Fantasy Football Daily - Week 2 Fantasy: Start/Sit Calls & Key Flex Decisions
Episode Date: September 11, 2025Use code SCOREMORE10 at checkout for 10% OFF any subscription. Dominate your league. Win more bets. Level up your game It’s crunch time for Week 2 fantasy football start/sit decisions! Theo Grem...minger and the crew break down the toughest lineup calls, flex debates, and must-start players so you can set your roster with confidence. Which Browns TE should you start Harold Fannin Jr. or someone else? We’ve got you covered. The guys lock in Week 2 starts like Tony Pollard, Juwan Johnson, and Hollywood Brown, while waving the red flag on sits such as Isiah Pacheco and Mark Andrews. For flex decisions, we dissect backfields (Kenneth Walker vs. Zach Charbonnet), rising wideouts (Jacorey Croskey-Merritt, Cedric Tillman, Calvin Ridley), and listener-submitted questions. From sharp start/sit calls to sneaky flex plays, this episode gives you every edge for Week 2. Whether you’re grinding high-stakes or just trying to win your home league, Fantasy Points delivers the analysis you need. Where to find us: http://twitter.com/TheOGFantasy http://twitter.com/GrahamBarfield Join the Discord here: https://www.fantasypoints.com/media/discord#/ Subscribe to Fantasy Points for FREE: https://www.fantasypoints.com/plans#/ Podcast Transcription Here: https://podsqueeze.com/embedded/transcript/acySof5VHvFERvJYe8MivQ Fantasy Points Website - https://www.fantasypoints.com NEW! Data Suite - https://data.fantasypoints.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/FantasyPts Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/FantasyPts Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/FantasyPts TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@fantasypts #FantasyFootball #2025Rankings #FantasyFootballAdvice #NFL Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Week two, fantasy football start, sit decisions.
Theo Greminger with Graham Barfield, Fantasy Football Daily on the Fantasy Points Podcast Network.
We're going to be doing this all season long, trying to identify the players you should be putting in your lineup,
the players that you should be putting in your flex spots, and also players you should absolutely be keeping on your bench to avoid catastrophe and avoid those losses.
If you want the full list, Graham breaks down each and every game.
every single week. His article is unbelievable over at fantasy points. It goes into detail in every
single game. Almost every single fantasy relevant player is covered by Graham. And if you want to
subscribe to fantasy points, get any single package for 15% off using the code Theo. But we're
going to give you a little taste here. We're also going to take a couple of listener questions.
On X, I'm going to put out a post every single week where we're going to try to take a couple of
your start-sit decisions and try to help you out.
out. And let's start out right from the top here, Graham. I think the question on everyone's
mind is which Cleveland Brown's tight end should fantasy managers be using this week? Harold
Fanon Jr. was unbelievable and unbelievably tilting for David and Joku managers last week. Fanon
leads Cleveland in targets ties an NFL record with Tyler Warren. They basically set the new one
for most catches by a rookie in game one at the tight end position. Then you've got David
Injoku, who the David and Joku backers are like, hey, hey, listen, you know,
Anjoku's on the field a ton.
This is not catastrophe.
It just feels weird to be having a tight end start, sit decision with the Cleveland
Browns.
Which one are you jamming in your lineup?
Both are looking like low-end tight-in ones for the rest of the season.
I think this is a situation, Theo, where both can kind of coexist.
And if one were to miss time, we'd have like a top five or top six tight end on the season.
That being said, yeah, it's not over for Injouki.
79% route chair is really strong for a tight end.
And the problem he has now is like Fanon is legitimately earning targets in that short to
intermediate area where we want in Joku getting this target, so those quick PPR points.
Fanon had 24% of the first reads in week one and Joku had just eight.
Really, I'm seeing this is like Jerry Judy and Tillman are kind of like co-wide receiver one.
And then these guys are like this, you know, the third targets on this offense.
I think something to be noted, too, is like the Bengals probably have the worst linebacking and safety core in the NFL.
You know, it's, it's like perfect matchup week one for both of these guys.
And Fennon, of course, you know, has the solid game.
I think, you know, Fanon is more than Isaiah likely.
I don't know if he's like more than Jonu Smith, though.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's like, that's kind of the role I'm envisioning this kind of like move tight end who's like going to have some decent spike weeks where it's like,
Njoku's the full-time player.
This week, though, I mean, they're both going to project his low-in-tight-in ones.
I think if you picked up fanning off waivers and you lost Kittle,
like you can immediately put him in a lineup.
I am pretty scared for Injoku, like for the rest of the season, though.
Like his upside is certainly capped.
For me, I agree with you.
This is a big indictment against David Njoku.
You almost have like a glimmer of hope for Njoku managers that he will be traded.
Last year at the trade deadline, there was all these rumors with the Cleveland
media that Injoku could be moved.
Maybe the Harold Fanon rapid ascension sort of fast-tracks that.
And there'd be a number of teams where David Njoku ends up on them.
And it would be sort of like the T.J. Hawkinson trade of years ago.
Like he's here.
We're already going to give him a 20% target share right out the gate.
I mean, put David Njoku on like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Houston Texans.
You can come up the L.A. Chargers.
There's a million teams we can come up with where he'd be impactful.
but Fanon, it looks like the real deal.
And for me, I talked about this with Scott.
It's sort of a getting over the,
it's breaking another glass ceiling at the tight end position
where it's can two tight ends coexist in both score?
It's sort of like everything that were been taught in fantasy over the years
is that really doesn't happen.
But it's a perfect team for it to happen with.
Cleveland's going to be in a lot of positive game flow situations
where they're trailing or at least in competitive environments.
They're going to have to ramp up Quinnshon Judkin.
so they don't necessarily have a bell cow.
