Fantasy Football Today - Beyond the Box Score: Taylor, Swift, Carr and More (10/31 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Happy Halloween! We've got some scary topics to cover like D'Andre Swift's workload and the Raiders laying an egg in Week 8. First, let's recap Packers-Bills (2:55) and tell you about Romeo Doubs and why you shouldn't be too concerned about Gabe Davis ... News and notes (8:00) and advanced stats you need to know (9:30). We've got stats on Kyle Pitts, Greg Dulcich, Tyler Higbee, Christian McCaffrey, Jimmy Garoppolo and many more ... After we talk about Halloween candy and costumes (30:50), it's time for Five Big Topics! We discuss Swift's workload (34:15), RBs vs. WRs in Fantasy (37:40), Dak Prescott's ceiling (42:40), a dreadful performance by the Raiders (48:40) and D.J. Moore's outlook (52:25) ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance.

Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Beyond the box score, the advanced guys are back. Dan and Gibbs are here. They took last week off. Pretty lame, but Frank and I held down the fort. Now, welcome back to Jacob. Well, really welcome back to Jacob. What's up, Jacob?

I'm glad to be back, man. You and Frank killed it last week. I didn't know who was coming on, and I was thrilled to see Frank. He always does such a great job. So, yeah, glad we got a good feeling. And Dan, you know, I didn't know who was coming on and I was thrilled to see Frankie always does such a great job. So yeah, we've got a good feeling. Uh, and Dan,

you know, I'm sure today's Halloween. You're going to go, you're going to go trick or treating. You're going to get candy and you're going to eat just the inferior parts of every candy. Yeah. That's my go-to.

That's my MO. And I've accepted that. Um, it's certainly better than my music takes, which are even more God awful, but I will say this. Luckily for Jacob and I, we did take last week off because we were planning a dual threat victory lap on Adam for four weeks now, calling that you should stash Wanda Robinson. And he has his breakout last week.

And then we were going to give you some hard times for that, Adam, because Adam did astutely now say you can't trust anyone in that Giants passing game. You can't trust him as every guy. And of course, as we saw, everyone fired him up for their lineups this week in the flat spot. And some people even in their wide receiver three, and he dropped an absolute goose, essentially a goose egg on you.

So we can't take that lap anymore. Adam can take that lap. I appreciate your hall of shame lap that you're taking right now. I do appreciate that. Sometimes you got to give credit where it's due. You know, I was going to say, this is the first week of the year that neither the Giants or the Chiefs won, but it's actually not true. They both lost in week three. Of course, they both didn't lose in week eight. The Chiefs were on a bye. And when they come back from their bye,

they will have Kadarius Tony. That'll be one of the news items we highlight. It is Halloween. So happy Halloween to everybody. I don't know which YouTube poll we have up, but I am very excited to see it right now, so I'm going to check that out. Thomas Schaefer is the best in the business at that for sure. And I have a Halloween costume question that I will ask you guys later. Here's the question on YouTube.

What do you do with leftover Halloween candy? Eat it later, bring it to work, throw it away, or what leftover candy? More on that in a bit. Let's get into the game from last night here. We've got, obviously, the advanced stats that you need to know, the five big topics we have today. DeAndre Swift's workload, running back versus wide receiver right now,

which position is better? Dak Prescott and his outlook. The Raiders and the dud. I have a great theory on the Raiders. I'm nailing this theory on the Raiders and the, the dud. I have a great theory on the rate. I have, I'm nailing this theory on the Raiders later. And, uh, DJ Moore,

is he a must start wide receiver? As long as PJ Walker is his quarterback, which will once again be the case in week nine, Buffalo 27, green Bay 17, Jacob, what'd you think of Sunday night football? Any big takeaways?

It's actually the worst game of the year for Josh Allen. Any big takeaways from you? Um, no, there wasn't a whole lot romeo dubs look good um and and play a lot i was a little bit worried there was some kind of weird quotes from aaron rogers after last week and i thought that might be him that was gonna you know see it deep in playing time but that's not the case he saw a ton of air yards and uh converted that to a good game uh the other thing i would note is that james cook is clearly playing at a zach moss we've seen that for two straight weeks. So if something happens to Devin Singletary, I think it's going to be Cook, probably in a tandem with Moss, but probably leading the way, which is all that I think we'd really need for him to be pretty good for fantasy.

Yeah, no Alan Lazard in this game, so that probably helped Romeo Dobbs. He's 58% rostered. He had seven targets. He had two big plays. One of them was in the end zone. This was after a zero-catch game on four targets at Washington. It was nice to see him get going. He was only started in 10% of leagues. We'll talk about him on the Waver Wire show. I can't just assume that Alan Lazard's going to be back

this upcoming weekend, that shoulder injury. So we'll see. They're at Detroit this week. Schneier, what about you? Big takeaways from this game? Jacob stole my thunder a little bit on the James Cook thing, but I'm happy he did bring it up. we'll see. They're at Detroit this week. Uh, Schneier, what about you? Big takeaways from this game? Uh, Jacob stole my thunder a little bit on the James Cook thing, but I'm happy he did bring it up.

Zach Moss. That's two weeks in a row without any snaps. Now cook has clearly moved ahead of him on the depth chart and cook displayed in my mind, at least from just rewatching that game a little bit, some of the trademarks of his game from a trait standpoint that got me really excited about his film at, uh,

Georgia, just the ability to press the line of scrimmage, have that like innate sense for where the cutback lane is, which is what something, you know, his brother Dalvin does such an excellent job on. He's a really smooth mover in the open, in the open field.

So I think that if he did actually get an opportunity, if Singletary went down, he could be a potential high end RB two back end RB one. So that was one of my key takeaways. Another thing is don't panic on Gabe Davis. This is kind of the player he's going to be for us this year, this boomer bus type player, but you're not going to want to miss him in your lineup for the big weeks. And just understand that a big reason why he had such a bad day in fantasy was based on the way that the Packers played the bill schematically. They wanted to keep everything

in front of them. You can see, obviously the bills ran the ball way more often than they have in the past or than they even want to. This is not a team that wants to be a run-first team at all from an offensive standpoint. And so, look, if you're taking away the deep play, it's going to be tough for Gabe Davis to have his big weeks. There will be weeks, though, where you can look into it beforehand, maybe, Adam, and be like, okay, this is the type of matchup you don't want to play, Davis. And that's something maybe we can do a better job taking a deeper look into, depending on what type of matchup. Yeah, I have taken a deeper look into it.

