Speaker 1: Wow, Wow, everybody, It's Thursday, October twenty fourth, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Show. We're cruising like
Speaker 1: John Madden. It's me and your man, MG Marcus Grant,
Speaker 1: joined by Michael f Florio, and we.
Speaker 2: Are in the Madden Cruiser, the actual bus.
Speaker 3: This is pretty sweet.
Speaker 2: This is dope in my head though I know I
Speaker 2: said this there, like this is where John Madden lived
Speaker 2: in my head, like he has slept on this couch,
Speaker 2: he has played Madden over there, like this is amazing.
Speaker 1: Except like Madden was a large man, Like this couch
Speaker 1: is like I don't know that I could sleep on
Speaker 1: this couch unless it Scott couch.
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you gotta.
Speaker 1: I don't think it pulls out, but uh yeah no,
Speaker 1: this would be great. Plenty of TVs. Obviously there's Madden
Speaker 1: hooked up. You could come in and play here. I'm
Speaker 1: very excited, very fortunate to be able to do a
Speaker 1: show from here today.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean I walked up and I was like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, like I took a picture outside of it,
Speaker 2: like it's got his This is dope.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely dope. So thank you to the folks at
Speaker 1: EA for letting us come crash in here for a
Speaker 1: little bit and do the show here. Of course, you
Speaker 1: know it is a Thursday. We have our top calls
Speaker 1: for the week, so we'll go through those. But let's
Speaker 1: start with a couple of headlines. The first one because
Speaker 1: we are just a few hours away from the start
Speaker 1: of week eight and Thursday night football. The Vikings and
Speaker 1: Rams are going to play at Sofi Stadium, literally just
Speaker 1: behind us here in the Madden Bus. And it looks
Speaker 1: like now we're waiting for inactives to be out to
Speaker 1: find out officially, but it looks like Pooka Nakua could play.
Speaker 1: Combined that with Cooper Cup who is expected to play tonight,
Speaker 1: so the Rams are going to have their top two
Speaker 1: receivers back in this offense. I think with Cup, I
Speaker 1: think we sort of already decided that he's playing for
Speaker 1: the Rams. He's playing for you. Pookah's a bit of
Speaker 1: a different situation. Hasn't played since week one, hasn't really
Speaker 1: gotten any practice time in If Puka goes, would you
Speaker 1: feel comfortable putting him in a lineup?
Speaker 2: He it's a little like it's a little bit more
Speaker 2: depending on your options. Unlike Cooper Cup who were on
Speaker 2: is if he plays, which he is going to, you
Speaker 2: get him in your lineup. But Puka could be on
Speaker 2: a snap count. Like we said, I have a lot
Speaker 2: of people who have sent me questions like why would
Speaker 2: they do this? Why would they not wait ten more
Speaker 2: days to give Puka full time to rest? And the
Speaker 2: truth is this game is very important.
Speaker 3: For the Rams.
Speaker 2: There's a big difference of being three and four, especially
Speaker 2: in the NFC West right now, compared to two and five,
Speaker 2: So you could make it an argument that their season
Speaker 2: is on the line tonight. But even so, like I
Speaker 2: have Puka on a number of teams, and like I
Speaker 2: think i'd play him over someone like Khalil Shakir, which
Speaker 2: is one of my options. But if you've gone by
Speaker 2: this far and you feel good about the options you
Speaker 2: have in place, I think it's okay then to take
Speaker 2: it as take it safe.
Speaker 1: And I think that's the thing too, because this week, weirdly,
Speaker 1: in Week eight, there are no teams on a buy,
Speaker 1: so you have your full complement of players, obviously injury
Speaker 1: players not with standy, but you have your full roster
Speaker 1: available to you. You have figured out how to survive
Speaker 1: this long without Puka and Kua. I'm kind of with
Speaker 1: you that I think I would wait and see a
Speaker 1: little bit, because who knows how much of a snap
Speaker 1: count he maybey on this week, how many targets he's
Speaker 1: going to get. Although I will say this, the great
Speaker 1: Ian Harden's had a wonderful tweet about It's something to
Speaker 1: the effect of, if you start Pooka, expect him to
Speaker 1: be on a limited snapcount with very few targets. If
Speaker 1: you sit him expecting to go for one hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty and two touchdowns.
