Fantasy Football Today - Five Big Topics - Which RBs Can We Trust in the Playoffs? (12/07 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

Recapping the Broncos-Chiefs game, where does Tim Patrick stack up with the other waiver wire WRs? How has the Chiefs offense changed over the last five games and who is benefiting from it? And we've got some news and notes for you (8:55)! .. Kicking off our Five Big Topics with Miles Sanders (14:00). Man, Fantasy managers are FURIOUS! What's going on with Sanders and what is his value? Speaking of furious Fantasy managers, let's talk about CEH (18:15)! Do we trust him going forward? And is Wayne Gallman better than Sanders and CEH (22:40)? ... Is Cam Akers about to break out (27:30)? Is Justin Herbert getting exposed or will he bounce back (33:00)? And we've got interesting stats on Kyler Murray and the Colts RBs to end the show ... Email us at [e-mail] Listen to the brand new Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-in-5/id1528634304 'Fantasy Football Today' is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, Castbox, and wherever else you listen to podcasts. Follow the new FFT Twitch channel: https://www.twitch.tv/FFToday Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCviK78rIWXhZdFzJ1Woi7Fg/videos Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Ben. Five big topics today. Can we trust Clyde Edward Ziller and Wayne Gallman and Miles Sanders? I don't think anybody's trusting Miles Sanders right now. What about Justin Herbert? And we're going to talk about a lot more as well.

Kansas City with a 22-16 win over Denver Sunday night. We got to do this podcast quickly because Monday night football, Monday early evening football is starting soon. Adam Azer with Chris Towers and Ben Schrager here on this Monday afternoon. Hey, Chris, how was your Sunday, buddy? I didn't have consistent internet for most of it, so it was pretty frustrating, Adam. But I was able to watch most of the footballs. It was just a weird Sunday.

You know what it was? It was the worst Sunday I've ever had as an analyst. Like every single thing I told anyone to do except start David Montgomery went wrong. Well, at least you told them

to start David Montgomery over a lot of people. It was kind of, I thought, guys, kind of a, I don't mean to use this word in a negative way,

but kind of a boring day. There weren't a ton of juicy storylines. No. Which is good because day. There weren't a ton of juicy storylines, which is good because that means there weren't a ton of injuries. But it was just kind of a blah Sunday, which is fine. We need some of those from time to time. What happens, too, when the second half of the games are all blah? Because the end of the first, the 1 p.m. games was great.

It was amazing. But you forget about it when you watch three games, four games, nothing's going on, especially for fantasy. Yeah, right. It was four games. The Patriots, 45-0. The Giants, Seahawks, the Eagles, Packers, and what was the other boring? Cardinals, Rams.

Yeah, which was okay, I suppose. All right, so let's talk about Sunday night. Another kind of boring game. But Denver played that game pretty well. They just couldn't score more than 16 points. Yeah, I guess Tim Patrick, Melvin Gordon, those are the major stories here. Tim Patrick had 44 yards and two touchdowns on four targets.

He has now scored 10 or more PPR fantasy points in five of his last seven games, 14 or more PPR fantasy points in three of his last seven games, 14 or more PPR fantasy points in three of his last seven games. And really, you shouldn't say seven. You should say six games, because one of those games was the Kendall Hinton game where they completed one pass. So he's been pretty reliable, and Patrick is 54% rostered.

So Ben, what do you think? How would you compare him to T.Y. Hilton and Kiki Kuti? I'll take Kuti, because I think he has more upside with the better quarterback and an offense that's still going to pass a lot. But I like Patrick more than T.Y. Hilton. T.Y. I think was by far his best game of the year this week and he's not going to repeat it.

I think Patrick could easily catch four passes for 44 yards again and probably find the end zone. So I think Patrick's usage has actually been great all year. It's just that Jerry Judy has a bigger name, so we've been waiting for that to happen. But yeah, I like Patrick more than T.Y. Hilton off the waiver wire. Chris, do you think we can trust Melvin Gordon down the stretch at Carolina, then Buffalo at the Chargers?

Yeah, I don't know if trust would be the right word there, but it's clear that the Broncos don't really trust drew lock as much as they did earlier in the season. And so they would rather run the ball. The problem is, you know, he's split splitting carries pretty evenly with Philip Lindsay. So,

you know, Gordon, you were hoping early on in the season, it looked like he had that passing game role. Well, he's got five targets in his last six games. So, or five targets in his last five games. So, or five targets

in his last five, excuse me. So, I don't think trust is the right word. I think you can use him. We go over to the Chiefs. So, I wasn't watching this game in real time as we were doing the podcast.

