Fantasy Football Today - Five Big Topics: Struggling WRs, Gaskin, Golladay (09/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 27, 2021

Let's kick it off with a recap of Packers-49ers (2:40)! Can the 49ers offense sustain three pass catchers? It might depend on how good or bad the run game is. What are our thoughts on Trey Sermon? Can you drop A.J. Dillon? We also give you the latest news and notes (11:15) ... Which struggling WRs are we concerned about (16:00)? Ridley? Hopkins? Diggs? Woods? And what do we make of Myles Gaskin's slow start (26:00) and Kenny Golladay's rest of season value (32:00)? Is Golladay no more than a flex? ... Looking back at some Week 1 predictions, we discuss what has changed and what has remained the same (35:40). And finally, is anyone concerned about Tyreek Hill (42:00)? ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. 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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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. Well, what is the deal with these crummy wide receivers? They're scoring fewer points than Cordaro Patterson. DeAndre Hopkins is not even in the top 20. Robert Woods isn't even in the top 40. Calvin Ridley is, what's going on, Chris? He's like five yards down the field every time. What's going on, Chris? He's like five yards down the field every time.

What's going on here? Some of those are concerning for sure. Yeah. Calvin Ridley. That Falcons offense just looks like a mess. They're throwing 32% of their targets to their running backs. They are not pushing the ball downfield. It's a concern that Matt Ryan just might not be good anymore.

We saw it last season in the games that Julio Jones didn't play. He hasn't really been... He's been below 5% touchdown rate each of the last three seasons now. I don't know, man. It's really concerning because Calvin Ridley led the NFL in air yards last season by a significant margin. I don't think it's a Matt Ryan problem. I think it's no Dirk Cutter and just a different offense.

It might be an Arthur Smith problem. It might be, but look, they've got time to turn it around, obviously. But yeah, we'll get into him. We'll get into Tyreek Hill, Stefan Diggs. A little disappointing so far. First, we're going to talk about this Packers 49ers game. Welcome, everybody. Hope you had a great Sunday.

Hope you're ready for Monday Night Football. Should be a fun one. Before we move on, can you send me the notes? Yes, I can. Thank you. But I think you pretty much know what we've got. Our five big topics.

I sent you the topics. Our five big topics today are struggling wide receivers, Myles Gaskin, Kenny Galladay, Tyreek Hill, and major takes going into week one that have changed and which ones we should remain patient on. We will have Jacob Gibbs join us in a little bit. I want to read you two quotes from Aaron Rodgers.

All right? Hold on. Now I'm going to send you the notes. Control V. All right. Two Towers and Gibbs. Everybody's got their notes. Okay.

The quote, number one. My first thoughts in devising how I wanted to get us into field goal range was, how could I get 17 the ball? 17 being Devontae Adams. Yeah, I feel like the Niners should have anticipated that. That guy's good. And generally speaking, when a team has 35 seconds or 37 seconds

to move the ball down the field, cover the, I mean, really, like the one good receiver they have. Yeah. Like Marquez Valdez-Gantling, Alan Lazard, they made plays yesterday. Robert Tunyon's fine,

but like... Devonta Adams is the only guy who moves the ball down the field for that team, really. Like, at least not in big play mode. And so, yeah, I don't...

He's really good. Yeah, he had 18 targets in the game. The rest of the Packers receiving group, including the running backs, head ends, they had 12. That sounds about right.

There were three throwaways. But yeah, you should have covered Devontae Adams. The second one was even more interesting. Rodgers said, how can you not be romantic about football? I guess that was a pretty romantic game. If you're a Packers fan. Okay. Sure. I don't understand. It was a great game. It was a great game. I don't, okay.

Sure. I don't, I don't understand. It was a great game. I mean, it was, it was a great game. It was a great Sunday.

Really good Sunday. I don't know about romantic. You know? Oh yeah. It was fine. It was a fun game. Yeah. It was a really fun game.

Let's do our takeaways from green Bay 30 in San Francisco. 28. Give me your thoughts on the, you know, the Packers are the Packers. I don't know if you have anything to say about Rodgers. It really wasn't a great game for him, 22 fantasy points, but it's not like he played poorly or anything.

But the 49ers are much more interesting. And the run game, I mean, the run game, it's obviously directly related to the passing game because he had 40 pass attempts for Garoppolo, fourth most in his career. And Trey Sermon, of course, he scored. They always score a rushing touchdown. But 10 carries, 31 yards, two catches, three yards,

had the rushing touchdown, started in 38% of leagues. Just your overall thoughts on the 49ers offense right now. I think Trey Sermon's the big loser from this game. I wrote my winners and losers column on today's FFT newsletter. And he had a real chance here to get out of the doghouse to work his way into potentially being the number one running back for the 49ers moving forward. And he wasn't good in an offense where everyone looks good. You know, it reminds me of Jarek McKinnon last season where he got a handful of opportunities,

but just never really did enough with them to become more than, you know, the third best back on that team when everyone was healthy. And I think that's probably where Trey Sermon's heading. Obviously injuries will play a part in that, but I don't see him holding off Elijah Mitchell. I think Elijah Mitchell is going to be the lead back when he gets back, unless, you know, if he misses week four and Trey Sermon does have a good game, maybe that'll change things. But based on what we know right now, I think Elijah Mitchell's the lead back

for the 49ers when he's healthy. Yeah, I don't know if this offense can just give us any running back being good. Because Mitchell hasn't really been that good. You know, he was pretty good against Detroit. He was pretty bad against Philadelphia. Hasty wasn't very good in his audition last year. McKinnon stunk.

