Transcript of Week 5 Studs & Duds + Red Alert Offenses - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/7

Hey, this is Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for.

The Kansas City Chiefs.

And you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers podcast. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host Andy Holloway, Jason Moore and Mike Wright.

Oh, welcome in. Monday, October 7, the Fantasy footballers podcast Jason Moore, Andy Holloway with you today and another week to react to. We've got studs and duds on the show today. We've got NFL news, we got injuries to talk about.

This feels like a really big studs and duds week. Like you had some monstrous performances, like extreme production, and then you have some of the most started players failing miserably.

Yeah, we got one more game left in week five. And I'm thinking tomorrow on the show, after we conclude week five in its entirety, I want to go through the top five at every position tomorrow. I want to look at who's there five weeks into the season. And then I want to ask you whether you think they stick around or they finish within about five spots of where they are today. Because, you know, we've got some data at this point in time and we had expectations for certain players this week that did and didn't deliver. We're getting into all of it today. I want to invite everybody, check out join the foot.com. if you want to join an incredible community of fantasy football players, the Foot clan, you can find out details at joint the foot calm. You get an extra episode of the show every week. Premium tools, the ultimate dashboard, which is coming very soon to a mobile device near you as well. And the websites, the fantasy footballers calm for all of our rankings and, and everything, the great articles by the great writing staff and I that we have assembled by sheer luck, Kyle.

Yeah, I was going to say Kyle's done great work.

Brooks would like us to know that we're doing a fantasy draft redo on Wednesday.

Those are super fun. And that kind of, in part, does what you're talking about, where you're going to do it over. If we were to do the draft today, who's the first pick, who's second, etcetera.

Yeah, maybe I'll. Maybe I'll save those, those numbers for Wednesday. But that should be fun. We do react to the weekend and the only way we know how, it's just to put the word out to the foot plan. Get sophisticated with some Monday punda, and we'll kick it off with Brock powers. First touch.

Good.

First touch.

He's good. Darnell. Money.

Yeah. Rico. Mike's not here. Oh, it's such a shame.

No, this was his.

Rico Wildl oh, thanks, Bigsby. Oh, great. So I get TD Higgins.

You got Kraft Mac and TD's.

Yeah, he double double t's. Flying Thomas Junior.

Oh. Check in at the better business burrow.

Dumb DJ. More of that, please.

Whoa. Flacco. But it wasn't all good.

No, it wasn't. And that's why we have Dontavian.

Oh, he was the worst this week. Dontavian whiffs.

And then, of course, Devon Akpane, Mark Blandrews.

Hey, he had. He had catches this week.

He did have catches. Such a high bar for him. Xavier regrets.

I like that. Brie small, Debo Shamuel George picking someone else for my team.

And Courtland nothing.

Starvin Harrison juniore right after the sacrificial baby.

Of course, he's now Benedict Darnold, hungry for more.

And finally, David n joke, who's on you. Oh, that's really not fair.

The joke's on you.

Okay. Yeah, you do it. He. If you're not familiar with his work, this week, he caught the first pass on the first play of the game and then played more snaps, but got injured.

Yeah, it was a knee injury, though. It wasn't a re injury, which is really a shame. He's going to get an MRI today, and, like, he had just talked about how upset he was that he had been missing time, so it's always hard when that happens.

That does feel like. Like it's. It's unfortunate. It's not his fault. I don't ever want to shame an injury, but it does feel like a jokes on you situation where it's like, I'm back. Ha ha. Gotcha.

Yeah, I was. I was. I was benching this week to see because we knew the snap counts would be limited. But you never know if a players like compensating for an injury, too, and that's how they get hurt again.

Yeah, I didn't see the play where. Where he got injured, but obviously, we'll. We'll find out more this week.

I don't recommend watching that game. I don't think you want to watch Cleveland.

Holy moly. What? I mean, every time we would look over to the Browns tv, it was like, just put a sheet on it.

Put it like, oh, yeah, pull the sheet over.

Just.

This is done.

I can't watch Voldemort play football anymore. And they came out.

Football. That's football.

What he's doing is he's trying. Head coach came out and said, he is the quarterback. He who shall not be named will continue being our starting quarterback, which means the Browns offense will continue to suck.

And Mario Cooper will continue to get ten to twelve targets and catch four.

Of them because he got five catchable.

He'll drop one, he'll drop one, he'll catch four, and he'll be targeted ten to 15 times. It's very difficult to watch. They could use Joe Flacco. Yeah, I mean, the teams that could use Joe Flacco right now, there are more than one.

Oh, yeah. And it was reported that those are the exact teams that turned Joe Flacco down this offseason before he went to the Colts, like the Miami Dolphins. I mean, the Miami Dolphins have devon a chan tyree kill jalen waddle. You put Joe Flacco there and this team is just marching towards the playoffs.

Yeah. And jalen waddle would be fine and tyreek would be great and a chan would be great. And yeah, joe Flacco is a leader.

Insane. Insane. When you have a quarterback with 300. Yeah, I mean, he's, he's great. I love. I hope so.

What do you do? I mean, let's just talk about it for 2 seconds because we know, I think indianapolis can win. Their chances to win or better with Joe Flacco right now, but their future is not Joe Flacco at all. And it's not like Richardson's not going right back into the lineup. But what a weird place to be as a team where, you know, your chances to win go down and you continue to make that decision.

Yeah, I mean, the whole world knows it. The whole world knows that the team operates better, the offense operates better. The wide receivers have more success with Joe Flacco than with Anthony Richardson. Obviously, they are not a team in a championship window, yet they are building to the future. And that's not what, you know, old man Joe Flacco is going to provide you. So they do need to build the team around Anthony Richardson. I think that's what I would do as a general manager. What you'd hope to do at this point now is put Anthony Richardson behind someone like Joe Flacco. But they can't do that anymore. You know, you go backwards.

No, you can't. Jacoby Brissette got the start of. So we can keep starting.

Exactly.

But, yeah, just a flashback. Joe Flacco last year, his final four regular season games, 31 points, 20 points, 36 points, 37 points with Cleveland. They won all four games. Yeah, they won all four of those games. And he was a top ten quarterback in all four of those games, including number one overall in week 16.

Let him let him go.

Let him cook, man. Goodness. All right, let's kick it off.

Welcome to ready to roll, presented by Nissan.

All right, ready to roll. Today we're looking for those. We're always looking for the little edges in fantasy football, but five weeks in it's, it's fun to take a look at where teams are at this juncture of the season. And so today we want to look a little bit at pace of play and what teams are very fast paced so far this year, what teams are slow and how that impacts fantasy football. Now there are about, there are three or four different ways to look at pace of play. You can look at the totality of plays per game, just raw total plays that can get distorted by overtime games or maybe weird game scripts where the defense scores and the offense doesn't have the ball a lot, you can look at seconds per play. So teams that are leaving a bunch of time on the play clock that are of, you know, running no huddle, which is another way to look at it because you're going to get more plays in a game when you are running no huddle. More opportunities for fantasy obviously come along with running more plays. So it's very, very important and then probably the most ideal in the way that we like to look at it.

What is the neutral pace of a team? What are their seconds per play when they are within one score of the.

Other team and they're not. Yeah, that we look at that for pace of play. We also look at that for pass rate. That's, you know, obviously if you're down two scores and it's the fourth quarter and clocks running out, you can't run the ball anymore. You've got to throw the ball. So at the end of the game you look back and you're like, oh, they threw the ball a lot. It's like that's not what the team wants to do. If the team is up, if the team is just in a battle, those type of things. Neutral game script is probably the most indicative of future happenings.

