Fantasy Football Daily - Week 8: Chris Godwin & Brandon Aiyuk Injury Replacements + Fantasy Risers & Fallers | School of Scott

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

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We'd love to talk. Business. How will fantasy managers deal with the loss of Chris Godwin? Another big-time wide receiver bites the dust. We're looking at the next man in. We're talking about the fill-ins for Chris Godwin, what's going to happen in San Francisco with Brandon Ayuk, and the fantasy impact of D'Andre Hopkins after the trade to the Kansas City Chiefs.

This is School of Scott, the show where we want to take a deeper dive into the box scores, and identify the information you need to become a better fantasy football player. And all of the information that we are going to discuss on School of Scott comes from fantasy points. The Everything Report by Scott Barrett and Fantasy Points Data Suite. And anyone who wants access to that can get it with the code School 25. Theo Breminger and welcome Scott Barrett. How are we doing today, man? This is a, it's like we're all ready for today's show and then we get a big time trade.

Just like last week we're reacting to players on the move. Really the story of the week, got to talk about Chris Godwin, because this seems like every single wide receiver that we get really excited about being the ADP Steel, the ADP league winner. I mean, Chris Godwin in last week's Everything Report, we talked about Derek Henry being the fantasy MVP. And really, Chris Godwin was the fantasy MVP of the wide receiver position. So where are we at, Scott? How are we going to do this? How impactful will the next man be in Tampa Bay? Yeah, so this is pretty heartbreaking. I was all in on Chris Godwin and the Cooper Cup role this year. So a lot of my teams are going to suffer for this. He was doing awesome, by the way. Most valuable wide receiver and fantasy according to wins above replacement. Yeah, but this is, you know, don't, don't jump off a bridge. Don't swear off fantasy. This is what we do. We pick ourselves back up. We dust yourselves off and we're going to crush the competition anyway.

you know, we're going to get that championship ring for Chris Godwin, for Rishie Rice, for Rashid, for Rashid Shaheed, we owe it to them. It's just, you know, it's a rough year. So this is why you read our waiver wire column. This is why you put in the work. You grind the waivers. No one better at the waiver wire than you. And a great place to start, I think, is Jalen McMillan, who has maybe season saving upside, has a chance to kind of walk right in. And, you know, and a great place to start. And into that Chris Godwin role. You know, I don't know that he'll be as successful with it, but that's a super valuable role.

Chris Godwin led all players in fantasy points per game on design targets, 5.7, that 50% more than any other player, tons of usage in the slot. While Mike Evans draws, you know, tougher coverage, defense is really keying in on him. And, yeah, it doesn't really require a lot of separation. when you're getting these designed targets, they're kind of like lay up throws and you just got to, you know, generate some yak, hopefully pick up the first down. And I like McMillan. I was, I was higher on him than most based on, you know, my prospect model. And the one knock on him that I had, kind of everyone had where he, which caused him to fall in the draft was that he was slot only.

Over two thirds of his career routes came from the slot. But that might help him here as he, as he walks into the Chris Godwin role potentially. Team very high in him, a ton of positive coach speak in the offseason. And then the first two or three games, he had a route share over 80%, only one fewer route than Chris Godwin, actually. And then he had his own injury. And so I'm pretty bullish. The one concern here, I would say, is that our film charters think he's really

struggled on tape. He looks a bit lost, sort of like he does. know what he's doing on some routes. And so maybe that's, maybe it doesn't work out because he just hasn't played as well. But I think he gets the best crack at it. And again, I was bullish on this player. Maybe if he has struggled, it's because he's playing out of position and he should be in the slot. But obviously, you know, Mike Evans is going to be out until like week 12 at the earliest. So you could play smaller fab bids on a Sterling Shepard, Trey Palmer. I think there's certainly some great short-term upside, but long-term upside, I feel best about Jalen McMillan.

McMillan was my number one target on the waiver wire. And I think it's sort of a philosophical way of playing the game of fantasy football, Scott. Like you, I've always talked about upside, upside wins championships. And like going in and adding Sterling Shepard is a, like, it's not an exciting strategy. You're really asking for like a 10-PR point type outcome. Whereas Jelan McMillan, this is a player that two seasons ago at Washington, he led the Huskies in receptions. He had more receptions than Roman Dunezay and like 25 more receptions than Jalen Polk. So he's a very, very interesting player.

One question I had for you was this has been a not a good offense. This has been a very, very good offense. Baker Mayfield is the QB2 overall right behind Lamar, Lamar Jackson in most. scoring settings. Certainly this will hurt Baker. But my question to you would be, do you see a potential that a Bucky Irving or Rashad White could be a low-key winner or the running backs really in general, a low-key winner from this multiple wide receiver injury situation? Yeah, it's certainly possible, you know, you remove the two wide receivers, you lean more on the ground, and maybe the offense is still as productive as it's been to your point, you know, second and passing

yards, first and passing touchdowns. I kind of, I might argue the opposite. I think just the offense is a little less effective, fewer sustained drives, fewer red zone drives. But it's certainly possible. Yeah. Yeah, what a turn of events. And I know you bring up sort of like stick with it and, you know, don't throw in the towel. But we were 53 seconds away from just getting to the end of that game. It was the timing of the of the injury that really hurt fantasy managers. It's one thing if it was like Evans and the guy pulls up early on in the game. It's like just the end of the game. It was just so disheartening. And McMillan for dynasty managers out there, I know I'm working on an article for, it'll be on fantasy points, my dynasty market report. And McMillan's really an

