Speaker 1: Wow, Hey everybody, It's Wednesday, November one, twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the NFL Fantasy Football Show. It's me your man, MG,
Speaker 2: Marcus Grant, joined by Michael f. Florio. We're previewing Thursday
Speaker 2: Night football and the early Sunday games from week nine.
Speaker 2: Let's just dive in and get started with those fantasy
Speaker 2: headlines and the news that everybody's talking about. Out of
Speaker 2: Las Vegas. The Raiders have fired head coach Josh McDaniels.
Speaker 2: They have fired general manager David Ziggler. They have also
Speaker 2: relieved all offensive coordinator Mike Lombardi of their duties. On
Speaker 2: top of that, they have sort of fired or at
Speaker 2: least demoted to their starting quarterback. Jimmy Garoppolo has been benched.
Speaker 2: Rookie Aid and O'Connell will be the starter moving forward.
Speaker 2: So a lot of change happening Las Vegas. Let's just
Speaker 2: get down to what we care about though. Does this
Speaker 2: mean we can hashtag free Devonte Adams now? And you know,
Speaker 2: maybe even Jacoby Myers.
Speaker 3: I definitely feel really good about Davonte Adams. In the
Speaker 3: one game with Aiden O'Connell, he threw to Devonte thirteen times.
Speaker 3: He didn't throw to Jacoby a whole lot, but that
Speaker 3: was just one game. I think we could get both
Speaker 3: of those guys going. They also threw the ball eleven
Speaker 3: times to Josh Jacobs in that game. From this stat
Speaker 3: blew my mind. Devonte Adams and Josh Jacobs are now
Speaker 3: are bottom three, Jacobs's last amongst all running backs and
Speaker 3: Fantasy points over expectation. Yeah, it can't get any worse
Speaker 3: than it's been so far, with Jimmy g who just
Speaker 3: looks really old, and Josh McDaniel, who probably will never
Speaker 3: head coach again.
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, our own Bridget Condon asked Josh
Speaker 2: Jacobs how to get the offense going there, in his
Speaker 2: response with I don't know. That's not my job. Maybe
Speaker 2: now it should be. I mean, it couldn't be any
Speaker 2: worse than the way things were going there in Las Vegas.
Speaker 2: I do think we're going to see a lot of
Speaker 2: targets for Devonte Adams. You could tell that he was
Speaker 2: frustrated that he sort of wanted out. Josh Jacobs seems frustrated.
Speaker 2: The whole team just seems like they were sort of
Speaker 2: at the end of their rope with what was going
Speaker 2: on there in Las Vegas, So I do think Jacoby
Speaker 2: Myers is a bit of a downgrade from where he's been.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure yet that Aidan O'Connell can support multiple
Speaker 2: pass catchers in this offense. Which also means that all
Speaker 2: of our hopes for Michael Mayer are sort of put
Speaker 2: on hold for the time being, because I definitely don't
Speaker 2: think they get far enough down the pecking order for
Speaker 2: Michael Mayer to get a lot of targets there. But
Speaker 2: hopefully this means a change is coming in Las Vegas
Speaker 2: in terms of what we see on the field because
Speaker 2: different people in the front office, different people on the headset.
Speaker 2: Former NFL linebacker Antonio Pierce will be the one to
Speaker 2: take over as the interim head coach. Another quarterback change,
Speaker 2: this one down in Atlanta, where our old friend Arthur
Speaker 2: Smith has made the announcement that Taylor Heinike will get
Speaker 2: the start going against the Vikings coming up this week.
Speaker 2: Desmond Ritter will serve as the backup. It's a thing
Speaker 2: that you and I and a lot of people have
Speaker 2: been asking for, certainly in fantasy football for a while,
Speaker 2: because Desmond Ridder just wasn't getting it done. Now, I
Speaker 2: don't think anybody's going out there and starting Taylor Heineke
Speaker 2: and their fantasy teams, and if you do, thoughts and
Speaker 2: prayers to you. But the biggest question are we back
Speaker 2: on the Kyle Pitts bandwagon. We are back like we
Speaker 2: never left.
