Fantasy Football Daily - 2021 Week 8 Matchup Podcast

Episode Date: October 28, 2021

John Hansen (@Fantasy_Guru) and Greg Cosell (@gregcosell) preview all of Week 8 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 to 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. Welcome to the week eight matchup podcast here at FantasyPoint.com. I am John Hansen. Greg Kosel, fresh out of the film room here, several days of film study from week seven in the book. books here. We record this podcast on Wednesday evening, 731 Eastern, if you must know. It's a bit of a sample podcast to get some of the insight that Greg CoSell brings to the table here and helps us with our analysis on the website. It's not the full deal here because Greg is still

driving on a film. We do a live stream every Thursday with me, Greg and Adam Kaplan, that goes over every darn game. And of course, Greg continues to send in his notes and his insight and all that good stuff. Fantasypoints.com. By the way, a little secret listening right now. If you're not a subscriber, you could actually right now go and create a free account. It's a basic account, no credit card, nothing. And that does trigger a 24-hour trial subscription. If you want to kick the tires, check it all the great content. Greg, good evening. How are you? People are loving fantasy points.com. I will say that. I've got a lot of media friends that I've kind of hooked up and Compton, man, they are loving FantasyPoints.com. How are you?

Well, John, that's a good thing. I'm really happy for you. Well, they see Greg CoSales name up there. You know, you're part of that. And that's the great thing about the site. There's just so much content. And we did really condense it down a little bit this year, too. It was almost literally too much last year. So we've got those game hubs that have, I mean, you want to talk about probably some of the best game previews that you'll find out there, Greg. We do incorporate. all your insight here, so let's get to it as you broke down a bunch of tape. Let's start with the Bengals. I know the Ravens. I spent way too much time on that one, John, but it was fun time.

I took ridiculous notes on that because the game was so, the Bengals' offense of particular Ravens D was so schematically interesting to me. Well, we could talk about maybe the Ravens having a problem in the secondary, or maybe we give a lot of the credit to the Bengals who seemed to be doing well up front. Looks like they're protecting Burrow fairly well from what I can tell. And it looks like Burrow obviously handled that blitz. What the film show on Burrow and the Bengals? Well, they went in with a defined approach. And that was that we were going to protect Joe Burrow. Because at the end of the day, John, you do not have a passing game if you cannot protect your quarterback. No matter how good your quarterback may be or how good your receivers may be. If you can't

protect them, you can't throw it. So they went in with the plan, particularly on. on third down, but not only on third down, that they would keep parian, it was almost always parian, P-Rine, I guess, and Uzoma in the backfield. So you'd pretty much have seven-man protection. Now, if obviously the Ravens, who almost always show some kind of pressure front where they have six or seven on the line of scrimmage, if they back out, then P. Ryan and

Uzuma would release. But their number one priority was to be part of the protection, if need be. And actually, it's funny, in the first half, there was a little too much leakage. And Burrow was able to move around and still avoid it. But as the game progressed, they did a really good job protecting Joe Burrow. Anything on, obviously, Jamar Chase is ridiculous. But T. Higgins has been not very efficient. I like T. Higgins quite a bit. We talked about that. I mean, my God, the guy got 15 targets. He did. You know, just a little rusty, just a little off here.

I mean, you're still a good player, but anything of note there? No, I wouldn't say there's anything of note. I mean, they threw him the ball a lot. You know, some he was covered, some were, you know, I mean, there's nothing, you know, they didn't throw it really down the field to him in this game. Yeah, it was all short stuff. And I think his, even his, I think he had seven catches on 15 targets, but they weren't for a ton of yards.

They really didn't throw the ball down the field to him at all. Seems like the O'Liance holding up pretty well. And P. Ryan looks good this year. Mixon looks pretty good the last two weeks, too. Yeah, no, Mixon ran really well in this game. You know, obviously, he didn't get 100 yards, and he did have the touchdown, which was a very good run. But he had some tough physical runs,

some eight or nine yards, which were really good runs. Yeah. And they'll maybe do something somewhat similar this week against Cleveland, by the way, right? I mean, that's a pretty ferocious pass rush. and all that. But these Bengals seem to be really building momentum and they're like really battle tested. Cincinnati does not play Cleveland this week. Oh, oh, oh, my bad. I looked at week eight. I grabbed the wrong. Oh, Pittsburgh or not Pittsburgh. Here we go. Hold on. Oh, the, that's right. Never mind. Never mind. The Mike White led jets. Yeah. Oh, crap. I hit the wrong week there.

