Fantasy Football Today - 09/11: Trade Talk! Plus Regulators, TB-CAR and Fun Stats (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 11, 2019

Starting the show with some big debates: Can you drop Dede Westbrook? Should you roster two QBs? Should we be concerned about O.J. Howard? Then we address Tyreek Hill's timeline (7:15) and what it means for Mecole Hardman before getting into our favorite Buy Low (10:50) and Sell High (14:50) guys after Week 1. A lot of RBs to either acquire or trade away right now ... News and notes (20:55) as we address the Antonio Brown situation and much more. We also look at the Most Added list (24:00) and give our thoughts on John Ross, Giovani Bernard and a few others. And we preview TB-CAR (30:30). Can we trust Jameis Winston? ... Our listeners tell us who they think will be the biggest busts of 2019 (40:00). Kerryon Johnson? Stefon Diggs? We also have Fantasy Regulators Part One (46:40), more Buy Low/Sell High (49:50), Grade the Trade (55:50) and Fantasy Regulators Part Two (58:00) ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. Here we go! It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Well, I hope you're ready for a very fun Wednesday show.

Welcome, everybody. This is Fantasy Football Today. I'm ready for Wednesday. Heath, I know you're ready for a fun Trade fun Wednesday show. Welcome, everybody. This is Fantasy Football Today. I'm ready for Wednesday. Heath, I know you're ready for a fun Trade Talk Wednesday show. Hi, Heath. I buy low, sell high. No thanks, guy. That's right. Buy low or heck no. Sell high or no thanks, guy.

I don't think we're playing that today. And Ben Gretsch is here. What's going on, Ben? Welcome back. We haven't spoken to you since Saturday. How was your week one? It was good. Yeah, it went well.

A lot of interesting stuff, definitely. I mean, there always is, but a lot of fun storylines in week one this year. Yeah, and we will get to those. We have just a little segment carved out just for Ben Gretsch's fun stats and things to know. Obviously, buy low, sell high. We're going to do that every single Wednesday. We're going to preview the Thursday night game. Heath has Greg Olson ranked ahead of O.J.

Howard. Repeat. Heath has Greg Olson ranked ahead of O.J. Howard. Heath, you have Greg Olson ranked ahead of O.J. Howard. I do? Just letting you know that. Here's what I'll say. The numbers have Greg Olson ranked ahead of O.J. Howard. There's no bias in my rankings.

And that's more true early in the week than it will be Wednesday or Thursday when I kind of go through and take more of a closer look at my opinion on things. I will say O.J. Howard was a player I was very, very disappointed in the more I looked into it week one. I did not like the fact that Mike Evans was sick and couldn't play his full role, and we still didn't really see a huge bump in target share for O.J. Howard. I did not like the fact that the two touchdowns that went to tight ends that

were overturned went to Cameron Brate and not OJ Howard. I did not like the fact that OJ Howard wasn't targeted downfield as much as he was in Dirk Cutter's offense. I am a little bit concerned about OJ Howard. Okay. Okay. I sent out a couple of tweets yesterday. One of them got about 86 responses, something like that. That was my tweet about, if you were writing a 2019 bust column today, who would you lead with? The other one got like 130 comments, and that was my comment about how...

I mean, are these just hashtag humblebrags about how big your Twitter following is? Or what's going on here? 124 comments on my tweet about how I finally watched the end of the Avengers movie. And it sucks. Like the last hour is just garbage. Maybe more like a half hour.

You know, it was on FX. But yeah, people didn't like that tweet. I think, Heath, you added it to the thread, right? Yes, we added it to the thread of terrible Adam Azer takes. I wish you had tweeted. Like, I guess I can just say what you said on the show last night and add it to the thread as well, because it was one of your...

You give a lot of good advice. I give you a hard time for the bad things that you say. You do give a lot of good advice through the season. You help people out a lot. But you said one of the most asinine things you have ever said on a podcast in your life last night. What did I say? So I said this your life last night what did i say so i just said this on hq last night yes that you were willing to drop dd westbrook to pick up a

backup quarterback in a one quarterback league yeah i think yeah i do i was laughing no i when you phrase it like that but he's a backup exactly what you said but we're talking about dac prescott who has a chance to be really good this year. I'm not sure how much I buy it because, you know, the competition was— You don't even like Dak Prescott. Yeah, I don't, but maybe I'm opening my eyes to—maybe I was wrong about Dak Prescott. So, you know, you got Cam Newton. The guy had Cam Newton.

He wanted to know if he should drop DeeDee Westbrook to pick up Dak Prescott. I said, yeah, I'm fine with that because I don't like D.D. Westbrook with Gardner Minshew. I just don't. So I think he's droppable, and I think it's okay to roster two quarterbacks. Play the matchups. You don't want to be stuck with Cam Newton in a week where you don't like him. And Cam Newton didn't run in week one, and that's a continuation of what we saw last season. And if he doesn't run, he's not going to be that good.

So the same way you're concerned about O.Jard like i'm not super concerned about cam newton i'm not benching cam newton but i noticed that he didn't run and i'm okay going out and getting a guy like dak prescott it's fine me but if your league is that shallow where you have to cut dd westbrook number one it's probably not a smart move to roster two quarterbacks in a league that shallow. But number two, if you're believing in that type of a league that everything you just said about Cam Newton, that Cam Newton is not that good of a fancy quarterback, then you just cut Cam Newton. No, no, no. And you pick up Dak Prescott. No, I'm not cutting Cam Newton to pick up Dak Prescott. You drafted D.D. Westbrook ahead of where you drafted Cam Newton.

I drafted D.D. Westbrook when Nick Foles was the quarterback, and it's not like Nick Foles is so great, but I do believe he'll be a lot better than Gardner Minshew. I'm very concerned about D.D. Westbrook. I don't know. What is your thing against Gardner Minshew? What do you mean what is my thing? We know nothing about Gardner Minshew

other than the fact that he carved up the Chiefs defense. What round was he drafted? We'll find out more. I'm not saying Gardner Minshew is good, but we know nothing about him so far. Ben paid like $150 for him in our two quarterback weeks. Ben, I have a section of you. I had eight blocks in that league, and I'm

definitely going to need a third quarterback. But look, he played in the air raid offense with Mike Leach at Washington State and was good. He's a charismatic dude. I think he's kind of an interesting guy and um i think he could be decent as well i mean i i certainly i we don't talk about this a lot but i certainly think that when there's guys that like uh i don't know i'm not gonna go into the

whole grip thing but i mean the guy the guy wants to win like i like raw like guys like ryan fitzpatrick i'll that guy will air it out and he might throw a lot of interceptions but it also helps his stats right and i think we'll see that from gardner minchin too he'll be willing to take shots he'll be willing to take hits uh that helps uh a stat floor just because he's willing to to be a little bit of a gunslinger i would say he is a sixth round pick for the jacksonvilleuars. It is hard enough for rookie quarterbacks to make a fantasy impact. He is a sixth round pick. He's not going

to make a fantasy impact. We're not starting him. He's probably going to be a terrible quarterback, and it's going to hurt D.D. Westbrook, and I'm sorry. I think you guys are going to be dropping D.D. Westbrook in two or three weeks, and I'm just ahead of the curve, baby. If I do, it won't be for a backup quarterback.

