Fantasy Football Today - Beyond the Box Score: Panthers and Bears Offensive Changes, Seahawks are Awesome, Matthew Stafford League Winner? (11/03 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 3, 2025

We recap Seahawks-Commanders (3:45) featuring teams moving in opposite directions. Can we trust a running back on either team? Can Jaxon Smith-Njigba keep this up? Is Deebo Samuel still worth startin...g? ... News and notes (17:15) including our thoughts on Luke Musgrave plus some advanced metrics to know (22:40) including a rest of season outlook for Sam LaPorta ... Buy or Sell on Tetairoa McMillan (27:15), Rico Dowdle (33:00), Rome Odunze (37:40), Kyle Monangai (42:35), DK Metcalf (48:00), Matthew Stafford (52:05) and the Colts passing game (55:35) ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com 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 Shop our store: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shop.cbssports.com/fantasy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠  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 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

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? It's a no idea. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
Starting point is 00:00:21 Welcome to Beyond the Box Score. This is Fantasy Football today presented by BetMGM, make it legendary. And we've got advanced stats from simple people. we break down Seattle and Washington. We talk about D.K. Metcalfe in his bad game. Tedroa McMillan and his bad game. We have fun with screenshots. Rico Dowdell, is he a top 10 running back rest of season?
Starting point is 00:00:42 What's going on with Romo Dunez? What's going on with the Colts wide receivers? Big game from Alec Pierce. Are we buying it? Hello, Jacob Gibbs. How are we? Hey, I'm a little bit sad. You know, Chief's loss, the loss of Tucker Craft,
Starting point is 00:00:59 who was one of the, you know, my favorite players to watch this year. Jane Daniels, like, there's a lot to be sad about, but at the end of it, I've got this new solace that I can find at the end of Sunday nights, which is that there's a new episode of the chair company that's come out. So that's really what I'm looking forward to the most on Sundays. So I'm doing all right, all things considered. Well, that's a pretty low bar. As long as there's a new episode of the chair company, it doesn't seem to matter what
Starting point is 00:01:25 happens on Sunday. I don't know what I'm going to do when the season is over. You could just binge the Detroiters. You think I don't already do that? Like I do it every couple months. Schneier, what's up? Yeah, man, like I feel what Jacob's saying. It feels like this season's been more injuries.
Starting point is 00:01:46 Or maybe I'm just thinking that in its recency bias. Maybe the injuries have been more impactful. But it is kind of taken away a bit. But we fight through. It's fantasy football. We find the waiver wire guys. But where I'm really feeling the karma this morning, Adam, is involving you. because through the years on this podcast, I have given you an insane amount of flack for just
Starting point is 00:02:04 what feels to me like you being sick 11 out of 12 months of a given calendar here. And now I just am sick and I've been sick for like a week and a half or something like that. I can't get over it. I'm not sleeping great. And I'm just like, you know what? This is karma for all the crap I gave Adam for his immune system. It's finally coming back to bite me. And I may go back to the no strip for those making jokes in the comments.
Starting point is 00:02:29 They may go back on the nose strip. I did a very good nose strip Dan impression yesterday on the show. You should check it out. I will check that. Seattle, Seattle 38 and Washington 14. And Jacob, in every way, you don't want to make too much of one week,
Starting point is 00:02:46 but in every way, it just seemed like a tale of two teams moving in completely opposite directions. Yeah, Seattle is like a perfect killing machine right now. Like, and Washington was not the team that was ready to deal with that and run into that. They're, I mean, Sam Donald was so locked in. He's perfect right now. It's scary.
Starting point is 00:03:08 And the defense is even scarier. Like, I don't know. I, I've, the Washington stuff sucks. Like, there's nothing, it feels like they're basically a dead offense for fantasy, which is crazy. There were so many pieces of this offense that we were excited about, like coming into the year, even just a month ago. And now it's like, will. Do you want to play any of them? Maybe Debo?
Starting point is 00:03:32 Yeah. Yeah, maybe. I mean, he had six targets on 22 pass attempts. He's, I don't know, they just throw really short area throws to him. He looked fine, I thought. I mean, I wasn't really watched, like, his targets, but I didn't see his routes. I don't know if he's beating guys, but he can still do some yak stuff. He's fine.
Starting point is 00:03:53 He's fine, you know. Obviously, they've had kind of a tough schedule lately. They faced Seattle this week. They faced the chiefs last week. So, I don't know. This is exactly how it's like he's fine. Or it's maybe fine while McLaurin's out. But it's ugly.
Starting point is 00:04:11 The thing, one interesting thing from the commander's side, though, is that Marcus Marioada and Jaden Daniels this year, completion percentage, yards per attempt. And one other metric, yards per game maybe. I don't know. It's almost identical. So it hasn't really been. like a big drop. Oh, passing yards per game. They're both, um,
Starting point is 00:04:31 uh, touchdown rate. That's what it was. I'm sorry, everyone. It's completion rate, touchdown rate, yards per attempt. They're almost identical for Marioada and Jaden Daniels. So there's that. The biggest difference I see just with Washington is last year they were able to
Starting point is 00:04:47 scheme up things in the run game that just worked. And maybe it was because Jaden was on the field and he was so electric and there was more of a rushing element to his game too because he was fully healthy. that just seems to be out like this year like when i watch their run offense it doesn't seem to be creating like they were creating and that's maybe on cliff i don't know who that's on maybe on the offensive line they never really had the most talented offensive line even last season it was
Starting point is 00:05:11 just more of an example of maybe them coming together under bobby johnson their offensive line coach and cliff scheme so i think that really stands out to me they're way more one-dimensional team than i thought they'd be on offense yeah hard got too man not being very good by the way but I want to just acknowledge Bill because there have been a lot of people who have been excited about him because of us. I don't feel any hope at all. Like I, he for one, doesn't look good at all. He looks so hesitant, whereas early in the year he was running decisively.
Starting point is 00:05:39 Now I feel like you can see it in his body language. And then also he gets up to the line and he's like, ah, it's like, you need to go. You need to move like north-south. And then Chris Rodriguez comes in and does exactly that. And it's just like, I don't, I don't know, man. Like, I think he's got the talent. so maybe something happens at the end of the year. But, like, as it stands right now,
Starting point is 00:05:58 I see no real path to him matter for fantasy. Yeah. Sorry. It's a shame. He doesn't catch passes. I'm not even sure he's the goal line back because Chris Rodriguez has had a couple of those in recent weeks. And Rodriguez is 6% rostered.
Starting point is 00:06:11 This just feels like a backfield to avoid, and I don't want to beat a dead horse. The only thing I'll say about Rodriguez, you see the stat line 12 carries, 65 yards, and a touchdown. He had five carries for 30 yards in the final minutes of the game against Seattle backups. All right. By the way, you definitely should pick up Marcus Mariotta in Superflex leagues.
