Fantasy Football Today - Beyond the Box Score: Falcons Offense, Marvin Harrison Jr., JK Dobbins and More (09/09 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

It's our first edition of Beyond the Box Score for the 2024 season, and we've got a lot to unpack! We put Week 1 in perspective as it was an absolutely dreadful week for offense, but there are reasons to be optimistic. We also recap Rams-Lions (5:30) and talk about the emergence of Jameson Williams, the role of Jahmyr Gibbs, Cooper Kupp's huge opportunity and much more ... News and notes (16:45), what you need to know about snap counts (20:30) on guys like George Pickens, Evan Engram and D'Andre Swift and advanced stats from Jacob (25:50) on Marvin Harrison Jr., Ladd McConkey, the Saints and the Commaners. Plus we talk about why the Falcons are concerning us right now (39:10) ... Four Big Topics (47:10) to finish the show as we talk about our favorite Buy Low player, the state of the tight end position, backfield split and JK Dobbins ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday 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." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. 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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I had no idea. 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. It's Beyond the Box score on Fantasy Football Today, presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook born in Vegas. We've got advanced stats from simple people. Adam Azer, Jacob Gibbs,

and Dan Schneier with a haircut. He just goes into the barbershop and says, hey, make me look exactly the same, only a little bit less hair. And they nailed it every time. What's up, guys? How we doing? Game broke. Don't fix it. We're doing better, I would say.

Look, it's tough to be a Giants fan. It's even tougher to have a Giants podcast at this point in time. I don't know how I'm going to go through and go forward with doing a film breakdown of that team week in and week out. But you know what? I tried to focus on other things today for beyond the box score. Got to watch a lot of players. Can't say it made me feel that much more confident. I watched Drake London. I watched Kyle Pitts and I watched that Falcons offense. I watched Alton Kincaid and that Bills offense, but I did also get to watch J.K. Dobbins,

so I'm excited to at least get to talk about one positive development there. Yep, that's one of our big topics today. Our four big topics are the struggling tight ends. Really bad week for tight ends, but really just a bad week for offense. One guy we should be buying low on right now, the backfield splits, and J.K. Dobbins is one of our big topics here. And Jacob, Rich Rebar, one of our buddies, he had a stat going into Monday Night Football,

NFL teams averaged 186.9 passing yards per game, which is the fewest for week one in this century, since 2000. And they're averaging 121.3 rushing yards per game, which is the second highest in week century since 2000 and they're averaging 121.3 rushing yards per game which is the second highest in week one since 2000 so it was gross uh you called it wacky you called it expletive wacky uh during our mic check but well i'll say this which was going to jacob here oh you even let jacob talk jacob what do you think about that? What do you think about Dan just trampling right there? I'm used to it.

It's he's he's got he's got extra powers now as as a producer and everything. And it's no surprise. Yeah, it was wacky. But also, I think this is kind of the direction the NFL has been moving from a defensive meta standpoint and how to respond to what's been happening defensively uh so not super surprised and i i don't know i don't want to get too caught up in the grossness of this week because like jk dobbins like there was a lot of really cool stuff as well like uh freaking uh cj strat falling down and making that throw like he made so many cool throws nico collins is the man like Anthony Richardson, man. The Anthony Richardson

throws. Anthony Richardson is going to be so, so fun. I don't know. I've got a lot of stuff that I'm excited to talk about. Bryce Young, Kirk Cousins, all that is not on that list. All right, good. I like the optimistic approach. A reminder, in week one of 2023,

CJ Stroud was 28 of 44 for 242 yards, no touchdowns. He scored 10.7 fantasy points. He was sacked five times. There we go. And in week two, he scored 25.5 points and threw for 384 yards and two touchdowns. So things will get better. Week one tends to be a little sloppy.

But I'll say this. The primetime guys are good. Yeah, go ahead. I to add one thing we and jacob made a great point about it's kind of the meta of where the defensive coordinators and the defenses have been shifting and we thought it might start to happen where we get to the point where from an epa standpoint and expected points added standpoint it might actually become more efficient to run the ball than pass the football and i'm missing who I'm supposed to credit on this. I apologize from a tweet earlier, but we're getting rapidly close to that point. And it showed from week one where it actually might become more efficient to call a run

than a pass in the NFL, which seemingly impossible. But if defenses continue to play the way they are, it might continue to be a trend, which is interesting because again, robust RB looked very strong in week one. Jacob Gibbs, my boy, Joe Mixon looked unbelievable running behind that style of blocking scheme, which I knew it didn't even get five minutes into the show. I knew it was coming. You knew Nixon was coming.

You knew neighbors coming. You knew Barkley was coming, but guess what? I mean, not neighbors, Connor, but guess what? This is part of the idea. It's the anti-fragility. It looks good in week one. These guys are running the football. They're healthy, but how long will that last? And that's part of why it's difficult to invest in the running backs early. But man, we're getting

to a point where it might be better to run than pass the football in the NFL. Well, I mentioned many times during our position previews and then afterwards that if you looked at ADP, ADP with 2023 being an exception, running backs are horrible in 2023, but ADP, you looked at ADP, with 2023 being an exception, running backs were horrible in 2023. But ADP, you look at the top 12 wide receivers taken, the top 12 running backs taken, we've actually in recent years, like the last five years or four years, whatever it was, more success with running backs finishing in the top 12 than wide receivers. And so far, CeeDee Lamb had a bad game. Jamar Chase had a bad game. Justin Jefferson was okay. Amon Ross St. Brown had one of his worst games. He was terrible. The running backs killed it in week one. So let's see

obviously Marvin Harrison was terrible, but the running backs killed it. And we will go to Amon Ross St. Brown and his crew, the Detroit Lions, 26-20 winners over the Los Angeles Rams. Detroit had the ball for 29 minutes and 45 seconds, and the Rams had it for 34 minutes and 56 seconds, and that was with Detroit possessing the ball for the entirety of overtime, however long that lasted. But obviously, we have a lot of injuries in this game, and we have Puka Nakua, who has this knee injury,

and there's no timetable right now. It may not be a long-term thing or it could be. We'll find out. But also they lost two offensive linemen. They lost Joe Noteboom and Steve Avila. Steve Avila may have a sprained MCL. Joe Noteboom left with an ankle injury. So just a rough, rough day for the Rams and they kind of gave a game away as well. From a waiver wire perspective, what would your interest level be in Demarcus Robinson, who's 8% rostered, and Tyler Johnson, who's 1% rostered? Both of them had seven targets. Do you guys have a preference? And then I guess Colby Parkinson, 5% rostered. Let's say Pukunuku

is going to miss at least three games. Let's just say, hypothetically, he's going to miss at least three games. Jacob, who would you prioritize? How much of a priority would they be? Parkinson was my favorite sleeper tight end this year. I don't think that the Puka injury necessarily changes a whole lot for him in terms of how the target distribution will shake out, but I do think he's a strong play continuing going forward. I think both those receivers you brought up are interesting as well. I like Tyler Johnson and what he put on film at the the college level it hasn't translated as a pro so far but like

if ever there's a system that somebody like washes up in and then ends up reviving their career it's mcveigh and the rams like so i could see that and then demarcus robinson was legitimately good last year um fantasy points data suites average separation score loved him uh jordan rodrigue called him like one of the best players from camp this year. Everything that we have seen from D-Rob is that he's getting better later into his career. I think they're both interesting. Robinson is the one I would prioritize of the two.

