Transcript of How We Feelin? + TNF Preview, Trade Q's - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/16

Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in.

Wednesday, September 16th, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, and the Deucers in the building for another episode. Another fine episode indeed.

Only the finest.

I feel like that's how I would describe the Thursday Night Football matchup. Only the finest.

That is the issue with today's episode is actually—

Why is that an issue?

The Thursday Night matchup because it's too good. to enjoy it. It's an incredible matchup, the Lions going to the Bills, and it's like so much fantasy relevance. And we're going to have to sit here and hear about your team.

No, you— I don't need to tell you about my team. You already know about it.

Inside, inside my heart.

I doubt Josh Allen, Jahmyr Gibbs, and Amon-Ra St. Brown do anything on Thursday. Now you're tempting me. Now you're bringing it to the forefront. No, look, I'm just excited. This is an awesome Thursday night matchup.

It really is 54.5-point line.

And it doesn't, it doesn't hurt that both of these teams are in 2 of the best matchups in week 1. Like the Saints game with the Lions was awesome. The, the Bills-Texans matchup. I got Mike already here. He's scouting waivers are running. He's scouting waivers. He's a big Deebo guy. Picked up Deebo for 17 fab. Felt like you had to do it.

Had to.

I felt like you had to do it.

the bench with Zay Flowers maybe or maybe not playing, I had to make an aggressive move for Deebo, which don't hear what I'm not saying. I just needed a guy.

This didn't feel too—

No, it didn't feel great, but we did it anyways.

Yeah. Matt Collins went for $12.

Wow.

Jason, you took Kenyan Sadiq for $9.

I did. It fits my game plan of playing for 2027.

I got Caleb Douglas, it looks like.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's hard when these go through on the show. It's hard not to take a glance.

I was at 6 for Caleb Douglas and I moved him down right before the— before we came in here. So you're welcome.

Well, I was at 6 for Caleb Douglas as well, but he was behind Sadiq.

Okay.

Yeah. I mean, it's— I think we all thought it was kind of an uninspiring week 1 waiver list.

I said that to you this morning. I think in the last decade, this was the least exciting week 1 waivers that we've experienced. There just wasn't really a home run pickup.

Which is, it's a little bit of the double-edged sword because if there's a hot running back pickup, it's an injury. Generally, that means that there was an injury. You know, every once in a while you get a James Robinson who you're like, seems like it's out of nowhere. Wide receivers, they're more likely to come out of nowhere, but I don't, yeah, no one really No one super came out of the gate. No one hit the home run.

Yeah.

Yeah. We always remind people and it's a good time to do it. We say drop it like it's hot. You want to check your waiver wire after it runs and see who people released. Not thinking there's going to be a fight in this league for anybody. Xavier Worthy, Terrence Ferguson, Najee Harris, and Tyrone Tracy and Justice Hill hit the waiver wire. They're going to stay there. But maybe your league's different because there's probably some of these disappointing week 1 guys. We went through the, what was it? bounce back or buns yesterday. And some of those—

It's heavy on the science.

Yeah, the scientific segment there. But data. But no, I mean, there'll be guys that hit the waiver wire this week for sure. I thought it was going to be Tyler Shook and then the second half happened. I thought I'd be releasing him. But back into the show here, we have a fun quick question. We're going to do take checks just to— just a quick week 1 inventory. on things we feel like we got right so far and what you've more not got right. Just like, what do you feel good about right now? What do you feel bad about?

Right.

From what you thought in the offseason. We'll get into some news. We'll preview the Thursday night game that Jason's excited about. And then we'll talk some mailbag. But a couple reminders at the top. If you haven't done it, we have 2 apps. We have the UDK app, which people used all offseason to get ready for their drafts. But it's a good reminder, pick up the free Fantasy Footballers app on the App Store. Apple or Android. And it's, you know, our rankings are in there. We got articles. All the Foot Clan perks are in there. It's absolutely free. You can grab that right now on the App Store. It's a good reminder. And then if you want to join the community, jointhefoot.com, ultimate dashboard, all of our premium in-season tools, custom waiver wire, spot starts, and tons of other resources, including a bonus episode of the show every week.

Absolutely. And the Ultimate Dashboard, it's the only way to do your waivers. Honestly.

It was, it's so helpful. It is really being able to see your, all your leagues at a glance with waivers, who's available, go league by league. It just speeds things up tremendously. If you're in one league, it's still helpful. But if you're, if you're in multiple leagues, it's like, I can't live without it anymore.

So we just had our chopped league. Our Guillotine League waivers go through and looks like I have Ja'Marr Chase now.

You sure do.

Morgan Evans.

You devil.

I bid $666 on him.

Yeah.

It looks like it wasn't, I mean, everybody bid on him. It wasn't too much higher than where I was.

I needed him.

The Hitman was. Colson Loveland went for $316. If you're in a chopped league or you don't know what that is, they're pretty fun. We did it for the first time last year. 18 people. One person, the lowest score gets chopped every week. Raise your hand if you were chopped this week.

Okay.

Yeah.

For those listening at home, Al Borland's hand went up.

Gave you Ja'Marr Chase.

You're welcome.

One less thing to worry about. But yeah. So interesting. Yeah. Those just popped through as well. It's always week 1 in a chop league. You don't know how much to spend. I mean, the budget's $1,000.

Yeah. Yeah.

People can spend up, but you really don't know how much to spend. Some people really don't know.

And we get—

who are you talking about?

I'm talking about 150 bones spent on DeMarcus Robinson.

Who did that?

Oh, one of the guys in the—

he got, he got chopped first last year. So he had no idea.

Yeah, he's going heavy.

He outbid the $5.

That's what I said. The $5 was the second bid.

Oh, Jake.

Oh, man. People, you know, like more and more I'm starting to get the guillotine chopped advice. Like, hey, what do I do here? And it's like, Dude, I don't know that there's boilerplate for any of chopped league because it's so contextual.