It's not a backup quarterback. It's a starting quarterback. Like Dak Prescott. I wouldn't drop. You're binging him. No, but I wouldn't mind having. You don't even believe in Dak Prescott. I wouldn't mind having two really good quarterbacks on my team.

Why don't we just act. You know what? Keep Dak Prescott away from another team. Why don't we just act like it's so easy to have one quarterback I'm gonna start Cam Newton every single week I'm gonna start Jared Goff every single week no I'd like to be able to play the matchups I'm fine with that points are points like I'll take hey Matt Bryant's available a lot of leagues to get your backup kicker oh you're the worst um all right so let's get to the show here uh by the way actually let's talk about this Tyree kill out four to six weeks.

Ben, your reaction here, fantasy impact of Tyreek Hill's injury. Yeah, Mikko Hardman has to be a must-add. We already talked about Sammy Watkins has top 10 wide receiver potential, but Hardman ran routes on 79% of Patrick Mahomes' dropbacks in week one. He didn't put up a lot of stats, but he very clearly went right into the Tyreek Hill role. You know, they weren't game planning for him to be on the field that much. I think they will game plan some easier things for him to do going forward. This offense looked phenomenal in Jacksonville, even after Hill went down.

You want a guy who's going to be running a ton of routes and be their speed threat. Remember that when the Tyreek Hill news this offseason initially broke was right during the draft, the Chiefs made sure to get Meikle Hardman. He's their replacement if Tyreek Hill were to have not been able to play this year. He's going to be the replacement now that he's injured. We saw that in the snap shares and routes run in week one. So he's an add in almost every league. I mean, you want receivers in this good of an offense. It's interesting. He's only 32% owned. And guess who else had no catches in his NFL debut? How about Calvin Ridley? Zero catches on three targets in week one in 2018. And then 64 yards in a touchdown, 146 yards and three touchdowns, 54 yards and two touchdowns in his next three games.

So Hardman, 32% owned, somebody you want to get. I mean, you weren't on the Waiver Wire show, neither of you were on the Waiver Wire show, but if we were doing it again, everybody's adding Marquise Brown, everybody's adding DK Metcalf, John Brown, Jamison Crowder. Those were the top four, not necessarily in that order. Heath, where would Hardman be in that group? Not for me in that group.

I agree with Ben that he's somebody you want to add, but he would be behind those four for me for sure. I'd probably put him behind Terry McLaren as well. I was impressed with his involvement in the offense, but I would rather add Meikle Hardman than John Ross.

I would add Hardman over all of those players. Really? Yeah, absolutely. I would add Hardman over all of those players. Whoa. Really? Yep. Wow. Absolutely. Wait, this is the litmus test for the entire show today. Are you dropping D.D. Westbrook for Mecole Hardman?

No. Oh. For Mecole Hardman. No, probably not. Probably not. Okay. But Hardman is a guy who we don't – okay, four to six weeks isn't a super long time. All those other guys you mentioned, they're high upside plays plays but we don't see wide receivers come out of nowhere tyler boyd was like the one notable exception last year but come out of nowhere and be top 12

top 24 guys uh guys like john brown i don't think they have massive upside i never really did that's why i was always really wide receiver heavy earlier in drafts hardman's a guy that i think has really explosive upside and that's worth chasing that you might actually put in your lineup John John Brown just put up 100 yards in a touchdown in week one and had like a 27% target share yeah and Josh Allen in a huge passing game script through for 254 yards on 37 attempts he still ran 10 times like that's not going to be a high volume pass offense uh offense. Yeah, he had a great game, and he's going to have great games. But I think he's going to be a pretty boomer bust still. Yeah, sell John Brown to Heath.

Get in a league with Heath. Yeah, John Brown, he's very high on John Brown. I know that. Always, yeah. At Oakland for Hardman, then Baltimore, then at Detroit, then the Colts, then Houston. So not a terrible schedule. Some good, some bad matchups there while Tyreek Hill is out. Who is your favorite buy low candidate, Heath? I'll get one favorite buy low, one favorite sell high from both of you. Heath, who's your favorite

buy low? It's really tough to know which performances people cared about from the elite players, but I would be trying to see if someone was a little bit discouraged by Nick Chubb and the fact that he had a touchdown stolen by Dontrell Hilliard because he really dominated running back touches in this game, and I fully expect he's going to be the top seven or eight running back that we all thought he was going to be. Okay, Nick Chubb. And Ben, how about you?

Who's your favorite by low? Definitely like the Chubb call. I moved him up based on that week one performance even though he wasn't very productive my guy will be miles sanders he got rush attempts on the first and third carries of the game for the eagles so he was in and involved right away uh in the past in these types of game scripts because the eagles were behind 17-0 early and 20-7 at halftime you would see darren sproles play a lot of snaps and run a lot of routes. Sproles was involved a little bit, but it's notable that in that type of script,

Sanders played the most running back snaps by a lot and ran the most routes, ran 16 routes. Sproles ran, I believe, nine and Howard eight, Jordan Howard eight or vice versa, but they combined for 17 and Sanders ran 16. He played about half the snaps in this game. He also got their two closest running back rush attempts, two carries from the three yard line and had a 21 yard rushing TD called back. His final line, 12 touches, 27 yards, does not show how good of a sign this first game was.

They were playing him early. They're playing him often. Jordan Howard only had three touches until late in the game when the Eagles had regained the lead and had a 29 to 20 lead and put together like a 15 play drive. And Howard got five more touches on that drive to finish with eight touches. And Howard might be the salt away running back guy based on that. But I was really surprised to see Sanders already getting inside the five yard line

touches. That's where I would have thought that Howard would have got touches kind of a veteran deference thing to start the season sanders already getting those touches already running the most routes on the team even though he wasn't targeted as much as sproles or howard but the routes are a really good indication that he'll be involved in the past game and already playing the most snaps absolute favorite by a low this week nick chubb for heath miles sanders for ben and i'll continue that theme i know ben's Ben's going to talk about how this takes a little while for rookies to get into the swing of things.

It just does, especially running backs and David Montgomery. I mean, we talked about it on Friday after the Thursday night opener. I think David Montgomery is a good buy low. I don't know if you're going to get immediate dividends, so hopefully you don't have to start him if you trade for him. But I think eventually the time is going to come for David Montgomery. He's the most complete back in that backfield. And yeah, I look forward to seeing what they do

going forward. I think they'll be playing with the lead more, obviously. I expect them, I still think they're going to win the division. So Miles Sanders, David Montgomery, Nick Chubb, three running backs you can buy low on. I'm going to ask you guys

for your favorite sell high candidate after this quick break on Fantasy Football today. Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight real play.

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Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. So you got some buy lows before the break. Let's come back with some sell highs here. I'll go to Ben first. Ben, who's your favorite sell high candidate after one week?

