Fantasy Football Today - Beyond the Box Score: Tony Pollard, 49ers Offense, Ravens WRs and More (11/20 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 20, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts We can't wait for tonight's game, but we als...o reflect on Vikings-Broncos (3:45) which was pretty damn exciting! How are we feeling about Justin Jefferson going forward? Do we have any concerns about Javonte Williams after this game? We also have a lot of news (9:45) to get to with quarterback updates for the Jets, Browns and Falcons ... A look at advanced stats (17:15) on Brian Robinson, the Lions running backs, Tank Dell, Calvin Ridley and more. Plus usage for James Conner and Puka Nacua and Brock Purdy's ridiculous efficiency (35:00) ... Film review of Justin Fields (38:10) and then our Four Big Topics: Ravens passing game (45:15); Tony Pollard rest of season (51:40); confidence in Josh Jacobs, Deebo Samuel and Garrett Wilson (53:55); handcuffs to roster (1:00:40) ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for?
Starting point is 00:00:38 Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline
Starting point is 00:00:54 at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply.
Starting point is 00:01:16 Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? I know I can. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. This is going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.
Starting point is 00:01:43 What's up, everybody? Welcome to Beyond the Box score. Advanced stats from simple people. Adam Azer, Dan Schneier, Jacob Gibbs is back. There it is. Jacob Gibbs is back. What'd you think about Gibbs last week? What'd you think about the Dan Schneier impression? It was, uh, it was underwhelming. It was.
Starting point is 00:02:06 No effort. No film study. Just whisper. No, there was effort put in. There's not enough film study. I didn't have time. I was trying to study players for this show, Adam, that people want to learn about. You put more effort into the hype than the impression.
Starting point is 00:02:23 You were like, I'm going to break up my Jacob Gibbs impression. Wait, just wait. Maybe you'll get my Jacob. And he's like, yeah, I think it going to break up my Jacob Gibbs impression. Wait, just wait. Maybe you'll get my Jacob. And he's like, yeah, I think it's time for my first Jacob Gibbs impression. And it's just like totally. That was horrible. The second one wasn't as bad as the first. I will say that.
Starting point is 00:02:36 I went back and watched the tape of my own impressions. I should have watched the tape of Jacob's impressions. I went back and taped my own impressions. Second one wasn't as bad as the first. I did a couple of the, I got stats you'll find interesting. I did a curious what you guys think. The curious what you guys think is 100% without any tape study. That's because I told you to say that.
Starting point is 00:02:50 He always asked that. Congratulations, Dan. I kind of feel like you did give me that one, to be honest. Way to go. You've never been an impressionist. Welcome back, Jacob. Yeah, good to be back it was it was too much expectations like i got tweets about it and i was like excited i hadn't seen the show
Starting point is 00:03:09 yeah then i got in there i was like he's just talking quiet this isn't even an impression like it wasn't it was it was like 10 seconds of dan talking quiet and like that was it he gave up on it immediately it was the long the longest stretch of dan talking quiet and that was it. He gave up on it immediately. That was the longest stretch of Dan talking quiet in his life, actually. Yeah, that's true. We may have a Dan Schneier impression on the show today. You excited for the game tonight, guys?
Starting point is 00:03:37 Actually, yeah. Finally a really good standalone game that I'm excited for. I don't know Jacob that well. I've only known him for a few years, but I don't think he's ever once thought the Chiefs were going to lose. So, what do you think is going to happen today?
Starting point is 00:03:51 That's fair. Patrick Mahomes is your quarterback. I don't think I'd ever once think that the Chiefs are going to lose either, if I was a Chiefs fan. It's been nice. If you would have known me before the Patrick Mahomes era, it would have been much more depressing Chiefs fan experience. But yeah, I think we're going to win again. I feel pretty good about this.
Starting point is 00:04:07 I'm excited to see what they've got coming out of the buy. I hope we see a lot more Rasheed Rice. I think this is a really good matchup for him. So definitely excited for this one. I have a nice, nice feeling as well about the Chiefs tonight. And I've backed this with my pocketbook. Oh, okay. It's just a pocketbook like I've ever owned a pocketbook.
Starting point is 00:04:27 Anyone in 2023 owns pocketbook. clutch yeah the clutch um but yeah i just think that mostly from my film study i've seen that and this was a really interesting thing steve spagnolo a defensive coordinator who i love near and dear to my heart as the giants defensive coordinator for the superbowls has done things differently on film this year than i've really ever seen in his career as DC. He's mixed up the coverages in the back end in a way that's really exciting, I think, for the Chiefs. Their defense is the best I've ever seen it with Spaggs running it. And I think that's going to be the deciding factor tonight. Spaggs is going to do things to confuse Jalen Hurts and to slow down the Eagles offense. And that will be the X factor, be my guess. All right, let's go from what's hopefully going to be the most exciting game to one of the most boring teams in the Denver Broncos.
Starting point is 00:05:07 They're just so boring. They do nothing fun. They like good for them. They're five and five. They keep winning. I want to back this up real quick. Yeah. Yeah,
Starting point is 00:05:16 please. Russell Wilson is number two in the NFL behind only Daniel Jones in percentage of throws short of the sticks and the sticks mean the first down marker. And what's his ADOT? How does he rank in that? He's got to be low based on that. Yeah, they're just boring.
Starting point is 00:05:32 They are what they are. They want to run the ball, play defense, and throw touchdowns to Cortland Sutton. And for the most part, they do that. But, Jacob, what were your takeaways from a pretty exciting game, I guess? 21-20 Denver. What were your fantasy takeaways? So we saw the Broncos play from behind,
Starting point is 00:05:48 which we haven't seen very much over the past month. And Javante Williams' role shrunk a little bit. 46% snap rate, 11% route participation. Javante Williams only ran four routes on Sunday Night Football. Both Julio McLaughlin and Samajai Piran got more involved as pass catchers so just I guess pump the brakes a little bit on Gervonta we've been getting really excited about him but this is within his range of
Starting point is 00:06:12 outcomes at any time we don't think the Broncos are necessarily that good of a team even though they've been getting some wins and so at any point they can fall behind and really kind of game script him out of fantasy relevancy nothing else really stood out from this game. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:06:28 I think. Yeah. What do you think, Dan? Well, I was just going to say my main point that I had written down in my film notes was just that Javante angle because we had to hype. I had hyped Javante and it was looking like it was working the last two weeks. Really saw such a good involvement. But now we know he can be game scripted into spots that aren't necessarily good for his fantasy value and good for his fantasy
Starting point is 00:06:49 production and it's not necessarily just the games where they go behind early a big early right like this game you would think would be okay game script they went behind early but it wasn't to like multiple possessions where they're really playing catch-up so it's interesting it might be a sign of things to change i don't know know. It's hard to say. My other takeaway was on the other side of the ball. I just, you know, I watched this passing game, Adam and Jacob and the timing of it, the rhythm of it. It doesn't look to me like when Justin Jefferson comes back, he's going to be the same fantasy asset he has been and will be. And I think that to some people might sound obvious because you lose Kirk cousins and you go down to Josh Dobbs. But I think we could be looking at a massive, massive difference
Starting point is 00:07:28 in what the expectation is for Jefferson in his first game back from injury and then throughout the rest of the season versus what you're going to get on a consistent basis as a fantasy manager rest of the season. Well, you know, so just for Javante real quick, I mean, they only had the ball for about 25 minutes. They didn't run a lot of of plays so it's just it was not just a bad game script but also just you know the fact that they just didn't possess the ball enough that was bad giovante still clearly at worst the number two running back you know gonna be in the starting discussion every week um now for the for jefferson like i like him a lot better than i like chase i yeah i feel confident saying that i'm more confident in Jeffery.
Starting point is 00:08:06 Okay, not rest of season, and for two reasons. One, I don't know if he's playing next week, and then they have a bye. So Chase has him at least just in availability. But fantasy playoffs-wise, or just like on a per-game basis, if they're both 100% healthy, because Chase is dealing with his own injury, I have more confidence in the passing game for the Vikings than I do for the Bengals.
