Fantasy Football Today - 10/14: Injury Updates and Struggling Offenses (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 14, 2019

Dr. David Chao joins us to discuss Amari Cooper, Patrick Mahomes, Saquon Barkley and more players with injury concerns. Then Will Brinson and Chris Towers debate some struggling offenses! What's going on with the Rams (14:00)? Buy or Sell Austin Ekeler (21:00)? What's up with Keenan Allen (26:35)? Is Miles Sanders poised for more carries (31:45)? And was Will right about the Chiefs offense (35:00)? Let the debates begin! 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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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome in, everybody. It is Monday, October 14th, and we're catching you up on the latest injury news. And in a little bit, we'll talk about five of the biggest storylines around the National Football League, including the struggling Rams offense and the struggling a little bit Chiefs offense.

Welcome to the Fantasy Football Today Road Tour presented by Little Caesars. Pizza for dinner tonight? How about ordering your favorite online from Little Caesars and using Pizza Portal Pickup? It's the latest, greatest, and hottest way to pick up a pizza All right, as always on Monday, we are joined by Dr. David Chow. You can follow him on Twitter at ProFootballDoc and go to his website, ProFootballDoc.com. I know a lot of people are injured out there, but Doc, I hope you're doing well.

How are you today? I'm doing well. Yourself? I'm doing pretty well. I've got some big fantasy matchups that will be decided tonight, and then I'll have a better answer to that question. Thanks so much for coming on. Let's get right to it with Amari Cooper, who left with a thigh bruise and gets

the Eagles in a very big game this week. What are we looking at with Amari Cooper right now? Well, that's one where I'm still trying to figure it out, but I don't see the thigh bruise unless he came into the game with a thigh bruise. Coming into the game, it was reported as a quad strain of some sort. He only played three plays that I could see on game pass when I looked at it. He does make a catch on the second offensive play. He gets hit as he goes out of bounds, but it didn't look like a quad contusion. He was a little slow getting up. On the very next play, he doesn't make any effort to really jump

off, push off his right leg to get up high because I don't think he could. And then he was out of the game. I think this is more of an aggravation of a thigh or quad strain. If you look back at T.Y. Hilton after he took himself out of a game a few weeks ago, he ended up missing the next week. I am very iffy on Amari Cooper playing in this big Eagles matchup at this point in time, barring any new information. Do you think it could be related to the foot injury he had in the preseason? You always talk about compensation and things like that. I don't see it as being directly related. Could there be some way where it's indirectly related?

Maybe. But I think the injury that he has today, at least by video, is related to what he had coming into the game. I didn't see a new hit, which actually tends to make me think it might linger where it may cost him next week. Okay, so the good news is he has a bye in two weeks, so hopefully he could be back in three weeks at the Giants if we don't get Amari Cooper this week against the Eagles. Now, James Conner left with an ankle injury, Dr. Chow, and I actually didn't notice this one when it happened

because I also was using Game Pass, and I was watching it on condensed mode, which is amazing for those of you who don't have that. Please get Game Pass. It's great, on NFL.com. And, yeah, he's got a bye coming up, but what did you see with James Conner? Well, James Conner, you know, late in third quarter

on a short pass play and run, a dump-off pass, got hit pretty good on his right quad. He truly has a quad contusion. He did not return to the game. It's sore, but I don't see this being long-term. I think it's a thigh contusion bruise. It'll get treated.

It'll get well before the Steelers play again. Not a big deal, especially with the bye. Sorry, I said ankle. It's a quad for Connor as well. The Giants get a long week. They have the Thursday night game, and they will play the Arizona Cardinals this week.

Saquon Barkley and Evan Ingram, seems like they have a chance to play. Sterling Shepard with the concussion, seems less likely. That's what the reports are indicating right now. What kind of forecast would you give for these very important Giants players? Well, very difficult to tell on concussions, but Sterling Shepard is the second one in five weeks apart. So the doctors are going to be cautious. Of course, the Giants did activate a wide receiver, but the Giants should get a lot healthier. I mean, they were missing their top two

runners and top two pass catchers against the Patriots on Thursday with Sterling Shepard down, Evan Ingram down, Saquon Barkley down, and Wayne Gallman down. Wayne Gallman's getting clear from the concussion protocol. Sterling Shepard maybe, may not be. Hard to tell yet. Saquon Barkley, I think, is finally likely to play. The two-week mark, three-week mark, those weren't likely times for him to play. From the get-go, it was a four- to six-week injury, high ankle sprain. This Sunday marks week four.

As long as he has no setbacks in practice, as long as the Giants feel there's no significant injury risk, I think there's a reasonable chance we'll see Saquon Barkley out there. And Evan Ingram, I think, is on a path to potentially play two right now. We'll see. It's still early. But that would be a big change from the previous game. And as I recall, a week ago on this show, you talked about Barkley. And I think people were getting pretty excited about him playing against the Patriots.