Yeah, it's so subjective to your roster.

You want to be able to have fab over the course of the season, but you also don't want to get chopped because once you get chopped, you're just, you're out and you go to the grave with all your money.

Yeah, it's fun.

Can't take it with you.

I feel like I overspent, but Not by too much. All right. Quick question. Let's do those take checks. Let's talk about 1, 2, 3 things you feel good about in terms of what week 1 might have confirmed about the offseason thought processes.

Sure. Some of the things that I think I feel good about getting right based on week 1. Jackson Dart was a guy that I, you know, I tried to take a lot of shots on. He looked good week 1. That one's tough because it was Dallas and Dallas Dallas's defense looked like 2025. So, you know, that one I'm tempered, but I'm excited because he did, he did look good. He looked mature, his play style. He still ran the ball, everything that I was hoping for. And he has neighbors from week 1.

And likely like the fact that there's 2, it seems like there's 2 strong weapons for him and then Malachi Fields can like come along slowly and maybe turn into a 3rd option.

Yeah. Not as into De'Von Achane. You know, I was worried about the offense for Achane. That seemed a little bit worrisome. He didn't get, you know, he scored fewer fantasy points this week than in any week last year. I also saw a thread of plays where there were potential checkdowns that turned into scrambles from Malik Willis.

Yeah, it's going to happen.

And it was like, you know, you just watch that and it's like, okay, that's 3 or 4 targets a game, which is like, it's not, it's just a couple plays, but that is, that's a baseline of like 4 fantasy points.

I also think Malik Willis in week 1 was the lowest on-target rate percentage-wise for his passes in general. The offense did not get momentum at any point in that game to work. I mean, I think there were like 1 or 2 times we were like, oh, here's a drive. Like you just, there's some things to be concerned about there.

Hopefully he can work it out and he's playing with 2 rookies.

I mean, he's a great player. So you hope that, that, I mean, it can overcome like Bijan did with Cooper Rush in that game. That's what you'd love to see. But yeah, the checkdowns are going to be a problem.

Yeah. Bucky Irving.

Oh, wait a minute.

The guy, your unofficial my guy.

Yes, my unofficial my guy clearly was that dude.

What an offseason. I feel like you almost said nothing about him all offseason.

Man, all offseason.

He spoke with his actions.

That's right. That's right, Mike.

It was the subtext of most of the other things you said.

Yeah.

I feel good about Caleb and the Bears so far. I mean, Caleb was a my guy and the Bears, the bold prediction. I said they'd all break out. I feel great about Isaiah Likely. He was a darling. And in the offseason, great start. And then I think we all, we had the conversation about Drake London and how it might be a problem without a trustworthy quarterback. I think we saw that in week 1.

We didn't know how untrustworthy he was going to, his quarterback play was going to be in week 1. It will get better with Pua, but still concerning.

Well, and then, and then Ladd, I feel good about the involvement and it seemed like Ladd was the dude.

He was eating.

Yes.

And even though the injury happened, I feel good about him. good about that, Mike? What do you feel good about so far?

I feel good about my optimism for the change in the Ravens offense, that getting old hat, old busted out of there, get some, get the Ben Johnson system down to Lamar Jackson, see what he can do. You know, that's still that. That's a one game. It's like the, what you were saying about Dart, Jay. Like it's the one game. It's the Colts. I'm not going to victory lap it yet, but it feels if you got flowers or or Henry on your, on your team, you're feeling really good. The Cleveland Browns are who we thought they were and they are. It's just, it's an absolute fantasy graveyard.

You were very hands-off on all of their players and so far it looks like you should be hands-off on all of their players. And maybe you can get the Shedeur thing going and maybe because Fannon was good with Shedeur, maybe that happens. Maybe that's the salvation for Tua sometimes for the Falcons.

Sometimes you like drop your wedding ring into the toilet, right? And it's like, sometimes that water's— I'm just saying, I'm just going along with it.

I've never had this happen.

I've never had it happen. But my point is, if you drop something in a toilet, sometimes it's like, oh good, there's nothing in that toilet. Still gross. I got to get it out. Okay.

God. Oh yeah.

Yeah. This is like Quinshon Judkins. I don't know where we're going. Is in a toilet bowl of diarrhea. And it's like, that's a good player down there. But if you— are you really going to go try to grab that?

No.

Jason.

You just got to flush the whole team away. You got to flush the whole team down the, down the drain. Just let that ring go. All the nice gyms.

Yeah.

Concepcion. And, you know, everybody just flush them.

Okay.

There you go.

Perfect.

Dirty. No, we nasty bowl.

We're all tracking.

Just disgusting. The sidewalls are ruined. Okay.

If I don't talk, he's going to keep talking.

There is there and there's more to be worried about than just Deshaun Watson and the quarterback play. Like the usage of Harold Fannon was not what it was. And I'm not just talking targets. I'm like talking his actual being on the field running routes.

82% of snaps.

Like it's, it's not what it was.

I took a little Glansky at this morning.

And then I'm feeling good about Stefon Diggs as the, you know, when he signed on with Washington, took him in like a lot of mock drafts of saying that this player's ADP is not going to catch up. And he was 1,000 yards off of his ACL last year for Drake Maye.

He also had very good separation numbers in week 1 if you looked at that. He also— I look, it's a Diggs and Antonio Williams who I thought looked outstanding are a problem for Terry McLaurin in a real way, in a way of consistency from Terry McLaurin. He's not the only show in town anymore. He's going to have his games, but I think you have reliable pass catching options that are emerging there that are a threat to McLaurin being a safe start every week.