Starting point is 00:08:27 And I'm impressed with Dobbs, and I don't want to judge him too harshly because the Broncos have been really, really, really good against the pass in the last five or six games. And we're talking Dobbs, who was like God's gift to fantasy football, scoring less than 20 fantasy points. Josh Allen having
Starting point is 00:08:42 a bad game. Patrick Mahomes with two subpar games. It's not like they're just beating up on nobodies here. They're having a bad game. Patrick Mahomes with two subpar games. It's not like they're just beating up on nobodies here. They're obviously a tough matchup now. So, yeah, look, I don't have the same expectations for Jefferson, but my expectations are definitely higher than they were immediately after the Cousins injury. Addison, on the other hand, I think is, you know,
Starting point is 00:09:03 about to go be like Jacoby Myers. It's possible he's just droppable. But don't drop him yet. See how it plays out. And again, don't know that Jefferson's playing next week. But I have very low expectations for Addison once Jefferson's back. I think that's fair. In terms of the running backs,
Starting point is 00:09:20 Alexander Madison was still the passing downs guy. He was the third down back. He ran 19 routes compared to seven for Chandler. But Chandler had four catches, and Madison had two targets and only one catch for negative two yards. Chandler, you see 10 for 73 in the box score. He had a 31-yard run on a fake punt.
Starting point is 00:09:36 He had nine carries. Other than that, Alexander Madison had 18, and the Broncos just can't tackle. They're just a really good matchup for running backs. There was a stat that they showed during the game. They have a really, really high missed tackle rate, and it was terrible last night. And that's pretty much it.
Starting point is 00:09:50 I think, yeah, I think you're right. There's not a ton of fantasy takeaways from this game. So, you know, unless you want to talk about Sutton, but I think you're just praying for that touchdown. Yeah, touchdown or bust. Yeah. All right, so Sportsline you want some great information
Starting point is 00:10:07 you can get the Beyond the Box score article on Sportsline also get content from Dave from Jamie from Heath and of course
Starting point is 00:10:13 from Jacob and you can use a couple of promo codes you can use the code Gibbs for right yeah Gibbs
Starting point is 00:10:19 not Jacob it's Gibbs for one dollar for your first month on Sportsline then it's only $9.99 after that. Or if you want the annual subscription, 60% off an annual plan. What a perfect time to get this because it's also gambling advice.
Starting point is 00:10:34 It's not fantasy exclusive. It's also gambling. We have got college football, NFL, NBA, NHL, college basketball. This is the most amazing sports time of year. And amazing advice for you at Sportsline. Use the promo code FOLLOW to get 60% off. You can go to sportsline.com slash join, and the code is FOLLOW for 60% off an annual plan.
Starting point is 00:10:59 Wow, what a deal. It really is amazing. All right, Stafford, he looks okay. Geno Smith going to be questionable forursday's game against the niners cleveland signed joe flacco and if you look at what flacco did with the jets last year he started four games you will see a lot of passing yards those first three games he was 309 307 285 but he threw the ball about 50 times a game in fact maybe even more than that uh with the Jets, he averaged 5.5 yards per attempt.
Starting point is 00:11:28 How does that measure up? Well, Zach Wilson's averaging 5.4 yards per attempt. Do you guys think Joe Flacco is going to be the starting quarterback for the Browns? It won't be this upcoming week. They've already said it'll be Dorian Thompson-Robinson, but do you think Flacco will eventually be the starting quarterback for this team? I do.
Starting point is 00:11:44 Yes, I think he will be. I think what it comes down to here is the Browns are looking for someone to find some semblance of a rhythm and timing in the pass game. P.J. Walker couldn't find timing in the pass game. Deshaun Watson could toward the end. He helped lead that drive to win the game against the Ravens with a timing and rhythm-based passing offense and game plan for that last final drive. It was not a lot of throws downfield.
Starting point is 00:12:09 It was doing things that require anticipation from the quarterback, throwing with anticipation, getting the ball out on time and in rhythm. I don't think Dorian Thompson-Robinson can do that, at least not at this point in his career. Can Joe Flacco do that? I don't know. I'm not sold on that either but I know that he has at different points in his career um including even at times last year with the Jets so I think he will eventually be starting for this office I think when he does it'll be a really good sign for Amari Cooper because they're going to really change the entire offense from a schematic
Starting point is 00:12:39 standpoint they'll go heavy personnel they'll go under center more often. They'll be doing play action, seven five-step drops, designed shot plays for players like Cooper and like Eli Moore, who will benefit from a quarterback who can go five, seven steps, drops, hit his back foot, and actually rip a football in there with velocity, something that these other quarterbacks also can't do that are currently on the roster. It's not really a big needle mover for me. No, it's still not a needle mover.
Starting point is 00:13:07 Who doesn't have an NFL arm is now on the roster. They have a lot of injuries on their offensive line and Joe Flacco can't move. I think it's a bad combo. It may help Amari Cooper, but Amari Cooper could have been an absolute league winner. A real steal if Deshaun Watson had stayed healthy.
Starting point is 00:13:24 He's been so good with Watson. I don't see us going back to those days with Amari Cooper, that kind of production. I think you're going to be just crossing your fingers that he does well. Let's see, what else?
Starting point is 00:13:35 The Falcons have named Desmond Ritter their starter. The Patriots have not decided on a starting quarterback yet. They are at the Giants. The Falcons get the Saints in Week 12. Tim Boyle replaced Zach Wilson,
Starting point is 00:13:47 but we haven't heard anything from Sala yet about who is going to be the quarterback this week against Miami, where I think it would be a shock if Ken Walker plays on Thursday. That's just me, but it's a legit injury, and apparently that's what Pete Carroll says when a guy is likely to miss time,
Starting point is 00:14:02 and they're playing Thursday, so wouldn't expect Walker. Devon Achan does not need knee surgery. That's good. I don't really have much more information. I just saw that came across that he doesn't need surgery. We'll see if he plays on Friday
Starting point is 00:14:15 against the Jets. Waiting to hear about Aaron Jones. Waiting to hear about Deontay Foreman. Najee Harris. I mentioned this on yesterday's show. He's fed up with the offense. Cooper Cup, not a high ankle sprain. I think it's just a regular ankle sprain for Cooper Cup. Did you guys get a chance to watch any of Kenny Pickett yesterday?
Starting point is 00:14:33 I saw the clip you posted. Oh, oh, breaking news. Kevin Achan, Devon Achan. That's unbelievable. This guy can't get it right. I did that one on purpose, obviously. Tim Boyle will start at quarterback for the jets oh whoa they finally did it they finally benched that wilson it is when i was watching that game i just felt like a mutiny was about to happen yeah yeah i understand that when it comes to kenny pickett who we briefly talked about before this, I mean, Kenny Pickett should not be starting in the NFL right now.
Starting point is 00:15:09 Maybe the option on the bench isn't better with Mitch Trubisky, but it isn't crazy how bad Kenny Pickett looks on tape. It is crazy how bad Kenny Pickett's arm talent looks. It's just unbelievable to me. I'm not sold that Tommy DeVito is a worse quarterback than Kenny Pickett. Even though I know he is deep down in my heart, I'm not sold that Kenny Pickett offers that much more to an NFL offense than Tommy DeVito does because neither has NFL arm talent that's that great.
Starting point is 00:15:38 Well, I mean, that's just you supporting your jersey, guy. I don't think so. Did you watch Kenny Pickett, dude? No, I'm just kidding. Like I said, I watched the clip you sent of every throw he made past the line of scrimmage. It was bad. But again, I know he's not good, but let's not pick on him against
Starting point is 00:15:52 arguably the best defense in football. Sure, but he threw 10 touchdown passes last year. Tommy DeVito has more touchdown passes than Kenny Pickett this year, and he's only played three games. Just think about that stat. He has more career games and multiple touchdown passes, right? And He has more career games than multiple touchdown passes, right? And he has more career games than multiple touchdown passes,
Starting point is 00:16:09 Tommy DeVito, than Kenny Pickett. That's wild. Wild. Big defensive quarterback plays around the NFL right now. It's just wild. Big defensive injury. Telenoa Hufanga for the Niners. They're very good.
Starting point is 00:16:21 Star safety towards ACL. He's out for the year. And Cleveland safety, Rodney McLeod, is out for the season as well. So those are big ones. And the Bills got very banged up. Teron Johnson's in the concussion protocol. Dane Jackson also had a head injury. I assume he's in the concussion protocol.
Starting point is 00:16:37 And Taylor Rapp is the one who was carded off yesterday. Tests were negative. Hopefully he's back pretty soon. But that's three defensive backs who got hurt, and they're facing the Eagles on the road in Week 12. We'll take a break. When we come back, we've got advanced stats, snap counts, those types of things, some film review on Justin Fields.
Starting point is 00:16:56 Our big topics today, Ravens passing game, Tony Pollard expectations, how confident are we in Josh Jacobs and Garrett Wilson and Debo Samuel? And which handcuffs should you be rostering? Hope you were rostering Zach Charbonnet. We'll be right back on Fantasy Football Today. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters.
