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

Welcome in. It's football time. I was really excited.

It was very low. Yeah.

That was a little gristly. I'm a man. That was the first thing you said today. It was like the fresh out of bed, gristly.

It's football time.

I'm warming up. I got a set as a metal singer after the show, boys. Nice. I got to get the vocal fry.

I mean, just add it to the long list of gigs you've had over the years, right?

Yeah, which I'm performing. It's football time.

Have you done any metal before?

Not pure metal. I have done covers.

The metal wasn't part of your local fair tour?

No.

We've got a big show today. Thank you for joining us. Quick, here at the top, I wanted to invite you to leave us a review on Apple podcast. Follow the show on Spotify or Apple podcast. Wherever you're listening to it, it helps us out. We've got NFL news to talk about injuries that have Jason shaking in his boots. We've got Starts of the Week, the fantasy forecast, one crown in New Clowns. Today is... Today is going to be a good one, and we're happy to have you with us. An email went out this morning, inviting people to the new Ultimate Dash Dashboard, which is a brand new in-season tool we have built into the jointhefoot. Com membership. You can check that out. You get an extra episode of the show every week. You get access to the Dashboard, which lets you import your team, get an optimized lineup. Very helpful if you manage multiple teams. And I took a poll yesterday over on X about how many teams you have. One to three, four to six, seven to nine, 10 or more. What do you think the results were?

I'm hoping that the 10 or more is very small.

It's only 6.8% of nearly divorced people. Then seven to nine was only 8%, and then the other 80% were between one and six. The winner was one and three, but 33% of you are managing four to six teams. It's helpful if you manage more than one to use the dashboard. You can check that out at jointhefoot. Com. I want to jump right into the news.

News and notes from Around the League, presented by USAA Insurance.

Devon A. Chan. Remains a game-time decision.

It seems like he is going to play. Yeah, he does. He's been at practices- Which is the worst case scenario. Yeah, I know. He's been limited to practices. The reports we're getting from... Look, I'm not saying the name of any anyone because this is not a personal distrust. But the reports that are coming out, they're showing a picture, a video of him stretching or walking and saying, he looks great today. They're like, he's cutting. And he's, Well, show us the video of that. But yeah, I'm a little worried. Last year, there were a handful of games where he was on the engineer report and limited through practice, and they did not have heavy involvement of him those weeks.

Everything that the head coach has said all offseason is that that room, that running back room, there is trust from one to four.

But at the same time, I think in truth, I don't think you can bench him. Most people don't have a good enough option to have the chance of a 25-point great game sitting there on their bench.

So if he's inactive, a la Christian McCaffrey for Monday Night Football. If we get the inactive, he's supposed to go through a pregame workout. It's a game time decision is the official designation. He's optimistic. If he's not there, the question in everybody's mind is, can you just Can you just play Jeff Wilson? Can you just play Jalen Wright? If there's no H. A, no Moster, are both players in your lineup no matter what? Yes.

I think if both of them are gone, and obviously, Moster is already ruled out, he's not going to the IR, but he will not be there today. If If Achan is not there, then I will be starting both of the other guys.

Do you agree with that, Mike? I do. All right, so we'll pay attention. Tonight, we've got the Dolphins and Bills. We previewed it on yesterday's episode.

What if, just for Jason, what if your backup option was Alexander Madison of the Raiders in what projects to be pretty negative game scripting for Baltimore Ravens?

Which is positive for Alexander Madison. Yes. No, I wouldn't go that far. Okay.

I'll tell my friend.

I do think it's tough because there's a player like Jordan Mason. That would be a great play where I would be willing, but you can't take that risk because you've got to know today. For all we know, Christian McAfee- You're saying it was McAfee? Yeah. Maybe Ramondre, that would be a player. We'll talk about him a lot today.

Wait, you're saying you would not take the risk on- He's saying waiting on Mason because Christian McAfee came out yesterday and said, If you saw the quotes, because as soon as it hit, they went crazy.

I'm mentally, I am preparing to play the game. And then you went on, and this was the clip. This was the sound bite.

But you're saying this is in relation to Achan?

Yeah, I'm saying if you were looking at who you're going to start, Achan or someone like Jordan Mason, if I knew both... I don't need to know about Mason.

He's starting in that situation for me. I don't care about the McCafree thing or the Achan. Today, if it's a game-time decision for Achan with the risk of limited work, I'll just play Mason.

But what if you don't have a pivot? Should Christian McCafree be active?

Don't care if he's active.

You're saying even if CMC is active, you would rather play a backup, Jordan Mason over an active A-Chand? I would. Okay. I would not.

Yeah. I think Mason, the utilization is going to be... They're not putting Christian McCaffrey in and giving him all the work in this game. The 49ers are going to win the ball game. They're probably going to get a lead. Jordan Mason. We talked about this. People like J. K. Dobbins, he had what? 10 carries? People like Tink Bigsby. Mason's got 10 carries in the bag no matter what.

That's some confidence.

Last year, people played Achan off of a game-time decision, and he walked off the field into the locker room. It does worry me tremendously.

Yeah. I mean, right now, I've got Devon Achan as my running back 19. Again, in most league, that's still going to be someone you start by the time you go through running back one, running back two, and your flex. But if you've got- Both of you guys would play him over or waiting on, or as you call him, waiting on Mason?

I'd go Mason. I think McCaffrey is not playing.

I would go Achan to take the risk of CMC playing out.

Pukeuna Kua, it's been reported by head coach Sean McVeigh that he can miss more than four games while on IR. This seems inevitable. Everything that I've seen has been six games with Three more games of potential limitations or lack of production, or reduced production is a better way to put it, when you recover from this an injury.

Yeah. I mean, six weeks is everything that I've been seeing as the standard for this as well. They do have a week six buy, so he misses four games. That's guaranteed after that fourth missed game is their buy week, and then we'll see if he returns after their buy or if he needs more time.

