Fantasy Football Today - 09/24 Fantasy Football Podcast: Week 3 Recap - Overpay for TE?

Episode Date: September 25, 2017

An awesome Sunday of NFL action gave us a plethora of Fantasy points from unexpected places. Adam, Jamey and Heath recap the action. We're giving our thoughts on a bunch of backfields (7:30) including... CIN, TEN, SEA and DEN. Who are the lead backs going forward? ... Winners (18:08) including Russell Wilson and LeGarrette Blount. Losers (23:10) including Cam Newton and Hunter Henry. And should you overpay for one of the elite TEs (27:10)? ... We get out the Worryometer (32:25) for Lamar Miller, Isaiah Crowell and a few more before recapping every game with Fantasy analysis (38:35) ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com 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

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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. Here we go! Email us at fantasyfootball at cbsi.com. Here we go! If you still draft quarterbacks in round one, we're here to help. Let's go! Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Recapping week three. What an insane Sunday. That was awesome.
Starting point is 00:00:24 Cannot wait to talk about it. I am Adam Azer with Keith Cummings and Jamie Eisenberg on this Sunday night. Hope you're enjoying your Monday commute. Monday stinks. Got a whole work week ahead of you, but we've got awesome football to talk about. Are you hiring? Before we get into this show, with ZipRecruiter.com, you can post your job to 100-plus job sites,
Starting point is 00:00:42 including social media networks like Facebook and Twitter, all with a single click. So try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. That is ZipRecruiter.com slash FFT. Jamie, do you share my Week 3 enthusiasm? The games were awesome, but I hope Week 3 drives into traffic blindfolded or drives off of a cliff because I never want to see it ever, ever again. Why? Because it was awful. In what way?
Starting point is 00:01:08 In the way that, from a game perspective, it was great. From a fantasy perspective, it was terrible. I'm sorry, man. You had two great weeks. You went into this week with 21 leagues and only one at 0-2. That's it. That's cool. That's true, actually.
Starting point is 00:01:20 I made a mistake on the radio show. All right, fine. Our stupid big office league had 24 teams. I was 0-2 in that one. Okay, that's fine. 19 out of 20 leagues, you had at least one win. Or 21. So you are allowed to have a bad week.
Starting point is 00:01:31 Heath, how great was week three? I don't care about my teams. I care about my predictions. Oh, don't worry about it. You were right on Joe Mixon. Congratulations. Yay. Heath, how great was week three?
Starting point is 00:01:44 Amazing. Week three was fantastic. It was awesome in every single way. And I want to second Jamie's motion to change the name of that league to our stupid big office league because that's exactly what it is. Every year we get to week three and I'm like, I'm never playing in this league again. I'm sorry, guys. It's a good thing I didn't bother playing in it. It would be another crappy team for me. So we're not going to talk about Sunday night I'm sorry, guys. Good thing I didn't bother playing it. Be another crappy team for me.
Starting point is 00:02:05 So, we're not going to talk about Sunday night or Monday night, obviously. Well, I think I didn't have to tell you about Monday night, but Sunday night is just kicking off now, so we will leave that. We're going to look at a bunch of backfields, and I think we got some clarity in a bunch of backfields today. Hopefully, we got winners and losers. Today, they will be called Ghostbusters and Vigos
Starting point is 00:02:21 in honor of the best edition of the Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters 2. And let's of the best edition of the Ghostbusters franchise, Ghostbusters 2. Don't smile when you say that because you know you're wrong. Let's talk about the big news first. Not that much today, thankfully. Melvin Gordon hurt his knee, but he came back in. If he were to miss time, what would your interest level in Brandon Oliver be?
Starting point is 00:02:45 Zero. I think he'd be a flex for you. I knew that was going to happen. I knew it. Zero for Heath, flex for Jamie. And, yeah, we'll see. Hopefully it's not a big deal. He came back in the game, and we expect, as of now, we don't know much. Should be fine.
Starting point is 00:02:59 I just tried to look up their schedule for next week, and I typed in San Diego. They get Philly at home. Philly at home. Okay, Kelvin Benjamin. This could be the biggest, most significant injury of the day. It's not a major injury, according to NFL Network, but Kelvin Benjamin left early with a knee injury. Heath, Devin Funches is only 53% of leagues.
Starting point is 00:03:19 How much of a priority would Funches be for you? Well, Devin Funches just played most of a game without Kelvin Benjamin against the worst defense in the history of football and scored what four fantasy points so that's how he will be a touch he's a tight end he was a tight end in college he still has the body and the speed of a tight end and he has the production of a tight end he will be a touchdown dependent number three or four wide receiver with no Benjamin. He did have a little bit better than we gave him credit for. 58 yards on 10 targets this week, 63 yards on
Starting point is 00:03:56 six targets last week, but it's certainly not great. Yeah, you make a good point. He played most of the game without Calvin Benjamin. You know what? Let's not bury the lead without Calvin Benjamin. You know what? Let's not bury the lead. Cam Newton. I know that's why you're upset, Jamie. He was the start of the week. What's your take right now? He's not the only reason, but yeah, he was terrible. I mean, look, it's not fair to say you lose Greg Olson one week,
Starting point is 00:04:18 lose Calvin Benjamin early in the game the next week, and have success. But I would have thought if it was you and Heath at wide receiver, he would have success against this team. They were down their two best cornerbacks. They got beaten up each of the first two weeks. His track record against them was very good. Losing Ryan Khalil didn't help at the center position. But Cam is not good. He's not good. He's not healthy. It's time to stop making excuses. He's going to be in the waiver wire list as a guy to drop because you just can't deal with this
Starting point is 00:04:42 anymore. You can't start him. Heath, I didn't even bother looking at our crappy Rejects League team. Are we going to lose again? We started Cam. I look at every one of my teams throughout the day, like maybe at the end of the first games, halftime of the second games, and just see how we're doing. I've got that one blocked. I do all of our mock drafts where I just don't even check it out. Looking at it now, it looks like we are ahead by three.
Starting point is 00:05:06 Oh, wow. We have a chance or no? Going against Chris Johnson. That's it? We're done and he has Chris Johnson and half PPR. Really smart move we made starting Derrick Henry over DeMarco Murray, starting Demarius Thomas over Sammy Watkins. We've got like 100 points on our bench right now.
Starting point is 00:05:26 Were you guys in agreement on the Murray-Henry thing? No, actually. But we didn't bother asking each other today because we have great communication. I think we'd actually decided that if they both played, we were going to start Buck Allen. We did. And then neither one of us cared about this team, so we didn't set the lineup. Well, we gained two points with our apathy, so good for us. All right, back to the big news.
Starting point is 00:05:48 Matt Forte left with a toe injury. Jamie, what do we know right now about Forte? It's almost very similar to what happened with DeMarco Murray. The game was so well in hand for them that they probably didn't need to put him back out there, so we'll find out what his status is. But I think if you're hoping, as a Bilal Powell owner, that Forte is going to miss some time, then that's what you're rooting for. But my guess is that unless it's something serious,
Starting point is 00:06:14 he's going to be out there next week. Darren Sproles left with a wrist injury. We're going to talk about that Eagles backfield in a moment. And then just some football notes from the day. Golden Tate down just short of the goal line to end the game. That was crazy. Do you think they would have been able to get another playoff in eight seconds? Yes.
Starting point is 00:06:30 Me too, man. What a cheap rule. I mean, I guess there's not a great option there, but they run off ten seconds. There are eight seconds left on the clock. It was originally called a touchdown. They review the play. He's down inches short,
Starting point is 00:06:42 and they, by rule, have to take ten seconds off the clock because it was a running clock. And that was it. That was the ballgame. What I would have rather seen is if they'd have made Golden Tate go lay down on the goal line and have someone lay on top of him and have everyone else go back to exactly where they were on the video and then start the clock at 8 seconds and see if they could do it. I mean, they have the replay review. They could easily have staged it, right? You're here.
