Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Week 5 Matchup Podcast

Episode Date: October 7, 2021

John Hansen (@Fantasy_Guru) and Greg Cosell (@gregcosell) preview Week 5 NFL and fantasy football action. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/fantasy-points-podcast/support Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's time for the Fantasy Points podcast brought to you by FantasyPoint.com. Top level fantasy football and NFL betting analysis from every perspective and angle, from numbers to the film room with a single goal to help you score more fantasy points. Here we go. It's another edition of the Fantasy Points Matchup podcast here on Wednesday, October 6 in the evening is when we're recording this. I'm John Hansen. This podcast is basically a little bit of a teaser in terms of the content that we get from our guy Greg Kosell from NFL films.

We did just lower the price for a subscription. I believe we knocked it down, commensurate with the percentage of the season that's gone. I believe it's like 25% off. And you could also get an additional 10% off if you're not a subscriber by using the promo code 21 Hanson 10. Now that's H-E-N-S-E-N. We don't talk to the O-N people, just so you know. It's H-N-S-E-N. And again, 10% off the website here.

Still plenty of football to go. And we go throughout the playoffs in the off-season as well. Greg, in the film room, have you hit that first quarter of the season wall yet? I think I hit it and I think I'm over it already. You know, I just grind away, John. I mean, I just, you know, I can't even afford to think that way. way. I just kind of come in and do what I have to do every day and hopefully you can see as much as I can in the context of, you know, doing my matchup show and other things. And, you know, obviously,

you know, matchups my number one job because I work for NFL films. But, you know, so that has to always take priority every week. And then I just try to grind away and get as much tape watched, whatever I can. How about like, do you avoid getting sick? Because my entire family last week had some sort of virus, not COVID, but believe it or not, people actually had viruses and they got sick before COVID. I know it's shocking, but I've been fighting this thing off. I think I kicked its ass, which would extend my record to like 26 straight years without getting seriously ill. Forget about the off season. That's anything's possible there, but you do that too? Like your body just refuses to get sick. Well, that. I don't know. I mean, knock on wood, I haven't been, you know, for a long time.

So I just, you know, just keep doing what I'm doing. Yeah, let's get to what you're doing and you're watching tape and you're watching film. Let's start with Seattle. I know you saw their offense. Not a great feeling right now in terms of what are you seeing here? Narrow it down, you know, a lot of three and outs. They don't have a lot of great players. Honestly, you take away D.K. and lock it.

I don't know what we have. They can't run the ball either, Greg. No, and they struggle to run it, and there's been no rhythm to the past game, which is a little surprising, given who their new coordinator is. Maybe that's just going to take time, and at some point it will click in. I can't answer that. None of us can. But I was optimistic after watching them week one, and it's sort of settled back a bit since then. This particular week, and they obviously felt there was something about the 49ers defense, that they wanted.

wanted to do this, but this particular week, they played a very high percentage of their offensive snaps, which weren't many, by the way, with two tight ends. 28 of their 54 offensive snaps came with two tight ends. Now, keep one thing in mind, and this is a little odd. They've not had a game this year where they've run more than 56 offensive plays. Through four weeks, they've run the fewest offensive plays of any team in the league. so they've never really gotten into any kind of rhythm at all. Yeah.

Well, and Pete wants to slow the game down and run the ball, for one. But they're not seemingly having a lot of success running it. Carson's looked okay. I mean, pretty good. And he's hurt now. I think Collins is going to be the back this week. I mean, he did look good. I mean, he was bringing it downhill with urgency.

Yeah. Per usual, right? Yeah, I think he'll be the back. but their offense has no consistency. They've hit a few big plays here and there with Metcalf and Lockett, but there hasn't been any rhythmic feel to a pass game at all. And now you have the Rams defense coming to town. It is in Seattle, but, you know, pretty well coached defense.

