Fantasy Football Today - Chubb Update, MNF Replacements, Trade Talk and More (10/05 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 5, 2020

We've got some Davante Adams replacements for tonight's games, and how much do we like Rex Burkhead now that Sony Michel is out? We also cover PHI-SF (7:45) and wonder if Zach Ertz is a bust or a buy low. Then we hear the latest news on Chubb and react (13:40)! Should you add D'Ernest Johnson? ... Which offenses have surprised us so far (19:15)? Who are the biggest busts through four weeks? ... Are there any QBs on waivers that can be good rest of season (25:05)? Is Justin Herbert the answer? How much do we like Josh Kelley going forward (28:00)? Also: What to do with Mike Davis and with Jonathan Taylor (32:45) ... Email us at [e-mail] 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

This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races. Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again.

Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. We got a big sports night. Got the American League Division Series starting and two Monday night football games. How about that? And Chiefs-Patriots, some injury news in that game, some injury news in the Packers-Falcons game. We welcome you to Fantasy Football Today.

It's Adam Azer with Ben Schrager and Frank Stample. Hey, Frank. Hey, Adam. Hey, Frank. Since our last conversation, you're wearing your glasses now, so you're taking your eyesight seriously? I am. I am, Frank. Hey, Adam. Hey, Frank. Since our last conversation, you're wearing your glasses now, so you're taking your eyesight seriously? I am. I am, yeah.

I was walking into things, just tripping, needed to put some glasses on. Ben Schrager, what's up? How we doing? What's going on? Double Monday Night Football. I am pumped. Yeah, I know. Just a lot of TV conflicts tonight.

But let's give some injury updates and talk about some replacement options. And then we'll talk about the Sunday night game. You know, it was fun, whatever. It was a fun finish. And some five big topics from around the NFL. Some stats you need to know. What's going on with Jonathan Taylor?

We got a lot on Jonathan Taylor. But let's start with Devontae Adams. Devontae Adams is out tonight. I'm just going to read the tweet that Dave Richard posted. It was pretty comprehensive, and then we can talk about it. Replacements for Adams. Marquez Valdez-Scantling, 77% rostered. Russell Gage, 68%. Mikko Hardman, 47%. Nikhil Harry, 51%. Damir Bird, 2%. Demarcus Robinson, 2%. Darius Shepard, 2%. Olamide Zaccheaus, 2%.

You don't really want him unless one of the Falcons wide receivers is out, and you probably need two of them to be out. Robert Tonian, 52%. That's interesting. The Falcons give up the second most points to tight ends. All right, so let's say MVS is number one, or maybe Russell Gage is number one. I don't know. You tell me. Those two have got to be one and two, I let's say MVS is number one, or maybe Russell Gage is number one. I don't know.

You tell me. Those two have got to be one and two, I would think, MVS and Gage. So real quick, guys, who would you rather have in a dream scenario where they're available, MVS or Gage? I'd rather have Gage. I'd rather have MVS. I think there's going to be a lot of target volume, and it's a great matchup.

The Falcons are allowing almost 250 yards per game to wide receivers, second most in the NFL. Okay. Then let's go to be a lot of target volume, and it's a great matchup. The Falcons are allowing almost 250 yards per game to wide receivers, second most in the NFL. Okay, then let's go to the next group. Mecole Hardman against the Patriots. Nikhil Harry at the Chiefs. Demir Bird at the Chiefs. So those guys, you know, Hardman 47% rostered, Harry 51%. How about those two?

Who would you rather have, Hardman or Harry? I think it depends what you need. If you're looking for a home run tonight and you need to make up a gap of 20, 25 points, it's Hardman. But I think Harry's in for probably 8 to 10 targets. They're going to be trailing. He had 12 targets in that game when they trailed against Seattle. So I think Harry's the safer play, but Hardman's that home run hitter.

Yeah, I think in a vacuum, I'd still go Nikhil Harry, but the way that Ben laid it out makes a lot of sense. Okay, the Chiefs actually allowed the fewest fantasy points to wide receivers they did going into week four. Will Fuller had 100 yards. Keenan Allen had 96. Nobody else did well, but really that's kind of just Marquise Brown, who had two catches for 13 yards

um brandon cooks marquise brown they didn't do anything uh and then on the other side of the coin if you're looking at what the patriots have done they really haven't been all that great the miami like davante parker was good in one half seattle wide receivers kill them hunter renfro kill them so you know what? I think tonight, well, I don't know. I was going to say tonight we kind of find out more about the Patriots defense. But how much can you find out when they face the Chiefs? The Chiefs are probably going to put up some points.

