Fantasy Football - Starts of the Week + Week 8 Breakdown, Big Bye Decisions - Podcast for 10/23

12:01Mike Wright:All right. That was News & Notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. Let's get into the starts.

12:19Jason Moore:Starts of the Week.

12:20Mike Wright:Presented by U.S. Bank. Our confidence plays this week, all the more important, with six teams on by. I imagine most lineups, a flex spot is going to be a player you're not particularly comfortable with this week. A lot of, like I said, quarterbacks taking the week off, six teams on by. Your opponent's probably in the same situation. We want to give you some confidence plays. Let's start at quarterback, guys. Jason, you want to take it away?

12:52Jason Moore:Sure. I'm going to do something I don't usually do. I don't love doing starts of the week on Thursday Night Football. I did it last week with Jalen Warren. It worked out all right. I'm going to do it again tonight at quarterback Justin Herber. I think he's a great play this week. He's the quarterback four on the season. He's putting up ridiculous numbers. He's on pace right now for 4 ,600 and 32 passing touchdowns while doing something far more exciting than he doesn't usually do. He's on pace for career highs and rushing 73 rushing attempts for 452 yards. No quarterback in the history of the NFL has ever rushed for 450 yards while throwing for 4 ,600 and 32 touchdowns.

13:31Jason Moore:So whether that happens or not, that's just what he's doing already. And the Chargers, they currently rank third in passing rate over expectations. So in those neutral game scripts, what are they doing? I know that – It's very low T. It's low T, but it's high H. It's putting the ball in Justin Herbert's hand. Yeah, it was a Herbert, Harbaugh, whatever. Okay. The quarterbacks, the strength of this team right now is to pass the ball. They have great weapons. They've got four legitimate great weapons, and that's not even counting my dude Trey Harris, who is awesome and will someday be awesome. The Vikings are a pretty good pass defense, but they do rank 24th in schedule adjusted fantasy points given up to the quarterback position.

14:20Jason Moore:So I think you could start Justin Herbert this week. I'm going Bo Nix baby we're taking on the Dallas Cowboys it's what we want it's the highest over under I'm taking the Denver Broncos

14:30Mike Wright:baby you don't need to say anything well

14:33Jason Moore:I'll add a couple things there's a lot of Broncos in this section I was going to say we should just literally every Thursday have a start of the week whatever team is playing the Cowboys start all of them unless it's Bill no what Mike

14:51Mike Wright:Mike.

14:51Jason Moore:Did we get a new – did we finalize? We didn't finalize it. I was going with the sad shoulder shrug, though. I'm just a bill. Cowboys, 31st in yards per pass attempt, dead last in adjusted completion percentage, dead last in schedule adjusted fantasy points to the quarterback position. It might take until the fourth quarter with the way that the Broncos and Bo Nix have been playing, but good news, there's a fourth quarter. Yeah.

15:21Mike Wright:No, Bo Nix, got to follow that up. Jason doesn't like it, but this is the week for me. I don't love it, but Christian Watson helps. Jordan Love. I'm going to go start of the week Jordan Love at Pittsburgh. You have to pick your spots with him. He's had a lack of true blow-up games this year, and it's masked how efficient and good he's been at quarterback, and we've talked about this at length yesterday. He was my second-up sleeper. Fifth in yards per attempt right now, fourth in pass success rate, number one in expected points per dropback. you know this is not the Steelers defense that uh we used to have just ask Jason he had negative one points from them last week 31st in passing yards per game allowed 31st in schedule adjusted fancy points a lot of quarter wild the quarterbacks are doing major work on Pittsburgh and Christian Watson coming back Jordan Love he has played well they just haven't asked him to do as much still dealing with the recovery of injury for Josh Jacobs we'll see what happens in this one but I like Jordan Love, especially on a week with so many buys.

16:18Jason Moore:Yeah, I'm going to go with J.K. Dobbins. We talked about it. They play Dallas. The Broncos. I mean, J.K. Dobbins. He has been good. Had a disappointing week, but he's been a top 24 running back in six of seven weeks so far. The only guys that can claim that right now are Dobbins, Josh Jacobs, Scadaboo, A. Chan, B. John, CMC, and Jonathan Taylor.

16:38Mike Wright:That was a pretty long list.

16:40Jason Moore:But it's a long list of only – That sounded like a lot of people. But it's only like Jonathan Taylor, the stud of studs. Christian McCaffrey, the stud of studs. Bijan, stud of studs. If you say that again. Bijan Robinson is the stud of studs. Okay. It's the Bijan Minute. A-Chance, Scadaboo, Jacobs. My point is all those guys are like you don't even question. You don't think should I start, should I pivot to someone. And then there's Dobbins who's there with them, and he's been really good. He is clearly the leader of this offense. The Denver offensive line is outstanding. the Dallas defensive line is outstanding for the other team so they're giving up everything to everyone other than Bill I am going to start J.K.

17:21Dobbins no problem and I'm going with Chase Brown against the Jets okay with the matchup it's not great however we are second half sleeper for Jason we I like it because I'm we're chasing a heavy home favorite here the the Bengals currently six and a half point home favorites and the receiving floor it's actually okay where we have the eighth most targets of the running back position and Joe Flacco I don't know how much you dove into because I wasn't here for the show of second half sleepers that I had but the

17:52Mike Wright:yes he was but he was on both of our lists is like not our main names but you and I both had him on our flacco yes flacco is the my yeah my belief in joe flacco is at a an insane and irrational point right now of uh like i i picked him up as a backup i have bo nicks this week and for league of record i picked up joe flacco i spent over ten dollars a fab just to make sure that because because no other person's crazy enough to spend 10 bucks of your fab on joe Flacco, especially when you're not starting him, but the, the schedule for the Cincinnati Bengals moving forward is redonkulous in terms of schedule adjusted points to the quarterback positions.

