Fantasy Football Today - 10/31: Trade Talk, Crappy Halloween Candy, Regulators and More (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 31, 2018

It's a spooky, creepy edition of the Fantasy Football Today Podcast, which of course features some Sell High (3:18) and Buy Low (5:45) candidates. Where does Tarik Cohen fit in? Is Dion Lewis a buy low? Also we discuss the merits of carrying three great QBs on your roster (11:30) ... Reviewing yesterday's trade deadline deals (13:50, for full analysis please see yesterday's bonus episode), talking Halloween movies and terrible candy (22:22), Regulators Part One (27:08) and an OAK-SF preview (31:08) ... Answering 24 of your tweets about your players (38:14), answering some spooky, scary Fantasy questions (42:22) and then Fantasy Regulators Part Two (44:55) ... Email us at [e-mail] This episode is sponsored by www.ZipRecruiter.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

happy halloween everybody spooky show today on wednesday october 31st very excited i'm so excited i've already had a bag of m&M's this morning. Yeah, we can tell with your sugar rush. How excited are you? This is your son's first Halloween. Very excited. Have you bought him a costume? He's wearing like a pumpkin shirt or something like that.

I don't know. Okay, so that's typical of every first kid's Halloween. Are you taking him trick-or-treating? I don't think we're going to actually. Yes, we're going trick or treating, but with other people just to walk around. I don't think we're not going to like get candy on his behalf. I don't think anyway.

This is exciting stuff. You got to go get candy. We have, we have candy. We have our own. In fact, I already ate some. As I told you,

welcome to the show, everybody. You turn your lights off. Oh, lights are off. We have bought no candy. What's with you? You're evil.as has found a friend to go with so i don't have to worry about that my 16 year old actually asked me if he could go to a party and skip school tomorrow

what did you say i said uh we have like he is asked to miss a day or an hour for certain things in the past, and I've got a pretty standard response, and it showed me your current grades. That's a pretty good response. He showed me his current grades. They were awesome, and I said, okay. Oh, nice. Wow. Good for you, Heath. All right, so today we got buy low.

We got sell high. We did a bonus episode yesterday. I hope you checked it out. It was 15 minutes long. We broke down the trade deadline. Demarius Thomas, Golden Tate, Ty Montgomery on the move. We talked about the impact of all the relevant people. So please check that out.

But if you missed it, we'll go over it today. We'll do a quick recap of our thoughts on the players who were moved. But we're not going to spend as much time today on the trades. We are going to get a little bit of a visit from the regulators later on in the show. We've got some good regulating to do today. We're talking Halloween candy, Halloween movies, and a lot of fantasy football and your tweets and your emails at fantasyfootballatcbsi.com. I may have misspoken earlier because I was really negative the last couple of weeks about Halloween. But I've never celebrated halloween so if that's that that may be better yes i say it weird okay like just

i think a lot of people say halloween happy halloween nobody says happy halloween that's stupid there there are a few things on this show that are said a little weird i'm sure i say them say plenty of things that are weird. It always makes me laugh the way Dave says Bengals. Bengals? Yeah, yeah. You never noticed that? Oh, yeah.

Okay. The way you say Rune. Rune, yeah. Yeah. Heath has one. It's the Jacksonville. Jaguars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right. You also say tournament really, really weird too. I do say tournament weird. Thank you. Thanks, guys. Bye, yeah. All right. You also say tournament really, really weird, too. I do say tournament weird. That is – thank you. Thanks, guys. Buy low on who? I have none. Nothing that I say weird.

I don't think so. I just talked 100 miles an hour. Yeah, I think so. You say Pete Prisco weird. Okay, so who are we buying low on? Oh, we're doing buy lows first? I thought we were doing sell highs first Do you have any sell highs that you'd like to throw out?

Oh, I was very excited to talk about my sell high Alright, fine I'll allow it It's Halloween with crazy things happening Yeah, I am very scared Of Tariq Cohen Moving forward And not necessarily the total points

He's going to score over the rest of the season i think they will probably be in ppr top 20 ish um but on a week-to-week basis especially what we saw last week completely masked by the fact that they they just forgot to cover him for a play and he had a 70-yard pass touchdown he had five carries one catch only three targets last week and really he's got that one game against tampa bay with 20 touches and he had 14 against the patriots the rest of the games you look eight five eight twelve six i would be trying to sell high on tariq going okay and at buffalo this week, then Detroit. So the schedule's not so bad off the bat, but whatever.

That's not the point. Is Buffalo this week a good matchup for Tariq Cohen or a good matchup for Jordan Howard? Yeah, I don't know. Both? Yeah, I mean, I think Cohen is a poor man's version of James White. He's not going to get as many touches and probably not going to be as successful. But, I mean, the rate that he's producing is not going to be sustainable anyway. So you just have to understand there's going to be some lumps along the way. But, I mean, you're not benching him against Buffalo with six teams on a bye.

Jamie, do you have a sell high? I would have to be getting something great in return, but the Golden Tate trade to Philadelphia makes me slightly nervous about Zach Ertz. Really? Yeah, I mean, those guys operate in the same part of the field. So not that you're giving him away by any stretch, but you have to get two players in return.

One has got to be one of the mid-level tight ends. So George Kill, O.J. Howard, Derek Cook, whatever the case may be, however you rate those guys. And then another starter in return. So it's got to be two for one, but I think they're going to see a slight downturn in production for Ertz now. What if one of those tight ends you got in return was Rob Gronkowski? No, I mean, yes.

Well, yeah, look, I think he's the honorary by-low. We can transition to the by-lows now. I think he hopefully goes the Jordy Nelson 2016, Ben Roethlisberger 2017 route where it just doesn't really make any sense that he's not producing, really not getting a ton of targets, been dealing with an ankle injury, been dealing with a back injury. They've got Green Bay this week, and they've been pretty good against tight ends. Then they've got Tennessee, which is number one against tight ends, but they've only faced one good tight end, and that was Ertz, and he torched them.