What were people saying about Clyde Edwards-Elair? That is, I mean, that's just terrible. You got maybe your season on the line here. He was started in 66% of leagues. He was active. That is, I mean, that's just terrible. You got maybe your season on the line here. He was started in 66% of leagues. He was active.

It didn't play. Were people freaking out? Oh, absolutely. Well, there were two, the bigger thing that people were freaking out about was the Tyree kill touchdown.

Yeah. Well, at least he had a good game. I mean, well, he had an okay game. So Tyree kill had basically a long touchdown callback on a hold and then this ridiculous catch that he made that nobody knew he made

and they punted before they could challenge it. He didn't even realize that he had caught the ball. I'm sure you've all seen the replay by now. But yeah, so he comes up with a pretty bad game when in reality he should have had a massive game. But Clyde Eberdieler not playing is the ultimate screw you in what has been a very frustrating CEH season. Yeah, there's no actionable information you can have there.

He had a stomach flu and he lost a bunch of weight and barely practiced, so they didn't use him, but they didn't tell us that beforehand. And that's crummy luck. I'm glad I told my wife to not start him this week. It was maybe the one call that I got right. Nice. But there was no predicting that. I guess the good news is that Le'Veon Bell still didn't look all that good

and was seeding a lot of carries late in the game to Darrell Williams. So at the very least, it doesn't look like Le'Veon Bell is coming for CEH's job, but it also doesn't look like, you know, it hasn't looked recently like CEH has all that much value anyway. Well, don't spoil big topic number three. We do have a CEH question. Well, then why'd you ask about it? Well, I was really asking more about the fact that he didn't play, but just to spoil it a little bit more,

in his first six games of the year before Le'Veon Bell came over to the Chiefs, he had 79% of the team's carry, the running back carries, not the Mahomes carries, not the Tyreek Hill, just running back carries. Edward Zeeler had 79% of the carries by the running backs before Bell. He's got 54% of the running back carries since the Bell signing, and that's not including last night. So that's a big difference there. And the amount of carries that we've seen from the team. They've changed their offensive philosophy basically as soon as Le'Veon Bell got there.

The first game he played was against Denver. They had a pick six. They had a punt return or a kick return for a touchdown. They barely had a throw. Since then, let me tell you what Tyreek Hill is on pace for in his last six games since Bell came over. He's on pace for 131 catches, 1,853 yards, and 24 touchdowns on 195 targets. Imagine what that pace would be if they had challenged the play last night.

They've just changed their offense. They throw and throw and throw. They don't run the ball that much anymore. Whether or not we can trust CEH is going to be an interesting question, which is why it's one of our big topics. That we will save for a little bit later in the show. Ben, do you have any final thoughts on the Chiefs and the Broncos? The other guy who's benefited

since Bell's come is Travis Kelsey. Eight catches in every single game since then at least eight catches so really encouraging there it's still it's going to be impossible to pinpoint that third weapon to use from kansas city maybe it was sammy watkins who got some work down the stretch maybe it was robinson who got a lot of work early on in the game or hardman who always has a chance at a big touchdown. But the targets are very concentrated right now. Yep. Which is not so bad when you have Tyreek Hill and Travis Kelsey. They are going to win you your league, it seems.

We've got the Monday Night Football Props game at cbssports.com slash props. We're giving away $1,000 every week for Monday Night Football Props. Answer seven prop questions about the Bills and the Niners, including the most total yards. Will it be Diggs, Singletary, Mostert, Debo, or Ayuk? That is tough. Diggs, Singletary, Mostert, Debo, or Ayuk? Singletary is the one that I think I'm going to eliminate first.

Who do you guys think gets the most total yards tonight? It's tough. I'm going Diggs because I think the way Diggs' games work, he either has in the 40s in terms of yards or he goes over 90 yards and he blows up. I think it's one of those nights for him. I think he goes over 90 yards, probably over 100

yards. It's going to be tough. Debo will be great and Ayuk will have some big opportunities, but I think Diggs is the guy with the most number of total yards. What do you think, Chris? I think I would go with Debo. I don't know if that's overreacting to his first game back, but

just the opportunity seems to be there for him to get a lot of safe easy targets that he can turn into yards. I'm going to go with Diggs as well. Debo, I feel, will be in the 60-70 range, and Diggs hopefully will be in the 80-90 range. But this is fun.

