Fantasy Football Today - Lockett or Metcalf? Zero-RB or Zero-WR? Can You Trust Chris Godwin? (10/27 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

We'll go over the big news including the reaction to Odell Beckham's injury before we get into the awesome Seahawks-Cardinals game (4:33). Who is the top Seahawks WR rest of season? Is Christian Kirk legit? Free Chase Edmonds! ... More news items to cover (17:40) and then the Fantasy Cops join the show (19:31) to discuss how to deal with a Fantasy manager that is not setting a lineup ... Five Big Topics! Chris Godwin rest of season (21:50), Zero-RB vs. Zero-WR (27:10), Noah Fant's outlook (35:00), Amari Cooper's outlook (36:15) and the future of the Chargers running game (38:40). Plus some fun stats to end the show ... Your emails 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. What a game we had on Sunday night. Capped off a fun day of football. Was the best play in that game a tackle? You can decide at home. We're going to talk about Arizona and Seattle.

We're going to talk about our five big topics. What was a better strategy in retrospect? If you look at the first seven weeks of the season, was it zero RB or zero wide receivers? We got the fantasy cops joining us today. We'll talk about the Chargers running backs chris godwin and his 16 game pace might be a little bit alarming for you and much much more adam azer here with chris towers and bench ragger chris yes give me four adjectives to describe arizona and seattle that game not the cities or the states amazing fun tense stupid

what was stupid the overtime cliff kick just yeah the just the the way the game ended the way the quarterbacks played at the end the way both yeah it was just it was a good stupid though yeah it was the kind of stupid that makes for great television. It was really fun. What's up, Shrags? What's up? That game was a lot of fun. Yeah, it was fun.

I enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm sure we all did. And it was great for fantasy, except for DK Metcalf and his one catch. And now that is one catch. Oh, he had two catches. Sorry. Two for 23. Two catches, I think, in his last two games against uh patrick peterson pat pete's got him on lockdown he sure does all

right here's the big news we'll get to the game in a minute but odell beckham's out for the season chris carson midfoot sprain kenyan drake high ankle injury or um no ankle injury i don't know if it was a high ankle injury. Kenyon Drake left with an ankle injury. Christian McCaffrey, unlikely to play this week. Jeff Wilson, I would say unlikely to play this week. Deebo Samuel is unlikely to play this week. Kyle Shanahan said he was just resting Jarek

McKinnon, so that's interesting. They're at Seattle next week, and they're trying to manage his workload. And Nick Chubb could be back in week 10, it looks like. They've got Vegas this week this week then a buy in week nine but Beckham out for the season with a torn a sale we already sort of reacted to that Rashard Higgins Chris he played like 85% of the snaps but if Debo Samuel's out there at Seattle who's a bigger waiver wire priority for you Debo's uh Brandon Ayuk at Seattle or Rashard Higgins Las Vegas this week, but obviously some rest of season potential. Rashard Higgins isn't in my top two.

I'm not sure he's in my top three. I did the early waivers for CBSSports.com and for the Odell Beckham replacements, I think Brandon Ayuk is by far the best option. Okay. Who else is ahead of Higgins? Sterling Shepard for me. 27% rostered.

Six catches, 59 yards, and a touchdown. It wasn't a great game. Obviously, that's a bad offense, but he's their most well-rounded receiver, and I think he's got a chance to be like a borderline number two fantasy- wide receiver. I might prefer Denzel Mims to Rashard Higgins as well. That's fine. I don't really have

a ton of faith in Rashard Higgins, but somebody's got to catch passes for them. Do they? They're just not going to throw the ball. They'll throw the ball like they throw the ball 29 times yesterday and one of them was Jarvis Landry. And this was a game where they scored, what, 37 points?

Yeah. This is a team that just does not want to run now that passed. The Jets don't want to play football, but they'll probably have to pass. And Denzel Mims, you know, probably the number two wide receiver moving forward. Crowder was out yesterday. Perryman got hurt late.