Yeah, completely agree. Kind of looked at all the catches all the time. We all watched the game. Tyler Johnson felt a little fluky. He had 79 yards, but he had a a 63 yard gain on a short catch he made a nice move spun away picked up 63 yards so robinson's pretty interesting and hopefully it's nothing big for puka but if you heard uh if you heard some tapping that was dan schneier in his in his tap shoes just dancing on cooper cup his call yeah he loved cooper cup and he was pumped last night. I'm sure.

But Cooper cup had 21 targets, I guess a little disappointing that he only had 110 yards on 21 targets. But I mean, really if cup, if Puka is out for a, for a while, he could be wide receiver one, but even if he's not out, you gotta be pretty happy about Cooper cup. Yeah. Look, fantasy football, it's hard to identify the ways to find upside in your drafts. I think a lot of times people bank on a tried and true process for it, which is age breakout factors from an analytic standpoint in the previous year. And sometimes it's a closed minded way of looking at it because it's,

if somebody is a certain age, he can't be a breakout player, but Cooper cup had proven to be one of the best players overall in fantasy for two straight years, then was injured last year, playing through an injury now is healthy and is back at least in week one to being one of the best overall players in fantasy football. If Puka is out, that's only going to continue. Um, I actually think Puka in isn't going to hurt him either. Just going to give him a softer situations and better looks Cooper cup when healthy is one of the best players in fantasy football within this system. If he has Matthew Stafford and the rapport they've built and Matthew Stafford, I mean, my hat off that that's my main takeaway from watching that full game. Uh, lions Rams,

one of the best games on the slate. And I really enjoyed it. Having a quarterback like that, who can do what he did with the offensive line in the state that they were in. It's so freaking rare when an offensive line performs like that. It usually derails an entire game plan, but his ability to get his team into the right checks pre-snap and to understand how defenses rotate post-snap, it makes all the difference in winning football and keeping a fantasy, keeping the players involved in a fantasy game usable and rosterable and startable. So I'm still good with the Rams moving forward. Obviously Kyron Williams, we didn't get to, but there was a really promising first game performance for him as well. Yeah. Kyron Williams, we can go to the Rams. Uh, well, we can finish it with Kyron Williams. He dominated the touches. Rams had a really, I mean, sorry, the lions had a great run defense

last year. So this was a tough matchup for them. And 18 carries 50 yards. That's not great. But like the punt return thing, we told you that don't even worry about that. Kyron Williams is the guy. And then for the Lions, obviously a disappointing game for Jared Goff, only 13.4 fantasy points. I think you got to give a lot of credit

to the Rams defense. They played very well. But Jacob, what's your, what's a takeaway? This was an interesting game, right? You had Gibbs getting the touchdown. Both the running backs got a touchdown. Montgomery did nothing until overtime. He had, what did he have in overtime?

Five carries, 45 yards, and a touchdown in overtime. St. Brown with a horrible game. Jamison Williams, baby. Huge game. Five catches, 121 yards, and a touchdown on nine targets. Anyway, your thoughts. Jamison Williams has baby. Huge game. Five catches, 121 yards and a touchdown on nine targets. Anyway, your thoughts. Jamison Williams has got to be the big takeaway. You guys seem to be right on that, which is exciting because he definitely changes the dynamic of Detroit's offense and what they can do. And it's just cool to see a talented player like break out in year

three. You don't want to just see these guys running wind sprints. They use them a lot of different ways. I thought Matt Harmon brought up an interesting note about William's ability to read and beat zones and how that has improved. He really liked what he saw when he charted them last year. And so it's not just the speed. As an outside perimeter guy who's beating them in coverage, he's able to find those deep soft spots and zones

and work the perimeters. And we saw that last night for sure. Get some and run uh as well pretty excited with him i don't i i would not be panicking at all for a monroe st brown or same laporta you guys thought all right at least dan did i think that uh laporta was the guy who might see his targets affected by williams the most and maybe that turns out to be true i just think both both guys, Sam Brown and Laporta are so good and the offense is so good that I'm not worrying about it. And if anything were to happen

to any of the other pieces in the offense, then they step into an even larger role. For what it's worth, that was the lowest target rate that Amonra has seen in a game that he played

over three-fourths of the snaps in his whole career, including his rookie season when he was not the center piece of the snaps in his whole career um including his rookie season when he you know was in a not not the center piece of the offense um so that that's definitely interesting um but i again i'm not overreacting to it yet i wish i had a little bit of time before this too and we you know we have we cram in all this film and all this analytics in a very short period of time to get this out on monday at noon but we should have time to watch it on tape to see what the Rams did defensively

from a schematic standpoint, because I was wildly impressed with their ability to play defense in that game without Aaron Donald. I thought they would take a step back, but I want to see, guys, if it was a situation where their game plan was devised to take away Amon Ross St. Brown, because if that's the case, what we saw is the Lions offense didn't look as crisp when you take away Amon Ross St. Brown. And we know the NFL is a copycat league. So if they figured out a way to kind of throw the whole timing of the offense off by making it clear and concise plan to take away Amon Ross St. Brown, I'm curious what will happen moving forward.

But I'm so excited for Jamison Williams because he was the possibility of being the number two receiver on a well-functioning arguably the best offense at least from a scoring standpoint last year in the nfl and he was so good on tape in college and he's finally playing at that level again the double move on the deep route his ability to sink his hips and restart it's a rare ability um he might be the most talented i hate to say this because i love him on rosanne brown but just from a pure raw talent standpoint and he's not a better receiver but from from a raw talent standpoint, he might be the most talented player on this offense. We've got some very talented players and we're just, look, they're gonna have to score a lot of touchdowns or they're going to be some disappointed people. But obviously

you want to see more touches from Jameer Gibbs for a guy that you took with a top 15 pick. Yes. But you get four catches and that's pretty good. And again, they didn't have the ball that much. They only threw 28 passes in this game, which is kind of a theme this week. We were talking about it, right? Just bad passing performances. But all right, that's it for this game. All right.

Yeah, if you have... One last note from the Rams side of things. Cooper Cup was used as a pre-snap motion man 16 times. Jane Reed was the only other player who was even in double digits with 10. He had seven targets at the pre-snap motion man 16 times jane reed was the only other player who was even in double digits with 10 he had seven targets at the pre-snap motion man so like they're really really going out of their way to feature him obviously he had 21 targets but it's like if that is the role he doesn't he wasn't efficient he wasn't efficient in this game um and he wasn't very good with his non-pre-snap motion targets which was something that concerned me a little bit last year but it

really doesn't matter if he's going to see that type of volume. He's just a PPR champion. Yeah, I was watching that. Not only is he doing that, he's also blocking. I'm like, God, this guy is in the best shape. Unbelievable. I wondered if they wouldn't have him do that as much this year to keep him healthy, but yeah. They need it.

It's part of their system. They can't run that scheme without those two guys blocking.uka as well which is an issue for puka clearly from a physicality standpoint i mean i go to pee after one set of tennis and i'm exhausted from the walk cooper cup well to be fair you didn't take the best route to your bathroom i didn't i didn't all right listen if you haven't signed up for betMGM yet, do what I did just this past weekend and use the bonus code FANTASY. Sign up and use the bonus code FANTASY and you're going to get up to a $1,500 first bet offer

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More news items, stat of the century, and we'll get into the big topics, the SnapShares, the film review. We'll tell you what we thought about Drake London, Marvin Harrison. Coming up next. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic. A quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime, financial penalties, and keep you safe. Don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money. Click before you dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca.

It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. So here are the news items, and some of it's going to be repetitive. Pukunukuwa with the knee injury. We're waiting to hear on the severity there.