Starting point is 00:17:33 Find their products through banks, credit unions, and associations. Or visit SecurianCanada.ca. Securian Canada. Insurance designed for life. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Insurance designed for life. you time and money click before you dig ensure your next project is safe visit ontarioonecall.ca it's free it's easy it's the law data sourced from the orcga 2023 dirt report and we're back all right advanced stats snap counts jacob gibbs let's go and if you'd like to do this as dan schneier i'd have no problem with that. I'd love to see it. All right, so I wanted to start with the Detroit running backs.
Starting point is 00:18:30 Did you get a chance to watch these guys, Dan? Hold on, is this the Dan Schneier impression or no? No, no, no. I thought it was. I thought it was. Let me know when he kicks in because that was pretty close. Yeah, he had a much deeper voice, like a little faster. I thought he was going Schneier on us there.
Starting point is 00:18:45 Did you get a chance to watch these? That might be a Gibson. I don't know if that's your Gibson. I've heard it. I'm a bit sick right now, so my voice is all over the place. You can keep this impression for later if you don't feel confident in it. Oh, I'm ready to do the impression whenever. Use it later.
Starting point is 00:19:00 Okay. I've got splits on the backfield for Detroit. I just wanted to bring up, they basically went rotation where it was, you know, one drive for Montgomery, one for Gibbs, but we did see at the end of the game when they needed the goal line touchdown, they did sub Gibbs out after the timeout and put Montgomery in. And I think it makes sense that we're going to see Montgomery get that short yardage roll back. But yeah, in this game, at least, and last week, we saw a lot more inside the 10 and red zone snaps for Jameer Gibbs. 70% of the inside the 10 snaps went to Gibbs, 30% to Montgomery. Three inside the 10 rushes for Gibbs,
Starting point is 00:19:36 two for Montgomery. Did you watch these guys? I didn't get a chance to watch these guys. I went through Charbonnet tape, Justin Fields tape, and a little bit of, I'm sorry, and also Tony Pollard tape, but I unfortunately didn't get a chance to watch these guys. I went through Charbonnet tape, Justin Fields tape, and a little bit of, I'm sorry, and also Tony Pollard tape, but I unfortunately didn't get a chance
Starting point is 00:19:48 to watch these guys. Yeah, neither did I, but I'll add that Gibbs is now two games in a row where he has had a one or a two-yard touchdown, I think. He had a two-yard touchdown in this game.
Starting point is 00:19:57 He also caught six catches for 59 yards. They only ran 59 plays, so there were only two snaps, I think, inside the five and they each got one. But as I mentioned last week, Gibbs was supposed to come off the field
Starting point is 00:20:11 for one of his touchdowns and Montgomery let him stay in. So I definitely feel like Montgomery will have the edge there, but I don't think it's going to be 100% basically like it was before. Hmm. I think so.
Starting point is 00:20:23 So like both top 12 guys is kind of how I'm viewing them. Is that where you're at? I mean, certainly Gibbs because they're throwing the ball to him. Montgomery is touchdown dependent, but he scores in every game, literally every game.
Starting point is 00:20:36 And we already saw it with Jamal Williams last year. So it's, if you don't like buying, I know people don't like to buy into touchdowns, but if there's one guy that I think I'd buy into touchdowns, that's not Christian McCaffrey.
Starting point is 00:20:47 I think it's Montgomery. I think people don't like to buy into touchdowns year over year, Adam, but within a year, I think it's fair to buy into touchdowns because by that point, you know, which offenses are one creating yards before contact on the ground to getting in the red zone often in three being successful in running the
Starting point is 00:21:02 football in the red zone. And the Detroit lions are definitely one of those teams. Yeah, for sure. The next guy I want to talk about is Brian Robinson. So without Antonio Gibson, we saw him really see his role expanded. He saw, Brian Robinson saw six targets last week. That was his first career game with more than four targets. He followed it up with nine in week 11.
Starting point is 00:21:22 He has 180 yards after the catch over the past two games um his snap rate was way up the other thing that stood out to me was he had 10 avoided tackles that was the highest of any player in week 11 uh robinson has 18 avoided tackles over his past two games only had 22 avoided tackles in the eight games prior so he is playing much better and i think that the receiving stuff is just kind of random um the long plays especially but it is cool to like see him you know get targets and and be trusted with the route running responsibilities so more of kind of a long-term note um than anything there did you guys have anything on robinson no i thought you know last, last week when he did this against
Starting point is 00:22:05 the Seahawks and he had the five or six catches, yeah, six for 119 on a touchdown, I noted that the Seahawks gave up a lot of production to running backs in the passing game. The Giants, on the other hand, are the exact opposite. They've been great for a year and a half now of limiting running backs in the passing game,
Starting point is 00:22:21 and he had seven catches for 58 yards. So I thought that was very encouraging. In that respect, it was a tough matchup, and he had seven catches for 58 yards. So I thought that was very encouraging. In that respect, it was a tough matchup, and he came through. However, I also said this to Jamie and Dave and Heath yesterday. Going into this week, he had only had three top 12 finishes all season. And if Gibson is back,
Starting point is 00:22:40 I don't think he's a must-start running back. I'd start Montgomery and Gibbs over him most weeks. All weeks, I would say for those two. Me too. And Gibbs for sure, yeah. Montgomery, yeah. I do think he is one of those players that's much better on tape than the fans realize, though, with Brian Robinson. He was one of the players we went over in Beyond the Box
Starting point is 00:22:57 for week three or week four, and I was like, damn, I was that impressed with his tape. It's just a matter of what Adam says is probably in my opinion the big takeaway here from a fantasy football standpoint, which is, you know, with Gibson back in the mix, do we trust him? Do we trust him in the games that aren't as favorable from a game script standpoint? All right. He just did the alien thing that I was doing.
Starting point is 00:23:21 That was weird. What alien? We just randomly get portals on this podcast. You went to another planet. I don't know what the sound is. Whatals on this podcast you were talking you were like yeah he's really good on tape basically no idea why yeah 70 78 snap rate he'd never been above 60 in a game prior to this week wow and i i just think he's he's looked way better this year than he did last year and that might have had something to do with getting shot in the leg before the season started um or just being here too whatever but pretty encouraging year for robinson next guy jameson williams just quick note season high 66 percent route participation for jameson williams back to
Starting point is 00:23:59 back season highs the past two weeks he's trending in the right direction i don't know if it's going to matter for this year but at least it's something um obviously got the touchdown as well tank dell tank dell is averaging 2.4 yards per route run which is so absurd so like rookie rates that are comparable we got chris alave at 2.4 last year jamar chase at 2.5 um it's it's really nuts he's 10th at wide receiver in yards per outrun on the year. We've got Tyreek, Brandon, Brandon, Brandon, Iuke is averaging 3.4 yards per outrun. And so like the list of players who have averaged over three yards per outrun in a season over the last 10 years is like, it's like Julio Jones, three times Cooper cup and Tyreek kill. And that's it. I'm
Starting point is 00:24:41 pretty sure I reeks it. Iuke is at 3.4 i reek i like that that's a really good name can i uh take a moment to do something that jacob's never done on this podcast because he's a much better man than me and adam i don't think he's ever done either but it is me taking a moment to pat myself on the back because adam asked me to come up with five league winners rest of season last podcast that you weren't on jacob and the first person i picked was tank tell was it not adam um yeah i mean obviously it was maybe it was maybe it was very obvious thing to give i didn't even bother because it was not a very obvious thing to give we're talking about a player who before this season was barely drafted on rosters very obvious thing to give hey you want to hear obvious obvious i think i gave i think i gave brock purdy
Starting point is 00:25:22 did you give brock i still have my list. I'll go check. What does it say about me that I needed to bring that up and pat my own self on the back, though? That's the real question we should be asking ourselves. Let's get back to the analysis. It says that your co-host doesn't give you enough credit. I said A-Chan, Pitman, Trey McBride, dalton kinkade and kyler murray so all right pretty good we'll see we'll see it wasn't great last week but yeah so 10th at uh yard per run for tank dell he's ahead of jamar chase ahead of jalen waddle ahead of a prime stefan diggs with josh allen a quarterback
Starting point is 00:26:00 like it's honestly insane uh calvin rid 30% target per run rate this week, 110 air yards. With Zay Jones in the lineup, he has had over 100 yards every game. I think that there might be some signal to that. I don't know if that's totally random. I think Zay runs a lot more of those kind of big boy routes on the outside that Ridley's got stuck on
Starting point is 00:26:21 and they were able to move Ridley around a little bit more with Jones back in the mix and so obviously exciting stuff from him this week another thing I would point out on Ridley I would say one thing I would say one thing on that on that Jacob before you move past it there is something to it it's not just you know what you're there is actually a science between behind it and I didn't get a chance to watch the tape this week i'm cut what are you laughing at science sorry it's not science but there is uh whatever you said put on my bill my hat and then there's there's um you know with with ridley back with i'm sorry with zay jones back on the field ridley was running different routes and that's the big factor here if they expanded his route tree and they asked him to do different things because
Starting point is 00:27:03 zay jones can run some of the routes that cal Calvin Ridley was running before when without Zay Jones on the field, Ridley has under 15 fantasy points, one total touchdown and just one game over 40 receiving yards. So I don't think it's a coincidence. I think it has a lot more to do with the different kinds of routes that are run when they have as a Jones on the field to kind of take away that defensive attention. Just one thing though,
Starting point is 00:27:42 he Zay Jones did play week two. There were four games where Zay Jones played. Okay, I might have missed one, yeah. Calvin Ridley had no catches on six targets against the Chiefs. So, yeah, I think maybe... Oh, no, Zay Jones had no catches on six targets. Calvin Ridley also had a bad game, though. He had two catches for 32 yards on eight targets against the Chiefs.