interesting one because I think he could stick. You see Chris Godwin might have played his last snap in Tampa Bay. Mike Evans is obviously an older player with not really the same skill sets, but I think if McMillan comes on this year, he might be a guy that we're excited about heading into next fantasy football season, especially with the way Baker Mayfield has been playing. This was not the only injury that we had to deal with this week. Brandon I, Yuk, who's had a completely mixed bag, negative season in terms of fantasy scoring, done for the year as well. How does San Francisco bounce back is, are, do you see this as a Juan Jennings gives comes back and gives us a number of usable weeks sort of like he did earlier this season? Or do you see Ricky Persol

as a player who could really develop over the second half of the season? Or do you think it's somewhat up in the air with these guys? Yeah. So I, uh, by the way, the everything report is free this week if you want to check it out. Uh, Ryan Heath helped me with this article. So we've been getting it up a day early. It comes out Tuesday around 4 p.m. now. And he wrote this blurb, the navigating the Brandon Ayuk injury fallout. And I tweaked multiple things, but like I think he crushed it. It was like a beautiful blurb. And in there, he said, this could be one of the most impactful things that's happened all fantasy season. And I completely agree with that. I think we should expect San Francisco maybe to take a slight step back. But I mean, like, it's not like Brandon Ayuk was really

doing he was averaging fewer than nine fantasy points per game what does this do to george kittle already it was either him or brock bowers is the overall tight-in-one no one else coming close right and so without without without without debo by the way dbo has pneumonia uh so he could be out this week and next but without brandon i yuk massive upside uh in seven games since 2021 without i yuk or dibo you ever just 23 fantasy points per game that's like 33 percent better than the next best tight end season ever. And like in comparison to like anyone besides Brock Bowers, it's like, I don't know, twice as good. Right. So massive power law potential, massive upside. And then Debo Samuel, it's the exact same thing. Looking back to 2021, games IEuth missed or was limited. He averages

an insane 133 receiving yards per game, 26.4 fantasy points per game. When IUC has been off the field, over the last few years, he has like a 40% target share, absolutely insane. So those guys more obvious, like if you're in a dynasty league and you're a contender, and you know, maybe I think those are great players to potentially trade for. But the question you asked was Joanne Jennings versus Ricky Pearsall. And so Pearsall, obviously, was a fantasy points favorite. We were really high in him. Brett Whitefield prior to the senior bowl had a set he was a top. five wide receiver in the class. He got so much trash for that. And then what do you see? You know, he goes in round one. And so we're bullish on the player. My argument against him is that,

you know, we typically see rookies, especially rookie wide receivers who miss a significant chunk of training camp. You almost have to like fully write off that rookie season or there's just like a steep learning curve. And I think we see that with Pearsall because he didn't just miss the last seven weeks from being shot in the chest. But he began the camp with a, hamstring injury, then missed even more time with the shoulder injury. So the dude is just like barely practiced, which I think holds him back. But I have to say, you know, highly encouraging 49 days after being shot in the freaking chest, the dude led the team in Routch here, 81% tied Kittle for the team lead in targets. And then Joanne Jennings is who I'd be betting. I think,

you know, he could just be nothing. You know, he's been in this offense for a really long time, had that one good game, but, you know, never really wowed us too much beyond that. But he's the one I want to be making the argument for. I think massively winning potential over and above Jalen McMillan, I think. So, by the way, at the time I published this article, he was available on over 50% of ESPN and Yahoo Leagues. This podcast goes out from the School of Scott feed on Wednesday morning, Wednesday around noon. So if you're in an FFPC league, it's still actionable. If you're listening to it on our Friday, you're on the wrong feed, so make sure you subscribe to School of Scott.

But anyway, he's still available in a number of FFPC leagues. Here's my argument for him. He currently ranks fifth best in yards for route run behind only A.J. Brown, Nico Collins, Rashie Rice, Justin Jefferson, absolute studs. He ranks fourth best in Fantasy Points Data, separation win rate behind only Brandon Ayuk, A.J. Brown, Nico Collins. He's exceeded a 73% route share in five of seven games that IUC or Samuel has missed over the last three seasons. Typically, he's at like a 50%. And then what do we see in week three?

46.5 fantasy points. That is rare. That is so rare. It was the 15th most by any wide receiver in a decade. So just like the upside based on just that one game, which Debo missed. I'm extremely bullish. I think he's looked great. I think he's played great.

I think, you know, Kyle Shanahan is a genius. I trust this offense. And I really think there's a good chance, you know, we look back week 17. And it's like, who were the most rostered players on championship teams? And it wouldn't shock me if Joanne Jennings was one of those top five players. Yeah, no, I'm with you. And I was like, Scott, you're burying the lead. The guy scored 46 and a half points in the game without Devo.

It's like, just say that. Right. But it was so it was very, you explained it very, very well. And I will add that Ryan Heath, he was a guest on my, my other podcast press coverage this week. And he's super bullish on George Kittle. And I know you are as well. And Scott talked about how the everything report is.

One thing on George Kittle, it just sprung to mind. This is the healthiest he's ever been in his career by a landslide, which is crazy because he's been on the injury report like three or four times. But if you look back over his history, the guy, the position in yards per route run every single season. But he's always like, he has a freaking broken bone in his foot. He has like a torn something. And so yeah, I'm a, that might be my favorite player in the NFL and like one of the most underrated in all of football. So yeah, big believer in him could be a league winner as well. Yeah. And that's a great segue to what we're

to discuss next. Two of the massive winners in the Devante Adams and Amari Cooper trades were the tight ends. We're going to talk about the league winning potential of David and Joku and Brock Bauer's right after this. So Scott, in the Everything report this week, you talked about David and Joku. We talked about this last week. And last week, we like the focus in on school of Scott was obviously like, what can Devante Adams do? What is he going to do to Garrett Wilson? What is he going to do to Breece Hall? And then we also talked about like, can Amari Cooper thrive in this new role? And we briefly discussed the tight ends. But we saw it this past week. this was about the weirdest week of target leaders across the NFL.