And then a bye. So I think we'll all agree, right, to buy low on Rob Gronkowski. And not only that, this is an amazing time to do it. I mean, the problem is that I have Gronk in one league. I'm 6-2. I'm not trading him. Well, you're not, but you think he's a buy low candidate. Some people might not.

No, but what I'm saying is you have to be getting a starting tight end in return. Well, sure. I mean, you can package O.J. Howard and something for Rob Gronkowski. That's something better be something good. Well, I mean, look at the trades we see all the time. You know what I'm talking about. And I'll go back. This is not really a sell high, but back to because I think when we talked about Golden Tate yesterday, your initial impression was completely different than ours was.

And I do think there may be some people that look at that trade and say, well, Golden Tate just went from Matthew Stafford to Carson Wentz. I wouldn't hesitate to try to sell high on Golden Tate. Yeah, you're right. Because I think what I – all right, put it this way. If Golden Tate started the season with the Eagles, had a training camp with the Eagles, even with Alshon and Ertz on the field, I'd probably be pretty

excited about him. And that's what I was reflecting in my enthusiasm. But there is such an unknown with a guy going to a new team mid-season, learning the playbook and whatnot. So, I feel you, dog. Oh, wait. Heath, who's your buy low? Sorry. It was Golden Tate.

Oh, it was Golden Tate. No. Golden Tate was a sell high. Sell high. What are you talking about? Yeah. I'm just – I'm really giving you a hard time today, and I apologize for it. Yeah.

Who's your – It's not – Whoa. You apologizing for giving him a hard time. I'm going to go with Nick Chubb. Is it buy low? I think people were frustrated by his at that game and said, well, he's just Carlos Hyde. I think he's better than Carlos Hyde, and I expect he will have the majority of his games

will be better than what he gave us last week, which was still, what, nine points in PPR, seven points in standard? That's the floor. And I expect a monster game against the Chiefs this week. Next two matchups are great. Chiefs and the Falcons. Nick Chubb as a by-low. Throw out a few more names.

Same team. Jarvis Landry. Jarvis Landry has the second most targets in the NFL. He's not doing much with them, but you've got to love the targets. Adam Thielen has one more target than Jarvis Landry, and yet Thielen is the number one wide receiver in fantasy. Landry's 29th in non-PPR, 18th in PPR. So another appearance on this list as a buy low.

Agree or disagree on Landry? Agree. I agree. I think expectations may have been a little high for him, but he'll be better than he has been. And these next two are definitely

not so confident, but I'll throw them out there. Dion Lewis had a good game in week 7, 13 carries for 91 yards, six catches for 64 yards. Not the first time he's had a good game, and he hasn't strung them together. But maybe they come out of their bye and realize they need to get Deion Lewis more involved. Do you think he's a buy low?

Sure. Yeah, yeah, I think so. And on that same team, I'm not going to back off my Corey Davis love for at least the next 10 days. So what would you be willing – or where would you place Deion Lewis in your running back rankings to give people an idea? Rest of season? Yeah. PPR? Yeah, I don't think anybody's buying him in standard.

22. I'd say 25 to 30. All right, so it's not that great of a buy low. No, but I mean, there's upside there if he stays healthy. Yeah. And last one that I have is Crowell. Isaiah Crowell, who is averaging 5.1 yards per carry this season, but in six of eight games, 3.1 yards per carry or less.

So he's had two huge games, one against Denver, one against Detroit. And a two-touchdown game against the Browns. Yeah, two huge games in terms of yards per carry, yeah. At Miami, then Buffalo, then a bye. So two good matchups coming up for Crowell. And I just think, look, he faced the Vikings and the Bears in his last two games. Good defenses. No Powell.

I'm not saying buy low and this guy's going to win you a championship, but maybe he can help you get through some buy weeks. Maybe he can get you 10 points. Oh, he's a very good start this week. Yeah, right? I mean, Crowell's better than what we've seen the last couple weeks. Sure. All right, so it's a mild buy low.

And I think Josh Gordon. Crowell's better than what we've seen the last couple weeks. Sure. All right, so it's a mild buy low. And I think Josh Gordon. That Packers secondary may just be ripe for Josh Gordon this week. Hopefully. Hopefully. I mean, it's been a little frustrating with him. You know, targets have not been there. And last week the whole, was he late? Was he not late?

Is he going to play? Is he not going to play? I have one for you, Adam. All right. Keenan Allen. Yeah. His numbers the second half of last season were just amazing and very similar. Not a great first half.

So in his last seven games, he had five 100-yard outings and four touchdowns. Five touchdowns. Glad we gave up T.Y. Hilton for him. Yeah. That was a good trade. It probably was. Oh! What?

What happened? Speaking of that, we've got to tell people what we did. Did we do what I think we did last night? I haven't looked at any of my waiver claims. But let's take a look. This is going to be exciting. This is an interesting, I think, fantasy topic. Because I know Rule of thumb

Carrying three quarterbacks Especially in a ten team league We fought for a good three weeks About carrying two quarterbacks It's a terrible idea on paper You don't want to carry three quarterbacks It doesn't make sense However when your two quarterbacks

Are Andrew Luck and Carson Wentz They both happen to be on a bye They might be top two quarterbacks are Andrew Luck and Carson Wentz, they both happen to be on a bye. They might be top five quarterbacks at Fantasy. Would you keep them really just to play defense and make sure nobody beats you later in the season because they picked up Andrew Luck or Carson Wentz? That's kind of what we were dealing with yesterday, Heath. So you added a third guy? We did not, I don't think. Adam processed our waiver claims, so he may have done something without my consent.

