Transcript of Unsolved Mysteries + TNF Preview, Trade Decisions - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/23

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

That was very short. Did you think it was short?

No, no. You thought I was giving space?

Yeah.

No, it just was what it was, Mike. You don't feel welcomed? Oh, dude, the people.

I don't want to say nothing, but the people hated it. They hated it.

I didn't really think it was that bad.

I'm not going to lie. I didn't think it was that bad either. But the people, the people.

Yeah.

Oh man.

Wednesday, September 23rd. Welcome into the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, Andy Holloway. We just had waivers go through in all of our leagues just before the show started. It's always—

Wait, did CHOP go?

Fun this time of year.

Oh, it did.

Yeah, in the CHOP league, Mr. Derrick Henry goes to Mike.

Oh baby! Woo-hoo! You got him.

Mike got Derrick Henry.

What'd you have to bid?

465.

And that was— but number 2— The next highest was 451.

That feels good.

Swish. Oh baby.

Yeah. Jeremiah Love went for 334. Quinshon Judkins went for 156.

Quinshon Bumkins.

Mike is—

I'm on fire. Give me another name.

No, it doesn't look like it.

Give him another name.

Mike Evans went for 121.

That's a pretty good pickup.

Dude, you asked, you asked for an alley-oop and then you didn't even jump.

What do the people think of that?

Oh, I'll tell you what the people think of that.

Oh no.

Yeah, they're fickle. The people, Mike, are fickle.

You didn't say they were fickle.

Oh no.

We have news to catch you up on today. Thursday night breakdown. We got unsolved mysteries on the show and some mailbags.

So we've— I got to get Henry in my lineup. Hold on.

Okay.

All right. I'm good to go.

Would you rather have Henry for $465 or—

Or play Bill Crosby again?

Or Ja'Marr Chase for $666?

Well, considering my running back 2 situation was Bill Crosby.

Okay.

That was it.

All right. Quick question of the day. James in North Carolina writes in, what is your league format in the League of Record? I was listening to the Tuesday show and heard you say that Andy and Mike are 4-0 through 2 weeks.

That's right. Because we work harder than you.

That's right. Thanks, Mike. Our League of Record format is a couple of years ago, we had a vote to add median scoring. So you play one matchup per week against your head-to-head opponent, but you're also facing the median score of the league that week. So you can get up to 2 wins a week. This is something I had resisted for many years, but we have it in— once I experienced a year of it, We added it to our dynasty league. It's just, we enjoy the median scoring system. And now when I'm leagues that in leagues that don't have it, yeah, I'm kind of disappointed.

When you say, oh, after you finally stopped resisting, we added it to the dynasty league. If you weren't with us several years ago when we did this, what happened was we got Andy to vote for it and it went through in our league and we tried it. And then 2 weeks into the season, like where you don't usually make in-season changes, Andy led the charge to switch our dynasty league over to median scoring, which I completely agree, agree with you. In the leagues that I am in where I am 1-0 or 0-1 on a week, it's like, this is stupid.

Well, let me explain a little bit of like, I think I probably have in my head every argument against it possible. Everything I will see against median scoring. My arguments used to be about the consequence of the week, right? Like if you lose to the second highest, you know, the highest scoring team and you have the second most points, you know, so what? You know what I mean? That's the way it goes. Them's the breaks. Be tough. Battle through it. If it doesn't go your way, it doesn't matter. The reason that I got on board wasn't necessarily some fairness argument that like, well, you know, if you lose tough luck loss, you just, it's more fair to get an extra win. The reason I got on board right away was the entertainment of it. It became very fun. We have games now on Thursday Night Football and sometimes matchups are nearly settled on Thursday night. Last week who I was playing against, they didn't have a shot after Thursday Night Football because of Gibbs and Allen and Amon-Ra. It was over. But week after week after week, it was entertaining to watch all the way through the end of Monday night because every Every point scored for every team changes the median score of the league.

You're competing against that number. It's more drama. It's more excitement. It's more fun. F-U-N. More fun. That is the argument for median scoring.

Yeah.

Does it mitigate a bad feeling if you get lost or if you lose to a higher scoring team and you scored a bunch? Not really. I mean, it doesn't change it that much. Jason was whining all week about barely, you know, losing in the dynasty to the, you You know, he still whined the same amount in dynasty.

You're darn right I did. And so I scored the second highest.

You didn't nullify— the median didn't nullify your pain.

No, it did not. No, it did not nullify the pain. That sucked. That still sucked. Now, is it better?

But you're also 3-1 instead of being 1-1.

Yeah. No, it's definitely better. But it is far more about the fun, the entertainment. That's why we're playing fantasy football. There's more to watch, more to pay attention to. More going on Monday. I pay so much more attention to the rest of the league outside of my matchup. Before it was like, how am I doing? Or maybe how are you two doing? Like, oh, you're going to win. You're going to lose. Now I care about how's the 6th best team of the week scoring? Because I would like to score more than them.

Yep. And if you want to see more details on our League of Record keeper format, the whole league, we have that on the website. You can kind of just hit If you want to Google that, Fantasy Footballers League of Record Keeper format, it has all of the details on there. Let's jump into the news because, well, we have some news and notes from around the league. All right. ESPN's Adam Schefter reports Jackson Dart's knee injury worse than initially thought. He is expected to have season-ending knee surgery. Ian Rapoport. This morning, ACL intact, damage to the PCL, MCL, and meniscus. His season is done.

Yeah, it seems like it went from, hey, he avoided something. Oh, maybe he tried to get back in the game. It's going to be, you know, not a very big problem to, oh, there's so much damage in that knee. It's a pretty big problem. So Jameis Winston, Mike, you picked him up in our dynasty league. You paid up for him because you needed him.

I ran into a problem of quarterback bye weeks.

Yeah. So that, that's a good add in a dynasty league. Mariota as well.