18:36I, I think that, and then, and that trickles over to Chase Brown, of course, just saying I wanted to get my piece in of, of where I am with Joe Flacco. And it's, it's, it's frightening to believe in such an old man with such a bad offensive line.

18:50Mike Wright:Mike Tomlin doesn't come out and get angry about situations like this very often. I think he knew what we're knowing now.

18:57Jason Moore:He is so calm, cool, and collected, and he was so pissed.

19:01Mike Wright:He was so pissed about that Flacco move.

19:03Jason Moore:He knew what it meant to get Flacco more than we knew. Yeah. All right, Mike. Oh, speaking of Tomlin and the Steelers, we mentioned yesterday that Aaron Rodgers was going to Green Bay. This game is in Pittsburgh. Yes. Well, we don't know. Maybe he's going to do just a little round trip flight just to check in and then go back to the game.

19:24Mike Wright:Yeah, a little typo over on this side of things. So, sorry about that. That at symbol. We had wondered if he was going to get booed. Aaron Rodgers. Probably not going to get booed at home. No, I don't think so.

19:36Jason Moore:I think he'll be cheered. Unless, yeah, I mean, if he sucks all game. It's not.

19:41Mike Wright:Mike, you'll be happy. Jordan Mason's my start of the week. My confidence play against the Chargers. A true run funnel. We reviewed that yesterday on the show. Both teams are the same in that regard. but 29th in yards before contact, the Chargers. Over the last six weeks, the 28th best in fantasy points allowed to running backs. Jordan Mason is going to get the majority of the work, even if Aaron Jones is back. I like the almost upset, and I like Jordan Mason to get into the end zone maybe twice in this game. Maybe two times.

20:13Jason Moore:We'll see. That'd be a lot. My wide receiver start of the week, Roma Dunze. He is coming off of a couple of disappointing weeks. That's right. Wide receiver, 58. Wide receiver, 63. But this last week, the Bears had easy work. They ran the ball like 700 times. They didn't need to throw it that much. They were in the lead. This game against Baltimore, and I'm hoping that Lamar is active. I still think he will be. They need him desperately. There's a 49.5 point over under in the game. That's awesome. The Ravens are beat up on defense. They're 28th in schedule adjusted fantasy points allowed to wide receivers.

20:48Jason Moore:and they play man coverage 39 % of the time, which is the third highest rate in the NFL. Rome is great there. 35 % target share, fourth highest in the NFL at that coverage. I think this is a perfect matchup for Rome with Duns A. If I've got him and I'm questioning two bad weeks in a row, I absolutely plug him in. I'm stacking my Denver Bo Nix. I'm going with Cortland Sutton. And I really just want to highlight, like, it has not been this. the floor has been low, but the ceiling has been pretty good here for Cortland Sutton. One of four wide receivers this year with five or more weeks of 13 or more fantasy points.

21:25You know, Jason, Puka, Amonra, Cortland Sutton, and you, obviously those guys are plug and play. Sutton may not be there yet, but in the right matchups, you put him in and you take that ceiling.

21:39Mike Wright:Well, I am confident he'll be back out there and I want to highlight how good he's been. Chris Olave against Tampa Bay, two touchdowns last week. Only Jamar Chase has more targets than Chris Olave on this season. Only Pickens and Devontae Adams have more in-zone targets, which seems hard to believe. It's been a functional offense for New Orleans at times, and so you have to throw on the Buccaneers. That's going to be the game plan. Kamara's been banged up. They just lost Kendra Miller. They're 24th in yards per attempt allowed. The Buccaneers, that's how you beat them. Monitor the injury. That was a surprise yesterday.

22:17Mike Wright:But the fact that Nick Underhill, the most trusted beat writer in New Orleans, instantly said he's expected to play on Sunday. I'm going to keep him in there for today. Yeah, at tight end, this one is depending on David Njoku.

22:34Jason Moore:But I do not believe Njoku plays this week. And if that's the case, I will be plugging Harold Fannin into my starting lineup through seven weeks. He has the fifth most targets and the fourth most receptions among all tight ends. You might not realize this because he hasn't been getting in the end zone. Dylan Gabriel isn't good enough to throw touchdowns, but he's on a 17-game pace of 78 for 704 yards. Literally, in the history of the NFL, Bowers, Laporta, and Shockey, Jeremy Shockey going back, those are the guys who have hit 70 and 700. And now you have David Njoku, who is in his own right on pace for 65 and 600 who is probably not going to play i think harold fanon is great the patriots are a fine matchup they don't they don't like they're not one of those perfect matchups for a tight end that can't guard them but they are just average they don't shut down the tight end position they've allowed the eighth most receiving yards to tight ends this year so harold fanon uh you know if njoku's out definitely start him and then if he's not out my start of the week look I would double down from what I did last week.

23:37Jason Moore:The goose of George Kittle. You're still playing George Kittle every week. If he's active, he's in your lineup. This is a brutal tight end start of the week layout and schedule for us. When you miss one day, you don't always know what's going on. But I had Juwan. I liked him. I liked that the business was back. We had seven targets, five for 79, targeted on 23 % of his routes. And then I've been doing a little quick checking. apparently was in a red contact uh no no contact again yesterday you want to just hop on the back

24:09Mike Wright:of my start of the week just go yeah uh please you want to just do you want to rock a little tucker craft against oh you know how i feel about tucker craft yeah yeah they're throwing kate otten yeah yeah you could kate otten's a great start this week sure kate otten start of the week yeah who's he playing who knows new orleans i think it's i think it's best to uh like juan johnson is unfortunately entirely capable of giving you a great week at any moment but also entirely capable of being historical juan johnson this week is is solid um but if he's but obviously if he can't play then he's not no he'll score less if he doesn't play uh tucker craft against pittsburgh he has been a beast yards after the catch again two years in a row steelers giving up the fifth most to the tight end position and it is the other side of the jordan love start of the week so that will conclude i think all of our starts of the week unless somebody got hurt we'll find in a matter of the last five minutes that was starts of the week presented by us bank smartly signature visa card visit usbank.com smartly card to learn how you can earn cash back on every purchase the creditor and issuer of this card is u.s bank national association pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc.

