Fantasy Football Today - Beyond the Box Score: Bijan, Backup QBs, Ekeler (12/18 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts We've got the advanced stats and film review to help you make winning decisions in Week 16. First, we recap the Ravens-Jaguars game (3:05) and wonder if Calvin Ridley is the unluckiest player in the world and if we can trust a Ravens running back down the stretch ... News and notes (17:15) and advanced stats (21:30) on Trey McBride, Rashee Rice, Joe Flacco, Dontayvion Wicks and more. Then Dan gives some film review (33:45) on Derrick Henry and his struggling offensive line ... Four Big Topics: Bijan Robinson (39:30); Backup QBs to trust (43:30); Austin Ekeler (48:30); James Cook (50:30) ... Email us at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ 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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No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Well, it's our last episode of the season. So sad. Beyond the box score.

We've had a fun run. You know, if you were listening to Beyond the box score. We've had a fun run. You know, if you were listening to Beyond the Box score months ago, before the season started, you would have Puka Nakua on every team,

just like Jacob Gibbs does. And we welcome you on this Monday afternoon. Adam Azer with Jacob and Dan Schneier here. We'll recap Baltimore and Jacksonville. We'll talk about

Bijan Robinson in week 16. We'll talk about Austin Eckler. We'll talk about the backup quarterbacks. Run through that list, Dan, of the top quarterbacks in fantasy that Dave tweeted out before Monday Night Football. Well, I think probably even after Sunday Night Football, Lamar Jackson scored about 20 fantasy points.

But who are the top quarterbacks this week? Yeah, so I love this list. Credit Dave Richard. And I think it's just funny because it always makes me think about how funny this game is that we over obsess with you uh all three of us and everyone who listens spends hours upon hours over obsessing over this game like we can control anything and then in week 11 in week 15 the first week of fantasy playoffs the top 12 quarterbacks or top 11 quarterbacks are jared got, Baker Mayfield, Brock Purdy, Aiden O'Connell, Derek Carr, Gardner Minshew, Easton Stick, Matthew Stafford, Jake Browning,

Jordan Love, and Nick Bones. Not one of those quarterbacks was selected in the top 12. And some of those quarterbacks were not even drafted and are backup quarterbacks. I mean, it's just unbelievable. And obviously with that comes along their passing game. So if those guys are scoring passing points in fantasy, that means their receivers are the only ones really scoring points in fantasy for the most part. So it's been wild this season and somehow guys, and this was shocking to me.

I talked to Chris towers about this before the show. We actually had more backup court, more quarterbacks who make starts last season than this one. I talked about this today because Mason Rudolph has been named starter. Now of the Steelers, another new starter. We're back to Rudolph somehow in season number one. How many is this for

Rudolph? Somehow last season we had more quarterback start games than this season. Really? Interesting. It's becoming a trend. It would be the right time of year for Rudolph, wouldn't it? Thank you. Thank mean, right.

Thank you. Thank you, Jacob. Good afternoon to you. Hey man. I'm pretty sad, pretty sad for the last episode here, but we've got some comments.

People are like, we got to bring him back in the off season. And that's what I'm saying. Oh yeah. I'm saying that too. For sure. There's some film to watch the college prospects. Oh yeah. Yeah.

And you can always accept these guys. If you want the college stuff with Oh, yeah. I'm super excited for these guys. If you want the college stuff with the first pick podcast, it's something you can listen to. Okay, let's get into the show here. Baltimore 23 and Jacksonville 7. The Ravens had the ball for over 34 minutes. The Jaguars with some costly mistakes. Trevor Lawrence ended a drive with a fumble.

They had that ridiculous moment at the end of the first half where they didn't have any timeouts and they threw a pass inbounds. They had that ridiculous moment at the end of the first half where they didn't have any timeouts and they threw a pass inbounds and they were inside the five-yard line. Couldn't get any points out of that. So missed opportunities. I think personally the game was a little closer

than the score would indicate a 16-point win for the Ravens. But Jacob, you can start your big fantasy takeaways. By the way, 20.5 points for Lamar Jackson and for Trevor Lawrence, it was 16.7 fantasy points. All right, Jacob, go ahead. Yeah, Isaiah Likely, I thought was exciting

on the Baltimore side of things. He's had a couple of good games in a row. They've used him down the field more. On the year, Likely's yard per outrun rate is in the same range as like Dallas Goddard, Dalton Kincaid, Luke Musgrave. So some pretty good fantasy tight ends there. A bit more disappointing on Baltimore side was Zay Flowers only had two targets on 32 routes. And he can become a bit invisible out there, which isn't necessarily a surprise during his rookie season, but it is kind of disappointing.

He's had such a clear opportunity to fill like the wide receiver one role down the stretch here for Baltimore with Mark Andrews sidelined um and to see a game like this I was I was pretty pretty high on flowers this week just because there was going to be so much passing I thought against Jacksonville but part of it was game script as well for sure on the Baltimore side of things they ended up just running a lot more for Jacksonville I don't even really want to talk about it, but Calvin Ridley, 12 targets, 164 air yards, only results in 8.9 PPR points. I went back and watched all of his targets.

He was so close on three to four plays, which has just kind of been the story of his season. Yeah, more than anyone. 19% off target rate for Trevor Lawrence. That's his highest mark of the season um yeah more than anyone 19 off target rate for trevor lawrence that's his highest mark of the season his past two games have each been the highest off target rate um data points these put up all year which i don't think is a coincidence um coinciding with his injury uh so yeah it's it's tough we're going to talk about bethard and and like what we are doing with all these backup quarterbacks i don't know man like this offense is kind of falling apart it feels like kind of

crumbling well they faced cleveland and baltimore the last two weeks which is not easy they had bad weather last night but yeah trevor lawrence hasn't been hasn't been great but even still he does make a lot of really nice throws every week it seems where you get these glimpses. And then I don't know what to call Calvin Ridley at this point, like the fantasy bridesmaid. He's so close. He's almost there and never there. I'm not sure. But let's take a look at the almost touchdowns

for Calvin Ridley. He has the third most end zone targets in the NFL, and he has only five touchdown catches. And I think a lot of people thought he did have a touchdown catch. I mean, his game and Trevor Lawrence's game is much different if that call is overturned. And you heard the NBC ref, I always forget, John Perry, whoever,

I forget which network has which ref, but he was like, that should be a touchdown. I completely disagree with what they did there. That should be a touchdown. They challenged it, and he thought Ridley was clearly inbounds with control. But third most end zone targets, five touchdown catches. He also has two catches down to the one-yard line, which is actually a lot. There are only seven players in the NFL with two or more catches at the one-yard line,

and no one is more than three. So it is a year of missed opportunities for Calvin Ridley. Quite likely too little too late for you. I think he could have a huge game next week against Tampa Bay. I think I actually would start him. He's been so matchup dependent. Then there's going to be the people that say, well, he's only good when Zay Jones is playing,

and Zay Jones is going to be out next week. But I don't really buy that because Christian Kirk's been out, but yeah, I don't know. Too many targets and too many just oh-so-closes. I think it actually could come through next week. I understand people are going to have trouble, but I just thought since this is a stat show,

you should know. Third most end zone targets, and the second most, or not, well, he's, like I said, one of seven players with two or more catches where he was tackled at the one-yard line. Just terrible luck this year for Calvin Ridley. And some of it is his own doing.

