Week 1 Matchups + Mark Andrews Panic Alarm? - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/6
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Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in. It's football time. Still. Always. Forever. I forgot. Oh, what a bum. We got a game tonight.

Yeah. Friday night football. Why not? Friday night lights, Thursday night lights, Monday night lights. The lights are pretty much on all the time. Look, I was encouraged by some of my Twitter followers, so I'm going to give it a go, everyone.

Es tiempo de futbol. Oh! My Spanish is the worst, but that's what you get. I couldn't have done that well. Is Spanish the right choice there, not Portuguese? Oh, is that right? Look, I got told to say it in Spanish, so. I think it's Portuguese. Is it Portuguese? Portuguese. Yeah. Well, let me do it. Let's go. Let's go. Let me know when you're ready. Es hora de futbol. Okay. Okay.

Amazing. I was so entertained yesterday. We had so many tweets of like, we had people with their kids that were singing the it's football time at the same time that we all did. The energy was amazing. The game was played. We had a, uh, you know, down to the wire Thursday night football game. What a game. And we, we need to talk about it. So we do. Uh, we also have news, the rest of the fantasy forecast. We've got a new segment today. Um, uh,

We need to talk Mike off of multiple ledges. I'm okay. I'm okay. The rankings are on the website, fantasyfootballers.com. I mentioned it at the top. We have our community, jointhefoot.com if you want to become a part of that.

Get access to literally thousands upon thousands of amazing Foot Clan players in the Discord server, premium tools and resources, premium week one rankings, the SartCit tool, and the brand new ultimate dashboard. All of that, you can learn more at jointhefoot.com. People are enjoying the dashboard so far, and we are adding...

So many more features. It's going to get better and better. And honestly, we did our draft yesterday, our League of Record draft, right before kickoff. It was intense and crazy, and we probably won't do it that way again. It was exhausting. But it was amazing to be able to personally go in and use the dashboard and be like, oh, this makes it so much quicker and easier. And I loved it. It was awesome to go right from the draft.

Immediately into incredible amounts of pain, guys. Really? Because I had a great time. Right into the pain. So, look, the storyline last night, Chiefs 27, Ravens 20. 26. And from a fantasy perspective in this game, we saw some things that we hoped for. We saw the heavy involvement of Rashi Rice. I am really curious about...

what you thought last night meant for the Chiefs offense because you saw a very poor game from Travis Kelsey from a target perspective, just four in the game. You saw two highlight plays from Xavier Worthy, which were incredible, showing off his speed. You don't have Hollywood Brown back in this offense yet. No Gray got involved. Pacheco in the passing game. But Rashi Rice had nine targets. He was seven for 103. I believe...

and I don't remember, but I believe every one of them was like the same play. It was the unstoppable slant. So, I mean, this is the middle of the... Michael Thomas is somewhere just...

furious. That's my move. We're like, Rasheed Rice, he's great. People are like, Michael Thomas only runs one route. It's the thing that in this offense, you can be somewhat one-dimensional and still provide weekly fantasy value. And I'm not... Like, Rice is not a complete wide receiver in the sense that he doesn't run downfield. He's not doing a bunch of deep dig routes or outs. But his role in this offense and the speed he has after the catch provide tremendous upside. Now, I do think

Some rice is going to come at the expense of some Kelsey and some Kelsey of some rice in the middle of the field. We saw that a lot last season. I mean, if you look at if you remember how last season went, the first half of the year, Kelsey was on believable. Everyone was happy. They spent the fifth overall pick on him.

And then it was, you know, as Rice got more and more involved in the second half of the year, Rice was, you know, a top 20 wide receiver in fantasy. Kelsey started going away a little bit because he was, you can't pass to both guys on the same play. No, and they dominate the same part of the field sometimes. Exactly. So if you're passing it to Rice over and over and over on a play that can't be stopped and just works, why would you stop it? Then Kelsey can't get in on that play. Foot Clan, do not leave this episode for one second.

Because I have to finish this recap, but Mike has been put into a laundry machine since last night. Jason said he was rooting for some things to happen just for the entertainment of the show, and they don't stop. So just stay with us when we get into the news. I want to get to the headline story here by a wide margin, and that was Mark Andrews' struggles in the game and Isaiah Likely's 9-for-1-11 and a touchdown in the game.

The panic, look, I had my fatherly moment on the show where I said, don't panic because that's all we can do. And an Island game, a problem like that for Mark Andrews, where Mike had just literally picked him in our draft and had the joy of getting to watch a Thursday night football game with your player, Mike. Oh man. How was, how fun was that? Oh, it was great. Um, I yelled at the,

I yelled at Lamar a lot to please just throw the ball to Mark Andrews. I yelled at the Chiefs a lot to stop being weirdos and dumb double covering Mark Andrews on every single play. But their plan worked. Yeah, I mean, it was... And so people want to know from us right away, do we tell you that your panic is valid in the Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely, or do we tell you to chill? Because...

Is it proper reaction? Is it improper reaction? And to me, as the person that has Mark Andrews the lowest ranked in his draft order, not super low. Got him five. Got him at five, but that was kind of low compared to the show. I wanted to jump into the film and take a look and say, what was true about last night's game? And what's true about Isaiah Likely? And how should you be reacting? What I came away with, I watched every snap that Mark Andrews was on the field, and I came away

with a message of do not panic. This is not a situation that I believe you need to worry about Mark Andrews. He had very, very few opportunities in this game to even be targeted. He was bracket covered every single time he was down the field beyond about five yards minus five.

A handful of times where he had opportunities to get a dump off a yard away from the line of scrimmage. He had one one-on-one matchup in the middle of the field that he won and caught the ball in the second half. But he basically was the victim of several things in this game. Number one, Steve Spagnola and the Chiefs defense made the decision they've made five times in a row, which was to remove him from the offense.

So they bracket covered him on the last two plays of that game. When they were in the red zone, trying to score, there were three players. It was a, it was a triple. The one play where so likely goes down in the corner in a heap. And you're like, Oh my gosh, is Isaiah after this breakout game is Isaiah likely serious. Is this a collarbone? What is going on? And, and,

So the next play likely is not on the field. Mark Andrews is triple covered in the end zone. In the first half, Mark Andrews had, these are the only opportunities for a target he even had. A dump off, didn't get targeted. A dump off, he caught it. It was a penalty. It was called back. And another dump off opportunity, he didn't get targeted. That was it. That was the entire first half where he wasn't, if you weren't the worst quarterback in football, anybody can force the ball to anybody. But these were not even trysts.

choices. Lamar Jackson could not try to target him. And in the second half, a couple more, he actually caught two passes in the second half, but it was like

Non-existent. They took him out of the offense. Yeah, against the Ravens here the last five games, you have a game with 0 for 0, a game with 3 for 15, 3 for 22, 5 for 57. He had one mediocre game and then 2 for 14. I wanted to look at the film in particular to see if there were routes that he was not able to separate that he wasn't winning. Did he look slower because of an injury? Could he not get away from a one-on-one defender?

