Transcript of Week 4 Studs & Duds + Jason Hurts, Broken O's - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/5

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

Oh, welcome in. The Fantasy Footballers, October 5th, Monday episode of the show. Should have a fun football game this evening.

The level of restraint and character that I just exuded for you gentlemen, you have no idea.

Really?

What happened?

It should have been Shuck Daddy time. But I held it back.

You are—

you were going to do that?

I wanted to.

I bet you would have done it if our matchup was closer. Maybe.

Because that thing is over.

Yeah, I thought, I thought maybe I thought I'd be really stressed for Monday Night Football with you with Bijan and Tyler Shuck. But one Ja'Marr Chase concussion.

One Marcus Mariota leaving in the, like the very beginning of the Washington game. Don Kincaid sucks now.

17 receptions for CeeDee Lamb later and we're in good shape. No, I, I, I mean, you can talk about that. We're going to get into all the studs and duds on today's show. We got your Monday Punday reactions, news to talk about. And, you know, we still got another game. But I mean, this was the conversation I didn't want to have. I said, what if Dalton Kincaid goes out there in week 4 and lays an egg, which, you know, DJ Moore went out in this game.

Yeah.

Keon Coleman stepped up, right? You know, they had a horrible drop from Joshua Palmer in this one, but Dalton Kincaid was nowhere to be found.

No, the routes went down. Joe Brady after Sunday's game, quote, there's no reason Dalton Kincaid should have 2 targets. I got to find a way to get the ball in his hands.

I just don't know how, how he did this.

I know. I'm not giving up on Dalton Kincaid, but that feels It feels very bad and ridiculous that you can have the start to the season where he's getting all the routes. He's super involved and he's kicking butt for you.

And you're like, well, well, but DJ Moore went down.

Yeah. I mean, and we're like, we might lose this game to the Patriots, guys.

We got to get some offense going.

Yeah. Dawson Knox ends up with a couple of targets early in the game. It was weird. And now we're gonna have to make You know, you're gonna have to think about what you have long-term there.

Yep.

Because it's not the first time that Buffalo said we need to get Dalton Kincaid more involved in an offense.

I will say this, and I think it's an important context. If you look at like, what do we do with Dalton Kincaid? Should I trade for him low? Is he just, you know, pumpkin? Is he reverting to a pumpkin? The New England Patriots were prior to this week the number one most difficult matchup for tight ends. So this is like, maybe it's a scheme thing where it's like, hey, They would like to, but they guard tight ends really, really well.

So we'll just keep him off the field. That was the strat.

Maybe.

Can't stop me if I stop myself.

Can't defend what's not there. Yeah, it's, it's a wild one. We have a lot going on, a lot to talk about. We got some updates on some injuries. We had more injuries that have implications for free agent signings and a reminder of the community, the greatest community on planet Earth. The Foot Clan available at jointhefoot.com. We'd love to have you in there. 60,000 strong over on the Discord server. And the website is thefantasyfootballers.com. You guys gave us your reactions this weekend. A little bit of good, a little bit of bad, a little bit of bad puns, of course. And we'll start right now in the most sophisticated manner possible.

Yeah.

Starting with Teteroa McMillian.

I guess he's good.

Yeah.

Bam LaPorta.

Oh, he was awesome.

Or CeeDee Lamborghini.

Yes. And just simple Drake.

Yeah. No, no. Ken Walker. Here's Ken Runner III.

That's right.

Hey, it's Quinshon Studkins, guys.

Yep.

Enjoy your week.

How about He-Man?

Oh, Jason.

I love this one. Carnell Great. Yes.

We had a good game.

Say my name. Say my name.

Jolly Gordon. He was the dude.

And Nico Ballins out there.

Or Kyle, nom, nom, nom, nom, nom guy.

And we had some bad ones like Dontavian Whiffs.

And Faltering Kincaid.

This one took me a sec, but I got there. We got Atheist Watson.

How about Kenyon Sadiq?

We got Dalton Shucks.

Uh, Darren Squalor.

Matthew Staff Infection.

David Montbummery.

Josh Frowns.

And I like this one, Cam Scatapoop.

Yes.

And Anemic Igbooka.

Oh man, it's been bad.

Yeah.

Not that you can really blame him.

He was so close to being able to be a Mecha Igusa, but is that what you're rooting for? Yeah, that was awesome. At that point, it shifted to where Pun priorities. Yeah, but it didn't goose.

Thank you for sharing your Monday Punday entries there on Instagram @FantasyFootballers, on X @TheFFBallers.

Hey, and some of those like shout out to the people that if you, if you stayed strong with Carnell Tate in your starting roster, congratulations.

Thank you. I appreciate that.

I, I will.

He's in my starting roster.

Oh, then congratulations to you as well. Because there was—

have you seen his starting roster, Mike? So he's probably his best player.

It was so easy.

Ain't no way I was playing Carnell Tate yesterday. But that was great to see.

It was. And they weren't all like 4 yards from the line of scrimmage. They were some downfield throws. I will say, I mean, nothing in that game changed my opinion about Cam Ward being the worst quarterback in football. There's something— it's not— It's like every, like not everybody watching football is like, you know, Mike, you're growing up, your son is playing football. You're around practices. You know, you know, we've watched football for 20, 30 years. You know, maybe we understand some of the small things about, you know, footwork or formations and things like that. I think a dude off the street could watch Cam Ward fade back to pass and be like, what's, why is he doing what?

Yeah.

What's the—

he looks weird.

Why is he, why is he angling that way? Is he standing straight up? Why is he— he threw sidearm for no reason.

Yeah. Sometimes he goes and he just like whips it out. Yeah.

He reminds me of that Disney Channel quarterback.

Oh yeah.

Just like, yeah, I'm a quarterback because he had no room to throw.

Yeah.

It just, it just makes me think that this is a dude that could just ignore the fundamentals of footwork and playing the position and get by with the athleticism and big plays. And then you get to the NFL and these things matter, right? Like how long you're holding on to the football or the decisions you're making. I don't know. He's not good. And we were like, what are they going to do? Like at some point, like you're going to go, what, this is year 3 or 2, I mean?

Yeah.

So, well, they're not going to win games.

The decision, if they win no games and you have the number 1 through 5 pick and there's, there's a bunch of quarterbacks coming out.

One, I mean, I think if you're at 1 or 2, it becomes a very difficult conversation.

I think at 1 or 2, it becomes a very easy conversation to have. I think at 5, it becomes difficult. If they're at 1 or 2 and they're the worst or second worst team and there are really good quarterbacks available to take, you have to move on from Tanner.

And you've gotten 2 years of winlessness.

Yeah. You're not being like, oh, I know we, there, there's that great quarterback out there, but we're sticking with The guy who got us the number 1 pick.

Cardinals, the one good thing they've ever done is move on quick from Josh Rosen when Kyler was on the table. Bears did it with Justin Fields. Yeah, no, it was one year, but I don't know. Sometimes a guy seems so far from redeemable. I'm rooting for Cam Ward. It'd be awesome if he became a great quarterback. But the gap between now to like top 20.

Bryce Young took a long time and got benched. Not just like got injured. He got straight benched and now he looks like he's finally figured it out. He's having so much fun. He's, he is enjoyable to watch. He's happy out there and he's playing some great ball and whoo. Tataroa. Goodness.

This is, we had multiple examples this week of teams being like, no, I'm just going to throw it to that guy every play.

Every play. CeeDee Lamb.

Yeah.

Tataroa.

Just every play and you knew it. And then there were plays where Teteroa didn't catch the ball and they're watching the film and he's like, he's open again. He's open again. He's like, you cannot cover the best players.

And how did it work for those teams? It's like, oh, the Panthers scored a lot of points and won in a very important tough matchup.

You have these games.

Cowboys scored a lot of points and won in a very tough matchup. Just keep throwing to the best dude.