I've already, obviously, I'm really focused on the jets. I was going to say that. They're so important. I don't believe they're playing Cleveland because that would be in our matchup show and it's not. Oh, my bad. Yeah, that was my bad. I clicked the wrong week there. Never mind on that because, well, the jet defense has been respectable. They're getting run all over.

So it should be probably a lot of Somagie Piron and Bromixson. You're not giving them 30 carries. Moving on here, you saw the Titans offense. I did. Any, I mean, I know this is weird, but we are fantasy here. Did you notice anything with Julio? Was he slow? Was he a non-factor?

I mean, did you even notice Julio Jones? Didn't notice him a ton, but their play action past game was really effective. Obviously, they threw it to Brown a lot who looked very good. And as I've talked about many times, for their offense to truly be effective at the level they needed to be, they need that play action pass game and they need and they need explosive plays in the past game. The Chiefs actually did a good job versus Henry who only had 29-36 with I think a long of 11. So they actually bottled him up pretty well. So, you know, they need the past game to be a factor.

Well, may need it this week too. They've got the Colts. Yeah. There's a 50 point total here expected. a very beatable matchup. But in your opinion, overall, grading on a little bit of a curve, maybe. Tanna Hill's still playing well,

probably not as efficient as the previous two years, but still playing pretty well. Well, not as explosive. You know, that's the difference. You know, obviously not as many touchdowns. My guess is not as many yards. So it's not as explosive. I think they just haven't had as many big plays.

They've started to come a little bit. I mean, in the second half against the bills two weeks ago, not that they were long plays, but they started to get the play action past game working to A.J. Brown. This week, they threw the ball to Brown on the outside versus one-on-one matchups. They need to continue to do that. We'll see where Julio is. Obviously, he came out and did not, you know, I don't believe he played the second half this week. It's my understanding he's fine, or, you know, relatively fine, and is going this week, but barring a setback, I guess. But, You know, he's, except for a couple of games, he's not been a big factor in their offense.

I think you do grade Tanna Hill and a curve because he's had some O-line issues, injuries, but more importantly, they got nothing to hang their hat on other than A.J. Brown, who was a shell of himself for, you know, basically half the season, right? I mean, they're groping here at receiver. And, you know, Mikel Pruitt's been kind of their receiving tight end. I guess FERCSA has been blocking more. There's not much to work with here. No, no, not, although my guess is it's going to start to come around.

I can't sit here and say, this is the week for this guy. But if Julio can stay on the field, and that's a big if, John, I think their past game is going to start to come around. Well, it's not all, but it really is a lot of it on Julio. I mean, that was the plan. I mean, you put all your ex-exam. Oh, of course. Yeah, yeah. I mean, let's not forget.

They lose Jono Smith and Corey Davis. I mean, that's considerable amount of talent. Yeah. I mean, you could argue. Well, obviously, that the feeling was Julio would replace Corey Davis and be better, but Julio has not been able to stay on the field. Yeah. Heck, I could argue that Corey Davis and Janu are, I mean,

they're better than the entirety of the receiving court for the Titans thus far. I mean, essentially, because Julio's been darn near worthless. But you also saw the Colts. I guess you got a great die a little bit. with a grain of salt, I guess, because of the monsoon, but it seemed to me watching the game on television that Carson Wentz continued to be less frenetic. Yep.

More in control. The ball location seems to all seem to be working pretty well. Yeah, no, he's, I mean, obviously the people who don't like Wentz will point to the one play where he threw the pick in the red zone, which he would freely admit was a terrible play, and it was. Yeah, that was brutal. That's been the exception rather than the rule. for the large, large part of this year.