Speaker 3: The reason is this is a good thing for fantasy purposes,
Speaker 3: like is it a great thing for the Falcons. No,
Speaker 3: but Taylor Heineke is more aggressive. We saw last week
Speaker 3: he came in. He threw the ball four times. Three
Speaker 3: of the passes he completed, we're all longer than any
Speaker 3: past Desmon Ridder had completed in that game in the
Speaker 3: first half on the year. I know it's a small
Speaker 3: sample size for Heineke, but eleven point two air yards
Speaker 3: per target compared to seven point eight for Desmond Ridder.
Speaker 3: Plus he's just the mentality, the gunslinger mentality. Maybe he's
Speaker 3: not a gunslinger in physical ability, but in his head
Speaker 3: he is. So he is not afraid to throw the
Speaker 3: ball downfield and everything, be aggressive, throw it into tight windows.
Speaker 3: And I think that's a good thing for Pitts, for
Speaker 3: Drake London when he could suit up for all of
Speaker 3: the Falcons offense. It's also going to help in my opinion,
Speaker 3: open stuff up for Bijon Robinson near the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 2: We had a chance this morning just in passing to
Speaker 2: talk with our coworker and former NFL receiver Steve Smith,
Speaker 2: and that was one of the things he said about
Speaker 2: Taylor Heineke is that, look, he's a gunslinger, and maybe
Speaker 2: this doesn't necessarily boost the Falcons forward in actual football,
Speaker 2: but Heineke's gonna throw it, and he's gonna throw a downfield.
Speaker 2: He's gonna get some of these guys involved. So we'll
Speaker 2: see if this is good news for Kyle Pitts. We'll
Speaker 2: also keep an eye on Drake London. He did have
Speaker 2: that groin injury last week, so we'll see what his
Speaker 2: status is going into this week's game. But we are curious, excited, intrigued,
Speaker 2: you pick the positive adjective there about what this means
Speaker 2: for the pass catchers that we have wanted to get involved. Now,
Speaker 2: I guess the next step is for Arthur Smith to
Speaker 2: actually let these guys get on the field and not
Speaker 2: start forcing snaps for John new Smith and Mike Cole
Speaker 2: Pruitt and Cordero Patterson. Arthur, and it's your move, Now
Speaker 2: play your good players. That's all we're asking you to do.
Speaker 2: Let's get to the TNF game preview. Shall we the
Speaker 2: Titans at the Steelers. You can see that at eight
Speaker 2: fifteen pm Eastern on Prime Video. Maybe not the most
Speaker 2: exciting fantasy matchup, but there are some things of intrigue.
Speaker 2: Will Levis gonna get the start again this week for
Speaker 2: the Titans after coming out and throwing four touchdowns in
Speaker 2: his starting debut last week against the Atlanta Falcons. We
Speaker 2: will make any more modest, more or less for Will
Speaker 2: Levis this week. Let's say one and a half passing
Speaker 2: touchdowns against that Steeler defense.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna choose to believe here and say more. And
Speaker 3: I wrote about Will Levis in the Stardum cinematicle as
Speaker 3: a streamer this week, and when I said, was like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I know that all four of us touchdown passes least
Speaker 3: week came against zone and the Steelers run more man.
Speaker 3: They also generate more pressure than the Falcons do. So
Speaker 3: I understand that the floor is very low, but the
Speaker 3: ceiling is. And I watched all of his dropbacks. Everything
Speaker 3: was pretty much a screen short of the sticks or
Speaker 3: just like a hail Mary downfield. It might not work
Speaker 3: consistently for real life purposes, but those big plays put
Speaker 3: up chunk points in fantasy.
Speaker 2: I will say I'm gonna say more, but I will
Speaker 2: also put the asterisk next to it that maybe I
Speaker 2: got a little bit hyped over what happened last week.