There was none of that. That would have been panic alarm for me because I went into the season saying, like, there's three things that are true in my opinion on this situation. One, the Chiefs took him out of the offense. Don't panic. Two, Isaiah Likely is a great player. We said repeatedly they can't keep him off the field. There's no way. And three,

Mark Andrews' peak is behind him. I fundamentally believe that. His peak of his career is behind him. He's gone, and for multiple reasons. Offensive coordinator changes, injuries that he has sustained multiple times, and different personnel in the offense. That doesn't mean he's not a top five tight end. It just means that people's careers change. I still think he's scored a ton of touchdowns, and the best way I think you can look at this as a fantasy player

is to pretend for one night that Isaiah Likely is a wide receiver. Yes. Because if you pretend that Isaiah Likely was a breakout wide receiver for the Ravens last night, if you threw all his numbers on Rashad Bateman for just a moment in your head... Oh, what a dream we can dream. You would then be able to look at the Mark Andrews situation objectively and say, it was an off night. It's not like there haven't been those in the game log in his career. He was also coming off a car accident where he didn't practice for three entire weeks, which game planning-wise...

The Ravens basically just said, we can't do stuff downfield. We're going to throw it in the screen game. We're going to dump it off to Justice Hill and Isaiah Likely. Likely, the majority of his catches were

very short was Andrews bracketed downfield and likely basically being an out route that was two feet from the line of scrimmage he was playing the Evan Ingram role yeah his one big play the touchdown huge credit to Isaiah likely amazing play the chance of a touchdown on that play was 0.3 percent there was a but it was a broken play so to me there's two conversations one is Mark Andrews done the answer to me is no he will be fine if you can buy low buy low the

The second one is what is idea likely? I'm going to toss it to you, Jason. What is he moving forward? How do people react to him on the waiver wire and so forth? He's a worthy pickup. I see this as a situation that could be reminiscent of the Hernandez and Gronk

scheme where it's like you just have he's their next best receiver. You have Bateman and Aguilar. Those guys are great at running down the field and making the defenses back up a little bit, but they're not good wide receivers. They're not like

they're certainly not going to be massive target getters. So I think Isaiah likely is necessary for this offense, and now there's three targets here, which is not what we prefer. I would prefer it to be two target consolidation for fantasy football. But the other issue, the one thing that you haven't brought up yet,

And this was a concern before the game is what is the Ravens offensive line? The Ravens offensive line, they lost three starters from last year. And the answer is out.

They suck. They're going to have to figure it out. They're going to have to get better because they were just trash. And that means a little bit more blocking for either. Isaiah Likely is a good blocker. Mark Andrews is a good blocker. They're both good pass catchers. So you're just going to have it spread around a little bit more. Thankfully, I mean, this is a good pass rush.

You're not going to play Chris Jones every week, and he was just dominating them. Yeah, that's a good point, and it hurt Henry. The game script hurt Henry. That would be the other storyline. He got in the end zone. This is what a bad game for Derrick Henry looks like, which is a goal line opportunity. If he doesn't convert, it's a huge dud, but he normally converts. And he did.

He was fine, and if you watched him, you might be freaking out that you saw so much Justice Hill and that he wasn't in as much in the fourth quarter. The truth is you're not going to be trailing in games very often as the Ravens. You're playing the back-to-back Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes-led team in Arrowhead. With an elite defense. Yeah, it was a bad game script for him. And for people out there, well, can other teams see this?

and then just duplicate this against the Baltimore Ravens. If they have Chris Jones. And I would say no because of that. One, different coordinators have different ideals of this is how I stop an offense. Two, they don't have the personnel to do it. The offensive line is a problem. I agree with that. But you won't be –

playing this ferocious of a pass rush every single week. And the, like, the zoom out of this is hilarious to me. Like, it's just, it's a perfect snapshot of fantasy football. Mark Andrews catches two passes for 14 yards. And look, the

When he fell down on his little short outbreaking route, that was kind of like the exclamation point of, like, you've got to be kidding me. So he puts up that, and Likely is great. And it's, I mean, my timeline is, do I do a full fab dump on Isaiah Likely? Do I drop Mark Andrews for Isaiah Likely? And on the other side,

Travis Kelsey drafted higher than Mark Andrews in, I would say, 90-plus percent of fantasy football leagues, catches three passes for 34 yards. Really not that much better. If Noah Gray went 9-for-1-11 in a touchdown, this would be the conversation. So you have that situation, which I'm sure the people who have Kelsey were –

We're mad as well. The Mark Andrews took over Twitter. And then you look at the running back situation. People are very concerned about Derrick Henry's splits, which this is who Derrick Henry is as a player. This is what happened last year in Tennessee. Tajay Spears. Kyle, how many passes? He out-snapped him.

Yeah, they had the same snaps. It was like 50-53. But it was like Tajay Spears caught so many passes. And you're like, okay, Derrick Henry, 13 carries, 46 yards with a tutty. Long on the night was nine yards. He had two targets. And then Isaiah Pacheco, we're celebrating the workhorse role of Isaiah Pacheco because he was on the field so, so, so much.

15 carries along of five. One touchdown. So two more carries and one extra target. And one fewer yard in the running game. I'm not saying don't celebrate Pacheco because that was fantastic, Jason. You're my guy hoping for the workhorse role. It looks like it is there. 80% of snaps. He basically only left the field to vomit.

which was awesome. He must have got hit right in the liver or something. He got hit so hard, he was down. Don't forget, these were the number one and number two defenses in football last year. From an efficiency standpoint in the running game, obviously there are personnel changes, but things are going to be

More efficient for both offenses. For Kelsey, for Andrews, for Pacheco, for Henry. You can be really excited about Xavier Worthy and the explosive plays. That's what you're going to get. You're not going to get eight receptions from him. And I think that's kind of where you leave it. Zay Flowers was heavily involved, but right now they... That was the same exact Zay Flowers we saw last year. It was. This is a player who, in the NFL, is twitching fast enough to make...

Real NFL defenders look bad a lot, and it still didn't turn into very much for fantasy football. And then my final comment here was, Lamar by the end of the game. Oh, gosh. 122 rushing yards, but Lamar Jackson looked like me playing Madden

with Lamar Jackson of me in the second half. Nothing's working for my passing game. Screw this crap. I'm doing it myself. That's what it looked like. He looked like he got really, really flustered and said, I'm just going to keep. Mike grabbed the controller. And you know what? The truth is, is they were a tippy toe.

from this being an overtime game. Not an overtime. They were going to go for two. Yeah, they were. So, I mean, this game was, when you say, oh, did it work to take out Andrews? Yeah, barely. Right? When you say, did it work to have no offensive line for Baltimore?

Like, I mean, Baltimore has got bright days ahead. Yeah, they're so well coached. You know they're going to figure it out and be great. We have a lot of news to talk about. Mike was – I think we talked him off the ledge with one player. No, no, we're good. We don't need to do the news, guys. We're good. Nothing to report. But before we jump in, it is Friday. Putt Clan Friday.

All right, every Friday during the season, we give away a $100 gift card to fantasychamps.com. Along with, this year, we're going to give away a footballer's T-shirt as well. So I'm throwing that out there to the people that send that out who's nodding with just kind of a, dang it, I have to package something else up, Papa Josh.

So $100 to fantasychamps.com and a footballers t-shirt. We give it away every Friday to somebody that supports the show at jointhefoot.com. And today's winner is K-Flow. Ooh, K-Flow. K-Flow. Congratulations. Now we can talk some news. News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Okay, we do have football tonight. Packers-Eagles, the game in Brazil.

Marshawn Lloyd and Emmanuel Wilson are questionable at the running back position for the Packers in Brazil where Josh Jacobs will get a heavy workload. We did get some more injury news. So I don't know where you guys want to start, but I'm going to start with the most entertaining. The Bengals. So Mike has been petitioning for Jamard Chase to be signed. He's still not signed. Yeah. And then last night, I mean, we had our League of Record. We shared a lot of stuff on social media.