Starting point is 00:07:05 You're here. I don't know. Get creative. Aaron Rodgers threw the second pick six of his career. Devontae Parker had the greatest fantasy garbage time touchdown that has ever been. I cannot remember a better garbage time touchdown. I remember Hopkins had one against the Vikings, I think, last year. But this was the last play of the game. They called timeout to set it up. They did? I didn't even know that. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:07:29 six seconds. They had the ball. They called timeout, and then it happened. And was it 20-0 at the time? 20-0. Thank you, Devontae Parker. We started you in a couple leagues this week. Let's talk about some backfields. Time for the backfield watch. So I'm going to give you a team, and you tell me your best guess what happens there in the backfields. And I think a lot of these will be easy. Jamie, let's start with Seattle. Oh, I mean, it should be Chris Carson moving forward and forever. It's very clear he's their best guy.
Starting point is 00:08:00 Is he going to be awesome? Well, he gets the Colts next week. You know, their run defense has actually proven to be better than I think we give him credit for, but a home game where Seattle should dominate time of possession, he should be a monster. Is Chris Carson, both of you, a top 20 running back rest of season? Yeah, I think 20 may be pushing it just a little bit, but I'd give him 25. That's how close I think it is. Man, he looks really good.
Starting point is 00:08:27 Would you rather have Chris Carson or Frank Gore? Carson. Carson. Is there anyone on Baltimore you'd rather have than Chris Carson? No. No? Okay. Baltimore's headed for a train wreck without Yonda and that offensive line.
Starting point is 00:08:41 Yeah, Jamie is really down on Baltimore right now. You might be overreacting just a little bit. No, that offense is not good. Well, I don't think we thought it was that good. But it got worse. When you lose arguably your best offensive lineman, it gets worse, as we saw today. I don't think it's arguable.
Starting point is 00:09:00 He's a great offensive lineman. It is worse. But they'll be better than they were today. That was pathetic. It is worse. But they'll be better than they were today. That was pathetic. Heath, Tennessee. DeMarco Murray had 14 carries. Derrick Henry had 13. But Murray was much better.
Starting point is 00:09:15 What do you think going forward? Listen, I got this wrong because I didn't think Murray was going to be anywhere close to full strength this week. So I didn't think there's any chance you wanted to play him. But I still am going to stand by what I said about this situation, and that is when DeMarco Murray's healthy, I still think he's the starter. I still think he gets more than half the touches. It's going to be closer than it was last year, maybe more like what it was in the last four to six games last season, where Henry's workload picked up just a little bit. But I don't see a path, unless it involves a serious injury to Marco Murray, where Derrick Henry gets more than 50% of the touches.
Starting point is 00:09:48 But here's the thing that happened for the second week in a row, because they were sitting on a lead in the fourth quarter. Henry's going to be their fourth quarter guy. And so through the first three quarters, it will be, my guess, I'll ballpark at 70-30, Murray-Henry in terms of touches. The fourth quarter, though, that could almost flip. So you're saving the veteran guy. You're letting the younger guy do the heavy lifting.
Starting point is 00:10:09 But wait, wait. What if they're in a close game? What if those carries mean more? Don't they go to their better guy? Don't they go to DeMarco Murray? I still think, though, if they're sitting on the lead, let's say more than three points, because that's what it was essentially. It was a 7-10 point game throughout the fourth quarter quarter that Derrick Henry is going to be their guy.
Starting point is 00:10:26 We sit and watch games on Sundays with John Beeson, the former linebacker, and he said the toughest thing to do is when you're playing a physical team for three and a half quarters and then you get this big physical beast. He said the worst guy he ever had to play against, and he was his teammate for a little bit, was Brandon Jacobs. He said he used to hate having to see Brandon Jacobs in the fourth quarter because you're tired, you're worn down, you're trying to fight off alignment, and then here comes this guy at 200 plus pounds that's just going to hit you and hit you and hit you, and he's not looking to avoid contact.
Starting point is 00:10:52 The Titans are doing the right thing. They're using Henry in those fourth quarter situations. The difference is, last week, I think he scored the touchdown in the fourth quarter against the Jaguars. It certainly wasn't the second half. Yeah, it was late. If he had scored in this game, nobody would be upset about if they started Derrick Henry this week. No, I think...
Starting point is 00:11:09 He's still in the flex discussion. Would you be surprised if they go into Houston next week and beat up the Texans? I'd be surprised if they run all over them. I don't know run all over them, but if they're ahead, he's going to get 10 to 15 carries. Well... No one's starting Derrick Henry next week. Murray's the better of the two, but if they're ahead, he's going to get 10 to 15 carries. No one's
Starting point is 00:11:26 starting Derrick Henry next week. Murray's the better of the two, but Henry could certainly still get you production if you're stuck. Murray or Gurley rest of season? Oh, Gurley. Why? You hate that schedule, Jamie. I know you hate that schedule. He doesn't have to share with anybody.
Starting point is 00:11:41 Our next backfield. Jamie, you expected this, sort of. You were hoping for it, and you got it. Joe Mixon, dominated carries. What do you expect going forward? That he'll dominate carries again. I mean, why would you go away from the guy? I know he didn't have a great game, but he's clearly much more explosive than
Starting point is 00:11:57 Jeremy Hill. He's better than Giovanni Bernard running between the tackles, so he should be... This should be a game that you let him build off of as opposed to going back to what it was. And they are at Cleveland next week. So Mixon had 18 carries and three catches. He had 101 total yards. Giovanni Bernard did catch a touchdown, but he only had five touches.
Starting point is 00:12:18 And Jeremy Hill had his typical three yards per carry. So it looks like it's Mixon's now. Guys, Mixon or Carson, rest of season? I'll take Mixon. I'll take Mixon, barely. Let's go to Denver, Heath. CJ Anderson and Jamal Charles split it pretty evenly, and Charles has had right around nine carries every game. He got his nine carries for 56 yards and a touchdown. Anderson didn't have his best game. What's your read on the Denver backs? I loved seeing the touchdown from Jamal Charles.
Starting point is 00:12:50 It looked a little bit like old Jamal Charles. That was exciting. The problem for Charles, I think, is this 9-10 range is his peak. He's going to get that in games where they're chasing the score. He's going to get that in games where they have the lead. If this was a game where they were trying to put it away late, C.J. Anderson might have had more like 15, 18 carries. So I don't know that Charles' role changes much from week to week. Anderson's going to get those carries in the second half, kind of like Derrick Henry, except he's also the starter.
Starting point is 00:13:16 If you wanted to handcuff C.J. Anderson, would you still, Jamie, pick up Devontae Booker, or do you think Jamal Charles has done enough where it would be his job if Anderson went down? I just think that the way I would approach it if I'm Denver is, why would you want to stress Jamal Charles more than he needs to be? Because he's still an older guy coming off knee injuries. He would definitely get more work if Anderson went down. But Booker, I think, would take on a good portion of what Anderson's touches would be. So it would be almost a 50-50 split.
Starting point is 00:13:47 So I think if you're looking at it and Booker's still available to you, like I made a move that's probably going to come back to bite me, but in our IDP league, I dropped Wendell Smallwood to pick up Devontae Booker. I now have the entire backfield for Denver, but that's such a deep league with so many roster spots that I just felt it was better for my team to have Booker than Smallwood. But now if Darren Schmoles is out for an extended period of time, I would rather have Smallwood.
Starting point is 00:14:08 All right, then let's go right to Philadelphia. Darren Sproles left early in the game with a wrist injury. And Smallwood had 12 carries for 71 yards. LeGarrette Blount, though, had really a better game. I mean, they had very similar numbers, but Blount had the touchdown. It looked really good. And he had zero carries the previous week. And Corey Clement got in the action, too, with a rushing touchdown
Starting point is 00:14:28 on six carries. So I'll go back to you, Jamie, since you just dropped Wendell Smallwood, and now you hate yourself for it, and he's 17% owned. Are you going to try to pick him back up? In deeper leagues, yeah. I mean, I think he's still a good stash candidate. You saw them go back to LeGarrette Blunt in this game, which worked out well
Starting point is 00:14:44 for them, for him, for anybody who still trusted him and owns him. But if we do see a situation of Sproles missing, he's been their touch leader over the course of the season so far. So my guess would be that Smallwood takes on more work. I think he's still more explosive than LeGarrette Blount. We're still talking about a guy that's 30 years old that runs to contact as opposed to avoiding it. So Smallwood down the road may still have a bigger role. So given the lack of major injuries so far going into Sunday and Monday and a kind of depleted waiver wire, Wendell Smallwood may be cycled into a lot of fantasy leagues.