And you were like, I don't think so. think so so you know you've been giving us some great information we appreciate that now we've got an Achilles injury in Will Disley and we'll talk about that but first I want to ask you about a guy who's recovered from an Achilles injury but now he's dealing with a knee injury and that's Emmanuel Sanders and he gets a quick turnaround with a Thursday game against Kansas City. And I guess the reports have been fairly optimistic on Emmanuel Sanders. Do you think he'll play on Thursday? Well, the report's certainly been optimistic.

I go more off of video, and the video where his last play of the game didn't see a whole lot. He sort of turns back for a pass that's a little bit behind him, didn't see a whole lot. So that meshes well with the early reports that he should be okay and let's hope that he is and you know heck for that Thursday game it's looking like not only will Emmanuel Sanders be okay it's looking like Tyree Kill obviously will even have more reps and continue to play, even though his first game back looked pretty good. And, of course, Sammy Watkins with his hamstring, I think is positioned to play for Thursday as well.

So good news that we get all three of those wide receivers going. Yeah, it definitely would. And Will and I are sure are going to debate the Chiefs offense going forward. And actually, I'll ask you about Patrick Mahomes, but I did want to talk to you about Will Disley, who has the Achilles injuries, having such a great season for the Seahawks. What did you see with Will Disley?

Well, you know, through the profootballdoc.com site, that's what we put up. Our fear is that he tore his left Achilles. He ended last season with a right patella tendon, and now this is an Achilles tendon that I believe now has been confirmed. And that's what it looked like.

He just changes directions, what we call eccentric load, and it pops, unfortunately, a non-contact injury. That's a tough injury to return from. Now, he did it very well from the patella tendon, which some would say is even harder to come back from than the Achilles. So I think he can do it again, but it's just unfortunate two years in a row with major tendon tears and surgery. How healthy do you think Patrick Mahomes is right now? Depends on how you want to grade the scale, but he's nowhere near 100%. In the NFL, we often say 85% is a good week. Patrick Mahomes, if I have to put a number on it based on what he looks like in his ankle, I don't know, he's probably 75% or 80%.

But 75% or 80% of Patrick Mahomes is probably 100% of a lot of other people. He hurt at week one, and we talked about it on the show. There was a high ankle week one, and he was limping pretty good, didn't miss any time, played reasonably well the next few weeks, and now re-aggravated again. He's nowhere near 100%, but he's nowhere near

missing time either because he's such an exceptional talent. As long as he doesn't have an offensive lineman stepping on his ankle, as was the case in week five, is it something that will continue to get gradually better? Yeah, it's something that's going to continue to get gradually better each week, but the worry always is re-aggravation. And that's one of the worries that Saquon Barkley is going to have as he comes back from his high ankle sprain. And from what I saw of the game on Sunday, the left side of the offensive line, the Chiefs, did a little bit better than the previous week

with the left guard down and obviously Eric Fisher, the starting left tackle, still out. The bigger concern for the Chiefs is probably there are holes in the defensive line. I think Houston did okay on the ground against those guys. Dr. David Chow joining us here, and you can follow him at ProFootballDoc on Twitter. I just want to

know before we let you go, what's a Sunday like on Twitter for you? Is every team's fan base asking you questions? Is my guy going to be alright? Is this hectic for you? It can get hectic, and that's the new effort this year. Instead of

being at home on my couch and with kids, I'm actually in a war room and there's about six or seven people and four different big screens and eight different monitors. And so I have a lot more, you could teleport me back to Sunday morning in Las Vegas, and I'm not sure I'll make money betting on the games because I'm looking at all the injuries all the time. I'm chasing the different injuries and different things. So when Baker Mayfield gets hurt, that's 10, 15 minutes of looking at Baker Mayfield and not looking at anything related to the TV or the scores or anything else. So I get a general sense of the games, but sometimes it's, uh, it's harder,

but that's what gives me the, the, the clean sense of where the injuries are at, because that's kind of what my focus is as I look at it. And that's sort of the job in terms of providing the injury index and some of the analysis. And it's not just looking at the Baker Mayfield, just looking at the, uh, the right tackles and the left tackles and the guards and the D linemen because these cluster injuries make a big, big difference. I'm sure in the fantasy world for you, it's become very clear now

and everyone knows that the Eagles defensive backfield, their secondary, especially their corners, are a little bit hampered right now throughout this whole season. But by studying it and looking at it, we kind of knew that from week one based on injuries, not the quality of their scheme or their players, but just based on injuries. We knew that they were going to be hampered, and they have been for most of the season. Wow. Well, that's why everybody needs to follow him on Twitter and go to profootballdoc.com

and get all that great information. And Dr. Chow, thanks again for coming on. Thank you. All right, Will and Chris, right now. All right, everybody. Nobody loves New York City like the guy who's been living there for five days. Chris Towers is on the show today. Welcome, Chris.

How you doing? You making it there? I'm making it here, which from what I've heard from the transitive property means I can make it anywhere. At least for six days. I've heard that too. Yeah, I agree. It is a great place. Okay, Chris just moved. He's very happy to be a New Yorker. He's already going to like a million concerts. And yeah, how's it going, man? Welcome to the Monday show.