It's Mark Ingram. Look, I played him some in DFS and i wasn't on him at all this offseason but he was a great play in week one i totally uh you know i i'm not trying to say that what he did was fluky it was a great setup it was the perfect script for him but he got five rush attempts in the green zone last year's team uh league high was the the saints most green zone rush attempts that's inside the 10 yard lines high high value scoring to opportunities the saints led the league last year averaged 3.4 per league high was the Saints. Most green zone rush attempts, that's inside the 10-yard line, high value scoring opportunities. The Saints led the league last year, averaged 3.4 per game. Ingram got five against the Dolphins. Gus Edwards got four. The Ravens had nine in week one opportunities. And again, the league leader last year, 3.4. We're probably going to see them more, even if they are a very, very efficient offense offense all year long more in the three to four per week range the fact that that he split those opportunities with gus edwards is the more

notable thing for me both drives where he scored rushing touchdowns gus edwards got a rush attempt in the 10 yard uh 10 yard zone the green zone before ingram scored and just as easily gus edwards could have got into the end zone before inggram came on and got those TDs. So very interesting note there that when those opportunities come down, when the Ravens offense isn't as good, he might not have as many scoring opportunities. And then more particularly, we saw again from Lamar Jackson, the same thing as last year. He doesn't throw to the running backs. He's going to scramble if he needs to, or he's going to throw the ball down the field. No running backs got targets except for i believe they're fullback so ingram great great game in week one but a great time to also see what you

can get for him because going forward probably not going to be able to score twice in every game and probably not going to get enough receiving work to be super valuable all right can i just wait can i wait until after he plays arizona and the chiefs and then sell them yeah yeah i mean that works too because he might score two times this week and next week. I mean, yeah. I honestly had not looked at his next two matchups. I don't have him anywhere. I didn't draft him anywhere, but that's fair.

Maybe we should save this for week three. Yeah, no, but it's a good point. I mean, all right, so Mark Ingram for Ben. How about you, Heath? Who's your favorite sell high? We're just only talking about running backs today because I'm going to talk about the guy one spot ahead of Mark Ingram in the week one standings, Marlon Mack.

Had 22 yards on eight carries in the first half of this game. Picked up over 50% of his rush production in terms of yards and his only touchdown on two third quarter rush attempts. Once again, zero targets, no involvement in the past game i'm just scared just as scared as i was before this game and i'm hopeful that this performance made somebody think oh he's gonna be fine he could still be a top 15 running back and i'm selling him to them yeah i i had the colts i don't know what to make of them maybe jacoby brissett's gonna have a good year and if he does then marlon m Mack and T.Y. Hilton,

look, I guess you could sell high. They're both coming off great games. But maybe they can be a lot better than I thought they were going to be. So I'm a little bit hesitant to sell. It's possible that they have a good quarterback. I don't think he's going to be a great quarterback. But if he's a good quarterback with that offensive line, I think Mack and Hilton are going to be close to must-start guys.

I don't think they're going to be tremendous players, but I think they're going to be close to must-start. Sure. Yeah. All right. You can sell high and still be close to must-start and it'd be a good decision. So what would you look for? You're not going to get Nick Chubb for Marlon Mack.

What would you try to get for Marlon Mack? Gurley? Oh, I'd love Gurley. That'd be huge. Yeah. What about diggs and adam feeling i mean those are guys i would grab or try to acquire from marlon mack the vikings only threw 10 pass attempts in week one that's crazy it's the third fewest in a single game over the last decade which is we're talking about thousands of games over that span we always expected these guys to be high target share guys in a low volume passing offense and nothing we learned in week one really

changes that the Seahawks last year through the fewest pass attempts in the last five seasons they averaged I think it was 27.6 per game in the high 20s the Vikings at 10 pass attempts in week one was one of the biggest statistical anomalies of week one they'll still be a low volume teamvolume team. I mean, it's a big indication they want to run, but they'll probably throw three times as much most weeks. So Dillon and Diggs, we didn't really learn anything that changed their value other than just the Vikings didn't need to throw at all in week one. All right. We got a lot more coming up here on the show, including Antonio Brown. I mean, we should probably mention that. I'm getting real tired of talking about Antonio Brown, but big news and fantasy implications. So yeah, just one thing I want to tell you about, a couple of things I want to tell you about actually. CBS Sports HQ,

you know, we talk about it a lot. We do a nightly show now, I think Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday from 8 to 9 p.m. Last night, Heath and I were on talking about the waiver wire. So if you miss the afternoon show, watch us in So if you miss the afternoon show, watch us in the evenings. But the afternoon show is noon Eastern, noon to one, Monday through Friday. And then on Sunday, three hours before kickoff,

they're on talking football, talking fantasy football. If you miss that, you can watch them on demand on HQ on your OTT devices. So when you get home from work on your Roku, on your Apple TV, on your smart TV, wherever you watch HQ, you can watch a replay of the noon show, which I think is awesome. Please check that out. Go to sportsline.com if you want some gambling

advice or some fantasy advice, just some sports advice. The promo code is HUDDLE to get your first month for a dollar. After that, it's just $9.99. It's a great price for a gambling website. Sportsline.com, and the promo code is HUDDLE. And I know you have asked about a FanDuel contest for our listeners. I am working on that. I think there's a chance it happens this week. It's possible it would be next week, but we'll have some type of FanDuel contest. I'm pretty sure.

I feel good about that. So go to FanDuel.com and use the promo code FFT when you sign up. News and notes. Antonio Brown has been accused of sexual assault. And people are going to make fantasy decisions based on this, right? They're going to try to maybe acquire Antonio Brown dirt cheap thinking that maybe nothing comes of it. I don't really want to get into the whole situation, but there is some fantasy impact. If you want to talk about it, I don't want to put you guys in a spot where you're uncomfortable talking about this, but what would you tell fantasy owners right now about this Patriots wide receiving unit? I'm just holding right now until we get more information. I don't know that we have enough

information to make any sort of action, and I think it's better just hold. Okay, fair enough. Obviously, you know how to evaluate these guys if Antonio Brown's not there, because that's what you did when you drafted. Anything on Joe Mixon right now, guys? Do we know anything about his status? I've still seen almost, like I saw a little bit of optimism that maybe it was just a sprained ankle, but nothing after that. Okay. So I'll run through the notes here. Mike Tomlin optimistic about Juju Smith-Schuster playing this week. The Jets acquired Demarius Thomas for a sixth round pick. They get Cleveland on Monday night. Ben, does this matter to you with the Jets getting Demarius Thomas?