25:22Mike Wright:Some restrictions may apply. We're going to get into our fantasy forecast momentarily. We'll take a quick break and be right back.

25:33This message is brought to you by Apple Pay. Apple Pay is the simple, secure, and fast way to pay. That's because Apple Pay is your credit or debit card right on your iPhone or your Apple Watch. It's accepted at millions of places you already shop every day from big box stores to boutiques, you can check out with Apple Pay anywhere contactless payments are accepted. Apple Pay is more secure than a physical card because you authenticate your purchases with Face ID, Touch ID, or your passcode before you pay, and your actual card number is never shared with merchants. Set up Apple Pay now so you can check out in seconds later.

26:13Just add your debit or credit card in Apple Wallet. Simple, secure, fast. That's Apple Pay. terms apply. Water usually wins. It warps and rots wood. It pulls it apart board by board. Unless you build with Trex. Trex Marine Grade Decking is 100 % submersible for docks. Built to last, it resists rot, warping, and decay in salt and fresh water. For homeowners, that means carefree days on the water, not constant maintenance. For builders, it means trusted performance that minimizes callbacks. Water has met its match. Trex Decking, Performance engineered for your life outdoors. Visit trex.com slash docs.

27:00Jason Moore:Fantasy Forecast, presented by PrizePix.

27:06Mike Wright:Well, the Bills and Ravens come back from the bye week. The Cardinals. And half the NFL goes on to the bye week. Jaguars, Lions, Raiders, Rams, Seahawks, all taking the week off. How happy are you that the Cardinals are off this week? It's a relief, I suppose.

27:23Jason Moore:I just love the fact that on Sunday, I don't have to watch.

27:27Mike Wright:No, it's good. It's nice. They should take more by weeks, honestly. I think Al said the other day when we were talking about it, moving to 18 games and then maybe two byes. Why can't we just take a week off of football? like the whole league like the machine the the money printing machine yeah take a week off they

27:48Jason Moore:don't turn money printers off you're right um the reason they're going to 18 weeks is for more money it is not for players safety no it's not for quality of life for these guys it is so they can make more money yeah they probably won't do that huh no miami one in six the falcons they'll do like a in they'll go nba they'll they'll be an in-season tournament what a stupid well that's

28:15Mike Wright:that's where i was gonna actually i was gonna joke about those like pro bowl games move into like that week but then it's like that's not a bye week for players if they have to do stuff so yeah they won't turn it off all right miami one and six taking on the three and three atlanta falcons where they're cozy in their nest at home the vegas line atlanta minus bird joke it was a bird joke it was yeah it was it was a bird bird nest joke all right atlanta minus seven and a half the over-under is 44 and a half the end for mike mcdaniel is it's coming it's coming i thought it was supposed to be last week yeah i mean it's about time it's about timing now okay so we'll see i don't know why my voice is cracked you're gonna find hair well yeah there's a time in your life you're gonna be a lot of changes there's a comedian whose voice does that constantly and it's really funny it's like all his rants are like a prepubescent boy rants um the second week in a row lefty lefty michael pennix jr to a oh me turned the ball over match and uh we just talked about it the falcons have just been so much better at home at home michael pennix jr is averaging 287 passing yards yeah they are three and three i'm guessing they had three games at home uh they they have had trouble on the road yeah that kyle's confirming that it that is the case you know mike mcdaniel was the offensive assistant over they did lose atlanta they did lose week one at home and then won on the road against minnesota they lost by three points at

29:46Jason Moore:home to the tampa bay bouton years in week one and in a in a close game where their defense still looked very very good but at home they beat the commanders they beat the buffalo bills they look outstanding and then on the road they got shellacked by the Vikings they got shut out by the Panthers and then pretty much owned by the Niners. Oh that's right. They won that game. The opposite. It's a hot Thursday. 22-6. That at symbol.

30:19Mike Wright:By the way we didn't misread the at symbol. We just read the one put in the Doc. That's what we did. And then we talked about it way too much. What did you think of Darnell Mooney last week?

30:33Jason Moore:I was very upset by him. Because he's 3 for 68. No, no, no. I thought he looked really good. That was what was upsetting. Drake London. Which hurts Drake. Yes. Drake London is who this offense needs to run through. He has obviously put up some outstanding weeks recently. Two weeks ago 16 targets 10 for 158 um so Mooney was back he still had 28 of the targets it just yeah it just didn't work it didn't work out as well he had somewhere else to go to be frank Mooney should have been a talked about more on the waiver wire show he's a valuable wide receiver that will get work when he's active um in the right matchups this one might not be the perfect matchup because I don't think the Dolphins offense is going to do much.

31:26Jason Moore:They're beat up. They're banged up. And the Falcons defense at home has been great. They're number two against quarterbacks. So I don't think two is going to put up a bunch of points. In which case, great Bijon game, less passing for the Falcons is my expectation.

31:42Mike Wright:Beat up is more severe than banged up? Yeah. Like on the scale? Yeah, for sure.

31:46Jason Moore:If you're banged up, you've got a hurt toe. If you're beat up, you're... You're bruised and battered. Yeah, you're in a walking boot.