They know each other well, though. Russell in the matchup last year didn't do well, though. He only had one touchdown, as you likely know. He completed 61. percent of his passes, which is a low number for him, 6.9 in a temp, which is a very low number for him. Essentially, Ramsey erased D.K. Metcalf. So what do you think about this matchup? I'm curious to see if that happens, because who did Ramsey just play against this week? The partners, right? Don't they have a pretty good wide out in DeAndre Hopkins? Yeah, and he didn't

travel. He matched up to him four times in the game. Wow. So the question is, is he going to match up to D.K. Metcalf. I mean, I'm fascinated by the Rams defense, John, simply because they don't play Ramsey as a matchup corner at all, basically. He lines up inside. Now, if in their base defense, if indeed Seattle goes with 12 personnel, in their base defense, he will play outside. But when they're in their nickel, he plays inside. Yeah, and they're seemingly committed to that. What do you think their motivation is there. What is their angle with that? You know, I spent watching their tape this week, because I watched that yesterday, I kept trying to think, and look, you know me well enough to know that I always take the point of view that coaches are smarter than I am, because they're

with their players every day. They, they, you know, they just know more than I do. They certainly have a lot more access to the game plan and everything than you do. Right. So I'm trying to figure out, I know people say, well, he's closer to the action. I think that's an easy thing to say. Does he blitz more? But not very often. But I was sitting watching the tape yesterday thinking to myself, corner is a pretty premium position in the NFL.

You've got arguably the best corner in the league on your roster, and you don't match him up to the best wide receivers. I'm just thinking this. I'm not making a judgment. It depends on $100 million because he's a shutdown, island man-to-man corner. What I just said is like saying two and two is four. This is how they play.

They have arguably the best corner in the league. They do not match him up. To me, I'm watching the tape and I'm thinking they use him like he's a better Kenny Moore. Jeez. That's the way, I mean, I'm watching the tape thinking that. Like I said, I'm not making a judgment,

but to me, that's kind of how he's used. Yeah, I think the Packers are starting to do something similar with Jaya Alexander. he well he goes inside because i we don't know if that's the reason he goes inside but i will say this we won't know now because he's going to be out for a while yeah i was just going to say we don't know about jari alexander now because it looks like he's going to be out for a while right right oh okay i thought you had another point there but no no i mean i like i said just to wrap up ramsie for this given game from a fantasy perspective i just can't speak with any certainty let's put it this way

The track record of this season is what we have with Rahim Morris as the new coordinator. Up to this point through four games, he has not been used hardly at all. The percentage is minuscule with him being used as a match-up corner. And keep one other thing in mind. They hardly play man coverage. They are near the bottom of the NFL in percentage of cover one, near the bottom, okay? So they're not a man coverage defense. Yeah, they're giving up some numbers.

They're given up nearly 300 yards passing per game and a completion rate of 71%. So, I mean, only one touchdown per game with passing, which is pretty good. But I could argue that this isn't going particularly well, but I mean, the defense overall is strong. Wow, that's going to be interesting. I do think that Gerald Everett, no matter what, in a revenge game, could be a difference maker here. I think he needs to be cleared, obviously, but I think he's trending toward going because, I mean, I just don't want to rely on Freddie Swain.

We need a third passing option, preferably in the middle of the field. I actually think he's a pretty good receiver. Yeah, yeah. You know, complimentary guy. I'm not sure. That's normally what your slot guys are. Yeah, yeah. Normally, but he hardly played this week because they were committed to playing 12

personnel, which like I said, I believe that was in their mind of function of their opponent. I don't know if that's something they'll do every week. Now, for the Rams. I know you've seen Seattle's defense. We talked about it a lot last week. In fact, I believe we predicted a big game for Debo here last week. Got to think that Stafford predictable.

He missed some throws last week. He'll bounce back this week. Right, because everything's predictable, and they could just find those soft spots and carve it up, right? The Seahawk defense is not very good. They're another team that doesn't play much man coverage at all. They play a ton of zone. So, you know, I think you can attack this defense pretty clearly.