Speaker 2: It's something where like I have Pooka on say like
Speaker 2: three or four of my fantasy teams. I'm going to
Speaker 2: get him in at least one lineup just in case,
Speaker 2: because if that happens and I sit him in every league,
Speaker 2: I'm going to hate myself. But at least if I
Speaker 2: start him in one, if he doesn't come through, it's like, okay,
Speaker 2: I only started him one. But if he does, it's like,
Speaker 2: all right, I could still enjoy this and benefit from this.
Speaker 1: I knew I took advantage of at least at least
Speaker 1: one league exactly. There other bit of news, and this
Speaker 1: one's sort of been floating out there for a couple
Speaker 1: of days, but I think we can talk about it
Speaker 1: officially now. Jamison Williams is going to be suspended for
Speaker 1: two games for violating the league's performance enhancing substances policy.
Speaker 1: It's a thing that's kind of been out there. Dan
Speaker 1: Campbell has sort of been talking about a little bit.
Speaker 1: Now Jamison Williams has put out a state about it.
Speaker 1: So it looks like the Lions aren't going to a peela.
Speaker 1: I think they just sort of want to get this
Speaker 1: over with and get his past it. So we know
Speaker 1: it looks like for at least two games no Jamison Williams.
Speaker 3: This week they play the Titans.
Speaker 1: What they should be able to win the week after
Speaker 1: is the Packers, which is a bit of a tougher
Speaker 1: matchup for them. I guess the easy question for you
Speaker 1: is does this mean something for my Sam Laporta shares?
Speaker 3: Now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it does. Like I will, I will
Speaker 2: not lie. I wrote up Sam Laporta as a sit
Speaker 2: this week, was already for that, and then reports of
Speaker 2: this came out Monday night and I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I have to change this because the whole thing with
Speaker 2: Sam Laporta has been Jamison Williams is the number two
Speaker 2: target on this team. He is getting more first read
Speaker 2: opportunities than Sam Laporta. Like they it is clear that
Speaker 2: Jamison they just they think he's better than Sam Laporta.
Speaker 2: I think, and he's better for this offense. But with
Speaker 2: him out of it now, it starts to look a
Speaker 2: lot like it did last season in my opinion, where
Speaker 2: Sam Laporta is the number two option. Now he's the
Speaker 2: number two option for sure in the red zone. So oh,
Speaker 2: I think you throw out the first seven weeks with
Speaker 2: Sam laporter and you say, Okay, if it's a chance
Speaker 2: that it could look like last season, I need to
Speaker 2: take that shot in fantasy and I need to get
Speaker 2: him in my lineup. So I changed him from a
Speaker 2: sit to a start just based off of this news.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you look at the sort of the air
Speaker 1: yards distribution of this Lion's offense, it's not a ton
Speaker 1: of deep shots to Jamison Williams like they have certainly
Speaker 1: taken some shots down field with him, but a lot
Speaker 1: of short intermediate throws. He leads the team in yards
Speaker 1: after catch. They're just using that dynamic ability as much
Speaker 1: as they can. The problem is where he's getting a
Speaker 1: lot of those targets. That's where Sam laporter was getting
Speaker 1: a lot of his opportunities last year. So for all
Speaker 1: of us me, I'm raising my hand who drafted Sam Laporta,
Speaker 1: who have been utterly frustrated by him getting one or
Speaker 1: two catches a game and that's it, at least for
Speaker 1: the next couple of weeks. I think there's a chance
Speaker 1: for him to get on the not to get on
Speaker 1: the field, he's on the field, ton to get more
Speaker 1: looks from Jared goff in this offense. Any other Lions
Speaker 1: receivers that you'd be interested in over the next couple
Speaker 1: of weeks.