Yeah. The most predictive. Yeah, I agree. There is an article coming out on the site today if you want to dig in deeper than what we talk about here, and the article is called defining pace of play and why it matters. We also do a weekly pace of play article on the DF's pass. But I want to highlight three fast paced teams through five weeks and in a couple, two, three slower paced teams so that you have an idea of maybe where we're headed. Because at a minimum this gives us a little bit of a predictive analysis on is what you're seeing going to keep happening on some of these teams or inversely, when you're waiting for somebody to perform, do they really have a chance to moving forward?

I think that one is maybe even more important for fantasy. Like, it's pretty easy to stay in the flames of someone on fire. It's like we're the first team we're going to talk about here is the commanders. Yeah, they're just unstoppable. I mean, they're off. It's through the first month of the season is almost unstoppable. No one's been able to slow them down. Extreme fast pace of play. If you got Jaden Daniels in your lineup, you've been starting them. But prescriptive wise, guess what? Keep, keep starting Jaden Daniels. Like that's. You don't need to be told no, no.

But you can be excited about the fact that they're number one and no huddle rate. They are no huddle more than 50% of the time this year. It's what Cliff did in Arizona, but he's doing it to an even greater extent now in Washington. With the amount of scrambles by Jaden Daniels on top of the fast pace of play. It's exciting for Terry McLaurin's potential to be valuable on a week to week basis and maybe somebody else emerging on a week to week basis, whether that ends up being, you know, Zach hurts one week and diamond Brown another week, or whatever the case may be.

Yeah, the no huddle has been certainly working well, keeping the defenses from adjusting. And they, I mean, Cliff Kingsbury has four of the six fastest no huddle or our highest rate of no huddle teams since 2016. And this version is faster than any of his Arizona Cardinal versions.

Another team playing very fast, at least the last two weeks, the Indianapolis Colts, number two this year in seconds per play, nine and no huddle rank. But it has been a very big contrast going from Richardson to Flaca. Last year. They were very up tempo with Gardner first three weeks of the year. Not the case in the plays per game tally because they weren't having as much success either with Anthony Richardson. But the last two weeks plays per game have gone way up, 64 and 69 under Flacco. They were in the forties and fifties under Richardson. So we, I guess we know with Indianapolis what they want to do, but they were just having more success doing it with Joe Flocko in terms of sustained drives, completed passes, third downs picked up. Yeah, I mean, more plays per game.

I would love to see. It's, I also think it's not necessarily just what they want to do, but what matches their personnel. Like, they're slowing it down with Anthony Richardson because, you know, he isn't going to be the stand in the pocket and make all the quick throws and, you know, short screen plays to get to the line. Like, that's a. I, you know, I think Stiken is doing a good job matching his personnel, but he matches better. I feel like with these, these quick.

Quick passing quarterbacks and then three other teams that are playing very fast. The Cowboys number one in seconds per play. So they're playing very fast. 9th overall in total plays. Seattle third in seconds per play. And these are two teams, both of them in the top five. And pass percentage, pass rate, so very good signs for, you know, we just saw Jalen Tober have a big game and Brandon Cooks is missing time.

Yeah.

And they passed the ball almost more than anybody in football and, and have more plays and their defense isn't very good. So, like, Jalen Talbert as a streaming option moving forward could be interesting. Or Jake Ferguson as we continue to endorse him.

Yeah, I mean, we, we saw last year the involvement and the touchdown, the touchdown frequency for Brandon Cooks. So if he's gone, obviously that role is important to, to dak into the Cowboys. The, the Seahawks offense has just been a delight with the changeover leaving Shane Waldron. But ironically, Shane Waldron's led Bears. Hey, they came to life a little bit this week, and that, that's an.

Interesting discussion because they're number two in no huddle rate this year. The number seven in seconds per play and their number five in total plays run. And then they had this big breakout game where the passer rating for Caleb Williams has increased every week of the season, or I think the first two weeks were very similar, but then the past two have been very good going into week five. Great performance. DJ Moore was great.

He looked so good and his ability with his legs, it was great. Now you got to, you got to pump, pump the brakes, you know, a little bit and say, okay, this is the Carolina Panthers. Like, so far, every Carolina pumped. Yeah, the Carolina pump Thursday. So just, you know, don't get, don't get too crazy excited. That being said, Jacksonville Jaguars are the next matchup, then the commanders, then the Arizona Cardinals.

So, yeah, and those are seasonal ranks in terms of the no huddle rank and the plays per game. So maybe they were underwhelming a little bit and there's a medium median between the two slow pace teams. This is where it gets more interesting to me because there are two teams that I want to highlight here that have been fantasy football juggernauts for years that may need to be reclassified. We began the process of reclassification when we said trade away.

We did a couple weeks ago with Mahomes. We said, look, this is not an every week starter the way they're, they're running their offense. There's a streaming candidate and is not even a good streaming candidate, usually in my homes. But we see that with, when you look at the pace of play, that kind of, that kind of highlights, 20th.

In total plays per game, 30th and no huddle rank for the Chiefs, 20th and seconds per play. They are methodical. They're throwing their pass rate above expectation was always six, seven, 8910 percent higher than the league average. This year it is the league average.

Yeah, gross.

Which means you're not throwing it as much and you're not having running as.

Many plays and losing rushy Rice and even losing Isaiah Pacheco, I think that is just going to continue to slow the offense down and win more grueling battles. But the other team here, who ranks 31st in plays, 25th in seconds per play, 23rd in no huddle, 26th in past percentage rank, and has been pretty putrid the last two weeks. What do we make of the Buffalo Bills?

It's a problem. It's a problem. They, they don't have reliable pass catchers, it seems outside of Shakir, who missed this game. They're methodical. They're running the football. Fewer total opportunities, 7th and rush rank this season. And this is just a continuation what we saw under Joe Brady last year where they were 31st and pass rate. So this, this year they're 26th, but last year at least they were number one in plays per game. Now they're, what are they? 31st?

Yeah.

So this is when you, when I look at the game and I'm like, I want opportunities for Dalton Kincaid. Right. Every time I look at the screen, where are they?

They're on the bench and they're not.

On the field, not playing.

So part of that is the, the Bills rush defense has been very, very poor. And so when other teams are able to stay on the field a long time and control the, I mean, if I'm playing against the Bills, I want to keep Josh Allen on the sideline. And I guess unless it was this last week, I would have wanted him out there. You, you realize how bad he was? Nine for 30 that's a 39 for 39 for. He threw the ball 30 times. He completed nine of those. 30% completion rate.

We did just talk about like, the lows for Josh Allen are lower than they've ever been in terms of the fact that he's got two sub ten point weeks. My, what, what was his fantasy output this week?

14 fantasy points.

Yeah, I mean, that's not.

He did have.

These are three weeks where, where he's been disappointed.

Yeah. I mean, right now he's the quarterback. 19 on the week with still a game to go. So he's, you know, this was obviously a bust week. Last week was a bust week. Week two was a bust week. So two good games, three bad games, and the pace of play and the way they want to continue to run the ball, it's scary. Especially when you factor in the fact that they don't have, they don't have a wide receiver.

No.

They can really use to fund eggs.

Jets next week, Tennessee Seattle. So next three matchups, not cakewalks at all on the defensive side of the football. One touchdown pass over the last two weeks for Josh Allen. You got when he came out in week one. Because I'm going to point this out. You. Your prediction on Josh Allen at the live show was hero to zero on the basis that he would start hot and slow down his first week in the season. Despite the fact you said that, the way that you said it, you got a lot of grief from him being number one overall quarterback. As though your projection said he was. Every week I said he was going.

