Transcript of Starts of the Week + Week 3 Games, Tucker 2x4! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/24

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

Ah, welcome in. Huh? It's football time.

Yes, it is.

Week 3, kind of.

No, it's real. It's absolutely real. I refuse to believe that the first 2 weeks of the Falcons are prescriptive for the rest of the season. I don't think Pua, which in this version of Pua is Michael Penix tonight, I don't believe he's fixing everything.

As of right now, Jason.

Yes. There's just, it's just a moving target right now for the Falcons of Like this entire offseason, we're like, like they brought Tua in on purpose.

Yeah.

Oh, and he seemed to replace the guy we're happiest starting tonight. That's the moving target I'm talking about.

And when that happened, let's say right before preseason started, it was like we had watched enough Penix to be like, yeah, Tua is significant. Tua is not good, but he's significantly better than Penix. Then to have played preseason was like, oh gosh, he's significantly worse than Penix. And now, but, but still both should be significantly better than what we've seen.

And then remember, Michael Penix was medically cleared like over a week ago. He was just like, I'm not ready.

Ramping up, man.

I find it as well.

That's—

this is football time. It's going to be a fun game.

We have—

all right.

So we got Packers. We got Falcons. I will just say this. I don't know.

There might be a lot of points. It's very possible.

I don't know if you have thoughts on this. I am just always amazed at, it's like the opposite of, what is the phrase about perfection and good? Like the enemy of—

The enemy of good is the enemy of great.

Good is the enemy. I just, Kirk Cousins would be the best quarterback of the Falcons.

Yes.

Right?

For sure.

Kirk Cousins would be the best quarterback for the Vikings.

TBD.

Probably.

Probably.

Probably.

I mean, probably.

Probably.

You go back like Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Yeah.

Was the best quarterback for probably half the team. Baker Mayfield was the best quarterback for the Browns.

Yeah.

Right. Like we do this over and over and over again where you move on, you get bored, you get— you want to aspire to Mahomes.

Mm-hmm.

Or Brady and you will never, I mean, that is a microscopic chance as a team. And Flacco would be the best quarterback for half the teams in the league a few years ago. But he's a backup.

But isn't it like, wouldn't you say it's worth taking the shot at hitting that greatness even though it's a low odds shot just because you know that with Kirk Cousins or with that older version of Flacco or, you know, you're not winning a Super Bowl.

So I don't know if that's true because Flacco's won a Super Bowl. That's why I said the older version of Flacco. But I think the older version of Carson Palmer took the Cardinals to 14-3. The older version of Kurt Warner took them to a Super Bowl. I just think it's funny where, you know, it's 11 on 11. There's a lot of other pieces on these teams. And sometimes like we don't often say when the When the, when the good quarterbacks there were not like, man, that it's that one linebacker there, that one linebacker away from winning. But if you have a bad quarterback, we end them on this show. It ends everybody.

Yeah.

The Cooper Rush ended Drake London and Kyle Pitts. It's just funny how—

Well, I guess he did.

Yeah. That's, yes. That's, that's, we saw it happen. Yeah.

You can do that.

You can delete a team. But Kirk Cousins won't delete a team.

Yeah.

Right. No, it's, yeah, it's just philosophical money. We watched it for so long, but we got a Thursday Night Football game. We got starts of the week today. We got news to talk about.

Oh yeah. I just like when football's on.

It sounded like electricity going through your body right there.

Yeah, it's football.

Which we had, we actually had some of that rain stuff in Arizona this morning.

We had a boatload.

We really did. And there was a moment.

Lightning and thunder. We had like 3 or 4 brownouts this morning.

Is that from like the— aren't there tropical storms going on right now? Hurricanes on the Pacific?

There's a nor'easter or something.

Something. I don't know.

We don't really know.

Yeah. Us desert folk don't know nothing about that.

No, we're desert men, but—

We're doctors, not meteorologists.

You know?

We know metal.

Oh yeah, we do.

And we know butterfly stretches.

And law.

But anyways, let's just get into the news.

News and notes from around the league.

Well, why not? Jonah Coleman didn't practice.

Oh, come on.

Probably the number one waiver pickup for about half of the leagues out there. And he didn't practice. And J.K. Dobbins and RJ Harvey were limited. So they literally practiced more than Coleman.

The news was all over the place, man. It was. I saw so many. Jonah Coleman's not going to practice. Oh, we saw him. He was, he was practicing. You're like, no, he definitely was not practicing. It's like, this is— get it together.

We could do it with our eyes.

I know.

Well, that's what they allegedly were doing.

Did he disguise? Was this— he had little scratch marks?

I don't think Coleman can hide. So you can't hide that body shape.

Official injury report on the Wednesday practice. Jonah Coleman did not participate. RJ Harvey and J.K. Dobbins were limited participants.

I have a dynasty league that I am so injured and empty on running backs where Tyler Bidet started to look good. These 3 guys are not, not healthy. Speaking of not healthy, this is of great concern for a number of reasons. I want to get your thoughts. Puka Nacua did not practice on Wednesday. Sean McVay went on a radio show. If you watched it, I mean, he was very candid. He's just like, he was, yeah, he's, yeah, he's not making great progress.

You got to do the McVay voice.

I don't know.

I was trying. I like it. I like it.

It's a little bit higher though.

Yeah, that's true. He's not making great progress.

He's not making great progress.

Yeah. And if you have to— anyways, look, if you have to come out and say what injury they don't have, it says something to me. Okay.

But it's also— it is good news.

He doesn't have a torn ACL, guys.

It is good news.

And they said it's not the hernia.

He came out and said it's not a hernia. He was very definitive. It's not a hernia.

It's not a hernia.

Now, but he's not making great progress. And like we have Is there a difference between sports hernia and him ending up with an abdominal surgery? I don't know. I, yeah, I don't know, guys.

I mean, my point is, let's say it's a groin injury since he said it's not a hernia injury. If it's a groin injury, that could take multiple weeks. You cannot make progress right now and be totally fine. Miss a game, miss 2 games, miss 3 games, and then you're back and you're Puka sensational. The hernia was the big fear and it's for him to come right out and say it's not a hernia.

Yeah, which means I guess people other than me were questioning that. He said once you get to a certain point, he's going to allow it to heal. And I think you'll be pretty good moving forward. Look, there are players in which an injury concerns me more than other players. And Puka, the fact that he's dealt with some things on and off in his career, it does concern me. I don't think you're going to see Puka Nacua on the football field this week. And I don't know how quick you'll see him back out there. Zay Flowers didn't practice on Wednesday. That's unfortunate. You wanted to see him back in the swing of things.

Preferred. They are—

Do we have an update yet today for Thursday?

I don't think so.

I have not seen, but a reminder, the Baltimore-Dallas game is in— it's an international one. It's in Brazil.

Yeah.

I mean, Mike, you made the point that it's not on the same field, I believe.

Okay.

We can double check that.

Are all fields in Brazil the same?

I don't know.

Okay.

I don't know. I don't know how they're—

Your point being that if they were going, they don't want to take a risk potentially with Flowers reinjuring himself if they don't feel comfortable with the playing surface.

Correct. Which if it's anything like when we saw, what was it, Packers-Eagles? And it was Packers for sure because it was Jayden Reed just destroying the world because no defender could get any sort of grip off of the ground. So which is, if it's like that, you don't want to do with a hammy playing.

Brock Bowers limited on Wednesday, could be back this week. Are you just right back into the lineup if Bowers is out there?

When he starts, I will definitely be starting him. I am still skeptical even though he's practicing limited this week. We'll see if he's actually active.

Travis Achane Jr., despite getting no work, limited on Wednesday with a hamstring. You could see Alvin Kamara a lot on Sunday. Mike Evans did not practice on Wednesday.

Honestly, if for some reason ETN was downgraded, if he didn't play, I feel like Kendre Miller is the better option to go with.

