Transcript of Crazy Trades + Week 7 Start/Sit, TNF Preview - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/15

The fantasy footballer's studio is sponsored by Walmart. Welcome to the fantasy footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Mohr, and Mike Wright.

Welcome in. It's a Wednesday episode, October 15th. Mike, the fantasy hitman, right is here. Jason Moore, to my right. I'm Andy Holloway, and we have another great episode for you. The Wavers just ran in all of our leads, and and the cursed Brock Bowers. So for those that have not followed along- Seven days. We are in a chopped league, a guillotine-style league. Whoever has picked up Brock Bowers has quickly been the loser of the league and cut and chopped from the league.

If you drafted him, you were chopped.

Yeah.

If you picked him up off a waiver-For $501. You were chopped. That would be- If you picked up him Him again off of wai. Then after 501, it was like 230. 217. 217. Choped. Choped. He's back on wai. What did he go for, Jerr? $31. Who did he go to? Guys, this is a $1,000 budget league. I wanted to be integrious and put a claim in on him because I felt like I had to. I went as low as I thought I could do, which was $31, and I got him.

Wow. We'll see if you survive, if you can break the curse.

You're getting chopped.

You're in trouble. What do we got today? We got backup options on this show. We've got NFL news to talk about, a Thursday night preview, and then a ton of mailbag questions. Excited to get into it. A reminder, join thefoot. Com. Head over there. The current Megla Bowl leader. If you join the Megla Bowl, it is the Blue team.

Oh, there's a new...

A new leader in town. A new leader. The Blue team has got 937 points and is first out of a 20,000 plus pool of players.

Hope you don't have a Bucca or a Pucca.

Yeah, they probably do.

Because you're not going to hold first.

They probably do at 9: 37. But yeah, congrats on being in first. Had. Well, we'll see. I mean, Puka has not been ruled out, and Abukha is- Get out of here. Abukha is likely to miss a week. No, I told you this the day that... I know Sean McVay is probably a big liar, and he'll probably miss six weeks. But they said he physically felt really good the next day after and that they would monitor, and he's not been rolled out. He's just in serious doubt.

Serious doubt.

Would you like to place a wager?

We talk about how high ankle sprains are. Oftentimes, you miss three games. That's the most common. If you don't, oftentimes you miss zero. It's zero or three games, usually. I wonder if it will be any different with the travel and them having to know what's going on ahead of time because this is the overseas game. I don't know if that factors in or not, but it feels like some weeks, they rule people out really early on those London games when they're traveling.

Now, there's This is an actual question because it sounds silly, but it's like, flying with that injury, is there any... I wouldn't imagine that an ankle-Not risk, but you know.

I know what you're saying because altitude and press cabin pressure-Yeah, it's like you get all swollen. All those type of things. I don't know if I would say that would affect an ankle. I wouldn't think so, but not a doctor.

All right, let's go ahead and jump into some backup options.

Backup Options, presented by Progressive Insurance.

All right. We always say, and it's important every single week, but check out who was dropped today on the waiver wire. A lot of players making injury moves, trying to adjust for spot start situations, and they might drop a long term valuable player. The most dropped players on sleeper in the last 24 hours. I'm going to ask you real quick, do you care? Okay. It was a one week wonder, but Matthew Stafford, do you care?

No, I do not.

What about Hassan Haskins?

Yes.

Too early.

Michael Carter?

Yeah.

Chris Rodriguez and Jaden Blue?

No. No to Rodriguez. Blue is just a stash, but you can drop them.

Ryan Flanoi.

Flanoi? No.

Don't care. Taekwan Thornton? No. Keion Coleman? No. Juan Jenny? Yes. Malik Washington? No. Darius Slate? Yes. Calvin.

I do.

I want to have him healthy before I need to roster him.

How far away is the healthy?

That's the part I don't know. We don't know, but my point is I'm not sure that I want to play him his first week back because what if he's a little limited or whatever? Sure, I understand.

I would like him on my roster.

To me, he is Calvin Ridley, who you're about to say you don't care about.

But Ridley has been stinky dodo. I don't know. I'm optimistic about what's going on with Jacks and Dart and the Giants. Okay.

Tongis.

No, because-Georgie Porgie. Our hero, George, reportedly, should be playing this weekend.

All right.

Oh, man.

Mason Taylor?

Yeah. What are you doing? I mean, no. Oh, crap. All right. Also, social media people, how dare you?

How dare you?

I saw it.

What happened?

Our show?

Yes. I don't know what happened. Fill us in.

The Falcon.

Oh, Falcon's face. The Falcon flying a little too close to the sun.

He knows he did something wrong. He puts out fun graphics with quotes, like hot quotes that come from the show. And you know how I intentionally whispered? Oh, yeah. About Mason Taylor being my number one tight-end pickup of the week. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we put it in bold block, all capital letters.

I see your face, and I see this quote, Mason Taylor is my number one tight-end waiver pickup of the week. He is now the number one receiving option and is a good candidate for 10 targets. Mike, the fancy hitman.

I'm going to be honest. I don't think that's your quote.

No, I did not say 10.

Well, the second half was just made up. The second half was- No, I know.

Yeah. So not only did you whisper it, but you didn't even say it.

I guess he didn't put it in quotation marks, so it's not technically- It is in the quotes on the graphic. Oh, it is? Oh, they're in the background.

Oh, they're in the back of it. They're tasty.

Wow.

Well, either way- Very tasteful quotes.

Oh, he did not say that, man. I said the second Yeah. You put them together. It's funny, Mike. I didn't know which one you're talking about, but I saw this, and I almost messaged him and was like, This was not the quote.