Dylan Samson looked really good as a pass catcher,
but certainly not a between the tackles grinder.
And like you said, there's two wide receivers, and that's it.
It's Cedric Tillman, Jerry Judy, and then the biggest drop-off.
So for me, I'm putting a fan in and Injoku into lineups this week
because like you said, the tight end position,
an absolute mess with all these injuries already early on in the season.
And Brock Bowers, we could potentially get,
we're recording this on Wednesday.
we could get some negative Brock Bowers news Thursday, Friday, which makes him look like he's
going to miss on Monday night, that late, late time for Brock Bowers, an absolute, absolute mess.
We talked about the tight ends in Cleveland.
Let's talk about a running back.
And a running back that you have listed as a, like sort of a, in the almost must start
category is Tony Pollard.
Talk about what you saw usage wise from him and sort of how you're viewing him heading into
week two.
Elite, elite usage, basically the highest end type bell cow usage,
89% of the snaps with no Taije, Spears, and week one.
We identified that matchup going into Denver for this Titans' offense
is like one of the worst possible matchups they could have had to start the season.
And yeah, that ended up being the case.
This is like, it's not an easier, it's not necessarily an easier matchup.
Like the Rams have a great front seven.
But Pollard, yeah, he's basically like borderline must start for, you know,
of the entirety of the time that Tai J Spears is going to be out.
You know, last year, Pollard led all running backs and snaps at 87% when Spears was out.
So, I mean, this is just like play the volume.
Keep plugging in Pollard as your RB2 and just, you know, hope the Titans get into the red
zone a little more often.
He has a little more touchdown upset.
Yeah, he's a really interesting one this week.
And the Rams defense showed a lot of juice against Houston, but it's certainly not as good a defense
as Denver.
This is a game that I think Tennessee is going to go in there,
and it's going to be another pretty close game for them.
I think Tennessee showed that they can compete with good teams last week.
I'm interested in Pollard.
We had such a great start from him last year,
was like over 20 touches a game over the first half of the season.
And I think he's set to do that again this year.
So I love your enthusiasm with Tony Pollard.
One other player that is going to be in a lot of starting lineups this week,
but it's sort of a somewhat apprehensive start
because we have a history of this player
being sort of an okay player.
But the usage for Joanne Johnson was just off the charts
this past week.
We saw him with setting like personal best records right out of the gate.
And it seems like he's going to be a major part of this Kellynne Moore offense.
Also, every other tight end in New Orleans is banged up.
just how enthusiastic are you about Joanne Johnson?
So we probably should have paid a little more attention to the Joanne Johnson extension this past off season.
He got some serious money and got treated as a legitimate tight-in one, like you were saying,
Foster Moreau has any injury, Tassum Hill has an injury, Hill might not be ready until October.
Theo, I wrote up Joanne Johnson as like one of my favorite last round picks in baseball,
but I never imagined him being like a weekly starter in fantasy, but I can kind of see it.
Like 80% route share right out of the gates.
That's elite territory for a tight end.
Johnson's not necessarily like this like classic inline player.
Like he obviously gets moved all around the formation, plays quite a bit out of the slot.
So huge route share, 80%.
Fully expected the Saints to be a very condensed passing offense, but I kind of expected
that just to be Shaheed and Olavé.
And while, you know, nine targets for Shaheed,
12 for Alave, very strong. Johnson got 11, legitimate first read usage as well. And he,
you know, like I said, he kind of plays a different position than Shihed and Alave do.
You know, he does get that slot usage, kind of big slot usage that we want for a tight end.
This week, you know, he's got a little tougher matchup. Fred Warner is awesome. But yeah, this is a tough
week at tight end after like the top four or five. We won't have Kittle. It seems like Bauer's
questionable Evan Ingram as a calf injury. Johnson just got picked up on mass.
But I think if you picked him up, you can immediately play him as like a low end, tight-in
one. And, you know, there's a chance here feel like the volume in the Saints passing offense
is going to be really good all year. Like they're going to mean a lot of, it's kind of like the
Browns. They're going to mean a lot of trailing game scripts. Spencer Rattler, Tyler Shook,
nothing special. But like, there's going to be at least 30 to 35 dropbacks in this offense every
week and that bankable volume is it's going to keep Johnson on that low end tight in one radar.
Dare I say that Spencer Rattler didn't look awful last week?
Like Spencer Rattler looked all right.
I think that if you watch the New York Giants play and then you watch the New Orleans Saints play,
I think New York Giants fans would have much rather had Spencer Rattler out there.
I think Miami Dolphins fans at times would have much rather have Spencer Rattler out there.
And I'm even allowed to say that maybe Carolina Panthers fans would have taken a little bit more
Spencer Rattler than Bryce Young last week. I mean, I'm not saying Spencer Rattler's good,
but the two of us talked about this in the preseason where like the market doesn't always get
the worst offenses correct. And I think when it comes to Cleveland and it comes to New Orleans,
the market was burying these guys. And I think that with Cleveland looks like they could be
a somewhat functional offense. And Kellyn Moore, he always runs a pretty high number of plays.
that's fantasy friendly. The pace of play is fantasy friendly.
I'm not like saying the Saints are going to be great,
but I think there's a chance they're not a bottom five offense.
And I think that would be a win for people investing these players.
So I'm with you, Jawan Johnson.
And just a quick start sit,
just your level of confidence in Juan Johnson.
Jawan Johnson or Jake Ferguson?
Man, you and I've both kind of been out on Ferguson.
I'll say it, Jowan Johnson.
Yeah, I think I'm on Johnson too.
Like Ferguson is at best their number three, just kind of like operating in that like very short area, kind of checkdown against zone.