I told you everything. But I was looking at it last night, and Adam says, okay, we'll drop Vance McDonald for a third quarterback and keep Luck and Wentz. And I'm like, no, no, we can't do that. So Adam asked me, which one do you like better, Wentz or Luck? And looking at the schedule, with Wentz having Golden Tate now, I actually like Carson Wentz better than Andrew Luck the rest of the season. Wow.

Hey. Did we drop Andrew Luck? We dropped Vance McDonald, and we own three quarterbacks. Who's the third one? We have Wentz, Luck, and now we have Russell Wilson for this week. Why did we drop Vance McDonald? Because we have Greg Olson. We don't need two tight ends.

Vance McDonald is much less likely to beat us going forward than Andrew Luck or Carson Wentz would be. I think it would be better if you guys are carrying three quarterbacks and two tight ends in a 10-team league. This is amazing. It's a unique circumstance, but I don't think you should drop great players, even if you have a surplus of them. I had a situation which was just relieved for me where I was carrying three quarterbacks as well in the 10-team leagues. Very deep benches. But I had Luck, Matt Ryan, and Jameis. And now I no longer have a three-quarterback situation.

Right, but you didn't want somebody to pick up Jameis. And we picked up Russell Wilson over Ryan Fitzpatrick. I put in a bid for Fitzpatrick. We lost the bid. So you prioritized Fitzpatrick over Wilson? Yes. Okay. For you.

For you, my friend. Let's go through yesterday's trades, and let's just spend a few minutes on this. So Demarius Thomas goes to Houston. Golden Tate to Philadelphia. Ty Montgomery to Baltimore. I just want to stress to everybody, we did a really good breakdown of it on yesterday's bonus episode. Please listen to that. Let's start with Ty Montgomery and knock this one out.

How much of a boost for Aaron Jones and or Jamal Williams? I mean it's a boost for those guys just because there's additional touches. He was averaging just under seven touches per game in terms of Montgomery. So the hope would be is that mostly Jones, but if you just look at what skill set is, Jones isn't exactly the most proficient pass catcher, at least so far in his early NFL career. Not that Williams has been great in that regard, but better than Jones and used more than Jones.

That would be my fear as a Jones owner, is that Williams gets the majority of those touches because he is a very good pass blocker. But hopefully this is the sign of things to come for Jones. You heard the talk coming off the bye week. You said it, Adam, last week that you thought this could be a breakout game for Jones, and in a lot of ways it was. I just hope that he got two catches, no yards on those two catches.

If he could have two catches a game and 12 to 15 carries a game, he's going to be a special player. Yeah, it was a little bit of a lucky breakout. I mean, he had a long run, but he got 12 carries, a season high for Aaron Jones. And if he's at 14 or 15 a week, that would be awesome. Does it hurt Alex Collins? Potentially. Potentially.

We don't know what Baltimore's plan for Ty Montgomery is yet, but there's reasons to be concerned about Collins, and there's definitely reasons to be worried that they're just going to not give the ball to Buck Allen anymore at all. I'm going to ask you to rank five wide receivers. So everybody, listen carefully. Rank Demarius Thomas, Cortland Sutton,

Golden Tate, Kenny Galladay, and Marvin Jones. Rest of season or this week? Rest of season. Galladay Jones. Let's format. Yeah, it does matter. Let's do PPR. Galladay Jones, Tate, Thomas, Sutton.

I'll go Galladay, Jones, Tate, Sutton, Thomas. All five of these guys, though, need to be rostered, right? Of course. Sutton's now 64% owned. He was like 33% yesterday or something. Thomas, value up, down, or the same?

Slight bump. Slight bump, okay. And I'm sorry, Heath, you the same? Slight bump. Slight bump. Okay. And I'm sorry. Heath, you like Sutton better than Thomas. Jamie? No, I do. Oh, I'm sorry. I flipped that.

Okay. Jamie likes Sutton better than Thomas. Heath? It's close, though. It's close for both of you, right? And you think Golden Tate loses here? Slightly. It's like the bump that Thomas gets is the downgrade that take gets yeah he was

averaging i think 9.9 targets per game i don't i don't see him matching that in philadelphia if he does then it's bad for jeffrey and arts right all right so it was fun it was good times whence is a winner and stafford's a loser yeah uh haha clinton dicks uh traded to the redskins makes their defense even better as they get ready for Atlanta, and Dante Fowler to the Rams. So, gosh, the Rams, they got a pretty eclectic group there. What was I going to say? Oh, Marvin Jones.

All right, so how good do you think Marvin Jones is now? I don't think he's that far from Sutton and Thomas, to be honest. But being granted the opportunity for more targets is the attractive thing. I just hope he does enough with it that he's just not touchdown dependent. He looked great. They've tried a lot. If you buy into air targets, he was very good in that regard. He had a lot of touchdown opportunities they just didn't connect on um so you know now

that tate is gone it's not like his role is changing they're going to use uh brandon powell and tj jones in the slot and theoretic potentially yeah i'm just looking at his games where he got at least eight targets which would be pretty close to my expectation moving forward over the last year at six for 54 six for 96 and a touchdown six for 128 seven for 107 four for 90 seven for 117 and two touchdowns man it's very encouraging yeah that's pretty nice and he does lead the team in red zone targets right now marvin jones he has 10 of those he has six targets inside the 10-yard line. Any sleepers? You mentioned like Theo Riddick, but other guys that could step up and just be sleepers like Brandon Powell maybe? I guess TJ Jones. Okay.

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I don't know. Maybe that keeps Eli Manning as the starter for a little longer. He'd do anything to not play behind that offensive line. Yeah. Jeez. Ben Roethlisberger broke his finger on his left hand. He'll be fine. He'll play this week.