Yeah.

I will say this. I agree with those that believe this Winston will not be the Winston of old. I do not think that it is compatible with the philosophy of Harbaugh to turn the ball over proportional to touchdowns. That's kind of the Winston experience that we've known to love. But there is, there's many, and I'm one of them, that does not believe that that will be permitted. I think the offense will be, will be protective of the football. I think they're going to—

yeah, I think they're going to try. Harbaugh is going to try to run the ball, play defense.

Yes.

You know, manage the game a little bit.

However, Winston's going to Winston. I think what we saw this first week was a lot of the Rams defense. So Winston did nothing. I mean, he really didn't. He didn't put up any yardage numbers, any points that, you know, you were writing home about. But A lot of that I think was the Rams defense coming to play and they're a very good defense. They had, you know, they've got shutdown corners. They've got Aaron Donald there. And then Malik Nabers was a little banged up. So I do think it's going to be in between. It's not going to be 5,000 yards, 30 touchdowns and 30 interceptions like Jameis of old that we loved. But I don't think it's going to be some nerfed backup that can't go out there and throw 300 yards and 2 touchdowns and 2 interceptions.

They did. extend him. So like Harbaugh was a part of this. He was already there when they gave Jameis Winston the new money.

That's because he hadn't been playing.

Like they— so it's, it's hard.

No one extends Winston after he's been playing.

I agree that Jim Harbaugh— or not Jim, John Harbaugh will— he doesn't want the Winston style. But I mean, this— if this team is just gonna be like, well, we're gonna run and we're gonna defense and we're gonna stay in the game. No, you're not. No, you're not. You will have to start throwing eventually. And then we'll see how reckless Jameis can get on Sundays.

I love that it's Winston and Mariota. The number 1 and number 2 pick in whatever year that was. It's like, hey, it's their time to go again.

Yeah, that's, that's wild. We did just get word that Michael Penix, not only is he starting on Thursday, but Tua will will be the backup on Thursday. He is good to go against Green Bay. They also made the decision not to start Tua.

Right. They did take Cooper Rush behind the shed.

Oh, okay.

And we will not be seeing him again.

To work on the shed.

Yeah.

Yes.

Yeah. No.

Jonathan Brooks on injured reserve, out for at least 6 weeks. Core muscle repair surgery. Working out Austin Ekeler.

I love yesterday's show. I was like, I'm going to do a study on whether or not people are injury prone. And then it's like the most injury prone player is like, oh, it turns out this injury is like, it might be okay. Now you're going to injured reserve, 6 weeks surgery.

Yeah.

Again, Alec Pierce officially on IR for at least 4 weeks trying to rehab the heel before he may need surgery. Rico Dowdle day to day after undergoing tests on his injured toe. And here we go, Bears fans. Tyson Bagent, he's in the concussion protocol. If he cannot get through the protocol, which is challenging on one week for anybody.

Well, not on— not only that, he didn't get knocked out of the game. So like this was after the game. He clearly went and reported concussion symptoms.

The only good news there, they do play on Monday night. So it could be Bagent. It could be Case Keenum. Dude, it And it's the Eagles. So that is, I mean, I would go so far as to say like, I'm benching all my Bears receivers. I pass catchers.

I totally get it. This, the Bears is like, other than injuries, we come into fantasy football, there's always debacles where you had something projected one way and it goes completely sideways and you're not even close. And it's like, it feels like that. That's what the Bears are right now. But nothing is— we can't get a normal Bears game.

Yeah, the first week was an outlandish no defense. The running game took off.

Yeah, like Swift and Minungai are just scoring all the time.

Second week was crazy, insane weather. The end of game losing Caleb Williams, which is usually that last, that last drive or 2 is where about 50% of his fantasy points comes from.

True.

Yeah. I mean, I feel like we're getting bailed out right now of not starting Rome or Luther or Loveland. It's like, because we're to the backup of the backup, we're like, oh, now we're going to bench them. You should have been benching them.

The hard part will be Loveland because you're going to have to go into the dumpster and put a name in like Dalton Schultz and be— and put— and do that on a Sunday and Monday and be like, yep. I, this is, I'm doing this. I am making this decision to play Dalton Schultz over Colston Loveland.

And how does it feel?

It's, it's probably the right move, but it's going to hurt your heart.

Yeah, it's not great.

No.

Brandon Cooks signed to the practice squad for the 49ers. You could see him moved up soon with all their injuries.

That makes me a little bit more worried about Mike Evans.

Well, they did say—

I know they lost Robinson.

They lost Robinson. It was in the context of losing Robinson that the conversation about adding someone happened. They said Kirk was too many weeks away. Christian Kirk, who is on the 49ers, in case you're curious.

But also injured because he's on the 49ers.

Meowson Taylor, week to week with a thumb injury. We'll miss Sunday's game against the Lions most likely.

A paw injury. Paw?

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Hey, that's Matt's joke.

It's all right.

It's okay.

Don't give him credit. That one was good.

Let's jump into some Unsolved Mysteries.

Unsolved Mysteries.

Well, this will be fun. We've got 2 weeks of the NFL season in the books. Last year on this episode, after 2 weeks, we were worried about rookie running backs. We were panicking about Hampton and Trevo. They were drop candidates in week 2. So that was some of last year. We thought the Eagles passing offense was doomed. Was it? Kinda. Javonte Williams had a hot start last year. We wanted to know if Javonte's performances would continue. And then apparently Drake London had a slow start.

Yeah.

And we wondered if that bridge was falling down. I guess that's—

I like it.

I guess that's how it was worded. Yeah. All right.

So London Bridge jokes.

Yeah. Come on. I'm here for it. We're better than that.

We're not. Did Bryce Young level up? Number one unsolved mystery for the season. Bryce Young is the quarterback 2 in fantasy football.