Starting point is 00:06:29 He is 10% rostered. He's been fine. He scored 22.3, 20.2, and 13.3 fantasy points at Kansas City that last game. But remember, that game really turned when Debo Samuel had a ball hit him in the face, and then it was an interception. The last thing I'd say about them, I think we could all agree when you have to talk about it. Terry McLauran is a good player. They are really missing that element. And now McCaffrey's got a broken collarbone, and not Christian.
Starting point is 00:06:53 Luke McCaffrey, broken collarbone, he's going to be out for a while. On the Seattle side, I think my only question for the passing game, Jacob, is can they really be this efficient? I mean, you are talking about Jackson, Smith, and Jigba right now having, I would say, an historic season. He's the number two wide receiver per game. He's averaging 4.47 yards per route run. I can't imagine anyone's ever done that over a full season. No. Puka is second at 3.52. JSN's at 4.47.
Starting point is 00:07:25 No one's even come close. Yeah. And it keeps going up. He averaged over 5 yards per out run this week. So maybe we don't even need to talk about him, but what he's, it's worth noting that what he is doing is mind-blowing. Yeah. And it looks so easy.
Starting point is 00:07:44 Like I said, like, perfect. Like, that's how it looks. It's just like he's getting to his exact spot. and Darnold is just like walking it to him and putting it exactly where it needs to be. And if Tori Horton can actually get on the field more, that is just like another problem. That allows, like he can actually go win as an outside receiver on the line,
Starting point is 00:08:03 which Cup hasn't really given them. And that allows you to move Jackson Smith and Jigba around more and do even more creative things with him, which Clint Kubiak can definitely do. And it adds a deep threat to the offense, you know? Like the safeties like have to account for Horton. we're seeing the way he has like seven touchdowns or something right already this year like one of them is a special teamer but like he's been a legitimate big play threat jacob every single time tory horton
Starting point is 00:08:28 has had four he's never had more than four targets but every time he's had four targets in a game he's caught at least one touchdown i love it he's so good man he's a baller and and we talked a lot about troy horton on beyond the box score over the last few weeks and really over the last few months he's a big we're big fans of troy horton the tape was unbelievable at college the pro tape's been just as good. On the limited basis that he's been able to get opportunities in play, as you mentioned, he's not only scored touchdowns, but he's actually looked really good when you actually watch the reps. He creates separation with ease. I think for a kind of longer stride player, he does a great job of just lateral cuts to create separation. And you see it when
Starting point is 00:09:07 he's winning these routes. I think, and Matt Harmon mentioned this today, and I thought it was interesting. He's like, can they put the Tory Horton cut? Like, can they put it back in the cut? I don't know what the term is. I'm forgetting it right now. I'm dealing with back in the bottle, right? Back in the bottle. Can you put Tori Horton back in the bottle? Like obviously they want to play Cooper Cup for reasons. They paid him. They, he blocks probably better than Tori Horton. He plays a bigger, he plays that role in the offense. But this is predominantly 12 personnel, you know, a team that's not going to use
Starting point is 00:09:34 that much 11 personnel. With that said, they're a better team with Horton on the field than Cooper Cup. That looks so obvious to me. So that's the interesting thing that I take away from this game moving forward because we have a quarterback as, Jacob texting me during the game in the first half playing, quote-unquote, perfect football. It really looked like that in the first half. The way Sam Donald's playing is the exact ceiling people thought that he had when he came into the draft. He's now realizing in my mind.
Starting point is 00:09:58 So that leads me to believe there is a possibility for Horton to be a play and fantasy down the line. He has the talent. He has the quarterback. He literally just needs the role. Yeah. Yeah. And he was perfect, by the way.
Starting point is 00:10:08 Sam Darnold was 15 to 15, I think, in the first half. I know he had zero incompletions. So I'll ask you a Darnold question. But before we do that, We don't trust any of the commander's running backs. Can we start a Seattle running back? I think they only ran 48 plays. Yeah, 48 plays in this game.
Starting point is 00:10:24 So it just wasn't great for fantasy. They were benching their starters at the end of the game. But Ken Walker's got four straight games with single-digit PPR fantasy points. So that's discouraging. He did have two carries from the three-yard line. Those are his only carries all year from the three-yard line or closer in a game that Zach Charbonne played. But then there was a sequence. where he got down to the one
Starting point is 00:10:46 and then Charbonnet came in at the one yard line but at least he was there he had two catches which was actually a lot on a day where they barely through he had a 50% route participation rate which was a season high
Starting point is 00:10:58 so Dan I'll throw this one to you can we start a Seattle running back on a week to week basis I mean yes and no like yes because of the situation that faces us in fantasy football and how few players we need probably to start them
Starting point is 00:11:14 in flex spots but can we trust them that's probably the better question no i don't think so okay i mean ken walkers shouldn't shown me nothing from a fantasy standpoint that leads me to believe i should trust them on a weekly basis charbonnet is a touchdown or bust type play and that's essentially what they are i guess you just have to hold out hope and i don't even think like with walker we usually get more of the big play touchdowns than we've gotten this year right it's a hold out hope if you're a walker manager that they look at them they go look walker's just running a lot better than Sharpenet.
Starting point is 00:11:45 It's not going to happen, though. They're winning football games with this formula. All right. The usage did shift his way a little bit, so it's possible that it's happening. I don't know. Like, that's, at least this was maybe a sign of hope. Before that it had been like, all Charbonnet were very rigid with the roles that they're playing.
Starting point is 00:11:59 Yeah. Well, this is a little bit different. I wonder why. But even if he's getting more of those between the 20s touches and taking some more of that role from Charbonnet doesn't inspire much hope for me for fantasy. I really need, it needs to be the red zone. You mentioned there were two red zone touches. And that's, yeah, I do think.
Starting point is 00:12:14 Like if they had touchdowns, you might feel different, and they just happen to all come through the air. And if this is an offensive juggernaut, which it kind of appears to be. And if the defense is really good, then they'll probably be leading a lot and maybe running a lot. I liked, I liked Darnold this week because I mentioned it so many times. He led the NFL in yards per attempt. He still does. And Washington came into the game worse than the NFL on yards per attempt. So a huge takeaway is you want to start quarterbacks against Washington.
Starting point is 00:12:39 And by the way, they lost three cornerbacks, three defensive backs in this game. Three guys who play a lot went down. I don't know how the severity of the injuries, but they had three defensive backs get hurt in this game. And big injury, Ernest Jones, that's like their communicator, their linebacker on defense for Seattle. He got hurt.
Starting point is 00:12:58 So we'll see how that affects their run defense, which to date has been the best in football. All right, we can wrap it up with that. Jacob, what's on the schedule for Beyond the Box score for week 10? We're just going into the classics, like getting you guys cut up on some, rankings and rest of season rankings um we've done some more specific positional reviews coaching reviews and stuff like that lately but just want to kind of get dialed in as we are
Starting point is 00:13:22 like heading into the second half of the season here um so we did like wide receiver and tied in players who we thought we could be like the rookies who could be rest of season breakouts we're going to focus on the running backs a little bit more this week um I was at a Halloween party this past weekend and I've got a buddy who listens to the show and he's like I feel like I'm like so laser locked in on receivers I know like every single thing I need to know about like 60 different receivers. He's like, but running back, I don't know what the hell to do. He's like, a couple weeks ago, I traded Jacoby Crosky Merritt for,
Starting point is 00:13:51 or I traded Derek Kennedy for, Dr. Croy Crosky Merritt. He's like, I'm out, I'm hopeless out here. I don't know what it is, but like, I can't figure out running back. I'm like, okay, I don't know if that's reflection of the show or not, but like, let's spend some time with running back. So that's kind of what we're going to do is try to make sense of some of these backfields. Excellent. Looking forward to that.
