Fantasy Football Today - Cam Newton Ruled Out; Replacements at Each Position (10/03 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 3, 2020

With Cam Newton testing positive for the virus, we discuss the NE-KC game and if Julian Edelman is worth starting. However, if the game is not played you'll need some replacement options, so we'll give you options at each position (3:00).  Listen to the brand new Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-in-5/id1528634304 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter 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

All right, we got a Saturday bonus pod for you, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today. I'm Adam Azer with Heath Cummings. And, yeah, it's getting disappointing here around the NFL. Cam Newton on the reserve COVID list, so he will not play this week at Kansas City. We're recording this right after the news is breaking, so we're going to do this show as if the game is going to go on. But you should probably, you know, just in case,

just have some contingency plans in case that game has to be canceled. It's just a guessing game at this point. So Heath, let's say the game is played tomorrow and it's a 4.15 p.m. Eastern game, a 4.25. Chiefs hosting the Patriots. Are you going to start

Julian Edelman? I don't really want to start any Patriots if this game happens with, I presume Jarrett Stidham is the starting quarterback for the Patriots. They're going to run the ball 175 times. We'll see about that. Not if they're not, if the chiefs are putting up a ton of points,

right? Well, right. But I think they might run it 30 times in the first quarter. Like every time they, I would presume. Cause like, what is your strategy?

You're not going to get into a shootout. You've got to play keep away from Patrick Mahomes. You've got to hope you can average 3.3 yards per carry and have 15 play drives. Like you may not have a better option than Edelman. I have not fully updated my projections because I'm not fully certain we're going to get a chiefs Patriots game. The nice thing is we'll know that by the end of the day on Saturday

because New England has to fly to Kansas City, and they've not done that at the time we're talking. So, yeah, my initial takeaway would be that I want to make sure, as best as I can, like I understand roster constrictions exist. As best as I can, I would like to have a backup on my roster for anyone who plays for the Chiefs or the Patriots. And I would like to have a plan to not start any Patriots offensive players. And I would like to pick up the Chiefs defense if this game is going to happen

because they're available most everywhere. And I would be happy to start them as a top 12 defense this week. That's a good point. And, you know, it goes without saying that we wish the best for Cam Newton and hope everybody's doing, doing better. And the same thing with everybody on the Titans. It's now eight players on the Titans who have tested positive. Um, so I'm, I apologize if I came off as insensitive at the top of the show, just talking about fantasy football. That's what we're here to do. And of course we just assume that Cam Newton's going to be fine. He's a young, healthy guy, so I hope everything's okay with him

and get well soon, Cam Newton. We hope to see you out there as soon as possible. We do have a kind of cryptic tweet from Adam Schefter that just happened. So I think this could be messy, and we might just have to redo the podcast at some point. But Patriots are supposed to leave Kansas City for a flight at 1. The flight is not leaving then, and Pat's players leaving team facility.

Okay. So that... You know, here's what we're going to do. We're going to talk about replacements. Let's say you had Cam. Let's say you have Mahomes. Let's say you needed to get Let's say you have Mahomes. Let's say you needed to get ready for this game not being played.

Quarterback's the easiest position to do that. And I'm pulling up the roster trends right now. But as of Friday, Fitzmagic and Teddy Bridgewater were both available in more than 60% of leagues. I like both of them just fine. I already had them both ranked ahead of Tom Brady, if that gives you any indication. So those would be the first two guys that I would go look for.

Gardner Minshew did fall to 77% roster rate. So he would, in a shallow league, look for him. But yeah, Fitzmagic's rostered in 43% of leagues. Teddy Bridgewater in 36%. If you're in a much deeper league, Nick Mullins is available in 95% of leagues and has a very good matchup. So he'd be a clear third for me.

But in a deeper league, Mullins would be the option. Running back's probably going to be tough. You hopefully you have someone on your bench, but look, we have the possibility of no Derek Henry, no James Connor and no Clyde Edwards, Z layer. But if you need a running back,

let's see what, what could we be looking at right now? Yeah. I mean, you're, you're not going to get like the first thing and it kind of leads into the other thing that popped up on Saturday, would be go make sure Giovanni Bernard is rostered.

Joe Mixon went on the injury report with a chest injury. He is now questionable for Sunday. And historically speaking, Giovanni Bernard, when Joe Mixon is out, is better than Joe Mixon when Giovanni Bernard is in. Like, he has been absolutely awesome whenever he gets a full workload. So go make sure, Gio geo first off is rostered if if he is um it it's rough i'm trying to go through because it's even changed since yesterday the guys that are available uh jeff wilson's still available in more than 30 of leagues so in shallow leagues that would be a good option. Like if you're in a deeper league,

I think you have to consider Gus Edwards. He's like, he averages seven yards of carry. So maybe he'll break one of them into the end zone. Yeah. I think that Brian Hill, maybe any interest in Brian Hill, a little bit of interest in Brian Hill.