He's had some drops as well. Dan, when you watch Trevor Lawrence, and we've got to talk about the Ravens running backs, which we will, with Keaton Mitchell likely out for the season, unfortunately, as he was starting to really make an impact. But when you watch Trevor Lawrence, what are you seeing here? What's your faith in him uh as a dynasty manager dynasty is a good question because i still believe in the talent to some to some extent to a large extent i think some of the issues i've seen from trevor lawrence have been ball placement issues there have been times where he's just hot on his throws and they're throwing hot it reminds me you know who he reminds me a lot of just from that standpoint and people are going to take this the wrong way but eli manning a lot of eli manning's misses were high

and hot meaning a lot of velocity on the throw and that's kind of what i see when trevor lawrence misses from a ball placement but there has been just more misses ball placement wise from lawrence than i expected to this point of his career i mean i watched a lot of his tape last year during that four game streak when he was a fantasy star. He was awesome during that, but I haven't felt like that's been really consistent throughout his tape in his career. And just watching broadcast last night, there were misses from a ball placement standpoint.

I think generally speaking, that offense just doesn't really have much of an identity right now. They don't do too many things. Well, they don't have like last night. I thought the best way for them to have any shot was to run the football and consistently establish that early with Travis ETN, given what Baltimore has shown on as a past defense. And it didn't really do that in that game. And I don't feel like they've blocked up. Well, some of this is old line injuries too, and maybe they can fix that at

some point in his career and get that improved. But I've heard that for a lot of different quarterbacks. And I still think there are some issues on his film. And one thing about him from a fantasy standpoint, dynasty wise, wise moving forward that just has really disappointed me in his career and i don't know if it's ever going to change now that we're this deep into it at least maybe not with this coaching staff you got a new coach and maybe is the rushing because at clemson he was a runner and he was really damn good as a runner and he made some of the most impressive runs that you would look at and think wow this guy is a lot more juice and athleticism than we realized to give you know that long stride length as runner obviously helps as

well at six foot six but he doesn't run with the jaguars there's no design runs there's no i mean he had the one run that he fumbled on last night on a third and long he had 41 rushing guards last night but but you're right yes most of the time overall it hasn't been a big point of his career and the red zone hasn't been almost at all from what I expected to maybe see from his Clemson days. So I just don't feel I feel like he might be that guy who you buy and you build on in dynasty and he just doesn't pay it off at any point. I hope you're wrong because he is my one of my dynasty QBs. But I think the thing I agree with you most on is the identity thing. I do feel like this all year long. I just don't know who the Jaguars are,

what they're great at, and it's been a pretty underwhelming year for them offensively. How about the Ravens running backs? Keaton Mitchell likely out for this season. Gus Edwards is 90% rostered. He was started in only 24% of leagues. They're at San Francisco next week and then Miami and then Justice Hill. I mean, this Baltimore-San Francisco game, I just...

I can't wait. I really can't wait for the first version and maybe the second version of it in February. But it's going to be tough from a fantasy perspective, I think, on some of these calls. But Jacob, do you have any interest in starting Gus Edwards or Justice Hill? And they're going to bring Melvin Gordon up too. If you need to start Gus, I think he's an okay desperation play, hoping for touchdowns, but that's basically it. I would say this about that

situation. So two things that interest me about the Ravens, you brought up the Zay Flowers disappointment. He was a player I told a lot of people in Ask FFT to start over some fringe options, obviously, but still disappointing. And I got that call wrong. I think what I saw was interesting. They're using more 12 personnel than they used even earlier in the season with Mark Anderson, likely both healthy. And they're bringing up a guy, Charlie Kohler out of Iowa State, where I really liked his

film out of college. I thought he was a great value pick for the Ravens in the fourth round. And he actually obviously has spent some time with Brock Purdy as well. It was just one of those really good middle of the field type of winners. And what I'm seeing is like red zone designs with two tight ends, like the touchdown they threw to Isaiah likely it's just a double post with a seam bending route from likely. And it's really smart because the way they set it up with Lamar Jackson, with that running a game, it looks like it's designed to be a run and they sell the run well. And that's really what Baltimore has been able to do lately.

This season really established good run concepts, block the execution looks awesome in the run game. And that in part was due to Keita Mitchell's explosiveness and his vision, which was an underrated factor of his game. Will Justice Hill have that? I don't know. I don't think Gus Edwards really has that. Those two, you know, explosiveness or really the vision.

Justice Hill, not so sure either. So I think this could really change their identity as an offense and in a lot of ways bring them back to earth. So I'm definitely interested to see that. What really excites me about that matchup, though, is the other side of the ball. You're taking the best passing offense by all the metrics against the best pass defense by all the metrics. So we'll see what happens there as well. All right. We have a lot of very funny Adam, the

kind of guy twos in the chat. I love the Jacob's been entertained by them. Give me a couple or a couple out of guys. One last thing. Lamar Jackson is the number five quarterback per game and four point per passing touchdown leagues. He's the number six

quarterback per game in six point per passing touchdown leagues. Unless you count Joe Flacco. Flacco's averaging more points than him, so he'd be, so Jackson would be seven there. But he's averaging 21.7 people,

21.7 points per game and six point per passing touchdown leagues. And that is really bad to be the number six quarterback. And that is a bad to be the number six quarterback. And that is a commentary on the quarterback position this year. For Jackson to be averaging

21.7 points per game and to be QB six. I mean, last year it was kind of similar. In six point pass. In six point, yeah. Last year was kind of similar. I think it would have been something like QB eight.

But the years we had before that, I mean, I don't even think it would have been close. Maybe QB 12 or something like that. QB 10. To be QB six with less than 22 points per game tells you where we are. I mean, Josh Allen is QB one at 26.4 points per game, and that's down from from where he was last week.

So I forgot. I think Andrew Luck in like 2014 or something like that was the last quarterback to be QB one per game with with this little this few points per game. So it's just been a really bad year. All right, let's see what we got in the Adam, the kind of guy too. Well, first of all, Jacob got in there and disagreed with one of them. Adam, the kind of guy to double dip a chip. Oh yeah.