All right. Jordan love. Matt LaFleur left the door open for him to still play on Sunday, but he's got to be cleared. I'd be shocked. However, the line, whether it's this news or my confidence in the packers, the line has moved to minus two and a half now.

The coach saying the starter for the Green Bay packers might still play, the weight versus Andy Hollowey's almost upsets. It's pretty balanced. Oh, you go. You side on the Andy.

I think it's probably Andy, yeah. Because remember, when he said it, he knew.

Well, normally, lines move when there's heavy betting action on the other side of it. We know what happened yesterday. We know how many bank accounts are in my hands right now. T. Higgins, ham string, didn't practice. Ken Walker, oblique, didn't practice. I hate that one. That's a bad one. Jake Ferguson, didn't practice. Dalton Schultz, didn't practice. Keenan Allen, Roma Dunes, they did not practice.

Wednesday practices are very often missed. If you're a little banged up or if you're a veteran, whatever. I don't worry too much about the Wednesday practices. Kenneth Walker is the one to watch for the most because it's the most impactful. You got to pay attention. If he miss his practice tomorrow, then you start getting worried and/or excited if you got Charbonnay.

I agree. Keenan Allen is one to watch. He's Sunday night, and he left. He was going into the game with a heel problem. He obviously re-aggravated something. So if you're counting on Keenan Allen, you better have a pivot.

And I would presume Rome is not going to play. It seems that way when you go for an MRI and then it's diagnosed with an MCL and you miss practice Why put him out there this week? But TBD.

The Broncos placed running back Audric, estimate on injured reserve. He'll miss at least four games of an ankle injury.

You skipped the most important one. For our bet.

Okay.

What are you talking about? The Denver wide receiver's, Vela and Reynolds missed practice, which means there's a chance that either Marvin Mims or Troy Franklin can play on the field.

No, man.

I'm going to go back to estimate here. Jaleem O'Gloughlin and Javante Williams, a consolidation of opportunities in the Denver backfield is what you're looking for.

Look, it was fully consolidated this past game. Estimey only had, I think, two touches. One was a big run. I can't remember which, and he fumbled. I don't remember which touch the fumble was on.

That was the problem. He came in early. They seemed like he was part of the rotation. And then fumbled. And then he fumbled.

So this is more of a, to me, we'll see if Givante is-Which would you play?

Which of those two would you play?

I would still play Javante.

I would as well.

But the point being of the fear that The rumblings of fear that could start building up if Javante goes out the next two games and still looks awful, that estimate the coaching staff might make a switch over to him, that's not happening.

Due to him being on injured reserve. Correct. Yeah. That was today's News & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usaa. Com/insurance.

Starts of the Week.

All right, it's It's time to throw out our starts of the week before we jump into the forecast. This week at quarterback, I'm going with tonight's game. I'm going with Tua Tuna-Viloa against Buffalo. I think the- You're talking on Superman's cape over here. We had a slow start to the year, but you saw Arizona put up 28 against them last week. This game is the second-highest total of the week, which I love. Waddle was back in the game, electric, Tyree Keel and Company. And the need, a lot of this comes down to the fact that we have question marks at running back as well, might have a more pass-heavy offensive plan, and this was a game he could already perform in. He averaged 73% completion percentage at home last year and 273 passing yards and two touch downs. If you get anything near that, you're very happy, and he could go way above it. I'm going with Tua.

I am going to go with another player who disappointed last week.

I hope he does better for you than he did for me.

He should to do better. I'm going to go with Jared Goff, go back to the Dominator. One game does not the last couple of seasons make, and that game against the Rams was just a brutally hardcore slugfest. And So this game is still at home again. It's a 50-point over-under again against the Tampa Bay Bucaneers who do not, I believe, have as strong a defense. And more importantly, they don't have as strong a secondary. Last year, they gave up the fifth-most passing yards. And we saw these two teams in the divisional round last year. Jared Goff threw it 43 times, had 287 and two TDs. So it's a little bit more difficult to run than pass against Tampa Bay. I expect Jared Goff to have a really strong fantasy week at I'm going to...

Oh, you got something, Andy?

I just was curious. Would you play Jared Goff at home against Tampa, or would you play Jaden Daniels against the Giants? Asking for a friend.

Oh, man.

That is really, really close. I like both of those plays. If I had to to go with one, I've got them back to back. I'm going to go with my rankings, which is Jaden Daniels.

I would play Daniels. I'm going with my stream of the week. It's Stafford against Arizona. Same argument, the Arizona Cardinals defense is very bad. Josh Allen, the number one quarterback on the week last week, who completed five total passes in the first half. That did not stop him from going on to having 232 passing yards and 2 passing touch downs. The Rams have the number. Since McVay has taken over, the Rams dominate the Arizona Cardinals. And since becoming a Ram, Stafford averages 250 plus and 2 passing touch downs.

All right, my running back start of the week is going to maybe surprise you. I'm going with the Gus bus against Carolina.

I don't hate it.

We had J. K. Dobbins stealing the headlines with the big runs. It was really three big runs and then a pretty pedestrian efficiency. I think Gus is going to get... I don't think anything's changing in the workload for the second week of the year, and you're playing against Carolina this week. Positive game script is in the cards. You can start both chargers running backs with confidence in this game. They gave up 180 total rushing yards last week and two scores. That's not good. That's not good, Carolina. And now you've lost your all-pro defensive tackle. So high T, Greg Roman, trusting the Gus. I'm playing the Gus bus this I like to play a lot.

When I was putting a lineup together on DK, it was like, I kept going back and forth like, Would I rather have Dobbins or rather have Gus? And in this one, you would expect a couple of rushing touch downs against Carolina. And so rushing touch downs are, I think, at the end of the year, there'll be more for Gus than JK. Both are good. My running back start of the week is Ramondre Stevenson, who is coming off an excellent week one. He looks good. 25 carries against Cincinnati for 120 rushing yards and a shutdown, plus three receptions. Now, he's at home against Seattle. If you look at his utilization, he touched the ball on 44% of their offensive plays. Only Béjan had a higher rate of running back.