Starting point is 00:14:07 And looking forward to giving you the news and notes. We have updates on Tucker Craft. Jaden Daniels, we'll give you that when we come back. I have to tell you about this game-changing product I use before a night out drinking. It's called pre-alcohol. Zbiotic pre-alcohol drink is the world's first genetically engineered probiotic. Here's how it works. When you drink, alcohol gets converted into a toxic byproduct in the gut.
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Starting point is 00:15:19 The new iPhone 17 Pro on TELUS's five-year rate plan price lock. Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans. Conditions and exclusions apply. For what it's worth when he traded Derek Canoe for Bill, I was like, whoa, he like tells me about the trades. A lot of times I'm like, oh, cool. And I was like, this is really risky.
Starting point is 00:15:51 Dude, you could have ran that by me. Yeah, seriously. Let's talk before your trades. All right, Jaden Daniels dislocated his elbow. We don't have a timetable yet. C.J. Stroud is in the concussion protocol, and he gets Jacksonville if he comes back this week. Otherwise, it will be Davis Mills. running back news.
Starting point is 00:16:08 Aaron Jones is optimistic about playing this upcoming week against Baltimore. He has a shoulder injury. Samaji, Pryne left, I think on the opening kickoff. Chase Brown played 97% of the snaps, which, you know, is not a far cry of what we had been seeing. And then that's about it on that. I'm sure you guys enjoyed the Rico Dowdowell two pumps thing. Brian Thomas Jr., ankle injury,
Starting point is 00:16:34 Pooka Nibs injury. Garrett Wilson, but I think Pook is fine. They seemed optimistic about it. Garrett Wilson's going to practice this week. He gets Cleveland. Matthew Golden's shoulder, Kisham Booty, hamstring. Anything on Slayton?
Starting point is 00:16:49 Is he okay? Seems fine. Okay. And trade deadlines tomorrow, so we'll see if anybody gets moved. Cedric Tillman, his 21-day window to return to the active roster, has been open. He'll be practicing this week.
Starting point is 00:17:03 Tucker Kraft torn ACL. Well, what's your interest level in Luke Musgrave, guys? He was pretty much full-time player. I think I heard Dwayne McFarlane on the Fantasy Life recap say that he had like an 88% route rate once, like, following the injury. So, I mean, I'll throw it to Dan. He was a big Musgrave fan. I was a huge Musgrave fan coming out of college. And I still think his rookie year, he showed off really good stuff on tape with the Packers.
Starting point is 00:17:28 I put him on my speculative list. I mean, there's a lot of tight ends at this point, but you might be in a position where you either have Kraft or a another injury. So I'm open to the idea of it. Let's, let's, I'd rather have Loveland for sure. Yeah. Here's a question that I think is relevant. It's like, would you pick a musgrave or like stick with Ertz? Likely. Likely, I just think is really interesting because he's like, he's like the Torrey Horton of Titans where it's like there's no such things as stash, but he actually is. If something were to have an Andrews, he would become like really relevant, I think. I hope I would go Musgrave over those two. I think I go Ertz.
Starting point is 00:18:02 Um, I mean, look, even Tucker Kraft wasn't really getting that many targets. He's just the most efficient tight end in football right now. So you can't ask Musgrave. I can't remember the stat I gave last week, Dan. It was like Tucker Kraft had three touchdowns with 15 or more yak, 15 or more yards after the catch. And I didn't find a single tight end that had more than four in the last 15 years or something like that. So I don't, most of Musgrave will ever do that. basically they're very different more of a vertical stretch the seam type of tight end okay
Starting point is 00:18:38 did you mention golden's injury do you know the extent of that shoulder injury i i mentioned it i don't know the extent no yeah uh and colquemette left before halftime but as i mentioned on yesterday's show colquemette was barely playing even when he was healthy he ran five-ish routes in the first half and love had a 75% route participation rate in the first half okay we do have a lot of of line injuries. The ones that really stand out would be the Chargers with both of their tackles
Starting point is 00:19:06 getting hurt and Joe Alt could be out for a while. Oof. And I think the Panthers because I was watching Rico Dowdell and one of their guards, Chandler Zavala,
Starting point is 00:19:17 left with an elbow injury. I think he's one who got hurt last week, was able to play this week, and he left again. Almost every run. Rico Dowda had 25 runs. Almost every single one was right up the gut. And then they pitched it to him,
Starting point is 00:19:29 they tossed it to him and he had a 29-yard run his longest run of the game. They are so boring. Good for them. They're five and four or whatever. It's good for them. They're a story for sure.
Starting point is 00:19:39 But man, they are a snooze fest. Watching guys run up the gut, 23 times is super boring. But, you know, they're going to want their interior offensive line healthy. And then the biggest defensive news would be a couple of injuries for New England, Christian Gonzalez and Christian Ellis.
Starting point is 00:19:57 San Francisco's D-line getting even more banged up with rookie Michael Williams, potentially tearing his ACL. I mentioned the Ernest Jones thing for Seattle. Also, cornerback Josh Job for Seattle, left with a concussion. Three defensive backs for Washington left with injuries. Atlanta, Edge, Leonard Floyd, has a hamstring injury. I didn't see if Zach Allen came back for Denver,
Starting point is 00:20:16 but he's one of their best players. They're already missing Sertan. So that's one to check on Buffalo defensive lineman, Michael Hecht, tore his Achilles. And the Eagles just made a trade this morning for Jalen Phillips of the Miami Dolphins, talented edge rusher. He's had a couple of really bad injuries in his career, but he was a first round pick.
Starting point is 00:20:34 He can play. All right, advanced stats and other metrics. Let me tell you about, but you know what? Hold on. Let's talk about BetMGM. Great chance. Second chance on BetMGM. So, picture this.
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Starting point is 00:21:21 Try a first touchdown scorer wager with confidence today. BetMGM make it legendary. All right, Jacob, my friend. out in the metrics department. So I just think this, Dan particularly, we'll find this interesting. I've got here on the screen, the quarterback fantasy leaders, and it's Patrick Mooms and Drake May, which we love. And then Justin Herbert, which we love.
Starting point is 00:21:45 Guess who leads the league in rushing yards? It's Herbert. And I just feel like, of course, like the offensive line is a problem. But even in this last game, we saw him do a ton of scrambling to get away from that. He has way more design rushes than I realize. And as I'm just like looking at this, it's like he's basically what we thought Drake May would be coming into the year, but he has way better weapons and we have a longer track record of them being really awesome. But what I mean when I say that is that he's getting design runs. He has more design runs than May did or does.