Go to cbssports.com slash props. You got a chance for $1,000. We're giving away $1,000 every week. You got a chance to win some money. News and notes, DJ Moore is on the reserve COVID list. So is Curtis Samuel. So I don't know. We don't know if they've tested positive or not.

Deebo's also got the ankle injury. DJ, DJ Moore's got the ankle injury. DJ Moore and Curtis Samuel, though, they're both on the reserve COVID list, along with a number of defensive players. Not a good list here for the Panthers. And they get Denver at home in week 14. So we'll keep an eye on it. Chris Carson is still not a hundred percent after his foot injury and he had a good game. He caught a touchdown,

played pretty well, played a lot more than Carlos Hyde. But what's our read now on the, on the Seattle running game? Because Pete Carroll wants to get both Hyde and Carson involved. He said, we really went into the game hoping to mix between Carson and Carlos because both guys are just barely getting back and feeling right, and we weren't going to load up anybody. And really, that didn't really come to light

until we made it through the whole week and got all the way to the weekend here. So he's so frustrating to try to decode. But what do we think about the Seahawks running game Jets this week? Well, they get into a situation where one running back is a lot better than the other. And if they're both

coming off injuries, they're not just going to play Hyde to make sure Carson doesn't get as many touches clearly because Hyde only had two carries yesterday and maybe they got carried away with Carson on the field, but that's going to happen a lot with Carson because Carson is much better than Hyde.

So I'd like Hyde a little bit as a sleeper against the jets, but I love Carson. I think he's a must start against the jets. Yeah. I think you probably look at it and just expect something like 55 to 60% of the carries going to Chris Carson and hopefully against the jets that will be you know, more than what was it? 12 yesterday, 13.

Um, but yeah, you know, Carson outside of a handful of stretches in his career, when he's been the starter, he's never really been like an 80% snap share guy. Um, so I wouldn't expect him to be that moving forward, but I do think the Seahawks want to run the ball more than they have this season. I think we started to see that before last week in the previous couple of games. So, you know, assuming that they can win comfortably against the Jets, which you should expect. Yeah, I think Chris Carson is a must start guy. Okay. And they could hopefully get their right tackle Brandon shell back this week, Seattle. They were down to their fourth string right tackle during Sunday's game at one point.

The Jets fired defensive coordinator Greg Williams. He made one of the all-time worst defensive calls. Nobody does what he did in that situation. And that's true. I mean, like nobody does a zero blitz. Literally, ESPN had a stat. 252 situations with a team up, down, no, up by at least six points. 252 situations with a team up down,

no up by at least six points, uh, 40 plus yards to go and 15 seconds left on the clock. There've been 252 plays in that scenario. And there has never been a, a time when a team since the SPM began tracking this, where a team sent at least six, uh, rushers.

And for some reason, they had their safety spying Derek Carr. Derek Carr. It was just... But never forget, despite that. They had a safety spying Derek Carr? Yes, go watch the play. At the 50-yard line? The safety, yeah.

It was... I mean, he might have just been playing the running back, but still, that guy should be playing deep. But never forget that despite getting fired by the Jets and doing such a poor job, Greg Williams had 11 head coaching offers, including four where he didn't even have to interview. Is that true?

I don't remember that quote that Greg Williams had. No, he said that? No. He's a peach. Okay. Chris does not like Greg Williams. He stinks. Doug Peterson did not commit to Carson Wentz in week 14.

And should we be looking at Jalen Hurts on the waiver wire? I mean, I'll tell you straight up, I'm not starting anyone against the Saints. But if you want to maybe take a look at weeks 15 and 16 at Arizona and at Dallas, or maybe you want to be risky and go against the Saints, which might be the best defensive football right now among them. But yeah, what's your interest level, guys,

in claiming Jalen Hurts if he's named the starter? I think Doug Peterson's noncommittalness today was like, hey, we're probably going to go with Hertz. So yeah, if you have a bench spot to hold on to him and you need a quarterback moving forward, sure, I'll take him, but I'm not starting him this week. So I really don't want to roster him. If I have someone who has a bit more upside, I'd like to hold on my bench. Yeah, I think you're hoping he can be like Taysom Hill. It doesn't contribute much as a passer, but the rushing ability should make him hopefully pretty good. You know, he dropped back 20 times last night. He was sacked

three times. He took off to run five times. So, you know, that was with five, five carries, 29 yards in less than a half a football. And that was with no design run. So I think if he does get that opportunity to be the starter, I think there is some of that Konami code potential with Jalen Hurts as a rusher. Daniel Jones could play this week. Giants are hopeful he could be back against Arizona. Let's get to our five big topics here.

