Transcript of Snap Count Risers + Jason's Confession?! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/7

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

Oh, welcome in. Wednesday, October 7th. Welcome into the show, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Mike, the Fantasy Hitman, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway. Got a great show for you today. Waivers going through this morning. Desperate people in our chopped league trying to survive, which is, I mean, that's, that's the fun of guillotine chopped leagues is Watching people squirm. I mean, Mike doesn't have to watch people squirm.

They suck.

Mike doesn't have to watch people squirm.

What a terrible league format. Moving on.

Yeah. Yeah. Somebody's—

No need to talk.

Somebody's recently departed. Are you still around, Papa Josh? I am indeed. You are. You're not cut?

Oh, I thought you meant at work.

Okay. I'm like, I'm here.

We know you are here.

And we are recording.

Okay. All right. That's step 2.

How about the chopped league? Are you still in it? No, I'm not in that at all.

What about you, Matt? Are you still in it?

Yep.

Okay. Good. Nice to see you still have not adjusted your volume for public consumption. We have—

it's me, Matt.

Hey, blah. What do we got at the top here? We've got our top 5 people in the Megalobowl. We're 4 weeks into the year. Oh, Purdy Strange Flowers up at 670 points in the Megalobowl. Steven. And then it looks like Delta DJ and I can't pronounce that.

Rough.

Rucks.

Oh, that looks like Rau FF.

Well, there's an X in there, Mike.

Yeah, but the X wouldn't— that X is silent.

I don't know.

Jason was nodding with me.

I think you might be right there. Rau.

Rau. Is there a lot of silent Xs out there?

There's a few.

Yeah. Instagram.com.

Ever heard of the word xylophone?

I have. I have heard of that word. Starts with a Z. Instagram.com/FantasyFootballers on X at the FF Ballers. The community is jointhefoot.com. We do have, we got a little fun segment here at the top.

Make it snappy.

Oh, oh, that, that finish. It felt scary. Here we go. We're looking at players.

I manipulate your emotions. You do.

You do. We are looking at players with rising snaps and opportunities going through a number of positions. Just taking a look at a few guys starting with Kyren Williams.

Mm-hmm.

Kyren Williams, the breakdown in week 1, it was a lot of Kyren, 39 snaps to 14. In week 2, it was really close, 34 to 28. That was against the Giants. And then in week 3, 61-25 last week to survive on the comeback trail, you saw where the team put their priorities. 70 snaps for Kyren, 13 for Blake Corum. Jason said something yesterday I thought was dead on, which is you're going to see a lot more Blake Corum in games where, where we thought the team would be, which was ahead and trying to protect leads and they'd split some of that work. But when this team needs a play, a drive, a 2-minute drill, A comeback, their main man not only is out there on the field but performed like he won the game for them. I mean, Kyren consistently made plays last week and you saw the snap counts diminish for Blake Corum. You know, is he still one of the top priority insurance backs? Of course. Of course he is.

Yeah. But like what level are you trying to get him if you have Kyren or are you just riding, riding dirty?

I mean, I'm trying to get him because he represents like if he's alone, it's a massive, it's a massive fantasy output.

Yeah. I mean, I would say that usually most of the time when you have an insurance back, if your starter goes down, okay, good. I've got someone I can play, but they don't get better. You don't, your team doesn't get better when that happens. The team gets worse. So it's like, oh, I go from my starter down to my second tier player. This is one of the rare situations where I think if Kyren were to go down to injury, Blake Corum by himself without Kyren would be even better than Kyren is right now. So I would, I would definitely, if I'm the manager of Kyren Williams, I would be going pretty aggressively to try to secure Corum.

RJ Harvey. Let's talk about the 10-target man. Is this something you're going to have to just accept as a reality here, Mike? J.K. Dobbins is not— I mean, frankly, he just hasn't looked that good.

No, he is. He has not looked very good.

He's outsnapped Harvey 2 times, one time when Harvey was out and then in week 3 on the return, 33 to 24 this past week. RJ Harvey, 29. J.K. Dobbins, 21. Tyler Pade, 12.

Yeah, the snaps have not. shaken out the way I thought they would. Now, the Broncos schedule probably does factor into that, but also the way that this offense is running, where it's just real, real small, real short A-dot. I mean, it's pretty— it's a pretty disgusting offense to watch. It is not aesthetically pleasing. And RJ Harvey is early in the draft.

Who do you blame for that? Why are the— why do we have no predictability when it comes— and this is going back a year. I mean, we had a Thursday night game against the hapless Raiders in which the, you know, the Broncos looked terrible. So who do we blame? Do we blame Bo Nix? Do we blame Sean Payton? Sean Payton took the blame off himself, gave it to Davis Webb. I mean—

I don't even know. Like, I don't— is this— Is it a Bo Nix? Is like, are the plays being set out in front of him for him, for him to accept and take care of? Or is this just how Sean Payton wants it to run? I really don't feel like I have a good gauge on it, but it just is what it is.

I mean, I think the first and second half of the Rams games were maybe as like indicative of what the—

oh man.

Oh, I don't know what to do here, man.

I did. This has been—

this has been real. It's just been too funny. We frequently on the show pause.

On the show, we had to pause yesterday. We can't pause today.

Go to my camera. Okay. So you see the corner of Mike's laptop.

Oh, everything's good, man.

You see the corner of Mike's laptop in my camera. Now go to Mike's camera. You see the corner of my laptop, right? So we've got these little things on here. Go ahead and go to Mike's camera. It's a screen protector. I know that this is not good for the audience at home. So it blocks what's on the screen. So we have these every single day.

Yeah.

And we get in here and I mean, yes.

Well, hold on. Hold on. We have them every single day. We use them every single day.

Right. But every day of our lives.

But every day they're just like on the table, you know, like pre-production happened.

We're ready. It's sitting out here and we grab them.

It's like, oh, hey, the reminder. And then we were going and I didn't have mine and they were like, oh guys, you need your thing. And I'm like, I don't.

Yeah. You know, I don't know where I found mine before the show, Mike.

Well, under your butt.

Under my butt.

Yeah. I was told to look under my butt. It wasn't there. But then, but it was behind my back.

It was behind your back. So I'm trying to talk and Mike is— Yeah.

youtube.com/stevefantasyfootballers.