How are you? It's great. I'm sorry I had to miss last week. I was driving in a minivan with two extremely angry cats. So it's nice to be settled in. Did you drive the whole way from Florida to New York? Yeah, yeah. All of our stuff is somewhere in a storage unit somewhere in South Florida.

It will get here at some point. I was given an estimate of two to 14 days. I'm glad to see from the slight lag in your video that every CBS office has terrible Wi-Fi. It's like we're a media company. Actually, beginning next week, I think we're going to get Chris hooked up with a wonderful podcast studio. But also, you've heard Will. Everybody gets intro music today. Will, you strike me as the kind of guy that would sing this song karaoke at a crowded bar on a Friday night.

What do you think? Look, I listened to a lot of Garth Brooks growing up. So, yeah, sure. I do it. He's got a southern. He's got a country twang to him. Okay, Will. Well, first of all, it's an insult to call.

You know what? You don't want to get into a discussion of country music with me and Chris Towers. This went poorly for you. We will go for 30 minutes talking about alt country versus real country versus pop crap country like Garth Brooks. Okay. So you're right. I don't want that.

So Will, I need a big game from Aaron Jones tonight because I don't want to lose to Will in two leagues. I think it's pretty amazing that the league in which I traded to Will, Will Fuller and Saquon Barkley for Mixon and Stefan Diggs. We actually played each other this week and he's still kicking the crap out of me, even though he started Fuller and I started Diggs. But that's Jared Goff for you. That week is over. I beat you. 125 to 98. I got MVS going tonight. I know.

I just said that. You don't have to brag. I just said you won. You said it's not going well and I'm telling you that it's over. You have no one left to play and I'm winning. Yeah, I know.

You won. So if Marcus Valdick's gambling fumbles 14 times Hey! All right. So you tell me there's a gambling fumbles 14 times... Hey, all right. So you tell me there's a chance. We have the Apple Podcast mailbag. Please leave us a nice review and a question on Apple Podcasts.

We'll read your questions on the Wednesday and Saturday shows. And I'll let you know about our Facebook winner in just a bit and the new contest for this week. I got five big questions, though. I told the people on Twitter, I let you all choose the questions. I lied. I'm only letting you choose three of them because I had to choose this first one.

It's maybe the biggest topic right now. One of the biggest in football. How concerned are we about the Rams offense? Two straight years as a top two scoring team. They are ninth right now coming off a seven point game against San Francisco and it just doesn't look like the Rams offense.

Will, how concerned are you about the Rams offense? On a scale of 10, I would say 14 or 11. No, 12, because they like to run 12 personnel. So we'll say 12 out of 10 for the Rams. The biggest problem is that their offensive line has taken a massive, massive step back and they no longer can run the ball the way they want to, which set up all the things they like to do off of play action, flooding guys across the field. I think they're trying to overcompensate with those issues on the offensive line, as well as teams walking six men into the box and forcing them to throw first. I think

they're trying to overcompensate by playing a lot of these tight ends. No one is comfortable right now. And look, that game, there's some good news and bad news here. The bad news is that that game against the 49ers showcased that this division is changing before our very eyes. San Francisco might have the best defensive line in football. They devastated the Rams. I mean, it was an, they kicked their, can we say that?

Can I? No, you don't have to. Just say they kicked their butts. They kicked their bottoms, Adam. There you go. But it was an A-kicking. It deserves the A. It was an A-kicking. It kicked the crap out of them. It was 20-7

in the third quarter, early in the fourth quarter. And when you're down 13 points in a modern NFL game, the game should never be over. They didn't have a prayer of coming back. They couldn't move the ball at all. They had multiple drives with negative net yards in the third quarter.

They had three drives. Every single one of them went negative yards. They can't establish any sort of running game. And yeah, I'm very concerned. The good news is they get the Falcons and the Bengals though. So they have a little bit of get right going to the bye, at which point maybe people can try to sell high on them and just pretend that was just a 49ers thing. Yeah, here's one thing that I will point out.

They are using the play action less often than they did last season. They were second in the NFL in percentage of passing plays that were play action. This year, they're 12th down to 27%. And their passer rating, Jared Goff's passer rating on play action passes this year is 71.1, which is really bad. He has zero touchdowns, three interceptions. But I will say if you're looking for some positive, he's averaging 8.5 yards per attempt on those play action passes compared to 6.5 with no play action. So overall, they've still been relatively efficient and certainly more efficient with the play action.

It just seems to be, you know, maybe Jared Goff making a few more mistakes than you would typically expect. I would guess the fact that they've been more efficient overall and it's just a few mistakes means that there is some room for them to turn it around. But it's also clear that things aren't working nearly as well. Last season, they were at 10 yards per attempt with play action, so they've still been significantly worse. Yeah, and we'll mention the offensive line.

I'll just quote from The Athletic. The Rams' inability to develop cohesion and success along the offensive line is the biggest reason for their offensive regression and arguably the biggest reason for their 3-3 start. They know what they have in Goff, a smart, accurate quarterback who can make any throw, but also one who thrives with a clean pocket. Advanced statistics show this.

