the Bonyx, Mike?

Bonyx. Bonyx.

Nice. Yeah, this is not great, man. Pittsburgh's defense looked ridiculous last week. If you take a great defense like I... Is there a better one to play this week? I don't know. Like, Pittsburgh against a rookie quarterback who already threw two interceptions.

Between the Jets and the Steelers this week. Great defensive plays. I mean, goodness gracious, T. J. Watt was unbelievable last week against a veteran, Kirk Cousins.

You could not stop talking about T.

J. Watt. He was just unbelievable. Now he gets Bo Nicks.

So But from a starting fantasy standpoint, I don't know how much there is to talk about in this game. Because a low over under...

Justin Fields, I think, is fine. I would start him over because- Stafford. I would start Stafford.

Trevor Lawrence.

I would probably go Fields. Lawrence against that, Brown's defense is tough. Fields couldn't run a lot. I talked up Pat Freyermuth. He's my start of the week. I think they're going to need him when you've got Sertan on George Pickens. Last year, at least, the Denver Broncos could not guard the tight end. So I think it's a nice amalgamation of a streaming option.

I am currently being forced due to my League of Record team perishing in week one. I am being forced to play Javante Williams. Week two perishing. His line is at 40 and a half rushing yards. Do I have any hope?

Yeah. You have hope to hit 40 rushing yards with no touch downs or receptions?

He'll get some receptions.

I'll tell you what, right now, if I get 40 yards from Javante Williams, total. That's a win.

He did catch one pass for zero yards last week.

Yeah, where are those?

Sean Payton, where are those? Yeah, he's just not that good.

He'll get some.

I don't care if he's not that good. The offense is throwing the ball to the running back position.

Blake Watson is going to work himself into this rotation now in the estimate roll of four touches or something like that. And then- At a fumble? Like Jaleel or Javante? That is the question that we should answer.

I would still go Javante first.

I'm still Javante, but...

I'm going for Jaleel. He had five catches. I can cheap some points with Jaleel.

Yeah, that's fine. I will say this. When we look at the In a PPR scoring format, his receptions were worth 5.1 points.

That is a good point.

It's an argument for a point for first down league.

Highest drafted players dropped after week one. You mentioned this in the Megalibol. There was Roma Dunzé, Joe Burrow, Caleb Williams, Deontay, and Javante. Javante was the one on that list that I think is you should never be dropping a starting running back.

So you wouldn't drop Chuba?

I don't know that he is the starter. I would hold on to Chuba, but I would certainly not play.

If you dropped Javante, I would not have, but I totally understand it. This is an emotional rage drop after seeing what happened last year, hoping for better, getting week one, saying, I've had enough of this.

Cincinnati's own one, taking on the 1-0, Kansas City Chiefs. The DraftKings Sportsbook line is Kansas City minus 6. The overruner is 48. What are your expectations in this game? Because there are a lot of fantasy-relevant players, and a ton of question marks. I mean, Burrow is one of the top drop players.

On the bangles side, I would try not to play Joe Burrow. Andy, you're not into Stafford. Would you play Stafford over Joe Burrow?

I think with the history in Arizona, yes, I would. Okay.

That's where I am as well. I think the bangles are actually pretty easy. I don't want to play Burrow. Zack Moss is a fine enough running back start. I think they will run more. They completely abandoned the run last week. Jamar is in every week.

Yeah, Jamar is in every week.

I think the bangles are pretty easy this week. And Chase Brown, if you drafted Chase Brown, don't drop him just yet. You picked him up to see what happened, and you can't make full conclusions after one week of them divvying up the snaps.

Oh, I already dropped him. Just kidding, I didn't draft him anywhere.

If you need an emergency wide receiver start, Andre Yoshavas got 100% of snaps and had six targets in the game. If we were in a place where we would formally start Tyler Boyd, occasionally, you can look there with no T. Higgins at an emergency start in a deep league.

I agree, but, man, I want to see Burrow be better I am pretty much benching Joe Burrow right now as well. If I had Justin Fields in that low, over, under, I would still play him over Joe Burrow. I think Joe Burrow is going to get it together. I think he's going to be great. By week four. Yeah, sure. Maybe it'll be week four. As soon as I see him look good out on the field, then I'm going to scoop him up. If he's on waivers, I'll try to trade for him if he's got a good schedule. But I'm not starting him until he looks good.

