Week 4 Matchups + Start/Sits, Wheel of Shame! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/2

Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast

The Fantasy Footballers break down Week 4 NFL matchups, injury updates, and fantasy start/sit decisions ahead of a pivotal early-season weekend.

Key takeaways

• Puka Nacua (Rams) is dealing with a hip/groin injury that raises sports hernia concerns; hosts advise caution on trading for him until his Week 4 status is clear.
• Denzel Boston emerged as the Browns' true WR1 over rookie Jalen Warren, showing elite downfield and touchdown upside despite Aaron Rodgers' inconsistent completion percentage.

Main topics

• Week 4 NFL matchup previews
• Fantasy football start/sit advice

Notable quotes

Puka has had and dealt with injuries that have lingered. He's not what he was injury-prone-wise, but I just am concerned.

Conclusion

Listeners gain actionable Week 4 lineup advice, injury risk assessments, and

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) For many of us, going further isn't a choice. It's a feeling we can't ignore because ambition has a way of outgrowing where it began. Speaker 1 (0:11) Turning dreams into direction. Speaker 1 (0:17) Every journey brings us closer to the life we imagine. Speaker 1 (0:23) So, where will your journey take you? Etihad. Beyond Borders. Speaker 2 (0:36) to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Speaker 3 (0:51) AHHHHH Welcome in! Speaker 2 (0:59) $100 richer. You and me both, brother. Yeah, Speaker 3 (1:02) well. Speaker 3 (1:04) Welcome in Friday, October 2nd, Andy, Mike, and Jason, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. What a game, though. It was a great game. It Speaker 2 (1:12) was Speaker 3 (1:12) a great game. Speaker 5 (1:13) We did not expect a Browns-Steelers great game. I'm going to tell you a secret. I don't Speaker 3 (1:17) always watch every minute of every game. Speaker 5 (1:21) You don't. But I did watch Speaker 3 (1:22) every minute of last night's game. To see the angriest quarterback on earth. Oh, man. With Speaker 4 (1:28) the Speaker 3 (1:28) angriest head coach on earth. Speaker 4 (1:30) What a delight he is. There was incredible action. Jason, I believe, conceded. Oh, he came after the first Speaker 3 (1:38) quarter? No, no, no. So the Steelers scored first, and then the Browns scored. Speaker 4 (1:42) It was a three and out. And then. The longest drive in the history of the Speaker 3 (1:47) world. So then the Browns, they scored. And when the second Browns score happened, Jason sent me $100 right then. And then I think hedged Speaker 5 (1:55) his bet. I knew very early. I mean, it was very clear. It was like after that first two drives were over, the Browns and that crowd and just the vibe of everything. I was like, oh, there's. There's no chance. So I go and I make a very large bet on the Browns, send you the money, and Speaker 3 (2:12) then get scared at the end. Well, see, here's Speaker 2 (2:15) the Speaker 3 (2:15) problem. Jason does this frequently where he sends me the money of a bet very early because he knows that if he ends up winning the bet, I've got to double the money coming back. And it's very annoying. Like, for part of the game, I go, oh, I just got to send him his $100 back. I'm like, wait, no, that makes us even. I'd have to send him another $100. Last two weeks, we've bet $100, and I'm $200 richer. We should do this more often. We Speaker 4 (2:37) should Speaker 3 (2:37) do this more often. Just edge them. 27-24. Say what you want about Deshaun Watson and Aaron Rodgers. One of these guys had more fun last night. One of these locker rooms, if you saw Todd Monken in the locker room, they called him Chill Parcells. I mean, I like the nickname, but you're 3-1. Speaker 4 (2:58) You're 3-1. The vibes were very high, especially the celebration at the end. The camaraderie. Yeah, that was cool to see. That was a team. And it's like, dude, I mean, I'm happy for the team. I'm happy for the fans. There's so many guys on that team that are fun. They're fun players, yeah, and the fans. You probably won't last. Speaker 3 (3:17) No, of course Speaker 4 (3:18) not. I saw Speaker 5 (3:20) something online before their last week's victory, like ticket prices for this game were. were just so low that you could just get them for free. And then it turns out after they won last week and you got a primetime game, it was like the cheapest ticket was $240. The city was like all in. And the Browns fans, they have just cared through all the crap. And so it's nice to have them have some wins. And they've, like Mike said, yeah, they've got Voldemort. They also have a bunch of really great dudes over there that we, you know, I mean, we. all love. I mean, did Speaker 2 (3:54) Zell Boston conception. He's the dude. Speaker 3 (3:57) Yeah. Speaker 4 (3:58) He looks like the Speaker 2 (3:58) real deal. Speaker 3 (3:59) Fanon got into the end zone again. Judkins got into the end zone. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Judkins. Speaker 4 (4:05) Oh, Speaker 3 (4:05) I'm sorry. Junkins. Junkins. Junkins. Man. When I heard it the first time, who was it? It was Kirk Herbstreet. Yes. So, so Al Michaels, all of 99 years old of Al Michaels can pronounce this man's name normally. And I heard it the first time. I'm like, that's funny. Yeah. I'm like, Junkins, Junkins is funny. Then I hear it a second time and I start talking about it on Slack and then it's every time. Yeah. Speaker 4 (4:28) Always. I think there was a collective of the entire world like, huh. Okay, he said it wrong the first time. Yeah. No, Speaker 2 (4:36) he's Speaker 5 (4:36) definitely saying Junkins. He's saying Speaker 4 (4:38) Junkins. You guys are hearing him say Junkins. Yeah. Speaker 3 (4:43) Did I catch a Junkins? And Junkins, 17 for 53 and one. And then Mike starts throwing out the Junkin Jonah. Oh, yeah. America runs on Speaker 4 (4:52) Junkins. Cleveland runs on Junkin. Oh, man. In our Slack. And I'm like, I think it's funny enough. So I throw that on Twitter. And then someone on Twitter got to the Junkin Jonah's joke, which I had already made. And I was like, okay, so we're not too deep. This is what we're made for here. Speaker 3 (5:06) Yeah. And Jalen Warren, big game. Hey, DK Metcalf, five for 115. Yeah. And was actually open. I mean, this is the weird thing about Metcalf is that every week you get this amount of targets. You get nine to 10 targets every week. I also think the Roman Wilson thing is happening, and Michael Pittman is, I mean, you might as well drop him in a dynasty league. Out Speaker 5 (5:25) to Speaker 3 (5:25) pasture. This dude sucks. He caused an interception. He didn't run under the route. Speaker 5 (5:30) He didn't cause the interception. I think he was Speaker 3 (5:32) supposed to go underneath that route. Speaker 5 (5:33) But his arm was hit on the throw, and the ball was in a different spot than what it should have been. The Speaker 3 (5:39) one on the sideline? Speaker 5 (5:40) The Speaker 3 (5:41) interception I'm talking about is when it was an out route and Denzel Ward picked it off. Speaker 5 (5:45) I don't remember who picked it off. I do remember at first at one point thinking, oh, he's going to be mad at Pittman and then watching and seeing the arm get hit. I Speaker 3 (5:54) would like me to let you know don't actually drop him in your dynasty leagues, Speaker 4 (5:57) but I bet if you did, it wouldn't matter. A reminder, he has a bad foot right now. I believe he has the... And what Speaker 3 (6:03) are these Speaker 4 (6:03) called? Well... Mitts? Yeah, I'm just saying when you're running... Look, you've had plantar. You know what it feels like. That's true. Is that what he has? Yeah. So he is dealing with that. Look, you're a professional wide receiver. You've got to go out there and you've got to make it happen. Just say he is not 100%, nor will he be 100%. I Speaker 5 (6:21) think Speaker 3 (6:21) Eli went through that at one point in time. Yes, Speaker 5 (6:23) he Speaker 3 (6:23) did. Yeah, I remember that. That's painful. All right, I'll give him a break. How about that? He's Speaker 5 (6:28) 28, so he should get back to form. Speaker 3 (6:30) What's wild is this is the second straight game. Rodgers has been over 280 yards and had three touchdowns. If Speaker 5 (6:35) you started Aaron Rodgers in fantasy, you were thrilled. I mean, he's going to be probably a top five fantasy quarterback or near it, and that's disgusting. Speaker 3 (6:43) I was happy to see Junkins get into the end zone. That was a big deal. He Speaker 4 (6:47) really needed it. He also Speaker 3 (6:49) caught six passes. That is Speaker 4 (6:51) everything because, honestly, 17 for 53 is like you're bailed out by the touchdown. 