He's calmer in the pocket. I mean, he had a completion, which in the course of a game, you know, from a fantasy perspective, is a nothing play. It was a 14-yarder to Michael Pittman on third and three in the fourth quarter, which was an important play because at the time they were only up by, it was a one-score game, so I think it might have been 2318 at the time. And it really showed Wendt under control, poised, composed, in the pocket. It was just a really good play. And that's what he's been for much of this season.

I think I saw on your notes, but also playing well within the timing and the rhythm of the play. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. That is a great sign. That's almost like he's back when you see that for a month, right? And, and, you know, for your sake, you know, someone like Moe Allie Cox, who I know you've been on, I'm not giving you any scoop here, but that first touchdown to him was designed for him. So, you know, I always tell you, sometimes, you'll say, oh, you know, this guy caught a touchdown and say, yeah, but he wasn't, that wasn't where the ball was supposed to go. The Moe-A-Cocs touchdown, that was designed for him. Exactly. So we have to take the lack of targets and understand that when he does get targeted,

they're often looking for a big play. And also, don't forget, they didn't throw the ball that much in this game because the weather and the way the game sort of played out. So, you know, Wence, I think only had 26 attempts. As we always discuss, you know, 26 attempts is not going to lead to a lot of targets for the receivers. You start getting 35, 40 attempts. You get more targets for the receivers. Yeah. Well, they did go heavy with 12 personnel.

They went more 12 in this game, which, again, here's what, as I always say to you, and to people listening, we don't know if that was a function of the weather, the opponent, or if it's something they're going to start to do more of. We really don't know the answer to that yet. Yeah. Or, you know, they didn't have T.Y. Hilton. They lost T.Y. in Paris Campbell, too. Right, right.

You know, but it does seem like a good environment for Wentz because how freaking good is Jonathan Taylor? He had a couple of runs where he's so special, Greg. Yeah, he's got that little jump cut now, which is really good. I mean, he's got it all. He's got everything in the toolbox. Yeah. Man, we love this guy so much. It's incredible.

How about Pittman? We loved Pittman last year, too. That was our guy. And he is, this is a second year blossoming that, I mean, this is about as good. as you could have hoped for, really. Yeah. Well, you know how much I like Pittman coming at the USC. Yes.

So, I'm not surprised, you know. And again, in a game where they have to throw it more, which, well, I look, obviously, weather won't be an issue this week. They're at home. So we'll see how much they throw the ball. You know, it seems like he's being used really well. And the chemistry seems real nice with Wentz. Are they, is he, you know, do you notice like an expansion when you think

back to how they used them last year. Although it seemed like last year was on a fast track too. You're talking about Pittman? Yeah. Do you see like an expansion of his... I don't know if I'd say that yet, okay? I'm not sure I'd say that yet. You know, he's going to get balls thrown to him,

but I don't know if you're talking about being like the number one receiver that you know every week's going to get 12 targets, I'm not sure that I wouldn't go that far. We're definitely trending in that direction, I would think. Any thoughts on the matchup here against this Titan D? We talked about it last week. I think I said here on the live stream that if Mahomes struggles, it will likely be due to this surging Titan front.

Yeah, I mean, the whole thing with Mahomes, we've discussed that. So that plays into what happened this week. But for the last two weeks against Josh Allen and Mahomes, they've had essentially the same template of rushing. I think it'll be different. week, to be honest with you. But they've rushed four. They've played a lot of zone coverage. You know, that's kind of been the template. And they didn't really stop Josh Allen, but they certainly shut down the Chief's offense. Some of it they're doing. Some of it Mahomes doing.