It's really last year was just Mostert and Wilson was good down the stretch. But the fact that they only gave him 10 carries when Mitchell had 17 and 19 in two games, I think that tells you a lot. But if they can't run the ball, and I looked at their leading rusher. I mean, this is just shocking. You don't see this very often. Their leading rusher had 31 rushing yards. So I said, all right, did that happen at all last year? There were actually three games last year

where their leading rusher had 29 to 38 rushing yards. So they just had a terrible game running the ball. I think two of them were McKinnon, right? I'm pretty sure, yeah. It was never Mostert. In those three games, they threw 41, 39, and 36 times. That's a lot for them.

Two of those games they lost. They gave up 37 and 27 points. One of them was a blowout win. But the point I'm making here is I didn't really think this offense, one of the reasons I didn't draft George Kittle is I did not think that this offense could sustain three pass catchers. They don't throw enough touchdowns. They don't throw enough in general.

Now their running game has gone to hell, so that could change. And then I also thought Trey Lance wouldn't really be a great passer or whatever, but I don't know when he's going to start. If they're throwing the ball 36 to 40 times, that changes things a little bit. And you had a very good game from Kittle.

Of course, he didn't score. And a touchdown from Ayuk. And, you know, a solid roll for Debo. He only had five from 52, but he had 10 targets. Debo dropped a touchdown. Yeah, and Ayuk, I think, on the same drive, was close to a touchdown. That was, I think, the Ayuk one.

I couldn't tell if that was a Jimmy Garoppolo issue or a Brandon Ayuk one, because it was a slant into the end zone. Right. Ayuk just didn't have his head turned around when Garoppolo threw it. That was such a drop. Oh, I think he should have. Yeah, but either way.

No, I just don't know if that was Garoppolo making the wrong read or Ayuk not being ready for it. But yeah. Yeah, I just, I don't know what to make of these three. Well, I mean, I have an opinion, but you give your opinion on the passing game here. Kittle, Samuel, Ayuk. I think Kittle is still the lead target in this offense, despite not being that in the first two games. And actually, Debo Samuel did have more targets than him yesterday.

But part of that is just the role as the extension of the running game that Debo has. I still think Kittle is an elite tight end. I still think he was an elite tight end. I still think he's certainly ahead of TJ Hawkinson. You know, I think, you know, Hawkinson was coming for that spot, but week three probably changed that a little bit.

And I think like, I don't think Brandon, I can Debo Samuel can be elite fantasy wide receivers in this offense, especially with George Kittle. But the bar for George Kittle being an elite tight end is very low. And I think he'll clear it pretty easily. As far as Samuel and Iuk, I mean, it's a good sign for Iuk that he was finally involved heavily.

And that's a good sign moving forward. But the idea that some had before the season that both could be top 24 wide receivers i think that's unlikely um you know maybe samuel could be a top 25 to top 30 guy and iuke you know more of a wide receiver three slash wide receiver four in the rankings um yeah i don't think they're gonna throw the ball 40 times every week for sure yeah and if they have no running game then they might have to. But also, they were playing the Packers,

but they've got Seattle and Arizona, their next two games. They might throw more than we've seen in any three-game stretch. I wonder what the most pass attempts

in the Shanahan era in a three-game stretch is. But, all right. Anyway, anything on the Packers? Or shall we... Are we keeping A.J. Dillon or is he droppable? I'd like to stash him.

I mean, you saw with Alexander Madison this week the value in stashing those guys if you don't need to drop them. So it depends on who you're trying to add. If you're desperate for Chuba Hubbard, Chuba Hubbard,

Chuba Hubbard. Yeah, I would drop A.J. Dillon for Chuba Hubbard. If it's like Emmanuel Sanders, who I really, really like, I think I'd be iffy on that one. Okay. Chuba Hubbard, by the way, you may only get one game out of Chuba Hubbard. We will get to the news and notes in a second.

Let's talk about that newsletter. All right. How do we subscribe and what do we get? CBSSports.com slash newsletters. You'll get eight editions of the Fantasy Football Today newsletter in your mailbox every single day of the week except for Saturday. Twice

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All right, cool. You give me some random category. I'll give you a top three every week that people could just hate me for. All right, news and notes. Christian McCaffrey still not going on IR. IR would mean he'd have to miss three games. That's obviously not including last week.

It could be one one could be two. Who knows? Maybe he'll end up on IR but you got to pick up Chuba Hubbard just in case at Dallas next week then Philadelphia then Minnesota.

Andy Dalton is week to week and some injuries that we're not going to cover necessarily the big ones because we don't have updated information unless you saw anything on AJ Brown.