31:52Mike Wright:Okay. um that's booted up right which uh Bryce Young was not booted up this year did you see that but I did didn't practice play Bijan still play Drake London Kyle Pitts on pace for 85 receptions he is certainly fine on a 16 by week yeah this week it's okay to uh I mean this offense where are you with waddle right now I mean I feel like you know you you came out after the injury he was the wide receiver four I believe and then the wide receiver 17 and then last week it was just kind of you know it's Cleveland it was on the road and it was a disaster from the jump I feel like Waddle bad weather I feel like you don't want to yeah bad weather I don't I feel like you don't want to overreact to look you got to play four quarters of football and Jalen Waddle's their

32:38Jason Moore:best wide receiver yeah Waddle's a great play my only worry with him was injury because you know He left that game. There was reports that he was injured. Looking at the week eight injury report from the Dolphins, he wasn't even listed on the Wednesday. So he seems fully healthy and good to go. Well, let's see. I'm seeing a tweet here from Omar Kelly. Oh, yeah, he's one of the best. And he says, this is six minutes ago, Jalen Wall didn't work with the wide receivers while the offense was out there. Goodness gracious. He was doing a rehab assignment, which means he's battling an injury. Yeah, that was six minutes ago.

33:12Jason Moore:Wow. He was not on their injury report yesterday, so that's wild.

33:18Mike Wright:Yeah, that's about Waddle for you. Devon H.N. is one of three players in the NFL this year with 400-plus rushing yards, 200-plus receiving yards. CMC B. John H.N. He's a machine. Yeah, he's been awesome. And, you know, you don't mess around with anybody else. Darren Waller went to IR. And Tua, you know, I'd start nobody over Tua, which would get me two and a half more fantasy points than he scored last week.

33:45Jason Moore:Wait, did Tua really have negative two and a half fantasy points? That is correct. That is correct. Wow.

33:49Mike Wright:Yeah, Tua had, in our league, negative 2.9. He was 12 for 100 with three interceptions. He also fumbled the ball three times. Yeah, it's pretty amazing. That's hard to do. And yet, through all that, A-chan still managed to score over 11 points against Cleveland. So he's still matchup proof.

34:13Jason Moore:Yeah. I mean, A-chan is a great play. Waddled TBD on the injury, I guess. And then that's it for the Dolphins. The Falcons' defense, right now, if you adjust for schedule, they are number one against tight ends, number two against running backs, number three against quarterbacks, and number four against wide receivers. They're one of the most difficult matchups in fantasy.

34:34Mike Wright:The New York Jets are 0-7. they get to take on the Cincinnati Bengals, the resurgent Bengals. Vegas line Cincinnati minus 6.5. At home, over-unders 44.5. Here comes our hero, Joe Flacco. Jamar, I mean, T. Higgins was the name we brought up on the second half sleeper list yesterday. Sauce Gardner's not even playing in this game most likely, dealing with a concussion. if he plays um you know it doesn't really change how i'm starting and sitting these guys the way that the jets defense has played this year you know joe flacco is a streaming candidate 45 plus pass attempts in both of his starts it's like the numbers are really profound and and we we were trying not to knee-jerk reaction this and say it was just going to become you know so much better with joe flacco who struggled immensely in cleveland like flacco wasn't doing anything in Cleveland to provide fantasy value for anybody.

35:31Mike Wright:But so far, Jamar Chase and Tee Higgins each have two times as many receptions per game and receiving yards per game with Flacco than Brownie. It reminds me more of the, what was it, two years ago, Joe Flacco experience where he was on the Browns where he was surrounded by a good team. That offense, it wasn't just Joe Flacco. It was he had – Amari Cooper was not washed out yet. so that that's where i'm like oh man it sure seems like this is something that we're going to want to buy into it does occasionally wear off yeah when stuff like this happens but i mean literally that's like getting eight quarters of chase and higgins with brownie for the production that's flacco is giving them on the other side i mean you already talked about chase brown at length so to to conclude the cincinnati side and you play both wide receivers and it's pretty pretty easy on that side but on on the jet side it's just a complete poof man travesty i mean yeah they're trying to keep a competitive advantage mike you've got the new uh what the budget magician aaron glenn hmm my guy i'm i'm trying he literally came out and said i was an advantage like i want to like aaron glenn i really like the the dance of just i know they ended up losing that game but It was like the passion.

36:53I just love it. He's with his guys. And it has been a disaster. And then you go to one of my most hated situations in football. The, oh, we have a competitive advantage. We don't know if it's, uh-oh, uh-oh, guys. Is it Justin Fields or Tyrod Taylor? The Bengals don't care.

37:15Mike Wright:I kind of get it.

37:16Jason Moore:I would get it if they were different styles of play.

37:20Mike Wright:They are very different styles of play. Tyrod and Justin Fields? Massively different styles of play. Justin Fields is a genuine threat in the running game. Tyrod Taylor is a pocket passer. To me, those are... Taylor doesn't run as much as Fields. They both... One of them is compost garbage and then the other one is just the garbage you can't put in. Which one is which? I don't know. It doesn't matter. They both stink. There you go. It's probably going to be Tyrod Taylor this week. Brees Hall was limited on Wednesday with the knee injury. Brees Hall is the only guy you can play. You can play him, but it's not with a lot of joy.

37:57Jason Moore:I think I know that it's going to be very difficult off of a bust week, but I actually think Mason Taylor is fine. Last week he had a good matchup against Carolina. They're 29th against tight ends, and it didn't work out. He was like three for 30-something. It was unfortunate. Justin Fields played as bad as you can play. I believe Terod Taylor will be the starter this week. We don't know. But regardless, Mason Taylor is needed. The Cincinnati Bengals are the worst of the worst. They are the matchup where you target tight ends always. And the fact that he is so needed here, I think Mason Taylor.