Starting point is 00:28:00 I think Ridley's been really a matchup guy. Yep, that's what I wanted to bring up. I highlighted this in last week's Beyond the Box score. I really like this spot for him. The Titans allow a ton of targets to the wide receiver position and Ridley has had a really rough stretch where he's only faced three teams all year that are in the top half of target rate
Starting point is 00:28:22 to the out wide position, wide receiver. Every other team has been in the bottom half or even in the top half of target rate to the out wide position wide receiver every other team has been in the bottom half or even like in the bottom like eight um and so that's i think that's really really influenced things you obviously you would like for him to not be matchup dependent yeah um but he's he's had one of the toughest matchups you could have for somebody who's a like truly like strictly out wide wide receiver um he did play in the slot a little bit more this week i think it was double like up from 12 to 24 they ran a couple screens to him that was the first time they've done that since week one yeah all right good you know they were really embarrassed by the niners you saw the
Starting point is 00:28:53 the quotes after the game that was a very humbling game for them and uh they changed things up a little bit and hopefully it's a sign of things to come after i dropped trevor law Lawrence in a league. Anything else? The Giants first in situation neutral pass rate. That was crazy. Can we get some Tommy? Yeah, I know. I don't know. We just expected everything to run through Saquon,
Starting point is 00:29:16 but Tommy DeVito. Can we get some Tommy DeVito talk? No. We can get Washington Commanders talk. Washington Commanders have the worst pass defense in the NFL. I don't know if it's close. They are an absolute layup. They're a slam dunk layup.
Starting point is 00:29:29 Let me see their schedule. It just, they're so bad against the pass that anything, I said this yesterday, anything that a quarterback does against the Washington Commanders just shouldn't count. Dallas this week, oh, don't worry. They don't have any good quarterbacks coming up. They have Dallas, Miami, and the Chargers, oh, no, the Rams, sorry.
Starting point is 00:29:44 Dallas, Miami, Rams, Jets, Niners. Brock Purdy, if you make it to the championship with Brock Purdy, congratulations. You don't even have to play Week 17. Just accept your prize money, because he's going to score 40 points on the Commanders in Week 17. All right, that's my spiel there. Well, I'll give a little bit on it.
Starting point is 00:30:02 I do think it was interesting to watch, and I do agree a lot of it was what you just said, Adam, the matchup against the commanders, really good scheme from Mike Kafka and Brian Dable. Great Tommy DeVito did that in this game more often than we've seen most giants quarterbacks do it over the last two seasons. Giants were dead last and explosive pass plays last season. Daniel Jones led the NFL in throws short of the sticks this year from a percentage standpoint, it looked a little different. The offense, it certainly did. That doesn't mean it was going to continue.
Starting point is 00:30:45 I think Bill Belichick, for example, is going to give Tommy DeVito a really hard time next week coming off the bye week and things are going to look pretty ugly. But it's interesting to see that the offense still has the capability of making plays down the field in the pass game. It's funny.
Starting point is 00:30:59 I saw Dan tweeted something. I felt the same exact way. Was it Dan Orlovsky that kind of went on the Pat McAfee show and said that Bill Belichick's already got like his next team lined up was it Orlovsky who said that yes yes yes and he's always been very fond of the Giants he speaks yeah he's used
Starting point is 00:31:16 to be their defensive coordinator he won a Super Bowl there or two two he won two there and uh I don't even think I want him yeah that's what i said in the tweet i'm like i didn't think they would ever become a point in my life where the rumors started because i've heard these belgica giants rumors before like the past two or three coaching searches i've heard them right and this would probably be the first time in my life that i've ever been like
Starting point is 00:31:38 because those times i was like yes yes yes let's get him we got the greatest coach of all time everything's gonna change now i'm, probably have to give trade compensation first of all to the Patriots, which I don't want to do. I don't like trading draft picks for coaches. That to me is an absurd thing that I don't think the Broncos should have done, first of all.
Starting point is 00:31:54 But second of all, like, eh, do we want a 70-year-old Belichick coming in to rerun the Giants and like get them through a new quarterback? Like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:32:03 All right, Jacob, you want to wrap it up? That's all I've got. Do you guys watch Bob Burgers? I keep getting people telling me to quote Bob Burgers. I sound like some character off Bob Burgers. You sound like Tina.
Starting point is 00:32:15 I see that line. Do you? Tina has the funniest voice. Tina's definitely the funniest character. Would you believe it, Adam? I don't know Bob Burgers. Oh, you love Bob Burgers. It's great. Great voice. Tina's definitely the funniest character. Would you believe it, Adam? I don't know Bob Burgers. Oh, you love Bob Burgers. It's great. Great voice.
Starting point is 00:32:29 Can I tell you that I'm not... Is it the same guy who does Family Guy? Because I don't like the Family Guy humor. No, it's not. Okay. Alright, I got a few notes here. James Conner once again did not play a third down snap, so that stinks. Rondell Moore, I don't know what happened, why was greg dorch
Starting point is 00:32:45 over rondo more did he either i was thinking did he play out wide more and greg dorch took the slot role no he had basically the same rates rondo more of of uh slot and and out wide one thing that was different he had an 8.6 average 8.6 yard average route depth which depth, which is more than double what Ron Elmore usually runs. Which is why he only had one target. Right, and a deep ball touchdown. He never gets targets when he runs down four routes. So maybe Michael Wilson comes back and Greg Dortch doesn't play
Starting point is 00:33:18 and Ron Elmore runs his four-yard routes and he gets eight targets and six catches and gives you a PPR floor. But I didn't quite figure out what happened there. I just saw the route depth. Deontay Foreman had four carries in the first quarter. Khalil Herbert had one. At halftime, it was five to four, Foreman.
Starting point is 00:33:35 And then he left early in the third quarter. But he had also, I think, left earlier in the game and came back, and he came into the game with, I think, an ankle injury. So I think what I'm trying to say is I feel like Foreman was ahead of Khalil Herbert in the first half. Pukunuku ended up with five catches for 70 yards and a touchdown, but it really was a struggle. And in the fourth quarter, he had six of those seven targets,
Starting point is 00:34:00 and he had 54 yards. This is all without Cooper Cup. But I don't know how you guys feel but i said this yesterday i just i said this to chris i think on fft and five i don't have any confidence in the rams offense right now i think they look like crap i think their line is bad i don't think stafford's got it like i was confident in them at the beginning of the year but i don't feel that way if cup is out i guess i feel confident in um in nakua but if cup is back i don't feel that way if cup is out i guess i feel confident in um in nakua but if cup is back i don't feel confident that matthew stafford is going to support both of them i don't think we're
Starting point is 00:34:30 going to have two must start wide receivers and i also don't know that cup is going to be the better one yeah i i shared those concerns as well uh what are you laughing at jacob i just saw dan looks like a young george costanza i don't want to keep derailing the podcast with the chat, but I saw, I saw an ad, a McDonald's ad of Jason Alexander when he was super young. And I kind of see it, Dan, I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:34:54 It was absurd. This is absolutely absurd. The last three impressions, the chat, the people that you've said, the chat I've looked like I've been George Costanza. It said no way to take that as anything but. Oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:35:07 No, you do. You did. First of all, he was a good looking guy. He was a good looking guy in his youth. Short and stumpy. And no point in my life have I ever been considered short and stumpy. And I do consider myself somewhat short at five foot eight. I've never been stumpy at any point in my life.