It might be. I think you could get some 1-yard passes to Kamara. Mike Evans, I said, didn't practice. They're going to take it easy with him. I don't worry about Wednesdays with Evans. I worry about Thursday, Friday. Aaron Jones did not practice on Wednesday. Okay, sure. Why not?

That one is troubling.

I mean, I thought about— I had a waiver claim in this morning to pick up De'Mond Claiborne. I ended up withdrawing it. I don't think the team trusts him. I think DJ Dallas will get more work.

Yes.

I think it will be annoying. And we still don't know if Jones will be out. But of course, you know, we lost Jordan Mason.

If, yeah, if Aaron Jones is out, it will be between those 2 guys. I agree. I think DJ Dallas is the more trusted player, will play more snaps. I think if I had to throw one of them in a lineup, I would actually put DeMon Clayborn in over DJ Dallas simply because I think—

Then you wouldn't be starting DJ Dallas. I see what you're going with.

Yeah. You just have more explosive upside. It's a player who's got some great speed, fits the system well in Clayborn. And I'm, you know—

No, I get it. I get it.

I might or might not be starting him in chopped.

Okay.

Oh, well, I started Jordan Mason week 1. Oh, Jonah Coleman week 2.

Oh, okay.

And now I'm just, I'm just my RB2 in that league for a couple more weeks.

Sounds like we're safe this week, Mike. That's what that sounds like.

Love to hear it.

I'm like top 3 scorer so far.

Okay.

Well, Josh has already declared that he would, he would be the one who was chopped.

Well, you declared that week 1 and you're still around.

Well, it was pretty amazing to have Drake Maye, AJ Brown week 1.

In a chop league. there are a lot of teams right now.

Yeah.

And so we had, we had somebody say—

A lot could go wrong.

We had somebody 100% dead last week and then Jackson Dart happened.

Yeah.

So you can survive. Let's talk starts.

Starts of the week brought to you by Apple Card.

All right. My starts of the week always come. I mean, we all do our rankings individually each week. Some guys just show up. better than the other ones. And we want to give you some confidence plays and endorsements on players this week. And my quarterback, it's Brock Purdy for a second consecutive week taking on Arizona.

He's good.

He's really good. He's just executing to a perfect level right now. And that's not to say he's not good. He's very, very good. But he also, he kind of is the surgical kind of quarterback. He's not going out there and doing You know, it's not 450 yards. It's, I am going to slice and dice you up with perfect efficiency. Always has the touchdown upside. Leads quarterbacks in EPA per play. 8.5-point home favorites. This is going to be, it's going to be bad for Arizona.

Do you see that he was on like a podcast or something talking about how quarterbacks basically 40% of the time they can't see what Where the—

oh yeah, I did see that.

Yeah. You're like, dude, that's— it's in because he's in for him. It's 60, 70% because he's essentially saying like, this is processing and you're like, you just know, have to know what's processing over arm strength, knowing where to put the ball.

No, it's funny because we said coming into the year, Brock Purdy is the one quarterback, literally the only one quarterback where you assume 7+ percent, which is ridiculous, passes for touchdowns. That's usually the outlier year.

Yeah.

And then you regress. And I was like, what is he at right now? He's at 8.9% so far on the season.

So he does have room to regress.

Yes. And that'd be awesome. Back to his normal 7%.

No Stribling. No DeMarcus Robinson.

No Christian Kirk.

And who knows, maybe no Mike Evans. I don't care. Arizona. I'm taking him.

I'm going to go with Jared Goff. Jared Goff against the New York Jets. He is at home. Last week obviously went off 300.

Oh, there he is.

Introducing He went off 327 and 4 last week. He is at home in a dome. The Dominator has averaged 21 fantasy points per game at home since 2022, and they've got the 5th highest implied point total this week.

Tyler Shuck, get out of the way, Jason, stealing my stream of the week. The king of the Shuck Daddies is here. His number one supporter. We're playing him this week.

You got to be so happy I let him go and let you take him.

Oh, brother, it feels so good having— oh man, with the combo of Dak and Tyler Shuck, that's my platoon right now. I'm feeling pretty good about my quarterback.

I'm feeling pretty bad about letting him go.

Feeling good about that. He is the first player in NFL history with 3,000 passing yards and a 67% completion rate through his first 13 career games. He's old. He was seasoned. He was ready to play. He's in the perfect system with Kellen Moore. You're essentially getting an extra 5 or more dropbacks. It's like an extra drive per game because of how fast they play. I mean, you're looking at these players. We got Drake Maye at Jacksonville, Herbert at Buffalo, Stafford at Denver. Yeah, I'm rolling out Tyler Shuck.

It's a big week. I've— we've talked about it all week long. I think the offensive line, maybe no Achane. I cannot wait to see if he can. Yeah, I think it's a big week for him. I'm going with the player that had a down week. These are the kind of starts you need sometimes. David Montgomery is going to be my start of the week at the running back position.

It should work.

8 total opportunities last week, less than 5 fantasy points, still outsnapped Woody Marks, who Woody Marks was pretty good efficiency-wise again. But the Colts, boy, you want to start players against the Colts right now. 30th in EPA per rush attempt. 31st in yards per carry allowed. I think it's that kind of week. I think honestly, I think CJ Stroud's kind of okay this week. I really think he'll throw for a ton of yards, but I'm going to go Montee at running back.

Yeah.

Wait till we get to my tight end. For now, I'll talk about Cameron Scadaboo.

Oh, going Cameron.

I'm going—

yeah.

Well, he wants to be called Cameron, not Cam, according to Cameron. Cameron. But yeah. So through 2 weeks, he's seen 16 and 18 opportunities. He is the Giants lead back. Now that you've got Jaxon Dart gone, I think they're going to have to rely on him even more at home against Tennessee. I think the Giants are going to run, play defense. He should be a very solid RB2 this week for fantasy.

Yeah, there are going to be matchups for the Giants where not having Jaxon Dart scares me about the run game. This is not one.

Yeah, there's a good matchup. And I think Jameis is going to check down to a little bit more to Cam Newton than we've seen the first 2 weeks.

I'm going with a running back 2 on his own team. I'm going Blake Corum. against the Denver Broncos.

I like him this week.

I think he's very playable through 2 weeks on a per-touch basis. He's looking awesome. 6 yards per carry on 22 attempts. Only Ken Bone, the, the absolute, the man, is, is higher than Blake Corum in that. Speaking of Ken Bone, this is—

The man, the bone, the legend.

The man, the bone, the legend. I love it.

This is the matchup where Kenneth Walker showed us maybe Maybe the Denver Broncos are not so good at tackling through 2 weeks. Dead last in EPA per rush, dead last in yards after contact per attempt allowed, 29th in fantasy points allowed to running backs. He's like, he might be the backup, but I think Blake Corum is very playable this week.

I keep expecting to finally see that Blake Corum outscores Kyren Williams on a week because of how well he's playing.

That won't happen.

And it just doesn't ever happen. They were like identical rushing the football this past week. I'm going Deebo Samuel when it comes to—

Oh, that's a man. Now you're a man.

Yeah.

He's the last man standing.

I was going to say, I was. Deebo against Arizona, the stack with Brock Purdy is 50% out wide, 5% in the backfield, 45% in the slot. He's going to be a part of the game plan. What I love about Shanahan is he goes into these games and he says, look, this is how we win. He's running out of options to choose from on the, this is how we win. You can't overload Kittle right now recovering. It's a Deebo game. And Mike, I know you got him and you're going to play.

I'm pretty happy about it.