How crazy would it be if Carson Wentz has a good game and they win and we could go back and say, well, Carson Wentz is playing with poise and he's not frenetic and he's seeing things and oh by the way Patrick Mahomes the opposite like right that's crazy well as you've probably seen John and again you know me I don't I don't go around saying look at what I do but I've been telling you about my home since what week two I was all of a sudden Monday after the game against the Titans everybody has started now saying what I've been telling you since week two I said it I believe after right after week one yeah you might have but I mean the point is is the tape has told you that. And that's what I do. I sit in my office and I watch tape. So no agenda,

nothing like that. Here's what the tape tells you. And I've been saying that, you know, basically since early in the season and no one has said it. And now all of a sudden after the loss to the Titans, everybody's saying it like it's news that just happened. Yep. Well, I'm pretty sure we said it late last year, actually. Um, he had some of the, those issues in the Super Bowl, but because there were too many plays in the Super Bowl where his old line was just beaten, people just wrote it off to the old line. But there were a few too many plays where that was not the issue, and he missed things. Yeah, and is that it, though, because Tyreek doesn't look healthy. I don't think he is healthy. Right. He doesn't have that burst,

right? And, you know, we've talked about this before, and you can make the argument. And I know, that there's offensive line people a lot smarter than I am who have made this argument. So I'm responding to what they say that their two offensive tackles are really run blockers and not pass protectors. And that's Orlando Brown on left tackle and Mike Remmer's at right tackle. So, you know, they keep throwing the ball. They don't really have a run game in a strict sense. They have an RPO game.

And in the NFL, that's not a run game. I mean, do these guys ever go in 12 persons? They do, but not very much. This week, hardly ever. This week, maybe five snaps. Wow. Well, I believe I talked about it after like week two when Edward Aller was struggling and they were not running it and Mahomes were struggling. I mean, you know, I hate to say it, but can we settle this guy down and run the ball a little bit? Maybe they'd do that this week. I don't think they'll have problems with the Giants Dean. They've been really struggling. So you would think Mahomes and friends, will be okay. And you did not see Daniel Jones, right? I did not. Okay. I feel like that could be a good matchup, though, for the Giants on Monday night and Daniel Jones, right? Man to man, we can get some of those guys back. I feel like Daniel Jones. Do you know if the Giants are getting

people back? No, it's still early in the week. Yeah. No one's ruled out yet, but the Joe Judge said it basically like tomorrow will be a revealing day for Goddare's time. Right. It's Monday, so it's was an extra day, yeah. That too. Well, that too, yeah, of course. All right, well, we'll cover that on the website, obviously, in-depth, the entire matcher. But I do like the, do like the Giants here to make some hay. By the way, you saw the Niners Colts tape.

Boy, how about Elijah Mitchell? I was going up against him in fantasy, and I'm watching it at a bar. I watched his first three carries, and I thought to myself, this guy's running for 200. he might have. They seem to go away from him. You know, what was that Indies D struggling with that outside zone? What was up with that? You know, look, the 49ers are a running football team and they're very good at it.

And they came out with a few wrinkles off some base concepts. And they were very effective. And, you know, normally those kinds of wrinkles don't work for a whole. game because once the defense sees them, they, you know, they don't normally react the same way. Makes sense, though, because it was unusually effective. Yeah, yeah. That's what normally happens. They had one nice wrinkle where they used check went away from where the zone run was and made it look like boot action away from the run and they caught Leonard. You know, you're not going to catch Leonard 10 times a game, you know, so they ran it well. And then there were other times as the game progressed

in which their old line just got handled into one-on-one matchups. And then Jamichael Hasty kind of looks like your change-up third downback right now with Elijah Mitchell maybe just the early downback. You know, I wonder what Jeff Wilson's status is, because I thought he was just supposed to miss the first six weeks, but I could be wrong. Well, he had some sort of setback. Oh, he did. Okay. Yeah.

So now they're saying maybe late November. Oh, okay, because, you know, I think he's a good player. Yeah. Oh, no, we loved him late last year. We were on him early before he emerged. Unfortunately, Trace Serman is in the doghouse. Apparently, yes, because he's not playing at all. Absolutely buried.

