Fantasy Football Today - 11/06: Trade Talk; Players to Trust; LAC-OAK (Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 6, 2019

Last week we saw Ronald Jones and Devin Singletary emerge in their respective backfields. Who's next (2:30)? Heath and Ben give you some candidates that could earn more playing time. Then we talk about whether or not you can drop the Patriots and 49ers DSTs (6:00) before getting into our Buy Low (12:00) and Sell High (16:41) guys. Do we still believe in Terry McLaurin? Are we sure Damien Williams is a lead RB? How much does schedule matter when evaluating players? ... We read a bunch of your emails and Apple Podcast questions (34:30) about A.J. Green, Devonta Freeman, D.J. Moore, Leonard Fournette and more ... Previewing LAC-OAK (45:50)! And we finish the show wondering if we can trust (55:50) players like Kirk Cousins, Matthew Stafford, David Johnson, Ronald Jones and Emmanuel Sanders ... Your emails at [e-mail] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. It is Wednesday, November 6th. I'm pretty excited to preview what could be a really fun Thursday night game, the Chargers and the Raiders. Phillip Rivers leads the NFL in passing yards, and yet he is QB 15 in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues. Will this be the week that he finds the end zone two, maybe three times? Welcome to the show, everybody.

Heath Cummings is here. What's going on, Heath? It's so good to see and hear from to the show, everybody. Heath Cummings is here. What's going on, Heath? It's so good to see and hear from you this morning, Adam. I've missed you since Sunday night. Yeah, I'm sure you have. And I know you are the Grinch who stole Halloween, but this is November. And from what I remember, you are a big Thanksgiving fan, right? Oh, this is my season right now. turkey mashed potatoes and gravy i don't really need anything else uh-huh i'm from thanksgiving but those two things absolutely no family or anything like that just the i may have i may have turkey and i i've had enough plenty of football

ben i'm not i'm not missing any football in my life um i may just have turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy once per week for the entire month of November. All right, here we go. Ben Gretsch is being played on. Benny and the Gretsch. Hey, happy Ronald Jones week to you, Ben Gretsch. I hope you held on to him everywhere you had him, unlike me. Still rostering him.

Love those big week nine breakouts. I had him in a couple lineups because of buys and injuries. So, yeah, it was a good week last week. Yeah, the Week 9 breakouts really make your season, you know, when you're 3-6 because you've been rostering Ronald Jones all year. Yeah, and you know what? Today we're going to talk about some of the trendy players and can you trust them.

Like Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford have been amazing over the last five weeks. Their schedules are about to get a lot tougher. Dallas and Chicago coming up for these guys. Can you trust them? Can you trust Cortland Sutton, Emmanuel Sanders, DJ Chark? Got a lot of names, a lot of running backs to throw at you. I hope we have time to talk schedules because I've looked at a lot of good

and a lot of bad schedules. I want to ask you if you can drop the New England and San Francisco DSTs or if that would be crazy. I did a Twitter poll and I think people think I'm crazy for even asking about dropping the New England DST. But first, who's next? If Ronald Jones and Devin Singletary are now getting their chances, they're emerging perhaps as... We don't know. We don't know for Singletary. We have more indication for Jones, but you know, if these are our two guys who are up now,

who's up next might not happen, but we're going to take a speculative shot on who to emerge in a backfield. Ben, I'll throw it to you. Yeah. The guy that I'm adding everywhere is right. Well, Armstead for the Jakes.

I mean, I basically see him as very similar to Alexander Madison in Minnesota, who's owned in a ton of leagues, but Armstead is not, but the similarities, I mean, they're both rookies. They're backing up workhorse running backs who have passing game value in

their offenses, essentially are throwing enough to the backs to, to be able to support high level running back one production, maybe not every single week, but in Fournette's case, he's getting he's definitely getting that type of workload. He's never neither of those lead backs has ever played 16 games. All those reasons to like Alexander Madison, I think they apply to Armstead, too, and he's more widely available and he's played well. He's been catching passes and playing well. So I think there's a good reason to believe that he would have an opportunity to be the number two in Jacksonville should something happen to Fournette.

Or to be the lead guy should something happen to Fournette. Heath? I'm hopeful that it's J.D. McKissick in Detroit. He has been wildly effective with the football and was a lot of the time in Seattle as well. He just doesn't get that many touches. But we're talking about a guy who's averaged seven yards per carry and almost nine yards per reception this season. Ty Johnson has looked awful. I don't think McKissick would be anywhere close to that good if he got 15 touches in a game, but I do think they should give him 15 touches, especially with

their inability to run the ball. Just throw the ball to him a little bit more. Use that as part of your running game. Run a high-paced offense. And I think McKissick could actually be somebody that in PPR you're happy with starting. If he could just get about twice as many touches as he's getting right now. All right, that's a good call. Yeah, like the peak Theo Riddick role. Like when he was at his best, he was definitely startable.

And I think JD McKissick might be a better running back in terms of rushing the ball than Theo Riddick. Hey, he might be better than Ty Johnson. He's 23% owned, and he had a good game at Oakland last week. He had caught three passes for 40 yards and a touchdown. Oakland has been really bad against pass-catching running backs. I think they've given up four receiving touchdowns to running backs in their last three or four games. And who do they get this week?

They get Austin Eckler, and we're going to preview that in a little bit. So Armstead needs an injury, but he's got massive upside. McKissick's got a chance to just win that job. And, you know, Miles Sanders is the name that's sort of like Ronald Jones, like Devin Singletary. But, you know, I do want to point out, because looking at good and bad schedules, that Jordan Howard, if he doesn't lose the job,

he's got in weeks, let's see, 13, 14, and 15, the Dolphins, the Giants, and the Redskins. He's got a really good chance to be in a good positive game script, score those rushing touchdowns against bad run defenses. I don't know that Miles Sanders is going to take over any job, but whoever does, whoever's the lead running back in Philadelphia could really finish strong for you. Of course, they have a bye. Then they have New England,

but New England doesn't appear to have a very good run defense. Then Seattle, at Miami, Giants, at Washington, and finally Dallas in Week 16, Giants in Week 17. All right, guys. So we're going to do a little bye low and sell high, but I do want to know your thoughts on my DST question. How crazy would it be to drop the Patriots or the 49ers? Patriots are on a bye

and the 49ers have Seattle at home on Monday night. Heath, am I crazy for even asking this question? I don't think you're crazy. The fact that you're asking it, and I'm always more of a don't carry a second DST guy than you are. It's true.

Yeah. So I think these are both like, well, New England especially, very situational dependent. I have several teams where I was considering I might have to drop Brandon Cooks this week because I need a starter at a position and I'm sitting here at five and four fighting for a playoff spot.

And if I had the New England Patriots on that same team with Brandon Cooks, I'd rather drop the Patriots than I would Cook. And so I think that's kind of going to determine it. We've got six teams on a bye this week. We've got a lot of players that are injured that we want to hold that we don't think are going to play in Week 10. And you look at the Patriots' schedule, they've got mostly good offenses until week 14.

I don't really want to start them at Philadelphia against the Cowboys, against the Texans or against the Chiefs. I'm not, if I had them in that situation, I'm probably also not like picking up a streamer to use. I don't care if I have to use them, but it's not a priority to have them for the next five weeks. I'm probably not holding them in most leagues. Now, I also have teams where I don't have a lot of week 10 buys.