Nathan Peterman will start for the Bills this week. Bears DST, are they number one? They are. They were before this. Buffalo signed their new quarterback, Terrell Pryor. That'd be fun. Yeah, it would be fun. They signed Terrell Pryor.

It wouldn't be completely out of the question for him to get a little action at quarterback. Bears offensive guard Kyle Long is out six to eight weeks. Seattle released Brandon Marshall. A.J. Green has a toe injury, but he should be fine. Raheem Mostert has an ankle injury. Maybe that's why he was a must-heard. No, he got hurt during the game. Well, that sucked.

On one of his two touches. But if you go by the 49ers track record, an ankle injury means 20 carries. That's true. We're supposed to preview that game today, by the way. We have to get to that, the Thursday night game. C.J. Beathard, uncertain for this game. I would actually like to hear more about your three quarterbacks. I haven't heard that story enough.

Just to let everybody know, we had some technical issues and i heard that story on repeat it's in my head now forever so so he asked me which one i like better and after looking at the schedule he's pick up from the uh where you like the two quarterbacks so damn it he can you start that uh he's pick up uh so he asked me which one I liked better. And I looked at the schedule. And with Carson Wentz already having Golden Tate now, I actually prefer Carson Wentz to Andrew Luck. You've got to do that again, Heath. Sorry.

So he asked me. Do you expect the following players? Melvin Gordon. Can we go back real quick? The C.J. Beathard thing could be big. He can't hold the football right now. Could be big for who? For negative on the Raiders

and 49ers passing game. Because I think John Gruden, if he thought that he could run the ball 35 times and just win a game, he's going to do that. I will downgrade Derek Carr a little bit if Beathard is out. I think John Gruden wants to kind of make a statement with Derek Carr again. I hope so.

Do you expect Melvin Gordon? Yes, you do. Do you expect Sonny Michelle? I don't. Not as of now. Royce Freeman? Not as of now. Jameson Crowder? No. Alan Robinson? No. Kiki Cutie? No.

Let's talk a little Halloween. Okay, people, I think that people are getting a little carried away with peanut butter M&Ms. Everybody's talking about peanut butter M&Ms like they're the best M&M. They aren't. They're basically Reese's Pieces. They taste almost exactly the same. Peanut butter or peanut M&Ms?

Peanut butter. Okay. You know, peanut M&Ms are great. But peanut butter M&Ms are also great. But everybody's acting like, like oh i've never had anything they're they're reasons pieces they're the same thing okay i have a halloween movie i want to recommend i recommended it on twitter and you know this is a good movie because people actually agreed with me and nobody ever agrees with my twitter takes the movie is called sinister it

was on last night and it sent shivers down my spine. It is freaking awesome. Please watch Sinister, one of the best horror movies I've ever seen. Congratulations on your new deal. Candycorn, according to Mark Harden on Twitter, is the trash juice that collects at the bottom of the trash bag. How do you guys feel about Candycorn? I've never been a fan. I don't like it, but if there's a bowl sitting there i'll probably have a couple pieces yeah i asked people on twitter candy corn is a good or b bad bad one with 69 of the vote i know why it's called candy corn no i learned this the other day if you stack

them all together it looks like a ear of corn really that's cool i also asked which holiday is better halloween or july 4th he well halloween is not a holiday but it's july 4th is not a holiday oh july 4th is a holiday july 4th isn't a holiday did you just say that independence day is a holiday i hate you anyway people on twitter said july 4th overwhelmingly two-thirds of the vote that's accurate and then i asked if you were trick-or-treating and receiving candy from I hate you. Anyway, people on Twitter said July 4th overwhelmingly, two-thirds of the vote. That's accurate. And then I asked, if you were trick-or-treating and receiving candy from strangers, which Halloween candy would piss you off the most? This is what's wrong with Halloween and with America. Do not teach your kid that if he's walking around the neighborhood getting free handouts from people he doesn't even know that he has the right to be pissed off because they didn't give him the candy that he wants.

There's no obligation to even give candy. You have an obligation. Yes, you do have an obligation to give candy. And you have an obligation not to give crappy candy. Don't be that guy. You're entitled. You're a brat. You're a jerk.

What happened to you on Halloween that made you this way? Yeah. What did happen? Did you want to dress up as a superhero and mom and dad were just like, no, you're going as a ghost? No, I dressed up just a few days ago and went to a Halloween party. As what? Forrest Gump.

Oh, that's great. You got to put pictures of that up, man. My wife was Jenna and I was Forrest Gump. All right, so here's what the people said. The crappiest candy, the ones that would piss you off the most. Jelly beans. Whatever. Chips.

Yeah, chips would be bad. Those peanut butter taffy things that come in the orange and black wrappers. Absolutely the worst. I actually got a lot of that. Somebody said an apple. One lady always gives an apple. I'd be okay with that. Now and later.

Black licorice. Pennies. People give change, apparently. That's terrible. Here's one that I would actually enjoy. Yogurt-covered raisins. Where are you guys on yogurt raisins? I love those. They're great. I usually, when I take my kids shopping, I'll say,

Oh, you guys want this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, Hey, Dad, can we have the raisins? What raisins? Where'd they go? I don't really like yogurt or raisins, so I don't imagine I would like those, but I've not had them. Give them a try. Almond joys. Mounds. Yes.

What's wrong with those? Coconut. Coconut sucks. You're terrible. Candy corn. This – okay, here's the worst candy. Butterfinger. Butterfinger.

You all know I hate Butterfinger. It's just dreadful. It's okay every now and then, but it's not a good – it's not on the top of the list, or at least it shouldn't be. Tell me if you guys like any of these candies that people said that were terrible. Whoppers, Three Musketeers. They're good. Peppermint Patties. I like Three Musketeers.