I do like to be ahead of the curve. And when I look at Jimmy Garapolo in this situation, like, it's coming with Tray Lats, even though he's not ready. I mean, I know it's probably tough to grade Jimmy, but Jimmy's, Jimmy has not played well enough to stave off the rookie. So unless he's like really. Well, it's not a matter of. that, John, it's whether they believe the rookie can play. It's easy to say as an outsider,

not you, but I mean, I see it on Twitter all the time, play Trey Lance. Well, that's easy to say, but, you know, I'm sure they still feel in a season that's a game longer with the bulk of the season left that if they can win some games here, so the question is, who do they feel as a coaching staff gives them a better chance to win? Not do who do fans want to see? Who do they think gives them a better chance to win based on the execution of the offense? No one is arguing that Jimmy Garapolo is a top five quarterback in the league. We all know what Jimmy Garapolo is. So that's the question.

It's not, hey, let's put Tray Lance out there because Tray Lance may not be ready to do what they want a quarterback to do. Very fair. But, you know, they are two and four. The performance hasn't been that great. So I guess my point is they may be closing in on getting to where they're like, okay, Lance is our best option. Well, they may be. Yeah. Well, let's put it this way.

They may be, not that, not what you just said, not that Lance gives us our best shot to win, but you know what? The season's getting away from us a little bit. Now it's time to develop Trey Lance and live with the ups and downs because that's what it's going to be. Not that he gives you the best chance to win, but we need to. to develop them. But until they reach that point in their mind, they may feel that Jimmy G gives them the better chance to win each week. Well, look, I was on camp all summer and off-season that there's no rush to go, Trey Lance. My contention is that Jimmy plays well and stays healthy, no rush at all,

but he hasn't played well and he hasn't been healthy. So, you know, that said, Trey Lance did get that start and he did look very dear. the headlights. So, I mean, it's a tough situation. It's a tough deal. It's a tough deal. Tough deal. But you know what? When in doubt? You know, everybody, you know, I'll just say this, because this is kind of our, you know, BS, you know, Wednesday night chat is everybody wanted Justin Fields to play, you know, and all the people who have developed their, I love Justin Fields narrative. And there's a lot of people, as you know, you're on Twitter. I'm on Twitter. We're on social media. The people that that love Justin Fields, they can't.

possibly say, well, maybe he's not ready. So now what they say is the coaching staff are idiots. So everybody develops their own narrative and then they create what they want to say to fit the narrative that they've already developed. So Trey Lance may become a great player, but he may not give them the best chance to win. You may have to go through the ups and downs with him and live with it. Well, you mentioned Fields. And for me, it's a little different because I'm, I'm focusing on fantasy. And guys like Fields running quarterbacks always do well until Justin Fields in 2021. So I know they're doing, I know they're doing things to help them.

But are they doing enough? Is he doing enough to help himself? What are your conclusions when you watch that tape? Because that must have been a pretty, although looking at your notes, it didn't seem like a brutal watch for you. No, I mean, look, I think that, first of all, he played a buck. You know, this is what defense is due to a young quarterback. Yeah.

There's a lot of disguise and late movement. You know, you know how that works, John. I mean, this is not, this is not news. It's not profound. You know, you're trying to make a young quarterback have to think after the snap of the ball because it's happening really fast. And they don't know what they're looking at most of the time, you know, unless it's a one-reed throw.

And on third down, you don't have a lot of those. that's why third down tends to be tough for young quarterbacks. You know, now Fields threw an interception in the first quarter where he left, they actually called a quick game throw. He didn't feel he had the throw, so he left the pocket. He left the pocket and then he threw an interception. And what does everybody say, oh, you can't do that. Well, what I typed in my notes and you probably saw it is if you believe that one of the

traits that will make field special in time is his second reaction movement ability, then you have to live with those plays until he learns to channel those plays. You can't say you got to get him out of the pocket or he should get out of the pocket on his own and then if he makes a bad play, say, oh, that's a bad play. Yeah.

I mean, Colin Kaepernick got to both ways. He's got to learn. Right. Colin Kaepernick got to the Super Bowl playing like that. You know, like that. Yeah, I mean, you know, you can't, you just got to, you know, everybody says get him out of the pocket,

get him in the pocket, and he needs to run more. he needs to, you know, he needs to improvise more. Well, if he makes a bad play improvising, then, then what are you going to say? Oh, it's like, I want my quarterback to be a gunslinger. Then he throws a pick. You're like, what are you doing? Protect the ball.