But no, I haven't seen anything. Yeah, we haven't gotten much big news. But just some other ones to keep an eye on that won't get a lot of publicity. Arizona left guard Justin Pugh and his backup both left with injuries. Baltimore safety Deshaun Elliott left with an injury.

They're at Denver next week. The Steelers did not record a sack for the first time in 76 games. They had the longest streak in football. 75 straight games. That went out first time in 76 games. They had the longest streak in football, 75 straight games that went out the window in that loss. I think they were missing TJ Watt. They were missing TJ Watt and not a ton of dropbacks for Dalton,

but still no sacks. Burrow. Yeah, sorry. Burrow. Two Pittsburgh offensive linemen actually left with injuries in the second half. Bad to worse. That offense looks completely broken. Mm-hmm.

Cincinnati. Devonta Adams almost had as many targets as Najee Harris, by the way. So keep that in mind. Cincinnati cornerback Shadobi Awuzie left with an injury. They probably won't need him next week against Jacksonville or this week, whatever. Next week, we'll say. Two Colts cornerbacks got hurt. They're at Miami next week.

Rakia Sin and Kari Willis. They left with injuries. This is a bigger one. next week we'll say two colts cornerbacks got hurt they're at miami next week rakishin and kari willis they left with injuries this is a bigger one uh new orleans left tackle taran armstead is going to miss some time so they're going to be without their starting set i don't know when mccoy is coming back they didn't put him on ir but they could be without their starting center starting left tackle they're beat up and they get the giants who are also beat up because giants uh maybe best defensive player blake martinez is out for the year with a torn acl kj hamler tours acl sterling shepherd likely likely to miss some time according to espn with a hamstring injury by the way for idp leagues keep an eye on tay crowder he got more playing time um or at least more tackles with Blake Martinez

leaving the game and he had 11 total tackles. Seven of them were assisted. I thought he was with the Jazz. Yeah, he moonlights as a linebacker. Sons, excuse me. Oh, wow. Yeah, man. I expect more from you. I'm

disappointed in myself. San Francisco very beat up at cornerback as they face the Seahawks. They had two or I think two or three more injuries at cornerback last night. This team just cannot stay healthy. They got to like hire a new trainer. I don't know. Figure something out. I don't know what's going on there. Yeah. And Carolina acquired cornerback CJ Henderson and a fifth round pick from the Jacksonville Jaguars for tight end Dan Arnold and a third round pick. They're being aggressive. And that was a that was a top 10 pick in the NFL draft.

C.J. Henderson. And they got basically a third rounder for him. So it's going to be a real bad look for Urban Meyer if C.J. Henderson ends up being really good for the Panthers, because that seems like it was a poison situation pretty much all offseason and I don't know yeah hard to hard to feel confident in it not good hey let's bring on Jacob Gibbs now Jacob Gibbs chilling rehabbing the back injury I just want to tell everybody that in case they aren't aware and they see you lounging. He's not lazy. He's got a broken back, and yet he's still carrying the team. How are you doing, man?

Good. I mean, my Chiefs lost again. That was the last thing I talked to you about was signing on FFT and 5. So not so great, but excited to talk about some football. But what did we say? We said, hey, they better step up because Mike Williams is going to have a big day. That's true, yeah. He sure did.

And listen, we're just talking, just three dudes talking football. I think it's pretty obvious that if you give a team with at least a decent offense the ball in the two-minute drill and all they have to do is get in a field goal range, they're going to kick the field goal.

They're going to win. The Dolphins, like the Chargers knew that. They played for the touchdown. The Dolphins played for the field goal. They should have gone for it. They lost the game in overtime there. Maybe they would have gotten stopped on fourth down and lost anyway. But you give that ball back to Derek Carr, you're going to lose.

They're going to kick the field goal. It's too easy. And kickers are too good these days. I'm not talking about the Niners because 37 seconds, you're going to lose. They're going to kick the field. That's too easy. Kickers are too good these days. I'm not talking about the Niners because 37 seconds, it wasn't their fault. It's not like you're going to tell Ustrick, no, don't get in the end zone or anything. There was the one play where they snapped the ball with 12

seconds left on the play clock. That's the only possible criticism you can make of it, I think. They were obviously trying to bleed some clock there. The Dolphins should have gone unconventional and said, no, we're going for this. We got to go for the win here. Teams have to realize it's too damn easy to kick that field goal.