Speaker 2: Then maybe I got a little bit too excited about it.
Speaker 2: But I'm still gonna say more this week because I
Speaker 2: do think that they are going to be a little
Speaker 2: bit more open with the offense with Levis than they
Speaker 2: have been in the past with Ryan Tannehill or with
Speaker 2: Malik Willis. So I think there's gonna be more opportunities
Speaker 2: to throw the football here. I'm not expecting this to
Speaker 2: be a very pretty game between these two teams. Neither
Speaker 2: offense is very exciting to watch, neither one of them
Speaker 2: can throw the football effectively. But I'm gonna be optimistic
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna hope for the best with will Levis
Speaker 2: and say more than one and a half passing touchdowns.
Speaker 2: On the other side, Deontae Johnson. We came into this
Speaker 2: year saying, yeah, I know, Deontay Johnson didn't score any touchdowns,
Speaker 2: but he runs routes and he gets targets and he
Speaker 2: gets so many opportunities and it's just gonna happen anyway, right,
Speaker 2: it hasn't happened yet. Deontay Johnson still has the same
Speaker 2: number of touchdowns as me. That's not great. So we're
Speaker 2: gonna say more or less zero point five touchdowns for
Speaker 2: Deontay Johnson. Can he just crossed the goal line with
Speaker 2: the football in his hands this week?
Speaker 3: Nope? Look, it's I want him to. I have him
Speaker 3: on a couple of fantasy teams, but probability is not
Speaker 3: in his favor. You have to go back to the
Speaker 3: second to last game of twenty twenty one for the
Speaker 3: last time that he scored a touchdown. In between that,
Speaker 3: he's had one hundred and eighty three targets with no touchdowns.
Speaker 3: I mean it, it's beyond even like what Jacoby Myers was.
Speaker 3: It's reaching the point where it's like, how is this
Speaker 3: even possible? When you have a wide receiver as talented
Speaker 3: and that gets open and as much volume as Deoncey
Speaker 3: Johnson gets on a weekly basis, It's clearly not a
Speaker 3: Deontay problem. It's on Pickett, Trubisky and whoever else they
Speaker 3: want to throw out at quarterback. These last couple of years.
Speaker 3: But yeah, I'm gonna go with probability here, and that
Speaker 3: says no touchdowns.
Speaker 2: As we sit and recorded this show, it has been
Speaker 2: six hundred and sixty seven days since Deontay Johnson last
Speaker 2: scored in the NFL. I'm gonna choose positivity. I'm going
Speaker 2: to say it happens this week. Look, the target share
Speaker 2: has been there. It appears that Kenny Pickett is going
Speaker 2: to play. He says he's for sure playing. We will,
Speaker 2: you know, preserve judgment on that, but Kenny Pickett should
Speaker 2: be playing. They've got a great matchup against the Titan secondary.
Speaker 2: Deontay Johnson gets targets. Look, I know there's nothing analytical
Speaker 2: in saying the phrase, hey man, he's due, But hey man,
Speaker 2: he's due. Anyone is due, is Joe. I'm going to
Speaker 2: I'm going to choose positivity. I'm gonna say that John
Speaker 2: I hope I'm right too. I think Deontay Holmes are.
Speaker 2: There are a lot of few Steelers fans hopes on right.
Speaker 3: I think even like Ravens fans right now feel bad
Speaker 3: for I'll take Johnson. They're probably like, yeah, I hope
Speaker 3: Marcus is right on this.
Speaker 2: You know, it's not against us, so I hope you
Speaker 2: can be right. It's fine. So there we go. That's
Speaker 2: our Thursday night preview. Now we can get into the
Speaker 2: Sunday slate of games. Got four teams on a bye
Speaker 2: after we had no teams on a bye last week. Weird.
