Fantasy Football Today - 🚨Kittle Out 8 Weeks, Bills and Chiefs RBs, Ravens Offense, DAL-PHI (11/02 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 2, 2020

NOTE: We learned the extent of George Kittle's injury after already recording a full episode. You'll hear our instant reaction to the Kittle news and then you'll hear the original episode including the big news from around the NFL (8:00) and a Cowboys-Eagles recap (12:45)! How are we feeling about Ezekiel Elliott rest of season? ... An idea for a way to incorporate defense into your Fantasy leagues (19:40) and then on to our big topics. We kick it off with our thoughts on the Bills RBs (22:31) and the Chiefs RBs (27:30). We'll tell you why game script might be inflating the value of Zack Moss and if either Chiefs RB is a must-start option ... How are we feeling about the Ravens offense these days (33:00)? How many Fantasy standouts do they have? We also discuss Joe Burrow's outlook (38:40), a tip for winning your league (43:10) and some important stats you need to know ... Your emails at [e-mail] You can also download and subscribe to the full-length Fantasy Football Today podcast here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-podcast/id261735167 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. Welcome in, everybody. What's going on? This is Fantasy Football Today. Just got finished recording a about 40-minute podcast with Chris Towers and Ben Schrager. We talked about the Dallas game.

We talked about our five big topics for the week. And then when we finished recording, and I had already finished editing and was ready to publish, well, the George Kittle news broke and his foot broke, and he is out for eight weeks. So you are dropping George Kittle in your leagues, most likely.

And we're going to talk about that right now. And then you will hear the podcast that was just recorded, but we got Jamie joining us right now. It's me, Jamie and Chris. Here we go. Jamie, what's your immediate reaction fantasy wise to this very unfortunate injury

for George Kittle? It bleeping sucks. Look, anytime you lose a player of his caliber for basically the fantasy season, it doesn't sound like he's going to play again anytime soon to help your fantasy

rosters. It's awful. We've had a lot of big injuries this year. It's been a very frustrating season, and he's among the biggest. It stinks. Last year, he missed two games. Deebo Samuel had two huge games. It's worth noting Garoppolo threw a bunch,

46 passes in one of those games, 45 passes in the other, but Deebo Samuel, 112 yards against Seattle without George Kittle. Deebo Samuel, 134 yards against Arizona without George Kittle. We're going to get into that. Let's start, though, with a tight end replacement, Chris. If I have George Kittle and I need tight ends, I'm looking at maybe Jordan Reed, but who else? Or should I be looking at on the waiver wire?

Yeah, Jordan Reed could come off IR. He started practicing last week, but it's not clear if he'll be able to play in week nine. For the rest of the season, the best option, if he's available, is clearly Dallas Goddard, who played pretty much a full snap share, full route share yesterday. Only got one target, but he's available is clearly Dallas Goddard who played pretty much a full snap share full route share yesterday only got one target but he's 68% rostered if he's out there in your league if he gets dropped on Wednesday morning make sure you check out and see if Goddard's there because

he's the closest you'll be able to come to replace and Kittle for the rest of the season if not you should probably make Eric Eber on your priority he gets the Dallas Cowboys in week nine and he'll be the top waiver wire option at tight end for week nine long term you know I like Logan Thomas as a potential second half breakout scored two touchdowns in the last two weeks before his buy or Austin Hooper when he comes back in week 10 from his appendix removal surgery because they don't have Odell Beckham. I think it's going to be highly concentrated offense between Hooper and Jarvis Landry. Yeah, Hooper's a great option.

And Jordan Reed, let's give him a little credit. Weeks two and three, he had eight targets in week two without Kittle. Caught seven of them for 50 yards and two touchdowns at the Jets. Then against the Giants in week three, he had six targets. He had only two catches for 23 yards, but his foot landed out of bounds early in the game. He was in the end zone. He was wide open. He almost had

a touchdown in that game, and he hurt himself on that play, too, so he was hobbled in that game, so I think there should be some interest in Jordan Reed, who's 4% rostered. Jimmy, anything to add there? Do you want to talk about the rest of the 49ers and the impact? Because the other thing, spoiler alert, Jimmy Garoppolo is going to be out for a little while

because he's still dealing with this ankle injury that he re-aggravated. So, if there's any waiver wire tight ends you want to add, fine. If not, talk about the 49ers and the impact here. I just want to add to the Eagle situation because while Goddard should be the guy rest of the year, Zacherts is coming back. So, if you have an IR spot and Zach Ertz is available, pick up both if you can, but certainly still pick up Zach Ertz also because he could

still come back and have a significant role as, as we know, for the Eagles, as they make their playoff push in the miserable NFC East. I would look at still Trey Burton, you know, I mean, they're trying to find ways to put the ball in his hands. They gave him an opportunity, you know, for what looked like the Colts special, you know, with the play that they ran where he had the rushing touchdown. And also look, you know, I know it was Ben DiNucci as opposed to Andy Dalton, but Dalton Schultz had a resurgent game against Philadelphia as well, just in terms of his targets. So better in PPR than non-PPR.

And obviously that offense is a disaster, but that's another guy I would look at. And then I know the last time we saw the Texans tight end situation, it was miserable with Darren Fells, but you know that Jordan Akins and Darren Fells have both been putting up decent production. Hopefully Jordan Akins is coming back from the concussion. That's another guy I'd look at in deeper leagues. So there are guys you can look at.