It wasn't—

I mean, we say, okay, he played Atlanta. That's true. It wasn't his highest scoring fantasy week. His highest scoring fantasy week was week 1 against Chicago where he scored 31 fantasy points. It's also where he had 361 passing yards. So the bigger thing, 3 touchdowns in each of the last 2 weeks, only 1 interception.

So here's—

Is Bryce Young, did he level up? I will say that he, I was purely like from a passing perspective, he was the most impressive morning quarterback on Sunday.

I will say he looks different. He looks like he's having fun. He's, you know, he's, he's doing what he wants out there. I think the Canales system is working. We have been, you know, supporters of Canales and hopeful that Bryce Young can figure it out. Through 2 weeks, we were losing faith. He has— yeah, we were. Through 2 weeks, he has looked good. He has played well. The wide receivers, he's got a good core. I mean, you add Darren Waller, who obviously is not the Darren Waller of old, but around the, you know, in the red zone, having that as someone, 3 touchdowns, you know, in 2 back-to-back weeks for Bryce Young is great. Teteroa, Coker, and Darren Waller. That's a really nice trifecta of receivers. However, I do think like the matchups are pretty darn easy so far. Chicago Bears, we left that game going. Their defense was terrible. They had some injuries in preseason. It looked like they were not prepared for it. Atlanta, I want to remind you guys, it wasn't terrible in week—

I mean, Chicago's defense was better in week 2.

Sure. The rain was the 12th man. Last year in Atlanta, Bryce Young was 448 yards and 3 touchdowns. I mean, you would have said he figured it out. He was unbelievable. Then he threw 169, 206, 163, 191, 54. Like, so I am, I am more skeptical that he figured it out. I'm very hopeful. I will say he has looked good 2 games in a row. He is young enough where we saw this from Trevor Lawrence last year. Trevor Lawrence was a player who was a disappointment for what he was supposed to be. Couple years into his career while he's still young with a good offensive coordinator, figured it out. And I think we all would say Trevor Lawrence figured it out. He's a, he's a very good quarterback. I'm hopeful that's Bryce Young, but I, I mean, really, what's their matchup this week? I don't know Bryce Young's current matchup for this coming week, but that's like Cleveland.

Should be fine.

That's a perfect test for him because that is a decent defense.

Should be fine. Here's, here's what is different though, is when you think of what the Carolina Panthers have been the last couple of years, it's the Chuba Hubbard year. It's last year's combo of Chuba and Rico. Like this was a, this was a run team. The Carolina Panthers are currently playing the fastest of any team in the NFL. Their play is at 23 seconds per play. And they're just like, so they're getting a whole bunch of extra plays in. And the Carolina Panthers are number 1 in neutral pass rate right now. This is a, they've turned it over. They said, hi.

You have Ted McMillan and Jalen Coker, 2 premier pass rushers.

Wide receivers. Like, they're like, let's stop doing this. Stop doing the run and then having Bryce Young have to figure it out. What if we let Bryce Young be the engine of the team? And so far through 2 weeks, not only is it we're passing all the time, they're playing super fast. So this, like, this looks like a, looks like something that I would buy into.

8.9 yards per attempt, which is blowing away all of his career averages.

That's fantastic.

10.5 yards average depth of target. I think the unlock, the health of Jalen Coker has been crucial to this offense for sure. And to have a red zone threat like Waller where now your option one down around the goal line might be, you know, Jason brought him up to involve Waller. It is something to watch. It's 2 weeks, but it is something to watch.

Where do you think from week 3 through 17 Bryce Young is the quarterback? What?

10.

I think 20.

I'm more on Andy's side of like, if this is the new, if this is the new way that the Carolina Panthers are going to run it, then they're just, there will be yards. They're going to either they go out there and they pass and they succeed and we're like, fantastic for Bryce Young, or he goes out and he fails and he has to keep passing more. So I'm, I think I'm in. I think I'm in. Yeah.

I mean, it is, it looks different philosophically. I think that was a good point. We'll take a break and we'll come back with another unsolved mystery. All right. Unsolved mystery number 2. Ironic because last year through 2 weeks we were bringing up the hot start. Now it's a slow start. Javonte Williams. Will the slow start continue for Javonte Williams? Cowboys running back Javonte through 2 weeks. He's averaging 2.96 yards per carry.

Whoa, he's all the way there?

Yeah. 50% of his yards have gone for 2 or fewer yards.

Yeah, that's, that's the ones I've seen.

Did I say 50% of his yards?

50% of his runs.

50% of his runs. He is 42nd out of 43 running backs in terms of first downs, 2 of them on 24 carries. He has not been the engine, right? And one might point to an offensive line that is dead last in yards before contact in terms of—

That's not good for Javonte.

No, because Javonte gets what's blocked.

Correct.

You know, and he does it consistently.

Or held. He had a really nice run last week on a holding penalty that came back.

That's true.

That's true.

He—

a hold or a block. I mean, who's to say?

I will say this. Mike and I over the first 2 weeks over and over and over while watching are like, Woof.

Yes.

He looks like him. Sometimes you watch a player and you go, man, he's been squeezed. Nothing is happening for this guy. He can't get any blocking. He can't get protection. But whenever we see Javonte doing anything, he looks slow. You know, it's like you say, will this slow start continue? That is very well worded because it feels like he is carrying extra pounds or so. He's got a flak jacket on. I don't know what's going on. He does not look good. So I'm—

12 for 41, 12 for 30. He got saved a little bit in week 1 because he got into the end zone. That is what you are hoping for.

He got 2 touchdowns week 1.

Oh, that's right. He got a receiving touchdown.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm, I'm, I am very worried from what I have seen. I love the fact that this is a player playing 71%, 80% of the snaps for a good offense. So I'm not like bailing on a workhorse back for a good offense, but I am worried about his actual you know, physical ability. His, you know, opportunity is greater sign than ability for the running back position in fantasy football. And his opportunity is great, but man, he does not look good.