Yeah. I would have to go back and watch the Browns video from last week where They just didn't throw the ball at McMillan. I don't know if it was he wasn't getting open in that particular game. I don't remember off the top of my head or we had to come in here.

He's good, right?

Yeah.

We got in here. We're like, without Coker, like, what? He's good, right? Like he's a rookie. Oh yeah, he's good. And that last one of those last first downs, that sideline catch. Oh my gosh.

He was awesome last night.

All right. Let's talk some news.

News and notes from around the league.

We had already reported, I believe, that Ja'Darian Price was on IR.

No, we had not.

Oh, we had not? So Ja'Darian Price went to IR. I swear we talked about that.

No, we knew he was going to be out, but then over the weekend it upgraded to out for 4.

Maybe I'm just remembering you talking on Sunday Live.

Yes.

Joe Mixon. Out for 4 sounds great compared to Jordan Tyson.

Does it?

Yeah. He's the latest. Schefter was saying unlikely to return until week 7 at the earliest.

You thought— Right, but that's 3.

Well, 3 from now. Some of us have been holding on to him for the 4 weeks.

But Price is 4+ from now.

Yeah, but you got fuzzy math.

We once— the point is—

The past is the past.

The point is— It's the future. Ja'Darian Price, you assume you're getting 4, right?

Ja'Darian Price—

He has to be out at least 4, but that doesn't guarantee 4.

Ja'Darian Price being out is just bailing you out right now.

I will happily—

Continue playing him.

I'd love to be wrong about Jordan Tyson participating in a fantasy meaningful way this year. I don't see it. I haven't seen it once. I didn't— I have no thoughts that he's going to come back and go from hamstring to fantasy starter. You guys think he will do that. And I'm happy to be wrong on that. I just don't like— I never believed he was coming back quickly because this hamstring injury from ASU, he hurt it at ASU, who's never back that quick. He hurt it in the offseason. He wasn't back that quick. Now they're saying week 7 at the earliest, which means let's really think about that. Let's say he's back in week 7 or 8. What's the snap count? How long does it take to increment?

A couple of weeks.

Are you ever going to build an offense around Jordan Tyson with the hamstring?

No, not build around him.

So I mean, like, I mean, Valais is a good player. Jiwonson is a good player. I'm not saying Tyson can't get involved here and there. I just don't have predictability. Maybe he's a fantasy playoff winner, but because they have so many snaps, they're the opposite of the Jets.

Goodness gracious.

I mean, the Jets had fewer plays than the Bears had first downs.

What was that all about?

89 to 35 or something like that.

Yeah, the Jets are playing way too slow. I mean, it's impossible for—

I mean, Garrett Wilson had an awful week.

It looks like they want to play slower. Like when you watch them, they're like, how can we slow this down? How can we have fewer plays? And part of me actually does understand that. Like if you are a bad team slowing it down, having less plays, less total points on the board, that can work. I mean, it's worked a couple of times, but at the same time, you also have to stop the other team and you didn't do that.

I mean, it works on an isolated matchup basis when you're playing, you know, high-flying offense to try to slow the game down. That worked against the Chiefs a lot when they were a super— but as a strategy in general, I'm not seeing a lot of slow teams having success.

No, I think that's very old school. And I think it actually, like, the way that you can win, you know, and it just math analytically of like your probability. I feel like when you slow it down, we want less chances to score. You're bringing your window down.

Jaren Price to IR. Zach Charbonnet's practice window opened and the team is apparently working out Joe Mixon, who Jay Glazer reported is visiting Seattle. There was a big hype video that Joe Mixon released over the weekend that he finishes by saying, I'm back.

I'm back. The video that he has made and put it, he's like, what happened to Joe Mixon?

He had all the notes.

Tell us. Yeah.

Where, where have you been?

He had all the news clips of like, Mixon's not coming back.

And what's wrong with Joe Mixon? You know, when that was happening, you could have been like, hey guys, Joe Mixon here.

I don't think he wanted to say, hey, I went to an alternative healing facility and injured my foot. I think that's what happened. Maybe Jordan Tyson, we said it week 7 at the earliest. We'll see when they activate him because he needs to be having, he needs his practice window open.

Yes.

Which hasn't happened yet. Lamar Jackson.

On a stupid play.

I mean, it's just a normal play. I don't think there was anything wrong with it, but it sucked. He got tackled and his ankle got trapped.

It felt like he didn't make a decision fast enough.

I'm going to get my whining out of the way.

Okay.

So we had a very good week with our fantasy face-off on Friday. Mike went 4 for 4.

Yeah, baby.

I went 3 for 4. I got to be safe, right?

I went 4 for 4 in a way that DJ Moore got forgiven. I went 3 for 3, basically. DJ Moore.

You hit 100%.

We're sitting here and Jason had gone the, the less than 27 pass attempts for Lamar Jackson. Lamar had 20 first half pass attempts. I'm like, I'm good. Oh, by the way, the one I missed was 41 yards for Tyler Warren and he had 4. I needed 45. He got 41. So I missed that one. I suck. Jason ends up with DJ Moore going out, which We don't know. We think Moore would have gotten there.

He probably would have, but thank God for price picks.

But also if he went out a minute late, like one minute later.

If he goes out in the second half.

So I'm the shame at 3 for 4.

It doesn't, but price picks gives you forgiveness if they, if your guys go out in the first half and he did.

But it sucked for Lamar managers and now he's going to have an MRI. There's talk about he's in a walking boot. They talked about him having a high ankle sprain.

Yeah. I was going to say Betz says he thinks it's a high ankle sprain.

Which that. That is the worst for Lamar.

It's not good for Zay.

Well, no, but I'm saying like we're back. We've seen what happens with Lamar Jackson when he's limited mobility. When he's fully healthy, he's, he is sensational. It's very difficult for a defense to stop him at all. You just got to slow him down.

He's been so good this year.

He's been great. And then we have seen what happens to Lamar Jackson when his legs don't work. And it sucks.

Marcus Mariota. This sucked. London, dude. The London game. Mariota goes out. Zach Galifianakis takes over. And now Jayden Daniels is supposed to be back in week 5, but this was devastating for the offense. Now Galifianakis threw the ball way, way down the field.

What is his actual name?

I'm not going to pronounce his real name. Well, it's very easy for me to say Galifianakis.

I know, but They actually, like, he played well.

I will call him the Boklava Bomber.

I did see that people—

I'm willing to do that.

Is that an actual— I saw people talking about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a nickname. Go ahead and go ahead and read it, Mike. Let me hear his name.

I'm trying to.

Kalikamanis.

No, we can do it.

That's the name. Kalikamanis.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is his name.

No, Kalikamanis. Manis? Kalikamanis?

Oh, you confidence too. Yeah.

I mean, Calicamanis. Manis. Oh man.

Calicamanis. I just want to shout out this guy who, who from like on a bright throwing Christmas Day, we see quarterbacks thrown into games, right? That like Jalen Daniels, that did not look like an NFL quarterback for Tampa Bay.

Right. He had his moment. Jalen Hurts.

You know, it doesn't look like these guys get thrown into action.

Nobody has turned on Jalen Hurts. Jason has been the Jalen Hurts defender for 10 years.

This is what happens when you defend, when you take all the arrows for that guy and then he reveals himself to suck.

Jason tipped out of the way and the arrows are going straight to Jalen.

I'm not taking them anymore. I mean, look, I got a lot of Ws with Hurts. I won my championship in League of Record with Hurts because people didn't respect him enough. He's done. He's— he has fulfilled everyone's prophecy of how bad he was going to be. I mean, it's just over. Jason is so wildly bad.

Well, I mean, he has scored. Oh gosh.

He threw a pick in the end zone that 7.9 fantasy points.

He was under 100 yards, right? 100 passing yards. Was he?

I've got you right here. He finished 12 for 27, 44% completion for 93 yards. He ran for 18 though, Mike, and he also fumbled.

He's been—

And he got bailed out in the end zone by Cooper.