Clearly none of them are George Kittle, but you know, and, and in deeper leagues, if Jordan Reed's not ready, Ross Dwelly, you know, he caught a touchdown from Nick Mullins as well. So they definitely need bodies, but in terms of's not ready, Ross Dwelley, he caught a touchdown from Nick Mullens as well. So they definitely need bodies. But in terms of the 49ers, Adam, I mean, you said it. Debo Samuel's numbers ticked up last year. The hope would be Brandon Ayuk continues to just play at a high level, and I think he's going to be a must-start wide receiver

for the foreseeable future. Great call by you, by the way, on Kendrick Bourne. He had a strong game against the Seahawks, and that's another guy until Debo Samuel comes back. But a lot of people dropped Debo Samuel. This could now be from a tight end-centric offense to a wide receiver-centric offense, and now both those guys become very prominent.

So go pick up Debo Samuel as well if you want to just speculate for the foreseeable future, or for the long term, what's going to happen for them. Yeah, last year, by the way, Ross Dwelley in the two games without Kittle, he had seven targets in one of them, didn't do much. And then he faced Arizona. That was the free space last year, and he caught two touchdowns. The only other name I want to throw out is Herb Smith.

I know he's coming off a terrible game. He only had one target. Kirk Cousins threw 14 passes. So perhaps we shouldn't judge anything in the passing game there too harshly. Just the bad weather. So we'll talk about all that on Tuesday. Thank you to Jamie. Thank you to Chris.

Oh, one other thing that I noticed looking at the two games from last year, they faced Seattle and Arizona, and their run game was really bad in those two games. Kittle is the best blocking type in football. I know, you wouldn't think, but that's just another thing, right? Like, he might have an impact on the run game,

so that is something, a beautiful matchup this week, Thursday night against the Packers. They can't stop anyone on the ground, but that's not, it's bad for their passing game, obviously, and it's bad for their run game. So that is something that beautiful matchup this week, Thursday night against the Packers. They can't stop anyone on the ground, but that's not, it's, it's bad for their passing game, obviously. And it's bad for their run game. And Nick Mullins, by the way, you know, he's basically like having a good game. Every other time he starts going back to 2018 or plays,

I guess if you want to look at just his sub coming in as a sub. So he's kind of interesting as well. Throws a lot of interceptions, but that's a topic. Well, he's a must-add in two quarterback and super flex leagues. It's the one quarterback league that you're not going to miss. No, no. All right, guys. Thank you very much.

Here's what we recorded earlier today. Enjoy the show. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. I'll tell you what, that've done such 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. This is your Monday afternoon Fantasy Football Today podcast. We've got five big topics.

Talking about the Ravens offense, the Chiefs offense, the Bills running backs and more. And recapping a game that I just could not wait to end. I was just like, please end Dallas and Philadelphia. And it ended eventually. So, I guess I got what I wanted. Good stuff. Welcome everybody. It is Monday.

I am Adam. Chris Towers and Ben Schrager are here. Greetings, Chris. Yo, what's up? I'm glad that game ended. That would have been really bad if it just like... Oh, if it was still going? Could you imagine? I mean... Wrong overtime.

Well, with dumb NFL overtime rules, it would just end. Yeah, I guess so. Yeah. I'd be fine with that, in that specific case. Would you rather have NFL overtime rules or college football overtime rules, it would just end. Yeah, I guess so. I'd be fine with that in that specific case. Would you rather have NFL overtime rules or college football overtime rules? NFL. Actually, no. Sports are supposed to be entertaining

and college is way more entertaining. I'd rather have college. If you extended NFL to like 15 minutes, I would definitely rather have NFL. Yeah, I think that college is so gimmicky and it works for college football. It would feel a little weird, a little gimmicky in the NFL.

But you tell us how you feel, audience. I'm going to give you the big news, then we'll get to the game and we will give you your five big topics for the day and discuss, plus some interesting statistics and snap counts and things like that. George Kittle, Tevin Coleman, Jimmy Garoppolo, they're all supposed to play on Thursday.

We don't know if they're going to play, but Jordan Reed could be back in Week 9. So if you need a tight end and there's nobody out there, you could take a look at Jordan Reed. He might be Kittle's replacement, but hopefully Kittle's fine, and we'll see. Kenny Gaudi, on the other hand, he is out week nine and is considered week to week.

IR is a possibility there. Right, and that would be at least three games. Jamal Adams expected to play in week nine for Carolina, but we're not sure about for Seattle, but we're not sure about Chris Carson. He may not play this week, and they are at Buffalo. Mentioned this on yesterday's show. Marquise Brown wants the ball. Give him the ball.

Jonathan Taylor is dealing with an ankle injury though. Bennett, I'm not sure this was a big impact during the game. Didn't seem like Frank Reich was really aware of it, but Taylor's got a little ankle thing. Yeah, and Phillip Rivers said after the game when asked why the other running backs were involved, he said it was because Jonathan Taylor was

nicked up. Not an injury they knew about going into the game, but that had something to do with his workload, not getting the goal line touches that he usually gets. So hopefully it doesn't linger, but if it does, it's going to be an ugly three-way committee or Taylor may not play. Man, that's really interesting. Makes me feel less horrible about having him in my lineups, I guess.

Daryl Henderson dealing with a thigh injury. Sam Darnold is going to have an MRI on his shoulder. Kenyon Drake is unlikely to play this week, but he may not miss much time. So Chase Edmonds, fire him up unless he has COVID because two players tested positive for COVID for Arizona during their bye week. We hope everything works out there.