38:37Mike Wright:I don't think that's wrong. I think that's right. Process is, I get it. But I will remind you. You laid it out. Taylor had a good matchup last week. fields was terrible taylor played 54 of the snaps last week for the jets like no that's not true that's not 93 yeah 93 of snaps i think you must be looking at a wrong number okay i've got 93 percent for no no no no you're saying quarterback not mason i thought you're saying no no no mason played the whole game i'm saying you're saying he had half a game with tarot fields was terrible and we want to put all the blame on field. Taylor played half the game at quarterback, and Taylor was still the other Taylor.

39:19Jason Moore:There's too many Taylors. Yeah, I bet Mason Taylor's three for 31 came in that half, though. It did. It did.

39:26Mike Wright:He was shut out before that. Give him six for 60, and that's a fine play. Are you playing Garrett Wilson if he's active? Yeah, if he's active, he's too good of a player. Especially in this matchup against the Bengals. Would you play a Rondé Gadsden tonight, or would you play Mason Taylor? I would play Gadsden.

39:44Mike Wright:yeah yeah i think i would too i would i'm gonna chase the dragon i i'm really hopeful for gatson

39:52Jason Moore:well and you don't want to watch the jets that is such an advantage cleveland's two and five they

39:58Mike Wright:take on the new england patriots who are five and two the vegas line is new england minus seven the over-under is 40 and a half i was doing a live stream last night and somebody was like why is mike rabel so stupid i said he's not he's not he's not stupid i said it would be a discussion he is stubborn though he's he can i mean is it stubbornness or is it good coaching when you're five and two coaching when you're five and two and if you're two and five we can have the discussion about the coaching totally fine you know if you have a bad running game and you're two and five you're making a mistake if you're five and two and it's working you're not so uh get over it get over it.

40:37Mike Wright:Travion's not going to be the dude right now. If an injury happens, maybe he's the dude. If Ramondre fumbles six more times in a game, maybe he's the dude for a little bit.

40:45Jason Moore:If whatever they're waiting for in practice starts happening and they give him the ball more, he will be there when he should be there. Vrabel is a great coach. Whatever's going on behind the scenes is not, Travion is not ready yet. If I'm in a dynasty league, I talked about this on the Dynasty show that came out yesterday. I'm taking my second round pick for next year, and I'm offering him in every league for Travion Henderson. This is a good player who's on what will now be a good team going forward. It's not his time yet.

41:16Mike Wright:No, and if he had been drafted by the Bears with the next pick, it might have been his time.

41:20Jason Moore:Oh, man. That world would have been glorious. Yeah.

41:24Mike Wright:Yeah. So the Vegas line, New England minus seven at home over under 40 and a half in this one. It is Cleveland and Dylan Gabriel trying to get through the New England Patriots. That'll be hard. I mean, the Cleveland defense was unbelievable last week. I don't feel like we really... All season. I don't feel like we really said much about them. Like, it was all... The story line was how bad Tua was, right? And it's like, oh, Dylan Gabriel doesn't throw the ball down the field. They demolished the Dolphins. It was...

41:54Jason Moore:31-6.

41:55Mike Wright:Yeah, it was... They were one of the highest scoring fantasy football defenses. it's not going to be easy for New England to score in this game. I agree. They will win. I think they will win, but it's not going to be you know, I don't think it's one of those fire up all of your Patriots with excitement. I don't know who I I don't know who I'm starting. Are you playing your boy? Drake May? No. Oh, my boy's Ramondre? Yeah, you two love Ramondre. No, no, no, no, no, no. Why are you lumping me in with Andy? It's too late. We drew a line in the sand, the Hendo people. Said, if you're not with us, you're on Ramondre's side.

42:30Jason Moore:There is a huge fence, Mike. This is the Great Wall of China that I'm standing on. I know, because no one's allowed in. I'm standing on the Great Wall of China. Ramondre's over there. Henderson's over there. I am straight up on that fence, and this is a big one. Well, it was easier last week. Are you playing Andy's guy, Ramondre Stevenson?

42:45Mike Wright:I mean, look, he had 18 opportunities last week. Sure. Or 20 opportunities, 18 carries.

42:51Jason Moore:Against the Tennessee Titans. You're not going to. The Browns are the number one scheduled adjusted defense against running backs. I am looking to not play Ramondre.

42:58Mike Wright:I don't think you get a choice this week. It's probably true. It's perfect. It's perfect for Ramondre. You don't want to play him, but if you're going to get 75 % of running back snaps for an at-home team that's a seven-and-a-half-point favorite, heck yes, you play that.

43:11Jason Moore:Would you play Ramondre or Aaron Jones if he's active tonight? Ramondre. I'd play Aaron Jones. I'd go Ramondre there. What about...

43:18Mike Wright:Oh, you're going Aaron Jones. I would go Aaron Jones. I would go Camille. What about Woody Marks against San Francisco who took over the opportunity? No, I would not. I'm playing Ramondre. You know he was 14 opportunities two weeks ago for 1.8 fantasy points. Oh, I know it. I know it. Absolutely. And it was against New Orleans. They haven't been home in three weeks. He's the equivalent of the Cleveland targets. His opportunities, you've got to just cut them 50%, and that's what you should expect. And then you go, wow, he was inefficient. I don't care. If the fantasy points put him in the top 20 like they've done for two of the last three weeks, I don't care how he does it.

43:55Yeah.

43:55Mike Wright:If it's a falling into the end zone, if it's a screen pass that works out, I just don't understand what team you have out there in the world where you can bench a starting running back at home as seven-and-a-half-point favorites and play a flyer. I'll play an empty spot. Well, I know you will, although you just said you'd play him over Aaron Jones. Oh, crap. I don't know what's happening. I do think, you know, Booty's been good. I feel better about him making a big play than I do about accumulation via Stephon Diggs in this game. But I don't know if that's the right thought, so you tell me. The booty has been very efficient.