I am going at wide receiver with Ladd McConkey. Injured Ladd. If you watch the practice reports last week, he barely practiced. And then in the game, he was more of a decoy. He was out there a little bit, but played less than half the snaps. Wasn't a good game. Already this week, full participant practice on Wednesday. I think that the matchup is good. They desperately need him. I expect a billion points in that Buffalo game. I couldn't imagine having him on the bench if he goes off in an environment where he should. The Bills offense has been great, but their defense, it's, it's, they've been winning. So you're not worried about the defense as much, but they're 31st in points per drive allowed, 28th. Pass success rate allowed, 30th in fantasy points allowed to wide receiver, specifically losing a lot to the slot wide receiver. So this is just a perfect matchup. I know he's a little banged up, but based on the practice reports, I think he's going to have a very fine fantasy week 3.

I'm going Josh Downs. I love it against the Houston Texans. Last week Downs was awesome. 9 targets, 7 for 72. Alec Pierce is now officially out of the picture. And you know, all the analysis of like, is Josh Downs going to be out there? The answer is yes. He is a full-time player. He is their number one wide receiver now.

Andy's trying to trade for Alec Pierce from me right now.

So we'll— Well, I gave you a 24-hour period to accept my trade.

You didn't reply. Was it Josh Downs or Alec Pierce?

What?

You said Alec Pierce.

Did you mean Josh Downs? Oh, I meant Josh Downs.

Yes. Yes. Josh Downs. Okay. And speaking of that, 30th in first read target share, 30%, I should say, 29% of the team's receiving yards so far. And maybe it's just a Buffalo-Cincinnati thing. Houston is bleeding points to the wide receiver position. And coincidentally, this is a matchup that Josh Downs has actually been pretty good in 5 career games versus Houston. Downs is averaging over 10 fantasy points per game against that defense.

And if you want to be just mesmerized by a stat, my tight end start of the week is Travis Kelce, who quote, Leads all pass catchers in the NFL in yards after the catch.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. There was a couple big runs.

They are 11.5-point road favorites. He leads the team in targets per route run. And if it was just some hidden stats and not the eyeballs, I would not be bringing it up. But if you go and you watch the game, looks good. I think he's lost some weight. I think he looks in better shape than last year. And it's Miami, boys. I mean, if he doesn't score in this game, I'll be shocked.

I think it was a friend of the show, Matt Harmon, had tweeted about— he's like, Travis Kelce got in wedding shape and then just stayed in shape. He's like, I see you, Travis. There you go. Hey, that maybe if we like a narrative, I don't hate it.

But what about all the pictures when he shows up to camp and he looked like he was just bloated? Yeah. Very. I'm going to go with the doctor.

Oh, the doctor.

Dr. Schultz. We said last week that he was going to get a bajillion targets for probably a good play, right? Probably 30 yards. But he broke a few Travis Kelce-esque long empty field runs. He was 12 for 140 against Cincinnati. 12 on 14 targets.

Did you hear him going down the field?

Oh, you upgraded him.

I did.

I gave him credit for Running for being the tight end 2 on the week.

That's it.

The Colts are certainly a team that you are targeting right now. I mean, that was who Travis Kelce just obliterated on Sunday night. So if Kelce could do it, the doctor can do it.

Okay.

Also, Terrence Ferguson on waivers.

Yes.

Yes. Puka is gone. Would be like a secondary start of the week.

Oh, that'd be very good. That was starts of the week. Bye.

Hey, Mike gets one.

My tight end start of the week.

Oh, I'm so sorry.

Get out of here. You're going to like this one.

They reminded me about this ETA and then I was like, let's just do it now. I was over here waving my hands at you, but you didn't see me there. Well, you know what? Maybe just— sorry.

I'm going with Tucker, 2nd and 4th, Kraft for—

Tonight?

Yeah, tonight against the Atlanta Falcons.

2nd and 4th?

What is 2nd and 4th?

What is that?

That's what your trade was.

Ah, a 2nd and a 4th?

Yeah.

You think it's worth it?

I'm sure it will be in the end.

I just—

that's what I'm calling him right now. The ramp up. He played 98% of the snaps. Yes, they have some offensive line issues.

That's a huge jump.

But Tucker Kraft is back to being a full-time player. With Jayden Reed out, Tucker Kraft should absolutely dominate the middle of the field. And Atlanta is currently 29th in schedule-adjusted points to the tight end position. And they've played the Muth and Darren Waller.

Yeah, that's, that's great. I will say when I saw this in there, I really liked the 2x4 in there, but I thought you wrote it wrong. I thought you were calling him Tucker 2x4. And I was like, oh yeah.

Wait a minute.

Oh, he's just going to smack guys.

Hold on.

Tucker 2x4.

Tucker 2x4.

Yeah. In the face.

Hold on.

Tucker 2x4.

Tucker 2x4.

That's, that's your trade name.

I don't hate it.

I don't really mind it.

Yeah.

The 2x4.

He brings a 2x4 to your face. You're getting out of the way.

It takes a 2x4 to get him. In a trade too. That was Starts of the Week officially. Officially Starts of the Week.

Yeah.

Brought to you by the 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. Tucker 2x4. All right. We'll take a break. I mean, it does.

Put it on the board.

It rolls off the tongue. Let's take a break and we'll get into the forecast. All right, it's week 3.

Fantasy Forecast presented by PrizePicks.

If there were 2 teams that couldn't be in more opposite Sentiment situations, right? The vibes around the Los Angeles Chargers who are 0-2 traveling to the brand new Highmark Stadium. The Buffalo Bills are 2-0. The Vegas line is Buffalo -7. The over-under is 50.5. Nearly every part of my being is tempted here.

Oh yeah.

Because this is the National Football League. There wasn't a soul who thought that the Ravens would lose last week to— well, there were a few, but yeah, it was a big line, right? It was 8.5 points. You had the Browns come back with a win last week against Tampa. I don't think anybody expected that. I just, I would not be shocked if you got one of those weeks where the rubber met the road and the Chargers made it close.

All right.

I'm not going to do it because it's just The extremes are too extreme right now. DJ Moore, we could get him back this week. We'll see. It's the 2nd highest over-under of the week. So for fantasy purposes, independent of the outcome, very exciting game.

Yeah. I mean, I made Ladd start because the Buffalo Bills defense has been very, very bad. CJ Stroud destroyed them and their offense has been so good. It's been irrelevant. I mean, they're blowing guys out. And I, I agree. partially with your sentiment that I think the Chargers are going to figure stuff out. I think they're going to get better. And I believe getting Ladd back is crucial to this offense. When Ladd has been out there, you know, the very beginning, the, you know, the first half against Cardinals, their offense looked significantly better with, with Ladd out there. I also think their offense might be more explosive with Gadsden being forced in instead of Njoku. And, you know, they were, they were playing this slow, tight end heavy, you know, scheme. And I think that it could be good. I still believe that right now Buffalo is just cooking so— they are on fire. And that second game at home at Highmark, I don't see the Chargers stopping them.

You got any more heat-related analogies? Cooking, they're on fire. What else you got? Blazing?

Scorching? I think they're magma, man.

Magma. Yeah, this is a— They're playing, they're playing good football. And here's the thing about Buffalo that I don't think people— like if you say, okay, Josh Allen, those 2 games, that's all, you know, that's otherworldly. You're not going to get that all year. You don't want to know. This is Joe Brady. McDermott was the coach for all those years.

Correct.

When McDermott was the head coach, I always had confidence that this defense would progress over the course of the season because that's what he did. That's what made him good. It didn't matter if they lost personnel. They figured out the defensive side. You could say, oh, we just want to run the ball and play defense. Through 2 weeks, Joe Brady looks like he's got the offense on lock and the defense looks suspect.

Sure. That's fair.

But play Allen, play Cook. If DJ Moore is active, do you play him? He was limited on Wednesday. That's a good sign.

Yeah, I probably play him, but understand the the risk of, I mean, a hard fall on that shoulder and you could lose DJ Moore again.

Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman, risky at best.

Yeah. Coleman didn't practice on Wednesday, which is unfortunate. Of course he didn't.

Yes. Of course you make the one, one game you look competent as a receiver and you don't practice.