I think we're seeing a lot of COVID cases and not a lot of cancellations of games. So far, it has been working out. A Cleveland player was displaying COVID symptoms. They shut down their facilities. A.J. Dillon and Marlon Humphrey. A.J. Dillon for the Packers. Marlon Humphrey for the Ravens.

They're on the reserve COVID list. Did they both play with COVID yesterday? I know Humphrey did. Yes, they did. Yeah, and the Humphrey one, he was apparently sent home with like a cold like symptoms earlier in the week right tested negative and then came back and tested positive sat uh on sunday's pre-game screening i guess yeah that's scary and uh they're

going to be doing contact tracing for the ravens and the steelers but you know right now i just can't i can't expect any games to be postponed or anything like that. It's just not happening. Even when you get COVID cases just a couple days before a game. Thursday is the only one, I guess, that may be in doubt right now.

Yeah, they'll just move it to Sunday or something, right? The Chargers have blown a lead of 16 or more points in four straight games. That is an NFL record. Congratulations. The Steelers acquired linebacker Avery Williamson from the Jets for a fifth round pick. How about this from CBSSports.com about Carson Wentz? No quarterback has ever had 16 turnovers in the first eight games of a season and made the playoffs. That is probably going to happen

this year. The Eagles are the favorites to win their division. Chicago defensive tackle John Jenkins left late with an injury, and the Saints acquired Quan Alexander from San Francisco. That's a big one there. Should certainly help the Saints make their run defense even better. I know Sheldon Rankins was hurt. Don't think that was super serious, but there's that. Ben, what are we promoting today?

Yeah, we just got word from our game scene. We now have a Monday Night Football prop contest. We're giving away $1,000. $1,000 every week for Monday Night Football props. Answer seven prop questions, including Tom Brady over under 260 passing yards. Towers, what do you think of the 260 passing yards tonight? I think you take the over on that one. The Buccaneers have not exactly shown

that they'll pull off the gas if they're up big. They did that last week against the Raiders. I think if you're playing DFS tonight, the Buccaneer stack is probably the chalk play, but probably the one that you want to use as well. Yeah, the other thing why I'm taking the over is Leonard Fournette is catching passes and catching passes well, so having him active helps. So I'm taking the over is Leonard for net is catching passes and catching pass as well.

So having him active helps. So I'm taking the over on that. But like I said, seven props tonight, you get them all right. You got a chance at a thousand dollars. That's CBS sports.com slash props. It's going to happen every Monday night.

And the other thing to promote is our APR mailbag, Apple podcast review mailbag on Saturdays. It's a lot of fun. Leave that Apple podcast, five-star review. We'll get your mailbag question answered. Leave it as early as possible because it does take a day to populate on Apple Podcasts.

But leave that five-star review and we'll get it answered on Wednesday's show or on the Saturday mailbag. Four of the last five quarterbacks against the Giants have hit that over. So that's probably the way to go. Philadelphia 23, Dallas 9. Stat of the game comes from Jacob Gibbs.

Been pumping him up lately. He's got the best stats, man. CeeDee Lamb tops 80% of the snaps in each of his first two pro games. Here's his game-by-game snap rate since then, week three on. 60%, 76%, 55%, 67%, 55%. He played 46% of the snaps in yesterday's loss.

CeeDee Lamb. So snap share is going down for him. Production has been bad. You know, I'm not sure if people noticed, but Darius Slay was shadowing Michael Gallup yesterday. And Slay got hurt in that game, by the way. He and defensive tackle Malik Jackson left that game with injuries.

But yeah, that was interesting and Gallup ended up having the best game. So I think for Dallas, we're just going to hope for Andy Dalton to come back this week. He's expected to be back. DiNucci was not up for the task. They tried everything in the book

and it didn't really work. But let's talk about Ezekiel Elliott. Chris, are you concerned about him? This is now 19 carries for 63 yards and one catch for 10 yards. That catch came in the final minutes of the game. That's 49, 45, and 63 rushing yards in his last three games

without a rushing touchdown and only two catches in his last two games. Am I worried about Ezekiel Elliott? Yes, of course I am. I am probably, among the people on this podcast, I would guess I'm probably the strongest proponent of the running backs don't matter theory, which is not to say that there's no good running backs

and bad running backs. There obviously are. There's a range of skill sets and abilities, but situation matters I would say a lot more than talent for a running back and right now Ezekiel Elliott is in maybe not the single worst situation in football but it's probably not much worse than or not much better than the Jets right now the the Cow are still missing. I believe four of their starting offensive linemen cut from the start of the season.

I think three of them are on IR. So unlikely that they'll have them all at any point. They won't because Tyron Smith, their left and right tackles are out for the year. And he only has two targets in three of the last four games. And obviously that fourth game going back to week five was when Dak Prescott got hurt. So there's been a big change in his usage and a big change in his effectiveness.

This offense is not creating a lot of positive value. And I don't know. I don't think Ezekiel Elliott is good enough to overcome this and be a number one running back. I think he is very much a number two running back and probably not a high end one. Yeah. I think when you compare him to like Saquon Barkley,

who going into the season, we thought maybe it was, maybe it was going to be on a bad offense. I don't know how people felt about it, but I wasn't too optimistic, not a great offensive line, but Barkley has the ability to break off a 65 yard touchdown run. And that's not really Zeke's thing anymore.

He's very steady. He's thing anymore. He's very steady. He's very solid. He's very physical, but he doesn't get a lot. Like last year and so far this year, you're not seeing a lot of burst plays in the run game, or at least not without Dak Prescott this year. So I could see your point.