Yeah, I think the Chiefs wide receivers could do well and Hardman could still have nothing. Right. That's the problem. Absolutely. And then, as Dave mentioned in his tweet, you've got some deep shots. Sorry, I just lost those names. Demarcus Robinson, Darius Shepard,

Demir Bird, Zaccheaus. They're all rostered in 2% of leagues or fewer. And Robert Tanya in 52%. Maybe that's someone that you could pivot to as a flex. The other news, Sonny Michelle is out. So Ben, how excited are you for Rex Burkhead? Ben and Ben done.

Ben's gone. Okay. All right. We'll get them back. Frank, how excited are you for a Rex Burkhead? I am decently excited. I think that,

you know, he's in that flex conversation and he's been playing a ton of snaps recently with James White out out but James White is set to return for the Patriots so I think we probably see Burkhead on early downs probably see him used in the red zone but as we've said all along Adam we've been waiting a couple weeks now for James White to return I do think in his first game back obviously with everything that happened with him and his family that tragedy I think the Patriots try and get James White involved in this game whether it's through the the Patriots try and get James White involved in this game,

whether it's through the pass game, they try and get him a touchdown, whatever it might be. But I think we see a lot of Burkhead and a lot of James White in this game. Well, there have already been four running backs with 32 or more receiving yards against the Chiefs. So whether it's Burkhead, whether it's White, maybe it's both of them involved in the passing game. You know, you could have some success there.

And the Chiefs so far have been pretty bad against the run. I'd like to see another game with Mike Pinnell. Last week they were not great against the Ravens, but the Ravens running backs only had 12 carries. But we'll see. Burkhead becomes interesting and unfortunate. I think for a lot of people, you sat him, rightfully so. You thought Sonny Michel was going to play.

You might not have the roster spot. Who would you play? You probably answered this, but who would you play, Burkhead or White? I would play Burkhead. I think you have to go that route, the way that they've used him thus far. And a ton of red zone opportunities the past couple of weeks, too, and obviously coming off a game where he scored three touchdowns. So I think they're both involved,

but I think I trust Burkhead more than i do james white yeah and you don't have to worry about cam newton stealing some goal line touchdowns either and brian hoyer will be the starting quarterback tonight all right everybody let's go through sunday oh there was another big news item there were a couple more big news items austin eckler we expect in the midst several weeks we don't have an update as of right now. It's about noon Eastern on Nick Chubb. There's some optimism that it won't be as bad as it looked, but no update yet on Nick

Chubb. And here's what Anthony Lynn said on whether or not Tyrod or Tyrod Taylor would become the starting quarterback when healthy. Quote, I can't answer that question right now. My mind is still on the game. I think he probably could answer that question. You know, like your mind can not,

you can answer that question even right after the game. It's a weird spot, man, because it's like, you know, it's the doctor who messed up. So are there going to be legal implications involved if they don't give Terod Taylor his job back? But obviously for fantasy, and it sucks, like, yeah, he to rod taylor his job back but obviously for fantasy and it sucks like yeah he shouldn't have lost his job that way but for fantasy this offense is much much better with justin herbert at the helm so keenan allen has seen a ridiculous amount of

targets over the past three games and joshua kelly just played a season high 57 of the snaps with austin eclair leaving so i think he is a big winner as a result of the injury. Well, we're going to talk about him. Can you rely on Josh Kelly? Cause he really hasn't had a very productive game on the ground since week one. And we got, he gets the saints next week. We know they usually have a pretty good run defense. So let's, let's talk about him a little bit later, Philadelphia 25 and San Francisco 20, 20 you know carson wentz he scored 22 fantasy points he had a rushing touchdown for the second straight three third straight game actually um he he was pretty played it safe in this game a lot of underneath stuff they i hope they just

took away zackerts i sort of frank compare this game, hopefully, if you want to be optimistic, to the Darren Waller game last week, where he just got taken away by the Patriots, and he came back, had a great game against the Bills. What do you think about Ertz? Because he had four catches for nine yards on five targets in this game. Do you think it was just they had no other weapons, and the Niners were able to take him away? Or is this a more concerning sign? No, I think that's exactly it. I think that the 49ers came in with a game plan to shut down Zach Ertz. They knew that the Eagles are dealing with a slew of injuries to their pass catchers. Honestly, Greg Ward was their number one wide receiver entering this game.