How did that work out for him?

It worked out pretty great. They won the ball game. They won the ball game. He was breaking tackles like crazy. Look, Seattle is not a great defense. Last year, at least, Seattle ranked 31st in rushing yards allowed. I think Ramondre is a really, really strong play. If I had a flex option of Ramondre versus Achan with the questionable status, I'd be willing to put Ramondre in.

My running back, it's Jordan Mason of the 49ers against the Minnesota Vikings. We all saw what happened last week, and it's just maybe it's people being hopeful for Christian McCaffrey, but the consensus rankings I'm seeing on Mason are way too low. This guy is a... I'm forcing him into my lineup as essentially a top 12 play if I have him. Look, they're five and a half point road favorites. I expect Jordan Mason to see all the work yet again.

Yeah. I mean, it's not like there weren't committeebacks last week that had great success. That's what I'm going to look at Mason like himself this week.

Even if McCaffee plays.

Even if McCaffee plays. The fact that he's dealing with an injury that is a pain tolerance is a long-term injury at this point. It's over five weeks, and you're a team with Super Bowl aspirations, the level of insanity to give him a full workload in this game, if he's back, I don't believe that the 49ers will do that. My start of the week at wide receiver, I really wanted to come here and tell you that it was Marvin Harrison because I felt like the world needs to hear- Yes, we do. That Marvin Harrison is going to be okay. Yes, we do. And that you didn't draft him to bench him for James Williams, and you didn't draft him to bench him for Rasheed Shahid. I mostly believe those statements, but not to the degree of start of the week. I watched the film. Jason watched the film.

It was not good.

It just plain wasn't good. He came out this morning. He basically said, Yeah, it wasn't great. I was like, Yeah, no, it wasn't great, Bob. It wasn't great. My start of the week is another rookie, Malik Nabors, against the Washington Commanders. They're going to throw him the football.

He's going to go nuclear This is going to be an amazing week.

In fact, if you have any shot of trading for Malik Nabors, it's going to be right here, right now before this week happens. I mean, I would trade a lot of players. I mean, Chris Olave or Malik Nabors, I'm probably doing that deal. Jason's face says- That is calling your shot, and I understand where you're coming from.

I don't think I could I'll pull the trigger on that, but I get it. Here's the real question- Hand me the weapon.

I'll pull it.

Here's a real question. You drafted Marv. I didn't want this to come up. Would you trade Marvin Harrison for Malik after week Come on. Throw draft capital away. That doesn't matter anymore. In redraft. No.

I'm in full agreement. He plays Washington. We're going to be attacking the Washington secondary all year, and it's going to be glorious. I'm not saying do it, but Daniel Jones is going to have a good game. Oh, yeah. Daniel Jones, he will have a good game against Washington. But then it's, just to speak to the long term for Malik, it's Cleveland, and then it's Dallas, are the next two weeks after that.

I wouldn't do it. But I want to give some perspective here. Week one, rookies at wide receiver, they don't do a lot. Now, one for four for Marvin Harrison is a disaster. But Malik Willis, or sorry, Malik Nabors, put up five for 66. You're Okay, that was the 10th best performance for a rookie wide receiver in game 1 in the last decade. So it's not like it's some terrible end-of-the-world performance. It was good. Five for 66 is good, especially with what Daniel Jones put up negative four points. You're playing a much worse secondary. Washington is the matchup for wide receiver. Malik, neighbors all the way.

I am going with my start of the week. This is really funny because it's like a- You're going to go with your start of the week as your start of the week? Yeah. Cool. It's a Marvin Harrison barometer because I do think you could still start Marvin Harrison. But I was trying to look for who would I have, possibly, that I would say, You know what? I'm going to go this guy over Marv for For me, that's Chris Godwin. In Detroit, talked about the 50 point over-under. They can throw on... The Lions allowed the most explosive pass plays in the NFL last year. Week one, we were promised how he was going to go in the slot. He did go in the slot. He was 8 for 89 in a countdown. Everything seems like he's slotting in to be a weekly wide receiver, too.

For my next two starts, as I get to him, these are just confidence boosters. It's DJ Moore against the Houston Texans. Week one was awful But this is also, look at the situation. Keenan Allen is banged up. Roma Dunzey is banged up. This could be a full consolidation of targets for DJ Moore. Hey, you get the island game. That's fun. It's in the dome. The over-under has recently moved up. We like to see that. And DJ Moore, we think that he can exploit some one-on-one man coverage opportunities in this game. It's long term for DJ Moore, we will see. But this week with the other two guys already a little bit hurt, I think that Moore is a strong play. I love this play.

I'm going to ask you this, Mike, as it gets to my tight end start of the week, are you putting any underpants on this week?

I am.

Well- Can I borrow them? Oh, yeah, brother. I don't need titanium. What What levels do we got here?

We got steel. That's your starter set. We got titanium. You need a little extra protection for the undercarriage. When you need to go invincible from the crotch kicks, you put on the unobtanium.

I don't recommend going on your first ride.

No. That's for seasoned veterans only.

You got to be calloused. Can I get the steel, please? You got it.

Steel Underpans.

I'm going to go with Kolby Jack. That's Kolby John Parkinson, tight-end for- Kolby Jack cheese. For the Rams. Mike- I'll do it.

I'm in on this play.

There's going to be a- I don't know if that's good for you or not. There's going to be a game plan change with no Puka Nakuwa. Kolby Parkinson last week. It looked pretty good. He had the most routes run among all tight ends in the NFL. We care about routes run at tight-end. He was the tight end seven on the week, 4 for 47. If that's the worst you get, cool. That's Great.

I'll take that.

That was the tight end seven. There's a chance he's the... We want to say Tyler Johnson or maybe Jordan Wittington shows up, and then DeMarcus Robinson is obviously going to be out there. But maybe, just maybe, a lot of Cooper Cup, a lot of Kolby Parkinson, a lot of steel underpants. I think it's worth it.