That's a definite disagree. Definite disagree. Adam's the kind of guy to be so scared of somebody that he's with double dips, a chip that he can't have the rest of that dip the rest of the night. That's what Adam is the kind of guy. Yeah. A hundred years the kind of guy yeah a hundred years of a double dip he's scared of a double dip i'm not scared but i'm just gonna make this clear right now and i don't care who calls me gross for it whatever i don't give a crap i don't care about double dips you want a double dip go ahead and double dip on my my day i don't care i don't care guess what all this stuff

is overrated the opposite is actually true. The opposite is true. By allowing germs into your body and your system, you're building up a tolerance and you're having your immune system fight off. It's no surprise to me that I haven't been sick in like 10 years and I never got COVID, but Adam is sick for three straight months when he cares about all the germs and I don't. All right, Dwight, shoot. Something has got to give back. Adam, the type of guy to collect TY Beanie Babies in his 30s. That could be possibly true. Oh, get out of here. I'm not joking.

Adam, the type of guy to get pedicures every Wednesday. No, he doesn't care about that kind of stuff. Adam, the type of man to clap along with a friend's theme song. Yeah, 100%, that kind of guy. This is the most true one yet. I don't know if I – yeah, in my head, I clap a lot. I don't actually clap. Adam, the kind of guy to own the Frasier box set on 4K Blu-ray.

So I did, because our colleague Sian Najad is so into Frasier, I did take him up on... I did start... I'm on season nine. I'm halfway through season nine. I've been watching it for the last four months. Disgusting. I watch it just about every night, like one episode.

It's good. It's not good. You've never even seen it. I've seen enough. I've seen bits and pieces of it. You've never seen it. It's a funny show. It's been boring.

Every minute of that show that I've watched has been boring. Every minute. Is it a laugh track show too? Yeah, of course it's a laugh track show. Everything was a laugh track show back then. What's there to even laugh at? Dan's the dude licking his fingers at cooking class. No, no, no.

Just because I'm not caring about double dipping doesn't mean I'm actually just going all out and doing weird, gross things. It just means don't over obsess about germs. That's all. That's that's my motto. All right. Let's move on here. The life lessons from Dan, who says he's going to watch. He's going to watch Just Friends and give us a review on the Friday mailbag. No, no, no, not this Friday. You're not putting that on me for this Friday. That'll be at some point. I will watch that. What's the big deal? I can't just be grinding movies out every week i have other things i have to do adam is the kind of find what that's streaming on too before we can even do that i think it's a prime adam is the kind of guy who calls his wife to

kill bugs in their house that is 100 true the exact opposite the exact opposite i know adam's the kind of guy who calls an exterminator to kill a simple spider. No, that's not true. All right. The Early Edge Podcast. This guy lived with cockroaches in his house for a year and a half. The Early Edge Podcast is something that you need to listen

to. Great gambling advice. Before everyone else is on it, before the lines are moving, get the inside info from the Early Edge podcast. You can subscribe on Sportsline. It's 10 a.m. Eastern, or you can subscribe on YouTube. 10 a.m. Eastern, watch the Early Edge podcast. And 10 a.m. Eastern on, yeah, every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and then 12 p.m. Eastern on Sunday. And that's at youtube.com slash sportsline, I believe.

YouTube.com slash sportsline for the early edge. Okay, the news and notes for you. Trevor Lawrence is in the concussion protocol. Nick Mullins is going to start for Minnesota against Detroit. Sam Howell is still the starting quarterback there at the Jets. Jalen Hurts questionable tonight. Geno Smith a long shot, according to a report for tonight's game.

Zach Wilson left in the second quarter with a concussion, and Aaron Rodgers could be medically cleared next week, but we think Trevor Simeon has a good chance to be starting for the Jets against Washington. Mason Rudolph is going to start for the Steelers against Cincinnati. A lot of these backup quarterbacks

actually have good matchups. Will Levis has a sprained ankle. We'll see if he's able toers against Cincinnati. A lot of these backup quarterbacks actually have good matchups. Will Levis has a sprained ankle. We'll see if he's able to go against Seattle. Keaton Mitchell likely out for the season. Isaiah Pacheco could be back this upcoming week. Zach Moss is going to try to play this week. Where is he? He's at Atlanta.

Jarek McKinnon, I think he's fine. He left briefly. I think he's fine. Jamar Chase has a separated shoulder. We'll call him day-to-day. Michael Pittman, concussion protocol. Tyreek Hill has a very good chance to play this week against the Dallas Cowboys. Zay Jones left with a hamstring injury last night, so that one looked pretty bad.

He might miss some time. Jaden Reed left with a toe injury. Marquise Brown re-injured the heel. I saw there was a Travis Kelsey injury, but I haven't seen anything on that, so I assume Travis Kelsey is fine. Hunter Henry left in the second half. Miami lost another offensive lineman. I know I went through a lot of this yesterday. Miami right tackle Austin Jackson, oblique injury. Zach Martin, good news on him. He's going to try to play this week at Miami. Joel Batonio, another offensive lineman for Cleveland, is injured. It's unbelievable. He left in the first half. They're at Houston. Two Patriots

offensive lineman got hurt. They're at Denver. Chicago offensive lineman Tevin Jenkins was carted off the field. They have Arizona. Jimmy Ward for Houston. He was evaluated for a concussion. I think he's in the concussion protocol. They get Cleveland this week, and he has made a pretty big difference. I think they played six

games without Jimmy Ward with him leaving early with an injury, and they've given up 20 or more fantasy points to a quarterback and five of them or something like that. Maybe it's five of seven. Now there are some rushing touchdowns involved in there, but he's made a difference in their defense. week against Cincinnati and Marcus Williams for Baltimore starting safety for them. He is day to day, but they've missed him for four or five games this year and it has not made an ounce of difference. That is always the thing that has impressed me the most about the Ravens is that unless it's been Lamar Jackson, they have suffered so many injuries every single year, basically, and they just keep on ticking. it's pretty incredible general manager and incredible head coach two of the elite top three at both and that's how you do it

all right uh dan is the kind of guy to buy baby gap shirts since it makes them look bigger i think we'll go to break on that we'll go to break on that we'll take a break when we come back advanced stats from jacob gibbs and more on fit on uh beyond the box score on Fantasy Football today.

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We're going to start with Trey McBride. McBride has been tracking his per route data all year relative to Travis Kelsey's, and he's finally surpassed him. 28% target per route run rate for McBride on the year on over 300 routes run. So it's a pretty large sample size at this point. 28% for him, 25% for Kelsey. 2.3 yards per route run for McBride, 2.1 for Kelsey.

