Fantasy Football Today - Five Big Topics! Allen, Russ, 49ers RBs and More (11/22 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

What kind of Fantasy lessons have we learned from Jonathan Taylor after he got off to a troubling start to the season? After we talk Taylor we'll get into the Steelers-Chargers game (4:00) with our th...oughts on Mike Williams and Chase Claypool? Can we consider either of them to be reliable after a good Week 11 performance? ... News and notes (12:00) and we start our Five Big Topics with Josh Allen (16:00)! Yes, you're starting him, but with how much confidence? Is the offensive line the key to his success/struggles? And if you think Allen is bad, wait until we discuss Russell Wilson (20:30) ... We look at the 49ers backfield (25:10) and tell you what to expect going forward. Then we give our thoughts on Zach Ertz (31:40) and streaming QBs with great playoff matchups (35:15) ... Email us at fantasyfootball@cbsi.com Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:59 BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. What's going on, everybody? Welcome to your Monday afternoon show. Since week four, Chris, who is the highest scoring quarterback since week four? Since week four. He played yesterday. Played yesterday.
Starting point is 00:01:45 Yeah. Six point per passing touchdown, by the way. You can't spring that kind of question on me with no. Fine, let me ask you a different question. Who's the highest scoring player since week four? Well, beginning in week four. So since week three, I guess. Beginning in week four, who is the highest scoring player?
Starting point is 00:02:04 Six point per passing touchdown. Jonathan Taylor, Jonathan Taylor. And this is in non PPR, not even counting catches. Yeah, but you know, he hasn't had a buy yet.
Starting point is 00:02:15 I, it is true. He's not number one per game in this format. Non PPR six. They're Rogers. No, it's, it's Herbert.
Starting point is 00:02:23 Oh, Herbert, Brady, Jackson, Alan, Taylor is five. This is per game. Rodgers is the number five QB, number six overall player per game since the beginning of week four. But Jonathan Taylor, you know, Chris,
Starting point is 00:02:39 his first three games, he had 56, 51, 64 rushing yards. He had six catches against Seattle because every running back does. And then one catch and then one catch. And it just goes to show you... Zero touchdowns. He had zero touchdowns. That's right. He has scored
Starting point is 00:02:55 in every game since. It just goes to show you how difficult this is. We have to. Our job is to react to what we see. And through three games, I'm sure we didn't think Jonathan Taylor would not only be the number one running back going forward, but the number one player. And, you know, a little lesson in patience. The change in him. I mean, but it's not even a lesson in patience because it's like he played 55% of the snaps or fewer in each of the first five games. He's been above 65 in every game
Starting point is 00:03:27 since including above 83 in the past two his like his role has changed and their team has changed they're playing better yeah it's not it wasn't wrong to have concerns about jonathan taylor early on and even you know that week four he had 103 rushing yards and a touchdown but week five he only had 53 yards on 15 carries he did have uh 116 receiving yards because he had a long screen touchdown I believe but you know it wasn't like completely off base to be a little bit worried about Jonathan Taylor no it's just that now it is. There's so many things we try to predict that you just
Starting point is 00:04:09 can't predict. But let's talk about, I did not predict Ben Roethlisberger having his best game of the year. Let's talk about the Chargers and the Steelers. We have five big topics. Jacob Gibbs will join us soon. Those five topics are what's going on with Josh Allen? What's going on with Russell Wilson? What's going on with the 49ers backfield with Debo Samuel becoming such a
Starting point is 00:04:28 rushing threat right now? What do you make of Zach Ertz coming off 88 catches, 88 yards and two touchdowns on eight catches and which streamer quarterback has the best fantasy playoff schedule. So first Steelers and Chargers, it's a 47. What was the final score? 41,
Starting point is 00:04:46 37, I believe Chargers total It's 47. What was the final score? 41-37, I believe. Chargers. Total mess today. I apologize. We had a really busy day. That's why we're late. Just a lot going on. Anyway, Roethlisberger with 28 points. His first game with more than 20. His first game with three touchdown passes. What were your big takeaways from this game?
Starting point is 00:05:01 Start with the Steelers. Give me a Steelers takeaway. I really liked what we saw from Chase Claypool yesterday. He had five catches for 93 yards, probably should have had at least one more touchdown. He was involved in the red zone. I believe he played 90% of the snaps. I think it was a very, very promising game for Chase Claypool. 20% target share.
Starting point is 00:05:24 A lot to like there. 15% started. And I guess if... I mean, I felt the same way. That was my big takeaway, too, with the Steelers. I guess if I were going to just contradict it, Roethlisberger did have his best game, right? And I guess the question is,
Starting point is 00:05:42 what is stopping me from just expecting Claypool to be the garbage he was the previous three games? Why should I make anything more than this was just a blip? He was playing through that toe injury, right? I am not sure. Did he suffer the toe injury in Week 9? I think so. Okay. Yeah, I mean, look, i think that's a fair point
Starting point is 00:06:07 i i wouldn't be surprised if he turned back into it this is you know the kind of player chase claypool tends is that type of player who relies on big plays and sees targets down the field has a relatively low catch rate i think that kind of player is prone to blow up games and then prone to disappointing games and i'm sure we'll talk about mike williams who i think is in a very similar situation to chase claypool the one difference is you know i think a lot of it's going to come down to how much the steelers throw as much as anything you know they were this was the first time i think in five or six six weeks that Najee Harris didn't have more than 20 carries. They were perfectly willing to be a run-first team.
