Fantasy Football Daily - The Aaron Rodgers Injury and Top Week 2 Adds | Waiver Wire Podcast

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) and Tom Brolley (@TomBrolley) wake up depressed about the Aaron Rodgers injury. The boys discuss the fallout from that, what to do with Jets players, and the top waiver wire adds for 2023 Week 2. SIGN UP FOR FANTASY POINTS WITH CODE GURRIFIC25 AT CHECKOUT FOR 25% OFF: https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ READ DR. EDWIN PORRAS' INJURY [PRO]NE GUIDE WITH CODE INJURYPRONE25: https://injuryproneguide.myshopify.com/ Want to join a high-stakes dynasty league -- or any other high-stakes league? All new FFPC users get $25 off their first FFPC league of $35 or more, including dynasty orphans, using our affiliate link: ⁠https://myffpc.com/cms/public?affid=fantasypoints⁠ ⁠FANTASY POINTS PROJECTIONS ARE LIVE⁠ FOR ALL STANDARD AND PREMIUM SUBSCRIBERS! Interested in playing Best Ball in 2023? There's no better place than Underdog Fantasy. ⁠Use our code FANTASYPTS⁠ to sign up for a new account at Underdog, and not only will you get a 100% deposit match up to $100... but you'll get a Fantasy Points Standard subscription for only $5! ⁠https://www.fantasypoints.com/underdog --- 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 FantasyPoints.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. Welcome to the Fantasy Points Waiverwire podcast where we will be singing dirges in the dark. Obviously a major injury in the Monday night football game. Aaron Rogers goes down with, I guess it hasn't been confirmed as of recording Tom, but certainly looks to be a torn Achilles before he even completes a pass as a member of the New York Jets. And before we get into the top waiver wire pickups, by the way, I'm Joe Dolan, that's Tom Brawley.

I'm pretty sure we all guzzled some whiskey last night to, you know. Especially Jets fans. Especially Jets fans. I mean, I feel terrible for Jet fans, you know, and also it was, it was crappy, you know, for for Aaron Rogers. It's crappy for fantasy football. It's crappy for all kinds of reasons. Garrett Wilson, everybody was drafting in him high. I mean, that's going to be a total buzzkill here. Yeah, this is, I mean, we saw the offense in general. I mean, yeah, we saw what they're going to, they're going to be a lot of Breeze Hall and Dalvin Cook.

Maybe it helps them out a little bit, but, um, yeah, It's just a major, major downer here. You know, because it was the talk of the summer. I mean, ever since the trade was completed, having a superstar like that in New York, you know, it's just a little bit of a buzzkill here heading into week two. And, and I mean, just, look, I know Garrett Wilson ended up catching a touchdown pass. And, you know, he was matched up with Tradavius White for a lot of that game.

So his numbers were going to be depressed regardless, even if Aaron Rogers was playing, but we know Rogers was going to, was going to challenge the coverage of, of, Tredavius White, but Garrett Wilson catches five passes for 34 yards and a touchdown in that game.

The touchdown catch was outrageous. Tom, but let's just say you, you knew this injury was going to happen. Okay. Where would you have drafted Garrett Wilson? I still think he would have been pretty high based on how he played last year. if we knew like Zach Wilson would be the quarterback, I guess probably like early third round.

So, you know, maybe like a round or so difference. Yeah, he would have been like after probably Devantza Smith, Jalen Waddle. He probably had it like Keenan Allen, I would think, in draft. So somewhere in that like early to mid third round, I think, based on how he played as a rookie. So he's losing some value, obviously with Aaron Rogers done. But he still can come through here. We saw him even with the crappy quarterback play. If we can get any kind of progression here from Zach Wilson in year three.

You know, I'm not based on what we saw last night, but that was a tough spot for him to come in. It was a tough spot. We'll give them. And like they didn't cater the offense. You know, it's so hopefully with a week to prepare, unfortunately he has to go against that Cowboys defense that just lit up another New York team last week.