Speaker 2: The Broncos, the Lions, the Jaguars, and the forty nine
Speaker 2: ers all have the week off. Meanwhile, the Dolphins and
Speaker 2: Chiefs they get to take a business trip. They are
Speaker 2: on their way to deutsch Land. Frankfurt, Germany is where
Speaker 2: they will lace them up this week. That's a game
Speaker 2: you can see on NFL Network and streaming on NFL Plus.
Speaker 2: It kicks off at nine to thirty am Eastern, That
Speaker 2: is six thirty am out here on the West coast.
Speaker 2: So get your coffee early and your bagels and all
Speaker 2: that other stuff and get ready to watch that game.
Speaker 2: So besides the defenses, anyone in this game that you
Speaker 2: are not starting hire kill.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The beautiful part about the Dolphins is their offense
Speaker 3: is so funneled. We know to a moster Tyreek and
Speaker 3: Jalen Waddle, they're all in play. Obviously. I think even
Speaker 3: like Savon Auchman is a sleeper in this one for
Speaker 3: the Chiefs, you know to start mahomes Kelceever, she Rice
Speaker 3: is someone that I'm very excited for. Same thing about
Speaker 3: Isaiah Pacheco. I think Jeric McKinnon is a little bit
Speaker 3: sneaky in this one. Second half of the year is
Speaker 3: when they start to unleash McKinnon. A lot of passing
Speaker 3: in this one. I could see them getting McKinnon going
Speaker 3: near the goal line. But yeah, I want as much
Speaker 3: exposure to this game as possible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you really do. I would also say, look,
Speaker 2: I keep saying this, but like I feel like a
Speaker 2: weird game that I play every week is try to
Speaker 2: pick the Chiefs receiver maybe not name or she Rice
Speaker 2: now that's going to have a big game. So this
Speaker 2: this week the wheel lends on Marquez Valdez TX Scantling.
Speaker 2: We're starting to get some more work. He's getting those
Speaker 2: downfield targets. Two weeks ago had the really big game
Speaker 2: with eighty four yards in a touchdown against the Chargers.
Speaker 2: I think he can have a simil output this week
Speaker 2: against a Dolphins defense that has been sort of shaky
Speaker 2: and in a game that should feature a lot of
Speaker 2: back and forth. We know Miami can score, Kansas City's
Speaker 2: going to have to score a sort of keep up there.
Speaker 2: So I think MVS, who frequently has been the cardio
Speaker 2: king of the week on NFL Fantasy Live, might actually
Speaker 2: get some output something to go along with his just
Speaker 2: running up and down the field all day long. Okay,
Speaker 2: Vikings at the Falcons. Both teams going with backup quarterbacks
Speaker 2: this week. The Vikings not by choice because Kirk Cousins
Speaker 2: is out for the year. The Falcons, as we mentioned,
Speaker 2: going with Taylor Heinike. But we know Jaren Hall is
Speaker 2: going to get the start at least this week. For Minnesota,
Speaker 2: it'll be Josh Dobbs going forward after the trade. What
Speaker 2: do we do with our vikings? I guess notably TJ.
Speaker 2: Hawkinson and Jordan Addison. Now that it's Hall getting to
Speaker 2: start for another.
Speaker 3: Week, I think those two are the only two Vikings
Speaker 3: that you could start with any sort of confidence this week. Look, Hawkinson,
Speaker 3: we hear it all the time. A tight end could
Speaker 3: be a young quarterbacks like safety blanket their best friend.
Speaker 3: I think they're gonna design a whole lot of plays
Speaker 3: to go through him. Jordan Addison, with the all these
Speaker 3: teams on by the upside is too high. He has
Speaker 3: been averaging about sixteen Fantasy points per game. He could
Speaker 3: win downfield. He's been great in the red zone and
Speaker 3: in the end zone. So I still think he's in play.
Speaker 3: kJ Osborne, I need to see it first. He's had
Speaker 3: one good game all year. Alexander Madison is losing work
Speaker 3: to Cam Akers and it's just been pretty terrible all
Speaker 3: year as well. So I can't trust either of them.