Give Goff some space and a couple extra seconds and pair that with McVay's play calling and he will find someone open. Pressure him and things break down quickly, in part because Goff doesn't have a great ability to extend plays with his feet russell wilson he is not and perhaps that's just sort of giving us a glimpse of what we really need to be looking at in future years with quarterbacks the ones who are mobile you know they struggle not all of them i mean there's brady and there's breeze and whatnot those. And those guys are arguably the best quarterbacks of their generation.

Yeah, basically. But it helps be able to move a little bit. And it's also sometimes hard to know how much a bad offensive line is going to impact an offense. In this case, it seems to be pretty significant. So let me finish with this. Cooks, Cup, and Woods. You know, Chris, how are you going to approach them

rest of season in terms of a trade value standpoint? Do you still view Cook's Cup and Woods Cup still a top five wide receiver, by the way, as as must start guys and must, you know, like guys you really want on your team? What are you thinking? I think so, because I the two years worth of track record makes me believe that they will turn it around and be better. The fact that Brandon Cooks especially has been so mediocre when they're ninth in scoring is really concerning because there's not that much room for them to get better. We're talking about them like they've been a bottom 10 offense.

You said they're ninth in scoring. What does it look like when they're fifth in scoring? Is that really enough to get Brandon Cooks, who only has six targets over his last two games, I should point out? Is that enough to make him someone that you're starting every single week? I don't know. I do like that they've been giving Brandon Cooks and Robert Woods more opportunities to make plays in the running game. They're trying to get the ball in their hands. I think they both had two carries yesterday. Robert Woods scored that touchdown.

So that's a good sign that they're at least making an effort to make sure that they get the ball to their playmakers. But it's real concerning for Brandon Cooks especially. All right. Our second question, and we have a lot of questions about the Chargers as that game went on after our show on Sunday night. Our second question is upcoming, but I want to congratulate Matthew Altman. We asked in our Facebook group, who's your favorite fantasy player of all time?

A lot of people gave some great answers about random guys that won them a week or won them a championship, like Kyle Orton and Aaron Stecker. But Matthew Altman took it to another level. Calvin Johnson, he says, no question, just a stud week in and week out, battling injuries and bad quarterbacks. Won me my first fantasy championship. I even named my son Calvin. That's dedication. I like that. So congratulations, Matthew Altman. You've won yourself a t-shirt and more swag given away every week. This week's contest, best draft day decision that you made this year.

Best draft day decision. Join the Fantasy Football Today Facebook group. Unfortunately, the correct answer was Billy Volick, but whatever. Everybody's got their own. I was going to give it to the guy who said Victor Cruz because the 99-yard touchdown against the Jets won him a championship, but I felt like that was too giant-sy. I actually heard Greg Rosenthal say that when Billy Volek did

the... Drew Bennett, remember that year where they went nuts at the end of the season for the Titans and won everybody their fantasy championship? He won a big high-stakes league, paid for him to visit his friend, which is where he met his wife. Wow. See, that would have won a t-shirt that was good all right this one is from will not will

brinson austin eckler buy sell or hold will you can answer will's question oh well i i would think i would probably buy because right now austin eckler's owner is uh is there's's a potential for a bathroom in the pants situation because of how the Chargers have looked the last two weeks and the uses that they've had for Austin Eckler. I know he had a ton of catches last week, but it's very obvious that when Melvin Gordon came back, they decided to force feed

him as much as humanly possible. As a result, I think the offense is out of whack. I think they've gotten away from what they were great at the first four weeks, which is utilizing Austin Eckler in the passing game, in the running game. They want to get Melvin Gordon these carries. So I think I would buy if you could get him very cheap,

but I'm obviously concerned as well about the Chargers. Their offensive line has also gone to crap, and they are not going to be very good on offense until they fix that here's a here's a real concerning stat for austin eckler he only ran 20 routes yesterday melvin gordon ran 27 yikes that's the opposite of what you would expect from those two i was very concerned about austin eckler well because he had 15 catches in week five. And I don't particularly like pass-catching running backs part of me. I didn't draft any Tariq Cohen. I did draft James White

because I thought he was falling to a really good range. And he's been solid. He's been about 11 to 14 fantasy points in PPR every week. But these guys have trouble replicating good seasons. And then you see a 15-catch performance.

It means nothing. It means nothing going forward because James White himself had 15 catches against the Chargers in the wildcard round. Is that the wildcard round? Yeah. No. Whatever it was.

The first round of the playoffs. James White. And then he had four and three the next two games. It's just not a reliable thing. Melvin Gordon's going to get almost all of the rushing touchdowns, I think. He is their running back. I'm not

necessarily buying Austin Eckler. I think it's questionable what his value is right now because coming off this dud. I guess the better question is where do you rank him rest of the season? Would you rather have a guy like Jordan Howard? A guy like... I mean, we'd probably take like Philip Lindsay over Eckler, right? I would take Lindsay over Eckler,

but Jordan Howard is a completely different story. And you look at, like, it's hard for running backs who catch a lot of passes to replicate their production. Well, look at Jordan Howard, who had this massive blow-up week five because he got a bunch of goal-line carries. Well, we don't really like Jordan Howard that much, I assume. So who would you rather have? Can I ask Chris a question from an analytical perspective? Is what Adam just said true? Because it feels false to me.