So I'm at least keeping an eye on him. Maybe just a speculative add, not so much of a nasty play this week.

But we did mention that like that might swell up after the game because he went back out there and then Dalton Kincaid, yes, please.

Yeah. Dalton Kincaid has just been awesome. He looks like their number one receiver, even with DJ Moore out there. It's just, he is, he's always been excellent per route. Now he's actually running more routes.

And now healthy.

Doesn't it feel like they got 2 new receivers?

Yeah, it really does because Dalton Kincaid has not been a thing yet. No. I mean, he was struggling with that knee injury all last year, played, I want to say, 38% of snaps. And now they have a full-time second-round draft pick player who has been really good. Was he a first round pick?

Dalton was the first. Yeah.

Oh man. I mean, he's, we loved him. We spent years believing that this was the, this was the year he was going to get it together.

Pick 25.

Yeah. So our offseason fire pick looks good.

Hampton.

Hampton is a great matchup.

Hampton's a great play.

Gadsden, if you're desperate.

Man, I think Gadsden is an okay start. He hasn't done much on the season. He had a touchdown last week, but only 2 targets in the game. But it's the fact that the injuries are going to force him to be on the field.

Yeah, I hate the part of that it's had to be forced, whereas like, does McDaniel and company, do they like Gadsden? Do they really want him as part of the play?

I just think he's not a complete tight end in any way, shape, and form. He's an athletic freak.

No, his blocking is not good.

Who can go catch the football. It's a little bit like, You know, we've seen what Likely can do in the passing game right now with the Giants and in select, but it was always, you know, Mark Andrews and Smythe and other guys getting snaps ahead of him sometimes because the incomplete nature of it. But Gadson right now, I mean, these guys are on IR.

So, right.

So it's over for them. It's Gadson almost every play.

Yeah. And Quge has reverted back to a pumpkin.

Yeah. Yeah. Carolina 1-1, Cleveland 1-1 in Cleveland. Carolina -2.5, over-under 42.5.

Wow. Good for you, Carolina.

And Cleveland's 1-1 too, Mike.

I just mean like Carolina is on the road and favored.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's, I mean, we talked about Bryce Young on the Unsolved Mysteries episode yesterday, whether, you know, Mike and I were kind of very much on the side that we believe it's a level up. We believe that the— I believe the math of Carolina right now—

There's decent chances that it could be for real.

Well, yeah. And Carolina's, you know, they've got weapons. Tett McMillan and Jalen Coker is a viable twosome each and every week. And then you bring Darren Waller into the equation.

Their prize picks projections are— Are they the same? Yeah, they're the same, both at 59.5 receiving yards.

That's a lot.

Yeah.

Both of those guys are plays, right? Darren Waller, Jason, would you rather start? Let me, let me put it this way. Waller seems like as good of a bet as a touchdown opportunity as any tight end right now.

For sure. Because he's enormous.

And I think that the snap counts are going to rise for him. They're very low right now. Would you play him or I guess you'd play Schultz?

I would play Schultz and I would play Ferguson. Then it would be Waller. Then it would be Gadsden.

Would you play Waller or the other Ferguson? Jake Ferguson, who had 2 touchdowns last week.

I still— oh man, I, I think I would go— I would go Ferguson over Waller because he's out on the field more. He's used between the 20s more and they both can catch touchdowns. I, I still would put the odds of a touchdown higher with Waller than Ferguson, but it's not a big enough gap to take the fewer snaps. But I think Waller is a great player to roster as the season goes on. I expect him to get more and more involved. But, but the great thing is, is that he is always involved around the red zone. And so that's all, that's all you really need from the middling tight end pool is a touchdown.

Waller or Fannon?

Oh, and the same game. Oh, whoa. I think that, cut that. I think I go Waller. I think a much better chance at a touchdown.

That hurts though.

That hurts big time.

Yeah.

I mean, Harold Fannon's at 17% target share through 2 weeks. It's not, it's not terrible. It's not good enough.

No, it's not good enough. And I, you know, Watson was 24 for 30 last week, 238 and 2. Bryce Young, 6 touchdowns through 2 games. And there are only 5 running backs that are top 12 in each of the first 2 weeks. Ken Bone, Gibbs, Henry, Jonathan Taylor. Oh wait, and Chuba.

Yeah.

Chuba is the other one. And Jonathan Brooks just went to IR and AJ Dillon is not good and they didn't sign Austin Ekeler. So in this week in particular, Chuba is a must-start.

For sure. Yeah.

And who would have thought you'd much rather draft him than Judkins? Much rather. I know you weren't in on Judkins.

I wasn't in on Chuba either.

But you wouldn't have been in on Chuba.

No, I was not. I thought Brooks would be more of a impact. But this is all Chuba. And if this team is—

I give—

if they're for real, then Chuba is going to be awesome.

I think the biggest question in this game is actually Bryce Young because we've talked about picking him up, taking shots on him. Is it real or not? This matchup is one where so far through 2 weeks this season, it looks like a not, not a terrible matchup. Last year obviously was very— you didn't necessarily want to play against the Browns, but Myles Garrett is gone. I don't think this is a bad defense. So this is a perfect matchup to me where it's like you push—

I think it's a pretty bad defense.

Push has come to shove and you've got to make your call right now as to whether or not you believe in Bryce Young. I am skeptical.

I would start him this week.

Justin Herbert or Bryce Young?

Bryce Young, easy.

Oh, that's an easy Herbert for me.

Yeah, I'm going to start Bryce Young. I'm not, I'm not going to go back to this well where it's like, There's no way that that's a guarantee that Herbert's better. And why not take the guy that's had 2 prolific weeks? Like, I give zero credit to the Cleveland defense last week relative to the— I mean, the Tampa Bay offense is abysmal.

Yes.

And they still, you know, they're 22nd in terms of fantasy points given up to quarterback through 2 weeks. I'm taking Bryce. That could be a water bet. Oh, Jason wants to make— Jason just literally—

Yeah.

Oh, we're doing it.

Oh, easy. Yeah. Water bet.

I think the water in this one is money because he just made me $100. bet about Bryce Young versus Herbert.

I just think that'll be a, that'll be a fun thing to watch for in this, in this week. And I think both are good starts this week. The matchups aren't too bad, but let's, let's go with others.

Like you don't have to start Herbert. You don't have no, you got no reason. You don't have to do it.

I, it's just the matchup to me. I think that there's going to be a jillion points for the Cardinals and Raider matchups pretty good for Herbert.

Well, those were those decent.

I mean, the Cardinals While they won, it wasn't an environment where you were going to keep passing the ball a lot. I do think in this one—

He scored 7.9 fantasy points against the Raiders.

So let me give you some—

I'm not saying you're going to be wrong. I'm just saying the evidence right now is like, hey, why go through the pain of trying it again?

Right now we've got Bryce Young as our consensus quarterback 15.

Is he going Herbrow?

Is he going Herbrow right now?

Jason?

Yeah.

What are you talking about? Jason is—

I am always going to be Herbrow.

Jason is interlocked arm in arm up the street for the Herbrows.

But I also think—

Yeah, I mean, that's why I'm smiling.

It's fun.

It is fun. There's 2 things here. My primary belief here is more anti-Buffalo Bills defense that I am targeting the Buffalo Bills defense the way that, you know, in years past we were targeting the, you know, when you're playing against the Bengals, when you're playing against the Cowboys, you want pieces in that game. That's how I feel. But also I really do believe the lack of Ladd has been the biggest problem for Herbert. But let's talk about other players. Would you start? Bryce Young or Tyler Shuck?

I think those are neck and neck this week.

They're close. I lean Tyler Shuck in that one.

I like Bryce.

But it's— it—

What about Drake Maye from Jacksonville?

Bryce.

I'm making the switch. I'm putting Bryce above.

And what about last one? Matthew Stafford been on fire, but at Denver.