Yeah. We've already had to have— oh my gosh. Yeah. He threw a pick there. Cooper's a man in the end zone though. That guy owns the painted area. You have to have the same exact conversation about Jalen Hurts right now that you had about Drake Maye a week ago, which is you drafted a certain quarterback at a certain spot to be your starter. But I mean, the last 3 weeks for Jalen Hurts, he's put up 16, 12, and 13 fantasy points. You have now taken DeVonta Smith out of the equation. Saquon Barkley was injured in this game. That's another piece of news. They don't have Dallas Goedert in the offense?

I don't think that's the big problem.

Well, I mean, it's a piece of the big problem.

Sure.

So are you saying it's Hurts?

Oh yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right. McKay Lemon is—

He also didn't have, he didn't have his true number one wide receiver in this game.

Think about a game last year. Just put it this way.

Right.

Think about you, you had an Eagles game last year and let's say you said, all right, Jalen Hurts, you have no AJ Brown because that's still an absence to me. I'm calling it an absence till it's not. You get no AJ Brown, no DeVonta Smith, no Saquon Barkley, no Dallas Goedert. Now go out there and win.

Yeah.

No, it's, it's not easy.

It's not easy.

I'm defending him. What am I doing?

No, no, no. You can defend it, but then you could say to be under 100 passing yards is like, that's, that's shameful.

The NFL researcher almost won, dude.

They almost won that game.

NFL researcher had this nice find. Fewest yards per dropback. in a game over the last 2 seasons with a minimum of 30 dropbacks. Cam Ward's first rookie start. Braylon Allen.

I don't want to hear that.

In week 18 of 2025. Trey Lance.

Did you say Braylon Allen?

I did. Or I'm sorry, Brandon Allen.

That makes far more sense.

Trey Lance and then Jalen Hurts as the 4th worst. 2.19 yards per dropback. Nice.

Yeah, it was an embarrassment. Saquon left in the first quarter with a hamstring injury. Didn't return.

Yeah.

Tank Bigsby got hurt and left. He'll be part of the— we'll be talking waivers tomorrow.

Yeah. Well, we need to find out what happened to Tank.

Oh, by the way, Lane Johnson also went out and didn't play in the game. DJ Moore aggravated the shoulder injury. Not considered a long-term issue. This was— I thought I was the one, the first one that wasn't a long-term issue.

He hurt it again.

I thought we were going to get the same thing with Malik Nabers. He went down hard.

Yes, he did.

And then he came back and played on it. Different injections, I guess, on those sidelines.

Maybe.

Ja'Marr Chase left with a concussion. Second major injury, maybe third, that we've had with a face mask like instigating it. De'Von Achane tore his ACL after a face mask penalty. Ja'Marr Chase ends up getting overexposed to basically a double hit.

Yeah.

Hit to the head, hit to the ground.

But they got, they got a 15-yard penalty though.

And Chase never played again. And that was helpful for them. Tee Higgins left early with a groin injury.

I thought he came back.

So there was a— he did. But then they reported that, I think on one of the last plays of the game, it was— I saw it reported as adductor.

Yes.

And so I think that's what we're talking about here. Rashee Rice hamstring injury.

That one.

That looks like it'll be multi-week.

If you can visually see when a player— like if you didn't see the play, Rashee Rice had a free first down.

Wide open.

All you have to do is go straight at a, at a medium pace for 3 yards. He doesn't even have to sprint.

A light hop.

He would get there.

Yeah. You could do it. He could have done it with one leg.

Yes.

Absolutely could have got that.

And then he pulls, something happens with the legs. He pulls up and he goes, goes right out of bounds. He says, I don't want none of that.

That was a fun game.

Oh, the Chiefs game.

That was a fun game.

It was. So I mean, when that happens, you It certainly seems like he will miss a few weeks.

And Tyquan Thornton.

Oh man.

Adrenaline is a hell of a drug.

Yes, it is.

Because he caught an amazing downfield pass.

Yes.

Then got up and tried to stand. And there was, there was no footsie.

That clip is not for the queasy.

No.

If you can't handle bodily injury, do not watch that one.

It's dislocated. I'll give you the headline. I'm going to describe it to you. His leg was facing the wrong direction. But he didn't really— but he didn't notice.

His foot was—

yeah. And Tyreek Hill, his agent came out and said he expects Tyreek Hill to sign with a team in the next few days.

Interesting timing.

I mean, I brought that up like a month ago.

Yes.

I said that the rumors—

brought it up on, on the waiver wire show. You guys shut me down.

Yes, I did. Because I firmly believe that, except the Chiefs have now lost 2 starting wide receivers.

Yeah. If you go listen to that, we didn't, we didn't, we shut it down for that week. But we said, you know, in a few weeks we would be totally fine with it.

I think that we didn't know. It might accelerate.

It might have been fast forwarded by 2 wide receiver injuries. But I don't— he said November, like in terms of being ready to play football. So this is a tough one, I think, in fantasy even now on the waiver wire, because if you add Tyreek Hill, like you don't get it. He's not on injury reserve. Like he's not an out.

Right.

So you're going to end up with Tyreek on your bench. But his actual ramp up to playing football could be into mid to late November. It would just, I think it'll be a tough call on fab and stuff like that. And what does he have left coming off of the injury and the speed and stuff? So that'll be a discussion for tomorrow. Ladd McConkey aggravated his foot injury. Cool. So the final nail in the 4-horse coffin, whatever. I don't even know what I'm saying.

Yeah, but there's so many nails in Ladd. I mean, you just keep getting another, you keep being like, oh, stop trying to come back. He's, he's in.

I won't have to hurt you again.

He is. Yeah, lad, take it easy. Take a rest.

It's just a nightmare.

Andy Holloway's coming for you.

Oh gosh.

I don't think I've ever actually been the Reaper for Halloween, but this year feels like the right year for that. Matt Collins left early with a calf injury. Pat Bryant carted off with a right ankle injury.

That was a bummer. I mean, his was like the exact same thing as the— it's not the same injury, but the same mechanism as Thornton where the player lands right on their ankle. I won't say if it was a hip drop or not.

I'm sure it was. But those ankles, those ankles do not survive hip drops. Nope.

All right.

By the way, the Chargers lost again and they lost Joe Alt and Rashawn Slater.

Dude, I mean, this is the collapse of collapses. I've never seen something as disgusting as what has happened to the Chargers and they almost battled back.

They did.

30 to 13 went to 30 to 23 with the ball. But I mean, don't worry. Jim Harbaugh said Mike McDaniel's job is safe.

Yeah.

Great.

He should have said all of our jobs are at risk at any moment.

And Herbert also—

oh gosh, the first half.

Oh, I would say it was an interesting game. And from the aspect of Herbert threw at least 2, I think maybe it was just 2, like Horrifically bad interceptions where—

Right to the defender.

Where it was like, man, I can't wait for the Herbros to figure out who to blame for this one. And he's like, where it's clearly Herbert. But then he did. He battled back and he got—

I mean, he—

his core was being shooketh. He was just getting beat up. But it was his fault that they were in this position. And then he took the pain and then they still didn't win.

No, no. Still didn't win is the nickname for that franchise.

Yeah.

We did all we could. We still didn't win. There's some 0-4 teams that are, I mean, they're not the only one. Houston.

Oh man.

We have a problem.

Nice.

I mean, you get—

How great would it be if like Houston played the Chargers this week? That would just be—

They do in a couple of weeks. I hope they're both playing in a couple of weeks. And don't worry, Chargers will lose that game. We'll take a break. We'll talk studs and duds.

This week's fantasy stud muffins.

Cool, cool, cool, cool.

Drake Maye was the number 1 quarterback on the week.

Yeah, cool guys. You ever, you ever be in a guillotine league where you've just been barely surviving because Drake Maye is ruining every single week and you're like, I'm not doing this again. against the Bills. I'll play Marcus Mariota.

Is that what you did?

Oh yeah.

Chop chop.

Yep. See you later. So, so Drake Maye's just on the bench there.