Johnson's getting like legitimate like downfield targets.
So I think there's more upside with Juan.
I'm with you.
And rapid fire.
Joanne Johnson or T.J. Hawkinson.
Oh, I can't go there.
I'm on Hawk still.
McCarthy.
You know, that first half was terrible by McCarthy, but he picked it up in the second half.
Hawk will be fine.
Yeah, I'm, I, we can't, we can't go all the way there.
But I think I'm with you.
So the Ferguson won basically.
tells you, Juan Johnson, a lot of break ties decisions.
Make sure you're also subscribing to fantasy points to get access to our amazing projections.
Chris Weck does such a good job with our projections.
And I'll say he's pretty enthusiastic about Joanne Johnson.
Again, use the code Theo if you want to get that fantasy point sub.
We're going to take a quick break.
And when we come back, we're talking about a wide receiver who popped last week.
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All right, welcome back.
Fantasy Football Daily, Theo Greminger with Graham Barfield every week for giving you the best
start, start, sit advice in fantasy.
We're going to also take a couple of your questions.
Look for a post on X every week.
I'll try to drop it.
We'll take at least a few starts sits to end the show.
Hollywood Brown last week leading the NFL.
How how crazy is it that Hollywood
Brown is currently leading the NFL in targets, Graham.
We prepare all summer long, and I don't think there was a scenario in our heads
where we would have thought that Hollywood would have had a 16 target game.
Even if I told you all of the wide receivers for Kansas City were out, we would have said,
maybe, you know, a little Pacheco, a little more Kelsey.
No, Hollywood Brown played a crazy amount of slot snaps, was like 50% plus slot snap rate,
had 16 total targets, had 10 catches.
One of them, you know, a lot of his production was on that one big,
long catch, but hey, that counts one drop, but again, 16 targets.
Yeah, I would have never guessed that in a million years.
You know, Kelsey, once again, is just like kind of a secondary player in this offense.
This is something we've now seen for two and a half years.
You know, we've been talking tied in at this whole show so far.
I'd be pretty, I'd be pretty freaking scared if I were Travis Kelsey owner.
I don't have any Kelsey anywhere just because this is what he's been, you know, when
Rishie Rice is back, especially.
I think his role is really going to fall off.
I would be jamming in some Joanne Johnson, Harold Fanon, Hunter Henry, off the waiver wire.
With Hollywood Brown specifically, man, it's like the same thing with the Chiefs.
They're so one-dimensional.
Like they are just, it's a super pass heavy offense.
There's nowhere else for this ball to go.
You know, Marquise Brown not only got the, you know, 14 targets, he had a couple of design looks as well.
I mean, he's a borderline top 20 receiver.
this week. I think you could squint and see some like wide receiver one upside for as long as
Xavier Worthy's out just because they have nothing else to you. Yeah, I'm with you. And Juju Smith-Schuster
five catches last week. I'm not sure there's going to be a whole lot more that Juju can take in. Kelsey,
I agree with you. Kelsey's dust. But Kelsey, I think, is still probably a top eight tight end this week just
because like you said, the situation had the touchdown where they basically didn't cover him last week.
and he found the end zone.
So the counting stats look a little bit better than they were.
Kelsey seems very, very dusty.
The running game, we're going to talk about in a minute.
Nothing really there.
I think we'll probably see a little bit more schemed targets out of the backfield.
Maybe it's a cream hunt has four or so receptions against Philly.
It's a really difficult matchup for Kansas City, a really, really difficult one.
But yeah, I'm with you.
I think Hollywood Brown, you got them off the waiver wire.
I think there was a little bit of late cold water on the.
the waiver wire where Xavier worthy, they're saying he's going to be back, not probably this week,
but he's going to play with a shoulder harness. We've seen some guys be able to play through those
successfully. So this might be a short-term Hollywood Brown, but I do think this week, probably next
week, he's a guy that you want to put in your wide receiver three slot, want to put into your
flex slot and be pretty confident about it based on the volume there. And Patrick Mahomes showing that
he's confident enough to hyper-target Hollywood Brown right out the gate. That says a
lot there. But let's talk about it. I mentioned Kareem Hunt, Isaiah Pacheco, a very, very disappointing
one. I think Pacheco got a lot of people this offseason, Graham, where we were expecting it.
And he was falling in that range on underdog and FFPC. NFFC, I took him in the seventh round one
draft. I said, you know what? I'm going to break ties. I'm going to go with Pacheco, put him in my
flex. And at least I'm going to have this pretty strong usage. It was anything but that. Kareem Hunt and him
basically split everything, including targets, including touches out of the backfield.
Breschard Smith was not even involved and Pacheco was still just a complete dud.
Does he turn things around?
Should fantasy managers be trying to use him?
Is this one where Andy Reid says, hey, we're going to ramp up Pacheco, get that physicality
up front against Philadelphia?
Are you trusting Pacheco this week?
No way.
And this is a bummer because I kind of felt like Pacheco was going to slot back into that, like, old
23 start of 24 usage where like, I mean, he was like a pretty solid RB2.
Brutal split, dude.
Like, it's not just that Pacheco played 48% of the snaps.
Hunt out snap Pacheco 5 to 0 on short yardage situation.
So that's like situations where there's one to three yards left to go.
He also out snapped them in the red zone inside the 10 by 4 to 2 margin.
So it really seems like Hunt is going to get a lot of the short yardage stuff to start the year.