All right. My start of the week at tight end. Look, I really like this start. I'm pretty confident, even bullish, and this will It's really surprising. But it's Pat Freier-Muth. I think the Muth will be Luth in Denver.

This did surprise me.

Denver allowed the most fantasy points to opposing tight ends last year. This is where you beat them. They also have Patrick Sertan, and right now, the Steelers have one wide receiver. I know where Sertan is going to be on that field, and it's going to be riding Picket. Pickens. Pickens, yes. Kenny Picket, no longer on the team. No. George Pickens will have to deal Sertan. And Denver is beatable at tight end. Their next best weapon for the Steelers is the Muth. He had four targets in week one. They didn't throw a ton, but that was an 18% target share. And we also saw last year, Field's play against this Denver defense do very, very well. We've also seen fields throw some touch downs to Cole commit. So I think for one of those later starts, you had an injury, you didn't get likely on the waivers. The Muth is a guy that I'm willing to start.

Mike, close this out.

This is a full confidence push. It's Mark Andrews. And the reason that Mark Andrews is here is because I am seeing him ranked under Kyle Pitz, Dalton Kincaid, George Kittle. I'm not there yet. He ran the second most routes of the position last week.

He just ran them into triple coverage.

Yeah, we're all excited for Isiah Likely. That doesn't mean Mark Andrews is toast. The Ravens are eight and a half point home favorites, 25 point implied team total. Last year, the Raiders, they gave up the sixth highest opponent tight-in target share. I think that Mark Andrews gets back to being a top-tier option.

All right, those were our starts of the week. Let's take a break. Come back with the forecast. I got to be honest with you, Mike.

What do you got?

These underpants are pretty uncomfortable.

They are made of steel.

Yeah, they are as no give. No. And I need give. All right, here we go.

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

The New Orleans Saints at 1:00 After that, they put on David Tepper. Take on the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas. This is not going to be like that one. The DraftKings Sportsbook line, Dallas minus 6. The over-under is 47. Look, I'd take Dallas in the points.

Minus the points. I really would. Our listener league that we drafted that I've talked about, that was the hospital draft team that went awry.

When you say hospital draft, I'm imagining all your players are injured. That's my league of records. You took players that are injured already.

I was at the hospital. I have named my team the Saints because I have all of them. I've got Camara, I've got Alava, I've got Tazem, I've got Carr. And so that was fine week one. I got the W because I played Carolina. I'm looking at this, I'm like, Oh, no. Dallas, this is not going to work well for my team.

So far, the Dallas defense has looked great. They didn't have to throw the ball a lot, so people were disappointed with Dak and CeeDee Lamb. We had the injury to Jake Ferguson, but things are trending in a positive way for Ferguson to maybe be out there.

I don't think I'd play him.

You would just make the pivot. There's other options.

Yeah.

Okay, If that makes sense. You'd go Kolby Jack?

I think I would.

I would rather play Kolby Jack or Freyermuth. Both of those starts over a banged up Ferguson.

So Dak is in there. Seedy is in there. Brandon Cooke, to me, I was very encouraged by the Zeke won opportunities. He had seven targets in a game where they passed for half the game. So Brandon Cooke, to me, is a flex play. Do you guys agree with that?

I do.

And then Zeke and Rico Dautil, if you're taking this shot, heavy favorites in the game. Right now, I'm just playing Zeke.

Yes, I'm not going to disagree with that. Zeke was at 51% of the snaps, 12 opportunities. Dautil was at 44% of the snaps, 10 opportunities. While it's close, but it's still Zeke, and the goal-line opportunities went to Zeke.

The first half of the game was not quite that close, and then there was a blowout later in the game, and Rico got more involved. I think Zeke is an okay play here, but the New Orleans Saints defense is still good. I'm guessing that it's not going to be easy sled for the rushing and that Dak throws two touch downs.

Yeah, I think CeeDee Lamb is going to have a fantastic game. His yardage is sitting at 86 and a half. Right now, it's over under. I think it's going to be okay. On the other side for the Saints, though, we've already seen the change in the offense. Jay, just for you, I think there is some optimism, or I at least have some, that this was not the same old cramogeny. They're using motion. Yes, that was nice to Baby, they look- Cubs.

Baby, cubes.

They went into the future of the NFL. They didn't go into the 1950s style. So Kamara is in. Olave is still in. I'm going to... He better get some targets. He He gets some targets. The other guys, though, Shahid, the deep play, don't love it.

Well, let's look at this game. Would you rather play Shahid or Brandon Cooke?

I'd go Brandon Cooke.

I would as well.

Yeah, the defense I'm scared of the Saints going on the road. And Rasheed Shahid, he could make us look dumb in one play. That's what he does. Here's what I know. Derek Carr will take one to three shots downfield at Rasheed Shahid in this game. If one of them works out, we're done. That's how it works. Now, if Shahid outperforms Olave for a second consecutive week, that's going to be... Are we going to have to re-amandize Can you imagine Olave compared to where this draft cost was? Because if you talk about a player that let people down in week one and was a head scratcher, putting up 47 points and having Chris Olave do nothing, that was as disappointing as anything.

Yeah, I will say that they didn't need him when it was 40 to nothing at the half or something like that. Olave was not needed. It's really about target pecking order here. If Shahid happens to outscore Olave, but Olave has got seven or eight targets, and Shahid has four or five, fine, whatever. It's really like, I need six plus targets for Olave this week. I'm still playing Olave. One week does not a season make, but definitely holding my breath.

Juan Johnson or Taysam Hill, who would you start as an emergency tight in? Because I've been thinking about this.

I think it's still Taysam. Okay.

Tampa Bay at 1:00. Take on the Detroit Lions in Detroit, who are also 1:00. Both teams and Tampa one big. Draftkings Sportsbook line, Detroit minus seven and a half. The over-under is 51 beautiful points.

Yeah, we like that.