I've got some scrubs on my bench. I'd much rather hold the Patriots than someone we've been holding. I think Ben said his name, so this is not a shot at Ben, but someone that Ben said as a stash that I agree with, Justice Hill. I would rather hold the Patriots probably than him,

but that's kind of the level. Yeah, and look, they faced two good offenses this season. They faced the Steelers in Week 1 with Roethlisberger. They finished as the No. 12 DST. They faced the Ravens last week, and they finished as the No. 21 DST. And in between those two teams, they've faced teams that rank 22nd or worse in scoring.

Now their next four games are against teams that are in the top half of the league in scoring. So I did the Twitter poll. Should you drop the DST? Drop them or keep them? 3,200 votes. 81% said keep them. I got a lot of responses like drop them so I can pick them up. So look, I think exactly what Heath said.

I don't necessarily want to drop them, but if I have to, I think that people might be overvaluing them a little bit, and now they're going to go make me look stupid and destroy the Eagles in Week 11. But still, rostering two DSTs isn't great. How about the 49ers, Ben? Seattle this week on Monday night, then Arizona. We saw what Arizona just did to them.

Then Green Bay, then at Baltimore, then at New Orleans, then Atlanta, then the Rams. It's not a great schedule for them going forward. We're talking about the two best DSTs so far, Niners and Patriots. Your thoughts on San Francisco? Yeah, I mean, these are both obviously very good real-life defenses, but we talked about this when the Patriots were at their peak, and I was of the mind that they couldn't sustain it, and I'm not trying to act like because of one week last week where they didn't, which is that it's not necessarily the strength of the defense that determines the fantasy points. It's the weakness of the opposing offense. And you should always be targeting when you're streaming defenses, weak opposing quarterbacks, weak opposing offensive lines, teams that give up sacks, teams that turn the ball over.

You know, going up, you want to be going up against jamis winston or ryan fitzpatrick or guys that are loose with the football uh so yeah i have no problem dropping either of these guys they're much better defenses than the d's that you're going to pick up but don't focus on that focus on how many fantasy points can they score against these teams that the 49ers are not going to score a ton of fantasy points against russell wilson they might get to him and sack him three or four times but they're not going to have a monster high upside game. That's going to make you regret dropping them. And that's probably the case for green Bay,

Aaron Rogers, you know, almost to a fault refuses to turn the ball over and throw it into risky situations. That's true for Baltimore. Who's going to run the ball a ton. Drew Brees is not somebody who turns the ball over a lot. You look at that schedule.

There's not a lot of matchups there where they have a lot of upside in terms of fantasy points. I'd much rather be streaming weaker defenses that have like return pick six touchdown upside against those really weak offenses. Then there's plenty. You know, Dwayne Haskins, we can target now. There are so many offenses we can target that streaming defenses is going to be relatively easy the rest of the way. All right. Well, I think that's you're hearing from fantasy analysts. I think that the general public would probably be more bullish on at least keeping the Patriots DST. And that's fine. You

just have to ask yourself, we know they're a great defense, but in these matchups coming up, are they going to be a lot better than the teams that you can pick up as streamers? If you want to win a million dollars, you know, you can do that on FanDuel, by the way. Go to fanduel.com slash league slash FFT. Join our contest. But you can also do that at cbssports.com slash parlay. So this is how you play our parlay contest. Parlay pick them on cbssports.com slash parlay

or on the CBS Sports app. You've got a chance to win a million dollars. Just download the app or go to that URL, submit your parlay card, and once you're done, you're immediately in contention for big-time cash prizes. Not just a million dollars. There are a lot of prizes you can get. So what are you waiting for? Download the CBS Sports app or visit cbssports.com slash Parlay.

P-A-R-L-A-Y. And take your shot at a million bucks. Take your shot at a free t-shirt, baby. We got a Facebook group giveaway at Fantasy Football today. The Facebook group, just search for Fantasy Football today, you'll see it. And give us a gif to describe your season or a gif, however you want to pronounce it, but a gif or a gif to describe your season so far. We'll pick the best one. We'll give you a t-shirt. All right, let's do a buy low, sell high, but we're going to talk about those guys and whether or not you can trust them going forward. And I think that'll lend itself naturally to some buy low, sell high. But we're going to talk about those guys and whether or not you can trust them going forward.

And I think that'll lend itself naturally to some buy low, sell high. But if you have any names you'd like to throw out, Ben, I'll start with you. Who are you buying low on? DJ Chark is one that isn't really thought of as a buy low, but he hasn't been as good lately. They're having a quarterback switch. The person rostering him in your league might be getting a little bit concerned and if you're especially if you're headed to the playoffs in weeks 15 and 16 he's going to get oakland and atlanta back to back

that's two very beatable downfield uh which is his type of you know volume and role downfield defenses or they can't defend the downfield part of the the field so i really like dj charke uh as a fantasy playoff difference maker in weeks 15 and 16 the area should be there and i think those are weeks that he can definitely hit okay cool he also has tampa bay in a few weeks not quite as easy before that but some good matchups coming up for dj charke heath bilo i've got two names terry mcclure, I still like his share of the targets, his share of the air yards. I can't believe they're going to run Dwayne Haskins out there too many more times.

I kind of expect that we're going to see Case Keenum or Colt McCoy. Either one would be better for him than Haskins. And their schedule moving forward, they basically have maybe one good pass defense left on the schedule. There should be plenty of opportunities for McLaurin, and you might be able to buy him off the waiver wire in some leagues. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets dropped at some point.

You look at that schedule, Jets, Lions, Packers, maybe Eagles, Giants. It's fantastic. So I expect him to be a lot better. And then I'll go with Tevin Coleman. The pendulum kind of swung back to Matt Breida a little bit in their most recent game. I still think Coleman is the most likely to get the red zone work, and he's had plenty of work in the passing game as of late. I still expect him to be a top 20 running back moving forward. Well, Chark and Coleman were two players on the Do You Trust segment.

And for Coleman, very important to note that they are getting healthier. They're getting their tackles back. I don't know when Kyle Uchik's coming back, but it's pretty soon, if not this week. I don't know about this week, but maybe next week. That would be against Arizona. Then it's Green Bay. Unfortunately, he does have Baltimore and New Orleans,

two really good run defenses coming up, but enough good matchups on the schedule as well to be excited about for tevin coleman so we've got dj charke terry mccluren and tevin coleman as some bylos just please i got i got another good one for you yeah james connor james connor was the other one i was going to go with obviously banged up right now we don't know if he's going to play again looking ahead to the playoff schedule if you if you're in good position where you can be trying to buy some pretty good players, he faces Arizona, Buffalo, and the

Jets. Buffalo's a good defense, but they've been getting hit hard on the ground. That's three defenses that he should be able to rack up rushing yards against and have some pretty big weeks if he's healthy and in the lineup and ahead of Jalen Samuels. I think he's a good buy right now with looking ahead to that week 14 to week 16 span.

Okay. We don't know if he's going to play this week against the Rams. If he doesn't, maybe you go back to Jalen Samuels or maybe a different running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers this week in your FanDuel lineups. I gave you that URL, fanduel.com slash league slash FFT. That's our weekly contest. Only $5 to join. Feel free to submit a lineup and lose money to me. And it's really fun. But anyway, FanDuel is great. Okay, look, you got plenty of ways to win money on FanDuel.