Mike is sneaking out his screen protector from behind his back. Every day this week, there's been something weird that happens. And I don't want to blame Josh, but it is, he's the exec now. This, you know, Jeremy's on a cruise ship.

Josh wasn't the chewer.

Yesterday we had the loudest chewing on camera, which was Kyle. And Kyle's now, he said he heard from many friends about his guilt yesterday as we put the social media out. Let's see here.

You want to know it? You want to know the difference?

What?

Kyle, stand up, man. He was like—

Oh, took responsibility.

Like we looked immediately at Josh because that's the most likely culprit. And then Kyle's like, no guys, it was me. It was me.

Yeah.

I don't hear anything about the screen protectors right now.

I mean, is your butt to blame at all?

No, my back.

Okay.

Also the complete blending into the chair.

Yeah. I think the, I think the final thought I was getting to there was the first and second half.

I don't know, man.

First and second half of the Rams game where the Broncos looked hapless and stupid on offense. And then the second half, they kind of put it together. That's basically the 50-50 coin flip I feel like I'm playing with. I feel like I'm doing that with Waddle. I feel like I'm doing that with any running back. I feel like Bo Nix, spoiler alert, he's going to be a start of the week this week. Do I feel good about it?

Oh man.

50-50. I feel, I feel like I think I feel good about it.

Yeah. So another, we're talking about a guy who's a start of the week for me.

Are we? Who?

Harvey.

Oh, Harvey's your start of the week? Oh, that feels like such a—

Brother, you got to accept what's going on.

Better than, yeah.

I mean, I'm not putting my head in the sand and just being like my preseason. I love Dobbins. I thought, because Dobbins has always been a good running back on the ground. He just doesn't look like it right now.

Yeah. He has not been very good. I mean, he was 17 carries for 49 yards 2 weeks ago.

You know what I bet he's doing right now? Fighting through injury.

Yeah.

He's like, I have to. I have to.

Generally speaking, when he gets this level of injury, he just shuts it down.

He's like, if I don't go out there, Remember what I said? I said I'd be healthy. No, and the truth is, is with Harvey, if you pick him up, trade for him, whatever, you do get that. I mean, Dobbins could get knocked out and then he's doing more work.

Coleman is in the shadows like a boogeyman.

On the way back?

Just waiting.

He can catch the ball too. But right now, Harvey, the snap counts, which is what we're looking at, they're going up. And then take a look at this. The number 1 wide receiver in snap counts for the Packers, clear as day through 4 weeks. It's not Christian Watson. Clear as—

Last week was. The other difference is like—

So 3 of 4 weeks.

Like a snap. I wouldn't call that clear as day.

Yeah. Week 4 was 53 to 41.

Yes.

That one's clear as day.

Yes.

But he's at or surpassing the level of Watson in every other week. It's just, and we've seen it, like he actually looks good. He's the league leader in penalties drawn, 97 pass interference yards. That was more than double second place in terms of like, that's just not even on your fantasy stat sheet.

That is Matthew Golden. Did we say Matthew Golden?

I might not have said his name.

His name is Matthew Golden.

Yeah. But Matthew Golden has looked great. Like if you bought low in dynasty, if you—

Yeah. Congratulations.

Yeah. I mean, like this is a key point. Or a key player for the Packers moving forward. He had the goal line play after Tucker Kraft dropped the ball. He scored last week on like kind of a fade route, brought it in. You know, Christian Watson has that inherent fear of injury. Maybe we're getting past that with the workouts and stuff and he's been, he's been out there. But yeah, the snap counts are awesome. The production is awesome. I think the trade window for Christian Watson is going to be interesting. Golden might have closed at this point.

I don't, I don't think he's like trying to get like where if a manager doesn't fully believe or buy into what's happening. Because I do.

The question is, what do you think he is? Because I think you got—

What tier?

Like, yeah, exactly. Is he the absolute full-time starting wide receiver for the Packers? Yes. Is he getting opportunity? Absolutely. Do you like the Packers offense? Maybe. But what is, what is his talent level? You know, he's, He's drawn the most pass interference yards. Some of that is, is really, really good. Sometimes the fact that you're getting pass interference yards, you know, you're not separating enough. You're, you know, if you come down with that ball, you know, the pass interference is declined.

Right.

He's still catching less than half of his passes. You know, last, last week, double-digit fantasy points because he caught a touchdown, but he also had 21 receiving yards. So I would not put him. in my mind to like, I, I definitely think he is a worthwhile weekly start. I just don't think he's really broken out. And so do you guys think he's going to break out at the end of this year? Do you think he's a top 15 wide receiver? Because I don't.

I already think, I think the breakout has definitely happened because the target totals, the production level, multiple touchdowns when he didn't score at all last year. He's 13th in fantasy right now. In points per game, let me take a look and see where he's at there. He's 18th in points per game. I mean, I think that's about where he's going to finish, probably 18 to 22. But like, would you rather have— let me, let me give you some other names. Like, would you rather have Matthew Golden or Deebo? I think we'd all say Golden.

Yes. Yeah.

Would you rather have Tee Higgins than Matthew Golden?

I'd rather have Tee Higgins.

Would you rather have Davante Adams?

I would.

Yeah. Would you rather have Garrett Wilson? Yes. Would you rather have Michael Wilson or Matthew Golden?

Michael Wilson.

I think, yeah, I'll go Michael.

So through, you know, they're, they're pretty close. 12.3 for Golden, 11.1 for Michael Wilson so far. Parker Washington, Parker Washington is down at 10.8.

Parker? No, I was laughing of the like, just fancy football is funny.

Would you rather have Burden or Golden? I think I'd take Golden.

I'll take Golden in that situation. Like Emeka Ibuka, give me Matthew Golden.

For sure.

Agreed.

Ladd McConkey.

Give me Matthew Golden.

Like all the metrics for, for Golden are at or surpassing Christian Watson except for touchdowns.

Yes. And I think that's what's going to happen. Like at this, the way that things look through 4 weeks, it's not, it's not crazy to think Matthew Golden will have more receptions or more yards. I think Watson's still the better fantasy guy because he's a, he's a much higher threat for the touchdowns. I got one more for you. So I want that. So, but the, like, the yards will be close, but the touchdowns won't be, I don't think.