If you saw it, you saw that there's a player who's back on my team for the third year in a row. It blew our minds. I couldn't believe it. I was the pick after him and I already knew. Guys, I'm trying to be a new man. Let me go deeper. Let me go deeper because this draft started. It's a keeper league. The top three picks, four picks, not the same names that you see in a redraft. Jamar Chase was on the board. He went number one. Mike's sitting at number two. He could take A.J. Brown. Yep. And everyone expected him to take A.J. Brown. He then...

Starts playing his famous no pants song music with Marvin Harrison. Hold on, I got to find it. I don't know where it is. When he was drafted, Mike made a song about not wearing pants anymore because he was so excited for him to come to Arizona. He starts playing the song and he shocks the world. Never.

Yeah, so he starts playing that. He takes Marvin Harrison at two. He shocks the league. He starts screaming about how no one's ever going to have him ever again because he's going to be his franchise player. Yeah, forever. And he, you know, Mike, he lives on the kind of potential hatred of others. So he takes Harrison.

Which then leads him into a Mark Andrews selection instead of Trey McBride because he didn't want to double up on Cardinals. And then he was punished for that choice. Oh, big time. By Mark Andrews. Big time. So he's in a somewhat... What a loser. He's in a very slouched couch position for the whole game, screaming at Lamar Jackson. Then...

In the draft later on, we expect him. He's got other wide receivers on the board. He's gone through a painful, painful life experience with T. Higgins repeatedly. I'm one pick away. There's Tank Dell and T. Higgins in a tier by themselves sitting there. And I just knew. I knew there's no way he'll take the pain of T. Higgins again. No, he's not opting into the chance of pain like that. No way. T. Higgins has hurt you deeply the last couple years. You've said it so many times. I opted into it.

optimism. Glass half full. T. Higgins is ready to roll. He's on the franchise. He's playing for that bag of money. You took him. Now, what's the news?

So there was a report right after the draft that T. Higgins was added to the injury report. Oh, man. He was limited in practice yesterday. With a hamstring. With a hamstring injury, which he's had every year of his life. And so that's cool. And then today did not practice with a hamstring issue. Now, I just like the Mark Andrews thing. I do want to – when I see in general –

There is a hamstring pop up and then you don't practice afterwards. That's red alert for me. Yes. However, in this situation, I don't think it is red alert. If you watch, I do need to give you the Zach Taylor comments on 10 minutes ago from 10 minutes ago. When asked about Jamar Chase's availability, he said, quote, we'll see. When asked about T Higgins availability, he said, we'll see.

Well, no. Okay. Look, I'm signing up with Team Optimism here. All right. Because a couple, you know, what was it? Zach Taylor's a broken man right now. It was a week ago where Zach Taylor said something nice and then said, I learned my lesson. I put my foot in my mouth. I spoke too soon. And since that time, every comment to every question is basically. T. Higgins has dealt with a hamstring injury to some degree in every year since 2019. Ian Hart is pointing that out.

That is a lot. That's five years of your hamstrings hurt. There was an interview with him after his limited practice yesterday. And in that interview, he is talking about how he's 100% fine. He feels amazing. He feels like he hasn't gone into week one feeling healthier than this week. And so to me, if I'm the Bengals and there's any worry, I'm going to give him rest. Now, obviously, if he... Zach Taylor came out and said he tweaked his hamstring. Yeah.

So that's not good. But I'm saying. Yes, of course you give him rest because he tweets his hamstring. Look, I'm saying when you have a history of hamstring injuries. There's no place for optimism here. And you don't play. And your head coach says you did tweak it.

That just gives me pause. Yes, as you should. And this is fantasy football. Of course you should. And one of T. Higgins' favorite things is to start games. Oh, yeah. Oh, my gosh. Mike is set for misery this weekend. If he goes out there, I mean, obviously you're starting T. Higgins this week. Currently. If he's active for the game, you're starting him. And if he injures his hamstring in this game, week one,

I don't – I feel like you're going to rage drop me. You're just going to be like, I don't – I won't deal with this this season. I mean, this is bad for Joe Burrow. He might not have his top two receivers. That is a – in the range of outcomes this weekend is to have neither. That is unbelievable. Also, if I'm – Yoshi! Yeah, Yoshi Voss. And then if I'm Jamar Chase and I see my man T. Higgins sitting out and, like, maybe not being able to play on Sunday –

I don't think I'm practicing. Yeah. That sends a good message. Like you really need me. Yeah. Week one Kyle without both of us. Kyle Pitts was dealing with a hamstring. He practiced in full. He said he was. He also came out like tea and said, I'm fine. Yeah. He did practice in full. Russell Wilson was added to the injury report on Thursday with calf tightness and

From what I had seen... From Ian Rappaport. Yeah, Ian Rappaport had said that this team is traditionally very conservative with calf injuries. So you could see Justin Fields. Also, this was his injury he had. He was dealing with a calf injury earlier. That's why he missed some time in camp. So now if it's re-aggravated, you should be picking up Justin Fields. Justin Fields...

from a fantasy football perspective, is a great quarterback. If he starts for a week or multiple weeks or whatever, and this is against Atlanta, I believe, week one, that would be awesome. Mike, who else was on your team? Because I see a report that... Oh, just the best running back in football.

Christian McCaffrey is listed on the injury report with the calf and Achilles is expected to play. What was the last news on it? The quotes coming out on Christian McCaffrey are, I have seen everything from 100% he is good to go, but then we... John Lynch on the radio said he's doing great. We have to finish the week. This was this morning. Yeah, we have to finish the week. Looks like Christian, and that's a good thing for us. Obviously, we want to see him progress through the week.

We had confidence he'll be ready. He'll be ready to... No, you got to get the tense of everything. Go ahead. We had confidence he'd be ready. Dot, dot, dot. He'll be out there and ready to go. What? We don't need this in week one. Listen, coaches, we don't need this. This is the whole... Why do we play again? For pain. Only for pain. Antonio Gibson on the injury report as well. And then...

Yeah, I think that's it for the news. So we've got so much to talk about today. It doesn't really affect things, but for tonight's game, Marshawn Lloyd and Emmanuel Wilson are questionable. Josh Jacobs might play 100% of the snaps for the Green Bay Packers tonight. All right, that was today's News & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usa.com slash insurance. We'll take a break and jump into the forecast.

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All right. Time to get you ready. Time to, you know, week one's weird. Week one's weird because we don't have anything on the, you know, the history so far this year about how these teams are trending. So it's all about the storylines. You're normally starting your studs and playing the guys you just drafted. So we're going to jump in and see what storylines matter. It's time for Fantasy Forecast, presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. ♪ music playing ♪

We covered seven games yesterday. Packers, Eagles, Steelers, Falcons, Cardinals, Bills, Titans, Bears, Patriots, Bengals, Texans, and Colts. And we're jumping into the rest of them today and have something fun at the end of the show as well. Jacksonville travels to Miami to take on the Dolphins. The DraftKings Sportsbook line here. Dolphins minus three. Over-under is 49. This morning the Dolphins made Jalen Ramsey the highest paid cornerback with a new extension. He is probably still good.

He's still good, but he might not play in this game is the point I was going to bring up. He's very questionable to play. This game has a 49-point over-under. DK has the Dolphins minus three. You know, the history over the last two years of Miami has come out and kind of blown people away offensively. That is one of the reasons why Tua was Jason's start of the week yesterday. A-Chan and Mostert should both be in your lineup.