Starting point is 00:35:22 OK, I will not be compared to a human being. He's not always sure that every Jew looks alike. Is that what we're getting? Oh, no. I'm kidding, Jacob. I'm kidding. The last three guys I've got have been all the Seth Rogen. You look like Seth Rogen.
Starting point is 00:35:37 Oh, yesterday was Seth Rogen. Oh, guess what? You look like what's the other guy? The fat guy from that group. I forget the name. Jonah Hill. Jonah Hill. Oh, you look like Jonah Hill. Now it's George Costanza. Look at this picture. Do you think you look like? What's the other guy? The fat guy from that group. I forget the name. Jonah Hill? Jonah Hill? Oh, you look like Jonah Hill. Now it's George Costanza.
Starting point is 00:35:47 Look at this picture. Do you think you look like this guy? I think you look like him. I don't look that much like this guy. He's a nice looking guy. No, I don't. He is a nice looking guy. This is a compliment. You're going crazy here. This is a compliment. You should say thank you. Thank you. You kind of sound
Starting point is 00:36:04 like George, honestly, right now. Well, I know I act. I can at times act and sound like George. There's no denying that. I have a lot of Larry David in me. But I don't want to look like that. I don't care about if I act and sound like that. All right, all right, Dan.
Starting point is 00:36:15 You look like an old Larry David, okay? I'm actually somehow more of a compliment than George Costanza. Not a young Jason Alexander. He's a good-looking guy. All right. What else do I got here? Oh, Brock Purdy. Brock Purdy is averaging 9.7 yards per attempt, I believe.
Starting point is 00:36:34 I was going to make a point before all that. That then got derailed. Don't worry about it. We're not interested. 9.7 yards per attempt. He is QB. I have all these notes on Brock Purdy. He's QB eight per attempt. He is QB. I have all these notes on Brock Purdy. He's QB 8 per game.
Starting point is 00:36:49 And QB 8 overall. And he had that three game stretch where Trent Williams was hurt for two of them and Deebo Samuel was hurt for basically all three. But other than that, he's just been lights out. But can he keep this up? He is 25th in pass attempts. He is first in completion percentage. He's completing 70% of his passes. First
Starting point is 00:37:05 in touchdown rate. First in yards per attempt. 1.2 more yards per attempt than number two, Tuatunga Bailoa. First in yards per completion. First in passer rating. First in QBR and first in yak per completion. 14th in air yards per pass attempt. But the
Starting point is 00:37:21 yards per attempt, 9.7. According to ESPN, second most yards per attempt, 9.7 according to ESPN, second most yards per attempt through 10 games in NFL history. So, you know, I'm loving what we're seeing from Iuke. I love what we're seeing from Purdy. I love what we're seeing from Kittle. Not so much
Starting point is 00:37:38 Debo. Can they keep this up? They're performing at such a high rate that I know the Niners always do. They're always basically the most efficient team among the leaders in yards per attempt. But Jacob, this is crazy. Yeah, that's really interesting. It's hard to ever quantify the Niners and what's realistic or what is a clear regression candidate just because their offense produces so well. But yeah, given that historical context, I think we probably have to expect things to come down.
Starting point is 00:38:06 But also if you just throw to Brandon, Iuke every play, like, yeah, you're going to be the best quarterback. I think. And he has become so fricking good at football. And Purdy has become one of the better deep intermediate to deep ball
Starting point is 00:38:18 throwers in football. Looking at the numbers again today, I mentioned it yesterday. This was a weakness for him on pass attempts of 15 or more air yards, he is completing 67.7% of his passes this year, compared to 43% last year. He has the highest completion percentage on passes of 15 or more air yards,
Starting point is 00:38:38 20 or more air yards, 25 or more air yards, second best in pass attempts of 30 or more air yards. And when I watch the Niners, I know they are going to regret. So that can't be this good on 26 pass attempts. It feels like it's Brock Purdy's team now. I don't know if you guys feel that way, but yeah, I think it's fair to say it's Brock Purdy's team in the pass first offense. But I will also say that I remain distracted by looking over and watching Jacob Gibbs just giggling and then looking at the looking at the chat and i know that those are chats about me thankfully we see an adam one here
Starting point is 00:39:08 but you know what dan's getting angry it's the winter of day it's the fall of dad the summer of joy all right all right you want to give us uh some justin fields film review dan schneier yeah sure so watch justin fields for beyond the box score obviously that's where we are now wanted to see what the game was like and i'll say this about watching justin fields i wasn't as impressed as i thought i might be watching him so i'll start with the first two drives where it really was very game it was a very specific game plan the bears brought out on the first two drives they had and i wrote these down to boot action plays so this is something the giants ran a lot in 2022 to find a way to
Starting point is 00:39:49 create offense with daniel jones at quarterback and essentially just to play action where you boot your quarterback out and try to hit a tight end who's blocking and then leaking it works for a little while until defenses adjust there were also four design runs on the first nine plays this game for justin fields for design quarterback runs. This is a great thing for fantasy. I don't know how long it could last. Um, there was a good sign. So a lot of what I just saw in this game was just quick game, passing game, boot action, not a lot of, you know, deeper progressions, not a lot of high, low reads with things downfield. There was a good example of some processing improvement from Justin Fields. For those of you who do watch on the all 22 game coaches film if you bought nfl
Starting point is 00:40:29 game passer you have it anyway 12 58 quarter one take a look at that play uh fields comes off the play side read fast when it's not there and it is just quick game so it's nothing too complicated but it's still good to see him come off the play side read so fast because it wasn't there and that was the solution he thought he'd find pre-snap. And that's what you want to see from these quarterbacks. When they have a solution in their head, pre-snap, will that be open post-snap? And when they look and it's not open post-snap, you want to see them come off of that fast. You don't want to see them drive their eyes into that and sit on it for a while, which is something I think it feels a struggle with at times in his career.
Starting point is 00:40:59 He came back through the progression, found commit for an 11 yard gain. That was a good sign for sure. But it did feel like whenever they were put behind the sticks in the offense, second and 12, second and 15, there was just no solution. There just hasn't been a solution. He had a really nice throw in the second quarter, 752, rolling to his opposite throwing shoulder left, flipped his hips, ripped one into Mooney on a crosser.
Starting point is 00:41:21 11-54, quarter three, though. He missed a wide-open DJ Moore in his progression. Adam, this is the one you texted us about before the podcast. Scrambled back, and he found him at the end. What are you laughing at? No, because I was looking at this. I watched the film, too, and he's got DJ Moore wide open for a huge play. I don't know why he didn't throw the ball.
Starting point is 00:41:41 He ended up scrambling and finding him for a much shorter play. But, yeah, I saw him for a much shorter play. But yeah, I mean, I saw him miss a few open receivers, but it's funny to do film review on him. Cause ultimately I'm really not sure how much it matters. He ran for like a hundred yards or so, right. He's going to be around.
Starting point is 00:41:55 From a fantasy standpoint, the game plan is run him design quarterback runs more than I've seen from any quarterback tape. I've watched in a long time this year. They really, cause you'll get scrambles from these running quarterbacks, which is fine. That's, you know, what they decide to do based on the progression of a play,
Starting point is 00:42:09 a pass play, a design pass play. But these were design runs for the quarterback. The field's got a lot of, and then of course I want to bring up four 48 quarter three, the best play of the game from Justin Fields, the touchdown to DJ Moore, and you got to give him credit for that. He stepped up through the pocket, used his eyes. This was the key thing. He used his eyes immediately when he catches the snap, his eyes and his helmet.
Starting point is 00:42:28 Watch this. This is what you want to do. If you want to watch the film, watch where the helmet stripe goes for these quarterbacks. The helmet stripe goes left. And what that did was hold the safety for long enough, just long enough that when he did step up in the pocket and flip his helmet back, right, he was able to hit DJ more on kind of like a skinny post type of pattern where more doesn't have the safety now over the top to kind of break up the pass, hit the receiver or get involved. So there were good moments from Justin Fields for sure.
Starting point is 00:42:52 I don't feel like I saw anything to mine, you know, to game changing from him. I think the game plan was very specific to what I believe his limitations are as a processor, as a passer. And that's not even as a passer, more of just a processor from a mental standpoint as a quarterback i still want to see more from justin fields personally yeah i'm curious if you think there's any specific matchup based reason why he ran so much justin fields three of his four games with 104 or more rushing yards in his career have come against detroit Yeah. Yeah. I just think it's the style of defense that they play against, uh, or that's Detroit lions play, especially against the bears. It's very man heavy, man coverage heavy, which is going to lead to more openings for obviously for a quarterback to run.