Hollywood Brown is going to IR, which means Xavier worthy. His snap count could go up. His involvement could go up. He only ran 24 routes. He's suddenly looking like a much better rest of season play than he did a week ago. Yeah, he's- You're confident putting him out there this week against this team for the big play?

If we're talking about a double flex situation- Jamison Williams. I'd play Jamison Williams.

I would as well. Nine targets in week one. But I do think Xavier worthy is a worthy start. When you get two touch downs and you got Patrick Mahomes and you've got an explosive offense against what looked like a really bad defense. Yeah, you could play him. I would say single flex.

Jason, you're my guy, Isiah Pacheco. His line sitting at 64.5 rushing. Or does that make you feel him?

Does that make you feel good? I'm feeling fantastic about that. He's a phenomenal player.

Holmes, Pacheco, Rice are locks, and then worthy is two touch on this last week. I'd be fine playing worthy. Looking for the Shahid Jameson-Williams big play upside that defines your week. I'd play him over McLaren, personally.

Yeah.

You got to get more work, though. Yeah, he had the two touch downs. It's four opportunities.

I mean, it's one week, though. He's going to get more work, right?

Yes. Over the course of the season, I'm just not sure that it is in week two.

And what happens if every reception in his entire career is a touch down?

Then he's the greatest fancy player of all time. All right.

See, that's in the range. It's in the range. Right now, he's doing that. Chicago's 1-0, taking on the 1-0. Houston Texans on Sunday night football. That's a fun game. Get to see Stroud and Caleb Williams in prime time. Draftkings Sportsbook line, Houston minus six and a half at home. The over-under is 45 and a half. We know the Chicago defense is pretty good, but Going on the road in Houston, dealing with a trio of great wide receivers. What we saw from Joe Mixon. I was watching... Is it Slovak, their offensive coordinator?

Bobby? Yeah, Bobby.

Bobby Sloak. They were like, he got 30 carries. What's going to happen now? Can he handle that? And he was like, He's one of the only guys in the league that is built to do this. He's like, This is what Joe Mixon does. He can carry a workload that large. And you're going to get games this year where this offense is dragged down on the four-yard line five or six times in a game, and he's going to score three or four touch down.

He is the only running back in the entire National Football League in fantasy football who has been an Rb1 for the last three seasons. No one else has done that, and they haven't done it because they haven't stayed healthy. Christian McCaffrey or whatever. You've got 16 games, 14 games, 17 games played the last three seasons. So he is built for it. He is able to take a strong workload. He's going to be such a great asset this season.

It's a lot like Saquon in that regard. In the fact that they plan on... I mean, the utilization was out of control in week one. His DK line is just under 70 rushing yards. Nice. So on that side of the ball, it's pretty easy, right? I mean, Dalton Schultz, he's a D&P.

I don't expect him to play.

Consolid validation of targets for those wide receiver. Get out of there, Dalton. And Joe Mixon. I mean, Stroud, Mixon, Colin Diggs, and Del.

Yeah.

So one of the things I'm most excited to watch for this weekend is this Bear's defense, because I think they're really, really, really good. And they looked It's unbelievable. They won the game in week one, but they were playing Will Levis.

Yeah, Will Levis makes a lot of defenses look pretty incredible.

So you certainly can't say they're great yet. But if they come here and shut down or really hamper the Texans, I'm going to flip the switch and say, The bears have one of the best defenses, and not overreact to whatever disappointments from Del Dings or Collins might happen.

One of the biggest surprises maybe in week one was just Cole Komets getting not a lot of time on the field.

I mean, that was the preseason.

This was-Yeah, I mean, Jerold Everett, 61%, Komet, 48%.

This is Wadren. He just loves Jerold. He can't get enough.

Yeah, with Keenan and Odunzey, possibly missing this game. I thought about Cole Komet as a starter. This is a great matchup for tight ends. Then I was like, It might just be Jerold Ever. I don't know who it is, so I'm out. Neither one.

Yeah, DJ more as Mike's start of the week. Deandre Swift.