I would say better than the Jets because he's not really splitting with anyone. Pollard had seven carries, but Zeke had 19. I would expect him to get all of the goal line work. So it's better. Ben, I'm more optimistic for Zeke because I do feel like

Dalton will involve him more in the passing game than DiNucci would. I am too and I think Dalton will get them closer to the goal line than DiNucci ever did last night and Zeke will convert those goal line touches, which is why he is so great down, you know, with the touchdowns, but he's going to need the targets and the receptions this year to have

any sort of floor because he hasn't gone over a hundred yards rushing this year. He went over that mark seven times last year, and it's usually a volume play. It's usually get them to 20 touches. He gets over a hundred yards, not really happening this year. Now now without Dak they can zone in on the run game and the offensive line is not as good as the past but yes I think he's a number one running back a low end number one but in terms of buy or sell I don't think we can really do either because the Zeke manager is probably just chilling with him at 20 touches and hoping he turns it around and you can't really do anything else with it you don't really want to sell him low if you are the Zeke manager no no you can't you have to hold him uh but you're probably

looking at a weekly deficit of anywhere between eight to ten points from what you expected coming into the season I think you're expecting part of the problem is and you know make that you say Kwon Barkley comparison part of the problem is he just doesn't get split out wide very often. And so the targets that he does get tend to be less valuable because it's a lot of screens, it's a lot of dump-offs, it's not stuff down the field, which is something that you see with a guy like Saquon Barkley or an Aaron Jones or a Miles Sanders. So that's another place in which the way the Cowboys use him just doesn't things have to be really good

I think for him to be that elite running back and right now things are really really bad okay Ben what are your thoughts on the Eagles coming out of this game I was really encouraged with how Fulgham was used I wasn't sure you know is Rager going to take the targets is Goddard going to be a heavy focus Goddard was not involved really until the end of the game. He was on the field a lot, but not involved in the passing game. And Fulgham took seven targets and made the most of them six for 78 and a touchdown with some red zone looks that we've come to like over the past few weeks. So I think Fulgham is awesome. I think Boston Scott did exactly what we expected him to do against the Dallas defense that can't

stop running backs. He didn't get into the end zone. That's it. You're satisfied with Scott, but Fulgham was encouraging, and Rager should be rostered in all leagues, even though he only went three for 16. He did have six targets in a game where Wentz didn't throw the ball very much at all. Yeah, Wentz

did not hit 27 passes, but he was also horrible. And Fulgham was the only Eagles player with more than 16 receiving yards. He had six catches, 78 yards, and a touchdown. Yeah, Rager becomes pretty interesting. I mean, even though

with three for 16 and one, he showed some ability out there, and he did get six targets, which was nice. Goddard only one target, but he played a ton of snaps in this game. I mean, if you were going to tell me he was going to play like 85% of the snaps

and run all these routes, I would have expected a much better game from Goddard, but Wentz was horrible. Just horrible. The good news there is he ran 29 routes. I think they had 33 dropbacks, and so he was used as a full-time player, which I was

really surprised to see coming back from IR when he wasn't even clear he was going to play. They've got that bye in week nine, and I think you expect Alex Goddard to come back in week 10 and be all systems go. I'm not sure if Zach Ertz is going to be back. I haven't heard any updates on that, but it doesn't seem likely based on the original timetable we were given.

So you think you should hold Goddard through your bye? If you can, yeah. I definitely wouldn't want to drop him. All right. Time for our email of the day. It comes from Trey. Trey says,

the worst thing about fantasy football is how you have no control over what your opponent does against you. In real football, defense is half the game. In fantasy football, it's 0%. Well, I've got a solution. The defense budget. You can block one player on your opponent's team

each week using a defense budget space system, much like Fab. You get $100 in defense bucks a season. It costs 30 defense bucks, defense bucks, I don't know how he wants me to say it, to block a player projected at number one at their position for that week. 29 defensive bucks for number two, 28 for number three, and so on. It costs just one defensive buck to block players that are projected to finish 30th or lower. That way, there's a ton of strategy involved in how you play defense against your opponent, to block players that are projected to finish 30th or lower. That way there's a ton of strategy involved in how you play defense against your opponent and you can't just block everyone's best player every week. I think that's pretty interesting.

I don't think I would ever set up a league like this, but if you were in one, I think that's pretty cool. And what do you guys think? A good use of Bucks would have been like, I don't know, $5 on Brandon Ayuk to block him when it just seemed like he was so likely to outperform his projection or whatever. Yeah, it comes down to the projection system.

It's something on every website everyone sees flaws in the projection system, so you can capitalize on that and your strategy becomes who to start on your own team and also where is there a flaw in the projections that week. Quarterbacks are usually projected so close together, you can probably find quarterback value every single week.

And you could always find, you're making your sleeper picks for the other team. You think there's a sleeper who's going to do really well, but he's not projected a lot. You play defense against that guy. Does the fantasy manager get to replace that player, or it's just like a zero? I think it's probably

just a zero, right? Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. I don't know. You need a deep bench to be able to replace all the time? Yeah. There are really a lot of things

that you can do to spice up your fantasy football league. If you're in a bunch of leagues, what's wrong with me today? And you just want to kind of try fantasy football league. If you're in a bunch of leagues, what's wrong with me today? And you just want to kind of try some new things. Pardon me. I think guillotine leagues sound like a ton of fun.

I definitely want to play in one next year. But this is kind of cool. Spend some money to block a point. Twitch League next year should have some twists to it. Whether the Twitch League is guillotine or something, let's make it more fun than just your standard half PPR, two wide receiver league. Alright, yeah, I'm in.