Bryce.

I'm okay going Bryce there.

I think we need to adjust our rankings.

Yeah.

Because Bryce Young is down from time. I just moved him up. I moved him up. Oh, and he's sitting one spot ahead of Justin Herbert. Okay.

There it is.

Yeah. Look, I guess I have the confidence in Bryce Young right now.

He's feeling it.

You know, like, Shuck's been good, but the, like, Bryce has done the 3-touchdown thing 2 weeks in a row.

Yeah.

That's, I don't feel like extremely confident saying Shuck over Bryce.

Yeah. Yeah. Way to walk us through it, Jay, because I needed to tweak the rankings a little bit there. Ted McMillan and Coker. Yes. Waller. We talked about it. The other side, you know, I don't feel good about any of it really. I think Boston is the one that you could probably play because you're going to get, you're going to get the targets. You're going to get some high value targets, but I'm not messing around with the rest of those guys.

The, if Quinshon Judkins is bad in this matchup, You've got to put him on a boat. You give it a shove. You light your arrow and you fire.

Judkins should be okay. That's what this is a—

But I'm saying if he's, if he's bad in this matchup, I don't know when you're going to have hope to actually play.

It's so hard. Judkins is like a start of the week candidate because you don't want to start him, but you can't bench him against the Panthers. You should.

There were 2 players in my start of the week finalists. I don't know if you saw that.

No, I didn't.

It was David Montgomery and Quinshon Judkins.

Yeah.

And I didn't choose Judkins on purpose.

I don't blame you. You're holding your breath. I mean, but those are the type of players where people are going to really, really want to bench. And it should work.

Carolina's dead last in giving up yards per carry, rushing touchdowns allowed, and EPA per rush.

Like, if you look at the last—

this is the time, Judkins. You better show up.

That's so far this year. Also, they sucked last year and the year prior. They were one of the worst of all time against the run.

Run funnel, baby.

Come on.

New York Jets 1-1, Detroit Lions 1-1. Vegas line is Detroit -6.5, over-under 47.5.

Under a touchdown, huh?

Yeah. I mean, I, this is the game to me that is, is going to tell me a heck of a lot about the Detroit Lions long-term situation because I think this should be the game that they Yes, it should be at home against the Jets, the Aaron Glenn revenge game, whatever. They should, they should massacre the Jets in this game. And if they don't, it will tell me that they, they don't quite have the defensive personnel and, and the vibes right now with the blobfish to get this thing going at home against the Jets. But the nice thing is for fantasy players, the over has hit in each of the last 6 Detroit games. It's a 47.5 already. That's cool.

Yeah, we'll take that.

Start of the week, Jason, Jared Goff.

I love Goff at home. I mean, you're going to love all the Lions pretty much every week. I don't know.

There's one to talk about.

Yeah, I'm still throwing Jameson Williams out there.

Okay.

I mean, Jameson Williams is the type of player when you drafted him, you knew you were getting volatility. You knew you were going to have some games where you had an absolutely dud of a matchup, but you keep him in. First of all, you were drafting him as your wide receiver 3. You were drafting him as a flex. This isn't a guy you were drafting in the 3rd round. He is out there to go nuclear and win you matchups. And that is worth taking some of the duds along the way because as opposed to finding someone off the waivers who's getting 8 targets every game and who's going to get out there and give you 7 fantasy points or 8 fantasy points or 9 fantasy points regularly, that's not going to help you win matchups. You put, you put Jameson Williams in.

So you'd start him over like a popular free agent pickup this week, Adonai Mitchell.

Yes.

is currently ahead of Garrett Wilson in target share.

Yeah.

Speaking of targets, what if I told you my boy Isaac Teslaw had one more target than J-Mo Williams last week?

I'm not worried about that. If, if, if at the end of the season he has more targets than Jameson Williams, I will eat my shorts.

Yeah. I mean, the J-Mo played 97% of snaps. I'm mostly with you on everything you said.

You know what's funny about this game? I was looking at a— someone put together the pace of play of matchups. I think it was Jared Smola. I apologize if I'm getting that wrong. And it was like based on both teams in the game. You look at the pace of both teams and go, okay, what's the pace of the game environment? And I saw this matchup and they were like bottom 5 and I was like, what?

Oh yeah.

The Lions? How is that possible? The Lions are top 5 in the league in pace of play and that's how slow the Jets are playing right now. That when you combine them, they're like one of the slowest games. It's outrageous.

Yeah.

Very tortoisey.

The Geno Smith-led Jets have yet to commit a turnover this year, but Geno will be under fire. You know, the Aiden Hutchinson, Lions highest pressure rate in the NFL. It'll be put to the test. Breece Hall. Yeah, you play him, you play Garrett Wilson, and I think you play Adonai Mitchell this week.

I'm okay with it.

I would play him over Boston in the previous game. So I like him more than, than Denzel Boston.

I, you should put Kenyan Sadiq on your bench.

There was a start-sit question that Brooks put in here. I'm sorry. I'm going to say it out loud. Would you start Adonai Mitchell in this game or Adonai Mitchell in this game?

Oh man. I'd go with AD. I'd go with AD Mitchell.

It was Kyle.

Oh, Kyle.

Brooks would never. Yeah.

Kyle, do you, Do you feel comfortable with me letting the people know what you're going through right now?

Oh, that is, that is probably related.

Sure. Oh, that didn't sound like a man who actually—

Well, because you, you already, you're like, hey, I'm going to do this thing. You cool?

That's a fair point. He might not have the cognition though to reply in a good— Kyle was hit in the head with a baseball this week.

He was being a good dad pitcher for his league.

Yeah. Bad baseball player.

Well, he, I believe he said that he was, I asked him if he was a guy that was way too old.

Yeah. His kids are all like, they're in a 10-year-old league. And then like some 13-year-old came up there and now I'm picturing him as like, this kid's gigantic.

Oh, for sure. He just, he dropped off his kids after he got out of his truck, walked up here and, and he took a, he's like legit.

He took a line drive.

Fired a piss missile right into your head. He did.

He, we're going to go Brady would love that term there. Jason would too. But he literally hit a line drive off of Kyle. And I was like, well, were you behind a pitching screen? And he said, yes, it was too fast.

Wow.

So Kyle's been actually dealing with, I would say, a trauma no dad thought they'd deal with.

Not in the 10-year-old baseball league.

It was unbelievable.

So heal up, Kyle.

So in other words, yeah, I would take Adonai Mitchell versus Adonai Mitchell in this one.

But so Kenyan Siddiq with Mason Taylor out. out or I'm sorry, he didn't practice. Seems like he's going to be out this week. Kenny Sadiq, first round pick, very athletic player. Not someone we didn't particularly love him and his production profile, but draft capital and opportunity here says that Sadiq is someone to pay attention to.

And athletic profile. We talk about it when you look at athletic profiles. doesn't matter that much at most positions, but tight end, that is like almost always required to be good at fantasy. And he is off the charts. Perfect matchup for him with Mouson out. So yeah, I mean, it's not one that like all those other names we were talking about earlier, the Darren Waller, the Terrence Ferguson, I'm going to start those guys over Sadiq. I want Sadiq on my bench, but a DFS play, some kind of surprising, you know, if you can find You know, I don't know what Price Picks line is on him, but that might be Waller or Sadiq. I play Waller.

I'm just bringing them up of like, if you're—

could be a breakout game.

If you're wading through the mucky muck of the tight end position, this is like, this is the situation where, okay, first round pick shows up because the starter is out and then the— and that first rounder has a great game. It's like it's done. He'll just take the job.

Yeah. Yeah. That, it's Jason's point, by the way. So you have Goff in this one as your start of the week.

So Sadiq right now, 25.5 receiving yards on the price picks projection.