17 for 53 is not a good fantasy football game. But the fact that you got seven targets and then converted it into six for 43 and your quarterback is actually. He seems good. He's. He's competent. He's playing well. He's playing Speaker 3 (7:14) well enough to make these rookie wide receivers Speaker 4 (7:16) exciting. It's the wildest turnaround of what he was putting on the field for two straight years. You could watch and be like, this is the worst quarterback. Speaker 3 (7:27) Yeah, that was not debatable. You could be here, if it was a neutral situation, you'd be like... Well, this dude, he's coming back from an Achilles. I'm not surprised. A double? Yeah, I'm not surprised it took a couple games, but then you had the compounding effect of how bad he was before the injury. I didn't think we'd be here. Speaker 4 (7:43) No, no, definitely not. Like Denzel Boston, this is so exciting of a player that on our Dynasty pod, when you're trying to hit on prospects, it can be very difficult. Speaker 4 (7:58) Denzel Boston, in particular, was like, I feel like Jason, we both had the same take. We were like, this doesn't work. His skill set. His skill set. We've seen it. It doesn't work. And yet, I'm just compelled. I'm in on the talent of Denzel Boston. He feels like a player that could work. Then he goes to the Browns, and you're like, Speaker 2 (8:20) oh, goal. Speaker 4 (8:21) Okay. Never mind. That is completely toast. But. He looks like their true wide receiver one. Over the first round pick. He does seem like the, especially for fantasy purposes, Speaker 5 (8:34) even if the targets, like in this game, Concepcion had more targets, but for fantasy purposes, the type of targets, the utilization, the downfield, the tackle breaking, the touchdown. Speaker 4 (8:47) Yeah, drops or just not. And Speaker 3 (8:51) Jerry Judy just appearing every once in a while on this offense is very funny to me. Just out of nowhere. And he gets all hype. He was so proud. Speaker 4 (8:58) He took a little crossing around six yards, and then he's like. It was a big catch in the moment, but it was like, oh, there you Speaker 3 (9:04) are. It was a good game. It was. And the Browns are leading the division. Speaker 5 (9:07) Jerry Judy. This is the best news in the world. Jerry Judy played 37 % of snaps. You had Concepcion and Boston. playing 92 and 95 that's their future that's how they're playing that's what I think everybody you know sometimes like we're like why aren't coaches doing this you know the fallacy of good coaching it doesn't always happen but it's like yes this Speaker 3 (9:32) is the way Speaker 5 (9:33) and it's nice to see him do it and Speaker 3 (9:34) succeed yeah and on the other side Roman Wilson looks good in the slot he had a seam route it was a good pass more opportunities coming for him also Speaker 5 (9:43) Jalen Warren has been awesome I feel like if they had Tackle-breaking machine. Yeah, I mean, he's just been so Speaker 3 (9:49) good. Look at all these players we're talking about in this game. It was fun. Look at that. It was a really fun game. Speaker 5 (9:54) It was a good time. And it Speaker 3 (9:55) came down to the wire. Yep. And guess what, Jay? It's also Friday. Oh. Speaker 2 (10:03) Putt Clan Friday. Speaker 3 (10:08) Every Friday we give a $100 gift card away to FantasyChamps.com. This week's winner from the Foot Clan community is St. Olaf1987. St. Olaf1987. Okay. Congratulations. You are this week's winner. Thank you for supporting the podcast over there at JoinTheFoot.com. Let's talk news. Speaker 2 (10:30) News and notes from around the league. Speaker 2 (10:34) Did Speaker 3 (10:35) you guys see this thing in Deucer's Alley? This is some breaking news. Yesterday there was kind of a lighting malfunction. Do you remember that? Yeah, I do. For part of the show. And unfortunately, we had to have a real serious conversation around here. And Jason, I can see you're almost tearing up. But we had to let Josh be the big dog. Speaker 4 (10:51) We put him in the captain's Speaker 3 (10:53) seat. Speaker 4 (10:53) We put him in the captain's seat. You got demoted. Yeah, he's the William Riker role now. We've got... Are Speaker 3 (10:59) you doing okay with all this, man? I mean, I know... We kind of keep things public. I hate you. You know what? You know what? I think you're right. I actually feel bad now. Why don't you go on like a cruise for like a week? You know what? As Speaker 2 (11:12) soon as this show's over, I'm out of here. All Speaker 3 (11:13) right. All right. So Papa Josh in the driver's seat today. Speaker 3 (11:19) Yeah, you're more like the pilot, like when they do the pilot's training that's in there just in case something goes wrong. Speaker 2 (11:26) Yeah, or like the driver's ed. I got the steering wheel over here. You have a brake over there? Speaker 3 (11:29) In case Speaker 2 (11:29) of Speaker 3 (11:30) emergency, yeah. Speaker 2 (11:31) Does Speaker 3 (11:31) it throw Josh right out the door? Yeah, it's Speaker 2 (11:33) an Speaker 3 (11:33) eject button. His foot's real tired already. All right, the commander's officially ruled out Jaden Daniels for week four. Mike, I kind of surprised you yesterday when I was like he hadn't been ruled