Alright, well thank you for the email, Trey. Something to think about. Time for our five big topics. First one is from Sean. Devin Singletary and Zach Moss, a two headed monster? Or is Moss taking snaps from Singletary rest of season? Well, Sean, this was the first week all year that Moss actually out-snapped Singletary rest of season. Well, Sean, this was the first week all year

that Moss actually out-snapped Singletary by only three or four snaps. But Ben, I'll give you the first word. What do you think about the Bills running backs rest of season? Yeah, well, it was also the first week where the Bills running backs split evenly and also ran well.

So it was against the Patriots who aren't great against running backs. So I'm not super encouraged by it, but I like Moss a lot more than Singletary moving forward. Moss played more third-down snaps this week. He had six red zone touches, and Singletary didn't have any snaps inside the 10. Moss is their third-down guy.

He's their red zone guy. He's their inside the 10 guy. He's their value touches guy. I do think the split will be pretty even in terms of touches moving forward, but we want the valuable touches, the high-value touches, and that's Moss. Chris? There was one drive in the third quarter that I think really highlighted how much this offense seems to tilt towards Moss,

but also how much I don't necessarily like either of them moving forward. So it was a drive where the Bills started at the 45 of the New England Patriots. Singletary, I think, got three carries in the first four plays. They got down to the 19-yard line, and then Moss came in, and he got a touch, I believe, from the 19, the 12, the 4, and the 2. Didn't score, but got four pretty pretty valuable red zone touches three inside the 15 and then of course josh allen scored the uh the rushing touchdown and i think that kind of highlights like i do like moss more than singletary i think moss is likely to be the goal line back

moving forward and i think that is more valuable than being the pass catching back but i don't think either role is particularly valuable. Josh Allen doesn't throw to his running backs a ton. He's not particularly great at throwing to running backs. You still see a lot of errant throws, even on those short passes to running backs. And Josh Allen is still the primary goal line option here. I think he has four rushing touchdowns this season. So I think you're looking at number three running backs

in both situations moving forward, Singletary and Moss. Yeah, and then another drive, first drive of the game, Singletary had four touches right out of the gate, and then they got closer to the end zone, and Zach Moss came in and he had two carries for like 29 yards, and the last one was an eight-yard touchdown run. So it's just going to be really hard for Singletary to score touchdowns. He's not making—last year, he made a lot of big plays.

He had a lot of 20-plus-yard runs. That's what really got me very encouraged about him. This year, I think he has won, and the offensive line's been really beat up, and they got John Feliciano back. He played his first game of the year, which was great, but then on the first possession, Mitch Morse left with a concussion. So they just can't get healthy. They've been playing without their starting left guard

for the last two games. Hopefully he's back soon. I think everybody's probably on board with Moss over Singletary, but this was an inflated game because Josh Allen threw 18 passes in this game. It had really bad weather and they just sort of ran the hell out of the ball.

They both had 14 carries. They're just not going to see that. So this is a really bad backfield situation. It's like they don't catch a lot of passes. They're splitting fairly evenly. It's better than last year when Frank Gore was in the Zach Moss role. Yeah.

But it's basically like, yeah, how can you start Singletary confidently? You're just hoping, oh, can he get me like 60 or 70 yards? That would be nice. But he's probably not going to. They're chasing points and he gets five or six targets. Right. But yeah, I think the,

and the thing is if the offense gets better for the running backs, that would invariably mean it gets worse for Josh Allen. Yeah. That's the other thing I wanted to bring up. Their defense has played a little bit better. They kept the Chiefs off the scoreboard. They gave up 26 points to the Chiefs. We watched that game. They were just letting the Chiefs run all over them,

and they were not breaking in the red zone. 10 points at the Jets, 21 points against New England. I don't know that their defense is actually getting better, but maybe they will try to get back to what we've seen from the Bills for the last 20 years of just running the ball. But you know what?

I don't like their matchup next week. It's against Seattle. I think we've got to accept the fact that Seattle has a pretty good run defense and teams can't run on them because teams are always throwing on Seattle. And Stefan Diggs leads the NFL in targets. He should have a monster game. He does? I believe so.

Wow. Okay. All right. Second one here. Oh, last thing I want to point out, the beat writer for the Bills for the Athletic actually said that Singletary had a better game than Moss, in his opinion.

Both players were good, but Singletary was the better player on Sunday, in his opinion. Both players were good, but Singletary was the better player on Sunday. I don't think any of us would have said that or thought that. From Shenanigans. Hey, Farver, what's the name of that bar you like to go to with all the Irish stuff on the wall? Shenanigans? Oh!

You're talking about Shenanigans, right? Well, that's my favorite scene from that movie uh ben no idea nothing ben did we lose ben ben's frozen oh no ben with his dial what's up with ben and his dial up internet bro it's really weird so ben that'll come back. Shenanigans asks, what should I do with Clyde Edwards-Ziller and Le'Veon Bell right now? Was it just game script? Chris?

Yeah, it's a little bit of game script. It was weird because this game went how we expected. The Chiefs won by 26 points, I think, if my math is correct. They were favored by 19 and a half, so took the over. But they barely ran the ball, which was really interesting. They just kept throwing the ball. It wasn't a lot of deep stuff,

but I thought it was an encouraging game for Patrick Mahomes. Not that you need to be encouraged for Patrick Mahomes, but they had been a little bit more conservative to start the season. I think you're probably looking at both Bell and C.H. as low-end number twos. It's been much more of an even split than I expected. C.H. has, what, three more touches over the two games that Bell has played? 18 to 15.