Yeah. This is a consolidated offense. You basically have Golden, Watson, and Kraft. Would you rather have DK Metcalf and all those targets or Matthew Golden?

Oh, Matthew Golden.

Yeah. I was waiting for you. That's, that's an easy one.

DK's getting so many targets, man.

But then you have to play DK. If you have him on your team, that's one of the requirements.

And by proxy, you have to be, Supporter of Aaron Rodgers.

This one I think has been happening in the shadows because the quarterback situation has literally rotated. Rome Odunze since week 2 is the clear snap leader for the Bears wide receivers.

That is true.

In week 2, he had 62 snaps to 42 or 46 for the next highest, 61 to 54 for the next highest in week 3. This past week it was monumental. 83 snaps. Next highest was 52. Luther Burden, 47, Cleef Raymond running more routes than Burden and Loveland. Is Odunze a buy low? Is Odunze somebody you believe in?

Yeah. I mean, I think he, I think he's a buy low. He's, he is clearly their, their primary X receiver. If there's like one wide receiver on the field, it's going to be Rome. That's, you know, that's great to have the opportunity there. I think he's a talented player. We don't know what the Bears are though. I mean, literally 3 different quarterbacks in 4 weeks. One of the games was a rained out game. So it's weird to be a month in and be like, I have no idea.

He's getting the routes though.

But yes, the opportunity is there, the snaps, the routes, and I still stand by the talent.

It feels like with no touchdowns and no Caleb, this would be the chance to get him before production could really spike potentially.

If you're getting almost every snap, he's not going to cost a lot because I still think people are like, well, Would you rather have— if you were Luther Burden preseason, you're probably still Luther Burden now because you're going, we don't know.

Yeah.

So I still stand by my preseason takes, which is why I stand by my preseason take of saying Rome is the guy.

Would you trade Metcalf for Rome?

I would rather have Rome than Metcalf. What about Rome versus Golden?

I love Golden. I think Golden's awesome. Every snap I've watched him play football this year, I've been impressed. Every route, every catch. The reason you don't see the catch percentage as high is because this dude is— I mean, there's a reason he has double the pass interference yards.

Deep shots.

Deep shots. Yeah. I mean, you're getting low probability plays and then 4 of those have been pass interferences. You know, Pickens is near the top of that list. CeeDee Lamb's near the top of that list. On deep shots, that's where you're going to get it. Rome or Golden, I'd go Golden.

Man, I think that's, that's tough. I lean, I guess I lean Rome slightly, but that's not a very confident take.

All right. Let's jump into the news.

News and notes from around the league.

You guys remember the part of the show yesterday where we talked about Joe Mixon because he was, he had agreed to terms with the Seahawks?

Allegedly.

Yeah.

Allegedly agreed.

But then he apparently took a physical and the Seahawks were not happy with the results and chose not to sign him.

That footsie is problematic. So I mean, obviously, oh yeah, this means he's not going to sign anywhere ever, right?

No, I don't think necessarily.

I guess I just feel like he would have to pass their physical.

Yeah, he would, but it might be weeks away. I'm just saying like it could be 2, 3 weeks away. He could go someplace else.

It might be next year.

Yeah, it could be next year.

If this is so strange, last year was totally shrouded in mystery. If you weren't around for fantasy football last year, Joe Mixon, up until the very beginning of the season, was the running back for the Houston Texans. And then he just—

Coming off a great year.

And then he just wasn't— then he was gone. He disappeared. The team never really talked about it. They're just like, yeah, he's hurt. And then you're like, when's he going to be back? Well, whatever. We'll figure it out. You're like, it just seems pretty important. Why can't you just tell us what's going on with Joe Mixon? And then, then the year was over and you assumed that Joe Mixon's career was done. And then you have this whole shenanigans and charades.

Yeah. It just feels like if he missed the entire year last year with this foot injury and then after a year and a half off, he still has a, You know, can't pass a physical.

It's not—

I don't think it's a week or two away and he's 30 years old. Like if I'm another team, do I even bring him in for a workout?

It just depends on the details of the physical and he's going to be more expensive to add to your practice squad than I think they added a Ravens depth piece instead. Jayden Daniels on track to start for the Commanders in week 5 against the Giants. So the return of Jayden Daniels.

We like it.

And the cybernetic arm.

You could put this man in a suit of armor.

Yesterday, big news, big, big news. Right tackle Lane Johnson announced his retirement from the Philadelphia Eagles. If you read his comments and the team's comments, it seems like he was trying to gut out one more year and was going to retire after this year anyways. But he said he's going to focus on his mental health. He's gone through a lot in the last handful of years. The Eagles in totality, you look at the big picture, it's a dramatic loss for their offensive line. You look at the numbers without Lane Johnson in recent years, hasn't been good. The Eagles are tied for the second lowest team total of any team in week 5. I'm looking at like, you know, we're 4 weeks in. We said this is when we start to like the stream finder tool, the strength of schedule tool, things like that start to really cement themselves in terms of defenses you're targeting. situations you're targeting. I think it's fair to say the way that the personnel is in Philadelphia right now, I don't know how they have an explosive week. I think you start targeting defenses facing the Philadelphia Eagles.

Yeah.

Which is something I don't think we could have ever said, but they, I mean, this team is so totally different.

I mean, no, first of all, Lane Johnson makes a humongous difference. We've seen it over the last couple of years. Every time he's off the field versus on the field, it's a massive change in their offense. No Saquon, no AJ Brown, no DeVonta Smith. It's like they're no Dallas Goedert.

Yeah, Darius Cooper got signed in leagues today. So yeah, they are 7-point neutral site underdogs in London against Jacksonville. And I don't, I just don't see how they win that game. Maybe, maybe they do. They were on the cusp of beating the Rams last week.

Defense. I mean, they've—

Yeah, it is. But you're talking, it's a Low-scoring game for sure.

I mean, you said they're the 2nd lowest implied team total. For context, that is tied with the other 2nd lowest, the Dolphins. Like that's the level of offense that they're expecting right now from the Eagles.

Behind the Cleveland Browns.

Well, yeah. Todd Monken, Deshaun Watson, of course.

Yeah. That's, wow.

Oh man.

Philly is so bad. And Jacksonville's defense playing well. Patriots brought in free agent Jamal Williams for a workout.

Oh, Rhamondre and Jamal. Yeah.