Aaron Holcomb, what do you do with Miles Sanders? Does anybody have anything to say other than you sit him? No, that's it. I don't think he's an auto sit. I kind of do think he is this week. This is the number one. This team is better. The Saints, they've got the Saints at home.

Saints are the number one team against running backs. They're third best against... They give up the fewest fantasy points, the third fewest receiving yards to running backs. He's not catching the ball anyway. They're a total mess, the Eagles. It's such a shame. I do wonder if he's healthy.

We haven't really heard that, but he missed those two games. He's come back for four games, and since then, his longest run, I think, is 14 yards. This is a guy who had back-to-back week 74-yard runs against Pittsburgh and Baltimore. And look, it's not completely uncommon for a running back to go four games without a 15-yard carry or anything.

But they're not going to tell us if he's healthy. But his snap, you know, they're mixing in Jordan Howard now. Yeah. I can't say that everyone's going to have two running backs that they like more than Miles Sanders. So you're right. It's not an auto sit. But who wants to start Miles Sanders?

I don't see why you would. Yeah, I think part of the problem for Miles Sanders was coming into the season, I was as high as anyone on him. And a big part of that was the Eagles have often used their running backs in very valuable ways in the passing game. They don't just dump the ball off to them. They look for them downfield. And early on in the season, we saw that.

Miles Sanders had seven targets in the first five games that were at least five yards down the field, including a couple that were 20 plus yards down the field. The last of which was a he had the defender beat. He was in the end zone. It was against Baltimore, and he just dropped, dropped what should have been a touchdown. He should have had at least one other one. I think probably two more over the course of the season that either he

dropped or went over through, but that should have been touchdown against Baltimore was the last time he's had a target more than five yards down the field since he came back from the injury. And that was also the game he left with the injury so you know could be part of that as well but since then he has 14 targets in four games none of them have been more than five yards down the field uh they have all pretty much been dump offs his quarterback is very clearly not dealing with pressure well and so a lot of those dump offs have not even been of the,

uh, you know, high percentage, uh, nature that you would expect for a dump off. It's been, you know, he had the,

the, the target to mile Sanders that was picked off by the Browns for the pick six. Um, and it's been a lot of that stuff. It's been a lot of Carson Wentz just panicking and throwing the ball at his feet or above his head. Yeah. But it's been on, on Sanders too. It's been a lot of Carson Wentz just panicking and throwing the ball at his feet or above his head. Yeah, but it's been on Sanders too.

I mentioned this on yesterday's show. Brian Westbrook was on with us on Twitch, and he specifically spoke about the things that Miles Sanders needs to do better as a pass catcher. Basically, he just has to work on his hands a little bit. It's getting his hands in a different position. So I guess he's still learning that aspect of it, which surprised me.

I thought that was really good insight. But we agree. I can't imagine he's cracking the top 24 like this week. You know, if you have cam acres, you're going to start cam acres over him. Miles Gaskin, obviously. Um, it's just, it's not good. And hopefully there's some momentum there, but the Jordan Howard thing really pissed me off. And by, by the way, like, we're not the only ones who feel this way about miles Sanders. This was a headline from the Philadelphia Inquirer on Friday before this last game. The headline was, Miles Sanders is the Eagles' best offensive player. They're wasting him. I don't want Doug Peterson back next year. I don't. Either it's a personnel issue or he's been figured out. But it's really been, since that Super Bowl run,

they've been a pretty average offense. They just run a ton of plays. Yeah. But on a per-play basis, they're nothing special. They haven't been. Yeah, I think it's a bit of both. I think he's been figured out.

I think the offensive personnel isn't great. And I think Carson Wentz has just not been particularly good. All right, let's go to Matty P here. Second topic. Second big topic. Clyde Edwards-Elair. Are we able to trust him

round one of the fantasy playoffs next week? What a nightmare last night was. Ben, I'll give you the first word here. And they have, I'm just looking for their schedule. Who do they have? They have the Dolphins on the road. The Dolphins have been really good at home,

especially like Seattle. Seattle ended up scoring a bunch of points, but it wasn't easy. The Chargers struggled a little bit. The Bengals. But these are the Chiefs we're talking about. Anyway, Ben, do you trust Clyde Edwards-Elair in Week 14? Yeah, it's not a great matchup. I don't trust him, but he'll probably be in my top 24.