And like that was the whole.
bowl case for Pacheco. It's like, yeah, I know he's not going to get like a huge passing down
roll, but I'm pretty sure, you know, at least I thought he was going to get a lot of the
short yardage stuff. So for right now, it's Hunt as the short yardage guy, Pacheco getting some
of the early down work. And then for right now, man, I think Pacheco is just like an RB4 bench
stash. You know, the chiefs are always pass heavy, probably going to have to be past heavy again
in this spot. Eagles have a great front seven. You know, they're going to have Jalen Carter in this game,
too unless he pulls
pulls something crazy before the game again.
That being said, I'm
pretty scared for Pacheco for the rest
of the season, to be honest. Yeah, I'll go with
a bold prediction. I think Kareem Hunt outscores him
this week. I think that, you know, Kareem Hunt's
going to, like you said, they're going to have to be pass happy.
I think that they trust Kareem Hunt
more as a pass catcher. They showed it with
when they were playing Hunt. And
I think if one of them falls in the end zone, it might be
Kareem Hunt. So I think Pacheco,
if it's a game where Kansas City's leading,
I think Pacheco would end up getting more touches.
But if I was like an awful, awful, awful jam and I had to throw a dart at one Kansas City back, it might be Kareem Hunt.
So Pacheco last year I got buried.
I did a dynasty market report, this article that I drop every week at the end of the week at fantasy points.
And I recommended everybody get rid of Pacheco.
And I made this one big high stakes trade with actually Mike Schope from WGGR and Buffalo.
one of the big voices of the Buffalo Bills.
He's ADP chasing guy as well.
And I hope you're listening to this one, Mike.
I traded Pacheco while banged up for Zach Charbonnet straight up.
I got buried on that one.
Reddit was saying, you know, Theo's lost it, lost his fastball.
Good luck making that trade in Dynasty right now, Graham.
So yeah, Pacheco, nothing good there.
Another player who you are very worried about,
and I completely agree with you, Mark Andrews.
Baltimore Buffalo was an incredible game.
for fantasy football. We had multiple players with massive impactful weeks. We had the Keyon Coleman
breakout. We had Zay Flowers going nuts. Josh Allen going nuts. Lamar Jackson going nuts.
Derek Henry rushing for as many yards as he wants. And Mark Andrews with one catch out of the gate.
I mean, is he dust, Graham? Like how low are you on Mark Andrews right now? And should fantasy
managers even be considering putting him in their lineups this week? Yeah, I'm getting fully out of the Mark
Andrew's business. So last year he had just like this historic touchdown efficiency. He had nine
targets in the end zone last year of Theo and scored nine touchdowns on them. We obviously knew
that was not going to, you know, sustain over this full season. But what we could in theory
kind of hang our hats on is like, okay, Isaiah likely broke his foot. Like Andrews will have to
play more by extension, right? Nope, that did not happen. Andrews played 59% of the past.
plays in week one that's like tied in 25 levels of route share like you said only had the one catch
zay flowers is just awesome like he's such a good player and the ravens are obviously going to
continue to be a very run heavy run oriented offense with derrick henry looking like he's 22 and not
about to be 32 in a year i mean at the end of the day man i'm viewing this as like a very singular
pass offense for as long as zay flowers is healthy like he is going to be before
first read on 35, 40% of their throws this season. Lamar's always been a guy who's only
throwing like 25 or 28 times per game unless they get pushed. And then this week, man,
they're double-digit favorites against the Browns. Like, this should be another run-heavy game
script where they're trying to salt the game away in the third quarter. I'm very concerned for
Mark Andrews for the rest of the season. Do you think that there's, and we're talking start sits,
but we can also talk about ways people can improve their rosters. Do you think that trading
for Isaiah likely is a move that fantasy managers, whether it's redraft, whether it's dynasty
should make. Likely we'll be back maybe week five. We had the drum beats in the preseason
where Harbaugh was basically saying that his goal this year is for Isaiah likely to be a all
pro player, not even a pro ball player, an all pro player. And then you see Mark Andrews,
this sort of lack of production. I think getting likely might be the move to make.
Yeah, and shallow leagues, I mean, he's like free right now.
You could stash him on your bench.
I like that move for Dynasty leagues.
I mean, we've just seen now for two years when these guys are on the field,
likely in Andrews, the targets are relatively split.
You know, likely kind of gets more of the slot, big slot receiver type usage.
And this offense definitely needs another receiver.
I mean, Rashad Bateman has just been up and down his entire career.
I like that call.
I could certainly see, you know, week eight, the rest of the season,
like week eight through week 17,
likely outscoring Andrews by like a significant margin.
Yeah, I think the takeover could be there.
And like you said, if you're in a,
if you're in a shallow league,
you might also be able to just grab them or stick them on the,
on the IR.
So really a lot of flexibility for people playing in leagues like sleep or leagues like Yahoo.
And if you're in FFPC,
I think it's worth making that trade offer.
And likely is never cheap in tight end premium.
But I think this could be the window of opportunity we need.
And I think it could be way more a pay.
two weeks from now, but it's going to be likely's tight end job than right now.
And hey, if you think we're wrong, let us know in the YouTube comments.
There's always Mark Andrews backers out there.
One of the biggest things that fantasy managers need to take into account for week in, week out,
is how to win their flex positions.
We're going to talk about a few players that Graham is encouraging you to push into the flex
spot heading into week two right after this.
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All right, Graham, we got some fun flex spots.
And we usually don't cover too much of the Thursday night game, but we have to talk about
Jacori Kroski Merritt.
This has been a player that we're taking big victory laps on it at fantasy points.
I did the whole spiel at School of Scott.
Go listen to School of Scott.
We can listen to sort of the bags packed Jacori Crosky Merritt.
talk, but quick Rusky Merritt, scores on a touchdown run, breaks a 42-yard rush longer than any
run in Brian Robinson's career, and he had it in game one. And I don't know if you've been paying
attention to the Washington commander's social media, but the social media team in Washington
is just dropping the coolest posts on X. They did one where the old like 1980s video you
watched in school about like what's a bill.