I might make him a buy low candidate in a week or two when we start to get closer to the return of Tyler Smith on the offensive line because he's on IR. He's a Pro Bowler. They need him. But, you know, the thing about Dallas is if the running game's not working, we know what's going to happen.

They're going to throw the ball.

They're going to chuck it and they're going to have success doing that. Yeah, they're going to do okay.

The next 2 weeks are very difficult. They're playing against the Baltimore Ravens and then the Houston Texans.

Oh, that's why you said 2 weeks.

Yes.

Yeah. No, it's fair. I mean, I tend to find myself kind of in, in the middle on him, like not quite ready to— like, I saw enough over a long period of time last year to where I'm willing to wait another week or two. But the Baltimore-Houston matchup is a little bit concerning in terms of, like, I guess you just keep starting him.

I think the offensive line injury is a legitimate thought process because this is a player who gets what is given to him. He's not going to create on his own at this stage. But he, you know, if If he has holes, if he has places to run. And right now he just doesn't. So how do you know the timeline on that injury?

Week 5 is the earliest he can return. So that's the, that's the targeted return week 5.

And the upside case is just the offense because even, even the passing game hasn't been fully clicking like CeeDee Lamb monster game. But we need both CeeDee and George to get cooking because that'll turn into a bunch of touchdown opportunities.

It really does feel like Javonte Williams is as good as the amount of pass interference in the end zone on George Pickens, which could be a lot.

George is awesome at that.

He's so good at drawing PI.

Yeah. I think George Pickens is near the top of the list of reasons why you want to give like a point to a receiver that causes a PI. All right, guys. This one's even harder. The Mike McDaniel mystery. Is Mike McDaniel a good offensive coordinator? There are 2 teams. There are 2 teams in the history of the world, and you're going to love it, that have lost back-to-back home games by double digits against teams with a sub-.200 win percentage the previous year. It is the 2026 Los Angeles Chargers and the 1926 Racing Tornadoes.

100 years ago. And the Tornadoes dissolved the very next game. They're like, we're out of here.

I think some fans of the Chargers may hope for a dissolving soon.

It has been an utter embarrassment for the Chargers.

26 to 14 both weeks at home against 2 bad teams. And then the gauntlet of the schedule coming up. I mean, I, how do you evaluate Mike McDaniel at this juncture? They have another offensive line injury. You have your best wide receiver by a lot, apparently by a lot injured.

Yes.

Wearing a flak jacket. And because everybody else that they asked to step up last week either got hurt or dropped the ball or both.

I remember years ago, which is not on Mike McDaniel or Herbert. When this guy, Mike McDaniel, was hired kind of surprisingly to be the head coach of the Miami Dolphins, we kind of reached out to Juice. Shout out Juice. You're awesome.

Kyle Juszczyk.

Kyle Juszczyk. And asked like, is this guy the real deal? And he, he said some really good things about Mike McDaniel that he's, he's very good, very creative, very smart. And he had, and he was, he had a lot of success.

I will say that the Dolphins, just a reminder, the Dolphins, which are now going to be the worst team in the NFL, they were 7-10 in the AFC East last year. I, so it's, it's weird, man.

When we watched the first quarter and a half. of week 1, the Chargers offense seemed fine. Ladd McConkey gets injured and they couldn't do anything. The plays where Ladd was in last week looked okay. I just don't know if, if Ladd is gone, I don't know if they have the weapons to move.

I was going to say, is it a personnel issue? The thing that I would push back on is that, you know, Kyle Shanahan has been dealt Impossible hands with impossible depth problems and injuries.

Quarterbacks, running backs, wide receivers, everybody.

For countless years. And then you go out there and the offense looks the same the next week. It's Juwan Jennings or it's Kendrick Bourne or it's—

The 49ers have down years.

Yeah, the 49ers.

Not many.

No, but when they're down, they're like—

I know we talked about it, but we thought, you know, we thought it'd be worse this year and they look like a machine even with the injuries. I'm just saying like, I think that the personnel, they have put together enough players in Los Angeles for the offense to be like, you already blamed Greg Roman once and you supposedly came back and fixed all these issues.

I hear what you're saying. It's Harbaugh's fault. Perfect.

I think it's a combination of factors. I think they have had very poor performances from their players. that are independent of Mike McDaniel and Herbert. Drops. They've been nasty.

Drops that turn into interceptions, like where you hit a wide receiver in the hand and he's like, oh, let me give it to the defense.

But I mean, 30th in EPA per play, 30th in percentage of drives resulting in a score, 31st in turnover differential. Are they pressing easy buttons? I don't know. I haven't seen it yet. There's no way we can have an unsolved mystery here and come in here and say, something positive about what the offense has done yet.

Correct.

It's just, can you go out and perform? And when you look at the schedule, it's a really tough— like, I am not afraid to play defenses against the Chargers right now. Like, I'd be— the matchups that are coming up, like, I used to be scared of them. And I feel like there's going to be a stress and a strain that just increases with every loss. Like, are they going to win in Buffalo this week?

No.

I mean, that would be Chargers-like for that game to be close.

That would be the most Chargers thing. I mean, the line's only 7. That's a pretty big line.

Yeah, that's a pretty big line.

I mean, when you're in Buffalo and they're 2-0, I just think that's a low line.

I think I'm taking Buffalo.

I'm taking Buffalo for sure.

What, to win?

To cover the spread.

Yeah.

Of course to win.

Yeah. I mean, I think that that is, I think that I will definitely take Buffalo to cover the spread based on what I've seen of the Chargers. I'm just saying that I'm surprised a little bit that that's not 10.5.

Yeah. I do think Mike McDaniel is good. He couldn't have done what he did with the Dolphins with Tua, who was not a good quarterback.