This is a rematch from the divisional round. Detroit had knocked off Tampa 31-23 last year. It was tied going into the fourth. I do think this game is going to be pretty competitive. I don't think that what we saw from Tampa last year or what we saw already through one week is a mirage. I think that they know what they want to do on offense, and they have the personnel to where there's a level of consistency and reliability here.

I think adding Bucky Irving and Jalen McMillan has, obviously, very small sample, and it was against a terrible defense. But they look like legit helpful players on the NFL field. And there really was nothing last year behind... You had Rashaad White doing his work in the passing game, Mike Evans being awesome, and then God wouldn't serviceable. They He needed more places to go to. I really do think Irving and McMillon helped Baker and helped the whole team be able to compete in a game like this.

What did you think about... I mean, week one, Dave Canales did not fix Bryce Young. In week one, the Bucaneers' offense without Dave Canales was Hot Magma. They're using Chris Godwin the right way through one game, putting him back into a position to succeed. Early times.

It's not just early, it was also Washington, which is such a difficult thing to evaluate because I'm not going to knock the Bucaneers for beating the crap out of Washington because they should. But they still did it. They didn't just win. They throttled them on the offensive side of the football. But this is a much more fair competition for the Bucks. My chips aren't all in on the Bucks. That's why they were on the hunger for more. I want find out, are they actually going to be this good again?

I think this is a great defense to find it out against because Detroit has a good defense, but they're not all-world. They're not one of those teams I'm afraid to play. This is just like, show what you got. I'm really looking forward to this matchup.

I am as well. It puts Baker Mayfield in the streaming quarterback category. Oh, yes. For sure. Rashaad White, his rushing line is 46 and a half. That's not wildly impressive, and I don't even know if I'd take the over on it. I don't know. I'd probably take the under. But six targets last week, six receptions last week. Yeah, beautiful. Ho-hum, he catches everything thrown his way, and 75 receiving yards. It was like the Achan game. Achan put it up in the passing game. Rashaad White is going to be in your lineup. Both running backs on Detroit side are going to be in your lineup, and we just hope that we have enough work there.

Jamison Williams is the only question of, are you- He's He's in my lineup. Over who, though?

Marv. No, I don't think I'm doing that.

I would play him over Marv in-I think that there's going to be a big pendulum swing, and we'll talk about it in that matchup.

I think- Would you play him over George Pickens, who will have the- No. The Sertan?

I don't think so, man.

Pickens is good. He looked so good week one, but he didn't do a ton for fantasy, but he did look really- He had big plays, right?

Mcclane?

Yeah, sure. That one's fine. At home against Tampa.

The nice thing about this game is both teams have very, very strong run defenses, and so you have a passing funnel on both sides. I expect the ball to be thrown a ton. Gibbs, I love Gibbs. I'm a little bit more worried about David Montgomery. He's pushed down into more like a flex option range for me because he's not involved in the passing game. Very difficult to run on Tampa Bay.

Where was David Montgomery? It ended up incredible, almost 16 points. But before the overtime drive- Before the overtime- I think he would have been- It was eight fantasy points. It would have just been... Before we If you have Montgomery, there's optimism, but I wouldn't look at week one as fully prescriptive for his season.

What are the other question marks in this game? I think we covered everything.

I think we got it all.

I do. I think we did, and we'll be Irving and McMillan, and what does Amun Ra do to bounce back? Those will be story lines that we're paying attention to, but this is one of my favorite games of the week. I cannot wait to watch this ball game. I don't know, which side would you be on with the seven and a half point line? I Raleigh and Tampa keeping it closer.

I think it'll be a closer game as well.

We give a tip of make sure every Sunday morning, if you have that empty spot, like one of you guys got ruled out, you can move on to the IR. You should always be stashing backup runningbacks who have the potential to be league-changing guys. If Bucky Irving wasn't picked up, which there's a chance he was, Bucky Irving is one of those players to me of, I'm going to stash him. If If I ever have an open spot, because if Rashaud White loses time to injury, Bucky Irving, those 6 for 6, 75 receiving yards, that will go right to Bucky Irving.

When you have a running back backup that you know can catch the football, that That is so fundamentally different than saying, Okay, if Javante goes down, it's Esteem and Jaleel just sharing time. I think Bucky would get everything, and that would be very valuable.

They really don't have people behind them with Chase Edmonds.

Edmonds is on IR. Tucker.

Tucker. Yeah. Sean Tucker.

I think that's a really important name to mention. The Colts. I don't even know why we're talking about this game. I already told you what's going to happen. The Colts at 0-1 travel to Green Bay to take on the packers who were also all in one. Games in Lambo, DraftKings Sportsbook line, unsurprisingly, has moved to Indianapolis minus two and a half. The over-run is 41. What was my total? 24, 14?

23, 13.

23, 13. 36 points over under 41. Okay. I mean, we're working on it. Okay, so under. Got it. Yeah, I would take the under, obviously.

The three of us yesterday, We sat down and we watched- Maybe 23:16.

Maybe we're getting to 16. Oh, because-We're getting to 41.

That you knew.

But we-I couldn't tell if one of the kicks went in.

Yeah.

Look, the text was a little fuzzy.

You know there's angles that you can't tell. If you're watching the kick from the side, which is how I do my premonitions.

Wait a minute. I thought this was a magazine. Yeah, you got the Almanac.

You got to see the game. Yeah, you got to see the game. Didn't you say you had the Almanac?

The Almanac's where the score is printed, guys. I saw the game through an orb. Oh, okay.

All right.

Well, you guys don't know- Where is this orb?

You know nothing about predicting games.

Share the orb, bro.

No.

Release the orb.

We sat down and we watched Anthony Richardson. We watched every one of his passing plays, all 19 of them from last week. I don't want to overstate it at all, but all three of us walked away saying he had a pretty darn good game. He was better than we thought when it came to just the passing work and the accuracy. Yeah, he He had a play that made us all just burst out laughing. We couldn't tell who he was targeting. I think he was trying to throw the ball through two people.