Starting point is 00:22:16 And so coming into the year, the reason we were so excited for Drake May wasn't because we thought he was suddenly going to become the best quarterback in the NFL, which is what he's done. But it was because we thought he's going to run a ton. and that would be enough that like even with the you know middling offensive line and pass catchers and all that that he would be really good for fantasy and that's basically where we've arrived with herbert and i just think that's really interesting because we've been really terrified all year as the tackles have been dropping out of the picture what would this look like is he then like outside of the top six or so for fantasy um what does it mean for the past catchers uh you know you don't want to overreact to a game against the titans
Starting point is 00:22:53 but like it's it's been pretty freaking good for fantasy still for him it's been great i do think there are going to be some games we've already seen some games like the giants game where you go oh man he just didn't he just didn't really have much of a chance today because the tackles were so bad so there might be some games like that that pop up but i think the positives will outweigh the negatives and actually drake may has a decent amount more carries than justin herbert um now that could Yeah, Herbert has had a buy, and May hasn't. But Drake May, like, the one thing that we noted a lot was his yards per carry last year was outrageous. And that's come, you know, way down.
Starting point is 00:23:33 There's really nothing bad to say about Drake May, just pointing out. He is running. He's just not nearly as efficient as he was last year. Yeah, Herbert's almost. It's Herbert. Herbert's doing it. Like, he's doing exactly what we thought May would do. Like, on a per scramble basis, he's easily the top quarterback.
Starting point is 00:23:49 Yeah. Oh, wow. to scramble more this year it seems like so yeah oh quentin johnston is so annoying all right anyway what else uh i've got a fun list for you we don't have monongai on our show sheet today do we we do we have a buyer sell that manangai is going to usurp dandre swift as rb one okay okay okay i miss that sorry we'll save that for later no problem yeah there's plenty i saw i saw yesterday on twitter what you're going to present it's really cool um already you go forward then him hit me with some snap rates and stuff.
Starting point is 00:24:19 You know what? Honestly, we have more topics today than we've had in the past, so I didn't really get to all of the snap rates. I did see the Chase Brown thing, him playing almost every snap. I don't know if this matters, but I can't remember if I said this on the show or if I just, if I forgot and put it in my notes. But Sam LaPorteur this year has been a lot better against zone coverage than man coverage. And his 40-yard touchdown was against zone.
Starting point is 00:24:43 And the Vikings were kind of a zone-heavy team. I think they were 9th or 10th. That was a really good call out by Ryan. You guys have got to check out this Thursday show that we do, where he, he, like, called this matchup out. And I think a lot of people were kind of overlooking the border because the tidying landscape has become really, really good. But he's like, this is an awesome spot for him.
Starting point is 00:24:58 Because did he mention the zone thing? Yep. Yeah, it was a cover four specifically. It was like that type of coverage. Okay. Yeah. So I looked at the rest of his schedule to see how the zone rates for his upcoming opponents. And the next three are really low.
Starting point is 00:25:14 26th in zone. That's Washington. I mean, they stink, though, you know. Like they gave up a touchdown to Arroy. They're not good against tight ends, but they do play a lot of man. Then it's like Philadelphia, then the giant. He's got three straight games against NFCE's opponents, and those go 26, 22nd, and 31st in zone rate. He's got more zone heavy teams later in the season.
Starting point is 00:25:36 But again, I don't know if it's fluky or not, but the next three weeks for Leport, I'd be interested to see what happens because he's playing teams that are pretty man-heavy. That makes sense. In a modernist St. Brown, they go to more against men. and honestly that's all I got from the for this segment we could go to our main topics you know and just kind of get into stuff let's roll all right let's do it so buy or sell we're going to do buy or sell on this show a little bit more I've been getting more responses for buy or sell and we'll get to more topics buyer sell from kp tedaroa mcmillan has a
Starting point is 00:26:08 bryce young problem and i'll just say i'm going to sell it and say tetaroa macmillan has a rico dowel problem uh dan where are you at on on this We've discussed this panthers offense a lot. I'm beyond the box score. We got a chance to watch the tape. Their past protection has just been such a nightmare this year. So I'm going to add to this. He has a Bryce Young problem and he has a past protection problem.
Starting point is 00:26:32 He's a Carolina Panthers past production game's grip problem. He's a lot of problems. It's got a lot of problems. Yeah, like we saw an uptick in his production with Andy Dalton. I think Andy Dalton is a different style quarterback than Bryce Young. And that could potentially lead to the types of games we got for McMillan if Dalton were to play, which he's not going to, like five for 72. But with young playing, and I think it's really, it's not just young, it's this Panthers pass
Starting point is 00:26:57 production. And with their ability to take the step forward they've taken on defense and in the run game, it's more of an issue to me of their past game and that holding back McMillan's upside. I haven't been high on him really all season, but I can't imagine at this point, like having faith in him to give you weekly production. 38 games for Bryce Young Crosses' career How many have gone over 300? Oh, three, two, one, one, one.
Starting point is 00:27:24 Two, two games over three hundred passing yards, topping out at 328 and then 312. His next games are 298, 263, 251. So out of 38 games, Wow. Only four have been above 251 yards. Wow. That is a problem.
Starting point is 00:27:39 Like, yeah. There have been better offensive lines that he's been playing behind along the way. It's bad right now with the offensive line. that is part of the problem for sure. But, like, to get upside for your receivers, like, there's a reason that it's felt better when Andy Dalton has been in is, like, this, if you're capped at, like, 200, 250 yards, like, that's really low relative to the rest of the league.
Starting point is 00:27:58 Can we throw up our Tedd-Role McMillan screenshot? Because would we be having this discussion, folks, if he had caught that ball. It's right in his hands. It was not as easy as it looks from this screenshot, but he was in the end zone. He had that opportunity to catch the touchdown. Touchdowns have eluded him a little bit. He's been close. He caught two against Dallas,
Starting point is 00:28:18 but those were his only two all season. Look, Terrell McMillan, I've got a lot of stats on him, but I think the most important one is just a very simple one. He's the number 35 wide receiver per game. And his rookie season right now is reminding me a lot of Garrett Wilson's rookie season, of Chris Olabe's rookie season.
Starting point is 00:28:34 These guys were on pace for Garrett Wilson, 147 targets, Olave 135, McMillan, 130. They're all around 80 catches. Wilson was on. I don't think it was on pace. Actually, I don't think it was on pace. I think he played 17 games. 88 catches. They're all either, they either scored or were on pace for four or five touchdowns. They weren't on great passing offenses. He's probably a number three receiver, but he's very good.
Starting point is 00:28:59 He makes what true media defines as explosive plays a lot. I think those are 17 yards or more, but he almost never makes, whoa, plays. He has one catch all year longer than 29 yards. and that's awful. Yeah. Andy Dalton has seven starts for the Panthers and has the same number of games with 300 or more yards as Brexham. To be fair, Andy Dalton was absolutely horrible
Starting point is 00:29:24 in that game against Buffalo. He turned the ball over a bunch of times. He only threw for 175 yards, but he threw 10 of his 24 attempts at Teddoroa McMillan. My point, not being necessarily that Andy Dalton is good or anything like that. Yeah, I get you.