Starting point is 00:06:51 If they can't do that, Najee Harris did come back from that concussion yesterday, but we'll see if there are any lingering issues as a result of it. In those weeks where they can't go 20-plus carries, they're going to have to throw the ball a lot because they don't have another option at running back. Claypool is the number two option there. Yes, I guess I'd say if their defense gets healthy, Hayden comes back, Watt comes back, Fitzpatrick comes back,
Starting point is 00:07:15 then you're probably going to have a better opportunity for the 20 carries for Najee Harris. It is surprising against this run defense that they did not run the ball more, but their defense, Stewart's defense themselves was bad. All right, so let's go to the Chargers side. Then you want to talk about Michael. I think we should also mention Pat Frymouth.
Starting point is 00:07:32 Oh, yeah, it ended up getting a touchdown, but only 11 yards on four catches. The touchdown was late, right? Yep. You know, Eric Ebron did cut into his work a little bit. Frymouth ended up with seven targets on 44 catches. That's got to be his lowest target rate in at least the last four games.
Starting point is 00:07:54 Something to be alert, to be cognizant of is 57% snap rate. That's just something to be aware of. Okay. All right, so on the charger side you get a big game from herbert and he's been a little frustrating but you it's hard to sit him i thought what was great he's been the highest scoring player since three no before he's been the highest scoring quarterback oh sorry uh yeah i thought it was great sometimes his
Starting point is 00:08:20 offensive line just doesn't hold up but when there was pressure today he was running or yesterday he was running running for 90 yards. Eckler was obviously amazing. Keenan Allen, over the last three games, where he's had about 100 yards in all of them, but no touchdowns, he's number six per game in PPR, and still, without a touchdown, number 13 per game in non-PPR, so Allen's been on fire.
Starting point is 00:08:40 What do you think about Mike Williams? You take away completely busted coverage, 53-yard touchdown. If you take away that, he's got four catches for 44 yards on five targets, which looks a lot like his previous four games. Yeah, there's no reason to take it away. You know, the play happened. Busted coverage has happened.
Starting point is 00:08:57 He is a big play threat. He is a downfield wide receiver who's always had the ability to take the top off the defense. That's not what happened, though. But I think the takeaway is, yes, that his role didn't really change in this one. He happened to hit a big play.
Starting point is 00:09:13 And whether it was because of busted coverage or anything else, that will happen occasionally. But when you're talking about the kind of role that Mike Williams has, you're looking at situations where he's going to have to hit the big play or otherwise he's not going to have a big game because his target share is way down. It was like 15% or 16% in this one. Was it six targets?
Starting point is 00:09:35 Yeah, six targets on 41 pass attempts for Herbert. Yeah, so when the big play happens, he's going to be good. I think he's in the boomer bust wide receiver three category still. And I don't take much positive away from this game other than that he did hit the big play, which we know he can. Yeah, the only positive, the only thing that I think for me separates Williams from other boomer bust big play guys is that you're still getting end zone targets.
Starting point is 00:10:03 I don't know if he officially got one because he drew a pass interference, but they do seem intense most weeks to throw to him either in or near the end zone, uh, almost in a Mike Evans way. So that at least you have that and he's just not coming down with it, but he was started in 72% of leagues. And I think that's about, I think that's about right. You know, I don't think it should be much lower than that with the state of the wide receiver position. It's not like we can sit here and rattle off 30 dependable wide receivers. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, Elijah Moore is probably a top 24 wide receiver for me in week 12. Yeah. You know, like it's just there. Traquan Smith is wide receiver 18 since the start of week eight.
Starting point is 00:10:44 He's wide receiver 30 in points per game, but it's not even like he's been good. He's averaging 50 yards per game with two touchdowns in four games. Right. That's just the wide receiver position has just been awful. Yeah. Perhaps it didn't dawn on me just how bad wide receiver was until recently. I was sitting here lamenting how I can never sit these guys that I'm frustrated
Starting point is 00:11:01 with. And I think it's because wide receivers just having a bit of a down year. All right, let's go through. Yeah, I'm sorry. Really, it's a down couple of weeks. You know, I was looking at it the last three weeks. Quarterbacks as a whole are averaging six point nine yards per attempt. The league average passer rating is eighty seven and it's seven point five air yards per attempt. That's's all quite low i'm sure i'm going to look up the uh one through eight passer rating for the league weeks one through eight was 94 so that's seven points higher average yards per attempt 7.4 that's about four yards or 0.4 yards
Starting point is 00:11:40 higher air yards per attempt was about a half yard higher so we've seen you know whether it's what the teams are doing to the bills and the and the chiefs and taking away the deep ball maybe that's just a a league-wide trend that's going on but quarterback play as a whole passing production has been you know noticeably lower over the last few weeks. Yeah, it's pretty interesting. And with Wilson and Mahomes, four out of five games now, and Josh Allen, two out of three games. And I would say... Prescott, two out of three.