Starting point is 00:43:38 It's also the way they play pre snap, I think with the way they align their defense. That's why I think we saw some... Because what I just said will probably be more of a reaction to scrambles from the quarterback, like plays that were designed as passes but you can then decide to run. But there were also design runs, and I think that has to do with how Detroit aligned pre-snap. So I think it's a good matchup for him from a rushing
Starting point is 00:44:00 standpoint based on how aggressive... And if you're looking for the games where Justin Fields, you want to see a lot of rushing look for the games against the teams that play more man heavy defense for what it's worth they don't they only use man 25 of the time this week so you got me there i didn't even know that in the in the past i just looked at it in the past they have been one of those you know that is according to true this is sometimes i think yeah that that's good stuff i just think sometimes some of the concepts that are considered zone to me look like man on film but it's like it but it's it's hard and i think in general though that's good stuff. I just think sometimes some of the concepts that are considered zone, to me, look like man on film.
Starting point is 00:44:26 But it's hard. And I think in general, though, that's a good stat by you because it's a good sign that he was able to do it against zone. The other thing I would bring up from this game. Do you feel like you're looking into the future right now? Now that was mean. Now that was mean, Adam. That was just straight up mean.
Starting point is 00:44:43 He goes, you think I'm looking into the future? He puts a picture of a bald-headed George Costanza, stumpy as ever. And I really apologize, Jason Alexander. Look, I didn't want this to turn into me bashing how Jason Alexander looks. I love Jason Alexander as a human being. He's part of some of the funniest moments of my life. I've seen every episode of Seinfeld multiple times. But no one wants to be compared to Jason Alexander. Stop. Now you're being mean. Now you're being mean.
Starting point is 00:45:09 And I told you, he's a very nice looking guy. All right. That's our Justin. We got to get going here, guys. We still have our four big topics to get to. We'll take a break. The chat thinks that Jacob looks like Jason Segel. I could definitely see that. And we will be right. It's like the whole we got the whole judd apatow crew go ahead we'll be right back we'll be right back on fantasy football today all right let's talk about our four big topics here the first one is from alex how to handle the ravens passing game without mark andrews anybody i'm pretty into odell beckham i'm not going to lie. 35% rostered, 35%.
Starting point is 00:45:45 In the last five weeks, he has, let me see. I got their last five games, he has 27 targets, same as Mark Andrews, and he's got four end zone targets, same as Mark Andrews. Zay Flowers has one end zone target in that stretch. Beckham looks pretty damn good out there, I think. I think so. I think he's a big waiver wire priority,
Starting point is 00:46:06 but what do you guys think about the Ravens passing game without Andrews? I think you nailed this one, Adam. I think Beldo Beckham is the first one I want to put up there, and he's looked really good on tape these last few weeks, and he's maybe getting healthier. That could be part of it. I don't know. Came off a major injury, got
Starting point is 00:46:21 injuries in the middle of the year, but he wins the way he won. He wins on the vertical plane. Hasn't gotten there. He wins on the intermediate, uh, immediate with the slants that he can just separate from defensive backs after slants. Like we've seen this season. So I am excited about Odell Beckham jr. For sure. I would also put Isaiah likely in there and I'd love to hear if Jacob has any stats on what likely did last year without Mark Andrews, which I think no Jacob knowing Jacob, he might just have those loaded up or just has those in his research as well. But yeah, I'm excited for those two, I would say OBJ and Isaiah likely.
Starting point is 00:46:55 So I'll start by saying that this year without Andrews on the field, Odo Beckham has a 26% target per run rate, highest on the team, and 2.99 yards per outrun. Obviously, it's a small sample size, 67 routes, and a lot of that came last week. But he's been super efficient on a per-route basis. He hasn't played as much lately. Is he dealing with something? I feel like he was a little bit banged up
Starting point is 00:47:16 like two or three weeks ago, right? Beckham? Yeah. Yeah. He's seemingly healthier now, it seems like. So if just looking at route participation and playing time, Rashad Bateman is actually the guy who's been trending upward. 75% route participation each of the past two games.
Starting point is 00:47:34 He's not been productive at all. He's averaging one yard per route run on the year, which is abysmal. So make what you will of that. But yeah, Beckham, I'm pulling up his, yeah, he had a 36% snap rate this week, 55% route participation. So they're getting him out there for the passing plays. Damn it, no, that's when Mark Andrews was off the field. 49% route participation this week.
Starting point is 00:47:58 So still not great. At the top, he's been at around 65, 67% this year. And in week one, he was out there for 97% of the routes. So if we see him get back to that type of a role, I think Odell is the guy he's averaging almost two yards per run on the year. Um, which is like actually pretty fantasy relevant. Isaiah likely ran a lot of empty routes last week. And that's what we saw in week one without Mark Andrews as well.
Starting point is 00:48:28 Last year when Andrews was off the field, Likely was really good. Isaiah Likely without Mark Andrews last year, 92 routes run, 26% target per route run rate, which is higher than Beckham's that I cited earlier, 2.2 yards per route run. That's really, really good. That's like with a full roll a top 12 fantasy tight end um but yeah he has just been invisible this year um well they have different players now i mean they had nobody last year yeah yeah you know they have they have um
Starting point is 00:48:57 right right they didn't mark east brown last year they had they had nothing when andrews got hurt um and they also didn't have lamar jack Jackson for some of that, as I recall. I guess it's easy to say we should pick up Beckham. Do you think he's better than Zay Flowers going forward? No. Flowers per out that is almost identical. He's not even nearly as efficient, but his target per out is almost identical to Beckham's without Andrews on the field. We saw in week one they really ran the offense through flowers um that wouldn't surprise me if he's like a top 24 receiver the rest of the way i hope so i wonder what it
Starting point is 00:49:33 means for for jackson you know i mean i know he came through last week but uh he's definitely struggled without andrews in the past and the biggest role that people are that someone's going to have to fill now is red zone, green zone, end zone. Because that is where Mark Andrews really made his mark. He just had so many more red zone targets than everybody on the field, on the team. So we'll see who steps up there. Based on the data, Beckham would be the guy.
Starting point is 00:49:58 The red zone targets are 14 for Andrews, 10 for Flowers, and 8 for Beckham. But sort of trending toward Beckham. The end zone targets, Beckham actually leads the team with seven end zone targets. Mark Andrews has six. Say Flowers has one. So we'll see what changes there.
Starting point is 00:50:15 All right, let's go to our next one. Can I do a quick, it'll be very quick, a quick Dan Schneier complaint zone? Sure. All right, well, on Wednesday of last week, I woke up to an offer in my most important league, my home league that's got 17 years, auction, all the good stuff, super flex, a desperate manager, desperate running back situation, also buying high,
Starting point is 00:50:44 offered me Mark Andrews for Kareem Hunt and Trey McBride. I accepted the trade. I was excited about the trade. I envisioned weeks 14, 15, 16, 17 in the playoffs. Mark Andrews, two touchdown games. Mark Andrews, two touchdown games. I said to myself, wow, I gave up Kareem Hunt, who's losing his role pretty much and with a really bad quarterback now,
Starting point is 00:51:04 and Trey McBride selling at an absolute high, and I got Mark Andrews. It's amazing. And then I watched Mark Andrews get injured for the season in his first game on my team. So that's a Dan Schneier complaint zone. That wasn't that quick. I thought really good about that trade. I thought it was an amazing trade by me.
Starting point is 00:51:17 It wasn't that quick, and now you're recapping it. You said you were going to be quick. You know what? Somebody said that I look like one of the puppets from this TV show Thunderbirds from the 1960s. Oh my God. Which one?
Starting point is 00:51:31 I think I look like that freak in the front. You look like which one in the front? The big freak right in the front. I think you look more like the guy to the left. They look very similar. Bushier eyebrows you have the you have that bushy eyebrow thing going i do some people like that but most people don't all right
Starting point is 00:51:51 this one's from mikey just wants to know how we feel about tony pollard going forward power 12 carries 61 yards and a touchdown four catches for 19 yards exciting, I guess if you want to call it, advanced metric is that he's had the two highest avoid rates of the season in his last two games by far. 50% in week 11, 26.7% in week 10. Those are his only two weeks with an avoid rate above 13%,
Starting point is 00:52:18 so maybe he's getting a little bit of his mojo back. Maybe. I don't know. I watched his carries, and I still do not see an explosive player. I don't know if we mentioned this a lot, but he's averaging a 4.1, 4.0 yards per carry this year is before this season, he was averaging 5.1, but Tony Pollard is also averaging just 6.3 yards per catch this year. And before this season, he was averaging 8.3. So I just think that everything tells me he's still not that explosive player, but how much do you guys trust him going forward? Washington, Seattle, Philadelphia up next.
