Transcript of Starts of the Week + Week 2 Preview, Thanks Khloe! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/17

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in.

It's football time.

We're already back.

Did you almost forget? No, no, no.

Okay.

I did not.

It is super football time tonight.

I did not.

Super duper football time.

I woke up and I was like, oh, it's Thursday, baby.

You know what we didn't even talk about on the incredible game that is happening tonight is the fact that this is the— oh yes, the Bills home opener of their new stadium.

Highmark. Is that what it's called? Highmark Stadium? It's the first game ever.

That's going to be Electric. Moving lines.

Electric. I will be disappointed if this game is not 68 to 65.

So this is the, the no wind stadium, right?

That's right. This is the, we are still open, but we've prevented the blustery winds.

Big dome accepts.

Okay.

Accepts this kind of compromise. Yes. Wonderful. Look, Big Dome reserves the right to change our opinion.

Thank you.

Because you're inspecting.

Yeah. But like if this works out where it's like, hey, y'all get your snow games, but we get that wind out of here, that absolute nonsense.

The wind, actually snow without wind would be really great.

Yeah. And rain without wind is usually fine as well. Like it doesn't get in the way of—

Sloppy.

Well, but that's what I'm saying. When it's sideways wind and it's like 15 mile an hour to 30 mile an hour winds with rain. You can't, you can't do anything. And that people are, that's not fun football to watch. I don't, I can't hear that that is fun football. You can make a great argument, the whole like, oh, I don't like watching defensive games. No, you can watch an awesome defensive game where 2 great defenses are just annihilating the other offense. You can have fun with that. You cannot have fun watching sideways rain football where no one can complete a pass. Everyone's slipping around.

I want, I want to giggle at the weather 3 times a year. I want to giggle. I want to laugh a little bit because of what I'm watching. I want some, I want something kind of funky.

I think I appreciate the beauty of a snow game.

Okay.

And if you get the wind out of there, we've been working through this for years and years. And to hear that Big Dome is willing to go and inspect the situation to consider what we've done with technological advancements and geometry and whatever physics is going on there to prevent the wind swirling.

Cleveland better be paying attention.

Well, Cleveland needs the dome.

Chicago and Cleveland, those, yeah.

They just— You talking about Indiana?

Oh yeah, maybe their new stadium's far enough away.

I don't know what the wind's like in Indiana. It's not the Windy City in Hammond, is it? We've got a great show. We've got a fun quick question, news and notes to talk about, starts of the week today, fantasy forecast. And we had the funniest thing happen yesterday ever. And so this is, I mean, I'm going to apologize. to the audio listeners already because you, I mean, you may, you can go to YouTube and see it. You can go to our socials and see it.

But lo and behold, we hired an influencer.

We did. And you might not know her, but, you know, we, we are great friends. Our partners at SiriusXM, they're like, hey, we're going to, you know, it's football season. We're going to get you up on a billboard in New York City. And what a, what a cool thing that is.

Pretty cool.

It is.

But then we needed somebody.

Some random—

Get the word out. I mean, some random person to—

Preferably an influencer.

To go and just show off the billboard.

Yeah.

And for lo and behold, somebody is browsing. I think Mike found it first.

Well, but someone tagged us.

In social media, Khloe Kardashian, who I think she's trying to show her own billboard off.

Yeah, maybe.

But it's not really.

Maybe.

If you look at this objectively, she is showing off our billboard.

She's literally pointing to us.

She's covering her own face and pointing at us.

She's cheering for the fantasy football.

So I just want to say thank you, Chloe.

Yes. Good work, Chloe.

Wait, do we got— I don't have an applause button.

Oh, I got you.

What in the world?

The people love it.

I think we really appreciate it. And, you know, she was showing off some 3 new fragrances and Jason pointed out, I mean, that's one way to refer to us.

The new smells are Andy, Mike, and Jason. So you can go to Sephora and pick up Pick up Chloe's 3 new scents.

Unbelievable.

You want to smell like a dirty basement?

Some things.

Pick up Eau de Mike.

Some things are just too funny because you just can't believe it.

You want to smell like a chef with garlic on his hands?

Is that your fragrance?

Pick up Yeson.

Oh, I don't know what ice cream smells like, but that's my, that's my scent.

I would go with yours.

My, my gosh. Have you not showered in like 4 days? No, that's.

That's Jason. Is it a little garlicky?

Yeah. You catching a few grass clippings in there from the range?

Yes.

Unbelievable. All right. Our quick question of the day from Tony in North Carolina. He says, in a buddy of mine's family league, there was a trade that got vetoed and people are really upset about it. The trade was Bijan Robinson, Oh boy. For Luther Burden and Chuba Hubbard. Chuba Hubbard. So would you veto is the question. And you're really, let me, you guys answer the question. I'm going to give the opener. The opener is that our policy of which I am, I know we still hold to is that outside of open collusion, let people be. Who they want to be. We have been around the game long enough to see trades that look lopsided in one person's favor change in the blink of an eye and be lopsided for the other person. So in almost all circumstances, we would say you never veto. You certainly don't have, you know, a commish-only veto situation. You know, if you have to have a veto, it should be some sort of like unanimous league veto. Even then we say pretty much just don't have it.

Yeah.

This is not a good trade.

It is not a good trade. Bijan is worth much more than the hope of what Luther Burden can become mixed with Chuba Hubbard. However, there's a world. I mean, Chuba Hubbard was running back 1, 2 years ago. He got all the work in week 1 and Luther Burden was drafted as a, you know, a wide receiver 2.

High potential.

And so It's one of those things where unless you know that these managers are doing something nefarious, one of these guys is giving in, one of these guys is helping a buddy or whatever, more than likely one of these guys is just bad at fantasy football.

We have the, the clues are in the question. In a buddy of mine's family league. Ah, y'all never been in a family league?

Someone's dunking on kids.

It's generally speaking, and maybe I'm way off base here, but I don't think I am. It's a family league, which that means that there's going to be people in that league who aren't like dialed in, rabid fantasy football maniacs. Yeah.

There's one that might be.

It's funny because we played in a family league for several years with our children, one year with our wives. None of us ever won that league, right? Because we, we didn't go.

We didn't do this.

We didn't do this. We didn't try to take advantage of people and be like, this is going to be so fun.

There's not 100% guarantee that the Bijan side will win this one.

Pretty close.

But it's pretty, I mean, it is pretty close. But I mean, literally, I mean, you could have injuries. You could have things that change the situation. We don't like what's going on in Atlanta, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It's probably a very lopsided trade in the Bijan manager's favor. However, if the Chuba, the person getting Chuba has zero wide receivers at all, there's a world where the net effect of this trade is better for them. Look, this, this is the type of nuance and speculation that we don't want veto power to control. So crappy trade. That's okay. Crappy trades can happen.

And here's, look, my advice. If you are in a family league and you are a cutthroat fantasy football player, if you're listening to this podcast, You want information. You want to be better. That's on you, man. You go make that trade. You, you know who to trade with.

Yeah.

Go get their players. Yep.

All right. News time.

News and notes from around the league.

That escalated quickly.

Oh, you guys were making fun of his sore thumb.

I mean, to be fair. It's got a fracture. Kevin O'Connell did say he has a sore thumb.

And to be fair, I'll bet he did because it was broken. So I'll bet his thumb was pretty darn sore.

Jordan Mason's on IR with a small fracture in his thumb. The fracture was certainly tied to the soreness.

That's 2 thumbs down for that.