What? That the pass catching replication. To me, it feels more likely that a pass catching back will replicate his success. No, actually, it's been proven that Rich Rebar, who joined our show a couple weeks ago, he tweeted something out about just how rare it is for a running back that relies on catching passes to be a top 24 running back two years in a row

or something like that. I think it's like you have to catch passes to be an elite running back, but just catching passes isn't enough. I think that's kind of the way it works out. Well, the reality is that if you're a pass-catching running back and not a guy who leans on carries, is that you're dependent on game script.

The Patriots are not going to feed James White if they're bludgeoning the Dolphins in week four. James White is – I think he's one exception. And a big part of that is because you'll see a lot with Patriots. Like we think about Patriots, the Patriots running game. And we say, well, there's going to be a guy like Sonny Michelle, who's going to get all these red zone carries. He's going to get all these touchdowns.

And really, there's only one season where that's been true. And a big part of that is because when that offense is moving and James White's in and they get into the red zone, they'll just go hurry up inside of the 10. And that gives James White had five rushing touchdowns last year. That was also a big part of why he had such a good season. All right. So let me just wrap it up with Eckler here. You know, who are we valuing him similarly to?

Where do you think of him as a running back at this point? What range? Well, so when I say I would buy him, I don't mean that I think he's going to be good the rest of the year, but I think you can get him for nothing right now. I think his owner is absolutely panicking. How good do you think he'll be?

I think... Go ahead. Sorry. 20 to 25 range? In PPR? Yeah, which is sort of damning with faint praise because there's only like 16 good fantasy running backs. And so the 20 to 25 range is kind of made up of 12 or 13 different guys. Right.

If that makes any sense. And I think just to piggyback on what you were saying, like game scripts and troubling that Melvin Gordon ran more routes. They were down 14 to nothing and he didn't have 24 to nothing. And they didn't have a good game. Okay. Moving on. We got three more questions to get to here. First question though. Have you ordered a pizza online from Little Caesars yet? Well, if not, you're missing out on

Pizza Portal Pickup. What is Pizza Portal Pickup? It's like getting a pizza right out of the oven yourself. You walk in. You enter a code on the portal. A door opens and you're off with your favorite pizza and whatever pizza you order, it'll have crazy, crazy amounts of toppings. It's fun. Give it a try,

but it's only available at Little Caesars Pizza Pizza. Well, we're going to stick with the Chargers here. TexasBruin67 asks, does the return of Hunter Henry hurt Keenan Allen rest of season? And I will just say real quick, they were both healthy in 2017, and Keenan Allen had 102 catches, 1,400 yards and six touchdowns. But what do you think?

Does the return of Hunter Henry hurt Keenan Allen rest of season? I think it helps him. Teams are not going to be able to double. You're not going to be able to just stick double coverage on Keenan Allen, isolate him and not worry about anybody else left on the Chargers

because Mike Williams is constantly coming in and out with an injury. Eckler is clearly being, isolate him, and not worry about anybody else left on the Chargers because Mike Williams is constantly coming in and out with an injury. Eckler is clearly being on the back burner to Melvin Gordon. I think Hunter Henry opens things up in the middle. What an outstanding game from him, but most of his production came in full-blown garbage time. It was

absolute, just the Steelers sitting back, letting the Chargers move the ball down the field, and he picked it up. I mean, look, I get that he had a huge game, and I'm pumped for him, and I drafted Hunter Henry a lot, and I'm excited that he's back and he's playing well,

but I don't think it necessarily hurts Keenan Allen. Keenan Allen can still easily finish as a top five wide receiver, but he was not going to have 235 targets on the season. He was due to come back to earth a little bit. Yeah, Chris, first three games for Keenan Allen, he was the number one receiver, I believe, in fantasy. And the last three games have been terrible for him.

What do you think, Keenan Allen and Hunter Henry? And I also want to throw in that Melvin Gordon coming back is a big deal because Melvin Gordon, I believe, led the team in red zone targets last year. I think the addition of Hunter Henry might not be so bad for Keenan Allen, but just the addition of him and Melvin Gordon, I do start to wonder what those targets are going to look

like. What are you thinking, Chris? Well, and Mike Williams missed some time during those first three games. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what's gone wrong with Keenan Allen. Yeah, it's true. coming out of the slot in those last three games has shrunk from 30% to 10%. He's not being targeted deep. He's not making plays with the ball in his hands. His average yards after catch is 3.9 in the first three games, down to 2.1 over the last three. It's just kind of he's not playing as well, and Phillip Rivers isn't throwing the ball to him as much. And I'm not sure what the reason for that

is. Is it defenses have started to shift their attention more to him? Well, if that was the case, the fact that he's playing out of the slot more, you would think that would give him more free releases and more opportunities for matchups to take advantage of, and that hasn't been the case yet. So it's not something that I can necessarily pinpoint right now except to say that it's Keenan Allen, he's really good, he's going to be a top 12 receiver