out and they were talking about him possibly playing, but he's not going to play this week. He's wearing a brace. He is not going to get surgery right Speaker 4 (11:50) now. Which, I mean, I don't know what has happened out there in, like, casual leagues. But I can tell you that in our chopped league, our swell was 18. What are we down to now? Speaker 3 (12:04) 16, or 15. Speaker 4 (12:06) One of y'all nerds dropped Jaden Daniels, and I got him for like a decimal percentage of that. When Speaker 3 (12:11) did Speaker 4 (12:11) this happen? This week. Oh, gosh. So I had scooped him up. That's wild. Speaker 3 (12:17) Make sure he's not on your waiver wire. He might be. Jason mentioned Rashad White. The injury might be worse than we think. He's still not practicing. Eckler was signed. If we didn't mention that. So Rashad White is not looking great. DeAndre Swift, this is wild. Added to the injury report on Thursday, knee injury. Didn't practice. Menungai is practicing in full. Yeah, I mean, this is humongous because Speaker 5 (12:37) Menungai could be a fantastic start this week. If Menungai is by himself, I mean, he's very capable. Yeah, very, very capable against the Jets. At home, I would expect a top 10 fantasy. Menungai by Speaker 3 (12:54) himself over Braylon Allen in the same game? For sure. Speaker 4 (12:58) I would take the better offensive line. I think that's close, but I probably would if I had both of those guys. Speaker 3 (13:04) Mike got Jaden Daniels for $5. In a $1,000 budget. All right. Bucky Irving remain limited on Thursday. This is... Probably going to be okay. I think Bucky's going to play. The matchup is pretty okay. But, you know, there was talk this week about limited. I mean, not pretty okay. It's really okay. Green Bay can't play defense against Green Bay. Correct. But you Speaker 4 (13:27) have an undrafted free agent making his first career starts. Speaker 3 (13:30) Yeah. And you don't know what the check down situation will be. That was where Bucky was making a lot of hay in the. receiving game. You also had conversations this week. Lies is another way to put them about Sean Tucker getting heavily involved. Oh, that's Speaker 5 (13:42) right. Speaker 3 (13:42) Yeah, but that man, nobody, nobody's been talked about getting involved more than Sean Tucker over the last five years. Speaker 5 (13:48) Yeah, his career is being talked up. I mean, and deservedly so because when he gets the ball, he does great things. Now, don't give it to him. Speaker 3 (13:57) Right. Speaker 5 (13:58) So weird. He's all tuckered out. Oh, nice. And Bucky's butt hurt. Okay. Speaker 3 (14:04) We are on perfect form. And I attribute this to our lead producer, Papa Josh. All right. Rams wide receiver Puka Nakua remained limited on Thursday with the hip and groin. Terrence Ferguson did not practice. He's not going to play. Parkinson's not going to play. I'm still – ask me how scared I am. How scared are you? The most scared. You're the most scared? I'm the most scared because – I've said this. I'm not doing a thing trade-wise with Puka until this week is over. He might be completely fine. I just believe that what he's dealing with is a high risk of showing itself this week. Now, if he makes it through the week, I'll feel great. But this particular week, I am scared. And I wouldn't be trying to pick him up on the cheap just yet. Speaker 5 (14:53) expectation is that he's going to play right now. He's not practicing in full, but that's what's being reported is he's expected to play. That's not a guarantee yet. It's listed hip Speaker 2 (15:03) slash groin, man. Which is usually a core muscle injury, a Speaker 5 (15:07) fear of sports hernia and the surgery with that. We've talked about this a lot. I'm on the side, and this is a huge risk, but I feel like if you could trade cheap for Nakua or, you know. It won't be cheap. It Speaker 4 (15:21) won't be Speaker 5 (15:21) cheap. So are you willing to trade medium? It's a league winning bet. Exactly. I'm willing to take that chance, and it sucks because you're. You know, if it works, like let's say it hits. You make a medium bet and you trade a good player, you know, that can nab him. Drake London. Speaker 4 (15:43) No. Speaker 5 (15:44) Garrett Wilson. Yeah. Oh, man. Garrett Wilson's a great example. I mean, I love Garrett Wilson. He's my guy. I Speaker 3 (15:52) don't want Speaker 5 (15:52) to put Speaker 3 (15:52) names to it because I want the gravity to be there. Yeah, I mean. That's Speaker 5 (15:56) a heavy bet. Justin Speaker 3 (15:57) Jefferson. Speaker 4 (15:59) If Speaker 5 (15:59) I could turn like a. Like if you could turn Tedderall McMillan and something