So I think the 49ers made it their defensive game plan to stop Zach Ertz in this game. Very disappointing, obviously. Four receptions for just nine yards. But remember, Dallas Goddard is out for at least another two weeks because he's on that three-week injured reserve. So if anyone's freaking out in your league about Zach Ertz, I would be trying to buy him low, personally.

Oh, you would? Okay, good. Whoa! Schrager's back. This guy just gets to pop on whenever he wants. Just leave the podcast, whatever. Just willy-nilly, is that what they say? Is that what the kids say? Yeah, willy-nilly.

Yeah, that's what all the kids are saying these days, running around saying willy-nilly all the time. All right, Ben, you're back. So let's rank some tight ends. Kelsey Kittle, one and two, whichever way you want to do it. Mark Andrews, three? Or Waller, three? Who's three for you?

Waller, three. Based on target volume, you have to go Waller. Okay, who's four? Oh, the other guy, right? Andrews? Yeah, Mark Andrews. Yep. Who's five?

It is ugly. I would still go with Zach Ertz. Again, Goddard's going to miss at least the next two games. Yes, things are likely going to change when he's back, but it's not like the Eagles have fantastic pass catchers when everyone's healthy. And is everyone ever going to be healthy? We're waiting on Alshon Jeffrey, Deshaun Jackson,

the ghost of Deshaun Jackson. Jalen Rager has had a ton of injuries thus far as well. So I think you have to put Ertz fifth. I don't really see anyone else that... All right, let me give you the names, because I think it helps look at the standings right now. Right now, it's Waller one, Kelsey two, Fant three, Andrews four, Dalton Schultz, five.

I really think you can make a case for him. Fifth. Of course, he could completely fall off and be terrible because the Cowboys aren't going to throw this much every week. Kittle. Johnnie Smith. Don't forget about him. Tyler Higbee because of that one game. Hawkinson. Jimmy Graham. Mike Kosicki.

Still interesting. Hunter Henry. Mo'Ally Cox. Zach Ertz, Hayden Hurst, Evan Ingram. Once again, it would have been a really good plan to get an elite tight end, so it seems. But you probably thought Ertz was considered a top tier elite tight end, and you'd be disappointed. Sure. But I would say 75% hit rate on the top tight ends. Top four, right? Three of them. Oh, well, Kittle got hurt. Kittle got hurt.

And Andrew's two out of four games. Yeah, but that's still better. He's still the number four tight end in PPR. He's caught four touchdowns. We knew he was going to catch touchdowns. Nick Chubb just got placed on the IR. Okay.

MCL injury. Okay. I love talking tight ends, but... All right, let's finish this game, and we'll get back to Nick Chubb then. So Zach Ertz, Frank calls him a by-low. Rest of season, Dalton Schultz or Zach Ertz? Ertz for me. Ertz, would you trade Ronald Jones for Zach Ertz? Ertz for me. Ertz, would you

trade Ronald Jones for Zach Ertz? If Jones is my RB3 or flex, yes. Yeah, for sure. Okay. Also in this game, let's see. Nick Mullins got benched for CJ Beathard. Let's hope Jimmy Garoppolo

is back for Miami next week. Another big day for Jarek McKinnon and a quiet day for Jeff Wilson. McKinnon played almost every snap, so it seems obvious that unless we get Mostert back next week, Jarek McKinnon is a must-start. Deebo Samuel,

he's 81% rostered. They eased him in. Are you guys feeling good about Brandon Ayuk? He had a rushing touchdown for the second straight game. Two catches for 18 yards after having five catches for 70 yards last week at the

Giants. They get Miami next week, as I mentioned, then the Rams. Are you feeling like Brandon Ayuk is 58% rostered? Are you feeling like that's reasonable, or do we need to make him more rostered? I think that's reasonable, or do we need to make him more rostered? I think that's probably reasonable. I think if I'm a 49ers fan, I feel fantastic about him.