So the best per route data in the NFL at the tight end position right now belongs to Trey McBride, member of the Arizona Cardinals passing attack. That is wildly impressive. And it's backed by incredible data at the collegiate level. The last time that we saw him at college, Colorado State 2021, piled up 1,100 receiving yards. That's more than any tight end. Dating back to 2017 is what True true media has available to me here so the only other tight end with over a thousand yards is Harrison Bryant and then if you look at the per route data

it's like you know Mark Andrews Brock Bowers Isaiah Likely actually Dalton Kincaid Michael Mayer a lot of really great tight end prospects up there with McBride but really McBride season is the best that we've had significantly betterificantly better than Kyle Pitts or anything else that we've seen from a tight end to collegiate level. And then he's a second round pick and, you know, he struggled his first year, but man, this second year has been unbelievably impressive. Yeah. Amazing. He's going to win people a lot of leagues. Yeah. And for dynasty, like everybody of course,

is going to move Sam Laporta up to tight end one after what he's done. And people might even have Dalton Kincaid ahead of McBride because the draft capital, I get that. But like, man, I don't know, based off what we've seen, the data that McBride has put up is better than anybody else. And it's so, I think it's so crazy just coming in this offense because they can't, they can barely move the ball. I think that's the only issue I have with it, Jacob, from a long-term Don's standpoint is that's part of the reason I think it's happening because they can barely move the ball. They can barely pass protect.

And right now, from what I've seen, they don't feel comfortable letting Kyler Murray operate a drop-back passing game, which is odd because he has the arm talent to hit all levels of the field. And he's done it in the past. And I've been surprised at how little we've seen him use the vertical play with guys like Marquise Brown, even guys like Michael Wilson on the intermediate level. And it seems like it's a lot of just design hits to Trey McBride. Now, my concern would only be two things, Jacob. One, if Arizona keeps losing, do they move on from Kyler Murray? Two, are they going to keep the same system in place as they improve around the quarterback and build out, you know, maybe a line that they can feel comfortable operating a dropback pass game? Or if they believe the quarterback they draft is capable of operating a drop back pass game.

These are my only concerns long-term with McBride, but as it stands right now, he's going to, when you leave, like, he's going to be great next week. He's going to be great the week after. Yeah. I mean, he's, he succeeded in basically every match, even when the offense has fallen apart. So you have to feel good about them at this point. Next, Joe Flacco, 49 dropbacks this week in three starts. We've seen 49, 47, 47 dropbacks for Joe Flacco. It's just incredible for the offensive environment here in Cleveland. There's so much volume. Eight targets, 129 air yards for Amari Cooper,

ended with four, 109, and one receiving. 14 targets for David and Joku. He's been a league winner towards the end here as well. Even Cedric Tillman, eight targets, 52 yards receiving for rookie Cedric Tillman, which is cool. He's mostly been invisible this year.

Um, so yeah, there's, there's life here in Cleveland, which was not the case for most of the year. Yeah. It looked really, really bad.

I just want to just piggyback on that. The first, before Flacco, uh, before the Flacco era, they had the sixth lowest pass rate in the NFL. Last three games, second highest pass rate in the NFL. Their defense hasn't been as good, but they have the second highest pass rate in the first quarter of games.

They have the highest pass rate. They throw 70% of the time before halftime, or the first two quarters in the last three games of Flacco. So I don't know what it is. They just let the guy who's completing like 60% of his passes just heave the ball 45 times a game. Go ahead. It's great for fantasy. The throw you made to Murray Cooper at the end of that game was probably one of the best throws we've seen in the last month from all the non-elite quarterbacks like sadly speaking the state of nfl play we're in like joe flacco is honestly one of the six seven best

throwers of the football even starting on maybe even that's it might even be conservative all right go ahead jacob rishi rice another guy who we've been tracking all year um his route participation spiked last week. It had not been above 70% a game all year prior to last week. And then it was up to 83% this week, 93% ran more routes than Travis Kelsey or anyone else on the chiefs. Super, super exciting. Still just a 3.4 yard average depth of target.

But yeah, the offense is just funneling through him right now. Cause it has to, and he's, he's a league winner. That's, you know, we've made some good calls now because it has to. And he's a league winner. We've made some good calls, made some bad calls, but that's probably the best one is like you needed to get Rasheed right. He's paying off.

Dontavian Wicks, rookie for Green Bay. Just want to highlight 80% snap rate this past week, six for 97 receiving on seven targets on the year. He has a 20% target per route run rate and a 2.0 yard per route run rate on 245 routes. So it's not an insignificant sample size. And that per route data puts in the same range as like Drake London and Amari Cooper. If you just look at the Green Bay receivers yards per outrun two for Dontavian Wicks, 1.7 for Jane Reed, 1.56 for Christian Watson, 1.27 for Romeo Dubs.

I think there's a real chance that he surpasses Dubs as soon as next year. And potentially, if Watson remains out, he's somebody that you can trust this year. He's been really, really good with the opportunities. And the playing time is there now, too. Yep. We'll check on Watson and we'll check on Jaden Reed. Big opportunity for Dontavian Wicks next week. Anything else. Yeah, we'll check on Watson and we'll check on Jaden Reed. Big opportunity for Dontavion Wicks next week. Anything else? Yeah, I got a few more.

The Miami running backs, we saw seven. We're just getting some clarity here. There's been some weird games here and there, but this week we saw seven of eight red zone rushing attempts go to Raheem Mostert. Both players had 14 routes run. I thought that we might see HNan see an expanded role especially as a receiver with tyree kill out but that wasn't really the case so it's it's right now it's

clearly most thirds backfield and a chan obviously brings big play potential but is not seeing the usage i would have liked to see down the stretch here um one explosive running back who did see usage last week i'm really curious what you guys think about this if it was just due to the fumble from naji harris or if there was an injury that i missed or something but jaylen warren had a 69 snap rate and an 83 route participation this past week which were just blew away his previous highs 52 were his previous highs this year in a game so he's been the best running back in the NFL other than me, I guess, a Chan. Um, but among running backs who have a real sample size, it's like Jalen Warren

and then no one else. Um, and so if he gets an expanded role, that's exciting. Obviously last guy I wanted to highlight was Chris Godwin. Chris Godwin had 104 air yards in week 15 after posting a season high, 142 air yards in week 14 prior to week 14 chris godwin had gotten 23 straight games without 100 or more air yards but we've seen it in back-to-back games now i watched all the starters i think a big part of it is the gyre alexander list green bay secondary is pretty easy to get open against um and he was just getting open a lot um but it is cool that they're using him down the field more previously he's just kind open a lot. But it is cool that they're using him down the field more.

Previously, he's just kind of been stuck in this Juju Smith-Schuster type of role. And that's been tough for him to bring any fantasy upside. But he's somebody who you might be able to trust, which earlier in the year looked pretty bleak. This is what's going to happen with Chris Godwin. No one's going to start him this week.

There's only been one good game. And he's going to have a huge game. And then everyone who still has Godwin and is playing for the championship is going to start him this week. There's only been one good game and he's going to have a huge game. And then everyone who's still has Godwin is playing for the championship is going to start him in week 17 and he's going to be terrible. So it's just going to be a big up yours from Chris Godwin. Like it has been all year. The yo goes off when you don't start him. But no, I mean, it was, I'm happy to see it.

I'd like to see him finish with a little bit of momentum. He looked like going into this year, he looked like just a great wide receiver, metrics-wise. Last year was rough because he was coming off the injury, but he did some really great things at a very young age, and he has had such a bad season. But my big concern is that they just don't throw the ball enough at all. Five of their last six games with 30 or fewer pass attempts.