Well, I have a message. Pack your things.

Okay. Why don't you leap right there?

How dare you That's what you do that to me, even though I said most of it.

You should go to the bathroom right now. Dawson Knox, do you care? No. No. Juan Johnson?

No.

Mark Andrews?

No.

All right. Let's talk about if you didn't get the waiver ads that you wanted. What are some backup options that you could pick up? Spot Start, maybe it's not in that category, but somebody that you should pick up.

Yeah, here's someone that's totally not in that category. It's Dalton Kincaid, who, when I was looking at the most dropped list, I was shocked to see he was one of the most dropped players. Now, it makes sense because you have a combination of he didn't play football last week, and then he was on by. So people have- He's on by this week. Yeah, he's on by after not playing. People don't assume that the Dalton Kincaid thing will stick necessarily.

However- It feels fraudulent.

It does a little bit because it was very- Because he's playing half the snaps. Touchdown heavy, half the snaps. But you can't argue a few things. First thing you cannot argue against is that he is a top five tight-end right now and has been good most of the weeks of the season. Yeah, correct. You can't argue that he's on a really good offense that just struggled without him. It looked like they really needed him. You can't argue with the fact that the rest of season, they have the fourth easiest schedule as of this moment for tight ends in fantasy.

Yeah, there's really three negative matchups coming up for them. It's a good schedule.

He currently leads the bills and targets per route run, yards per route run, already has two red zone touch downs on the season, which is great because they didn't used to... They haven't really involved him in years prior in that area. So Dawn Kikade, to me, is like, I keep bringing up these tight ends every week because I'm living that life. I'm living that like- A lot are. Yeah. And so I am one of you, and we need to find our solution. I'm hoping it's Darren Waller. If it's not, and I saw Dalton Cacate out there, like I just traded for Darren Waller in our League of Records, I would still scoop up Dalton Cacate. I've got to find the answer or answers.

Yeah, or two players you could platoon with better matchups. Mike, your backup option.

I'm going with Christian Kirk of the Houston Texans. Ladies and gentlemen, remember, Christian Kirk plays football for the Houston Texans. It's been strange because the first two weeks, he was hurt, and then his first two weeks back, acclimating Nothing really special, three for 25, 3 for 20. But then in that blowout game against Baltimore a couple of weeks ago because the Texans were just on their buy, 4 for 64. This isn't like, I'm so excited to play Christian Kirk, but I think he is an actual option for a flex or probably a double flex. And against Seattle, I don't hate it. I don't hate Stroud this week, and I don't mind if you're really hurting from injuries or by week, and you're just scrambling, looking at sorting your waivers by projections. I think that Kirk will outproduce what the platforms are expecting.

And we may need to adjust. Like right now, I know we brought Seattle up yesterday in the waiver show. Maybe this defense is a good situation at home, and it's probably okay. But we're coming off of two games where the Texans scored 26 and 44 points, whereas the previous three losses, they had scored like 9, 19, and 10. They might be figuring some stuff out on the offensive side of the football. Might be. Something to monitor because you'd want a piece of that if they did. In that same double flex flex category, Calvin Ridley is hurt. It's a good chance to bring up Elec, Iom Manor, once again, maybe even Epic Iomanner if the week goes well. Rostered in under 50% of weeks. Very good player. I think he's the best wide receiver that they have. Now, you don't have a lot of other things working for you, but we did We'll talk about the interim coach bump. Play calling is going to be a little bit different. You're going to have no Calvin Ridley. So the primary target for the entire game for Cam Ward will be Alex Io Manor, and Ridley had a pretty good game before the injury.

So The next two weeks are really juicy for wide receivers. They play New England, who's 28th against wideouts, and Indianapolis, 31st against wideouts. So spot start, Ellic Iomanner. Sure. I think those are potential matchup. That was Backup Option, sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive. Com. Let's talk news.

News and notes from Around the League, presented by Progressive Insurance.

Okay, so we have an official report from DJ More.

It's more like that.

It's a groin injury.

Yes, so he was-He was hospitalized with a groin injury? He was hospitalized for a groin injury precautionary or whatever. He didn't travel with the team. We didn't know. We didn't know what But he played 94% of the snaps. There was uncertainty as to why he went to the hospital. The only thing we know is a groin injury. That's what's being reported, yeah. Yeah, and I don't know on this one, is that the groin muscle or is that what... Right. Is that what these are all about?

Yeah, I mean, that's the word.

I go to the hospital for that. Make sure I'm okay.

Puka Nakuwa. The latest report, Ian Rappaport said, In serious doubt for this week's game against the Jags because they have the bye week next week. So that would probably be the smartest.

Honestly, for an injury to be timed up that you have a game and then the bye week, if you have Puka, that's about as good as it gets.

We have updated news on-It Amicahegbig boo. The Bucaneers- That never stops being funny to me.

Usually, jokes just get played out, but every time he says it, it's just-Emeka at Big Boo. It's so dumb.

Well, Amicaheg big boo has a booboo and the ham string injury, likely to keep him out of the Monday night game, you really cannot ride dirty on that one. No. You cannot go on to Monday night without a battle plan.

Is it okay if you had Tess Johnson or Cameron Johnson, would you be fine waiting and playing them?

I would not really bank. I'd consider Emeka out today. That's how I would think about it.

Low odds. If you had someone like Jordan Addison.

Yeah, I would just play him. I would play Jordan Addison.

You would play- I'm a little bit like, I want to be excited about Taz.