I think he's a great player, but I think outside of George Kittle and whoever the starting running back is, if it's Mostert, if he's healthy, if he's not, then it's Derek McKinnon. I don't know that you can really rely on anybody else in this pass game in terms of Ayuke and Debo. And I think as Debo gets healthier, he's probably going to surpass Iuke as well. So it's a good problem for the 49ers to have. I don't know that it's great for fantasy.

I'm with you. Debo and Iuke are both going to run the ball probably once or twice a game. They're both not going to have a big target share. And when Kittle's healthy, Kittle's the only guy you can rely on. So I think I should maybe be even a little less. I'm very discouraged with Debo coming back because I think they profile similarly in this offense. All right, then let's take a look at the Cleveland Browns running back situation. Nick Chubb on IR, which means he's going to miss at least three games. Do we have any more information? Is it like he's out six weeks or anything? Several week injury expected back this season.

Oh, geez. Okay. So, you know, you really have to take a look at what happened. They didn't just give the keys to the card to Kareem Hunt. They used a lot of Dearness Johnson. He had

five carries in the second quarter. So Chubb got hurt basically almost at the end of the first quarter. And at that point, Kareem Hunt did not have a carry. Six carries for Chubb, and then the next carry went to Kareem Hunt. That was his first of the game. Johnson had five carries in the second quarter. Hilliard wasn't really much of a factor. If there was any garbage time, it was in the fourth quarter.

Johnson got five carries in the fourth quarter. So Hunt was the guy. I'm not trying to make it that. I'm not trying to say he wasn't. But I'm just curious what you guys think, what kind of split it will be. Because Heath said Kareem Hunt could be the number two running back in fantasy going forward. I was saying, oh, you're crazy. He's number four.

But of course, we love him, and he's going to be great. But he did not get a huge snap share. What did he have? Also coming off the injury too. So it's tough to judge the one game. That's a great point. All right, so give me your thoughts. Dearness Johnson, 17 snaps, 13 carries on those snaps.

Yes, the game flow was calling for that. But at the same time, they want to have a split and they want to run the ball a lot. So I think Hunt will have an uptick in his touches, obviously, but it's not like he's going to get the bell cow load. I think Johnson's a must pick up, and I think Hunt is in RB1, but I don't have him in my top three moving forward. I agree. I think you laid that out perfectly, Ben. I think he's probably a low-end RB1. This offensive line for the Browns has been fantastic this year. No matter who has been running behind them, they've run well. And the same thing was for Dearness Johnson in this game,

13 carries for 95 yards. But again, Kareem Hunt only had 11 rushing attempts in this game, two touchdowns. So he's scoring touchdowns at an unsustainable rate. I would say he is a low-end RB1, and I'm trying to get Dearness Johnson on my team, especially if I have Kareem Hunt. Who are you dropping? Would you rather add Justin Jackson or Dearness Johnson? Johnson.

Johnson. It's interesting because Johnson has basically zero chance of overtaking Kareem Hunt. Josh Kelly has not played well. He has fumbled two straight games. This fumble wasn't necessarily his fault. It was a bad exchange between him and Herbert, but give him

half the blame, maybe. Jackson's a veteran. Jackson had been hurt. I would say Jackson. I just don't know what you're going to get from Dearness Johnson. I think we've seen Jackson be okay. We've seen Jackson be okay. We have seen Jackson be okay.

But nothing more than that. But, well, we've never seen him be a starting running back, though, because he's always had either Gordon or Eckler around, except for one game against the Chiefs, I think, two years ago when he scored a touchdown but didn't play that well. I don't know. The point you make about the injury for Kareem Hunt, maybe we shouldn't take the possibility of him being a workhorse

close to every down back off the table if he is healthy next week. We shouldn't, but we know Cleveland's going to run the ball a ton, and they're going to continue to run the ball, whether it's Johnson or Hunt. And we also don't know Eckler's injury status. We don't know if he could be all right this week or he's out several weeks as well. Well, the report was several weeks anyway.

That was initial. Okay, let's say they're both on IR. Let's say they're both going to miss at least three games, Chubb and Eckler. You're still going Dearness Johnson? I'm going Johnson. I like the offensive line a heck of a lot more. The scheme just in general.