It happens way too often. All right. Anyway, first big topic. Dustin says, I need some discussion on wide receivers who are underwhelming to start the season. Woods and Allen Robinson are on my roster. It's incredibly hard not to start them each week by nature of who they are. What do we do? So, Jacob, I'll give you the first word. First of all, any wide receivers that you want to talk

about struggling, Woods and Robinson suggested, but the floor is yours. I don't want to talk about any of these guys because it's too relatable. I've got got woods on my team i've got aj brown on all my teams i've got calvin ridley everywhere uh it's been it's been rough out here for for some of these uh early and mid-round wide receivers i'm not particularly concerned about any of the names we've hit on um with maybe alan robinson being the one exception just because that situation seems to be a little bit out of his control. Um, I guess Calvin really, I think is worth bringing up as well. Um, just because what we've seen from Atlanta is really,

really bizarre. Um, I don't know if you guys have talked about this much at all, but like, we talked about it at the very beginning of the show. Oh really? But only briefly. Oh,

and we talked about it yesterday on the recap too. And I watched the whole game. I mean, it's just, they're still one of, I don't know, maybe the dolphins too and i watched the whole game i mean it's just they're still one of i don't know maybe the dolphins had one going into the game they were one of four teams that didn't have a 40 yard pass play and they still have not had one and that is just shocking to see from from the falcons yeah matt ryan 1.7 percent of his attempts have gone 20 or more

yards which he's the like other than andy dalton he's like by far the lowest in the league in terms of all sorts of aggressiveness metrics it's it's really insane I mean his average depth of target is 4.2 yards I and so it's just like killing all of the downfield weapons there he's just throwing it to the running backs over and over so if that that doesn't change that's definitely not good news for for Ridley and Ridley to be clear this wasn't's definitely not good news for Ridley. Ridley, to be clear, this wasn't like an ongoing issue. Last season, Ridley played 15 games and led the NFL in air yards, and it wasn't close.

He had 2,052 air yards. DK Metcalf had 1,768 in second place. So even when Julio Jones was out, they were targeting him down the field aggressively. And, uh, you know, I remember even that, like that one came where he didn't have a catch, but had five targets. There were some downfield throws in that game as well. And he was dealing with an injury. So it's just been a dramatic shift in the offensive philosophy. Oh yeah. That the good thing for him for Ridley is that he's gonna lead the team in targets

it's not like he's been completely horrible he's not you don't sit calvin ridley i mean maybe you just don't treat him as a number one but he's still gonna start he has i guess kind of a high floor um but that ceiling of being potentially you know the top wide receiver it just doesn't even look possible unless they change things around. Robinson, on the other hand, I mean, how could you not be worried about Alan Robinson? He's, I don't know. My issue with him is he's just so reliant on getting heavily targeted. He doesn't make a lot of big plays. He hasn't been a big yards per target guy. And people just assume Justin Fields is going to be a huge upgrade when that might happen, but it's not going to happen for a little while. I don't think if it does happen at all, I do think that you have to wonder if you're starting or sitting him.

They have Detroit this week, so people are probably going to go back to him. But it's been very troubling. Chris, is he still a must-start, or is he someone that you could look for other options with Allen Robinson? No, I don't think he's a must-start. That's not to say that I think you should definitely sit him. But I've got some leagues where I probably will be sitting him this week, and I probably should have sat him in week three. I've got him in one league where I had James Robinson,

Emmanuel Sanders, and Myles Gaskin on the bench. I don't know if I'm going to start Emmanuel Sanders over him next week. I might, and I think I'm going to start Emmanuel Sanders over him next week. I might. And I think I'm going to start James Robinson over him. So it's not an Allen Robinson problem. Like Jacob said earlier, it's a problem with this offense. I mean, the lack of creativity in the play calling yesterday was stunning, given the fact that they were starting Justin Fields.

I don't know if they wanted to keep it simple for his first game, but that's the opposite of what you should do. You should be trying to take advantage of what Justin Fields does and does well, which is move and make plays on the move. There are very few RPOs in this game. There were very few option runs in this game. And if you're not using Justin Fields that way, and this is kind of an ongoing issue with Matt Nagy

because the best period of much of Trubisky's career was that period in, God, are we going back to 2019, 2018 at this point with that? Yeah. When he was rushing a lot in the kind of middle part of the 2018 season, and he was really making a lot of plays with his legs, and they just never went back to it. And I always assumed maybe it was just because Trubisky's run kind of ended

with that shoulder injury that season. But this was a troubling, troubling game for my David Montgomery and Alan, Alan Robinson shares moving forward. Do we all think Woods is going to be fine? I mean, Woods, I don't really know what to make of it.

It's like the Rams offense has been pretty good, and they've got six pass plays of over 40 yards, and I think Robert Woods' longest catch is 20. Everybody's making big plays except for him. Only two wide receivers have been targeted in the red zone, and its cup has seven and Woods has four, so at least he's getting those types of targets. I mean, people are probably losing faith.

I think Woods is a great buy low. I'm sorry. I just cannot see this continuing. I think there are going to be a lot of good games for him. Does anybody disagree with that? No. Before the season, the reason, the case for Robert Woods' optimism was, one, we still think he's going to be among the lead,

the target leaders on that team. If not, you know, the number one, certainly the number two. And that's been the case this season. The other part was, we thought Matthew Stafford would be more aggressive throwing the ball down

the field and it would lead to higher value targets for Robert Woods. And so far Robert Woods average depth of target is up to 9.32, which is higher than it was last year by about three yards so the case for him has mostly been correct except that him and matt stafford just can't get on the same page and i think you just have to trust that robert woods is a great receiver matthew stafford's a good quarterback and that they're going to figure it out yeah yeah i generally agree with all that i for one thing i thought the rams are going to be more past everything we've seen,

especially with Henderson going down. Their pass rate in neutral situations is below 60%. And how many times did they give Michelle the ball yesterday against Tampa Bay? I don't know. That surprised me a little bit, and it definitely isn't helping Woods. But his rate stats are really not that bad, and I'm glad his data is up like Chris said. 20 carries. 20 carries. I would bet a lot we're in the fourth quarter, though.