So another tough spot for him to be thrown into the fire here. I mean, I downgrade the entire offense in general. I mean, that's what you have to do when they lose a Hall of Fame quarterback and you go to a guy who has never looked like more than a deer in headlights. And I thought he looked like a deer in headlights last night. But as you mentioned, Tom, really difficult spot for Zach Wilson. I did not envy him. And maybe you could say he handled himself okay. I mean, I saw there was plays where he's dropping 35 yards behind.

backwards. I mean, just, I don't even know what to say. We even saw it on the Rogers's first four, you know, the first four, first four plays of the game there. He was under pressure on almost all of those throws too. So, um, those, the offensive tackle positions are very big question marks for the Jets. And now we take a veteran quarterback out of that mix that knows how to get the ball out quick, get the ball out of his hands quick. And, um, yeah, I'm very concerned here for, for this offense moving forward. But I do think it's going to probably result in a lot more carriers for Reese Hall who looked very good last night. Yeah, he looked awesome. Yeah, he looked awesome. He looks like a star again. The Jets only have Tim Boyle on the

practice squad, Tom. I would not be shocked if Joe Douglas makes a move here. Look, and not to say, like, I think you probably have to give Zach Wilson the first shot, but boy, could it come at a worst time with Dallas next week. James Winston's out. You know, like, it feels like. Oh, Carson Wentz. He's, I haven't heard his name in forever. They, would they dare do that? I mean, it'd be better than Zach Wilson. So we'll see. We'll see. It's depressing, Tom. Look, you have to downgrade Garrett Wilson. You know, at the end of the draft season, I was like, man, man, I don't have enough Garrett Wilson. And then I know we in one of our high stakes leagues, we drafted them and we were like man we really got to get more garret wilson and then

turns out i didn't need to get more garret wilson um just a just an absolute bummer um look for fantasy at quarterback it's easy in one quarterback at least to replace harran rogers uh he was a fringe i mean he was getting drafted outside the top 12 you know so hopefully they're well you'll get through the waiver wire here and uh but there's there's there's going to be some guys out there that you can replace them with. But yeah, overall downgrade for the offense. Let's start now going to the waiver wire, Tom. And I want to kick it off with the L.A. Rams guys who are going to be widely picked up.

I think Pooka Nakuwa is probably the name of the week. Obviously, Nukuwa has that Anquan Bolden like NFL debut where he catches 10 passes, despite, you know, being a day three pick. and Kyron Williams, who kind of was their top running back, Cam Acres averaged 1.3 yards per carry, and Matthew Stafford played his ass off. He was one of the few quarterbacks who looked really good in week one. These Rams guys, I would anticipate being, look, they're not,

let's put it this way. They're not going to be on the waiver wire article next week because they're going to be rostered in too many leagues. Yeah, well, start with Kyron. We got, we heard a lot of buzz that Sean McVeigh really wanted. to get him involved. And, but I think we all kind of assumed it was, you know, he'll be, he'll be working in in passing situation.

Camerickers would be, you know, we saw the last, like six weeks of last season where he was kind of the bell cow back and, you know, getting a lot of totes and, you know, really came through for fantasy. So we kind of thought Kyron would be, you know, just kind of a specialist in the passing game. But that really wasn't the case. They were playing from ahead a lot in that game against the Seahawks, you know, dominated the action. and he it was 6535 in terms of snaps and he was far more effective than cam acres in that game as well 15 carries for 52 yards and for 17.4 fantasy points so I think this is a guy we got to add he's widely

available 5% owned you know we lost jk. Dobbins this week at the running back position Austin Echler could be questionable with an ankle injury as well. So there's people that are out there looking for running back replacement. So Kyron Williams's role is pretty significant here. And we do expect them. This was probably an outlier performance for them in week one. So they could be playing from behind in more games. And that's probably where he's going to get most of his shine.