But he played a lot more snaps yesterday. This feels a little fluky to me. This split. And the fact that they're barely getting the ball. In two games, Clyde Edwards either has 18 touches and Bell has 15. That's just really low. So they have won their last two games by such big blowout margins that they've actually been turning to like

Daryl Williams and Darwin Thompson had seven carries in this game. And a lot of that was like the last drive of the game. Yeah, it's interesting because CH in week one of the Le'Veon Bell era, they split routes pretty much evenly. I think it was like 12 to 11. CH actually ran 24 routes yesterday to Bell's 10.

So that actually is very promising for Edwards-Elair, even though the production was pretty evenly split between the two of them. So maybe, yeah, maybe you're probably still, I still think it's like low end number two for CEH, flex for Bell. But it has not been an encouraging start to their time together in either direction, I think. I guess I'm more optimistic about Clyde Edwards-Elair,

although there was a fourth-and-one play in that game. Oh, hey, Ben. There was a fourth-and-one play in that game, and Le'Veon Bell was in. So, again, I can't remember the last time the Chiefs... I don't know, this might be dumb. Maybe they have. I just can't remember a lot of first and goal from the one situations.

We don't really know who their goal linebacker is. I'm still not convinced it's Clyde Edwards either because a few weeks ago, Edwards had that great game and they had a fourth and one and Daryl Williams was in the game and he got to carry and he scored. So they haven't really been using him, I don't think, much in short yardage. But also

the Chiefs don't have a lot of short yardage because they convert on third and 15 every time. Every time. It is unbelievable. Ben Schrag, are you there? Yeah, I'm here and their goal linebacker is a combination of Mikko Hardman, underhand passes to Travis Kelsey, and Tyreek Hill. Hate those passes.

Ridiculous passes. All right. I'll be a little more optimistic about Clyde Edwards-Elair than Chris. So, I went and looked it up. They've had seven.

Clyde Edwards-Elair has been on the field for four plays that were two or one to go to get the first down over the last two weeks. CH has been on the field for four of them.

Three of them were passes. Only one of them was a rush and Le'Veon Bell has been for three. All three of them were rushes. So that's kind of interesting. Yeah. Right. That was the one I remember was the fourth and one play. Yeah.

So it's, it's still a very small sample size and like Deandre Washington has a snap in that situation to rel Williams and Darren Thompson also do. So, you know, we're still dealing with very small sample size and like DeAndre Washington has a snap in that situation. Darrell Williams and Darren Thompson also do. So, you know, we're still dealing with very small sample sizes, but I do think you can probably lean towards Bell being that goal line

and short yardage back. This is a trade from Noah. Grade the trade. Give up Clyde Ebert, Ziller, and Robbie Anderson to get Ezekiel Elliott. D. trade give up Clyde Ebert Ziller and Robbie Anderson to get Ezekiel Elliott D C minus I think it's very close but I would want a little bit more than Zeke when we come back we'll talk about the Ravens offense on fantasy football today 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.

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Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. Welcome back to Fantasy Football Today. Ben Schrager just got a cable modem installed, so he's improving. You know, we'll just keep getting DSL. Remember DSL? Like, all that stuff. Oh man, that was game-changing.

Yeah, big time. Download a song in like three minutes. The question is from Backburner, our next big topic. How to approach starting anyone in the Ravens' offense? The Ravens this year are running 3.6 fewer plays per game, averaging about a half a yard fewer per play. They're scoring 4.2 fewer points per game. They've gone from second in yards per game to 20th in yards per game.

They've gone from first in scoring to ninth in scoring. Still the number one rush team in the NFL. That's a lot of Lamar Jackson. Before I throw it over to you guys, let me just give Lamar Jackson 16 game pace. This is what he's on pace for. 3,070 yards, 27 touchdown passes, 9 interceptions,

plus 939 rushing yards and 5 touchdowns. Those numbers look basically incredible to me. And yet he's 11th per game and four point and 10th per game and six point per passing touchdown leagues which is just amazing well yeah you see that in also they're only averaging what four point two fewer points per game but they've dropped from first to ninth in scoring. Scoring is just way up this season.

Right, he's not keeping pace. Yeah, that has really changed the context in which these numbers are being put up. So who are you guys confidently starting? Ben, since you missed the last discussion, you can kick it off. Who are you confidently starting on the Ravens going forward? They are at the Colts this week. It's J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards until Mark Ingram is back. going forward they are at the colts this week it's jk dobbins and gus edwards until mark andrews

until mark ingram is back i think they're both going to be rb2s they're both that split is going to be a split it's just if there's two running backs it's a heck of a lot better than three because they'll get over 10 touches and they'll be efficient so they're both low end rb2s mark andrews is the other one who i don't mind starting because there's not a lot of other consistent tight end options. You're just not getting that top three tight end value that you thought you were when you drafted him. He hasn't gone over 60 yards this year. He did

that five times last year. He's not making the big play touchdowns, but he is getting red zone targets. He's getting downfield targets. It's just he's not going to be consistent. No consistency at all, but I'm fine starting him because I don't think you have a better option. I agree.