Starting point is 00:12:13 Yeah, I feel like you can make, you know, make an excuse for... Well, no, I wouldn't say that with Dak, right? Because the Denver game, did he play well? No, he ended up with a pretty good game. Am I missing something? Yeah. And then no Cooper and a half of no Lamb yesterday. But yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:31 There are excuses you can make. But 232, two touchdowns and an interception, that's not great for that guy. You mean against Denver? Yeah. Is that the Denver game? Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:42 No, it's not. And I don't know how much confidence people are going to have in him this week as we get to our news and notes, where it looks like Cooper's going to be out for sure on Thursday. And I put this funny headline, No lamb for Thanksgiving? No, it's Turkey Day. Come on.
Starting point is 00:12:59 But it's probably not going to be lamb day either, as they have Las Vegas on Thursday, and he's got the concussion, and you should expect him to sit this game. Quick turnaround. We've got three games on Thursday, Chicago and Detroit. Probably not going to have Justin Fields,
Starting point is 00:13:12 although it seems like he escaped a serious injury. Probably at this point, not going to have Jared Goff. And like I said, Lamb. And news for the Bills. Now the Bills... Yeah, go ahead. Is that a Lions game?
Starting point is 00:13:26 The first game? Of course. Okay. It's always the first. Get the Lions game out of the way. Yeah, you can cook and eat and tune in for Dak Prescott with none of his weapons against a slumping Derek Carr. That's right. Yes.
Starting point is 00:13:41 And the night game, Buffalo. Then you've got Trevor Simeon in the night game. So it's all good. Where do you think he has been in the last three weeks? I bet you he's a top seven quarterback. He's probably top 10. He's been garbage time production yesterday. Let me look this up.
Starting point is 00:14:00 Where Trevor Simeon ranks in the last three weeks in six-point-per-passing touchdown leagues. Meanwhile, other news, A.J. Brown, it looks like he escaped serious injury, and I'm not going to go through all the defensive injuries, but there are some big ones. I think Seattle could be without their top two cornerback. They went into the game without their top cornerback,
Starting point is 00:14:17 and their second-best cornerback got injured in the game. They face Washington this week. Number 10. No, I got them number three overall last three weeks per game. It could be very different. I'm sure it is. I'm not looking at six point. Okay.
Starting point is 00:14:33 Okay. Six point for passing touchdown per game last three weeks. Herbert one, Josh Johnson to one game. Lamar Jackson, Kirk Cousins, Rogers, Roethlisberger, Trevor Simeon. That's gross. Yeah, yeah, pretty bad. All right. We're going to take a quick break.
Starting point is 00:14:52 When we come back, Jacob Gibbs joins us. We'll go through our five big topics, talk about two outstanding, potential Hall of Fame quarterbacks who are struggling right now. We'll be right back. further with access to over 1400 airport lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a
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Starting point is 00:16:15 Yes, Sam. Are you on mute, sir? You're not on mute. All right, get your mic. You fix your microphone. And Chris and I will take it while you do that. Oh, I think I hear you now. Hey, there he is.
Starting point is 00:16:28 Sorry about that. That's okay. What's up? Not much. Chiefs got another win. I'm excited to talk some football. Some of us are Giants fans, buddy. Don't go there.
Starting point is 00:16:38 We can't handle all this winning. Yes, the Chiefs got another win in a low-scoring game. Their defense is starting to play a lot better. Yeah. And nope, we don't have a Mahomes question today, but we do have a Josh Allen question. Russell Crone says, Is Josh Allen still a must-start?
Starting point is 00:16:53 He is actually the number two quarterback in fantasy right now in both formats. He's basically tied with Brady in four-point. He's about two points per game behind him in six-point. I got a lot to say about this, but go ahead, Jacob. You can have the first word. Is Josh Allen still a must-start quarterback? Yeah, definitely. Is this based on his schedule?
Starting point is 00:17:15 Is that what we're worried about? He has some games coming up that aren't super appealing. It's based on his performance lately. He's struggling, and as Chris mentioned, teams are playing him to take away the deep ball. He's only got 21 rushing guards in his last two games, which I think is probably fluky, but you're right about the schedule.
Starting point is 00:17:32 He's got the Patriots twice coming up, so I guess you're not concerned about his performance. No, no. I mean, he's finished QB 13 or higher in seven of the past eight games. He has three finishes as the QB one during that time. That's crazy in itself. Kyler and Justin Herbert are the only has three finishes as the QB1 during that time. That's crazy in itself. Kyler and Justin Herbert are the only two that have even two QB1 finishes this year,
Starting point is 00:17:50 and he's done it in three of his past eight games. I don't know. I think you always start a quarterback who finishes as a top four quarterback over half the time, and that's what he's done over the past two months. That sounded like something Brian Fantano would say or something. You always start a quarterback finishes top four over half the time. I think he's definitely my start.