There was like four out of our top five target earners were at the tight end position. And right at the top was David Anjoku and Brock Bowers. This has been a two week sample size really for David and Joku where the target share is really, really ticking up. Talk about your enthusiasm for Anjoku. Now we have a quarterback change with James Winston. this is like this is like the this is like the cheaper way to get access to potentially a league winning tight end than maybe going after a guy like George Kittal, is it not? Yeah.

So I dropped this article and I got some criticism for overusing the word league winner, the phrase league winner, which I typically do not do. I just think it was that this sort of wheat. Like it was such an impact where I've talked about this and everything report every single week where it's like we need James Winston. And like the results could be phenomenal. Just give us James Winston, please. And so now we have James Winston. David and Joku, I think, is the biggest beneficiary. We saw Cedric Tillman go off. But I also like Jerry Judy. It was really DTR who locked in on Cedric Tillman. I credit that to the backup connection because, you know, they were both backups.

So they had a lot of reps together in practice. But when Winston came in, he was. he was targeting Judy over Cedric Tillman. But who has all of these quarterbacks been targeting the most, David Njoku? He led all players at all positions in XFP last week, easily lead the team in first three target sharing back-to-back weeks. And you said it's just a two-game sample size, but not really. If you only look at the full quarters he's played, he only has 11, but in that he's averaging 9.8 targets, 14 fantasy points per.

four full quarters, being targeted on nearly a third of his routes, would rank third best among all players at all positions. And like, don't forget, what did this guy do at the tail end of last season? Not only was he the clear tight end won over his last four or five games, but he was putting up mid-range wide receiver one production with Joe Flacco, who is like very similar to James Winston in my eyes. And every other highly drafted tight end besides Kittal, and Brock Bowers has been like a massive disappointment. And so, yes, David and Joku, I think is a massive, you know, a stock riser and also has league winning potential in part because all these other

tight ends besides the ones I just mentioned are really underwhelmed. Yeah, and shout out to the language police. Leave Scott alone. We want to read the word league winning potential. What do you want? Somebody, like, they get you to the playoff potential. We're in the middle of the season. We're trying to win leagues here, people.

And I'm totally with you. David and Joku is a stud, redraft target, dynasty target. The guy doesn't turn 29 until July. He's very much in the prime of tight ends, next level type athlete. This is a dude who just will show up to a press conference with no shirt on. And you're like, okay, I get it. David and Joku, like put a shirt back on, man. We get it.

But he just has that. He's just got that, like, It was multiple seasons of us sort of wanting more. And then last year we got it. You brought up how well he did last year. It was sort of if you had Evan Engram or David and Joku, I know like my best baseball teams all had David and Joku and Evan Engram. A lot of my teams that did the best in redraft or in Dynasty had one of those two guys

because they were just so good to end last season. So wheels up for David and Joku. And then let's briefly touch on Brock Bowers because we could spend 10 minutes on Bowers every single week. week here on School of Scott, but I'll give you just a just a couple of little facts here. Brock Bowers is 15th all time in receptions at the tight end position as a rookie. The guy is 21 years old. We got a lot of game left. This is a guy who could be breaking like Pukunakua's reception records.

I mean, the sky is the limit, is it not? Like, is Brock Bowers your favorite to finish as the tight end one overall rest of the season, Scott? No, I think it's, I think it's kiddle due to touchdown upside. You know, just really not as much touchdown upside in this Raiders offense. But yeah, it's just Brock Bowers, a generational. He was the greatest tight end prospect ever. I encourage you to read my, my tight end prospect, rookie prospect model article where it just like the dank stat section was just, you know, there were like 50 deep in each one mind blowing. And then like that's exactly what he's doing now is, you know, second most receptions through a player's first seven games ever, et cetera.

He's just a freak. I will say, don't sleep on Jacobi Myers because, you know, sure, a lot of this is coming without Michael Mayer and Devante Adams, who we don't expect anytime soon. But Jacobi Myers could be back this week. Last time we saw him on the field, he was dealing with a really bad ankle injury, and he was shadowed by Patrick Sertain, the best cornerback in football, and on 50% of his routes. And his numbers within that context were great.

And then the week before that, he led all players at all positions and target share. So I see some very underrated PPR cheat code upside for Jacoby Myers. Yeah, I agree with you for Myers. And he's so cheap right now, whether it's redraft, whether it's dynasty. You could also almost look at him as like a throw-in type guy with the right fantasy manager might totally underrate the situation that he's in. We got to talk about another trade, though. and it just went down right before we're recording.

So this is one that is, we really, we haven't even really discussed this with one another, but D'Andre Hopkins is now a Kansas City chief. What is your initial reactions to this? We saw last year, D.Hops have, not looking at the exact one, but somewhere over a 25% target share, I believe he was closer to a 30% target share. And this year, it's been just a complete nightmare. sub 15% target share, obviously the worst quarterback situation, one of the worst in the NFL right now in Tennessee, and now goes to play with Patrick Mahomes in a situation where on paper, it looks like DHOPS could possibly be the top target in the offense.