Oh, sure. Yeah. And that's the thing. They keep... Week two was a close game. But week one, Daryl Henderson, I think, had nine carries in the fourth quarter. They ran 110 plays in their first two games. This time, finally,

he had Stafford throw 38 times and they probably ran a lot of plays in this game. 34-24 win over the Bucs. Anyone else? Jacob, anyone bothering? Stefan Diggs is off to a slow start. I know we all seem to be a little concerned about the targets for DeAndre Hopkins. It's just

way too evenly divided between everyone. Anyone jump out at you, Jacob? Anyone that you're concerned about? We mentioned Ridley, but anyone else? No, no one else. The only thing I just wanted to add to Ridley real quick was he is still seeing him, just massive percentage of the area yards. He's at 49%, which is the third highest in the NFL right now.

Devonta Smith is ahead of him currently and will probably drop after tonight's game, so probably the second highest. So if they just refer back to what we've seen from them in the past, where they're throwing downfield more often, then with that rate stat, we could see the area yards we had seen in the past. That's the only real sign for optimism for him.

It's kind of like Robinson. It's nothing about Kevin Ridley or what he's doing. It's all about the team. I want to mention with Diggs, if you're all concerned, his target share is down a little bit, but it's still 24.2%. His yards per target is a career low. His catch rate is a career low. That's not going to continue.

And he's getting 10 targets per game. I mean, he's got a big production ahead. Josh Allen just didn't play well the first two games, and then Diggs wasn't the guy who had a big game during Josh Allen's big game, which I don't think that's a reason to be concerned moving forward. No, targets are there. Production will come. All right.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we've got a Myles Gaskin question, a Kenny Galladay question, two of the best teams in the NFL. That's coming up next. You know, dolphins aren't bad. I shouldn't include them. Well, that's coming up next on Fantasy Football Today.

Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic. A quick locate request can save you from unexpected downtime, financial penalties, and keep you safe. Welcome back, everybody. The Dolphins are pretty bad. With Brissette, but they had... It's not a bad... They're not the Bills, right? We know that, but they beat the Patriots on the road.

They almost beat the Raiders on the road with their backup quarterback. Yeah, they're pretty bad. I feel confident in saying that. You and I will watch the Giants-Dolphins game together this year. Beautiful, beautiful. Chiefs, by the way, one game better than the Giants. How about that?

Carl Clockers says, Miles Gaskin, what to do? Chris, Miles Gaskin, what to do? You know, I grouped Miles Gaskin and Mike Davis kind of in my head coming into the season as guys who, you know, really the main argument for them. Nobody really thinks either of them is all that great of a player. So the main argument for them was that they were going to dominate touches in their respective backfields and be fantasy relevant due to volume mostly. And that hasn't been the case for either of them. And I think they're kind of in similar situations. Gaskin last season had at least 65% of the snaps in all 10 games. He played this season. He hasn't gotten above 61%. He's still the leading back,

but it's more like he's getting 60% of the carries. And, you know, I think it's like 70% of the targets. So that's still pretty good, but I don't have a lot of confidence in him being much more than you know the 15th to 20th ranked running back most weeks gibsy i'm super bummed about what we've seen from gaskin particularly this week um they gave all the two minute work to malcolm brown this week 15 of 22

which is a really massive sample size no other team had more two-minute offensive snaps than the Dolphins this week and 15 of 22 of those snaps went to Brown only four went to Gaskin also Brown got all the work in the red zone and on the year now he's played 86 percent of the snaps inside of the 10-yard line, Malcolm Brown. Myles Gaskin has zero. Gaskin's only played 33% of the red zone snaps through three games. So if he's losing receiving work and red zone work, then he's left as what, like an early down back with league average efficiency on below average offense? That's not really even someone you want in fantasy um yeah again i'm really bummed i was a big gascon fan i thought the usage was going to be there but

like i don't i don't know i don't know if i trust these this week's numbers though either really like i don't know if that's going to continue before that it hadn't been that bad gascon had been playing more on the two-minute drill and stuff. I want to comment on that, actually, because I think I may have heard a little bit of insight on that from the broadcast. Malcolm Brown actually started this game, and Charles Davis, who was calling the game for CBS,

suggested it may have something to do with pass protection. It was just a guess on his part, but you know that they're in the meetings and whatnot. Then, I didn't realize, I didn't know the two minute drill stats. When you combine that conjecture with the two minute drill, maybe you've got something there before the season started. Brian Flores said Gaskin had gotten a lot better in pass protection, but if Malcolm Brown is really, um, a big upgrade

there, then that, that could be, uh, something that sticks. Yeah. so Malcolm Brown was out there on 22 pass plays. He ran 11 routes. So half the time that he was in on pass plays, he was blocking. Whereas Gaskin was out there on 29 pass plays and ran a route on 24 of them. So I think that... He's still being targeted at a really high rate.