I mean, I don't think there's, I don't think there's big issues there. By the way, how good did Daryl Henderson look, man? He was bringing it last week. Yeah, and again, I mean, I don't know. I guess is he their number one back? It seems that way. Now, maybe they were, it was short week. Sony had a bunch of carried touches over 24, I believe, opportunities against a tough

buck defense and I don't know I thought Sony would have a little bit of a larger role I think they're playing with fire if they're going to make Darrell Henderson the guy but he didn't look damn good. He looked good. Now obviously he had 14 carries in a game in which obviously they were behind so I don't know if that means if he's the guy if he's going to get 20

carries. You know maybe that's the case. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, Stafford missed some throws last week that he normally makes and but but you know getting back to the C. Hawks defense. They're, they're not a very good defense at all. I mean, it's, I, I, I'm not exactly sure, you know, look, they, they, they, they, they're a high, person. What's their staple? Where are a high percentage zone coverage defense, okay? They, they're another team. On third down,

they played the second lowest percentage of man coverage of any team in the NFL. And they play a ton of split safety. So they're a zone coverage team that does not play much man at all. I notice in your notes that you're intrigued by Tyler Higby basically lining up outside a lot. Yeah, I mean, my sense just watching the tape is that they're lining up Higby outside more this year. That's my sense. I don't have numbers for that. It's just my sense watching the tape. I mean, I can actually call that up, but the production actually hasn't been great.

No, unfortunately. So when you watch how he's been utilized thus far, are you in? inclined to believe that maybe we'll see an increase in production? That's a hard question to answer because they've got really good wide receivers, obviously. Right. So it's, you know, I don't think it's a case where you're thinking, oh, you know, he's got to throw it to Higbee or their past game is not going to work. They've got really good wide receivers.

Yeah, no question. I'm trying to call up, you know, the routes here. on him, but we can we can move on. I do have it, believe me, trust me, I do have it somewhere, but I'm not, I'm not, I'm not able to toggle to the team. I can though, while you were talking about Justin Fields in start number two. And he's now been named the starter, as you know. Yeah, yeah.

Well, it clearly was better. Let me ask it this way. Obviously last week was just so horribly bad. that there were like 17 different things probably going wrong for Fields and the offense. But when you think about the tape from last week and then the tape from this past Sunday, you know, how much of the struggles, I'm sure Fields was a little bit better, taking the first team reps all week for another week and all that good stuff. But how much of the struggles do you just simply pin on the fact that the Brown defense

might be nasty right now? I think some of that is absolutely true, by the way. I think because they did, they still featured. five-man protection concepts, which, of course, everybody says you can't do. It must be against the rules, I guess, based on what people are saying. But they still featured five-man protection concepts and quick game throws, just as they did last week. The difference in this game was the throws were there and clean, and Fields was not under

any pressure, which allowed him to make the throws. Right. Now, they did add a play action pass game where there is six or six or six. seven-man protection with deeper throws and not more difficult reads per se. Like he had Robinson for 28 yards on what we call the dagger concept. That's a basic read. That's not a difficult read. But you have to protect it up because it's essentially a two-man route concept

that has verticality to it. So they protected for him and he made throws. And he made a couple of big-time throws. So, you know, he looked really good throwing the football. no question. And I think he had a 27-yard at a Robinson late in the third quarter in the deep outside. That was a throw, man. Outside void and cover two.

Now, that was a seven-man protection, which you know what that tells me? That tells me they knew what they were getting from a coverage standpoint and could attack it with fewer eligible receivers. That's what it tells me. Because if you're only going to send three out, then you have to feel really comfortable that you know what you're getting. Well, yeah, they also don't really have any other good receivers other than the top two. But, yeah, I hear you. Tyler Higby, by the way, 29% of the snaps he's out wide this year. It's got to be up from last year.

It's just, like I said, you know, you could probably check last year's too. But, I mean, it just seems to me it's more. Yeah. Well, let me ask you about because we love Darnell Mooney. He was my breakout wide receiver. Right. And I think- Well, he's going to get some targets down the field now.

That's for sure. And what we saw was the guy can get open pretty easily, right? Create separation and fields can put it right on him, right? Yeah, I mean, he can, you know, he's a vertical guy. He can run. There's no question about that. So, you know, again, Chicago is playing at Las Vegas. It's actually a good matchup for Fields and the Bears because the, the, the, the,

the Raiders are pretty defined defensively with their coverage concepts under Gus Bradley. So, you know, it shouldn't be a case where you don't know what you're going. My guess is, and this I can pull up, and I'm going to do that right now, my guess is that the Raiders are near the top of the league and cover three. And I'll be able to tell you that right now. I can tell you they're like top seven in zone coverage, zone percentage. Yeah. All right, so they are in the top six and cover three.