You can put in $20 if you haven't joined yet. You go to FanDuel.com slash FFT. FanDuel.com slash FFT. You put in $20 and you get $20 back. You get $5 per week in site credit for four weeks. That's awesome. You can use those $5 to enter our contest, enter other contests. I play the Sunday Millionaire every week.

It's only $9 to enter. And one of these weeks, I am going to win a million dollars. But look, you don't have to worry about bad matchups or injuries or busts or whatever. We all love playing on Fanduel. We all play a ton of lineups. I don't play that many. I play about five every week. Heath plays like 5,000 every week. But no, he plays over 100. But no, it's really fun.

And it's just, it's kind of easy to get into. It's, you know, it's not hard to make a lineup. It's not intimidating if you're like, oh man, this sounds tough. It's really not. It's not at all. You just look at a list of players and you pick your favorite ones and you fit them in under a budget and that's it. So go to FanDuel.com slash FFT or download the FanDuel app. Sign up and get 20 bucks in total bonus. Just make your first deposit of 20 bucks and get started and you'll get an extra $5 in site credit

every week for four weeks at fanduel.com slash FFT. fanduel.com slash FFT. All right, Heath. If you rearrange the letters in cell high you do get the word sigh so you go first sell high l sigh um let's get to the player that ben and i are probably going to disagree on i like it um i i am getting rid of dam Damian Williams, if anybody will give him just about anything. Whoa.

Give me just about anything for him. He has not, like, that was a very nice touchdown run, and he made a couple of moves in the open field. But Jay Moyer, FB, tweeted this out this morning. First off, the hole that he ran through on that play was enormous. Most football players would have had a very big gain on the play. He has 60 carries on the year. 40% of his yardage came on that one play.

Yeah. I just don't trust that he's going to be good enough to continue getting a bunch of touches. There's been some little murmurs that they want to get Darwin Thompson more involved. I still think Darrell Williams might be the best option. LaShawn McCoy, if he could hold onto the football has been by far their best running back. I, if somebody wants to pay me something for Damian Williams, it suggests they think he's

going to be a starter moving forward. I am taking it and running Ben. Yeah. I mean, I completely disagree. He played a 74% snap share if you if you watch the game and i wrote about this in stealing signals and listen to the broadcast you always get some of these like notes from the broadcast team because they do the production meetings where they talk to the team as as damian williams was playing all these snaps throughout the game they kept referencing that the coaching staff had talked to them they want damian williams to be their lead back they They said they, they like his skillset and his fit in the offense.

It obviously showed at the end of last season, we have not seen, well, Sean McCoy has been good, but we have not seen that type of upside that we saw from Damian Williams, the end of last season in this offense from any of the other backs this year. I totally agree that that one 91 yard touchdown run shouldn't be,

shouldn't be overvalued. What you should be really pumped about is Damian Williams' routes run percentage of dropbacks last week went up to 50%. Again, it was the highest rate since week one. That's the part of his game that really fits. The way that he runs routes, we saw in the preseason, he ran a wheel route and got one of those downfield little, a few air yards passes that he caught, made a move and went 60 something yards for a touchdown in the preseason. They like to run that play, that wheel route and throw the ball down the field a little bit to him. And that's something we've seen be very advantageous from running back fantasy scoring this year for guys like Aaron Jones,

Miles Sanders, David Johnson, Austin Eckler had a long reception on a similar play. That's something that can translate to points. I don't care that he has a three point eight yards per carry, even with a 90 yard touchdown run. He's not a running running back. He's a receiving back that has some running ability and will play in the red zone. I love his high value touch upside in a great offense, especially when my homes is back and running some downfield routes and potentially building out a pretty good receiving profile. He has four targets, four catches on five targets in his last three games for two yards. Right, yeah.

I mean, he barely played two weeks ago. He actually didn't have a touch until the fourth quarter two weeks ago, and then it was seven rush attempts that game. This past game, he played a lot more. My thing is Mahomes hasn't been in for those games. When Mahomes is back, this offense is just... Right, yeah, that's what I was wondering. Is Mahomes going to make him more of a pass-catching running back?

Because Damian Williams has still only had one game with the Chiefs where he's had more than 13 carries. He's not going to have a huge workload, as Ben just mentioned. And he's averaging 2.3 yards per carry without that 91-yard run, as also Heath mentioned. So it is interesting. Would you guys rather have Damian Williams or Devin Singletary rest of season?

Singletary. Yeah, I would probably take Williams. I mean, I like Singletary, and I'm not trying to bash Singletary. I think Williams still has the upside that we talked about in the preseason, which is to have a receiving role and a red zone role

and a really high-powered offense that he showed at the end of last season. I agree with Heath that Damian Williams has a low floor, receiving role and a red zone role in a really high powered offense that, that he showed at the end of last season. And he could like, I agree with Heath, the Damien Williams has a low floor, but he has a really high ceiling. It's still there. And I actually think he should be a buy right now.

I will also say like the, it's been a weird sample size so far this year for Damien Williams. Like he was hurt and then he didn't have very many touches, but we're approaching the point where his games full games played this year is equal to his full games played last year and his production looks more like everything he was before last year than it does last year

okay that's fine I like this who would you rather have rest of season Terry McLaurin or Damian Williams Damian Williams for me. I mean, again, I'm building out my rosters right now on my bench with high upside guys.

You got to have upside to beat other good teams in the fantasy playoffs. Williams is a guy that I think has upside. I'm not denying his downside. Well, you got to get to the fantasy playoffs first, right? Totally dependent on my team, as far as McLaurin and Damian. I think they are kind of similar guys. Low floor, really big upside. playoffs first right so totally dependent on my team as far as mclaurin and damian like i think

they are kind of similar guys low floor really big upside if you told me that case keenum was starting the rest of washington's games i would kind of expect terry mclaurin to be a top 15 top 20 wide receiver for the rest of the season okay all right so uh ben who are you selling high on oh just you know trap backs some more yeah i you know i talk about what's that mark ingram right yeah no uh it's ingram or henry every week i talk about henry every week henry had this healing game so i have henry on my list again josh jacobs lost some receiving work to jaylen richard had one of his lowest uh routes run percentages last week has not had consistent receiving work had a very big

rushing game multiple touchdowns i believe and then over 100 yards and maybe it was just one td for him but 120 yards rushing or whatever it was very good rushing game that's not the kind of back that i uh bank on he's he's getting plenty of work and he's got yeah i mean he's like he's got six green zone carries right great but that's good he's like... He's got six green zone carries. Right. Which is great. That's good. He's great. He gets almost all of his team's carries near the goal line, Josh Jacobs. His next four opponents are the Chargers, Bengals, Jets, and Chiefs. They're all 18th or worse in fantasy points allowed to opposing running backs. And the team that's 18th is the Jets, who just traded one of their defensive tackles.

They get the Chargers in Week 16. I don't know. I'm pretty in on Josh Jacobs. This guy is really special. He's a great player. I haven't looked at his schedule. I'll admit that. And you're saying that.