Starting point is 00:52:50 Yeah. I mean, I watched the tape on Pollard, one of the three people I got a chance to watch tape on. And I think Adam, we can overcomplicate things. I have examples, but in the, in the, you know, honor of keeping this a little shorter, you nailed it. There lack of burst, lack of elusiveness. It doesn't look like i'm watching the same player it's hard for me to be excited about him moving forward when i consider one he's not the same player from an elusiveness and burst standpoint and two doesn't really have the role people thought he was going to have here he's not the only back in this offense and he may not even be the most explosive back at this point in this offense at least this year whatever's going on
Starting point is 00:53:23 with their health his health and the health of the entire offense. So it's hard for me to get excited about him moving forward. I feel like he's more of a volume dependent border RB one RB two, if you get lucky with touchdowns or not, but don't expect those. Well, last year we got long touchdowns at a totally Pollard. That's the thing. We got nice long touch and we're not getting those this year. He had two carries of more than 20 yards in this game against Carolina, arguably the worst run defense in football. And one was blocked up so well. He did nothing on the first. But those are two of five for the year.
Starting point is 00:53:51 And his longest run, I think, is 31 yards. Jacob, how about you? I'll tell you what. Would you rather have Pollard or James Conner we have our own concerns about? Pollard. I think the point you brought up on James kind of losing his passing down work is really important yeah
Starting point is 00:54:08 alright from be more deplorable we definitely need a confidence-o-meter right now so I picked three guys that people might be losing confidence in and Jacob you can put them on the meter 0-10 how much confidence do you have in them 0 is none, 10 is full confidence.
Starting point is 00:54:25 Josh Jacobs. I'm going with seven. I saw a poll on Twitter, I think, where people were comparing would you rather have Josh Jacobs or Tony Pollard, and it was pretty much even, and that shocked me. I feel like the role is intact for Jacobs.
Starting point is 00:54:39 It's really good. They're going to run the offense through him. That's what we've seen with Antonio Pierce as coach. Aiden McConnell is dump-off king to him as well. But that hasn't been the case. Lately, he's been pushing him downfield more, yeah. The last three weeks, what does he have? Three targets in his last three weeks?
Starting point is 00:54:56 And that, you know, in the week four, O'Connell threw to him, he had eight catches. But since then, I think he has one catch with Aiden O'Connell. So that's the concern here is like they beat the giants and the jets he ran 26 27 times then how are they going to do how they're gonna how's he gonna be in a game where they trail is he gonna get his passing roll back no and he had 14 carries in one catch so they've got the chiefs twice they've got minnesota
Starting point is 00:55:21 which is a great run defense they have the char, who actually don't have a bad run defense, but they struggle in the passing game against running backs. So that's the concern here with Jacobs, is if there's a bad game script and he's still not getting any targets, ooh, if you know what I mean. You know what you mean. I know what you mean, yeah.
Starting point is 00:55:41 That was really weird coming out of your mouth. I think the targets are kind of random week to week. I wouldn't read too much into what we've seen these last few games. All right, I hope you're right. All right, Dan. Do I get a chance? Confidence meter? Confidence meter.
Starting point is 00:55:57 Let's go to next. Debo Samuel. I'm still at a 6.5. Okay. 6.6. 6.6. Would you like to tell us a story about how you traded for Debo Samuel
Starting point is 00:56:07 just before his bad game? No, but I'm still pissed about that. That sucks. I hear that really sucks. It was a good trade on your part. Yeah. Yeah, Debo's interesting. Here are the targets.
Starting point is 00:56:23 There have been five games this year where everyone's been healthy for the 49ers. But there was one game where Debo got zero targets and he came into the game injured. So I did Debo Samuel the liberty of eliminating that game. There's your step. Yeah, totally. So in the other four games
Starting point is 00:56:42 where there are no excuses for Debo Samuel and everyone's healthy, Brandon Iyuk has 24 targets. George Kittle has 23. Christian McCaffrey has 23. And Debo Samuel has 18. The problem is seven of those 18 came in week one. Since then, it's three, four, and four. He definitely has been the fourth option for Purdy.
Starting point is 00:57:04 Is that going to continue? I don't know. So Dan, you said you're like a six and a half confidence in Debo? 6.6 to be exact. Do you happen to have Debo's matchups from that four game split, Adam? Like who he's playing against? Yes, weeks one, five, 10, and 11.
Starting point is 00:57:21 So that would be Pittsburgh in week one. Two really man heavy coverage schemes and then two zone heavy coverage schemes the last two would be concerning to me he's not seeing a lot of targets against Jacksonville and Tampa Bay who play a lot of zone I mean Purdy's throwing 26 times a game right now and
Starting point is 00:57:37 he's just connecting on these big plays to Kittle and and Iuke but still if you get even 30 pass attempts from Purdy, that's a lot. So, I think the bigger question is, do we have confidence that it's going to continue this way,
Starting point is 00:57:53 where it's going to be Ayuk and Kittle and Debo third fiddle, to make a nice rhyme there? Or is it going to be more random going forward? I think he's clearly behind Ayuk. I think it'll probably be pretty random between the other two. I would agree with that.
Starting point is 00:58:08 Ayuk, bad, and then random between the other two. Confidence-o-meter for Garrett Wilson. Four. Three or four. Yeah. Yeah, 3.5. 3.753. I like how the decimals are a good play. You need to use decimals in life. I hate when people go, oh, it's a three of 10. No, go 3.753 I like decimals are a good play you need to use decimals
Starting point is 00:58:26 in life I hate when people go oh it's a 3 of 10 no go 3.3 3.8 give us a real specific read on the situation you know what I mean so he just had two catches for 9 yards on 8 targets but the four games before that Garrett Wilson had 12 to 14 targets
Starting point is 00:58:41 7 to 9 catches and 80 to 100 yards in all four games. So I don't want to overreact too much from one terrible game and they are changing their quarterback. And I don't think that's going to be good for him though. That was a good stat, Adam, but you know what you need to get as part of your sound machine that you
Starting point is 00:58:56 have, you need to get for when I have those types of those types of stupid comments, you need to get the Billy Madison and no point in your rambling that, that I'm sure that's not just for me. I'm sure we can look throughout FFT. types of stupid comments. You need to get the Billy Madison. And no point in your rambling. I'm sure that's not just for me. I'm sure we can look throughout FFT. Everyone on this podcast is now dumber.
Starting point is 00:59:12 And we might see some moments where we can bring that one in. But go ahead. Yeah. All right. So you think upgrade or downgrade with Tim Boyle? Same. Downgrade, yeah. I don't know about downgrade.
Starting point is 00:59:24 It's hard to say downgrade but not upgrade it's definitely not an upgrade i feel like this is going to be the best thing that ever happened to zach wilson like maybe because everyone sees how much worse it could be type of thing yeah and it's not all his fault i mean the line stinks they desperately need a number two receiver and another terrible game running from breeze hall they. They have one receiver, no running game, and a bad offensive line. Yes, I agree with all that. To be fair, they built this. They made this bed.
Starting point is 00:59:51 Now sleep in it. They signed Alan Lazard to the dumbest contract I've ever seen. I said at the time, it makes no sense. He has no skills that make any sense. He couldn't separate. Remember when I told you this, Adam, and you felt fought back on me for this? Is that why you're smiling? No, I don't remember this at all.
Starting point is 01:00:07 I'm saying the Jets deserve this, but I'm saying Zach Wilson's in a pretty bad situation too. Okay. Maybe you shouldn't have signed a wide receiver who is a UDFA, has no defining traits whatsoever, can't create separation, can't catch 50-50 balls, doesn't have speed, but played with Aaron Rodgers for a few years. Let's hear from the audience.
Starting point is 01:00:24 Maybe you should let Elijah Moore play. balls, doesn't have speed, but played with Aaron Rodgers for a few years. Let's hear from the audience. Maybe let Elijah Moore play. Dan sits on a phone book when he drives somebody's head in the cons. That's incredible. I'm not that short. I'm 5'8". Dan's not old enough to know what a phone book is. This is from Kel.