You know the Browns want to run the ball. I think we've seen enough of Justin Jackson to know that he's not great. And Joshua Kelly played like 56% of the snaps in that game once Eckler went down. So it seems like he's going to be the guy, although he hasn't been great, like you pointed out, Adam. Yeah, the offensive line, you bring up a good point about the Chargers, right? They played without three starters on the offensive line. Mike Pouncey's out for the year,

so he's not coming back, but I think he's out for the year. Yeah, he's had season-ending surgery. Bulaga was out. He missed his first game. Trey Turner has missed three games. I don't know. We have to check on the status of Bulaga and Turner, but those are important pieces for them and could make their running game a little bit better.

Certainly Kelly has been struggling lately. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back with our five big topics. Hey, football fans, are you an Amazon Prime member? Did you know that you can watch Thursday Night Football live on Prime Video? That's right. It's the future of football.

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Fox and NFL Network. NFL Network simulcast subject to change. Thursday Night Football is presented by Bud Light Platinum. All right it's time for five big topics. Crowdsource these from our listeners. Thank you all for your help. This is from Reed Wolf. Which offense came out this year and surprised us all, and what fantasy players came from that? You want me to start? Bills. It's a pretty good one, yeah. How can you argue with the Bills, right?

It's like Stefan Diggs is fantastic right now. Look, Josh Allen almost threw for 300 yards for the fourth straight game. It was 288 passing yards. Just missed the record for the Bill. He remains tied with Jim Kelly for the most consecutive 300-yard games. He's QB2. Diggs is the top seven wide receiver. Beasley is like a number three wide receiver.

Devin Singletary has been good the last two weeks because of Moss's injury but I what who surprised us that was the question which often surprised us the reason I said the Bills they are seventh in pass attempts and 21st in rush attempts the last five years this is where they've been in pass attempts. 31st, 32nd, 31st, 28th, and 24th. So that's what really surprised me. It's a shock to see the Bills operating like this, but it's working. Can I say the Cowboys? I don't know if it seems obvious,

and we all thought they were going to be good, but this good? I mean, yeah, their defense is historically bad and beat up, but Dak Prescott, 450 passing yards or more in three straight games. He's on pace for like 6,000 passing yards. It's going to slow down eventually, but I think even the most optimistic Cowboys fan about their offense would have never, ever imagined this happening.

And I'll throw the Seahawks out there. We expected Russell Wilson to be good. We expected Chris Carson to run well. We did not expect them to throw this efficiently for DK and Lockett to be must-start wide receivers and for all those things to happen while Carson is still a must-start

running back. I think that's a good point. Chris Carson's on pace for 60 receptions this year. You would say coming into the season, 30 to 40 receptions was probably a realistic projection for Chris Carson. He's on pace for 60, so it's pretty nice there

out of him and obviously there letting Russell Wilson cook. Packers would be the other one. See what they do tonight, but so far they've been one of the best offenses in football. They were the highest scoring team in football going into week four, and they just look so much better

in year two of that offense. Sean Brendan Lemon says, Through four weeks, who has been the most disappointing non-injured players in fantasy? I nominate, he pretty much covers all of them. I nominate DJ Moore, Kenyon Drake, any Tampa Bay running back, and Marquise Brown. Yeah, those are pretty good. I think it has to be Kenyon Drake now he's on pace for 20 targets I know he got banged up in in week four his game but it's the combination of him not seeing targets

the fact that once they get in the red zone they're letting Kyler Murray run and they're letting Chase Edmonds get involved too whether it's targets in the red zone carries I think Kenyon Drake being drafted as a borderline first round pick early second round pick yeah probably the most disappointing for me adam a huge bust i mean a huge bust i i think that you know the fact that what did you say he's on page for 20 targets 20 targets that's horrendous he's also a little banged up but it didn't seem serious um like like i said, the first three games weren't that discouraging because he got 16 to 20 carries.

He scored 7 to 12 non-PPR, 8 to 14 PPR points. You know, he wasn't that bad. 13 carries was obviously disappointing. And, yes, Chase Edmonds is getting the catches. DeAndre Hopkins is getting a lot of catches, obviously. Kyler Murray is rushing for touchdowns almost every week. He's a huge bust, and he's

concerning. It's concerning. No question. Michael Gallup is obviously like, looking at the snap counts, Michael Gallup played more snaps than any other Dallas wide receiver. He's just so boomer bust, Adam. That's what it comes down to. He's being targeted down the field, but those things

can be fluky at times because if he is not hauling in those targets, then he's not going to have the big play and it's going to lead to a very disappointing game. He is a boomer bust wide receiver three, albeit he plays in the number one yardage offense in the NFL. It's

frustrating. They threw for 500 yards. He had 30 of them. Schrager left us again. Schrager's having some internet issues, so hopefully he will hop back on. So yeah, Kenyon Drake is probably the biggest bust in fantasy football right now of the non-injured players. I don't see how it's going to get better either.