This was on paper the toughest matchup that Gabe Davis has in the next, I'd say, month. The other teams that he's going to play are not as good in the secondary. And you're also, you know, I emailed you guys a stat from ESPN about Jair Alexander. Jair Alexander is one of the best cornerbacks in football, and he was on Gabe Davis for 61% of Gabe Davis' routes. He was barely on Stephon Diggs,

but Davis saw a lot of Jair Alexander, and he had seven targets for the game. He had four with Alexander targeting him, and he didn't catch any of them. Sorry, covering him as the nearest defender. So I think that's the big thing here combined with 25 pass attempts for alan which is low combined with 13 completions and just kind of a disappointing game for josh allen one of the interceptions that he threw was to gabe davis at

the one yard line so um yeah i'm not panicking on davis yes he'll be a little inconsistent but this was this was a combination of a lot of things that went wrong for Gabe Davis. I think number one, Packers defense and Jair Alexander specifically. Aaron Jones looks like he's back. There's no way you're sitting Aaron Jones at this point. No, no shot. They're running the offense through him like they should have all year. All right, man. all year. Aaron Rodgers

has scored 19 to 21 fantasy points in six of his last seven games. It's just where he lives. He's pretty solid in that QB2 range these days. Yeah, you could do worse. We've got some

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Buy some stuff. Fantasy Football 20 for 20% off. Who uses Bing? Oh, there's a lot of Bingers out there. There's no shot. I was just watching Friends. I can't even believe that was the second search engine you went to. It was a Chandler episode, so I was just, you know, Bing.

Nah, it was a joke, Dan. News and notes. Jonathan Taylor twisted his ankle, so we got to check on him. There was just an you know, being... It was a joke, Dan. News and notes. Jonathan Taylor twisted his ankle, so we got to check on him. There was just an update on it. We'll call him questionable right now. They're at New England, and Naeem Hines could be someone you want to get.

Cooper Cupp also hurt his ankle. That was late in the game, final minutes, and we'll go from there. Hopefully not a big deal. But for many of you, those could have been the top two picks in fantasy drafts. Taylor and Kopp both banged up. Jamar Chase not going on IR. Mark Ingram is going to miss several weeks with a sprain in MCL.

Irv Smith, high ankle sprain. Devontae Parker left on the opening possession, but not a serious injury. Could be back this week. Could be back maybe in two weeks. I think they have a buy in two weeks. Eagles defensive tackle Jordan Davis, high ankle sprain, Christian Watson, concussion, Packers linebacker Devondre Campbell

left in the second quarter. They also lost another starting linebacker who pushed one of the coaches last night. He got ejected. The Cardinals play without three starting offensive linemen. We're going to talk about that a little bit later. Bills safety Jordan Poyer left with an elbow injury, and he said he heard a pop. the Cardinals play without three starting offensive linemen. And we're going to talk about that a little bit later. Bill's safety, Jordan Poyer left with an elbow injury and he said he heard a pop.

So that could be really devastating for them. They've already lost Micah Hyde for the season. I mean, that's a huge deal. And Poyer and Hyde both being out for extended times. That could be significant. They're at the jets this week. That's pretty much it.

It was a pretty light week. Oh, Cadareous Tony's going to, it seems like he's going to play this week. He's healthy. They got Tennessee the Jets this week. That's pretty much it. It was a pretty light week. Oh, Kadarius Toney seems like he's going to play this week. He's healthy. They got Tennessee coming off the bye, and PJ Walker's going to start for the Carolina Panthers. Okay, guys.

Let's dig into the stats a little bit here. Jacob, where should we begin? How about Kyle Pitts? Hey. Kyle Pitts, DJ Moore. again um how about cow pits hey cow pits dj more like we've got some some hope on some of these guys that uh you know we were just in a pit of despair a couple weeks ago uh 27 routes run on 31 drawbacks for cow pits um dominated the target share uh weirdly his area outage was way down but i think that's just a one one game thing um But if we can get that route involvement rate up around 85% where it was here like that, it's great. He's probably going to be a top five tight end if we can get that.

It's tough. Also, they dropped back 31 times, which is much better than what we'd seen the week prior. All they needed was almost a full overtime. That's fair. And you know what? I think he's had an end zone target in three straight games, I think.

And one of them may not have counted because he drew a penalty. But that is someone that Mariota's looking at in the end zone. Give me another one, Jacob. We'll go to Dan. Dan will get plenty of... Like, Dan's, you know...

Another tight end. Greg Dolchich. Routon-Volmeret was up to 91%. Damn it, you stole my Dolchich take. This is Adam's fault. I had a chance here. I was going there next. I'll give you the credit, though.

You know what? This is on Adam. I take full responsibility. You should. So his route involvement rate hadn't been above 80% in any of his first two games, even though he'd been pretty productive. So it's just exciting to see him running around on almost every single dropback. And he looks great. He looks really, really good. Yes. And so it's just exciting to see him running around on almost every single drop back um and he looks great he looks really really good yes um and so he's exciting i think he's

legitimately probably some reviewing as a top 10 top 12 tight end going forward um and then if we want to stay in that game jerry judy i earlier in the year finally i know earlier in the year i kind of conceded that adam you, maybe you were right on sudden, but things do not look good for sudden lately. And we now have almost 500 career routes run together with sudden and Judy and Judy's completely dominated. He has 178 PPR points in that split. Sutton has 91. He has 932 receiving yards to Sutton's 425. And some people have replied and said, you know, he, he was hurt. A lot of those routes

came last year when sudden was in his first year coming off the ACL, which is fair. Um, but if you just look at the routes run together in 2022, um, Judy is out targeted him. He has 431 receiving yards to sense 297. He has 90 PPR points to send 61. Um, he looks like the wide receiver one where they're both healthy. I don't know it's really it's a great debate and he brought up you know that he's had two games where he's got 20 you know fewer than 20 yards but he played 14%

of the snaps in one of them he played 59% snaps in the other so in the other six games 84% or more of the snaps and he has just been mostly better than Cortland Sutton. So that is something to consider. I don't know.

The first five games of the year, two of them he did get hurt. Sutton averaged... Oh, I just had this somewhere. It's actually at the bottom of my notes here. Sutton averaged... 83.4 yards. And Judy averaged 47.2. Now Judy was more like probably in the 70 ish range. Um,

if you take away the games where he was hurt, but I, I don't know. I mean, like, shouldn't Russell Wilson be good enough to make both of them good, right? Why is it have to be just one or the other?

I guess the other? The other thing I would say is I feel like Dolchich, I don't know how much tight end routes and targets necessarily affect the wide receiver target distribution, but Dolchich does run routes that are a little bit more similar to Sutton in terms of where he's going to be targeted. Yeah, but he has seven targets or something. He has

four targets in this game? No, he had five. And he had eight targets in two games with Russell Wilson. So I don't think that's why Sutton's struggling. Are you saying Sutton has eight targets? No, I'm sorry. Thank you for making me clarify. Dulcich has eight targets in two games with Russell Wilson. He had nine targets in the one game with Brett Rippon.