I'm talking about him being game script dependent, and you just named a lot of teams that he's probably going to get a lot of rushing against. The other one for me was Nick Chubb, who has lost a ton of receiving the last two weeks, even before Kareem hunt came back he's starting to look a little bit like a trap back uh running way fewer routes the last two weeks he had uh like four or five catches this week last week dontrell hilliard had four of the five catches

and i i just don't like seeing that even before hunt's back because that's probably going to continue with hunt being back i'm going to going to take Jacobs and Chubb out of the equation because I think it would almost be insulting to ask as part of this question. But I think you should rank rest of season, Ben, in PPR leagues, Derrick Henry, Mark Ingram and Damian Williams. Before you do that, hold on, hold on. Before you do that, you need to know Mark Ingram and Derrick Henry schedules because I think these are two very, very different outlooks here.

Derrick Henry's got the Chiefs this week, and then he has a bye. The Chiefs are really bad against the run. This is probably a good week for Derrick Henry, just like we thought last week was a good week for Derrick Henry. And before last week, I don't remember what the stat I gave was, but I think it was five out of six games or four out of five games where he had not been a top 20 PPR running back. But after the bye, Jacksonville, it's tough to know.

They might not be that good against the run without Darius. But then the Colts, the Raiders, the Texans, and the Saints. That's weeks 15 and 16. He has a bad schedule moving forward, whereas Mark Ingram has some bad matchups in there, but he also has the 49ers who do not look like they're good against the run, the Bills, the Jets, and the Browns. Those are his last four games, not including Week 17.

Weeks 13 through 16, Niners, Bills, Jets, Browns. So Mark Ingram, fantasy crunch time, has a great schedule, and that's where I think there's a big difference between ingram and derrick henry going forward um and then damian williams i don't have his schedule i actually do have a schedule but i don't know how much it matters because if you're the lead running back for the chiefs you're going to be great but he has he has a you know some good some bad let's say a mixed schedule there it is look at that pulling up the cheap schedule on our video show all right so go ahead and rank them.

Damian Williams, Mark Ingram, Derek Henry. That's a terrible fantasy playoff schedule. No, it's not. It's a cheap offense. I don't even care. Wait a second. It isn't. Hold on. The Patriots' run defense has been shredded the last few weeks. The Bears' run defense has been awful since

they lost their best defensive tackle. At New England, at Chicago, it's bad. No, it isn't. Chicago has been awful since they lost their best defensive tackle. At New England, at Chicago is bad. No, it isn't. Chicago has been really bad against running backs. He's going to run the ball 20 times between the tackles. He's dependent on scoring touchdowns. Okay, but Heath, how many points do you think the Chiefs can score at New England? Or would you expect them to score?

Just put a number on it. Because, I mean, most offenses just can't even move the ball and score points against the Patriots. Yeah, I would say 24. Yeah, I mean, I think that's part of the advantage is he's going to be in an offense that's actually able to score some points against these matchups what the way I would rank these is firmly dependent on the rest of the running backs on my roster I said Damian Williams first kind of jokingly right away if I didn't have a solid running back two and I think that's what Derek Henry and Mark Ingram are is their running back twos without real running back one upside if i didn't have a good consistent player

in that spot i would i would take those guys over damian williams who's a lot lower floor they both have been running back one so far this season right i don't know if they've been very dependent on touchdowns i don't know if that's true for henry is that in ppr he's like 11th or 12th now in points so both of them have been very dependent on touchdowns. And I will note, the reason we keep talking about these guys is they're the two trap backs that we've identified that have actually continued to get the touchdown luck and continued to be very good in terms of rushing efficiency. There's plenty of other trap backs that we talked about that have fallen off and we just kind of stopped talking about. Carlos Hyde comes to mind. He had a big game last week.

But early on in the season, everyone was really pumped about his rushing. I said, hey, he's a trap back. He has not been very good for fantasy the rest of the season. Frank Gore, when he was getting some starts, I was saying the same thing. Didn't really do much. I can't think of a ton of guys right off the top of my head. But I know in writing Stealing Signals, I've gone through a bunch that I haven't felt the need to talk about. Because they're not even really in the consciousness anymore.

But they were kind of trap backs that fell off. These are the two guys that have been getting the the most advantageous breaks for her trap back they've been getting a derrick henry has like four or five one yard rushing touchdowns mark ingram has also been very touchdown dependent now one of the concerns with ingram last week they had three rushing touchdowns inside the 10 yard line he had zero of them because lamar jackson had two and gus edwards had one it's still a very very good rushing team he's going to be good the rest of the way he said has a great yards per carry because jackson as a threat to run really helps the running backs open up open up running lanes

for the backs but that he's another guy that i'm just a little bit concerned that he's sharing too much of the work uh but yeah both of these guys to me are they've been better than running back twos but they are running back twos with limited ceilings if i need points for my rb2 spot and i have high upside at the rest of my roster yeah i'll take those two guys over damian williams if i'm looking for a high variance high ceiling player because i'm a like a six seed going into the playoffs i would prioritize damian williams even given what derrick henry did in the fancy playoffs last year and i know these types of backs do have that type of boom potential if they hit on some long runs like like Henry did last season but I would prioritize Damian Williams who I think has a more consistent

uh workload potential with with his receiving and uh the the offense he's in generating green zone touches I think he has the higher ceiling in the fancy playoffs. Well, okay. I think I'd have to take a little issue because I think a lot of what you're saying also applies to Mark Ingram because the Ravens, I think, are the highest scoring team in football on a per-game basis. And by the way, in PPR, I have Ingram as number 13 points per game

and Henry as number 15 points per game, and they're basically even. And that's with touchdowns. But Ingram is going to score. He's got big upside in the fantasy playoffs at Buffalo, home against the Jets, and at Cleveland. He has rushing yardage upside. Yes, and rushing touchdown upside.

He has rushing touchdown upside too. He could have multiple touchdown rushing games i agree with that i just my the concern it for me is that he has i think like 11 or 14 catches both of those backs have uh i think below 15 catches at this point in the season that's that's the concern for me this is strictly ppr leagues if we're talking standard leagues i think you have to take mark ingram over those guys i think like there it might just be an ingram would fall into this and henry would not but there is a way to be a trap back and still be awesome in fantasy and it's to have a high yard per attempt and be on one of the best offenses in football and mark ingram has both of those and has pretty much

always been a high yards per attempt guy. We said before that it was because he was in new Orleans and they are so good at producing that type of rushing potential. And now he's in Baltimore. Maybe he's just been lucky his whole career, but he profiled, like, if you were going to say, create a trap back for me, that is going to be very, very good, regardless of format, you would put him in Mark Ingram situation. I completely agree with that. Lamar Jackson does change the calculus. Running quarterbacks make it easier to sustain high rushing efficiency. So his low value touches are way more valuable than other low value touches because he is going to continue to run for five yards per carry with Lamar Jackson in his offense. And he's going to get those touchdown opportunities.

Like Adam said, the only thing I would have a qualm with is that he's sharing a little bit of the workload if i was going to design the perfect trap back it would be that he'd add all of the rushing workload apart from the quarterback who's running and helping his efficiency but also taking some of his rushes uh then also sharing with gus edwards hurts things one thing i want to say about henry though, he had I don't know the exact number. I think he has 130, 150 touches. I wrote it in Stealing Signals this week. 130, 150 total touches overall.