They mashed it with with the Kroski Merit.
It is absolute fire.
One of the best things I've seen from an NFL social media team.
So they're really just trying to like really feed into this.
He's almost become like a cult hero status.
But should we trust him in our fantasy lineups yet?
Right now I'm kind of seen it the same way I saw it to start this season.
Like this is a compartmentalized split.
Austin Eckler is going to play on passing downs.
But like you mentioned, man, he, you know, Dr.
Corey Crosky Merritt, he's got way more juice in that early down role than Brian Robinson did.
I mean, Robinson's a functional kind of in between the tackles grinder.
Crosky Merritt's got like legitimate speed.
I think this is a situation where as the season goes on, you know, the rookie is going to just continue to play more and more.
He only played 29% of the snaps in week one.
I think that might end up being his season low.
This is a commander's offense that wants to play pretty balanced, have a, you know, pretty balanced, run pass ratio.
Obviously, they do a lot of kind of design stuff off RPO.
And I think as long as, you know, Kroski Merritt is out there,
you're going to have to kind of respect their run game a little bit more.
I'm treating him as like a low-end flex play this week.
I think you can plug them into lineups.
The problem here, man, is like Green Bay's run defense is legitimately massively improved.
I mean, they just held Detroit to 46 yards and 22 carries,
a great Detroit run game.
So, you know, Thursday night, I'm not like expecting fireworks from Krosky
Merit, you know, commanders are big underdogs in that game as well.
Not big underdogs, but they're underdogs.
Yeah, I think if you drafted him late, picked him up off waiver wires in like early
August, whatever, you're probably going to be rewarded with like, you know, RB 25 for the rest
of the season.
Yeah, I think the thing, the thing about that game that I'm holding a glimmer of hope is Green Bay
had the entire summer to really, really prepare for that Detroit game and come out the gates.
And really, I mean, it was a master class.
like you said, both sides of the ball. Green Bay showed dominance on the offensive line, dominance on the defensive line.
Micah Parsons is Micah Parsons. Green Bay looked like they could be the Super Bowl candidate out of the NFC right out the gate.
But it's a short week to prepare for Jaden Daniels. And we saw this last year where Jaden Daniels was so good in these primetime one-off type environments.
Just the pressure that he can put on them. So I'm hoping that we don't get like a fantasy dud.
I'm with you. I'm going to be starting commanders.
and hey, if you're watching this on Friday, you can come and say Theo bad move or you can say smart move.
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Let's talk about a mess, a complete mess.
And this one tilts Scott Barrett so hard.
Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet.
The fact that I'm having to ask you in week two,
how are you treating Kenneth Walker is not what Kenneth Walker managers had prepared for.
On the flip side, Zach Charbonnet,
if you drafted him in early, the early months of the summer on Underdog or in FFPC, NFFC type league,
you're getting a great price on him.
So it's reverse.
Zach Charbonnet managers are feeling awesome right now.
They were drafting him in round eight, round nine at times.
But Kenneth Walker managers were drafting him in round three or round four.
Which one of these players do you feel more confident about?
Should you be putting these players in your lineup?
Are they flex considerations for you this week?
I think that's just it.
I think they're just flex players.
This is about as ugly as it gets for fantasy, Theo.
Like really freaking ugly.
Like we thought at worst Walker would get the kind of workhorse role.
But, you know, the way that game went,
he started the game, then Charbonnet, you know, came in on that long drive, got the touchdown.
Charbonnet also got three carries to Walker's one inside the 10.
I'm just kind of treating this as like a full-blown committee.
And maybe there's like some spiked week potential here.
Like, you know, obviously if one of them gets hurt, one of these guys is like a top five running back.
But yeah, man, for this week, Walker's like the RB 25.
Sharbonne is like the RB 27.
I think if you're, you know, in a deep league where you have to start multiple flex players,
like a lot of us are like Walker, Charbonnet,
like they're probably still going to be in your lineups most weeks.
But at the end of the day, man,
like that's kind of bad for both players.
Like, yeah,
relatively I would much rather have Charbonnet in rounds eight or nine,
like you were saying, you know,
by expected fantasy points,
it was pretty much dead even.
I mean, Walker, it was at, I think, 10.7,
Charbonnet was at 10.5 expected fantasy points.
Most of that was just because Walker got three targets.
So there's something you can hang your hat on with Walker.
It's probably he'll have more passing.
down usage throughout the course of the season. But yeah, the early down stuff seems legitimately
like it's going to be split. I'm not like completely bailing on Walker just because I still think
he's one of the best running backs in the game, still believe in the talent. But yeah, I mean,
Charbonnet getting, you know, legitimately huge early down work is it's not great. And for this week
specifically, I mean, the Seahawks only have an 18.5 point total, man, like implied point total is right
there with the Titans at 18.3.
This is, yeah, it's not looking,
not looking too good for Walker backers like myself.
A little bit of glimmer of hope is just how effectively
the New York Jets were at running the football against Pittsburgh.
And I think Pittsburgh, you know, we, on paper,
Pittsburgh has an awesome defense,
but games are not played on paper.
And maybe that there are some adjustments they have to make.
Maybe Seattle can exploit that as well.
It's obviously a different type team.
You don't have the rushing threat.
that Justin Fields was, but Brees Hall was north of five yards of carry. Braille and Allen had the
big touchdown run. So maybe they, the Seattle, both of them sort of deliver this week.