To get off to a hot start and he did.

But then it's been slow and the, and the low is lower and it's not working to have, you know, Keon Coleman got hit in the back of the helmet.

Oh, my gosh. If you haven't seen this play, it is the funniest play. I mean, you want to talk about a good pass? It it. I've never seen someone hit in the back of the helmet by their quarterback. He got targeted. I mean, and thrown exactly. To him. And he. It's not like he didn't get his head around in time. He never thought about maybe he was going to get the ball passed to him.

It's hard to be on the same page with Mack Hollins, Curtis Samuel and Keyon Coleman, who made a great play in the game, scored a touchdown, outran the coverage credit, do. He's the best of what they got right now, but, like, this is not an office that is going to be predictive in terms of like these numbers, these background numbers are telling you what you are seeing on the field. So Buffalo and Kansas City are kind of red alerts right now in terms of the offensive side and then three other teams. I mean, not surprising, dead last in the NFL and plays per game. The Chargers, they want to put you to sleep. The Saints, you know, the hot start, but they're almost dead last and pass rank, they are dead last in pass ring. So, you know, Olave Shahid, I'm sorry, it's a little bit concerning. And maybe that's why they're mentioned with Devontae Adams right now is because they don't, right. They don't like what they got. Alright, that was ready to roll presented by Nissan and the all new reimagined Nissan kicks take on the city and rain or shine with a bold new Nissan kicks.

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News and notes from around the league presented by USAA insurance.

We do get a football game between the Chiefs and the Saints tonight. Both that fit in that slow pace of play category. Probably not going to get the Ravens Bengals game or the Tampa Bay Atlanta game we got on Thursday.

Yeah, the over under right now is set at 43 for tonight's matchup. I think that feels probably about right.

Feels right. But the real question is, will we be putting another sticker on the bald headed thermometer behind you?

Nope.

No. The Chiefs are seven and a half point favorite.

They won't win by that, I don't think. But they will win.

All right.

Refs will make sure of that.

All right, the news for the day. Rashi Rice. We got news this morning from Adam Schefter that the Chiefs remain hopeful that he can return this season and maybe miss six to eight weeks. He still needs to undergo an e scope to confirm any optimism.

Yeah, that's such a weird thing to me. Like, they. They don't know and no new information has come out reporting. That's what I was saying. They're reporting that they're hopeful. Like, me too. Yeah, me too. I'm. I'm hopeful that Puka comes back and dominates when, I mean, like, David, the.

Joke is getting an MRI. The Browns come out. Go. We're really pessimistic and we hope it doesn't turn out good.

Right? Yeah, that makes no sense. So, okay. I hope he's back to the Rams.

Are targeting a week seven return for Cooper cup.

That's great post by. Yep. That means four weeks but only three games missed because they have that by.

That'd be great. That'd be big time. Aaron Jones left early with a hip injury, did not come back into the Vikings game.

They I will say this. I mean I don't know how much of it was just early game script like what you've seen with kyler where he's, he's great and scripted and then as the game goes on, not as good. Darnold looked amazing to start the game and then kind of collapse.

Losing Aaron Jones was a big part.

But that is the point is like I think Aaron Jones is more important to this offense than we realize because his efficiency is, has really opened things up.

They were seven, they were up 17 points and driving when Ty Chandler fumbled the football and turned the game around. And then the jets almost came back to win. Devon a Chan Jason, your seasonal.

Goodness gracious.

I mean this was, this was a, you know, this was a subplot for Devon a Chan. Going into the year was the injury prone situation but this was a concussion. They have a week six. By coming up next week we would hope hm. Will be back after. But most hurt is back. I think Jalen Wright's looked very impressive.

Yeah, Jalen Wright's been good. Moster is back. I think there you could play them. It's, it's, it's actually really helpful that he's on bye week right now because usually with a concussion you see these players miss one week. That's certainly not always, but so that'll be nice that maybe you don't miss a game with him other, other than one. He missed yesterday, right?

Yeah. Yesterday he hurt you bad and he planned, but he planned his concussion well, is what you're saying.

Yeah. Yeah. He was like, oh, I got a bye week next week. Let me run to recklessly this week.

I speaking of reckless, Nico Collins ran too fast on his 70 something yard touchdown yesterday. He left with a hamstring injury, did not come back day to day.

It was a really great route. The route was go long.

It really, it was just run as fast as you can.

There was no hitch, no giddy up, no shake my head this way. There was just like, just run like your force gump. And, and then at the end of that play where he caught the 70 yard touchdown, he's like I overdid it.

I mean it reminded me of Mike Evans. He did used to run long score and then hurt his hamstring.

Hopefully he is back this week because man alive, is he good.

I was wondering when I watched the Panthers game why I saw so much Jonathan Mingo. And now I know I did not see the injury when it happened, but Xavier Leggette hurt his shoulder and will be available. They say in week six got banged up. People were taking a chance on him this week and the injury hurt them. We talked about Nijoku. He'll get an MRI on the knee injury.

Dude, what happened? I'll just say that gross negligence is what happened with Josh Allen. Josh Allen. If, if you didn't, if you didn't see. He got hit, slammed his head on the ground. I mean, it was.

Probably got knocked out.

Yeah, he probably got knocked out because, I mean, his hand like folded in under itself. He didn't even like move on.

He wasn't moving.

I mean, it was. He, he was clearly out. And then when he got checked, he came right back into the game and. Because they said it was a chest injury or something.

Yeah. And then they gave him a smelling salt.

Yeah.

For the chest.

Yeah.

I've never done.

I, you know, I've always smelling salt. Yeah, I mean, that was, that was.

We still have some of those, Al. We got smelling salts? Yeah, we got some right here, cuz I. I've got a sort.

Yeah.

Can you throw one in here?

My stomach, my belly's hurting.

Yeah. So Jason ate some bad food. Yeah, let me crack one of those.

My understanding is that these work for everything. Oh, Andy went hard after it. Oh, that's a good one for the YouTube.

Way too close.

Goodness gracious.

Oh, man, I could see the future. Oh, oh, oh. Enjoy.

Man, I can taste my brain.

I forgot we still had those, but.

Goodness, I'm awake, but yeah, I mean, it's one of the, is one Teddy.

Bridgewater, about three or four years ago, he got hit in the end zone. He didn't get knocked out. He got hit in the head. He was pulled from the game. This is, you know, probably during one of the weeks the NFL wanted to be safe. Never got to play again from the first quarter, got knocked out, never got, you know, I mean, he got pulled out, never got knocked out. This was just our. It's one of our best players, so he can play.

That's what it felt like. It was, you know, important. End of game and whatever. Although they. Man, the Bills threw that game away.

Literally.

Literally threw the game away.

It was some of the. The Bills are teetering right this moment. The jets will be a tough matchup. That would be three straight losses. The coaching, it's very, it's questionable situation right now. Zack Moss got his. He injured his ankle. Aaron Rodgers, the knee and ankle. He was crawling on the ground in pain. We got word that Romeo dimes decided to skip practice a couple times and then get suspended.

Yeah. Aaron, just sorry about your knee and ankle, but I just want to let you know that when, when you make bad plays, is not someone else's fault. Just sometimes, at least sometimes. Just so you know, not everything bad is happening to you, you whiny little baby. I can't stand watching him play football anymore. And he's done it for years. I've always been. No one has enjoyed watching him whine after every miss throw. You know, like, like, why was the wide receiver having a problem? You're overthrowing guys.

You had three intercept, three interceptions.

You play like crap.

Yeah. And play the garbage.