He played 72% of snaps, had the big shutdown catch. I want to be excited about somebody there. But Mike Evans could be back, right? That's the latest report that we have is that Mike Evans could give it a go. There's a chance that all those names on Tampa Bay are not going to do much. Kate Otton, we still- Bet against Baker, Andy.

You just do it.

Yeah, okay. All right.

Well, CeeDee Lamb- I won't, but I will bet against these other guys.

Ceedee Lamb has a chance to be back in week seven.

Please.

If he's healthy, let's come back and play. David Najoku, not expected to practice. We had talked about Harold Fana, and then the Panthers, a report this morning from Jeremy Fowler on ESPN saying that, Rico Dattle and Chuba Hubbard will both get touches regardless of who gets the first snap. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, this is where you guys were Just like, you can't take Rico out of your lineup with what he's been doing. But the way that I look at this is the first week back for Chuba, I feel like you can't play either of them.

If you play, I don't know how far off Chuba would have been from these numbers against those defenses, to be honest with you. I don't know.

He would have had very good games, but I don't think he would have done that.

Miami and Dallas were obviously the attempts, 23 and 30. Yeah, I think both guys are going to be startable. I actually believe that. But it's possible. It would be nice if you could watch and see. But I have learned that benching Rico has been costly in a lot of ways. All right, that was news and notes. There's one more piece of news.

I missed it. Oh, well, the Colts, because they put Anthony Richardson on IR with his eye injury, they- IR?

I got you. I hear what you were doing. You made that joke.

They signed Brett Rippin' Farts. So now we're done with the news. I just had to get... I mean, any chance to get a Brett Rippin' farts in here, you got to take it.

It wasn't...

It was the fart. It was the- It was really explosive.

It was so like a child. It's like you ran into a room, said Brett Rippin' farts.

Brett Rippin' farts.

And then ran out of the room. Just cackling. Oh, man. That was pretty good. Footie award winner. That was news and notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive. Com. Progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third-party insurers not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We're moving on.

Thursday Night Breakdown.

Are you making the sound of the quarterbacks here at Thursday?

Let's play football.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, who are four and one and cruising along, take on the 2: 4 Cincinnati bangles. That's right. The geriatric icy Hot Bowl.

Both teams have officially asked the NFL to move the game time from Eastern up to 1: 15 PM.

Oh, my gosh. That way, they can make the 4: 00 PM dinner time. Look, Aaron Rodgers and Joe Flacko in this game will be the second oldest quarterback matchup of all time.

The second?

Of all time.

How is it not the oldest?

Well, Tom braided has to be in the first.

Yeah, braided played forever, but he played against Breeze in 2020. Roger says, I think it's great for all the old guys. But you look at this division, the bangles, ravens, and browns have combined to lose 11 consecutive games while the Sealers have won their last three. They're the number two seating the AFC. Do you know who the number one seat is?

I do. Yeah, it's crazy.

The Indianapolis Colts are the number one seat. As Tampa is in the NFC. So Aaron Rodgers completing almost 70% of his passes, his highest total since 2021. Aaron Rodgers getting it done, right? It's not been amazing, but four and one. Got to give him credit. Joe Flacko made his debut for Cincinnati.

And he gave us hope.

I said, Look, You have hope. That's exactly what you brought up. You have hope for Jamar Chase. We saw it in game one. Tee Higgins, I don't know.

No.

Tee Higgins, I don't know what's going on.

I do have a little bit of hope for Tee Higgins. Tee Higgins had eight targets last week, 65 yards, and that was in a tough matchup. To me, it wasn't a dreadful disappearing act the way he was with Jake Browning. There's hope there. I'm not saying you have to- It was his season high in yardage. I'm not saying you have to start Tee Higgins, but I think you can start Tee Higgins, and I certainly have hope that Joe Flacko can make him relevant.

Where are you with Chase Brown? The schedule should lighten up for him in the second half of the season. He was the R-B 20 last week, but only scored 7. 9 fantasy points.

It was a rough week.

Are you playing Chase Brown on Thursday night, getting that advanced intel on your roster? Are you playing somebody like Travis Etienne?

I would play- Against the Rams? Yeah, I would play Etienne.

What about Ramondre against Tennessee with that matchup?

I'll play Chase Brown.

Ramondre has been so bad. I know you're contractually obligated to do that.

Ramondre has been so bad. The matchup is good. Yeah, I think I'd go Chase Brown.

What about Ken Bohn-Waaker? The invisible Ken Bohn-Waaker?

I would still roll with Ken Bohn because-Stupid Seattle. I feel like most of the people you're naming don't really have a really high ceiling, an upside. Obviously, we saw this last week, how low the floor can be with Kenneth Walker, but we still know he can have a huge, massive game. He can have a breakaway, a breakdown like we're going to see in this game from Caleb Johnson.

Ramondre could have a breakaway five-yard run.

That's true. He could.

Jason just sold Caleb Johnson in our League of Records. No, it went through. For 30 fab.

What? Look, this is crazy timing. I also just made a bet on a Caleb Johnson anytime. Touchdown. That's what I was doing on my phone. That's what you were doing on your phone? That's what I was doing on my phone because it's coming. There's breakouts this week. But I can't believe I got 30 fab. I made that as a joke offer. What? I made it as a joke offer, and then I was like, I'm going to have to retract that when he breaks out tonight or tomorrow.

Well, he's not on your team.

I guess so.

Also, what are you talking about?

Yeah, what?

Why do you think he's going to break out?

Just because the bangles defense is so bad, a big break.

From the bench? Is he going to come off the bench?