So that could be injury-dependent. Carlos Hyde is going to be very popular on the waiver wire as well. And Austin Hooper, I mean, I think Austin Hooper is going to gain from this as well. Three touchdowns by Cleveland tight ends last week. And if Hooper can come back, he's, I think, 55% rostered. May not be back in week eight, though. Okay, well, then you're going to have to wait until week 10. And in that case, it might not be worth picking week eight though okay well then then you're gonna have to wait till week 10 and in that case it might not be worth picking up because they have a week nine by

and maybe j michael hasty but anyway we have a whole waiver wire show for you tomorrow let's talk about arizona and seattle russell wilson 35 fantasy points kyler murray 42 fantasy points murray is on by this week then he has mi Miami, Buffalo, Seattle, whatever. He's just a running machine. 67 rushing yards and a touchdown. But what's it out to you, Ben, in this game, this overtime thriller, 37-34 Cardinals? Well, outside of Tyler Lockett just absolutely dominating with 20 targets,

I think it had to be Chase Edmonds and Kenyon Drake still getting the Kenyon Drake work that he kept getting, still not being an effective runner. Super frustrating. And then Edmonds does get some opportunities in the passing game and Drake goes down with injury and Edmonds closed out the game really well for them

on the ground. And he's a super good pass catcher. We've always talked about it. So I'm really encouraged by Edmonds. If he's on the waiver wire, I don't care that they're on by. He's the top priority. He's, I think, 75% rostered. And yeah, he looks like, compared to Kenyon Drake,

Chase Edmonds looks like he's shot out of a cannon. That's Kenyon Drake from last year. I was like, wow, this is Kenyon Drake from last year. He's amazing. Yeah, it's weird. And he has five or more catches in three of his last four games. And, you know, got some work.

Once Drake was out, as a running back and did well with it, five carries for 58 yards. So you hope he gets an opportunity. Chris, do you think he's proving himself to the point where they've got to make this a more even split in the backfield, even if Drake comes back after the week eight bye?

I don't know why you're asking me that. I'm not Cliff Kingsbury. And you never will be. Like we've been saying, we've been having like we've been having this conversation for five weeks in a row and it has not happened and has not even really come close to happening there haven't even been signs that the Cardinals view Chase Edmonds as a guy who can cut into Kenyon Drake's rushing role and so I'm until I see it happen, I'm not going to expect it. I just don't think like what we want doesn't matter.

And I think there, there has been some wishful thinking on the part of fantasy players when it comes to Drake and Edmonds. Like we don't want Drake to get those touches, but if the Cardinals coaching staff does, then it doesn't really matter. And so the bi-week hurts for Chase Edmonds, for sure. Because based on what we know now, it seems likely Edmonds would have gotten to start in week eight,

an extra week to recover. Maybe Drake is back, in which case, my assumption would be that it would be the same thing it has been all season. Okay. Guys, we've got to talk about Tyler Lockett. 20 targets, caught 15 of them, which is kind of low for him. He had two drops that I can remember.

200 yards, three touchdowns, beautiful catch after beautiful catch, beautiful throw after beautiful throw. I mean, Russell Wilson threw three interceptions, and he was hard on himself for it, and that was bad. You can't just, like, throw those out. But he played so well. He made, well, I would say, he made

so many beautiful throws, which is nothing new. Russell Wilson's just incredible. Incredibly accurate. But Lockett, 15 catches, 200 yards, three touchdowns. DK Metcalf, two catches, 23 yards on five targets. He did have a long catch and run that went for the game-winning touchdown,

but was called back on a holding penalty, which is probably the right call. And this was Metcalf's first game with less than 92 yards. Who would you rather have rest of season, guys, Lockett or Metcalf? It was Lockett before this week, and it's still Lockett. I think they're both top 12 wide receivers but locket has more boom potential and i think he has he's more of a matchup proof guy too i think dk metcalf skill set isn't as good as lockets right now so i think they're both great but i'd rather have locket yeah locket's the number one wide receiver in his own offense so i'd rather

have him i think they're both going to be super efficient, but I don't see any reason DK Metcalf's going to be dramatically better on a per-target basis than Lockett moving forward. And so, yeah, you mean the guy who gets more targets? Yeah. Did he have more targets coming into the game? What did Metcalf have yesterday? Five compared to 20. coming into the game? What did Metcalf have yesterday? Five.