I think he looked good, but 9 for 19 won't get it done. If the Alec pierce play doesn't happen, your backfoot chucking it as far as you can, that's a bad game. You're at home in week one. I think tough environment, me personally... Look, I'm not saying don't start Anthony Richardson. He's your starter, he's your starter. But I think Green Bay is going to give them a hard time. Green Bay is a smart, well-coached football team that will know how to game plan against this Indianapolis offense. But you're starting your studs here. Richardson, Taylor, Yes. The target share for Pitman means you keep them in your lineup, and you're done talking about the Colts at that point.

I'll throw this to Jason because Andy already saw at least a possible outcome. But Jason, we're more on Jonathan Taylor this week of thinking he's going to have a strong game. His DK line is at 79.5. Do you have that level of confidence?

That is a really good line. I don't have the confidence necessarily to take that line and go bid it. But I have full confidence in Jonathan Taylor being a good player.

Do you think he's going to follow through with that type of a performance?

Yeah, look, I think they win this game against Malik Willis. I think Malik Willis will make a couple of bone-headed plays or not be able to move the offense. So short fields, two rushing touch downs for Jonathan Taylor, to me, are totally in the cards in this game.

Not if they only score 13. Right.

That's true.

You know what I mean?

Well, you can miss an extra point. I guess.

The analysis is very difficult for me knowing what I have the constraints to work in based on your future.

My analysis is based on the future obvious thing that's going to happen.

Okay, so you You have a negative game script then for the Colts. Are you playing Pitman? 42% of the target.

It's not a huge cry, but- No. To me, you play Richardson, Taylor, and Pitman, and you move on.

Okay.

On the other side, everyone's going to be shaky with the starts of any wide receiver or tight in on the packers, which, look, let's just make it easy. Jaden Reid wasn't drafted so highly that you don't have another option. If you are uncomfortable, just move to somebody else for a week. Jacobs, you play him. The game plan should be to hand him the football. It better be. He had 19 opportunities in week one. Barring a hyper negative game script, which I don't see at home in Lambo, but is possible, I think 25 opportunities for Jacobs is in the cards.

Oh, yeah. He's going to be the centerpiece of their offense. He's a must start. Jaden Reed, Christian Watson, you can start them. I would do it in that order, but you're right. I mean, if I have Brian Thomas Jr, who is a later draft pick, I would play him over either of those.

Look, I'm not encouraged about Christian Watson in this season so far. He was three for 13 in week one. That is not the- He did have three shutdown opportunities.

He only got one of them. But when they got around the red zone, the game script, Or not the game script. The play calling was designed for Watson. That was week one.

Yeah, and that's the plan with Watson. I think what I said in the offseason was, if he scores, you're happy.

And I don't expect a lot of scores with Malik Willis, that quarterback.

The Jets are all in one. They on the Tennessee Titans. They're also all in one. The DraftKings Sportsbook line here, Jets on the road minus three and a half. The over-underer is 40. The world was not impressed with Will Levis, unless you were a- He was his coach. Unless you were a- Oh, Why don't you share that? That was awesome.

I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but it was the head coach of the Titans was asked about the offense, and he said something along the lines of, If we had punted on every first and 10, I think we win the game.

In other words, your offense cost you the ball game because you turned it over and you were stupid, and that needs to change.

That's so bad.

So this is a big game, in my opinion. You're at home. Tennessee gets to play at home. The Jets defense did not look like they could handle the 49ers in week one, but this is a totally different situation. You play the Jets D, and you want those mistakes. I just want to see what happens with the Calvin Ridley story this week. To me, this is very important.

Yeah. I mean, it makes sense that it's important to you. You've got a lot of Calvin Ridley. This is just not a really good matchup for him. Over the course of the entire tea of last season, You had the wide receiver. They gave up the fewest fantasy points to wide receivers, did the Jets. Obviously, week one, they didn't look quite as tough, but they were playing against the 49ers.

There were some similarities between the offense for the Titans and the offense for the Cardinals, play calling-wise. On Sunday, both teams were up 17-3. Both teams didn't really push the envelope in the second half, and it fell apart for both teams. So Pollard looked Good? Are you in on Pollard this week? The line is set at 50 and a half rushing yards.

I think Pollard is an Rb2-ish type of a player.

Yeah, I think he's a good play this week.

Out on Spears right now?

Until you see it balanced, I think you have to be.

Certainly not in any way, shape, or form out to the point of dropping.

Oh, no.

I think you could have it come back to balance. But the matchup is not that bad. The Jets run D. I mean, you saw them get destroyed by Jordan Mason last week. But last year, they weren't that great. It's really the passing work that gets shut down. So Will Levis, I would be happy to bench Calvin Ridley this week. If he has a bad game, I know, Andy, you've got a lot riding on it. You would be a little bit more fearful than I would be. The Bear's defense, I think by the end of the year, we're to go back and say, Wow, they're great. And that's who they had to play week one. The Jets, we know their passing defense is great. They got the sauce. And so I'm happy. I would want to bench Ridley, and I won't overreact. I'll go trade for him.

I think you might look back at the end of the season, and we might say that Tennessee's rushing defense is actually pretty darn amazing. So I'm impressed to sweat on that defensive line. He seems like a superstar. The bears got nothing going on the ground last week. It was borderline embarrassing debut for Swift. All that to say, maybe the efficiency won't be where you want it with Brees. It wasn't last week. It might not be this week, but the passing game work and the hyper focus of Aaron Rodgers on Brees and Garrett Wilson, those two guys are in. Are you chasing what Lazard did against the Titans on the road?

So the Lazard- McClorn or Lazard? I actually might go Lazard. I'm very concerned about McCloren. It is the same old Cliff Kingsbury garbage that we saw in Arizona of one guy. This is your spot. Did you see where he was lined up? That's exactly what I'm talking about.

Yeah, 87% of the time.