He had as many carries as Kenneth Gainewell last week. Which is six? Yeah. No, look.

That's your statistic?

Touchdown guarantee, Jason? You're pumped? Hold on. You just made a bet.

Is this your touch down guarantee? This is my touch down guarantee.

You're like, he had as many carries as Kenneth Gainewell. Six.

How many carries do you need to have a break away against the bangles? Three, four?

I don't know. Mike, you and I are- What is happening? You and I were over here, and he's way over there making bets.

The matchup is great. I totally agree with that. That's why I'm very excited for Jalen Warren. I'm on the side of the snaps and the opportunities for Warren were more of a product of... That's his first week back, and the work will going off. You're a crazy man. That's bold. Yeah.

That is bold. I don't even want to ask how much you bet.

My standard issue? Oh, no.

Oh, my God. Your unit?

My unit.

You just want to burn money every week.

Yeah. You just bet.

Hold on. You didn't have to do that. You just bet on Caleb Johnson.

The odds are good at this point.

Yeah, of course.

The odds are bad. You get plus 900.

Yeah, you're your odds in the book, you're saying? Yeah.

There's odds that Caleb Johnson gets zero opportunity. Yeah. That could happen.

Probably higher odds, to be honest. Look, all jokes aside, Caleb Johnson. I do see a world where he has a good game, but this is not advice that you're giving. This is not prescriptive. He's not playing enough football.

Yeah, I advise, do not listen to anything Jason is saying right now.

Yeah, that's fine. Point in fact, in our In our League of Records, someone out there in our League said, Is anyone willing to sell a running back for FAB? I made a joke bid because I'm looking every time waivers are going through. I'm like, Why am I still rostering Caleb Johnson? Then I was like, Okay, I made him a joke offer of, I'll give you Caleb Johnson for 30 FAB.

You got it.

It went through. Obviously, I'm not super bullish here on the break-up.

I didn't think you'd be talking about him this much today. I didn't.

I knew I was going to say that I saw a shutdown coming for him in this match.

You had to get on your phone, like right now to get those great odds.

Yeah, because after I let everybody know.

Oh, yeah. It'll go to 890 since we're live. Jalen Warren should be a very good play.

Things are looking up for Metcalf, too, by the way. I mean, he is now the wide receiver 16, two top 10 weeks in a row. You like to see it. You know he's going to get his opportunities.

And I mentioned this a little bit. Hey, check out today's dynasty pod. We did a redraft of the rookies. That was really fun and extremely difficult to try and organize the very disappointing seasons from rookies who are supposed to be great. The Pittsburgh Stealers schedules for all three of the top-skill positions: quarterback, running back, and wide receiver are among the best rest of season that you could possibly get.

They're going to cruise to this division, aren't they?

They are going to, yes. Wow.

It's never going to stop for Tomlin. Jason, you're going to be wrong about Rodgers being their demise.

Yeah, for sure. That was clear pretty early. It's a good matchup for basically all your stealers. Start stealers against the bangles.

I don't think I mentioned it. Pittsburgh's five and a half point favorites. The other under is 43 and a half.

Hendrixon, yeah, I think he's okay because it was a back issue, but I'm guessing. Oh, he did not practice, but at least the reports I was hearing where it wasn't a serious injury. But today, we deal. If he's out, oh, man, even better.

Yeah.

I mean, you can get a...

Maybe Al, take a look and see what the latest update is on Hendrixon. We'll take a break. We'll jump into some Mailbag.

Mailbag.

Presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. All right, if you have a question for the show, we'd love to answer them. Go to the website, thefantasyfootballart. Com, click the Submit a Question button, or dial our voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. We've got a handful of voicemail questions in there today. We're going to dig in, see if we can get you ready. There's a lot of excitement around the return of Rashi Rice this week. Let's jump into a voicemail. Am I a big old idiot if I trade Saquon for Rashi Rice now? I'm pretty solid at running back. Receivers are lacking, so trying to see if that's a smart move or if that's going to screw me.

Thank you. Right into the question. Am I a big old idiot?

I love it.

No, Hey, this is Frank from- No.

Am I a big old idiot if I Loved it. Wonderful question.

Also, what was the question?

It was Saquon. All everyone heard is, Am I a big old idiot? Yeah, are you an idiot if you trade Saquon Barkley for Rashi Rice?

Oh, okay.

Let's answer at the same time for the fun of it. It's a yes, no, and the idiot question.

Are you a big old idiot? Are you a big old idiot? Rafe Barkley for Rashi Rice.

Ready? 3, 2, 1. Yes.

I'm more with you. I heard the reluctance because I do see a world where Rashi Rice is like a top five wide receiver the rest of the season. If that happens, then it turns out you weren't a big old idiot if you trade a top five running back for a top five wide receiver.

He's not a top five running back.

No, I know. He's been very disappointing so far, Saquon. But if you're just playing probabilities and odds, the Eagles team is good. Their offensive line is still good, and it's going to be better. Their guard isn't going to be out. Their defense is going to be Carter isn't going to be out like the way we saw this last week. And so, brighter days are ahead for Saquan.

If you want to make this trade because you want to go get Rice, that's fine. You need to get the right value, though. To me, Saquan is worth a lot more than Rashi Rice in a league. So making If you're not getting the trade straight up, you're not getting the value I think that you need. And you need to remember that players get hurt all the time. You might feel really good at running back right now, but a disproportionate value trade doesn't help you when that depth situation hits.

So what if you could get Rice and a backup A backup running back?