Speaker 3: And I don't think we fully have given Kirk Cousins
Speaker 3: enough credit so far. Like the Vikings of the second
Speaker 3: most passing yards and the second most passing touchdowns behind
Speaker 3: only the Miami Dolphins, and we have not spoke about
Speaker 3: this offense anywhere close to how we talk about the
Speaker 3: the Dolphins. If they lost to it, we'd be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 3: we're a little worried about this offense. It's gonna have
Speaker 3: a huge impact.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think you're right. I think the reason
Speaker 2: we haven't talked about this offense that way is because
Speaker 2: the defense has sort of let them down. Yeah, I
Speaker 2: mean they were one in four and we were talking
Speaker 2: about are they gonna shut it down? With Justin Jefferson?
Speaker 2: Are they ready to pack it in Now, they've won
Speaker 2: three in a row, they're four and four, they're very
Speaker 2: much backing contention, and so suddenly we're like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 2: the Vikings offense was playing really well and Kirk Cousins
Speaker 2: was playing really well, and they are really going to
Speaker 2: miss him in that offense. I'm with you, though, in
Speaker 2: terms of the guys you're starting. I think it's Hawkinson,
Speaker 2: I think it's Addison, and I think that's it. At
Speaker 2: this point. You can try leaning on Cam Akers or
Speaker 2: Alexander Madison, but they can't really run the football consistently
Speaker 2: and effectively, and the Falcons run defense has been pretty good,
Speaker 2: so I would stay away from them if possible. We've
Speaker 2: got a battle of the Birds in Baltimore. I didn't
Speaker 2: mean to alliterate that, but it just sort of worked out.
Speaker 2: Seahawks at the Ravens. Both teams with interesting secondaries. Both
Speaker 2: teams have big name receivers. What are we doing with
Speaker 2: the pass catchers here?
Speaker 3: Seattle? I mean, the last three weeks they've really looked
Speaker 3: like the Legion of Boom once they got all of
Speaker 3: their secondary pieces healthy again. I still think Zay Flowers
Speaker 3: is in play because Seattle's great at stopping the run
Speaker 3: as well, and if they can't get cooking downfield or
Speaker 3: in the run game, I expect a lot of screen
Speaker 3: passes to go to Zay Flowers. That is really where
Speaker 3: he excels. We're Seattle, like, you probably can't get away
Speaker 3: from Lockett or DK, given buys and injuries and all that.
Speaker 3: But DK has one game this year with over fifteen
Speaker 3: Fantasy points. Yeah, I know he's giving you double digits
Speaker 3: every week, but he's become a safe floor play and
Speaker 3: really no ceiling. Lockett is the exact opposite, like he's
Speaker 3: so boom or bust right now, but again with the
Speaker 3: buys and everything, at least where I have him in
Speaker 3: most instances, I have.
Speaker 2: To start him. I had DK metcalf as one of
Speaker 2: my spooky starts for Fantasy Live on Tuesday, and you're right,
Speaker 2: I don't know that you can get away from him
Speaker 2: or Tyler Lockett, but I just don't love the matchup.
Speaker 2: I feel a lot better with Za Flowers and the
Speaker 2: Ravens pass catchers because statistically it does look like the
Speaker 2: Seahawks are starting to get things together in the passing game,
Speaker 2: but then you look at who they've played last week.
Speaker 2: They had the Browns with PJ. Walker. The week before that,
Speaker 2: they had Dobbs, who I think people were starting to
Speaker 2: figure out a little bit. In the Cardinals. The week
Speaker 2: before that they had Joe Burrow who wasn't completely healthy.
Speaker 2: He was still sort of on his way back. They
Speaker 2: have by then, they had the Giants and they've been awful.
Speaker 2: They had the Panthers before that. They haven't had a
Speaker 2: real challenge since Week two when they played the Lions.
Speaker 2: So this is gonna be I think their toughest tests
Speaker 2: that they faced in over a month, maybe about six
Speaker 2: weeks or so. So I don't want to take that
Speaker 2: shot on Zay Flowers in this one.