Starting point is 00:15:17 I don't think he's going to go from 17% to more than 50%, but I think we'll see him get to that 50-point range. 50% range, excuse me. Heath, on the Friday show, Start or Sit, which you were unfortunately not on because you were off on Fridays, off from the office anyway, I said that this was going to be Mark Ingram's week. I didn't think he was going to have a good week necessarily, but I thought he was going to get most of the work and sort of claim that job, kind of the way that Jamie expected Joe Mixon to do so. Do you think Mark Ingram did it? He had 14 carries in this game and two catches.
Starting point is 00:15:49 Adrian Peterson had nine carries. Kamara had two carries and a 25-yard touchdown run. Do you think Mark Ingram took that step almost like Joe Mixon this week? Here's the problem. Mark Ingram shouldn't have to do that in the first place. We know that he's the best running back on this team, and I can't evaluate whether or not he's done enough because I don't understand what type of ridiculous standard he's being held to. There's no reason to keep giving Adrian Peterson touches. generation you're asking has looked has looked very good at times i think he could be excellent as a complimentary piece to mark ingram i think they could have a good running game if they would just give ingram 15 to 20 touches a game give 5 to 10 maybe 12 some games to kamara that'd be awesome
Starting point is 00:16:37 but i like i i don't think this is a merit system where if mark ingram does some certain thing sean payton is going to give him more touches. It's quite obvious to everyone that watches them that Ingram is better than Peterson. Well, yeah, right. And that's why – I mean I tried to make a buy-low offer on Mark Ingram. It got rejected because Sammy Watkins was part of the deal and he had the concussion. So, you know, but I thought about that. I said, I think I need to take a chance here.
Starting point is 00:17:04 I was 0-2 in that league. I'm probably going to be – I have no idea. I'm not even checking. But I I think I need to take a chance here. I was 0-2 in that league. I'm probably going to be 0. I have no idea. I'm not even checking. But I said, I've got to take a shot here. I've got to take a gamble. Who's one of the best by, like, super lows? And to me, it was Ingram.
Starting point is 00:17:13 And I think he took a step. I mean, he is so much better than Adrian Peterson. If they're going to be smart, I think it's got to happen where they just let Ingram be their lead running back. I expect it to happen. I don't know when. And it is a guess for me. It's not based on anything other than common sense. Do you agree with me that it will eventually happen?
Starting point is 00:17:31 I agree with you that it should have already happened. I don't know. All right, so you're not willing to. It's so easy when we're evaluating situations like Joe Mixon, where we all think, okay, he's the rookie. They're going to work him in, but he's the most talented. Eventually he's going to take it. That made sense, the way that that all worked out.
Starting point is 00:17:50 This doesn't make any sense at all. They shouldn't have signed Peterson. What a stupid thing. And the Giants, the last backfield, and I think we can skip them because you don't want any of them. Orleans Darkwell got hurt. He did, yeah. So we'll see what happens with that moving forward.
Starting point is 00:18:07 So I think Shane Marine's their best guy. Let's do some winners and losers from Fantasy Week 3. And this would be the Ghostbusters and the Vigos. Jamie, give me a couple of Ghostbusters from Week 3. I was impressed with Russell Wilson. You know, came out, I think it was a career high in passing yards. So sets up very nicely for a game against the Colts at home next week.
Starting point is 00:18:29 That's what you're hoping for, is that this is what we see from him moving forward. Both quarterbacks in that game, really. Russell Wilson and Marcus Mariota. A lot of people down on those two guys clearly because of their slow starts. Wilson came out and looked great. Oh, I didn't mention the Doug Baldwin injury, did I? Doug Baldwin might be the biggest injury.
Starting point is 00:18:46 If anybody, while I'm talking, wants to look into that and see if we know anything about the severity. Oh, groin injury? Groin injury? Yeah, I'll follow up on this. Obviously, if Baldwin's hurt, that's bad. But is there anything that we can really take away from this? So encouraging from Wilson just because we don't expect him to throw 49 passes. We don't expect him to be getting in a shootout and trailing by two scores in the fourth quarter.
Starting point is 00:19:13 How worried are you? Because we were maybe fairly worried going into this game. Terrible offensive line. They look bad against San Francisco. Are those gone now with Russell Wilson? It's gone for one week. The fact that he did this should give you encouragement to play him certainly moving into week four. And then hopefully he continues just to build on this. But they still have the same flaws that they have.
Starting point is 00:19:36 The offensive line is still not good. And if he doesn't have Doug Baldwin with Jimmy Graham also banged up. Graham was great today too, but he needs those guys to be playing at a high level. Doug Baldwin told the Seattle Times that he doesn't know the specifics of his injury and says he'd love to when asked if he would be out there next week. Oh, well, we all would love him to be out there. How about your next winner? It is Jordan Howard who had a big game for the Bears and an overtime win over the Steelers.
Starting point is 00:20:03 Yeah, Jordan Howard, great. This is another situation. Deers. Yeah, Jordan Howard, great. You know, this is another situation. DeMarco Murray, Jordan Howard. You didn't know how healthy they would be in relatively tough matchups, and the guy behind them has been playing great. And Jordan Howard, I mean, right from the get-go, you know, Eli Rogers has the muff on the punt, and Howard scores a touchdown right away, scores a touchdown in overtime, and the Steelers have been playing unbelievable.
Starting point is 00:20:22 You know, again, take into account some of the opponents they face, but for Jordan Howard to sort of, I think, make everybody who drafted him or has been hesitant after what we saw last week with that shoulder problem, he should have put those concerns behind him. He scored 25 fantasy points in standard, 30 in PPR. He's the number two running back right now in fantasy this week, in week three, going into the Sunday night game behind only Todd Gurley. Heath, do you think both guys are going to be worth using in PPR leagues, both Jordan Howard, who's obviously usable in standard and PPR,
Starting point is 00:20:54 and Tyreek Cohen? Yeah, I think Cohen is, especially in any league that has a flex. In a PPR league, it's going to be hard for him to be a number two running back every week, but he's definitely going to be flex for him to be a number two running back every week, but he's definitely going to be flex-worthy. You just have to look at him like a high-volume wide receiver. Let's go to the Ghostbusters, the winners for Heath Cummings. Who are your Ghostbusters?
Starting point is 00:21:15 Who are your Venkmans? LeGarrette Blunt busted his own ghost, if that's an okay thing to say. He was dead. He was dead to the fantasy community and the ghost of le garrett blunt returned he looked good in short yardage he was running angry i think a lot of the things jamie said earlier cautioning about getting too excited about le garrett blunt are mostly true but this is a guy that's gone from yeah maybe you could just cut him because i don't know if the eagles want to play him too he might be a borderline number two running back in a standard league next week.
Starting point is 00:21:49 So who would both of you rather have rest of season, Blunt or Smallwood? I think you've got to go with Blunt, you know, just with his touchdown potential. Yep. Okay. And Ghostbusters 2 for you, Heath? Yes, Christian McCaffrey. I was hoping he would take advantage of this matchup. He's a bigger winner if Kelvin Benjamin is out for an extended period of time
Starting point is 00:22:08 because it turns into a situation kind of like what's going on with Tariq Cohen. Only Christian McCaffrey is better than him, too. There's just not anybody else to throw the ball to there. You can't throw it to Devin Funches 15 times. The funny thing is that Mike Lennon is better than Cam Newton. He might be right now. But 11 targets in this game for McCaffrey, caught nine of them. He, again, will be somebody that's just viewed more like a high-volume receiver.
Starting point is 00:22:36 Well, yeah, if Calvin Benjamin's out, it looks like McCaffrey might be his most reliable receiver. He had 11 targets. I don't think we just said the stats. Nine catches, 101 yards. That's huge for PPR. But only four carries for Christian McCaffrey might be his most reliable receiver. He had 11 targets. I don't think we just said the stats. Nine catches, 101 yards. That's huge for PPR. But only four carries for Christian McCaffrey. Do you feel like if McCaffrey's going to be a reliable running back in fantasy, do you feel like he needs to get more involved in the run game?