And then after every bad throw, you're like, me. Why do, why did this happen to me?

Oh, yeah, I'm gonna hit my leg.

And then he goes to press conferences and says, well, that's one way to do it. Or we could just hold them accountable. It's like, hold yourself accountable.

I think it's fair to have a moment with Aaron Rodgers because none of us are rooting against the good offense in New York.

No.

We would like to see it work. Have you seen Bruce hall lately?

No. Breeze has been a problem.

I mean, Garrett Wilson had a breakout game.

That was beautiful.

But Aaron, Aaron Rogers, his, like, way. Where, where does the Steve Nash leadership from Aaron Rodgers, like, give everybody a high five even when they mess up? How about you go over to the sideline and encourage somebody? Maybe they're dropping passes because they're terrified that you're going to bitter beer face them.

Yeah. I mean, there's a time where a player needs a bitter beer face. It can't possibly be every time.

No, it can't be every, every time. And you threw pics like, where somebody needs to go bitter beer face him.

Yeah.

Yeah. Salas terrified of. That guy's not a head coach knew. All right. No quarterback announced for the Raiders after their loss. They brought Aidan O'Connell into the game. This game was crazy because they came out monster. Touchdown by Brock Bowers. Then they moved the ball again against Denver. We've been talking about Denver's defense, how great it is. Then they move the ball again. They get a field goal. Then they move the ball all the way down to, like, the ten and I'm come, I hop into our company slack and I'm going, what is going on with the Denver defense? These guys suck today. I go, apparently they stink against the. And the next play, Patrick Sir Tan hundred yard return for a touchdown. And then they shut it down.

Yeah, from that point on, they, they only gave up 18 total points in the game and are a great defense, it turns out. Man, I have wondered, like, when these teams are so good during the scripted portion of the play. Oh, yeah. Cuz what coaches, why not just script more? You have you thought about like, instead of scripting the first 15 plays, scripting, I don't know, 100 plays, 25, 50, like just at least for the teams like the Cardinals. I think Kyler needs it scripted.

Yeah, they started, they scored again on their first drive. I mean, I mean, team coaches will tell you. I mean, it's about reaction at that point in time, right. The game flow, things changing. But what if you had like a backup script though, right? Like, if you wanted to, can you script the first drive of the second half?

Can you script drives four situations? You know what I mean? Like, oh, we're gonna do the down by ten. We're gonna do the down by ten script.

Yeah.

And then everyone pulls that script out.

And knows their lines.

Yeah.

All right. DeShawn monsters gonna remain the quarterback of the Cleveland Brown pants.

That's a sucks. That sucks because they have someone behind them that can.

I have been an, I've been an apologist for Stefanski and the Browns. What they did last year with four different quarterbacks, I thought was absolutely incredible coach of the year stuff.

And they could do it this year if they used four different quarterbacks.

Well, no Nick Chubb in the offense, no David N. Joko in the offense.

No offensive line and no quarterback.

I can already hear every single person listening to this show right now that wants to still apologize for. The Browns will tell me their offensive line makes it impossible for Deshaun Watson to do anything competent. And on some level, that is a piece of the poop pie that is being baked in Cleveland.

When you look and you see the corn, you know, and you're like, that's what I ate.

Oh, gosh.

That's like, okay, the offensive line is a part of that poop. I see corn.

It's there in the feces of the Brown.

Yeah. But the Browns primary ingredient here in the fecal matter on Watson, and at least half of his sacks are 100% on him.

Yeah, he has, he has a mindset that when, when the going gets tough, I'm going to hold the ball and run around, right. Instead of get the ball out quick, adjust the offense, take off, listen to his coach, you know, not walk off the field on a fourth down. It puts Amarra Cooper into a might be traded very soon category, which, look, if you're looking to find the fantasy value of the story, Jerry Judy, when Cooper leaves, probably somebody you want on.

A roster, especially if Najoku is not coming back. I mean, we were talking about this yesterday. We, I would be right now if I had to put a dollar on does Amara Cooper finish the season as a Brown or not? I would say no.

He's still got it, too. He's still getting open.

Like, oh, for sure he can help a team. And so I think the Browns are waiting to see how their season goes and as they get closer. One and four, trade deadline, Philly, Cincinnati.

Baltimore, those are your next three weeks for the Cleveland Browns. So in Philly Cincy, Baltimore, that'll be some tough sledding. All right, that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more@usaa.com insurance. Let's talk about some positive things.

This week's fantasy stud muffins.

By the way, all three of Watson's interceptions were from a clean pocket.

So offensive line?

Yeah, just the corn. Just the corn. All right, studs, this week at quarterback, we saw Kirk Cousins go absolutely insane on Thursday and Joe Burrow said, hold my beer because I'm going to throw five touchdowns.

Oh, my gosh.

Almost 400 yards. Just that game was awesome.

He played near perfect and lost.

Oh, man. Yeah, that was disappointing for them. They aren't they wanted for now?

Yeah, I think so. They're, they're, they're going to have a really, really tough time making the playoffs. It's nothing impossible. But I do think maybe with their defense, it's impossible that game. They still have to win games.

If you were facing somebody like I was that had members of the Bengals or members of the Ravens.

Uh huh.

That game felt like it had eleven quarters and I know that it technically had five, but it felt like it never ended. And the drives were, they were quick hitters. It's amazing for a game of football what two big plays will do on either side of the football. If you score quickly, it changes the whole game in terms of just plays per game opportunities.

Yeah, the Burrow, I mean, either, either stack if you had a T. Higgins with multiple touchdowns, or if you had chase with multiple bomb touchdowns and you stacked them with Joe Burrow great. Remember we talked about the Baltimore Ravens defense, which is a very good defense, but they have turned into a pass funnel. It's very hard to run on them. You want to target them in the passing game. And this was obviously a good time for Joe Burrow until the loss.

It would have been smarter than to become a run funnel during the Zach Moss time. Right. Instead of the Chase Higgins Burrow situation. But they did win.

And Lamar, oh, just as good.

Lamar was awesome. He's the quarterback, one on the year right now, constantly escaping. 26 for 42, 348 and four. Charlie Kohler, what's up?

Ran for.

55 yards on the ground. Incredible week by Lamar. And, you know, they. That's where the Andrews discussion is going to become interesting because 348 and four in a game. That wasn't the game script where they just hand the ball off to Derek Henry. I believe Andrews was four for 55 or something like that, but he didn't have a catch, I think, until the late third or early fourth.

No, it felt. It felt very, very worrisome.

He may have get caller has two touchdowns. That's a problem.

Yeah.

Well, there was also one likely had two touchdowns. There was a four touchdowns from non Andrews tight ends, they call her have two. He had a. Maybe he didn't have the second one. Maybe it was a long.

He had a bomb catch. He's 88, right? Isn't he number 88 years old, right? I think he's number 88, yeah. And I just, I mean, it just looked like Andrews. It was like his role. And in the same kind of route that Andrews always runs, that he caught it. It was this bomb play and then.

Talking about right tackle Mark Andrews.

Yeah.

Joe Flacco, big game. We talked about it. It's awesome. He. Kevin Durant's tweet was great. Said, put Flacco anywhere and he's gonna hoop. I mean, because he just does Kyler Murray. Kyler Murray ran for 83 yards. He also had a huge 50 plus.

Yard touchdown on a scripted run. Thank goodness.

This was a first drive script.

Yep. Right. A first drive script. But it was one of those things where I'm glad that the offensive, the Cardinals and the offensive coordinator, you know, they're, they're going to make adjustments every week. The previous week when he stonk, he had three rushing yards and it was clear in this game that, I mean, I mean, there was like, let's use his leg. Very weapon.