Compared to 20. It was like 39 to 38, but that was with Lockett having those two weird games, whereas he had already had a 13-target game. But Lockett's target share is always pretty weird. It's 8, 8, 13, 8 13 4 5 20 this year and that kind of matches his career profile yeah i i i mean i still think metcalf is just the bees knees

but last week remember last week i said wouldn't be so crazy if aj brown were better than dk metcalf from this point forward from week seven forward so far I think he will be you think AJ Brown will be yeah didn't you guys give me a lot of heat for that oh no you weren't on I wasn't on the pod but no I I do not I do not think he will be for the record but I think AJ Brown's a better player I don't know if that's a hot take but like as good as Metcalf has been this year AJ Brown was exactly that good last year in a larger role and I think he was more productive on the same team in college. I don't know who's better. I think they're both studs,

absolute studs. They played 20 games together in college. Brown had 15 games with more yards than Metcalf and 17 with more receptions. They both are absolutely must starts and terrific fantasy options. And you're, you're two wide receivers. Good for them. Would you're, you're two wide receivers. Good for them. Uh,

would you rather have you? All right. So what somebody said off the air that DK Metcalf is not a top 12 wide receiver rest of season. Yes. Me. I said, I don't think I can name 12.

The only, okay. So the only, like I, it's not like, I think he's like 13th or 14th. And if you want to put him in the top 12, because,

uh, he's already had his buy. I think that makes perfect sense. I think Metc like 13th or 14th. And if you want to put him in the top 12 because he's already had his bye, I think that makes perfect sense. I think Metcalf is awesome. I think he's an absolute must-start stud-wide receiver. I just... Like, I still think there's room to sell high on him. Okay. Calvin Ridley, Tyler Lockett.

I know you guys would take Lockett over him. DeAndre Hopkins. I'm assuming they're all ahead of him. Adam Thielen? Yes, for me. No. Stefan Diggs? Yes.

Yep. Tyreek Hill? Yes. Not Amari Cooper at this point. Not Amari Cooper. Will Fuller? No. No.

No. Terry McLaurin is one I would take over him. I would not. I know we talked about that last week. The quarterback difference is just... I would take Allen Robinson over him. I just think the volume is... Those guys might have 50% more targets

the rest of the season on a per-game basis. Yeah, but you know targets don't necessarily matter with Russell Wilson. Right, right. But like Metcalf is he came into today or yesterday's game averaging 2.65 fantasy points per target. I think it's down to 2.4

after yesterday. I think Tyreek Hill's career high is like 2.35 just to give you a sense of the like absurd air like I don't think Metcalf's better than Tyreek Hill. Yeah, I think he might be. I don't think he is.

I think until he... As long as he keeps dropping balls like this, then no. And he didn't necessarily in this game. But he's got to obviously cut his drop rate down. But I just don't see why DK Metcalf can't be the best receiver in football at some point. If he's not already

one of the best. I didn't mention Devontae Adams. You take him. I think Julio Jones versus DK Metcalf is a conversation worth having. I'm sure you guys are going to take Julio. I would take Julio. Yep. Yeah, he's already been dealing with the injuries. I would take Keenan Allen over him. I can't argue with that.

He's been unstoppable. It's a belief in Russell Wilson as well. It doesn't matter. We love DK Metcalf. The guy's a must start. On the other side of the ball, Christian Kirk, 81% rostered, 51% started. This is four games now in a row with 78 yards or a touchdown. But in two of those four games, he had less than 40 yards.

It's a little hard to figure out what Christian Kirk is but what he is right now is productive how do you Shrager how do you feel about Christian Kirk it's a game where Kyler Murray threw a lot and Murray's top target is going to be Hopkins consistently but it's a game where Kirk had the same number of targets as Larry Fitzgerald so I'm not super excited about Kirk but it is good to see him get the red zone work because we see him as a deep threat, as an explosive boom bust guy. But to have two touchdowns, both from short range,

was pretty encouraging for his value. If he's out there, he would be my top wide receiver, waiver wire guy over Brandon Ayuk. But he's still not going to be a wide receiver too for me moving forward. Okay, and I don't think I can talk about this game without talking about DK Metcalf running 22 miles per hour to chase down buda baker that was so cool because he's just so gigantic was he faster than daniel jones yes slightly slightly but that's important to

know daniel jones ran like 21.2 miles per hour something like that that is a fall either the kid did not fall i i so i i actually think that the daniel jones want like dk mcaf is gigantic and fast and he's just like one of the fastest people in nfl and we knew that coming in daniel jones kind of highlights the limitations of the next gen stats because like that was the fastest ball carrier of the year or whatever, but it was also the third longest run in the NFL. And so Lamar Jackson's faster than Daniel Jones. It was faster than Raheem Mostert? I thought Mostert had the fastest. I think it was the third highest.