Tyree kill Jalen Waddle, who is off the injury report, Mike. So you do get a break there. So it's pretty easy on the dolphin side of the football. I think the biggest storyline is just how many backs, you know, how many running backs and how are they used? You know, is it a two man rotation? Is it, is Jalen Wright getting involved?

Is H.A. Chan playing the slot? Yeah, and what's the goal line looking like? Is it a tradeoff? Is it one man? Yeah, the running backs are what you're going to be watching. And I think what you're going to see is quite a bit of what you saw at the end of last season, which is both backs on the field at the same time. You'll have – they run that.

more than most teams, and that's because of their personnel. And you're going to see Devon Achan in the slot a lot, and I can't wait. Yeah, like DK has his line set right now at 21.5 receiving yards. Is that for Achan? Yeah, that is for Achan. So 21 receiving yards, that's expecting a healthy dose. Yeah, for a running back. On the other side of the football, Travis Etienne, he's going to get it all.

I think they're going to give Bigsby a chance in this game. They're going to say, like, okay, we want to use you, Bigsby, and then it's up to Bigsby.

But I mean, I'm sure he could really quickly tell him, just give him and just give it. I just believe that there's a possibility that if we had never mentioned Hank Bixby's game name during the entire off season in up to this moment, it would have been more beneficial for fantasy players than if we had. Okay. But that's just because I believe Travis ETN is that good of a player and that important of a player. And they're going to be needing him tremendously in this game to keep up. Kirk,

We talked about the fact that Christian Kirk right now, three wide, they're going to do that a lot. But Evan Ingram was a dominator in the middle of the field. I do believe that that was something that was further established. This was not just incidental, accidental. Ingram to me is a court, and this is opinion, right? This is not statement of fact. In my opinion, what Evan Ingram did last year and did so far this preseason further confirms that

His role in the middle of the field is very, very secure. It's one of the reasons why I believe Gabe Davis and Brian Thomas Jr. are the outside starting wide receivers. And I think that's going to limit Christian Kirk from an upside standpoint. I think there's more vulnerability and worry in my mind about Kirk than there has been in previous years. Yeah, the wide receivers, that's the big story is between the three of them, how are they actually utilized? Last year, week one, it was a full panic alarm on Christian Kirk of,

He was only on in three wide receivers. He was not utilized very much. And then Christian Kirk went on to have, before the injury, went on to have a really good season. So it is something to watch. And this is just top of the head of, you know how Miami has this, at this time of year, it's hot, it's nasty, it's muggy down in Miami.

And they're playing another Florida team. I wonder if they're actually going to have that much of an advantage or not, weather-wise. Yeah, I mean, that's a good point. They won't have an advantage weather-wise, but I do think that this is a game I want a part of. These two defenses are mid, and these two offenses can be really, really good. So, like, I think people are going to be questioning, can I start Trevor Lawrence over maybe some of these guys I drafted? There are. I would. Oh, really? Yeah. Like –

Joe Burrow against the Patriots with hobbled wide receiver. You know, it's like I think I would rather take a shot of Lawrence in this game. Would you play Brian Thomas in his debut or Jameson Williams Sunday night football against the Rams? We haven't seen Brian Thomas do it yet. So I would take him because we have seen Jameson not do it. Okay, we've all got our opinions. I would play Brian Thomas this week.

The Carolina Panthers travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints. The DraftKings Sportsbook line, Saints minus four. The over-under is 41 and a half in this game. That is very low. Come on, Panthers. Come on, Panthers. Do it for me. Do it for me. Do it for America. This is part of your five-step plan to remove Dennis Allen from the planet? That's correct. The five steps are the first five games. This is step one. Shock the world, Carolina.

So, look, they're going to have an opportunity. Right now, the DK Sportsbook line has the Saints minus four. The over-under is 41 and a half. Dave Canales, very likable. Dennis Allen, very unlikable. Carolina, I am so excited to see this game. The Saints defense was not...

What it had been last year in terms of fantasy points given up across the board, especially against running backs. They, they had been locked down forever and then they were beatable there. Yeah. I think that Chuba is a very good spot start, which you got. If you got Chuba, you got really, really late. Miles Sanders, uh,

Which we have listed as Miles Moneybags Sanders. I enjoy that. Is that him getting paid and doing nothing? Yeah. He's hurt. Yes. He has a fingy, right? Yeah. Some sort of hand slash fingy injury. There's nothing more demeaning of an injury for you to say to someone. Miles Moneybag has a fingy problem. Yeah. His finger hurts. Look, I...

I think that Chuba is going to be very active in this game. He averaged over 21 opportunities over the final seven weeks. And he was good. He was good on them. And for a team that couldn't throw the football, you think about how defenses were playing that offense. Bryce Young, we'll see what he's like with... I'm excited for Deontay.

Yeah, I really am. I'm excited for the new refresh of this team to see if we can get something out of it. The player that I'm watching for, the storyline that I want to see on the Carolina side is Xavier Ligette. I want to see... I don't expect him to get a ton of snaps, but I want to see how they use him and how he...

is against NFL defenders because I'm really excited about his physical talents. 6'3", almost 230? Yeah. Is he really still that big? Is he still that big? I don't think he's shrinking. Well, I just, you know, weights fluctuate. Tell me about it. That was a legitimate question. The amount of food, the food we ate last night, I want the Foot Clan to know.

You thought it was like, I saw somebody say like, oh man, it's cool. They're doing a show right before their, their league of record draft. I would have been prepping. Nothing compares to us being here today after the food we ate yesterday. It's a miracle. We're all here. Yeah. I think we've,

been eating healthier. And then, you know, on draft day, calories don't count. Right. So... Can you erase six months of work in one day? Because I tried. Yeah, you did. Yes, you did. Look, it was unhealthy food, but you put it down, brother. Eight raising kids' fingers. Like... We're getting those dinner, though, because that was after the what? The four slices of pizza? Yes. We're disclosing all this? Oh, well, it's... Look, I mean, we're people here for the world, but...

Eats a lot, man. Yeah, I had conversations with all eight all night long. So...

We got Carolina's storyline there. We're going to be optimistic. See, you said we have no optimism. We'll be optimistic. Not that optimistic with DK having Bryce Young at 200 passing yards. Bryce Young's at 200? 205. 205? Yuck. But we set our lines based on what we've known in the past, not what we know for the future. So we can have some hope. On the other side, Derek Carr gets to lead this offense. Alvin Kamara...

I'm very curious to see what his involvement, if it's going to look the exact same as last year. I think most of us think it will. Olave and Shahid will be on the outside in this offense. Shahid is somebody that is still interesting to me. Late in drafts, I was taking shots at wide receiver twos, just seeing some of these guys that have not been prolific fantasy players that have an opportunity to be the starter. Michael Thomas is gone. Shahid will be out there a lot. This is Shahid's third season. He has kept pace with Olave in terms of touchdown pacing.

So when you look at opportunities late in your draft, he's had a connection with Carr. I'm keeping my eyes on him. I'm not saying start him. He's just one of those players where if you came out in week two and he was like a waiver wire pickup because he scored twice, it would not shock him. Yeah, he's a guy you might want on your bench heading into the week. The question mark for me on the Saints side is Taysom Hill, how involved he is as a running back, and I expect him to be. Are you talking about my new tight end in League of Record, guys? Did you just pick him up? Yeah.