Speaker 2: No, not unless we see it first. You know, I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna be throwing going out there throwing like second
Speaker 2: third options on the passing attack here because we've seen
Speaker 2: the targets for the other guys really week to week
Speaker 2: kind of whoever's getting open the matchup and stuff. But look,
Speaker 2: I pulled up NFL Pro they have this as a
Speaker 2: five star. Five stars is the most you could get
Speaker 2: for almost every type of passing. Deep passes, quick passes,
Speaker 2: short passes, all of that against his Titans offense. So yeah,
Speaker 2: I think this is a week where you could feel
Speaker 2: good about Laporta. You can feel good about a Monra
Speaker 2: the running backs there, Jared Goff, but after that it has.
Speaker 3: To be like a deep league, yeh.
Speaker 1: So don't go throwing Khalif Raymond into lineups this week, folks.
Speaker 3: Is sort of what we're going with for this thing.
Speaker 1: All right, Let's get into some of our Week eight predictions.
Speaker 1: Let's start off with Club Dub the guys non quarterback edition.
Speaker 1: Who will be the top scorer this week? And you
Speaker 1: got one in a game that could really be a
Speaker 1: back and forth contest between the Eagles and the Bengals.
Speaker 1: A couple of good offenses against a couple of kind
Speaker 1: of shaky defenses.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the whole thing. Not only do I
Speaker 2: think that I have aj Brown, who I think is amazing.
Speaker 2: He has had a touchdown in all three games at
Speaker 2: least eighty nine yards in every game. He's gone for
Speaker 2: over nineteen Fantasy points in all. He was someone that
Speaker 2: before the year I was hyping up, like I'd rather
Speaker 2: have this guy than Justin Jefferson and stuff. And I
Speaker 2: feel vindicated because when he's been on the field, he
Speaker 2: has been the best wide receiver in fantasy this season.
Speaker 2: But the Bengals, like you said, they can be had.
Speaker 2: They give up a lot of big plays and they
Speaker 2: will score points though, and they have a very good
Speaker 2: offense of their own with firepowers. So if the Eagles,
Speaker 2: unlike their last games where they're winning like twenty to
Speaker 2: seventeen and stuff, if this is one of those more
Speaker 2: higher scoring games, we're going to see them have to
Speaker 2: keep their foot on the gas and hurts to AJ Brown,
Speaker 2: despite only playing three games, lead the league in deep touchdowns,
Speaker 2: So I think it is possible that we get two
Speaker 2: of those this week. And my Bowl prediction is two
Speaker 2: hundred yards for AJ Brown.
Speaker 1: Well, my bowl prediction this week has been two hundred
Speaker 1: scrimmag yards for Joe Mixon. So he's the guy that
Speaker 1: I'm gonna go with in this situation against the Indianapolis Colts.
Speaker 1: Going back to Week one, when these two teams played,
Speaker 1: mixing put up one hundred and seventy eight scrimmage yards
Speaker 1: and a touchdown. The Colts defense, to me, hadn't gotten
Speaker 1: much better than what we saw in Week one. I
Speaker 1: think they're gonna lean on Mixon again. Look, I know
Speaker 1: a lot of folks have a bounce back for CJ.
Speaker 1: Stroud I can certainly see that in the works as well.
Speaker 1: But I think this is a Texans team that can
Speaker 1: move up and down the field, can score a lot
Speaker 1: of points, and when you get to that fourth quarter,
Speaker 1: you're just trying to grind out clock. I think we
Speaker 1: see a lot of mixing in that situation as well.
Speaker 1: I think it's a huge.
Speaker 3: Game for him.
Speaker 1: Back in that Week one game, he was the RB
Speaker 1: two behind Saquon Barkley. I think he get end up
Speaker 1: as the RB one, you know, maybe maybe even the
Speaker 1: top scorer for the week.
Speaker 3: That's the first game as a Texans.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like it's only gotten better too.
Speaker 3: He has been a true workhorse for this Texans offense.
Speaker 3: I mean it's funny because when he wasn't he was out.
Speaker 1: They're trying, you know, a combination of cam Akers and
Speaker 1: Darioguan Biwalle And like now that Mixon is back, like
Speaker 1: those cam Makers isn't even in Houston anymore.
Speaker 3: Here's thirty touchdowns.
Speaker 2: We're gonna send you out of here. Can Makers literally need.