I think... Look, I'm also bearish on... Bullish? Bearish? Bullish? You are bullish. I'm bullish on Marquise Brown. Me too. The role he's playing in that offense,

he's ninth in the league in air yards. He's getting a ton of deep targets and it's just they just haven't connected on enough of them but i have faith like this is i feel like that's more like random variants than anything that they need to change really uh you know you're you're missing a couple of big plays by like a foot or a yard and when you're talking about you know a throw 30 yards down the field that'll happen sometimes and there there will be other times when they probably will hit like five passes of 20 plus yards in a two-game span and it's just the kind of thing where you kind of have to ride that wave and I think he's a high variance uh fantasy wide receiver but I I still want him on my team and I definitely I definitely still want him on my team

and I definitely still want him on my team and I definitely still want to try to trade for him if people are low on him. Yep. Squeaky wheel slash crickets. Squeaky crickets for him. We haven't even talked about Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson has 53 or more rushing guards

in every game. I said that on the show yesterday. In every game but one. The one time he didn't, he was playing hurt. So, I just feel like the floor is so high

and I'm more confident in him. I don't think he's the number 11 quarterback rest of the season. I think he's much better than that. Just have to stop turning the damn ball over. Yeah. And he had that beautiful rushing touchdown and got called back.

Pittsburgh was really bad for him last year. He was bad against them last year. It was a tough matchup, I guess. They moved the ball. What were the total yards in this game? It was such a lopsided game early in the game, the first half. Pittsburgh had that pick six, but it seemed

like every time they showed the game on red zone, the Ravens had the ball and they were driving. Ravens had 457 yards of total offense. They ran. Oh my gosh. 65 yards. The Steelers had 221 yards and the Ravens had 457. Yeah.

The difference was the Steelers had short fields the entire time because they turned the Ravens over four times and that that'll happen. Sometimes we saw in the dolphins and Rams game, but I, yeah, the Ravens offense, times and that that'll happen sometimes we saw in the dolphins and rams game but i yeah the ravens offense this happens every time there's some historical offense we saw it with the chiefs in 2018 into 2019 we're seeing at the ravens this year we saw it with that broncos 55 touchdown painting manning season anytime you have a historical pace we'll always try to talk ourselves into ah but this is why this one is different pat Mahomes and Andy Reid is a combination we've never seen or Lamar Jackson and

those things are true but regression always happens and that's what we're seeing with the Ravens offense is that they're just they're regressing to being a very good offense instead of you know the greatest rushing offense we've ever seen. The biggest problem for them is when Mark Ingram gets back, are they going to keep giving him the ball? And if so, I think you've probably got a situation where there's a must start tight end, a high variance wide receiver,

and then three running backs who I don't think you can trust as anything more than a flex. Next up, we have Gardner's Gardner. What are your thoughts on Joe Burrow moving forward after the bye? Tough three games in a row after week nine. And that would be Pittsburgh,

Washington, and the Giants. Well, the truth is, if you look at his opponents and the fantasy points allowed to quarterbacks, like Washington and the Giants have not given up a lot of fantasy points to quarterbacks. I do not think that means that they have good pass defenses. Yeah, I think you're sitting him at Pittsburgh in Week 10,

but after that, I don't know. Ben, what are your thoughts on Joe Burrow going forward? He is, on a per-game basis, 14th in four-point-per-passing touchdown leagues, 19th in six-point. Why the big difference? He's on pace for 4,544 passing yards. That's a lot, but only 22 touchdown passes.

So that hurts him in the six point per passing touchdown leagues. And he has six rushing touchdowns. He's on pace for six rushing touchdowns. Thoughts on Burrow? Yeah, I think right in that range of QB 14 to 19 is probably where he'll be for the rest of the season. I want to start him in good matchups.

I don't want to start him in medium to bad matchups. The two games he went over 30 points were both against Cleveland. He was 47 attempts and 61 attempts to get over 30 points. They're going to throw a lot. They don't have a good run game because they don't have a good run offensive line, but I don't love burrow moving forward. I would not be confident if burrow is my only quarterback and I wouldn't want to make a move to have burrow as my only quarterback but it's just going to be a right above streaming level but not a ton of confidence bangles are second in the nfl and pass attempts per game he has the most red zone pass attempts fifth most in the green zone which is inside the 10 yet he's 10th in touchdown passes inside the 10.

Here was an interesting stat, though. Here are the teams, the four worst teams in the NFL in terms of yards after catch per completion. Yards after catch per completion. The Eagles, Bears, Giants, Bengals. Bengals are the fourth worst. They're not getting a lot after the catch. That is kind of interesting for them to be in the same territory as the Bears and the Giants.

And the Eagles aren't really that surprising. That was my issue with Carson Wentz. He just doesn't have any yak guys. But, Chris, you get the final word here on Joe Burrow. I tend to agree with Ben in the 14 to 19 range going forward. But if he keeps throwing this much, if he can just get the touchdown rate up a little bit, it's pretty low.

Maybe things can change. Yeah, that's an interesting stat because usually you'll see yak and air yards have kind of an inverse relationship. So the deeper your passes are, the less yak you typically get. And Burrow is 11th in air yards per pass attempt. He's only 16th in completed air yards per pass attempt.

So it's not like they're hitting on a bunch of deep plays. I think part of the problem is A.J. Green's gotten a ton of targets, and I know he looked better in week seven, but I think A.J. Green is completely cooked. And they brought in Odden Tate to play a bigger role this week. Uh, I actually think there's a lot to like about Joe Burrow moving forward. I think there's, you know, over the last five games, his yards per attempt is up to 7.7 at 6.9 over the course of the full season. So improving there, it's just been those touchdowns. I think,

you know, if they continue to throw it as much as they do, eventually, guys like T. Higgins, who's had a lot of red zone targets and hasn't really come up with too many of them, that's going to turn around. And it really has seemed like, I'm just thinking about it, there's been like four

red zone targets to Drew Sample that have been really close in his hands and then knocked out a couple of the T Higgins, a couple of these overthrown. So I think he's really close. Um, probably not an elite fantasy QB, but someone who against the right matchups will be worth starting moving

forward. Burrow or breeze rest of season. Burrow breeze. All right. Burrow or, uh, um, Burrow, Breeze, all right. Burrow or... Burrow.