I don't like candy that much, but all those are fine. Tootsie Rolls. I'm not a Tootsie Roll guy. I like Three Musketeers. I don't like candy that much, but all those are fine. Tootsie rolls. I'm not a Tootsie Roll guy. Fine. Toothbrushes. People give out toothbrushes. Yeah. I bet you get really mad if you get those.

What the hell is this? You only have one, right? Correct? What? One toothbrush? Yes. No, I have two. Well, then how come when your clothes got lost or sat on the plane, you said you don't have one?

I just went to the dentist and I just got a new one last week. Oh, you waited for the free one. Actually, no. That's not entirely true. I bought one that I had to give it to my wife. So, yeah. No, I have decent dental hygiene. All right.

We'll do one round of the fantasy regulators, then Oakland, San Francisco. Then we're answering a bunch of your tweets and talking about fantasy football players. That's what we're here to do. So let's do it. Fantasy regulators from Rich. This is an incident that happened three years ago. Something's off here. Hi, Michael McDonald, everybody.

It's like Rick Rowling, people, but with Michael McDonald. Yeah. When you say you had a bag of M&M's this morning, what kind of M&M's did you actually have? It was a little bag, too. All right, this is an incident that happened three years ago in a league I used to play in. But I'd still like to hear your opinion on it. It was the final week of the regular season, and two teams were fighting for the final playoff spot. One team had a significantly better roster than the other, but ran into bad luck all year by playing against a lot of points.

The team with the better roster was one game back of the weaker team and owned the tiebreaker over them. In other words, the better roster team would make the playoffs if they won and the weaker team and own the tiebreaker over them. In other words, the better roster team would make the playoffs if they won and the weaker team lost. Now, the better roster team was playing the worst team in the league and almost certain to win. The weaker roster team was playing the best team in the league and had a high chance of losing. But with the number one seed in the playoffs wrapped up, the best team in the league decided to sit his entire team on the bench and effectively give the weaker roster team the win knocking the better roster team out of the playoffs the owner said it was strategy to make his odds better for winning the championship which he ultimately did as you can

guess this did not go over well with the owner of the better roster team who got knocked out of the playoffs. So is that good strategy or a poor integrity move? Yes. It's both. What would you do? Well, was the commissioner one of the four teams involved in this story? I guess it would be the question because I could understand a commissioner putting his thumb on the needle here. But I would probably mock the guy.

I don't think I'd kick him out of the league. We get this a lot, you know, and benching your entire team is one thing. What if you just benched your best player or something like that? Do you have the right to determine your own playoff fate, basically? So I guess the question that I have is when you say you're benching your entire team, that means you're just taking a zero because you're putting an illegal lineup in? Or you're swapping out players that are on buy or not playing or just poor players? Let's say it's swapping in poor players that you know you're going to lose.

Does it matter? Well, yeah, because it's roster management. If you're just setting an illegal lineup, which we can do in most leagues that we play in, then you get a zero. Sure, an illegal lineup is a little bit different. But if you're just – let's say you're benching Melvin Gordon for Frank Gore or something like that. But you're doing that with six players. It is a very low-integrity move that is also great strategy. So you'd allow it?

I'm not going to say it's platform. that is also great strategy. So you'd allow it? I guess the question would be is, did the guy who got knocked out of the playoffs check to see that if the guy had played all of his players, he still would have won? Well, no, I don't want to get into that specific. I think the general question is, is that okay? Because I think there's an argument both ways. I think it's a tricky one.

I mean, look, the thing about fantasy football is the idea is to run a team and mirror sort of what the NFL does, right? Right. And we know that the NFL, when they get to week 16 and 17, they sit their guys to make sure that they're healthy. I need an answer. We're kind of tiptoeing around it. I think there's nothing you can do. It's okay? You let it stand? It's not cool, but it. I think there's nothing you can do. It's okay? You let it stand?

It's not cool, but it's just there's nothing that anybody can do. You're not going to get me to say this is okay, but I would not kick him out of the league, and that's big for me. Okay. Well, it's been regulated. I'll keep going. We're not in love anymore. I just want people to know that this was a Michael McDonald song

before it was Regulators. Let's go to Oakland at San Francisco. Stat of the game. You know that wide receivers with eight or more targets against the Niners do well. I've said that like ten times last week. How about wide receivers with six or more targets against San Francisco? Ten of 13 wide receivers with six or more targets against the Niners have scored double-digit fantasy points in non-PPR.

So, Jordy Nelson, Seth Roberts, anyone? Anyone? So that means start Jalen Rashard and Jared Cook. Why? I think they're the only players that have six or more targets. Well, Nelson has eight targets this season in games. Last week, not so much. Jordy Nelson had four targets and one catch for 14 yards.

But he played the most. Yeah, so this game is not like nobody wants to watch it. I get it. But there's actually a lot of fantasy potential here. We don't have good defenses. It would suck if Beathard doesn't play. But why don't we start with the Raiders? And are there a lot of starts on the Raiders?

I think you're starting both the running backs. I will bump Doug Martin up a little if Beathard is out and drop Jalen Richard down a little if Beathard is out. Richard is a little bit risky because a lot of his work has come when the team is down two scores. I'm not sure that they're going to be down at all in this game. I'm probably starting Jordy Nelson. I'm definitely starting Jared Cook.

Okay. Let's talk about Derek Carr. You'd go with Fitzpatrick over Carr. We know that from yesterday. Would you go with Russell Wilson or Derek Carr? Wilson. I have Wilson one spot higher. Ben Roethlisberger at Baltimore or Derek

Carr? Right now I have Carr higher. I have Ben higher. Okay. Carr is about 15th for everybody. 14th for Dave, 15th for Jamie, 16th for Heath. So he's an okay start. You prefer Martin to Richard.

What did you say? In PPR too? For me, it's format. Martin in non-PPR, Richard is much higher in PPR. Yes, I agree. I just, I do think Richard's a little bit risky. All right. Would you start Aaron Jones or one of these guys?