Starting point is 00:18:10 I'm not super worried about him. We were talking about Mahomes just a couple weeks ago. Most of the time, I think these guys are going to figure things out. I think the other part of the question is who would you start over him? Aaron Rodgers, I guess. Maybe.
Starting point is 00:18:25 How about Jalen Hurts? Got the Giants next week. Allen has the Saints on Thursday. I might rank Jalen Hurts higher this week, but that doesn't mean I'm going to sit. Josh Allen. You're not starting... Cam Newton.
Starting point is 00:18:38 Do you feel better about Dak Prescott than him? No. If Lamb and Cooper were playing, I think it's perfectly fine, but not without them. How about Cam Newton against the Dolphins? No. Dolphins are actually surprisingly very good
Starting point is 00:18:54 against Lamar Jackson last time they faced him. He's really the only Russian quarterback they've done well against. Josh Allen owns the Miami Dolphins. It's his production against them. The, the,
Starting point is 00:19:07 the degree to which he dominates the Dolphins relative to everyone else. And he averages like 10 points per game more against the Dolphins than any other team. He's played them like eight times. So yeah, he's a must start Chris, but do you have concerns about Josh Allen? No more than any other quarterback.
Starting point is 00:19:26 It mostly just looks like he's turned the ball over a few extra times. He's got five interceptions over the last three games. Interception rate is up to 5%. That's high, but he's still averaging 7.6 yards per attempt. His air yards are mostly where you expect them to be so no i i don't think there's there's much reason to to be concerned here like you're seeing it in emmanuel sanders not producing lately and his target share going down where i think they're less willing to throw the ball deep or maybe defenses are taking it away cole beasley's maybe been a little less efficient than you would have hoped for.
Starting point is 00:20:06 But no, I'm not worried about him. I would still probably rank him as a top five quarterback. Okay. Yeah, and what I would add is the offensive line injuries have been very impactful reading about this. In the Athletic this morning, Joe Biscaglia did a really good breakdown of the game. So right tackle Spencer Brown, he went on the reserve COVID list that forced them to move, I think a guard over to tackle
Starting point is 00:20:28 and it weakens their whole line. Meanwhile, John Feliciano, a starting guard, he's been on IR, he's been out three weeks. So he is eligible to come off IR this week. Hopefully Feliciano can come back for the Thursday game at the Saints and hopefully Spencer Brown can get off the COVID list. That one might be tough. But if you just look at, and I don't know if this is coincidental or not, but if you look at Allen, when his right tackle Spencer Brown has played, more than 13% of the snaps, he's had a few games with a very low snap count. Allen's had three huge games out of four.
Starting point is 00:21:04 So I think you get the offensive line healthy and it should be better, much better. How can they do against the Patriots? I don't know. They've got two games against the Patriots in their next five weeks, I want to say. But I have one league with Josh Allen. I'm not even considering sitting him. Let's get those rushing totals back up.
Starting point is 00:21:18 Meanwhile, Scott Mervis says, is Russell Wilson droppable? Is Russell Wilson droppable? Is Russell Wilson droppable? And this team is a mess right now, and he has completed 52% of his passes in two games since coming back. So, Jacob, do you think Russell Wilson is droppable? I think, I guess if you already have a top 10 quarterback, then I would be fine with it.
Starting point is 00:21:40 He's my QB 11 the rest of the season. What we've seen has been gross but i think it will get better and they face some defenses that have given quarterbacks a lot of problems this year um so like overall i prefer not to drop him i do think he's i mean qb 11 i think he's still gonna be something you're gonna be using um he's got some favorable matchups down the stretch gets detroit i think in week 17 in the fantasy championship game. So I prefer not to drop him. But if you have a top 10 quarterback or you just don't need him anymore, then yeah, sure.
Starting point is 00:22:09 I mean, what do you think, Chris? First, can you guys hear is there like a like a can you hear like a lawnmower? We win leaf blower a little bit for me a little bit. Yeah, somebody's blowing leaves or something right under my window. So that's that's delightful. Good timing. I tend to not be too concerned about Russell Wilson just because we have the track record here
Starting point is 00:22:33 of him being such a good fantasy quarterback over the years. But I will point out that the volume has been very low this season. 32 or fewer passes in every game but one. And historically, he's been so efficient that he can make up for that but if he's you know he has to be kind of 95th percentile in terms of efficiency to be an elite fantasy quarterback at that kind of volume especially if he's not rushing and he really hasn't been this season 14.6 yards per game only 24 rush attempts in seven games that puts him on pace for right around 50,
Starting point is 00:23:07 which would be his lowest for a full season ever. His previous low was 67 back in 2018. So that matters. When you're getting one and a half fantasy points per game from him with his legs instead of three and a half to two or four like he was in 2020 that that can you know be enough to drop you from you know qb6 to qb12 or something because the margins are so thin and it also lowers your floor and your ceiling on any given week so you know it makes the the bad games a little worse and the good games a little worse as well i about this a lot, but it's worth reiterating.
Starting point is 00:23:46 Seattle is dead last in the league in time of possession, and it's not even close. Less than 25 minutes of possession on average. And dead last in the league in plays run per game. Houston is at 59, and Seattle is at 55 plays per game.