I mean, since they've signed Le'Veon, he's only had one game of 13-plus touches, but he's still the RB20 in PPR in that span, if you don't include last night's game where he didn't play. Hopefully there's clarity on his health before Week 14. If he practices, that'll be a good thing. If he doesn't practice Wednesday, doesn't practice Thursday, limited Friday, I'll be scared that his health is still an issue. But I wouldn't be so scared about this goose egg.

I'd be more concerned about his usage or lack thereof with Le'Veon Bell. The thing is, yeah, I mean, it's a little bit of Le'Veon Bell, but it's also just, they're just not running. And he's not catching it. Mahomes, remember earlier in the year, Mahomes wasn't throwing downfield at all, right? I mean, the air yards were so low. They just flipped the script halfway through the season.

All right, Chris, how do you feel? I would like to get away from Clyde Eberziler, I think, as of now. I mean, we've got five days to think about it. But, you know, I'm not super excited about starting him. He hasn't earned that. Chris, did we lose him? I was muted. oh what were you doing on mute the cat was making no it's always the cat post and she was so it yeah so the case for Clyde Edwards Elair coming into the season was yes we think he's a good talent yes he's a first-round pick but more

specifically he is the go-to back in the Kansas City Chiefs offense, and that is just a hugely valuable role. We saw that with Kareem Hunt in the two seasons where he was the starter. We saw that with Darren Williams when he took over and when he was healthy last season. That really hasn't been the case. What's that? Damian Williams.

Damian Williams, yes. Combine Darrell and Damian. I think I said Darren Williams, too. case yeah what's that damien williams damien williams yes yeah i think combined daryl and damien i think i said darren williams too yeah darren waller williams yeah that really hasn't been a particularly valuable role this season and especially lately he has uh cledber-deslaire has 10 high value touches since week seven, that game that Le'Veon bell played, uh, for the first time he has four,

two carries inside of the 10 yard line, which is really low number. And he has, uh, 12 catches. So, or sorry, he has eight catches.

So it just isn't a particularly valuable role. And at this point he's splitting carries. He's been fine as a player, but he hasn't blown you away with his pass-catching ability. He hasn't been a really standout runner in the goal line area or as a big play guy. And so you add it all up, and it it's not the situation we thought it would be and it's it it mostly comes down to that you know I think the the majority of offensive of a running back value comes from their situation and in this case the situation just isn't great so let's say you have Clyde Edwards-Elair and you can pick up Ty Johnson

facing Seattle on the road. Who do you think you'd be starting? Edwards-Elair or Ty Johnson? Johnson, who took over for Frank Gore yesterday. It would be Clyde. What about Ronald Jones against Minnesota? I think it would be Rojo. They're going to be very close,

but it's going to be Rojo for me too. And just for context, sorry. Clyde Edwards-Ealer had 32 high-value touches in the first six games of the season. He has 10 in the last five, not including last night. That is a dramatic change in his

fantasy value. Moving on to our next topic. Topic number three or four? Number three. It's a Gallman question. It's from Bada Bing Bada Boom. Bada Bing Bada Boom always has very good by big topic suggestions. Is

Wayne Gallman a strong RB2? Let me look. Maybe they have his bench press results. Let's see how he did to literally answer your question. But to answer your question. Fantasy wise, yeah. Fantasy wise, this week

I was like, oh, I'm down on Gallman. Everyone was down on Gallman. He was still an RB2 in terms of everyone's ranking before the week, and he had a great game. So there's no reason why he's not a strong rb2 touchdown or 100 yards in six straight games and now he has the cardinals they just got blown up by both cam acres and uh henderson who barely played but still ran for a big touchdown i'm

confident in gallman this week he may even sneak into my top 12 for rankings this week i i think he can be an r2. I don't necessarily think... I don't know if there's a ton of upside here. If you rush for almost nine yards per attempt and you finish with 13.5 PPR points, that's not really a great game. And that kind of highlights the problem. He's not super involved in the passing game,

and he's been super touchdown dependent. Now, maybe he can be, you know, he didn't get any opportunities to score this week, but that was kind of without the touchdowns before that he was mostly just okay. And so I don't want to overreact to one game, you know, where he had a 60 yard run rush for 135 yards on 16 carries, but didn't do anything else. I think he's a fine number two. He didn't do anything else, but he did have three long carries in that game,

including the 60-yarder. Sure. He also did... But he was averaging 3.8 yards per carry in the four games before that. Right. And part of that was they faced the Eagles twice. They faced Washington. They faced Tampa Bay.