Don't things wear off though? Yeah.

I mean, certainly.

Don't you do cool stuff? I mean, that would happen in Miami.

Yes.

In Miami, they'd play, they'd be the leading team. Like Tua would lead the league in passing yards through 4 weeks and then the offense would start to get into a funk and decline. That happened multiple years. Yeah.

I mean, he did lead the league in yardage for an entire season. Tua did. So I—

That was the Tyreek debut year.

Yeah. I mean, it was very nice to have Tyreek and Jaylen Waddle out there, which is why I think they need Ladd McConkey. They need their number 1 wide receiver. If he's gone, it's really tough. We haven't really— I mean, was Mike McDaniel, was he the OC for the 49ers when he was, you know, before the Dolphins? Because obviously as a head coach, he was in charge of all of the offense for the Dolphins.

He was the OC in 2021 before he became the head coach.

I think Mike McDaniel is still a good, is still a good offensive mind. Man, it feels so, so hard to be supportive to the Chargers. Do they bounce back? I mean, you have to say if you believe that, I think the offense bounces back. forward, certainly. Like, I just don't know if it's enough.

Bounces forward.

Like, is that the opposite of bouncing back?

Don't start this. I bounce back means that you return.

But they, what are they returning to? They were never really great.

Not under McDaniel, but I don't know if you're bouncing forward.

I think they will get better is what I'm saying.

That's fine. I don't know if it happens because I, I, I'm, I don't think they have enough of the pieces in place.

He may not have the, the one particular guy he needs.

He lost 2 big tight ends.

Tyreek Hill. Yeah.

Tyreek Hill.

Yeah. I mean, Tyreek Hill wasn't, was a cheat code that year.

Yes. For 2 years.

Yeah. All right. Let's talk Thursday night.

Thursday night breakdown.

The only way you can upgrade a, you know, Buffalo-Detroit Thursday night is to get yourself some Atlanta-Green Bay.

Nice.

Atlanta 0-2 taking on the Green Bay Packers who are 1-1. Vegas line, Green Bay -5.5, over-under 43.5. It's at Lambeau Field and we have not seen many quarters of impressive offensive football from these 2 franchises. franchises. Zero for the Falcons and at least one good one for the Packers. Quarter? Yeah. In 2 games?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So they had a good first half against Minnesota.

I said at least one. It could be 2.

I'll give them 2.

The Falcons are the 4th team since 1978 to go their first 2 games without a play in the red zone. So when you look at the fantasy output of Bijan Robinson and recognize that they have run zero plays in the red zone, Like it's pretty much as bad as it could be on offense and he's still going to catch a lot of checkdowns and things of that nature. Green Bay, they've been pass heavy so far. The running game has been a mixture of Marshawn Lloyd and Chris Brooks and Caleb Johnson. And that mixture has resulted in inefficiencies, I think, on the offensive side of the football.

Yeah. What do we think happens with the running backs?

I think you're going to see Caleb Johnson get more, more looks.

Get more run because he had, he fumbled, right? Am I remembering that? Yeah.

So did Marshawn Lloyd.

Yeah.

But Caleb got it back. They got it back. And then I think Marshawn, they lost it.

And Lloyd had the nice receiving touchdown. I mean, Chris Brooks has been on the season. He has the snaps.

He's 4 for 11 last game.

Yeah.

He has not been good.

I mean, honestly, he takes the most snaps because they trust him, I think, in some passing blocking situations.

When watching, and I know it's difficult for me to be the one to say it, but genuinely when watching the game, Caleb Johnson looks like an explosive athlete.

Yes.

The other, the other 2 do not. We were watching the 3 of us together in the studio and I didn't even know who it was. Some back just got the ball and looked good for the first time like in forever for the Packers. I was like, oh dude, there you go. There's some juice. And then it was like, that was Caleb Johnson's first touch. It was like, Give him the ball. I hope he is more involved. I still do believe very much that what has been proven is that this team needs Josh Jacobs.

Well, they also need a healthy Tucker Kraft and his snap count jumping up from—

And they need a healthy offensive line.

50-something percent to 98% is a big deal. I think the Tucker Kraft breakout will be coming. They paid him the, you know, top-tier tight end money. But last week it was, the weather was rough, right? I mean, wasn't that another one of the weather games?

Yes, it was.

Against New York and you did not get the performance. But I do think that unlocking, you know, they lost Jayden Reed. He's going to be out. Golden and Watson. I don't, I don't feel like they have a possession receiver right now.

Yeah.

Like that's not how it feels.

No.

Watson's not a guy that's going to— yeah. Watson's not going to go give you 11 catches. You need Tucker Kraft to get the offense going and they need to start drawing up plays for him because—

Did you see the report? This is from Graziano. Said the Packers talked about using Tucker Kraft at one of the offensive line positions at one point during week 2 after 4 offensive linemen left Sunday's game due to injury.

So yeah, that's been a massive issue. They lost what? They put one of them on their offensive tackle on IR.

Zach.

Bocobuelli? Oh gosh. I shouldn't have tried that. Should have stuck with offensive linemen.

He should have gone ZBB.

I'm sure that, let me throw it over to the Deucers because the Packer fan over there knows his name. What's his name again?

Zach Bocobuelli.

Okay. You got, dang it. I look dumb right there.

I don't think so.

Blocked by James.

I think Owl looked good.

Okay.

That was really impressive. Thank you. I have no idea if it was right.

Oh, you dirty dog.

You said it with such confidence.

You can't reveal that.

That was so close.

No one would have ever known other than his mom.

Wow. No, you're probably right. Honestly, he hears that. He's like, that is how it's said. Okay.

So Bakalova.

We've started Christian Watson. We start Matthew Golden. You starting Tucker Kraft?

Yes.

With 98% of snaps.