And the other coverage, they play a good amount of as cover one. So they're a single high safety defense that gives you cover three, cover one. You know what you're going to get. That's what they do. Does that make them more vulnerable to a big place? It's not a matter of vulnerable, but it's the fact that there's a predictability to what they give you coverage-wise. So you feel very comfortable scheming against it. What I was going to ask you was the Alan Robinson struggling.

And, you know, I'm thinking maybe that. Well, I don't know if Alan Robinson is struggling as much as the past game was kind of a non-factor. Yeah, yeah, that's what I meant for fantasy. We're all struggling with him. Well, he's struggling for fantasy. I don't know if the player is struggling. Oh, yes, right. We're struggling.

But we need to pick me up. Like, do you think the vertical stretch to field element that Mooney clearly brings to the table, Like that seems to compliment Alan Robinson very well. I feel like he can clear things out. John, I mean, that's pretty basic in terms of football. Anytime you have a vertical threat that can stretch the defense, you're losing a player in coverage in the intermediate and maybe two players in coverage in the intermediate area.

So that helps receivers like Robinson, who are essentially short to intermediate receivers. Robinson is not a true vertical threat. I mean, he can at time, but does it help him? Sure it does. If you have that guy that can lift the top off of defense, that helps. Hey, we're groping here, man. We're desperate.

We're in a corner curled up in a fetal position crying if we have Alan Robinson in fantasy right now because he's like wide receiver like 90 on the board. He was drafted as like wide receiver nine. You know, and the other thing to keep in mind is against the Raiders who do have good pass rush, fields could end up running for yards too in this game. Did you get the sense watching the tape that we're trending that way at a couple little plays where it looked like, okay. Well, he didn't really need to in this game because he didn't really face a lot of pressure.

What about the... There were quick game throws and then they protected it up when he, you know, when they wanted to throw it down the field. So he didn't really get much pressure in this game. What about another rookie, Trevor Lawrence from Thursday night against a, a pretty decent Bengals defense. First takeaway to me is, okay, can we let, I think the guy needs some help, start using his legs more as a found, not a foundation, but, you know,

an active part of his game. It seemed to open them up for him. They may do that, but I wouldn't do that for half a second. No, why? Why is that? Because the way he's built. He's going to get hurt. Right.

He's a stalk built kind of guy. He's not a powerfully built guy. He doesn't have the body type of, you know, the Justin Herberts, the Josh Allen. He's a stalk. And I think you've got to be careful with that. I mean, maybe like a little less than like what Daniel Jones is doing this year, you know, you know. Yeah, but Jones is built differently. I mean, I've been around Lawrence.

I've seen him in person. I thought he was better this past week, incrementally better. And I think that's a positive sign. I also don't think it hurts. and, you know, this is proven, by the way, that when you can have a productive and volume run game, it helps your quarterback. And that was the first game in which they had a productive

and volume run game. I mean, again, I thought James Robinson looked tremendous. I don't think he looked that good. He definitely looks a little more dynamic this year. I mean, yeah, but the production wasn't there through the first three games. They couldn't run the ball. Yeah.

Well, week one. They were giving Carl aside the ball, too. I haven't done a hardcore breakdown of their run game, but they could not run the football, and that poses a problem for Trevor Lawrence at this point in his career. Do you think Leviscus-Chanalt's usage will shift a little bit here with DJ Chark out? I mean, I just don't get a warm and fuzzy feeling watching Chalt in the slot. He's a little slow.

Well, what do you mean by shift? Do you think he's going to move outside? Well, at the very least, run more vertical routes because we saw that Thursday night and I was like, wow, because he didn't do that last year. I don't think it at all. Well, he caught the one deep ball, which is kind of a second reaction play. So you can't really call that a vertical route in a strict sense. You know, I think they really like him as a screen guy, as a run after catch guy. I think they like him as that kind of player, not necessarily. as a vertical route runner. Yeah. Like a Cordarral Patterson,

although he's getting vertical. Yeah. Well, Patterson could run. I mean, Patterson came out of Tennessee. Of course. He was a receiver more than a back. Yeah.