44:34Last week he had 55 yards. I mean, hey. On two catches. And not just two catches, two targets. And a touchdown. The two weeks ago, five targets, that's the second most targets he's seen all year.

44:49Mike Wright:So are you out on the wide receivers in this game? I think – I prefer to be out.

44:55Jason Moore:If I had to start one, it would still be Diggs. Diggs has had seven or more targets in three of the last four games. I think he's the one. Personally, I would like to bench my Patriots in this matchup. I do – I really like that they are at home. That will be helpful, but the Browns defense is legitimately scary. Matthew Golden against Pittsburgh or a Patriot wide receiver?

45:22Mike Wright:Golden. Golden, yeah. Yeah, that's a good question. By the way, Drake May right now has 116.4 passer rating, which would be the highest ever by a quarterback under 24.

45:31Jason Moore:So on the Dynasty show, I did my film review of Drake May, and I don't think I've seen better film. Like there's nothing he could do better than what he did on every single play. Not true.

45:44Mike Wright:He completed 12 of his last 13 passes of 20-plus yards,

45:48Jason Moore:it means he missed one yeah could have done that better wasn't his fault um probably not he if you want to play drake may whatever do it he's gonna he's gonna run the ball you know he had 62 rushing yards last year and michael pinnix at home drake may drake may i would go drake may yeah how do

46:04Mike Wright:you go away from that yeah they're implied point totals 23.8 i get the matchup drake may is drake mace just in play him forever yeah he's he's uh plug and play judkins in logout judkins and fan

46:18Jason Moore:and then log out yeah yep if njoku's not going obviously fan and pretty good matchup what and if njoku's back you're off of fanning yeah if njoku's back they they split too much i mean you've got two tight ends on pace for over 60 receptions at over 600 yards that's incredible for a tight end on a team but if they're both doing that then neither is special okay we'll take a break and get into the next uh the second giants philly matchup what does it feel like to have a better

46:49Mike Wright:laptop like the dell xps powered by intel core with a premium design that's thin and light it feels smooth very smooth with a responsive touch screen it feels fast and precise and with a long lasting battery life. It feels like nonstop energy with a laptop that can keep up. Built for those who want better. The Dell XPS, built for you.

47:15Water usually wins. It rots wood and tears docks apart. Unless you build with Trex. Trex marine grade decking is 100 % submersible, built to resist rot and salt and fresh water. Water has met its match. Trex decking. Visit trex.com slash docs.

47:34Mike Wright:Well, the New York Giants will attempt to recover from the most devastating loss imaginable. They are two and five, and their recovery plan is to go to Philadelphia and take on the five and two Eagles, who are seven and a half point home favorites, over-unders 43 and a half. You know, the Giants had the very impressive 34-17 victory. It was the coming out party for Scadaboo and Jackson Dart. It was two weeks ago, and it was in New York. With no Jalen Carter. Yeah, yeah.

48:05Jason Moore:It's not going to be quite— Did you see Vic Fangio, their defensive coordinator, talk about lessons learned on Jackson Dart? I did not. He came out, and he was in a press conference. He basically said, every quarterback-needy team in the league has to be kicking themselves right now that they didn't take Jackson Dart. He is a believer.

48:28Mike Wright:Yeah, okay. I mean, I think I am too. You're going to have rookie mistakes no matter how well you play. I would say that, what? You basically put Jackson Dart into a situation in New York that is not an advantageous one, not a ton of weapons that are proven. He's having to piece it together with Wondell Robinson and Lil Jordan Humphrey. And he's still getting it done.

48:55Jason Moore:It's because of his legs. The dude is running. He is averaging 8.3 fantasy points. Not rush attempts. 8.3 fantasy points from the rushing work. That is for context here. Josh Allen in his career is averaging 6.8. Lamar, 7.2. Jalen Hurts, 8.2. And that includes all of his tush-push touchdowns. He's going to get hurt, isn't he? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Jackson Dart can't play 17 games. this way no human can other than camp scataboo the i know everything worked out for fantasy last week against the denver broncos just with i mean how drunk that game got but at least needs to be pointed out you know on the road against a very good defense he completed 46 of his passes and he ran five times for 11 yards 2.2 which we we talked about it you quarterbacks can't really run on Denver but it's the the question of okay you're facing an elite defense on the road and you're completing half less than half of your passes you just wonder did did something get

50:04Mike Wright:seen on tape Jason you were uh you helped the Foot Clan out in a big way two weeks ago with Cam Scadaboo and the confidence play against Philly I think at the time we didn't know Jalen Carter was even going to miss that game right Cam Scadaboo on the road here you're not moving away from a top 24 guy six straight weeks, are you?

50:24Jason Moore:There's no chance that you have a roster that you can bench Cam Scadaboo on any week the rest of the season. Hide your crayons. Hide your crayons. He's going to eat them all. Or ship your crayons to New Jersey so that he can eat them all. Or I guess they're in Philly this week. But, yeah, Cam Scadaboo way, way, way too involved. The last month he has not had fewer than 20 opportunities to touch the ball. That's an insane number.

50:52Mike Wright:So are you done there? Are you comfortable with Dart? Are you comfortable with Scadaboo? And then the only other thing in that game. What about like Wandale versus like Alec Pierce who had the big week?

51:03Jason Moore:No, I don't think I'm playing Wandale. I am going to be watching Darius Slayton. He is a guy that I'm not starting. I have picked up in a couple of leagues. I hope he is starting. He was a limited participant with that hamstring injury on Wednesday. If he plays, I'm paying attention. I think he will be good in certain matchups the rest of the season.

51:25Mike Wright:Okay. Mike, do you agree with that? I do. The real question is Dallas Goddard.

51:32Jason Moore:He's so funny.