McLaurin's target market share has always been one of his saving graces. It's just like he's been on an island, the only person to throw it to. And now if you do have other options, it's, it's going to be tough, especially for an offense that doesn't necessarily look great. That offensive line is hurting. And it'll be interesting because Antonio Williams, I think he only played 43% of snaps. He got a touchdown, looked great. Will he play his way onto the field more and more, or will he just kind of have that slot role?

Yeah, he was targeted on a high percentage of routes when he got the opportunity. It was neat to see. And don't forget McLaurin's super year was like 11 touchdowns. And so you had what, Antonio Williams and Diggs with a touchdown in week 1?

It wasn't all good. Some of the things that—

Yeah.

What do you feel shaky about after week 1?

Some of my opinions I feel shaky about in both directions. Speaking of the Ravens offense, Mike, I was worried about Derrick Henry with the loss of the offensive line, the loss of their fullback. Like, will, will this work for Henry? Yeah, he was fine. He's immortal. Totally okay. I was optimistic that with Kevin Petullo out of the way and Sean Mannion taking over kind of the ping pong we've seen over the last like 6 years for the Eagles where good coordinator, bad coordinator, good coordinator, bad coordinator. Week 1, I was so uninspired by the Eagles offense and not just the play, but like that. It just looked like more of the same. Where's a good offense? Can—

right.

Is this really just a Jalen Hurts problem? And then my biggest fear, because he's my guy, is I still have zero doubts on the talent of Carnell Tate. Cam Ward.

Here, Jay, you intended.

Yes. Thank you, Mike.

Your intentions were good that Carnell Tate was going to be a great player.

You know, we talk about when we talk about the worst teams in the league, which we've done a lot this offseason. We have brought up, you know, the Cardinals, the Jets, the Dolphins, the Browns. Those teams are like, who's going to get that number 1 pick? It might be the Titans. I mean, the Titans might be worse than all of them.

I—

mine are easy ones. It's obvious. Achane Malik, Dolphins, week 1, not good. We'll see what it looks like over the next couple of weeks, but the schedule's tough. I expected more. Hopefully Chris Bell can get like better involved. And it was not, I mean, Caleb Douglas was a success story from week 1, 5 for 94 in his debut playing 92% of snaps or something. And then Marvin Pitts. I mean, Marvin Harrison and Kyle Pitts combined for 1 catch in week 1. I was kind of hopeful for both of those guys. So we'll see if it's prescriptive or just an anomaly. But those 3 situations I feel, I feel nervous about.

Sure. I'm, you know, I was kind of apathetic on Justin Jefferson of feeling just, man, I don't know if I'm, I'm not willing to take that risk. And this one still is TBD because if you had, if I knew that Carson Wentz was starting for the Minnesota Vikings, how funny. Yeah, it's ridiculous.

Funny.

It's so absurd.

If we knew that the third string quarterback from 2 weeks ago was going to be starting. We'd obviously love Justin Jefferson.

Because I know that he's capable to get Justin Jefferson the ball and he forces him the ball. He's just, he's like a top tier. I'm sorry. He knows that Jefferson needs to get those targets. And when he's not open, it doesn't matter. You just throw him the ball. And it was week 1, but Steelers backfield, man, it, it looks like it's just a mess. And on top of the, you know, the Steelers were very pass heavy. They were pushing the ball downfield. I mentioned this in the, on the Dynasty show that's coming out today. So you can, you can check that out as well. But like how bad I came away from watching DK Metcalf. It was so horrible. But the opportunities were there. Like this isn't just, just garbage checkdowns to DK Metcalf.

I made offers on him this week.

These are, these are like big boy, high ADOT. If DK Metcalf can actually come through with the, opportunities, which again, he didn't. He stunk. But you want— like, you got to buy into situations and offenses and like just hope that the player can come through with what they're being asked to do.

Just to be clear, you were optimistic the Steelers backfield would have value.

Yes.

It didn't look that way in week 1.

No, it didn't. It looked like a split mess.

Okay. Let's do some news.

News and notes from around the league.

De'Jon Stribling placed on IR with the ankle injury. This was news that broke moments ago.

Don't worry. He's doubtful on Sleeper.

That, that just broke, Jason. That will get fixed momentarily. Jacoby Lane is expected to undergo wrist surgery in the coming days, potentially as long as soon as Wednesday. Could miss about a month. The update to the Josh Jacobs situation. We found out yesterday that his ex-girlfriend who's involved in the case filed a motion to seal evidence and discovery materials in the criminal case. It makes it more challenging for video footage to be released by anybody. It's not just his side that wants to file for that. It's her side. And she wants to protect her privacy is what she said in the documents.

So the The room— I don't know the NFL can get the tape.

The reporting after Jacobs did this was that the NFL was still trying to get the video. They want to see that, you know, as part of their investigation to know what to do. Then after that was reported, her team did the same thing and filed the seal. And so I don't know if the NFL will go against the, you know, the filings and wishes of the victim.

The video opened them up to like a year-long suspension. Or something like that to me. You know, we've seen, I mean, the Ray Rice situation is an example where we never saw him again.

Right.

What is your expectation? I mean, I think maybe it'll be a 6-game suspension. That's mine. With, to put it, time served. You know, like games missed credited towards maybe he's back in week 7.

Yeah. I think that would, if I had to make any sort of projection or moves based off of the evidence, That's what I would go with.

The Brock Bowers news has been positive and it continues to be. The knee injury is not overly serious according to ESPN's Dan Graziano. The team felt he could have played this week if necessary and it's possible he returns this week, but they do not want to play him until he's 100% certain, until they're 100% certain he's not going to be affected by the knee.

Yeah, but the last sentence.

I believe you'll see the latest, the latest to see him is week 4 according to Dan Graziano.

Okay.

So is that, is that, is that not serious?

What are we doing?

What are we doing?

So 2 more weeks off maybe.

He might play this week, but the latest you'll see him is week 4. Okay.

Come on.

All right.

Come on.