Not even in the least. Okay. Speaking of the Jets, they could be without C.J. Mosley, their linebacker, and Quinnen Williams, their defensive tackle. So it could be a huge week for Nick Chubb. And Odell Beckham is going to keep wearing his watch, so, you know, don't break it. Cleveland running back Dontrell Hilliard is in the concussion protocol. Bill O'Brien expects Kenny Stills' role to grow, and he's widely available. Ben, what's your interest in adding Kenny Stills,

who did score a huge touchdown for the Texxans in week one it's pretty low his role wasn't very big he ended up with three catches but two of those were on design jet sweeps where he got little tip passes and they went for a combined zero yards and then he caught the big touchdown late and he finished with the three catches 37 yards but all of those yards were on that touchdown play his role was very very small so even if it grows i mean we didn't see him get any targets really in the normal flow of the football game throughout the entire game frankly until the very last play when they were using his speed to go vertical because they needed to he's not not a priority for me right now all All right, that's Kenny Stills. Some defensive injuries. Garyon Conley, we saw the scary hit that he took

and got taken off on a stretcher, but he may actually play this week for Oakland. But they are losing their safety, their rookie safety, Jonathan Abrams. He may go on IR. That's a tough blow for them as they get to Chiefs this week. Tampa Bay safety, Justin Evans is on IR.

Oh, Heath has Cam Newton ranked. I'm not going to tell you. You're going to have to wait to find out. Arizona right tackle, Marcus Gil Evans is on IR. Oh, Heath has Cam Newton ranked. I'm not going to tell you. You're going to have to wait to find out. Arizona right tackle Marcus Gilbert's on IR. But meanwhile, back to the Thursday game. I skipped a couple of important ones. Peyton Barber is going to start. Great.

And Greg Olson plans to play, but it's a short week, which he said is not ideal. So right now he plans to play through a back issue. Detroit right tackle Juwan James has a knee injury. Houston signed Nick Martin to a three-year $33 million deal. Great performance by that Texans offensive line. Somebody gets a contract extension out of that. Okay.

Washington defensive tackle Jonathan Allen has a sprained MCL. Minnesota cornerback Mackenzie Alexander is going to miss some time with an elbow injury as they get ready for the Packers. And Denver wide receiver Tim Patrick broke his hand. Heath, we take a quick look at the most added list. The top five most added players are John Ross, 49%.

Marquise Brown now up to 71%. And the most added list, it ranks people based on the change in ownership. So Ross went up the most. Brown went up the second most to 71% owned. Malcolm Brown is 54% owned. He's third. Giovanni Bernard still just 38% owned. He's fourth. And Terry

McLaurin, 21% owned. He's fifth. I threw it to Heath, but actually I want to throw it to Ben because I know Ben had stuff to say about John Ross. So go ahead, Ben. Sorry, Heath. Yeah, no, I threw it to Heath, but actually I want to throw it to Ben because I know Ben had stuff to say about John Ross. So go ahead, Ben. Sorry, Heath. Yeah, no, I'm – anyone who's followed my stuff in previous years before I joined you guys here at CBS knows that I was pretty high on John Ross, which worked out swimmingly last year.

Just absolutely crushed for all my leagues. But interestingly, his year last year a lot of people have commented on how bad he was how bad his efficiency was he led the nfl in an uncatchable target rate so he 50 a full 50 of the targets that went down as going towards john ross last year were uncatchable that's a big reason I wasn't talking about him a ton this offseason, because I just thought the connection with Andy Dalton wasn't great. But we saw a big change in week one under a new head coach. And we also know that John Ross in his rookie season was in the doghouse with Marvin Lewis. There always seemed to be some distrust there. He seemed openly disinterested. Believe me, I watched him very closely last year, disinterested at times last year.

But now here in year three, I think this guy still has plenty of potential, was a good prospect, not just a speed guy, had a lot of production at Washington, had 20 touchdowns in his final season, scored in every way throughout his college career, ran back four kicks, scored multiple rushing touchdowns and tons of receiving scores but now he's playing in a zach taylor offense he comes from the sean mcveigh coaching tree and the big note for him and the way that they ran this offense yesterday was that they were heavy 11 personnel over 80 snaps and over 80 routes per drop back for each of three wide receivers for the bangles on sunday tyler boyd John Ross and Damian Willis and it explains

why the team was saying Damian Willis was going to play in AJ Green's role that's a separate role from John Ross's role so we know AJ Green's coming back but if John Ross really builds on this first game and has a good start to the season it's a very very good chance he would be essentially the Brandon Cook's role in this 11 personnel heavy scheme which means three wide receivers starting and playing a lot of snaps. You'd have AJ Green as kind of the Robert Woods intermediate target role and deep target role. And then you'd have Tyler Boyd as kind of the Cooper Cup clone as the slot guy and move guy.

So big news on John Ross long term that he wouldn't necessarily lose his playing time when AJ Green comes back. Yeah, he'd probably lose some production, but not playing time. That's a good A.J. Green comes back. Yeah, he'd probably lose some production, but not playing time. That's a good start. Sure. I just, like, I don't disagree with anything Ben said, but since you didn't come to me after you said you were going to come to me and I had something so ready to say, like,

I don't understand why John Ross and Marquise Brown are now more owned than Giovanni Bernard. Well, because, okay, first of all giovanni bernard did not have a touch in the game until joe mixon got hurt so if mixon is in i don't think you're getting anything from giovanni bernard which was the case last year if mixon is out you have a must-start player but we did no No one knows if Mixon is in or out. Right, but if you don't need a running back None of these other guys are must-start

players under any circumstances this week. If you don't need a running back this week, why are you going to your waiver wire to get Giovanni Bernard when, like, it looks like to me, it looks like he's a one-week guy. Maybe a two-week guy, but he's not a long-term solution. And he has no role. He has no role when Mixon is healthy.

Because you feel confident that Joe Mixon will stay healthy after this, the third injury in his two years and one game in the league. So let's just pick up all the backups. Let's pick up the ones that have demonstrated that they are top 12 running backs when they have a chance to play. We just added Malcolm Brown at 54%.

But Malcolm Brown got 10 carries. No one's starting Malcolm Brown this week. His role is irrelevant. The only reason you're adding Malcolm Brown is in case something happens to Todd Gurley. Todd Gurley is not currently injured right now. Yeah. Okay. All right.

Fine. That's fine. Okay. They're 38% owned. He should probably be more owned than that. But I was discouraged by the fact I looked at the game log and he had zero touches before Mixon's injury. He had zero touches in the first half, and I'm pretty sure it was before the injury. You know, definitely in the first half.

And I don't know exactly when Mixon got hurt, but I think it was just like his last carry. Didn't play the rest of the game, and then Geo took over. But I mean, to Hugh's point, Mixon is hurt. Like, Geo Vonny Brouwer might start in week two. Yeah. He should definitely be out. All right.

We got to take another break here and we're going to preview the game when we come back. Oh, the regulators are coming on as well. So get excited for that.

We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Metrolinks and Crosslinks are reminding everyone to be careful as Eglinton

Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains caninton Crosstown LRT train testing is in progress. Please be alert as trains can pass at any time on the tracks. Remember to follow all traffic signals. Be careful along our tracks and only make left turns where it's safe to do so. Be alert, be aware, and stay safe. Still a lot more trade talk and players we weren't willing to drop

and the regulators and your emails and great to trade, but right now let's do Tampa Bay at Carolina. All right, so I was going to say Mike Evans is a great buy low, and I think everybody knows that Mike Evans is great, but there's so much Jameis Winston panic right now that maybe people are panicking on Mike Evans, and I think everybody would be on board with that, but I do want to point out he had two bad games against the Panthers last year.