For me, I'm finding spots where I'm going to have to use them both and not like at the same
time, but I'm going to be having exposure to both. And it's just sort of the way I constructed my teams
and sit back and you almost hope that there's a little bit of a 60-40 sort of develops, at least
so you know, like the danger for Kenneth Walker managers is you're not going to know which weeks
to start them and you're just going to leave him in your lineup. It would almost be better to have
clarity. If he is the 40% guy, you know, hey, this is a player, at least I know I need to move on from.
Sort of the same thing with Charbonnet. So a very, very tilting one for managers of both players.
But yeah, I think I'm going to have a lot of exposure to those guys in RB2 spots and in flex spots.
one other player that's interesting.
We talked about David and Joku.
We talked about Harold Fanon, but it's Cedric Tillman.
You had him listed in the Flex category.
Tillman has had a really nice run here in games played alongside Jerry Judy,
consistently been very productive when he's playing alongside Judy.
Yeah, dude, the volume has been really good.
You go back to that stretch after they traded Amarie Cooper in the middle of last year.
Tillman had 12, 9, 11, 8 targets.
Comes out week one, gets 8 more targets.
The volume has been there.
He's been the sneakiest wide receiver 2 and fantasy, you know, when he's healthy for the last
two years now.
And like we've been saying this whole show, Browns are going to be a functional offense.
They're going to have plenty of pass volume.
I'm not so sure that Jerry Judy outscores Tillman this year.
Like if all the, if they play 15, 16 games, both these guys stay healthy all year.
I think there's a legitimate chance.
It's like 50-50, like Tillman outscores Judy.
Both had horrific drops, obviously, one that led to interceptions.
But, you know, Tillman has been kind of on this upward trajectory now for a couple of years.
Would not surprise me at all if he has, you know, really strong third-year breakout this season.
And for this week, man, you know, we were just talking about it earlier.
Ravens are probably going to rinse the Browns.
They're double-digit underdogs in this spot.
The Browns are plenty of volume going to be here, man.
I wrote up Tillman as a flex play last week,
and I'm going to just pretty much keep writing them up as a really strong,
like wide receiver two or three every single week.
Yeah, Tillman looks like a steal right now.
Jerry Judy, how about the last play of the game where it had to be a lateral?
And Judy catches like a nice long pass.
I don't remember the exact yardage, but he had an opportunity to lateral it and just goes down.
And conveniently, he hits his Vegas overtotal on the receptions.
It's sort of like, was he stat patting a little bit at the end?
you really hope not, but it was very, very convenient on that reception.
So Judy's stats could have looked far worse this past game.
So interesting one, I think Tillman, wide receiver three, flex, I think it's fine.
He looks good.
When he stays healthy, he looks good.
And Tillman, it's not some guy that we haven't seen it before.
We saw it for a long stretch of period of time last season, like you said.
And it's not some guy that just came out of like nowhere.
He was a third round pick for Cleveland a few years back.
back. So he has that pedigree as well. One player that there's a ton of fear in the marketplace
with is Calvin Ridley. Calvin Ridley, of course, Patrick Sertan just put him on an island,
like, and it was nothing. It's four catches for 27 yards. But Graham, there's a lot of people
who are taking the sit Calvin Ridley approach, didn't like the timing with Cam Ward. Was this
because of Patrick Sartan? Do you have worries about Ridley? Are you sitting him this week or using him?
I'm back in on Ridley.
I think he's a nice buy low.
I didn't buy that he had like low end wide receiver one upside.
I just don't think that's possible within the context of what this Titans
offense is going to be.
I think I like Iow Manor is going to be a real thing.
This season, Chigar Conquo has continued to kind of ascend and be a really good player.
They have like three legitimately pretty good pass targets for Ward.
So yeah, I mean, I wrote up Ridley as like the easiest sit of week one.
and, you know, Sartan locked him down.
He didn't get anything on Sartan all week.
The good news, this is a significantly easier matchup.
The bad news is that Cam Ward was really up and down in the opener.
I thought he made some nice plays in that, like, kind of two-minute drill.
At the end of the game, he made some decent plays within, you know, kind of the middle of it,
decent plays outside of structure.
But, I mean, he was pretty bad with a clean pocket, only completed eight of his 20 passes
with a clean pocket in a negative 16% completion rate under expectation.
So I'm in on Ridley.
I'm in on the talent there.
We got to see it from Ward.
And this is another very disruptive front seven.
Broncos very deep, great pass rush, you know, obviously have a lot of talent, you know,
Allen and Benito.
Rams are just as good, maybe better.
Like their front seven is nasty.
So they're going to be able to, you know, really get after Ward.
I'm treating Ridley as like, instead of being like a distant,
wide receiver four last week. I think he's like a pretty good wide receiver three flex this week
that the volume should be there. Rams corners just aren't that good. But I am, we got to see some more
from Cam Ward before we're like really trust in Ridley every week as a wide receiver too.
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Ella McKay, coming to theaters December 12th.
Your father's here.
Why?
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You should do that every afternoon.
Ella McKay.
Yeah, it's, for me,
it's Ridley, like I made a bunch of statements
in the preseason that he could be this year's Terry
McLaurin, this year's Cortland Sutton.
That's certainly not looking great,
but I think this could be a big bounce back week.
I know Scott Barrett's on Ridley
as a possible DFS play.
So we said we do this, and we're going to rip through these.
We're going to make these sort of rapid fire.
I'm going to try to take a number of these.
We won't get to all of them, but we're going to go through some of your start sick questions.
These were all posted on X.
First one, John Canton says,
Kincaid or Harold Fanon in tight end at a tight end spot.
This is a PPR format.
Which way are you leaning?
I'm going Fanon immediately, just more past volume,
especially this coming week.
Bill should kind of control that game script.