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's 160, 22 of those are 175 touches, 175 touches. 22 of those are high value touches, which is a very low amount for 175 overall touches. Seven of his eight touchdowns have come on those 22 high value touches. So what Henry has been is somebody who, while getting a very hollow workload, has been very, very efficient on the high value touches he's gotten. I would compare it to like a tight end that we would talk about who has caught maybe like just an example, six or eight touchdowns on only like 30 or 40 receptions. We would sit here and say that's too many touchdowns for that many receptions.

It's really high efficiency for Henry. That's a really high rate of touchdowns on high value touches. And then the reason we don't necessarily notice it is he has a lot of touches overall, but they're all these low value touches. Seven of his eight TDs have come on high value touches. The only one that has it was an 11 yard run. It's literally one yard outside of being classified as a high value touch he's essentially scored all of those touchdowns that have really boosted his profile on high value touches and he only has 22 of them overall so

projecting that forward i'd like to see more high value touches and he did get three catches this week maybe there's some potential for that to grow but right okay well look if you're going to trade derrick henry i would recommend doing it now even though you're going to probably be giving up a good game. Because give Derrick Henry to someone who is going to get a good game. I mean, he's got attractive trade value right now, and then he's on a buy. It's tough to trade players going into a buy, and then he might not be nearly as good with tougher matchups going forward. So if you don't need Derrick Henry, if you feel like maybe you can get something, if you agree with us, you know, a lot of people don't agree with us. I think now's the time to do it. Also, you know, it's a shame that Heath does not have the Gardner Minstash anymore, but I know, at least I know when he shaved it off, he was using a Harry's razor because we all know

Harry's razors are the best. Harry's razors, I'm telling you, I have tried so many different things with shaving because I, I mean, I grow, i have five o'clock shadow basically as soon as i shave but not now not with harry's razors i tried oh my gosh all these stupid things and none of them worked harry's razors just the best okay it's just that it's a simple concept sharp durable blades that's all it is all these gimmicks that you see from the other products you don't need them you need sharp durable blades over 10 million people have tried tried Harry's and you can claim your special Harry's razor set at harrys.com slash FFT, H-A-R-R-Y-S.com slash FFT. It's a close shave. It's an easy glide. It's a great price. The blades are so much less expensive than what you're going to get from other brands. Just $2 per blade.

They cut out the middleman to keep prices low. And it's just a great product, and I highly, highly recommend it. So I want you to get on that, and I want you to get this special offer from Harry's. Here's what you do. You go to harrys.com slash FFT. You're going to get a weighted ergonomic handle for a firm grip. You're going to get a five-blade razor with a lubricating strip and a trimmer blade, rich lathering shave gel. I really do love the shave gel. And it's got aloe to keep your skin hydrated and a travel blade cover

to keep your razor dry and easy on the go. All this for an amazing price and amazing value. Harry's.com slash FFT. Go there. Harry's.com slash Fcom and start shaving better today. All right. We got to talk about players we trust. We got to read some emails. Let's do the mailbag portion of the show right now. 12 emails in six minutes. You guys are on the clock.

I believe in you. I think we can do this. Here we go. From Sean, please share your thoughts about A.J. Green and Tyler Boyd, their fantasy value among wide receivers. We don't really know. It will depend on how good or bad Ryan Finley is. I'm not extremely optimistic.

I would treat A.J. Green right now as a borderline number two wide receiver. My hope was that when he came back with Andy Dalton, he would be a high-end number two wide receiver. My hope was that when he came back with Andy Dalton, he would be a high-end number two. So right now I'd look at him as someone in that 20 to 27 range of wide receiver and Tyler Boyd in the 30s. I'm kind of pessimistic about the pass offense moving forward. Okay. Would you rather have Derrick Henry or AJ Green rest of season?

Henry. Ben? Oh, yeah, I would say Green. I mostly agree with Heath. I'm a little higher on Boyd, too. I mean, I'm a little bit optimistic about Finley, and I still think Boyd has gotten so many targets, and I don't think Green's going to make it so that he can't get targets.

He's just not scored a touchdown. He's got to be the most targeted receiver to not score, right? Oh, he scored, Tyler Boyd. Did he score? I thought he had zero. I think Mike Williams is probably the most targeted receiver who hasn't scored, right? Maybe. I'm now going to look

up and tell everyone who the most targeted wide receiver is that hasn't scored. And I'm going to pick up the pace here. Jules from Austin. I have Tyreek Hill, Devontae Adams, and Tyler Lockett as my starting wide receivers. Half PPR. Tyreek Hill, Devontae Adams, and Tyler Lockett. I have Devin Singletary and Devontae Freeman as my starting running backs. Should I trade one of my receivers to get a better running back? Joe Mixon is on my bench. Singletary, Freeman, and Mixon. Ben, are you upgrading a running back? I would not. I want to know what a more

consistent running back relates to i mean the only consistent running backs are the very top end guys in my opinion and i i what i'm doing at this point in the season is stashing guys that could be this year's jaylen samuels or this year's justin jackson or this year's damian williams guys who all were backups at this point but were key contributors for fantasy teams in the playoffs last year i think i would not do it either um unless you can only start two of those guys and there's no flex and then you do need to do it uh robert woods leads wide receivers with 60 targets and zero touchdowns that That makes sense. From Scott, would you trade Damian Williams for DJ Moore, half PPR? Yep.

I would do that. This is from Maverick. Dear Goose, Iceman, and Viper. Ben, do you know this one? Top Gun. I know you know it. Top Gun. Okay.

I'm a Dalvin Cook owner. I noticed someone dropped Alexander Madison. You do that one, Ben? It's Top Gun. Okay. I don't know. I don't knowvin Cook owner. I noticed someone dropped Alexander Madison. You do that one, Ben? It's Tom Gunn. Okay, I don't know. I don't know. All right.

I have Dalvin Cook. Someone dropped Alexander Madison. We're only allowed to roster five running backs. Would you drop any of these guys for Madison? David Montgomery, Miles Sanders, Jalen Samuels, or Latavius Murray? I would probably drop Jalen Samuels or Latavius Murray? I would probably drop Jalen Samuels for him if you have Cook and you want to hedge like that. At this point in the season,

I think it's fine to grab a handcuff when you know he's pretty clearly the number two. It's tough, though. Amir Abdullah played a little bit last week. I think I'd prefer Madison to Murray. Okay, Murray. Okay. Well, Jalen Samuels, I mean, might only have might have zero weeks of value left. Might

only have one from Richard. I have the opportunity to trade Russell Wilson for either Mark Ingram, Melvin Gordon or Devin Singletary. Who do you prefer? Ingram, Gordon or Singletary? Ingram. Russell Wilson. i will take yeah sure you can take ingram from sean great and i'll change my last you realize in the last five emails we've got

been to trade away damian williams and trade for mark ingram we are turning things around trading for dj moore and trading away a quarterback. I mean, these are easy. Yeah, I mean, you're only trading away the number one quarterback in fantasy, but he does have Lamar Jackson as well. From Sean, grade the trade in the PPR League. Give up Fournette. Get Tevin Coleman and Tyrell Williams. F minus.

Yeah, I don't like it. Yeah. I don't either. I hope Fournette continues to catch passes from Foles, because he's on pace for, I think, over 70. But he has been, I think, a little unlucky just with the touchdown. A lot. The most unlucky of all. Yeah.