He could run. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's almost been 10 years, if you can believe that for Cordial. Moving on here, the Fantasy Points podcast here, Week 5 edition. I'm John Hansen,

Greg CoSell. This again, a little bit of a teaser. some of the content that Greg brings to the table we're actually only up we only got about 10 more minutes here so Joe Burrow in that same game it just seems like am I crazy or in that game last week and maybe the week before I don't know if he was as good last year

and that bodes well coming off this ACL yeah I mean he's a very comfortable player I mean I think we've said that you know pretty much from the time he came into the league he's very rhythmic. The ball comes out. You know, they attack some one-on-ones on the outside with Chase when they feel they're there. But other than that, it's a short intermediate pass game. I think the nature of the opponent dictates certain things that they do. So this week, they've got Green Bay at home in a very, very big game. Green Bay will be without Jari Alexander.

Green Bay is multiple with their coverages. You know, you're going to get a number of coverage. your looks. But, you know, now they're down in the secondary because Jari Alexander is a top five corner in the league. And Burrow is, at what point do we say that we don't worry about, like, the young quarterback deal, like, because he just seems to be so advanced for a second year quarterback here in early October. You, when you say not worry about it, you mean in terms of what?

You know how, like, oh, Vic Fangio is going to bring a lot of stuff. You know, like, I mean, we're already to that point where we're treating them like a five-year veteran almost. Well, you know, again, it was a couple of weeks ago that he did throw the three picks. Was it against, who was that against Pittsburgh, maybe? Yeah, probably was. Oh, no, Chicago, Chicago. Oh, right. It was against Chicago.

And, you know, he had the bad game. He didn't see some stuff in that game. So, again, I mean, I think he's going to be a really good player. But it's hard for me to say that, you know, when you say don't worry about him, you know, I think he's, even though he's not a downfield thrower in a strict sense, he's an aggressive thrower. So I always think there's going to be

some situations where he throws a pick. I don't think he's going to be one of those guys that throws 20 picks, but, you know, I think there'll be some situations where that happens because he will turn a loose now. He's not shy about turning a loose. I'm sure he knows who's on the other

side of the field there. These guys tend to bring their A game when they're up against you know, like living legends. like Aaron Rogers. Titan offense quickly. Boy, do we have an offense? Can we just call it Derek Henry? Yeah, I mean, he's on pace for

probably 500 carries, given that it's a 17-game schedule. He's had 96 carries in the last three games. I don't really see a drop-off. I mean, maybe he was a little not quick twitch to begin with, so there's nothing to lose there. I mean, he seems like the same guy, right? Yeah, their biggest

issue was two-fold, and I guess A.J. Brown was out at practice today, but I have no idea what his status is. But they've had no explosive pass plays in each of the last two weeks with their wide receivers, I mean. And their red zone has been, which was a strength for the last two years, their red zone has been poor this year. They're not scoring touchdown. So those two areas are killing them. The explosive play thing is killing them because they used to get a ton of those explosives off their run game. and they're not getting that.

So now they get stuck with just a run game. And Henry's great, but that normally does not produce big points in the NFL. But what's most impressive is last year, you had Johnny who make an explosive place. You had Corey Davis and AJ Brown. You're really getting none of that. Yet Henry's still getting it done.

Correct. That's crazy. Yeah, no, Henry's great. You know, he's good here. AJ Brown limited today. So I guess that's a good sign. What about Julio? I bet he didn't practice.

Yeah. He's not even on here. Oh, wait. Wasn't spotted. So, yeah. Yeah. It's not good. I don't feel good about Julio at all.