Rhamondre limped off the field at the end of the game.

Could they get any more plotting?

I know that's what it feels like.

Oh, you could sign Joyke Bell.

Yeah, bro.

He doesn't keep playing.

But he could at this pace.

No, he'd be even slower.

So the team has brought in Jamal Williams. I know Jamal Williams was literally calling Dan Campbell and pining. You think a team needs somebody. The Lions don't have anybody behind Jahmyr Gibbs and the Lions even said, nah, dog, we're good.

We're good. But this was, we saw a clip of Rhamondre at the very end of the game kind of hobbling. The game was over 2 plays later. So the fact that they're, they, we have an action coming in with the visual.

Yeah.

It becomes, it's only Wednesday. So we'll start to get more information throughout the week.

But what if Jamal gets snaps over Travion, Jason? Will you be able to handle that?

Oh, no, no, I will absolutely not be able to handle that.

All right.

We'll take a break. We're going to talk Thursday night.

Thursday Night Breakdown.

Okay. The 0-4 Tampa Bay Buccaneers take on the 2-2 Dallas Cowboys on Thursday Night Football. Dallas, 8.5-point favorites. Over-under is 47.5. Good golly, Miss Molly. This is a This is a— this was one that I just— it's a hard one to see going a different direction than Dallas handling their business, right? Yeah. It just comes down to Jalen Daniels and the ability to pass the ball down the field. I just— look, Dallas is not a good defense, but—

23% of Daniels' attempts were off target last week.

And the other—

only Jameis was higher.

I feel like the other 76% or whatever went straight to Chris Godwin in the flat. I mean, it was— It was just kind of an abysmal looking offense.

I have a confession.

You do?

Oh no.

I have a confession. I accidentally picked up Jaylen Daniels on waivers instead of Jayden Daniels.

Oh, you got Jay Daniels?

He's in a red jersey. It's Jay Daniels quarterback with a red jersey.

Is this the chop league?

No, this was—

Gosh.

This was actually last week, but—

Wait.

Yeah.

Wait, so you thought—

You got B. Robinson.

You thought you were—

Yeah, I got B. Robinson.

You thought you were signing— I was like, oh, son of a gun.

Oh, this is such a good Yeah.

So you thought somebody had put Jayden down there.

Well, because people were dropping Jayden Daniels.

Right.

We brought it up on the show. I was like, well, someone dropped Jayden Daniels.

What league?

It was a Megalobowl.

And you thought you were a sneaky devil.

I thought I was sneaky. I got snooked.

And then when did you realize? Pretty quick.

When I, when you saw his projection was like 8 points. That's amazing.

Yeah.

You didn't see the little rookie marker.

My bad. You know what?

That's a lot of leagues. That's amazing.

That is. Thank you for telling us.

Yeah, no problem. No problem.

Are you going to—

I'm going to drop it.

Oh, as a punishment, you're not going to play him?

No. All right. Cowboys defense isn't good.

That's true.

Yeah. They— so what?

8 for 50. Oh, it's 55 on the green.

Oh man. I wish I could have heard that. Other— so I— you look at the Tampa Bay offense and decisions for start-sit. At this point, there's no way you can have confidence in a pass catcher, right? Abuka, you're trying to find other options. Would you play Dontavian Wicks against Jacksonville in London?

Yeah.

Over Abuka? Would you play Khalil Shakir, Keon Coleman over Abuka?

Yes.

Yeah. Would you play your grandmother over Emeka Abuka?

Well, I don't think that's going to go very well.

No?

No, it'll be zero points.

Yeah.

Very dusty.

I mean, I think you can play Bucky because Bucky is getting at least 15 to 17 rushing attempts and opportunities.

Yeah, he's got to hope he just rips it off from the 20.

Yeah, he needs to have a bigger play. This is not— the funny thing about the Bucky conversation is it's not like in weeks 1 and 2 where, you know, he did have a touchdown. He did have a good yardage game and he was catching the ball. He had zero targets last week. That's a problem.

Big problem.

It's going to be a big problem till Baker happens. But at least, you know, that, I mean, last week, 16 carries on the ground. They are going to try to win the game that way and establish the run against Dallas. And Dallas's rushing defense is not spectacular. It's 21st right now. What do we do with the Tampa expectation though?

With Tampa being like, hey, we have, you know, the first couple of weeks like, Bucky's getting all this action and like, we've got him on a— he's a little restricted. He's on a snap count right now. And you're like, holy crap, we're going to get even more than this. And then this week, offensive coordinator Zach Robinson saying basically we need to get Kenny Gainwell and Sean Tucker more opportunities.

Technically, they said that last week as well, which they did give Sean Tucker the goal line.

This is weird that they just keep saying things.

I mean, I think that when you're on— when you're at a podium and you're asked about certain players, what do you— what do you think of Sean Tucker? You're going to say something like, you're going to be like, funny too.

Did you see the Gainwell one?

Yeah.

They want to get him more involved, but quote, he must earn more opportunities. So it's kind of like, yeah, we want to get him in there if he deserves it.

Yeah.

Right.

Yeah. It's just trying to say whatever you can from the podium. I think that, okay, like this thankfully is a Dallas matchup that you're not scared about at all where you can play Bucky. I do think he might be a decent trade-for candidate expecting a couple of bad weeks here. I think it's going to be bad.

You said when Baker gets back and the targets are there?

Yes. I think it's going to be a couple of bad weeks. So, you know, maybe you wait 2 weeks and trade for him. But I do think when Baker gets back, it'll be pretty good for Bucky.

You literally cannot hand the ball off to Kenny Gainwell. That is impossible. You can't do it. His yards per attempt the last 2 weeks, you want to know what it is? What if I told you it was negative 1.3 yards per carry and then 1.7?

Ooh, that's a net of 0.4.

So yeah.

What if I told you something that has been brought to my attention? Do you know who leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in receiving yards?

Otton?

Cade Otton.

Yeah. I mean, I've seen some pictures.

Brothers, your team is broken.

Yeah, that team is—

holy Lord.

They're in deep trouble. The nice thing is, once again, we have the simplicity of Dallas.

They're great.

Yeah, I just love it.

You know what, Jerry Jones, you get a lot of crap on this show from me.

And half of it is related to not installing blinds, but go on.