Okay. Houston 0-2 taking on the 0-2 Indianapolis Colts. The Vegas line is Houston minus 2.5. The over-under is 42.5. Okay. Here we go. I, you know, the Houston—

Which part is the cackle? Is just that they're both 0-2?

I mean, yeah. The spread?

Where are we going with this?

Yeah, the spread and the fact that like, you know, I still look at Houston's defense as a top-tier defense, but we, we have yet to get that kind of prolific performance so far. The Colts had a heck of a battle against the Chiefs, made it a game. They've fallen short. the last couple of weeks. I just don't, I don't know how complicated the start-sit decisions are, but I don't think Nico's not practicing. And so I don't think you're going to have him. And so outside of the doctor and Montgomery, is that the whole offense? Is it consolidated for Houston?

Yeah. For fantasy, it's pretty, it's pretty gross because it's like Hutchinson is It's— he'll get targets. He's just— it's not him. So I don't know. I don't— I mean, Jaylen Noll, if you're wanting to get disgusting.

Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a really good matchup, you know, against the Colts D. You want to target— this is why we like David Montgomery and Dalton Schultz. I do think someone else will, you know, will have a good game. It's just one of those things where— Yeah.

That's why I didn't mention Noll.

Can you— yeah. Is Jared Wayne going to be the guy? You know, you just don't know where the ball's going to go.

All right, Pilgrim. It's me.

Yeah, I don't know that you can confidently start Booty Hutchinson, Noel Wayne. So start the doctor.

Who's Booty Hutchinson?

Booty Hutchinson. If they put them—

is that one of them?

If I got both of their scores, I would absolutely start him in the same game.

Sounds like that's who Jared Wayne would fight in the Wild West. Oh, Booty Hutchinson.

Oh yeah. Oh, Booty.

This town's not big enough.

We're doing a lot of impressions today.

We really are.

By the way, I like the Josh—

really good ones.

Really good. Josh Downs, start of the week for Mike. I like him a lot in this game, but I will say this. If you want to buy low opportunity, the moment is now on Tyler Warren. Alec Pierce is going to miss an extended period of time. That's fair. I think that Tyler Warren is going to be a beneficiary of the consolidation of targets. We haven't had the yardage there. We've had the touchdowns. Otherwise he'd be, I mean, you would be talking about Tyler Warren right now in the same breath as Loveland and everybody and Pitts. The only saving grace is that the 30-something yards he's got comes with a touchdown right now.

Yeah. It's so weird. He is a YAC machine. That was what he was in college. That was what he was last year. I mean, he led all pass catchers in yards after catch through the first 3 weeks of the NFL season last year. Now all of a sudden, 3.8 per catch last year was 10.8. Yeah. I mean, it's like he's low. He is not. He really doesn't look like the same monster out there. But I mean, that, you know, you have a couple down weeks. I agree with you. This is a very good buy low opportunity. He should have a better rest of season.

And is Keenan Allen going to be on this team the rest of the season?

Probably because of injuries, but not because of play. I mean, he, It was weird, man. 2 drops hitting him in the chest, Keenan. Like, that is just not normal.

And they're still talking about his suspension.

I believe that that is pushed.

Yeah. It got pushed.

I think it might happen.

This season?

Yeah. Unless you saw something like in the last day, they've been talking about it.

Oh no.

I mean, my information was probably 4 days ago where it was like, basically he's going to get a 3-game suspension, but it'll probably be probably 4. play out after the— oh, they think it'll be after, after the court proceedings, which will probably be after the season.

So, okay, I got you. Yeah. Well, he, you know, when you're close to retirement, that's a real sneaky technique.

Yeah. It's like, why don't we just push this off? Let's say just to the end of this season.

I'll totally accept whatever you decide.

Give me a 20-game suspension after the season.

That's right. Kansas City 2-0 taking on the 0-2 Miami Dolphins. Kansas City minus 10.5. on the road, over-under 46.5.

That's, that's cute.

Yeah, it should be more.

Only giving them 10.5.

Come on. The Chiefs are 28-3 whenever they're double-digit favorites, but they have failed to cover the spread in 55% of those games. I mean, the Chiefs looked amazing and the Dolphins looked terrible. So there you go. And you take the one player, the only player in the passing offense that kind of looked like he had some sort of rapport with Malik Willis. Caleb Douglas and you throw him onto, you know, the practice report with ankle injury. I doubt Caleb Douglas plays this week. I'm not sure that outside of Achane you can play a Dolphin.

No, I don't, I don't think you can. I mean, we're excited for the prospect, the future of Chris Bell as a good wide receiver and a rookie. This isn't the game for him. Malik Washington should get the most targets if you're in a 2-point-per-reception league, you know, point-per-target league, dolphin-only league. You know, you can throw him out there, but I think you're right. It's basically De'Von Achane and checkout. And the fact that they are not using Malik Willis's legs—

Brothers.

Yes.

I was going to bring it up.

I believe Kirk Cousins has more rushing attempts than Malik Willis.

Ian Hart has brought it to our attention, or to my attention, I'll say.

Kirk Cousins with more rushing attempts than Malik Willis on the year as of right now. And that is what?

Yeah, you have a superpower that you're sticking in your pocket.

What are you doing?

No, it's dumb. I mean, it, it was part of the argument from Malik Willis was like, you unlock everything by running.

Why would you bring him in and pay him that money and not say, dude, you need to run like this. You change the offense. If, if you're just going to be a pocket passer, Yeah.

Then a bunch of rookies and nobodies.

Then what are, what are we even doing here?

We're going for that number 1 pick. I will say, play Mahomes, Walker, Rice, and Kelce on the Chiefs side.

Week 1, 6 rushing attempts for 39 yards. Last week was bad, but I don't think that's the norm. Malik will run.

I believe he will run, but it's like, how can that even possibly happen?

That just can't happen, especially when you're having no success moving the football.

Right.

And you know, the nice thing I will say about Achane is that when they are the worst, he's still fine. You know, last week was 20 for 74 on the ground, 3 catches for 19 yards. Hasn't gotten in the end zone yet. That was a big concern.

Yeah, that's—

he won't very many times this year.

It does seem like that will be a challenge for this team until they find some sort of momentum on offense. But yeah, Walker, Mahomes. Rice only targeted on 11% of routes. But look, this is a heavy favorite situation with a 28.5 implied point total. It's the 2nd highest of the year. If you don't play Rice here, why would you play him ever?

Sure.

Yeah. I mean, this is, this also could be a game though where not only is Kenneth Walker awesome, but I think you could start Emmitt the same way that Mike, you're saying you can start Blake Corum. Now we know Blake Corum is going to get more work than Emmitt. Emmitt Johnson, their rookie who's looked great behind Kenneth Walker. But I believe the 4th quarter of this game—

Emmitt might game script the whole entire 4th quarter.

That's what I mean. He might get 10 carries just in the 4th.

And if you give him enough carries against this Dolphins offense, he's like Emmanuel Wilson last week.

Exactly.

Yeah, I'm with you.

Sneaky.

Tennessee 0-2 taking on the 1-1 New York Giants. This is the lowest over-under of the week. Giants -3 at home. 38.5 is the over-under. Oh, is that good?

Dude, where's that toilet sound effect? That is flush this game.

I feel like I'll leave that to— we'll leave that to Al.

That's what I had for you.

Okay.

Well, um, would it be helpful to tell you that in a game in which— oh gosh.

It's a long one.

Oh man. This is reminding me of your Browns.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Of course.

And Brown discussions.

Yeah.

Good.

Okay. We got to stop the tour. It's a real long flush. 68% chance of rain, potentially high winds.

Awesome.

Oh, perfect. That's what this game is.

Building a game plan around Jameis Winston.

We need to slow this thing down.

I mean, Winston was 11 for 27 last week. You're pushing 30% completion.

Yep.

Cam Scataboose, your start of the week. I mean, I don't feel a lot of confidence with Malik Nabers right now.