Jones. I'd start Jones over or one of these guys? Jones. I'd start Jones over both in non-PPR. I'd start Richard over Jones in PPR. I want to just bring up one thing about Jalen Richard. He's actually only the number 32 running back in PPR. Per game or for the season? For the season. Because he already has it by.

For the season. Yeah. So maybe he's like 24th-ish on a per-game basis. I don't know. Just a wild guess. He doesn't do anything but catch passes. He never scores. He doesn't get carries.

So I just want to put that in perspective a little bit. And he's only 77% owned. He needs to be more. It's risky. Yeah. Would you start him over Austin Eckler? Yes. In PBR. Let's to be more. It's risky. Yeah. Would you start him over Austin Eckler? Yes, in PBR.

Let's see what happens with Melvin Gordon. Would you start Jordy Nelson or Devin Funchess? Funchess. Funchess. Jordy Nelson or Cortland Sutton? Sutton. That's a good one. I actually have them back-to-back.

I'll go Jordy. Jordy Nelson or Matt Breida? Jordy in PPR. Breida has not caught a pass in four games. Yeah, I mean, Breida's got a great chance here if he's healthy, ready to go. Oakland, they are terrible against running backs. They allow 5.1 yards per carry to running backs, the third most fantasy points to opposing running backs.

Yeah, how excited are you about Matt Breida? He's a number two running back on a week with six teams on a bye. Yeah, I don't even think he's a number two running back in PPR. But in non-PPR, I like him more than Tevin Coleman, but less than Jordan Howard and less than Doug Martin. But if he were healthy, if Breida were healthy, he'd be a must-start, right? No? I don't know if I'd say must-start. Most-start?

If he were healthy, he would be a must. I mean, I think he's a must start now, just again, given the circumstances. And how would you compare him to Doug Martin? Same. So you had them both. Who'd you start, Breida or Martin? Breida. I would start Martin.

Which tight end do you like? I'd start Martin and PPR Which tight end do you like better, Kittle or Cook? Kittle, but they're both in my top five And both back-to-back Alright, yeah, so don't get cute That changes if Beathard's out though If Beathard's out, would you start The Raiders DST?

The awful, awful Raiders DST I'd consider it. You know who their starting quarterback is if Feather is out? I honestly forgot. Tom Savage or something? Tom Savage is their third-string quarterback. I don't know if they'd maybe upgrade him, but I believe Nick Mullen is the name.

Yeah, it's an interesting... It's an interesting... Yeah, it's an interesting... It's an interesting... Yeah, it's awful. This game's going to be terrible. And Mark, he's good when start or sit. Same thing with Beathard. I think if Beathard plays, he's a number three receiver with upside. If Beathard is out, no chance.

Yeah, I'm probably just sitting him regardless. All righty. That does it for this terrible game. We've got a lot more to talk about, including our second sponsor of the day, who wants to remind you that starting C.J. Bethard, or his backup rather, would be not smart. Starting Jalen Michard in PPR would be smart. Using any company not named ZipRecruiter to find someone for your job,

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Why don't we answer questions about players? Questions about players. This is where I say to you on Twitter, tell me a player on your roster, ask me a direct question, and here we go. From Chaz, is David Njoku a tight end one? A number one tight end.

Low end, but yes. Where do we rank Dion Tight end one. A number one tight end. Yeah? Low end, but yes. Where do we rank Deion Lewis after the bye? We already answered that question. Yeah, like top 25. Most likely running back by my playoffs in half PPR. I think he means most likely to be used. Connor, Ingram, Fournette, Nick Chubb, Latavius Murray.

Just one? Yeah, who do you think is the best? All right, if you were going to pick two for your stretch run, Conor, Ingram, Fournette, Chubb, or Murray, who would they be? Ingram and Chubb. That's what I was going to say. Who should I stream over Ben Roethlisberger this week? Dak Prescott, Derek Carr, or Joe Flacco?

Yes. I would say none of the above. Against Baltimore with a broken finger, he has not had a good track record in Baltimore. So who would you pick, Jamie? Dak, Carr, Flacco. Carr, Dak, Flacco. Who is Alex Collins' rest of the season? He was great this time last year.

I waited, hoping. Then they traded for Ty Montgomery. So who is the 2017 version of Alex Collins? No, I read it wrong. What is Alex Collins' rest of the season? What do you expect from him? Flex. Someone you may cut in a couple of weeks.

Is Kenny Galladay a wide receiver two rest of season? Yes. Maybe a number one. Is Cortland Sutton a wide receiver two rest of season? Yes. Probably a number three. Should I trade the Bears DST? They have the Rams and the Packers in the playoffs.

Sure. Anytime you can trade a DST to it. But you might win a week with the Bears DST this week, so just keep an eye on that. So high after win a week with the Bears' DST this week. So just keep an eye on that. So high after they have another big game. Yeah, after this week. Smallwood or Clement, rest of season? Adams.

You think so? Yeah. Followed by Smallwood, followed by Clement. What, Heath? Sorry. I think I'd prefer Smallwood. All right. Can I give up on either Corey Clement or Chris Thompson? Clement, for sure.

Thompson I'd hold if he can, but he may not play again this week. Is Larry Fitzgerald a wide receiver three from here on in? Maybe a two in PPR. Yes. LeSean McCoy or Marlon Mack, rest of the season? Mack. Yeah, Mack. What is Matt Breida's value going forward? Sean McCoy or Marlon Mack, rest of season? Mack. Yeah, Mack.

What is Matt Breida's value going forward? Loves the injury report. Low end number two. Sutton or Christian Kirk, PPR, rest of season? Sutton. Sutton. Is Deontay Foreman worth keeping in a 14-team non-PPR league? No.