Oh, look, it's deserved. I'm just saying we don't give enough credit for how bad his defense is. Yeah, but you're doing great things for the fantasy football community. So we appreciate that.

2 bad defenses went out in the offseason and we're like, let's fix Yeah. And one of them did.

Yeah.

The Bengals.

Also, but I mean, George could get the ball a little more. That'd be okay.

Yeah. Last week it was 21 targets.

3 targets.

21 targets to 3.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, play CeeDee, play Javonte.

I'm still playing George.

Absolutely. I'm playing George.

I'm still playing George. Play George. It'll work out. And here's the thing about Dallas that you don't know. They have not hit explosive pass plays yet. Or maybe you do know it if you have George. But yes, but they, they have the most correlated. They have the most red zone touchdowns. So slower drives getting down the field and 30th in percentage of 20-plus-yard completions. It will happen. George Pickens has not lost a step or anything of that nature. He's drawn 2 or 3 pass interference penalties and he hasn't— he had a big play last week. I mean, he did. He caught a downfield ball. I think he was in the 70s in yardage even though he had 2 catches, right?

Yes, that is correct. And Dak looks good too.

Yeah, this team is going to be fine this week on Thursday Night Football. You know, my biggest worry as somebody who has to start Bucky this week with Ken Walker on bye, I kind of know the game script here. If Dallas comes out and scores 2 quick touchdowns, it's going to be so much Javonte. Yeah. Well, I was going to say on the other side, you just can't commit to the run. You can't, you can't give Bucky the ball on first and second down. You have to go out there and try to manufacture scoring. It's just one of those things where you're like, man, can Tampa's defense just sneak a defensive touchdown or something to keep this thing close? But yeah, not an almost upset pick for me, guys.

Surprised?

No.

No.

Because it's Jalen Daniels here. It's not Jayden Daniels.

Right.

If Jayden Daniels was on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, you'd understand.

Do you think the Tampa Bay Bucs thought that too?

Oh, okay.

They saw, they're like, oh dude, there's a Jay Daniels on the waiver wire?

Yeah, that's probably what happened.

What did Washington do? Pick him up.

That's probably it.

I just like the first thing you said. They have the same color. Like it's kind of red, kind of a red profile picture with the jerseys.

The jerseys. They're both the team colors of red, which is what the B.

Robinson problem was because like that one's even worse. I mean, that was on the same team.

That's— yeah. And I mean, that one you could easily get wrong because you're like, so that guy had 3 touchdowns.

I got a confession. I got a confession to make.

That's Bijan clearly. Oh, fantastic.

But it's on behalf of a Foot Clan member who wrote me a note and I'll share it. His wife was going into the Monday Night Football game. in desperate straits, needing a, needing a big performance. So the only player she had to start that night was, was Brian Robinson. And her, her kind husband was like, listen, your best chance at a miracle is to drop that dude and sign Kendre Miller because he's the best chance for us a Monday night miracle. And Brian Robinson scored thrice and would have won her the week. And Kendre—

Brother.

Kendre, Kendrade.

That's some deep state stuff.

What I like about that is, you know, like, I don't know if his wife was super, like, if this is— she was looking for help. So maybe she's not super experienced. And I like the idea of him being like, let me button up the tie. Let me give you the sweet advice. Let me show you how a pro handles this.

You clown.

Get this Kendre Miller guy. That's fantasy in a nutshell. I love it. You guys ready for some mailbag?

Yes, sir. Mailbag.

Apparently the Falcon also told his fiancée to start Ladd over Deebo and lost because of that.

Good stuff, man.

So the advice—

Good stuff.

Advice is flowing into the mailbag.

You guys are doing great work. We go.

thefantasyfootballers.com. Click the submit a question button if you want some help this week and want to send us a question for the mailbag. You can dial the voicemail hotline, 302-464-TFFB. We got a couple of voicemails in here, Josh. Is that right?

We do.

Let's jump in. Hey, ballers.

Mike from Brooklyn here. I was wondering if you ever use DFS pricing to figure out who you should start and sit. Looking forward to hearing from you boys.

Yeah. I mean, I, so I know that as part of my rankings process, I look at all of the projections and lines from pretty much every book out there. I don't look specifically at the salaries personally, but it's the same thing.

Salaries are directly correlated to points per game.

It's how well have you been doing?

Yes.

It's not necessarily how well are you going to do?

Yeah. So I mean, I think we've glanced at them from time to time. And when we've had other segments where those things have been highlighted, they can be helpful. For sure. But Spider writing in from Instagram. What do I do with—

Spider?

Yeah.

Scary.

Spidey. Spidey RX. So he's a pharmacist.

Oh, doctor.

Pharmacist.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. He works at Walgreens on, you know, when he's not the friendly neighborhood man.

Spidey.

What do I do with David Montgomery if I can't find a trade? You won't be able to find a trade. Do I bitterly weep?

Oh, there's—

It'll probably get better.

It will get better. I would say that—

No, it won't.

Okay.

If you, if you have a closet or something that you can put some candles in, turn it into like a little prayer room, that would probably be your best avenue because I do think that there, that it could get better.

It could because it could because he's in the middle of the worst right now.

Tied for 39th in yards per carry.

Lateral is possible.

Tied with—

lateral is probable.

Yes.

But it could get better. I mean, you saw in week 1, right? Week 1, he rushed for 3 yards a carry, wasn't that good, but he had multiple touchdowns because the offense was doing well. That was a Nico game. Nico is back. Obviously you've seen that their offense is able to work with Nico there. CJ Stroud looks good. So right now, David Montgomery is truly a hold. If you're going to trade him away, you're going to get nothing for him. And he is obviously not someone that should be dropped. So I think you just hold and you hope that— The offense gets more scoring opportunities and that's it, right?

I think I agree that he's not a drop.

You—

but he's not a drop because you can't drop running backs that start. But bye weeks are hitting.

Someone's going— he will get picked up. Someone will burn priority. Someone will burn fab to put him on their bench. And he just— all he is doing is—

it would be me though if he was out there.

I do. He feels like a landmine. It's just where it's just all year. You're going to be like, man, David Montgomery's there.

They're favored by over a touchdown against Tennessee this week. I mean, I'll bet his odds to score a touchdown this week are decently high.

They scored 30 points on the Dallas Cowboys and David Montgomery had 4.3 fantasy points.