I mean, I will say this. The top scores—

On the waivers, you mean?

Oh, he will be on the waivers tomorrow. Yeah.

Yeah. Mike's getting chopped. The top scores at quarterback were, I mean, there weren't any prolific names this week. It was, it was actually really low. Maye, Burrow. I mean, Burrow did not have a great game.

No.

But he was number 2. And then Stroud, Cousins, and Rodgers. So, you know, Cousins once again, get this guy 3 or 4 more tight ends and you've got yourself a perfect offense.

I thought they were going to win that game. You're almost upset. I mean, what was the line? The line, I believe, was 4.5. Oh, they covered. Yeah, they covered.

Yeah. That game was awesome. You see Kubiak at halftime though, it was 13-10 and they're interviewing him off, you know, what's going on? What do you need to do? Blah, blah. He goes, we're winning and we're going to win the game.

Oh, I love that.

And they didn't. Drake May. Yeah, this was, this was great. Afton Chisholm.

What a catch.

You saved the day.

Yes.

Did you see the comments from the DB on Buffalo?

I did not.

Oh, it wasn't very respectful.

Oh no.

No, it was like, yeah, some practice squad guy came up here and made, made one good catch and we'll never hear from him again. Don't worry about it. We'll be better next week. We got to win. It was crazy. It was crazy. It was crazy.

Why?

He was mad. Yeah, but he was putting on a huge diamond necklace when he was saying it too.

I mean, just be like, I got got.

It was Gardner Johnson. Yeah.

I got got.

Yeah, he's—

It happens to everyone. Everyone gets got.

Yeah, he's like, he's a call-up. He made one good play and he'll never do it again. It doesn't matter. You'll never hear of him again.

Goodbye. Okay.

He was mad.

I think he's going to stay called up after that game.

Yeah. Kirk Cousins tied for the league lead in 11 passing touchdowns. Do you now— 51, 52 passing attempts, 365 against the Chiefs. Do you now look at Cousins in a different light after 4 weeks?

I mean, we definitely should.

4 weeks of like—

we definitely should.

I mean, this is a quarterback 10, 12, and 3 the last 3 weeks. I'm not saying an every week start. I'm saying we're about to enter bye weeks next week.

I think in the right matchup. you'd be okay. So for instance, 2 weeks from now against Buffalo at home, I would expect him to have a very good fantasy—

Bunch of pass attempts.

A bunch of pass attempts, bunch of yards, passing touchdowns. But because he gives you nothing on the ground, like even, even what you just said, he's had, he's leading the league tied in passing touchdowns. And most of these good weeks, like this one was, was better, but most of the good weeks are not fantastic. You know, it's like, oh, you're the quarterback 11. It's like, okay, great. You're a top 12 guy, but you're not winning a week with him.

Let's talk about this guy because the Texans quarterback CJ Stroud is currently on pace. You ready for this? Thank you, David Montgomery, for doing this. He's on pace for 641 pass attempts.

That's a lot.

4,800 yards.

That is a lot.

And 51 sacks.

Yeah.

This is called we can't run the ball.

I feel like he's played well and they can't run it.

I mean, they can't run and their defense, which the, to be fair, the defense looked like the Cowboys were getting shut down in the first half. Dak would take his drop back and look around and look around and look around and there was nothing there. And then they went into operation throw to CeeDee Lamb.

Don't look around.

And just look in one spot and throw it there. And somehow that, that was the solution because the game exploded over the second half.

Yeah. The Texans defense has not been anywhere near as good as it was last year. I still, I still question the fact that they played Josh Allen in Buffalo. And Joe Burrow in Cincinnati and Dak in Dallas. It's like they have been tested. They've failed. But I, you know, they get Cam Ward this week.

So, oh, that'll be—

there you go. Off the schneid.

Yep.

Well, let's talk about Jameis because Jameis did play Arizona. He did throw some nasty interceptions, but he was 250 and 3 and gave both Isaiah Likely and Malik Nabers a good game, which is the first time we've seen it from Jameis. That was encouraging.

This, this was what we hoped for. Mike and I were talking about the fact that there was, there was hope that the terrible Jameis we've seen of the previous 2 weeks, one was thrust in, not expected to start against the Rams who just made Jalen Hurts turn into a player that Jason has forever moved on from. Yeah. And then, and then the next week was a bad weather game where, you know, there just was no really throwing the ball. And so we were hoping that we could get back to the bad Jameis we enjoy, which is air it out, have a lot of success, throw some picks.

Yeah, there's a factor there.

So they have to keep airing it out. Yeah, exactly. We love bad Jameis, but we don't want ineffective Jameis.

Kyren, Kenneth Walker, Javonte Williams again, Kyle Minungai's 30 carries, and He-Man, Yule Wilson. top 5 running backs on the week. If you had a W in your last name, that was a good, a good sign this week. 2 Williams, a Walker, and a Wilson.

The, the Kyren, you're like, yep, 13 targets. Kenneth Walker, I think, scored on 2 consecutive touches.

Yes.

If I like—

Yes, he did.

He scored the touchdown. They got the ball back and then he scored again. So in about—

That was really cool.

About 15 seconds, he put up I don't know what, 14 or so fantasy points. Javonte, this is just—

Aren't you proud of me for getting ahead of the Kyren apology last week?

Yeah.

I mean, now I feel like in the clear.

Yeah. What was Blake Corum?

Jason's arms are humongous in this graphic.

No, that's just, that's just my arms.

So Kyren was 5 for 14. Whoa. Okay. So they just decided that we need to get Kyren going in this game.

Wait, who was 5 for 14?

Blake Corum.

Oh, you said Kyren.

Oh, I'm sorry. Blake Corum was. Javonte—

He keeps dropping the ball. They give him a few targets. He drops them early and they move on and they're like, we got to win.

I think it's also one of those like Kyren is their guy. Kyren is who they think in important situations. He is the— he's their best foot forward. They do want to give him rest, but this wasn't a game they could. They were down the entire game. They, you know, they looked terrible. They battled back and won. I think if they're in a matchup where they are, you know, significant favorites and they're having an easy game, you'll see a lot more Blake Corum. This was like, we need Kyren on the field.

I think I'm going to credit it to Josh Norris because I can't remember who said it, but—

Is he the default credit?

What if it was me?

No, no.

My memory is he was the one who tweeted this.

That's the way you said that. Since I don't know who said something.

Let me, let me rephrase it. I'm pretty sure that Josh said this, that he's like, here's the thing with Kyren. Either the Rams are ahead and Kyren was a part of the reason they got ahead or they're behind and now it's just Kyren Williams.

I mean, Matthew Stafford has been pretty bad. He's thrown interceptions. He's got more interceptions now than he had at the Thanksgiving break last year, which by the way is not Close to now. And he's not looked like the MVP of last year, which is hard to do. It's hard to repeat that kind of efficiency. I get confused by the offense sometimes because they, they, they do this thing where it's like very clear they're going to run the football. You notice what's going on. There'll be like 2 tight ends and like Davante's always on the sideline and they have one wide receiver out wide and then they run it every time. They are, they might've saved their season with this game. coming back against Philly. But yeah, Kyren, Ken Walker, Javonte.

Javonte is just high-scoring offense and sometimes he'll get touchdowns and this time he got them all.

Kyle Minunghia was 30 for 146 and 2. DeAndre Swift did not touch the ball again after fumbling in the 3rd quarter with 8:54 to go. He had 2 touchdowns called back. Swift did.

Swift.

Yeah. I couldn't believe his stat line. He also was almost like, we didn't know if he's going to play in this game due to a hamstring injury.

Believe so.

I can't remember what it was, but in the— so I'm not reading too much into the fumble necessarily. It could have been just like, hey, he doesn't feel good. This is ineffective.

And Manongai was on fire.

He was. He also finished with a thumb injury. They had to announce it after the game. So we'll see what happens with Manongai.