I still have him in one. Will Phillip Lindsay be top 12 rest of season? Borderline. Not quite. Is Leonard Fournette an RB1 when he's back? No. No. Is TJ Yeldon worth holding onto in a 12-team league?

PPR, yes. I don't really think so. What's the best of these three? Marvin Jones, Doug Baldwin, or John Brown? Jones. Marvin. Can I start Carson Wentz every week after his bye? Yes.

Nick Chubb or Adrian Peterson, PPR, rest of season? Chubb. Chubb. This week? Peterson. Chubb. Is Jordan Howard an RB2? Yes.

Barely. Emmanuel Sanders or Jarvis Landry, rest of season? Sanders. Sanders. What do we do with Doug Baldwin? Hold him. Start him. All right, we're going to finish with regulators.

First, let's see. I've got two segments to choose from here I think since it's Halloween I'm going to choose the spooky Creepy segment Um Yeah alright here we go Here's a segment called Scary fantasy football thoughts Scary fantasy football thoughts

They will be accompanied by things like this. And this. Okay, here's a scary fantasy football thought. Would an Aaron Jones emergence make Aaron Rodgers less than an automatic start? No. No, not at all. No, you don't think so? No. No, not at all. No, you don't think so? No.

Okay. Here's a really scary one. Aaron Rodgers won yesterday for two reasons. One, their defense got worse, and they got rid of a guy that he hates. Are we going to have no reliable running backs in Jacksonville, Pittsburgh, or Minnesota down the stretch. Potentially, but I doubt it. Yeah, I think James Conner and Leonard Fournette will be reliable down the stretch.

So will Le'Veon Bell and TJ Yeldon. Dalvin Cook and Latavius Murray I worry about, though. You should worry about all of them. Here's a scary thought. I don't know. I guess for opponents. Denver's run defense is going to get a lot better if it hasn't already. Based on?

Based on the last two games. Based on last season when they had the best run defense in football. Like I've said, they had pretty similar personnel. It didn't really make sense to me why they were doing so poorly. And the last two games, David Johnson averaged 2.8 yards per carry. Kareem Hunt, 3.1 yards per carry. I guess we'll find out this week. They got one of the hottest guys in the league coming in to face him.

They do, Lamar Miller. All right, that's a little scary. Here's something that's going to really terrify you. Is Patrick Mahomes going to be a first-round pick next year? No. What? I bet you people do. There is a great possibility that he's going to be picked in the first round of a lot of leagues in the greater Kansas City area.

Is he going to be a top 20 pick next year? He should not be, but if he keeps this up, he will be. And here we go, last one. Creepy question. Is there going to be too much gore In Miami That was your best one yet Thank you And yes I think there is

Sure Yeah what does that mean for Kenyon Drake going forward He's coming off two good games now You start him As long as they don't have Any better wide receivers than they do right now, I think he'll find involvement in the passing game again. All right.

I got some good stuff I'm going to save until Thursday's show. But right now, I'm going to give you the real thing. Let's do some legit Warren G regulate. This is from Zach. I play in a lot of competitive money leagues. In one league, a two and six team has traded Saquon Barkley for Nick Chubb and Wendell Smallwood. It's PPR. Oh, wait. All right. Listen, listen i'm gonna start this email over because i forgot what this was this is an email about a guy who wants players with a particular type of name on his just say earmuffs before the email i'm just gonna say i'm just gonna read it once okay well now i'm reading it twice but this guy wants a particular type of name on his roster. So I'm not going to say what it is, but all of you at home need to follow along.

All right. He traded Barkley for Chubb and Smallwood. And then he dropped other starting players for the likes of Bethard, Dixon, Trenton Cannon, and Theo Riddick. And even Charles Johnson, Richard Rogers, Jimmy Garoppolo, Willie Sneed, and Rex Burkhead. He owned Robert Woods and David Johnson, Woods and Johnson, and he kept them. He dropped Godwin, Hogan, Burton, Lamar Miller, and Kup as examples. Clearly he wants a certain theme of names.

The commission is ready to kick him out of the league and restore the team, but he's arguing that if we do that, we also have to kick out a team that happens to own AB, Hyde, and Butker, and just picked up Hines. That's a true story. And also ban him from using the Browns DST.

I'm dying laughing, but please regulate. Kick him out of the league. It's a great effort, but kick him out of the league. I hope everybody was able to enjoy that as much as we were. Slightly inappropriate, but we're mostly adults here, and I don't think the kids got it. This one is from Jamie Eisenberg, but not like somebody pretending to be Jamie. It involves a longstanding league created by the commissioner.

A few years ago, the commissioner decided to appoint a co-commissioner to hold the prize pool, including the free agent pool, where we bid with real dollars. At the end of last season, at least two players who were owed money were not paid because the co-commissioner has gone AWOL. At least two other teams, including the commissioner who won the league, were paid before the co-commissioner went AWOL. So the co-commissioner is in charge of payments.

He didn't pay two teams, at least two teams. What do you think is the best resolution? The teams that are owed money have to bite the bullet and get none of the money they're owed. The commissioner is ultimately responsible for paying all. The amount paid by the co-commissioner before going AWOL should be totaled and divided proportionally by the percentage owed from the pool or some other resolution. Was the league in on the idea that a co-commissioner was holding all the money?

Would you like me to call this person and ask? Yes. I don't think you have to. He's right here. And everybody was okay with that before it happened wait this isn't really jamie no this isn't really your league is it no oh you said not somebody pretending to be jamie so i thought it actually was jamie oh no no i'm sorry not jamie somebody pretending to be jamie someone pretending to be jamie okay not me i would

say there's a couple different options here. If everyone in the league knew that the co-commissioner was in charge of the money and everyone was okay with that beforehand, then the answer, unfortunately, is A. If this was a decision the commissioner made without involving anyone else in the league and then afterwards said, sorry, the co-commissioner took your money, then the answer is B. Oh, wow. I disagree with you. Shocker.