Starting point is 00:22:57 Not if Kelvin Benjamin's out, no. But if Kelvin Benjamin, all right, well, he's going to be out for some time. It'd be pretty unlikely, it seems like, that Benjamin will be back next week. Maybe he avoided major injury. It doesn't mean he avoided injury. We'll do some losers here. The Vigos. Heath, we'll start with you.
Starting point is 00:23:14 Cam Newton, same game. Cam Newton is a loser. Are we dropping him and Heath in the Rejects League? You know, that may be the lead of Believe It or Not tomorrow morning is Cam Newton is droppable. And I think I believe it. He just threw for 167 yards and three picks against the New Orleans Saints. He's lost Greg Olson. I don't expect him to have Cullen Benjamin.
Starting point is 00:23:34 There's no way you can start him. And if you can't start him, we don't advocate carrying two quarterbacks in all leagues. I don't have a lot of hope that he's going to get better except for maybe as a matchup-dependent streamer. I'm okay cutting bait. Okay, and your other loser this week would be? Oh, a bunch of them. The Dolphins.
Starting point is 00:23:55 What an atrocious, just awful. Even Devontae Parker, like we talked about the touchdown and how great that was. Like 90% of his yards came on that last drive too, right? Cutler just peppered him over and over and over on the final drive when the Jets were like, yay, we won. They probably had their backups in. That was a complete embarrassment.
Starting point is 00:24:15 Their entire team should be ashamed. I don't know if they should be allowed to come back to Miami. What do you make of Ajayi? 11 carries for 16 yards. If he runs like that and they block like that, there's no way he lasts 16 games. He took so many shots in that game. And I'll give him a little bit of credit. I thought that he ran just as hard as he always does. There was just, he would break one tackle and there are three more defenders waiting to hit him. So I'm trying to think, how many 0-2 teams were there coming into this week? Because the three He would break one tackle, and there are three more defenders waiting to hit him.
Starting point is 00:24:48 So I'm trying to think, how many 0-2 teams were there coming into this week? Because the three that I can think of off the top of my head, I mean, they brought it. Actually, all of them did. Cleveland was 0-2. I guess they quasi-brought it. They came back late. Cincinnati took Green Bay to overtime. The Jets won.
Starting point is 00:25:06 The Giants were down 14-0 and they were 0-2. They had a nice effort. And the Niners were 0-2. The Chargers were terrible. The Chargers are 0-3. Yeah, wow. Yeah, the Chargers were bad. Phil Rivers had a brutal game. Yeah, but the 0-2 teams actually played with a little bit of desperation
Starting point is 00:25:22 it seems today. And the Jets, I guess, are included in that. Jamie, you want to give me some losers, some Vigos for this week? Henry and Henry. The O. Henry brothers. So Derek Henry, we thought that there was a chance for him to maybe keep DeMarco Murray on the bench. That didn't happen. We talked about that already. So you can't really put a lot of faith in him as the guy as long as DeMarco Murray's healthy.
Starting point is 00:25:46 And then Hunter Henry, what the heck is going on here? Two of the three games so far this season, he has no targets. I don't understand this. How many of the tight ends, the streamable tight ends? Actually, Charles Clay caught a touchdown and Watson caught a touchdown. But boy, Jack Doyle. You want to talk about garbage time production. Ryan Mallett to Ben Watson in that 44-7 disaster. Doyle was bad. Hunter Henry was bad. Yeah. What do you do with Hunter
Starting point is 00:26:11 Henry, Jamie? I mean, look, there are a lot of people cutting him after week one. If you have to find somebody to help you, you got to make a move if you don't have a big bench. So it's frustrating. At this point, you look at Charles Clay, you look at Ben Watson, and you look at Hunter Henry. The other two guys not named Henry have been better. The other two guys? Oh, Clay and Watson. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:36 I mean, and even look, you get Cameron Brate showing us some signs of life. He didn't have a lot of targets today. I think he caught all four of his targets. But he has a great matchup next week against the Giants, which has not been able to defend tight end. So if you need to go from Henry to Cameron Bray, I don't know how you can go against that. Did Bray finish that game? I don't know. Because on the touchdown, he took a just absolutely vicious shot to the head. He may have gotten concussed, right? Yes. And I don't know if he ever came back from that. And then there was another tight end that I will we'll talk about it probably a little bit later,
Starting point is 00:27:05 but I think Ryan Griffin might be a thing. Oh, yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Right, but I'm just so tired of chasing these guys that I just feel doomed, like they're going to give me nothing next week. And then I think Jack Doyle is a perfect example. I said when I picked him up, I said on the podcast, like, there's a great chance he has a terrible game. It's just –
Starting point is 00:27:24 Yeah, but that was – to me that's fluk chance he has a terrible game. Yeah, but to me that's fluky because the Browns have been so bad against tight ends that Jamie Collins didn't play. It was weird, but he's Jack Doyle. He's an average player, I'd say, and he's got what I think is a below average quarterback who played the game of his life today.
Starting point is 00:27:40 What are you suggesting we do? You say you're getting tired of doing it. You can't do anything about it. Well, Adam, revisit the conversation we had on radio the other night. Good. I'm glad you brought that up because I was going to go there. So Jamie and I did the Ion Fantasy Football show last night. And Heath, I related it to the catcher position in fantasy baseball where I had said maybe you should overpay for a catcher.
Starting point is 00:28:02 Maybe you should give a lot for Gary Sanchez or Buster Posey. These are two guys, Wilson Contreras at the time, too, who were just leaps and bounds above the rest of their position. And a lot of fantasy owners were starting garbage catchers. And you had this opportunity to have a huge advantage over your league. Now, do you approach it that way with tight end? Do you try to trade for Gronk or Kelsey or Ertz? I know Kelsey had one catch and one yard today.
Starting point is 00:28:24 Weird. But JGI had one fantasy point, or rushing anyway. He had a few receiving yards as well. So it happens. But we know Kelsey's an elite player at a thin position. Do you overpay for those guys? And it's a little bit harder, Heath, I think, in fantasy football than baseball, just
Starting point is 00:28:39 because the waiver wire is so different. You can go out and find first baseman, second baseman, third baseman all over the place in fantasy baseball. You can't necessarily do that at running back and wide receiver and football. But if you were deep at running back, do you trade up? Do you trade some good running back depth to get one of the elite tight ends? That's kind of what Jamie and I were talking about since those guys appear to be such valuable commodities right now. What do you think?
Starting point is 00:29:04 Yeah, especially in a PPR league. If I was deep at running back and I could go get Zach Ertz, I don't think you can really make a realistic offer for Rob Gronkowski and get the two sides to come together dealing running back depth. I mean, you're going to have to trade a second-round running back that's been good, and you probably aren't really that interested in starting your third running back. So I would go after somebody like Ertz if I wanted to do that. I'm not ready to give up, though, on the whole streaming tight end thing.
Starting point is 00:29:34 I think it could still work. There will be some ups and some downs, but I'd also like to keep elite players everywhere else. Sure. It can work. It would have worked. In one league I streamed Ben Watson And I was happy
Starting point is 00:29:46 Caught a ridiculous touchdown In one league I streamed Jack Doyle Two leagues And I wasn't happy So yeah You're right I mean it's like any other position
Starting point is 00:29:54 There are going to be some good Good ones and some bad ones And I've got some good news for me Could be good news for you If you start playing on draft I am crushing it In draft right now I am in first place.
Starting point is 00:30:05 Of course, there are two games left, but this would be my second straight week winning my Draft contest. I love fantasy football. You all love fantasy football. We all love snake drafts. So why don't you get on the Draft app right now and use our promo code to get free entry into a money game on either PlayDraft.com or the Draft app. All you got to do is use the code FFtoday on your first deposit. Again, that code is FFtoday. So yeah, Draft is this really fun app where you compete against other people. You do snake drafts. They only take a couple of minutes.
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Starting point is 00:30:54 And play in a real money game for free by using our promo code FFtoday on your first deposit. Again, the promo code is FFtoday. Here are some more news and notes. Jeremy Macklin left with a concussion. He was checked for a concussion. He came back. He's fine. He had a beautiful game.