All I'm saying is the player he's replacing, like Albert O and Eric Saubert, are running very short routes and drawing targets that are a little bit more similar to Judy, whereas Dolchiches are a lot more similar to Sutton. So who would you rather have rest of season, guys, Judy or Sutton? Judy for sure for me.

Yeah, Judy for me as well. All right. All right, Dan, you're up. All right, a few more I want to throw out there. I want to start with the one that stood out the most to me, and that would be Rondell Moore, as he's kind of clearly taken over right now as that number two option with the Cardinals.

We tossed back and forth a few weeks ago what DeAndre Hopkins' return might mean for Rondell Moore in that Arizona passing game. But ultimately, although the snaps where they do line up Hopkins in the slot is not good for Moore, when they have Hopkins on the outside, it's clearly a good thing for Rondell Moore. It takes away defensive attention, and it opens up the middle of the field for Rondell Moore, who's now had a 95% route participation over the last four games,

including two of those, obviously, with DeAndre Hopkins. He has at least eight targets in three of those four games, so the volume is there, too, for him. And I just think ultimately, while we were debating it back and forth for a little while, the addition of Hopkins is actually a really good thing for Rondell Moore. And he's someone who I can kind of trust as a back-end flex or back-end wide receiver three moving forward. Another player I wanted to bring up potentially,

or any thoughts on that one? Yeah, it's all about the slot. I mean, that's just, whether it's been Dorsch or whether it's been Rondell Moore, he barely played in the slot two weeks ago in a terrible game. But AJ Green didn't play. AJ Green played outside, Moore played in the slot in week eight. And, you know, look, he broke a tackle for a big play and scored a touchdown. But I think you're looking at something like five, six catches for 60 something yards, maybe like a 10 to 10-13 PPR fantasy point kind of player.

And he's my number one waiver wire priority, I think, this week, if he's available in any leagues. All he has to do is play the slot. It's been extremely valuable. I say it so often. I'm sorry for repeating myself, but that's the main difference

between week seven and week eight. Week seven, he was outside the entire game. Week eight, he played mostly in the slot, and that's where Kyler Murrayray's been throwing yep 100 and average depth of average depth of target back down to 1.3 yards it'll never reach those historic lows of his rookie season i don't think he was in the negatives right or as damn close to the negatives i mean it hopefully won't ever reach that historic low but again yeah he ran 77 routes or he played 77 snaps in week eight my goodness so he did play a lot in the slot but it wasn't as lopsided as i thought it was 45

45 slot 30 wide and two backfield wow that's a lot of plays they ran can we talk about what andre hopkins is doing yeah he's the man he has a 30 target share and a 50 erotic share in each of the two games since he's been back which i didn't have the time to like see which players have done that but i bet there's only a handful of players who have even done that in two or more games on the season yeah um and he's done it in both of his games since he's returned it's the offense is running completely through him like his first down target per hour run right is like 40 or 50 percent like he's a 58 yard or 58 percent area already shared since he's returned like well while we're on the subject right marquise brown might be what roughly three

weeks away from returning so what does that mean for these guys going forward this is like top five fantasy receiver stuff from Hopkins. Yeah. And the production has been there. He looks good. We've seen his per route splits have been kind of troublesome the last few years, but I think it maybe was that he's been hurt because he looks pretty good right now.

That's what it is. I think he's been playing hurt for a while. Now he's finally fully healthy again, and you're seeing what he's out there. But the addition of Brown, like Adams asked, what does that do for the offense? I still think it will run through Hopkins even once Brown gets back. I think Hopkins and Brown, I'm sorry,

was kind of serving that role that Hopkins is now playing because out of necessity. The Cardinals didn't really have any other option. Now they feel comfortable, a lot more comfortable with Hopkins. And so I would think that it still would run through Hopkins. Okay. All right, Schneider would run through Hopkins. Okay. All right, Schneider, give me another. Okay, another interesting thing that stood out to me

was Christian McCaffrey. A lot of people were kind of skeptical, oh, he gets traded to the 49ers. Before the trade, the 49ers only had 18 total receptions on the year to running backs. That was scary looking. They had used multiple backs in the past, but it was pretty obvious when they made a

trade with all that draft capital they weren't going to trade for him to sit on the bench and this is one of the best coaches in the nfl he was going to find a role for him so he played 81 of the snaps it's 79 of the attempts a wild 72 route participation number that stood out to me with a 35 target share now obviously devo samuel is out so we have to consider that and that could change i don't expect him to have a 35 target target share every game, but anywhere close to those numbers is going to be big for him. A hundred percent of the short yardage plays he was in on and a hundred percent of the inside, the 10 yard line plays he was in on. So I think what I'm seeing from McCaffrey now is he's most likely going to be my, my number one player overall

going forward. Um, I really liked going forward. I really like the fit. I really like the coaching staff. I really like that he's in on all these plays, and they're actually finding ways to immediately get him involved in an offense that he just picked up two weeks ago. And I think it's going to be an interesting offense because I think Debo, Kittle, and Ayuk are going to frustrate the heck out of you. And especially Debo because just because of his name,

you're never going to want to sit him. And look, I could be totally wrong about this, but it's just my guess. and especially Debo because just because of his name, you're never going to want to sit him. Right. And look, I could be totally wrong about this, but it's just my guess. It's like a better version of the Steelers. The Steelers spread it around. They've got three wide receivers and a tight end who's involved and then a running back who's kind of involved

in the passing game as well. It's similar. It's two wide receivers and a tight end and a running back who's much more involved in the passing game for the 49ers. But I don't think if they're all healthy, mcafree to me is the only one who's going to be consistently good um i don't know and honestly like debo hasn't really been consistently good this year he's been consistently fine but he hasn't come even close to last year's production

so i'm nervous you know mcafree i think McCaffrey's the center of the offense now. Debo used to be. I completely agree. Right? We don't know. I mean, look, like you said, Debo didn't play. Maybe McCaffrey, maybe this is the best McCaffrey's going to be. Maybe he's 80% of this with Debo.

Not 80% of 40 fantasy points, but 80% of this type of usage with Debo Samuel. I don't know. But you're kind of where I'm leaning, Dan. I'm definitely leaning toward that being him being the most consistent player within this offense. I still think you're going to, like you said, want to start these guys week to week, but I was expecting like a huge kiddo week this week, for example, I thought it set up really nicely for kiddo level, huge week.

And he just didn't. And we're just going to call it a touchdown. He did catch a touchdown, but I was thinking like big, big, big week. He had a tough matchup. You know, I don't know if you saw my tweet. Two tight ends over the last 18 games have caught a touchdown against the Rams, and they are both George Kittle. Yeah, well, there you go.

That's a great stat. I did not see that stat. That would even just a matchup. I just felt like it was a good setup without Debo. But as we noticed, you know, a lot of those targets went through McCaffrey instead. And I want to talk about Garoppolo because he's done something that he's never done before. He's thrown two touchdown passes in four straight games for the first time in his career.