And they won. They won in San Francisco, which was amazing. Caleb Williams had a monster day. 304 and two ran it a little bit. He's improved every week. He's getting things together, and it's not a surprise that, you know, as, as receivers are getting healthier, using Cole combat when he needs to. It's good to see Baker Mayfield on Thursday, who cooked as well. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, that would have been laser Mayfield.

Thank you.

Really only had a first half, but he was great in running the football.

Oh, and my man, my dynasty start this week.

The fact you knew that this day was coming where you would have. Jalen hurts on by and Bo Nicks was going to be your starter.

Bo Nicks.

And you were dreading the day. And here he goes for three total touchdowns.

Yeah, it's a single quarterback league, and I literally only have the Broncos quarterbacks. And jalen hurts on the roster. So I was like, well, I'm playing Bo Nicks this week. And he goes off.

Should have had a fourth.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. My dude. Troy Franklin, 50 yard wide open. I. You don't get more wide open than that.

We took a look at the standings this morning. Jason and I have have a nice hundred dollar bet on Marvin Mims versus Troy Franklin, who would have the most fantasy points of the year right now.

It's.

I was on the mims side.

I'm on the Troy Franklin side in a half PPR scoring. My guy has 5.4 fantasy points on the season, but your guy has 5.8. So anyone's game, it's pretty exciting.

Trevor Lawrence looked pretty good. 28 for 34, 371 and two got a monster touchdown to Brian Thomas junior. And then Jaden Daniels, 82 more on the ground. Jaden Daniels is his ability to monster.

Escape what looks like sure tackles or pressure is. It's. It's very, very, very Lamar esque, where it's just these little sides, sidesteps, where it's like you just don't think you can get out of it, and then, boom, you're out of it. He's been a revelation this year at running back.

My guy.

That's right.

You're Bigsby. 13 for 101 and two played more snaps than ETN.

ETN only played 38% of the snaps.

He is at eight a carry. And Doug Peterson said, look, he's not replacing Travis at the top of the depth chart. ETN did show up on the injury report mid week. People want to know if we're going to be panicking about Travis ETN. And I think the answer is like.

I don't think panic is right because he is their starter. He's going to have good games. He's going to be important for fantasy. He's going to be started. I think what the truth is is he's not a guy that's going to be doing what he did last year, specifically the first half of last year, where he's out there for 75 plus percent of the snaps. You're getting 90% of the work, you're getting everything. Tank has been good. He had two runs in this game. One was his long touchdown run that was outstanding. And that wasn't his best run of the game. They had a play down nearest the goal line. I don't know whether they like 1012 yards out and it's just like a run up the middle into traffic, bunch of guys around him tackling him. No, he's not down yet. Just keeps going, the piles moving. He breaks free. The other guys are trying to tackle him. The whole team comes and I mean, it just never stopped until he was in the end zone.

Six attempts for Travis ETN for 17 yards, but six, six catches.

Yeah, he was, he was very involved in the passing game.

We saw, I think the Rico doubtful breakout game. Mike, just stubborn Mike that he is.

I don't know if I. Interesting. Tell me about the walrus and why that applies to Rico Dowdle.

You see what happened, Jason, is that the walrus icon on my board is very similarly colored as the j griz and I. So I pushed the wall. So I pushed the walrus button. And not every show has a walrus button, but we do.

Let me ask you, because you and I have both been critical, critical of Rico Dowdle. And I've been, I would say, a firm believer that he doesn't have the, the talent to actually have the breakout game. And I'll take the l. Are you happy or are you sad that Mike is not here?

I'm happy he's not here.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, it's for the best. 24, 87, 4.4.

He'd be taking his shirt off right now and I'd be pretty uncomfortable.

Yeah, he'll be here the rest of the week, unfortunately.

Well, then I'm gone.

He will get a doubtful tattoo by the end of the week.

Oh, Deandre Swift was very, very good. Check this out, Andy. Guess who played against DeAndre Swift in three leagues.

You did.

Yeah. That's fun.

Dowdle's the RB one on the week right now. Swift is the RB three. I think so. We both, we both mentioned Swift and starts of the week. We both knew it would be good. We both very afraid to put our name next to DeAndre Swift in a permanent fashion. So he wasn't our official start, but I. The writing was on the wall. We said it should be a good week.

They are relying on him in the same schedule that we brought up about. You know, they've got the manders, the Jaguars, the Cardinals coming up. That applies to swift, so I think you're just going to need to stay in the flames with him.

Ramondre Stevenson. Twelve for 89 and a touchdown. The ceremonial benching was just that. Ramondre was back out there in the second drive. He had a great touchdown run. He is their guy. This was like, you need to not freak out.

This was like, there was a time when I was a kid that I got in trouble, and just once. Yeah, this was the time where I got in trouble and my mom instructed my father to. To spank me. So he took me in the bathroom and he took his belt off and he folded the belt over and. And then he.

Oh, he made the pop.

He made on popping sound and told me to yell. So this sounds like. Yeah, yeah.

Did you yell?

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, oh. And then it was done. And, you know, that's great. That's what happened with. From Andre Stevenson here. It's like you're getting a bitch. You got to protect yourself, Link.

I ain't no liar.

I know liar. We got. If we preach ball, security's job security. Wait, that. I got to make sure I punish you. All right, punishment over.

He'll be okay. He'll be okay. Derek Henry was doing very little, and then he was doing very a lot because he had a monster overtime run. James Cook got it done again. Josh Jacobs. Nice to see him performing 75% of snaps.

That one was important because I was starting to get curious on that Emanuel Wilson kind of split.

Yeah, I mean, it was. It was good to see Jacobs getting it done. They got the win. Chuba almost 100 yards rushing again. He had a rushing touchdown.

He's been great, man.

Chuba has been awesome. Trey sermon slipped into the end zone on a drag down of Alec Pierce on the one, which is exactly what you need from a Trey sermon start or Cam Akers start. You wanted the goal line opportunity. Not very good.

Tracerman was not very good. You know, if you take away the touchdown, 38 rushing yards, and despite six receptions, only 25 receiving yards, he didn't look good. I'm curious. We don't.

Zach Moss from last year.

No, no. But I would say someone who did look good and surprised me was Tyrone. Tracy. Tyrone Tracy. 18 carries, 129 rushing yards.

Whoa.

Yeah.

I mean, you played him, didn't you?

I did play him. It was, it was help. Yeah, it was very good. I mean, it didn't change outcome. Didn't help enough.

Right.

But it was a helpful start and he was.

How many more points did he score than briefs for your lineup?

Oh, probably most all of them. I think Bruce had only like, probably five fantasy points.

I don't know, 6.1. Brother.

Bruce did.

Bruce was your, I'm looking at your team right now, Jason, because that's what everyone wants to hear. But Tyrone Tracy, 15.3. In second place, that you're running back position, Alexander Madison at 10.6. And at third place, this bum, this guy that you've got everywhere, Bruce hall. Yeah, I guess we're not in the duds yet. Kyron Williams scored again. Over 100 on the ground. Just don't say just a machine. He will not score next week, I promise. I will bet you anything.

I will not take that bet. I know the schedule, and that is a very difficult team to score on.

The bye, the bye week. Chase Brown, 46 on the ground, one through the air. A touchdown. That is. Roshan got two touchdowns. He's the goal line right now and he's getting it done. Although Swift got a goal line carry as well. Brian Robinson did nothing in this game. He played far fewer snaps than Austin Eckler. He lost a goal line carry to Jeremy McNicholz, but he still scored twice.