They have Arizona next week, but then San Francisco. Arizona's not easy. At Arizona, San Francisco, Arizona is not easy at Arizona, San Francisco at Chicago, green Bay, tough stretch here for the Rams. And they could be without two offensive linemen, Joe,

no boom and Steve Avila. So rough day for them. Jordan love. We know sprained MCL could miss three to six weeks. Josh Allen's going to get his left hand checked out. Ken Walker said he's fine with the abdomen injury. Then you got the two tight ends, David Njoku, who may have a high ankle sprain,

and Jake Ferguson, who actually might be able to play this week through a knee injury. So he got some good news. Might be too soon, we'll see, but it doesn't look like an extended absence for Jake Ferguson. One note on David Njoku,

after he left the game, Jordan Aikens had three catches for 27 yards on four targets, so he filled that role, if you're in a deeper league or a tight end premium league. And also Jerry Judy caught a touchdown right after David Njoku went out. Njoku was actually pretty involved. That was the thing.

He wasn't, you gotta be careful with small samples. He was terrible with Deshaun Watson in five games last year with Watson, and he was pretty good in this one while he played. Garrett Bowles left tackle for the Broncos. He left with an injury. Don't worry.

They have the Steelers next week. They'll be fine. Carolina, terrible against the run last year. Terrible against the run in week one. And Derek Brown starting defensive tackle. He might be out for the season with a knee injury. Yeah. Tough.

I was saying like the Giants or the new Jets, you know, because my brother's a Jets fan. Yeah, I was saying too. It's so funny. I said the exact same thing. Yeah, my brother's a Jets fan. I was like, we're the new Jets. And actually the Panthers are worse, I think.

Well, the Panthers are worse, but yeah, no. I can't even argue with that. Somehow they're not. Whatever the Gi giants put out was not the worst uh let's see jonah williams for the cardinals he left with an injury jordan addison ankle this is this is a big deal for the bills their past defense is going to be an issue taran johnson their best defensive back he might have a long well he was ruled out immediately that's not usually a good sign i think it was a forearm injury for Teron Johnson, so he could miss some time. I'll stop there. I think everything. Oh, here's some good stuff.

Oh, the Buccaneers. They face the Lions next week. They lost three defensive backs. One of those guys was a special teams player, but a reserve defensive back. But the Bucs defensive backfield got wrecked in week one against Washington. How about this? This is from, I believe, the Associated Press. In the Super Bowl era, teams that scored zero touchdowns, zero offensive touchdowns, and trailed by 17 or more points are 3 and 1,225. Three wins to 1,225 losses when you don't score an offensive touchdown and you trail by 17 or more points.

Who did that yesterday and won? The Chicago Bears over the Tennessee Tigers. Yeah. Amazing. And this is from ESPN, I believe. Sorry, I should have cited it. The Bears are the first team in NFL history to win a game in which they trailed by at least 17 points

and had fewer than 150 total yards. And then the stat of the century that I teased earlier, Daniel Jones has thrown more pick sixes than touchdown passes since signing his contract two off seasons ago. He's thrown more touchdowns to the wrong team. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable statistic.

Okay, I've got snap count stuff. Jacob, do you have snap count stuff, Dan, or do you want me to go through it? to the wrong team. It's unbelievable. Unbelievable statistic. Okay. I've got snap count stuff. Jacob, do you have snap count stuff, Dan, or do you want me to go through it? It's all you. Okay. Let's let you go through it, but you should also at some point address Gamer Eric's comment.

You are welcome on the show at any point. Gamer who? Eric. Gamer Eric. Gamer Eric. Why am I not on the Big Blue Banter podcast? I should. I will go on.

Absolutely. I need to have you post-game for a 10-minute venting segment the next time something crazy like yesterday happens. Okay. I'll see you next week. George Pickens only played 68% of the snaps, and Van Jefferson and Pat Farmy with slightly more, around 73%.

Pickens, what'd you make of that, Jacob? Sorry. Yeah, I was muted. I hate it. It's Arthur smith i just don't even i don't want to give any brain power to it um pickens is good he clearly like looked good again even with fields even with a weirdly limited role um we'll see if this change is going forward we'll let you guys know if it does but i will say this it is alarming because it's not like in the past when arthur smith has been called out on this type of stuff. Things have changed. It's remained the same. He's very stubborn.

He's strict. He's rigid. And he will run the offense the way he's going to run this offense. So I'm definitely concerned about this moving forward. Buffalo wide receivers, their snap shares. Keon Coleman, 73%. Mack Hollins, 58%. Khalil Shakir, mostly out of the slot, 53%.

Curtis Samuel, 27%. MVS, 21%. Bijan Robinson played mostly out of the slot, 53%. Curtis Samuel, 27%. MVS, 21%. Bijan Robinson played 89% of the snaps. That was great. DeAndre Swift played 39 snaps. Khalil Herbert played six snaps. Travis Homer and DeAndre Swift split third down. So I know it was a horrible day for the Bears offense,

but I do think there's a silver lining for DeAndre Swift. He was the third down back and he absolutely dominated carries. Short yardage, don't know. But Swift at least, no, he wasn't the third down back. He split the third down roll, but dominated carries.

Gerald Everett played seven more snaps than Cole Komet. Miles Sanders out-snapped Chuba Hubbard in the first half. You know, I thought maybe this was just a blowout thing, but even in the first snap, first snaff, no,

first half, he played two more snaps, Miles Sanders. Evan Ingram, 68% of the snaps, Jacob. That was really low, and he had a horrible game.

Concerns about Evan Ingram? No, not really. I think he's going to be pretty involved in the offense. Do you have any, Dan? No, I think, I don't's going to be pretty involved in the offense. Do you have any, Dan? No, I don't think that's an issue for him moving forward. I mean, look, we knew that he wasn't going to get the target share he got last year. A lot of that was dependent on the players around him. The issue I think for him is going to be, can he convert some of these red zone opportunities into scores? I thought based on the preseason, he was becoming a bigger focal point in that offense. But when Brian Thomas makes the plays that he makes in the red zone, it's going to be tough for him not to be that first read in that main option moving forward. All right, that's Evan Ingram.

Malik Neighbors and Drake London played every snap. Alexander Madison played 13 more snaps than Zemir White, including six more snaps in the first half. This was really more of a passing downs thing. I mean, Zemir White's just coming off the field on passing downs. Tyler Lockett played only 54% of the snaps and he crushed Metcalf and JSN, but those guys played 79% or more. Lockett played only 54% of the snaps.

This is what Joe. It's really the first time I've seen Jason get this role where he gets to play in two receiver sets. So we'll see if the offense is better going forward. It's interesting. This is what Joe Biscaglia of The Athletic said, beat writer for the Bills. What should hold

is Dalton Kincaid being out there in a full-time role. He's a potential difference maker. More productive days are likely ahead for Dalton Kincaid. He was not worried about... I guess early in the game, it was a lot of knocks. Knocks stayed on the field, but Kincaid never left the field.

Basically. That was one of the players I got to focus on, on film. So I watched him. I thought he looked good running his routes. I think, and this is, you know, it's a little bit truth or it's a little bit conspiracy theory and some might say, but I'm a big wind truther. And from everything I've gathered from this game, the wind played a major factor in this from a passing standpoint.

I think it's why we saw what we saw from Kyler and what we saw from Josh Allen. When the wind is that bad, it is very difficult to get a passing game going and it could impact how we view things. It's one week sample size. I'm willing to give them both a pass based on it. And if there's anyone who knows anything about wind,

it's the guy who ate the entire Jersey shore sandwich, the chicken cutlet with the vodka sauce the ravioli the cheese and the garlic bread i thought i thought you were gonna say it's me because that was the excuse you were using for getting whoops 6-2-6-0 it was the wind it was a windy day but no you didn't go there i just said that no you didn't go there brian robinson and austin eckler played about the same amount of snaps. So that was interesting. Yet Robinson had 15 touches and Eckler had six. Okay.