Starting point is 00:24:02 That is such a big gap. Four spots, four plays between number 31 and number 32. Whereas Houston, if you give them four extra plays, they'd go from 31st to 15th. So it is an unbelievable gap between 31 and 32 in both time of possession and plays run. And reading about the Seahawks today, they're just a mess.
Starting point is 00:24:24 I mean, this is not something we have ever seen in the Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson era. And I thought what was so interesting is Tyler Lockett is saying that they go out there, defenses put something on film and do something different every single time they play, every game. And he says, you know, basically took a veiled shot and he said, we're not doing, I wouldn't say that. It seemed like it, maybe he didn't mean it that way, but he said, they're not adjusting. And then Russell Wilson was asked, are you seeing different things than what's on film? And Russell Wilson said, no, not really.
Starting point is 00:24:50 So it's just a mess. I believe Lockett because I am sure, why would he lie about that, I guess? It was like you can understand sort of the quarterback not wanting to throw anybody under the bus. But I guess in general, the Seahawks have a lot of problems right now. But I don't know.
Starting point is 00:25:08 I trust them to figure it out. And it's a good point about the opponents they face. I mean, Arizona's had a good defense. Green Bay's had a really good defense. This is it, though. This is a do-or-die week. If they can't get it done against Washington, ask us again about Russell Wilson being droppable.
Starting point is 00:25:22 Might be get a different answer. Another crazy stat on the Seahawks, kind of building off your point, Adam, us again about russell wilson being droppable might be get a different answer another crazy stat on the seahawks um kind of building off your point adam they i just uh did it like big mid-season red zone report last week and the seahawks have the second highest um touchdown conversion rate in the red zone which shocked me because it seems like they've been horrible offensively i mean for a lot of season they didn't have russ and they've converted over 70 percent of the time when in the red zone they just just, like, never make it there. You know where they're bad?
Starting point is 00:25:49 They're the third worst team on third down. Yeah, yeah. They just haven't been able to sustain drives at all. But it's like, yeah, I don't know. If that red zone conversion rate wasn't so high, it would be even worse if that was just, like, around the league average. Wow, yep. That's a good point.
Starting point is 00:26:04 All right, let's go to our next topic from J Mart. What to do with the 49ers backfield. Debo Debo seems to be the primary running back. Chris, I'll give you the first word. What do you do with the 49ers backfield? I mean, that's an overstatement.
Starting point is 00:26:19 I feel like, although early in the game, it did seem like Debo was, you know, being used as kind of the one a to Jeff Wilson. But as the game it did seem like Debo was you know being used as kind of the 1a to Jeff Wilson but as the game went on Jeff Wilson ended up with quite a few more carries Debo ended up lining in the backfield uh on 10 snaps so not an insignificant number and he had a career high eight carries but we're still talking about what 13 carries over the past two games while jeff wilson had how many did he have
Starting point is 00:26:46 wilson had 19 sermon had 10 sermon had 10 um now listen they've won their last two games by 21 points and 20 points so let's keep that in mind too but yeah go ahead and and i think the fact that they were using debo that much early on in the in the backfield can tell you one thing i think it can tell you is that maybe this team knows that they need to find different ways to get Debo the ball in order to be able to keep both Iyuk, Debo, and George Kittle productive in the offense, or at least maybe the team's not doing it for that reason, but that's the result for fantasy.
Starting point is 00:27:22 And so if they do keep using Debo Samuel this way, he can have five targets per game but if he's getting five carries as well i think he's still probably going to be a high-end fantasy wide receiver and it creates room for both iuk and kittle to have good games you know kittle and iuk had 11 of the team's 22 targets this week yeah they're going to be highly concentrated between those three guys when it comes to their touches. And the good news for Samuel is he had those 10 snaps in the backfield. He also lined up a wide receiver 43 times and ran 23 routes on 24 passes. So he's still playing a full-time wide receiver role. It's not taking away from him there.
Starting point is 00:28:01 Great. Yeah, he's the man. Okay, Jacob, so if we focus on the running backs and let's assume Eli Mitchell is back this week, last time we saw him, he had 27 carries for 91 yards. That was two weeks ago. Again, 21 point win over the Rams. Uh, what do you think about the, just specifically the running backs and with Debo taking some touches away? I think, uh, you hope that Eli Mitchell does return to that, you know, dominant backflip show that we saw, because they've got a really awesome fantasy playoff schedule.
Starting point is 00:28:29 And if he is, you know, the man on the early downs, then he should be fantasy viable because they will likely be playing with leads in a lot of those games for now. Like if Mitchell isn't back this week, I think you can actually go back to Jeff Wilson. I know it was a disappointing game, but 19 rushing attempts. He saw all the attempts from inside the 10-yard line. He saw four or five from the red zone, played 92% of the red zone snaps.
Starting point is 00:28:52 So I think there's definitely an upside with Wilson and the usage that he saw. I think Chris's point is really important, not specific to the running backs, but that Debo lining up in the backfield more is allowing Iuke and Kittle to get more involved and see more targets. And so overall, I think it's good for the fantasy value of all three of those guys. But yeah, I don't think we need to overreact to what we saw from Debo. It was 19% of his snaps from the backfield this week, 11% last week. He's definitely not the primary RB.
