• last year
Transcript
00:00 Week one was a wild one, but luckily we have Michael Fabiano, SI's Senior Fantasy Analyst,
00:05 here to help us make the best start decisions as we head into week two.
00:10 Okay Fabiano, who are we starting this weekend at the quarterback position?
00:13 I'm going to start off with Trevor Lawrence. I know it's a little bit of low-hanging fruit,
00:18 but there are players out there who might have a couple of quarterbacks that they can play the
00:22 matchups with, and Lawrence has got a great matchup this week against Kansas City. Their
00:26 defense has allowed the sixth most fantasy points to quarterbacks since the start of last year,
00:30 and this should be a high-scoring game. The over-under right now is 51 in Vegas, and then
00:35 Jared Goff. He's at home, which means you start him. On the road, you sit him. I mean,
00:39 this is easy, right? It's easy money too if you're playing props for touchdown passes.
00:44 23 touchdowns and only three interceptions at home last year, and Seattle just gave up
00:49 334 passing yards to Matthew Stafford, so Goff is a very good play.
00:55 You mentioned the highest game total in Vegas this weekend and at SI Sportsbook this weekend,
01:00 but what about some of the games with the lowest game totals? Are there quarterbacks you would sit
01:04 from those matchups? I'm sitting Dak Prescott, and this shows you that I am not unbiased because,
01:09 hey, I know I'm a big-time Cowboys hawk, but that Jets defense is good. I mean,
01:14 they just held Josh Allen to nine points, and they turned him over four times, and sorry,
01:19 but Josh Allen is a lot better than Dak Prescott from a fantasy perspective. I'm keeping Dak on
01:23 the bench, and this one might surprise you. It's more of a beware than a true sit, but Anthony
01:29 Richardson, I get it. He had a really good game last week. I understand he's a little quarterback.
01:33 That's a big help, but did you know, Jen, that the Texans defense has allowed the fewest fantasy
01:38 points to quarterbacks since the start of last year, and they just held Lamar Jackson to 6.6
01:44 points, so the Texans defense, at least against quarterbacks, is pretty tough, so I would not be
01:50 surprised if Richardson maybe took a statistical step back this weekend. I like that, Colin.
01:56 Speaking of the Jets defense being good, just Dallas defense is pretty good, too, but that's
02:01 neither here nor there. Let's go on to the running back position. Who are we firing up in our lineup
02:06 this weekend? I like David Montgomery, who led Detroit's backfield in snaps and touches and
02:12 fantasy points last week. He's got a really good matchup, too, against the Seahawks, who have been
02:17 really bad against the run. This is a defense that gave up three touchdowns to the Rams' backs
02:22 last week, so David Montgomery and Jameer Gibbs should both be in your lineup, and then Rashad
02:28 White. Now, I get it. Last week, the numbers weren't great, but the snaps were there. He played
02:33 54 snaps. The volume was there. He had 19 touches, and the Bears, well, they've allowed 25 touchdowns
02:39 and the second-most fantasy points to running back since last year, so I think Rashad White
02:43 bounces back. I like that, and speaking of those Rams running backs, you say don't trust K-Makers.
02:51 He burned us all last week. Actually, we shot McVay. He just hates our fantasy teams, and I
02:57 guess he doesn't like K-Makers very much. Even though Akers started and he got a boatload of
03:02 carries, a lot of those carries came in the fourth quarter, and it was really Kyron Williams. He had
03:07 53 snaps. Akers only played 28 snaps and niners, by the way. This is the toughest matchup for any
03:14 running back on the week, so sit Akers and beware Kyron Williams as well. I'm also going to fade
03:20 Javante Williams or I guess flex him at best. This is not a good matchup against the Commanders.
03:25 Their defense has allowed the second-fewest PPR points to running back since the start of last
03:29 year, and Javante Williams basically split the snaps and the touches pretty closely with Samaje
03:34 Pirine last week. At the wideout position, who gets the nod this weekend? Let's start off with
03:42 Tyler Lockett. Now, he did have a concussion, so make sure you check his status going into week
03:47 two, but if he plays, I'm going to start him, even though he had a massive stink bomb last week,
03:52 but that's kind of Tyler Lockett. One week good, one week bad. He's got the Lions this week.