Yeah, he's got four catches a game. You know he's averaging more yards per carry than per catch? 5.1 yards per carry, 4.8 yards per catch. I talk a lot about big plays, explosive plays, and I think I care about it more than almost anyone, but Myles Gaskin is the reason why. Because if you're not getting that many carries, you've got to at least have the ability to break one and he is rarely going to do that and that's what kind of bumps me out it's it's like the the idea of the high value touches that ben

gretch talked a lot about where you know you want targets you want carries inside of the 10 because if you don't then you have you are very reliant on big plays and some guys can do that Saquon Barkley historically Derek Henry gets a ton of big plays relatively speaking um it's just I think Miles Gaskin's just a guy Jacob do you have a house phone that is the the someone needs to get someone's trying to get into the building in my apartment I'm sorry oh okay all right bad timing crazy the house phone is your first guest what year is it that's why I was so surprised to get into the building in my apartment. I'm sorry. Oh, okay. All right. Bad timing. Crazy that House Phone is your first guest. What year is it?

That's why I was so surprised. So yeah, that's the thing. With Myles Gaskin and Mike Davis, like I said earlier, I think they're pretty middling talents. I think they're kind of just guys. They do some things well, but I don't think either of them is necessarily a special player. And so if they're not dominating touches, and especially those high-value touches, and neither one of them is, then you're looking at a pretty replaceable fantasy option.

Dolphins also have the fourth lowest scoring offense in the NFL. Hopefully that changes as they get healthier. It certainly doesn't help. All right, so we'll finish it off. Miles Gaskin or Chase Edmonds? Who would you rather have? I'd rather have Edmonds. Yeah, I think there might be more upside with Gaskin if he gets theonds? Who would you rather have? I'd rather have Edmonds.

I think there might be more upside with Gaskin if he gets the role we saw last year, but I'd definitely rather have Edmonds. Miles Gaskin or Damian Harris. PPR. Damian Harris got pinched for Brandon Bolden this week. Have you seen the snaps and everything there?

Brandon Bolden led the team in snaps. Well, they were trailing the whole game, basically. Yeah, I mean, that's the problem with Damian Harris. He's game script dependent. If they're going to throw 51 times, he's going to have a bad fantasy game. How do you think they're going to do against the Bucs? Yeah, they're 1-2.

They might not be good this year. Yeah. That shouldn't be that surprising. They weren't that good last year. Yeah, but they were around 500. They weren't bad. I don't remember what their record was. Yeah, I think I would probably go with Gaskin. I'm sure I'll have him ranked higher most weeks.

Okay, next question is from Christian. Is Kenny Galladay outside of flex range since the Giants hate scoring touchdowns? I don't think they hate scoring touchdowns. I think it's just I don't hate losing weight.

I just don't do it. Yeah, that's true. If you've never scored a touchdown, I'm just not good at the things that go into losing weight, I think is the analogy to continue it. You suck in the red zone when it comes to losing weight yeah i mean he's always been a guy who needs to rely on you know really really good efficiency and that hasn't been there for him so far but how much of that is just that he hasn't

been 100 healthy you know he was limited in his snaps yesterday because of the hip. They were pulling him in and out of the lineup. You know, maybe he just needs some time to get right. But you can't feel confident starting him right now. But I do think touchdowns will come. I feel confident in Gallaudet as a flex with Sterling Shepard out, and especially if Darius Slayton is out as well. You know, he drew a pass interference in the end zone.

So that was an end zone target that he got, not officially a target. And yeah, he played 69% of the snaps. So if he continues to get healthier, I think that's going to be much better. He'll lead the team in targets, I would assume, most weeks as long as Shepard is out. Daniel Jones is actually, actually i mean all of the numbers so far and it's not not adjusted for opponents or whatever but he's been basically league average he's been a lot better than he ever has so um that's encouraging i think he's i think he's exactly that i think he's a flex i'm not willing to i i was excited about him at one point

and not anymore yeah boom, boomer bust flex. You know, like Brandon Cooks has been for a lot of his career, that kind of guy. You're hoping for a big play. Yeah. Okay. Anything to add, Jacob, or shall we move on? One thing I would add is he has, like, one of the deepest route depths,

the average route depth of, like, any player in the NFL. It's 12 yards last week, and that's been where it's been every single week. and Daniel Jones just typically doesn't like targeting guys like that um definitely not at a high rate and we saw like last week as soon as Shepard went down Colin Johnson came in Evan Ingram those guys were the ones he was targeting over and over and over as their short yards guys and it was something I was I was really really down on Gallaudet coming into the year for this was one of the reasons is like Jones has just never shown a tendency to target those guys down the field. He hasn't slayed never once in a while.

He is throwing downfield a little bit more this year, but ultimately the amount of attempts that have gone 20-plus yards is still not high. It's actually the lowest it's been in any of his three years. So I don't know. I think he'll have flex value, but I think his targets are just going to be capped by the way they're using him. It truly is higher than any receiver in the NFL in terms of how far down the field his routes are developing. That's pretty typical. Deep threat guys, guys who primarily work down the field, they tend to get fewer targets.