Exactly. You can't, yeah, yeah, you know, exactly. That's what I mean about people devise their narratives, and then everything has to fit the narrative that they've already devised. I mean, it does feel like at the very least, considering Fields does have that second reaction about it. He does seem a little hesitant to take, tuck it and run. Would you agree or no?

Well, let me ask you this. Is tucking it and running going to make him a great quarterback or does he have to learn how to play the position at the NFL level? Well, if you're... You're talking about fantasy, John, which is what you do. So you want him to tuck and run because he's going to give you yards and fantasy points. That will not make him a great quarterback. I understand your point is well taken,

but I think at this point, if he ran a little bit more, he probably would help the offense and the Chicago. It might. It might help the offense today, but it won't help him tomorrow. Right, right. Well, get a little bit of both. You know, like, you don't have to run every damn time. But, okay, well, well, that's somewhat encouraging. People are just beside themselves with the lack of numbers on Alan Robinson. It really is. On who? Alan Robinson. Oh, I know. People are just blown away. Well, yeah, but their past game does not put up numbers as a whole.

I mean, he's going from 100 catches a year, two years in a row, basically, to, I mean, he'd be lucky to catch 50 this year. I mean, it's unbelievably bad. I know. I'm sure he's not a happy camper. No, no, I mean, you know, here's the other thing. You know, everyone's putting him out there in terms of trading Alan Robinson. Okay, great. But now you're left with your rookie quarterback.

Now is receiving course worse. I mean, that's not good for his development. No. How about, how about Khalil Herbert? I see your comp here. I was going to go a little MJD, but you saw. He's different than that. I don't see that at all, but that's okay.

Yeah, you see a little teaky barber there. Oh, yeah. I can see that. I saw that when I watched him in Virginia Tech. That was in my notes, my college evaluation. Wow. Okay. Yeah, I guess it's just a shorter back with some, you know, with some strength and some burst.

But, yeah, I mean, this guy... I saw that coming out of Virginia Tech. You know, for people who are older, if they remember Tiki Bobber, he spent his first four or five years in the league being kind of a third down tight back. And it wasn't until maybe year five or six that he became a feature foundation back. Yep, yep, yep. And he was a guy of Virginia. He caught a bunch of balls in Virginia.

No question. Herbert, he has carved out a role here. Like, they, he needs to be an adult backfill, I think, with David Montgomery, because he's got more, such more... We talked about this in the last two weeks. It's so much more burst. I mean, Dave Montgomery's in trouble here. If he's looking for a new contract, basically, I think.

Oh, yeah. Harvard's got way more juice. Way more. I mean, do you think he would be a better primary back for the Bears than a Montgomery? I think right now it's close, man. Well, he'd probably be that with Fields as a quarterback because he gives them the ability to have some more,

some bigger gains in the run game. Yep, yep, yep. That was my problem with Montgomery. Like, he's replaceable. I'm like, you know, good football player. He's a grinder. He's replaceable, you know. I mean, when he comes out, when he came out, or let's put this, he came out before this back,

but in some ways, isn't there a similarity? And maybe not, it's maybe not an exact analogy, John, but a similarity between, let's say, David Montgomery and Zach Moss? Grindr. Competitive. tough grinder, you know, that gets hard yards, not really explosive. I mean, Montgomery's had a few long runs, but I don't think anybody would call him explosive. No, yeah. I think Montgomery's a little bit more of a lateral guy than Moss, but they're both kind of grinder types for sure. Okay,

let's see here. What else we have? Got some good stuff there on fields. Certainly good, good sign that you're not, you know, seemingly pessimistic here. Very quickly on Brady, he's still good. I do know that. That's been confirmed. But this matchup here, I saw the note on Tristan Worf's. Oh, he's really, I mean, I don't study offensive linemen the way some do. But, you know, every once in a while I'll take a peek and, you know, depending on who the

player is, he's really good. I mean, he's just really good. Well, and I think that's important because I'm still, uh, still, still, remembering the first player that game in the Superdome where Cameron Jordan just... Oh, just drove him back, yeah. Well, funny. Talk about Brady. I said in my notes, what continues to stand out is Brady is throwing the ball with a lot of zipping velocity. His arm strength is as good and maybe better than it has ever been. I mean, he's throwing a ball really well. But wouldn't the St. D represent potential krypton I hear, you know, pressure man-to-man, pressure with four,

Lattimore on Evans. This could be a down game here. Stopping the run really well. I mean, this is a tough matchup. It's just got to be as tough as it gets for Brady. It will be. I mean, it's at New Orleans. So, I mean, this will be a tough physical game, you know, for the offense.