Am I too optimistic about the situation? Do you share the optimism for DHops and KC delivering big numbers, Scott? I mean, yeah, you have to be when, you know, it was the tight end too who, led the team of receiving yards last week with like 3x any other receiver. And so just the allure of Hopkins in that Rashid Rice role, you know, Rashid Rice is great, but that was also to a very large extent, a manufactured role where it was plenty of screens and shallow crossers, sort of manufactured touches, which I think D'Andre Hopkins can do well and then give you a little bit extra beyond that. And so just the allure of that is like so enticing.

I will just say it's been like about 15 weeks now of just the chiefs just being so content to just, you know, slow the pace of play, lean run heavy, not really ask Mahomes to do much, win with the defense. I think, I think some people are, you know, overstating the ups. And it's not like the chiefs gave a lot for D. Andre Haught. You know, this was like, you know, they could have, they could have bought Koum's. per cup for a second. And like that's a totally different story. This was like a half measure. Here's a round five pick. And we'll see what this dusty is somewhat dusty wide receiver can do for us. So yeah, again, the upside's there. And you have to be excited if you're a Hopkins owner. But I'd be shocked if he, if he, you know, ended up, you know, crushing leagues and finishing as a

high end wide receiver two or better. Not on the show sheet. But here, here you go. if you could add one player between Joanne Jennings, Jalen McMillan and DeAndre Hopkins right now, which one would it be? I'll say I'll say Hopkins feels like the safest. Like if you're just chasing median projection, it's him. But, you know, I'm the upside wins championship guy. And so I'm going Jennings, personal. And am I insane for saying McMillan?

I think I'm like over the top with McMillan. But like you said, I think the safest way to go about it is D. Hobbs. He's going to give you something. Like, if you promise. me the Chris Godwin roll like if you if you if you if you tell me he has an 80% plus route chair with 60 plus percent of his routes from the slot I would agree with you but it's just the we don't know that and like I said my our film charters were a little you know pushing back on me but we'll see we'll see no no for sure it's it's definitely going to be a very interesting one I

think it's a anybody who's played this game for a long time oftentimes the middle of the season we're talking about that next man in at the running back position. So this is a very odd thing to be talking about multiple wide receivers in week eight that fantasy managers are going to add and put right into their lineups. It's a truly bizarre season with all the wide receiver injuries. It's definitely an interesting one. Let's talk about George Pickens and let's talk about Russell Wilson. Your initial reactions to Russell Wilson, I think this was kind of one where as fantasy managers,

we were, at least I was, pretty upset with Justin Fields being benched because Justin Fields was producing in fantasy. But on the flip side, George Pickens was not. Now we see Russell Wilson step in. Wilson has three combined touchdowns, plays outstanding. Pittsburgh in general has now given us four out of the last five weeks with a QB1 in their lineup, a top 12 score at the quarterback position. They've really moneyballed their way to quarterback productivity this year. Your thoughts on Wilson and his impact on George Pickens moving forward. Yeah, you have to be super bullish. Pickens' first wide receiver to hit 100 yards against the Jets this year,

finish the week's second, both XFP and Fantasy Point scored. And I was excited about this connection, you know, last week and heading into the season where I just think he's like the perfect archetype of a receiver for Russell Wilson. where like he is nowhere near what he was a few years ago. But he still has one of the best deep balls in football. And he's like unafraid to throw to wide receivers in tight spaces, which Pickens might be better at the contested target than any wide receiver in football. Just two years ago, I think he led the league in our stat, hero catches,

which is just like exceptional catches that like you wouldn't expect a typical wide receiver to make. And you saw that last week. had six contested targets, three hero catches. That might be a fantasy points data record, but he was averaging just 1.5 contested targets per game with field. And so, yeah, Wilson's going to be unafraid to just chuck it up to Pickens. And I'd be betting on Pickens making those plays more often than just about any other receiver. And yeah, like last year, Cortland Sutton had 10 plus receiving touchdowns. And to me, Pickens has always been, like my comp for him would be like a rich man's Cortland Sutton.

I love that comp. And I agree with you. I think Pickens is one where you have to be super excited about what you saw. I'll also say that there is little to know wide receiver target competition. Like he's a true alpha. It's an easy path to see him giving us really, really strong production rest of the season. What a change of events with multiple wide receivers. I mean, we've touched on it. When we come back, we're going to talk about the Brees Hall and how enthusiastic Scott is about Bruce Hall rest of the season under offensive genius Todd Downing. We'll be back in a minute. Welcome back to School of Scott, Theo Greminger and Scott Barrett, breaking it down.

Everything we discuss on this show you can find at Fantasy Points. Scott's Everything Report and the Fantasy Points data, everything. Anything you want to become a better fantasy manager is over at Fantasy. points. You also get access to some of the best waiver wire information in the industry and tremendous DFS content as well. You're touching everything over there, Scott. But the everything report this week was absolute fire. And I think one of the best things you wrote was about Brees Hall. How enthusiastic are you about Brees Hall moving forward rest of the season? We saw him go absolutely nuts as a receiver this past week. Yeah, I think with Brees Hall and Bijon Robinson,

you know, you could seem, if you read the everything report, it can seem a little bipolar where it's, you know, like, oh, no, like his usage is cratered when week one, week two, it was elite. What do we do? And we had this back and forth. And I was like, you still got a, you still get a hold. And Breeze Hall rewarded those who held with, with downing is SnapShare's jump from, I don't know, 70% to 85%. You know, he was splitting carries almost 50-50 with. Braylon Allen. Now he's back up to 83%, 67% route share, insane amount of targets. Yeah, I think he is the every week overall RB1 in our projections. And then Bijon, we talked about this last week where it's like, okay, this looks really bad. But I wonder if, you know, it was just the