Nice. Yeah, that's one thumb down. One's in a cast.

Joe Burrow told reporters—

on that note, though, before we move on to Joe Burrow, This matters for fantasy.

Yes, it does.

We'll talk about it later today, but there's going to be, you know, some waiver wire pickups. Do you pick up, you know, their rookie who's got a lot of speed?

De'Mond Claiborne.

De'Mond Claiborne. There was some talk about when you listen to Kevin O'Connell talk, he was not bullish on the rookie. Now I'm hopeful on the rookie. I liked the rookie's tape. He had a lot of speed. The thing I liked with Jordan Mason coming into this year, kind of that outside vertical zone works really well for him. I think it works pretty well here for Claiborne as well. However, the quotes were talking all about pass protection and that they're excited for his future, but he's got a lot of work to do. So you kind of have to temper it a little bit.

Can we just say, just play Aaron Jones?

Yes.

It's like, it's like we're fine. We've been trying to find the non-Aaron Jones answer in Minnesota. Aaron Jones is part of the equation here.

For the next month, he becomes an absolutely fantastic play. His legs are fresh, which we see all the time. A lot of times older players get off to a stronger start in the beginning of the year. Last year's Keenan Allen was great for about a month. If he's all alone for a month, that is fantastic.

Yeah. I mean, this is, this is going to be, the Vikings are just an interesting case all the way around when it comes to fantasy. I mean, Aaron Jones played 46.2% of snaps. That was 2% higher than Jordan Mason in week 1. Mason did have a lot of work, but I mean, it was pretty even. 12 carries for Aaron Jones, 15 for Jordan Mason. I even think they were similar efficiency-wise. So yeah, I mean, Aaron Jones is going to get a ton of work.

It's— yeah, I don't know what their offensive philosophy becomes because you can't— like, you They talked about, we really want to run more. You can't feed Aaron Jones just carry after carry after carry. So I'll be interested to see if Claiborne can get things, just get some opportunities. If you like, if you took him in your rookie draft, this is, this is the kind of break that you need.

This is your moment.

Yeah.

Yeah. It's Jason's moment too. He just spent 29 in the chop league for him.

Well, I— Jordan Mason was my running back 2 and my running back 3 was Isaiah Pacheco. So I have to have a start. There was no one out there. And also 29 fab in a— for context, we have 1,000 fab in that league.

Yeah, it's 27 more than you needed.

Sure.

I just looked at that.

Julia was talking about him and I was like, ah, and she needs him too.

Oh, there's the little— there's the chop league.

The context of your league matters.

Well, no, I just— where we got talked up, talk up a name. I mean, just start saying rumors about people you love. Joe Burrow told reporters, this sucks, that he's dealing with a back, with back tightness, expects to play. You can go back and watch the clip. He got it. And what's crazy is we saw this play live. And when I saw it, I made a comment in the studio that, oh, you don't want to see that.

Right.

Because he, he was going to the sideline and instead of going out of bounds, he just kind of like dove forward and inbounds and got absolutely annihilated. Like it was a hard hit. Then he gets up and you see him react.

Ah, ooh.

You know, like we do when we get up in the morning.

Right.

And now you have him dealing with back tightness. And then Jason and I yesterday, Mike, on the Footcast, you were heading out to your son's football game.

Driving to Tucson.

Going to Tucson in the rain. But we started to speculate like, you know, why were we so frustrated with him not going downfield? Why was it so many tight ends in the short area? Was he feeling a little bit of pain from this?

That's fair.

I don't like it.

No.

I don't want to have conversations about Joe Burrow being hurt, guys.

And what was going on with people's backs? What?

Why aren't people wearing precautionary back braces?

Yes, thank you.

I mean, like, 2 or at least like the thing you wear when you're doing like abs.

Yeah.

You're talking about the spasm epidemic going on.

Seriously.

I don't have a stretch for that one, guys.

There's no butterfly.

I don't know what to do.

No.

I think you just do the old twisty. You know what they need on the sideline? They need a good old-fashioned school desk.

Oh, because it'll pop your back.

You sit on that thing.

Oh, you just lean back.

The ultimate in chiropractic care. Elementary school desk.

Do you see a chiropractic? No, I actually just bought a chair from a school. Nico Collins, this sucks. Limited hamstring injury availability in question. for the upcoming week.

We're going to talk about it probably on today's episode. This is concerning because he started the practice fine, then got injured. Then they say that they're going to get, you know, imaging done, which you don't do that for no reason. It's a scary proposition. Like right now, if you have Nico, you have to make plans to have a different player pick someone up off the waiver wire, maybe elevate booty in your mind or whatever you're going to do.

Done. Yeah.

Look, this is not our fault.

Yeah.

Andy's the man's name.

Andy hasn't really been a booty guy, but lately, especially after the Nico injury, he's really become a booty guy.

I did sign Xavier Hutchinson in our dynasty league to play.

Yeah. It makes sense.

So, because he was available. So that's something to pay attention to. But you know what sucks is that You know, isolated hamstring injury. Sure.

This ain't his first rodeo with this.

I mean, he missed 1, 2, 3, 4 weeks, 5 weeks in 2024 with a hamstring injury. It's him and Evans are the 2 that if you talk hammies, I don't like it.

It makes me think about how good Jordan Tyson's going to be because Nico's awesome. Mike Evans is awesome. There's something about these tall guys who have like Oh, they run too fast for their hamstring. When they're healthy, they're going to be awesome.

But their Achilles heel is their hamstring.

It's their— well, it's their hamstring.

Yeah. Yeah, I get it. Yeah. Ladd McConkey didn't practice on Wednesday. We'll monitor that.

I think that is Friday.

Yeah. Wednesday doesn't matter to me on recovering from that injury.

But I heard about the timeline. They were expecting him to not practice Wednesday, to do a little bit Thursday, to be full go Friday. So we'll see if that pans out or not.

I just acquired Mike's least favorite player in the NFL in our league of record.

DK Metcalf?

Yeah.

Nice.

Just, just in this moment.

Dude, you just made a trade?

He has the lowest. He had the highest expected fantasy points contrasting with his performance, which might just be what DK is. But at the same time, what I ended up doing was I traded De'Jon Stribling and a small pick swap.

I get it. I get it.

To get Metcalf because Stribling, we just got the word that Stribling is out Probably 10 weeks. 10 weeks.

Yeah.

Ankle surgery. We were hoping, I mean, I think part of the show yesterday was like, hey, Stribling and Tyson will be out the same amount of time. No, this is a nightmare. This is a my guy that got no chances to be a my guy.

Been there, brother.

Yeah. What was it? It was Blake Jarwin.

Jarwin, week 1 ACL.

And it's sort of Jason last year in that capacity where like Kittle just sucked the life out of the beginning of your season.

But I said it on yesterday's show. I will forever be a DK Metcalf hater, but the opportunity, if week 1 is the new trend of this Mike McCarthy offense and how they're going to use DK Metcalf.

If he has to be a starter for me on bye weeks and things like that or in a flex spot, I can live with it.

It was funny.

He had 10 targets and these are like, he's getting, I mean, he's running a lot of slants, but he's getting big boy ADOT shots too.

It was funny that you're talking about his expected fantasy points and he was He had far fewer expected fantasy points than what he should have realized.

He had fewer than real. Yeah.

And then it was like, I was looking at the list.

I think it was 19 expected or something like that.