Yeah, I mean, it could be. I mean, look, we saw it last year Brady had a bad game here and there. And I don't know. Is this set up for one? It could be. I mean, I don't know how you have. have it projected. Yeah, I'm not good at that stuff. I mean, you know, I look at the matchups and I would say, yeah, this could be a tough game, but I'm not willing to say he's going to go 18 for 40 with

four picks or anything like that. Oh, God, yeah. But as far as matchups go in the national football in 2021, this is as tough as it gets. I would say that's a fair statement. So FYI on Brady this week and the bucks. You also, of course, saw Jalen Hurts and Eagles. Did they change things up at all? in the game here? What did you see this week? Well, they came out early in the game. It was really interesting, and they put Hertz under center. They ran the ball with Hertz under center. They had a play action pass to Goddard on the first possession. I feel that's what they should be doing. I know why, what's that? They did it. They finally listened. Yeah, but they didn't do it all game.

Right, right. They just kind of did it sporadically after that. You know, I think, you know, I see a lot of people say that the Eagles are not, you know, helping Jalen Hertz. Well, I think, in fact, they're trying to play to what he is and what he's been comfortable with his whole life, which is putting him in the gun. To me, they should put him under center. I've said this before. I believe they should do with him what the Cowboys did with Dak Prescott when he came in the league. Prescott was a shotgun quarterback in Mississippi State who came in the league with concerns about his ball placement, his concerns about his concerns about. his ability as a dropback quarterback.

And because they had Zeke and they had a good old line and at that time a pretty good defense, they put him under center and they taught him how to play that way. I think they need to do more of that personally with Jalen Hertz. Not a great sign that he struggled against his Raider D though. This is as basic as it gets, right? In terms of the Raider defense being very vanilla. Yeah, yeah. that was a little bit of a struggle.

Yes. For what you're hoping for Hertz, because I mean, I'm already comfortable saying myself that I don't think he's ever going to improve to the point where DAC is right now. But DAC definitely improved in terms of what you're talking about.

Processing, even maybe even his, you know, ability to scan and see the field, read the defenses and things like that. And maybe even the release a little bit. But, I mean, if, if Hertz could get,

make even half the improvement that DAC has made. You probably has a chance, right? Oh, for sure. Yeah. But I think they need to do, you know, what I said personally. I mean, whether they see it that way or not, you know, they're with them every day. Look, you know, I know that in Philly is going to be a tough town. As you well know, we both live in the area.

But, you know, they're doing what they think is best for the quarterback. Now, it hasn't worked. Does that mean that they're wrong in their approach? Does it mean Hertz is not ready? He's only started 11 games. There's any number of factors here. You know, because quarterbacks play now and people just expect them to play well, I think when quarterbacks don't play well, a lot of people think, well, it's not the

quarterback. It's got to be something else. You know, we don't know exactly what Jalen Hertz is yet after 11 games. We do not know the answer to that. Any notes on Devante Smith? out of practice today, by the way, they obviously need him. Jalen Rager continues to be kind of like kind of ancillary. Like, what's his role? I don't know what to make of their passing game, and I'm just being honest. I can't answer that. Yeah. Okay. Real quickly on Mac Jones, boy,

I mean, you got, it's got to be an enjoyable watch for you, like watching a seven-year veteran out there. Yeah, I mean, Mac Jones, we say the same thing every week. I mean, you know, I think that he's got an innate feel for the pocket for the position. He's decisive. He gets the ball out. I think they'll start to expand things as the year continues to progress. I think he's a really solid player. I mean, whether his arm gets stronger, that remains to be seen. But he certainly doesn't have a strong arm by any means. But he knows how to play quarterback. And yeah, I think they do a really, really good job of scheming. I mean, they've always been, you know,

Josh McDaniels has always been one of the best. So they really present him with the opportunity to make the fine throws. And he sees it so quick. Yeah. That's what he is. He sees it so quick. This is why I feel like if he had a guy like Cooper Cup, he'd be. Oh, yeah.