Starting point is 00:29:20 And I think that we can still have a fantasy-relevant running back back even if debo continues to see this type of usage the concern would be you know mitchell gets 55 of the carries debo gets 10 or 15 percent right and you know wilson gets 25 or whatever the math would be on that i don't know if that actually added up to 100 but the concern would be that if debo is getting a significant number of or a significant amount of work in the backfield and it's two running backs instead of one that's where the concern comes in because wilson i think only played like one snap in um in week 10 trey sermon didn't play a snap and so it was all elijah mitchell yeah what if they lose that's what i'm concerned about if they keep winning then they're going to throw the ball very little and they're going to
Starting point is 00:30:04 run the ball a whole hell of a lot and it won't really matter. You'll get all these opportunities. But if they lose, I looked at their pass attempts and wins compared to their pass attempts and losses. I'm going to take away the Trey Lance game. They lost the game he started. He only threw 29 passes. I think he ran 16
Starting point is 00:30:19 times. So you've got four games that Jimmy Garoppolo has lost and five that he's won. Here's past attempts in the losses, 40, 41, 27, and 40. And the 27 game was the bomb cyclone, where they really couldn't throw the ball. So this team is a very game scripty team. And you mentioned though, Jacob, their schedule, at least in the fantasy playoffs, is very favorable. Atlanta at Tennessee, we'll see what the titans are like at that point and houston in weeks 15 16 and 17 so you've got very running back favorable matchups there
Starting point is 00:30:56 meanwhile minnesota this week i don't know at seattle that's the thing i mean i like sometimes san francisco they looked amazing lately but they're. But they're like every other team in the NFL. You don't know what to expect week to week. So I think with Mitchell, you're probably going to start him. But I do worry if they lose what it would mean for him. It could be a 12-carry, two-catch game and a little bit of a disappointment. You mentioned the Titans. I just want to point out, man, they've won two of the three You know, it could be a 12 carry to catch game and a little bit of a disappointment. All right. You mentioned the Titans.
Starting point is 00:31:30 I just want to point out, man, they've they've won two of the three without Derek Henry. They've kind of been a disaster, though. They have six touchdowns in three games. Two of them came on plays on drives that started in the red zone. Two other ones came on drives that started outside of their own 40. Right. They had a pick six against the Rams. Yeah. And then,'ve had two picks one pick six yeah um they had one i know stafford threw one the following week i don't know if the titans got one you know yeah they uh but yeah they've
Starting point is 00:31:56 they've basically had two drives that went more than 60 yards in three games so and do you know what the total yardage was yesterday, Bill? They ended up with over 400, I believe. But it was on 79 plays or something. It ended up being about 5.3 yards per play, which is usually around bottom 10 in the NFL. Okay, they had 420. How many do you think the Texans had in a win over the Titans?
Starting point is 00:32:22 It was like... I want to say it was was like 240 something like that 190 oh my god the titans outgained them by 230 yards and lost yeah yep all right uh jorge says zach earths he wants to hear about zach earths jamie and Adam, said Ertz was droppable. I don't remember saying that, but I believe that he was droppable. So, I'm fine with taking that. And, yes, eight catches, 88 yards, two touchdowns on nine targets. Jacob, did I miss the mark here with Zach Ertz? He was started in 48% of leagues, but he's rostered in 87% of leagues.
Starting point is 00:33:02 I mean, I wasn't excited to own Zach Ertz either, especially with Kyler out, but the usage has been great lately. He ran a route on 38 of 47 dropbacks this week. Christian Kirk ran 39. He was the only Cardinal that had a higher route involvement rate than Ertz did. And Ertz has also kind of been the guy in the red zone, which I think is kind of what they wanted.
Starting point is 00:33:23 You know why they went and got him? They didn't have anyone who really stood out in that area over the last couple years um he has five red zone targets in five games since joining the cardinals the rest of the team only has eight combined um he's been targeted on 21 of his routes since joining the cardinals so like i think he's i still think he is droppable in some leagues like he's the titan 15 for me rest of season right behind freemuth and right ahead of Dan Arnold, Logan Thomas. I don't know if this is worth overreacting
Starting point is 00:33:50 to, but the usage has been good so far. There's a lot of tight ends that are seeing good usage right now. Unless you're in a deep league, I don't think it's that egregious of a claim to say he's droppable. He's going into his bye, Chris. Do you really have to hold on like i was by
Starting point is 00:34:05 i'm not sure i want a bench spot taken up by zach ertz uh you know it's not the worst thing in the world but it's certainly not my goal uh to have to have two tight ends on my roster when you know you can do that in week 14 or whatever is that when the chiefs are on by no they're on by this week this okay so you can do that with Travis Kelsey. You feel okay about that. Doing with Zach Ertz because he scored two touchdowns in one game and had one long play, that's basically all he's done in five games with the Cardinals.