Yeah. And then it was like, when I looked at all of the players that kind of, you know, this is a great stat to look at is what was their opportunity and did they fail on that opportunity or not? And it was like, oh, there were some players who really outperformed their opportunities. JSN, Amon-Ra St. Brown. Chris Olave, Jahmyr Gibbs. It's all the good players. Go figure. They do more with their opportunities. And then it's like the players who had great opportunity but did less. It was DK Metcalf, Matthew Golden, Malik Washington, Jameson Williams. So it's like, oh, well, yeah, I see a trend.

I've got one more thing I want to talk about here. We've got a couple of things in the news and then I have another topic to bring up. But Brock Bowers didn't protect. Didn't participate on Wednesday in practice with the knee. Sam Darnold is officially out against the Cardinals. That line keeps changing. It is now 3.5 points.

Last week when we were, I think it was, was it Monday? I think it was Monday because I don't think that Monday Night Football was over. You were talking about—

Yeah, you and I were trying to guess the line.

Yeah. And, and you thought it would be, I think 3.5 is what you guessed.

Yeah.

But the line was 5.5. Yeah. Then yesterday it moved to 4.5 and now it is where you guessed it. at 3.5.

And I think some, I think Arizona is going to win the game. RJ Harvey was listed as DNP on Wednesday. Pay attention to that. That is, you know, significant.

I'll bet Jonah Coleman hit a lot of waivers this, this week.

Yeah, no, it's a good point. And then the last thing I want to talk about is a comment that came up on 95.7 The Game. They were interviewing Christian McCaffrey. Here's the quote from Christian McCaffrey. I look at some of the duos last year like Bijan and Tyler Allgeier and Gibbs and Monty. It was such a good way to keep people fresh. He's good enough to do that.

Speaking of Kalen Black.

Speaking of Kalen Black and what he can add to the offensive run game in 2026.

Interesting.

Wow. That would be awful.

I don't know if it'll be awful though.

It'll be a downgrade.

Yes.

Like he won't be, if that was in any way, shape, and form true, the McCaffrey healthy equals number 1 overall would change.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, you look at him last week, he was great. 6-point yards a carry, 8 targets.

Did you not catch that?

What?

6-point yards?

What is 6-point yards?

6-point what?

I thought I said 6.8 yards a carry.

No, no, you didn't. No, you just dropped off.

I left the 8 out?

Yeah. You threw different words out there.

Okay. Well, 6.8 yards per rush attempt.

8 targets, 5 or 6 effective talking.

Really, you know, he was— you got that? You got that, Andy? Man, way to jump on it. My point is he was going to hit those. Yeah. He was the running back 22 last week. Like it. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. I just— he'll still be even in a timeshare than he would if you're like Chris McCaffrey healthy is number 1. If he's in more of a timeshare and healthy, he's still top 3 to me. Yeah.

Top 3?

No, no.

Yes. He's like a—

oh, I forgot about Ken Bone Walker. Top 4.

Hey, rest of the season rankings. Where do you have Ken Bone Walker right now? Because I know where I've got him.

Way too high. Let me pull it up.

RB.

He's number 3.

RB 3.

Yeah, he's number 3.

RB 3 right now. I just say that's 4. McCaffrey will still be perfectly fine because he'll get a ton of receptions. B.J.

Gibson, JT?

Yeah.

Who's ahead of him?

Yeah.

No, I think I would actually like—

Stribbling out. Stribbling out means more receptions for Christian McCaffrey.

Yeah. I mean, that, that team, did you see how heavily favored they are this week? Do you know what the line is in that game?

I haven't looked.

They're playing the Dolphins, Jason.

Ooh.

Guess the line, man.

Okay. At home or on the—

I believe it's at home.

Okay. Okay.

Minus.

If you— they, they were, they opened laying, giving the Chargers 10.5 versus the Cardinals.

I want to say 9.5, but based on Andy, it was like, was it like 11?

No, it's got to, it has to be double digits.

13.5.

Yeah.

Correct.

13.5. And unlike the Cardinals, because generally speaking, that's what won't be my almost upset this week.

When you see, when you see a favor like that, you're like, just take, just give me the points. No, no, I will not be taking the points.

Also worth noting because you just brought up our rest of season rankings, Andy, where I've got Ken Bone Walker 4th. You guys have him 3rd. We have those on the site. We have improved them drastically this very recently. We are taking into account games left, strength of schedule per position, all sorts of—

All the algos have been strengthened on this side of the—

Really, really cool stuff. So, and that goes into our trade analyzer. So everything that you, all the tools, they're getting massive upgrades and I'm excited.

That includes our dynasty trade analyzer. So if you're, if you're in the trade analyzer and you're in a dynasty league, You're going to have a couple options in there to look at short-term, long-term differentials in the value of the trades because people just want to know, is the trade good? And that's just not— I'd love to say yes or no always. But in a dynasty league, we say this all the time on the mailbag shows when these questions come in. Are you trying to win this year? Are you looking for long-term? There is a little bit of a tipping of the balance based on how win now versus long-term versus youth versus, you know, all of those equations matter.

Yeah.

We're putting some upgrades into place. We're keeping startup dynasty rankings updated all in season, not just in the offseason. All of that should hit the Foot Clan this week. Just some more perks.

I would just say to be safe next week, but soon.

Yeah.

I don't know.

It's Thursday. Yeah. Okay. And for you to say that.

Yeah. I'm usually the one pushing the announcements a little too early.

All right. We'll take a break and we'll jump into our starts.

Starts of the Week, brought to you by Apple Card.

Starts of the Week for week number 2. Oh my goodness. Here we go. Quarterback Start of the Week for me. I'm going Brock Purdy in that matchup against the Dolphins.

Nice.

Amazingly, And, you know, all the respect you've been wanting to throw his way since returning from injury last year in week 11, the quarterback 3 in fantasy points per game. They're monster favorites. Let's go Brock Purdy.

I'm going to go with a guy that you guys have loved a lot more than I have in his career, Jordan Love, this week against the New York Jets. They don't have a very good running game without Josh Jacobs and they let him throw the ball. 2nd in neutral pass rate, 6th in pass rate over expectation. That was against a very good Minnesota defense. I think against the Jets, he will cook. He was top 10 last week. He'll keep throwing the ball and the Jets ain't going to scare me.

And I'm going to Dak Prescott versus Washington. Last week wasn't what we wanted, 175 and 2, plus some nasty George Pickens drops. But 18% of his passes were 20 or more air yards. That is delightful. CeeDee Lamb and George will be better. And Washington's defense, 31st in EPA per pass attempt last year. And I don't think that they fixed it.

Yeah. No signs that they have. My running back start of the week. I'm going Bae Shaw Tootin'. 16 opportunities last week, even though the snaps were pretty even with Krod, 14 rush attempts. And look, one season or one week a season does not make, but Denver, you got run on by Ken Bone Walker in that game.

Also, if you listen to the quotes from Liam Cohen, he was Waxing poetic on Bayshell Tootin's performance.

Yeah, I think it's going to be a pretty good week. I want to give people confidence after kind of a, you know, everyone's looking at the snap counts and Kraut on the field. I look, I think Tootin, I still want to see what the goal line looks like. That's the concerning part. But I think the opportunities will be there. The Denver matchup, not scary against the run in week 1. So I'm going to chase it.

I like it. You guys remember when Chuba Hubbard was able to be paired with Luther Burden to get Bijan? Yeah. Yeah. That was because he played against Chicago Bears who were 29th in yards per carry allowed, 31st in rush success rate allowed, and 30th in yards before contact per attempt. I am playing Aaron Jones without Jordan Mason. We just talked about him earlier. He's going to get all the work. He is a good back. His legs are fresh. The matchup is great. Throw him in there.