Omar Cooper Jr., high ankle sprain. A lot of rookie injury news, by the way. Lane, Stribling, Omar Cooper. Week to week, we'll see. I don't think he has a lot of value in fantasy. Dillon Sampson's placed on IR by the Browns. What was the name of the—

Raheem.

Raheem Sanders.

Yes.

Is the backup.

Yeah.

And he did get playing time and he is kind of a dynasty.

This, this was part of the Judkins problem of how Todd Monken has run his offenses. It doesn't matter who the primary grinder on the ground is. And if they're able to catch the ball, which Judkins is, he always had someone else. And it's when Dylan Sampson went down there like, hey, all right, Raheem, now it's your job. It, so it just really hurts the The ceiling and the floor for Judkins.

All right. We'll take a break and we'll talk some Thursday Night Football, get into some mailbag and help you get ready for week 2.

Thursday Night Breakdown.

All right. The Detroit Lions 1-0 by the skin of their teeth.

Barely.

Yeah. Buffalo Bills, 1-0. One 2-point conversion by the skin of their teeth. I mean, both these teams, they were in nail biters. Vegas line, Buffalo minus 5.5 at home, over-under 54.5. Let's just call it close. Let's just call it. We round up around here. Buffalo, 30-point implied total.

255, of course.

Yeah, 255. We round always up.

If it's 53.5, we don't really care.

No, honestly, if it was like 55.5.

Yeah, we probably round down.

Lions implied point total 24.5. I mean, that's a huge over-under, 54.5. That's awesome. I mean, we did not see either of these like defenses able to stop people in the second half. Houston moved the ball, 3 touchdowns for Montgomery. Tyler Shuck got it going. They, they were awesome in the second half against the Lions. This should be fun.

This should be really fun.

This is the stuff fantasy football dreams are made of.

Yes. The weather is great. You know, no worries because it's in Buffalo, the time of year. There's nothing in the way of a ton of fantasy points. And congratulations, Andy.

He doesn't want to see me smile.

There's people listening that need advice, Jason.

Here's what I would say.

On this game, really?

Since 2021, there have been 41 games since 2021 that had an over-under of 53 or higher. And the highest scoring of those 41 games was Buffalo against Detroit, 48 to 42. And that was in 2024. This should be a lot of fun. You got this new look Buffalo offense with Joe Brady. He did his best. Like he did the Ben Johnson. He tore the shirt off in the locker room.

Yeah.

Didn't work.

He doesn't work out as much.

I'd leave it to Ben Johnson.

Yeah.

But you're going to pull that move. People, when it happens, have to go, oh yeah, they've got to be surprised.

I was surprised.

Yeah. I mean, when he did, I was like, oh yeah, that's what I thought.

That's what I thought it would look like.

Okay.

You did that.

Yeah.

I mean, look, it's cute.

I'm not— it's better than me doing it. But, but when Ben Johnson's the standard, don't do it.

Josh Allen, play him. Jahmyr Gibbs. Yep. By the way, Josh Allen, most rushing touchdowns since the beginning of 2023. That's crazy among quarterbacks. 44 of them. Gibbs has the most rushing touchdowns among running backs.

Kyle, he's got the most all-time, right?

Most all-time is Josh Allen. So Allen's the most among quarterbacks.

You say most since this time. You could just go back to the beginning. You pick any date you want.

I guess he just wanted to let us know he scored 44 times since 2023.

Ah, okay. Okay.

But so Allen's the most among quarterbacks. Gibbs is the most among running backs, 51 of them since 2023. And then don't worry, Amon-Ra is the most among wide receivers since 2023. So all of them since 2023.

James Cook just broke their, you know, all-time rushing touchdown record as well a year ago.

So Allen, Gibbs, Amon-Ra the most. And if anybody's got all 3 of those guys, you're in good shape.

How are you feeling about Jameson Williams coming off of a disaster of a game?

It really was.

I mean, the volume's there, 9 targets, but it was 4 for 45 with how many, how many were credited as drops?

Probably 3 drops. And they were tackled at the 1-yard line. He, I was, I was mostly optimistic about the utilization, the drops. They can happen.

Yeah, they come and go.

But the plays where, look, they would have been big plays if he held onto the football. And so I wasn't too discouraged. I mean, 36% of the first read targets. I don't think they're going to go away from that. They've said it publicly that they're not worried about the drops. So pretty, I mean, in this game, yeah, you can't fire them up.

You can't ask for more. Jameson Williams, to me, if people are disappointed in that first week, I think you should go trade for him. The utilization was perfect. The worry was like, okay, Sam LaPorta is on the field. Is he going to run the same amount of reps? Is he going to have that participation, the amount of targets? 9 targets, 95% route participation, 77% outside. It was everything you want other than catching the ball. And that's going to happen sometimes. So Jameson Williams is—

Just ask George Pickens.

A must.

Yeah.

I think he's an absolute must start.

So that's easy. I mean, I think Goff, when you look at the matchup, you are going on the road. We don't love Goff on the road as much. Did I mention the 54.5-point over-under?

It's pretty delicious.

I think he's stream-worthy.

I mean, Stroud was fine.

Yeah, I think in this case, I think you're stream-worthy there. DJ Moore, fire him up. If you spot starts in this game, I don't think Khalil Shakir is a bad spot start in a game with this high of an over-under, a 30-point implied point total. If you're looking for ones in that category, I mean, He's a go-to guy for Josh Allen.

6 targets last week.

Yeah. I mean, you just could do worse is my point.

Yeah. No, not everything is going to be a top-end player. You got to fill out an entire roster.

You just picked up Deebo.

Yeah.

Would you rather play Deebo or—

I would. I'd rather play Deebo.

I would as well.

We like Purdy this week too. Kincaid and LaPorta, I think, are both in play.

Absolutely.

This is not a complicated game.