That's the worst part. You know who's getting a little disappointing is Josh Jacobs. I don't know that there's any warning signs. He's still much more involved in the passing game. He's had three catches in every game. Week one he had four. Then 3-3-3. So that's nice.

But PPR fantasy points in four games? 35-12-9-9. He just has to score again, I guess. But I don't know. This just kind of looks like one of those bad stretches. Yeah, I'm not worried. He hasn't scored since week one. He did score three touchdowns in that game,

but the fact that he's more involved in the pass game this year, the Raiders, their offensive line, I think, is a little bit banged up as well. They lost Richie Incognito. So that has probably hurt his efficiency to some level. But the fact that he's seeing close to 20 touches per game in a surprisingly pretty good offense too. Derek Carr has played really, really well this season.

So if anyone's freaking out about Josh Jacobs, I would be looking to buy. And don't worry, Frank, I will not tell Ben that you said that about him. This is from Dan Backler. Streaming quarterbacks have been unpredictably not great this season. Trubisky week two, Minshew week three, Fitzpatrick week four. Is there a rest of season available quarterback you'd be happy with? Oh, Ben Schrager's here. Ben, is there a rest of season quarterback that's available that

you'd be happy with yeah it's ryan tannahill he's probably has his buy out of the way already he's getting aj brown back johnny smith looks really good and tannahill has been almost as efficient as he was last year so yes tannahill's available not in every league i believe maybe 25 percent of leagues yeah it's a Yeah, it's a little cheap. It's a little cheap. So he would be my go-to. Otherwise, no. Bridgewater looked good.

You can probably trade for Drew Brees. Maybe you could pick up Carson Wentz, but you're not comfortable with Wentz or Bridgewater for the rest of the season. So other than Tannehill, no for me. You know what I will say about the streaming quarterback conversation? I had Ryan Fitzpatrick in a few lineups yesterday.

I am very ashamed to say that I dropped Tom Brady in a league for Ryan Fitzpatrick. That was a terrible, terrible move. Cripes. But Ryan Fitzpatrick going into Monday night is QB 11 this week. So, I mean, he kind of salvaged his day with that rushing touchdown. It's not all bad. I'll throw the name out there. If remains as a starting quarterback Justin Herbert has been really

good for fantasy his first three games you know he's thrown for at least 290 yards in each of those he went up against Tampa Bay which is supposed to be a good defense and he just threw for three touchdowns some really really long touchdowns as well adds a little bit with his legs don't know what's going to happen with Terod Taylor, but I think Herbert is pretty interesting, actually. Yep. New Orleans next week, and then the Jets and the Dolphins and the Jaguars after that.

Jets, Dolphins, Jaguars. Yeah, that could be the guy. I mean, look, he's going to go through his ups and downs, just like Joe Burrow. But Herbert, you know, I read The Athletic a lot. You pay like, what, five bucks a month or whatever and get all these beat writers.

Makes sense for our job. So the writer for The Chargers was just raving about Herbert. We all were. But he was like, it's got to be his job. How could they go back to Tyrod Taylor at this point? Or Tyrod, excuse me. I want them to stick with Herbert so I don they go back to Tyrod Taylor at this point? Or Tyrod, excuse me. I want them to stick with Herbert so I don't keep messing up Tyrod Taylor's name pronunciation

more than anything. But yeah, he said that. Another thing he said that was interesting is that they did a lot of max protect. They kept their running backs and their tight ends in to block a lot in this game against the Buccaneers pass rush. So when you see Austin Eckler was getting so many catches and the Chargers running backs really didn't do that in week four,

it could have been, I don't know if you guys have stats on how many routes they ran, but it could have been a blocking thing that they were keeping them in to block against the pass rush. All right, and speaking of which, Brandon asks, is Josh Kelly startable with Eckler out? And that's a good question because he really struggled with nine carries for seven yards he did have three

catches for 26 yards it wasn't a fair fight against the Bucks love that run defense at New Orleans then the Jets then the Dolphins then the Jaguars for Kelly is he startable guys I think he's a top 24 running back a low end RB to again like he

didn't dominate snaps, but he played the most snaps of the season by far. It was a season high for him, 57% of the snaps. He had more touches than Justin Jackson. Jackson did not look good in this game either, but Tampa Bay is obviously a really, really good run defense. Matchups coming up are really good. I think he's in there as a low-end RB2, top 24 running back for me, Josh Kelly.