Starting point is 00:29:39 All right, so I think McMillan at least gives you a floor and he's he's someone I just usually start I kind of like I said I mentioned chris olive I kind of put them in the same boat I'm going to start them most weeks just they're probably not going to win me my week but then we go to this guys they run the ball this team they want to run the ball so buy or sell from jordan riko dowdell is a top 10 running back rest of season and he's currently 16th per game in ppr 12th per game and non ppr did I hear a bye bye oh oh can I give you the top 12 right now now in PPR and you tell me if he's really top 10 okay yeah christian mcalfrey jonathan taylor
Starting point is 00:30:20 bjohn robinson josh jacobs devon a chan james cook giovante williams bucky irving jimier gibbs kairn williams that's 10 dandre swift saquan barclay is 1112 okay if you put Barkley in there, then there's like 10, but there's like three of them. It was like him and Juante and Cook, and Dan's not going to like that, of course, that I think that you could put him right into that range with. It's really weird because like he's on this team that you don't feel very much faith in the offense, right? But like, do we have anything like this where a team is so committed to the run and running everything through this one player and it's working so well? It's like Derek Henry or something like that, but they're way more committed to it.
Starting point is 00:31:07 it. That's, I guess, where I would start. I want to look at into the role a little bit more, but like if he's getting all the touches, which is what it felt like, Andy just keeps pounding away and teams can't stop it, I feel pretty good about it. Maybe Top Ten is too aggressive because those are a lot of guys who have pretty solid profiles, but I think he's in that range. And guys, I didn't mention Omari and Hampton, Ashton Genty, Brees Hall, Derek Henry,
Starting point is 00:31:37 He's probably not going to be top 10, but he's going to be in a tier with guys who are around the top 10, I think. Yeah, I would think he's just outside of it. I mean, those players that we mentioned, including even Derek Henry and Barclay, were just outside of it, are in better situations. I still have concerns. I know, look, it's great to do it against the Packers' defense. That's a good sign. It's a good step that we can feel confident about the situation.
Starting point is 00:32:01 And he's a great talent, I think, too. And they're actually blocking the run really well. They've committed to it, and they've figured out a good season. scheme for him. But I still feel like this reminds me a lot of the Quinshawn Jutkins situation, not in the sense of like at least we know doubt will get the touches, no matter what. Judkins can be phased out of certain game scripts, but it's so dependent to me on can the panthers score, can the Panthers be in game scripts that allow them to run the football. I'm still very unsold on that right now. I'd have to look a little bit deeper. I was trying to take
Starting point is 00:32:32 look because you guys were going to their schedule. They got New Orleans. Yeah, New Orleans is a good game Scrap, Falcons, good game script. Then it gets Niners, Rams, Bucks, Seahawks. Those ones could get out of it. But you also skipped a game against the Saints in there. No, I said Saints, New Orleans. But there are two games against the Saints. Oh, another Saints.
Starting point is 00:32:48 Yeah, there's Saints, Falcons, Niders, Rams, by Saints, Bucks, Seahawks. Yeah, Buck, Seahawks. I've talked about this yesterday. Buck Seahawks in the fantasy semifinals and championships is tough. And the Packers, like, we hyped up their run defense. It's been very good for the season. I wish I had seen this and kind of
Starting point is 00:33:05 mention it. I didn't. This is on me. It hasn't been great lately. It's been good lately. But then Johnny, we're just laughing at the YouTube comment. I feel like sometimes on the pod when I'm listening, because I listen back to the shows, I feel like it's hard to figure out what we're
Starting point is 00:33:23 laughing at on the show because we're laughing at YouTube comments. So I just want to describe what was just said, Johnny Airport said, I went trick-or-treating on Halloween with a no strip and a giant hoodie, but nobody knew who I was dressed up as. I would have got it. Johnny earlier had said, he said,
Starting point is 00:33:39 Dan said he is under the weather, but not sick enough for the nose strip. Again, the nose strip may be making a reappearance at some point. All right. All right. So look, I think we're all pretty high on Rico Dowdell. I don't think it's one of those cell high situations.
Starting point is 00:33:54 Does he catch the ball enough, though? He doesn't really get a lot. But when I looked at those top 12 running backs, PPR, seven of the top 12 running backs on a per game basis in full PPR, average three or fewer catches per game and who's the lowest on that list which top 12 running back averages the fewest catches per game james cook james cook 1.6 no one seems to care but right that's it's it's it's like that has to be the equation it's like james cook or der korek or something like that and it's like i guess ricko dadal is now that guy would like those are superior talents and they're on teams
Starting point is 00:34:30 that you expect to normally be leading you know and he basically has neither but at the time you look at these three games or they just trusted him it's like 25 touches 75% snap rate like that's a top 10 running back it just is but i don't know necessarily if you can extrapolate over a larger sample size all right we'll take a break and we'll talk about the bears what happened to romodunze what's going to happen in the backfield that's after this on ffti boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes oh what sounds like ojo time play ojo great idea feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours
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Starting point is 00:36:02 This one is from free. He says buy or sell. Romo Dunzee is a matchup dependent flex at best. Ouch. At best. Wow. At best he's like a top freaking eight receiver like we've seen at best and it's really really cool.
Starting point is 00:36:18 I don't know about that. Yeah. Now we can't sell that. We can't buy that. We can't buy that. But this is amazing for them to score. How many points did they score in this game? Forty-something.
Starting point is 00:36:29 Yeah. And him to have his three. three targets and no catches. He did drop a touchdown, but pretty amazing, Jacob. So we talked about O'Donzei a couple weeks ago. You mentioned that the first three targets had gone down, and then bam, he goes, has a huge game in week eight, seven catches, 114 yards on 10 targets,
Starting point is 00:36:46 and then he comes out with this clunker. What are you seeing? Yeah, they got a little bit more to DJ Moore, and then Loveland, of course, is more involved, too. My guess is that Cincinnati did something to take O'Donzee away, and that they were willing to go to other pieces. Also, they just were able to lean on the run game in a more, like, consistent fashion
Starting point is 00:37:08 than maybe they had been getting at times this season. But those are my guesses is they just didn't need to go to Oduin's. I think from a talent standpoint, he can win and pretty much any matchup. My only real problem had been Caleb missing him a lot. And so, like, now if you have more target concerns, too, which could be something we've kind of seen over the past month, It hasn't been quite as focused on him as it was in the first month of the season.
Starting point is 00:37:34 Then now you are starting to get a number of things that are concerns, you know, and that probably pushes him down to the like lower wide receiver two type of range, you know, like probably below somebody like Ladd-McConkie, you know. But I think he can bounce right back. If we see the offense focused on him, he's good enough to give you that high upside. Yeah, so you talk about the matchup. you think, oh, the Bengals, right, such an easy matchup. And I definitely did think that going in.