I love it.

I'm going Bill Crosby, baby.

Bill Crosby. Do something so we can make some more He was the clear lead back.

It, you know, look, he ran 13 routes for Bill. Okay. Okay. But 16 carries as well. And the matchup against Dallas, they allowed a 59% success rate in week 1 against the Giants, which is the 2nd highest rate allowed by a Cowboys defense since 2018. They so far through week 1, they have not fixed their defense. So I'll play Bill. All right.

All right. Wide receiver start of the week. I'm going to go with a start of the week for tonight. It's DJ Moore against Detroit. Highmark Stadium debut. Huge over-under. 33% of Buffalo's first read targets. I'm all about the DJ Moore, Dalton Kincaid combo to elevate Josh Allen into a stratosphere above the stratosphere he was already in. I don't even know what that is. I don't know what is up there.

There's more spheres.

Is there a third? Some sort of—

eventually there's space.

Eventually.

Yeah. Is he going to outer space?

He might go to space. I'm going DJ Moore.

At least low orbit.

All right.

I'm going to go with a guy that I didn't love in the offseason and he was terrible in week 1, but I believe Terry McLaurin has— whoa. Yeah.

I mean, Terry McLaurin, this one's a really interesting one.

He is still a very good player. Last week was a very difficult matchup and this week is a very easy matchup.

He's going to— Could have gone Stefon Diggs, man.

He's going to Dallas. I could have gone Stefon Diggs, but I think that in this matchup against Dallas with the highest over-under of the week outside of tonight's game, of the weekend slate. Terry is, is a great bounce back candidate. I think he's got wide receiver 2 upside and probably in most leagues should be started.

I got a couple nasty boys here for you. We're going huge against the Las Vegas Raiders.

I actually like it a lot.

Ladd McConkey is beat up. Maybe he plays, maybe he doesn't. But if he, if Ladd plays, He's going to be in a big puffy coat. So we'll see if that affects how he can play.

There was part of me that's like, man, if you have to wear a flak jacket for your ribs, it's got to be better for the bigger guys. Like it's a higher percentage of his body weight.

In 6 career games versus the Raiders, he has averaged 6 targets and over 11 fantasy points per game. The Chargers are big, almost a touchdown favorite. So I like him as a, if you're looking at your wide receiver room going, man, I don't, I just don't know who to play. I think Hughes is going to work this week.

I saw something that it was like 20% of his career production has come against the Raiders.

It makes sense. Yeah.

Yeah. That's wild. All right. This is my, I mean, maybe this is that button over there, Mike. Maybe I need to.

Oh, you want—

Why don't you put something on for me?

Whoa.

We're at that point already?

Put the shorts on. Hold on.

I got to—

I just think that this guy's earned them.

Just steel?

Oh no. I found it.

I just need steel.

Steel underpants.

I hate this. I mean, it feels like you have to wear them for this guy. Mark Andrews, start of the week against New Orleans.

I feel like this is just so that I don't drop them. You want to make me start them.

Ravens offense looked good in week 1.

This is a trick. It's a trap.

We don't— I mean, Lane's on IR. Zay Flowers is banged up. We don't know 100% whether he'll be 100%. And Mark Andrews still targeted on 26% of the routes, still a viable red zone target. I think we get a Touchdown this week, a touchdown guarantee. Oh, my touchdown guarantee.

Okay.

Mark Andrews, I guess first one of the year.

I guess I won't be dropping Mark Andrews. Got him. However, my start of the week is a guy who scored fewer than Mark Andrews did last week, Colston Loveland, which I hope this is like the only time this year we're allowed to make him a start of the week. And it was just like a Well, duh, of course you're going to start Colston Loveland. Goose last week, but he had the 2nd highest route participation of any tight end in week 1. There were 280 rushing yards or something that, you know, came from the Bears. They did not need Colston Loveland. I think against Minnesota they will. He's a great player. Obviously you drafted him. You're not going to move off, but I think it's going to be a good—

Well, you know what? The actual problem people are going to have with Loveland, which is why this is a great idea to bring him up again is that there's going to be people with Loveland and Goedert and they played Loveland and Goedert was on the bench or Goedert was on waiver wires and they picked him up. Yeah. Now you're staring down a guy that had 2 touchdowns and a 20-point week versus a goose.

Start Loveland.

There you go.

I'm going with Dr. Schultz, AKA Dalton Schultz of the Houston Texans. Cincinnati. I mean, that's, that's incredible. That's actually too generous probably for what the doctor puts out on the field.

It's a great start.

We talked about like Nico is hurt and we just got some news that Nico not practicing today, diagnosed with a grade 1 hamstring injury. So we'll see if he's able to go or even be a full-time player if he does play. But the doctor, man, against the Cincinnati who they've been historically bad against the tight end. And he just, you gotta, where else are you going to go with the football? I expect him to have a decent target share, much better in a PPR situation. But the doctor, when he, when, when you call on him and you really need him, he tends to show up.

Nico not practicing today.

Yep. That was Starts of the Week brought to you by Apple Card. Apply in the Wallet app on your iPhone today, subject to credit approval. Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City branch. Terms and more at applecard.com. You guys ready for the matchups?

Yes, sir.

Let's do it.

Fantasy Forecast presented by PrizePicks.

All right, week 2, away we go. We previewed the Thursday Night Football game, which we're so excited for on yesterday's show. Starting with Carolina, 0-1. It was an impressive week. There were a handful of teams that just had great week ones that ended up 0-1. And you're like, man, that's— where's the league median for you?

Yeah, like my listener league team.

Carolina 0-1, Atlanta 0-1. Game's in Atlanta, Vegas line Carolina on the road minus 2.5. The over-under is 43.5. We don't know who's going to be the quarterback. In fact, Atlanta came out and said, We're not ruling anybody out. That means we're not ruling out Cooper Rush. We're not ruling out Tua Tagovailoa. We're not ruling out Michael Penix Jr. And we're not ruling out Jack Strand.

Yeah.

You shouldn't have 4 that you can't rule out.

Giant killer.

Look, it can't be Cooper Rush. I'm trusting Stefanski here to play someone else. That's my— that's what— look, I think Atlanta will win the game if they don't start Cooper Rush. That is what I actually believe.

If Michael Penix holds out for 3 more games, he might get a contract extension.

Yeah, that's a great— Michael Penix is—

4 more games, Arthur Blank's putting him in the Ring of Honor.

He's been 110% for months, but he knows with the people ahead of him.

It's just getting better for him.

No, it's great. Tua is not practicing. I haven't seen today, but Tua did not practice yesterday. Rush did practice.

It's going to be Cooper Rush, man.

If it's Cooper Rush, can you start Drake London?

No.

It's hard.

I mean, maybe not. Maybe not is the right answer because you might not have another option. But look, I'll put it this way. If you have Drake London and Jalen Coker and Cooper Rush is the starting quarterback, I would play Jalen Coker.

Yeah, I would too.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, let's— I'll run through some names.

It won't feel good, but—

Davante— we'll get nastier, but Davante Adams.

Yeah, I would play Adams.

Uh, Rome, Odunze.

I would play Rome.

Uh, okay. Chris Godwin against Cleveland.

That's where I'd go.

No, Godwin looked bad, man.

Yeah. Godwin did look bad.

We didn't say it on yesterday's show. Takes you like, takes you don't like. That would have been in my shaky take situation, the Godwin performance.

Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I like how Kyle organized these quarterbacks. He is the Atlanta fan here and Kyle, feel free to to speak up, but he said Tua didn't want to play. Cooper Rush did not play well. Michael Penix Jr. not allowed to play. That's the way that it works right now.

Yeah.

You start Bijan.

Would you play Metcalf or Drake London?

I'd play Metcalf. If it's Cooper Rush, here's the thing.

You can't make it like I've said enough good things about DK Metcalf. You can't do that to me.

Here's what I— how's the game going to go? You have to trust a little bit the line, right? Atlanta wants to do this. They want to get ahead by a few points and run Bijan and pass to Bijan and just live that way with the defense and the running game. Do you think Carolina is getting up 2, 3 scores against Atlanta? I don't, I don't think that's going to happen in Atlanta. That would be your one scenario where Cooper Rush has to fade back and throw a pick and then throw to London and then throw a pick.

Yeah, it probably doesn't happen. I also think that—

I don't want to play Kyle Pitts.

What we've seen for the last 2 years with the Carolina Panthers defense is that they have no ability to stop the run. They are, they are world-class bad at stopping the run. We saw that against DeAndre Swift and Kyle Minogue last week. Bijan has every opportunity to be the number 1 running back on the week this week.

He was 63% of Atlanta's receiving yards.

Yeah, that's just, it's like you're great and it's broken there.

Yeah.

So I would, I would expect this to be a close game where Atlanta's focus is Bijan and try to play good defense.

Kyle thinks it's going to be a rush.

I mean, right now it almost has to be unless Tua gets healthy this week. It doesn't seem like Penix is going to be—

His name is perfect. Cooper Rush. Just rush when he's in there.

Yeah.

Bryce Young, Chuba Hubbard, Ted McMillan and Coker, Darren Waller. I— Waller is somebody I'm keeping a close eye on because the snap count should rise over time. He had a touchdown called back. I think he will be a red zone target. I just throwing that out there. Where are we with these other options?

I think it's— I think the other options are fine to play.

Jonathan Brooks, I should say too.

You saw week 1.

I'm not playing Brooks.

I would agree. You can't play Brooks until— Brooks should be rostered. You should be excited. You should be watching him. And hopefully it gets closer to a 50-50 timeshare since he was coming back from an injury. But the utilization he had last week, you can't rely on him getting a 40-yard—

He's still in boot camp.

Reception. So the wide receivers, Both Tedderole McMillan and Jalen Coker, I think, should be started as wide receiver 2s. The Falcons looked okay in week 1 on defense, but they shut down the Pittsburgh Steelers running backs. Yeah, but that could be— I'm talking about the wide receivers.

Oh, sure.

For the wide receivers, they looked okay. They were terrible last year. Last year they were like 30th. This year it was okay, but how much of that's Aaron Rodgers? So I think I'm okay starting McMillan and Coker.

Yeah, I am too.

The Minnesota Vikings at 1-0 take on the 1-0 Chicago Bears in Chicago. Vegas line, Chicago -4.5. Over-under 47.5. Jason, you made Aaron Jones your start of the week. We just talked about it. PrizePicks' projection for him, rushing receiving is 79.5 yards.

Wow.

They expect a lot of Aaron Jones involvement. And this is where, you know, it's really hard in a divisional matchup like this. to say that they're going to put Claiborne in there very much at all. I just don't think he'll have a lot of opportunities. And neither does PrizePicks, apparently.

That's the quotes. The quotes this week from Kevin O'Connell were basically that DJ Dallas will have an increased role.

And they just signed.

Yeah.

Or called up.

Sorry. And that Claiborne needs to work on his Pass protection.

Justin Jefferson, 39.1% target share in week 1. What do we think of that?

Sounds like it's fantastic. Yeah. I mean, we saw this with Carson Wentz last year. He played 5 games as the starter and Justin Jefferson was on pace for about 180 targets. He's going to soak it all up. That's partially why I don't think you can really play Jordan Addison. Granted, we don't know for sure that Carson Wentz is starting, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't necessarily I mean, the matchup is really nice for the wide receivers. So maybe you can throw Addison in there, but I think there's enough people around the league that I wouldn't do it. I would start over him.

Chicago was the 4th team ever to allow 35 points and win by 20 or more. They gave up so many points last week, but it, you know, that's the way the game went. And now they're at home. Minnesota, the good matchup. We expect it to be Carson Wentz.

We'll see.

Caleb. Yes. Swift.

Uh-huh.

Manungai.

Sure.

Yeah. I mean, the Vikings defense is stout against the run. So when you look at a guy that's going to get limited touches, you have to say, what are your odds it's a touchdown? I think they go down this week for Minungai.

Yeah. I'm not wanting to start Minungai personally. In the first 3 quarters, the split between Swift and Minungai were drastic. They, you know, Minungai had like 4 carries, I think, at that point going into the 4th quarter. It was like 13 or 14 for Swift. It was a, it was a very wide gap. Then as the 4th quarter, they pulled away, won by 20. They just gave, gave Minungai the end of the game. Now granted, he was coming back off of an injury. So maybe we will see more involvement, but Minnesota's a great defense. So I wouldn't want to start the backup running option.

No more expectations of Khalif Raymond getting a 34.6% target share after week 1.

He better not.

I picked him up a couple places. I will say this. He's who you need to keep your eyes on. Snap percentage. If Rome is healthy now and is fine, and Rome played 48% of the snaps. If he goes up and plays, you know, what we would expect and he's up at 70% of the snaps and Khalif Raymond is gone and you could see these 3 wide receivers, wide receivers being Colson Loveland as one of them, playing the majority of snaps. I think we'll see what we were hoping for. But if this week Khalif Raymond goes out there and is playing 50 or 60% of the snaps because he knows the system, he came over from Ben Johnson with He's just a good, good enough veteran player to mix in and they've got packages for him all the time. I think that's going to prove to be really problematic for Luther Burden, for Rome Odunze, and potentially for Colson Loveland if there's a 4th mouth to feed.

I think Raymond is year 10 for Raymond. I think you look at him a lot like Kendrick Bourne in week 1 for Arizona where the involvement, it was high. The defensive packages accounted for Odunze and Burden. And didn't account for Raymond to be able to have such a big role.

Yeah.

So it was, it was impressive. And what, what I love is I just like Caleb taking what's available. You're going to be a better quarterback, by the way, 72% completion percentage in week 1. That's a good start. Never had a game like that last year. That was the struggle.

10 carries, 65 rushing yards last week for Caleb Williams.

Get ready for this week. I mean, Minnesota blitzed on 74% of plays last week, the highest in the NFL. Flores I mean, Minnesota won. They didn't seem like a team after losing Kyler 2 seconds into this game that were with the deficit they had against the Packers. They could win that game. And it was the defense that stepped up. Philadelphia 1-0 taking on the 0-1 Tennessee Titans. Now what? Philly minus 7 on the road. Over-under 39.5. To me, that's, that line is actually respectful. It is indicative of Philly's offense not looking great. And in my opinion, this line would be bigger in a normal situation.

Yeah.

39.5 is a low score though.

Still a touchdown favorite on the road is— you should take that as a disrespect.

But did you watch Tennessee?

No.

Yeah.

That's so respectful of Tennessee.

Tennessee deserves to be -14.5 based on what we've seen in week 1 and most of last year. They scare the tarnation out of me and they need Cam Ward to take a step forward.

I was really blown away when I tried to trade your my guy for a different my guy.