And Garrett Bradbury, their cornerback, the Panthers cornerback, has done a pretty good job on Mike Evans. All that means is that you're starting him. But if he has a bad game, I wouldn't freak out about it. So as we look at this game, let's start with the Buccaneers. And let's start with their receiving core. As you can see them on the screen here on our video show, which you should be watching on YouTube,

youtube.com slash fantasy football today. Heath, your take on Godwin, Evans, and Howard. I'm just mostly optimistic and wanting to buy low on both Evans and Howard for the course of the season. Mostly very concerned about this week. The epiphany that I kind of had during that game was we really didn't bake in any sort of time for Jameis Winston and this offense to adjust to a new system. We talk about quarterbacks with new systems a lot, and we just assumed they were going to be awesome from week one. They were clearly not

awesome during week one against what I still think is not a very good defense in San Francisco. I'm concerned in week two because I don't know that three days is enough to fix anything. Are you still starting Mike Evans? Yeah, probably. You're probably still starting all these guys, but I'm not

very excited about it. Are you going to keep Greg Olson, Mark Andrews, Darren Waller ahead of OJ Howard? You know, there will be rankings adjustments this afternoon. I am not certain that I'm going to be moving Howard. And I don't think I really like I think the difference is more that I have Olson ranked higher than everyone else. Looks like Jamie's got Howard at 11-2. Dave's got him at 9.

I love O.J. Howard's talent. I'm not questioning that at all. But we've basically gone through two years of, why doesn't he get more than three to five targets per game? We were all ready for that to change because Bruce Arians has such a great track record with tight ends. And then week one, he gets five targets, and Cameron Brate has two touchdowns called back.

I'm not certain much has changed with his usage. We tried to will it into happening. I'm not sure that it has yet. Yeah, he played a big snap rate, but ran a route on only 55% of Jameis' dropbacks, to your point, and Cameron Brate was at 44%. So that doesn't look like much change with his usage. Okay, both these teams, by the way, I think they stink against tight ends.

Carolina was awful last year against tight ends. Howard had a two-touchdown game against them. Tampa Bay gave up two touchdowns that were called back to George Kittle, for what that's worth. But their defense still, you know, I don't think we're buying it. Todd Bowles is maybe going to help improve. But they still have a ways to go. So if you need to stream a tight end, Olsen's not the worst option,

as Heath will tell you, because he has him in the top ten right now. And he had nine targets week one. He did. The back injury sucks, and the fact that he openly talked about how the short week is not good for his back injury, that's disappointing. But i have olsen in a couple of leagues and i i'm probably going to stick with him obviously hawkinson waller if i had picked them up that would be one thing but like like i'm gonna start you can start olsen or jimmy graham who also appears has a good matchup i don't know that the vikings are great against tight ends but um like olsen or Graham? Olsen.

Okay. All right, let's talk about quarterbacks. Very close for me, yeah. We'll go to the quarterbacks here. So starting with Cam, who I'm pretty sure most people are going to start, but Dave has him 12th. Jamie has him, I think, 5th. And Heath has him 1st.

He's your number one quarterback? He is my number one quarterback, which really, for me, isn't that big of a deal because he was fourth coming into the year. I think he was third last week. He's playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at home. I expect a big bounce-back week. The difference between Cam, Deshaun Watson,

Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes is like one fantasy point, so I wouldn't argue with ranking any of those guys ahead of Cam, Deshaun Watson, Lamar Jackson, and Patrick Mahomes is like one fantasy point. So I wouldn't argue with ranking any of those guys ahead of Cam. But yeah, I expect a huge week. Ben, do you have any faith in Jameis Winston this week? No. I mean, I'm right with where Heath is at in terms of just like, you kind of have to start these guys. But I don't like it i i have him in a couple

leagues where he's my only quarterback and i'm those guys that i don't want to cut on my bench but i'm trying to decide whether to just outright cut him for a guy with a good quarterback matchup like a derrick carr andy dalton who have decent matchups this week i'm probably just going to play jamis and not do that because i don't want to carry two quarterbacks to the point that we talked about the top of the show. But that's how concerned I am about him right now. Heath, who are some waiver wire guys you'd start over Winston? That's the thing that I mostly agree with, Ben.

There really aren't very many. I've got a group of quarterbacks ranked right in that 15 through 18 range. Only one of them actually projected for more points. And it's Andy Dalton against the 49ers. And they're like almost tied Derek cars right there against the chiefs. I think you could consider Josh Allen, but for the most part, I'm probably like,

I'm concerned. I don't have confidence in Jameis. I'm probably still starting him. I will say, I think Mitchell Trubisky was dropped in a lot of leagues, and I would start Trubisky over Winston. Okay. What about Aaron Rodgers against the Vikings or Winston? I've got Rodgers higher.

I've got Rodgers a little bit higher than I did last week. It's not a good matchup at all, but at least he's at home. So I feel a little bit more confident in Rodgers. All right, we'll start McCaffrey, obviously. What about the Tampa Bay running backs? Nobody's going to start Peyton Barber, but should we take a shot on Ronald Jones, Ben? You got to be in kind of a dire situation. Look, I was obviously really high on Ronald Jones last offseason.

This offseason, he's my highest-owned running back in my most leagues. And I was very encouraged by what we saw in week one. But Daria Gumbawale ran the team's highest number of routes. He was in on the first third down. He was in on most third downs throughout the game. Jones looked really good on the ground. And he also caught a pass and turned it into an eight-yard gain. I'd love to see his receiving work expand. But right now, he's a back that's trying to earn a larger share of the early down work and isn't even necessarily running a lot of routes i think he ran a single digit number of routes i think it might have been four uh barbara ran 12 and a goomba wall i'd ran something like 18 or 19 and was their primary third down back so jones looked very explosive and there's a chance

that if he continues to be very good, he ends up being essentially their three down back. He's easily the most talented back of this trio, but he's a hard guy to start right away in week two when the team's saying, particularly the head coach is saying, that they're still going to keep the same rotation and then only just go with him if he has the hot hand.

Okay, would you start Justin Jackson or Ronald Jones? Jackson. Jackson, yeah. Carlos Hyde start Justin Jackson or Ronald Jones? Jackson. Jackson. Carlos Hyde, Duke Johnson, Ronald Jones. They're facing Jacksonville. Duke. Duke. Then probably Ronald Jones, then Carlos Hyde. Yeah, for me. How about Aaron Jones

against the Vikings or Ronald Jones? Aaron Jones. Yeah. You got to rank him higher, but I don't want to play Aaron Jones this week. How about James White or Ronald Jones? In non-BBR? Give me all three formats. It's not close in any of them, James White.

Yeah, it's White. They're playing the Dolphins. I'm concerned they're going to be up by 30 at halftime. What do they need James White for? Sure, that might happen, but he should still catch some passes while they get up by 30. It's a lot of points we're talking about. He might score one of the touchdowns.