He had never scored 20 or more fantasy points in three straight games in six points for passing touchdown leagues. Now he's done it four straight times. He's got a—they have a bye this week? Yeah, they have a bye this week. Chargers, Cardinals, Saints, Dolphins. It's not like a bad schedule or anything. He's, I'm guessing, going to be what he has been so far.

He's a top 16 quarterback. He's 16th per game in four-point, 15th in six-point for passing touchdown leagues. Never, almost never has a big three-touchdown 30-point. You just don't get that from Garoppolo. He's kind of like Aaron Rogers though, right around 20 fantasy points. So good for him.

I will say this about Garoppolo. I got to throw a little shade last night. This was a great stack courtesy of Ben. So lack, I was just such a good stat. I have to throw it out there. He completed his first pass ever, Adam and Jacob.

That was 30 plus yards. Air yards. He's never, he's never outside the numbers. He's never a good quarter, right? Second game as a air yards. He's never outside the numbers. He's never a good quarterback. Second game as a 49er. That's amazing. That's incredible. But he's never like he's never

it's not about oh he's so good. He's never had this type of weaponry. True. With a healthy Debo that mean is this the best set of weapons in the NFL potentially? With Jamar Chase out, yeah. Yeah, with Chase out, right, yeah. Right?

I don't know. Maybe I'm missing something. The Eagles have something to say for that, I guess. Maybe. I think I'd rather have this group than the Eagles just based on McCaffrey alone. I know you guys have a lot more stats you probably want to get to. Jacob? Or no?

I would say like Indy, I think dan hit on this two weeks ago they went to this like no huddle you know much faster pace of play a ton of shotgun and i think that was just they were trying to like save things with matt ryan uh they completely they went they completely went away from that yeah um and the the big change is that ellinger if he's going to continue to be the starting quarterback he just throws downfield way more and he takes way longer to throw. His average time to throw is three seconds. That's basically what we saw from identically at Texas as well and in the preseason.

That's going to be one of the top five rates in the NFL, and that definitely stands to benefit Alec Pierce. The other two guys, Michael Pittman and Paris Campbell, have been used really on short routage type of looks. And I thought that might change for Pittman with Ellinger at QB, but it didn't. So I don't know if it's a great fit for those guys, but it does look good for Pierce. I try not to take too much out of, you know, just one game, his first game. I mean, we've talked about Wandale Robinson, his first game, he had those four targets.

That was two weeks, three weeks ago or whatever. He had a good route depth and ADOT and whatever. Then it completely changed the next week. We'll be monitoring Indianapolis. I just think it's bad for everyone, I think. Heath agrees. They just threw the ball a lot less. Pittman had a 40% target share.

That's probably not going to happen again. Here's some other things real quick. Tyler Conklin had four end zone targets. That was the most in the NFL in week eight. Terrace Marshall had three. A.J. Brown had three. Marshall's interesting from a deep league perspective.

Tyler Higby, guys, I don't know what you make of this. He is not running nearly as many routes. The last two weeks, he has run 20 routes and 14 routes. The two weeks before that, he ran 47 and 37. He left the game with an injury. But he played 49 snaps. He played a lot.

And his target per-route run rate was 36%, a season high, but that's because he wasn't running very many routes. So I don't know what's going on with Higby two weeks in a row. They also use a lot of three-receiver sets. But yeah, I think that maybe they're just using him more as a blocker. I haven't looked into that yet. All right, we'll try to keep an eye on that. Ty Johnson was the third down back for the Jets.

Michael Carter still had seven targets, but that's not a good situation right now. Robbie Anderson only played seven snaps. AJ Green played 37 snaps. Good trade. I know, Jacob, you're going to like this one. Antonio Gibson had four carries and six targets on first down. Brian Robinson had three carries and zero targets on first down.

So it was a little bit flipped. Like week seven, Robinson was a little more involved on first down, but week eight, it was Gibson by a mile. That's interesting. So something to keep an eye on there. Trending in that direction there for Gibson. And that's pretty much it. Good games for Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf

and neither of them played 75%... Neither of them played 70% of the snaps. They both were a little bit limited and they came through and Geno Smith was good. I will say Tampa Bay is just like... Maybe you already talked about Thursday night game, but Tampa Bay is throwing way more over these last two games. We've seen a back-to-back

games where they've thrown on 70 plus percent of their first downs. Whereas the only game that had happened prior was that game against Kansas City where they completely abandoned the run. But their other games, their rates were 36%, 24%, 66, 64, and 48. It's been 78 and 73% the last two games. So it seems like maybe they're going away from Fournette and the slow play a little bit and opening things up. Brady has not looked good. He's not played well.

But if we get this type of volume for Mike Evans and Chris Godwin, those two are third and fourth in targets, just raw targets over the past two weeks. Those guys are studs they're going to be like that's kind of been the problem for evans like up to this point is like they're just not passing enough but the offense is kind of more concentrated on them and they're passing more and so like the framework is there for them to really if brady plays better if tampa bay figures things out at all like to really explode in the second half. I think they've got to run the ball more.

I don't know why they went away from it. I know Fournette's not good per carry, but I thought on the first drive of the game on Thursday that they ran the ball pretty effectively. And I think you're getting too many third and longs. I'd have to look into that, but they're just too predictable. And they have a bad offensive line and an immobile quarterback.

It's kind of like Matt Ryan. It's like, I don't know. I don't know why they abandoned them. I know why they abandoned the run against the Chiefs. I don't know why they did it on Thursday. Who did they play on Thursday? I forget. Baltimore.

I don't know why they abandoned the run against the Ravens. Yeah, I don't either. I still don't. I mean, I'm still not entirely convinced that Godwin is himself. He had that catch early in the game where he had some nice bursts after the catch made it. It looks pretty fast, but I don't know, man. He should be doing a lot better than this.

He's so inefficient right now. It just makes you wonder. Part of it is his average depth of target is like three yards. Yeah. Right, and his route depth is down too, and that's why I'm wondering is he the same is he the same guy or i have no way of answering that but a couple other quick notes i want to throw out there specifically some good positive signs coming from the jaguars offense travis etn

on the field for 57 of the 72 total snaps he ran almost every single route except for two finished with 27 touches. Um, yeah, hasty was kind of the RB two over Connor. I know there was a lot of, you know, suggestions on who they, who you should stash of those two. I still think you should stash hasty based on injury, but we're seeing what a lot of people got hyped about in the preseason. When it comes to ETN, the Jaguars are actually committing to him in a bell cow road. This is bell cow roll. I should say, this is something we don't see from a lot of backs the nfl those kind of that kind of snap share that kind of route uh participation and then the overall touches so i think etn has a real shot to be a top 10 top 12 type of running back for sure

over the rest of the season taylor or etn jonathan taylor oh man uh i'm thinking about it we're at the point where i'm thinking about it because Colt's offense is so ineffective, and now Taylor's playing through another ankle injury. So I don't know. I have to think about that. I think I might actually lean ETN, which is crazy to even consider. No, it's not.