Kincaid got the touchdown.
last week, man, but it's the same thing as always with him.
Like, he's stuck between like three and six targets on the high end.
Yeah, I'm with you.
It's Harold Fanon for me.
I'm starting him over Kincaid with confidence.
Question from Sean G, who actually saw out in Vegas,
a really good FFPC drafter.
In FFPC scoring, so this is tight end premium,
but none of these are tight ends.
This is a flex question.
Jaden Reed, who scored a touchdown last week,
and Jaden Reed played, which is crazy.
Dylan Samson, who was really good last week, and Joshua Palmer.
I'll say for me, I'm going to go with Dylan Samson.
Quinn Sean Jenkins not practicing as of Wednesday.
And Dylan Samson, I think I can really trust him as a pass catcher,
even though it's a difficult matchup and they're huge dogs.
I think Dylan Samson will have another four or five catches
and get the number of rushing opportunities.
Drumford didn't look good.
Which way are you going between Reed, Samson, and Palmer?
Yeah, it is very over for Drumford.
I'm going Dylan Samson with pretty strong confidence here too.
Jaden Reed, you know, he played, but still was limited, 50% route share.
I don't think quit Sean Jutkins.
Even if he does play this week, I don't think he plays much because he just,
he hasn't practiced all of August and September.
Samson should have a really nice role.
Obviously, they're huge dogs, but you should have a really nice role.
Okay, here's a fun one.
And this is again, week one tilts people.
This is from Brazen.
The person's name is Billy.
And they said pick two.
AJ Brown, Travis Hunter, or Keon Coleman.
So you get to pick two of these.
AJ Brown, Travis Hunter, Keon Coleman.
Which way are you going?
Brown for sure.
This is like the squeakiest wheel spot.
Eagles are going to struggle to run the ball, I think, a little bit.
Hunter versus Coleman is kind of close, but, man, that bangles Jags game.
I know we haven't talked about it on the show.
Like, that should be a fantasy bonanza.
I mean, just 50 point total.
Both offenses looked okay.
week one, you know, nothing great, but both bad defenses.
I'm going to go Hunter over Keon Coleman.
Theo, I wanted to pick your brain, actually, on Bill's receivers real quick.
Like, Keon, obviously, you know, had the huge game, had the tip touchdown, but, you know,
had to double-digit targets.
Him and Shakir were definitely, like, you know, kind of full-time players didn't really
necessarily expect that.
But, like, Alan threw it 46 times in that game.
Like, where are you at with these, these bills guys?
I am absolutely buying into Keon Coleman.
I think I'd butt heads with you on this one.
I think that I would go Coleman over Hunter.
I think Hunter is fine.
But it's just the times they went to Keon Coleman,
when the game was on the line,
they went for him,
they had the touchdown pass,
the two-point conversion attempt.
Keon Coleman, I think, is turning the corner.
And a lot of times we don't necessarily believe the beat reporters,
but now we see it with our own eyes where we heard this the last month,
that Keon Coleman was going to be a thing.
And I think they're treating him like that.
So I'm buying into it.
I think this was a big breakout performance for Keon Coleman.
But I could be completely off on this one with the Jacksonville Bengals game flow.
Jets also were a little bit more generous than we thought against Pittsburgh.
Aaron Rogers had four touchdown passes.
So even though a lot of times we get these bills, Jets games that don't always go the way we want,
I think there's going to be a little bit more fantasy friendly.
And I think the Jets are going to be really, really hype for this one.
Aaron Glenn's got that team just running through brick walls.
And the threat of Justin Fields, it's basically we just saw Baltimore ripping up Buffalo,
like with the same sort of formula with a running back and a mobile quarterback.
Now, Justin Fields is not Lamar Jackson.
And Breece Hall is a runner, certainly not Derek Henry.
But I think they'll put a lot of pressure on them, the pair of them, Garrett Wilson.
So I'm looking for this game to tilt over.
But Keon Coleman, I think if you drafted him, you're feeling fantastic about things.
I know I packed a few late Keon Coleman bags in like round eight.
And it's sort of like you bite your tongue and just say the name Keon Coleman.
And it's, I think it happens, Graham.
I think he could be a wide receiver too this year.
I'm buying into the hype.
Let's keep this going.
Here's one from F, F, F, F, F, he uses the letter F like 15 times.
And it says, and it's like F, F, F, F, F, F for Reels.
And F, F, F, F, F, for Reel says, Stefan Diggs, Jalen Waddle or Keon Coleman.
Stefan Diggs.
Who's the second one?
Jalen Waddle or Keon Coleman.
Oh, I'm going Coleman here.
Coleman for me too.
Here's one.
Here's another one.
This is a fun one.
12 team standard league.
So I don't know the PPR here.
Let's call it.
Let's say it's a very low PPR.
Debo Samuel or Tet McMillan.
Teteroa McMillan.
I'll go McMillan.
Yeah, I'll go McMillan as well.
Yeah.
Scott Barrett would get very upset if I didn't.
say McMillan also, I think, because I think we're the usage, usage king for
Tederoa McMillan. Debo did have 10 targets, caught seven of them, but that, and he was,
you know, found the end zone on that 19-yard run. I think that the final, I'm big on
Debo, I think it was great. I think if you have Debo, it's fine, but you drafted Tedero and
McMillan to be a high-end wide receiver two. Don't bench him in week one. In week two,
the usage was right there for him. Here's one from Jose Vedro, 14 team, half-point PPR.
Cedric Tillman or Cooper Cup, I think I know which way you're going.
Oh, Tillman all day.
Cups does, man.
I think it's over for C. Dude, Cup had a negative average separation score this week.
Like, that is so bad.