Oof. They call it, call it, they call that a Dante Pettis. Yeah.

No, never had an in-season trade before.

That's true. No, I still believe in the, in the talent of Carnell Tate.

PrizePicks has his projection at 6.5 targets. I mean, is that enough?

Probably not from Cam Ward. Yeah, probably needs like 12 or 13 targets from Cam Ward to catch 8 of them. But I'm hopeful going forward. This is not a good matchup against the Eagles. I expect the Eagles defense to completely shut down the Titans offense. And if I can bench Carnell Tate for, you know, another, you know, wide receiver 2 option, I would.

Carnell, wait and see. Yeah, don't play him.

I'm not playing any Titan. You can't make me do it.

I was going to say it and I'm sticking to it.

You can't make me do it.

If I was to start one, it would be Carnell Tate still. I think he has the ability to take any play to the house. The running backs is, you know, you thought the disgusting late round pick of Tony Pollard is like, well, at least he's a starter. He's a starter. I mean, they were a 50-50 split. The routes, the snaps. You know, it was— Tajé was on there just as much as Tony Pollard was.

Dallas Goedert is the— he's got one player, Davante Adams, has more receiving touchdowns since the beginning of 2025 than him. Do you realize this? This is not— this is, this is a long run here. I love, I love Goedert as one of the breakout guys this year. I mean, I know you've talked about Kincaid. There's some other guys that may have staying power. I think Goedert does. Dontavian Wicks spot start.

Yeah. Absolutely.

Vailly or Wicks?

Oh, between the two of them.

I'm going to go Vailly. I think I'll get more targets and I could see this turning into a rushing game for the Eagles.

Pat Bryant or Wicks?

Wicks.

Okay.

Yeah.

Wicks's numbers of like routes and snap count and everything like it's strong. It's, you, the targets weren't there. As much as you would like if you're a Dontavian Wicks truther or a player. But step one is he's out there.

Yeah. 94% of route participation.

He is there too. So that has a lot of value. We'll take a break. We'll talk some more matchups. Pittsburgh 1-0, New England 0-1.

Of course.

New England minus 5.5, home opener for them, over-under is 41.5. Last year it was 21-14 in week 3. Pittsburgh won that game.

Goodness gracious.

The defense.

So the Patriots lost to the Raiders and Pittsburgh? Yeah.

I mean, the defense is—

Pittsburgh won the division.

Yeah, they're good.

I, yeah, but I was just, it's weird. Like when in the hindsight you'd be like, well, that was the Team that went to the Super Bowl for the AFC. That's gross. They had that schedule. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, oh no.

Oh no. Andy's almost upset of the week.

I, they almost lost to the Falcons.

Yeah, I don't know, man.

With Cooper Rush.

Look, I, the second I hit that button, the Falcon was nodding real quick. Are you on board with that one, Falcon? I dig it. Yeah. I mean, I, I don't like it.

You don't like that the Falcon's on board? I get it.

No, I mean, I, I don't like that I pushed that button. The over-under is very low. Okay. That's, that's number one. It's a pretty big line. That's number two. You lose AJ Brown. And from the moment that he went down, I didn't see cohesion in the offense. I didn't— I think there's a lot of pressure on Drake May this week. A lot.

Yes, I would agree with that.

And you're at home. Pittsburgh is hard-nosed. They play tough. The defense is formidable. In week 1, I know it's just one week. I mean, they gave up 7 points to— I mean, it was Atlanta, right? It was Drake London did nothing. You know, I don't want to say, you know, you have TJ Watt. He had the big defensive play. I just think it'll be a close game. They might not win it. That's why that button says almost in it. I get away with both. But look, this game is, it's an interesting one to me. And Drake May right now is an interesting start decision for people because you lose the oomph, right? You lose the big AJ Brown upside situation and you look at it now and it's like, my gosh, why did you get rid of Ke'Shawn Booty? That's what I'm looking at with the Patriots. It's like, Ke'Shawn Booty was your big play.

Yeah.

It worked great with McDaniels all the time. And instantaneously you lose AJ Brown and you ship this guy off for nothing and you need somebody else to step up and you're telling me, oh, it's got to be Romeo Doubs and Matt Collins and Demario Douglas. If there was ever a time, Romeo, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? You were not there last year, last week.

The utilization of Romeo Doubs coming off of the contract was Very head-scratching of like, that feels like there's information that we don't have access to because you're like, how do you pay a guy that much money? Then you're playing him like half of the snaps. And I was, there were, there's some social media whispers of Kyle Williams getting more play this week.

Yeah. I don't, I think that's good for the Patriots.

They need electricity.

They need something that pops.

Yeah. The question with Drake Maye.

Not Pop Douglas because that's not electricity.

No question with Drake May is like, who, who would you start over him?

A couple of guys for sure.

I would start Purdy. I would start Jackson Dart. I would start Jordan Love.

I would start Goff tonight.

Yes, absolutely. Those 4 guys, I would start over May. I've got May as my quarterback 12. So he's, he's still in there. But—

And don't hear, don't hear us saying that Drake May sucks for the rest of the year. This is awesome. This is matchup. This is like low over-under after losing your top receiver and not seeing anything good last week. Just something to be cautious about.

They do get Travion Henderson back. He was a full participant in practice on Wednesday. So a Wednesday full participation means he's almost certainly playing this week coming off of an ankle. I would expect that. I don't know if he'll have limited snaps based on coming off the injury or variables hatred for him, either one. But they need him. They need some, like you just said, they need juice. They need electricity. They need explosiveness in this offense.

If you had to play one wide receiver for the Patriots as a spot start, what's the name?

Disgusting.

It—

let's put him in the flex and you're allowed to say Hunter Henry too.

It should be Romeo Doubs.

But how do you not go Mack Hollins?

That's, that's the craziest part. It should be Romeo Doubs.

Yeah, I think I go—

I think it's, I think it's Mack.

I think I go Mack as well. Farts.

Drake May completed 3 of 8 attempts beyond 10 yards in week 1.

When we—

and 3 picks.

When we ascertain who the number 1 wide receiver start would be and it's a Mack Hollins with farts, I see you're almost upset.

Okay.

It's— this offense does not look like they are primed right now. You're going to need a lot from Rhamondre or you're going to need something special from Travion. They've got to do it in the running game, I think. And, you know, that's tough. Last year, at least, the Steelers were the 2nd most difficult matchup for running backs.

And yeah, and let's say in week 1, Bijan beat the crap out of the Steelers with receiving.

So we do generally see the running backs take over for absences in the secondary. So Rhamondre Trevo might get targeted a lot. The one thing I'll say is that Vrabel's teams generally bounce back from defeat in a good way. So maybe they get it done.

Are you starting Rico or Jaylen Warren?

I'd pass on both this week.

Agreed. I would try to as well.

You know, the—

It's worth noting Rico had more snaps, but less utilization from Jaylen Warren. That is such a confusing situation where I'm like, so who gets the work this week?

Watching them, they were, they were both bad.

Oh yeah.

Like Warren was 10 for 46. Rico was terrible in the, in the second half. Like Warren ripped off 2 decent runs. But the majority, you know, 6 targets for Jaylen Warren, 5 for 27 versus 2 for 6. But most of Warren's reception yards came on a trick play.

Green Bay's 0-1. They take on the New York Jets who are 1-0. That is a sentence I wasn't sure we'd say. Ever. But there you have it. Vegas line, Green Bay on the road, 3.5-point favorites, over-under 44.5. It's not a huge line. It's just not a huge line. It's not.