All right, Curtis Samuel, DJ Moore, start or sit? Let's finish up here. Against Tampa Bay, I think you can start both of them. The one issue, concern I had with Cam Newton was his average depth of target was very low, or average depth of throw. And that's part of the reason we didn't see a lot from Curtis Samuel. I'd hope to see them take some shots

here, but I have some faith in him. It's a great matchup. DJ Moore's a must-start for me. Unless you're really deep. DJ Moore's definitely a must-start. I wrote about it on Monday, and I know people still disagree. I'm not starting Curtis Samuel until I see something on an actual football field during an actual football game that looks like it's different than it was last year.

We saw almost 80% of their targets went to Olsen, McCaffrey, and Moore in week one. It won't be that high every week, but it looks like a clear big three, and there's not room for a fourth starting option in this passing offense, I don't believe. Would you start DJ Moore or Chris Thompson? Moore. Yeah, Moore. Six of Thompson's 10 targets came on their final drive in garbage time.

Yeah, but they're going to be trailing for more of the game than they were against Philadelphia. So he's going to have more opportunities. Would you start DJ Moore or Devin Singletary? Moore. Yeah, Moore. But Singletary is super interesting. Yes, he truly is. I actually have Moore ranked the highest of any of the receivers in this game.

Whoa. Whoa, I love that. Wow. That's a good take. Okay, I hope it's not a curtis samuel week and the panthers dst they're available and they're not bad it's not a good week for streaming dst so they are not bad um if you were rewriting a 2019 bus column who would you lead with okay so let's just go through some of the answers i got here uh jamis winston was probably the one i got the most.

Yeah, you know, I come back to this. Week eight last season, Jameis Winston threw four interceptions at the Bengals. He got benched for Fitzpatrick. He sat the next two games, and then he relieved Fitzpatrick at the Giants three games later. In his next three starts, he scored 22 to 26 fantasy points. If you drafted Jameis Winston thinking he was never going to have a bad game and never going to throw interceptions, what were you doing? I mean, I just don't jump off the cliff yet with Jameis. So I don't know.

I think people have reacted a little bit too harshly. But Heath, you also make a good point that it could take a little while for him to get going in this offense. Yeah, I just still expect that we're going to have a four- to six-week stretch at some point, or maybe longer, where Jameis Winston's a top-five quarterback. All right, so here's what we're going to do. Yeah, I mean, he still had plenty of air yards, and he chucked the ball around. Yeah, he was bad as a player, but we've seen that at times, and he still had the volume. So those completions will be there in some games.

Here's what we'll do. We'll go through this list of busts quickly and you'll tell me what you think. Are they actually busts? Are they buy lows? Bust-o-meter? Yeah. Lightning round. 0-10 on the bust-o-meter. 10 is they are definitely going to be a bust this year. 0 is buy low on them immediately.

Carry on, Johnson. 3. 7. Concerned, huh? Yeah, yeah i mean they threw 45 times they're not gonna play that up tempo most games he only had like 60 scoreless yards in a game where they played five quarters and uh ran like 80 in the high 80s and plays play volume so yeah very concerned only two targets out of 45 and 16 low value rushes i always talk about the high value touches his workload was not great for for an up-tempo game this this offense isn't going to run this many snaps in most weeks so to see him not produce here was not good yeah bad start for carry on i'm going to be a little more optimistic i'll be closer to heath's three

uh whereas on this guy i'm a little bit pessimistic i don't think he going to be a little more optimistic. I'll be closer to Heath's three. Whereas on this guy, I'm a little bit pessimistic. I don't think he's going to be a bust, but Stefan Diggs, who Ben talked about earlier as a buy low. I just think feeling's better. I think if one of those guys suffers from a low pass offense, it's going to be Diggs. I talked about that in the preseason. So I think he's kind of a bust, but 0-10, guys. Heath on Stefan Diggs. 4.5. I agree entirely with what Ben said about them not throwing 10 passes per game. That's not what they want, but Mike Zimmer was so happy with the outcome of that game and how little they had to put the ball in the air and how much they got to run and play super slow.

That just really is what he enjoys about football. And so I do think there might be several games where they throw 25 passes. And I don't know that both Thielen and Diggs can be good with 25 passes a game. 4.5. How about you, Ben? 0-10 for Diggs. 2. Yeah, I totally agree with what he just said. But I just think if they throw 25 passes, Thielen and Diggs will get 20 of them.

I mean, that's essentially what we thought coming into the season. Mitchell Trubisky is next on the bust-o-meter. 68%-0 now. He was drafted in like the 12th or 14th round or something. How are you starting him over Jameis Winston? He is at Denver this week. He was better than Jameis Winston last year. No, he really wasn't. Derek Carter had a good game at Denver this week. He was better than Jameis Winston last year. No, he really wasn't.

Derek Carter had a good game at Denver. Trubisky had a good six-game stretch. In his last seven games, he ran for 23 yards once. More than 23 yards once. He's going to have some bad games. He's going to have some good games, just like Jameis. He's going to have a bad game this week. Was Trubisky better in end-of-season numbers or in points per game?

I don't know. He was 12th in points per game. I don't know what Jameis was in points per game. But Jameis played like four games that he only played half the game. So are we only counting those as halves? No, I looked at Jameis' starts, and I think he was about 12th as well in points per game. So they were similar. All right, let's move on.

How about Damian Williams, 0-10 on the bust-o-meter 3 he got the receiving work yeah 3.5 he's not going to be worth a second or third round pick if it's just the receiving work and 40% of the rush attempts and LaShawn McCoy

looks better as a runner in week 1 and Corey Davis 0-10 on the bust-o-meter. Eight? Five and a half. I'm not ready to drop him yet. Okay. I mean, A.J. Brown looked like the number one receiver and was a really high-credential prospect.

For him to step right in in week one and do what he did and Corey Davis to not catch a pass, I'm going eight. Let's take our last break of the show. We got regulators buy low and sell high when we come back. We'll be right back. Did you know that across Ontario, utility damage happens 19 times a day? That's over 4,222 incidents a year. Dirt Report. Let's do some regulating.

Here we go. FantasyFootball at CBSi.com put fantasy regulators in the subject line. I apologize, I don't have a name for this one. Our league is set up with a $100 fab budget in the settings. But an email from the commissioner communicated that the budget was $1,000. It's a keeper... Sorry. It's a keeper league.