He's got a tough schedule. He does. But all those carries, I mean, you think he should be pretty good going forward. All right, from Joseph. Deep two quarterback league. Half PPR. Grade the trade. Give up Lamar Jackson

and Austin Eckler. Get Stafford and Zeke. Lamar Jackson and Eckler for Stafford and Zeke. Do it. I'll call it a B. Do it. Do it.

You got to grade. Do it. All right, B. B for bad. A. From Apple Podcasts. This is is who's better rest of season, A.J. Green, Cortland Sutton, or Terry McLaurin? McLaurin.

I would take one of Sutton or McLaurin, but they're in this class with Allen Robinson and John Brown. I include John Brown in this class that are these wide receiver ones who I think would be top 10 guys if they were in good situations, but they're on bad offenses with bad quarterbacks. Yeah. Actually, I would take McLaurin if I knew it wasn't going to be Haskins, which probably won't be. I don't know for sure that Haskkins is going to be worse than brandon allen and ryan finley right but aj green's aj green i mean guys very good all right from jay gill we don't know how healthy he is yeah he's right he's been so much time he should be he should be good

now i mean he's rested half the season but sutton and mclaaurin have been essentially as good as what... I mean, I'm not trying to dog A.J. Green, but he is 31. What is his reasonable upside? Sutton and McLaurin have been that in a bad offense, and Green's also in a bad offense. I would take the guys that are playing well and have been playing well and just hope that their offense is picked up. I'm kind of nervous about

Sutton. He made an acrobatic, amazing catch for that touchdown. If he didn't do that, he's got a terrible game. They threw 20 times. They barely had the ball. Allen threw 20 times. This is not Damian Williams. He had one good play, and it was mostly because of his teammates.

Cortland Sutton had one good play, but he went and made the play. That's a little different. I know, but you can't rely on that. We talked about Cortland Sutton in the offseason, and then after week one, he was already getting the volume. This is a guy who's done it all season long. I've seen on Twitter a couple different people throughout the year talk about how Cortland Sutton's quietly having a breakout.

I would say it's not been quiet for me. I talked about Cortland Sutton as the Broncos' receiver to own all offseason. He's been a stud all year. He's great. He's been very good. Just, you know, I just worry about the quarterback situation. But all right, he also had 40% of the targets. From Jay Gibbs, I have Kelsey,

but I just put 45% of my remaining fab on Evan Ingram to use him in the flex. Did I overpay? Yeah. Yes, you did. From The Bogue, grade the trade. Give up Carson and Sutton. Get Connor and Cooper.

Oh, that's a good one. Yeah, it's a C. A-. A-. Okay. No, that's bad. Yeah, I'll take the Connor and Cooper side. That's fair.

And David from a city outside Los Angeles, famous for its Los Angeles Angels. Okay, I think I know that one. I'm looking for some advice on trades in my eight-team non-PPR league trying to add talent at Flex. Give up Amari Cooper, Aaron Jones, and Mark Andrews.

Give up Amari Cooper, Aaron Jones, and Mark Andrews. Get Dalvin Cook and Jordan Howard. That was a flex. I don't understand. It's an 18-le league. I'm already confused. But you're trying to add talent at flex, but you're acquiring Dalvin Cook, who is not a flex in any format. I don't care if it's eight teams.

I would do this trade because I want Dalvin Cook, but I guess Jordan Howard. And let's just, like, people act like when they see eight-team or ten-team league that this league is so much easier because, like, why don't you guys play in a real league? I completely disagree with that premise. And I hate eight- and ten-team leagues because they are so much more difficult to evaluate, like, trades like this. And you're going to make wrong lineup decisions

every single week when you play in an eight- and ten-team league because your bench is awesome. I don't think they're really easy. I think they're almost harder. I actually agree with that. I don't agree with that because you have all the good players. I hate that there's good players on the waiver wire all year long,

but I agree that it's super hard to make decisions. Alright, guys. We've got to preview the Chargers and the Raiders and then hopefully still have time to talk about players that we trust. We will, we'll make time for it. First. Uh,

we have a super quick round of team name Tuesday on a Wednesday. We haven't done team name Tuesday in like a month. So the first one is Smith Schuster. Fooled you, Smith Schuster, uh, Murray up offense, single Terry and ready to mingle Terry.

And this one's great. Now Minshew on the bench. Like bench on the bench. Yeah. Okay. That's good. Preview Thursday night. Let's do that.

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but let's just get into the rankings because we could get bogged down in stats here. But bottom line is this. Oakland struggles against the pass badly. Quarterbacks, wide receivers, tight ends, and running backs who catch passes as well. So if you start with the Chargers here, Phillip Rivers leading the NFL in passing yards,

but QB 15 and six point per passing touchdown leagues. Doesn't throw as much in wins. They might win this game. But I guess start or sit. Phillip Rivers, Heath, what are we thinking here with him? Mostly starting him. I mean, there are guys. I don't believe there are any streamers. Assuming Patrick Mahomes

comes back, there won't be any streamers that I have ranked ahead of Phillip Rivers. I do have Kyler Murray and Matthew Stafford ahead of him, Jameis Winston. So, I mean, there are some guys you could have with Rivers that you would start over him, but he's a top 10 quarterback for me. It's a great matchup. I expect him to bounce back a little bit in terms of fantasy

production. He's mostly played good. Jimmy Garofalo or Phillip Rivers? Rivers. Okay. I agree, yeah. Yeah, I'm starting Rivers. I'm excited to start him. I'm hopeful. the only issue with

rivers is he literally runs for nothing so he's better in six point for td leagues and you're hoping for multiple touchdowns uh and yeah i mean you can start them in good matchups but you're only getting the the passing upset you're not getting any boost for you know even 15 20 yards rushing to give you a 1.5 or two point boost he runs for nothing all year long five quarterbacks have scored 27 or more fantasy points in six point leagues against the Raiders. That's a ton. Gordon and Eckler, Heath, your thoughts?

I prefer Eckler in PPR. I do think this is a much better matchup for him. The Raiders have been weirdly good against the run for most of the year. I think you're probably, especially with six teams on a bye, just starting both of these guys, but if

I had both Gordon and Eckler and had to make a decision, I'd start Eckler. Are we going with Ronald Jones or Eckler? Jones getting the Cardinals or Gordon against the Raiders? Jones.

I like that. I would take Gordon, actually. Oh, okay. How about that? After they fired Wizenhunt, they wanted to run more. They ran a lot last week. He's getting goal line work, and there should be some scoring opportunities in this game. I obviously love Ronald Jones and want to start him,

but I still think Melvin Gordon is the player. I kind of think the Raiders are going to win. Well, there you go. I think it's going to be a high-scoring game. That's what I'm hoping for. This could be a bonanza. Damian Williams or Melvin Gordon? Damian Williams is the RB1, so obviously Damian Williams.

You don't mean that.ian Williams you don't mean that obviously I don't mean that Melvin Gordon Melvin Gordon or Mike Williams 77% on Mike Williams against a team that gives up the second most points to wide receivers Gordon or Williams you said yes

Gordon I would play Williams oh how about that Or Williams, you said? Yes. Gordon. Okay. I would play Williams. Oh, how about that? I really like Williams' air yards, and I think he's going to have a good game. Yeah, he has the second lowest red zone catch rate of all players with five or more red zone targets. Only DK Metcalf has caught fewer red zone targets. So positive regression, hopefully coming.