Hopefully it's not a Jordan Mason thumb injury.

Right. We never want to take those lightly.

No. If it's sore, it's probably shattered.

I think there was, was it, who's the defensive end for the Ravens that they picked up that was former Cincinnati? I don't know. I can't remember his name right now.

But, uh, yeah.

Yeah. Did you see he, he had a shattered finger in a bunch of places and now he's playing. He can play with a cast though. All right. Chuba Hubbard, huge game. 20 for 122 and 2. He is getting every bit of all the work every week.

Target the Lions.

Yeah. They're, they're not good.

Yeah.

On the defensive side. It is. Yeah.

I mean, I think Gibbs literally could break. He could break the all-time fantasy record because this team is not good enough on defense and they're not good. They're not going to win enough games where you're sitting them later in the season. Like they're going to have to fight tooth and nail. I don't know, man.

Kenneth Walker is like, he's the story in terms of, because Jahmyr is doing what we drafted him to do, what we expected him to do.

He was the number 1 overall pick.

Kenneth Walker is like, he was still drafted very high. So I'm not saying that, but he has been the story of how awesome he has been. I mean, do you want me to tell you his pace? 32 points, 20 points, 20 points, and 30 points for Kenneth Walker. RB2, 2, 6, and 1. He's not the running back 1 on the season.

Yeah, Mike was looking at this up this morning.

How is that possible?

He assumed Walker was the number 1 running back. He's like, wait, this got to be wrong. How is he number 2? Because of Jahmyr Gibbs.

Walker is on pace for 450 opportunities, 2,282 rushing yards, 17 rushing touchdowns and 51 catches and 8 receiving touchdowns. And he is number 2.

Yeah.

Man, imagine a team had both. That'd be insane.

Yeah. That would be Andy's league of record team.

That would be so nice.

With Gibbs and Walker. And then the number 2 wide receiver, CeeDee Lamb, and the number 3 wide receiver, Amon-Ra, and the number 1 quarterback, Josh Allen.

Thank goodness.

It is.

Kraft got into the end zone this week.

No, it's disgusting.

Jonathan Taylor did not play as many snaps as he had in recent weeks.

Oh, we saw a lot of Goodson.

No, we saw a lot of Seth McGowan.

McGowan. Yeah. Goodson's on Dallas now.

Judd Kinney. Ollie Gordon was him in this one. Only 9 carries, but 100 yards.

How do we evaluate this performance?

I mean, the way that you should. He was 10 times, maybe, maybe 50 times better than, than Wright.

I mean, agreed.

Agreed. But Ollie Gordon is the one to— he was the one to get.

Yes. That is completely fair to say.

You played Minnesota and had a great fantasy day. Nobody expected that.

Right.

I know what Mike's saying though. And there is context needed to the usage.

It was, I believe it was about 70% of his fantasy points were on 2 touches. And so it's like, well, okay. So I'm moving. I just mean moving forward, you know, how do you feel about Ollie Gordon of knowing that that's in there? Not because not every running back can do that. But on the other carries, it was like, I mean, the jail— the other Jaylen Wright and other Ollie Gordon carries were awful.

But the way you view it is when you have that kind of success, he's been a top 12 running back in fantasy for 2 straight weeks. You expect the team to prior— like he wasn't higher on the depth chart and he had this game. So they're going to give him more work if he has success.

Here's, here's, I believe that that is true. In the first half, you had Ollie Gordon play 8 snaps to Jaylen Wright's 10 snaps. So you actually had—

Yeah.

Kind of, it looked like maybe Jaylen Wright is the guy. No one was the guy because they both were basically not good. In the second half of that game, Ollie Gordon was 14 snaps to Jaylen Wright's 2. They're like, Ollie Gordon is playing better. They made the shift. They were rewarded by Ollie Gordon's play. And part of the reason why you only get, you know, 9 carries is because You don't get to have as many carries when you break off a 75-yard run or what, you know, these long runs is like, oh yeah, you, oh no, you could have had more carries along the way, but you got them all in one. So I do think going forward, Ollie Gordon, it's still a bad team, but he looks like a good player.

10 targets for RJ Harvey this week. I wanted to flag that.

Yeah.

With J.K. Dobbins has not looked good. And then it's not that Harvey's looked good on the ground. It's just Jonah Coleman's on IR and now you have Pat Bryant injured. 10 targets. Like, this is not foreign to a Sean Payton offense. This is normal for a Sean Payton offense. Pass the ball to your running backs. Have them be, you know, escape artists out of the backfield and help your quarterback when he can't get it down the field.

This is why we love Jonah Coleman. He's such a good pass-catching running back. So sad that he's on IR. But yeah, you need to pay attention to RJ Harvey. They will continue to throw the ball there.

Yeah, that's that. That was his secret power last year. I mean, he had 58 targets last year and caught 47 of them. That's where it's tough because it's like Coleman comes back, Harvey's going to get 3rd down unless he's hurt. Chase Brown was terrible on the ground but caught 11 passes. 9 for 10 on the ground, 11 for 71 through the air. But Chase went down. You know what I mean? It was obvious what happened. And then Ashton Gentry got it done through the air. I love Ashton Gentry because by hook or by crook, he ends up okay no matter what. I mean, he's, he's on pace. Do you know the target pace for him? 102.

Really?

102 target pace, 1,100 rushing yards. He's not been efficient with it.

The best news for Ashton Gentry is that this is a team that looks like, I mean, it's too early in the season to know, but we have assumed the whole year, at some point—

That's the worst team of the, of the league, in the league last year would not be a great team.

That would not be a great team. And then, and then at some point you would transition to Mendoza.

Yeah.

There is now a realistic outlook where maybe Mendoza does get to redshirt the whole season, which I think would be great for him.

I put that at 95%.

It would also be great for Ashton Gentry because when Mendoza comes in, he's, the offense is going to slow down a little bit. He's not going to target Ashton Gentry quite as much as Kirk Cousins is. So if Kirk can keep the job and, you know, if you've got Gentry, keep rooting for the Raiders to be in these games and win games and keep those off the field.

Yeah, an injury to Kirk is the more likely way that switches, I think.

Yeah.

But the top 3 wide receiver scorers outperformed any week that they had last year for the entire season. Tapp McMillan, 38 points. CeeDee Lamb, 32 points. It's very weird to get 32.8 points with 1 touchdown, by the way.

Yep.

17 receptions will do that. Nico Collins.

Ah, Nico.

Big game on the return. Poor one out for Tyquan Thornton.

Yeah.

Wide receiver 4 on the year.

On the week.

I was like—

Sorry. He's out probably for the year.

We'll see.

Puka Nacua back in business with 23 fantasy points.

Yeah.

And it was a down week for Davante Adams as a result, who dropped a touchdown. But Adams had his worst year or worst weeks, years. What are they? You guys talk.

Well, I know who doesn't listen to our show and that's Mark Ingram. Mark Ingram went on a tirade on X talking about how he hates fantasy. He's into fantasy now. He clarified that it was because he's got Tedderoa McMillan on his bench. It's very sad.

That's a strange decision there, Mark.

Yeah.

Jason, start of the week.

Yes, sir.

Nice when the start of the week puts up the greatest game of his career.

That's helpful. That's helpful.

Romeo Doubs into the end zone, 2 touchdowns. Keon Coleman keeps looking good, guys. 6 for 116.

Yeah.

I didn't— I'm looking— I didn't realize CeeDee Lamb crossed all the way to 21 targets.

Yes.

That's just—

It reminds me of the Brandon Marshall days. That's the one that I remember. Oh, with Jay Cutty and Fitzpatrick. Yeah. He had a couple games where like he was in the high 20s. But yeah, Romeo Doubs, you know, pay attention here. If he's on waiver wires, he might be. You have an injury to Mack Hollins now. So Romeo Doubs is looking pretty spicy until AJ Brown gets back. I'm going to make a prediction right now. I think AJ Brown plays before Jordan Tyson plays.

Okay.