No, that's what I was saying. People don't really need our advice here. It's like, yeah. Do you have a Lion on your roster right now? If you do, start them. Do you have—

no, that's right.

But that's not someone that you probably are rostering right now. No, he's not rostered. If you already have a Lion or a Bill on your roster, plug them in your lineup. Also, the biggest advice we can give you is get them out of your flex.

Yes.

And put them into your, you know, your running back or your wide receiver spot.

Now we're helping.

Leave flexibility.

James Cook will be fine.

The excitement here is just— He's going to have a great game.

Wee. Wee.

Yeah.

Start them all. I mean, I look at every name. Allen, Cook, Moore.

Put your hands in the air.

Yeah.

And get ready and wave them like you just don't care.

What a game.

This is going to be so fun. It is really—

oh man, look at both those dudes back there.

I mean, I know that we have had—

you can do it, guys.

There are plenty of matchups in the past with an over 50-point over-under, which is exciting, that disappoints.

Yes.

It happens. This is the NFL and, you know, I can't fathom a world where this game— maybe it doesn't hit the over because it's so high, but I can't fathom a game where it's like not an exciting offensive output in some capacity.

It's hard for me to imagine at home, the home opener for Buffalo, they can't score on the Lions defense after what we saw last week. And if they score, then it's going to be wheels up for Detroit trying to get back into this game. I mean, it is a 5.5-point line for Buffalo. I get it. I mean, it makes sense. They looked pretty good. My goodness, the Lions defense in week 1 gave up 45 fantasy points to the Vailly-Olave combo.

Yeah.

That, that was impressive. Mr. Vailly with the 2 diving catches. Yeah, this game is easy. I'm just kind of wasting time here.

I mean, what else?

Let's go to the mailbag then.

Is there any questions? No. Let's do some mailbag.

Mailbag presented by Paramount Plus.

I feel like that was a little quiet.

What?

You're a little chill.

I didn't feel that.

Okay. Maybe my ears are clogged. If you have a question, is there—

they're clogged, Grandpa.

TheFantasyFootballers.com, submit a question button or dial the voicemail hotline 302-464-TFFB. Looks like we have some voicemail questions in here. Let's start with a, I think, a Chopped League question.

What's up, ballers? It's Doc from Atlanta. Quick question about these guillotine leagues. I've got some buddies that are really doing some nefarious things in the chat trying to bait everybody into spending all their budget at the beginning, you know. And yeah, this first week we had a Ja'Marr Chase hit the wire and everybody's saying, oh, I bet it all. I bet it all. It's kind of like a poker match here. What do you guys do to, you know, keep it clean but still get a little dirty on the chat forums? Guillotine leagues. Let me know.

I mean, this was our lunch conversation yesterday. I was trying to tell people.

I think that's part of the fun.

League chat influencing. And here's— you don't have to worry about collusion in the Guillotine League. I don't think.

Yeah. You're saying when you're talking about spending money?

No.

At that point, you're just trying to affect markets.

Yeah.

I mean, survival of the fittest. I mean, you just do whatever you want to do.

Dude, lather me up in the mud, bro. I don't think I'm getting dirty.

I think that's part of the fun is taunting people into trying to spend. I mean, I had no idea what people were going to spend that at the lunch conversation. I didn't think I was getting Ja'Marr Chase for $666.

You didn't think you were going to get him? No, we really did talk it up.

I mean, Mike bid $515.

Yeah.

I mean, I was there. But, but, but the DeMarcus Robinson guy, the guy who paid $150 for him.

Yeah, we got him good.

I thought he said he really needed him. I thought he was going to spend $1,000. I mean, I have seen some resources come out. We may put some up on the site in terms of like fab guides. For these players at some point.

So I mean, it's so difficult to actually tell people what to do.

I think that the best way to think of it is the bit— it's a pretty big range for these guys. And then you add your context to the range. It's like, yes, you know, you know, Chase is probably, you know, it's $375 to $500, you know, something in that range. Like that's probably a fair price for him.

I guess we could—

You get the most weeks in week 1. That's another factor, right? You get the guy for the longest amount of time.

And if you like—

But on the flip side, you also have the most amount of teams that you— that have an opportunity to be better than. So, you know, it's one of those— what the small research that I've done, because this is a newer league in the last couple of years, play style, is that saving your fab is more valuable. Obviously, your team context is going to vary. If you don't have a wide receiver to play or a running back to play, go hard in the paint. Because if you, you know, if you are going out there and putting up a goose egg and you're out, you're out.

Yeah. That's the funniest part about saving fab, right?

Right.

Yeah.

So valuable unless you go out. Then it is the dumbest. I mean, people last year, I feel like the first 4 or 5 of the first 6 or 7 people that went out had full fab budgets. 100%. They didn't spend. And then it was like a lot of them spent on Brock Bowers. Well, that eventually happened. But I do remember, I think the first 3 weeks it was like almost full budget people that, that went out.

Oh, but which just feels bad.

Like if I go out now, I went out swinging.

And yet Matt is saying the people that won, as I assume you're saying Schneider didn't spend until week 4 or 5.

Yeah. Yeah. Because if you can thread the needle, if you make it through with that roster, you got You know, you didn't draft Josh Jacobs.

Yeah. That's where— Or someone who got injured and— And Marv.

Yeah. That's where I think at the beginning of the year, you just have to not be the worst. And when there's 17 and 18 and 16 and 15 teams that like, you've got good odds at not being the worst.

Yep.

Save your money and then you can get bigger and better studs that drop to waivers for cheaper later.

All right. Justin in New York. Hey, ballers. What do we do with AJ Brown right now? Should I try to trade him? For someone that will at least play these next few weeks, who would be the cheapest player you would be comfortable trading him for now? I think that's a good question to work through here.

Yeah.

If you feel like he was a key cog, you don't have a bunch of other depth or players that are going to carry you.