Yeah. I mean, the opportunities are very low the last 3 weeks, 6, 11, and 10.

Because they're, it's like the Packers. They know what's going on.

I mean, if he can't do it against the Colts defense, if he can't do it against Dallas's defense, that's the last 2 weeks. Why is Tennessee better? Man, I'm getting persuaded that he's David Crappertunities.

I think if you look at the Nico-less versions of the Texans, which are 2 of those games where, you know, where they would want to lean on the running game. Well, but you can't, you can't if the defense only has one thing to focus on.

Right. But if Nico's there, then I'm going to run my offense through Nico. Correct.

You can score more. But if they're up, see, they would with the Dallas game. It's like trying to craft something.

Yeah.

You're cooking up a brew for David.

It feels like a dark mirror version of Javonte.

Something about the offense doesn't work for him here.

The offensive line.

Yeah. It's probably—

I mean, I don't— he doesn't get like, if you told me that David Montgomery can't run between the tackles right now, but he's getting 6 targets.

Yeah.

But he got 0. 0 is way fewer than 6.

I mean, the good news for him is it's not like Woody Marks is looking great behind him. Woody Marks is running for 3 yards a carry. It's a really tough offensive line.

What's that? What's Montgomery at?

I think 2.7. Right. Right.

2.7. Woody's at 3.1.

Yeah. No, I mean, they're both bad.

Woody looks like he has juice though.

Yes, he does. I get it. Dropping a starting running back is— that feels like you just can't do.

I mean, you're not, you're not doing that.

But at what point?

At all costs. You're doing that if you can pick up, like you would have done that for Will Shipley probably. Maybe. You're not doing that for Jaylen Wright.

So here's what, here's what's going on for Montgomery. Tennessee. I agree. Could be good. It should be. It should work.

Are they going to lose to Tennessee in Tennessee?

No.

No, I don't think that is— that's not in the outcome.

Oh, get ready. Get ready.

It should work. But then the next week is Jacksonville.

Oh, Jason's face told me, I guarantee you it's an almost upset. That's what's going to happen this week.

7.5.

Well, 7.5 is a large line.

7.5 on the road. So Jacksonville is the next week. No way am I playing David Montgomery. He could go out and have a multi-touchdown game against the Titans. The Jacksonville Jaguars? No, thank you.

Sure.

Then you get the Giants. Okay. And then you get a bye week. It's, I don't know. The upcoming stretch here is not—

But if you hold him, you can drop him and say goodbye during that week. Yeah. That, that's not, not compelling. It's not going well. You're not going to win a week because of him right now.

No.

But you could lose one.

I'm moving him down my rankings.

For rest of season?

Just everything.

Dynasty, rest of season, weekly.

You name it, man.

Up your rankings in terms of players you dislike. All right, we'll take a break.

I still like, I like Montgomery.

It's not working.

It's not working.

It's not working.

David Montgomery or Ollie Gordon?

Oh my God.

Ollie Gordon?

Not even close.

Ollie Gordon. Ooh, here we go. RJ Harvey, move ahead of David Montgomery.

Yeah. Yeah.

All right. Here for you, Mike.

Oh, I got the nastiest one.

J.K. Dobbins.

I'm moving him up. I'm moving him up over Montgomery. Wow. Tony Pollard.

Pollard. Easy.

Yeah. I'm moving Montgomery down.

I mean, that's easy.

I was moving other players above Montgomery.

I'm just moving Montgomery down. I still think he deserves to be rostered.

Yeah, he definitely does. He's the starting—

You're on weeks where you can't start somebody. I mean, do you want Ja'Kori Crosby Merritt or do you want Pollard?

Yeah.

David Montgomery.

I want Bill.

Jason.

I mean, all the answers are everyone else, but also you shouldn't drop him.

So the answer to the can't, if I can't find a trade for him, the answer is bitterly weep.

Yes.

Honestly, trading.

Oh dude, keep the clothes on, walk right in the shower. Turn around.

The trade is the most compelling actual, you can do this. You just can't trade Montgomery by himself. But if you take the fundamental piece of the trade, let's say you're trying to get a better running back and you take a wide receiver. and then you tuck David Montgomery in there.

Yeah.

It will look more compelling than the actual player is playing.

Sure. And sometimes you're like, if I'm giving you a running back, like I need someone to at least put in the lineup. I get that. But if you offer me a trade with Montgomery, I want a better player from you.

I mean, if I said—

to remove Montgomery from your roster.

If I offered Luther Burden and David Montgomery, could I get Bucky Irving?

Interesting.

Maybe that's the type of trade. If you just offer Luther Burden, you're not getting Bucky Irving. But if you said Luther and David Montgomery, maybe it's that kind of little tier thing that you could do.

Maybe.

Maybe. And then send them highlights of the Lions games.

Marshawn Lloyd or David Montgomery.

We found it. That's David Montgomery.

No, Chris Brooks is hurt. I'm taking Lloyd.

No way.

Yes, I am.

What?

Chris Brooks is hurt and Josh Jacobs is a mystery.

Lloyd is actually catching passes. Yeah, I'm definitely taking Lloyd.

That's definitely what I'm doing.

Oh, they're tied at 2.7 yards per carry.

Yeah.

Well, that makes sense.

All right.

I want a Lloyd v. Montgomery bet this week.

Yeah.

Depending on Chris Brooks is active or not. I did say Chris Brooks. So let's take a break. We'll be right back. All right. Back into the mailbag. Let's go into another voicemail.

Hey, ballers.

Quick question.

Rest of season, DK Metcalf or Luther Burden?

Thanks.

Good.

We're right back into these. It's— look, I want the offense that I think the eventuality of it will win me a championship. I don't think Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers offense is going to do that down the stretch. Rodgers is not going to get stronger as this season goes on. But Caleb Williams is going to return and the best players, if they are good, they emerge. So I will take Burden. Yeah. Pretty handily.

I was going to say I've got Burden significantly higher.

Taking the bird in hand. You didn't even hear what you said, man.

No, I mean, I—

You said it. You walked right into it.

Swish.

I said I take Burden handily. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. I stand by it.

But you shouldn't be so Upset that we didn't applaud.

Oh, I don't need your applause. The people loved it.

No, I just was trying to figure out.