So I think that's going to happen this year. Carnell Tate, Malik Nabers, some other guys getting it done. Darius Cooper, red zone, red zone reindeer. What was that? That was Kyle Rudolph back in the day.

What, 5 receptions for Darius Cooper on the season? 3 have been for touchdowns.

Yeah, it's tough.

There are zombies trying to break into our building right now. Did you guys hear that?

I did.

That is a zombie apocalypse.

Should we be concerned?

That is almost 100% a zombie apocalypse.

Probably, but I don't think we need to be concerned.

Is that door locked?

Yeah, it's locked. Matt's slow. They'll get him first.

Oh, that's true.

They'll eat him. That's true. We watched him in a race and he was so much slower than I thought he'd be.

You cool if they eat you first for us?

No, not really.

I could beat you in a race too.

I still gave Josh way too much grace on that race.

I was new.

I was being taken it easy on him. Uh-huh.

You just—

uh-huh.

We didn't even bring up that it was possible Josh could beat you. We left that one out and you're like, yeah, just let the world know that Papa Josh.

I wanted to take it easy. Yeah. Baloney. Baloney.

You wanted it all.

You wanted to annihilate him.

He didn't have the right shoes. Something else happened.

Papa Josh was in his old man jeans.

Papa Josh doesn't have one of his ACLs.

If you put an old man in a tracksuit, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't beat him.

You know what I mean?

You should have won.

What if you put him in old man jeans?

Yeah.

He ran in old man jeans. And I do mean old man jeans. Like these things are so—

You at your age in hiking boots.

Yes.

Yeah. Versus Josh.

Maybe high heels.

Josh could be in the most aerodynamic—

What's the age gap? Could you be his father?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Amazing.

Brother.

Good time for a break. We'll be right back. We did get news that Rashawn Slater, it's a high ankle sprain and he'll miss a lot of time.

For the Chargers.

For the Chargers. Just their tackle.

I would say that sucks. I was like, I want to be like, oh man, that's terrible. Their offensive line has been bad. It doesn't matter. I mean, just—

Who are you more embittered towards right now?

Definitely the Chargers.

Herbert himself or Jalen Hurts himself?

Oh, just the, just the men.

Yeah.

Just, just the men. Yes.

It would be Jalen Hurts by himself because I do think there's a lot to blame with Herbert. Herbert deserves blame. But McDaniel, I'm mad at him. The offensive line, I'm mad at them. I'm not really mad at anyone else. Oh, Harbaugh, I'm mad at him.

Okay, good.

There's, I just didn't want to go on forever. There's really no one I'm mad at. Well, I guess a little Sean Mannion. I'm disappointed in Sean Mannion over for Philly, but it's Jalen Hurts.

Jalen Hurts.

Jalen Hurts completed 12 passes.

Are we ready?

CeeDee Lamb had 21 targets.

Are we ready for, for the TJ Hockenson return to glory?

Dude, I told you I brought him up.

18 fantasy points, 13 catches. That's crazy.

I brought him up last week in one of our ridiculous start-sit questions because he had been at a 19% target share.

Well, and no Jefferson.

And no Jefferson. TJ Hockenson also 13 for 119 and denied a touchdown.

A bank loan.

Like he did the Human Torch. No, he like, he did the NFL move of he could have scored. He could have ran it up.

Oh, that's right.

But they were the— but Miami was at a timeout. So he just went down on the 1 to like guarantee the victory over personal glory. Kyler Murray sucks.

Yes. Dude, thank you for saying that.

The Minnesota, like, this was, I think, hockey.

Hockey.

But, but, but Mike.

Yeah. No, they're 4-0. They are 4-0.

They beat the Dolphins.

They have like, I don't know.

15 points.

Kyle, what are the stats about like not scoring touchdowns?

It's the first time. I mean, they have 2 wins out of their 4 that are no touchdowns scored. No offensive touchdowns.

The offense is horrible. It's so disgusting. But in the meantime, because of how disgusting it is, Hockenson will just get targets.

Yeah.

Certainly while I can't, I can't even dunk on Hockenson. He played well.

Yeah. And I would guess we don't know for sure what's going on with Justin Jefferson. If he's back this week or not, he very well might be. However, they do have a bye the following week. So if, if they can get away with not having Jefferson out there for week 5, against the New Orleans Saints. TJ Hockenson should be a great play for at least one more week.

Everybody click the drop button on Kyler this week because if you play Tampa and Miami and their defenses and you can't score 12 fantasy points in either game, ew, dude. I mean, maybe Jefferson will help him.

Please get Minnesota a quarterback. They have one. This is Carson Wentz. Carson Wentz is fine for fantasy purposes. He's not fine for The Minnesota Vikings. This is a team that should be hotly talked about of this is a Super Bowl contending team. And yet I don't either at 4-0 and people like, oh, should— are they— you think the Vikings are going to win the Super Bowl? No. No, I don't.

So it's what's wild is I'm like, there's part of me like, why do the Cardinals have Jacoby Brissett? It's like Jacoby Brissett is 2-14 with the Cardinals. They never win. He, I think he's a better quarterback for Minnesota than Kyler would be.

Probably.

Sam LaPorta, big week. Brock Bowers, of course, you know, it was Michael Mayer and then it was not. It was Brock Bowers. George Kittle, the machine. And look at us, Tucker Kraft climbing into the top 5.

Even dropped a touchdown.

He should have had 2 touchdowns. You like the targets.

But hold on, but the drop was on one of the easiest touchdowns you've ever seen.

That is correct.

It was just, it floated. Just a gentle butterfly kiss. All he had to do was accept it. And he's like, I don't want it.

I mean, I still try to—

It was so bad.

I try to give Tucker Kraft a little bit of a pass because he missed with the ACL and it's coming back to form.

It gave him arthritis.

They did give him a little bit of a pass on that one. And it was easy. It was funny because Mike and I were playing each other this week. And like, I obviously ended up running away with it. But the first half of my games were atrocious. They were just the worst. And same.

I just got the second half.

You had Zay Flowers. Yes. You just had the second half. But, but Tucker Kraft and Davante Adams dropped touchdowns simultaneously on 2 different screens while Zay Flowers is fingertip catching everything.

Dude.

Oh man, he's so good.

Zay Flowers is so good. It's always so fun.

Scary how good he is.

Yeah. Well, he's now his quarterback got a problem.

Still got a Pro Bowler in there. Snoop Dogg.

That joke will just, that joke will keep giving forever.

Whenever he starts. Yeah.

That one and Shadur as Pro Bowlers.

Oh, I forgot that Shadur was a Pro Bowler.

That's right.

He got rid of the Pro Bowl. Like Shadur is the reason that they got rid of the Pro Bowl.

I want to call attention to one more tight end. Brenton Strange. Yep. Target share in weeks 1 and 2 for Brenton Strange, 10%. Target shares in week 3 and 4, 26%. So his receiving yardage and stuff has been going up, more involved.

They've been doing a lot more 12. And we'll say the Bengals.

Yeah.

Like you can't— so 7 for 95 against the Bengals. Just don't get overexcited because Over the last year, that's just what people do.

Years.

And except for Friermuth 2 weeks ago.

And I, yeah. And I don't think Parker Washington's only getting 3 targets regularly.

Yeah. Parker.

People tried really hard to give me some Parker Washington bad puns this week and they weren't good enough to make the show, but they wanted to share their sadness.

I don't need Parker Washed.

Yeah. Washed. Washed was one of them. Yeah. But he's not.

Okay.

That's all right. They're stupid. He'll be fine.

Barfer Washington from Papa Josh.

Honestly, that would have been good.

Parked Washington.

Okay. That's not bad either.

Our team is good.

Our team is—

do we need to do this?

Guys, this is off the top of our heads.

This is just seconds.

I mean, we are— this is kind of what we do.

It is the only thing we do.

20% analysis, 80% stupid jokes.

Martha Washington.

What?

Okay. They can't all be winners.