Agree, Ben. Yeah. There's no reason for me to think right now what we've seen with Justin Jackson over the past two years, that Justin Jackson is going to be the guy out of nowhere. And like we're saying with Herbert, he's got a great schedule coming up.

Well, they're running backs also have a great schedule. So yes, Josh Kelly is a starter for me. He's probably more like top 30, but a top 30 running back is very good how bad running backs are right now. Okay.

Look, I got to be honest with you. The Saints have a pretty good run defense, so I'm a little concerned about it next week. And I'm a little concerned about the fumbles. Looking forward to talking about this one on the waiver wire on the waiver wire show tomorrow. Didn't the Saints allow two touchdowns to running backs this week right one to ap and one to be on yes yeah but yeah in terms of yards per carry they have been pretty good yards per carry is what i typically look

like look at but at the same time you know you can be a run defense that gives up a low yards per carry if you have a bad defense in general you'll probably give up some touchdowns. The Saints have not had a very good defense this year. We thought they would. I think they should be able to do pretty well against the Chargers. Let's go to our final topic from Dave. What do we do with Mike Davis? So good, but will he be useless in two weeks? I think so.

He'll be useless at some point, but use him, use him, use him until he is useless. I traded him. I'm flipping to the McCaffrey owner right now. The CMC manager, he's likely struggling at running back. How can you argue with what Mike Davis has done? I think that as long as CMC is out, Davis is going to perform like a low-end RB1. All the targets that he's seeing, all the red zone usage that he's seeing, it's hard

to argue with. And I don't think he's going to have a role when CMC comes back. Some people have brought that up. Is he going to take some work away from McCaffrey? I can't imagine that happening. So I would try and sell Mike Davis to the CMC manager. And if you can't get anything, just continue to start them while CMC is out. So what would you sell them for? Because you're probably not getting a running back because they're running back needy. What sort of wide receiver do you think you could reasonably get? I traded him yesterday for a wide receiver. What did that look like?

Not good in week four. But I wanted to start. Look, I had four running backs I wanted to start, and one of them was going to be on my bench. So I was like, let's see if I can make a trade. I traded for Marquise Brown. If he had scored a touchdown, which he was half a yard away from, it's not like Brown was bad.

Look, I had a feeling that Marquise Brown is not going to be as good as Mike Davis while Christian McCaffrey's out. But obviously this will benefit me at some point down the line. It's a three-receiver PPR league, so I traded him for Marquise Brown, and I think both sides will be happy with that. Short-term for one, long-term for the other. Yeah. I would probably

try and shoot a little bit higher. Why not? Just try and see if you get McLaurin or something. I would try to do something like that, but if not, I think Brown, Will Fuller, low-end wide receiver. Ch and wide shark shark not bad i'm a little bit tougher now you know two touchdowns yesterday would you trade him for would you trade mike davis for zach earths yeah if i'm starting logan thomas at tight end absolutely if i'm starting even evan ingram even though we think he might be a buy low yes i would still would still do it. I'm just reading Scott Fowler in the Charlotte Observer

writing after the game yesterday. Mike Davis undoubtedly has to keep getting playing time even when McCaffrey returns. He's been excellent. He has been excellent. He's forced the most missed tackles of any running back. That's wild. But McCaffrey is the best running back in football.

And the only thing, this might take a few touches away from McCaffrey, but you're not going to be able to use Mike Davis if we think he may get three targets in a game and four or five carries. It's not useful in fantasy. We're seeing now that Nick Chubb expected to miss six weeks.

So that sucks. That sucks. Got to grab Dearness Johnson. Guys, I got a few minutes left here. Oh, Jonathan Taylor. Let's talk about the Jonathan Taylor stuff. Ben, what kind of statistics are we seeing on Jonathan Taylor? We were pumped after week two.