Okay, yeah. Mostert had the top two. We know Lamar Jackson's a lot faster than Daniel Jones. Just what happens when Lamar Jackson gets into the open field is he can just jog to a touchdown because he's so much quicker, whereas Daniel Jones actually had to keep sprinting the entire 80 yards, and that's why he fell. But NextGenStats isn't saying Daniel Jones is the fastest player.

It's just saying on that play he ran the fastest. It's a little bugaboo of mine. Give us all of the NextGenStats rather than just cherry- daniel jones had the fastest run because it doesn't tell us anything i think it tells you so i think it tells you about his athleticism the guy ran over 21 miles per hour that's mostly about momentum oh god a dk well we saw that momentum take him down to the turf that's the and look if you're laughing at daniel jones and you're trying to say that's never happened to you, you're a liar. It's never happened to me.

That has 100% happened. To me, it's never happened to me. And Ben's an athlete. Ben's a college baseball player. It happened to Randy Rosarito, though. It certainly did. No, I just thought, like, DK Metcalf chasing down Buda Baker was like a family guy when the kid's like, oh, dang, I got honey all over my

legs. And the cheetah or whatever is just bearing down on him. There's a clip of Jadavian Clowney doing that same thing in high school. And it's terrifying, but DK Metcalf did it too. Like a really, really fast NFL player. Yeah, it was awesome. All right, that was awesome. Not as awesome about the new sponsor I'm about to tell you about. It's time to move on to our all-time favorite underdog success story, MVMT, which is movement, movement watches, spelled M-V-M-T.

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You already know Michael Thomas and Joe Mixon are going to be questionable for week eight. Philip Lindsay left with a head injury. Teams have apparently reached out to the Giants

about Evan Ingram. Yeah. He could use a fresh start, but the giants, according to their words, anyway, they seem intent on keeping him. Andy Dalton with the head injury. We're going to see what the Cowboys do at the quarterback position. Jalen Rager's off. I are Ben.

Any interest in Jalen Rager Dallas this week? Then a buy Dallas this week will be a great time to ball out if he can. So I would like to add Jalen Rager. He's definitely in the waiver wire priority list. Yeah, coming off IR doesn't necessarily mean he's going to play this week. So we have to keep that in mind. The Patriots

suffered their worst home defeat under Bill Belichick. The Jets gained four yards in the second half. And I think they had 12 on their first drive. Of the game or of the second? Of the half. Oh, my God.

The negative eight after? I think so. Wow. Jeez. I saw Hunter Henry left. I don't think that was a big deal. The Bengals lost three offensive linemen yesterday, and I do not know the severity yet.

Philadelphia was already down one defensive tackle and lost another for the season. Now I think Malik Jackson could hopefully be back this week. We'll have to see. But Hassan Ridgway out for the season. A little bit thinner there at defensive tackle. And that's pretty much

all I got in terms of injuries and the new stuff. Last night Shaquille Griffin Seattle cornerback. He left with a concussion. And Arizona had two defensive tackles leave the game with injuries. So we will take a look at our five big topics in just a moment. Before we do that...

Oh, yeah! The fantasy cops are here. Let's regulate, or cop. I don't want to combine those two words, by the way. This one's from Scott. There's a team in my league that hasn't made a move or changed his lineup all season. I've made several warnings and finally took over his team this week.

This is a league that issues the top and bottom half point scores each week with an extra win and loss. Interesting. So what's the best and most fair thing to do? I suggested playing the highest projected players from here on out, but one of the managers thought that would be unfair to the teams that already got an easy win from this team earlier in the year. It gets more complicated because of the nature of the schedule. Some teams play him twice, others just once. Do I go back and recreate his lineup, filling the spots with minimum scoring options and rewrite history? I can't figure out a way to make this fair to the whole league and I need your help. The only way to make this fair

for the whole league is to kick this person out after this year and you can't rewrite history. You shouldn't be setting his lineup moving forward because that's not fair to those who got to play against the BS lineup of the previous week week so i think you leave it as is it sucks and this guy needs to go this guy or girl needs to go but i don't think you could do anything here so you just leave the lineup as it is and every team plays against that lineup i believe it as it is i think it'd be fine to just give everyone a buy just take the wins out. Oh, that's interesting.