Starting point is 00:38:04 I do think it is an easy matchup, generally speaking. But what did they do? I don't know, Dan, if you had a chance to watch the tape, I did a lot of double teams. He's running deep routes. He's getting safety help most of the time. And then you look into the numbers, and the Bengals give up a ton of big plays in the passing game,
Starting point is 00:38:20 the second most completions per game of 20 or more yards. But they're 15th per game. They're right in the middle in completions allowed of 20 or more air yards. and they just don't give up a lot of deep balls. They don't see a lot of deep balls. Teams don't throw deep on Cincinnati. Wide receivers have the sixth lowest a dot against Cincinnati,
Starting point is 00:38:39 what's the best way of saying this? Wide receivers against Cincinnati, six lowest a dot in the NFL, right? And they give up a lot of yak, second most yak per catch. So I think they play this defense, and I didn't really notice this before until I watched the tape, or of course I would have brought it up on the preview. I think they play this defense where they just try to keep everything in front of them. obviously it's working really well, but they, they like just, it was a better matchup for underneath guys than it was for Romo Dunezay based on the way they were playing and based
Starting point is 00:39:07 on the statistics that we see against their defense. If you look at the first three targets, they do have it live right now. It's 21% 11, 21% D.J. Moore, 21% Zuckias, 11% O'Donzee and commit. And that's kind of what we've seen a little bit more, is willing to kind of just go really balanced with that, whereas early in the year was like 38% O'Donzee and everybody else is of like 10%. All right. So,
Starting point is 00:39:30 Dune's A mean, it's way ahead of a guy like Teterol McMillan for the rest of season, right? You would think? Yeah. It had been a better
Starting point is 00:39:38 situation, yeah. Right. The situation, there's a path to it being really freaking awesome whereas, like, for T-Mack to give you that kind of fantasy upside,
Starting point is 00:39:46 he just has to do it all in his own. And like, to Adam's point, he hasn't had a lot of huge long plays. He's more of just like a chunk play guy. T-Mack is kind of like Drake London early in his career. where it's like he can get there through just like accumulating a ton of volume.
Starting point is 00:40:02 But he's not, it's going to be really hard for him to get spike weeks because the offense is so bad. And he's not like some long burner. Right. I do think if the bears can be a ground and pound team like the Panthers, then they will do it. So it'll bring us into our next topic, which is Monongai. Now I think, you know, this is obviously very relevant. How many targets are going to be available?
Starting point is 00:40:22 They're going to throw more than 30 times a game. I hope so. Maybe not next week against the Giants or this upcoming. coming week against the Giants, but they got Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Green Bay twice, San Francisco, still remaining on the schedule. I don't think they're just going to be able to run the ball, not have to chase any points, the Bears. But, all right, it brings us to Flava Dave, who says, buy or sell, Kyle Menangai will usurp
Starting point is 00:40:43 D'Andre Swift as the primary ball carrier. Rest of season, Jacob dazzle us with a tweet. So I'm going to sell, yeah, let me get the tweet on the screen. I think that it makes the most sense that they'll use both, right? I think that they have pretty complimentary, like, skill sets, and you, Ben Johnson will still want that big play outside zone type of upside that Swift brings with a little bit more speed. But Managa, yeah, I mean, hell yeah, he's worked his way into a larger role here. This is the second most rushing yards in a game for rookie round seven running back, dating back to 2000.
Starting point is 00:41:22 And you might say round seven rookie running backs, like, They don't do anything, right? So how many of them are there? There's not that many, but there were some cool ones. Amad Bradshaw you'll find on this list, Peyton Hillis, obviously, Isaiah Pacheco, Chris Carson. And then to the very top, the guy who has two more yards than him for the highest game is Bryce Brown? Does anybody remember Bryce Brown in 2012? I do not remember him.
Starting point is 00:41:44 On the Eagles, dude, yeah. Explosive play guy, and he just started ripping off big plays. You see two 30-point games here. So I love bringing up his old list and just looking at it. Yeah, Bryce Brown, let's see. Those two games, by the way, on that, so Jacob is displaying Bryce Brown, Kyle Monongai, Bryce Brown is the three most rushing, the three highest, you know, rushing yards in a game for a seventh round rookie in their rookie season.
Starting point is 00:42:12 Those are back-to-back weeks for Bryce Brown. Yep. Holy cow, looking at his game log, 19 carries, then 24 carries. Oh, my God. What do you have the next week? He had 12 carries for six yards. and he had 16 carries for 34 yards. This isn't a Rico-dattle corollary, is this a tale of caution here?
Starting point is 00:42:29 Oh, man, I don't know, but yeah, you think split. I think, first of all, to say Menanga is just going to take the job is to discredit the work that DeAndre Swift had done in his previous three games. He's been on fire, so give him, obviously they're blocking well. Yeah, who has more carries rest of season when they're both healthy? What do you guys think? I'll go Mononga. I'm also going to go Menongai.
Starting point is 00:42:55 I think when it comes to Menongai, he's a player who we raved about or I raved about a little bit more during the early part of the spring because I just thought his tape at Rutgers was so good. He was the entire offense there. He reminds me a lot of what's working for Rico Dowdell. He just runs so hard.
Starting point is 00:43:11 He runs so low. Great center of gravity. Even at Rutgers, he was up in the charts and creating yards after contact just seemed like the type of player that once he gets the NFL, he's going to bring that kind of attitude. And he has, like, he took that role. And I'll say this, like, Swift has been really good, too.
Starting point is 00:43:28 You mentioned it, Adam. I think the blocking's been really good. The scheme's been really good. That combination has opened up stuff for Swift, but it hasn't been perfect. There have been some reps I've seen broken down by Matt Walman and other people out there who have shown, like, in the red zone and things like that. Swift has not been perfect with, as far as, like, choosing the right holes and flowing with the run.
Starting point is 00:43:48 Manungai looked pretty damn perfect out there yesterday. this role. So I would have to bet that he would be getting more touch his rest of season, though I still think I'd rather have Swift and fantasy because of the receiving role. I'm excited to get into the day because I think if what Dan's saying is real, that he is just like seeing things well and making the most ever play, there is a chance that he does usurp him. At the beginning of the year, Dan and I did like, who's this Bucky Irving and gave like a rating for all the rookies? And Monaga was like fairly high where it's like, we don't have the much confidence in Swift. Like not that he's a bad player, he can offer the offense something,
Starting point is 00:44:19 but it's kind of like Rashad White where it's like there are things that like he could improve on you know like with the vision and some of the decisiveness and stuff and it's like Minogue is just better maybe he does become that player
Starting point is 00:44:31 yeah I'm going to say Swift has more carries the rest of season not with a ton of confidence but I you know this was Cincinnati we can't forget that this is the best matchup for running backs maybe the one next week is even better
Starting point is 00:44:46 it's the Giants so but you know back to back games against Cincinnati and the Giants is amazing. So if Swift is out again, I mean, Monongai, you could rank in the top five. And I wouldn't argue with it for week 10. So I think Monongai, I think he might be better at the goal line. You look at the numbers this year.