I mean, we've got rest of season rankings that are valuable for, for situations like this where you're like, okay, well, how do you value him on the season? So let me bring up some names and see if you guys would be willing to trade, you know, right now.

He's really low for me.

Yeah, he's pretty low.

Where is he in your rest of season wide receiver rankings? Because I've got my number.

He's at 35 for me right now.

He's at 27 for me.

Yeah, he's at 34.

So above the names just above AJ Brown for me that I would trade him for based on rest of season rankings, Luther Burden.

Yeah.

Jameson Williams. Mike Evans.

Jamo, you might be able to do.

Oh yeah.

Burden, I don't think you're going to get that trade done.

Rome Odunze is just below him for me. I'm guessing he's above for you guys. Davante Adams, would you do that? Because I mean, it sounds like he's above yours.

I would do it for Adams. I would do it for Rome.

I would do it for Jason.

It's a lot of weeks, guys. It's 6 weeks plus some reduced production.

Yeah.

And it never proves that he's been with May and done it yet.

Yeah. This is a player I was extremely bullish on. I just checked his rosters, guys.

He was— he put his money where his mouth was.

I still believe that, you know, it'll work out in the, in the end. But if you don't make the playoffs, it doesn't matter if they go off during them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That one's really unfortunate. It's just a big injury that happened early and you gotta— sometimes you do have to do this. You just have to accept your losses. AJ Brown is not worth what AJ Brown was.

And how did the rest of your draft go? Like, did you hit on one of the middle or late round wide receivers that you can, like, you can tread water with them? Is it's— well, when it comes to trading the big boys like this, it is just, it's so difficult to give a, a blanket statement of what I would do with that player.

Jason brought up the rest of the season rankings, but those are what factor into the trade analyzer algorithms that we have on in the Foot Clan. So there is a trade analyzer. You can plug names in there right now and see how we balance it out based on rest of season rankings. That's a quick way to put some of the other names maybe on these opponents of yours. Put them in there and see what we think about it. That's at jointhefoot.com. Let's do another voicemail.

Hey, ballers, would you trade Josh Jacobs and Colston Loveland for Brock Bowers? Half point PPR. Thanks, bud. Hmm.

It's a big no for me.

Yeah, that's a no for me as well. I think that you, you are then having to find a tight end to play.

Would you trade just one for one, Loveland for Bowers?

That is interesting.

Yes, easily.

You'd trade away Loveland to receive Bowers?

Easily.

Yeah.

I'm on the Bowers side still. I wondered though when the injury happened, like, would you? But I don't think I would. However, if you're adding in Josh Jacobs, which I expect you're going to have, half of a season of a, you know, an RB1, at least probably a top 15 running back, but potentially a top 5 running back. I mean, that's where he was last year before his knee injury. I would rather have Loveland and Jacobs.

Okay.

Did Mike answer that? The solo?

I would not do the 2. I'm still thinking of the— your immediate— you're like, no, I would take Bowers. Over the 11. I'm worried about the knee.

I'm worried about the knee.

That's all it comes down to. If you— I'm very optimistic that the knee is not going to be a problem for more than a week or 2 more.

Right. Well, I'm saying long term.

Yeah.

No, I get it. That's part of it. If you're afraid that you don't want to do that dance and he's going to get hurt again, that would be a monster problem. And you don't want— if you don't want to be in that situation.

If the production of Bowers becomes someone that's like, okay, he's good. But he's scoring, you know, 9.5, 10 points a game rest of seasons. That's, that's, that's good for tight end. That's fine. But that's not what you drafted Brock Bowers to be hoping that you were getting 15 points a game.

You're not going to get a goose from him. That's for sure.

That is for sure.

That's not going to happen. We'll take a break. We'll answer some more questions. Warren Elder in Ontario writing in. You guys have been talking about Kellen Moore's offensive system and how it results in more snaps. What are some other teams that have a similar pace of play? And alternatively, what are some teams that are prone to match a slower pace of play? We do put a pace of play article up on the website every Wednesday afternoon, and it is, it is Wednesday. So that'll be going up there. But the top 5 pace of play teams from week 1, and then Jason, you can share the Bottom 5. Saints were number 1. Insane 86 plays in that game. The next closest team, by the way, 67 plays. Green Bay, Kansas City with 67 plays, the Steelers with 64 plays. That's interesting. And then the Panthers with 62.

Yeah. Shockingly, the Ravens were in the bottom 5 in the neutral pace of play. They were just so doggone efficient. The Broncos were down there.

Yeah, that felt like it.

29th. The Jets were very low, which was, I think, surprising. I expected them to be a little bit faster this season, but that was— that's worrisome. The Dolphins, as expected, were very slow. And then the Vikings were the slowest. The slowest. They were the worst. But I will say that they had an, you know, when you have a quarterback that 2 weeks ago was your 3rd string hopping in, not just even like, you know, pregame the way that happened with, you know, the Cooper Rush. Cooper Rush had all the week 1 snaps in preparation. You're going to end up with a slower pace of play. So I don't view the Vikings as necessarily like a, oh my gosh, they're bottom 5 type of team.

Miami compounding how bad the offense was in terms of expected points added, you know, their EPA for everything. And they're slow is concerning.

The fact that the 2 of the bottom 3 were in the same matchup, that was, that's a fun one.

All right. The next question comes in off of YouTube. Would you trade J'Darian Price and George Pickens?

Whoa.

What?

For CMC and Kalen Black?

I know, I know my answer.

I know my answer too. Oh, and it's, it's, my answer is in almost every situation.

Yes. Mine is basically the same. I am a yes.

In a vacuum, I'm a yes. If I have zero wide receivers, but Pickens, obviously I'm not going to do that.

I can't imagine they'd be asking the question.

I mean, I'm doing this.

Yeah.

I want CMC.