It's always like 29 or 30. And next, I don't even forget who they play next. Oh, they play Jacksonville next week. So that'll be an interesting game. If Lawrence isn't playing, I think that's probably

bad news. I don't know if it's terrible news for Godwin, but it's not good. You'd like to see them have to throw a little bit more in order for Godwin and Evans to both get their targets.

As far as the Najee Harris thing and Jalen Warren, I mean, you can't ignore the fact that it was a blowout, so I don't know how much that mattered. But the fact that Warren also got a couple of goal line carries was interesting. And Najee, I think we should just probably sit, although Cincinnati is a great matchup. I saw that Najee wouldn't talk

to the media afterwards, and it seemed like, yeah, he's pissed. I wonder if that backfield is shifting away from him. Colts wide receiver DJ Montgomery for deep, deep leagues. He was basically the Michael Pittman replacement. He ran a lot of routes. What the heck? I've never even heard

of this guy, which almost never happens. Well, someone named D. Montgomery had to score heard of this guy, which almost never happens. Well, someone named D. Montgomery had to score a touchdown this week, and it was DJ Montgomery and not David Montgomery. Tyler Goodson and Trace Lerman, they, you know, Sermon played more, but Goodson played enough. Like I said, Zach Moss is going to try to play this week, and maybe Jonathan Taylor will play this week.

I just don't think we'll ever get enough snaps from Odell Beckham to make him truly trustworthy. He played only 54% of the snaps. And the Giants, man, I just don't like, for Barkley's purposes, I mean, the Giants ran 61 snaps against the Saints, which was the most

they've run in five weeks. They hadn't run at least five weeks. They'd run 55 or fewer plays in four straight games before running 61 plays against the Saints. They're slow. I don't think they want to run a lot of plays.

They don't. Yeah. They had, going into the game, they had run the fewest plays in the NFL over the last four weeks or something like that, but they had had a bye in there, so I couldn't really count it. But it's just not a great offensive environment.

And the only player you... I guess you care about Waller now, too. Waller had a good game considering he played only 42% of the snaps. Dan, I don't know what you're seeing from Barkley, but I think he's close to being a sit next week against the Eagles. Eagles' run defense has been struggling a little bit.

We'll see how they do tonight against Ken Walker, but of all the stud running backs who struggled in Week 15, I think maybe I'd take him over Eckler. But as of right now, I don't have a lot of faith in Barkley in week 16 against Philadelphia. So I don't have faith per se in Barkley in week 16 against Philadelphia, but I also think looking at the running back landscape,

a guy who gets this amount of volume that Barkley gets, he's still on the field for almost every snap. But he's not getting that much volume. That's the thing. Look at the carries. No, no, just participation. I agree he's not getting that much volume from a just pure touches standpoint right now.

But just on the field for all these snaps, we're talking about Austin Eckler who's being rotated off for two different players at this point. I'm sorry. In a... I didn't say that word. I didn't finish the word.

I'm the only one to not slip up on this podcast this year. I didn't say that word. I never sorry. In a, in a, in a, I didn't say that word. I didn't finish the word. I'm the only one to not slip up on this podcast this year. I didn't, I didn't say that word. In a shootout, I was about to say in a shootout, a non shootout game, the opposite of it, the antithesis of a shootout game, right? Like Austin Eckler with Easton stick versus it's not too uncomparable, but Barkley's getting more touches. I was saying, I was going to say shoot out

I just cut off yeah I agree if it happened to add in you would not let it go I never did it I said something Adam definitely did it everyone knows Adam definitely did it that's for sure Adam definitely did it I cut off I had the wherewithal to cut off oh yeah way to go I had no idea

what you were saying it definitely I thought you were going for shoot out too all right film review we were going to talk about Bijan Robinson. I know. Did you also get a chance to watch Derrick Henry? Bijan, Derrick and another favorite of So if you want to talk about what you saw from Derrick Henry and his borderline historically bad game of 10 total yards on 20 touches against Houston as he gets Seattle next week. Yeah, Derrick Henry derailed two of my fantasy teams. Usually you can count on Derrick Henry in December, not this game. But when you watch the tape, you see the truth. And the truth is this wasn't on derrick henry the truth is this the titans offensive line which we did question in the preseason is horrific they didn't develop at all they drafted a first rounder it doesn't matter they don't block well their execution is horrible

they tried all sorts of different things they tried you know uh a pitch play at the end of the game seven yard loss in the second half the first snap of the game was a target to Derek Henry. I was expecting good things from that, but the ball placement will Levis was just horrible. It forces Henry to fully turn his body around. He loses all momentum and then loses yards after the catch because of it. The Texans were gaps on the entire game, setting a really hard edge from their ends,

attacking downhill to take away Henry with just little regard for what will Levis can do as a drop back passer. And that's what it comes down to at this time of the year in these cold, rainy games, like the one the Texans played outdoors in Tennessee in Nashville, you're going to have defenses that are just driving on the sticks, putting all 11 defenders around the line of scrimmage and doing everything in their power to take away Derek Henry four eyes on Henry, every play, even on the design screen on seven 55 in the first quarter. If you watch the play, just look. And eyes on Henry, every play, even on the design screen on 755 in the first quarter. If you watch the play, just look. And I put it, I'll put this one on Twitter. I put

another one on Twitter, but look, look at the second level defenders for the Texans. Look at how little regard they have for the past game and how lack and the lack of depth they get in their drop. This is a play where you would expect the linebackers to have some more depth. They're playing like two yards off the ball and they don't even drop the depth after it's a pass. So then once the screen is thrown, both linebackers, just one was an apex defender, actually, I think the slot defender, and the other was a linebacker, just crashed down on the screen. It's nowhere to go, and it's a loss. There was also the play I put on Twitter, which is like one of the most pathetic run plays I've ever seen. Yeah, you also cursed while you put this on

Twitter. Like there is a profanity in your tweet. Oh yes. That I'm fine with that. What is with you today? You potty. No, no. I've cursed on Twitter before. Twitter is a fine place to curse. You want to curse on Twitter? You can curse on Twitter. There's no not cursing on Twitter. And it was not really a full curse. It was like a fun curse if you look on Twitter. Um, but anyway, if you look at that play on Twitter, they're just in the backfield before Derrick Henry even touches the ball. That was the entire game. No regard for Will Levis.