Yeah, if you told me... I'm trying to think of a good category of a backup running back. What if it was Rice and Ramondre?

Yeah, exactly. Something like that where it's like, yeah.

I'm on the fence.

Because then I get to cut Ramondre? Yeah. That's fun.

Tony Pollard.

Yeah. I mean, that's better.

It's more palatable. What's really difficult about this is just does Rice go right back into dominating, and then you combine that with how how hot the Chiefs are playing. Mahomes is back. Let me-So you know what I mean?

Let's talk about Rice for a second.

If the Chiefs were still playing bad and you're like, Oh, Rasha Rice has to be the savior. No, the Chiefs are cooking right now, and Rice could just jump in and be their number one guy.

Let's just give a lay of the land here in Kansas City, because to me, this is selling low on Saquon and buying high on Rice. That is what it is. Yeah, that's fair. Because Rice is this mythical figure that is here to save your season. When Rashi Rice last played for this team, he played four games. One, he got hurt in. The three, he didn't get hurt in. He had seven receptions for 103 yards, five for 75, and 12 for 110. He was off to a- He was awesome. He was off to a great start, wide receiver 16, 18, and 3. Hollywood Brown is a part of the offense now, right? Xavier worthy is a part of the offense now, right? Juju Smith-Schuster is a part of the offense. Travis Kelsi is a part of the offense. Rice will be very good, but I think it is well within our rights to debate whether he's top seven or top 20 or 25. I think that that is more the range that is in debate, and we cannot trade for him as if he's a top five back, value-wise, before he comes back. Sorry, wide receiver.

That's the risk. If I had Rashi Rice, I would look to trade him right now.

If you could get value for trading him as if he's a top five wide receiver. Yeah, because there's no guarantee. Right now, it's hype and lure and hope. It's not what we know for sure. If you can capitalize on that, that's great. Do it.

That's where I'm at. I mean, Rice should be very good. But is that good top five or is that good top 20? And that's a big difference in trade value. I feel like everybody's trading him at top five right now. All right. Speaking of which, the follow-up question by Ben over on X, is Rashi a plug-and-play right now, or do you need to make sure he's healthy or ready to go for fantasy? I think he's plug-and-play.

If you held on to him and you made it through, then he is going right into my lineup.

I'm looking at our rest of the season rankings, and we actually don't have Saquon and Rice very far apart.

In the cumulative multi-positional- I am very bullish on Rice.

So what number in that range that I gave are you believe?

Is he more 5 or more 20?

Yeah, what do you actually think he'd be rest of season?

I think he'll be a wide receiver one rest of season.

I think you have him as- I have him at-13 in all positions?

I tell you, I'm I'll carry in.

I have R ushy Rice as my rest of season wide receiver 10.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, maybe that trade is not wild.

No, it's definitely not wild.

Maybe you're just a regular idiot, not a big old one.

It's hard to trade a running back of who could do that. It's a bet on so many different options.

Speaking of which- What's up, Ballard? It's Trevor from Oklahoma. Got a quick question. Would you trade a Mecca Ikebuka for Saquon, Barkley, straight up, 10-man PPR?

Love the show, guys. Thanks.

Man. This is so fascinating because then the next question inevitably becomes Ikebuka or R ushy Rice.

Right. Yes, it does.

Then it might be one of those triangles where this team beats that team, but this team beats that team.

The algebra doesn't add up.

I think I would trade a Buka for a Saquon.

Yeah, I'm worried about the injury, honestly. Hamstring, how long has Mike Evans been out?

They did come out and say that it was not as serious as Mike Evans. Obviously, with Evans, they put him right on the IR, and there's different grades of hamstrings. I don't I don't think that it's apples to apples.

No, Evans didn't go IR. I don't think.

I'm pretty sure he did.

Did he not? No. He has missed three weeks. If he misses this week, they should have put him on the IR. But you're talking, I would say, at least two weeks. So that's week seven against Detroit. I guess that doesn't matter for Abuka. But if he misses the next two, then week nine is their buy week. So you're probably without Abuka at least until Week 10 against New England.

It does seem like that's at least very possible to happen.

Yeah. If that is possible, if that does happen, there's no question it's a worthwhile trade.

Yeah. Abuka or Raji Rice, rest of the season. Who would you rather have on your roster?

Because he's healthy, I'll take Rice.

Yeah, I think so. I think I would trade Abuka for Rice with the injury. And with the unknown, we've talked about Abuka is awesome.

What if Abuka This is one week, though? Because both guys have a buy week coming up, right? Both teams still are going to miss them for one, so we could throw the buy weeks out. Then you're talking about if it's one game for Abuka, are you still on that same page? If I told you he's coming back next week?

Man, it's really, really tough. I know you are. He's my guy. I love him. I believe in him as a player, but it has coincided with Evan's missing three weeks, which just gives me that little pause of like... He was great the first couple of weeks with Mike Evan, so I don't think it's going to go away. It's just a matter of does it stay as hot as it's been? Really tough. Emeka Abuka or Rushi Rice. I mean, I know my rest of season rankings have Abuka higher.

Yeah, I still think I like Abuka a little bit more. Here's an Instagram question. It's a good one. Is Woody Marks an afterthought? What is his outlook coming out of the buy?

No, he's definitely not an afterthought at all. We are in now the season of the rookie buy week bump. It is very common for rookies to be acclimating into the NFL. They go into the buy week, they start retooling things of like, Okay, you ready? All right, now you're more integrated into the offense. So he is not an afterthought. It wouldn't be surprising for him to have even more work out of the by week, but it's not a guarantee.