Starting point is 01:00:40 Kel says, I want to talk handcuffs. Philosophy on handcuffs during the postseason weeks and which ones are worth rostering and which ones would be wastes of roster spots. Sure. Do you still have your stash ranks, Jacob? No, I didn't come prepped with stash ranks. I'm scrambling right now.
Starting point is 01:00:57 I think I can come up with some. Have you guys seen the rest of season schedule for Zach Charbonnet? No. It's brutal. It is not good. No. Yeah, we've got San Francisco at Dallas, at San Francisco, Philadelphia, at Tennessee.
Starting point is 01:01:10 That's insane in terms of run defenses. That's like the best. But, like I said twice last night, I said on FFT and then on FFT and 5, the difference between him and Ken Walker, there are many differences, but a major one is that Charbonnet is the passing downs guy no matter what.
Starting point is 01:01:26 So he could still catch like five passes. He got a lot of volume in this game. I said I'd rather have Charbonnet without Walker than Walker with Charbonnet. Ooh. Walker with Charbonnet. I think it's close because Walker still has the big play potential, which we saw a couple weeks ago. I think he does. I think Charbonnet i think it's close because walker still has the big play potential which we saw a couple weeks ago i think he does i think charbonnet does too not to the same degree
Starting point is 01:01:49 like few people can really take it to the house like yeah i don't think that's his game charbonnet and i love this tape but that that was never really his game now it is bad um but all right so who are we stashing right now i think uh you know i had a league where i had i know wandale robinson had like a no he didn't really have that good of a game but I had him on a roster I was like forget this I dropped him for Elijah Mitchell these are the types of moves you should be making we're pretty much done with by we have six teams on a buy next week or week 13 so we're not done with
Starting point is 01:02:14 buys but if you feel like you're good there's dead space on your roster let's stash some handcuffs so I'll obviously Elijah Mitchell A.J. Dillon for sure. Josh Kelly, he was really bad, but at least he was
Starting point is 01:02:30 an option for you, so you could stash him. Tajay Spears. Oh yeah, for sure. Tajay Spears, for sure. That's a good call. Let's see if there's any others that we're missing here. Jaleel McLaughlin, they got more involved this week
Starting point is 01:02:45 than they had in the last couple weeks. Maybe. He didn't play much, McLaughlin, but it doesn't matter. This is just a handcuff situation. I think if Javante goes out, I don't think P. Ryan's role increases all that much. I think McLaughlin really benefits from that. It's hard to say with the Dolphins at this point.
Starting point is 01:03:03 I think Jeff Wilson is someone you probably want to get, but Savan Ahmed is obviously ahead of Jeff Wilson. But Ahmed also got hurt. Latavius Murray? That's what I was saying. There aren't too many more looking through it. I think Latavius is okay, I guess, as a pick there. I would be okay with calling him a stash.
Starting point is 01:03:22 How about Amari DiMarcato? No, not for me oh i got one um uh oh jacksonville dearness johnson dearness oh really okay but i'm gonna actually bring another one out i'm gonna bring out kenneth gainwell because i'm not a huge gainwell fan but we know the history with deandre swift and he's taken a a lot of touches this year. So I want to throw him out there. Yeah, I like Dearness. Dude, it's as bad as it could be for Tank Bigsby, man. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:03:53 They're done, it feels like. This was definitely not. This was one of my worst calls, I think, of the year, Tank Bigsby. And I've had some good calls, but I've had some bad calls too, and this was a bad one. This is a disgusting one, but I think Clyde Edwards-Hilaire might be a decent guy to grab. Oh, no, Jacob. Just like as somebody who watches the Chiefs, man, they can't quit.
Starting point is 01:04:11 I don't know. They keep giving – Yeah, and I really do think – I'm not 100% certain he's going to be in the NFL next year, Clyde Edwards-Hilaire. I'm not kidding on that. I mean, someone will find a role for him on the back end of a roster, but, man, he is not an NFL talent. Tyler Algier is someone you could – I mean, he's a 68 a roster, but man, he's not an NFL talent. Tyler is someone you could,
Starting point is 01:04:26 I mean, he's 68% roster, but you should stash him. If you want just someone to stash Chris Rodriguez, I think Washington likes him. He played well this week. All right. Once we start talking about Chris Rodriguez,
Starting point is 01:04:38 I think that means it's time to end the show. What's your favorite Costanza moment? What'd you say? What's your favorite Costanza moment? Oh, what's my favorite Costanza moment what'd you say what's your favorite Costanza moment oh what's my favorite Costanza moment so many great ones
Starting point is 01:04:49 um if I had to pick my favorite Costanza moment god I'm thinking about all my favorite ones now and I'm not sure like which one I want
Starting point is 01:04:57 to pick you are such a fake fan haha yeah I can talk about so many I can think of I mean I mean the jerk the jerk store is up
Starting point is 01:05:04 there for me the jerk store doppelganger and you can't even think of like a oh I mean I'm I can think of, I mean, I mean, the jerk, the jerk stores up there for me, and you can't even think of like, uh, Oh, I mean, I'm trying to think of the best one. I'm putting them all in my head. Jerk stores up there for me,
Starting point is 01:05:12 but nothing beats for me. The idea of him looking like angry while he's working at his desk or looking like, like, like he's in a bad mood to pretend like you're actually working hard. It's just so epically good. So I'm going to give it to that one. The whole idea of like,
Starting point is 01:05:25 when he's at his desk, he looks all like, and then like, oh wow, Costanza's really grinding the midnight oil. I love when he gets the toupee. That whole scene with Jason Alexander. Jerry's like,
Starting point is 01:05:37 had a little chat with George the other day. He goes, you did it. George goes, I did. It's like, what am I fair? It's two simple words
Starting point is 01:05:44 and he delivers it so condescendingly, I did. It's like, what am I fair? It's two simple words and he delivers it so condescendingly. I did. It's like my favorite. I'm not a huge Seinfeld guy, but that might be my favorite episode. I'm actually more of a Curb guy than a Seinfeld guy. I've seen Curb a lot more times than I've seen Seinfeld. My family celebrates Festivus every year. Do they really?
Starting point is 01:06:00 That's awesome. I was going to wish Dan a happy Festivus. So I watch that episode every year. Jacob, what are you doing for Thanksgiving? We got family here. We're all getting together, hanging out, doing Black Friday, that kind of stuff. Excellent. Dan, how about you?
Starting point is 01:06:15 I feel like Dan has a huge Thanksgiving. Got all the cousins, aunts and uncles come over. It's like 30 people. We usually actually used to do it at my parents parents house but this lately we've been doing it down south jersey because uh a few of my family moved down there so it makes more sense so i'm going down to my aunt's house excellent all right you know what's funny adam and jacob every year we have been doing we have basically for decades at this point do a family foot to two and touch football game but we've had to consider retiring it because they've been
Starting point is 01:06:45 somehow despite it being two-hand touch there have been injuries injuries yep happening in games including one time where my uncle went too hard for a pass and we were playing and it probably shouldn't have been playing because it was a little slippery out there and like cracked his head open and my aunt just my god but it was fine like it was it i say cracked his head open i mean just like he had bleeding from his head. But it wasn't that bad. It sounds horrible. It wasn't that bad.
Starting point is 01:07:09 But it was bad enough. And then my aunt was furious with us and everything. And then the next year we didn't play. And then the year after we just went right back to the mix. And we just started playing again. Despite clear and obvious evidence that this is not a good idea. And should not be done any longer. No, you should.
Starting point is 01:07:24 I'll suggest something for your family, Dan, on the same bleeding head note. What my family does, which doesn't involve any potential for injury, is we play Halo and we play Grand Theft Auto every Thanksgiving. We get a group of eight or ten guys mostly just de-genning while the girls go do Black Friday stuff. All right. That's great. Yeah. Um,
Starting point is 01:07:46 all right guys, I hope you all have, I hope the two of you have an amazing Thanksgiving. Dan, I'll speak to on Friday with the mailbag Jacob next Monday with beyond the box score and Jacob, I'm not going to make you do it now a minute, an hour and five minutes in,
Starting point is 01:07:56 but next week you owe us your Dan impression. Yeah, seriously. I've got it. I've got it. It's good. It's, it's actually,
Starting point is 01:08:01 I was going to do a film review of Dan as, as Dan. I love that. Yeah. I think it's going to be really good actually i was gonna do a film review of dan as as dan yeah i think it's gonna be really good but yeah we didn't all right all right see you everybody have a great day and i'm sure you'll be listening to us between now and then but if not happy thanksgiving happy best of us

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.