I remember dating back to one of our early podcasts, Adam, from the offseason where I ran off Levis' horrific stats against the SEC when you were trying to tell me Levis was going to be a good player. But I am so fully off the Will Levis train. Good, he can throw a football decently at times but he is just cannot process defenses at all man at all if you if you had to if you had to uh take one player on your fan on your football team you were an nfl gm would you have cadarious tony or will levis will have us for sure there's t is a useless player he should be the chiefs may cut him or do one of those like late seventh round pick swaps i mean this guy is he he's literally

costing the team a game like he has a mistake that you see like once in a season from a player six times in one season like how is it even possible for him to be playing this bad it's almost like comical and like a video game at this point it looks like like a guy who has like his catch percentage on like madden moved at like 21 hands. And like, he's just dropping everything that comes his way. But the good news for him and for Chiefs fans and for anyone who owns him in Dynasty or manages him in Dynasty,

is that after the game, I saw Travis Kelsey like hugging him and bringing him up. It seems like the players haven't turned on him yet, which is crazy because that was the opposite of what happened with the Giants. The locker room turned on Gadaris Tony, which is a big reason why he was traded from what I've heard. There's no substantial evidence to prove that,

but he didn't buy into it. But we'll throw it out there anyway. I'll throw it out there anyway. I think it's pretty obvious if you saw the situation unfold as it is, dump a first round pick a year into his contract. But, you know, it is what it is. All right. So that's Derek Henry.

Yes. Watch some of the clips on Dan's Twitter feed. I have no hope for him, by the way, for next week if you're in the fantasy playoffs. Like he is a potential bench guy for me. All right, so that's Derek Henry. Yes. Watch some of the clips on Dan's Twitter feed. I have no hope for him, by the way, for next week if you're in the fantasy playoffs. He is a potential bench guy for me. All right, I will say this. The Texans had arguably the best run defense in football, so they completely outmatched Tennessee. We'll see.

Seattle's not quite as good. We'll see what happens. We'll take a break here. We'll talk about Bijan. We'll talk about Eckler, backup quarterbacks, James Cook, when we come back on Fantasy Football Today. All right, we'll talk about Eckler, backup quarterbacks, James Cook when we come back on Fantasy Football today. All right, we're back here. And let's talk about Bijan Robinson.

Everybody's so bad at Arthur Smith. He did fumble in this game, but even before the fumble, Tyler Algier had more carries than Bijan Robinson. He scores.4 PPR fantasy points, negative points in half PPR and non-PPR in the fantasy semifinals. Just unbelievable. All right. How worried are we?

Does anybody want to start him against the Colts next week? No, I don't. Personally, I can give you a quick breakdown of what I saw on film. Just generally speaking, the biggest difference with B. John Robinson this year or the biggest difference with the Falcons this year versus last year, is they're just not executing as a run blocking scheme and team. Last year, one of the biggest factors in why Algier had that season, and one of the biggest factors in why Bijan Robinson was somebody who I thought was a first round pick this

year, was because Atlanta Falcons were generating so much yards before contact as a scheme. And Arthur Smith was doing things from a schematic standpoint in the run game that were just awesome, straight up on tape last year. This this year it seems like all that has gone away maybe teams have figured it out seen enough tape on his scheme and they're just figuring in there and but but the execution is horrible the fourth and three just horrible execution on this run play the third and two one yard loss with 10 10 and then you're seeing like no design targets that's my biggest problem for bjorn robson the first design target the first target he got of the game was just a check down

on third and long and there was no design targets from they're not getting matched up one-on-one against a linebacker with a texas route that could be a really good thing to get him going no wheel routes down the field vertically speaking all i saw was simple flat route targets out of the backfield. Nothing. And all eyes were on Bijan. It's similar to what I saw on tape with the Texans versus the Titans. Just drive on everything downhill on the line of scrimmage. Pay no respect to Desmond Ritter as a quarterback, as a dropback passing game.

And then the worst part about this from film was after he fumbled, he didn't see the field again. And that was in the third quarter. I think they only had one possession after that, though. think they only had one possession after that though they did only have one possession after that you know it's also like i just think bad weather if you're one of these people was like oh there's bad weather it's gonna be really good for the running backs i don't necessarily think that's true i think it's bad for everyone bad for everyone you know especially you know if you really don't have to respect the passing game it's easier to defend the run game and the weather was awful in this game. I feel like I want to go back to Bijan next week against the Colts.

They've been a very good matchup. I will say much, much, much better when they have Grover Stewart, their defensive tackle, playing. It's like a yard per carry difference when he's playing for running backs compared to when he's not playing. In eight games with Grover Stewart, running backs average 3.5 yards per carry against the Colts in eight games

or as in six games without him, 4.6 yards per carry. But they do need to get Bijan more involved in the passing game. He's so good there. I agree, Dan. Like, let's come on. What's the deal here?

The Colts happen to be terrible in that regard. They give up the fifth most receiving yards per game to running backs. Jacob, do you have faith in Bijan next week? I don't like the spot for him. Somebody asked, would we start Bijan or Jalen Warren? I think my answer is Warren. Definitely based off the usage we saw last week, Warren's usage is up, whereas Bijan had a 59% snap rate, 52% route participation. Those were his lowest marks all year, excluding the infamous undisclosed illness game. But as a broader question,

if those were his lowest routes all year, why wouldn't you expect that to be the literal, like the low point, and him to bounce back to his normal usage? I think that's a fair assumption. I'm not ruling that out i'm just saying that that is the case like we are seeing worst rates for him um whereas like warren is turning up um and yeah i don't love the matchup either like you mentioned and he's not necessarily an easy team

to run on and they use a lot of single high safety coverage as well which typically leads to more downfield targets not as much for the running backs. Yeah, I just don't love the spot. All right. I'll be the Bijan guy, I guess. Next topic is from Ken Myers. Rank the backup quarterbacks in the order you're most comfortable starting them for week 16.

I may have missed some, but Jake Browning's at Pittsburgh. Joe Flacco's at Houston. Nick Mullins gets Detroit. And then you have guys like Mason Rudolph against the Bengals. Easton Stick against Buffalo. Ryan Tannehill, in theory, against Seattle. CJ Beathard at Tampa Bay, unless Lawrence can click.

Lawrence doesn't seem to ever miss any games, no matter what. Bailey Zappi at Denver. Aidan O'Connell coming off a big, big game at Kansas City. Tommy DeVito at Philadelphia. If I missed any, let me know. No, you didn't miss any. These are all bad matchups, too, in my opinion. Some of these in really bad weather as well,

or what I assume to be bad weather at this time of the year on the East Coast or depending on where it may be, Buffalo. Pacific Northwest. that's in la but um uh what'd you say pacific northwest potentially in the pacific northwest which really does span the entire west coast in my mind but uh i'll start with joe flacco at houston yeah houston's defense has been good but they've been better against the run and i just just trust Joe Flacco right now a lot more than anyone on this list by a considerable margin. And in a dome, I think he's going to sizzle that ball in a dome. I mean, this guy throws a great football still at 39 years old, and he processes better still than like all these young quarterbacks who haven't seen a lot. So I'll go Flacco one.

I will go Browning in the cold Pittsburgh. I don't know if I love that, but let me go Mullins to Browning Easton stick. Tannehill Bethard. Cause it's warm. Zappy. You don't have to rank all of them, but Easton stick would not be,

I don't think he'd be fourth for me. I don't know why I put Easton up there. Not again. Stick is the lowest for me. No, no, put move put Easton up there. Stick is the fourth lowest for me. No, no, put move stick down. That was a mistake. Don't even consider stick. That was a big mistake.