Yeah, I think you're still watching him closely. Yeah. And what What happens in that offense?

Because I understand not starting him after it felt like a debacle.

Yeah, the last time we saw them, he had more snaps than nick Chubb, 39% to 34%. However, Chubb had 33% of the rushing volume versus 21% to Marks.

Yeah, and that was the game they were killing, the opponent. Exactly. That made a big difference because the week before, they also won, but Marks had so much work. Keep him on your bench.

It's like Woody Marks' profile is more of I want Some pass catching here. So when you're dominating the Baltimore Ravens, you don't need to do that.

Something to watch. Let's go to another voicemail. What's up, ballers? My name is Zeb from North Carolina. Crazy enough, had a guy in my league actually offer Derrick Henry for Rico Dattle straight up. In a normal world, I thought that would be a no-brainer, but my gut has me wanting to hold on to Rico. Am I crazy for doing that? Big fan. Thank you all.

What did Did you eat the night before to get that feeling in your gut? I get it. The two weeks of Rico were magic, but it was the perfect scenario. If he's the only guy, it's pretty much the two best matchups for fantasy runningbacks on top of the... Not that guys don't... They're not amped up to play on Sunday, but I promise, Rico Dautil was just that whole week getting ready for Dallas, that the team That he's like, I gave you 1,000 yards last year, and you do that to me? Toss me by the wayside. Yeah, you just are like, Thank you. No, I'm going to destroy you.

You do that trade. I traded Rico Dautil before last week to the opponent I was playing, knowing it was going to be the end of me. I got Jaden Daniels in. We're a keeper league. I just couldn't say no to it because this is a temporary elite, Rico Doudal. He may be an okay, Rico Dautil, but the elite period for Rico Dautil is very limited.

I also think Derrick Henry is a great trade fork. I think so, too. He had such bad public displays. After the great week one- He was awesome last week. After the Great Week 1. It was fumble, fumble, fumble. Lose the game, lose the game. Lose Lamar Jackson. You're losing games. That's not Derek Henry. That's not where he's good. That's not where he wins. He's so much better in victories. Now you're going buy week. You're going to get Lamar Jackson back. Then you also had the proof of last week. He had 120 rushing yards. He looked great. Derek Henry is not toast. He's not washed.

One of the Riko games, Miami. Derrick Henry, three weeks, Miami. He's going to destroy them.

Carolina has the second-hardest rest of season schedule for runningbacks.

Oh, man.

So you're going to take Riko, you're going to split his work, and you're going to give him the worst schedule. Hopefully, you got him. Then you're going to say, let's... Like, Rico can't be looked at as a rest of season top 10 back.

I feel like you should... Based on this question, we should be, if you have Rico, you should be offering him for guys. Go shop them. Shop him and see if you can get...

Jaden Daniels.

Judkins. See what you can get. See if there's something that's more permanent.

Because he's been number one two straight weeks. Number one.

We do have a follow-up. Would you trade Dautl for J. K. Dobbins?

That one's a little bit harder for me.

I think I, personally, He certainly would take Dobbins.

I think that one I actually wouldn't do if it were me. Just because the possibility of Dautl, there still exists the possibility that he gets more work than we're thinking. So I think Dobbins feels like he can go the other direction.

That's what I was going to say. The only hesitation I have is in the R. J. Harvey. When I say quench on Judkins, it's like that's the rookie. He should get more and more work as you go.

That one I would do for sure.

Dobbins, I still believe, is better. Here How about this name? What about Skatebu?

Dautil for Skatebu?

Yeah. I think I'd rather have Skatebu. I'd take Skatebu.

Yeah, me too.

That's a good name. Yeah, this is the cash-in time, probably, for Rico.

I mean, it's double cash. If you got to play him and then you get to trade him, that's great.

I did the second part. I didn't do the first part, the playing him part. We'll take a break. We'll answer more questions. We have a new quote from Mike. Hold on. I was wrong about Mason Taylor. He has the dog in him, and he is my favorite player to watch. I may even buy his jersey. Mike attributed to Mike Wright, a totally real quote. Some new graphics.

Like the hearts on the graphic.

We should get that up on the screen.

Tweet that out.

Send that over to Al, and we'll get that up on the screen because that's super real. All right. Rest of the season question from Instagram, Jalen Warren or DeAndre Swift?

I'm going to stick with Warren.

Warren has been so good. They gave him the money. I still, obviously, am a believer in Caleb Johnson as a second half, maybe gets involved, gets fewer mistakes on the field. But Warren has been so good. I will say that I believe the rest of season schedule for Swift is pretty good, and it looked good coming out of the buy. I put them near each other, but I'll take- Do you feel like- Do you feel like they figured something out? Because Swift- The way they were using him, using his speed versus his vision, I think was really good. I'm hopeful that they figured that out.

Because the first four weeks of the season, Swift was running at 3. 3 a carry, and then he explodes for 14 for 108. We pointed out they were using him different. They were doing some more creative things to utilize the speed. It's just, do you buy That is real.

No. Goodness, no. Heavens, no. So, Warren? Not one week of... I'm still fine if you pick him because he's going to have boom games, and he's the primary back, and there's not a competition, and you might see you get Gainewell worked in and Caleb Johnson worked in, and I don't... But you talked about the schedule for Pittsburgh, too. So I think I like Jalen more and more.

Oh, there's my quote. Thank you.

Yeah, it's up on the screen. I was wrong about Mason. He has the dog. Oh, yeah. You put a bunch of hearts up there, Mike.

That's how you know it's real.