Because of Mark Andrews? No, I think he's good. And if you're questioning whether to start him... He may have moved up the queue just in case. If you've got him or Bowers or Goddard or Schultz, I would start Taysom Hill over all those guys. All right. We're all hoping Olave pays off on the draft price. So he'll be somebody to watch, too, to get off to a good start. Now, Carolina's defense last year was very good. And so...

I'm optimistic that they can get things going this year. Minnesota at New York, the Giants, DraftKings Sportsbook line, Minnesota on the road are one and a half point favorites. The over-under is 41. What? Wow. Yeah. 41 and a half is the over-under. Can you double check that? I'll check it. I...

have some closet optimism for the Vikings being a little bit more surprising. You don't say that out loud. People are listening. He's been saying it for a little while. I'm looking at it right now. The Vikings are one and a half point favorites on the road against the Giants with Sam Darnold. Yes, because Sam Darnold

This offense had some success last year with a miscellany of quarterbacks because the system in place, the coaching staff, Kevin O'Connell and the offense, they do it the right way. And you talk about being – it's a little bit like Shanahan, okay? Shanahan had a lot of success with Nick Mullins, with various backups because the system in place was very, very –

conducive to game management. And I think Sam Darnold, when you have Jefferson and Addison, when you have Aaron Jones out of the backfield, I do think that there's a chance that this is a better-than-you-think offense with Darnold. I don't want to be the guy that said it. I don't want to be the believer in Sam Darnold because I'm really not. But I do think that Darnold has been given every chance to fail.

As an NFL quarterback. And he's seized those opportunities. He has seized those opportunities. So, from a starting perspective, is there anybody on the bubble on the Minnesota side that you're dancing with whether or not you would consider it? I think Jordan Edison is on the bubble of...

I don't mind you saying that the Minnesota offense could have some success here, but with him having the ankle injury, remember it's... It's a high ankle sprain. Yeah, we're not that far removed from that dark, dark day for Minnesota Vikings fans when J.J. McCarthy was ruled out for the season and then Addison went down and was carted off because of a high ankle sprain. I think it was the same day. It was at least rapid when those two pieces came out. So because of that and just...

His role in this offense, I would have some pause putting him out there. There could be a better option. What about the other side of the football? The other side of the football, I think Devin Singletary is an okay play every week. It's volume. It's just volume. We expect him to be – he's a flex option. He's not an RB2. I think he's an RB3 that will have enough utilization where –

You hope he's involved in the passing game. I think that's where he'll have enough value. Malik Neighbors is, I think, I'm just excited to see him. I want to start him. The Vikings, their defense was much better last year with Flores, but they were beat at wide receiver. I don't know if Stephon Gilmore still got the lockdown shadow ability against a young Malik Neighbors. Would you play Singletary or Chuba?

I would play Chuba. Yeah, good for you. I'd play Chuba. How'd that feel? Bad. Yeah. Zemir White or Singletary? Zemir White. I think Zemir gets off to an okay start to the season. And Andy, how's your confidence on Malik with his DK line sitting at five and a half receptions? Very confident. Okay. Very confident. Was pleased that Jason made him a start of the week yesterday. Very good. He was one of the players that...

We had somebody in our league be extremely aggressive, like gave up pickings and picks to go get Malik neighbors earlier than I think people thought he might go off the border about where he was supposed to go. So very competitive market for Malik neighbors because the upside is so outrageous and it will be worth it if he can perform like we expect. So Denver at Seattle. Okay. Well, DraftKings Sportsbook line here, Seattle minus six, the over-under is 41 and a half.

That gives Denver just a 17-point implied point total. Bo Nix is making his debut. I like targeting rookie quarterbacks for defensive starts. Generally, it's delightful. And from what I remember, Seattle's not the most fun place to go and play in. So I think it could be a little bumpy from the Denver side. The

The nice thing is that the way Bo Nix plays football, you'd hope he, and the way Sean Payton coaches him, you'd hope they'd be conservative, but that doesn't mean good things for fantasy. No, it doesn't mean good things for fantasy, and I think it means not good things necessarily for the Seahawks' defense either. I do like that the Seahawks are home if you want to use them as a streaming candidate, but their defense is not very good. And if Bo Nix, who is very experienced, runs the Sean Payton situation,

system well. I think this will be a little bit of a boring game. That's my expectation. Cortland Sutton dropped really far in drafts. Julian McLaughlin as well. The storyline on that side to me is outside of Sutton, who is most involved in the passing game, and then what does the running back rotation look like with Javante? And how does Javante look

This is the perfect matchup for Javante. I think it's a very good start of the week for you, Mike. If Javante is going to have success this season,

We'll find out right off the bat. He's going to be utilized in the receiving game. You have a bad Seahawks rush defense. And, you know, there's just no one else of note after Cortland Sutton. So I think, you know, this is someone who was number one in targets per route run last year. And Sean Payton throws to the running backs. Yeah, with all those receptions for Javante and the DK rushing line sitting at 15.5.

on rushing. I do. I believe that Javante is going to come out and be a strong start. Now, the tough part of that is just going to be the game script and the passing work, and Seattle's heavily favored. On that side of the ball, Kenneth Walker...

The Bone Zone. Yeah, baby. Ken Bone. Did you try to put Bone Zone in the doc, Kyle? Yeah, yeah, totally. But you put Bone Town. That's a... It's not Bone Town, Kyle. No. Boston. Kyle. No. Boston. Boston. No.

Kyle, are you? I don't know if I want to know. If I had a water bottle, I'd be spritzing you in the face. I don't know. No. Like a cat. Was that a mistake? Because if it wasn't a mistake, it's worse. He went rogue. He's trying to change the nickname. No. You thought I would Ron Burgundy that one? I was hoping so. That I'd just go Kenneth Bone Town Walker? No. It's the Bone Zone. It's the Bone Zone. It's way better.

Play him. His DK line is 67 and a half rushing yards, which is awesome. This is a huge storyline, honestly. The Seattle offense is going to be

extremely fascinating to watch going from the Pete Carroll regime, Waldron, where they don't throw the ball to the running back. They throw the ball to Jackson Smith and Jigba at the line of scrimmage whenever he got a target. What does this transformation look like? This is on the upper end of the games that I'm very excited

excited to watch yeah because there's a lot to learn and it's yeah it's jsn what is his involvement and it's um greg dulcich to me sure is is a sneaky surprising you know he could be a big waiver wire pickup oh yeah at the end of this week las vegas los angeles uh the chargers are at home drafting sportsbook line chargers minus three the over-under is 40

Okay, I'm in on Zemir White, just for the record. Okay. In on him. Tell me what that means. I'm in on him this week, and I'm in on him as a running back two candidate every week. So you think for the season? Yeah, I do. Okay. I do. I think Zemir White has got a lockdown on a situation that we deem unsexy. 100% he has a lockdown on that. Now, historically speaking, when a guy –

is locked down into a role as a running back this late in a career. They find ways to fail through the course of the season. But to start the season, he is the guy. He is the starter. This isn't a 50-50 timeshare. The coaches come out and made that clear that Alexander Madison is there to spell him. And so, yeah, I'm confident starting Zemir White. White or Pollard?