You play over here on the left, and you don't go anywhere else. We have no creativity. It's brutal, and rookie quarterback, Russian quarterback, all that stuff. But for Lazard, people were asking, Where was he on waiver day? Look, Maybe for in a deeper league, and could be proven wrong on Lazard. However, his stat line of 6 for 89 and 2, that is the most fraudulent stat line of his first huge Huge breakdown. It was the vintage Aaron Rodgers, We got everybody off sides. We got a free play. I chucked it up, and it worked.

Would never have thrown that ball if it wasn't a free play.

Yeah, and it worked out. His second countdown was the backup quarterback at the end of the game When the Jets have said the white flag was already flying in the wind. I don't think that we get anywhere close to this with Lazard.

Mike Williams is also working his snaps up, and Lazard is not going to be the starting outside wide receiver in that situation.

The bowl case for Lazard is full narrative of the reason he's on this team, the reason he got the contract he got. It's because Aaron Rodgers went into the management and said, You're going to sign my friend. So that's If you want to chase that, okay.

If you want to say one more thing in the positive for the bowl case, it's Lejarius Sneed. Lejarius Sneed is-For this week, yeah. For this week as a lockdown corner who... You know, Garrett Wilson-Can I have a second one? Can you have a second? Almost upset?

Yeah, I think Tennessee- Absolutely. I think Tennessee wins the ball game. Now, I don't have a button, so I can't push it.

Well, you already did push it. Once you push it once, it blows up.

You got to push it with your mind. Think about it real hard right now. Where's the orb?

There it Andy's almost upset of the week. I'm giving you two. You're a wild man. Tennessee, I think they're going to play really, really good football this week at home. I do.

I actually don't mind this at all. They're going to run the ball, and they're going to take the ball. I believe the Titans are going to take the ball out of Will Levis' hands a little bit more so that he doesn't do these bone-headed things. And the Jets are going to... I could see their offense struggling here.

Did you see the comparison between weeks Week one, Zack Wilson, and week one, Aaron Rodgers?

I did not, but this fuels me.

They were identical numbers across the board, except for last year, Zack Wilson got the win, and Rodgers got the L. Not the thing Jets fans want to hear. All right, we'll take a break. Be right back. The San Francisco 49ers at 1:00 travel to Minnesota to take on the impressive, Minnesota Vikings. The DK Sportsbook line here, San Francisco minus five. The over-unders, 45 and a half. Both teams look great in week one. Now, Minnesota dominated the Giants. San Francisco didn't have Christian McAfree and still dominated the Jets. Minnesota upset San Francisco last year on Monday Night Football, and Darnold looked really good last week. Brock Purdy and the 49ers look like- Jason, would you like to talk about Sam Darnold?

He just It looked great, man. Now, that being said, he was not playing a very good defense.

Yeah, it's very Tampa Bay, Baker Mayfield questions.

Yeah, you got to prove it to me this week, but he passed the eyeball test for So much more difficult situation here, especially with Jordan Addison now going down.

So you've got Jefferson, of course. But were you impressed with everything you saw from Aaron Jones in week one?

I was. He It looked like he had the same speed, five games of 10 plus yards. That was the most among runningbacks in week one. It looked like he hadn't lost anything. So it is a timeshare with him and Ty Chandler. It really is. But Aaron Jones, as of right now, he's a weekly play.

Eleven opportunities for Ty Chandler in week one. What was the count for Aaron Jones? Eleven for... He had 16. Yeah, that's a time share, but got into the end zone. Outside of Jefferson and Aaron Jones, though, there's no one else you think about on Minnesota, right? No. So that's simple.

Even in this matchup, even though Darnold looked good, if I'm in a super flex, I'm not playing Darnold.

On the other side, Mike started the week, Jordan Mason, touched the ball in 41% of the plays for San Francisco. We've commented on it already. Mike and I are in the camp where we'd play Jordan Mason. I'm assuming you're on the regardless of Christian McCafree? I am, yes. That workload that you saw from Mason last week was awesome. Christian McAfee only saw it in four of 16 games.

On top of that, I believe the style was Jordan Mason faced the most stacked boxes, which means that there's- He did, eight or more. That there's eight or more defenders in the box. Literally, the defense is saying, Go ahead, run the ball on us. Jordan Mason and the 49ers destroy.

It's perfect for his play style. It's just more guys for him to hit. You know what I mean? He's like, Oh, good. I got eight of them to run over.

He probably won't tell us when he was told to be the starter this week. Debo, his involvement in this offense only goes up without Christian McCaffrey. That's a player that you're probably starting anyways. But if there is no CMC, you know you're going to get rushing attempts, probably going to get more passing game involvement, the dump offs. Brandon Ayuk only had five targets last week. Dropped a breakdown. If you watch Peyton Manning went off on Ayuk and not signing the contract so you can go get some reps and catch the football. But Ayuk should get more work in this game. George Kittle, where are you with him? His receiving yard's line is higher than I'd expect. It's at 49.5..

That feels a little high for me. The Flora's defense-It was 4 for 40 last week. Yeah, 4 for 40 last week. But the Flores defense for Minnesota, they looked great, obviously, Daniel Jones, but they looked really good last year. We forget how good their defense was last year. Over the course of the season, fantasy points given up. They were top 10. In fact, they were third against quarterbacks, second against tight ends, seventh against running backs. This is a good defense. Not that you're benching I'm not hitting George Kittle, but if you're talking about a 49.5-yard line with Ayuk there, that feels difficult to achieve.

George Pickens or Brandon Ayuk? As of right now on Thursday. Ayuk.

I would go Ayuk.

That's a good comp, though.

Yeah, tough week for Ayuk in week one. Any other matchups or questions? Brock Purdy, Minnesota allowed the most completions in the NFL last year. Is Purdy in your purview?

I'd stream Baker over Purdy.

The Seattle Seahawks traveled to New England to take on the New England Patriots. Draftkings Sportsbook Line, Seattle minus three and a half. The overruner is 38 and a half. Eew. Gross. If you don't have Ken Walker, it's going to get grosser. Because I believe Zack Charbonney was the single worst efficiency running back in the football last week.