A little bit.

Why you got to bring Martha in?

That's a historical—

she was a saint.

That's a historical gold mine of a joke.

Well done.

Let's get into the duds.

Pooped in his big boy pants.

Thank you for setting the tone for the duds, Kyle. Martha Washington. Matthew Stafford, no touchdowns in this one. 2 picks.

Ew.

Jalen Hurts, Justin Herbert. How about T-Law, Trevor Lawrence against Cincinnati?

That whole game was a big time bummer. It was.

It was not fun at all.

That was one of the 50-plus over-unders and it didn't deliver.

How do you feel? So it's really surprising, right? You would expect a shootout in that game. Obviously very disappointing fantasy output. Now you've got Philadelphia who just shut down Matthew Stafford and Houston who maybe gets it together by then and then a bye week. So the next 3 weeks, how are you feeling about Trevor Lawrence? Are you still fine believing that we'll see what we saw the first 3 weeks more out of him or are you hesitating with these matchups?

Fair. I think against Philly, he'll be like a lower, he'll still be a QB1, but lower. And Houston, I'm not worried about Houston until they actually can prove it.

Do we, do we actually have to think about Cincinnati as a good defense?

I wonder, man.

I mean, they, yes, they— 4 sacks in 3 of their 4 games. They, they're right there. Good teams don't look good against them.

Like the Bengals were without Ja'Marr for basically the whole game. They were trailing. Like the Bengals had a shot.

Could have won them another game.

The Bengals had a shot to steal the win because of the defense.

Yeah. And they play Miami next week, guys. Cincinnati plays Miami.

Nice.

Bo Nix. Here we are back to, back to Bo. 2 completions, 10 yards down the field. His ADOT was 5.3 yards. Hello, the Harvey checkdowns.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I also— You get people to turn on you.

Yeah.

When you, when you put out an offense that is just disgusting and boring to watch, the public doesn't like it. Public being me.

There are 2 offenses right now wherever I— there's just a position you don't want to be in. Maybe it will go 3 with the Eagles, but like David— well, not David Blough, Davis Webb, right? He takes— you've got like this legendary play caller who's your head coach and he's like, you do it and let's see how it goes. Yeah, let's see. And then you've got— I mean, Dan Campbell's not a patient man and Dan Campbell looks angry on the sideline. And here you have this new little check down Charlie offense for the Lions. With the Blobfish. And I look at that, I'm like, those are 2 situations where I don't know if the play callers stay the same the entire season, as crazy as it is.

Right.

Because it's wins and losses are going to determine that. Both those teams are 2-2, by the way. So running backs, this one.

This is a bigger talk.

Talk to me, Jeremiah Love, 14 for 63, 1 target, and a really long conversation after the game with the media saying, Go play Bam Knight.

It was the— it was so bizarre. We had it last week. You had a running back that you drafted in the top 5 and you said, let's give him all the work because of course, if you seriously are on the goal line and you're like, no, this other guy is a better option than you have, why would you have drafted that running back? Why would you draft a guy who's only good on certain parts of the field at the running back position?

That's a good conversation.

It's infuriating.

It's infuriating, but I don't think it's the whole story. The whole story here is that Jeremiah Love came out in the, in the press conference and he talked about that this is going to be the longest year of his life, that he's dealing with a lot more than the ankle. So you have more issues that we don't know about that Jeremiah Love is dealing with. He said that his body just feels randomly tired. And he said, play Bam Knight and Tyler Allgeier because, quote, why don't we play players that are going to play better than me? He said that. Yeah.

So you look at it. This is weird.

You don't know what conversations are going on on the sideline or whether maybe they call his number and he goes, no, you go in, Tyler. I mean, I don't know what's happening, but this is a week. Look, last week he looked great.

Yeah.

This is—

and it was very exciting.

This was an exciting week. And 14 for 63 isn't the end of the world, but no targets.

Yeah.

45% of snaps.

The longest year of his life. comment was more alluding to the longest year of football. Not like, not like, oh, this is going to be the worst year ever. Saying this is a long season. He hasn't played this much. And then you, the coaches are trying to keep me fresh for the season. So I do think that—

For what?

I know.

For what?

For the playoffs?

Not for the playoffs.

What are you doing?

As a rookie, you, you would hope that he's able to come in and just like take it all. You know, when you're drafted someone—

This is the freshest he should be.

When you're drafted someone, you know, in the He's got to be fresher than the other guys that are older.

Yeah.

I mean, the comments were concerning to me because I think he's dealing with more. I thought he was dealing with more injuries. Did you not interpret it that way?

No, I did. I definitely did. But it's just the whole thing is so weird the way that the coach is talking about. I'm, I'm just, I'm back. I'm, I was, I was so upset and frustrated and angry with the Cardinals organization.

He would probably just hinder the team if he took more work in his current state.

To take, to be a rebuilding franchise and be like, we're going to take a franchise running back. It never works. It literally never works. That's not how you turn your team around.

What about a franchise wide receiver?

It's never, it's never worked.

Well, by the way, they got the wrong one.

Marvin Harrison scored.

Yeah. And he gave it to the—

shh. He cost him the entire game.

He gave the camera the shush.

Go watch the play from the 20. Ball in his hands on the goal line, drops the ball. Not a, not a serious receiver.

I don't like the thing with the Marv is just you got the wrong guy. That's a, sometimes picks don't work out, but strategically for a rebuilding team, a running back never fixes it.

Even when they're unbelievable.

Yes.

When you're Christian McCaffrey.

Didn't fix the Giants.

No, he didn't. And Christian McCaffrey didn't fix the Panthers.

I'm not disagreeing with that, but I am thinking of an example of a situation that I think was more team-defining and had a year of buffer with a good play caller.

Okay.

And that was Dan Campbell. Dan Campbell made the investment in Jahmyr Gibbs, top 12 pick. They lost a bunch of games in their rookie season. He was 3-13. Now they, maybe they took him the next year when they had that good pick. But they also, but I'm saying like Gibbs was a defining part of their rebuild.

But they were all like, they were already ready for the rebuild. It needed, I'm not saying a, look, a franchise running back can can take a team to the next level. Look at when Philly got Barkley, like that first year was absolutely magical because the team was ready for the running back to come in and be featured. The Lions already had Jared Goff, who maybe at the time because of the trade with Stafford, it was like, we don't know if Goff is going to be it. Goff has worked out spectacularly for the Lions. So you get the You get the extra push.

I guess Gibbs' first year was the year after they went 3-13. Wasn't part of the rebuild as much as we've rebuilt, but they didn't— I don't think anybody expected them to go 12-5 that year after a 3-13 year.

But I'm saying, so to— I'm just— I'm back. But that was my larger point is after week 3, okay, fine. Bell Cow, he's going to be— he's the offense. He's the face of the offense. He's the entire engine.

I once again blame the Chargers. The Cardinals should not have a win and we should be in better position for a pick, but the stupid Chargers have to lose.

Yeah, Mike said this.

The second during the game, he's like, this is going to— we are going to look back and say, this is the reason we don't have the number one pick.

Chargers want Jeremiah Smith.

Yep. We're— the Cardinals will be one pick away from like the quarterbacks coming out this year. Well, we are on a tangent.

I apologize. Yeah.

The quarterbacks coming out this year from college as of right now, there's a lot of exciting names. We've had years like this where there's a lot of them. And then by the draft season, That has sifted down and you have 2 guys that you feel real confident about. The Arizona Cardinals will be 1 pick away from the 2 top-tier quarterback options.

Yeah, because they suck. Bucky Irving, 16 for 61, got, got the carries, didn't get any targets. That was a huge difference in Baker Mayfield and Jaylen Daniels. Whenever Jaylen Daniels had a moment to think, he took off or like the pressure came, he took off running. There were no checkdowns.

I don't blame him. I would have done the same thing.

Kyle's been keeping a count. It is now 745 days since Bucky Irving has had a carry inside the 5. The fact that Sean Tucker got it this game.