I'll take ETN. I would take Taylor. I'm worried about ETN handling 24 rushing attempts in a game. Yeah, I see what you're saying. Just like the longevity factor of it, Jacob. I wish that they would, yeah, get him out in space more, get him more targets. Did you, I have him with 20 routes running 35 drop bags.

Okay, I actually have 23 of 35. So that stat was actually off earlier. I might've, and I might, we might've had a little bit. Wow, I should have just sent it. I should have just thrown it to Jacob. Well, what did I say? I saw, I read it as 33 of 35, but it was 23 of 35. I'm still a really high route participation though. All right.

Uh, can we take a break? Did you have one more? Uh, the only other one I wanted to say was Evan Ingram ran a hundred percent of the routes for the Jaguars. He is now officially running every route for them. He is somebody who I think is,

if you're not going to get Dolchich this week on the waiver wire, if he's gone, I would try to get Evan Ingram as kind of your back end tight end. We're going to take a break. When we come back, we'll check in on our Halloween poll. I will ask you a Halloween costume question. We'll talk about some other scary things like DeAndre Swift's workload and

the Raiders offense. We'll be right back on fantasy football today. All right. Welcome back to beyond the box score here. And this is what we really want to talk about. What do you do with leftover halloween candy one eat it later to bring it to work three throw it away or four what leftover candy which is in second place uh what do you do you eat it later right i mean you eat it later just run it away with it 54 of the vote here yeah who's throwing it out that's like the worst possible option just chucking

into the garbage and let's see you know i understand if you need to throw it out because you don't have any self-discipline like me sitting right here as i can openly admit to being one of these people and you just know you're gonna eat it you're gonna snack on you're gonna keep eating you're gonna have like 11 pieces in one sitting in a night go ahead maybe throw it out but i feel like if you as long as you're still going into your job these days and you're actually not working from home take it into work give it out i don't know maybe leave it on. But I feel like if you, as long as you're still going into your job these days and you're actually not working from home, take it into work, give it out.

I don't know. Maybe leave it on your port on your front steps. It's like the, as the basket, I actually saw a video Adam today that I thought you would appreciate of someone's home camera video where, you know, the people who put out like a bucket of,

and they're just like, take one, please. Yeah. Well, it was actually some little, little kid who's like a, a little menace.

And he, Dennis, the menace type who took the whole thing and just dumped it dumped it full out into his bag and then he finished it off by flipping the bird so it's just an incredible video uh yeah i look the answer for me would honestly be eat it later and then throw it out i'm not gonna finish it we have to throw out some of it because you know the kid i can't give all that to my kids. I can't do it to myself, but I will eat, you know, I will eat for a few days. I'm eating, I'm eating Halloween candy for sure. Oh yeah. Um, Jacob, how about you?

What's uh, what's your Halloween, your Halloween, uh, tradition? Uh, you do later, but my Halloween tradition is I, I like to party on Halloween. I like to find. Oh, wow. I just love seeing everybody's costumes. You know what I mean? Like it's fun to get in a group setting and just like see all the creativity. What are you doing? It's one of my favorite.

What do you do, Jacob? We actually weren't able to go. So I'm actually really bummed about it because we just got a new place and we've just been super busy. And yeah, didn't get to do anything big this year. But all right. So then let me talk to you about costumes if you like people's costumes so i'm gonna i'm gonna you know dress up um but i'm wearing the shirt right now and i'm just gonna get you some images because you guys have never seen revenge of the nerds right no all right so so here's some images of of lewis skolnick from revenge of the dead.

And like, I don't have like a plaid, you know, short sleeve button down, but I do, I do have this shirt. Okay. And it has,

it's, it's a Lambda, it's a Lambda Lambda Lambda shirt, which is their fraternity. Okay. Now they don't wear this t-shirt, but it's got their logo on it. So it's a little obscure because people younger than me

are probably not going to know it. But I'm going to tuck my shirt into... Actually, I have a picture that I took. Perfect. I'm going to tuck my shirt into my pants. I've got socks that go like halfway between my ankles and my knees. I actually have shorts.

Tuck my shirt into my shorts. I'm going to do a side part. I don't know if you can see. I'm going to be just a nerd, basically. But I've got the Lambda. So you're just going to be yourself? Yeah, but a little nerdier. So I've got the Lambda Lambda Lambda shirt on.

And hopefully people will get it. Otherwise, it's going to be a terrible costume. But he also goes, he does this laugh like that. So I'm going to break that out. I'm looking forward to it. All right, let's get to our five big topics from bada bing, bada boom.

DeAndre Swift, will his workload improve? I would certainly hope so. He had five carries and five catches. Jacob, what do you think? I mean, week one, he had 15 carries and three catches. I don't know if he's been healthy since then. What do you think about Swift's workload? He was at least out there.

He had 51% snap rate, 54% route involvement rate. And he was out there in the red zone as well. He had 50% red zone snap rate compared to 38% for Williams. But Williams got three touches. Swift had a touchdown catch, but didn't have any rushing attempts in the red zone. So, like, they weren't limiting too much. And I think going forward, we'll see the rushing attempts be there,

but it might be more of a split than we anticipated going into the year, which maybe that's fine. Like as long as he's involved in the receiving game and like the offense is flowing and they're keeping them healthy. Like, I don't know. Yeah. Dan,

what do you think about the workload for swift he can't he can't survive on 10 touches which is two straight games for him he can't survive especially you know if the game with this defense the lions have right now and it's only going to get worse in my mind at least it's not getting any better it's hard to rely on them for you know a run heavy game game script at any point but i just feel like if I'm the lions, why am I divvying up this workload all Swift? When I know that Jamal Williams is capable back, he may not be as explosive. He may not be as efficient, but he's a capable back. And if I don't give Swift all those touches, maybe Swift won't keep getting injured because throughout his entire career with the lions, that's kind of the elephant in the room.

He's been injured a lot. And maybe they feel like if they give him a larger workload, that's why he keeps getting injured and they need to manage him for that, uh, for that standpoint. So I don't think they're going to all of a sudden turn this into a bell cow situation. Like we see with Travis ETN in Jacksonville, although as Jacob mentioned, maybe we should pull the, you know, put a halt to the ETN hype because if he, he could get hurt if he continues at this rate, but I mean, I don't see it. I don't see it changing anytime soon from the coaching standpoint there's no real incentive in my mind to to put him on the field when he's proven that he gets injured with the bigger workloads i mean bigger workload is one thing with five carries in his last three games he has

five seven and five carries right some of that's been you know it's all been health i don't know exactly about this week i guess but um you know you know, there's no reason why Jamal Williams should have twice as many carries as Swift. How many touches does he need to be a must-start guy? That's the question right there. That's a really good question. I would say... 12, 15? I mean, he's so efficient.