I do too. I think we saw what we saw from Ja'Darian Price was worrisome. We talked about it. It could be, hey, rookie's first week. Sure. He's going to get more and more and more involved. But also Charbonnet is going to come back in a couple of weeks. And this definitely seemed like a team that, you know, was it Clint Kubiak or was it the Seahawks that were so adamant in the timeshare? Well, Clint Kubiak left and Gente was all this worry about, oh, Mike Washington is going to hit me. Gente got a monstrous workload.

Yeah.

And then the Seahawks were a 50-50 split just like last year. So I think it's, I think it's a Seahawks problem. And we can know for sure that Ken Walker was very good enough to be a workhorse running back. And they still didn't. So to me, Ja'Darian Price—

That situation is going to forever be in my brain as a conundrum of right and wrong. Sure.

They won a Super Bowl.

Because the plot, the bigger picture was perfectly executed. And you don't know what you don't know. You don't know if Ken Walker can handle the workload this level. in Kansas City. And you don't know if he would have been as efficient, good, or uninjured as he was last year in Seattle.

Sure.

And so, but you also don't know if the Seahawks would have won the championship had Charbonnet been there to, to take half. Like, like they might have backed themselves into a Super Bowl by having to forcibly use your better player.

That, that is, it's, it's wild. I mean, the unknown there. Yeah. Alex writes in on Instagram. Yeah. Generally, how do you value the number 1 waiver priority in a league without FAB?

Great question. To me, it is if I've got it.

Next question.

If I've got the number 1 priority, I am absolutely holding on to that until there is that running back.

Well, you had mentioned Kalen Black. You were willing to burn it for him.

If there is a guy, I mean, obviously Kalen Black in week 1 showed that he is a must-be-rostered player who is good enough should CMC go down. And in week 1, there wasn't really a lot of options. From this point forward, if I've got the number 1 spot, I think I'm going to hold it, let the waivers pass through until an injury to a main guy. happens and, you know, then I get to pick up a star running back going forward. That's how I would personally use it.

The way I handle it is if I have number 1 or the top priority, I will use it for if I'm going to pick up a player who I need to play right now. The, like, I'm not padding my bench with depth with, by burning my number 1 priority, but there are, there's times Where it is the example. Perfect example.

You needed Deebo this week, which is why you paid up 17.

Based off of—

if you had the number 1 waiver priority in a waiver priority league, would you have used it on Deebo and gone to the back of the line?

I would have had to, yeah.

See, I probably would have held onto it and then let the waivers run because you still get to pick up a player after it runs. Obviously you're not going to get your Deebo. That's tough. Where do you stand on that? Like that specific example?

Well, I wouldn't have got Deebo, wouldn't have got Mack Hollins, would not have got Caleb Douglas. Like the, the, this week where like the wide receivers shook out. I don't know. I felt like Deebo was the most playable guy immediately and with Stribling out. Who knows?

Yeah. I think he's going to be involved for a while. It doesn't feel amazing to spend on Deebo.

No, especially because the last time we saw Deebo on the 49ers, he was not good.

So the perfect example then to to play that one out, you would have lost Deebo and all those other guys. So right now, like just looking at our league, you would have probably picked up Khalil Shakir.

Right.

And be starting him instead of Deebo, but you would have retained the number 1. So it's like a trade.

Yes.

Would you trade the number 1 priority and Khalil Shakir?

I think it's really hard to sit there and just wait for An injury.

Yeah.

Because you just, I think you will grow. Like it can get frustrating and it can be a pretty big impact. Like sure, the biggest waiver wire running back impact could win you a handful of weeks starting in week 7, 8, 9, something like that. But then what happens in those early weeks when you have needs and depth and, you know, other people are not going to be patient either. So there is a bit of a like know your league aspect of Well, okay, maybe I burn it, but these guys are all going to burn theirs. Like, I don't know. It's very— it's just a tough call.

It's very valuable, but you can't be beholden to just like, I'm going to hold this because it's like, maybe I can't think of it. But last year, was there a week where it was like, oh man, the last 2 years, I will say this. And because the running backs stayed healthy last year, we brought this up.

Running back health has been abnormally high. I mean, outrageously high for the last 2 years compared to Pretty much every year for the previous decade.

They got some new cleats or something?

I don't know. It's the peptides, man.

I mean, look, give them to the wide receivers.

The other thing you can do in a league with a waiver priority you want to preserve is make sure that I think in those leagues compared to fab leagues, I think you even more need to have your insurance backs so that you don't put yourself in the position where you've got to hold that to get those guys. Maybe that puts you, you know, In a better spot. I don't know. It's a tough call. And I just hate the idea of like holding it and holding it and holding it and then nothing materializes. And I'm not, I'm not picking up guys I need to pick up. Chance writing in on Instagram, Parker Washington or DeVonta Smith rest of season.

Oh, Chance, you dog.

That's, that's brutal, man. I don't want to be— well, let's, let's rely on the rest of season rankings here. Week 1.

Yeah.

I mean, I love—

That's amazing.

I don't want my love for Parker Washington to distort this answer.

I want us to all write it down.

Yeah. I've got the answer. I know where I'm at. I'm going to let, I'm going to let sanity prevail here. I've got DeVonta Smith 4 spots higher than Parker Washington. I'm going DeVonta.

I'm going DeVonta Smith as well.

I have Parker 2 spots higher right now.

Okay.

There you go. It's a fair question.

That's why it's so funny.

I still think Davante is just the— I think he's more assured, but we'll see. They're both great and they'll both— it'll even out. All right. YouTube question from Sonic Spartan. How many weeks until you bail on a stack? I have asking as a Bo Nix, Jaylen Waddle manager.

Ouch.

Ouch indeed. I would— so here's, here's the—

Indubitably.

Here's the real problem. And this is why Andy before the show was talking about how he wanted to make Bo Nix a my guy, which makes sense. This is a player who was the quarterback 7, then the quarterback 6, and was drafted as quarterback 15.