Also, why give Jeremy McNichols that? Why not let Eckler get. Eckler has so dang good on. Every time Austin Eckler touches the ball. I am just like, this is Austin Eckler of two, three, four years ago.

Mick Nichols got rewarded for what he did last week against Arizona. That's what that character carry was. Eckler's back. But we don't want to say we forgot about you. And that's kind of sad for the people that played the other two.

I just think what's sad in bringing up Eckler is that someone who is as good as he is should be able to be started every week for fantasy.

And you can't have, right? Yeah.

No fair.

It's fair. Although Brian Robinson dealing with an injury only in there 34% of the time. We'll see what happens in practice this week. Take a break and we'll come back with our wide receiver studs. All right. Yeah. Number one in the league right now in yards per carry, Tank Bigsby. Number two, Austin Eckler.

Yeah. Yeah. And you feel it. And that, to say nothing of his receiving work, which is also excellent.

Number 652, pre salt. Just kidding. Just kidding. All right, Jamar Chase, congrats on winning your week. Ten for 193 and two. This is why you drafted him. Where he drafted him is because he has this in him. The last two weeks have been incredible. Drake London and Darnell Mooney. On Thursday night, we. We saw 13 and 16 targets. It's nice to know that that can happen. They got Carolina coming up.

Yeah. Yeah, baby.

DJ Moore, five for one. Oh. Five and two. It was the first time we saw the offense do things that made us.

Excited, and that was Carolina this last week. So, you know, TBD, you're. You're starting DJ Moore every single week, but it's nice to know that you can still have these games with Caleb Williams.

T. Higgins. Two touchdowns, nine for 83. Look great. 14 targets. This really mike not being here this morning. A lot of victory laps. He could take the t. Higgins one, the doubtful one, but he, you know, it's a one. It's a limited time offer, and he's not here.

Yeah. You can't take the lap tomorrow.

No. Goodness, no.

Statute of limitations.

Yeah. Garrett Wilson is another. 122 targets, 20. 213 for one on one. I mean, that's not a great catch percentage.

That's what's so funny is like, he has, I'm pretty sure for however long his career has been, he leads the history of the NFL in targets. He has always had an absolute boatload of targets. I don't know if he just is the squeakiest of all wheels.

I don't think so.

Or whatever it is, but he still. He had a great game. 13 for a one on one and a touchdown. Monstrous great performance. But on 22 targets, I feel like you should. You should have more than this.

It was a great game. We'll call it that. Darius Slayton, eight for 122 and one slate and became viable. We brought it up because of the injury to Malik neighbors. And if neighbors is back, he will fade back into the mist. Alec Pierce, three for 134 and one two deep catches. That made his day. Yeah, that's always a chance to do that.

Slayton and Pierce, those are. Those are probably not people that you picked up or started in your redraft leagues, but that we. They were mentioned as our official DF's dart throws on the DF's pass in the podcast. So if you're listening over there and playing DF's, those are. Those are slate busters.

Mike Evans, two touchdowns on Thursday Night Football. Your start of the week. Brian Thomas, junior, who we were hungry for more for as well. Five for 122 and one. Had the big play.

Awesome.

On chase for 75 catches, 1350 yards and ten touches.

He really, really, really looks like an alpha wide receiver in the NFL.

Brandon Iuke, finally, eight for 147 on twelve targets. You couldn't sit him against Arizona, which was nice because if it had been a better matchup like a, you know, not Arizona's defense, I think people would have been, more of them would have had him on his bench. Right on their bench.

Yeah, he was. He was very good. It's nice when you start with a 50 yard reception and you're just like, oh, okay, all right, we're back.

And then the game winner last night in the football game that spanned two days, in fact, Dak was the first quarterback in history to throw an interception in the same game across two days, one per day.

Wow.

Jalen Tolbert, ten targets, seven for 87 and a touchdown. Outperformed CD Lamb in this game. Has the Detroit run funnel coming up like, doubtful, doubtful against Detroit. I think we're throwing the football. So I think next week you're going to have bye weeks for, you know, waddle and Hill and those guys. You know, this is an opportunity for Jalen Tolbert. He has looked the part. He's the one who got all the reps when CD Lamb missed camp.

What are you going to tell people to do with doubtful this week? Because they just played a very difficult run defense in the Pittsburgh Steelers.

I mean, I doubt it was awesome. Most people are in the position where they have to get a running back in there, but we'll see what the bi week looks like. And he's probably a flex play. What do you think? I mean, I mean, it sounded like you didn't believe.

If you've been, if you've been waiting on him, you probably need to start him. I mean, it. The performance at the very least says that they will rely on him again next week. Now, it's still a difficult matchup against Detroit, but the work should be there.

My, my son's been struggling. He's in a new league. He played with some friends in high school.

Mm hmm.

Drafted by himself. This is the son who took Brian Robinson instead. Once again outperformed Bichon.

Oh, my.

Five weeks in a row.

Wait, is it five weeks in a row? Every single week. That can't be right.

It's got to be close. I bet you, Kyle, how. Figure that out.

How funny that when you take the wrong b, Robinson it was the right.

B Robinson that says that's pretty much fantasy football.

Hope that's not true by the end of the year.

So Brian Robinson right now, by the way, running back, 673 fantasy points on the year. Bijon Robinson, on the other hand, the running back, 22 with 58 fantasy points on the year. And looking at this. Yes, every week, but okay. Week three, Bijon was the running back, 17, and Brian Robinson was 22.

Smoked him.

There you go. All right, Tucker craft, your start of the week. That was delicious. Two touchdowns, four for 88. I've already seen the questions coming in like Sam Laporta or Tucker Kraft next week.

Wow. And what's your answer?

It's probably the Porta. I mean, we. We don't chase the. But I mean, Kraft is playable and he's looked good.

Yeah. I mean, I would agree with you if it's someone like Laporta, but you got Andrews or.

Yeah.

You know, if you've been dealing with all the injury bug, if you picked up Kraft, I would just hold onto him and keep rolling him because he was. He was, you know, had 37 yards week one. What play. But the stamps and routes were there. He didn't do much when love was hurt, but in the two games back with love, he's the tight end two last week and currently sitting as the tight end one this week.

Yeah, I mean, maybe you stay in those flames even if you're dealing with the Laporta decision because Dobbs was out. We already have the injury to Watson Wick's kit catch. Talk about that in a minute. Musgraves out due to injury. So Kraft is viable. Brock Bowers, beautiful. Eight for 97 and a touchdown. Should had two if you saw the play that they certain pick six. Easy little throw and catch to Brock. Barriers for a touchdown. Kittle, eight for 64 and one. Great game.

Twelve targets.

Very good.

Kiddle has been awesome.

Yeah. And then everybody not named Mark Andrews, Isaiah likely had two touchdowns. Oh, that's what I was going to say. My son's team, I thought he's owing three. And I was like, let me help you. He hasn't been asking for help. I was like, let me help you. Roster.

Sure.

It's like he's been just jamming Isaiah likely in there every week.

Oh, you got to take him.

And I was like, I got to get this dude out.

Two touchdowns. Two touchdowns now to be fair, 13 yards, but still got two touchdowns.

Charlie Kohler, three for 64 and a touchdown. And then Mark Andrews, four for 55. Also should have scored in this game. Yeah, but kind of a bad throw to him on the outside and didn't get into the end zone. But he is just a dart throw play right now. He is a let's hope and pray. And he dropped his first target again. Look like he was going to get involved at the end.

It was the last two weeks. One target, no reception. Goose. And then we're like going into the deep in the third quarter or something where it was he had one target, no reception. I was like, oh, my goodness.