Starting point is 00:31:10 One catch, I think. Sam Bradford has no structural damage in his knee, but he missed today's game. And Case came. Oh, my goodness. Jamie, you tweeted this earlier. I forgot to mention. The quarterbacks, the leading quarterbacks this week. Tom Brady won with 45.
Starting point is 00:31:24 Well, Russell Wilson worked his way in. He did. I was going to update it. Tom Brady won 45 points in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues. Russell Wilson, too, 40 points. Bortles, Keenum, Aaron Rodgers, Jared Goff, Brian Hoyer, Jacoby Brissett, Eli Manning. What?
Starting point is 00:31:42 Just how we all drew it up. Keenum did not see that coming. Tampa Bay had some injuries on defense. Eli Manning. What? Just how we all drew it up. Keenum did not see that coming. Tampa Bay had some injuries on defense. Gerald McCoy limped off the field, but then he came back. He might deal with that ankle injury for a little while. Levante David, linebacker, he left with a possible high ankle sprain. And defensive end Noah Spence dislocated his shoulder. So Tampa Bay got beat up and embarrassed today.
Starting point is 00:32:03 And that was with Chris Baker and Quan Alexander not playing. And Brent Grimes. And Jacque Smith, right? And Jacque Smith. Boy, beat up defense. Eagles defensive tackle Fletcher Cox left with an injury. Chicago center Ronis Grassu left with a wrist injury. And Jesse James, he left with a shoulder injury, but he is just fine.
Starting point is 00:32:24 So luckily we didn't have a ton of injuries today We'll go through the games in a second Let's get out the Worry-O-Meter 0-10 Lamar Miller, worried about him ever being anything You know, special Heath, 0-10 on Lamar Miller 6.5
Starting point is 00:32:40 I thought this was going to be a better game script For Lamar Miller You don't usually say that about running backs When you expect a team to lose by double digits, but he was not as heavily featured in the passing game as any of us were hoping for. Just one target. Deontay Foreman actually got three. So, yeah, I don't think he's going to lose the job anytime soon, but I am worried that he's going to be somebody you feel decent about starting anytime soon.
Starting point is 00:33:10 And you talk about one play in a game changing the game, opening possession of the game. It may have even been the first play of the game. You probably know. Martavis Bryant dropped a long touchdown pass. He catches that ball. He walks into the end zone. It's a long touchdown for Bryant. Steelers probably win the game.
Starting point is 00:33:25 That said, Jamie, Worry-O-Meter on Martavis Bryant. Two. Okay, Worry-O-Meter on outdoor. Worry-O-Meter on road Martavis Bryant. Eight. Yeah? Are you going to start sitting him in road games? I mean, look, he's facing a defense next week that is in shambles after what the Jaguars did to them.
Starting point is 00:33:48 So I think he's a number three wide receiver. If he catches that pass, we're having a different conversation. But he's still big play dependent. And so when they're at home, those big plays will probably come. When he's on the road, you've got to be a little bit nervous about it. So I don't think he's anything. He's not a safe must-start guy next week. That's Martavis Bryant.
Starting point is 00:34:10 Would you rather have rest of season – oh, let's see. Martavis Bryant or J.J. Nelson, not knowing what he's going to do on Monday night. Maybe that's a bad one. Martavis. Yeah, Martavis. Even if J.J. Nelson has a good game Monday night. Okay. I'm trying to think of a good one here.
Starting point is 00:34:25 He was compared to Tyreek Hill at the beginning of the year. I think that's an easy call now. Manuel Sanders or Martavis Bryant? I still think there's more upside with Bryant. I definitely think there's more upside with Bryant. There's also more floor with Sanders. So I'd probably go Sanders in PPR or Martavis in standard. Worryometer guys on Amir Abdullah. Go ahead, Heath.
Starting point is 00:34:50 7.5. He's Lamar Miller in a slightly better offense. Is he going to get a chance to score a touchdown from inside the 20 this year? I hope so. Or is he going to get a chance to score a touchdown from inside the 20 this year? I hope so. Or is that just off the table? Like if you're going to score, you've got to do it from outside the 20, and you only get 40% of the targets out of the backfield. I just – I'd like for it to happen.
Starting point is 00:35:19 Yeah, I was disappointed with Amir Abdullah, Jamie. He didn't have a terrible game. He got a little bit more involved in the passing game, caught three passes, I believe. I would say he's a buy-low candidate because we talked about this. The schedule's brutal. And, yes, this was a more favorable matchup for him. They've had one running back score inside the 10-yard line this season. It was theoretic on a pass.
Starting point is 00:35:40 So, I mean, it's not like anybody else is doing anything in that regard. So I think once we get past the early part of the schedule, it lightens up for him very much, for the whole team very much. Taylor Decker may be back. So I think if you can wait this out, Milo. And they did have their center play, right, Travis Swanson? I believe he was active. No, he was inactive. So get your center back, get your left
Starting point is 00:36:06 tackle back. Schedule will get a little bit easier for Amir Abdullah. Next week is at Minnesota, then Carolina. So that's not so good. Then it gets easier after that. Okay, we got next. We got Isaiah Crowell. Isaiah Crowell had 12 carries for 44 yards after two straight games with less than 40 yards. So he still hasn't gotten to 50 rushing yards. He did have two catches for 10 yards. This was pretty surprising, I thought. I guess because they were trailing so much, it's a little deceiving. They only lost by three, but it was a blowout for a while.
Starting point is 00:36:37 Worryometer on Isaiah Crowell. Jamie. Six. Going to have a tough matchup next week with Vontaze Bertha coming back for the Bengals. So, you know, it's not what we hoped. We hoped volume would be in his favor. Obviously, schedule has been a little tough for him, but
Starting point is 00:36:53 this is now three games in a row where the usage hasn't been what we were hoping for. The fact that he I don't know, complained, but he asked for more work from Hugh Jackson. I guess that qualifies as a complaint. With what they're doing right now, Duke Johnson looks like a better fit. I never ask for more work from Hugh Jackson. I guess that qualifies as a complaint. With what they're doing right now, Duke Johnson looks like a better fit. I never ask for more work. I don't know what these NFL players are doing.
Starting point is 00:37:11 Well, we know that about you. Give me less work, coach. I'm fine here. Of Lamar Miller, Amir Abdullah, and Isaiah Crowell, who is your favorite rest of the season, Jamie or Heath? Abdullah. I'll stick with Miller. Miller, okay.
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Starting point is 00:38:35 All right, we'll go in chronological order and start with the 9.30 a.m. Eastern game, Jacksonville 44 and Baltimore 7. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh. Gross game. Is there anybody that you have faith in on the Ravens, Heath, going forward that you think you're going to want to start most weeks? No, not at all.
Starting point is 00:38:59 I don't like this running back situation. I feel like it got maybe even more messy this week with Alex Collins, and it was in garbage time, but still being the best running back. Javorius Allen was not used the way I was hoping he would be early on, and then when he did get targets, he was just hit immediately. They have no blocking. And let's be clear, like, these running backs we liked because they might get some volume.
Starting point is 00:39:25 It's not like they have super talented running backs in the first place. Joe Flacco looks awful. No. Okay. Jamie, Alan Hearns or Marquise Lee, who do you prefer? Always going to lean toward targets when there's not a clear-cut better talent. And Hearns may have scored the touchdown, but Lee, for the second straight game without Allen Robinson, got the targets. They let Blake Bortles play in this game.
Starting point is 00:39:48 You know, we watch with Pete Prisco, do our shows with Pete Prisco on Sunday, and he's, you know, around the Jaguars a lot. And he said something which I thought was interesting. They didn't leave Bortles in predictable passing situations. They let him come out on first down and throw the ball, and he looked better. You know, so, again, I think the Ravens, without Brandon Williams in there, that was a big, you know, blow to their defensive front. But they had really taken advantage of bad passing attacks over the first couple of games.