He was. Had a good fantasy day because he caught a shutdown. But as a pure runner, was not great.

There's a lot of matchups, apparently, that I think are going to go the other direction. I think New England wins the ball game.

I'm with you on this, so I don't know if that works to your favor, because usually when you are against something or surprising, I'm totally on the other side, and that's when you're right.

I think it's the early season situation right now. All right, we have Ramondre Stevenson, Jason, at the start of the week. He's locked into your lineup. Tell me if there's another soul on the Patriots you're even glancing at for fantasy.

Absolutely not.

That would be bad if you did. Soulless.

I'm keeping my eye on Jalen Polk, who the counting statistics at the end of the game, there were nothing. But watching him play, like watching him on his All-22, there was at least one particular play where he had torched his DB, but Jacobi just didn't look at his side of the field, it was an easy breakdown pass. He is a very good player who, over the course of the season, might work his way into a starter, a fantasy starter. He's going to start for new-a-one.

Like a DFS dart throw. Hunter Henry He basically caught a shutdown, but he was out of bounds last week. We'd be viewing him a little bit differently. This is a great matchup for tight ends.

Yeah, I was just looking at his targets. He had three in week one. Love to see that go up. Metcalf, you don't bench him just because of a bad week one. It is a new offense, and we talk about it all the time. There's always rose-colored glasses with the new offense. It's always going to be so amazing. Jason's finally going to be utilized the way he's supposed to, and Metcalf is going to be unleashed. He is Jamar in the grub offense. And week one, threw some cold water on the high aspirations for both players.

Yeah, this was an offense because of all of those things I was looking forward to the most. Now, Denver Broncos, they started last season as just an awful defense, and then they got it together to finish the year. So I think maybe they're a good defense, but here's the problem. So are the Patriots. Patriots are a great defense.

Now, DK's DK line is at 53 and a half. Dk.

Wow, that was- How do you not love Michael Keaton. Because I was a little ashamed that we said the same stupid thing.

But I think that's fair for what I'm expecting.

We may not have a bone zone in this game. Ken Walker could miss it.

The zone will be boneless.

Okay, so if he's out, though, this is what people are going to need to know. How high would Charbonet be against a good Patriots defense? If Walker is out- He'll catch passes.

He's running back 26 in my mind, somewhere in that range.

Slightly out of my top 24 is Najee against Denver, I'd play ahead. Jerome Ford against Jacksonville, I would play ahead.

Would you play Zeke against New Orleans, or would you play Charbonet?

Zeke.

I think I'd go Charbonet on that one. That one's very close. What about Swift?

I'd play Swift. Charby.

I'd go Charby.

All right. Then Jason, are we just benching him until further notice?

Yes. 100% full bench.

I am willing to miss the first explosive game.

All right, Jason. Reach behind because it's time to recap our parlay partay, the three-legged... Okay. I don't like that my...

What? You don't like it? What about your wig?

I'm just very... It's tough. I'm a clown the day. Okay, James Connor, I had him over 51 and a half. He ended with 50. 50. Which makes me a clown.

I mean, my guy got ejected, guys.

You have to build an excuse that would never have worked.

Joshua Paul Palmer, he was on his way. He was a little bit short.

He did get ejected. So two clowns, one crown. Jason's, Breese Hall- This thing is shedding all over me. Well, it's not an expensive wig for those listening at home. Mike looks- I like you. Yeah, like me. We look ridiculous. Jason has a crown on because Breese Hall did hit the over of the three and a half. So for week two, here we go. My favorite line of the week right now, it's Rashaud White, 25 plus receiving rushing yards. He hit the line eight of his last 11. You can't run against Detroit, but you can run through the air against them. And in week one, he was the same Rashaud White, 6 for 75 through the air. I like Rashaad White, 25 plus rushing yards as part of our parlay partay.

I love that line. You can always get injured, but that seems good. I'm going back to the well with the overreceptions for a running back from last week. Not Breese this week. I'm going with Ramondre, my start of the week. He saw all the work last week. He had three targets last week, three receptions, so he would have hit it. Last week, Seattle allowed seven receptions to Bronco's runningbacks, checking it down. And over the last three seasons, Ramondre has averaged 3.7 receptions a game. I like him getting to three receptions.

It's a good thing you didn't do the yardage because Julian McGlaffon caught five passes. Right, for a yard. For one receiving yard total. I I'm getting mad Bob Ross vibes from my wig right now.

Yeah, I look pretty good.

Yeah, you guys actually do look-I don't mind it. You look pretty good.

I don't mind it. But now they know who to trust. Mike, go ahead.

Derrick Henry, 70 plus rushing yards. It's an alt-line. And the story is this. The Ravens are heavy favorites at home, and I'm completely bought into the fact that they should be over the last three seasons in wins. Henry is over this line in 16 of 19 games, averaging almost 110 rushing yards in those games. I know Harbaugh- I want to see. I know Harbaugh came out and said, We didn't bring him in to get him 30 carries. I don't think you have to give him 30 carries in this, and we're taking the 70.

I do think that they brought him into ice games with a lead, and that's how he ends up accidentally getting to 25, 30 carries because it's just like- I would say it's on purpose.

I don't know that you accidentally get 70 rushing yards.

I don't know. Listen to head coaches at the press conference, and they're like, I don't know how to get guy more involved. They make accidents all the time, Mike.

We're all looking for the guy who did this.

All right. Rashaad White, 25 plus. Ramondre, over two and a half receptions. Henry, 70 plus rushing yards. Running backs. That was a fantasy forecast presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. Draftkings is dishing out NFL no sweat, countdown bets for all customers every day, every game day. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use the code Ballers. That's the code Ballers for new customers to get three no sweat tokens this week. That is going to do it for today's episode of the show. We got more matchups tomorrow. We got the return of fantasy Face Off. You asked for it. We listened. We're bringing it back. A lot of things to talk about. Enjoy the football tonight, everybody. Goodbye.

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