He's a solid receiver out of Notre Dame. and I think he's a guy that we should be looking at here, 95% available in Yahoo leagues. Let's keep going with the running backs. Gus Edwards and Justice Hill, these two guys for Baltimore with another Achilles injury from this weekend, that being J.K. Dobbins,

probably a rotation here, Tom. So I'm not as excited as I am for Kyron Williams, who look like he can maybe flat out take that job. But if guys are going to be getting carries, and the Baltimore Ravens are always going to run the football, I know they want to throw up more this year with Todd Monk, and we didn't really get to see that in week one because the Texans put up no resistance whatsoever.

But let's go to these running backs Gus Edwards and Justice Hill with Baltimore. Yeah, this is a tough spot. I prefer Gus Edwards here over Justice Hill, but it was notable in that game. Justice Hill came in. Got two rushing touchdowns from right on top of the goal line from the two-yard line.

had just two rushing touchdowns in his career back in 2019. So, you know, he matched it in one game here in 2023. So maybe Todd Monkin does prefer Hill a little bit, but I'm going to lean more on Gus Edwards' recent track record. And he had more success in this game. As, you know, with taking Dobbins out of the mix, they were feeding him more carries in the second half. And, but at the end of the day, I do think this is going to be a major headache.

John Harbaal was even talking about Melvin Gordon on the practice squad. He'll be elevated here. He said, there's a reason why we have him, you know, we have Melvin Gordon. So I think he'll be thrown into the mix here. It could be. And none of these guys are standout play. I don't think we're going to see one of these guys just truly poke their head above the rest of this group. But if I had to put, you know, if I was betting on one guy to do it,

it would probably be Gus Edwards here just because this is track river in the last couple of years. But yeah, it's, this could be a mess here. And this is a potential for them. If, if nobody is really standing out, we do, we do still have free agent running backs like Kareem Hunt and Leonard Fournett out there. So I, I have a bad feeling that this is going to be an ugly situation moving forward. And it's, I mean, we've seen it the last two years. While, you know, Dobbins has been in and out of the lineup, it's been really an ugly committee in that backfield. A couple more running backs. By the way, Tom, I want to make a point is we have a full-on

article up at FantasyPoints.com that has dozens of guys. We're all then going to touch on a handful of them in the podcast. And if you want to access that article, maybe you already have access to the article, but you want access to Tom's best bets. you want access to our DFS package. Use code Goorific 25. It'll get you 25% off for the rest of the 2023 NFL season. That's code Goorific 25, like terrific, but with GU at the beginning for the guru,

John Hanson, Guarific 25, gets you 25% off at FantasyPoints.com. Tom, just a couple more running backs I want to mention. Number one, Joshua Kelly from the Chargers, who looked really explosive. A guy Austin Echler himself had been talking up. He talked up Joshua Kelly on the Fantasy Points podcast earlier this offseason. And Austin Echler is dealing with an ankle injury. Our Dr. Edwin Porras took a look at it and said there could be a high ankle deal going on. Kelly got a lot more work in the second half after Echler kind of tweak that ankle.

So Joshua Kelly, who was almost guaranteed to be available in your Yahoo League rostered in just 4% of leagues, he's out there and really could be pushing for playing time here. over the next couple of weeks. Yeah, and he's he's look good dating back to the preseason. He busted off a long touchdown run. And the progress continued here. So maybe this is a guy that's finally kind of coming into his own, a bit of a slow start to his career.

The chargers have tried with these, you know, these bigger backs to compliment Austin Echler. And I know he was, you know, talking to you this summer. And he's talked in the past that he would like one of these guys to step up and maybe take a little bit of work off. of his plate in the running game. And maybe Kelly is finally doing that. And we'll see about this injury.