Consolidation of targets.

If you drafted DeAndre Swift.

Swift should be better in this game. If Keenan Allen and Adunzé both miss, he won't be.

I don't think he will either because Houston's defense doesn't give up a lot to runningbacks.

Yeah, I think that he will see targets, though, is the That's an Echler or DeAndre Swift? I'd play Swift.

I'm sure Echler had a better week one. Oh, for sure.

That's why I was asking. While I think most people will play Swift, I'll bet Echler has a better week, too.

Caleb Williams was one of the biggest drops in week one. If you're in a redraft league where you drafted Caleb Williams, and you got that performance in week one with 93 passing yards, the lowest of the week, did you move on? For the season, you don't keep him on the bottom of the bench. You're losing wide receivers this week. There's no way you can play Caleb Williams.

I'm not holding on to him and clogging a roster spot. There will 100% be great games ahead. There will be weeks that we say, Pick up and stream Caleb Williams. But I'm not just clogging. He's not an every week starter like what you would have hoped. And so he doesn't need to be on your bench. I mean, I'm dropping Joe Burrow. I can drop Caleb Williams.

Atlanta is on one, taking on the one-on-one Philadelphia Eagles, the DK Sportsbook line. The game's in Philadelphia. Philly is six-and-a-half point favorites. The over-run is 47. It was an unimpressive debut for Kirk Cousins, the statue. I watched him in practice. He still looks like he can't move.

I saw someone tweet out a picture of him rolling out, doing a big rollout, and saying, He looks to me. What are you talking about? You can't move. I watched that roll out and I went, He don't look great. It's like, That's a ginger rollout.

It's not like you can't be a competent quarterback with limited mobility as he gets back on track. We have had those. Kurt Warner and Joe Flacko last year couldn't move ever, but he could dice up a defense.

Late Philip Rivers and Matt Ryan.

But like- Did you say late Philip Rivers?

Yeah, in the later.

But no, I got It sounded like they were dead. Oh, like he had passed. Like they were dead. But yeah.

Those guys, though, can still execute play action. They didn't run a play action snap. I would be shocked to hear that was an offensive philosophy as opposed to, That's because Kirk just can't do it.

In week one, if you want optimistic spin, the utilization of their star players was fixed from the Arthur Smith era. Béjan was out there, touched the ball 46 % of Atlanta's plays. It was the highest percentage of any team. They had to face a tough defense. Kyle Pitz was out there 95 % of the time. That was new. You were very disappointed if you had put Drake into your lineup last week. But you can also look to a new offense, new coordinator, recovering quarterback, and hope that this matchup against Philly-I think it's going to take time. Well, does it take too much time to put Jake Lennon back out there this week? Because Philly's defense is not... They should give up some points. They should.

But last week, honestly, the Eagles-Packers game, I have mentally thrown almost all of that into the garbage of that field was so unbelievable relatively atrocious. Defenders can't react in the appropriate amount of time. Put those defenders on turf? Jaden Rees, he probably still has a great game. He doesn't do what he did in that week if the defenders are on turf. So for The Atlanta Falcon side, you're going to play Pitz just because of how the tight-end position rolls. Bjean, I'm going to play with full confidence. Drake London, it's a really sketchy play to me.

I'm going to start Drake London this week. You're not going to have every week be great. You're not going to have every week be against T. J. Watt. Even last season, I know they give up a lot of points to the Green Bay Packers in week one, but last season, they give up a ton of points to the secondary. I will start Drake London. I will start Kyle Petz this week.

Let's say Drake London or Chris Olabe. Olabe is against Dallas. Olabe.

Olabe is against Dallas.

Drake London or Chris Godwin against Detroit.

Your start of the week.

I've got them back to back in my rankings. I think it's a matter of if you need upside or if you need safety. Safety is Chris Godwin, but Drake London still has more upside in that.

I I hope that's true. Saquon, Hertz, AJ, Brian, and Devante Smith all out there. Devante Smith's line is at 59.5 right now.

All the offseason questions of who's the power slot player for this offense. As of right now, Jason's firing off finger guns because as of right now, it is Devante Smith.

All right. Dallas Goddard, a spot start over Goddard or Kolby Jack?