Starting point is 00:40:19 And Jacksonville was on par with the teams that they faced, and Bortles carved them up. So I don't think this is a sign of Blake Bortles turning the corner, but he does get the Jets next week. So if you are streaming quarterbacks, and I know it failed with Jay Cutler and can easily fail with Bortles in what could be a letdown game after they're coming off a big win where they're 2-1, shockingly enough. But if you are stuck in a two-quarterback league, for example, Blake Bortles can certainly help you next week against the Jets. He's 21% owned. Does anybody care about an unowned Mercedes Lewis who had three touchdown catches today? I write the streamers each week, and I'm not doing it.
Starting point is 00:40:57 I'm not falling for it. I don't believe in it. It was nice for nobody. Like literally nobody. He has 0% ownership. He probably has a few owners, but not enough to even register as 1%. Indianapolis 31, Cleveland 28. Do either of the quarterbacks, with Deshaun Kizer scoring 25 fantasy points
Starting point is 00:41:20 and Jacoby Brissett scoring 29 fantasy points, do either of them matter to you at all? Heath? In a two-quarterback league, sure. If they didn't get a good matchup, then that's, yeah, they'd have some value. Brissett matters to me just because he, for the second week in a row, and it was a different person this time, but he looks like he's at least capable to bridge the gap to Andrew Luck
Starting point is 00:41:44 to where you may not have to bench all of your Colts until Luck gets back. And we may have a couple more weeks without Andrew Luck. So obviously a monster game in this one from T.Y. Hilton. Brissette has been competent, which is very welcome over Scott Tolzien. Any major fantasy impact in this game? I mean, you get Kenny Britt with 10 targets. As Corey Coleman's out. No other player had more than—I'm sorry, I don't have that stat right.
Starting point is 00:42:10 But he totally out-targeted Rashard Higgins, who had six targets, and out-produced Higgins. You know, maybe we gave up on Britt too soon. I don't know. Jamie, what do you think? Any major takeaways from Indy Cleveland? I mean, look, when Frank Gore's got a good matchup, you should feel comfortable that he can get the job done. This is now two games
Starting point is 00:42:29 in a row where he scored a touchdown, and so they gave him work. It's not going to happen in Seattle, and he didn't exactly run well with 2.3 yards per carry, but I think he said it. There's a report that Andrew Luck is targeting week six, so he's going to start to practice this week in week four.
Starting point is 00:42:45 You don't want to see him come back against Seattle. That's not going to happen. I don't know what they have in week five and week six, but if he is back on the field in week six, you stash him, and you just hope that this offense starts to click from week six on, which could easily happen because of how talented he is. They are, this is the Colts, they're at Seattle in week four, San Francisco at home in week five,
Starting point is 00:43:05 at Tennessee in week six. Yeah, so you would like to see him back in that week five game against the 49ers, but it doesn't sound like that's going to happen. You would like that. Unless he comes through practice this week and he's okay. How screwed are Crowell owners? Pretty screwed. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:19 I mean, there's not a lot you can do. You're not going to get fair value for him in trade. He hasn't been involved in the passing game like we had hoped. Two catches on Sunday, 12 carries. The sad thing is that he was better last year with worse quarterback play because Kaiser, I know the completion percentage hasn't been great and turnovers have been a little bit of a problem, but their offense just looks better with Kaiser than it did last year with the mess that they had.
Starting point is 00:43:47 Atlanta 30 and Detroit 26. I think Matt Ryan is playing so much better than his fantasy numbers would indicate. Two of the interceptions went off receivers' hands today. He threw three interceptions without having one multi-interception game last year. Can we easily say buy low on Matt Ryan? How far low has perception fallen? Because I still think if he's viewed as a top five quarterback, I didn't ever think he was going to be a top five quarterback this year anyway,
Starting point is 00:44:15 so I would say no. But if his perception is starting to fall back to where it was before last season, then absolutely. I still feel confident he'll be a top ten guy. Give me five quarterbacks you'd rather have. Give me two other than Brady, Breeze, Rogers. I'll still take Wilson over Ryan. Okay. Anyone else?
Starting point is 00:44:35 I think, you know, you look at, I don't know what's happening in the game tonight, but Carr. Yeah. With the way that he's played to start the season and clearly has set up to play well. And we had this conversation on radio, and I know he didn't play well today, but the fact that Roethlisberger is getting a lot of his road games out of the way
Starting point is 00:44:54 certainly helps his cause. Can we do an update on Derek Carr? Two for six for 15 yards and an interception midway through the second quarter. Yeah, so he's definitely not a top five. Well, here's the thing. If Ryan's not a top five quarterback, he's right there in the discussion. Because Jamie even said this on the radio show last night. You've got your three, and then there's plenty of guys who could be number four,
Starting point is 00:45:17 including Russell Wilson and maybe Mariota. But definitely Carr, definitely Matt Ryan, and definitely Roethlisberger are in that discussion. Sure. And Cousins, he's off to a good start tonight, too Roethlisberger are in that discussion. Sure. And Cousins, he's off to a good start tonight too. 9 of 10 for 99 in the touchdown. He could be in there. Who do you have in the two-quarterback league, Jamie? Cousins or Carr?
Starting point is 00:45:33 I have Carr. Yes. Good to hear. Good to know. Jamie and I are going to be in three games, three fantasy contests that are probably going to be decided by five points or less. It is intense, ladies and gentlemen. Austin Hooper, 71% owned. I don't get it.
Starting point is 00:45:50 He doesn't get any targets. He had one big play all year. You can stop with that. Would you rather have Tevin Coleman or Isaiah Crowell rest of season? Tevin? Yeah, I think so for two reasons. One, he's producing basically the same as Crowell is in a backup role and should Devontae Freeman go down,
Starting point is 00:46:06 then he's a monster. Would you rather have Mohamed Sanu or Taylor Gabriel rest of season? I'll stick with targets. I'll go with Sanu. Gabriel did in this game have the six targets Sanu had. Sanu's got a lot
Starting point is 00:46:22 more than Gabriel this season. Gabriel has the big playability and that's where it may depend on the type of league you're in. In a PPR league that's really deep where I may actually have to start this guy semi-regularly, I'll take Sanu. But if it's just one week where I'm an underdog
Starting point is 00:46:37 and I need one big play, it might be Gabriel. Yeah, Gabriel's going to always be a better daily play than a seasonal play. Sanu will be the safer seasonal play. Yeah, I mean, look at the numbers for Matthew Stafford, 17 fantasy points, but he was inches away from 23 with that throw to Golden Tate. And at Minnesota next week, it's tough. It's really tough. We saw it today with Jameis Winston.
Starting point is 00:46:59 But, man, the schedule will get so much better after that. Carolina, Saints, bye. Steelers, Packers, Cleveland, Chicago. Stafford, playing well, playing well. Don't be too discouraged by this game. And then are you guys done with Marvin Jones and Kenny Galladay, or should we wait it out until the matchups get better? I mean, look, there are going to be guys that are cycled in and out of your lineup.
Starting point is 00:47:23 Obviously Dave's not here to talk about Galladay. That's the guy he's been hyping. But two straight games of him not producing, two straight games where the targets haven't exactly been to what you like to see for a guy that does have breakout potential. And I'll go back to what I said on our Sunday morning show. I think it's going to be very frustrating to have Jones, Ebron, and Galladay all play well on the same day. You're not going to have that consistently.
Starting point is 00:47:44 So Golden Tate's always going to lead them in targets. He's always going to be the one you gravitate toward because he is their best wide receiver. Jones will have a touchdown here or there. Galladay will have a couple big plays here or there. Ebron, same thing. And those guys all are going to negate each other on an almost consistent basis. All right, let's speed it up here. If I have a good fantasy week, it will be in spite of Trevor Simeon.
Starting point is 00:48:04 I got Simeon big time this week. I think I started him in four leagues. Oops. So he was bad. We talked about the Broncos running backs. And maybe the score dictated what was going on there as they were trailing. Anything, Jamie, that you noticed about the Broncos that you want to talk about? No, I mean, we covered it. I think they I think they'll have a bounce-back game at home. You know, that's something that may have been on their minds, you know, going ahead to face Oakland in Denver next week. So they'll go back home where they've looked great the first two weeks of the season.