moving forward because that's what the history has said right yeah it's three game sample size the first three games of the season keenan allen had 314 yards and three touchdowns on 42 targets last three games he has 99 yards no touchdowns 17 targets and it does not have anything to do with past attempts because phil Phillip Rivers has actually thrown the ball probably a little bit more in the last three games than he did in the first three games. Yeah. I would also say too, Adam,

that we got to adjust our expectations as we move along into the season and realize what defenses are good and what defenses are bad and then look at game script, right? So against the Dolphins, it shouldn't be surprising that Keenan Allen didn't have a huge game i mean they i know that they you know it was close at halftime but once that game was out of hand you know he wasn't and

they had zavian howard who can shadow him he's a pretty good cornerback so uh once that was out of hand he wasn't going to get the ball denver i mean chris harris is outstanding uh and then pittsburgh i think as pittsburgh's like as a really good defense that no one is talking about, if they had a healthy spin, they'd be competing in this, in this division or in, you know, for the Superbowl. When you look at Keenan Allen moving forward, Tennessee, Chicago, Green Bay would have me very concerned. Of course, Denver again in week 13, Jalen Ramsey doesn't look like he's coming back, but he does get Oakland twice. So I think there's some potential for bigger games, but he's probably going to be a little bit more methodical in his production than he was the first

three weeks. You wish that second Kansas City game was swapped with one of those Bears or Vikings in Week 15. You'd feel a lot better about the upcoming schedule. He does have some tough matchups at Tennessee, at Chicago, Green Bay, at Oakland, Kansas

City. That's a decent stretch. Bay, at Oakland, Kansas City. That's a decent stretch, Green Bay, at Oakland, Kansas City. The jury's kind of out on Green Bay, but they do have good corners. Then a bye. Then at Denver, at Jacksonville, Minnesota in weeks 13, 14, 15. Okay. That's sort of my argument for Hunter Henry helping him. You can't stack too much on him against these good defenses. he's not going to get Xavier Rhodes and a safety over top.

All right, guys. So let me give you some names just real quick. Give me one-word answers. Keenan Allen, rest of season, or Mike Evans? Allen. Allen. Keenan Allen or Cortland Sutton? Allen.

Allen. Keenan Allen or Chris Godwin? Godwin? Allen. Looking at that schedule, I think I'd take Godwin? Godwin? Allen. Looking at that schedule, I think I'd take Godwin. That schedule with the Chargers. Next question.

Is Miles Sanders back on the map after Jordan Howard's disappointing performance? Weird timing for this question. Miles Sanders played his season low in snap percentage this season. I believe Jordan Howard also, not surprisingly then, played his highest. Part of that was Darren Sproles and Corey Clement are both out. I'm not sure when they're going to be back. an early down option for them. They love him in the passing game. He leads all running backs and air yards actually this season. They've been using him downfield a ton and he's making big plays seemingly every weekend. I think 86 yards on three catches yesterday. He was awesome, but

they seem to want Jordan Howard in the running game and there's not signs that that's changing yet. I mean, he had a a 32-yard receiving touchdown and a 45-yard reception. That's going to be fairly unlikely to be replicable on a week-to-week basis in terms of being a deep threat out of the backfield. He's actually pretty good in pass protection, so I don't

think he's going to lose a ton of these opportunities in the passing game. But he had three carries for six yards. They don't trust him to be the feature back. I would sell high on him right now. Not only that, here's Miles Sanders' yards per carry in six games. Granted, not a lot of carries in some of them, but 2.3, 2.8, 4.1, 6.5, 1.7, and 2.0. So that's four out of six games at 2.8 yards per carry or worse.

And this also comes on the heels of Doug Peterson saying, we want to get Jordan Howard more featured work. And it did happen. I guess I'd say if you want to be optimistic about Sanders, they're 3-3. They could probably use some more playmaking on offense. And he is that kind of guy. But I don't think now is the time to be thinking

that Jordan Howard was so bad. Because look, Minnesota the time to be thinking that Jordan Howard was so bad. Because look, Minnesota's a good run defense. Jordan Howard was so bad, they're giving the job to Sanders. I don't know. Right, weird timing for that question, I'd say. But always a good time to start playing on FanDuel. And yeah, look, we've had the league for four weeks now, our FFT league, and I've cashed in three of those four

oh no i didn't cash this week all right i cashed in two out of three contests this week i did not cash in the uh fft listener contest but you can always join i didn't do so bad 161st out of 595 i almost cashed i'm gonna give it to myself i'm gonna say three out of four why not uh but listen you can join first of all'm going to say three out of four. Why not? But listen, you can join. First of all, you need to join FanDuel. FanDuel.com slash FFT. FanDuel.com slash FFT. And the league is five bucks per week. And how do you get five bucks?