Let's get some advanced stats. Jacob, fire away. What do you got for us? So first I want to focus on some team level stuff like pace. Washington played super fast like we expected under Cliff Kingsbury. The offense was dysfunctional um i watched all of jay and daniel's dropbacks and it's literally only one time did i see him make like a full field read every other time it's like one read get it out quick and part

of that is they're playing a super blitz heavy defense um but also this is what we saw in the preseason and it's kind of what we saw at lSU. Um, I'm curious if you guys have any opinions on that, like from watching him in college, is that track that tracks entirely with what his stats from college are. So I don't know, I didn't get a chance to watch him versus the bucks, but I know that he had, he was pressured more than almost any quarterback, which is exactly what Todd Bowles did against Daniel Jones in his first year starts kind of his game plan. Over 80% of his yards came after the catch. Um, it was just a lot of stuff. And yeah, he was, he was bailing on plays to scramble all the time.

I don't know how functional it's going to be going forward. But the fact that they're playing so fast does leave room for upside. If he can figure it out, if the offense can figure it out, you know, I would put it at like less than 10, 15% confidence in like Kingsbury and this rookie quarterback producing a good offense. But if they do, then like Terry McLaurin might not be dead. I know it was a frustrating week one for him, but he's the clear wide receiver one out there. And I think they're going to give some more design looks to him going forward.

Luke McCaffrey is the other guy I would bring up. He actually played a lot for a rookie. He was out there quite a bit, even playing in some two receiver sets um the primary slot guy for washington um the other rookie that really surprised me in terms of playing time was lad mcconkey uh lad mcconkey was out there quite a bit josh palmer was the clear wide receiver one um he didn't get very many opportunities palmer but uh mcconkey i think he ended up leading the team in targets they were using a priest in that motion he was the primary slot guy and he was staying on

the field in two receivers set so that's i mean that touchdown was so cool man like that's that's obviously super super exciting um he's just you know no dj charke for for at least three more games so yeah i don't i think he's probably the biggest riser to me um of these rookies at least if not like any wide receiver really after we go yeah great of a game is five catches 39 yards and a touchdown on seven targets he did lead them in targets though so that is that is accurate yeah and if they're worthy and so i'm pretty worried about worthy actually this i don't want to get carried away here because the role could change and marquise brown is back but over 40 of his routes were go routes

xavier worthy and if you look at players it's i want to bring up him and marvin harrison jr next to each other um if you look at players who run even over 30 of the routes as go routes they just don't get targeted the highest pbr score of any receiver to do that over the past five years is george pickens last year he's the wide receiver 30 and so that's not a good note for worthy his rate was over 40 in the preseason it was over 40 what was this what was it over how many they don't do well over 30 of the routes are go routes um there's like a list of like 25 receivers and none of them have ever done anything none of them have ever drawn a target on over 21% of their routes. It's,

it's really hard. Go routes are fine for fantasy. Um, but it's hard if you're running a ton of go routes to draw consistent targets, obviously. Um, you know,

he has Patrick Mahomes. It's a big place could come at any time, but like, if you could sell him for somebody who you feel confident in, I think that is valid. I wouldn't necessarily do that in Dynasty. And again, the role could change when we see Hollywood Brown come back. Maybe he takes some of those.

I was just hoping we would see more designed looks for Worthy, more pre-snap motion stuff, get the ball in his hands. I think that's actually where he's better. I think he's good at tracking the ball. But I think he's probably at his best giving the ball in his hands and letting him create a little bit in space. So Marvin Harrison Jr., I don't know his go go right way, but I do know that his average route depth was over 12 yards. So the average distance from the line of scrimmage on average, where his

initial cut in his route came was 12 yards down the field. That's crazy. Um, last year, Jameson Williams and Justin Watson had the highest average route depths at like 11.4, 11.6 yards. It's really, really hard to get targets. Um, when you're running that kind of a rotary, I went back, you can watch all his routes on my Twitter. I went back and watched all of them. He's Kyler. Isn't even looking at him for most of them. And a lot of them, it's taking him so long to even complete his route that it's like, no, there's no chance that he's getting a target on this play. Um, also I thought he looked slow. I don't, I don't want to overre his route that it's like, no, there's no chance that he's getting a target on this play. Also, I thought he looked slow. I don't want to overreact to that, but I watched him,

and it did not feel like I was watching Brian Thomas Jr. or even Adonai Mitchell or anything. And I know he's not the same level of athlete as those guys, but it's like we didn't get to see him run in the combine. And then he comes in and looks like this. And like, yeah, that's kind of alarming. What do you guys think on MHA? I'm not as alarmed by by the running side of it i never really thought he was going to be that fast and athlete but i will say this

it's like it depends kind of how they use him because i think for him to operate at his best he's isolated as in a boundary receiver jacob and he has the ability to run double moves and to run back shoulders and to kind of have a complete, I don't want to say like a focal, be the complete focal point of offense, but at least be somebody who the defenses have to worry about, you know, again, a back shoulder or breaking inside or running a route that he can break off the stem at any point. If he's just running those go routes, it takes away a lot of what he's able to do as a receiver and what makes him so special. Um, because he's not, like you said, a freak athlete, he's just not. And those are the types of guys that you can run on those

like vertical routes, the whole game. Um, so I'm a little concerned from that standpoint, but again, I look at this game and I really wish I was there to know fully, but I think the wind was playing a big factor in the game plan for both quarterbacks. I was hoping to see him use more like Amari Cooper, like similar type of offensive designer. And it i didn't i didn't see hardly anything other than downfield stuff and hopefully that develops over time it could be part of it could be the wind it could be also the matchup against buffalo they're you know an umbrella zone defense that kind of everything short and that's what we saw with arizona's passing distribution so i wouldn't the thing is that the problem with that is he still should be able to win in that style of all, against that style of defense because he was still a great route.

It was great on the inbreakers at college. It was great on the back shoulders. He wins at the catch point. So that's the bigger issue. Is that not part of their plan? It didn't look like it. Well, let me just also give this context here. Kyler Murray, this is according to ESPN stats and information,

did not complete a single throw, a single pass thrown 10 or more yards downfield. And also, I looked this up. He threw 41.9% of his passes to wide receivers. That was the fifth lowest mark of his career. Okay, 42% to wide receivers. But his three lowest wide receiver target rates were all in December of last season.

So four of his five lowest have come under this coaching staff. That's wide receiver target rate. Now, last year, I'm pretty sure Marquise Brown was out at that point. They had Greg Dortch and Trey McBride basically was getting all the targets. But, you know, it's something to watch. We're not going to make too much of a difference. I mean, I'll say this. Considering Marvin Harrison with juniors, I was in 23 leagues this year,

which is crazy. The biggest number of my life, a lot of them auctions. I didn't draft Marvin Harrison jr. Anywhere. His price pack never made any sense to me. I thought the community overinflated him and he never should have been drafted in the range he was going drafted in. But like, what are we expecting from him? I think it's time to adjust our expectations. This is a run first offense that wants to run the football. That's how this game is based on. Kyler Murray's never been a really good passer. I know he supported Hopkins that one year, but a lot of that was just playing in Kingsbury system. And a lot of these dumb, quick routes that we're not going to see this year because the pet six system is different. Harrison's a very talented player, but this is

not really, we didn't, we priced him up and juiced him up to the spot where he's not really in a high flying passing offense. So I just don't know. I feel like the expectation has to be greatly changed for him, and then we'll be fine. I don't know. I mean, I think, first of all, it's okay to have high expectations for stud-wide receivers

if you think they're stud-wide receivers. They need the quarterback, too, and they need the passing offense. He's a good enough quarterback, and he did do it with DeAndre Hopkins, and he did it in two years. By reputation, he is. Well, I mean, he's good enough. But how much of that Hopkins, the Hopkins stuff was not a lot of explosive plays. It was not a lot of intermediate passes, long passes,

a lot of just Cliff Kingsbury system giving him a million targets and him just hitting slants and quick in-breakers. But that doesn't seem to be, as Jacob said, the case right now. 1,400 yards in. On how many targets and how many receptions? 160 targets, 115 catches. Right, 160 targets. Do we see Marvin Harrison coming anywhere close to 160 targets?