Yeah, look at that. That's great. We're just doing whatever we want on social media now. What are we doing? We're really leaning into the alternative news. All right, this is a great question from Instagram, a trade question, which a lot of these have been Mike writing in. Have you ever outthought yourself in a stupid trade? Of course. Over. Of course. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. I have the most famous one of all time. Me and my co-manager, we sat down, we got this offer. We got this offer. This was a year and a half ago. So going into at the end of the season before last.

Also known as the eventual Andy Holloway Championship of the Year.

Yes. It is hard to even fathom that I wouldn't take this trade. But in the moment, it was a reasonable and It was a considerable thing to do. So second-round picks are the highest thing we could trade in our keeper league. Andy offered me a pitiful Saquon Barkley at the time and the Giants, he wasn't doing well. It was all right. And two second-round picks.

Oh, my gosh.

I thought it was just one. No. And two second-round picks. That is the offer of all offers for a dominant- And resurging. Resurging Austin.

Well, that's the thing. It wasn't a dominant. It was a What happened to Austin Echler? And then we got a couple of games, and it was, Oh, he's back.

He looked so good. And we overthought that we went down week by week through the schedule together, looking at every single matchup for everybody and who our opponents were. We're looking at, Well, I played this guy this week, and I've got Barkley in this match up. Oh, man. We dug as deep as we could possibly dig and gave it the most information overload we could and decided we wanted to go for the Championship that year because I think that would have been my back to back. Instead, we sacrificed a great trade offer. From that freaking point on, not only was Saquon better that season, and Austin Echler basically dead from then on out. Wasn't even a worthy keeper by the end of the season. But then Saquon goes outside with the Eagles, and I would have had two first. I would have had the Championship that you had the following year had we made that trade. Oh, that's upsetting. So, yeah, I've got one.

Yeah, Al is sitting here saying, You can find the right stats to talk yourself into any trade if you try hard enough. I like that quote, If you torture the data long enough, it'll tell you whatever you want. I mean, yeah, sometimes you can overthink it. We've all done it many times. Sometimes you don't feel like... Maybe this is one of the reasons that trades get done for me a little bit more than Jason, maybe, is sometimes you just got to pull the trigger. Yeah. They go away. Sometimes you got to rip it.

You just got to pooh. You have to be willing to lose traits.

Yeah. I mean, it's just like- You will not win every single one of your trades.

It's not possible. You can run really hot sometimes and feel like you're invincible, but eventually, you will make a trade, and you'll be like, Holy crap, that was the stupidest thing I possibly could have done.

I'm aiming at a target with a rifle, and I'm wanting to destroy that target right in that bullseye. And he's shooting at that same target with a shotgun, and he's got a lot more bullets to hit the target. And so he hits the target more often than I do.

Yeah, I miss it sometimes. Yeah. But that one's a great. I mean, that's a great.

Yeah, it's a great.

It's so great. We have tons of stories like that where we look back and we regret and we pull the trigger early or overthink it or don't say yes to deals. I mean, it happens. We don't know the future, nor do we pretend to. We know the past, and we know the future schedule.

And do your best with the trends and the stats.

Yeah. A YouTube question from Thomas, do you think Trey Vincent is an important stash? Is he going to be their workhorse when he comes back? I've thought about this a little bit. What do you think?

I won't call him a very important stash, but a decent recently important one. I think when he comes back, he will be the guy. I think he's good.

I think he is significantly better than whatever else is on the roster. He will have a lot of fantasy value at the end of the season. That's my belief in him. Will he be a league-winning workhorse back? I doubt it.

Okay. Chris Olave or Bill in a flex spot this week. Olave against Chicago, Bill at Dallas. This is from Lou on Instagram.

Oh, man. Probably Bill.

Bill against Dallas?

Yeah.

Is that the same Dallas as Rico, Dallas?

Yeah, it is.

We said last week was going to be a make or break.

I was going to say, it was Bill against Chicago, which his yards per attempt and everything was great. He had the fumble, right? Yes. So you have a minus two. And then Jaden hit a really good throw. The broken play to Luke McCaffrey, and then some really just tremendous shutdown throws that takes that away from Bill.

Yeah, and he underperformed the matchup. He's at home. Chicago gives up 25 points a game to runningbacks. He got all the runningback work. He didn't get close to 25.

I'm going.

But it's still the right call there. Yeah. Instagram question from Freddie. I was offered Derrick Henry and Justin Jefferson. What? For Jonathan Taylor. Do I keep rolling with JT or take the two for one? We just talked about the schedule for Henry. We talked about Henry quite a bit the rest of the season.

I think it's a very fair trade, and I would take the Justin Jefferson, Derek Henry side.

If I felt pretty good at running... This is why everything's contextual, obviously. But if I felt good at wide receiver right now, pretty decent, I'm not doing that trade.

Jonathan Taylor is a true difference maker at a position where he can go on a bad week, score 20, and on a good week, score 35. Those guys, you can usually count on one hand. So that's why I say it's Fairtrade. It's worthwhile What is...

I mean, we don't actually have this answer, but it's a question you got to think about. What's Minnesota going to do at quarterback? Because with Carson Wentz, it has been much, much better. I mean, You got back to back 100-yard weeks for Justin Jefferson. Jj McCarthy is the future of the team. They need to get him reps. There's been some reports.

He missed 30 days of practice.

Yeah, there's been some reports of even maybe when he's healthy, they might hold him back to to try and work on some things like rhythm and timing they talked about, or at least this report did.

If he misses 30 days, it's hard to throw him right back in there without coming back and getting the practice reps in as essentially a rookie, right? Yeah. I don't think Carson Wents has been... He's been better for Jefferson, for sure.