Starting point is 00:48:34 This was their first road game. I think you'll be excited. You know, we'll see how this Redskins-Raiders game turns out and how the Raiders' defense looks. But if Cousins is any indication about what the Raiders' defense is right now, that he's only missed on one pass out of ten, Simeon should bounce back, and so should the pass catchers, which they didn't play bad. Thomas had six for 98 on nine targets.
Starting point is 00:48:53 Sanders, seven for 75 on 15 targets. Either one of those guys scores a touchdown, and you're thrilled about it. Heath, should the Sean McCoy owners be panicking right now? 14 carries for 21 yards after 12 carries for nine yards last week. Yes, involved in the passing game, though. But how concerned should McCoy owners be panicking right now? 14 carries for 21 yards after 12 carries for 9 yards last week. Yes, involved in the passing game though, but how concerned should McCoy owners be? I'm not overly concerned. I still love his involvement in the passing game.
Starting point is 00:49:14 Seven catches in this game, six the week before. He may catch 60 or 70 passes if he plays 16 games. He's Tyrod Taylor's favorite target. He'll get going in the running game again. He may catch 60 or 70 passes next week because they've got to go to Atlanta. Tough matchups with
Starting point is 00:49:29 Carolina and Denver. Finally, would you rather have Todd Gurley or the Sean McCoy rest of the season? McCoy. We got a Gurley from Heath and a McCoy from Jamie? Yeah. You just said it. He came out of two of the toughest matchups that he could possibly face.
Starting point is 00:49:48 You know, those two defenses are very good against the run, especially Carolina when Keekly's healthy. And so I think we'll see him start to set up moving forward to be a great asset, especially with his passing prowess. Okay, yeah, the late schedule was beautiful for LeSean McCoy. New England 36, Houston 33. Very surprising. I mean, the Patriots nearly lost to a rookie quarterback at home.
Starting point is 00:50:09 I think they said it would have been the first time in the Brady-Belichick era, I think. Yeah, I guess. They had the ball for 26 minutes and 22 seconds. They got beat, you know, until they didn't. Yeah, I think if you were to tell anybody that Tom Brady threw five touchdowns, they would have thought this one was 50-7. Unbelievable. Patriots running backs.
Starting point is 00:50:27 Jamie, your thoughts? Oh, this is what I was so afraid of. I feel like Gillisley's value just tanked. His trade value, anyway. You mean to sell high? Yes. And I don't know that he wasn't so high, but I did want to try to sell high on him, especially in PPR.
Starting point is 00:50:42 This was what I was afraid of. If he didn't score, the yards would have been so low for Gillislee, and it was a bad game for him, 31 yards. But we talked about this, Adam. This is going to happen. So you just have to understand that there's not going to be multiple touchdowns every week or even the 40 or 50 yards rushing in a touchdown every week. That's bad.
Starting point is 00:50:59 This is just the nature of how the Patriots are. Yeah, but, I mean, if he gets 15 carries a week, he only got 12 in this game because they were trailing. But before that, Gillis Lee was getting 15 carries and 18 carries in weeks one and two. I would expect more than his yards per carry. He'd been very low. I've been disappointed in that.
Starting point is 00:51:17 Yeah, but a lot of his carries come in short yard situations. That's true. That's true. You know, you've got to take that into account when you're looking at his yards per carry. They were down, what, two tackles in this game? They were? I thought that's what I heard. Could be right.
Starting point is 00:51:30 That's one of the problems with the Sunday night shows. Cannon was definitely out. All right, well, how about the wide receivers? That's a good defensive line that they faced. It is. How about Hogan doing much better than Amendola? I was really frustrated by that. I expected Amendola to have the better day,
Starting point is 00:51:48 especially with him missing the offensive lineman. I thought that Brady would need to get rid of the ball a little quicker. That didn't turn out to be the case. It's going to be a nightmare, I still think, deciding who's going to be better between Hogan and Amendola. Very happy to see Brandon Cooks get going. And what I really wanted to talk about from this game I was really impressed with the Sean Watson he played really I love the he played really well
Starting point is 00:52:11 his escapability is going to make it really difficult on teams that want to blitz him just the the difference of having an actual tight end Ryan Griffin who's not anything great but just having one extra target seemed to make him a little bit more comfortable. And I was, like Bill O'Brien kind of seemed hesitant early to design any type of running plays for Watson. He had that huge, long touchdown run, but that wasn't a design play. There were some design runs in this game for him.
Starting point is 00:52:41 He may have some deep fantasy value. I just want to go back to Amendola real quick, who's 51% owned. I thought he would have a much better game. In six games in 2015 without Julian Edelman, that includes the game in which Edelman got hurt, which I think was a first quarter injury. He had 7, 11, 12 fantasy points in the first three games, then only four, zero, and one in the last three. So we had three really good ones, three really bad ones. He had 32 catches in the first four games of that six-game stretch.
Starting point is 00:53:12 So Amendola did fill in pretty nicely for Julian Edelman in 2015. It's a different team now. They have Cooks. They have Hogan. I think they had LaFell back then, but I just wanted to bring that up. All right, to finish out the show, guys, we'll go fast here. Jamie, you can do the road team. Heath, you can do the home team in each game.
Starting point is 00:53:28 Just give me one takeaway from each squad. Jets 20, Dolphins 6. Jamie, go to the Dolphins. Dolphins, poopy. Okay, at least Jarvis Landry, 11 targets after 15 targets last week, so that was cool. Heath, give me the home team, the Jets. 20 points and a win. Play Robbie Anderson against terrible secondaries.
Starting point is 00:53:49 He still has that home run appeal. All right, 17% owned. Saints 34, Carolina Panthers 13. Just real quick, though, if you need a streaming tight end, Safarian Jenkins, six targets in his first game back. Yeah, five for 31 on six targets. Saints with a road team, Jamie. They win 34-13 over Carolina.
Starting point is 00:54:04 Give me a Saints takeaway. Good to see Drew Brees play great on the road, and good to see Michael Thomas finally find the end zone. Do you care at all about Ted Ginn? He's 80% owned. It's Martavis Bryant, just not as good. There'll be some
Starting point is 00:54:20 big games every now and then. You could say revenge game if you want to face this forward team. And guess who's coming back next week? Willie Sneed, 84% owned. Heath Carolina, 13 points at home. You can cut Cam Newton if you need to. I still think Jonathan Stewart may have a little bit of value,
Starting point is 00:54:37 and I'm getting excited about Christian McCaffrey if Benjamin's out for a while. All right, Philadelphia 27, Giants 24. Let's skip this game. Now, fine. Giants 24, Jamie. Wait, who gets the road team? You get the road team.
Starting point is 00:54:48 And Eli Manning with actually a pretty big game, 28 fantasy points. He threw 47 times. He got some protection, and they hit their slants. You know what I mean? Sterling Shepard had the big slant play for the touchdown. Odell Beckham made just a ridiculous catch in the left end zone touchdown. But good to see him getting the targets, getting the playing time. Great touchdown celebration.
Starting point is 00:55:11 Ridiculous. Can I just – let me ask you this. If Shepard, Marshall, or Evan Ingram were on your waiver wires in a 12-team league, would you be eager to pick up any of them? No. Really? I don't mind the idea of Shepard. I still think he's their second-best receiver.
Starting point is 00:55:29 I don't disagree with that. But, look, Evan Ingram scores a touchdown one week. Shepard makes a ridiculous play to score. This week, Marshall's finally involved. 47 passes, too. Huh? 47 pass attempts. Got to keep that in mind.
Starting point is 00:55:44 So they may throw the ball 47 times every week because their running game is so non-existent. If they do, then maybe Eli Manning is actually better in fantasy than real life. Last thing, you kind of poo-pooed Evan Ingram, but would you rather have him than Austin Savarian Jenkins? No, I'd rather have Savarian Jenkins. Really? Yeah. All right.
Starting point is 00:56:02 Because of all these other mouths to feed. I mean, there's so many mouths to feed here. Yeah, okay. Heath Eagles, 27, with the win. Zacherts may just be the number two tight end in fantasy. He seems more reliable than Travis Kelsey right now. And I don't know. I guess this is about what I expected, I guess, from Carson Wentz.