And just have them be, because that way you, like nobody would lose, nobody would gain a loss. And I think that's the most fair way to handle it. What if you did like just, what if you just turned it into an all play league? I think it's too late for that. Where everybody plays each other.

But you could theoretically go back and tabulate it, right? Right, no, no. But I just mean it's, like that's too late for that. Where everybody plays each other. But you could theoretically go back and tabulate it, right? Right, no, no. But I just mean it's... Like, that's too... I like... Yeah, no, go on. That's too drastic, I think. Too drastic?

For a mid-season trade. I don't mind the bye week. I really don't. Yeah, I think that's a pretty good idea. I think that's an interesting idea. Way to go, Chris. I'm an ideas guy. You should join the fantasy police department.

All right, I think that's a good solution doesn't change the win percentage at all thanks everybody or thanks for your we're not done thanks for your

fantasy cops questions Scott and feel free to keep sending them in fantasyfootballatcbsi.com put fantasy cops in the subject line five big topics

Drew PR asks what do we think about chris godwin rest of season with antonio brown joining godwin had his best game nine catches 88 yards and a touchdown on nine targets here's his target share in four games 19.4 15.8 25 and 20 he was not a big target share guy last year. If you take his 16-game pace and put that against the total pass attempts, I didn't have time to just look at the 14 games he played, but his target share was on pace for a 21.7% target share,

I guess is what I'm saying. But obviously they threw the ball more last year. And he's catching 80 plus, percent of his catches of his targets this year it's a lot shorter target yes it is a dots way down uh but chris i'll give you the first word what do you think about godwin rest of season so i feel like i'm kind of out on a limb on antonio brown joining the steelers uh just in general i have almost zero interest. The Bucks? Yeah, the Bucks. I have almost zero interest in Antonio Brown as a fantasy option.

I think the best thing you could do right now is trade him. And I kind of feel that way about everyone in this offense, except for maybe Gronk, weirdly. Gronk kind of starting to look like himself, but even he has, like, they throw to Cameron Bray, they they throw to Tyler Hudson there's just too many guys in this offense and there's not like even I guess Mike Evans in theory would be the one guy who has kind of a standalone skill set except they've been using no Scott Miller yeah in that and so it just there's a lot of redundancies I think it's a really good I think it's a really talented offense,

even if I think Antonio Brown's probably not going to make much of an impact. I just think they spread the ball around too much. They don't throw the ball down the field quite enough. And all in all, if I could trade from out of this offense in general, I think I would do it, including the running backs. Now that Leonard Fournette's back and muddied the waters there. It's a strange thing to say

because they have one of the best offenses in football, but it is just, it's so evenly distributed. Yeah. So the only player I certainly would not trade is Brady, honestly. Yeah.

Things are looking great for him. Ben, what do you think specifically about Godwin? Yeah, for Godwin, he's at seven targets a game this year. I would expect that to probably continue regardless of what else is happening. But those targets are shorter this year. And the red zone targets are not going to be there as much because Gronk is Gronk right now. And I think AB is going to be good.

I think he's going to be a very talented player this year. I know Chris disagrees, but regardless, I don't think his target share will be good enough to make him a wide receiver too by any means. But I don't like Godwin. This is a good time to try to sell him. I would love to try to get DK Metcalf from him. If I could do that, I would be thrilled.

What about Robbie Anderson or Godwin? I would too. I would rather have Robbie Anderson. I think Anderson's going to be better. How about James Robinson or Chris Godwin? I would too. I would rather have Robbie Anderson. I think Anderson's going to be better. How about James Robinson or Chris Godwin? Not even close.

I think Robinson's a top five running back. No, you don't. Like you don't think so. He's an RB1. He's an RB1. Okay. He's an RB1.