But then the game against the Bengals is what really made me concerned about him. Is he anything more than... Is he like Frank Gore, basically, is what I was thinking after the Bengals game. You're going to get a lot of work, and hopefully you get a touchdown. But if you don't get that, what's it going to be, like 70 yards?

Then this was his best game against a really good run defense, and it was terrific. The offensive line is playing better i i think he's risky and i think um well exactly what chris said i mean he doesn't he doesn't play in passing games he plays passing he doesn't catch passes uh i did point out though yesterday i pointed out again he came off the field after long runs twice and alfred morris came in and scored the touchdowns. Usually that's going to be Gallman. They love him there, and he's been very successful there. And they don't, I mean, they are, the Giants always intended to be a ground and pound team

with Saquon Barkley. So, I don't know, maybe they'll keep pounding it in. He had 21 reps of 225 pounds at the Combine. That's pretty good. That's more than I could do. He's kind of a big guy. I feel like that's good for a running back. I'll tell you what it was. It was 72nd

percentile is what it was. He's also in the 81st percentile in height, at least at the combine. He was probably even higher for the average American male. Presumably the average NFL player is taller than the average American. I don't know. I don't know about running backs though.

I don't know about running backs. I would think about a short running back is like five, nine and the average American male is five, nine. Like I would be the height of a short running back. Are you five, nine? Yeah,

but I, I'm, I've got like a fullback body weight. I'm pushing the pile. What did I say? He did 21 reps. How many reps do you think Clyde Edwards-Elair did at 225? He did 15. Not available. I don't think he did it.

I've got 15 here, so I don't know. No way of knowing. It says 15. It says 15 reps. That's 22nd percentile. Always trust me for the data. All right. We'll take a break here. And when we come back, we'll talk about Cam Akers and Justin Herbert,

a couple of rookies who had very different weeks in week 13. We'll be right back. Whether in the game or in life, the right coverage can make all the difference. Securian Canada gives you that coverage. For more than 65 years, Securian Canada has been helping Canadians build secure tomorrows. Their insurance solutions are designed to help protect you and your loved ones financially, giving you the peace of mind to focus on what truly matters.

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it's easy it's the law data sourced from the orcga 2023 dirt report we are back and we're back you know that reference chris i know ben doesn't oh major league and we're back. You know that reference, Chris? I know Ben doesn't. Major League? And we're back. No, it was like a Jimmy Fallon radio bit on SNL. Yeah. Anyway, Chris updating me during the break. DJ Moore did test positive for COVID.

Curtis Samuel, close contact. So that means if Samuel does not test positive, he should be able to play this week. Right? That's my interpretation of it. Okay. All right. Big topic number four from NM.

Is Cam Akers now officially the guy in LA or will the three-headed monster return? Ben. Yeah, he was the guy this week. I'm scared that the three-headed monster will return. I think Henderson played 20% of the snaps, which was very low for him, but he was injured and missed almost two quarters of playing time. So yeah, it was great to see acres finally get the work 22 touches. The most of any Rams running back this season, second, most second highest percentage of the snaps of any Rams running back, but it was based on injury.

I think it was great that Akers showed that he was the best running back in terms of talent yesterday, but I am a bit scared that they're very comfortable using all three running backs for the rest of the season. Well, Malcolm Brown usually gets about four or five touches, so he has no value, but those are four or five touches that you'd like to see go somewhere else, and it's just annoying, like Jordan Howard was, uh, for miles Sanders. Um, and then Henderson. Yeah. What does

he usually get about eight carries or something like that? Seven to 10 carries in three straight games before yesterday, acres got hurt on or Henderson got hurt on the opening possession and he was in and out of the game. So I don't know, Chris, do you think that cam makers took the job or a committee next week? Uh, you know, there, do you think that Cam Akers took the job or committee next week? You know, there's obviously going to be some sort of committee, but you know what I mean? So I think we can look at like the fourth fourth quarter when, you know, Henderson was a pretty active part of the offense. He played seven snaps. Cam Akers played 10. Malcolm Brown didn't play any. And it was actually, Akers had nine snaps on rush plays, one on a pass,

and Henderson got six on passes, one on a rush. So I actually, you know, maybe that's what they go with moving forward. Maybe that's a hint. I don't think that's necessary. Like Malcolm Brown won't play zero snaps moving forward,

and the split between run and pass won't be quite as dramatic as that. But, you know, this was the second most snaps for any running back all season. And what was nice about it was it wasn't situational. There was the injury context, obviously. But the previous time that the Rams had a running back play more than 50 snaps was Malcolm Brown in that game against Miami where they had to throw the ball 60 plus times. And he's been their go to passing downs guy. So in this instance, it was the first time even when they've had running or injuries and they have all three of their running backs have missed time this season. This was the first time that any of them have been treated like a true three down back.