Basically, you can get four free weeks into our contest by going to FanDuel.com slash FFT and making a $20 deposit. And you get $5 a week for four straight weeks. There you go. Then you can just put it right into the Fantasy Football Today listeners contest. But Fandle is extremely fun. I've been doing pretty well this year, so I'm happy to help out if you care for my advice. But I'm sure just listening to our podcast is going to give you a big edge on the competition and you can put that

into Fandle and you can win some money. Fandle.com slash FFT. Make a $20 deposit. Get $5 in site credit for four straight weeks. Go to FanDuel.com slash FFT or download the FanDuel app. And our final question today comes from Will Brinson. Would you like to apologize for Will for the Chiefs thing? Was the question. You know what I'm talking about. Go ahead. I don't think you were right about this.

Do you? Just again. Yes. Okay. know what i'm talking about go ahead i don't think you were right about this do you just again yes okay you think on last week's monday show you expressed some genuine concern about the chief's offense i told you you were crazy so pretty much i thought you were overreacting what is the context i need this is what i need to because this is this is getting back to like the pre-season patrick mahomes regression discussions is like when we were saying don't draft patrick mahomes in the first round that's not saying he's going to be bad so when you say you have concerns about the chief's offense is it that you think they're the third best offense in the nfl i don't think

or that they're only like one point per game better than the second best offense? I think it was more severe than that, right? Will, what do you think? What were you saying? I said that the Chiefs have a problem on their hands in that they cannot stop anybody from running the ball down their throats, maintaining the time of possession, owning the time of possession battle, forcing Patrick Mahomes and that offense with a bad ankle and a bad offensive line into spots where they have to be perfect on their possessions

or else they're not going to win football games. Now, look, I know Mahomes had a nice fantasy day yesterday because he had three touchdowns. One long one to Tyreek Hill was on a— But Tyreek Hill makes plays. Like, Tyreek Hill—and that was my argument. It's like we were coming off this game where the Chiefs had no Tyreek Hill and Sammy Watkins left after two snaps,

and we were judging the Chiefs' offense for the first time, as Mike Tagliere pointed out, the first time in the Patrick Mahomes era that they scored, well, since he became a starter, that they scored less than 26 points. And they did it again this week, and they scored 24. What was yesterday, then? What was yesterday? Yesterday they scored 24 points. The second straight time they scored less than 24.

24 points! They scored 24 points with 20 minutes of possession. So, yeah, I see your concerns. They can't stop the run. They can't get off the field, and that sucks. But I still have plenty of faith in them. I'm not worried about them. I'm just not.

He's just not right. He's a little hurt. He's not healthy. That's the thing is that you see a lot of these passes. He hasn't been nearly as uh as accurate he's completing 56 of his passes the last three weeks and over and and over the course of the season last year he was 78 point he was fifth in in adjusted completion percentage which basically takes out uh throwaways and and hit us thrown and deflected passes at the line he was fifth in the

nfl last season at 78.7 this season he's 19th at 73.2%. He just hasn't been the same guy. And you can see he's not stepping into a lot of these throws because he can't quite push off on that ankle. And this is what I wrote about in my winners and losers column on CBS Fantasy, is that Patrick Mahomes has come back to the pack a little bit at quarterback, but also Russell Wilson, Deshaun Watson, and Lamar Jackson have caught him. And so you don't get – I think he's still probably going to average 28 to 30 fantasy points per game for the rest of the season. I think he'll still be awesome. And that's baking in the regression that I expected.

But he's not the edge that he was last year when only two quarterbacks averaged more than 26 fantasy. No, and I never thought he was. But he's the opposite of the edge because you had to invest a first-round pick. Right. No, we didn't, though. I mean, none of us did. But if you had him, you probably did.

First or second, yeah. And look at the schedule. This is the other point I was making. Look at the schedule over the next five weeks. Broncos, a team that's passed rush just to come alive the last two weeks and a team that is effective at running the football packers great pass rush can run the football vikings great pass rush can run the football titans pretty good pass rush will want to run the football chargers have pass rushers may have melvin ingram back by then can possibly possibly run the football. We'll see. If those teams run the football and own time of possession against the Chiefs,

they're going to put pressure on Patrick Mahomes. Look, he's going to get stats, but he's not playing that well right now. He got leapfrogged by multiple people yesterday in the MVP race. That's fine. I just, I mean, yeah, look, I didn't draft any Mahomes because I just didn't think. I said, my point was that the Chiefs offense is, I have concerns about it and red flags about it. And then they went out and scored under 25 points again. They scored 24 points.

They had the ball, but they had the ball. They had the ball for 20 minutes and they scored 24 points. So I think if their defense can play a little bit better. Why would the defense get better? Because I think possessing the ball for 20 minutes is very fluky. Even though they're going to be bad at time of possession,

it's two weeks in a row where it's been extremely bad, and I'm just not willing to... I just think it's still an overreaction at this point. We have too much of this offense being the best. I think the Rams have much bigger issues than the Chiefs. Put it that way. They're fairly similar issues,

except the Chiefs quarterback has an ankle injury. It's not... Well, he's a lot better. For sure. But the offensive line is a problem. Look, I told you, Adam, that what happened in the Colts game is that the Colts ran the ball.