This, this game is outstanding because like—

Al won't work for us. He will not be here.

The Jets, the Jets could be 2-0.

I know.

And which means the Packers are 0-2. Like this would be—

that's not happening.

Look, I'm going to, I'm going to give some credit while we can. This was our policy putting on the Cardinals gear. I'm going to give credit to the Jets in week 1. I'm going to give credit to Geno Smith for completing 79% of his passes.

That was old school Geno.

I'm going to give credit to Frank Reich who had the 5th highest play action rate in week 1 and did some things that actually seemed smart.

Get some motion, Bruce.

Put some players in positions to succeed.

He had a play where he had 5 tight ends on the field.

Yeah. I mean, I give credit to their offensive line. How many sacks did they give up?

No, absolutely.

Zero.

The time that Garrett Wilson had or that Geno Smith had to throw the ball was outstanding compared to what this offensive line was last year. They put a lot of investment in it and there was a hope. You always have these teams that are like, ah, they had a bad offensive line. They tried to improve it. Hopefully it's a little better. One week only. And you know, They were against the Titans, but the offensive line looked massively improved.

Geno was what, the most pressured, most sacked quarterback last year in Las Vegas? That must have been a relief fading back to pass and having a chance. Play Breece Hall. He had a great week 1. Garrett Wilson, yes. Keep your eye on Kenyan Sadiq.

And that's it.

And that's it. On the other side, Christian Watson, what a week. I think you can play him and Matthew Golden unquestionably. You know, Golden led the team in routes and target share.

Golden is such a good trade for target.

I think so.

I agree.

I mean, you've got what we saw in week 1 was the hope and he did enough to where it's like, hey, he did stuff with the ball in his hands. Last year he was a halftime player. He played around 50% of the snaps in his rookie season.

12 targets.

And this year, week 1, 82% of the snaps. He led the receiving corps in snaps. So bright days are ahead for Matthew Golden.

What about for Marshawn Lloyd?

Oh man, you hope that he shows something here, right? Like last week, very difficult matchup, looked outrageously bad, jumped around behind the line, just looked indecisive, bad vision, nothing good. Like I didn't see anything from Chris Brooks or Lloyd to make me believe. However, they were going up against a really, really elite defense and this week they get the Jets. So I wouldn't be surprised if Marshawn Lloyd rips off, you know, 2 or 3 20-yard runs and looks outstanding. So I think we just got to pump the brakes on the judgment from week 1. I think you could still probably start Marshawn Lloyd because he's going to get carries in a decent matchup while they're favored.

44% snaps compared to 55% for Chris Brooks last week.

Yes, but 13 carries compared to 7 carries. So when Lloyd's on the field, makes me nervous at a minimum. Yeah, for sure.

I'm not going to get that. But the carries were for Marshawn Lloyd. The routes were—

Chris Brooks, I don't believe, ran a route.

Huh?

I don't think he ran a route. Did he?

Chris Brooks?

I guess he had 2% target share last week.

Yeah, no, he ran some routes.

One target.

Just saying, like, it was, it was split. It's if you drafted Lloyd, that's not how you wanted the season to start. But I think I think it improves for him.

The Cleveland Browns, 0-1, taking on the 0-1 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Tampa Bay, 8.5-point favorites. Over-under is 41.5. Give me the Bucs and the points here. Jason went on a tirade flushing the whole Browns team down the drain yesterday.

It was a dirty bowl. It'll get better in week 3 with Shedeur.

It's going to be Watson again. Do you start— and let's make this one quick and easy.

There's no—

you start a Brown?

No.

Okay. Baker Mayfield, probably not tempted to start him this week.

I'm perfectly fine.

You're fine with it?

Yeah.

Would you play Goff or Baker? Goff.

Yeah, I want Goff. But I'm just saying, like, Baker is still— he still has high potential with Jacksonville. beat the crap. Like Trevor Lawrence was awesome. They beat the crap out of the Browns. And if they get way up, it's because Baker was a part of it.

Bucky, Abuka, log out. Are you, are you just like benching and watching Gainwell and Godwin? Um, it was more than the actual output for Godwin that concerned me.

Yeah. He didn't look spry.

4 for 40 last week. On 4 targets, 86% of snaps, 6.3 fantasy points. To me, I'd rather watch and get a little more upside somewhere else, but maybe like I'd play Vallee over Godwin.

Yeah.

Wow.

I agree. Yeah.

You must hate Godwin.

I was just trying to give you a win here, Mike. Trying to give you one. Well, my win was I started Vallee last week and won and it was awesome.

Yeah.

New Orleans 0-1. Speaking of Vallee, taking on the 1-0 Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore minus 8.5. So, you know, you have a situation here, same line, these 2 games.

Really?

This one I saw this morning and I was like, wow, that is—

Respect what they did in week 1.

Geez. That's crazy. 8.5 over a touchdown. They just played.

It was a whooping by Baltimore in week 1 and the Saints, the Saints had a nice comeback. It looked real bad for a while. I do think it's a pretty big line.

Well, it looked They did have to have a comeback, but I mean, number one, like, Shuck was like, I just horrifically bad for the, for the beginning of the first half, completed 46% of his passes, 85 passing yards. But like, that game was very tight for a long time.

Yeah, 7-nothing, 14-nothing.

Like, the Saints defense, for— they were holding as long as they could before, before the Lions started to put up points. And that's, I don't know. 8.5.

It's a tough environment to go to Baltimore and play this team, I think, for Tyler Shuck. There are certain situations I think that are maybe more conducive for him, but an outdoor game in Baltimore, I guess that's the viewpoint. I don't know. The over-under is 46.5. That puts Baltimore at the 4th highest implied point total of the week. It was an exciting week 1 for both of these teams and the players therein. I mean, Olave and Vele were great. Shuck ended up great. The only, the main situation I think of kind of some concern was that Travis Achane Jr., you know, week 1 had a lot of opportunities. It didn't turn into a ton of fantasy points, but, you know, kind of similar to maybe Achane, the real Achane's week, like Achane Jr. and Achane were very similar in like a lot of opportunities, but not a lot of production.

Yeah. But the, it was only 9 carries. But 9 targets is— that's his floor is okay. And there'll be bigger ceiling games. I'm not saying I'm a— I'm not a huge Travis Achane Jr. fan or supporter, but when you're that utilized, things will improve.

How worried are you about Zay Flowers? He did not practice on Wednesday. He did not practice today.

I have felt like—

He didn't practice at all? Non-participation?

Non-participation.

Yeah, we're seeing that come through. I had figured he'll sit at least a week. Like, thankfully it's not a long-term thing, but I would expect him to be out.

So Andrews start of the week, that's part of the why there. I mean, Mike and I start of the weeks at tight end are exactly the same.

Yeah.

Nico and Zay Flowers questionable to play.

Injury opportunity.

Exactly. Derrick Henry, please do. Lamar Jackson. Uh-huh. Rashad Bateman, if you're in a pinch, 8.5-point home favorite. I mean, he's going to catch the ball.

The wild thing about Zay Flowers being out is—

You should be able to just say that.

Yeah. But I have, I have no idea. I don't know if it, if I don't know if it's going to be like DeVonta Walker plays heavily in this game and gets some targets. Elijah Suratt has felt buried.

How is this an 8.5-point line?

Derrick Henry.

Yep. And Lamar. Yeah. I mean, just the—

But it's wild. Rashad Bateman. Played so many snaps last week. So many snaps. And I believe he had a target. Let me confirm. Yeah. He didn't. One target, no receptions. Played 78% snaps.