He's never had more than 120, I think. Right. And he still has had good years. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's always been his thing, but he's at 8.7 yards per target this season. Whereas he'd been at like 10 to 11 the previous couple of years. I'm going to having Evan Ingram ranked embarrassingly high this week of Sterling Shepard's out.

And I'm not going to feel good about it. You shouldn't, uh, giants at new Orleans this week. Okay. We, that was our Kenny Gallaty discussion. Let's go on to Randy Mallow for what major takes going into week one have

changed and which ones should we remain patient on? What's changed since week one? Obviously Justin Fields, I think is a rookie quarterbacks in general. Like there's just, they've all been bad and they're fantasy poison. I don't know if you could say that about Lawrence. I'm not sure that they'd be better with a backup

or anything like that, but they're fantasy poison for the most part. So that's one thing that's changed. I think when you look, well, go ahead. I'll let you guys speak. Go ahead, sorry. I think the Atlanta situation we've talked about, if that doesn't change quickly,

then the upside for Ridley and Pitts is severely capped. In the same way, if we't like quickly see changes in cincinnati then i think the upside for those pass catchers is is a lot more capped than people realize you might consider trading somebody like jamar chase um giving the hot start because like they're talking about pass rates i think they're like in the bottom three in situation neutral pass rates um the narrative has been that they're easing joe burrow in um but it hasn't changed yet like even a little bit yeah um in a single week and so the longer that goes on the more concerned you get that like this is just what we're getting and joe mixon's just gonna get slammed into the line 20 times a game and none of these receivers are gonna be that relevant on a week to week basis

one thing I was big to get this guy one thing I'm close to changing my opinion on Is Joe Mixon and his upside? No, I loved the fact that he got four targets in week one I love the fact that he you know played most of the passing downs in that game But we saw Chris Evans come in on a handful of third downs. I think there were eight third down plays yesterday. Evans played nine. Evans played five. Mixon played three. And so if he's back to not having a real third down role,

I think that's going to limit his upside, just like it has in the past. And that's really frustrating because I have a lot of Joe Mixon, and I was very, very confident that he was going to get more involvement in the passing game. So that's really frustrating because I have a lot of Joe Mixon and I was very, very confident that he was going to get more involvement in the passing game. So that's a bit of concern. I've gone from thinking Ben Roethlisberger was finished

to being absolutely confident with every fiber of my being. He looks like the worst quarterback in the NFL right now. No, that's what I said yesterday. I said, no, Zach Wilson right now is worse. Man, Ben Roethlisberger's situation is a lot better. It doesn't matter.

If you had one game to win right now, you would go with Ben. I think the Steelers offense in miniature was captured on that fourth and ten play to end the game. What the hell was that? You can see what they were going for. You can see what they were going for, You can see what they were going for, which was they had three receivers on the right side, two wide receivers and

Fryermuth, the tight end. They all ran like posts or goes to draw the defense into the end zone because fourth and 10 from the 11th. So you figure you got to go for the end zone. And the idea was you draw that, you draw the defense out and you get Najee Harris into a situation

where he just has to beat one guy, a linebacker. The problem is I pulled out the stopwatch yesterday, and it was 1.19 seconds from the time the ball was snapped to the time Ben Roethlisberger made the decision to throw. That's not nearly enough time to allow those plays to develop. Well, I think what happened was I was was listening to the broadcast too. I think what they said was the Steelers were expecting a blitz and the Bengals

faked the blitz basically and Ben would have been a good maybe would have been a decent play call if they had blitzed and they didn't. And by the way, you said pulled out the stopwatch. That was on your iPhone or you had an actual stopwatch? The stopwatch app. I was just laughing at the idea of Chris at home

with his stopwatch, rewinding it. It's for softball. It's bad. Ben Roethlisberger doesn't want to throw the ball downfield. He's not good at it. They can't block anyone. Najee Harris is going to be a top 12 running back by default, but I'm, and Deontay Johnson, I guess, will be a must-start

wide receiver when he's healthy. I don't feel good about anyone else. Yeah. So, yeah. That one... What else have I changed my opinion on? Sam Darnold. He's pretty good.

At the very least, the situation is good enough for him to be fine. I don't think he's going to. At the very least, the situation is good enough for him to, for him to, to be fine. I don't think he's going to be a fantasy starter, uh, consistently, but I feel pretty good about that offense.

It's not going to be the disaster. We might've thought it, we thought it might be if Darnold didn't, you know, take a step forward. All right. Last one from Rocky Corey, Tyreek Hill. How close is the panic button on tyreek hill

a thousand miles away guys we didn't get the second part of that guy's question i was like excited to actually be positive about someone and said i feel like all day we've been talking about negative stuff miles gaskin these receivers all right fine go hey i was positive about sam donald who you positive about uh I think Odell Beckham. I thought what we saw last week was really exciting. And he didn't have a huge fantasy day. So maybe you're a little bit wary as his owner. You haven't got much yet through three weeks in terms of production.