Starting point is 00:34:36 The one long touchdown that was his longest play since 2017 and then the two-touchdown game today, or Sunday. Yeah, I think he's droppable. I think that's fine. Yeah, I guess the argument for him is, well, he's barely played with Kyler Murray, and the argument against him is that he didn't play with DeAndre Hopkins.
Starting point is 00:34:55 You know, the last three games, Hopkins has been out, so keep that in mind, too. We're saying this. He's not bad. He's a start-worthy tight end. He is not someone that you have to hold on to through your bye week. One guy on the Cardinals I will say is droppable.
Starting point is 00:35:10 It's weird coming off an 11-target game, but Rondell Moore. He only played 39% of the snaps. He was still 4th among wide receivers in routes run. Basically, he was used as either a dump off option he ran a couple of slot uh slants he didn't have a single pass that went more than five yards past the line of scrimmage
Starting point is 00:35:33 uh he had negative nine air yards on 11 targets he was basically used as a as like the same role Dontrell Hilliard had for the tit. You know, so I hoped that I would look under the surface and be excited about 11 targets for Rondo Moore, and I'm really not. I think Rondo Moore, not at all someone you have to hold on to through the bye. All right, we'll get to our final
Starting point is 00:35:57 question here. Which streaming quarterback has the best fantasy playoff schedule? Which streaming quarterback has the best fantasy playoff schedule? Which streaming quarterback has the best fantasy playoff schedule? I left my schedules upstairs, but I'm not going to abandon you guys. I'm just going to look online.
Starting point is 00:36:16 But I had all this because I did this research two weeks ago. I will tell you, it's Jim. It hurts. Streaming quarterback. Oh, streaming quarterback. Wow. I said Trey Lance. I wasn't listening. It's Jim. Oh, that hurts. Streaming quarterback. Oh, streaming quarterback. Wow. I said Trey Lance.
Starting point is 00:36:27 I wasn't listening. Trey Lance. He's not going to be the quarterback. I think if... You should say Garoppolo. If we see them lose like two out of the next three, which is possible, then we could see Trey Lance take over for that schedule
Starting point is 00:36:39 that we just talked about where they could be playing with a lead and running a lot and he could just run all over these teams and win you a fantasy championship i mean maybe i'm just like clinging to my priors because i wanted trey lance to be a thing this year but it is a juicy schedule down the stretch the real answer is probably tua have like if he gets will fuller and davante parker back like jets and saints and titans obviously saints have a good, but that's a defense you'll be passing against a lot. Yeah, they do.
Starting point is 00:37:07 I mean, they give up points in the passing game. Two is not bad. Jets and Titans are great. Berger doesn't have a bad one. I'll come back to that in a second, but Garoppolo is playing well enough right now to consider him if it's not Trey Lance. Garoppolo, I know the volume has been low.
Starting point is 00:37:25 He, of course, every year's going to be very efficient. Hasn't been a great year for streaming quarterbacks. We should probably preface this conversation with that. But, all right, what do we got for Roethlisberger? We got Tennessee. Tennessee, Kansas City, and Cleveland. That's a pretty good one. I mean, look, Trevor Lawrence has a good schedule.
Starting point is 00:37:44 Houston Jets and then patriots you can forget that but houston and jets in weeks 15 and 16 but it doesn't matter you're not starting him at trevor simeon has a pretty good one you're starting in week 14 the jets the buccaneers the dolphins the panthers it's just again it's trevor simeon it's a low volume passing game with a backup quarterback so i don't think you actually want to stream him this is it's not it's not necessarily shaping up to be super streamer friendly you're going to need someone like rothisberger to actually step up and play better than he has like he did sunday you're going to need
Starting point is 00:38:20 i mean i can't see trevor simeon stepping up and being fantasy relevant in that offense you're gonna need jimmy garoppolo to be super efficient you're gonna need you know maybe trevor lawrence or zach wilson takes a big step forward down the stretch and could be that guy they've got good schedules and uh you know maybe derrick carr yeah cars had a good schedule i've i was really excited about him uh a few weeks looking at his schedule, but I think it's obvious what's going on with him. That offense is not the same right now. Daniel Jones with
Starting point is 00:38:52 Dallas and then Philadelphia looks like a pretty tough matchup right now with the way they control the clock. But Dallas in week 15, Chicago in week 17. We'll see. If Daniel Jones shows you a little signs of life tonight with basically everybody except for shepherd healthy. You can consider him anything else.
Starting point is 00:39:09 Is Joe burrow too good to be in this conversation? Yeah. Yeah. He's not a streamer. Yeah. Yeah. Um, all right.
Starting point is 00:39:15 Good luck everybody for streaming quarterbacks. Good luck to you. Well, you know what? The thing to keep in mind is you don't need one quarterback for the playoffs. You can go for three different quarterbacks in three different weeks.
Starting point is 00:39:27 If that's the way the schedule works out, you don't need to marry yourself to one guy. And when you're in the playoffs, there generally tends to be less competition for waiver targets. So you should pretty much have the choice of the litter, so to speak.
Starting point is 00:39:46 I wonder if they read the chat. Yes, Dylan, we read the chat. Wish they'd answer questions instead of talking about trash players. All right, here you go. Hey, hey. Two minutes. Two minutes for questions. Ben Roethlisberger is not a trash player.