51:33Mike Wright:I saw Goddard or Gadsden, and it was like – I basically just said, look, I'm a sucker. I'm going to follow the athleticism of Gadsden and see if we can cash in on that versus the touchdown luck of Goddard.

51:48Jason Moore:No one believed in Dallas Goddard for the first six weeks of the NFL season while he was the tight end one. And then everyone was like, all right, I guess we got it. I guess we got to believe. And then he goes out there and scores three fantasy points. Gotcha. Yeah. He's only going to do whatever you don't want. So just cut him.

52:10Mike Wright:Yeah, I mean, you might not have a choice this week. He's a weird tight end. I mean, he's played enough football to know that you get Goddard games from time to time. Would you play him or Pitts at home? Pitts at home. Okay. Devontae Smith, A.J. Brown had huge weeks last week. A.J. Brown monitored the hamstring injury. Probably not serious, but also these guys have been banged up, both of them, over the course of, you know, before the season. Saquon Barkley, we've had lots of discussions here. He's the RB 17 on the season. and he has not broken a 20-plus yard run, which is pretty wild considering how, I mean, he had 11 15-plus yard touchdown runs last year when you include the playoffs.

52:53Mike Wright:He didn't do that one time the year before in New York, and he hasn't done it one time in 2025, and he had 11 last year. It was one of the few points that you could say in the offseason when we were like, well, you like Saquon early in the draft, but it's pretty hard. It's pretty hard to score from 20-plus yards away all the time. Hasn't happened. Does it start happening? You guys do not look like gentlemen that have strong answers for this situation. Would you trade Cam Scadaboo for Saquon Barkley? Because that question I've seen, and that one is a real – I would keep Barkley. No, no, no. That's the opposite question.

53:36Mike Wright:If you had Cam Scadaboo, would you trade for Barkley? Oh, would I? Yeah, I think straight up. And Jason, you said no.

53:43Jason Moore:I would rather have Scadaboo. I believe that your highest game totals will come from Barkley. Barkley is not a bad back. He's going to you know, he's going to have his touchdowns. He's going to have big monstrous games. And I think it will be difficult for Cam Scadaboo to have monstrous games. He you know, he already had, you know, a multi touchdown game. that's great but you just don't think that these giants are going to regularly do that but his floor is so so high and right now I think Barkley he's not involved in the passing game hasn't been for basically two years um and he's been inefficient I mean you look at like here's some guy who has more yards per carry on the season Saquon Barkley or Woody Marks who we were just what yards per carry we just made fun of how the attempts in houston are you cut them in half and then woody marks is inefficient because he's running for 3.3 a carry woody marks is that's what that that's what saquon's running for right now i mean to the

54:49Mike Wright:barkley's best game this season has been 16 points scadaboo has passed that three times it's a wild one didn't think we'd be here but here we are did we we did not talk Buffalo Carolina yet Buffalo 4-2, Carolina 4-3 games in Carolina Buffalo minus 7, the over under is 46.5 okay the Bills, they get a bye week to recover from back to back losses I don't think that's going to help Carolina very much.

55:26Jason Moore:No, that's why Buffalo's on the road favored by a full touchdown. And, you know, this is a good get-right game. You're not going to have a letdown from Buffalo because they're coming off of two losses in a row where they're taking Carolina easy. They're going in there to, you know, lay a beating down.

55:46Mike Wright:And you think that will happen? I do think that will happen. He has never, Josh Allen, lost three consecutive regular season games in his career.

55:53Jason Moore:That's crazy considering his first two years he was terrible.

55:57Mike Wright:Yeah, Carolina's defense has been much improved. That's been one of the reasons they're above.500 right now. Last year it was the number one target or up there as the top target in the league this year, number six against the run, number nine against the wide receiver position. We spent the first few weeks of the season talking about how good James Cook had been. It's slowed down a little bit for him, but do you expect him to get back on track? a couple of softer weeks after top 10 performances in four straight.

56:25Jason Moore:Yeah, it's a good game script. The Panthers' rush defense has looked much, much, much better than last year. So I don't look at them as like a pushover defense, but it still matters whether you win or lose a game. You know, James Cook has lost two games in a row, and it's been tougher sledding. If you end up doing what Vegas thinks, which is winning by a touchdown, you're going to have a lot more carries opportunities in the game so he's in and then in the passing game for the buffalo bills it's really hard to determine like oh it will keon coleman get a touchdown will you know josh palmer have the bomb to me it's don't kinkade this is like the the panthers still limited yeah i mean we don't know for sure 100 that he'll start but it seems like he will start I believe he will and if he is I'm playing him honestly if Dalton Kincaid does not go I think Dawson Knox sure is probably a better stream off of waivers than all of your like middling kind of crappy tight end options because the Panthers that's that's where their defense

57:37Mike Wright:gets beat yeah that could be that could be a really scary one I think because I don't know what the targets i don't know if you get more than two shots you guys i don't know if you realize

57:48Jason Moore:this this is big news huge news based on the last two years did you know this coming week is national tight end like oh it's this week it's this week okay the last two years yeah on the on the net like i literally made a slack notification for myself last year because on national tight end week it was like every single team knew it and they threw touchdowns to tight ends it was crazy where did this even come from i don't know did george kittle start this i have no idea but there's all managers there's no national wide receiver week and running back week and there's just like the forgotten tight ends but this is the week so i think we think we got lucky so we got lucky what you mean this this day that we just made up uh-huh you're just saying it's

58:38Mike Wright:not correlated um i'm saying it might not be uh carolina is probably gonna have andy dalton as their starter this week we don't know for sure there's a dmp for bryce young on uh wednesday i i really find big running back questions here yeah i mean i think it's a run funnel they are it's going to be a split if you have to start one you would start doubtle because he's been awesome that's what you would do yeah yeah i mean i don't think that's what i would do you would