Yeah.

Yeah. That just jumps out as like, hey, maybe I'm a my guy. Maybe I'm a perfect target.

But the opening schedule was why you didn't. I want to tell this person, well, don't bail. The Chiefs have a great defense. I would have expected A bad game for Bo Nix and a bad game for Jaylen Waddle in week 1. Like those aren't, but then it's like, okay, well, what do you expect for the next 5 weeks there?

I don't have it pulled up right in front of me, but it's Jacksonville is next.

Okay. That's, that's fine. That's totally fine.

Then it's Rams. It is at home, but you won't have Miles Garrett who's on IR now. Right.

They're still very good.

Okay. But that's, that's okay.

And then at San Francisco.

I think that's the weirdest thing is schedule has not always mattered for them. They've put up a fart against the Raiders on Thursday Night Football. I will say this. I would like to see it. I would like to see the good form soon.

So here's what you do.

You can't just be like, it's going to be bad 6 weeks. You got to have good form somewhere in there.

Here's what you do. You can bail on the stack, not by like dropping Bo Nix, but by starting another quarterback.

Sure.

And hoping that Waddle just gets more involved. I think that that, that is a reasonable expectation.

I would sell on the stack now.

What do you mean by that?

I just mean letting go of Bo Nix. And I don't think you have to keep him on your roster.

Just drop him to the waiver?

I don't think you have to keep him on your roster. If you want to do that, you can. But I don't think that that stack in particular is that crucial for you. If Brock Purdy's out there, pick him up and drop Nix and just play Brock Purdy and Waddle.

Yeah, I agree.

And then minimize your exposure to a bad, bad schedule for Denver and maybe a bad play caller. Who knows? That's another variable here where like, is Davis Webb a part of the problem? Is Bo Nix going to be the problem? Uninspiring start and really discouraging targets for Waddle.

Yeah, I think that what we saw doing waiver work for week 1 was that this year there's a lot more multi-drafted quarterback leagues. Like for instance, Brock Purdy, I think was drafted in 82% of leagues, something like that. The name that I think is probably out there at quarterback that if you're wanting to pick someone up and hope that, hey, going forward, mostly available and could be really good is Tyler Schrock.

I was, I did not drop him. I was very, I didn't have him in any waiver bids. I was like, you know what? I want to, I want to see. What this looks like. One more question from Instagram. Skyler writing in, quote, Mike sucks.

Oh, what?

Told me to start Kyler over Mahomes.

Oh, Michael.

Can you give him the booze, Jason? I don't have that power.

Yeah, for sure. No, that's on me, guys.

Dude, listen.

That's on me.

How didn't you see that not coming?

I mean, that's on me.

That's ridiculous. You told him to start someone that was going to get injured.

Yeah. I'm going to put it into my process.

Okay.

Nice.

Way to learn from your mistakes.

When I know a severe injury that will knock you out of the game, if I know it's coming, I'll put it in. I'll put it in.

If it's early.

I'll weigh it as a variable. Yeah.

We'll do a new segment, guy getting knocked out this week. And we'll just call the shot, which—

Hey, that's coming week 2.

It's the worst segment, but Jason's done lost.

Week 2, quarter 2.

Oh, you—

We're in it. We're in it.

I still can't believe you're sticking with that.

I just called it. This is your fault.

It's— I just called it. How is it my fault that you'd say something so egregious?

You put Rhamondre up behind me.

Oh, at the live show?

Yeah. I just saw the future.

Wait, one more. Edward wants to know, have we ever thought about switching seats on the set?

I certainly have not. I'm not a profile guy.

I'm pretty interested in Jason's seat.

We've done it. One time for a reason.

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. Hillbilly.

Mike and Andy flip-flopped for toothpaste.

The prospector showed up.

I had lost a tooth on one side and it was weird.

It was very weird.

But Jason has long since said he does not want to be in the profile.

Correct. Let me, let me like, do you change seats? Like in a car? Like in your family?

You ever change the side of bed you sleep on with your—

No, I actually have once.

Yeah, have you?

I wondered. It was because I was closer to the bathroom and then the wife was pregnant and I was like, okay, she should probably be closer to the bathroom.

That's nice. Who would defend in an intrusion though? Who's closer to the door right now?

It is now still the wife.

Okay, Jason, who's closer to the door in your situation?

Back door or?

No, your bedroom door.

The main entry. Because they say—

My wife is—

Only use which of my 7 doors to my room? You freaking—

Well, I'm like right by the back door.

If someone comes in the front door and comes in to attack you.

It would be the wife.

That's my house too.

And I'm right there ready to escape the back door.

I say I'm very close to the escape window. I am closest.

Well, Jason's got a bunch of other doors he can get out of.

It's like a Scooby-Doo house.

Golly.

That was the mailbag presented by Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus is the streaming home to the NFL on CBS all season long. See you Sunday. Tomorrow we have starts of the week. We got matchup previews coming up. Thursday night recap matchups on Friday. Wheel of Shame returns on Friday.

Oh yes. Yeah.

Yeah. It's going to be A lot of fun. So one more reminder, if you would like to support this independent podcast, get access to the ultimate dashboard and all the premium in-season tools, you can do so at jointhefoot.com. Different tiers, different ways that you can be a part of the community, which is over 50,000 strong. I think the Discord has— oh, it's probably in the 70 to 80K range over there. You can find leagues.

70,000.

You can fill like empty spots if people bail on your league, there are community channels over there where you can do that. Trade questions, all sorts of good stuff. I mean, this is, this is the fun time of year. We get to enjoy the ride together. So jointhefoot.com for that. The free resources on the website, fantasyfootballers.com. And we will say goodbye. If you want to follow the show, you can do so on Instagram, instagram.com/fantasyfootballers. Or on X @TheFFBallers.

Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter @TheFFBallers.