I would prefer Kolby Jack. Kolby Jack Parkinson.

Yeah, that's a coin flip. I'm going to throw Freier Muth in ahead of him.

Well, back by popular demand, we do have a little fun in store for the rest of the year.

Fantasy Face-off, presented by DraftKings.

I'm so excited. We thought it was gone this This year, and the people-The people have demanded. And we listen to the people. The Footclan is mighty. They're strong, and they're the reason-They wanted their fantasy face-off. They're the reason this face-off is here. Here we go. Runningback position in week one. Head to head to head. Loser has to spin the wheel of shame. In week one here, I guess it's week two, but our first week of fantasy phase off, I'm going with Kyler Murray at 6,600 at home for Arizona. I had Jaden Daniels in there, and I pivoted. I'm going to go Kyler Murray.

I have Jaden Daniels in there.

I have Jaden Daniels.

A few hundred dollars less, 6,200.

My running back starters, Breese Hall at 7,400, Alvin Kamara at 7,000.

Breese Hall and Alvin Kamara, those are nice.

Okay. Go ahead, Jay.

Mine are not quite as nice, but still mighty fine. I've got Jamir Gibbs out there at 6,600, and J. K. Dobbins at 5,400.

Okay, you roll. I've got Jamir Gibbs at 6,600, and then my R-B-2, it's a full sell. We're going Jordan Mason against the Minnesota Vikings at 5,200.

All right. I'll throw my flex out there. Then I have Jordan Mason at 5,200 in my flex.

I'll throw my flex out there. I've got Jordan Mason at 5,200 in my flex.

Stop copying me. I did. I copied Andy.

Who's your flex, Mike?

Is it Christopher or Christian? Christopher Godwin.

I believe that's Christopher.

The Rod- You could just go...

If you go Chris, you're probably fine.

I know, but I wanted to be a little bit formal. He is 6K. Jason started the week at Detroit.

All right.

Rod Christopher Godwin.

There we go.

My wide receiver is Cooper Cup at 7,600.

Cooper Cup at 7,600.

Let's just watch that one out, guys. You got them? Yeah. I wasn't taking no chances.

My other wide receiver is at 4,800 and 4,600. Brian Thomas Jr. Nice. At 4,800. And Greg Dorch.

Oh, man, the Dorch.

Correlating with Kyla Murray at 4,600.

Okay, I like that. For a full PPR, which DraftKings is, that's not bad. After Cooper Cup, I've got the other Cooper. I'm hanging with him. Amari Cooper. Give me that drop.

There it is. Hanging with the remiser to Cooper.

And Malik Nabors, who at 5,900, I still think has a great game. It's nice to hear that the knee is not an issue.

Malik Nabors at 5,900. At The other wide receiver is Rashe Rice against the Cincinnati Bangles at 6,700.

I was between Cooper and Jaden Daniels or Rashe Rice and Justin Fields, so I went this way.

To finish it out with tight Indian defense, I am going Tatesum Hill at 3,900 at the tight-end position, and the Bronco's defense on the other side of the Pittsburgh matchup at 2,800, looking for the classic Justin Fields mistakes in that one.

I like that, and they're home. I've got Pat Freier-Muth, my start of the week that I believe in at 4,100, and the Patriots at home against the Seattle Seahawks for 2,800.

I got Kobe Jack cheese at the tight-end position, so I'm going with the two Rams. And my defensive money that was left. Oh, brother, it's bad at the bottom, boys. The Titans against the Jets, that was about the best I could do.

That's not too bad.

2,700. Yeah, that could work out. The low-tier ones are so brutal.

So next week, we'll get our first spin of the Wheel of Shame based on this week's results. Fantasy face-off back in business. All right. That was the fantasy forecast presented by DraftKings' Sportsbook. Draftkings is dishing out NF Bell no sweat, touch down bets for all customers every game day. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use the code Ballers. That's the code Ballers for new customers to get three no sweat tokens this week. All right, that's going to do it for The Show, the fantasy footballers. Leave us a review over there on Apple podcast if you have an extra minute today. Studs and Duds on Monday. Enjoy the week and enjoy more football, and we will be back with you soon.

Good luck, Footclan.

Goodbye.

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