And they're both hamstrings, which you got to be careful with, as you know, John. I mean, you know, they want those guys out there, obviously, because they're going to feel like they need a win. But, you know, you don't want Brown to come out too soon and then tear a hamstring, and he's out for the season. It's like Logan, Thomas is out for a month. Right. You know, it looked innocuous at the time. I'm doing TV with Dr. Mark Addix, and he was like, yeah, he's probably going to go on

IR. Yeah, and there's, I don't know the reason. Maybe Dr. Adix knows the reason, but it seems to me there's a lot of hamstring injuries this year. Well, he would, he would clearly attribute that, I would guess. I know last year he would simply attribute it to fewer moments in the facility with the team, you know, working out in the offseason. That could be the.

case. Yeah. Moving on here, just a couple of other things. Zach Wilson, I mean, get to the crux of the matter here. I feel like I'm okay with some of the rookie mistakes. I know he's on discipline, a little crazy out there. I do see the traits, though. It's only a couple of games, few games here. So I feel like he's on track. Where are you at with Zach Wilson? I think people got excited this week because he made two big throws off movement, which we know he can do. He's got. live feet. He's got a loose arm. And those throws were phenomenal. But I think that he still had issues with ball placement. He missed too many throws that he must make routinely. I'm curious to see if this game, just because they won and he didn't make a few big plays,

will be a stepping stone or if he just made a couple of special second reaction throws, which we know he's capable of. I don't know the answer to that. Well, I mean, it's a very similarly favorable matchup against Atlanta. Yeah, I mean, he's still got a lot of work to do, but he's gifted. But he's clearly still got work to do. Oh, sure. I mean, I mean, we're four games in here. So, I mean, I'm Mr. Early, early call here.

But, you know, my early call is that's already in the books. I mean, he's, I think he can process. It seems like he processes, snaps it off, all the good stuff. and, you know, just a little rough around the edges right now. So about Kyler Murray, he's in year number three. And it just seems like it's kind of all coming together right now where he's mentally ready to do the best that he's possibly, you know, capable of doing here.

Is that, is that fair? I think that he's playing. I think the difference in Murray this year is just the way he's playing from the pocket. Because he'll always make those special plays. he did that in its first two years. The issue in its first two years was that he missed too many throws from the pocket that were routine. Now, not only do I think he's seeing things better, but he's far more efficient and consistent

throwing the ball from the pocket. And that's the reason he's taking the step up, not because he can run around. He's always going to run around. Well, yeah, I mean, he's keeping that as a back pocket item right now. Oh, no. That's who he is, and that's part of his game. So he'll always do that. but the consistency comes from his ability to make throws from the pocket,

which also involves seeing things, understanding things pre-snap. I think that development has taken place and he's getting better and better. No, I met that as a compliment. Like in that last year, often, and especially the rookie year, it was like almost default. You're going to that. Now he only uses it when he needs it, the running. Yeah, and that's.

ultimately where you want to get to. But, and he'll always have that in his back pocket, like you said. How much credit do we give Cliff Kingsbury here? It's year three of the offense. I know last year at the combine, he seemed really excited about year two. Year two didn't work out well, but maybe better late than never here in year three. Yeah, because when we were at the combine, it was a week later that everything shut down. He was talking, I'm sure, as if he was going to have a normal offseason and he didn't.

So this year he did. You know what? I like what Kingsbury does. I watched Murray, as you know, last summer from 2020, and I thought that Kingsbury does a lot of good things with his personnel, his formations, his route combinations. I think he really attacked zone coverage well with intermediate and vertical route concepts. I think Kingsbury does a really good job. And now that Murray is becoming kind of more controlled, more efficient, that's playing out more. Jalen Hertz quickly. Very good performance. It's like it almost feels like you could tell him the first driver to

whether it's going to be a good performance or not so good like the week before. How much of that do you think is the coverage base that he's seeing? Who are we talking about Jailen Hertz? Jalen Hertz. Jailen Hertz. Jailen Hertz is fascinating to me for this reason. He clearly makes good plays some really good plays. he shows flashes of being a really good player.

Yeah. But the question is, can he develop the patience and pocket poise needed to make the throws that he leaves on the field? Because he leaves a ton of throws on the field because he breaks down prematurely and drops his eyes. And he's missed touchdowns this year because of that. You know, can he get to that point where he doesn't do that? How much better at that was Dak than Hertz when he came out?

Because we've seen Dak steadily improve. Back was not an eyedropper. Hmm. Right. Yeah. Hertz is an eyedropper. Yeah. Could be a problem.