If it is some sort of a high ankle issue or we could be looking at at least a week absence, maybe multiple weeks. So if you have a if you have shares, Austin Echler, I would be looking to, you know, aid the situation by picking up Joshua Kelly who looked good here in week one against the Dolphins. Another one I want to mention is Zach Moss, Tom, because. Yeah. Dion Jackson was atrocious in week one. I mean, he had what? 13. Yeah, 13 for 14. I know that was the rushing number. 18 opportunities and like 20 some yards and he lost two fumbles.

I mean, there is your definition of you can't just get any running back in there and they're going to do their job. And Zach Moss, who didn't play in week one following a broken arm. I'm guessing just wasn't cleared for contact. Yeah. But the Colts need him going forward because Evan Hall got hurt, the rookie running back out of Northwestern. He picked up, I think, a knee injury. He can miss a little bit of time. They need a running back badly with Jonathan Taylor still on the pub list. Jonathan Taylor, I guess, Adam Schaeffer reported on Sunday that he expects to be ready to play by week five,

whether that means he's playing for a culture, I don't know. But Zepmo should be rostered. Yeah, so if Moss does get cleared for contact and it seemed like they were ramping them up last week. And if it does happen, I would expect him to lead this backfield. And we'll get at least like three more games here. They got a good matchup against the Houston Texans. Texans are a team that we've always targeted last year for our running back. So if he does get the clearance, he could be a guy that you plug into the lineup right away.

And as he said, Taylor could be back by week five. Is he playing for the Colts? You know, this situation is still very murky moving forward. So there's a possibility that Moss could be the guy for, you know, more than just this three games. Maybe it turns into a yearly thing. So I think he has some appeal in the short term and potentially long term if the Jonathan Taylor situation doesn't resolve itself. Moving to wide receiver. So I don't know if I got your full thoughts on Pooka Naku or if we just jumped away.

We kind of jumped over that, but, you know, let's pick him up. He's 95% available in Yahoo. The Cooper Cup situation is, you know, it's another murky situation. He's really struggled to get over the hamstring injury since that happened right at the beginning of training camp in August. So he's going to see specialists in Minnesota last week. So he could be back by week five or this could turn into something that's long term. So at the very least, Nakua's, I mean, he's a guy we've got to be starting every week for at least the next three weeks. And it could turn into a situation where he becomes the guy like a link winner type of guy if Cup is out of the mix.

And he kind of steps into that old cup rule. So 15 targets right away kind of touched on it with Kyron. We expect this team to be losing and trailing a lot in the future. And that's not a bad situation with Matt Stafford or quarterback. We've seen him do it in the past with the Lions whenever he's had to throw it a lot. And he looked exceptional in week one. One of the few quarterbacks that was really sharp. Was not expecting that.

You know, he was out since, you know, missed the back half at last year and has been battling injuries. So, yeah, the wheels up with Nakuwa here, 95% available in Yahoo! League's. Romeo Dobbs is available in 70% of Yahoo Leagues. Tom, he scored two touchdowns. And Jordan loves, I guess Jordan loves not his first NFL start, but his ascension to the throne in Green Bay. But he only played 49% of the snaps because he was coming back from a hamstring injury that Christian Watson also battling through. I guess there's no guarantee yet that Watson's going to play in week two.

And you would think that Romeo Dobbs's role is going to slowly increase. And very clearly, he's got some trust with Jordan Love. Yeah, it didn't seem like there was any set packs or at least anything that came out after the game. So we would expect his ramps to be ramped up here in the future. But a pretty good sign that he was kind of the red zone target for Jordan Love and his first start. And Christian Watson is another guy with the hamstrings. You know, he's dealt with him last year. You know, it could be a lingering type of issue here.

Kind of came out of nowhere last week and no guarantee to be playing here this week and into the future. So let's get Dobbs on on, you know, maybe we get him up to an 80% snapshot this week and maybe those targets and everything else can be bumped up here. So looking good for Dobbs here and we'll monitor the Christian Watson situation this week. Again, everyone, we're not covering everybody on this article that we have in the Waverwire article. I'm just picking and choosing. Use that code Gorific 25 if you want the full waiverwire article of FantasyPoint.com. I don't want to hear everybody say, hey, you didn't talk about this guy. I guarantee you Tom and John Hansen.