impact of injuries. He's been pretty banged up. And so encouraging, you know, we're not out of the woods entirely, but last week was his best usage since week one. And so hopefully both of those guys can be the top three, you know, graphics. You selected them to be. I was going to say one other thing. I don't know. Tommy can edit it out. I forget. I'll mark it 2850. Okay. I'll come back in and we'll, oh, he already did market. Okay, never mind. Thank you. Thank you. Tom. Okay. I don't think he did. No, he did in the in the private chat, but I'm keeping track as well. Um, okay, so we'll start back up with we'll go back to the Brees Hall. Do you want to, I'll segue it to, uh, your initial thoughts from the Garrett Wilson, Devante Adams split. Is there

anything we can take away from it? Uh, and then we'll keep going from there. Cool. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm with you, Scott. Breese Hall just was tremendous. And it's, it's great to see the the targets there for multiple weeks in a row when it comes to Todd Downing. Like this was one where we were just so nervous, at least I was, so nervous about the coaching change having a negative effect on Breece Hall. And it actually has had an extremely positive one. 103 receiving yards this week after a 56th receiving yard week in week six. But what was interesting was Breece Hall, nine targets.

and he tied Garrett Wilson and Devante Adams. So your initial thoughts on the Devante Adams, Garrett Wilson split, the usage in week one, can we take anything away from this? Or is it still a like a lot of moving parts of fluid situation because Devante was really with the team only for a few days? Yeah, I mean, I think it's encouraging. You know, it was only with the team for a few days and, you know, team high targets.

I think he's going to be that alpha. And like I was saying last, week is I think Garrett Wilson can still be an easy, you know, top 15 wide receiver and fantasy. You'd like to see this offensive line play a little bit better. But one encouraging thing that I think we should be praising Todd Downing for is his route tree looks night and day different since Downing took over. And he's running a lot of the routes that he crushed at last year, according to AS when, you know, the first six weeks of the season,

he was kind of running the routes that he wasn't as good at last year. And so maybe Todd Downing was aware of that. So I like this. I think the biggest takeaway that, you know, isn't as obvious. It's just Alan Lazard ran just a 60% route share that's down to 82%. So he's not really someone you can trust, I think, every week moving forward.

I think really this offense is just, You know, the pie is really just cut into three pieces with Breece Hall, Devante Adams, and Garrett Wilson. Yeah, and we love consolidation. It makes our lives a lot easier to not have to guess on stuff. So shout out to Todd Downing, keep doing it. I'm sorry I talk trash about you when you took over as play caller. We'll forget everything that happened in Tennessee if you keep feeding Breece Hall and helping us win leagues with him. Speaking of league winners, this is certainly the year of the free agent running back, the year of the veteran running back. Any way you want to talk about it, there's a lot of older running backs, most of them on brand new teams that are absolutely crushing. And one of them is Aaron Jones.

This is a player who you've been very bullish on since really the summer. This is one where we talked about it recently where I was a little more enthusiastic about Ty Chandler heading into week seven because I thought he'd get a start or at least Aaron Jones would be very limited. It was completely to the contrary. Jones was awesome. That game was very beneficial to us as fantasy managers in general. But specifically, what are you seeing from Aaron Jones and Scott, the sneaky durability, playing through injuries? Right, right.

I didn't think he was going to play, you know, barely practiced with that hamstring. And then the team traded midweek for Cam Acres. And I'm like, oh, boy, he's going to be out of while. Now I'm thinking that trade had more to do with Ty Chandler. You look at some of the efficiency metrics over at Fantasy Points data. Aaron Jones leads all running backs and yards after contact per attempt. Tide Chandler ranks dead last by the same stat. And so despite this hamstring injury, Jones came right back in, 77% SnapShare.

Outcarried Chandler 14 to 2 at Targeted him 3 to 0. This is elite usage. Kim Acres, by the way, didn't play a snap. And so over his last three full games, 21.4 fantasy points per game, 20.7XFP per game, easy top five numbers for a player who's historically always been one of the most efficient in football. So to me, he's a top seven fantasy running back just about every week moving forward regardless of matchup. Yeah, it's really something. And it's sort of like getting lost in the shuffle because of the success of some of these

other running backs like Derek Henry, like Seke one Barkley. I mean, those guys are absolutely crushing leagues. Jones has been terrific. About as good as it gets, and it was sort of a, does Green Bay almost wish they could have had a do-over? Because right now, give me Aaron Jones over Josh Jacobs all day long, not just with the fantasy points. I just, he looks better.

Everything about him just screams fantasy football points every time he steps on the field. And let's talk about another running back. This was sort of one of the positives of the early season was the success of James Cook. The Joe Brady offense was featuring him. There was continual production week after week. We had the Miami game where James Cook just went nuts. But we saw him miss a game. And when he missed, it was Ray Davis who had a huge week.

Ray Davis gave us like 150 combined yards. And then James Cook came back. And this was in week seven. But Ray Davis did not disappear, Scott. Is this a threat to James Cook and sort of do we need to adjust our expectations on Cook moving forward? Like this was a guy giving us really top six running back numbers to start the year. Is he a little bit more of a high-end RB2 type with the presence of Davis on a weekly basis? Yeah.