Starting point is 00:45:05 Swift's actually had some success down by the goal line. But him going up the middle near the goal line is not easy. You know, Jacob brought it up, I think, last year. He's been pretty bad short yardage back in his career. career. So my fear is that this conversation in a few weeks is just a bad one. It's we can't trust the Bears running back. It's the Chuba Hubbard Rico Dowdle thing only it lasts. That would be bad for everyone involved. So that's obviously a scenario here. I feel pretty good about the back that actually. That's what I was looking up before you even brought that point up was on
Starting point is 00:45:43 running back runs, the only team of the higher success rate is the bills than the Bears. And it's like, that's pretty wild, right? When you have Dandre Swift as you're running back, he's never been a success rate guy. But any backfield that splits is bad. Unless one guy's catching a lot of passes, which is not the case with Swift. He's usually in the three-catch range, I think.
Starting point is 00:46:04 So I'm just saying, like, they could have a very successful running game, but if they're both doing it, it could look like Ken Walker or Zach Sharbonate, you know? Yeah, no, I got you. That's fair. All right, next one is from Dolf. He says, buy or sell that D.K. Metcalf is dropping. So obviously it's a sell, but it's still a guy worth talking about
Starting point is 00:46:28 because he's coming off a terrible game. And you know what? He's gotten 34 or more pass attempts from Aaron Rogers in three straight games. And he's gotten 5, 7, and 4 targets out of it for 8, 16.5 and 2.6 fantasy points. Let's throw up a little D.K. Metcalf screenshot here. another opportunity. He was open in the end zone. There's a lot of guys
Starting point is 00:46:53 for Rogers to throw that ball over. So it's not exactly the easiest play. He's rolling to his right. But Metcalf, that one stood out to me. They also shadowed him with, honestly, a cornerback I really didn't know anything about. What was his name? Number 40 for the Colts.
Starting point is 00:47:09 It was Jalen Jones. He was on Metcalf a lot. Not a true shadow. But I think still, The target for out run rate is pretty low. It's less than 20%. It's frustrating. I thought it was going to be a good game for him.
Starting point is 00:47:25 It's a great matchup. I figured they'd have to throw a lot. They did throw a lot, even though they were winning. So, Dan, I'm disappointed. Obviously, I'm not dropping Metcalf, but last week we talked about him because they had the Sunday night game. And I was like, look, he's a number two receiver.
Starting point is 00:47:36 I'm just starting him every week. I still feel that way. Another bad game might push that down a little bit. I was never at that point with him. Jacob and I've kind of discussed him at length this season on BT. be because he was not a play he was a player we were avoiding at this point think he's almost like a touchdown or big player bust type of fantasy start so that's what he's been all year but he just
Starting point is 00:47:57 keeps getting it he just had keep getting it right and then it's like when you look at that type of player i don't think i can slot that into wide receiver two that feels like more of a wide receiver three flex play for me let's see where he ranks this season in full ppr it's going to be a little bit lower now he's probably i can't imagine he's top 24 Oh, he's right there. He's 26. Yeah, there's just not a lot of, not a lot of consistent fantasy production
Starting point is 00:48:22 from the wider Cere position this year. He's 20, you got him at 25th overall. You can't drop him. I got 26 per game. No, you can't drop. You can't drop D.K. McHaff. He's averaging the same amount of points as Cortland Sutton.
Starting point is 00:48:36 And I feel like people view them very differently. Yeah, because McCaff's done it mostly on big plays and touchdowns. What has Cortland Sutton done? He had one catch. It was a big play in a touchdown yesterday. Yeah. you're right it's really just i can't imagine i can't believe that he's not getting more targets that's
Starting point is 00:48:51 the thing about aaron rogers his entire career he gets his one guy and he fires targets at him and he does it in the red zone he does it in the end zone and it's not this is a way different offense than anyone he's played in in his career though he's actually deferred to arthur smith in a lot of ways and it's a lot of just heavy personnel run the boot action or run the play action and hit your tight ends cordal and sudden is actually a really good comparison like their numbers are nearly identical as I'm looking at them right now. Cortland Sun is a higher average depth of target. But I feel like Aaron Rogers is providing higher quality targets than Bo Necks.
Starting point is 00:49:29 But like 19% target for Rout Runway for Metcalf. I was looking, I was bringing it up as you were talking about. I'm like, wow, that's so low. It's 74th among receivers. And I was looking at some of the names around. I'm like, oh, there's Sudden again, like lining up right next to him. Yeah, it's weird. I have to watch the film of that and see if he was being shadowed
Starting point is 00:49:47 by Stingley. His touchdown, his only catch of the game, was not on Stingley. Just last thing on this, Aaron Rogers, just getting the ball, getting rid of the ball really quickly yesterday. 65.7% of Rogers' throws were in under two and a half seconds. That was his second highest rate of the season. Going into Monday night football, it's the second highest rate of any quarterback in week nine. Only Mac Jones had a higher rate of throws in less than 2.5 seconds. By or sell, for me, Matthew Stafford is a league winner. Matthew Stafford has scored 31.6 or more fantasy points in four of his last five games in six point per passing touchdown leagues. He has QB7 per game in four point.
Starting point is 00:50:26 He is QB5 per game in six point. Dan Byersel, Matthew Stafford, is a league winner. Bye. I mean, one of my biggest regrets with fantasy this year is Stafford because of these injuries and the situation in the preseason and all the BS around him, you know, not practicing this and that, which seemed to be just management to prepare him for the season. I knew, and I was well aware, and I think a lot of us knew that Dante Adams was a pinpoint perfect fit for his skill set as a quarterback. And he has been a pinpoint perfect fit, and it allows its effort to do so many more things in the red zone to have just that reliable player, but also a player that can win one-on-ones
Starting point is 00:51:01 when Puka is getting, when coverage shifted his way, or when the game plan is to take away Puka. So he's got two amazing weapons, two the best receivers in the league, one of the best play callers in the league, still the best arm talent or one of the three, four, best arm talent in the league offensive lines playing well there's really no reason not to like stafford right now all that i have as pushback is i've got on the screen here the passing touchdown rate and it's seven point seven percent which is pretty much impossibly high but i mean but if there's ever yeah if there's ever a situation to facilitate it's like playing with mcgbvay playing with devonthe adams
Starting point is 00:51:34 playing with hook and akua he's never had adams adams is such a good fit for him for that scheme and for that offense yeah he's never had a wide receiver nearly as good as this except for Not saying that. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying with McVeigh, they've never had this situation. Yes, they have. They had Cooper Cup who had the greatest season. Cooper Cup was not Devante Adams.
Starting point is 00:51:58 He's not a one-on-one winner who can be isolated on the boundary. He's a break off the slot, make a big play type of player. Does it matter? I mean, the fact is he had the best season in receiver history. Agreed. Because it's never. Well, a lot of it is Stafford. Well, that way, so Stafford, let me see, Stafford's best season in terms of points per game.