Starting point is 00:40:02 Two minutes for questions in the chat. Go for it. We got you. We're waiting. Oh, wow. Now they don't even give us questions. Other shows they do. Not sure about these weekday ones.
Starting point is 00:40:13 Let's see. Should I trade Gaskin for Gibson in PPR? Gaskin still has his buy and Gibson has... Yes, you should trade. Well, okay. I won't answer that. What do you guys think? I'll actually say Gibson...
Starting point is 00:40:23 So he didn't play a snap in the second quarter. Literally zero snaps out of 19 plays. He fumbled at the end of the first quarter, yeah. If you take out the second quarter, he played 66% of the snaps, which was right around what he was used at in week 10 as well. So it's possible that that's more indicative
Starting point is 00:40:40 of his usage moving forward. If they're going to be a more competitive team, then I think it's going to bode well for him. Best streamer DSTs in the playoffs. Yikes. Let's see who Jacksonville's playing. They're playing Houston and the Jets at New England, so you could stream there.
Starting point is 00:40:56 You're not using those areas. Jacksonville has probably the best 49ers. I'm sorry. I need time on that one. Denver? I think so, yeah. Let's see. What do we have?
Starting point is 00:41:12 Do I drop Cam and or Tannehill for a fill-in, or should I drop someone like Alexander Madison instead? Drop Tannehill. Tannehill. Goodbye. He's got a bye weekend. the Patriots in his next two weeks the Broncos have
Starting point is 00:41:27 the starting week 14 they have the Lions Bengals Raiders and Chargers so not great in the championship game but you got to get there first right so Wilson or Bridgewater next week
Starting point is 00:41:38 who is Denver playing Wilson's got Washington and Denver's got the Chargers Russell Wilson why I don't know why I thought that was Zach Wilson. I'll go with Russell. Are any Seattle running backs fantasy relevant?
Starting point is 00:41:53 It's hard to make that case. It's relevant. Rashad Penny, did he have something like an 18-yard carry and then he immediately got hurt? Yeah, got the start and hurt his hamstring at the end of an 18-yard carry. It was the only snap he got, I believe. I'm not
Starting point is 00:42:08 saying that he can't be relevant. I do think that they want him to be relevant. He just has to stay healthy. No, I think he came back. I think he came back. I basically don't know if he can stay, be relevant. Should I drop Emmanuel Sanders for Rondale Moore? No,
Starting point is 00:42:24 you shouldn't, but you can drop Sanders in general. It's Elijah Moore, I would assume. Oh, then yes. I would definitely drop him for Elijah Moore. I think Elijah Moore is at least the top 36 wide receiver rest of season and potentially much more than that. Thoughts on Michael Gallup?
Starting point is 00:42:39 Gallup Thanksgiving. Thoughts on Gallup Thanksgiving. I like him. I don't know why we would expect it to be that much different than it was on Sunday. He basically played without Lamb for the full second half and Cooper didn't play at all.
Starting point is 00:42:55 He did basically nothing. I think he's a viable, low-end starter, but he's not someone I have huge expectations for. I think it's possible he has a big game,'s not someone I have huge expectations for. I think it's possible he has a big game, but not someone I definitely want to rely on. That's well put.
Starting point is 00:43:10 Yeah, because the Chiefs are good against wide receivers, but so are the Raiders. Yeah, and the Raiders play a ton of zone, and Dak has been bad against zone, and he does not throw to his perimeter receivers when he faces zone. Oh, there we go. I like it. Okay, how about Russell Wilson against Washington
Starting point is 00:43:24 or Cam Newton against Miami? I'm thinking Cam. is on oh there we go i like it okay how about russell wilson against washington or cam newton against miami i'm thinking cam i would lean russ but i get it if you just don't want to after these last two weeks i mean you know the first time when i when i initially did my rankings for week 11 and i have a you know fairly rudimentary projections process to do that he was qb8 in my first run and i moved him down to qb15 turns out i should have trusted my gut yeah he had a really good game okay last one thoughts on adam troutman going forward he's got five six eight targets in four straight games like somewhere between five and eight, I think. At least six. That's a really low-value target. Six and four.
Starting point is 00:44:06 Six? At least six, yeah. Okay. I think, like we talked about earlier, there are actually a lot of fantasy-viable tight ends right now, and so I just don't think you need to waste your time with someone like Troutman unless it's a really deep league. Yeah, I'm not against Buffer, though.
Starting point is 00:44:21 Low volume. I don't really understand why people were excited about Adam Troutman. I'm going to be honest. It wasn't a great prospect. He ran a 4.840. Don't really get it. This hasn't been a great tight end offense outside. Drew Brees has gotten Jared Cook touchdowns, but other than that,
Starting point is 00:44:41 I didn't quite understand the Adam Troutman love. All right, that is it for... As soon as somebody starts talking bad about anyone named adam i immediately end the show and that is what is happening here for chris and jacob i am adam good adam and we'll talk to you tomorrow on fantasy football today see you later

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