I mean, this isn't great. Cook, it was a three to one split basically in his favor with Ray Davis. and then Ray Davis, you know, leads the team in rushing yards and receiving yards without Cook. And then last week, you know, Cook was still the RB1, but it was Davis who led in rushing yards on seven fewer carries. Look up his touchdown. It was incredible. Also out targeted Cook one to nothing.

So, yeah, I, and Davis came into this game after barely practicing with a calf injury. So I would not be surprised if this was like a 50-50 split next week or this week. Yeah, that's not anything that James Cook managers want to hear. And this would actually be one that would be interesting to potentially pivot off of James Cook and trade him away. Because I'm with you. I think that like Ray Davis showed that he could absorb volume. He didn't have a fumble. He basically looked really good.

And he looks very strong as a receiver as well. So that caps James Cook in multiple ways. Then you also factor in Amari Cooper being there. So there's someone for him to compete with on design plays, on touches, and just the general offensive philosophy in general. So I'm with you. I think like James Cook, the enthusiasm for Cook needs to at least be taken down significantly. Now, one running back, we talked about Aaron Jones. We've talked about Derek Henry.

We've talked about Sequin Barkley. Another running back on a new team that's thriving is Joe Mixon. but this is one that's concerning for a lot of fantasy managers who are rostering C.J. Stroud. This past week, we saw 33 rush attempts by Houston to only 21 pass attempts. What is going on here? This is not what we signed up for. It's certainly not what we signed up for when we were hyping up Tank Dell after his strong performance in the first week without Nico Collins. Tank Dell gets four targets, zero receptions this past week, and it was pretty much everything going to to the running back position. Yeah, that's right. It was one of the most run heavy performances of any

team in any game this season by pass rate over expectation. And so we talked about this how this offense was always a lot more run heavy than, you know, we wanted or we thought was optimal. And that was the case with scrub running back. So you get a healthy Joe Mixin. And it's really just, you know, it's all going to him. In his three full games, he's scored at least 26 fantasy points in each of them by XFP or fantasy points per game would be the RB1 overall in those games. And yeah, to me, he looks like another, you know, top seven, top six fantasy running back every week moving forward.

What's going on wrong with this? Houston's offense. Part of it is the volume, but more than anything, it's this offensive line that looks pretty good, run blocking and horrible pass blocking. They just cannot do anything against the blitz, especially against stunts. Read Scott D. Benedetto's O-Line D-Line matchup article.

This is Scott was a scout with the Cleveland Browns up until a few months ago. Spent 10 years with them, so he knows what he's talking about. but the data is just crazy there. This offensive line is really holding Houston back, much like the Jets, really bad offensive line,

is holding Aaron Rogers back, where it's like one of those things where it's like, if you just gave them perfectly league average offensive line play, these could be top five passing offenses and football in my eyes. It's very frustrating. You referenced the line play. Also, we have no Nico Collins there,

but C.J. Stroud's only given us two QB1 performances. season, not what we signed up for. And Scott, it's really like that was sort of the, the zone to avoid when it came to drafting quarterbacks was that C.J. Stroud, Anthony Richardson tier, where neither one of those guys has given us return on investment, sort of like the quarterbacks that people were pushing up, sort of chasing the big four, chasing the big five right there. Kyler Murray, also a mixed bag in that same range. That's something to talk about. Definitely this offseason. Want to get your opinion on Tank Biggs? because we saw Tank Bigsby just go nuts, have another very strong week.

He has 100 plus rushing yards in two out of his last three games. Are you bullish on this situation moving forward with Bigsby? How would you be treating him as a fantasy manager if he was on your roster? Yeah, he's not someone I'm really excited about, not someone I'd ever really be excited to start. I talked about this two weeks ago where it's like, okay, this is the perfect spot. for him in this matchup with a positive game script. Yeah, and especially with Travis Etienne out.

But I think most weeks he's just not someone to get excited because he has no target upside. He's just not involved at all as a pass catcher. And this is a team that's going to be trailing just about every week. They don't play the Patriots in London, which is, you know, home field territory for them. And so, yeah,

he's going to be a committee back, no matter what. And the lack of target upside really hurts him on this bad team. Yeah, I mean, I think this is sort of the definition of a sell high. He has two weeks with 23 plus PPR points. And that was not like Scott being hyperbolic. He literally has one reception on the season, 28 yards. Maybe throw the ball to him a little bit, take away some of the Ernest Johnson ones.

We're going to take a quick break. And when Scott and I come back, we're going to talk about, Brian Thomas Jr. or Marvin Harrison, who is Scott favoring in Dynasty? Welcome back to School of Scott. We're talking a little bit of Dynasty, a little dynasty segment here. BTJ has been exceptional.

Brian Thomas is absolutely just cooking. And on the flip side, Marvin Harrison Jr. is really, arguably the worst draft pick you could have made besides like Christian McCaffrey and Tyree Kill. MHJ, like, this was a player that we were drafting at the one-two turn, Scott. In some of the highest-stakes drafts, you were saying Marvin Harrison Jr. being drafted like

11th overall, 12th overall, occasionally falls into the mid-second. But that was sort of his cutoff point. You never ever saw third round Marvin Harrison Jr. exposure. It was always second round. He was the highest drafted rookie wide receiver of all time. On the flip side, Brian Thomas was a guy you were getting at an exceptional value in redraft. And in Dynasty, it was even more amplified. Marvin Harrison Jr. in a lot of Superflex Dynasty rookie drafts was being selected ahead of Jaden Daniels.