Starting point is 00:52:20 Just stylistically, I'm talking about. Obviously, Cooper Cup, I'm not taking anything away. I want to make that clear. His Triple Crown season, he was a phenomenal player at the NFL level. Different player, though. Stafford's a completely different player. Currently averaging 25.4 fantasy points per game, six point leagues. He averaged, I believe 2021 was that year with Cup.
Starting point is 00:52:41 He averaged 24 points per game that year. and he had 4,886 yards, 41 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions. This year he only has two interceptions in eight games. So that's probably the difference there. I hesitate to say that any quarterback who, like, right now, Matthew Severn has negative six rushing yards. And he has one rushing touchdown in his last 10 years, I think, something like that. So for them to be league winners would have to be like golf last year. What happened with golf was second half of the year, he was insane.
Starting point is 00:53:13 His defense completely fell apart. They were one of the worst defenses in football. He was throwing a ton, all these indoor games, like all these, you know, good match. And even when he's outdoors. I won't even go play that card. He was so good. I feel like Stafford will not get to those heights
Starting point is 00:53:28 because the Rams have a really good defense right now. It's just, it's just that he's getting that third touchdown or fourth, almost every game. Yeah, I think it made a good case about the game script. So I'll say I'll sell on this. Well, I don't know. He's so good. I will.
Starting point is 00:53:43 Go ahead, Jacob. sorry they've got some games that could turn into shootouts definitely over the next month they've got san francisco and then seattle with that perfect uh you know offensive machine there in tampa bay and then in week 15 they've got detroit um week 16 in seattle week 17 Atlanta so like some of those games could be really high scoring all right this is going to be our last one i want to get your thoughts on the colts wide receivers i don't really have a buyer sell here but i you know what i guess buyer's sell josh downs and alec pierce are must roster players in a 12 team team league.
Starting point is 00:54:16 I'll say by must, they're like right on the line of must roster. Like there's, I don't know, it's, they're both really good. And I think the coaching and everything that's happening with all the motion and the play action and everything is just going to keep boosting efficiency. And they're like perfect at their roles. And if any one piece of the offense is missing, then like they can step into an even bigger role. Like we saw when Downs went down.
Starting point is 00:54:38 Alex Pierce saw more looks, which is weird because they're not like similar types of players, it's just like it takes one piece of the offense out and now there's a little bit more available and he can do a lot of things and I think downs can too like if downs were asked to do more down the field I think we could see a lot more production that we've seen but even now in the role they're fine if you need to plug them in they're I think they're good pieces to have on your bench like I would rather have an alec fierce where I know I can plug him in it might not you know you might get a bad game but that's going to be the case of pretty much any fill-in option I would rather have that at this point than like somebody who I'm like stash
Starting point is 00:55:13 and hoping that a running back ahead of him gets hurt. If you're, like, heading into the fantasy playoffs and you want, like, points, you want wins, I'd rather have that. So I'm going to say bye. I like these guys a lot. They're playing really well. Hmm. I think I would rather have a handcuff running back.
Starting point is 00:55:28 If it was a high-end handcuff running back, you know. I'm a strong buy on Alec Pierce. Watch the tape last week. Love what I saw and loved his role in the offense. Is that isolated boundary receiver, like running at either spot on either side of the formation, and he's going to get so many of those one-on-one looks. But he doesn't get that many targets, dude. He has two games with more than five.
Starting point is 00:55:48 He does need them, though. He does need them. He has two games of more than five targets. You can't sustain that. He has two red zone targets all year. The red zone stuff is a little worrisome, for sure. If your average depth of target is 21 yards, then maybe, like, the number of target, you know, is a little bit different in terms of what we think you need. It's not just like vertical shots, though, too.
Starting point is 00:56:10 Like, he is isolated and he has a million one-on-one. a game but he's also running like comebacks off of that and deep out cuts like he's just a very difficult matchup and he's getting one-on-one a lot of the times off coverage with no safety to that was the that was the second thing I was going to say is like if you're a freaking basketball player you're a power forward out here who's playing against five foot 10 dudes like yeah you're just getting one-on-one all the time you have a 41-inch vertical you're super big and strong like yeah like you could probably be a little more efficient with your targets than most people I think he's more of a small forward yeah I don't know if you're talking like
Starting point is 00:56:42 NBA, sure. Well, I think you're going to like his tape this week, too. I watched his targets, and they were 13 of them. Remember, Daniel Jones threw 50 passes in this game, and I think Alec Pierce ran 50 routes. So that's always going to boost the production. But he even made some sick moves, including maybe this is one of his best routes in the game. I didn't watch all the routes, like I said.
Starting point is 00:57:04 He destroyed Joey Porter on a double move, got wide open for a deep ball. Jones missed him. I don't mean that to despair as Jones. It's people miss guys on deep balls all the time, but yeah, he can play. This was the first, this was one of the first few, like, bad weather games, and it wasn't even bad weather, just not perfect dome games for the Colts offense, which I think will impact them down to stretch, but they don't have that many. They have the chiefs in a couple weeks, and that's basically maybe Seahawks.
Starting point is 00:57:31 That's it. Everything else is in a dome or in Jacksonville. So for that reason alone, I think the offense will get back on track. Also, he doesn't have any touchdowns yet, which is crazy because the offense is, like a touchdown producing machine and he like I said is this big guy who can win with big plays can win in the red zone and stuff like we're talking about him as if like he is he a fantasy starter is you know like even though he hasn't scored the touchdowns last year he had seven touchdowns in a smaller role and a worse offense yeah I think what wise guy said is spot on like
Starting point is 00:58:00 look up Jones's stats he's another dome QB Daniel Jones has been so much better in domes his entire career dating back to the time with the giants it's an arm I'm not even going to say it but He's definitely a better skill set fit indoors. Would have just been cheaper for the Giants to build a dome, split it with the jets than like pay Daniel Jones, have all the coaches and GMs are going to have to fire and all that. It just just built a dome. Would have fixed everything.
Starting point is 00:58:26 Yeah, that would have fixed it all for us for sure. Higher yard per out run rate this year, Alec Pierce or Emeka, Bucca. Gotta be Alec Pierce, right? That's right. Alec Pierce or Devante Adam? Oh, definitely. He's got to be Pierce across the board for these.
Starting point is 00:58:43 Alec Pierce, you're right again. Alec Pierce or Michael Pittman? Pittman. Alex Pierce. Alex Pierce. You don't play this game as good as Adam does. Adam throws in trick question, trick, you know, trick answers. There's no tricking with Alec Pierce.
Starting point is 00:58:57 You just throw him the ball. He catches it and he pushes you down. Fair enough. So just to sum that you like him better than Josh Downs if you were going to pick one? I do. Unfortunately, yeah, like I don't like anyone better than Josh Downs. But for fantasy right now, yeah. We'll tell you, man, the Colts have put together a pretty talented roster offensive.
Starting point is 00:59:16 Oh, yeah. Have a great day and check out all the Beyond the Box Square. And we're going to get Jacob on our Wednesday FFT episode, too, to drop a little advanced knowledge on you. Let's go. Looking forward to that. Talk to you next time on Fantasy Football. Thank you.

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