Burrow or... Burrow or... Burrow, hmm. I always go to Breeze. That's like my default. I'm not using... How about Goff or Burrow? Burrow. They're the same guy, though, pretty much.

Okay. Yeah, I... Joe burrow is at least not a coward he'll take chances oh gosh uh from gorilla deluxe what move should winning teams be making and to improve their odds of winning through the playoffs to the championship give one piece of advice guys as the bye weeks start to uh pass you should be looking to consolidate your roster having depth in the playoffs having depth in week 14 it's nice if you need a fill-in and you shouldn't just have no depth but you should try to build the best team you possibly can if you're seven and one or six and two, maybe you make your team a little bit worse in the next two weeks. Target someone who's on a buy,

target a team who's desperate for a win right now and see if you can get, you know, those elite players because that's what you're, you're going to win your championship with elite players. That was pretty much my advice. I'll take you back on that and give a little nugget to, to piggy on that it's michael thomas nick chubb austin eckler miles sanders yeah see what see what their price is

i'm not saying you should give a lot for them but if you can you're in a good position to do it miles sanders could be a league winner nick chubb could be a league winner it's worth worth inquiring about. And the other thing, the Cardinals DST, if they're out there, pick them up. If they're not out there and they're on a roster, offer your worst bench player for them. Weeks 12 through 16, Patriots, Rams, Giants, Eagles, Niners. Okay. Awesome. Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Chris. Let's finish up with some interesting stats here. DeAndre Swift's role is increasing. I saw Dave tweet this.

So he's playing more and more snaps. It was kind of an unlucky game. Didn't get the ball a lot. And Kerryon Johnson happened to be on the field and he caught that touchdown. But Dave says buy low. Good opportunity to buy low on DeAndre Swift. The three Pittsburgh wide receivers,

Juju, Deontay Johnson, and Claypool played the same amount of snaps. John Brown played 81% of the snaps, so you could see some better production from him. I mean, he was off to a great start when Josh Allen was clicking, when John Brown was healthy. I think he's probably a little underrated,

a little under-rostered, John Brown. Denzel Mims played 96% of the snaps. Preston Williams played 15 more snaps than Devontae Parker. That was pretty interesting. I think that was just an injury thing. He got hurt again? No, he was just coming back from that groin. He was limited all week in practice. That would be my assumption

there. It's always a good assumption with Devontae Parker. And Preston Williams didn't exactly cover himself in glory dropping two of his four targets. Did you guys have anything to add? Any stats you wanted to add? Ben, was there a usage? Jerry Judy. Yeah.

Very cool. Jerry Judy note that may not be relevant if Tim Patrick comes back, but 159 air yards in week eight was the highest in the NFL. And he had a season highs and routes run 44 and snaps. 80, 89% of the snaps. So Jerry Judy, he looked very good good it's not a good pass offense he's going to need this volume but if he's going to lead the league in air yards and run that many routes i'm encouraged and if tim about tim patrick's not there i'd prefer jerry judy to some

waiver wire options for sure and i got a couple a couple of notes uh deontay foreman may be derrick henry's handcuffs yes he actually looked really good in his first action since 2018 uh ran five times 37 yards he only played six naps jeremy nickles played like 12 i think so uh mcnichols is the backup right now but foreman is probably a better analog for Derek Henry. So I'm not saying you should pick up Deontay Foreman, but if Henry gets hurt, I think Foreman is the guy that you're going to want to add over Jeremy McNichols. Jarvis Landry nearly had two touchdowns in this game. He was targeted 11 times on 25 pass attempts. I think he's going to get a ton of work moving forward. And he actually almost had a touchdown.

I think it was initially ruled a touchdown on a diving catch. Replay overturned it, but we would be looking at that a lot differently. It was like a 25-yard catch, too. You talking about Jarvis Landry? Yeah. I spent like 10 minutes defending him yesterday. Not just that, making the case that he's like a great buy-low candidate. I think he probably is.

Yeah. Especially since he's going into a buy. Nobody wants to hold him through a buy. Yeah. No, I think if you could, if someone drops him, go out and add him. If you've got the roster spot, I think all of that makes a lot of sense. And I didn't mention this during the earlier Bills discussion, but I believe Moss has 10 touches with inside the green zone, so within the 10-yard

line. Allen has 9, and I think Singletary has 5. And remember, Singletary played 3 games with Moss out. And I just put up a Twitter poll. How do you pronounce R-O-U-T-E-S? It depends what word you're talking about. Roots or rhymes with shouts.

Yeah, you run a route and you drive on route 66 okay well i didn't put that option uh i didn't put that option on there yeah route 66 but if it was like 67 you could say anything you want just if only if it's 66 you have to say root okay let's uh let's get out of here we're gonna route to route, route, route for the Giants tonight. It will be a route for the Buccaneers, I suspect. You all can figure out the code there. Thanks for listening.

We'll talk to you on Tuesday with the Waver Wire. Make sure you listen to the Fantasy Football Today in 5 podcast as well. See ya.