Yes.

Are you starting any of the running backs?

No. I don't think you can.

And Jordan Love, would you start Jordan Love or like Jared Goff this week?

Jared Goff.

How about Tyler Shuck or Jordan Love?

Shuck.

What about Drake May?

Oh no, I think you might have found it.

Yeah.

Yoinks.

Drake London, first week with a non-Cooper Rush quarterback. Are you just starting him?

100%.

Kyle Pitts?

Not quite as much.

What are we going to say about London?

So with London, if you look at the games where he played with Michael Penix last year. We have proof of this. He was on pace for 180 targets.

That's a lot.

He was the wide receiver 5. He was the wide receiver 1. He was the wide receiver 1 on a week. Like he had massive performance with Michael Penix. You also had Bijan on pace for over 100 targets. So the consolidation there, the ability to get these 2 stars the ball, not necessarily in great, you know, conditions. They're not going to be just destroying the field for yards after the catch because, you know, they're, getting them from Michael Penix, but he, he can get the ball to them. You have seen, we have enough evidence of great fantasy output from both Drake London and Bijan with Michael Penix in there. So I believe that like, like London should be a start of the week because people might be very afraid, very afraid to play London and you should not be. He should be in every single lineup.

Play Bijan, play London, log out.

Are you moving away from Pitts? I'm not necessarily moving away from him. He's, I mean, at the tight end position.

Pitts or Colston Loveland with—

Oh, Pitts.

Oh, oh.

I don't know how you start Loveland right now. He's got one catch and he's got the third string quarterback.

Pitts, I think, is somebody that we just haven't been able— it's like London. You just haven't been able to see what the offense can do. Now going to Lambeau on Thursday Night Football for the first start since an injury. I wouldn't be dialing up a big game from these guys personally. We'll see. We'll see what happens.

Yeah. And we'll also see what happens in pregame warmups. We'll see which quarterback decides that they don't want to play.

So they decide that they're hurt. We'll take a break. We'll jump into some mailbag. All right. Let's do it.

Mailbag presented by Paramount Plus.

Okay. Yeah. The people hate it. People hate what you did there. No flourish. No flourish.

You can't flourish.

You can't flourish over Paramount.

Not on a day like today.

You could have a baby flourish. Yeah, you could have. See, proved it. If you have a question, go to the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. Click that submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline, 302-464-TFFB.

We'll start off with a voicemail.

Hey, this is Brian in Minneapolis, St. Paul.

And I just have a quick one. Is Patrick Mahomes back? What are your thoughts? It looks like it. And you want to know the difference? Matt feels like it. Freaking neg. He's going like, I mean, you know, this was like, we talked about this with Rashee Rice and the fact that he's not being utilized the way he was the last couple of years, which the way he was utilized was really good for him for fantasy football. It was not good for the Chiefs. It was not like a very good, you know, EPA play. And now all of a sudden the Chiefs offense looks much better. They've got Bieniemy back.

It's, I mean, we all know Indy's defense is not that great, but we all know what happened to the Chiefs. Jason, hit the button.

Oh yeah. Oh, do I get to enter the bone zone? Bone Walker. Yeah. Oh, just that one, huh?

No, like Ken Walker on the Chiefs. It's not, it's not inside the 20. That is the bone zone. It is the field.

Yeah.

Well, listen, once he's on, he's in the zone.

Here's what makes Patrick Mahomes dangerous. And if you want to argue for him being back, it's— he's only going to get stronger as the year goes on in terms of being able to pick his spots when running the football and being confident on the leg.

Him running was— is like shocking.

But the thing that makes Patrick Mahomes exceptionally dangerous and this team dangerous offensively is Ken Walker, not because of Walker's production, but because of the fact that now you have play action and you have a defense that has to account for You know, one of the best backs in the game, a tackle-breaking, you know, you have to gang tackle this guy. You have to keep people down on the line of scrimmage. And like, it's not like we're hyper impressed with any of the targets that Mahomes has.

Kelce's looked pretty good.

Yeah, well, Kelce's looked good, but I'm saying like, we don't have, there's not the big name out there, right? This is Tyquan Thornton. This is, you know, not players that you're individually starting. Rashee Rice has not been wildly productive, but it's because the fact he can spread the ball around and they can play action pass and pick the spots and take deep shots around the goal line.

Around the goal line. What I've seen through 2 weeks is what we like. If we think about like the last decade and what we think of Chiefs and, and Mahomes and the fantasy outpouring, it's like, it's back. It's creative. It's— there was a play where it was like, you know, they rolled out on play action, which you have to play the play action on Kenneth Walker. He rolls out to the right. And he can run it in or there's Rashee Rice or Xavier Worthy or Travis Kelce and 2 defenders. It's like you, they did a great job covering some of the options, but the designs were so good. It was just easy. So easy for Mahomes. He could have just picked whatever he wanted, whoever was open, throw the touchdown to him. I mean, he's got 3 touchdowns through 2 weeks. And I think, I think Mahomes for fantasy purposes, when he's around the goal line, It's kind of like how Jalen Hurts has the tush push. He gets kind of free touchdowns. The tap pass for Mahomes and the designs around the goal line, I think he's going to have a ton of touchdowns.

I believe he's back for fantasy.

Well, let me ask you the same question.

What, 6 touchdowns? Yes.

You said 3.

Well, I meant 3 each week. 3, yeah, 3 week 1, 1 rushing, 2 passing, and 3 passing touchdowns week 2.

Same question as Bryce Young. From week 3 on, Patrick Mahomes is the quarterback what? 5.

Oh gosh.

That is hyper bullish for a guy that's been way outside of this for the past few years.

Oh, for sure.

I would put him—

He was the quarterback 11 the last few years.

Would you rather have Bryce Young every week or Patrick Mahomes every week?

Mahomes. Easy Mahomes for me.