Starting point is 00:56:24 He's going to be a matchup dependent. You is about what I expected, I guess, from Carson Wentz. He's going to be a matchup dependent. You can start him some weeks, but he's not a guy that's going to stay on your roster all year. I like him next week. Yep. On the road against the Chargers. I like him in four of his next five games. Chargers, Cardinals.
Starting point is 00:56:40 Chargers, Cardinals. Cardinals, no. You like him against the Cardinals? No. I like the following three. Panthers, Redskins, Niners. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know that I like them against the Panthers either. Yeah, I would say the Niners and the Chargers are good ones.
Starting point is 00:56:53 The Cardinals and the Panthers are questionable. Well, the Redskins, he already ripped up, so I like that. Yeah, the Redskins are dominating Derek Carr. He's got two interceptions now. Three of eight for 23 yards. Ooh, out of the top five. Chicago 23, Pittsburgh 17. Heath, your thoughts.
Starting point is 00:57:07 Jamie, your thoughts. I keep getting this mixed up. On Pittsburgh, go for it. Surprising. They've been kind of sleepwalking through the beginning part of the season, and I think they got caught this week. Roethlisberger did not play well. You mentioned missed on a couple throws.
Starting point is 00:57:21 Antonio Brown is saving them from, I think, some near disasters, as we saw in Week 1 and Week 3. Is Le'Veon Bell still the number one player in fantasy? Good to see him involved in the passing game. Seven targets. That was the big thing for me. But he's not running well. Well, answer the question, young man.
Starting point is 00:57:42 Oh, is he? I thought you made this statement. Excuse me. Yes, he's still the number one player in fantasy because he will get better. Okay. Sorry I had a young man you. You're my elder. Heath, Bears win in overtime, 23-17.
Starting point is 00:57:53 Thanks for always giving me the exciting team. How bad is Mitchell? I had the Dolphins. He had the Jets. Yeah, like nobody caught any passes on this team. Zach Miller had 17 yards. Kendall Wright had zero fantasy points. What in the hell is going on there that Mitchell Trubisky can't get on the field?
Starting point is 00:58:15 Glennon threw for 101 yards, and 50 of them went to the running backs. Yeah, but to be fair, though, they only threw 20 times. So he averaged five yards per attempt. Pretty bad. No, no, but I'm just saying, it's not necessarily fair to criticize the receivers when the quarterback's not necessarily giving them a chance. They won, man. They could be a tough out at home.
Starting point is 00:58:34 They played the Falcons and the Steelers pretty hard. They should have beat the Falcons. They should have. Minnesota 34, Tampa Bay 17. I forgot this game was in Minnesota. So, Jamie, you get Tampa Bay. Give me a Tampa Bay 17. I forgot this game was in Minnesota. So, Jamie, you get Tampa Bay. Give me a Tampa Bay takeaway. They need Doug Martin back because their running game is terrible.
Starting point is 00:58:52 Glad I started Quiz Rogers in one league. Terrible. Five carries for 15 yards. Quick thought on Deshaun Jackson, though. He was only started in 19% of leagues. He had 14 fantasy points. Yep. I mean, look, he's going to have games like this.
Starting point is 00:59:04 He's going to have games where they don't connect on on you know i don't know necessarily big plays it was a 32 yard uh score but you like we talk about martavis bryant you know he's that type of player so there'll be some weeks where he's good some weeks where he disappears he if you get the vikings the unbelievable vikings they put up a huge number and digs and feeling were great some of the stupidest things i said all week had to do with Stefan Diggs and Adam Thielen and Case Keenum, and I'd just like to apologize to the state of Minnesota. I guess you just can't sit Stefan Diggs.
Starting point is 00:59:34 The thing I noticed watching these guys, Case Keenum didn't really have a good game. These guys made spectacular catch after spectacular catch after spectacular catch. They're both really good. I'm going to start them next week. I will say this, though. The Bucs were playing backups almost all across the board with
Starting point is 00:59:55 so many injuries. Yeah, and they got the Lions, who have a pretty good defense next week. That'll be an interesting one. To the afternoon games, Tennessee 33, Seattle 27. We've covered this game pretty – can we skip this game? I think we can. Rashard Matthews.
Starting point is 01:00:12 I do think, though, if Doug Baldwin's out, Tyler Lockett and Paul Richardson are going to be guys that you're going to look at because of the matchup with the Colts. And Rashard Matthews, anybody interested there? He is clearly their best wide receiver right now. I saw a stretch, I think, where Eric Decker had a drop, a hold, and a face mask on three consecutive plays. He's terrible. I think he probably saw more of Richard Sherman, though.
Starting point is 01:00:36 He did. That's something to keep in mind. He had a couple of nice catches, actually. We talk a lot about those running backs. Green Bay, 27. Cincinnati, 24. Jamie, the Bengals. Get Joe Mixon involved.
Starting point is 01:00:49 Get Green involved. I don't know that there's much here. But Andy Dalton's 55% on at Cleveland next week. What do you think? I love him. I think if you're looking at a quarterback to pick up, this is the guy to go get right now. Because you see the tempo picked up. He looked better, looked more confident.
Starting point is 01:01:04 Clearly focused on his best player. He missed on a – it looked like Brandon LaFell almost gave up on the route. He had a touchdown that he was wide open. Dalton put it at the back of the end zone. Might have overthrown him a little bit, but it looked like LaFell kind of stopped on the route. I don't know. It just didn't give what looked to be like full effort. But they got their playmakers involved, and you see what this offense could be.
Starting point is 01:01:23 Again, it was going to be tough to go into Green Bay and win, but Mixon, you don't love the yards per carry, but 18 carries, still, again, involved in the passing game with the three catches on three targets. And A.J. Green, give him double-digit targets every week, please. Heath, the Packers, go. Yes. In the interest of fair and balanced reporting,
Starting point is 01:01:45 Ty Montgomery looked terrible in this game. The Bengals were clearly focused on him, and every time he caught a pass, there were two Cincinnati defenders somewhere in the area. He made a couple of miscues, though, in pass protection. He did not get very much If anything more than what was blocked For him And he suffered a minor injury in the game
Starting point is 01:02:08 But as soon as he said he was ready To go back in the game He went back in the game and they don't want to play anybody else So the playing time for now seems Secure but he was not good Anybody interested in Geronimo Allison? I mean if Kyle was out You know this is two games in a row where he was
Starting point is 01:02:24 Targeted anytime you're going to get targets from Aaron, this is two games in a row where he was targeted. Anytime you're going to get targets from Aaron Rodgers. So maybe not in a 10 or 12-team league, but 14-team leagues for sure. And finally, Kansas City 24, Chargers 10. Jamie, real quick on the Chargers. That would be the home team. Oh, they were at home? Yeah.
Starting point is 01:02:40 Real quick on the Chiefs. Stupid Kareem Hunt. What did you say? Stupid Kareem Hunt. What did you say? Stupid Kareem Hunt. Oh, stupid. Well, I don't owe him in any leagues. I'm tired of playing against Kareem Hunt in his 78-yard touchdowns every freaking game. He's so good.
Starting point is 01:02:56 It's amazing. Really good. Yeah. I think Alex Smith has a chance for a good game next week as well. He's been hanging around as a low-end, number one type of guy, just given the opponents. Next week he gets Washington at home. I think he'll be good. Not ask Derek Carr about that.
Starting point is 01:03:19 Heath, apparently the Chargers were at home. The Chargers were at home. Phillip Rivers did not look like he was home. I'm not sure the whole commute thing is working out for him. He was awful in this game. He threw three interceptions, and the Chiefs dropped at least three more, maybe four more. I think he threw seven interceptable passes in this game.
Starting point is 01:03:38 I'm worried about Phillip Rivers. You look at the upcoming schedule, Philadelphia at home at the Giants. That's a good game, though. You think that's a bad one next week? I don't think it's a good one. It depends if they get held. I mean, they were really banged up, the Eagles in their secondary, and it showed.
Starting point is 01:03:52 And I've got to end the show, guys. Just tell me this. Tyrell Williams, drop or hold? Drop. Drop. Yeah, what a bummer. All right, that's a great show. Thank you to Heath and thank you to Jamie.
Starting point is 01:04:01 We'll talk to you on Tuesday with the Waiver Wire. I'm Adam Azer. See you later. Bye.

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