59:10Jason Moore:start hubbard over doubtle based on the opportunities yeah i think if you had if you had chuba and you

59:16Mike Wright:signed out and played him while he was hurt and you have both and you got to start one i would play chuba myself but i again that's what makes it a difficult question like mike said yeah for

59:26Jason Moore:sure making you're you're just i mean if you've got one of those two guys or you've got vidal sassoon in tonight's game i probably go vidal i'd i'd play sassoon man i just don't like vidal this

59:38Mike Wright:week really i've got a bad feeling about it okay he had the one big week yeah obviously it was impressive he sucked last week with maybe maybe enough volume maybe just enough volume yeah but i also like minnesota to win the game and i feel like their defense is that's even better for vidal I think he's had nine combined targets the past two weeks. Okay, so you'd take the solo work of the bell? I think I would. I could see that. If I'm playing one of the two, I'm playing Rico. I just think he's a better player, and it could be just a circumstance of it just hasn't hit yet, but Chuba does not have a carry inside the five yet.

1:00:15Yep. And I know he's been hurt, but he also was the main starting running back for those first few weeks.

1:00:21Mike Wright:Try to guess Tett McMillan's fantasy positioning on the season. We're seven weeks in. On the season? On the season, Tett McMillan is the wide receiver.

1:00:30Jason Moore:He doesn't have a lot of – he's got one touchdown. Like 26? He got two. Oh, does he have two? Yeah, he got the two in that game. Oh, in the same game. One game with the touchdown. I'm going to go right there. I'll go 25.

1:00:41Mike Wright:Okay. Should have gone the other way. 27. Oh! 27. But I would say that you have not – we still haven't had that game that you're like,

1:00:52Jason Moore:he's arrived there's not been a he's arrived forced feed him the ball um he is a dog there's a there's a quarterback change presumably this week and when andy dalton came in last week he targeted xavier laguette quite a bit seven of xavier laguette's 10 targets were from andy dalton in limited time what was that all about i don't know however my point is we're waiting i don't know how what are you doing how prescriptive can that be it's not prescriptive the what i think tett mcmillan is waiting for this breakout game and all of a sudden he's going to have a quarterback coming in who is practicing this week as the starter working with tett i tett's tett's going to eat this week he's going to be a great start oh man he's my start of the week what yeah i'm

1:01:40Mike Wright:adding him start of the week you're that confident in him do you think he'll get up over that 33 yard

1:01:44Jason Moore:mark he's been hitting i believe he will get over over 35 yards he still frightens me i don't know

1:01:55Mike Wright:i don't know why it hasn't happened yet i get it it's carolina what are you doing alec pierce or tet mcmillan like that question is a really good question it's a real question alec pierce um

1:02:07Jason Moore:has been good gets targets gets targets from a quarterback that can get his wide receiver the ball i would definitely go tet there okay all right i will uh i'll make you a water bet on that one all right i will accept water bet 35 yards no that's not the best the

1:02:27Mike Wright:best not 35 it was alec pierce versus tet mcmillan you don't get to name it afterwards goodness uh a couple updates for you no sign of garrett wilson at practice for the jets what was all this but this is chance of playing this is more exciting terry mcclure and debo samuel both practicing today or they're both going to practice today that would make you yeah that would help towards mariota i you know i want to say yes but i am not excited to play the chiefs in in kansas city i i feel like you're going the game script for that will be yes you're happy those guys are back but how many first downs does washington mario mario will run for 45 yards yeah i'm i i signed mario to play in place of daniels and i'm going to pivot even with who michael pennix okay all right in our very thin waiver wire bet you wish you would have paid 10 plus dollars for joe flacco if i had the fam i would have uh thursday texans no nico no Christian Kirk still cream hunt not practicing on Thursday for the Kansas City game Rashard Smith we talked about him on the waiver show more opportunity coming his way and that was fantasy forecast presented by prize picks join millions of users and sign up for America's number one fantasy sports app use the code footballers and get$50 in lineups when you play$5 we'll have our fantasy face-off tomorrow where one of us will spin the wheel of shame I don't even remember that wheel um i am that's the that's the way you make sure you spin it soon it's those type of things

1:04:07Jason Moore:not scared but but i i'm playing against whatever the opposite of a heater is a freezer yeah you're in a freezer i yes my body is barely active your heart rate is low

1:04:20Mike Wright:every friday mike is hyperventilating from some sort of mask he is wearing just just one more catch. Instead of the mask of victory.

1:04:30Jason Moore:We got to bring the mummy back. If you lose... Do we wrap him live? Yeah, we let Josh wrap him. We did that? You don't remember when I had to go to the doctor because he broke my nose? No, you did not have to go to the doctor. No, I didn't really. Goodness gracious. That was brutal. That was the worst one ever and it shouldn't have been. It was just because Josh was a jerk. Oh, he smashed your nose. His nose was on his cheek.

1:04:57Mike Wright:We'll catch you tomorrow, Foot Clan. Goodbye.

1:05:04Jason Moore: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 at the FFBallers.

1:05:21Football season has arrived, And with the U.S. Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card, you earn an unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase, including at the stadium or at home watching on a brand new TV. Score big with unlimited 2 % cash back on every purchase. Visit usbank.com slash smartlycard to learn more. The creditor and issuer of this card is U.S. Bank National Association, pursuant to a license from Visa USA, Inc. Some restrictions may apply. Water usually wins. It warps and rots wood. It pulls it apart board by board, unless you build with Trex. Trex Marine Grade Decking is 100 % submersible for docks.

1:06:00Built to last, it resists rot, warping, and decay in salt and fresh water. For homeowners, that means carefree days on the water, not constant maintenance. For builders, it means trusted performance that minimizes callbacks. Water has met its match. Trex Decking, performance engineered for your life outdoors. Visit trex.com slash docks.