I know. Yeah, I know. The Texans had six drives of 10 or more plays. Yeah. Do you think that's going to keep having... No, listen. This is the blueprint for beating them. I understand, but I think that

while they're going to struggle against the run, while they're going to struggle with time of possession, I just think that we've basically seen the extremes of that. And all that said, Tyreek Hill had a huge game. Damian Williams saved you with a touchdown. Patrick Mahomes is a top seven quarterback right now going into Monday night. Not amazing, but they scored 24 points.

They weren't that bad. They're probably going to get better than this. They're about to play a run of good defenses. If we were doing this podcast in four weeks on Monday and you were still saying this when I'm pointing out that they can't get to 30 points, I'm going to have an intervention. I'll give you credit at that point,

but I think right now, I still think you're overreacting because I still think that they weren't that bad yesterday. What am I missing here? They scored 24 points. What did they score, six? But here's my question. They averaged 35.3 points per game last season. This year, it's down question they averaged 35.3 fantasy 35.3 points per game last season this year it's down to about 28 right you would think they'll be closer to 28 right yeah well that's

35 maybe but they have had basically they've had one game with tyree kill one and a half it's a huge deal sure but yeah no that's that's that's a fair point i don't have a response to that either way before the season you would have expected them to be closer to 28 than 35 right uh yeah i would probably pick right in the middle or so like 31 points so you're just lopping off 10 touchdowns basically hey look i am not arguing that they were going to regress like like i said i did not draft passion homes in any league let. Let's not twist my argument. My argument was specific to last week when they had their worst game with Patrick Mahomes and Will was very concerned and I just wasn't. And to be honest with you, I think the result from week six against Houston was sort of in the middle.

I don't know that either of us can claim victory yet. Okay. The first three weeks of the season, Patrick Mahomes completed 72% of his passes, averaged 398 passing yards per game, 10 touchdowns, zero interceptions, 134.9 quarterback ratings, 10.5 yards per attempt.

In the last three weeks, since he suffered an injury, and since the Lions gave us a blueprint for how to beat him, 56% completion, 303 yards per game, four touchdowns, one interception, 89.3 quarterback rating. He's averaging 7.8 yards per attempt over the last three weeks. That is extremely concerning. When you look at time of possession, they had the ball for 26 minutes against Detroit, a team that decided to run the ball and eat up clock three weeks ago. Against the Colts, they had the ball for 22

minutes and 45 seconds. A team that decided to run the ball and eat up clock against a bad defense. This week, against the Texans, they had the ball for 20 minutes. I know. I know. This is a pattern, man. I know, but what do you think? They're going to have the ball for 17 minutes in week 7? It's unrealistic

to be worse than 20 minutes. You almost never, ever, ever see that. Andy Reid has had 12 games since 2013 where he's had the ball 25 minutes or less with the Chiefs. He's 2-10 in those games. They don't... It's 2013. That's a huge...

That's less than two per year. Yeah, and two of them happened in the last three weeks. Look, I understand things are bad right now, but you... Okay, fine. I think it comes down to this. I'm willing to bet on Andy Reid and the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes. That's it. I'm just...

I'm not as concerned about the other issues. I think that we've seen sort of the extremes of it. And Patrick Mahomes, in weeks five and four and five, he threw for 315 or more yards both games. Why is his passer rating so low? Because he had one touchdown in those two games. And then he got Tyreek Hill back and lo and behold, he had three touchdowns last week. And it's also worth noting, he's at 7.8 yards per attempt from weeks four through six, which is, well, you did say that's concerning. And for him,

that is, but that's only because I think he was at 8.9 yards per attempt or something last season. Like 7.8 would still put you well above average. Sure, sure. But I mean, like for Superpower Mahomes, the one other thing I would point out, and this is what I've been basing the whole Colts thing off of, is that late last year, the Baltimore Ravens showed us this blueprint originally. In a three-game stretch against the Ravens, Chargers, and Seahawks, the Chiefs went one and two with their one win and an overtime victory. Those three teams pounded the ball, kept the ball away from Patrick Mahomes, and put him in bad spots. He completed 64.6% of his passes, under 300 passing yards per game,

seven touchdowns, one interception, 7.03 yards per attempt. All I'm saying is that if these teams continue to run the ball against the Chiefs and minimize the number of possessions and the amount of time they have the ball, Mahomes is going to have to be perfect in order to get the points and get the production you want. And I don't think it's going to happen with an offensive line that's hemorrhaging bodies and a guy with a bad ankle. And a defensive line that's hemorrhaging bodies, for that matter. It's not like their run defense is going to get much better anytime soon.

So I agree with your premise. I just think that they'll do better than any other offense. I agree with your premise. I just think that they're going to be fine, if that makes sense. I think it's a signal. You think it's noise. No, I just think that the last two weeks have been kind of a worst case scenario. Those have been Gretsch reference.

Oh, okay. Sorry, I don't know him as well as you do. At Yards for Gretsch. All right, that's Will and Chris. We're out of here. I want to thank Dr. Chow. Guys, great stuff as always. And we'll talk to you next Monday.