You're saying the answer is A, the teams that are owed money have to bite the bullet And get none of that money they're owed Or B the commissioner is ultimately responsible for paying all No you're wrong What should happen is The teams that have been paid Should give some of their winnings To the teams that haven't been paid

I disagree completely What? How could two teams get screwed out of their winnings? That's ridiculous. Because somebody took off with the money. Okay, but that doesn't mean that these two teams in particular should get screwed. Everybody should lose a share. They didn't get their money. Yeah, that's why we need to make it right.

This is like, this is really bad, Heath. Wow. I am shocked. Jamie, can you weigh in? Forget it. No, I'm sorry. If everybody but two people get paid, then the people who got paid should give up some of their winnings and make it right. Yeah, you can't just have them just get paid by themselves.

Jeez, Heath. Terrible. Terrible, Heath. I think that the people that didn't get paid should track down the co-commissioner. They've got more motivation than anyone else. Alright, next up. Jose says, a dude in my league proposed a trade. He

trades Ezekiel Elliott. I give him James Conner, straight up. No excuses. He put that in writing on our group chat. When I sent the trade, he backed out, arguing that he'll wait for the Le'Veon Bell situation to clear up. He'll wait for the Le'Veon Bell situation to clear up. Is it fair for him to chicken out of the trade that he proposed in the first place?

Regulate. 100% fair. Yeah, he doesn't have to follow through with it. Yeah, I's true it's a little weak but it's fair all right next up this is from joe a guy sent me a trade offer of his mike evans for my james connor i saw the trade sunday morning and i gave it some thought and i accepted the trade i gave up connor i got mike evans the early games had already started but that doesn't matter because there were no injuries or breaking news that happened between the trade being sent and the trade being accepted. But soon after I accepted the deal, the guy who sent me the offer messages the whole league and tells everyone to veto the trade. He also tells the commission it was a mistake, and the commission also told everyone to veto it without even talking to me.

Obviously, it gets vetoed right away since it only takes a few votes, and the commissioner everyone to veto it without even talking to me. Obviously, it gets vetoed right away since it only takes a few votes, and the commissioner says to veto it. Turns out the guy who offered me the trade says he, quote, changed his mind and, quote, forgot to cancel it. I say that you have to know what's going on with your own team and also don't send out offers you wouldn't do. I also feel that I never got a fair chance and people vetoed under false information, and some might say it's collusion to tell other teams to veto a trade. So far, the commission hasn't said anything to me, and I feel like I'm being screwed. Regulators, what say you? I mean, don't play in leagues that have vetoes.

I am not forbidding you to say that. Quit the league. It is obvious that, A, people play in leagues with vetoes. You shouldn't. B, you can't just kick people out of leagues. How many horror stories on this day of horror must we hear about trade vetoes before we just accept that the wrong answer is trade vetoes? It really is bad. You might be right, but that doesn't help these people.

I know I am right. But that doesn't help these people. Yeah, it helps everybody that hears that message and decides not to have trade vetoes next year. It helps them. There's no help for you if you're in a trade veto league. There's no solution to this. I'm going to be the voice of reason. No, there is no solution to this because you can't police the way that people use their veto.

If they have that power to veto, they have the power to veto. No, you know what? People are abusing the power to veto. You don't say, hey, everybody, veto this trade. I had second thoughts. I didn't want to do it. That's pathetic. That guy's a baby. Tell him he's a baby. Tell him we said so. Trade vetoes are four leagues of babies.

They don't have to be. Trade vetoes can be dealt with responsibly. What I would say is that as a guy who has once said, if you send out a trade offer and then the guy gets hurt and then it gets accepted that that trade should be vetoed, this is different. There were no injuries. He should have been more on top of it.

No, you are in the right. This should not have been vetoed. You should get this trade. Wait, how are you helping him? I'm helping him. I'm telling him what the right thing should have been at least, unlike just this unhelpful, quit the league. Whoa. Yeah, you're trying to make him feel better about this bad thing that happened because of the terrible rule that they have.

I'm trying to fix the terrible rule. All right, but that's rule number one of fantasy regulators. Rule number one is we don't like trade vetoes, even though I kind of like them. Yeah, that's not rule number one. You like it. That's why we read six trade veto emails every time we do this segment. Well, that's what people have questions about. By the way, we get like at least 30 a week now, by the way, regulators.

Last one, and then we will send you off to go trick-or-treating. I heard about the owner who added and dropped all streaming tight ends to prevent his opponent from getting any. Here's what I did once instead. Was it ethical or just fun? This is from Brad, by the way. Someone had dropped an injured Odell Beckham last year to waivers in our three-keeper league. Anyone picking up Beckham would get him as a 13th round keeper next year. I immediately added and then dropped about 15 useless kickers so that the transaction moved below the screen on anyone's phone, hoping

no one would notice, and I could then pick up Beckham. So Beckham gets dropped, then he makes all these add drops of kickers to move the initial Beckham drop down so nobody would see. I like how you're actually acting this out as if someone's watching you move transactions now. You can see me? I thought you couldn't see me.

No, you can't see us. We can see you. Oh, okay. So when you picked your nose about 20 minutes ago, we saw it. Is that a good tactic or a bad move? Dropping the transaction from the screen. I mean, it's nothing illegal or unethical. I think it's fun. I think it... You would have vetoed him from the league.

I would or Heath would's... You would have vetoed him from the league. I would or Heath would have. You would have. I don't think it's the right thing to do. I don't think it's nice. People should be nice. Did he get him? I don't know. It didn't work.

You don't think it's nice? Oh, it didn't work? It's not nice. What do you think Michael McDonald would say? He'd say, gotta go, bye. We're out of here, everybody. This is the spookiest music I can think of. Have a great Halloween.