Told you. Well, thank you. Oh, Falcon gave it a 10 out of 10.

Falcon gave it a 10 out of 10.

I'm with you guys. What a terrible joke. All right.

Eli writing in. What do I do if I'm 0-4? Do I make a crazy trade or stay the course?

I mean, it's not—

Somewhere in between there.

It's not always just record. It's how is your team doing?

Point score.

Yeah.

Like points. Where are you in points per game?

Are you making bad decisions? Could you have won with bench players?

Yeah.

All of that stuff needs to be evaluated because luck is part of fantasy football. It just is. And sometimes you score the 4th most points every week and you just happen to be up against the juggernaut of the week. So you have to evaluate. That's where you got to start.

I've had a really funny year in my, like the, I'm in a CBS league for St. Jude's and I lost to the highest score in week 1. I was the second highest score. I lost in week 2, another tough luck loss where I scored a bunch of points, right? So I'm sitting 0-2 in that league. I'm now 2-2 with 2 cheap wins. I mean, just, it just, this universe balanced in that league in a funny way where, you know, I'm like, oh my gosh, if I lost these 2, I'm losing. All of them. And it just evened out. 0-4, like we had this conversation on the show. People brought it up on social media. We've had people 0-4, 0-5, 0-6. We had an 0-7 win a title. Staying the course might not be your answer because of all those variables. You may need to, you know, like right now you probably can't afford to absorb bye week situations, right? Like if you're 0-4 and then you got guys going into bye, maybe that's where you can make a trade. for another player whose bye is down the line. You can get a couple of wins right now while other people's teams are on bye.

Think about it through that lens. Classic Kyle, who's the player that has surprised you the most given his preseason projections? Is it a player like Golden? Well, I mean, I don't know if he was looked at as necessarily going to flop.

We, the, for Golden, for Golden, it was the opportunity is there. Does he have the player? Can the player come through with the opportunity he is given? I wasn't so sure. I was skeptical, but he has looked great. The biggest one for me is Chuba.

Yeah.

Like that's like, that feels like probably my biggest miss. I wanted absolutely nothing to do with that situation. I hated him as a fantasy football player. Not just because of what Jonathan Brooks could or could not do. I just, I wasn't into the Panthers environment, but Chuba has been awesome.

Yeah, I'd say the Chargers top to bottom. All of that team.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. That was good.

All that Chargers.

Its own thing. Dude.

You know, we normally do this. I like, I mean, I have intended to be better, Jason. They did intend. Yeah. If they could award points on intentions. I always love taking a glance at the quarter mark for where players are finishing in terms of like the positional rankings. Here's your top 5 quarterbacks. Do you want me to let you try to guess or just read them to you?

Just read them.

Wow. I mean, like, are you trying like the surprises in there?

No, I just want to read you the top 5.

Okay.

At each position.

All right.

So are you starting at quarterback?

Starting at quarterback.

Well, it's like Bryce and Shuck. Does Shuck hold on to top 5? I think so.

I think Josh Allen will be in there. Lamar should still be in there.

No.

Really?

No.

Shuck?

Yep.

Bryce is in there.

Bryce.

So Josh Allen is 1. Shuck is 3. Bryce is 4. 2 more names.

Oh, Kirk Cousins.

He's 6.

Oh, I was so close.

Number 2 is who you're missing here.

All right.

Who is it?

Brock Purdy.

Oh, of course.

And number 5 right now is Jared Goff. Your top 5 running backs. This is not a shock. If you want to talk about like drafting predictability.

Let's go Gibbs. Gibbs. Gibson, Walker, Bijan. Yeah. Who else is—

who is James Cook?

Oh, Derrick Henry.

Derrick Henry.

Derrick Henry's 4. James Cook is 10 right now.

Jonathan Taylor.

Jonathan Taylor's 5.

Cook was headed down.

There's your top 5. And then wide receivers. This shouldn't be too hard.

Jason.

Jason's 1.

Amon-Ra.

Number 3. Who's your other?

CeeDee.

CeeDee's number 2. I was thinking about my team.

I was thinking about your team.

4 and 5 though. 4 and 5 are names that have not normally been there.

We have a weird breaking news.

Breaking news.

The Philadelphia Eagles who just lost a tackle. are sending 2-time Pro Bowl center Cam Juergens to the Ravens in exchange for picks.

Are they folding? Are they—

what are we doing here?

That's a little surprising.

Shouldn't they like be acquiring all the offensive linemen?

Well, they brought Damian Pierce up to the active roster so they don't—

Oh, so Damian Pierce will be the guy. Remember what we talked about? We didn't know who of the 3 practice squads it would be.

That's a weird one. I think, I think Nick Sirianni's odds to get fired midseason are going up by the minute. Nick Sirianni's in trouble. Philly is impatient.

Philly's impatient. And also despite the Super Bowls and Super Bowl victory as well, I'm pretty sure everyone there hates him.

They've wanted him out for a while.

I just love the part where it's always Another OC or another this or another that.

Wow.

JSN, CeeDee Lamb, Amon-Ra. The next 2 at wide receiver. Do you got them? You should be able to. Olave's 4.

Mike? Oh, I think, yeah.

Oh, Zay Flowers? No.

No. Because he missed.

I don't know.

It's going to be one of your guys.

Who?

One of your guys.

One of your guys.

Oh, Christian Watson.

Christian Watson.

Yeah, he held on. All right.

6 is TET. 7 is Davante Adams. And then tight ends. You know who the number 1 tight end is right now?

George Kittle?

Yes.

Oh man.

Yes.

Dude.

Yes.

That dude's a man.

That dude is awesome.

Stop betting against George.

He has the most touchdowns of the position. And then Trey McBride.

Yeah.

Number 3, Mike.

Oh, number 3.

J-J-J-J-Juwanson.

Oh yes.

And number 4?

Man, I want to know where Brock Bowers is considering he's—

Yeah. Dang.

Juwan Johnson is high. Number 4 is the LaPorta potty.

Okay.

Yeah. And then number 5 is Travis Kelce.

Yep. Oh, that makes sense.

So there you go. There's your, your top scorers.

Juwan Johnson. Good for you, man.

I also enjoy the fact that so that the top 5 quarterbacks are the top 5 scorers altogether. And then Jahmyr Gibbs and Walker break in.