Well, yeah, I would have thought so. I would have thought so. I'm surprised. So that I always felt was overrated. I don't think this is the type of offense that's supporting that by any means i would have thought you know 140 150 i wouldn't have thought yeah no i just don't not with this style of offense i had a hard time getting him there as somebody who does the projections just like because of the number of passing attempts in arizona um and then also the role that he's playing i i was worried he would be doing so much

of this vertical stuff that'd be really hard for him to push above like 23 or 24 percent target share and if a week one is any indication that definitely looks like the case all right so then let me who are we putting ahead of him you take cooper cup ahead of him yeah obviously i was doing that already but like all the guys behind him olave london they struggled would you take jaylen waddle over him would you take nico waddle for sure nico for sure for sure these are guys in good offenses that pass the ball a lot i think you could take a lot of ahead of him to new orleans was dead last last year in play action and pre-snap motion they were first in pre-snap motion and third in play action in week one um new offensive coordinator this is something we speculated might happen those are passing game efficiency boosters in a more neutral game script i think alave is going to crush and okay i'm gonna

i have one note too on something jacob said earlier just a quick note i want to have a little bit more faith i'm sorry i'm just a quick note in jayden daniels and mclaurin moving forward because they came inches away from connecting on a deep touchdown that would have been like 65 yards and I just think that's more of a timing based thing they need more reps together and the chemistry will come down and I think it'll come I was actually very enthused by Jaden Daniels in general from a fantasy standpoint because they're going to run him in the red zone and he's going to run a lot so all he has to do is hit a few pass plays a game and stay healthy basically I was strictly talking about a real life no I know we don't have any real life offenses that function the way that they're trying to do it.

Yeah, you're right. And that's been the case with Kingsbury. I don't know why he keeps getting jobs, but he does. I look, the thing is, yeah,

they, they missed barely on a 70 yard touchdown McLaurin and Daniels, but there are so many missed deep balls in the NFL. Right. I mean, some of them I think are, you know, I just am feeling like this is their first few reps together throwing that live game.

He's supposed to be good at this. And that was why I liked McLaurin because all his career basically has been quarterbacks who can't throw deep. He's had horrible deep ball accuracy in his career. And I thought this would be a boost to him. It almost was. All right, Jacobs, what else you got?

Jalen McMillan was somebody that we were tracking this preseason really liked him i thought he looked great he only had three targets but he did have what could have been a touchdown um that was a defensive pass interference um did end up getting in the end zone on his first ever reception that was cool and he played a ton he actually ran more routes than both mike evans and chris godwin um so he's gonna be out there a lot and that's exciting adonai mitchell played a ton for thets. I'm excited to get back and watch him cause he looked so explosive this preseason. Um, I obviously two T two deep balls overthrown. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So like, obviously that was the case that he's that kind of an athlete, but I just didn't realize like how,

how apparent it might be even against NFL competition. So I'm really excited to watch his routes on the negative side of things. The Titans didn't use any motion. And I thought that they might, they in the preseason, it looked like they were going to, I thought it makes sense with the coaching change that that might be the case, but they were the third lowest.

Um, and Calvin really wasn't using the motion a single time. Um, and obviously we'll let us looked really bad. Yep. Uh, I watched the bears and I think that they, I bad yep uh i watched the bears and i i think that they i watched every drawback for the bears i think they things could get better um roma dunze ran a ton of

routes they were using all three receivers keenan allen saw a ton of targets so like either one of those guys i'm not giving up on dj moore i i feel fine about i think that they'll play better it was the first game he killed williams seriously had like six or seven passes tipped at the line of scrimmage um there was just a lot of stuff that that was going that contributed to the really bad end result um and i think tennessee's defense is legit i think they have a chance to be like a top 10 defense this year yeah now we talked about that i like that call all right sorry we. I just want to move the show along because we've got to get to our big topics here.

Can we talk about Drake London, guys, and the Falcons? And let's do that. We're going to take a break. When we come back, Drake London, two catches for 15 yards on three targets. Kirk Cousins, 83% rostered, scored 8.2 fantasy points against the Steelers. Was obviously under duress a lot, but also looked terrible.

He said it. Coach said it. Everyone knows he had a horrible game. And we'll talk about the Falcons after this break on Beyond the Box score on Fantasy Football today. So let's talk about Drake London. Two catches for 15 yards on three targets against the Steelers. Yes, he was more or less shadowed by Joey Porter.

He saw a lot of Joey Porter. Kirk Cousins didn't really see a lot of Drake London. I remember saying it seemed like Kyler Murray didn't even see Marvin Harrison. Kind of felt like Kirk Cousins wasn't really... It was just getting rid of this... Blow the whistle! Blow the whistle!

Just getting rid of the ball. But what did you guys see here? What's the concern level for Drake London, Dan? I'm very concerned for not just Drake London, but anyone but Bijan Robinson in this offense right now. I am confused, I guess I would say, what's going on with Atlanta because we looked at the numbers

and I think I have them right here, but Kirk Cousins, I'm actually not positive I have it now. Here it is. The Falcons ran exactly one offensive play with Kirk Cousins under center yesterday per next-gen stats. The rest of them, 26 out of pistol, 22 out of shotgun. Atlanta gained only six total yards out of pistol formations. Both of those formations do not have a quarterback under center. I don't really understand why they're playing Kirk Cousins. If

he's this not recovered yet from his injury, I'm very concerned. There was a throw where he just didn't plant at all on his plant foot to drive into the throw. And it went really short on one of those fourth downs. It looked really alarming. Um, we remember from last season when Joe Burrow was playing through the calf injury, the Bengals offense was a shell of itself because they couldn't put him under center and have him operate an under center game. If you are limited to only running shotgun or pistol is very easy for a defensive coordinator scheme against you. It doesn't matter who you are. Um, I don't really understand what's going on in Atlanta. I don't understand how cousins could look the way he did yesterday. And I actually got a chance to watch that again. Can't really drive off the plant foot and still play.

I understand the optics of it. Look, if you're Atlanta, you just signed to a contract. You can't play Pennix early because if Pennix is good, you're kind of screwed in that regards. You kind of just have to throw him out there into the mix. It's a weird like politics type situation, but it's a week going to get him back to the point where he feels like he can plant off that foot and play and go under center. If not, what's going to happen here?

Like how is the passing game going to generate anything? I don't think I want to start him this week at Philadelphia. I'm talking about London. I'm obviously not starting cousins, London. This seems like a good matchup. You know, certainly it was a great matchup last year for wide receivers.

It was great in week one with the Packers receivers. I'm nervous about it. I only have London in one team. I'm not going to even look to see what my other options are. But just the advice I'm going to give is probably based on what Dan said, probably to sit him because it looks like Drake London has a bad quarterback situation once again. Jacob, where are you at on this? Yeah, I'm kind of with you.