Right, exactly. red zone targets so positive regression hopefully coming the only thing right exactly you can get in trouble rooting for or hoping for positive regression because sometimes guys are just not good but with williams we saw that skill last year it's just over regression here he definitely has that ability and this the only problem i have with williams is like he had that two game stretch against the broncos and steelers where he had double two-game stretch against the Broncos and Steelers where he had double-digit targets in both games. He only has seven targets in one other game this season, and he's been six or fewer the last three weeks. And it's really hard to have a good fantasy day with six targets.

Yeah, for sure. How about a guy like Michaelael gallup or or mike williams i'd go gallup okay that's okay i would go at home yeah who is okay gallup's playing minnesota yeah gosh that's a good matchup in dallas in dallas in dallas yeah i think i would take gallup too i i think of them very similarly i he just made a really good point though because Hunter Henry has been getting more volume at tight end than any tight end since he returned, and that is impacting Williams' volume. Is Keenan Allen a, you're not sitting Keenan Allen, it's Keenan Allen and it's the Raiders and you should start him. He doesn't look like he's healthy.

He's not performing like Keenan Allen. And he also, there have not been very many times over the last few years where Keenan Allen has been in a situation where both Mike Williams and Hunter Henry have been fully healthy. And his target share hasn't been quite as big since that's been the case. And the last two weeks, he hasn't looked like he's healthy. But two weeks, like four targets last week or something, but the two weeks before that, he had double digit targets.

So I mean, I'm talking about the five games since he was back. It's down a little bit. It's closer to like 25% of the targets instead of the 30 he was at earlier this year. I think most people will probably start him. I'm concerned about his health. In PPR, I will say in PPR, it's very similar to my take last week with Julio Jones

where I was like, this guy has such high upside you have to play him. And I think he ended up going off. You guys are telling me we should bench him. But you guys thought Schaub might start. Wait, did Schaub start? I think Schaub think job job started job did start and he did and julio went through 50 passes or something like that take a win over both of you on that one no key now same thing in ppr leagues i think you have to start him because he has the potential when he gets a matchup he's such a good route runner and if you watch the film and this is something like it's a

little bit more you know film based takey but if you watch the games when he gets a matchup that he can exploit philip rivers just locks into him and it shows in the box score he has so many games throughout his career where he has like 15 plus touches double digit reception games i think he's one game away from the the nfl record in either 13 plus reception games or 14 plus reception games in a ppr league that is major major upside and it's i i agree with heath he hasn't looked great but he's a guy that i would not bench even when he hasn't looked great because i wouldn't want to miss that type of upside okay he's the low guy on keenan allen he's worried about the health dave and jamie have him 16th 9th heath has keenan allen 23rd in ppr 26 26th in non-PPR. I think most people

are going to start Keenan Allen. If you can't trust him against the Raiders, then we've got a problem on our hands. That's for sure. Well, I just... He will recover from this hamstring injury at some point and we won't know exactly when he's fully recovered. And it might be this week. I don't know. He might be already recovered. We don't know that he isn't recovered.

No, he was not recovered going into last week and it's been three days since that game so well like he was not 100 this last week that's fair i mean i guess they did say that it was going to be kind of a week-to-week thing with him so um hunter henry must start darren waller must start and josh jacobs is a must start and derrick carr is a sit this week the chargers have not given up points to quarterbacks, and they have been really good against wide receivers. So Tyrell Williams or Keenan Allen for you, Heath? I think most people are going to take Allen, but you're the low guy on Keenan Allen, so Tyrell or Keenan?

I have Keenan Allen definitely ahead of Tyrell in PPR. In non-PPR, I'd probably go with Tyrell. Are we trying to get away from Tyrell Williams this week? This is a team that gives up the eighth fewest fantasy points to wide receivers. They've held Hopkins, Allen Robinson, and Devontae Adams to less than 70 yards. Not to say no

receivers have been good against them, but it's a tough matchup. I wouldn't say trying to get away, but okay with getting away from. I would start Devontae Parker over him. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I agree with that.

One thing I'll note on them that is kind of a stealing signals trend I've noticed, early in the season, Tyrell Williams and Darren Waller were the only show in town. Hunter Renfro's come on, and as we would expect with a rookie, it might take him a little bit of time, but he had a very big game last week. They also got Zay Jones, and he played a 92% snap share. He's probably the best number two receiver that they've had all year,

even though I don't expect a lot from him. But it's quickly becoming a scenario, and Jalen Rashard got more involved. It's quickly becoming a scenario where Williams and Waller are no longer the only shows in town, which was a big part of their September value. All right, we got to wrap it up here so we can vacate our video studio.

The Chargers DST, 48% owned. Jamie likes them, top 10. Dave and Heath, not so much. This is actually a terrible matchup for DSTs. The Raiders have allowed the third fewest fantasy points to DSTs. They've given up 16 sacks. Nine of them came in two games. And before I don't know if Heath's

going to hang around when we talk about these players we can trust. Before we do that, I just want to let you know that Le'Veon Bell might not play this week, and Bilal Powell is 3% owned. Just keep that in mind if we assume Bilal Powell is going to get more work than Montgomery, but 3% owned, that's somebody that should be on your radar right now.

Montgomery left the last game as well. And Powell's played more snaps on offense than him three of the last four games. So, yeah, Powell's the add. All right. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians

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Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Kirk Cousins and Matthew Stafford have been unbelievable their last five games. Cousins right now is top 12 quarterback and 6 point per passing touchdown. He's 14th in 4 point. This is per game. And Matthew Stafford is the top 5 quarterback this year. And he's been terrific. They both have taken advantage of some easy competition.

Their remaining schedules get tougher um what do you think about cousins and stafford do you trust them going forward i mean this is great because there's one that i definitely don't and one that i definitely do i think i know who it is you don't trust cousins and you do trust stafford right cousins is the one that i'm not going to trust i'm never going to trust a quarterback who plays on a run first team that wants to run the ball that's already had a game this year where he only threw 10 passes uh he's been very good because they've thrown more over the last little stretch there will be games where he doesn't throw a lot and i want a fantasy quarterback that's at least going to throw and that's why i do trust stafford his running back is injured he's had the downfield passing game all year this year um it's going to throw, and that's why I do trust Stafford. His running back is injured. He's had the downfield passing game all year this year.

It's going to continue to be there. If you look at his personnel, it changed. I think a big reason that happened, and we talked a little bit about it in the offseason, Golden Tate was there as his main target for so many years and was traded midseason last year. They also got rid of Riddick this offseason. Now his main targets are downfield guys, Kenny Galladay, Marvin Jones, and he continues every week to push the ball downfield in this new offense. I think he's absolutely a guy that you can trust the rest of the way.

Okay, I guess if I'm going to make a case against Matthew Stafford, it's that he has had his big games at Arizona, Kansas City, Minnesota. That was the one that was surprising. The Giants and the Raiders. So that's five big games, four of them against very, very favorable matchups. Coming up, he's got the Bears. They're seventh against quarterbacks.

The Cowboys, they're fifth. The Redskins, they're 17th. The Bears again, they're seventh. The Vikings, they're 11th. They already did torch them. The Buccaneers in week 15, that's great. The Broncos, they're third against quarterbacks. Stafford has a terrible schedule. Yeah, that's great. The Broncos, they're third against quarterbacks. Stafford has a terrible schedule. Yeah, that is tough.