Oh, my gosh, yeah. I work on this on Sunday. I was, I wrote up like the Thursday, the one, the four-clock games. And I was up to 1130 writing up all these guys. There's a ton on here. So this article has you covered if you're playing in a very deep leg, 14, 16 team leagues. We go really deep for people in those type of formats.

Yeah, Tom, the first one of the year is always the worst. because you use it, you build off of it the rest of the year. And then it's like a living document. So yeah, it's got to get all these guys written up to update. And it's always a brutal one, the first one. But we got through it. And if there's not a ton of injuries in like the next couple weeks, you're like, oh, this wasn't too bad to update it this week.

You know, hey, look, it was a, well, good thing I did that, that big one last week. Tom, we have an injury in Pittsburgh that Adam Schaefter reported just before we came on there that Deontay Johnson with that hamstring injury that he suffered in week one is expected to miss a few weeks. It looked pretty bad when it happened. So I would think missing a few weeks is maybe even best case scenario. But in Pittsburgh, I mean, you've got two guys who were pretty heavily used in week one against a nasty 49er defense. Okay. Like I don't want to like blow all the officers.

Kenny Pickett looked like crap, but the Niners defense is not a great match. They're going to do that to a lot of teams this year. Yeah, Calvin Austin and Alan Robinson are available in virtually every fantasy football league. Yeah, I prefer Calvin Austin. I mean, I'm still skeptical about Alan Robinson. I thought he actually played pretty well with an increase in touches and targets here, five for 64. But he looked pretty dead last year. So I think Calvin, I mean, this was the first, I thought Calvin Austin, this was his first professional game.

He missed all of last year. He was dealt with foot issues and never could get on the field. So a lot of guys that kind of lose that first season, it's kind of a career ender, especially if he's not like, you know, he was a day three pick. So for him to, you know, battle back this year and come in in his first game of his second season after completely missing last year, I thought it was a very positive sign. It was early.

And he came through, you know, with six tar. targets and 37 yards. So that could be a rule that continues to grow this week. And the Deonté Johnson injury will get more information. Mike Tomlin talks on Tuesdays. It wouldn't be surprised if it turns into an IR situation where he's going to miss at least four games. So we could have a guy, you know, two players here that could be potential lineup fodder here

for the, you know, in the future, especially with bye weeks coming around the corner, not too far away. Let's go to a couple of Patriots, Tom. Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, let's do the Patriot guys. And there's a, you have a very easy example of what a professional play caller can do for an offense because I thought Bill O'Brien called a really good game for the Patriots who were dealing with a very banged up offensive line. They have a receiving core that it's got depth, but nothing. at like the top end and turns out two guys who had like virtually zero consistent role in the Matt Patricia Joe Judge Frankenstein's monster crap offense they had last year

ended up giving the Eagles the biggest problems. One of them's a wide receiver, that being Kendrick Bourne. The other is a tight end in Hunter Henry who might be more intriguing for people given how big a disaster the tight end position was in week one. But Kendrick Bourne and Hunter Henry were in my mind pretty clearly Mack Jones's favorite targets in week one. Yeah, and they were his favorite targets in 2021 when Josh McDaniels was still around. So it was just completely puzzling last year why Bourne was benched and was barely, you know, barely saw the field at all last year under the Frankenstein coaching staff. So a competent play caller here comes in. I do want to note Devante Parker missed last week's game.