He should be okay this week. He really should. I think he probably will be. 27.5-point implied point total. And you've got Mark Andrews running around. You've got no Jaylen Lane anymore. I would love, I would have loved to be able to come in here and say Jaylen Lane breakout week after Flowers misses, but I think Bateman will be fine. I really do.

That's what stinks is like Rashad—

What did I say? Jaylen? Jacoby Lane. Sorry.

Is like Rashad Bateman. He's got to be up on the Mount Rushmores of like, it should work.

Cardio king.

Yes.

I would never trust it.

It's what I would never— I agree with Andy's analysis of it should work for my teams.

I'm not doing it.

If you give me 97% of snaps with Lamar and 2 guys missing, I think you're going to be fine. I really do. I will be the guy attaching my name to Rashad Bateman.

I totally think you should be.

Right.

Yeah. But Jay, are you going to start Rashad Bateman?

No, I would not start him.

I'm not either.

You know, there was more snaps than he's played in any game last year.

Bateman?

Yeah. I just looked at it.

And no catches.

No. But I mean, you got to trust some of those underlying, the opportunities.

Yeah, I don't know. Rashad Bateman, I don't know. He keeps doing it to us.

Man, I just feel like this line is mind-blowing to me. I— the Saints, they've got to stop Derrick Henry.

Good luck. He faced— Derrick Henry faced the stack box on 50% of his carries last week and ran for 144 at 6 a carry.

Only 50?

50% of the rush attempts.

Dang.

But I mean, Declan Doyle is doing good work. You got, you got stack boxes against Henry that low.

I mean, I feel like 50% is a lot.

No, no, I don't think so. I can't imagine historically that's what he—

50% is very high.

Is it? Okay.

Very high.

Okay.

Yeah. Tyler Shuck, you're probably not messing around this week or are you playing him?

I'm very curious about this. The Ravens, I mean, last week they obviously dominated against the Colts, but were I'm not sure how much of that was the Colts or not. I probably won't be playing Shuck, but I'm very excited to see how, how he fares in this matchup. I do think Olave is a must-play and Vailly is one of those, you know, break glass in case of emergency. I would play Vailly over Rashad Bateman personally.

Vailly or Caleb Douglas?

I'd play Vailly.

I'd play Vailly.

Vailly, Vailly. Cincinnati 1-0, Houston 0-1. Vegas line, Houston -2.5, over-under is 46.5. 2 guys that dominated the news and notes today, the Burrow back injury, the Nico Collins injury, which we did have an update. He's not practicing on Thursday and it was diagnosed as a grade 1 hamstring injury, which is—

it could be worse.

There's worse grades.

Yeah.

I mean, like it can spell a few words.

I get it.

Thank you. Swish.

What?

Sorry. No, I'm sorry. That's just the sound that came out.

Yeah, it was natural.

Okay.

We didn't try to.

Yeah.

Like I feel like we got to get like our billboard back up on the back screen real quick or something to fix that situation.

All right.

I need a shower.

I retract, Chloe. I retract my joke.

That's not what got us on that billboard, Mike.

No, no, no.

I'm just saying that joke wasn't, or maybe it was. All right. Burrow, Brown, Chase, and Higgins. Start them all if they're active. Absolutely. Just understand that I think week 1 was a little bit of an anomaly for this Texans defense. I would say that I won't be surprised if there's a bit of a tempered output from these guys again. It's in Houston. And that defense is very good and not as bad as it looked in week 1 where Josh Allen managed to carve them up.

Yeah.

So can Burrow with a hurt back carve up the Houston defense? I don't know.

That's the question to me is, is Burrow's health matters a lot for this game because this is a tough defense. I mean, we walk— we went into last week talking about you're going to start Josh Allen because he's Josh Allen. But reminder, the last time Josh Allen played against this team last year, he was terrible. I don't, I don't remember if he even scored 10 fantasy points. It was, it was hard sledding against this defense. Now obviously goes in there with, you know, the new scheme and a healthy Dalton Kincaid and DJ Moore and dominated. But if Joe Burrow is hurt, That version of him, I don't know if you can carve up the Texans. That is—

Just saying it might be a little slow for week 2. I would try to find a different option than Burrow. I would definitely try to find it because you could get knocked out of the game. You could have a reduced performance. You didn't love what you saw in week 1 regardless.

I have Burrow outside my top 12, which feels weird. It feels so weird.

Yeah. Let me, let me see where I have him because I mean, Purdy, I would much rather play.

Yeah. All those names we said we would play over Drake Maye, I would play over Joe Burrow. I think the biggest— not that people have to question—

I'm not quite where you guys are. He's still, he's still a QB8 for me. Okay. Yeah. Like Purdy is higher in my ranking.

So I have that one. I have him at 9. Would you play Burrow or Herbert against Las Vegas? Because that matchup is juicy. Potential. Potential.

I'd play Burrow.

We talked about Dalton Schultz already in this game. Start of the week for Mike. We, we talked about the wide receiver pivots. I mean, it could be Ke'Shawn Booty. It could be Dalton Schultz. It could be Xavier Hutchinson. It could be Jaylen Noll.

Jaylen Noll is a— I think Jaylen Noll is a, like, a good weekend stash type of a player.

Monty, 3 touchdowns last week. Can he repeat the—

No, he can't.

The madness. And then Woody Marks, 50% of snaps and was very efficient on his touches. It wasn't Like Monty took the headlines. He got the touchdowns, but just giving, you know, 4 point— what was he last week for Woody Marks? He was 9 for 42, 4.7 a carry, 1 target. It will be a committee situation.

The percentages will change. Like situationally, it's like, it's very close to what happened in Jacksonville last week where it was like, okay, the snaps were really split. Tuton got the work, but it was like—

Yeah, Woody was 51%. I think they both were.

And it's like Tuton was good on his opportunities. He just didn't score any touchdowns. Where, so David Montgomery with a multitude of touchdowns is this, and this is not an anti-Montgomery. It's just a, he won't be what he was in week 1. I don't think.

Do you care about Mike Gesicki? He's 5 for 78 in week 1. I mean, I looked at the—

He is the wildest player.

The box score last year, man, he played all the time and he just, he only had good game last year.

He, and he was barely on the field.

Yeah. He just was, which is exactly what he was last year, by the way. His snap count percentage last year was 38%. Week 1, it was 33%. I would not chase that.

I wouldn't chase it right now. He just, he is the guy.

Fluke.

When, when Ja'Marr and Tee Higgins, like when one of them misses, you're like, oh, Mike is sick. He's going to see some targets. And apparently last week it was When those 2 guys are deleted from—

they're strapped.

Yeah, they're seatbelted out there. Then Mike Gesicki is just going to eat. It's weird.

Anything else from this game, Jason, you want to touch on? Are we good?

Not really. I'm just hopeful that Joe Burrow is healthy enough to take this fantasy star team and not just disappoint drastically this week against the Texans.

Yeah, at least they have Flacco.

They do.

That was Fantasy Forecast presented by PrizePicks. Guaranteed picks drop in the app every Monday. PrizePicks, run your game. Tomorrow we'll recap the hopefully great game from tonight. We'll talk more matchups. We'll get into the Fantasy Faceoff and the first Wheel of Shame of the year.

All right.

It should be a good time. Thank you for tuning in. If you want to be a part of the Foot Clan, head over to jointhefoot.com and learn about all the premium in-season tools we got for you.

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