15, 15 if at least half are through the passing game, or at least 40% are through the passing game. Yeah. And he'll, you know, he's got, let's see what, he's got five, he's got 13 catches in four games, and that's with leaving a couple of them early or not playing full snap shares. It's really a tough one.

I guess I'll ask you guys, would you rather, how would you rank Jonathan Taylor, DeAndre Swift, Ramondre Stevenson? Taylor Swift, Stevenson. I will probably go... Wow, that's tough. That is tough. That's a good question. I think I would go Taylor Stevenson, Swift.

That's what I was going to say, too. I've got rest of the season rankings coming out, and i think schedule will have something to do with it when it comes to ones of this close but okay it's it's tough with stevenson or with swift right now all right here's a question from daniel i'd love to hear your discussion your discussion of the state of the running back and wide receiver positions preseason everyone said wide receiver was so deep but it seems like there are more high-end running backs at this point than receivers. I find myself always flexing a running back

because I have so many good ones. Dan, what do you think? I think he's on to something. The state of the NFL, if you just look at the state of the NFL, and obviously it changed a little bit this week with scoring up slightly, or not slightly, a good chunk

versus the rest of the season. But if defenses are going to continue to play this style of defense keep everything in front of you it's two safeties high very few middle of the field close looks and i mean some defense are still running middle field close with one high safety and pressuring like there's like four or five six that i can think of but the rest of the league is doing is has a similar strategy to how to stop an offense and don't give up explosive plays and so that means running backs will be way more useful even just in check in the check down passing game,

where they can also be an asset when you're facing that kind of defense. So I don't know. I think it looked the NFL cyclical thing. Things change a lot, but with where the passing games are at across the league and part of it again is like, what are we seeing? We're seeing some of the best quarterbacks in the league,

not playing at a high level, Tom Brady, and like some of the names that we've had through years that we've been able to count on to put up big passing game numbers, and that boosts up extra receivers who are startable, are not playing at that kind of level right now. So I think right now he's definitely on to something. I mean, it's hard to make such a proclamation already,

just eight weeks into this year, but it feels like the running backs have more value than they've ever had before. Yeah, the NFL, the last five years, are the five highest yards per carry seasons, I think, in NFL history. And I think that doesn't separate running back versus quarterback. I think that has a lot to do with quarterbacks rushing more. But it also has to do with the running backs, right? Because their teams are, back in the old days, it was a very run-first heavy game plan over and over, so it was a very run hurt run first heavy game plan over and over.

So it was easier to stop the run when it's coming so often. Yeah, maybe I just, I mean, I think I did it right. You go to pro football reference, you go to NFL season game team averages, you sort by yards per attempt.

And 2022 is the highest yards per attempt in the NFL history. 4.5 yards per attempt. 2020 is number two at 4.4, but, um, here's what I thought was interesting though. I said this on the Thursday podcast. I believe I use a number of 14 PPR fantasy points for wide receivers as start worthy, because usually that's the borderline two, three, like, you know, I think last year there were about 27 wide. I'll tell you right now there were, yeah, there were 27 wide receivers last year there were about 27 wide receivers. I'll tell you right now. Yeah, there were 27 wide receivers last year who averaged 14 PPR fantasy points per game.

29 the year before that, 27 the year before that. So that's where you're on the cusp of being a start-worthy wide receiver. So how many 14-point averages do we have so far? We have 18 running backs, which is actually lower. It's been the last five years 1920 2020 and 18 running backs averaging 14 ppr fantasy points a little bit lower uh no jonathan taylor in there no ken walker yet no travis etn that'll change a little bit um but only 23 wide receivers are

averaging that and that's the fewest since 2018 last five years, it's been 23, 27, 29, 27. Now 23 wide receivers averaging 14 or more PPR fantasy points per game. Um, yeah, that could change.

There are obviously some guys that are not, that could get in there, but there are probably some guys who are currently that could fall out of that. But wide receivers worse. It's just wide receivers worse this year. I don't know if running back is better. It feels better, but I'm not, I based on that stat I gave it actually isn't,

but it does feel better. You know, they've been pretty healthy this year, knock on wood. And then you've gotten these first and second year guys who are emerging and yeah, I don't know, Jacob, what's your thought on running back and wide receiver, I guess. Um, what I looked at was the snap rate to the running back position. So in the first four weeks, I just used 70%. It's a sort of arbitrary perimeter, but that's where I used to cut off the number of running backs that were hitting that rate. In the first four weeks, it was not higher than 10 in any given week.

The average was 9.2 running backs were playing at least 70% of the snaps. Over the last four, it's been nine or higher every single week. We've had 12, 15, 11 in the past three weeks. And so we're just seeing more running backs getting more of like a bell-cut role. We're seeing these Travis Etienne's, Romandre Stevenson's, even Eno Benjamin for a few weeks. You know what I mean? Like those types of guys are stepping into a bell-cut role

where previously there might have been some sort of a split. And I think that's the biggest difference outside of just really bad quarterback play. Like we've already hit on like Tom Brady, Russell Wilson, Aaron Rogers, Matthew Stafford, all these guys are playing much worse than we're accustomed to.

But yeah, I think it is. It's I, I tracked the snap rates route involvement rates at running back a tight end every single week. And so like, I've just noticed more and more running backs, basically that tweet,

I can normally fit in one tweet easily. And I keep having to make it two. And I'm like, what's going on? And is this, there's just more running backs playing more and that's good for fantasy. Yeah. All right.

Let's go to our third topic here from RC three, Dak Prescott will never be a 300 yard passer and pass interference needs to change to 15 yards. I have so many thoughts on pass interference. It's the worst part of football. It is so poorly officiated. I hate the underthrown ball that leads to a pass interference. It's rewarding bad quarterback play,

and of course it needs to be 15 yards. Of course it does. The NFL is so dumb about pass interference. They tried to review it. They were too dumb to review it does. The NFL was so dumb about pass interference. They tried to review it. They were too dumb to review it properly. They got rid of it. Give me a break. Pass interference is the best sport in the world. It's my favorite. I love

the NFL. Pass interference is the worst part of the NFL, other than injuries. Now, the other thing is Dak Prescott will never be a 300-yard passer. What do you think about that, Dan Schneier? Which one? About the pass interference? I don't care.

If you disagree with me on pass interference, I don't want to hear it because I will snap at you, and nobody wants that. What makes you think I don't want that snap? That's exactly what I do want. You should have not said that. Now I want to say everything that will make you snap, but I'll be nice and I won't lead to the snap.