I mean, this was seven fantasy points where we're happy with Mark Andrews. So that's not where you were. He's in, and they scored 41 points.

He's in a couple of my leagues. I started him in two thirds of them. I'm thrilled with that. Seven and a half.

I was, I'm like, yeah, I imagine you are.

Yeah. Dom Perry on popped the top. This is celebration.

All right, let's talk some duds.

Pooped in his big boy pants.

Well, Josh Allen's got big boy pants in there.

Full of doo doo.

He didn't work out. And Brock Purdy, a lot of people started Brock Purdy this week against Arizona. 19 for 35, just one touchdown, two picks.

He was my quarterback in our DraftKings lineup. I still won thanks to the rest of the lineup, but pretty, pretty much sucked.

Yeah. And then the big boy pants, people were fitting him. He had seen a tailor. He was actually sliding them on. And then Sam Darnold while they were being put on.

Yeah. Ruined him. Ruined his pants.

They ruined him. So this is not good. Losing Aaron Jones hurt.

They've got a bye week coming up now. The Vikings do. Then they come back against Detroit. I will certainly start Sam Darnold off a by in Detroit. At home against Detroit.

For fantasy purposes. It was a pumpkin. It was a pumpkin game.

Yes.

Running backs Bruce hall, nine for 23.

I will say this. The, he had 74% of the snaps, which was good because Braylon Allen is a problem. You know, he's, he's getting involved and he looks good in his own right. But the behind the scenes metric said Breece is still the one that they're trying to utilize. Their offensive line was terrible. And Minnesota is a very good run defense.

Here's, here's the, this next week will be a really important week for Bruce hall. It's Buffalo who struggles against the run. But I just want to point this out like Davidson lines not getting, they're not like trading for a new one this, this week, right. He, in three of I'm sorry. In four of five games, he's sub three, five a carry. So the last three, 3.4.4 and 2.6. So he's not making a lot of his opportunities. Two for 14, three for 14 in the passing game. They're not throw. They're not throwing the ball to him. They wait the way that they were. Like, he was such a better fantasy asset last year was Zach Wilson.

For sure. For sure. So do you think if. Are you. Are you. What are you thinking about that knee and ankle injury for Aaron Rodgers? You like, get the backup in there. Check it down to breeze.

I don't know, man. I think brief is just change expectations situation. Like, I think there are a lot of people that would never trade him because they drafted him where they drafted. And now you can think about trading him. Like, you know, I know I was, I was trolling you with offers and this is not a setup for you to trade me Bruce hall because I no longer.

Don't worry.

I know I no longer want him. But there were, there were times, you know, another great week from. We didn't mention him. James Connor was amazing.

He's so good.

He went up against San Francisco. Yeah. They keep calling him concrete on the, on the broadcast or like Mark Sanchez did it.

Yeah.

He made this name up from nothing.

Yeah. I've never.

Nobody's ever called on concrete or. But it's great.

Now we just yell concrete every time he.

But James Connor has been incredible. He's been one of the most consistent running backs. But you can start to talk about conversations about Conor, about Brian Robinson junior. Like, breeze should not be untouchable. That's my only PSA to the world. Like, he shouldn't. You could be traded. I think people would trade for him at near number two pick value. And you might get RB 13 the rest of the year. RB 15 rest of the year. And, you know, that would.

Do you feel the same way about Bijan?

100%? Hundred percent. Who are you more, even Martin, CTN.

Who are you more confident in rest of season briefs or Bijan?

Bijon?

I think. I think so.

Better looked better on his touches, better offensive confidence right now. And when the going gets tough, Aaron Rodgers is just going to take over the, you know, snap and Chuck system. Mean 22 targets for Garrett Wilson. Maybe should have thrown it to breeze hall.

Yeah.

Zack Moss, very terrible game. Chase Brown looked so much more explosive in this game. Drome Ford disappeared, tons of foreman snaps and wide receiver. It's not looked good with Marvin Harrison.

No.

So I want to bring his name up because seven more targets, only two catches on those targets. His catch.

What's the catch rate on the year? Because take a guess. It's got to be sub 50%, 49%. Wow.

So 35 targets, 17 catches, they're not in sync.

And what crazy is, you look at Michael Wilson go pull up Michael Wilson's catch percentage because it's the same quarterback.

Yeah.

Obviously they're running different types of routes, but really not different.

Wilson's been down the field. I mean, the catch percentage for Wilson, 73%.

Yeah. And Marvin Harrison, I love that he's had the touchdowns. He still had some, you know, he had a big, important play towards the end of the game to help.

Fourth down conversion.

Yeah. To. To help bring it home for the Cardinals. But something's. Something's off. I mean, I will say this. Just eyeball test. Brian Thomas, junior, at this stage right now, looks way better than Marvin Harrison on the NFL field. Neighbors is obvious. Looks definitely neighbors.

Yeah. Harrison situation is tough. He's at 16.4 catch. So they are down the field more. Wilson is. Michael Wilson's at eleven. So, like, obviously, you're going to have a catch percentage difference when you're targeting people down the field more often and taking shots. Like, when Kyler's in trouble, he'll just throw it up. But I have not seen Marvin Harrison make an impressive, contested catch outside of the back of the end zone. Touchdown against the Rams on 35 targets. He is not the 50 50 balls he's not coming up with right now. It's just something to monitor it. He's a rookie.

He's a rookie. He's getting better. I think the expectations for someone like him were so extravagantly high that when you just see him being a good rookie and not, like, the best rookie of all time, we're super disappointed.

What do you think he is on the year?

Wide receiver.

20, close 17.

Okay.

All right.

Debo, in the same game, disappeared.

Oh, my gosh. Debo was. Was non existent.

I mean, the 49 ers really struggled. They they.

They lost at home.

They're having red zone woes. If you didn't watch the game.

Did you hear that, by the way? Falcon, they lost. Falcon, the 49 ers lost at home. Did you hear that?

To the Cardinals.

To the Cardinals. Of all teams. How are you feeling about that? I noticed a striking lack of.

Wait, where's all. Where's all your Niners gear?

Oh, my gosh.

Why are you wearing niners?

You forgot all of it? I'm gonna go crag in.

Okay, now, you said you have not done well in the NFC west right now, which is your division. Yeah. They lost the Rams. They lost to the Cardinals. Now, you go on the road to play Seattle. Did you know that you do that in a short week, that it's Thursday night Football?

If we lose to the Seahawks on.

Thursday, I won't be here Friday because we'll fire you.

No diarrhea.

Yeah.

All right.

I'm just letting you know, if you lose, you follow that up with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Yeah. This is good. Cardinals could take that division. I'm just kidding. All right. DK Metcalf for. For. Wow. We got a lot of these. He fumbled. He'll be fine. Yeah, we had Jordan Addison. They kept trying to get him the football, did. The secondary for the jets in particular. Not sauce, but who's on the other side, Kyle? Remind me. Reid. DJ Reed. DJ Reed looked great in this game. And so, ironically, he was the one shutting down Jordan Addison. Deontay Johnson, Xavier Leggette. Yep, that was the sound.

A couple of farts. It's very difficult to throw on Chicago. You can run on them, but you cannot. There they are, one of those funnel teams we talked about. They're a run funnel.

Here's a conversation. It's not. I don't think it's going to happen for George Pickens.

No.

In the current environment, no, George Pickens doesn't have. So right now, George Pickens is giving you a usable game 35% of the time. Over his last 17 games played this year, you would have been happy you started him maybe twice, and neither of those games were top 15. So this.