No, I don't either. This is especially with the wind with his shoulder. I think Malik Nabers is one of those players where he's not a guaranteed start. The worry here is a lot of different things can go wrong, but with a shoulder injury that popped out of the socket last week and then he basically wasn't targeted. It's hard to imagine benching him, but I don't, I don't think that's the wrong move necessarily. I mean, I think—

Would you go all the way down to the Denzel Boston add 9-inch right here?

No, I don't think I could do that. I don't think—

Would you go to Rashad Bateman if he's alone? Because Zay Flowers, by the way, not practicing again today. Would you play Bateman?

No, I don't think so.

Yeah, I wouldn't want to. I would rather trust that the game plan, like, A lot of times a backup quarterback comes in flustered, didn't practice with the ones. Now you get a week of practice. Winston has the arm strength.

The way the Rams were playing, I honestly think that Jackson Dart's line would have looked not much better.

Yeah.

I think, you know, if you've got other options like a Davante Adams or Ladd or Teteroa or so really, really, if you have like really good— Well, like Jameson Williams. Jameson Williams hasn't been playing well.

I'd play Malik.

Yeah, I would too. Okay.

Yeah, let's, let's be quick though on the other side. 0.0 starters. What sucks is 2 ankle injuries for Spears and Pollard.

Pollard and Spears did not practice. I believe it was due to, they said ankle, but I also saw some, the general was reporting soreness for duty. Yes, general soreness.

Yes, we know him well because the older I get, the Pollard should be playable in this matchup.

The Giants, like, they're not able to stop running backs. And Tony Pollard should see a bunch of carries. It's disgusting. I understand if you're looking at that actual start-sit decision, like, I can't live with myself if I do this, but I think Pollard should be okay.

Carnell Tate is a bench right now?

Yeah. Yeah, I mean, in a game with bad weather, low over-under, I don't— I mean, he's got the talent to take anything to the house, but a lot of those other middling guys that you are far more confident that in the passing game, in targets heading their direction, I think this is a bench week for Carnell Tate.

You could feel more confident about that house call if he could see a target that's 20 yards down the field, which he has yet to see this entire year. taking shots and that's putting a lot more on.

That's his superpower.

Yeah, but they didn't want to do it. They said, no, you got to let him fly.

There is at least—

they're, they're tating their time on this one.

Swish.

Okay, good. You got it in there, man. That was close. That was close to being a—

I thought it was a misspeak at first and then like, no, it was just a good old-fashioned footballer's pun.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever switched before. That might be my first switch on the show. I think that it felt important to get that in there.

They just need to throw the ball more and I don't expect it to happen in this specific matchup. He's got 24% target share, which is like for a rookie through 2 weeks, you're going, okay, that's not bad.

It's the biggest slice of a turd pie though with this team.

But yeah, it's a small turd pie and yeah, he needs, yeah. So they need to like, they need to bake a new pie.

Dude, we got to take a break, guys.

It's really limited. Touches because it was 7 carries a week 1, 14 carries in week 2. Tony Pollard's running for 4.7, man.

You just, you are in love with Tony Pollard.

If he's healthy, I guess Mike would start him over Judkins. We know this.

I don't hate you.

I mean, Judkins has got a great matchup. Which do you take? We got to take a break. Give me an answer.

Judkins.

All right. Well, he just said Judkins. Clip that. All right.

We'll be back. I had to say Judkins or Pollard. You were going to say clip it no matter what I said. Yes, I was.

Here we go.

It's a trap.

The 2-0, somehow the 2-0 Cincinnati Bengals. They travel to Pittsburgh to take on— well, I say somehow because they don't ever start a season well. I mean, it does seem like a fair comment.

Yeah.

They normally start falling on their faces slash injured.

Yeah. And it's because of their defense more than their offense through 2 weeks.

2-0 traveling to Pittsburgh who is 1-1. Vegas line Cincinnati minus 3.5 over-under 40.

Over-under is 42.5.

And I, I really hate to do this. this, but I'm going to.

I understand. Andy's almost upset of the week.

I am not just almost upset that I did that. I am fully upset.

Yeah, you're wrong, but I understand.

Yeah. Look, the Steelers offense has been so hard to watch.

Yeah.

We did get word that Jaylen Warren is back at practice and Rico Dowdle still not practicing. It could be the Warren-only experience.

Warren was limited. He's definitely still injured. Michael Pittman was limited, also injured. But so it's like they're, they're kind of there and we're hoping they play, but they're being—

What was Metcalf's designation?

Bad. That he's just—

he's limited with bad.

He's limited with wet farts. Yeah. Metcalf sucks. This team offense sucks. But for some reason—

So you're calling for an upset. Oh yeah, possibly play.

It's TJ Watt. He's calling for the defense. The passing defense for the Pittsburgh Steelers has been very good.

You know what I just remembered? I need to know that Jalen Ramsey is playing in this football game because I know he missed Wednesday practice. Do we have a Thursday practice report on Ramsey yet? Because I could, I could play that. I could undo that. If Ramsey's active in this game, the over-under is low. He is participating. Okay. This will be, this will be an old-fashioned AFC North battle. It's a low over-under. I don't think that I haven't seen the Cincinnati offense that I've been like, like I saw, I saw Ja'Marr Chase make the play of his life on a pretty much an alley-oop. Like, but I haven't seen—

That was amazing.

There's no been no point during the season where I'm like, man, they are running on every cylinder on the offensive side yet. It's been the defense. And I think the defense Going to Pittsburgh, that'll be a challenge. And look, you play the players you're going to play in this one. Ja'Marr Chase, Higgins, Burrow, Chase Brown, easy on the Cincinnati side. I just think it'll be a dogfight and I wouldn't expect prolific numbers from them going up against the defense for the Steelers. That's just the Steelers right now through 2 weeks. It's 2 weeks, but, and one of them was Cooper Rush, but they're number 1 against quarterbacks, 2 against wideouts, and 5th against tight ends. They're going to put the pass rush on.

The other one was Drake Maye.

Yeah, but that, I mean, okay. Drake May was a number 2 quarterback last year, right?

Drake May has been doo-doo since the wildcard round.

So the 2 games, oh, the rest of the playoffs in these 2 games. Yeah. I mean, I, like I said, it's 2 games, Mike. I just claimed it. One of them is Drake May, but we know that the Steelers DNA is on the defensive side of the football and that, that part is what keeps them in games. So I mean, you wouldn't say this is a plus matchup for the Bengals, would you?

No, no, no, not at all. The Steelers, I mean, you might be forced into playing DK Metcalf. The targets are there. Maybe someday he will actually convert and something good will happen.

Do you play him or Adonai Mitchell? Oh, I'd be willing to go back to the well with Metcalf this week personally. And that is a—

That's tough. I like the environment of that Detroit game so much more than this.

That's true. Yeah, that's true.

Yeah, I'll probably play Edna Mitchell also. Then I don't have to play DK Metcalf. But the—

that would be one of these.

I was going to bring up the Muth of, look, Dr. Schultz against Cincinnati, 12 for 140. Cincinnati, you know, we mentioned Carolina against running backs. It's like just historical long enough. It's a disaster.

Cincinnati.

We're like 8 years running of just target Cincinnati with the tight end position. Pat Friermuth.

Yeah, I mean, it's a floor play, but it's, you could definitely do worse.

Yeah, it's a touchdown play. You know, it's like Friermuth, who else can catch a touchdown there? DK can't.

It feels that way. Warren, if he's all alone.

Yeah, I mean, you start him.

Sure, take the volume. Take the volume.

I, I'm just saying the name of a player we recently signed out loud. Yeah, I was sad to see Jaylen Warren. Just throwing names out. Back at practice because Eli Heidenreich there late-round rookie running back who, I mean, has an analytical profile in college that is outrageously good. A very jack of all trades. I just want one week this year where, and I thought it might be coming right now, where Warren and Rico—

Butterfly.