I think maybe 8 or 9 is where I would put him. I look, it, not every game is going to be 47 pass attempts. And that's what we got in week 2 because Indianapolis kept up. Right.

Yeah.

I mean, Miami this week, you better get it early because if they're out ahead of this thing, you're not going to need to throw the ball 47 times.

Well, he only threw the ball 27 times in week 1, but he's still around the goal line, got the touchdowns.

Yeah. 184 yards passing.

But over 20 fantasy points was a, was a great week. I would feel far more confident with Mahomes returning. I mean, we've just, we've kind of just waited years of like, What is going on? Why? What happened? Like Mahomes is, it still looks like he's a great player. Matt Nagy. And I mean, maybe we're oversimplifying things, but the Kenneth Walker addition is just so—

So if you have to say yes or no, what is your answer? Jason said yes.

What's my question?

Is Patrick Mahomes back?

Oh, I would say yes.

All right. I would say no. Lane in Idaho. Hey guys, I've got a tough one for you. Would you rather have Javonte Williams or Jeremiah Love for the rest of the season? Oh, I would probably take my shot on Jeremiah Love in that situation. Interesting.

So I mean, this is literally, this is, this is talent versus opportunity. Javonte, like the contract of Javonte, the fact that Malik Davis, who had been, was being prepped to be the RB2, got hurt right before the season started. Javonte's backfield. So you, then how do we feel about, does Jeremiah Love actually take over for the Cardinals?

He'll get more and more work as the season goes along. That is just for sure. I mean, that happens for all of these rookie running backs, especially for—

It happens for rookie running backs, not for the what, number 3 overall pick?

Yeah.

I mean, he could be coming back from the ankle still.

Yeah.

Absolutely. Okay. That's, that's a fair point.

This is an easy Jeremiah Love for me. If I could trade Javonte, if I have him in any league I would go and offer him for Love right now. And I would expect you're going to get that turned down.

Yep.

But it's definitely Love. I was just looking at, I was so curious about the Matt Nagy years. Here's Mahomes fantasy finish. I know there's a lot more. There's Tyreek in here, but Mahomes was like, I'm for quarterback 1, 4, 4, 1, gets Matt Nagy 8, 11, 11, Matt Nagy's gone.

How many Super Bowls did they win in those years?

Oh, that's fine. I mean, I don't give a crap about that.

Yeah, we're not the Super Bowl-ers.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's— no, I get it. For fantasy purposes, I understand it. But winning, like Matt Nagy should get credit for that part of the equation.

Right. But now they'll probably win with a lot of points.

Yeah, they were winning before Matt Nagy with a lot of points. It was awesome.

All right, another voicemail question. Hi, this is Courtney from Wisconsin. I was calling to see if you think I should bench Burrow for Shuck considering he has now outperformed and scored him 2 weeks in a row.

Thanks.

Oh man, Shuck versus Burrow this week. So Shuck gets the Las Vegas Raiders, Joe Burrow plays the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Pittsburgh's been one of the best defenses so far in the league.

And I mean, those AFC North matchups.

They can get dirty.

I have.

But, but I think the Raiders defense is outstanding. They're the number 1 defense, by the way, fantasy-wise.

The Raiders?

Yeah. So I mean, through 2 weeks. So I don't think either one is a cupcake. I like the fact that Shucks at home. I think in Pittsburgh is a challenge. I lean the Shucks side.

Man, that's so crazy.

But I think if you didn't give me the matchups, I'd say just stick with Burrow. for more time. But I lean Chuck this week.

I agree exactly what you're saying. If obviously Burrow is better than Chuck the rest of the season, I would much rather have Burrow. If you're playing matchups this week, I think you stay in the flames with Chuck leading the league in passing volume. The last time I think we saw Joe Burrow in Pittsburgh, he was the quarterback 18, threw a touchdown and Tyler Shuck is dominating every single start-sit question on our website.

So we have the start-sit tool. Tyler Shuck or Bryce Young? Tyler Shuck or Jared Goff? Tyler Shuck or Joe Burrow? Tyler Shuck or Drake Maye? Tyler Shuck or Jordan Love? Because you want to know whether you should stay in the flames or not. And, you know, it's been, it's been good for Tyler Shuck. The Baltimore game wasn't some like wild, I guess he had the rushing touchdown.

Yes. Which was—

He had the rushing touchdown.

At the very end. Yeah. I mean, I was going to say, It's been 23, 22 points.

Would you play Tyler Shook or Bryce Young right now? I mean, Bryce Young has scored more in both weeks. It's Cleveland, man. I probably would play Bryce Young this week. I told you I'm worried about Kelvin Banks being out combined with Max Crosby this week.

I don't blame you.

So it's, I mean, It's— if Tyler Shuck went out there and it wasn't quite as strong this week, I would not be shocked.

Okay. So based on what you're saying, what we just said, and I, I don't know if we're going to scrub the tape after this.

We can do that. We have the ability.

Yeah, we can, we can.

Who knows if we're even recording.

What was just said was the order of starts should go.

Oh gosh.

Bryce Young.

Oh man.

Yeah. Tyler Shuck. Joe Burrow. Disgusting.

Yeah.

I think—

do you have the intestinal fortitude to do that?

Make a note right now of this moment. Clip it. And I want to come back next week and see if we were right or wrong with the final results. But yes, that is my final answer.

Also, if we're wrong, please do not bring it up. Yeah.

Also, well, I don't know about this we stuff.

Yeah.

Okay.

But Bryce Young over Joe Burrow.

Oh gosh. I said that.

You did. And you know what? If you're right, that all the glory goes to you and you alone. Yeah.

You're doing a high dive.

I'm happy to do it for you.

I want to say one more thing about Bryce Young. There is a chance that we have the magical equation in place with Carolina's defense not being good enough on a regular basis. Like part of what we want to see, I might've said basis, right?