No, you can wait. Whatever. You can wait on whatever you like. Dak Prescott, pass interference. It's the underthrown ball that drives me crazy. Quarterback makes a terrible pass. Cornerback is trailing the receiver. Receiver on the underthrown ball has to jump into the cornerback.

The cornerback has no choice. He has no clue what to do. There's nothing he can do. He's running at 20 miles per hour one way. What is he supposed to do? And he gets called for pass interference and is a spot foul. Awful.

Awful. Yeah, you actually saw one of the most heady plays by a corner that I've never really seen this week with Julian Love when Tyler Locke beat him in the end zone. And Love was trailing, and instead of just doing what all these other corners do,

try to make a play on the ball, they can't get their head around, it's an auto flag. He just kind of waves his arms in the air and gets out of the way yeah it's like it was an amazingly heady play um but you're right it is something that should be officiated a bit different the problem with the spot with the 15 yarder for me adam is there are some times where a cornerback is beat and just tackles the guy that's a touchdown that's a spot foul that's fine wanted to be subjective yeah there's a day foul. That's a spot foul. That's fine. Do you want it to be subjective? Remember when you said the 5-yard and the 15-yard face mask? Okay. And when you have the egregious

intentional pass interference, that's a personal foul. That's a spot foul. Otherwise, it's a 15-yard penalty. Oh, man. I have such a problem with the idea of making this game even more subjective for these horrific referees that are just terrible across the league. I'm sure it's a very hard job to do.

That is a tough play to officiate, but it's a bad rule. Yeah, it is. Jacob's just like sipping a Mai Tai over there, just taking it all in. As far as the Dak comment, I think there's some validity to it because when Dak was tossing these 300 plus yard games at a consistent pace before this injury a few years ago, it had a lot to do with the Dallas Cowboys defense playing at a very, very poor level. They were one of the worst defense in the NFL.

Now they're arguably the best, if not one of the best defense in the NFL. So that does change game script. And it does lead to situations where the Cowboys are not going to be as pass heavy. And they're going to want to lean on the run game more often because they don't need to be as pass heavy. So I think there is definitely some validity there, especially when you take Amari Cooper off the field and try to replace him with the Michael Gallups of the world.

Jacob, one thing that bothers me from a Dak Prescott perspective, they've got nine games left after their bye. Seven of those nine games. Why don't we remove week 18? So they have eight games left, fantasy season. Six of those eight games are against teams that are 20th or worse in scoring. So they have a schedule that's good for the running backs

and bad for Dak Prescott. When you get too wrapped up in schedule, it could certainly let you down. I didn't think that he would score 29 points against the Bears, but to be fair, he did it on 27 pass attempts, right? So he's thrown 29, 25, and 27 pass attempts right so he's he's thrown 29 25 and 27 pass attempts in three games they have arguably the best defense in football and they have a very favorable schedule from a defensive standpoint they're they're facing the vikings they're facing the eagles and i don't see another team that's definitely going to put up points against them so

you know what do you think is dac um a safe start or would you try to maybe sell him after this performance jacob i think i would try to sell him I think the points you make up are both you guys made about the defense are good um great and it's great even yeah it's it's yeah it's just a volume issue um and you know if it's not going to improve then like he is going to have to be hyper efficient like it was this week to be a top 10, top 12 guy going forward from a projection standpoint because I don't like the pieces that he's throwing to either. Dalton Schultz is finally starting to look healthy, but we can't get a ceiling game from CeeDee Lamb

no matter what the circumstances. That's been so frustrating because his underlying volume is so good, and Jalen Tolbert can get on the field, and there's just no one else. Michael Gallup is not it. I'll say this about the dac situation the one thing to keep an eye on is they were very very hesitant when he came back from the injury originally um from the ankle injury to run him and use him like they used him in the past as a rusher as a threat as a runner then this past week during the week jerry jones cowboy's owner who is the only owner in the nfl he's the only combo of anyone who has any power in the nfl gives away game plans just to

the media he just says things that end up happening so he it's wild it's just crazy you never see with any of these other guys but he basically said we're going to want to use dac more as a runner this week and that's going to be something we work into the game plan and he followed through on it dac i think had 33 yard rushing an extra 3.3 fantasy points which helps a lot to build a floor and really add to a ceiling potential as well um so if that continues going forward and they kind of take the training wheels off and they just say look we can't worry about him getting re-injured we just have to use him his skill set to the best of our abilities that could boost his floor at least a little more yeah jerry jones is so funny i mean you really can't take him

at his word he just gives away insider information all the time all right uh jade richardson says what happened to the raiders and partially josh jacobs the raiders got shut out guys at new orleans two fantasy points for derrick carr josh jacobs uh had 43 rushing, 11 receiving yards, two catches, 10 carries. They didn't get past midfield until late in the fourth quarter, and that was with the starters out. Jacob, what happened to the Raiders? One thing I noticed was Derek Carr was pressured a lot. He was pressured on 41% of his dropbacks,

and I've actually liked attacking the Saints defense because they're just not getting pressure at all. And nothing changed from the Saints schematically. They only blitz 17% of the time, which is right in line with their season average. And yeah, they had the fifth lowest pressure rate entering week seven, but that didn't stop the Raiders. And so that was a huge problem. They if I wouldn't worry about the usage for Josh Jacobs. He played 79% of the snaps in the first half.

He had a 69% route involvement rate in the first half, which is elite. Like last week, only four running backs were above 61%. So I think with better game scripts, he'll be fine. And then he had Devontae. He had an illness coming in. He also didn't play in the fourth quarter. Obviously, it was bad before that,

but I think that did affect things. You had a theory there, Mr. Schneier? I wouldn't say I have any kind of theory on this. I think Jacob laid out the points perfectly, at least as far as how I feel on this situation. I do have something that caught my attention that I wanted to bring up, a little bit of breaking news, thanks to Thomas Schaefer.

Oh, come on. I have a great Raiders theory. You can't just railroad my great Raiders. I don't want to railroad your Raiders. I forgot. You did mention at the top of the show. You have a great Raiders theory. All right.

Let's not talk about the breaking news. Let's get to Adam's great breaking news. Waver wire fodder. Rashad Bateman is going to miss several weeks. No, it is big news, obviously. Also, Mark Andrews should be OK. Mark Andrews is kind of like a day-to-day situation. He's not too beat up. Yeah, Rashad Bateman's going to miss some time.