Speaker 2: I do feel bad for cam Akers because no one
Speaker 2: gets like thrown to the curb more than cam Akers.
Speaker 1: I feel like him and Brandon Cook should form a
Speaker 1: support team, like a support group of guys who just
Speaker 1: keep getting traded all over the place. Surprisingly are red
Speaker 1: flags for the week, the players that we are worried
Speaker 1: about and you might try to avoid if possible.
Speaker 2: Who do you have Dak Prescott, who at this point
Speaker 2: I keep saying this about Patrick Mahomes like more name
Speaker 2: than fantasy production. Dak Prescott is quickly falling into that
Speaker 2: group as well, because you take away that one game
Speaker 2: against the Ravens where it was pure ketchup mode, they
Speaker 2: were down three scores in the second half and he
Speaker 2: was just throwing a ton. Outside of that game, Dak
Speaker 2: has averaging twelve fantasy points per game. That is really bad,
Speaker 2: like for a fantasy quarterback, not just telling it like
Speaker 2: it is. And then he gets a matchup that is
Speaker 2: really tough against the forty nine ers, who twice this
Speaker 2: year they have thirteen or more fantasy points to a quarterback.
Speaker 2: So you have a quarterback averaging twelve points per game
Speaker 2: a defense who routine league gives up less than thirteen.
Speaker 2: That is such a low floor when you're talking about
Speaker 2: a fantasy quarterback. They've allowed the eight passing touchdowns and
Speaker 2: they have eight interceptions in seven games like you watch
Speaker 2: this forty nine ers seen very closely every week. They
Speaker 2: are just not giving up production.
Speaker 3: Through the air.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean the secondary has been great, get good.
Speaker 1: Getting Tollano Hufanga back has been a big deal. Malite
Speaker 1: Mustafa has been a really nice player. I know, like
Speaker 1: they keep showing him getting run over at the goal
Speaker 1: line by Mahomes. That's a different situation, all right, We're
Speaker 1: not talking about that. But the secondary has been very,
Speaker 1: very good. You know, you're gonna get pressure up front
Speaker 1: from Nick Bosa and those guys there. So it looks
Speaker 1: like another tough situation for Dak For me, I'm going
Speaker 1: with Alvin Kamara. One shout out to Kamara, who got
Speaker 1: paid recently. I just got a contract extension from the Saints.
Speaker 1: But we also find out apparently he's been playing with
Speaker 1: a broken hand for much of the year.
Speaker 2: It would have been nice to know.
Speaker 1: It would have been nice to know a little bit
Speaker 1: After the first two weeks of the season. The Saints
Speaker 1: offense has awful. They scored a combined ninety one points
Speaker 1: the first two weeks. The rest of the season a
Speaker 1: combined eighty six points. We've seen Kamara's touches really declined,
Speaker 1: going from about twenty four and a half touches per
Speaker 1: game after the first four weeks, it's about sixteen touches
Speaker 1: per game the last three. It's not helping that a
Speaker 1: couple of their key pieces are missing. It looks like
Speaker 1: Spencer Rattler is going to be at quarterback again this
Speaker 1: week for New Orleans. No Rashichi Heed for the rest
Speaker 1: of the year. Hopefully, hopefully Chris o'labe is back. That
Speaker 1: might help a little bit. But this is a Charger
Speaker 1: defense he's facing this week that has been tough across
Speaker 1: the board, whether it's against the run or against the pass.
Speaker 1: I get it if you have to start Alvin Kamara,
Speaker 1: but I do not like the potential for a good
Speaker 1: fantasy outcome this week for Kamara.
Speaker 2: You talk about that broken hand. They said it happened
Speaker 2: in the Chiefs game. In his last three games, which
Speaker 2: includes the Chiefs games, his yards per carry and yards
Speaker 2: per target cut in half. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm no doctor, but it feels like playing a running
Speaker 1: back with a broken hand. Not great, No, not great,
Speaker 1: tough to do. It's time to drive your line up.
Speaker 1: Presented by the all new hybrid Toyota Camry. Let's wrap
Speaker 1: this up with the snore Lax, our favorite Week eight sleeper.