You're just putting him in the, in the matchup category?

I'm putting him in the matchup category. I'm putting him in the. If they switch the quarterback category, I'm putting him in the. I said it before the week, I would try to trade him because of the fact that they're so deeply like that. The rumors are not stopping with Pittsburgh and Devontae Adams.

Right.

The snap count for. I don't know if you saw this. I did pick and snap count was reduced for one of the most comical reasonings that you've heard from Mike Tomlin, which maybe it's fine and right, but it's not fine and right for all the other elite wide receivers in football. They gave him 56% of snaps because they wanted more. They wanted more high level play on the snaps. He's in there.

Yeah, I understand what he's saying and I understand what you're saying, like, there's a lot of wide receivers out there. The best of the best wide receivers don't need to take drives off and be limited on snaps because they get tired. And if that's happening to George Pickens, that's a problem. But that was intentional. They intentionally limit his snaps, and their goal was to maximize production. That sounds backwards.

And it didn't work.

No, it did not.

Two for 29 in a game this year, three for 26 last night. He is a like, if you have Mooney or how do you not play Mooney? I mean, right out of George Pickens.

Right now, Mooney just looks like an every week start.

And then how Jalen Tolbert this week.

Or George play Pickens there. The matchup is, you know, against the Raiders. I would. I would do that.

Okay. Because you want, I mean, one big play.

But let's talk about the guy that I think is the biggest disappointment. The biggest disappointment of the week is Dontavian Wicks. Dont have fab spend the. Everybody who got him spent a ton targets.

He must have delivered.

He delivered the ball to the ground. He's a really good wide receiver, technically, at getting open.

Yeah.

At running routes. He's. He's got the size. He's prototypical, you know, six, 102:05 he is a good wide receiver. He's got one issue, and it's a big one. He's not good at catching.

No, he needs to be able to catch it.

He's not a good catcher. And so I think, like, he's got to have the money to buy a jugs machine, right? Yeah, I'll bet they have them.

Probably got him for sure.

So I would just.

The receiver. Part of the receiver is really where.

He'S struggling, and the thing is, is they're not routers. This wasn't just this last week. So last week he was the wide receiver. Three. Okay. He was five for 78, two touchdowns. Monstrous performance. That's why people picked him up. And the opportunity with Dobbs being out and Christian Watson being out last, what did we watch? We went back and watched him, and he's open and he's earning targets. But he dropped so many passes last week, we just forgave it. Cause he got two touchdowns.

I think he was one for the first seven targets last week. Not on the same page. It was Kraft this week, Jaden Reid.

So seven targets worked. Process worked. The opportunity was there. He beat people down the field, and he got the target and earned it. Everything was perfect, except he just didn't close. Didn't close his hands on the football.

Hands on the. He missed the most important part of the receiving.

How closing, how happy was Dobbs every time that, you know, his replacement comes in and drops the ball because he's out there just, you know, he was this. Just disappointed with his targets.

This is why. This is why Jaden Reed was the story of the offseason and it wasn't. It literally. If you can project everything that happened so far this year, we. It was talked about. Christian Watson's injury prone. Is he playing football? Nope. Romeo Dobbs is he. He seems unnecessary to the offense. He's so unnecessary. He just skipped practice because he's mad about it. And then Dantavian Wicks is just a.

Super talented, but he's a backup for a reason. He was not already the starter. I. You know, I think bright days are ahead for Don Davie and Wicks. The targets were there. I'm not going to go away from him. I'm going to start him next week against Arizona because he is going to catch the ball eventually when you get seven targets and everything else is there. But your point is, you were saying all offseason, just the best wide receiver on the team is Jaden Reed.

Yep.

You were pretty bullish on that.

And you know where.

So true.

It's not the only situation that was stuck in the mire. That was the best man rose to the top. Niko Collins in Houston. Because tank Dell is another conversation. Tank Dell right now is not playable. Tank Dell had Nico Collins knocked out of this game. You know, in tank they'll put up four for 38 Monday. Punda submissions were very tink Dell stank Dell, you know, focused.

And I really wanted you to rattle off more. It felt like you.

I do have some more, but I. I just feel like I don't want to draw.

Sure.

Like Tink does a very talented receiver.

But it's been.

But it was. It was Nico the whole. It was Nico all along.

And if Niko is gone this week, what do you do?

I would play Tank Del over Dantavian Wicks if. If Nico was out? Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, because look, I. You said you'd play wicks, which is not a must play for me this week. He's a maybe play. He's a flex. What are my other options? Like, I'd play Mooney over him. The fact Dobbs would be back out there. Like, Dobbs is coming back. So, like, the plan is he's missing this game and coming back, but it's Arizona. We just saw you go crazy against them. It's a scary play. I play. I probably play Wicks over Pickens. Okay, Wicks and Pickens. That. It's here. Here we are. Keenan Allen and a doomsday were not the featured targets in Chicago. Courtland Sutton, despite all the targets on the year. Terrible game. And then at tight end, Dalton Kincaid.

They need him. They need him so bad, and I'm. I'm starting to question the talent.

Well, Allen missed him on what would have been about a 70 yard touchdown in this game. It was just a miss.

I mean, we talked about it at the top with Josh Allen. He looked atrocious.

He completed nine of 30 passes. This was not a Dalton Kincaid problem.

Yeah, 30% of his passes completed. That's impossible.

And you don't have anybody to take the pressure off of him.

Yeah, and and regardless of him not being evaluated for a concussion, he probably had one. Probably has one. And he's probably going to play next week. I don't know. That's scary.

The jets. Next week. You know, it always looks like Kincaid's supposed to have a game.

Well, they need him. I mean, that's the thing with Khalil Shakira, who apparently is the engine that makes the bills work. They have to have someone else step up. Gian Coleman is not a good separator. He. He's going to have his touchdowns, you know, his 50 50 balls and the. And the big play of, you know, occasionally as a rookie. That's who he is. I'm not saying he can't develop anymore, but right now, he is not. He's not a go to every down wide receiver who's just going to get open. That's not even what he did in college. So who they need more than anyone is the phone dicks. Sure is. I mean, yeah, throughout Devontae Adams, that's who they need. But they need Dalton Kincaid to step up and just rise up and put the offense on his shoulders. And I don't know that he's capable.

Six targets you'd be really happy about, but the two catches, pretty. Pretty terrible. I mean, his. His target pace on the year. What do we think? That is not what you projected. And what I projected, I would guess 80 81.

Okay, you're.

You're guessing today is. You're guessing at a better hit rate than Harrison's catch rate. You know what I mean?

Right?

Your. Your wilt Michael Wilson level.

Yeah, I feel like I'm guessing it better than a Michael Wilson level.

And then the muth got loose. Like, let the ball get loose on the ground.

Yeah, he did get a touchdown, which was great. But when most of your fantasy points come via a touchdown and then you fumble, you lose some of those fantasy points.

All right, waivers day tomorrow, Jason. It'll be a big one. We've got streaming quarterbacks to talk about a fantasy draft redo on Wednesday. Matchups. The wheel of shame. It's not gonna be me.

Oh, it's not gonna be me.

Nope. Nope. It's no. Not gonna be you, Jay.

All right, Mike.

Mike gets to walk into the. To the, you know, gets a dance with dowdle and then spin that wheel.

That'll be a fun Friday.

I. Yeah, I'm excited. All right, that'll do it. For today's show, check out jointhefoot.com if you want a little extra. Want to support the independent podcast and shout out to the Deucers over there. Thanks, guys. Go, Cardinals.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy Footballers podcast. Join our fantasy football community on join jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter heffballers.