Yes, he's not necessarily better for the bikers.

But I do think the transition will happen at some point.

Yeah, it'll go back to McCarthy.

It'll go back to McCarthy. Last one here, Jacob. It's a good one. I've seen it a lot of places. Just got traded in our league. Should I consider trading George Pickens right now this week since CD is coming back from injured?

Well, number one, the report was he has a chance to play, so it could be at least one more week without CeeD Lane.

You know what Pickens is on the year?

Oh, he's done. I assume he's wide receiver three.

That is correct.

Oh, man. Yeah, he is running hot.

He is-Eleven targets, nine targets, nine He's 11 targets.

He is making himself so much money.

Touchdowns in five consecutive games, and one of them with two touch downs. So he has six on the year across the last five games.

I think that Pickens is still going to be very, very good, though. Yeah, I do, too. So this is not a...

It's just not probably number...

It's not like Riko, where you're like, Man, it's not going to be anything close to this. Like, Pickens could still be... Pickens can still be a top 12 wide receiver.

Yeah, he could be top 10 still.

The way that Dak is playing, Dak could support both CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens' top 12 options.

What was the fantasy finish of Waddle and Tyreek during their super year? Because I feel like Waddle finished in the top seven. I think he was wide receiver seven. I do not recall off the top of my head. That'd be a quick one to look at because I'm pretty sure Waddle was a wide receiver one.

There are plenty of- Kyle's saying seven. There are plenty of examples. It's It's not even unusual for a team to have two wide receiver ones, and it's very common for a team to have two wide receiver twos on a team, whether it's Jason T. Higgins or there's so many examples. It's happened in Dallas before. So both those guys can thrive.

That defense- Tyreka was the wide receiver two, Wadda, wide receiver seven, same year, 2022.

It happens when a quarterback runs hot.

And a defense runs terrible. Yeah.

It's not weird or uncommon.

You didn't want to go cold there? Sure. You didn't want to go the hot-cold combo? I should. You wanted to runs terrible? You felt like cold was like underselling how bad Dallas is defense is.

Exactly.

Dallas is defense is really, really bad. All right, that was today's Mailbag. Watch Every game, every Sunday with NFL Sunday ticket and YouTube TV. Visit youtube. Com/fantasyfootballers. Local and national games on YouTube TV. Nfl Sunday ticket for out-of-market games. Base plan required. Excludes digital-only games. Commercial use excluded. No refunds. Before we We'll close it out, Mike, I do need to ask you a question.

Oh, goodness.

Because we had the Monday Night Football double header, which I think we're going to keep doing that, or it's going to happen.

Well, no, now it's the back to back this week.

Is it? Oh, the back to... Yeah, because now the East Coast is getting like a 10: 00 PM game. I know you figured out how to split screen. I did. I'm assuming yours is set up like ours on YouTube TV, where you can go back and forth, left and right for the sound. Yes. Immediately Immediately, when you put it up on split screen, you messaged us. You said you hated it. Now, you eventually watched these games. Did it change your opinion at all?

No, I hated it.

Oh, you still hated it?

I hated it.

I was not- You're not ADD enough. Jason and I were like, Every time the commercials hit, I got something else to watch.

You want to know where I am when those Monday night football games are going? I am standing in front of my TV. It is wonderful. Do you do that? Oh, yeah. I'm just standing there the whole time.

You get up from your TV tray?

I finish my gourmet steak dinner.

I'm not eating a dinner for three hours. So, yeah, when I finish, I get up from my TV tray and I walk over. You stand in front of it? And I stand and I watch it like a dog looking out of a window.

I feel like just People watching Jason secretly watch games is entertaining to me. Although, frequently, you don't have pants on.

That's true. I'm at home. I'm either at home or sometimes- So pantsless, salsry stakes on a- Monday or Thursday, I often I'll go out to- Don't forget about that apple cobbler. I'll go out to a sports bar and watch- Which game? Monday or Thursday.

Okay. I couldn't invest properly. I like the entirety of the story where I jumped. My focus was the Falcons game because that's where my fantasy matchup was. On the week, me versus Papa Josh, Béjan versus Drake London. It was back to back. You saw what was going on. By the time the Falcons game is done, all the setup for the Washington game. I wasn't truly invested in it, and I didn't like that.

All right. Fair enough, Mike. Different strokes. Yeah. So you prefer the back to back? West Coast or you can live with that?

If that's what I have to do, that's what I prefer.

But if you have two games on a Monday, you're going back to back versus the L.

But just do one. Monday night is special.

I do feel like it makes both less special. Yes. That is true. Because when the Falcons Bills game started, it felt special. Yes. Then as soon as the other game started, and I'm going back and forth, it was like, Yeah, that's stupid. I can enjoy the two, but one is better. It is more impactful, more important.

I mean, that argument goes to the amount of days a week that the games get played, too, in some respects where it's like- We should not own the domain Tuesday Night Football, Wednesday Night Football, Saturday Night Football, but we do because we had to.

And Christmas football, man.

And Christmas football. Christmasfootball. Com. I don't need Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. And was it COVID that would push them into Tuesday sometimes? Is that why we have Tuesday Night Football?

Yeah, one or two.

They'll just add it sometime. Tuesdays will become international football day. Oh, well. I guess our jobs are secure. There's something to that. That'll do it for today's episode. Shout out to the Deucers over there in Deucers Alley. Appreciate you guys holding it down today, and we'll be back with all the matchups tomorrow. Don't miss it.

Goodbye.

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