Speaker 3: Dame Yeah and Lamar Man and talking on MVP love,
Speaker 3: he needs to get more of it.
Speaker 2: One of my big Bowl predictions for the week is
Speaker 2: that by Monday we're going to be talking about Lamar
Speaker 2: Jackson is maybe the front runner for the MVP.
Speaker 3: To me, he's number two behind only Tyreek Hill right now.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't even think Tyreek's getting that love
Speaker 2: from our friends in the Desert. I think it's Tua
Speaker 2: that that buy the odds. This quarterback, this quarterback, That's
Speaker 2: why they created Offensive Player of the Year, so that
Speaker 2: somebody who's not a quarterback could actually win a big award.
Speaker 3: I would love to give some truth serum to Mike
Speaker 3: McDaniel and be like, if you can only have one
Speaker 3: of these two the rest of the way, which one
Speaker 3: are you taking?
Speaker 2: Two? Or Tyreek? Ooh, probably Tyreek. I'm going Tyree, going Tyreek.
Speaker 2: Cardinals at the Browns, Kyler Murray possibly playing this week
Speaker 2: or maybe it's Clayton Tune. If Kyler does go, would
Speaker 2: you trust having him in your lineup? And if he
Speaker 2: doesn't go, are there any Cardinals you can trust?
Speaker 3: It depends on options with Kyler Murray. Like in our
Speaker 3: Fantasy Live league, Brock Purdy has been the quarterback I've
Speaker 3: been streaming recently, and then I have Kyler as a backup.
Speaker 3: But I had to pick up Daniel Jones because I'm like,
Speaker 3: what if Kyler doesn't play? So in that instance, yeah,
Speaker 3: I would take the shot on Kyler Murray. But like,
Speaker 3: if you have a quarterback who you feel like Dak
Speaker 3: Prescott or something like that, or you feel comfortable with,
Speaker 3: I would take a weight and see approach with Kyler Murray.
Speaker 3: If Kyler sits this week and we're talking about Clayton
Speaker 3: Tune starting, it becomes really hard to trust your Cardinals.
Speaker 3: I think Trade McBride is in play just because tight
Speaker 3: end and the amount of volume that the Cardinals I
Speaker 3: have seen this year. Marquis Brown becomes boom or bust
Speaker 3: and everyone else i'd try to get away from.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know that I would start Kyler if
Speaker 2: he plays this week, right, He's been off for a
Speaker 2: long time coming back from the injury, and this is
Speaker 2: just about the matchup, right, Like, I don't want Kyler
Speaker 2: Murray in his first game back going against Miles Garrett.
Speaker 2: I just don't. And I think that's honestly why I
Speaker 2: don't know that the Cardinals are going to play him.
Speaker 2: I think I really think they're gonna throw Clayton Tune
Speaker 2: into the Wolves, like, good luck, kid, here's this monster
Speaker 2: on the other side where they were ninety five. Try
Speaker 2: not to get killed. So I don't think Kyler plays.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't start him if he does play, and with
Speaker 2: Clayton Tune there, I don't know that I start any
Speaker 2: Cardinals because when you drafted Marquis Brown, you weren't expecting
Speaker 2: this sort of production, So you have other options. Trey
Speaker 2: McBride is a guy that if you have him, you
Speaker 2: just picked him up off the waiver wire, so maybe
Speaker 2: you have a way to sort of pivot around that.
Speaker 2: So I if it's Clayton Tune, I think I'm out
Speaker 2: on Arizona players this week.
Speaker 3: We're gonna get de Mercado forty rushing attempts yep for
Speaker 3: probably like you know, sixty two yards for a Mari
Speaker 3: de Mercado.
Speaker 2: So that that is what I think about. That that'll
Speaker 2: do it for this edition of the NFL Fantasy Football Show.
Speaker 2: Stay happy, safe and healthy, do good, and live well.
Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow to preview the rest of the
Speaker 2: Week nine matchups.