03:57 They have been awful against wide receivers. Third-most points allowed to the receivers
04:01 since last year, including the most points to slot receivers. If Lockett can't go,
04:06 D.K. Metcalf obviously, and Jackson Smith and Jigbo would become very good plays,
04:11 and also Mike Williams. And Mike Williams did not have a great line last week, I get it,
04:15 even though it was a high-scoring game, but the Titans' defense is terrible. I mean,
04:19 they have given up 16 touchdowns and the second-most points to perimeter receivers
04:23 since last year, and overall, no team has a lot more fantasy points than wide receivers,
04:28 so as good as Tennessee is against the run, they're really bad against the pass.
04:31 I like that call. I like it a lot. Okay, wide receivers,
04:36 someone who was actually on your start list last week, but there are a lot of questions
04:40 about how they're going to use these talented players they have in Atlanta,
04:44 and I imagine that's what you're going to say about Drake London.
04:46 Boy, I mean, was I left with egg on my face with Drake London. I mean, nothing. Zero.
04:52 Bupkis. The same amount of points as you and I scored last week, and now I'm a little bit worried
04:57 because they ran the ball so much. I mean, they threw it 18 times, and now they've got the Packers,
05:02 which means that Jair Alexander is going to get a lot of Drake London, and that's not good for Drake.
05:08 This week, we hate the Drake. Let's hope he does not put up a good stat line because a lot of
05:13 people will be benching him, and then Terry McLaurin, who last week actually played a full
05:17 complement of snaps. He had 63 offensive snaps, so that toe injury seems to be a thing of the past,
05:23 but he did not put up a good stat line, and he's got a bad matchup against the Broncos this week,
05:27 they've allowed just six touchdowns and the fourth fewest points to perimeter receivers
05:31 since the start of last year. If you do start McLaurin, he's a flex and temper your expectations.
05:36 Certainly feels like the tight end position. If you'd paid up and drafted one early,
05:43 so far, it's only been one week, but that hasn't really paid off. You've got some guys on your
05:47 start list that may even still be on a waiver wire, so who you got? Tight end is impossible
05:53 to predict. I mean, unless you have Travis Kelsey or one of the high-end guys, and even those guys
05:57 didn't produce this past week, but I'm going with David Njoku. He's playing on Monday night
06:01 against the Steelers, and he has had success against Pittsburgh in his last three games.
06:06 He has scored at least 12.8 points in every single game. This has nothing to do with the matchup,
06:12 it's just a trend of Njoku finding success against Pittsburgh, because tight end is a
06:16 mess right now. And then I'm going Zach Ertz. You know Zach Ertz led all tight ends in a league in
06:20 targets last week with 10? Like, that's a lot for a tight end coming off of a knee injury,
06:25 so it seems like he's good to go. He's got the Giants this week. Did you know that in his last
06:31 nine games against New York, Ertz has averaged almost 18 points per game, and he's a security
06:37 blanket of sorts for Joshua Dobbs. So if you need a tight end this week, you could maybe pick up
06:41 Ertz and start him against the G-Men. I love that call. Not only that, but Ertz averaged more than
06:48 11 fantasy points per game last season when he played, and he's sitting right there on the waiver
06:52 wire. So I back that call. Go pick him up. But who are we sitting? I think we're sitting somebody
06:57 that he was picked up last week on the waiver wire. Yeah, we're going to start off with Kyle
07:02 Pitts though. He's going to live in the sit-ums until he wakes up, and I don't know that he will,
07:07 and it's not his fault. It's the offense. Like, I wish he got drafted by the Chargers,
07:10 somebody who actually had a good quarterback that threw the ball effectively. But Pitts led the
07:15 Falcons in receiving yards last year with 44, uh, last week, excuse me. And he had two catches.
07:21 That's it. And like I said, Desmond Ritter, 18 pass attempts. That's it. All they do is run the
07:26 ball. The Packers are tough on tight ends. I just don't see a light at the end of the tunnel for
07:31 Kyle Pitts. And then you got Tyler Higby, and I loved Higby last week, and he had a great matchup,
07:36 and hello, Puka Nakua and Tutu Atwell. You win some, you lose some. This week, he's got the
07:42 Niners. Now here's the trend on Higby with the Niners. He has scored fewer than nine fantasy
07:46 points in all but four of 14 career games against them. So he does not have success against San
07:52 Francisco. Uh, let's just say that he has not been fantasy gold against the Niners.
07:56 So I'm fading Tyler Higby this week. I know it's a bad dad joke.
07:59 There we go, guys. There are the starts. It's for week two. We wish you tons of luck in your
08:07 fantasy football leagues, and don't forget to follow us at sdi.com/fantasy. We'll be back next