And I am with Dan. I don't understand why Cousins is playing if this is where he's at. If you draft Penix and you think he looks good enough in the preseason that you sit him, then I don't know. I guess they're just worried that he would take the job if he plays well. But isn't that a good thing? I don't know. I don't understand it.

To us, yes. To NFL politics, no. Yeah. You got to make sure you're saying panics. You know? Yeah, my bad. The next two matchups are not good ones.

Yeah, I don't know. I hate this for Kirk because he's one of my favorites. And he's probably going to get embarrassed. He's next to matchups too. Yeah, you know, look, I try not to overreact,

but we'll see. Drake Lennon's got to prove something for sure. I watched Cortland Sutton. I wanted to see what that was all about. 12 targets, four catches for 38 yards. He had one end zone target. He basically had two end zone targets

and one was like right near the goal line. One was an interception. One was thrown into double coverage. Bo Nix threw two interceptions trying to force the ball to Cortland Sutton. But also there were some encouraging things for Sutton. You know, I wouldn't be,

I wouldn't necessarily run away from it. He got so many targets and there were some plays that could have been made a couple of missed throws. I think this is going to be his role and he's not going to play recall. And every week recall. And it's like, it's like him, Joey Porter.

Like those are the kinds of guys who are perfectly suited to match up against Cortland Sutton. Um, yeah, I, I would be buying. Yeah, I don't know if I'm buying because Bo Nixle's horrible, but I'm not...

You drafted Sutton to be a bench player. I think he's perfectly fine to throw in there as a bye-week replacement. And if he keeps getting this kind of target share, I don't know if he's going to get 12 a week, but then he could be a good number three receiver i think he'll have a really good shot too once they go to uh jared stidham i i really

think it's a matter of when not if there's yeah i don't see i mean i know they drafted him and they're gonna draft the guy in the first round i think you know yeah i know and that shows how much yes because yeah right right and so it's almost impossible to do based on what you just laid out the politics of it. And yet I think that I think Knicks will be that bad that they'll be forced to do it. He only had two throws that traveled any distance yesterday. They were both horrific. He can't move the ball. Defense are going to continue to clamp down on him.

They're going to continue to play no respect. They're going to leave the field side open. They're going to rotate safeties down on a consistent basis. going to continue to play no respect. They're going to leave the field side open. They're going to rotate safeties down on a consistent basis. And it's going to get really ugly, really fast in Denver. Um, again, it'll be a situation where it's like, oh, we need to give him a break. He's getting hit a lot. But I just, I just see it happening. I think it'll help him. And then the other thing is Levis, man. Uh, you know, where I was at on Levis all throughout his career, Adam, I did the famous show with you where I told you all his game logs from his

last season in Kentucky. We was throwing for like one 70 at the collegiate level on a consistent basis. He's Daniel Jones, but with a bigger arm and less speed as a runner, that means he can't operate a drop back passing game. He can't keep the offense in rhythm. He can't keep the offense on time.

And I'm happy. I have basically no shares of any Titans, despite all the hype they had this offseason. Well, maybe Tony Pollard, though, could be good. But Deshaun Watson finished 0 of 9 on passes thrown 15 or more yards downfield and averaged 2.6 air yards per completion, the lowest mark of his career. That is from ESPN. Watson's so bad. It's crazy.

I'm going to cut in on Deshaun Watson's stat. He took 17 hits yesterday. QB hits are tracked by pff that was the most since 2006 yeah i i did look this guy's not a good quarterback but like i said yesterday you play you you play the cowboys without both of your starting offensive tackles right you're in trouble so he's he's not good but he's not this bad i don't i hope he's not good, but he's not this bad. I hope not. He's not this bad, and they're, I guess, financially tied to just playing him the whole year, I think.

I mean, they are financially tied, but they also want to win, and Jameis Winston is there as a potential backup. It's ugly, though. Did you see the route Cooper ran near the red zone toward the end of the game where he just ran one of his classic, beautifully smooth double moves and was like seven yards open

and Watson just sailed it. Watson got drilled off his fingers. He got hit. He didn't sail that one. It was right off his fingers. I thought Cooper should have had that. I know, but when you're that open, you need to put air under the ball and it should be a walk-in TD. It shouldn't be just over your fingers like that. It was one throw to the sideline, a deep ball to the

sideline that he threw. Oh, that was really ugly. Yeah. And then I just, I looked at all of Devon H and his catches. He had seven catches. And to me,

it looked like he was the first read on three or four of them. So, you know, there were a couple where it was like, look like they were looking one way, but setting up something else. I think he was, it was designed screen,

but they were definitely intent to get Devon H and the ball in space and he's so good at that and i know jake i made jacob very happy he's a big achan guy so let's get to our four big topics and we'll maybe we'll speed through them a little bit here guys zach wants to know who is one guy you should be buying low on right now jonathan taylor um i think if you could turn like Joe Mixon into Jonathan Taylor, if you could turn like Tony Pollard and a little bit extra into Jonathan Taylor, I would definitely do that. He handled all the running back rushes, almost

played the whole game basically. And I was pretty encouraged. I think that was a really brutal matchup for Indy in terms of their pass game and like their offensive line, how they matched up against the pass rushers and everything. And still they looked okay. Richardson looked a little bit better than I thought he would. It's going to be consistent, but I think JT looked really good

from a setup, an offensive environment setup. Yeah, for me, that one guy we talked about a little bit earlier, but it is Dalton Kincaid. I still think that that passing offense will look a lot better than it did this week, and he'll be the main benefactor of it. I'll say Joe Burrow. I think this is a very obvious one. But there are people that are just kind of down on Higgins, for example.

It might take some time. But this is obviously not Jamar Chase playing through food poisoning the day before. And also, we know the situation. So Burrow gets the Chiefs this week. That could be rough. After that, he's going to just start destroying people, I think. So I'd say Burrow. And then I think also Trey McBride,

which brings us to our next one from Fat Pete. Was this the right year to wait on tight end or just a rough week one? And I would say, honestly, it's not like the late round tight ends were good. Almost no tight ends were good. Would you start Foster Morrow? I don't think so but mark andrews 14 yards travis kelsey 34 four yards trey mcbride 30 yards kyle pitts 26 yards and a touchdown kincaid 11 yards i believe right

what did he have yep one catch for 11 yards sam laporta a huge game by comparison four catches for 45 yards uh so it was rough the graphic you're looking at here doesn't include kyle pitts but yeah he was wide open in the end zone it's not like he had a very encouraging game he had three targets so uh jacob give you the first word was this the right year to wait on tight end or just a rough week one it was definitely a rough week one um it might have been the right year to wait if, you know, if these guys aren't actually going to be like a featured in their offenses. I think Trey McBride is the one who like truly was featured. And so I'm not as worried about him. Like we've talked about already with Marvin Harrison Jr.

It seems like maybe Kyler, his preference is more of like these quicker, shorter reads, although he held onto the ball like crazy in this game. He was frustrating me, man. But yeah,cbride from a role standpoint looked good i think laporta from a talent standpoint is i'm not worried about him at all and his offense is really good i'm a little bit worried about mark andrews because last year todd monk can use him a lot more around the line of scrimmage um like a travis kelsey type of player and that's what i thought he might be is like an offensive centerpiece for them he was used on the field a lot more whereas likely was doing that kind of stuff for them.

And if that's going to be the role, man, their offensive line looked bad. It was, it was a tough match against the chiefs, but they were like working around their offensive line, which is something we saw. That's something we're seeing from a lot of offenses. Like the Seahawks did that. I don't want to get us off track here, but like, there are a lot of offenses that are doing that. And there's a lot of defenses that look really good.