If you're in a non PPR league and you just want to throw a touchdown or bust, dart, Jordan Howard scores every week. There's probably going to be a lot of points in that game. You know what? Jamal Williams is not a bad choice either. Yeah, and he's not a bad player just to roster just in case. When you talk about just rostering handcuffs, not to say A.J. Dillon wouldn't get some work,

but obviously Williams would be involved as Aaron Jones got injured. There's one other guy that I was looking at, Travis Homer. It looks like Carson's going to play. Maybe Homer has some role if one of Carson or Hyde is out. But obviously, we're going to hope you have somebody on the bench. Cordero Patterson, he's 12% rostered. In full PPR, Chris Thompson's 19% rostered, and he scores PPR point. Like people need to also understand. And I tweeted about this on Thursday. I was already starting some really bad options in a variety of my leagues this week.

I got just with the injuries and with the Steelers and Titans, we were already there. If this game doesn't happen, it's going to be even worse for everyone. By the way, Russell gauge, let's go to wide receivers. Russell Gage is 65% rostered.

He's practiced in full on Friday. So I don't really get that. 65% for Russell Gage, that needs to be higher. Hunter Renfro, I love this week. He's also 65%. Preston Williams is 61%. Anthony, there are a lot of wide receivers. Anyone that really jumps out at you is a must add.

Traquan Smith, no Michael Thomas and no Jared cook. So you got Traquan Smith. Who's 29% rostered. I would presume that Traquan Smith is the highest ranked player. There is one player that's rostered in more leagues, but golden Tate is available in almost half of leagues and they're going to have to throw the ball a bunch in a game they're going to be way behind

and i would presume jaylen ramsey is going to be on darius slayton tate saw seven targets last week he averaged about 60 yards per game with daniel jones last. So Tate would be my favorite in full PPR. Then it would be Trey Kwan Smith. And then it would be Greg Ward at 24%. I mean, they don't have anybody healthy at wide receiver. John Jackson already ruled out. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside is doubtful. It's going to be Greg Ward and John Hightower

playing like 90% of the snaps. It appears that every league i'm in somebody picked up giovanni bernard already so it looks like i was a little slow getting to giovanni bernard tight end is another position like we've got a lot of potential options robert tanyan's not quite as attractive now that Devante Adams is expected to play. My favorite actually is a guy that everybody else has kind of been on early in the season, and I wasn't really that into it. But I kind of think this might be the week that Logan Thomas pays off. He's getting a ton of targets, and now they're without Stephen Sims as well. Terry

McLaurin's questionable, and he's only rostered in 28% of leagues. Okay, yeah, and the Ravens actually have been terrible against tight ends. Yeah, Gronkowski's up to 79%, so it's going to be tough to get him. I would rather start Logan Thomas than either Buccaneers tight end. But Gronkowski does have an opportunity because

Godwin's out, and is Miller out? I do not believe Miller is out. Okay. Um, yeah, well, but yeah, I know they both have opportunities.

It's a better week for Gronkowski. Miller's questionable. He, oh, he practiced in full, so he's going to play. Um, well,

that's disappointing for him, but, uh, it's a better week for Gronk than it would be if Chris Godwin were playing. And Jimmy Graham, like he's still available in 40% of leagues. It's, it feels gross,

but the desperate times, these are, but desperate times these are. They are. They are. Look, we hope everybody's okay. We hope this game is played. We're supposed to be watching it tomorrow on Twitch, twitch.com slash FFtoday for the home team watch party presented by Lowe's. So fingers crossed that'll happen.

And feel better, Cam Newton. Hope there's nobody else that gets infected on the New England Patriots. This has just been a frustrating year. We just won some football, and that was the game that we were all looking forward to. Heath, thanks for your time today, man. You say you're welcome? I was used to the HQ thing where people thank you for being on, and you just don't say anything

at all. They awkwardly look at your face for a couple seconds and then go something new. Okay. Well, we could try that too. I'll do that. Here we go.

All right. And Heath Cummings. Thanks a lot, man. All right. Tomorrow on HQ, we'll start breaking it down at 10 AM Eastern. So download the CBS sports HQ app.

I'm Jamie Eisenberg. Talk to you then. Oh, wait, Heath, actually for realsies. I have, I have one more question.

If this game gets played and you figure the Chiefs are going to slaughter the Patriots, maybe, does this make you less excited about Sammy Watkins? Yeah, I guess that's a thing that we could say. He wasn't in my top 36 wide receivers anyway, but he might be after I... Yeah, it does. Slightly. He's a low-end number four. And since we now extended it for just a moment, Adam Schefter said one source texted him,

no way they can travel today. So make other plans, and then it'll be a bonus if they play. Okay. And maybe they play Monday, you never know maybe they play Tuesday but at least we gave you some options for replacements okay, thanks for listening I'm actually Adam Azer and now I'm saying goodbye