But he had a 31% target share and a 49% air yard share. That's great. If he can get that on a weekly basis, you're going to be good to go. That's a top 25 receiver for sure. Play played 47 of 57 snaps before the fourth quarter led the team with 34 routes run on 40 pass plays um i he had a much bigger role than i thought he would yeah i think stay patient with him and then the other guy stay patient with mark andrews i think we've talked about this but like his route involvement is better than any tight end in terms of the amount of routes he's running compared to dropbacks. And we finally saw him be targeted last week, similar to what we've seen in the past.

And it still hasn't, you know, didn't find the end zone. But if this continues, he's definitely a top three tight end. So stay patient with him as well. Also, I know Marquise Brown had a bunch of drops yesterday, but man, he was like fingers away from a just truly massive game. He probably, he dropped

at least two and maybe three touchdowns in this game. So as long as they keep using him the way they are, I think Marquise Brown is going to be a solid starting fantasy option most weeks. Now, we'd be talking about him kind of like Mike Williams. If he had had the game that he should have had,

we'd be talking about him as one of the best draft picks. Mike Williams, I think, right now is my candidate to be the fantasy MVP, basically, to be the best value in drafts. All right, finally, Rocky Corey asks, how close are we to the panic button? Chris said not a thousand miles away or something like that. Jacob, any concerns about Tyreek Hill? No, definitely not.

I've watched the last two games as a Chiefs fan, and you see this happen intermittently throughout the season where teams are just like, we're not letting Tyreek beat us. They've got people matched on man-to-man everywhere, no matter what scheme they're playing. They've got two deep almost every single play. They're just making you beat them with other guys. And what will happen is Kelsey will write off a couple big games, and then he'll get that treatment, and then Tyreek will start playing well again.

I'm not worried about it. Yeah, Travis Kelsey is currently the number three wide receiver. So, you know, I think that kind of tells you, like, there's no reason to think that offense isn't what we hoped it would be. There's no reason to think that that passing game won't be what we hoped it would be. And Kelsey will slow down a little, like Jacob said, and Tyreek will heat up. Or they'll just both be awesome like last year.

Well, one thing that we're seeing, though, is teams are blitzing the Chiefs less frequently. The last three teams to beat the Chiefs, I saw this I think in the Athletic today. Actually it was published last week. The last three teams to beat the Chiefs before the Chargers did blitzed them five times or fewer.

That included the Bucs and the Super Bowl. And then what did we... Nine blitzes on Sunday for the Chargers? I think so. I think it was only 20%. So they're playing very deep. They're not letting Tyreek Hill on Sunday for the Chargers? I think so. I think it was only 20%. Was it the final rate I saw? So they're playing very deep. They're not letting Tyreek Hill beat them,

and they're not blitzing. And we'll see. I remember the Bills game last year. The Bills kind of did the same thing. They just said, we're going to let you run the ball. And they had 26 carries for Clyde Edwards-Ealer in that game, and Mahomes had a pretty crummy game because he only threw 26 times, same amount as Clyde Edwards-Ealer had in carries.

Tyreek Hill had three targets, three catches for 20 yards. They figured things out after that. Then they went absolutely berserk. If it was easy to stop the Chiefs, it would be easy. People would do it more than three times a year or whatever it ends up being. This is a similar stretch. Tyreek Hill had three catches for 20 yards in that Buffalo game.

He only had 55 yards on six catches the next week. The only difference is he scored a touchdown in that game. He didn't yesterday. Then he had at least 98 in four straight games, including 269 yards in week 12. So it only takes one time with Tyreek Hill getting past the defense for him to turn that completely around. One time.

It's like the Danny O'Shea speech at halftime. Like beating Kevin O'Shea down Cherry Hill. That's what I say. Yes. Good job. All right. Giants going to say. Yes. Good job. All right. Giants, Giants. There we go.

The only good ones. The only good Giants. Thanks very much. By the way, I found out. I can't believe I got that. It was actually Cherry Hill in the movie. I can't believe I got that reference right. I'm so proud of myself.

I have no idea what you guys are talking about. It's Little Giants. Come on. Sorry. I found out have gotten that. I have no idea what you guys are talking about. It's Little Giants. Come on. Sorry. I found out, insider information, Scott Hanson of NFL Red Zone

has never seen Little Giants. Wow. Yeah, I know. Because I know this because Adam Rank of NFL Network has never seen Little Giants and I,

we got into this whole Twitter thing about it and I said, make sure Adam Rank watches Little Giants and he said, I've never seen it. So Scott Hanson

confessed that to me and I was going to go to the papers about this but I said, make sure Adam Rank watches Little Giants. He said, I've never seen it. Scott Hansen confessed that to me. I was going to go to the papers about this, but I said no. Now you reported it on one of the most widely listened to fantasy football podcasts in the world. It's on YouTube now. Way to keep the secret.

It's out there. Alright, everybody. Thanks so much for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow with The Waiver Wire on Fantasy Football Tonight. out there. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for watching and listening. We'll talk to you tomorrow with the waiver wire on fantasy football.