And it's like, man, we might keep having these problems. Um, for what it's worth, Andrews wasn't used a lot as a pass blocker. People have been, you know, saying like he's their sixth offensive lineman. He only had two snaps as a pass blocker in the game.

But yeah, if he is working down the field a lot, I just don't know if Lamar is going to have the time to find him. Um, not really worried about Kelsey at all. Kincaid. I don't know. I don't, I'm glad that you watched him and have some level of optimism but like to me this is the best matchup possible on

paper and this is what we got i don't understand why he wasn't a bigger part of the game joe brady runs the crap out of the ball man joe brady has a decent sample size of coaching and he has more rushing touchdowns and passing touchdowns within that sample size. That's insane. No one does that. No one does that in the NFL. Um, I I'm pretty worried about the passing game pieces. I think it's just going to be spread among all those guys. Um, the playing time was there for Cade at least. And so there could still be a path to him being the guy that you drafted to be, but you really need the targets to be there. And I will see, I'm worried about the passing game. I want to throw out a stat here.

I want to give credit to Andy Holloway of the footballers. He said, I rewatched every snap that Mark Andrews was on the field on Thursday night. I was the lowest on our show on Andrews, so he went on, but he was talking, saying, don't panic. And then Nathan Yonke, who I seem to quote all the time from PFF, said, after seeing this thread from Andyy decided to look at the data mark andrews was double covered on a higher percentage of his routes in this game than any of his other games from 2021 to 2023 so a lot of double coverage for andrews interesting i'm honestly worried about all of them, just in the sense that I don't know.

Like, Laporta worries me the least. But will we have a true standout tight end this year? Why are we worried about McBride? Well, because Marvin Harrison had one. How many targets did he have? Three, I think. Yeah, that's why. Because it wasn't a great game for McBride.

Like, I'm not that worried about McBride, but Marvin Harrison's going to play a bigger role. I think those targets come from Dortch. I don't really think he affects McBride that much. Even at his best the last year, McBride had only three touchdowns. I don't ever see him really being a big touchdown guy based on my personal profile of him.

He's a huge freak, athlete, stud, tight end. He should be, but just hasn't been. But yeah, he should be. I just don't, again, my big thing with that, Jacob, is this is not his fault, but I don't buy into Murray as much as others do. I think he has all the physical tools, and I think he has the flash plays on film

that make you go, oh my God, he made that throw. He stuck it in that window with that kind of arm talent, but it's not consistent with him at all. And a big issue is just like Ross, these guys who don't use the middle of the field for him, he can't see it, whatever it may be. It's just hard to operate an offense because that's the only place right now where the NFL is giving you these defensive coordinators or you have to be good and efficient at ripping intermediate shots on time in rhythm, or you can't run a passing game these days. And I just haven't seen that from Murray at any consistent basis, anytime in his career,

Kelsey scares me the most of these, because I just don't seen that from murray at any consistent basis any time in his career kelsey scares me the most of these because i just don't think and that scares me i still think he'll be fine but to what adam said like at one point this offseason i was kind of like well maybe we'll look back and be like why the hell were you letting kelsey fall to rounds three but now i'm just like man i don't really think he's ever going to be that focal point he was for fantasy again so it's like, I get it now. Yeah, there will certainly be weeks where he is, but it will not be what it was. And they didn't even have Marquise Brown. I think they're going to basically we need that 5000 yard 40 touchdown season, I think, from the homes for Kelsey to be great. I'm not sure that I feel all that differently about any of them in particular,

except I just feel worse about the tight ends as a whole. And then for Andrews, like Isaiah Lightly's good. He's really good. And Zay Flowers looks like the guy they really want to feature. We'll see how, you know, squeaky wheel, right? Like Andrews is going to get his probably as soon as this week.

But Zayflower is obviously going to be a big part of this. One encouraging thing is they were 15th in pass rate in week one. And it's not like they were playing from behind the entire game or anything, but they're usually toward the bottom. So they look like a different Ravens offense. That's the only way that they can sustain this. But I think they get

I think they give the ball to Derek Henry a lot. I thought they were going to do that in week one. I cannot understand stupidest game plan ever. You get ripped for not running the ball against the chiefs in the playoffs. And then you barely give it to Derek Henry. I don't know. It didn't make any sense to me, but any, any who, um, I think there, I, I think there are concerning signs for all of these guys.

Jamison Williams concerning for Laporta, Rasheed Rice, Marquise Brown, Xavier Worthy concerning for Kelsey. Zay Flowers and Isaiah Likely concerning for Andrews. McBride, maybe he's tight end one for me now. No, he's tight end two. Laporta's definitely tight end one. Kincaid, like, do something. Kincaid's kind of like got a little bit of Drake London in him. We're projecting this big jump for him.

He's never actually done it yet. Kyle Pitts. All those concerns about London, we have them for Pitts. George Kittle, please have a big game tonight. Please. Brock Bauer season. Brock Bauer season. The matchup was perfect for Bowers.

They're like really, really zone heavy defense, the Chargers. So he just got a bunch of short targets. All right, this one is from House. What are the backfield splits that we need to know about and what's to come i categorize them so every day on bell cows jonathan taylor kyron williams b john robinson saquon barkley these guys are basically the same thing but they did give up a bit of situational usage so probably third downs for most of them from andre stevenson joe mixon mixon yeah 33 touches, Jerome Ford, James Connor, DeAndre Swift, Tony Pollard, 93% third down snap rate for TyJay Spears. That was basically his role. I thought

they would rotate more, but it was much more situational. Derrick Henry got out snapped by Justice Hill. When they're losing, it's the same thing he's on tennessee brian robinson he actually like was the kind of the clear lead guy um on early downs um next year is like clear lead backs but another guy rotated in it wasn't necessarily situational so i could see these swinging one way or the other especially the backfields that have like a veteran and then a younger guy devin singletary j Josh Jacobs, Rashad White, Travis Etienne, Kenneth Walker, Zach Moss, James Cook, Najee Harris, Aaron Jones, Javante Williams, Alvin Kamara. Those were all clear lead backs, but there was another back that played a relevant role. Do you want to talk about them? Don't really. I don't know that I agree with you on Walker and Kamara. I'm just curious because

Walker left with an injury late and then Camara, it was a garbage time when Jamal Williams got all his work. Yeah, I went and looked and just to be sure, just split it by quarters and his snap rate even in the first, second quarter was like 60%. They're just not going to play Camara all the time, I don't think. Yeah, okay. Yeah, fair. But I'm not worried

about him losing to Jamal Williams or anything like that. The other guys might actually lose. Who are some of those guys again? I could see Devin Singletary losing touches the year he goes on. I'm not really worried about Josh Jacobs. Maybe if Marshawn Lloyd gets healthy.

Rashad White could definitely lose touches. Bucky Irving looked good. Todd Bowles was talking him up after the game. We're here for that. Me and Dan for sure. Travis Etienne, I know Dan's here for that. Tank Bigsby looked great. Oh, yeah. Big season.

You don't think Charbonnet could take work from Ken Walker at all? Well, Walker gets hurt all the time. I mean, he gets hurt every year, and he's hurt now. He pulled almost 80% of the snaps in the first half, Kenneth Walker, and he got a little bit banged up. So you might be right. He might be the clear. They talked him up like he might be a bell count. That might be the case.

Zach Moss had three-fourths of the carries in the backfield there. Chase Brown was kind of nothing. And the third down roll, right? And the goal line touchdown or the five-yard touchdown, whatever. That was a huge development for Moss. Week one, we'll see, but it was big.

I think James Cook could lose work to Ray Davis, potentially. I think Ray Davis really fits what they want to do there with all the man gap rushing. Not that Cook's bad at that, but Cook's just trying to bounce it outside a lot. Najee, I don't know what to expect in Pittsburgh. We need to see what's going to happen with Warren healthier, but Warren was out-snapped by Cordero Patterson.