The guys that would even consider playing are Flacco, Tannehill, Browning, Mullins, and maybe. No, that's it. Okay. Jacob, what do you got? I've got Flacco and then Beathard and then Browning. And then I think DeVito would be next. No, don't do it. I hate it.

I wanted to hear you guys talk a little bit about Wanda Robinson. He just kind of disappeared from the game plan this week. Theoretically, the spot against Philadelphia seems like a perfect fit for him. But I wonder if it was just Waller's return or what, but they kind of went away from after featuring in week 14. No, no, it wasn't Waller's return. There's just no offense for the Giants. They couldn't generate anything. And one thing that that the saints did they took away the outside and that was

something that daniel jones never used he never used the outside the numbers but devito was good at it they took it away made him try to win in the middle of the field and like we see with a lot of these short quarterbacks who can't see over the offensive line very well also quarterbacks who are younger and can't process well the middle of the field is a really tough tricky spot And DeVito was, if you look at his spray charts from all his starts, he's not utilized the middle of field at all. So I just think he's figured out at this point, probably most likely against the Eagles. He's going to be, it's going to be a rough spot for him. Um, and so I have no faith in starting him fantasy. Yeah. I mean, the Eagles give up a lot of fantasy points, but the giants also the. The last couple of years, when they face teams like the Eagles, when they face the best teams in football, they lose by 30 points.

And it's just not even competitive. And that's, I think, what's going to happen. Beathard's interesting. I didn't really consider him. I think Browning and Flacco are one-two for me. It looks like a tough matchup, but if there's no Minka Fitzpatrick for Jake Browning, if there's no Cameron Hayward, he's in the concussion protocol. The Steelers are just playing horrible football right now. They are.

It's going to be cold in Pittsburgh, though, this Sunday. Yeah. Was it not cold in Cincinnati this weekend? I mean. It was cold. And I tend to put way too much into the weather. But I can't see that much offense coming out of it. Cold weather is not really, unless it's absolutely frigid.

The wind is what I really expect.'s absolutely frigid. The wind is not really. Yeah, wind to a lesser degree rain. Cold is not usually that bad. Browning is just getting it done. But if he doesn't have Jamar Chase, I think you're right. I think Flacco over Browning. And then, yeah, maybe. So Mullins, he got so damn lucky last week.

I know. And I could see him getting benched if he turns the ball over a few times. So I think I would go Flacco, Browning, Beathard, Mullins. Okay. And not really consider the others. What was your top four, guys? I'm going to finish with Flacco, then Browning. I'll put Tannehill next for me at three.

And then I guess Beathard, but I don't even really love that. Flacco, Beathard, Browning. I had DeVito. If you just don't want to go there, then I would go Rudolph or Mullens. No one thinks Tannehill has any shot. I don't want Tannehill, no. I don't want to touch that offense. Yeah, I'm not interested.

It's so bad. I guess you're right. It's so bad. You know, this is really, I would say, the time of year for Rudolph. God, that's two dad jokes in one podcast. That was the same joke. It was the same joke, to be fair. Oh, God.

That's even worse. You repeated your own joke. This is for a bada-bing, bada-boom. It was always reliable when it comes to the four big topics. Is Austin Eckler a bench warmer going forward, or does the firing of Brandon Staley fix the problem? Eckler has the Buffalo Bills this week. Bench for me.

That's for sure. Firing Brandon Stanley is not going to help that offense at all, in my opinion. Easton Stick, that's the end of that offense. And surprisingly, I looked in some of the numbers this week. Big regression from Rashawn Slater at left left tackle this year that's been a big problem for the chargers and that hasn't really gone away so battle line keenan allen doubtful to play in my mind maybe he will play i would don't imagine why he would play um and then austin eckler not

even getting all the touches anymore this is a must bench for me. Yeah. Um, I Buffalo seems locked into me. I think they're probably going to blow the chargers out and it might be exactly what we saw with that crew last week where it's like, thank you for your work this year. Yeah. Go chill on the bench.

By the way, just saw some news going to go back to the last one. The, uh, backup quarterback question, Taylor Heineke could start for the Falcons this week. That doesn't surprise me. Yeah.

But it was so bad on him. Eckler, yeah, I don't. So the Bills, one thing that they struggle with is pass-catching running backs. Yesterday's game against the Cowboys was only the second game all year that a running back didn't have at least three catches. I think Pollard and Dowdle both had two, or Pollard and someone both had two. I think it was Dowdle. They give up the fourth most receiving yards

to running backs, four and a half yards per carry. They're a bad run defense. Better lately, I guess I'd say. But, boy. I would say most of that has been big plays, and Eckler hasn't really created any. You're right. In fact, in his last four games,

he does not have a 10-yard run. His fact, in his last four games, he does not have a 10-yard run. His longest run in his last four games is nine yards. He only has, in his last four games, he has, let's see, 10, 14, 10, and 5 carries. So that's 25. That's 39 carries. That's not a ton. But none of them have gone for longer than nine yards. Last one is from Mike Campana.

It's funny to use a rest of season right now. We have two weeks left, but he says, James Cook, a top five running back rest of season. And it's interesting. Is he going to be a top five this upcoming week at the Chargers? I got some stats I'll give out, but Jacob, do you think he's a top five running back? We'll just take it one week at a time here.

Do you think he's a top five running back right now? I think that makes sense man like i i am amazed by the workload that he has gotten i traded james cook away in a dynasty league about a month ago because i didn't anticipate the coaching change resulting in just like true bell cow usage because we had not seen anything even close to resembling that from him um but yeah they he had like 28 touches or something, right? Yeah.

27 touches. And he had over 200 total yards in the, and it could have been even bigger game. He dropped the touchdown at the end. He did. And he took a carry all the way to the one and they immediately put in Latavious, which angered me as a,

as this is my most rostered player this year, but he still had a big game, even with it carried me to a couple. That's that is something worth noting. I mean, he is not necessarily, he will be pulled yeah not necessarily not every time but he is not the preferred goal line back and his touchdowns i mean can you really rely on receiving touchdowns he has two rushing touchdowns i think he has four receiving touchdowns but he has right

he has what like three receiving touchdowns in his last four games or something like that and i will say this with regard to that, Adam, they direct when they drafted him, they brand brand to be in their GM specifically pinpointed how he's going to change their receiving game. And I feel like Josh Allen's done a really good job utilizing there. And his first touchdown catch was a phenomenal catch. It was a backhanded stab by a running back. That's a type of catch that every running back,