Like, so, so bad.
J.S.N is like, he's going to out of alpha this guy all season long.
Okay, so this is a complicated one from Hugh Mann says PPR, pick two, but one needs to be his
tight end spot.
So I think it's kind of a nuanced question here.
one needs to be a tight end two could be a tight end it's pick two it's ppr Tyler Warren
Harold Fanon Kayshan booty or Cedric Tillman that's a really tough one I want I mean
Tyler Warren's in the lineup we got tight end out of the way so let's talk about the flex
spot Harold Fanon Kayshan booty or Cedric Tillman I'm going Tillman only because I feel most
confident in his role in playing time.
I mean, he ran around on 90% of the dropbacks.
Like I mentioned earlier in the show, the targets have been good for him too.
Yeah, I think that's the way I'll lean.
What about you?
I think I'm probably there.
I think it has to probably be Tillman just because of the, like, the big, the big discrepancy
in the, in the odds and how they're a huge underdog.
I think it could end up being Tillman garbage time.
And Tillman, again, doesn't have to compete with, I mean,
Tolman's really competing with Harold Fannin, but he's got that role, like you said,
it's a co-wide receiver one.
Begrudgingly, I feel like I'm going to get that one wrong.
I think I'm a little higher on Kishon Booty than you are this week.
And Fanon, I want to cram into lineups, but I think you're right.
I'm going to agree with you on that.
So I want to ask you about Booty because I'm with you.
Like I'm buying this.
I think Stefan Diggs might, it might be over for Diggs.
Like 32-year-old coming off in ACL, separation metrics have been bad for two years.
Like, let's go back to our priors on.
Booty before he got hurt, man.
Like he was out like playing really well against Malik neighbors and BTJ at
LSU like out targeting them out targeted BTJ and BTJ's second to last season.
Like are you bought?
I think this booty thing is legit.
Like I think he's a really good waiver wire scoop right now.
So I read some quotes from Keishon Booty and this is one where we saw it at the end
of last year.
He had two games over 20 points scored in two of the last three games last year.
Last year it was him, uh, being younger and outscoring.
Jalen Polk and Javan Baker by like a ton.
So New England brought in guys to replace him.
He just snatched both of their souls.
We don't even know about those guys existing anymore.
And Kishan Bouti sort of built this real correlation with Drake May.
The great Ryan Heath pointed out how Kishan Bouti led New England in air yards in all games that Drake May started last year.
So we had a little bit of a slow drip last year.
Now you get it right out the gate with Kishon Bouti getting over 100 yards, catching all these passes.
is he's only 23 years old, Graham,
and the Devy people out there,
Devy people take a big, like big,
a lot of knocks where people say people have Debbie take lock,
this guy just because you're good at 18,
doesn't mean you're going to be good when you're 25,
all this stuff.
But the Devy community was on Keishon Booty like a first round pick.
And I read some quotes from Keishan Booty where he was like,
listen, I was a first round pick.
And it just didn't work out.
And people are like, what a weird quote to say.
But I think I understand what he's saying where this is what he expected.
from himself. He was a blue chip player at LSU. He was supposed to be this high draft pick. It was a bad ending. Ends up being a sixth rounder. But I think this is a player that when he steps on the NFL field, it's sort of like Stefan Diggs was. He never viewed himself as some like day three guy. It's like a chip on my shoulder. And now he's got the opportunity. I think he's going to run with it. I think he's a wide receiver three rest of the season. And I would love to take every single DeMario Douglas pick that I made on Underdog or FFPC and best balls and trade a
all for Kishon Booty shares.
I think that that's going to end up looking like, why didn't we take the big guy playing
on the outside and said we're going with sort of like this searching this like seasons
past slot role where I think it's Keishon Booty.
So I'm a, I'm a booty believer.
Booty, booty, booty, booty, booty, rocking everywhere on the waiver wire.
Not for long, though.
Not in my league, bro, because he's getting picked up and a lot of them are mine.
Let's take just a couple more of these listener questions.
And a big shout out to everybody for getting these questions out on X.
hopefully this becomes something that people do every week.
But let's take one more here.
I will take two more.
Ellie, flex spot, 0.5 PPR.
So half point PPR,
Jacori-Crosky Merritt, Dylan Samson,
and they can also cram in Cam Scataboo or Bratiel Tutin.
But it's, it's Dracori-Crossky-Mert or Dylan Samson,
half-point PPR.
I'm going cross-ky merit.
I think Samson might have a slightly better role.
I just believe more on the commander's offense.
actually get in the red zone and maybe give you a touchdown.
So that's the way I lean.
Yeah, I'm with you on that one.
Completely agree.
And then the final one will take really a fun question.
This is from Jack.
Garrett Wilson versus Bowers, no tight end premium scoring.
This is just straight up PPR.
And he starts Trey McBride at tight end.
So he's got tight end locked down.
He's got the, went with the bully tight end approach.
Brock Bowers or Garrett Wilson.
And he doesn't have a suitable backup.
turns out Bowers can't go Monday.
So for me, he just answered his own question.
You start Garrett Wilson because you don't want to go into Monday in a close week.
And I think they're pretty close in PPR.
Wilson looked really good last week with Justin Fields.
Nine out of the 20, I believe it's 21 total targets for Justin Fields.
Nine went to Garrett Wilson.
So the target share narrative is absolutely there.
Yeah, I'm 100% with you.
You can't wait on Bowers on Monday night.
You just play Wilson in this spot.
100%.
So we're locked down, mostly agreed on these start sits.
Big shout out to the fantasy points audience for helping us grow on YouTube.
Big shout out to everyone who's subscribed.
We got you covered all season long.
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We're going to see you soon.