Patterson played almost a third of the snaps, which is like, what are we doing, man? That has to be with Warren healthier, but like Warren was out snapped by Cordero Patterson. Patterson played like almost a third of the snaps, which is like, what are we doing, man? That has to be a health thing, right? I mean, I think so,

but I do think Cordero is going to play. He is going to play. Um, Aaron Jones is the clear lead back. Touching. They're just mixed in a little bit. And then Javante Williams, it wasn't situational.

It wasn't like McLaughlin was the third down guy. They just kind of rotated a little bit. Um, I thought it might be that way where Javante just didn't get very many route running opportunities. And McLaughlin was the third down guy. They just kind of rotated a little bit. I thought it might be that way where Javante just didn't get very many route running opportunities. And McLaughlin was the clear passing down guy, but they both played a decent amount. McLaughlin had a ton of opportunities and had like two yards or something.

I just like fumble. I don't, there was a lot of hype at the end of draft season for McLaughlin and for Javante Williams. And I never got in, especially Javante Williams. There was a got in, especially Javante Williams. There was a lot of hype for him at the end. And I couldn't get on board with either of it

because you're buying into one of the worst offenses in football. And it looks like it could be even worse than we expected with Bo Nix. So I just don't see the point of either of those players. I don't think I'd start either of them at any point. And I'd look to move on, but sell low on Javante Williams. It's a math thing. They're going to be PPR scammers. They played a Seahawks defense that is pretty aggressive.

You know, it's, you know, Mike McDaniel coming over from the Ravens, using a lot of man and press and stuff like that. So that's not necessarily a matchup where running backs get targeted quite as much. The running back target rate was like 18%. Historically with Sean Payton, it's been like around 30%. And I respect those stats. I don't, I respect the Sean Peyton stats historically, and I saw that tweet you put out from Scott Barrett,

but so much of that sample size was a Drew Brees at quarterback. I know some of it wasn't, but so much of it was. Russell Wilson was never a guy who threw his running backs, and last year they led the NFL in running backs. No, I think they're going to throw to their running backs. It's not that. I was talking more about if the running backs will be successful fantasy options because just getting targets for McLaughlin is not going to be enough it might be

it might be enough for him to be a back-end flex or like rb2 in desperate situations but giovante's path is even is is even less clear to me um and i just think there were a lot of like sean payne's running backs always good in fantasy football and like i guess majority of that sample size was drew breeze a hall of fame quarterback i have to to run. I'm sorry, guys. Let's do our last big topic here. And it's J.K. Dobbins. Joe Arnold wants to know, is J.K. Dobbins for real? Can I trust him rest of season?

Dan, you're excited about this one. Not only did he have 10 carries for 135 yards and a touchdown, he also had three catches and he ran eight routes on third down. He was the only Chargers running back to run a route on third down. That's huge. Go ahead, talk about Dobbins who gets the Carolina Panthers next week. I watch every snap of J.K. Dobbins.

It's fun because I think one of our first ever Beyond the Box score shows we broke down J.K. Dobbins against the Browns with the Ravens and he had such a phenomenal game on tape that game. His processing, his understanding

of where the blocks are going to be, the timing he displays in the running game, his ability to bounce. He wasn't that player in this game that he was on that tape of that Ravens game. And I think it was going to take him some time. He got kind of ran on his long run on both of his long runs. I feel he kind of ran out a little bit of gas and that's to be expected.

Hasn't played a lot of football due to the injuries, but he is going to be one of the better processing backs and the best processing back in this offense. Like you said, he's the only one running routes. If he can stay healthy, the injuries, but he is going to be one of the better processing backs and the best processing back in this offense. Like you said, he's the only one running routes. If he can stay healthy, we know one thing, Jim Harbaugh and Greg Roman offenses can run the football successfully all the time, even when you know, it's coming at you. And we saw that in this game. So again, Dobbins drafted at RB 32 or whatever it was, Gus was 27 and they'll be flipping back and forth. They're going to provide value.

32. I do not think so. I, they were lower than that. Even lower, right? Sorry. It was like 37 and 42, whatever it was, it was really low. Um, despite the whole time, us knowing this will be one of the most successful run offenses in the NFL.

So I'm, I'm in on JK Dobbins. I think he can be started next week in your RB2 spot, in your flex spot, and you can be excited about it. Among qualified running backs, J.K. Dobbins was first in EPA per rush. Gus had the fourth lowest. Wow. J.K. Dobbins was fourth in avoided tackles. Gus had none.

J.K. Dobbins had a 50% success rate. That was sixth. Gus was at 18%. Only Zemir White and Raheem Mostert were lower. On that note, I did want to mention that Zemir white and raheem most are were lower on that note i did want to mention that zamir white and alexander madison had an identical number of snaps on first downs wow you saw you saw madison catch the touchdown that was on first down yeah he wasn't just playing on third downs he played more snaps as zamir wide i think it's over for zamir white guy yeah it was over before

it started to be really honest i mean for you and i jacob we had a rank like for zam mirror white guy. Yeah, it was over before it started to be really honest. I mean, for you and I, Jacob, we had a rank for some of your white is not, it was over before it started. I'll have random good games when the Raiders are in it and he can get a million carries and they can milk a clock and I'll fall into a few touchdowns, but you'll never know when to start him. He's going to have very few game scripts that are like that.

He was outside the top, like a hundred for Jacob and I wasn't anywhere near our rankings. There's just no point to Samir. Right. I think there'll be cut soon from your fantasy. No, he will not be. There's just no point to Zemir. I think he'll be cut soon from your fantasy roster. No, he won't. No, he will not be. That's ridiculous. Well, I think Dan took it, Ben. Ben said, Adam, you got to go out with a

terrible take. So you think I took it? We can come back to this, Adam, and you might be right. He's not going to get cut. That's the thing. No one's cutting a starting running back. How is he a starting running back, though, when Jacob said he's splitting his carries with Alexander Madison? He's not splitting his carries. What were the carries?

He said he split his first down carries with Madison. His first down snaps. He didn't. Snaps. That's even worse. He had 13 carries. Alexander Madison had five. Also, do you know who Alexander Madison is?

You're acting like Alexander Madison. No, it's not about that, though. What really matters is that carries are worth almost nothing in fantasy. Isn't that the problem? Do you know who Alexander Madison is? Yeah. And he's taking snaps from Zemir White. Look, I understand there are issues here.

He's a flex. He's not going to get cut. He's a flex? You'd put him in your flex next week? Maybe if he's playing the Panthers. Yeah, if he's playing the Panthers, sure. If he's playing a team the Raiders could actually beat or stay ahead of the whole game, then yes, I'm okay to flex him. He could fall into a touchdown. Well, they play the Panthers

in week three, so he'll be a flex for that week, but I won't I have to go, guys. It's a bold take, and it may not happen, but I wouldn't be surprised if fantasy owners are releasing him at some point or at least asking the question. There's almost no path forward for him. Here's a terrible take for you. Fettuccine

Alfredo. I can only have like three or four bites, and then it's just way too heavy. Way too heavy. Like makes me a little nauseous. It's a lot. Yeah. Right. Okay. Uh, Fettuccine Alfredo. I don't think I have it very often for the same reason as you. Um, again, remember I'm not great with dairy. I'm just going to put that out there. I went in that time. I had to get that sandwich. It looked so good. All right, we got to go. Thanks for watching, everybody. We'll talk to you tomorrow with the waiver wire.

I'll catch you tomorrow. We'll talk to you tomorrow.