He saw 74% of the team's rushes and 8% targets, and then week three and four, it's been really bad. 45% and 49% of the rushes and 4% targets and then week three and four it's been off it's been really bad 45 and 49 percent of the rushes and four percent of the team targets so it's frustrating because you have to start jonathan taylor we're expecting this big workload and he's not getting it and naheem hines when he's running he's not going anywhere so it is frustrating to watch hines i believe it's 35 of his carries have gone for one yard or less since week one. So it's not pretty. But Jonathan Taylor is not the RB1 we were hoping for based on usage.

I remember when Marlon Mack went down, people were talking about him as a top five running back. I don't think that we can realistically have that conversation anymore. I think that he's probably more of a low-end RB1, high-end RB2, like a top 15 kind of guy. But the snaps have also gone down over the past two weeks as well. I keep waiting for Jordan Wilkins to go away. I thought he was just like, okay, we're blowing out the Jets. Let's get Wilkins some work. But he was actually just part of the game plan in week four against the Chicago Bears.

So that is something I'm a little bit more worried about. I think Wilkins is, Taylor rather, is more of a high-end RB2 as of now. Here's what The Athletic had to say about it. At the same time, you have to wonder whether the Colts should be getting more out of their offensive line. There were plays the running backs could have squeezed a bit more yardage out of,

but they were also a fair share when they were getting hit in the backfield. Get a load of this. The Bears had nine tackles for losses. Nine! Smith compiled three all by himself. All-pro guard Quentin Nelson did not have one of his vintage performances, and he wasn't alone.

The Bears had a ton of penetration past the line of scrimmage. Who would you rather have rest of season, Jonathan Taylor or Kareem Hunt? Kareem Hunt. I think you have to go with Kareem Hunt, which is crazy. I just heard him awake Kareem Hunt, which is crazy. John Taylor. I just heard it away from Kareem Hunt last week, too, for Kenny Galladay. Jonathan Taylor or Joe Mixon? I think this is a really, really good conversation.

I'll take Mixon. Yeah. Are we being too reactionary? That's what I worry about. There were encouraging signs outside of just the three touchdowns, obviously. Season high, 83% of the snaps, and he had six targets and six receptions. Both the snap rate and the targets and receptions were the most for Joe Mixon in any game under Zach Taylor. So if that is something that we can see out of him moving forward, he is a fantastic receiver.

I don't understand why they don't normally give him more targets. I think it's really, really close. I'll lean Joe Mixon. I think I might stick with Taylor. I suspect that the Jaguars' run defense will be pretty bad from here on out. I know it was good the first three weeks, but I think

they might have the worst defense in football. They statistically are one of the worst defensive teams in football, and Gardner Minshew has thrown 40 or more passes three games in a row, So keep that in mind. Who catches more passes, Mixon or Taylor for the rest of the year? Cause I think it's Mixon.

Yeah. Yes. It's because they, they just like the Colts don't throw. So Philip Rivers threw so much with the chargers. He can't, he can't throw to his running backs. There's tight ends all the time.

If he doesn't throw, I'll take Mixon, but Mixon's not a 50-catch guy. He's a 35-catch guy. That's my guess. He has 13 through four games. That's a better pace. That's about a 50-catch pace, I think, right? But he had six catches last week or yesterday.

He had six yesterday. He was helped out a lot. I think Joe Mixon is still a sell high. If you can trade him straight up for... It sounds like we would trade him for Kareem Hunt straight up. Right. It'd be tough to pull off. Yeah.

Look, if you could sell high on Mixon, yes. Don't just sell him for the sake of selling him, but if you can get... I would still take Josh Jacobs over Joe Mixon. I would still take Miles Sanders over Joe Mixon. Would you take take Miles Sanders over Joe Mixon. Would you take Chris Godwin or Joe Mixon? You can't go with Godwin, is it? If it's a three-wide receiver league in PPR, I'll take Godwin. Yeah, even with the injury?

If I have a winning record, I will take Godwin. If I have a losing record, I'm sticking with Mixon. I can't just wait on Godwin. We don't know what his status is for this week or weeks moving forward. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in. Much appreciated. We'll have Fantasy Football today in

five. If you just can't wait to hear about the games tonight, you don't want to wait until like 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. You want it first thing in the morning. Check out the Fantasy Football today in five podcast. We're going to be breaking down the two games. We'll talk to you with the fantasy football today in five podcast. Um, and, we're going to be breaking down the two games and we'll talk to you with the waiver wire show tomorrow. See you later.