White. I would go White. White or DeAndre Swift against Tennessee? DeAndre Swift. Okay. What's the line on... The thing for Samir, which where I'm in full agreement of he has the starting role locked down. He is, when they're running the ball, it will be Samir White. But the DK line on his receptions,

over-unders at one and a half. That speaks very loudly of that's the concern. If we're seriously like, is he only going to catch a pass? Then he has to score. He has to get a touchdown or it's going to be really mediocre stat lines. So that's the concern. Will they actually utilize him in the passing game? And it is a

Historically, he hasn't. He hasn't yet. That doesn't mean he can't get more involved in that, but for me, that's everything on Zamir. Also, some questions on that side of the ball. Brock Bowers is expected to play?

Do you have any interest in starting him over somebody like the Muth, knowing that Russell Wilson might not be there over Goddard tonight against Green Bay? If you're going that low. Yeah, that low, I'd be willing to roll the dice. I think it's okay, but I still don't think he makes it into my top 12. Him or Taysom, it's not close to me. 36.5 receiving yards is his over-under on DK. That is – I mean, if he gets 40 yards, you're not happy. Yeah, but what if he has eight touchdowns?

then I will apologize profusely for telling you not to start. It would be good, though, right? That would be pretty good. Pretty good. Devontae Adams, put him in your lineup. See what happens. Gardner Minshew will start. Jacoby Myers has been very good. He's had a good offseason. For you, hit that nasty button. Oh, you got it. Trey Tucker. Watch him in this game. Watch Trey Tucker in this game. Hard dog time.

Yeah, let's Jason take it away. Hard dog, hard dog and G row. We finally get to see the off season narrative play out of what is this Chargers system, even though they've got Herbert, they don't have great receiving options. They brought in all the Baltimore Ravens. They could including both running backs, JK Dobbins and the Gus bus. So how much are they going to run the ball?

My big concern and what I'm watching for, probably because I have a lot of Vlad McConkie, I'm watching for this more than anything this entire week is football.

How jumbo are they going to get? How much are they bringing in that 6'4", 700-pound fullback? How many times are they both having Disley and Hurst on the field? Because when they're in that package, if that's 50% of their snaps is bringing in these extra guys, McConkie's not going to be on the field. I do think McConkie will be their best target earner while on the field. Yeah.

So that's what I'm watching for more than anything is just how hardcore high T are

Are they going to transition to him? I am on the Josh Palmer side of things by a pretty wide margin this week. I do. I'm pretty excited for Palmer this week. But we get to see it. We get to see what the new distribution of targets looks like and whether we don't have Quentin Johnston. How does he get in there versus DJ Chark? He sneaks in. DJ Chark being hurt is how he gets in there. Oh, I was saying he literally goes...

What's over there? And he gets Harbaugh to turn around, and then he runs on the field. Or, hear me out, just swap jerseys with Chark. It'd be like, Chark, you're hurt. It's a miracle. It's me, DJ Chark. All right, let's take a quick break. Why does DJ look so bad, guys? DJ dropped another one. All right, we'll take a break. Be right back.

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Okay. Well, let's just do this. Let's do this.

Breaking news. All right, let's just keep you apprised. Adam Schefter. Yeah, yeah, get him, Jamar. Just tweeted, Jamar chased to the media today. Believes today is the deadline in his mind to get a deal done. Believes the two sides are in reach of a deal. Okay, okay. Will likely be limited on Sunday if he plays. Calls himself a game-time decision. Now, is that regardless of a deal? That sounds regardless of a deal. Wow. Would be willing to play this season without a new contract?

Well, that's a pretty big deal. So, in other words, he's setting a deadline. So that if the deal's not done, he's going to play this season. I believe that is what Jefferson did. I believe Jefferson said, we're going to draw a line. If it doesn't happen by this date, I'm moving forward and playing. So, Jamar, just throwing this out there. Sounds like you're not getting a new deal. I mean, right? Like, why would... Well, look, the price goes up. Sure, yeah. I mean, that's what happened. But it does seem like he will...

If I'm reading this right right now, it seems like what we're going to have is game time decision on on Jamar Chase, regardless of this contract. And Mike is already breathing that in and limited if he is active. Correct. So he is not going to be a full Jamar Chase week one. And he's happy because it turns out that Andy's opponent. That is the best situation ever. If you're facing Jamar Chase, because what do you do?

I'm asking because I don't know right now. I would start him. So a limited Jamar Chase. I think you do start him. To me, when you're saying Jamar is limited, it means that maybe outside of the 20s,

You'll give him some plays off. You let the other guys go. But when you get into the red zone, you put Jamar Chase. It also means when Jamar Chase goes in, when the package is like, okay, Jamar, you're in. High chance that he's – They better play that Chiefs triple bracket defense. And he could be limited in a game Higgins is not in. Oh, my gosh. So, look, you want a quick pickup? You want to use the ultimate dashboard on a spot start that's going to get adjusted for me?

Andre Yoshivas. Because if both of these guys, if Higgins is out and Chase is out or limited, because game time decision means that he could be out. Yeah.

Dot, dot, dot. Like, who are you throwing the football to? Kyle just dropped in Yoshibosh if you're playing some DFS on DK. Stone cold minimum. 3K. Kyle is smirking back there. How many lineups you got him in already? We talked about him on this episode that came out today. Check out the DFS podcast. It's back. It's back because we're back. And the pain is back. Dallas at Cleveland.

Now this game has a low over-under. DK has it at 41. Browns minus two and a half. I think that that makes me proud. That makes me happy. Of the Browns. Yeah, because the Cowboys are a good football team. They did not go on the road. They're not favored against Cleveland. Cleveland is a good football team. Cleveland put it together last year. I'm excited for this game, actually. We have Deshaun Watson, who will take the field wink-wink healthy.

Man, I mean, he is everything to watch on that side of the ball. Is he good? Does he look good? And I'm talking more for the Browns and more for the weapons, not for him because he can look bad and be okay for fantasy. Morally good? No, Superman is good. Deshaun Watson is well. Well, he's probably not. Here's the thing.

He can be okay for fantasy while he's not good at playing quarterback. But I don't think that the team is going to be good if he is not good at quarterback. And my expectation is that he's never going to be the same Deshaun Watson he was. Did you hear the rumor, Meele?

I don't recall the source. I heard something at the rumor mill. The mill doesn't talk itself. This is just blowtorch type of stuff. But it was when he was in Houston, they were willing to play the Clemson playbook. And that's why he succeeded. They were like, okay, here's your college offense. Go out there. Be great. Gets to Cleveland. They are not willing to do that. That's why...

That would check out of he has not been very good, and then you get guys like Joe Flacco who immediately go into a pro system and look like competent quarterbacks. Here's what needs to be said. He was... Full speculation. He played five full games last year. Five. His fantasy finishes in the full games were 5, 27, 10, 8, and 14. That's what we saw last year on the field. So...

He can be, and he looked terrible. It is the second year in the system, and you add Jerry Judy. And he was hurt last year. And this year. Well, he's recovering. Yeah. His shoulder soreness was like a week ago. He's good.

It's funny. You drafted Anthony Richardson. He had shoulder soreness, too. Yeah, months ago. I don't think it was a week ago, Jason. No, it was literally like one week ago. Yeah, it was maybe two weeks at the most. Okay. All right. If I'm misremembering, I'm sorry. Dak, Deshaun, facing off, Jerome Ford. He's the guy to start the year. And then we get to see this Zeke Dowdle. Hold on to your butts. It's not a great...