Yes. Yes. You know who else they need? I think I brought this up last week. They need a guy like Jerry Judy in the slot to make some explosion. of running after the catch plays. Yeah, I mean, you have to think they'll move in that direction, you know, in the draft or free agency.

Because I think, I don't think there's any question that Mack Jones is their starting quarterback and is a good, and will be a good NFL starter. They just need more. And we need to find out, too, if he can, you know, drive the ball when needed. Yeah. Well, and last point, Kyla Murray can clearly drive the ball when needed. Now, I loved Kyler Murray. Yeah, he made an unbelievable throw this week, John.

That was a ridiculous throw. I know the one you're talking about. And, you know, I loved Murray coming out. And it wasn't because he was a runner. It was because he was a runner. But I thought he, I mean, if he were two, three inches tall, I'm like, this is one of the best prospects ever, you know, in terms of throwing.

Well, you know, I mean, if he's a gifted thrower. Yes, he is a gifted thrower. And he's throwing with far greater accuracy, you know, more precise with his. ball placement this year. And that's, that's been a big, big key, big key. But also, I mean, you know, he's a professional, but people worry about motivation. The dude's clearly learning the game and studying, right? Because he's, you know, he's clearly putting in the work. Well, I mean, I can't answer that, but he's playing well. Right, right. And then the offense, too, they're evolving

a little, too. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. That is for sure. They're playing a lot more with 10 personnel with four wide. They're using a lot more motion. It's not static. There's differences in how they line up their receivers. I think Cliff Kingsbury is growing. I mean, I think it's really interesting watching Cliff Kingsbury, whose background is pure air raid, and he's grown with the NFL. So, I mean, I think it's all working together kind of nicely. The odd man out would with Zach Kurtz in the mix, I guess, would be Rondale Moore. His snaps were down this week. I don't know if that's a function of, um,

um, um, um, Zach Erds because they play, you know, we'll see, we'll see. Maybe it will be.

Maybe they'll play less, they played a lot of 10 this week. Right. Right. So I don't know. Maybe Ertz was just very productive when they were not in 10 personnel and. Yeah, we'll see.

I guess we'll find that out as we go forward. I mean, we're struggling in the fantasy business trying to figure out these, you got four good receivers here, Greg. Yeah, I mean, because Hopkins numbers are way down.

So it might just be, they're spreading the ball around more. I mean, is it simple to say that Christian Kirk has been good this year because he's in the slot more, by the way? Yeah, I mean, he's been good. AJ Green, you know, has put up pretty decent numbers. I mean, he's averaging about 17 yards of catch, three touchdowns. You know, maybe no one's going to catch 85 or 90 balls, John.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh, God, no. No, no, that ship has sailed. Well, that'll wrap it up. We went a little longer today here, a little 37 minutes here, a little bonus content from Greg CoSell here in the week eight matchup podcast at fantasy points.com. And again, if you're not a subscriber to the website, a little secret right now, if you go create a free

account, just go like you're subscribing and ordering, pick the basic account, no credit card required, get that free account, create a password, then you'll have a 24-hour subscription to kick the tires, check it all the great content. Then you could use promo code 21 hands of 10 to save 10% off your subscription, discounted, obviously, for the rest of the season. That'll wrap it up for Greg CoSell. I'm John Hansen. Tune in to all the other podcasts here, of course, at FantasyPoint.com, the IDP, the waiver wire, the DFS.

We'll talk to you next week, but good luck in week eight. And again, we'll catch you next week for the week nine, Matcho Podcasts here at FantasyPoint.com. 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 FantasyPoints.com.