There's quite an overlap of quarterbacks and tight ends.

And then it's all quarterbacks. Yeah.

Because you said Goff is in there, right?

Yes.

So Goff, LaPorta, Purdy, Kittle.

Yeah.

Shuck, Jiwonsun.

And Mahomes is not far behind, by the way. Mahomes is number 9 right now in fantasy.

So, so throw to your tight end.

But like Cousins is up there too. Yeah. Let's go ahead and jump into another question here. Start-sit question from Devin. Do I start Zay Flowers with no Lamar or do I start Matthew Golden? It's us. Ravens are Sunday night game. So we may have We may have answers on Lamar. We probably will, but we might not.

Oh, he's not going to play. The most recent report I saw was like, he's not.

The most recent thing I saw was that he's got an unconventional—

I did see that.

Yeah.

What does that even mean?

It means it's not conventional.

Yeah. It just seems pretty obvious.

It's the opposite. I mean, the doctor looked at it and was like, this is the weirdest ankle sprain I've ever seen.

I haven't seen anything like this.

Usually ankle sprains either go this way or that way. And this one is totally different. I mean, what could it be?

It's like, you're a doctor. You have to have seen this.

Whoa.

Whoa, buddy.

Oh, your ankle injury is in your knee.

It's neither high nor low.

Is it really?

That's what Brooks just posted. It's a report from Rappaport. Okay.

It's on the fact that he might be able to play even if he doesn't is a good sign for the long term.

Yeah.

But I play Golden against Chicago. That should be a— I should be a high-scoring game. The Packers defense is not getting it done. Atlanta's defense is getting it done. I mean, look at Atlanta. Atlanta should win that game.

Atlanta's looking— they're cooking a lot better. Let's see. And I mean, they should win the division.

I think I'm going to still stick with Flowers.

Okay.

I think even if Snoop is there.

You want to do a $100 bet on that one?

Yeah.

All right.

Well, you're not going to want to hear this, Jay.

Oh, wait, wait, wait. Hold up.

No.

All right.

No.

Let's see my numbers that I'm seeing in the second half. Huntley threw the completed 8 of 9 passes.

Oh, that's fantastic.

63 yards. I'm showing Flowers with a negative yard.

You remember that they were up by a bunch and they like stopped running them out there. Yeah.

But he caught 2 passes for negative yard. And that's at least what I'm seeing.

It'll make for a good bet.

Yeah, it'll be fun.

Would you trade George Pickens and Jalen Coker to get Chris Olave? Yes, I would. Easily.

Yeah, I think I'm okay with that.

Olave is—

Olave is awesome.

When you combine the pace of play, the lack of a running game, and the shuck capabilities—

Full D-GAF at the end of the game. They're just like, we're going to put up points.

I mean, if you had Jefferson, I'd trade Jefferson for Olave in a heartbeat. Yeah. Now where is, where's Drake London on your rest of season rankings?

Very high.

Very high. Because that feels like, I mean, he feels like he's going to be top 5.

As long as Michael Penix keeps that job, Drake London is going to be amazing.

Their play action game just makes whatever they do.

I just love hearing this Drake London and Olave talk.

Oh, there you go.

Your 2 dynasty guys. Yeah. Whatever they do with the running all over the place thing. When you play action, Drake London just gets— he's so wildly open in that second level. They're not even close together. He just looks so good. Start-sit question from El Dandy 40.

All right. That's the Dandy.

The Dandy. The Dandy 40.

So that do not oblige.

Who should I start this week? Tyler Schuck against the difficult Minnesota defense. I'm assuming you're playing yourself some Dak this week.

I currently have Dak in.

Or Drake Maye against Las Vegas.

I would go May.

I don't want to mess with Minnesota because I don't think you can get the kind of week you want, the 3-touchdown kind of week.

Yeah, I lean Drake May. Thankfully he came back to life. Didn't look like a bum last week.

Well, this one, we'll end with this one because this is, this is a wild question and I'm curious Mike's thoughts. I think I know them. Morrison says, I'm 1-3 right now. I have Ken Walker. Oh, which that's a hard—

that's hard to be one of the—

goodness.

Should I consider selling high for help right now? So you sell Walker at the— I believe Walker has the 14th highest points of all time through 4 weeks.

He is not playing football this week because the Kansas City Chiefs are on bye.

This is actually kind of what you were just talking about where if you are a team that is 0-4, 1-3, and maybe you can't deal with a bye week.

The question is this.

It has to be an offer you can't refuse though.

Yeah. Like if you can go get Jonathan Taylor to play this week and something, plus, then I don't think that's a problem. Would you trade Ken Walker? Let me give you this one. Would you trade Ken Walker for a package that was like Derrick Henry and Golden?

At 1-3, I might be open. I'm very—

I probably wouldn't do it.

I don't think I'd do it.

I think Ken Walker is worth more to your comeback from weeks 6 through the rest of the season than he is missing a week right now.

I think it's worth it.

I'm worried about Henry against Atlanta this week with Tyler Huntley. Like, this is— this doesn't shape up to be the weeks, one of the weeks where he turns into the Yeti.

Fair. I mean, he has one of the largest splits of all time in wins versus losses, which makes complete sense. He's not a pass-catching back. He's the 4-minute run, you know, run the game out type of back. So tough for him this week. I would say that you need to explore how much you could get for Walker and try your best not to trade him.

But yeah, yeah, that's a good way to put it.

If something happens where it's like, wow, okay. I mean, you've got to just be overwhelmed.

Yeah. You could always, that's the one situation where you probably want to put the name out there to everybody. If you want to explore it, let the bidding begin and see what kind of crazy stuff you get back because, you know, there's a world where, you know, there's a world where Walker's won overall this year for sure.

Yes.

Like it's not—

He's barely behind Gibbs right now.

And Gibbs, I mean, those are, that's the 13th and 14th highest 4-week stretches to start a season for running backs in history, going back to Jim Brown, who had the best one ever.

That's wild.

All right. We're going to say goodbye for today. Starts of the week tomorrow. Matchup previews. Thursday night recap. We'll talk about that. And we got Wheel of Shame this week as well. Hooray.

Hooray.

Thank you for joining us. The community's over at jointhefoot.com with the ultimate dash dashboard, your tool each week to get better. Check it out.

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.