It was like Caleb Williams, then Marvin Harrison Jr., then Jaden Daniels. And that wasn't always like, that wasn't every single draft, but it was enough of them. And BTJ was a guy that was going at the tail end of the first round in Superflex drafts. sometimes in the early second. But you see this as a potential complete turnaround in terms of term of dynasty values. Yeah, I don't want to be too hard on Marvin Harrison, Jr. I think it's really just the role he's playing. Matt Harmon calls it the sacrificial X, where, yeah, he's just running.

He is the highest average depth of route, the highest A-DOT. He's really just a deep threat. But he could do so much more than that. We know that based on college. And so why BTJ over him? It's just this is one of the best rookie seasons ever. Right now he ranks top five among all wide receivers. In receiving yards, yards per route run, I think it's the best yards per route run

by any rookie wide receiver in fantasy points data history. Only seven rookie wide receivers have averaged more fantasy points than BTJ's 15.5. And they're all like studs. So OBJ, Jamar Chase, Puka, Jefferson. Michael Thomas, Mike Evans. And remember what I said about this player coming out. It was, there's a lot of volatility to his profile. I think he's going to struggle in year one.

He's really raw as a prospect, but he has a ton of upside. And he's doing all this, and I think he still has room to grow, which is insane. And so freak athlete really believe, you know, Trevor Lawrence isn't really playing all that well. So yeah, big believer in him. I'd take him over MHJ and dynasty right now. I'd also take neighbors over MHJ. But like MHJ isn't a sell. Like this is still a player you want to own.

Yeah. And I think you really nailed it at the end there was that Marvin Harrison Jr. This is not necessarily like a complete indictment on Marvin Harrison Jr. It's really a positives galore for Brian Thomas. everything he's doing is just flashing, flying off the screen every time you watch him. And his age and production, the guy looks like kind of peak Josh Gordon out there. Sky's the limit. And I think he's going to continue to ascend over the second half of the season.

And he's a guy, I think that we're going to be very, very excited to draft in redraft next year. I think there's a chance he's a first round pick in redraft leagues next year, sort of like we saw this year with guys like Harrison Jr., guys like Drake London, and Garrett Wilson sort of pushing up into the tail end of the first round. I think that could be Brian Thomas. Really, really exciting stuff there. Let's talk about a wide receiver, certainly an older one, but one who's playing very, very well. Jaden Daniels dealing with a rib injury.

Marcus Marriota comes in, plays extremely well. But let's talk about the number one target in the Washington commander's passing game. And that's Terry McLaurin. just how high is his rest of season ceiling, Scott? I think it's pretty high. I don't know. I kind of struggle with him. If we gave him just two additional receiving yards last week,

he'd be averaging 20.2 draft kings fantasy points per game where you get a bonus for 100 yards. It's like wide receiver 7 numbers, low of just 17.4 over that span. So like really dependable. It also feels a little unsustainable. You know, he just ranks 21st and first read target share, 21st and XFP per game. And so maybe it's just like the potency of this offense where he doesn't need tremendous volume.

And like even if that regresses, then the volume would pick up. I don't know. Personally, I really kind of struggled with him. I guess high end wide receiver two. What do you think, though, Theo? Yeah, I think it's a high end wide receiver too, which is really solid for McLaurin. and I'm with you. We would like to see a little bit more targets.

He's sort of stuck in that purgatory range where he's giving us like 14 points per game. We would love to see the volume tick up, maybe fewer targets for a few other guys in the offense, maybe a few, a couple of less running back touches might be nice in certain game scripts. I don't know. I'll say that the one thing about him is the schedule sort of gets a little more difficult. so we could see over the second half of the year maybe more games where they're going to have to pass, maybe more games where they're trailing. Washington just hasn't trailed that much, which seems kind of funny to say,

but there's been a lot of games where they've been in complete control of the situation. But I love what I'm seeing. It's certainly like what we were promised this offseason where his play was going to get elevated by the quarterback, but it's not quite the level we want to see. but I still would be more willing to buy McCorrin than to sell him for sure. Let's stick at the wide receiver position because I want to get your opinion on not only AJ Brown and his incredible usage, but also what we're seeing with Devontas Smith. Am I like too nervous to be a little bit worried about Devontas Smith?

I mean, we've seen very minimal usage now in a two-game sample size post-by week. And on the flip side, A.J. Brown is just completely dominant in every way. Where are we at in this split? I know DeVant to Smith was a player. You were very bullish on. And I shared your enthusiasm this past off season. Is it just the passing volume in general? Like, where are you at on Devont to Smith right now and also A.J. Brown?

Yeah. So it was a lot of the narratives this off season where, Oh, we're going to get DeVant to Smith in the slot more where he's been excellent. And you did see that earlier in the season. And, you know, we're going to get him in mismatches. We're going to use him a lot. And, like, that excited me because, you know, Kellyn Moore, his history with his wide receiver one and his offense has been incredible, just peppered with volume.

And it's like, okay, maybe Devonda Smith is not the wide receiver one, but those wide receiver ones were always the slots, right? And now you're just seeing aging. Brown go insane. Like there's an argument to me made he's the overall wide receiver one in fantasy. He's also, by the way, getting a lot of slot run. So he's getting these mismatches. And yet, really just could be the case where like A.J. Brown is just like out alphaing him to such a large extent. And then you also have Sequin Beasting. So more carries fewer targets for for all receivers. I ultimately, I don't have a great read on this. I can see this, you know,

turning around, you know, next week or the week after. But yeah, right now it's looking like A.J. Brown might be the overall wide receiver one in fantasy. And we were, we were all a little too bullish on Devontas Smith's prospects. Yeah, I think you could sort of nailed it. And for me, it's also a little bit more concerning. The one argument to be made was maybe there was a little bit more volume for Sequin than they really wanted just to get the revenge game narrative. Saquan has the second most. rushing yards he's ever had in a game. And maybe they fed him a little bit more sort of in that situation. But I do worry a little bit where Dallas got her missing and we still don't get the

targets for Devanta Smith. So I think I'm with you. I think collectively there just wasn't enough enthusiasm about A.J. Brown. And it's sort of been that way for two straight seasons. We saw his first season in Philly where he was falling to like the two three turn at times, a second round pick where people really underrated him. And then last season, it was, A.J. Brown is sort of being drafted towards the peak of his potential fantasy points. Like, this is not a guy we're comfortable taking at the end of the first round. And he again delivered.