And so that doesn't necessarily mean it will be the case moving forward. I think it'll probably be, you know, maybe acres plays 50% of the snaps moving forward and the other two guys split, maybe something like what I would expect in Baltimore. Um, but I'm, I definitely feel better about cam acres at this point than I have at any point in the season, including, you know, we forget he started week one and led the team with 14 carries, but he only played like 30% of the snaps. Henderson was hurt for week one.

But even in that game, he only played about 30% of the snaps Akers did, whereas yesterday he played, it was closer to 70. Yeah, and there was a quote from Jared Goff. By the way, if you're curious, he did 20 reps of 225, so that was a 65th percentile. Not as good as Gollman, but very close.

More than I can do. Akers, as Jared Goff said, early in the year, we have a lot of faith in everyone, but Daryl and Malcolm were just a step ahead a little bit in understanding what we were trying to do on each play. And at this point, Cam is right there with them. So that was a pretty telling quote. Goff also said, you know,

he can do everything. He can catch the ball. He can run. He has four catches this year. So even if he is the guy and Chris just mentioning that Henderson was more playing on passing downs late in the game, New England is their next opponent. That's a Thursday night. Patriots are giving up 3.5 yards per carry to running backs in their last four games. That's following them being just atrocious against running backs. their last four games. That's following them being just atrocious against running backs. So I don't know if it's because they face like Duke Johnson and they face Baltimore,

Houston, Arizona, and the Chargers. And those running backs average 3.5 yards per carry. I don't know if it's a tough matchup. Maybe it's somewhere in the middle. How much are we going to trust Cam Akers? Are you going to start him over Miles Sanders? Yes, we established that. Are you going to start him over Clyde? Yes, we established that. Are you going to start him over Clyde?

Yeah, I would. I will too. It's going to be tough to predict game script with this game too because of what the Patriots just did. So I think the odds are Akers is going to lead this team and he has the most explosion of any of these running backs. For what it's worth, Akers did lead the Rams running backs in snaps yesterday.

Or routes. In routes, okay. are you going to um start cam acres against the patriots or wayne gallman against the cardinals the gallman yeah i think i would probably go with gallman okay because he did he did have an extra one more rep of the bench press. All right, from Papa Too Low, our last big topic, Justin Herbert, was he exposed or just an off day against a strong defense? Herbert, 53 passes for just 209 yards, two interceptions, four fantasy points against New England. He gets Atlanta this week.

That's nice. At Las Vegas next week. Ben, was Justin Herbert exposed or was it just an off day? It was just an off day. He hasn't been great in tough matchups. This matchup wasn't a great matchup for him, but he's got Atlanta next week and he's going to dominate in that game. And then he has Vegas and Denver who he's already scored 27 plus points against this year. I'm confident that he goes over 25 points this week in the first round of the playoffs and probably 25 plus points for the rest

of the season. The Chargers have given up 27 points or more in nine straight games and he has thrown 49 or more passes in three straight games. I don't think he'll get that, but he's going to throw a lot. Chris, are you going to trust Justin Herbert

against Atlanta? Yeah. they've played the thing about the the chargers offense they're playing just an absurd amount of snaps yesterday they only played 72 snaps which is usually a pretty high mark for an offense and that was their lowest in three games and i think their third or fourth lowest of the season they're routinely playing around 78 to 80 total snaps, which is just an incredibly high volume. In week 12, they played 83 snaps. They threw 52 times and ran the ball 31 times. That's just a huge number.

And so I think when you go to the question, was this just a bad game or was he exposed? I think it's a little bit of both. I was expecting some regression for Justin Herbert as the season went along and that's what we're seeing, but the overall numbers would still be excellent for any rookie season. 5.1% touchdown rate, 2% interception rate, 7.1 yards per attempt. That's really good. I don't know how great the return of Austin Eckler and him being such a focal point in the passing game has been just because you're going to be a little less efficient throwing to your running backs, even an elite one like Austin Eckler. But yeah,

you go against the Falcons. Maybe he's not like he looked early in the season, the must start one of the elite quarterbacks when he was averaging 28, 27 fantasy points per game. But you probably don't have a better option than Herbert against the Falcons. That's a pretty good situation. Good stuff, guys. We're going to finish the show with some interesting stats here. By the way, do you guys have a lot on the line

Monday and Tuesday night? Yes and no. It's like a lot's on the way, do you guys have a lot on the line Monday and Tuesday night? Yes and no. It's like a lot's on the line, but there are so many games left that it's not like one thing. Usually Monday I have like one guy. Yeah. There's a lot going on. Yeah. I think I've got one game where I'm like projected for 140 points and I've only scored 40 so far.