They're not favored. This is one of the lowest over-unders Dallas has been a part of over the last couple of years. Yeah, look, the DK lineup, both running backs for receptions, is one and a half. I think it's – look, I've been trying to call my shot here on Dowdle. This is not – he was drafted so late. I'm not forcing Rico Dowdle into my lineup. I'm sitting back watching how the Dallas Cowboys operate with their running backs.

With a keen eye on the fact that over the offseason, they were saying he has been a far more complete running back. A guy who can play three downs. A guy who can catch the ball for us. That's what I'm watching for. If Dowdle is actually getting targets, then that is a huge deal. All right. We have question marks with Judy comes over.

I still like, I like taking Judy late in drafts. I think he's one of those guys that's going to be an obvious pickup after week one. Nobody's been with me. I'm all alone with Jerry Judy. People have decided to just ship him away. Despite the fact he got the Browns gave him a ton of money and he has flashed. He's had plays where he looks elite. So, you know, to me,

Judy is somebody that you need. I'd play Jerry Judy over Brandon Cooks in this game. I probably would as well. The Cleveland defense is very, very good. Mike's saying he wouldn't force Rico Dowdle into the lineup. I would force Rico Dowdle on the bench. I would not play. But you're just completely out on it. Yeah. But in a tough matchup as well. You add those things together. You're in on Zeke. Are you forcing Zeke into your lineup? No. Yeah.

But we're both saying the same thing. We just have different horses in the race. Different players we're picking, sure. Would you start Dak? Are you trying – I mean, if you draft him, you have to, right? So this is a good example of would you start Dak or Trevor Lawrence. Trevor Lawrence is – if you're in a single quarterback league, he might be on waivers right now. And in that matchup against the Dolphins, who lost a lot of defensive pieces from last year, I think I would –

I think I would go Lawrence. And week one, you don't want to get too cute. So if you drafted Dak, you got him, great. Yeah, just to have some examples, I'm looking at our league of record. On our waiver wire is Stafford, Brock Purdy, Trevor Lawrence, Justin Herbert. Of those four, Jason, are you...

Which one of those are you playing over Dak? Yeah, I would. Stafford is Detroit. Purdy is the Jets. Lawrence is Miami. I would go Lawrence. Okay, just Lawrence. Yeah, I think Purdy's got too bad a matchup. Washington at Tampa. DraftKings Sportsbook line Buccaneers minus 3.5. Over under, 42.5. Rookie, Jayden Daniels gets to start on the road against a Tampa defense that struggled against quarterbacks last year in terms of fancy points given up.

We get to see Cliff Kingsbury run the offense, something that he did well with Kyler from a fantasy perspective. And we get to see what this, you know,

What Jaden's got. Yeah. We're going to see Luke McCaffrey get an opportunity, a rookie wide receiver in this offense now that Jahan Dotson is gone. So Terry McLaurin and is it Zach Ertz? Is it McCaffrey? Is it Diami Brown? Those are things that we're going to figure out. At least for the beginning of the season, it's going to be Zach Ertz. Yeah. And Jaden Daniels, just to make it clear. That's important. Hit that button twice for Zach Ertz, actually. Yeah.

He is in my lineup. Let's go. Jerk. Let's go. Please tell the people what that means. That is the deepest of leagues. That is a very, very, very deep league. I bet Mikey wish he had him instead of Andrews. Yeah. That joke was being thrown around very often of –

Well, it's inevitable now that Ertz will outscore Andrews. I was playing him over Luke Musgrave. But Jaden Daniels, to give you context of why you want to draft these rushing quarterbacks and play them, his line, his DraftKings line, 217 passing yards. Okay, that's a little low, but more than Bryce Young. And then a 39.5-yard rushing line. If you convert...

those to fantasy points and then to passing yards, that would be a total of 320 passing yards as a baseline. Yeah, no touchdowns considered. No, that's interesting, the way that you broke that down because –

Daniels is going to run. He's just going to be a part of the equation here. And we have an offensive coordinator with history of doing it well. Rashad White on the other side at running back, I am fully confident in him. Mike has brought up Bucky Irving quite a bit.

I do think there'll be a rotation behind white. I think white will be me personally. I think white will be the guy his over under is at three and a half receptions. That would be about 60 receptions on the year. I think he was in the eighties last year to start the year. I Rashad white should be a 100% confidence play. It's just over the course of the season. That's where my concern is. Godwin was a late pick in our draft a lot later than I expected him to go with Godwin and McLaurin. Um,

How are you feeling about those as it starts this week? Because going on the road with a rookie with Terry McLaurin, are you just putting him out there and just trusting? Yeah, I think so. The entire story for Chris Godwin is he's moving back into the slot. That's the story of the offseason for him where he was very successful earlier on in the career. The matchup should be fantastic here for Baker and crew. I thought Jalen McMillan was the starter now.

Am I wrong? I think he's starting on the outside. Right, but I'm saying you've got a rookie in the starting lineup now for Tampa that hasn't been talked about a lot. Right. Yeah, that's good. We should bring up his name. Jalen McMillan is... If you're bringing up Luke McCaffrey, he's starting on the other side. Why are we not talking about Jalen McMillan? McMillan should be on your radar. He's McMillan like a villain. We already had that, though. Well, I know, but he's dead. Yeah, that's true. He's gone for the season. Just think about it. All right.

I'm not going to think about it. I'm not going to lie to you. That's fine. That's fine. Well, if he scores three times, can we re-talk about it? Oh, for sure. That's a villain. If you're in a 14-teamer and somehow McMillan is on your way for wire, he's a guy that I might stash on the back of the bench. All right. Sunday night football. This one is more fun. Los Angeles, the Rams traveling to Detroit to face the Dominator.

The Lions, minus 4.5 on DK, over-under is 52. I got to get that on the website. Jared Goff is your start of the week, Mike. Home, dome? Yeah. That's his name, guys. This is the double checkbox situation. Jared Goff should 100% be started. All those other people we talked about, if you've got the Dak Prescott, even Jaden Daniels, who looks good. No, this is where Jared Goff is a monster. Yeah, this is the dome zone.

I mean, he is totally dominating. So, yeah, Brooks just threw it in. Goff or Burrow is a popular question right now on the website, and that is... It's Goff regardless of those guys being active. I don't care. Yeah, I'd play Jared Goff. I'm so excited about this game. Jameer Gibbs is healthy. He's going to be back out there. David Montgomery is flexible. He can touch his toes so easy. Amon Ra, yes. And then...

The over-under, the home game, and the opportunity. Where are we with Jamison Williams? Because he is a player, I'm telling you. There is a chance you come back with two, and Jamison Williams is a big storyline. Yeah, I am not denying that at all. He's not a player that I drafted late, and I'm throwing him into the lineup. Like, oh, it's an island game. It's Jared Goff at home. I want it. Jamison Williams or Curtis Samuel against Arizona?

I think I would. Asking for a friend. I think I'd go Curtis. And Jamison's the moonshot here. Curtis, you know, will get five targets at least where Jamison Williams could go out and be an absolute cardio king and get two targets. Let me put it this way. You're starting everybody you expected to start from these rosters. Yes. We're not making start-sit decisions. Correct. What I want to know is what

Like, what's your biggest storyline from this game? Is it the backfield in Los Angeles about how often Blake Corham and Ronnie Rivers are used? I mean, Blake Corham's over-under is 24.5 rushing yards from Vegas. Now, Jason's eyes just lit up because he – I don't like that. That's a lot. I don't like that at all. Now, Kyron is at 58.5. So, I mean, that's a lot too. No, I would have expected – I would have expected, like,

67 rushing yard line for Kyron and Gorham to maybe not even have a line. You still want your lead workhorse back returning punts?