No, you just went Southern for a little bit there.

Basis. I do declare.

I do declare.

Bryce Young's defense is not very good.

But the Panthers offense, it's magical. Like you play fast, you throw more than you're supposed to, and your defense is not that great.

Cincinnati's defense has looked vastly improved.

Yes.

The Saints have a good defense as well. Their defense is much better than Carolina's. I have through 2 weeks like. Like, do we think that Deshaun Watson can get some stuff done against Carolina this week? Probably. They can probably move the football against Carolina. So I, from a game script perspective, the way that Cincinnati's defense has been playing and Pittsburgh's defense, what's the over-under of that game? I mean, that game's got to be like 40 points.

That is, I mean, 40 and a half points, I bet.

That's my guess.

I don't know which game.

Cincinnati-Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh.

We got And that's the hard one.

42.5, I'm seeing.

Yeah. I mean, that's— and what's the over-under in the Carolina game?

42.5.

Son of a gun.

But here, here's what I'll say.

Son of a gun.

Carolina, it's harder to buy in because we have— the track record is—

Oh, when you tried to persuade anybody to believe in Bryce Young for this year, it was like zero chance.

Yes. The track record—

Which I think might still be the position.

The track record is not just—

Why is he called the Sandman in our—

Because he puts you to sleep because he's so boring. You can—

that was Sandman.

That was a throwaway from years ago.

I don't remember anything about who is Bryce Young on our site. It says he's the Sandman.

I don't remember that.

Delete it, Jason.

I will delete that so long as I can add Meowvin Harrison.

Yes, please make that happen.

One moment, please. Can I get the computer?

Computer? Computer?

What are you— what in God's name are you doing? I just tried to switch the page and hit the wrong button. Oh, okay. That wasn't like you thinking you were making an editorial change.

Not at all.

A decision.

Okay. Well, the computer confirmed it. So Meowson Harrison Jr. is there and there is no more Mr. Sam.

Here, let me get through this because the track record is not just nonexistent where you're like, like with Tyler Shuck, you're like, he could be great. We just don't, he could be a boat. We don't know yet. Bryce Young's track record, awful. Awful. So this would be even more surprising. But this was the storm that made the Cincinnati Bengals and the Dallas Cowboys the best for fantasy football last year. High-powered, potent offense that has to throw all the time because their defense stinks. And if they really are going to trust Bryce Young, we all believe in Tedderow and McMillan. I didn't like him in the draft because I'm like, if Bryce Young's only going to throw for 200 yards a game.

Yep. That was your argument.

Then you're drafting him at his ceiling. I did not see this as a potential outcome for the Panthers, but maybe you want to like at least take some, put a couple chips into this and see what happens.

I mean, right now Atlanta's not winning this division.

Correct.

No way.

Tampa doesn't look like it.

Tampa doesn't look like it.

Sucks right now.

I would still take the Saints to win.

But those are the 2 teams.

But fantasy purposes, we might, we might have a—

That's what I'm saying.

We might have some George Clooney, Marky Mark happening right now.

This could be perfect storm.

Yeah.

Yeah, the movie's okay.

So I like when he's pointing in the shadows. Is this—

is Hubbard someone that you should be trading for? Because especially with—

well, I don't know that you can.

He's going to catch some football.

You can trade for Hubbard. I promise it's not untouchable.

Yeah.

No, but would you trade Javonte Williams for Chuba Hubbard? Yes.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah, I think I want to.

Would I trade Javonte?

I don't know if I do that. I don't know if I'd have the guts.

That's— I mean, that one is like, I don't think I would do it, but I can easily see the path for Hubbard being better. Maybe you could get—

He who dares wins, man.

Isn't this guy back behind him right now? Yes.

Yeah.

And would you rather have Chuba rest of season or Travion rest of season, Jason?

Travion.

You said that very definitively.

I still think Travion is going to be very good. He can whiff on a bunch of pass plays. He can run for 2 yards a carry on 80% of his carries. And I think he has a fine fantasy season because he's going to be long.

How did he break the podium?

Not there.

He wasn't really paying attention.

His, his, I don't know if he wasn't paying attention or he just didn't understand. I don't think he understood the question.

Yeah.

If you don't know what we're talking about, he had a, he had a moment. Tre'Vion Henderson had a moment at a press conference where he was asked about like, Well, it doesn't matter what he was asked about. He had no idea what was happening. He asked the guy like 4 times and was basically like, okay, I don't know what you're saying.

It was a dumb question.

It was a dumb question.

It was a dumber answer.

I think, yeah, those will be some interesting guys over the back half of the season.

Also, AJ Dillon, to answer your question, negative rushing yards last week.

How many carries though?

3.

Okay. Impressive. Total.

Too many carries to have negative yards.

Yeah. If you're on 1 carry.

Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. 3 attempts in total. You went backwards.

I've never doubted that AJ Dillon wants to do well.

Oh yeah. I believe his heart is in the right place.

That was the mailbag presented by Paramount Plus. Paramount Plus is a streaming home to the NFL on CBS all season long. See you Sunday. All right. Thursday, we got starts of the week matchup previews. Friday, the Thursday night recap matchups, the Wheel of Shame. So much going on. And you can be a part of our fantasy football community. Support this independent podcast. Head to jointhefoot.com. We have the ultimate dashboard, premium in-season tools. We got the Footcast, which comes out tomorrow. Bonus episodes for supporters of the podcast and so much more. We're working on some, some upgraded trade tools. analyzer tools. I saw a little bit of a preview of that yesterday, but we keep improving the app, improving the, the products for you guys. And you can learn more on how to be a part of it at jointhefoot.com. We will say goodbye for today. And then tomorrow I'll just try to do better on the welcome mic. I, I don't want to let you down again and get booed by the people.

Goodbye.

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.