If you do that, you're done. Could be a problem. When I say done, you're done with the throws. He can run at that point and he's good at it, but you're done with the throws. Do you get the sense Kenny Gainwell is really moving up in the world here in this offense? Yeah. You know how I feel about Gainwell. I love Kenny Gainwell.

Like, is this a dual backfield at this point? Yeah. Well, we'll see if they run the ball. They've not done that the last two weeks, basically, at all. They've had no run game. Sam Donald, how did? I was going to say a lot of people believe you don't need one, but, you know, they've had no run game.

Right. And for people who feel you don't need one, I would say to them, go to something Brandon Staley said earlier this week. I'm sure you can find it on social media. talking about the importance of the run game, I thought it was phenomenal. That said, though, you and others have said, oh, you don't need to run the ball to run play action. Well, no, no, that's a whole separate question, John. Okay.

You don't need to run the ball to run play action. I'm talking about actually handing the ball to the back. Yeah, and I think that does a lot of things, stays on schedule. He keeps the pass rushes at bay. It does a lot of good things, you know. It does. But people should go listen to Brandon Staley. In two minutes, he gives you kind of a snapshot.

shot worldview of what running the ball does. Yeah, well, he does speak really well. I mean, hell, Greg, I could even argue the goat last year needed them in Tampa to run the ball more. Right. Right? I mean, yeah. No, but it's the other part, it's proven, John.

You don't need to run for play action. That's been proven for years. For people who still think that's the case, they don't know anything. They're wrong. Right. I mean, that's not something I really delve into. and I don't really care about that argument. I got no dog in that race.

But I want to quickly say on Sam Darnold, how did he fare in what is quickly turning into one of the tougher matchups out there, dare I say, Greg? You mean the Cowboys defense? Against Cowboys, yeah, yeah. Cowboys defense is really good. In fact, I can make the argument that Dan Quinn is taking a page from the Belichickian defensive template,

which is front multiplicity and coverage consistency, playing a lot of man-to-man coverage. Yeah. You know, and Donald, that game was relatively close, you know, till late in the third quarter. Donald's first interception, believe it or not, you know, Diggs made a mistake in coverage. He was in the wrong place, and he made the pick. He was absolutely wrong in his coverage.

The second one was very similar to what he did against the Eagles the week prior on Monday night, just reading the triangle from the quarterback. to the receiver, jumping the route before the ball is thrown. Big time play. But the first one, he made a mistake in coverage, and he was actually in a place he shouldn't have been, and he was able to make an interception. Let's exclude like Devante Adams and like, you know, the freak Tyree Kill. Have you seen a better receiver this year than DJ Moore? Yeah, DJ Moore is, you know, a really good receiver. And obviously the numbers show that as well. He's predominantly their X, their single receiver to the boundary.

This is a pretty good offense. I think their O line is a bit of an issue and will be more than likely all season. But, you know, I think McAfrey will come back from what I hear. He's actually ahead of schedule. I don't know if he plays this week, but I think he's not that far away. Yeah, they're looking good. I'll tell people out there, I mean, I've got a pretty good handle on it. If McCaffrey's active, that means he's good to go.

Yeah. I mean, because otherwise they're not going to risk it. No, you're right. I don't know, about 30. Carrie is good to go, but 15, you know, and all that. Well, that's just a sample of some of the insights we gain every week from Greg CoSell. Greg, Adam and I, Adam Kaplan and I do the live stream every Thursday. We cover all the matchups forthcoming.

It's about an hour, 25 minutes, 20 minutes like that. We go rapid fire. A lot of insight. Somebody called today on the radio and was complimenting the live stream. Apparently, we got a lot of stuff right last week, like Debo for one. A lot of good stuff there, Greg. So, well, let's get back into the film room and we'll wrap it here. Obviously, make sure you check out all the other podcasts here from FantasyPoint.com on the stream, if you will, or the feed is what I wanted to say there.

and 21 Hanson 10, save 10% off your subscription to fantasy points.com, which the prices did just get dropped here in week number five. For Greg, I'm John. We'll catch you next week on the Fantasy Points Matchup Podcast. Thanks for tuning in to this edition of the Fantasy Points podcast. Remember to subscribe, rate, and review on your favorite platform. And come join the roster at FantasyPoint.com.