So I just have basically like my entire team going and yeah, like if I win that game, I'm pretty sure I lock in a playoff spot, but I have no idea how confident I should feel. Okay. Well, good luck guys. Give me one stat one stat that you want the people to know Ben Colts

high value touches in the past two games with all three running backs active Naheem Hines 10 Jonathan Taylor seven Jordan Wilkins three and Taylor's high value touches in the past two games with all three running backs active. Naheem Hines, 10, Jonathan Taylor, 7, Jordan Wilkins, 3, and Taylor's high value touches were all catches. None of them were those green zone touches. So Hines has actually been their goal line back, which is disappointing for Taylor's breakout, but Taylor has still been a stud.

Yeah, and the thing about that is they kind of use Hines the way the Patriots used James White in the last few years of the Brady era, where it's not necessarily like he's the goal line back or red zone back. It's just when the offense is moving and he's in the game, they don't take him out. Yeah, and by the way, that's from Ben Gretsch, Schrager.

You got to... Per a Ben Gretsch retweet. Oh, it's a retweet. Okay, so it's not from Ben Gretsch. It's retweet. Okay, so Ben is basically the fraud, Ben Gretsch retweet. Oh, it's a retweet. Okay, so it's not from Ben Gretsch. It's retweet. Okay, so Ben is basically the fraud. Ben Gretsch. Okay, glad we established that.

I'll let Ben know. All right, Sam Hoppen. Shout out to Sam Hoppen. There we go. Shouts to Sam. Chris, what's the one stat you want the people to know? All right, so Kyler Murray has five scrambles and just 10 design runs over the last three games since his shoulder injury in the first nine games of the season.

He was averaging 2.7 scrambles per game and seven design runs. So he's gone from about seven design runs per game to about three over his last three games. And last three games have also been three of his lowest intended air yards per attempt games of the season. So he says he's healthy. He practiced in full last week. been three of his lowest intended air yards per attempt games of the season. So he says he's healthy. He practiced in full last week. He said he's not intentionally running less, but you can't feel great about what he's doing right now and the way he's being used. I wonder if he's going to be a top 12 guy at the Giants this week.

I think he probably has to be. I don't know. I mean, you've got no buys. You've got guys like Rivers and Cousins playing well. I don't know all the matchups yet. Who does Derek Carr have this week? Vegas has the Colts and Chargers. So that could be a game where both quarterbacks have to throw.

I might start both guys over Kyler Murray. I'm a bit of a coward. I don't think I could. Adam, you and I talked, uh, you know, Adam, you and I talked about on the Twitch stream, you got to dance with who you came to the dance with. And I just, Kyler Murray has been so good. The skillset is so valuable. I just, I don't know if in a do or die game, I could bring myself to bench Kyler Murray. I don't think I'm making the playoffs in the podcast league partially because of what Kyler Murray has done the last couple of weeks. I think I'm going to finish six and seven league, partially because of what Kyler Murray has done the last couple weeks.

I think I'm going to finish six and seven. But if I did, I'd have to choose between him and Rivers. And, like, dancing with the guy who brung you, yeah, but he's been a really bad dancer lately. He's got two left feet. Yeah, yeah, but he did practice in full last week. He did say he's not hurt. Yeah.

It could just be a situation where he just decides to run again and he wins you your lead. Maybe. The stats you gave are leading me to believe he is hurt. So it's your fault. That is my assumption as well.

Yeah, it's your fault. Okay. Well, that's it for today's show. Good stuff from Chris and Ben. Thank you all very much for listening. We will talk to you tomorrow with the waiver wire

and of course, listen to Fantasy Football Today in 5. We're going to have two games to recap tonight. That will drop in your feed. Subscribe to Fantasy Football Today in 5 at 3 a.m. Eastern time. So first thing in the morning, you'll be able to hear our thoughts on the two Monday Night Football games and the Waver Wire. Thanks again. I'm Adam.

Talk to you tomorrow.