He'll probably be in the mix in future weeks. But I think after what you saw from him in week one, you want to keep Kendrick Bourne involved. There's a connection there. Even if you look at our fantasy points data, I was looking at it a little bit yesterday. I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but his yards per route run have been very strong

when he's been given chances the last two years in this offense. So he's a guy that should be on the field, and I would expect it moving forward here with Bill O'Brien calling plays now. and Hunter Henry is another guy at the tight end position. He saw nine red zone targets back in 2021, and that role kind of just completely disappeared. But it was back in week one, scored the touchdown against the Eagles,

saw six targets. So feeling optimistic about his chances of at least being like a fringe, tight end one. Maybe, you know, I don't know if he'll be that every week, but when we don't have these top tight ends, we're looking for guys that have the potential to score every week. And Hunter Henry showed that he could do that back in 2021

with nine touchdowns. If we can find a tight end that could give us, you know, six or seven touchdowns, that could be huge. And I think Henry could be that guy for the Patriots offense, kind of the go-to receiver when they get down in the red zone. Let's talk one more Packer, Luke Musgrave, Tom. I think talking tight ends is important, given some of the issues that we've had there.

Luke Musgrave had a pretty sizable role in week one as a rookie, and that's a really good sign for a rookie tight end. Yeah, we said, I mean, we don't really know how this passing game is going to break down. We got a little bit of a feel for it last week with Dobbs being the go-to receiver, but Christian Watson's still out of the mix here. But I think Musgrave is going to be at least that he could end up being the number three receiver here. saw a promising 15% target share in week one. Sort of scored a touchdown.

It was, he was wide open, a little bit underthrown by Jordan Love, had to kind of stop for it and he lost his balance. And otherwise, it was a walk-in touchdown and everything. There's been high praise for him all summer, dating back to in August there, you know, LeFlefore was saying he was the fastest player on the field in a couple days, practice and Christian Watson can absolutely fly. So just imagine how fast Luke Musgrave is moving if he's beating out some of these receivers on the field.

So he was playing every down in the preseason as well. So at the tight end position, as I said, we're looking for guys to score touchdowns, but we're also looking for guys that are going to be on the field and run a lot of routes. And it looks like Musgrave could be checking those boxes. And I wouldn't be surprised if he's a guy that, just continues to get a little bit better every week here. And maybe he's a monster by the end of the season here. Tom, remember, we are not putting all of the players that you wrote up

and John Hansen wrote up in this podcast. There's plenty more to talk about. If you guys are like, well, I'm in an 18 team league and blah, blah, all of these guys are rostered. Well, guess what? We have players in those leagues in this article who are not rostered. I will guarantee you. You can go to the fantasy poise.com.

Check out the waiver wire article. Use code gruific 25. that's like terrific, but with a goo at the beginning, GU. And you can get 25% off for fantasy points.com the rest of the season. Tom, we're going to go purge ourselves of the booze that we had last night, that we had last night to mourn Aaron Rogers, to mourn Garrett Wilson and that offense. We'll see if the Jets make a move at quarterback. I would anticipate something's coming, even if they want to give Zach Wilson the first crack at it.

And week one, let's hope that all these teams, it was a, it was a terrible week for the elite fantasy quarterbacks, by the way. Josh Allen was miserable on Monday night. Zach Wilson played him. Yeah, that's never good. Yeah, I mean, he single-handedly gave that game away. I mean, four turnovers like that. Very, very disheartening if you're a Bills fan. And I know one.

And he was not very happy last night watching the game with him. So I feel for the Bills fans out there this morning. after losing that game. Yeah. So what, just an atrocious game, an atrocious week one. And, you know, what I think it is, Tom is, is I think teams would rather start slow in weeks one and two than lose a key contributor in the preseason. I just, I just feel like that.

That's what it is. That's the equation at this point. And we're getting crappy football in September. And hopefully it gets a little bit better this week. It should. I mean, can't get much worse than what we saw. So hopefully we get a few more over. and some more competitive games.

At Tom Brawley on Twitter, I'm at FG underscore Dolan. Fantasy Points is at FantasyPTS. Make sure you follow at Fantasy PTS data as well. Thanks everybody for joining us for the week two edition of the WaverWire podcast. Tom and I will be back on Friday for subscribers for the points spread show. Talk to you later. 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 fantasy points.com.