almost besides like McCaffrey that I watched drops that ball because it's low. He has to backhand it with his hands and he's a natural receiver. And on tape, I watched his tape this week. Obviously he was one of my early calls this season. Didn't really pay off for our beyond the box score listeners until the end. Hopefully you, you waited it out, but I mean, you watch this kid, his vision and his cuts. They're so beautiful. He's one of the most fun runners I watch. I've, I think he's the best in the NFL with Nick Chubb injured currently and with Dalvin Cook no longer playing at the level he used to play at setting up his blocks

and using vision cut, making those vision cutbacks. It's just phenomenal to watch his acceleration in and out of cuts. It's like Dalvin Cook was earlier in his career. This is what I saw on the Georgia tape. And this is why I was so excited about him. His burst after getting in and out of his cuts is also special as well. I don't see any reason why the bills would go away from it because they've finally figured out how to establish a run game and block really well in the run game. And part of this was investments they made on the offensive line this season. They drafted who I thought was the best run blocking guard in the draft by a wide margin. He's starting to play better football. The entire line is playing better. They're blocking well in the run game and they're going through the run game and understanding they can win football games in

a different way other than like, you know, just have Josh Allen drop back 50 times a game and throw the football. So I think this will last. Like there's no reason for me to think the bills are going to go away from this formula now that it's working. Who has a higher avoided tackle rate, James or Dalvin cook. Don't tell me it it's dalvin i know i did the advanced metrics on cook so i know he was like 27th and avoided tackle rate amongst running backs with 100 more carries i will guess dalvin because you asked but it's dalvin that's not james cook's game really he's you know create yards before contact and potentially you know get explosive plays based off that but i will say to dance one about the receiving yard per run rate leaders at running

back alvin camara breeze hall and then james cook and then yards for target james cook first all right if i'm not really thinking about the top five mcafree is going to be one even against the ravens then you've got a thursday night game between alvin camara and kyron williams in los angeles i'll put them both over cook that's's fair. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, Kamara over Cook. I don't know that that's an easy call right now. Cook's getting more touches. I think he's got 20 or more touches in three of his last four games. He's got 100 yards, 100 total yards in five straight games.

And both have some goal line issues. But yeah, that's close. You've got who else? I'm going to start him over Brees Hall. I'm going to start him over Saquon Barkley. I'm going to start him over Travis Et else? I'm going to start him over Brees Hall. I'm going to start him over Saquon Barkley. I'm going to start him over Travis Etienne. I'm going to start him over Austin Eckler. Oh, Rashad White.

Rashad White against the Jaguars. I don't see how. That's close. I think it's got to be White. I would take James Kupko. Who did you say the Saints were playing? Rams. On Thursday.

Pretty good. That could be a good game. Big game. Big game. Important game. So, yeah. I don't really know who else. That's like five guys. I mean, obviously,

starting over Henry. We just also factor in the consideration that none of these guys were, besides McCaffrey, were first-round, second-round picks. Yeah, crazy.

But we still have Stevie Lamb, Tyreek Hill went healthy. I think he's... A ton of receivers in that mix. Justin Jefferson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.

This is your year waiting on it. Right, I get it. I get it. It's every year now for running back. It's not every year. This is by far the worst year for early round running backs. This is by far the worst, but they don't pay off most of the time.

Anyway, I want to give these stats on James Cook. This is by far the worst, but they don't pay off most of the time. team in red zone targets with three. He's not leading the team in end zone targets. That would be the great Gabe Davis. And his 15% target share over the last four games, which is five weeks, they had a bye, it ranks sixth among running backs.

So, by the way, in that stretch, last five games, which running back has the highest target share? B. John Robinson. But things have really changed for him. It's been a big priority. I don't know if it's a Joe Brady thing or a Josh Allen thing, Allen changing his mentality,

but he's just given him a lot of targets. So it's good to see. All right, that's it for today's show. Thank you to Dan and Jacob. And I guess we can, hold on, let me see. We have some good ones here. I did see Dan is the kind of guy to go to a steak restaurant and put ketchup on his steak. What the heck? That's horrifically untrue. I'm the type of guy to go to a steak restaurant and get mad at the person who orders anything above medium rare. That's the type of guy.

I was going to say Dan is a total food snob. He's the kind of guy to tell you there's only three good steakhouses in the world, and they're all in New Jersey. No, no. You can get good steaks anywhere. Probably outside of New Jersey is the best place to get them, depending on who's using those free-range cows out there. Texas is a great place for steaks. But look, never catch up on a steak that's absurd, and never anything above medium rare. Never anything above medium rare.

Also, filet mignon is the most overrated cut steak. I used to be that way. I think I'm kind of a medium guy now. Painful. I want to go rare. I've never gone rare and I want to go rare. I want to try rare for once. I've never done it.

Little kids are not supposed to eat anything that's not really kind of well done. That's a pro tip out there. So I had to start getting all my food cooked a little bit more. And yeah. Do your kids have to have every bite getting all my food cooked a little bit more. And yeah, I. Why do your kids have to have every bite of all the food you get? I don't understand. They don't have to, but they like, like I got, I went out for a burger on Saturday and I split it with my son.

I gave, not 50, 50, like 80, 20, but. I thought Adam was just equating his immune system to that of a little kid. No, but I, I think i'm a medium guy now which is really weird painful yeah i'm medium you're medium medium you jacob yeah jake i kind of expected that to be honest from you jacob i don't know why but at least you're not medium well or well done that's just embarrassing so let me get your take on on this thing that happened to me in college this is brosie brosom who has all these Adam is the type of guy to split the check on the first date. Oh, no.

Are you? One time in my life, I went out with someone the night before my car got broken into. And people stole like a few thousand dollars worth of radio equipment from this. It was the student radio stations equipment. I had it in my car and I went out to Coconut Grove. What'd you say? How did that situation end? How do you explain that to your kids?

I was honest. I told them what happened. I went to the, I went to Coconut Grove, which was a part of the Coconut Grove. That's where like everyone in University of Miami goes out. Parts of the not great area. And they broke into my car. They stole all this radio

equipment. I don't know what they were going to do. They started broadcast, but they stole it. And I didn't know if I was going to have to pay for it. I didn't, thankfully. So the night after I went out on a date, we split the check. And that was the last date. I was like so... I was so just shaken. How did you know about it? Did you ask her to split the check? She knew like so i was so just shaken how did you go about it did

you ask her to split i thought she knew what happened yeah i think i did i think i did he said do you mind splitting the check with me i just got thousands of dollars equipment she was with me the night before so she knew what happened i don't really understand like the logic here though adam like you got thousands of dollars of equipment stolen for that you weren't gonna ultimately have to pay for. I didn't know that at the time. At the time, you're like, oh my god, I'm a college kid who doesn't have that much money and I might have to fork up thousands.

I get that then. That was a first and last date. It didn't go over well. Alright. Have a good one. Yeah, look at that. Another guy guy Bjorn worked at the same student radio station as me

hell yeah man but unlike you you did not have I had all the equipment stolen so I have that and you don't alright later everybody we'll talk to you tomorrow with the way we are actually we'll talk to you tonight with the live stream then the way we are