This year, it's even more amplified where he's actually, his usage is trending up now for the third straight season. He obviously has this great connection for Jalen Hertz. and Jalen Hertz treats him like a proper alpha if there ever was one. Even in games with a low passing volume, Brown is still able to overcome it with like a 35% target share. So I'm totally with you. And Scott, maybe that'll be the storyline for the second half of the season. The win rates sort of shifting back to the first round wide receiver with guys like A.J. Brown delivering now that we have all these guys like obviously Chris Godwin that are injured.

let's talk about another player sort of coming off of a buy week. C.D. Lamb. And before we talk about anybody else you want to focus on that was on a buy this past week, specifically, what are you looking for with CD Lamb this week coming out of a buy? He had his massive breakout last year post-by week. Do you think that this Dallas Cowboys team is in a similar boat where we're going to see a post-byweek bump for CD Lamb or were you a little bit apprehensive after that complete beatdown against Detroit? Yeah, that was rough because that was the perfect matchup for Lamb to go crazy. It was a home

game. It was a best possible schematic matchup. Lions giving up the most fantasy points were game to wide receiver ones and to slot wide receivers. And he just had seven catches for 89 scoreless yards. Dak Prescott's not playing well. Tons of off target throws. Second worst, and overworthy throw rate. Only Will Levis has been worse. So, yeah, I would like to see, you know, heavy target volume, really good efficiency in production. Dak Prescott just take a step forward.

But it's not the same thing like it was last year. It was just like CDLAM needed more volume. Dallas needed to be more pass heavy. And you saw that in spades. Now it's, you know, quite a few factors. So I don't know. Hopefully, hopefully it's just the buy. curing all ills like it did last year, but I can't say I'm too optimistic.

Definitely a tilting game coming up between Dallas and San Francisco. Rapid fire, Scott. Any player from Chicago that you're looking for post-by week? Yeah, DeAndre Swift, just seeing insane usage, really good production over his last three games. You know, those were some soft matchups there, but he's got about three more near perfect matchups these next few weeks. So yeah, excited to see what he does this week. Sam Leporta, does he rebound and start seeing more target volume with no Jameson

Williams, maybe a few more end zone looks? Save, make a positive statement about Sam Leporta for everybody, Scott. No, I'm not going to do that. Yeah, for two weeks, yeah, volume and usage would be better than it's been. But it's been like low end, tight end two with Jameson there. So yeah, maybe it'll create like a nice, quick little cell, not high, sell mediums, sell low window. But yeah, it's just been so bad that, you know, I don't know that I'd have him in my like top 10 rest of season rankings. I will these two weeks without JMO.

But beyond that, I don't know. It's not too pretty to me. Absolutely rough and crazy stuff for Sam Leporta managers in both Dynasty and in redraft. Let's end it with this, Scott. When the average separation score came out over at Fantasy Points data, Rashad Bateman was a player you were continually talking about. Now you're starting to see the Ask King Rashad Bateman starting to produce in a big, big way. We had two straight weeks where it was like positives, 70 plus receptions,

playing well, four catches, four catches, snaps equaling Zayflowers. And then we get the big game on Monday Night Football against Tampa Bay. how bullish should fantasy managers be with Rashad Bateman rest of season? Yeah, you see us tweeting about Rashad Bateman's ass and like, you know, all the fantasy analysts geeking out over it. It's really us just saying this guy is good. Like he is he's so much more good than he gets credit for. But that's a different conversation than like how valuable he is for fantasy.

He like MHJ right now is playing the field stretcher role. And so what have you seen? He's had one game with more than four targets over his last six. And so I don't know that he's someone really to trust in fantasy, although he's like currently, I think, the wide receiver 36. But yeah, he's just a player we all like and we all think is pretty good. But dependable every week, you know, flex eligible guy. I don't know.

I don't know that I see that yet. but encouraging last few weeks at the very least. Yeah, and if I'm going to be chasing it with a flex, I love using high upside flexes. And this Baltimore offense is simply in shame right now with the productivity we've seen. It's like four straight weeks with an AFC player of the week between Derek Henry and Lamar Jackson, simply insane. Scott, this was a blast.

Let everybody know what you have coming out. Yeah, Scott Barrett, DFP on Twitter, FantasyPoints.com, have some DFS stuff coming out later in the week. If you're into that, if you lost Chris Godwin from your team, you lost Rashih Rys and Rashid, get into some DFS. You know, that's my recommendation to you. What about you, Theo? Just a bunch of podcasts. I have my Dynasty article coming out over at Fantasy Points. I have Dwayne McFarlane over on press coverage. Check out Dynasty Life with Ryan Heath. That dropped earlier in the week. And yeah, just looking forward to more school of Scott. We're going to help you crush

your leagues this season. Check out everything we discussed over at fantasy points and we'll see you next week.