Yes. I want him to turn into a beautiful butterfly.

Eli Heimlich.

Eli Heimlich. I'm a cute little bumblebee. It would be, it would be awesome to see him forced into the role where he gets all the opportunity.

I would love to see it too.

He's a perfect fit for Aaron Rodgers checking down the way that Kenny Gainwell did last year. He's as good a receiver as he is a running back.

You might see him this week. One more game to preview. Seattle 2-0 against the Washington Commanders who are 0-2 right now. Oh my gosh. The lowest implied point total possible this week. 16.8 points for the Commanders. not have Jayden Daniels.

Have we gotten any updates?

We've had no updates. And what's wild is, I don't know if you saw this, Kurt Warner came out and said he suffered the exact same injury in '07 and played the next week.

He said, yeah, he's like, Jayden can play if he wants. Yeah, I did.

Look, I don't—

it's a little bit different though.

I know we're doctors.

It's not just the injury. It's a redo of the redo.

But there's no redo there. The injury was— they did not repair the ligaments. They are torn already. The dislocation, I'm sure, causes a bunch of swelling and inflammation and pain. I bet it hurts. Yes, it hurts. But that might lean itself into the Kurt Warner side of things. All I know is he throws with one arm and the other arm is hurt. Generally, when that kind of thing happens, I think a quarterback, if they can catch the football on a snap, I'm shocked that they can't play. Now I know that oversimplifies it. I'm not trying to imply that Jayden Daniels is not tough. I don't know. I guess I'm implying it a little bit, but I don't know the details.

Kurt's wife responding by saying, quote, yeah, Kurt, and your arm has been messed up since.

That's fair. I mean, it's fair. But you know, I guess I'm just surprised that we haven't gotten an update.

The no update is very weird.

It's Thursday. Yeah. I mean, we had that injury happened. We had Jackson Dart situation all figured out as of 2 days ago, basically. And here we are sitting with Jayden Daniels is like, well, what's going on? So look, the point is, is this week the over-under is low, right? It's 40.5, but Seattle's got 24 points implied. So Seattle's going to be fine. Mike, your stream was either Darnold or Locke, whoever starts.

Yep.

I think JSN is obvious. But other than that, do you have a start on Seattle that you feel comfortable with? And is it Emmanuel Wilson at running back?

No.

I mean, I'd play him over Price.

You'd play Emmanuel Wilson over—

I think they're going to give Emmanuel Wilson the opportunity to continue what he started last week.

Yeah. I mean, the matchup is, you know, Last year, the Commanders were very bad against the running back position. You could do worse, but I think this game is going to be over quickly. And when I, when I say that, I don't mean like the score is going to mean the game's out of reach. I mean, the game I think is going to disappear fast. Like, you know, sometimes you, you look up at all the afternoon games and you're like, oh, that game's over already.

Yeah.

I just feel like this is going to be few plays in this game. It's not a game environment I'm excited to have players a part of. The Commanders are only implied for 16.8 points. That is the lowest of any team this week. The Seahawks defense is so good. I, I think that, I mean, that speaks to saying that a running back for Seattle could be good for sure.

And so Jaderian Price is banged up. That is, that's question number one. But for what happened last week, I mean, through the first 3 quarters, it was, it was far closer. And it was like Jaderian Price in the first half had 3 more carries. In the third quarter, Jaderian Price 4 to 3 for Wilson. It was the fourth quarter where they did, where Price was hurt and knocked out of the game. And then they just, they full salted with Emmanuel Wilson.

Stefon Diggs has found his way into the end zone frequently. So far this year.

Yeah, I, he's on my roster. I would prefer—

Are you benching him?

I prefer not to play Stefon Diggs with the backup quarterback against Seattle.

I don't want to play any, anybody on Washington. I don't want to play Bill. I don't want to play Dick. That'd be Dick White.

White.

And I don't want to play Kaytron Allen. So I would be trying to find other options.

Not many people are aware of that name.

Dick White?

Yeah.

Where did that come from?

I don't even know.

I don't know, man.

I don't even know.

At this point.

Nobody remembers?

No. Doesn't matter.

It came from Richard instead of Rashad?

Yeah.

Richard.

And then Dick is short for Richard.

Yeah.

So then he became Dick White. That can't be how it happened.

That sounds like—

Everybody's nodding over there. Yeah.

Because Betz accidentally typed in Richard and then—

Oh, okay.

Yeah. I mean, that sounds exactly how this show works.

That does seem— the math now checks out.

I will say anyway, Bill and Dick, I will say that usually when Marcus Mariota plays, he's a— he just ends up great for fantasy. He should be rostered this matchup against Seattle.

He should be rostered.

I think so.

I mean, in a 12-man league.

Yeah. I think Marcus Mariota will have good fantasy output as the season goes on.

He, when he gets the opportunities to start, he oftentimes, I mean, You know, he started 8 games last year and averaged 11 fantasy points.

Yeah, but he has those big games in certain matchups. He had 23.3 against Denver.

Well, what's the actual schedule? Because there's 0.0. I'm not playing him against Seattle.

No, I'm not either. Coming up, Indy, Indianapolis the next week. Like, I, he'll probably be our stream of the week.

Yeah, he'll be in stream week 4. But I don't think you need to roster him, but try next week.

Pick him up.

Couple injury updates. AJ Brown. Is that, is that a new? I mean, it was looking at 6 to 8 week recovery. I thought we had said that before.

Yeah, we, maybe they're just confirming it, but it's being reported again.

That's a long time. Yeah. It's a long, long time for a fantasy league.

Yes.

Zay Flowers not seen participating on Thursday. We talked about it earlier. He's not out there. And I, with, with the international game, I don't know. But that was Fantasy Forecast presented by PrizePicks. Make sure you follow our account at the FF Ballers in the app. To see our best picks every week. PrizePicks, run your game. Tomorrow we've got the Thursday night recap. So we'll see if we get ourselves some, you know, some Tucker crafts, some Tucker 2x4 tonight.

I think we'll get some points tonight.

We've got matchups tomorrow, the rest of them. We've got the fantasy face-off and we've got the newly sponsored by Jason Wheel of Shame tomorrow.

Oh yeah.

On this show. So we will be having some fun tomorrow.

Make sure— sponsored by Jordan Love.

You know what? It is the Jordan Love sponsor wheel of shame because he is responsible.

2 weeks in a row, Green Goblin, man.

He better be. You got to do something with him.

Oh, he's going to be in my lineup. He has to. Rules are rules.

He plays tonight. So he can't.

Oh, yes.

I'm free.

Yeah.

You can't do that. But I guarantee you he will throw for 400 tonight and he will rush like 8 times for sure. So he'll beat both of the ones that he got you on because Christian Watson's out.

I'm going to eat.

You said Tucker 2x4. Is that what he's going to eat?

Him too.

The Ultimate Dashboard. Make sure if you, if you're getting your lineup ready for this week, it is the ultimate tool to prepare yourselves. Waivers, spot starts. It gives you our start-sit optimizations to your lineup. You can put every single league in there from import them from everywhere. And it will tell you who we would start and sit and where you would move them around. It optimizes you for our reminder every week. Hey, Thursday night. If you've got somebody playing tonight, put them in the positional spots, not the flex, especially with all the injuries going on. Jointhefoot.com. You can go check that out. Get access to the ultimate dashboard. Support the show. Get access to bonus weekly episodes all year long. We do a footcast every week. We've got that this afternoon. We've got premium in-season tools. And we're just, you know, our team is always working on that stuff to make it better. So it doesn't stay static. You get more and more perks for the, for your contribution. So that is going to do it for today's show. Tomorrow should be a good time. Good luck in the matchups tonight. I know so many of you are going to sneak Michael Penix into your lineup because he's going to unlock your team.

So good luck with that.

Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter @TheFFBallers.