And last year was also... Highlight of the show. Last year was also $1,000. So it set up to be $100, but the email said $1,000 and last year was $1,000. Without realizing the budget was actually $100, I made a claim on a player for $100 and another claim for $50. I had the high bid on both players, but the first bid cleared my entire fab,

and the $50 claim went to a team that bid $10. There were multiple other bids cleared on other players from a mixed bag of people on what the rules were. Therefore, the resolution is complicated. I think all players should go back on waivers for rebid, and the league thinks we should do nothing. I missed out on a great player critical to my team, and I have no fab for the rest of the year. The league thinks it's unfair no matter what action. I get that the value for each player is different in time now, and manager valuations are exposed unfairly, but I think this is less unfair than having no budget left and

losing out on a player that would be owned if settings were correct. I also realize I have a responsibility to analyze the league settings. What is the most fair resolution? I think this is hilarious that this guy wiped out his entire FAB on one player because the email said it was $1,000 instead of $100. And I would give every player, I would take every player back and I would reset Fab and I would do it again that's what I would do Ben, what would you do here? I think I would do the same, I've been in this

situation before in leagues and I understand the point, yeah I understand where there was a major technical problem or what have you not the mistake on what the Fab amount was but I think fab ran early or something and half the people didn't get their claims in but we i understand the point where it's like now everybody knows what everybody wants to bid but the only fair way to do it is you have to read you

have to redo it you have to pull everyone back and redo it i mean we did we did like a vote on it in that league and it sucks but now you just have more information and you you can you know use that how you want either you bid higher you bid lower whatever but um if if there was a if it was a thousand last year and there was an email that it was a thousand and then it was just a hundred and it goes through you got to redo it there needs to be an investigation into the commissioner on this subject because if it was set up as $1,000, it had to be changed from $1,000 to $100 at some point. The guy who would have done that is also the guy that sent the email saying it was $1,000.

And now they don't want to change it to make it right. I think I would probably put the commissioner on probation and one more incident like this and he would be fired. That was some pretty good Sherlock Holmes-ing right there, laying out the timeline. I liked it. And one more incident like this, and he would be fired. Okay, there you go. See, that's a—we take— That was some pretty good Sherlock Holmes-ing right there, laying out the timeline.

I liked it. Okay, let's do—we're going to finish out the video portion of the show with some more buy low and sell high. Guys, we have about six minutes left here, so we'll do it as quickly as we can. Heath will hop off, and Ben and I will hang around to answer some of your emails and do a little bit more regulating. All right, so, Heath, give me some more buy low candidates. We've already given Nick Chubb, Miles Sanders, and David Montgomery. Heath had Chubb. Ben took Sanders.

And I said David Montgomery. Give me some more guys. Go ahead, Heath. Yeah, I would buy low. It's hard to make trades for quarterbacks. But Cam Newton is the type of guy who I think still has top three quarterback potential and just put up one of the worst performances any quarterback will put up this season.

So he is someone I would definitely try to target in a league maybe that isn't quite as experienced. I think that there's a chance Todd Gurley could be a good by-low candidate. The touches weren't really that much different than what I expected. He had 15 touches in the game. I had him projected for 17 per game. And I don't think he'll get all the touchdowns like you were hoping for Adam.

But I also don't believe that the plan is just when we get into the red zone, Malcolm Brown's going to score all the touchdowns and Todd Gurley is just going to be perfectly fine with that. I anticipate he will score plenty of touchdowns. And so if somebody thinks he's not a top 12 running back now, and Todd Gurley is just going to be perfectly fine with that. I anticipate he will score plenty of touchdowns. And so if somebody thinks he's not a top 12 running back now, I'd be trying to buy low on Gurley. He's getting two this week.

They will make up for it. Ben, who else are we buying low on? I'll throw Christian Kirk out there. The Arizona offense was kind of stuck in the mud for three quarters, but really picked up. They played really fast. They wound up with a ton of air yards and a ton of volume. We would need to see more earlier in the game going forward,

but I think we can cut them a little bit of slack, given it was the first time head coach and a rookie quarterback, that it took them a little while. At least they came alive late. Christian Kirk had a ton of volume, a lot of targets, a lot of air yards, didn't have a lot of production. Another interesting note on this offense, Keyshawn Johnson and Demary Bird are guys that I would be either on the watch list or be willing to add maybe on the watch list after their

matchup with the Ravens in week two. The Cardinals ran a ton of four wide receiver sets, more than I've seen at the NFL level. All four of their top receivers, those three and Larry Fitzgerald, ran around on at least 83% of Kyler Murray's dropbacks. They hardly use their tight ends. So they could feasibly have four fantasy viable receivers because they're running them all out in routes every time. And they have a lot of... That's how you get zero fantasy viable wide receivers.

That scares me. Not to mention the fact that they were garbage for three quarters against a really bad team that was a terrible pass defense last year on a per-attempt basis anyway. Not when you have 500 air yards in the offense, though. That's the reason. They ran so many plays and threw so many passes. I am nervous buying into the Cardinals' offense.

I still think they're more likely to be bad than good. They already lost their right tackle for the season, and they have a terrible offensive line. I'm scared of them. It's a great test because I am generally on the side of the analytics that Ben is citing here, and Arizona is the darling of that community, and week one did nothing to change that. But it's going to be a great test as to whether they are,

like, how do you have to be good? Or can you just do all these things that we think you should do and run a lot of four wide receiver sets and throw the ball down the field and it'll all work out? It's going to be interesting to see. Any other bylaws, Ben? I don't even think you have to be good in fantasy. You just got to throw.

That's the point. That's what I'm saying. They weren't good for most of that game. And I generally would favor the larger sample size. But I think the argument you were making is that I don't care if they're good. If they're going to do this, it'll work out for fantasy. And I'm not sure I buy that. But I think it's possible.

Okay. Ben, one more. Are you done? Yeah. I don't know if Devin Singletary qualifies as a buy low but we mentioned him a little bit earlier played a 70 percent snap sure he only rushed four times so that might be the reason you can buy low on him but frank gore who ran 11 times uh singletary started he didn't come in and gordon come in until the last snap i believe of the first quarter the first snap of

the second quarter he also was used three of his 11 rush attempts were trying to run the clock out and he wasn't able to gain a first down first second third down got stuffed they punted uh he was also used at their own goal line from the two-yard line and got a two-yard loss and gave up a safety so they were giving him these like veteran like uh say like uh early down we need a safe running back that's not going to fumble type touches. And he still wasn't very effective. Singletary only got the four carries, but played so many snaps. TJ Yeldon did not play. He,

uh, Singletary ran around on 82% of Josh Allen's dropbacks. I mean, just an awesome usage trend for him in week one. So maybe if you can buy low on those four rush attempts, but he was good. Heath, who are we selling high on?

Uh, this is the toughest thing like after week one i the way i've seen on the waiver wire some of the people react to some of the younger wide receivers and the people that are being dropped um the justice hills the justin jackson's um i think that there's a decent chance you could sell high on both john ross and marquise brown i'm a little bit more nervous about brown than i am ross even though ross is like from a numbers perspective ross's looks more believable because marquise brown didn't play very much but he's a it was his very first game and he's a first round pick i expect his snap count to go up i actually expect r Ross' targets to go down once A.J. Green comes back. Okay. All right.

I was thinking Derrick Henry. I just don't want to change my mind about a guy that I thought was going to be basically the biggest bust in fantasy. He had a great game. The Titans had a very good game. I don't really buy the Titans, and I don't really buy Derrick Henry, especially a 75-yard touchdown catch. So I'm

going to try to sell high on Derek Henry. He only got three high-value touches. We talked about him as a big trap back, and he scored on two of those three. That's where both of his touchdowns came from. I agree with you. Very low high-value touch rate. Okay, cool. Hey, Heath, thanks for hopping on today. It was great. It was great, guys. That's it for the video portion. If you want to see our video portion, you can see it on CBS All Access or you can watch on youtube.com slash fantasyfootball today. Stick around. Ben and I are answering your questions when we come back. And we're back. How about that?