The fact that Tampa Bay got—

we need 6 goal line stops.

We got in, we got next to the end zone and it was still not Bucky Irving. I think that that is, it's pretty definitive that that's how they're going to roll it out.

I don't think he's their goal line guy. I mean, that's, that's pretty clear. Pretty obvious.

He's their best runner and not their goal line guy.

Right.

And Sean Tucker scored the touchdown. So you can't really blame him of like, oh, they brought in a bigger, heavier back and it worked.

They used him on 4th down too.

Yeah.

David Montgomery is a disaster. He has fallen to an efficiency poop hole. That was Kyle's words, not mine. He is 3.0, 1.7, 3.0, 2.4 in yards per carry. Dead last in yards after contact per attempt. Which is crazy because of all the players that I can think of in the last handful of years that broke the first tackle. That was a yards after catch. I mean, has he lost it? It seems that way. Cam Scadaboo, 18 for 58. Najee Harris fumbled in this game. Cam just couldn't get the big play and didn't get any targets.

Yep.

Travion Henderson was 14 for 42. I believe Rhamondre had— did he have 1 or 2 touchdowns? I think he had 2. That one, I can't remember.

He was, he was 1 touchdown. He was 13 for 47. Yeah.

I mean, so they both ran about the same, but the score went to Rhamondre. Parker Washington, Davante Adams, Garrett Wilson, Christian Watson. By the way, it was another nice golden week.

This is—

yeah. If you wanted to trade, if anybody out there traded Watson on high last week, I'm not saying this is going to continue. I'm just saying you feel good right now.

Yes.

If you traded him away. George Pickens.

Yeah.

Or Josh Downs. George Pickens. Let's talk about it. 2 catches, 75 yards, only 3 targets. When you have 3 and the other guy across the field has 21, you know, your son Mike is a huge George Pickens fan.

I'm a huge George Pickens fan.

We're watching the game and we're going, where's George? He was— your boy was sad.

Yeah. I was sad. I like, George Pickens was my start of the week, absolute fart of the week. The process was the perimeter guy for against Houston is going to have a good game. And 75 yards is not the end of the world. But when, when the other superstar on the team puts up what he did, you're— it's tough. It's tough. And, and this might be narrative stuff, but it's like, This is the situations where we've seen George Pickens become a problem, unhappy with the outcome.

So 4 weeks into the year, CeeDee Lamb is the wide receiver 2 and George Pickens is the wide receiver 39.

Yep. It's not going well for George. CeeDee Lamb is still awesome.

And Josh Downs, hugely disappointing week. I think he played 95% of snaps.

That game broke.

Is Daniel Jones?

Oh, he's not looking great. No.

Is he resembling a pumpkin?

Yeah.

They won the game.

Thanks to Galifianakis.

Yes.

Is that disrespectful?

Yes.

Do I need to go back to his regular name?

Yes, you do. Like the dude had the bomb touchdown to Burks. Another, he had a, he should have had, what was it? Antonio Williams had a chance.

Kelly Ekmanis. Ivan Kaliakmanis.

Oh, I didn't even finish the point about Ivan was that we saw Jaylen Daniels come in. You're like, this is not a quarterback. And then what's his name?

Aylan Kaliakmanis.

Okay. He comes in.

A-Y-L-A-N. Aylan.

We'll get it. We'll figure it out.

But my point is the pronunciation.

He came in and I mean, he couldn't read Ivan. He could not read a blitz. But His throws were at least like, okay, okay, this guy deserves to be a backup.

His interviews are awesome. He's like I said, he's got Mendoza energy. He just wants to get better and better and better. I don't think he starts next week. I think it'll be Jayden.

Yeah, I agree.

Yeah. But back-to-back wins for the Colts, I think, are masking how terrible Daniel Jones played. Daniel Jones accuracy looked abysmal. I mean, he was a wreck. Thankfully they could run the ball with Jonathan Taylor, had multiple touchdowns. You know, they won easily. So you're not leaving this game like upset. You know, if you're a Colts fan, a Colts player, a Colts coach, but he was really bad. And I think that that's going to be exposed when they're not playing a, you know, third string quarterback here soon.

We did have a considerable quantity of, I guess we haven't, have we talked through anybody else at wide receiver you want to talk to? We can get to Dalton Kincaid, Travis Kelce, Kenyan Sadiq, Goost.

Like, Buka is the biggest, like, I mean, he hasn't—

the alert says time to panic. I just don't even count the non-Baker weeks.

I agree with that. You can't start him without Baker, but Baker's also, the last I heard was 3 to 6 weeks. It was like he's trying to beat the 3-week timeline. That was the news I saw. And then after that was like, looks like 3 to 6 weeks for Baker. You haven't been able to start Ibuka happily in basically almost a calendar year. I mean, it was, it was, you know, halfway through last year.

Reminds me of another OSU wide receiver.

And, you know, you've got what? Marv.

That's the one.

Marv.

Marv was 808 as a rookie. Yeah. And now we're like, get off the team.

Well, I don't think it has been—

And Ibuka had a couple of games to start the year and now we're like—

It was more than a couple though.

It wasn't.

Yeah, it was. It was more than a couple.

I want to say it was like the 6 or 7 weeks.

He was like 6 or 7 weeks in and he was a top 5 wide receiver.

In my head it was 5.

I mean, the problem is, is that we don't— like you've been talking about the Bears and you're like, we don't know what they're doing because we don't have Caleb and we don't know what's up.

Like, yeah.

target distribution. I just don't see a world where Baker comes back and Ibuka isn't heavily targeted. This game was just, this was not a passing quarterback.

Yeah.

This was a checkdown to Godwin.

I worry about Ibuka.

Yeah. No, I don't. I'm not saying don't worry about him. I'm just saying don't play him at all with Jaylen Daniels. I agree with that. I think after that, like you talk about an acquisition window, would you rather have Ibuka or Josh Downs rest of season? I mean, I take Ibuka still.

Probably Josh Downs.

Okay.

I think I'm on the Josh Downs side. I think you're going to, you're going to end up right now for the next 5 weeks unable to play this player, then a bye week.

I mean, Downs, Downs also sucked.

One week. He's at least had, like, what do we got? Weeks 2 and 3, he was a double-digit player. When's the last time Ibuka has?

Oh, it's been forever. forever since he was double digits. Ibuka hasn't been double digits since I think week 11 last year.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Week 10.

The problem with Kenyan Tadeeq's goose is that if this offense has got 30 plays a game, you are going to be really scared of that opportunity.

I think it was Geno had 2 attempts going into the second quarter.

Yeah, it was insane.

You would, if you were watching that game, it was just, oh, the Bears have the ball again. Oh, or the Bears have the— I would forget that the Jets were playing in the morning because you never saw any Jet green.

No, I mean, anything. Braylon Allen was their offense and it didn't matter because they had 35 plays and the Bears had 89 plays.

That is one of the most insane stats I've ever heard. That disparity in stats.

It feels made up.

Is like, oh, okay.

Because I made it up.

The source that you just, you know, got that data from is obviously broken is how that feels. But that's what happened.

We got to, we got to get towards the end of this here, but Kelce 2 for 15 and they go into the bye, by the way. The Chiefs are on bye. That's a place you could figure out, you know, what they're doing on the offensive side if they're going to pick up anybody.

A good time to get Hill.

Yeah. And I'm just very curious whether he'll be, I mean, is he ready? I don't know. Jake Ferguson, Dalton Schultz, Darren Waller. Waller was disappointing. That was a game where he had a lot of pass attempts in a really good game. But not a lot of work, just enough to get Jason freaking 36 yards instead of 27.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

All right. We'll be back tomorrow. It is a waiver day. Enjoy the game tonight. Saints, Falcons should be a fun one. Bijan, Shuck and company.

Oh, Shuck Daddy, is this going to be a good night?

I hope so. Waivers tomorrow. We'll talk to you then. 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.