Did you ever find any of the other top 50 that were doing that? Oh, I did. I did. Yeah, none of them do that because that's weird. It's super weird. Yeah, I know. The only example is the Kyron Williams guy. Oh, it's him. Well, he hasn't done that yet. He did it last year. No, he didn't do it when he came in the season as a workhorse. He did it before he was a workhorse. He did it while he was a workhorse just for three weeks. Yes. And then they said, what do you think they said? Why'd they stop? Why'd they stop that? Because he got injured.

Not on a punt. Oh, and then he did it when he came back? You are setting this tower up mighty high. Mighty high. I saw Jason's eyes when Blake Corham's line was given to him. That's all I'm saying. Yes, but not because of the punts. It's a big mosaic of fear. Would you play Kyron or Jameer Gibbs in this game?

That's an easy Jameer Gibbs. The Lions have a really good rush defense. You have Aaron Donald departing from the Rams. And so to me, I had Gibbs ahead of Kyron. I love both players, but the matchup is better for Gibbs. Last year, the Lions, their defense was almost dead last against quarterbacks and wide receivers.

Is Matthew Stafford a sneaky start? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think you can easily start him this week. If you, you know, went late or Joe Burrow, I think that's kind of the barometer, right? Like Burrow versus. Oh, I can't wait for Sunday Live. Oh, fine. It's going to be Joe Burrow versus the world.

If something goes wrong in this game, what would your biggest fear be? I mean, my biggest fear is Kyron. My biggest fear is that Kyron is out there 55% of the snaps.

That's a pretty good line normally. Yeah, it is, but that's not what Kyron has been and what he was drafted as. I don't expect him to be out there 80% of the snaps like he was last year on occasion, or 90% of the snaps like he was, but I still think he should be up there 65%, which is huge. And keep your eye – look.

I like nasty tight ends. I like talking about them. Yeah, you do. Keep your eyes on Colby Parkinson, who will be the starter for the Rams while Tyler Higbee recovers. I think, yeah. The narrative is he got the money, he got the job, and Higbee has been – And he might get a touchdown. Higbee has been –

passable as a fantasy type. I'm not going to lie to you, Mike. I will not keep my eyes on Colby Parkinson. There are too many important pieces on this Rams offense for me to look at. Jason got me. He got me back. And by passable, I was passing on Higby often. So that is a good point. New York, the Jets taking on the 49ers in San Francisco. New York, the Jets? Yeah. New York, comma, the Jets. Punctuation again. It matters.

There's a long show. I don't have time for punctuation. 49ers are at home. They are favored by four and a half. DK has the over-under at 43 and a half. We're back. Monday Night Football with Aaron Rodgers. I believe the exact... Did you know this? I can't believe they did this. Kyle, give me the name of the defensive lineman that tore Aaron Rodgers' Achilles.

Do you know it? No clue. Okay. Well, he plays for the 49ers now. Oh, man. I'm just saying. He's on the field again on Monday Night Football, which is weird. It's just a weird coincidence. But we tried.

to enjoy this moment last year. This should be a great game. I mean, I feel like half at home for the 49ers. That's not a lot. Every Jets fan in the world is going to be afraid the whole game. Like every play is going to be like, don't be afraid. Every play of every single game. Yeah. Aaron Rogers, the Garrett Wilson anticipation. It is there. We have waited so long. Are we going to get it on Monday night football?

No. I mean, we're going to see Aaron Rodgers, but I don't think it's going to be a good game. These are two great defenses. I don't think Aaron Rodgers is the MVP he was three years ago and won Achilles ago. This season, sure. This week, I don't believe so. Okay, Mike. Brees Hall right now, the reception line for him is set at 3.5. That's a tough line. 3.5 is a hardy line. If Brees Hall...

finishes with three receptions, you're still happy about that. You're happy. I personally think he will have more than three receptions. If you look at the 49ers last year, and we'll talk about this in a second, but they were beatable last

with running backs in the receiving game. Brees Hall last year, that was his calling card, and Aaron Rodgers uses that as a safety valve the way he did with Aaron Jones. I think it's going to come together for a decent game for Brees. I have an important announcement to make, which is you just drafted your team, and your team looks so pretty.

And so you probably want to put Christian McCaffrey in your running back spot. And I'm reminding you right here, right now, do not do that. Make sure McCaffrey's in your flex. Assuming you have another running back in your flex spot. Because you need to go into Monday Night Football with McCaffrey in the flex and an emergency pivot option. Maybe it's Mike Williams. Or Jordan Mason.

To be fair, if you've got Jordan Mason, you can have him in your running back spot. But I'm just trying to think, maybe it's even like, maybe you're 95% confident in McCaffrey, but maybe you throw Tyler Conklin. Because that's the only option you got off the waiver wire onto your bench as an emergency because you can't

You've got to play CMC if he's active, but if there's even a 1% chance he's not, you've got to have a backup plan. So just be ready. Yeah, and this is true of all the players in this game, just as a reminder. I mean, Christian McCaffrey has an actual question mark next to him a little bit, but if you've got Debo or you've got Ayuk or you've got Garrett Wilson, those players should be in your flex. Guys pop up with hamstring injuries right now. Oh, T. All right, so any other questions?

The Iuke, Debo, Kittle, McCaffrey distribution against the best defense against quarterbacks and wide receivers last year, it's not the best situation for them. Hope for the best. Expect that at least one of those guys is going to have a devastating game.

Yeah. So did we just do all the games? We did. We have one final thing that we're going to do here at the end of the show on Fridays, which is what we're calling the Parley Partay. Oh, yeah. And every Friday we're going to create a three-legger over on DraftKings. We're each choosing one leg, and based on the results, it's going to be crowns? We're going to be putting the crowns on? Mm-hmm. Or is it going to be clowns?

So basically, we're going to who's letting you down. If one of us lets the other two down, they're wearing the clown outfit. Yeah. Look, there could be three crowns. There could be three clowns. There could be. And so we each are not this week, though. We're each picking one that we like. I'm going James Connor. The over. It's his line is set at 51 and a half.

He averaged rushing yards. Correct. I love Michael Keaton. Yes, rushing yards. When Kyler returned, he was at 85 last year. I like the matchup against Buffalo, and he went over this line over six of eight weeks. Yeah, I'm a big fan of that one. Mine is what I just talked about. Brees Hall, over three and a half receptions, either

I think it happens. He averaged four and a half receptions per game last year. The 49ers allowed the sixth most receptions to running backs last year. And Aaron Rodgers is going to need that because of the pass rush.

and his limited mobility, he will be a safety valve. And I'm going with Joshua Palmer, over 47.5 receiving yards. Last year against Vegas, he hit this mark easily, 3 for 77, 4 for 113. And that's when Joshua Palmer wasn't going into this season as the number one wide receiver for this team.

So you can look for that parlay over on the DraftKings app. That was Fantasy Forecast presented by DraftKings Sportsbook. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use the code BALLERS. That is the code BALLERS. Bet $5, get $250. The crown is yours. I hope the crown's ours. We're going to wrap it up. We've got Friday Night Football. We've got Sunday morning. Don't forget to join Mike on Sunday Live and –

You can do that over on YouTube. So here we go. Enjoy the football. Here we go. Deep breaths, everyone. It's week one. You've been waiting forever. Enjoy it. Goodbye. Bye.

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