Speaker 3: Who do you like? I love kada in this week.
Speaker 2: I know he's I think he's kind of climbed past
Speaker 2: being a sleeper, but he is still widely available in
Speaker 2: a lot of leagues, and he was someone that was
Speaker 2: I know you were as well. We were like, hey,
Speaker 2: take notice of what's going on with kada And in
Speaker 2: Tampa Bay because he had an eight target game, he
Speaker 2: had a nine target game. He was consistently sitting around
Speaker 2: ten Fantasy points, getting utilized a little bit more in
Speaker 2: the red zone. And then last week happened. He had
Speaker 2: ten targets one hundred yards. This wasn't a game where
Speaker 2: Mike Evans left early, but Chris Godwin played the entire game.
Speaker 2: It was the very last play for the Bucks that
Speaker 2: Chris godwin season ended. He shouldn't have been out there.
Speaker 2: But this week now, no Godwin, no Mike Evans. I
Speaker 2: know we're all excited about Jalen McMillan, but someone else
Speaker 2: is going to have to step up here. And I
Speaker 2: think there's a chance that kada And could be the
Speaker 2: top target for Baker Mayfield this week.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think so too.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a past heavy offense and Oden
Speaker 1: Or even before the injuries, was the number three target
Speaker 1: in this offense.
Speaker 3: So volume is certainly going to carry the day.
Speaker 1: And now with the without godwinning Evans there, I think
Speaker 1: a lot of chances for Kott and to keep this
Speaker 1: thing rolling. For me, it's gonna be Javonte Williams. And
Speaker 1: this is as much a message to fantasy managers. Isn't
Speaker 1: this to Sean Payton? So look, Javonte, I have said
Speaker 1: it plenty of times, like I am a Javonte Williams fan.
Speaker 3: I want to see him get more opportunities.
Speaker 1: But even in the relatively limited opportunities he's getting, he
Speaker 1: really is starting to perform very well running the football well.
Speaker 1: I would like to see him get more targets, but
Speaker 1: we say that about a lot of Broncos players. I mean,
Speaker 1: we wanted Marvin Mims to get on the field and
Speaker 1: get more targets and that doesn't seem to happen because
Speaker 1: apparently he's not tall enough to ride the Sean Payton
Speaker 1: offense or something. I don't know, but either way, if
Speaker 1: you could throw the ball to Javonte, that'd be really nice,
Speaker 1: but he's running it very very well. The matchup could
Speaker 1: not be better against the Carolina Panthers. I don't expect
Speaker 1: Caroline is gonna score many points with Bryce Young at
Speaker 1: quarterback against this Broncos defense. So this should lend itself
Speaker 1: well to the Broncos running the football.
Speaker 3: I like way. I even like bow Nicks as a
Speaker 3: deep sleeper this week. That's where we are.
Speaker 1: I told Adam Ranked that I have been become a bowliever.
Speaker 1: He mocked me because I didn't believe earlier.
Speaker 3: Oh you gotta do is Bowl Laue.
Speaker 1: All you gotta do is Bowl League. And so, like
Speaker 1: you know, I'm in on bow Nicks. I'm in on
Speaker 1: Javonte Williams this week a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I'm with you on Javonte because I think it's look.
Speaker 2: It could change, but as of right now, it's been
Speaker 2: pretty straightforward with Javonte. You play him in good matchups,
Speaker 2: you get away from him in bad matchups, and like
Speaker 2: you said, the matchup could not get any better.
Speaker 3: This is about as good a matchup as you're going
Speaker 3: to get for Javonte Williams all season long.
Speaker 1: That was Drive Your Lineup presented by the all New
Speaker 1: Hybrid Toyota Camri. Whatever your vibe, it's a camera vibe.
Speaker 1: Learn more at Toyota dot com slash Camri. All right,
Speaker 1: there you go, uh here in the Mountain Cruiser. It's
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. That'll do it though. For this
Speaker 1: edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Podcast, Stay happy, safe
Speaker 1: and healthy, do good and live well. Enjoy Week eight, everybody,
Speaker 1: Enjoy Thursday Night football and we will talk to you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: M