Let's not bury the lead. Let's get to this theory. Yeah, there was one other news item that came across. All right, fine. Here's my theory about the Raiders. They had the flu. They did. They had four guys, including Devontae Adams, who mispracticed during the week with They did. They had four guys, including Devante Adams, who mispracticed during the week with an illness. I think they said it was going around. Adams, I think,

was just not himself. He had, obviously, a terrible game. Darren Waller didn't play. Adams had one catch for three yards on five targets. He was being covered

by first and second-year wide receivers, Elante Taylor and Paulson Adebo. And I thought they did an excellent job on him. I watched, uh, I watched every throw from Derek Carr and you know, I'm like, he's just, he's the best route runner in the world. Basically he gets open all the time and he just didn't seem like he was himself. So now you're talking about very little, uh,

Devante Adams, no Darren Waller. Um, and yeah, and, and the pressure got to him as well. So a really off day from them. But this was their flu game. Except it wasn't a good flu game. But at the very least, we know that Devontae Adams was sick basically all week. So I think it's possible that he just wasn't himself. I'll say this too about the Raiders as far as rest of season and full season. If you look at the numbers and unpack them, Derek Carr on targets, 20 plus yards on the field has been awful as bad as he

was before he took a big step. I felt like under Gruden, he took a really big step on film as a passer. He was the check down King before Gruden got there. And he started to really utilize the intermediate and deep areas of the field under Gruden. And he really felt comfortable within that system. He grew within that system. Now brand new system with McDaniels and he's regressed back to this player who needs to check down a lot. He's not connecting on passes 20 plus yards down the field.

Super inefficient in the intermediate and deep areas of the field. And so I honestly feel like the system change more so than anything has really hurt the Raiders pass game. Jacob, topic number five is DJ Moore, a must-start wide receiver. This one's from Bango. As long as PJ Walker is a quarterback, is DJ Moore a must-start wide receiver?

Hell yeah. He's wide receiver eight since week eight. He has a 36% target share since that time. That's third in the NFL. 58. No, week six, last three weeks. You said week eight. He's wide receiver eight week six, last three weeks. Okay. Oh, you said week eight. So that...

He wired receiver eight since week six, my bad. Okay. 58% error to chair during that time. That's first. So like that clearly profiles my start player and it's backed by

super exciting underlying data too. 48% first down target share. So 48% of Carolina's total targets coming on first down, whether he's on the field or not, I've gone to DJ more of the past three games. They're really being intentional about getting in the ball. Um, they're running more slants and screens and just short yardage and they're getting involved in this slot more. Um, and that's what they did in week six and seven. And then week eight, eight, they just moved him back to his normal role and still kept targeting him on 30% of his routes. And the result was 251 air yards,

which has only been topped by Chris Alave this year. It's, I think, the sixth highest since the start of 2021 in a single game. So that's all really exciting. I don't know if P.J. Walker is going to keep playing this well. That throw he made was insane. Yeah. He also missed DJ Moore wide open on a deep ball. He was up and down.

Yeah. I'm so glad to see this because, yeah, I don't know. Earlier in the year, there was some conjecture on, is DJ Moore the guy we thought he is? And it's like, yes, he is. He is. He's a stud, and now we have validation that he is a stud. He can do it.

It's not like he got some huge quarterback upgrade. He just didn't have to play with Baker or Sam Darnold. Yeah. I questioned his route running several weeks ago, but he was open a lot in this game, and he completely had a 29-yard catch and run where he just schooled this cornerback, Cornell Armstrong. Now, a couple things here. Not only did the Falcons give up the most fantasy

points to wide receivers, but they were very beat up in the secondary. So that's basically as good of a matchup as you're going to get. And they get them again in two weeks, but Cincinnati is much better against wide receivers. Baltimore is kind of hit or miss. Denver is a nightmare matchup, and then you have a bye. Seattle is pretty good against wide receivers. They've got a good young secondary. So the matchups are going to get tougher. But I can't really argue with him being a must-star because his target share is so high, and he's good.

And we just talked about how weak wide receiver is compared to previous seasons. Dan, what do you think? Final word. I would say it's a buy situation as well. You can buy here for as long as Walker's the quarterback. And I think that's going to last for a little while now. They said already named him as starter for this week. Baker, the Baker Mayfield experiment, but they have nothing tied to Baker.

They didn't draft Baker. So I don't think there's any real push to get him back in. And they're a more competitive team with BJ Walker. So, yeah. All right. Happy Halloween, with PJ Walker. Alright. Happy Halloween, guys. Yeah. Happy Halloween.

I've got to be a little more festive next year, Adam. I've got to go to a party. I've got to dress up. I've got to do something. You think so? Yeah. I think after going on all these shows for the last two weeks and hearing how excited people like you are getting about Halloween and Jacob said it was his favorite holiday of the year, it was a bold take to call Halloween your favorite holiday of the year.

So now I feel like I've got to step it up a little bit. Look at this guy. This guy's coming in here and just trashing us in the chat. Oh, no. Hates our show. Oh, God. Yeah, he just hates us. Daniel, what's going on here, Daniel?

Why do you hate us so much? I've got to set on Derek Carr. I looked up his off-target rate on throws that came deep, 15 or more yards, because I was curious when Dan said that I haven't watched him enough to know, and it is the ninth worst in the NFL, which is bad. But I wanted to really, there's one player above 37%. He has a 40% off target rate on deep targets.

And it's not a quarterback you would guess. It's one of the better quarterbacks in the league. 35% off target rate. 40% of his attempts that have traveled 15 or more area have been off target. Is it Justin Fields? No, it's a good quarterback. This is a great stumper.

I know Mahomes has been bad with deep. Oh, I'm going to say Aaron Rodgers. It's not Mahomes, right? No. He just hasn't targeted him a bunch downfield, but he doesn't have bad numbers. Let's think. It's not Brady.

The league average is 25%. He's at 40 off target 40 off target percentage a good quarterback how is this dumping uh could it be Stafford no but he's third worst yeah I thought he said bad here that wasn't a terrible guess and if you move it up to 20 plus yards it's 50 the league is 31 okay worst worst deep ball thrower in football basically it's Lamar Jackson oh wow yeah he has missed a lot of deep ball thrower in football, basically. It's Lamar Jackson. Oh, wow. Yeah, he has missed a lot of deep ball throws.

A lot. All right, here's Daniel's beef. Ask FFT. Yes, wide receiver is worst. When this channel says to play Sutton, Devontae Smith, Wandale Robinson, and my bench wide receiver of Rondell Moore, Darnell Mooney, Allen Robinson all scored at least 10 fantasy points. He all capsed us. He all capsed us.

And how many exclamation... I can't even count the amount of exclamation points we have there. That's at least 10. Who were the bench receivers? Darnell Mooney, Allen Robinson, and who? Rondale Moore. Rondale. Yeah, I mean like... I would have started Rondale over Wondale. Really?

I have no regrets of starting Sutton and Devontae Smith. Yeah Smith I don't think anyone really was maybe over Wando but no one was suggesting that you would start those other three I don't think that's realistic really yeah well listen buddy thanks for stopping by

have a good day everybody we'll talk to you tomorrow with the waiver wire on Fantasy Football Today