Okay. Bye, Heath. All right, so let's grade some trades. Ready? C is average. F is terrible. A plus is great. C is an average trade nobody wins nobody loses this is from Sam

give DD Westbrook get Carlos Hyde non PPR C and non PPR yeah all right all right I can dig that maybe a C plus for the DD set so this is a C minus then for the for Sam since he gave up DD yes it's's a c-minus for sam

i'm sorry yeah it's okay you'll learn uh from steven give up austin eckler get aaron rogers tyrell williams and leshawn mccoy yeah that's like uh a minus at least i mean eckler is going to be really good but melvin gordon's going to come back at some point. Latest report was four to six weeks. There's a timeline on that. You're getting potentially the Chiefs starting running back, a guy who had a ton of receiving volume in week one in Tyrell Williams and Aaron Rodgers.

Yeah, that's a good trade. From Derek, grade the trade. Give up Josh Jacobs and Curtis Samuel. Jacobs and Samuel. Get James Connor and Marquez Valdez Scantling. PPR. I love how he gave us a suggested. He gave his own

grade. I've never seen that before. I think he gets an F just for that. He gave himself a B+. Which is, I think, pretty good and pretty accurate, right? He's been grading his own trades. That gave us a B+. He gave himself a B+, which is, I think, pretty good and pretty accurate, right? It's a pretty good... I mean, he's integrating his own trades. That's probably a B+. He gave up Jacobs and Samuel. He got

Connor and MVS. And if anybody's panicking about the Steelers, take advantage of it. I mean, I don't know about Roethlisberger, but Connor and Juju take advantage of that. And finally, from Mark, grade the trade non-PPR, give up Eckler, get David Montgomery. That's like a C for me.

I think Montgomery might have a lot of value later, but you definitely want Eckler in the short term. We know that Eckler has the time limit on his production. I mean, I think I'd have Montgomery a little bit higher. So you gave up Eckler for Montgomery. I'll give you a C+. You made a little bit of a win there. But you better have other running backs that can produce in the short term. Right.

And, you know, it is non-PPR, so that helps. But that was an interesting trade. Okay. Let's regulate. This one is from Blake. Dear Kurt, Dave, and Christ. That sounds Nirvana-y. Yeah.

You're from out west. Is that Nirvana? I think so. I'm not certain. You're required to know everything about West Coast bands. Writing to you from a city due east of Lubbock, seeking advice for alleged collusion activity in my half-point 10-team league.

I'm the commissioner. Upset with his week's team... Okay, this is a very poorly written email. I already edited and I already screwed up. Upset with his week team's overall week one performance, the owner of Travis Kelsey accepted a trade

that sent Kelsey and Mayfield to the team that did the best in week one and happens to be managed by his sister for Devin Singletary and Josh Gordon. So he gave up Kelsey and Mayfield and got Singletary and Josh Gordon. He gave that to his sister. He gave Kelsey and Mayfield to his sister.

Another manager cried collusion and posted on the league chat to veto that garbage trade. Now, I know for a fact the trade is not collusion, that the manager trading away Kelsey is just that dumb. He picked 11th overall. He picked him 11th overall, which I don't care what y'all say is stupid. However, the manager receiving Kelsey Mayfield now has cried that the posting on the league chat is collusion and that the disgruntled manager is attempting to influence a league decision of whether or not to veto. Is the encouragement to veto a trade collusion? For the record, I did veto the trade before the post because it is absurd. And I just want to like, this is one of the worst regulators emails.

This guy is wrong. Blake, you are wrong in just about everything you're saying. Like this trade is not that bad. He's giving up the best player, but he might be getting a starting running back and Josh Gordon. And I think this was made before the Antonio Brown crime news

potential. Like crying to the league about vetoing this trade is ridiculous. Drafting Kelsey 11th overall is fine. Fine. This is a terrible regulator's email. This trade should absolutely go through, and we should kick everybody out of the league except for these two owners.

I love it. And just to, I mean, oh, God. You know what? Let's just move on like i think from uh the fact that you're saying you know that it wasn't collusion but the the owner is just dumb or you you obviously think that it's dumb but yet you you voted to veto the trade you don't veto trades because they're dumb or you think they're done exactly if you think it's collusion everything about this is bad you should not be voting for that.

And then this whole conversation about something in the league chat being collusion to try to influence a league decision is just, that's what the league chat's for, for people to gripe about this stuff. Terrible email. All right, this is from Zacharyn. Zach and Akron. Where are you, Zacharyn? Why haven't you called the show, by the way, the radio show?

Dear Scott, Ramona, Wallace, and Knives. That is Scott Pilgrim. Scott, this is a fun movie. I never thought I would need the regulators. My league is always fair and ethical, but I need you here. I offered a trade in our 12-team half PPR. Oh, wait. Zach, I am very, very sorry.

I did not give you the music. Okay. I offered a trade in our 12-team half PPR league, my Austin Eckler and Zach Ertz. I give up Eckler and Ertz. I get Ezekiel Elliott and Brandon Cooks. I purposefully targeted this trade mate to sell Eckler because he loves players that blow up for huge points,

and he was weak at tight end. So he'd be giving up Eckler and Ertz for Zeke and Cooks. This is a keeper league, and Eckler would be a good fourth-round keeper, assuming Melvin Gordon doesn't re-sign and Eckler is the RB1 next year. The trade was accepted, and about 30 minutes later, the commissioner texts me and says he's going to reverse the trade. The commissioner stated that the individual I traded with was asked about the trade by other league mates,

and then alerted the commissioner that he was quote unaware it was a two for two trade thought it was just Eckler for Cooks not Eckler and Zeke or not Eckler and Ertz for Zeke and Cooks long story short the commissioner reversed the trade I have validated in mobile that all four players are visible when reviewing the trade in one window and you're asked to confirm prior to accepting the trade. So what do you think? Is this an okay excuse for a trade to be overturned? I thought it was a one-for-one, not a two-for-two.

I think that's kind of, no. I don't think that's an okay one. It sounds like the other players in the league got to this guy, and he was like, he had a little bit of buyer's remorse, and he decided to to back off his trade i i don't believe the story i just don't i don't believe that he didn't see that there was two players on both sides of the trade it just seems like an after the fact justification i will say if there's ever a time to veto it is situations where there is a legitimate like

mistake right or a technical glitch of some sort. Somebody didn't see something, like, yes, then you should overturn it. You shouldn't stick people with really horrible trades. But this one, I don't know. I'm a very forgiving commissioner, but I'm sorry. It is not hard to see who is involved in a trade. And you know what?

We are the regulators, and it has been regulated. That is Ben Gretsch. Ben, thank you. Thank you, man. This was a lot of fun today. Always. Wednesday shows are always fun. You know it.

Starter sit tomorrow and some more trade talk. We haven't even talked about Lamar Jackson. We will do that on tomorrow's show. For Ben, for Heath, I'm Adam saying, uh!