And he's got five games with 30 to 34 pass attempts, so he's actually not throwing that much. He's having a career year completion percentage a little bit down, but the yards per attempt, 8.6. That's a career high. On pace for 5,000 yards, 38 touchdowns, 106 passer rating. He's never done this before. Right.

Yeah, I know. He had to have been similar when he had Calvin Johnson years and years ago. He never had. He had a 41 touchdown year. Yes, you know what? In terms of yards and touchdowns, yes. Passer rating and yards per attempt, no. So I want to ask you about the schedule,

and this is the way I would distill this. He plays the Bears twice in the next four weeks. The Bears, obviously a very good defense all year, have been getting hit really hard by the run over the last few games after Akeem Hicks' injury. Do you think that they will be able to run the ball on the Bears with Ty Johnson, JD McKissick, whoever they have? No. Paul Perkins. I don't think they can run on anyone. So they have to throw, right?

Yeah, but he's not throwing. That's the strange thing. It's like he hasn't thrown that much, and they haven't been they can run on anyone. So they have to throw, right? Yeah, but he's not throwing. That's the strange thing. It's like he hasn't thrown that much, and they haven't been able to run. When was the last time they were able to run the ball? Like four games with Kerryon Johnson last year, but they've been a bad running team for years now. Reggie Bush is their last 1,000-yard rusher, I think.

Okay. I mean, I see your point. I just think they have to throw. I think the Bears, if they can run enough that the Bears have to suck up on play action and things, he can still hit some big plays. I don't know. Yeah, I agree. I agree with you.

The schedule's not great. I agree with a lot of what you're saying too. That's why, like, I feel like selling high on Cousins makes sense because his next two games are the Cowboys and the Broncos and then a bye. But Stafford, I'd be a little bit more hesitant because he's playing great and he's got Kenny Cunningham on. He's freaking awesome, you know? know right he's real good yeah uh ronald jones you think you can trust him going forward yeah i mean the tough thing with jones and i it's it's

it's funny because um he's brought this up with matt breed earlier this year where it was a guy that i liked a lot this offseason and then his workload was a little bit too trap backy and he was like ah you know ben's got this push and pull between a guy he loved and and the fact that his workload hasn't been what we wanted jones getting the the lead work now still is not running enough routes he's going to have a trappy workload until they let they trust him in pass protection and they use him over daria gumbawale in the passing game you know he completely pushed barbara aside last week but a gumbawale was stillale in the passing game. He completely pushed Barber aside last week, but Agumboale was still involved in the hurry-up offense late in the game, which that limits Jones' upside.

I do trust him in matchups like Arizona and Atlanta in a couple of weeks. I'm a little bit more hesitant when they play the Saints next week, and it's a good run defense because he's not going to probably have a big receiving game. Right. Okay, how about, let's see, David Johnson? David Johnson, per game, has been really good. I mean, on a per game basis, he's 13th in non-PPR, 10th in PPR, but that's a little unfair because they count the Giants game in which he played two snaps. So, look, he's been great, but he's got only two games and more than 12 carries.

He relies very heavily on receiving production, five catches per game in his six healthy games. And now you got Kenyon Drake, Chase Edmonds maybe at some point. How much do you trust David Johnson? Yeah, I agree. It's a way different scenario now since we last saw him healthy because both of his backups now have shown an ability to be good in a feature role since that time. Chase Edmonds had the big game, then got hurt himself,

and then Kenyon Drake has a big game. So will David Johnson continue to have the lion's share of the backfield? Probably not. You'd have to expect that they would work those other guys in after they did what they did when they got opportunities. Still, you noted it, Johnson's receiving role has been so important for his value, and a big part of his receiving role is how they split him outside and use him down the field, and the other thing the Cardinals don't have is any consistent receiving

threats Larry Fitzgerald is fading Christian Kirk has come back and seen you know pretty solid target shares and I like him but they don't really have anyone else and so even if these other backs play I kind of expect we'll see Johnson split outside more which has been very valuable for him in the receiving game I'm not super concerned about him, probably a little bit less excited about his potential ceiling and his overall workload. But I do think once he's healthy, they're going to continue to use him in the passing game because they have to. Who do you think will be better rest of season?

It might be format specific, David Johnson or Nick Chubb. Yeah, it probably is a little bit format specific. I think definitely Chubb and non-PPR. I think in PPR, I might still lean Chubb because we don't know how healthy David Johnson is. Chubb is still a lead back and playing very well right now.

Okay, how about this one's from a listener. Kenyon Drake or Duke Johnson as an RB2? Specifically in PPRpr by the way duke johnson is the number 37 running back in ppr on a per game basis but he has nine catches in his last two games yeah this is tough because duke's uh routes run haven't really increased too much but he's been a little bit more involved in the passing game i needed a running back in in a league last week where i have david john Johnson and I had a couple buys.

And I benched Duke Johnson for some – I played Ronald Jones and Matt Breida. A couple guys – I wish I would have played Johnson in hindsight, but I just don't feel very good about his workload being consistent. Well, they never – the Texans have never, since Deshaun Watson took over, they've not been a team that's thrown to the running back. And this year he's got Duke Johnson. He's just catches in nine games. Four, zero, two, two, one, two, two, four, five.

So I don't know. He's been lucky with touchdowns. He's a little touchdown dependent, too. Yeah, he's been lucky with touchdowns. We shouldn't expect that to continue. Right. He got a short yardage touchdown because they were in the hurry up and he just stayed in the game.

I don't – RB2 at best. And Drake – Yeah, and then it's tough with Drake, because we don't know how... If Johnson's out, it's clearly Drake. If Johnson's back, we don't know how much Drake's gonna play. How much do you trust Emmanuel Sanders going forward? He's got two good games with Jimmy Garoppolo.

I mean, I've been so down on him all year, and I have to just, like... I have to just repent, because he's had a really solid share of their offense as the wide receiver one since being acquired. And he was good and healthy enough all season in Denver that we have to believe that his Achilles is strong. I was really concerned about his age and coming back from the injury. Always loved this guy.

I used to own him in at least one league every single year. He was always undervalued for the last half decade. I was down on him this year. He was always undervalued for the last half decade. I was down on him this year. He is completely shown. He still has that ability. And he's clearly their number one receiver. Obviously, Kittle is their number one option. But Sanders is right there with him.

And in the last two games that he's been in San Francisco, his market share has been 24%, consistent both games. His share of the area has been about 39% both games, which is very solid. Two games in a row. So you have to like him. He's got the opportunity to change their offense a little bit. They're not going to be a

pass-first team, but they could start throwing a little bit more and make Jimmy Garoppolo a worthwhile streamer because he really had been pretty much crap as a fantasy quarterback. He hadn't thrown enough before the game against the Cardinals.

All right, that's it for today's show. Thank you very much, Ben Gretsch. The good thing is, a lot of the guys I wanted to talk about trusting, we talked about throughout the show. We talked about Tevin Coleman and DJ Chark and Devin Singletary and Damian Williams. We got some good perspectives there.

So I hope you all enjoyed the episode. Back tomorrow, start or sit for the AFC home game. See ya. Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt. These aren't your average orcas. These guys are organized. Marketing team. Did you get those social media posts scheduled for the seal migration? Aye, aye, Captain. We even have an automated notification for all pod managers when they go live.

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