Ben's just going to take a drink of water there, relax a bit. How about, I'll go a little lower than i guess how about todd girley or chris godwin with heath making a a very passionate claim that you should be selling high right now on todd girley i would trade chris godwin for todd girley and then try to trade todd girley but who would you just rather have rest of season? Probably girly. I'd rather have girly get me 18 plus touches from a running back in a pretty productive offense.

I'll take it. All right. I mean, I guess I get it. The, the, the, if you want to be an optimist about Chris Goblin,

he's been pretty productive. You know, he's had, let's see, this is game log six for 79, five for 64 and a touchdown five for 48. That's his one for 79, five for 64 and a touchdown, five for 48. That's his one bad game. Nine for 88 and a touchdown.

And usually six to seven targets, but he had nine at Las Vegas. But this team throws all the time. You know, Mike Evans had a 22-yard catch on third down with four minutes left in a 45-20 game. They just will not run the clock out. So, you know, they just throw so much. So even, that's a good thing. They're not throwing as much as they did last year.

Also, Gronk was like hobbling yesterday. I feel like he's going to get hurt. He's always hobbling. He's going to get hurt. He is playing a ton of snaps. They are not managing him at all. they're using him as like

an extra offensive tackle like he's blocking every run play it's you would think they might want to handle him a little you think and i guess the other thing i say about goblin is that he's had a pretty good start to the season and he's done it with an injury he's been hurt so that's the optimistic approach but certainly ben and chris bring up very good points all right next question from joe joe morena halfway through the fantasy season which has been a better strategy zero rb or zero wide receiver robinson gaskin mike davis daryl henderson digs keenan allen robbie anderson all having big years. Ben, first word, what's been the better strategy, 0RB or 0 wide receiver?

Neither. It's like if you hit on some of the wide receivers, it worked well. If you hit on some of the running backs, you worked well. But the reason the wide receivers that weren't like early round picks is because those three to five round wide receivers that we loved before the season, a lot of them are hitting. So I still think zero RB was not a great strategy this year, given that the early round running backs are really dominant and a lot of them are hitting, but if you've got James Robinson and cream hunt as your running backs, that's awesome.

I'm looking through Heath's list of, you know, before this season, zero RB candidates, Naheem Hines, Tariq Cohen, Karyon Johnson, yuck. Ronald Jones, Kareem Hunt, James Robinson, amazing. It's just tough. It's tough to pick out those guys. It seems like the best strategy in retrospect, of course, this is a silly exercise, I couldn't have predicted everything, but in retrospect, the best strategy would have been, honestly, we were really banging the drum on this, the best strategy would have been, honestly,

we were really banging the drum on this. Take running backs early. First two rounds could, could, didn't have to be, but could certainly be running backs.

And then rounds three, four, five, take wide receivers, basically. Grab that quarterback in that Russell Wilson, Kyler Murray,

Dak Prescott range in round six. And then hammer running backs late. And give yourself, you know, Ronald Jones and Daryl Henderson and guys like that. And yeah, certainly Mike Davis popped out of nowhere and miles Gaskin and James Robinson was like a 12th round pick at one point. But I do think we were pretty adamant about what Ben just said that the rounds like three to five wide receivers

looked so good. And I'm glad that it's come to fruition because it's Calvin Ridley, and it's DJ Moore, and it's Terry McLaurin, and it's DK Metcalf, and Keenan Allen, and just they're fantasy winners. Chris, what's your take? Do you have a strong opinion on if either strategy has been better, zero RB or zero wide receiver? One RB is the way to go. Basically, if you look at...

So I went through and looked at it. The first-round running backs who had an ADP within the top 12 have averaged 101.3 fantasy points so far. The wide receivers taken within the first round have averaged 4.7 fantasy points so far. That's because Michael Thomas was the only first-round wide receiver in CBS Fantasy Leagues. Does that count

Saquon Barkley? Yes. They have 101.3 fantasy points on average total. Second round, wide receiver is way better. Third round, running backs are way better. However, third round running backs were just

James Conner, Todd Gurley, and Chris Carson who have been awesome. The next running backs are way better however third round running backs were just james connor todd girley and chris carson who have been awesome the next running backs drafted were levion bell david johnson and melvin gordon who you're you're probably feeling uh quite a bit less optimistic about the big thing though is and and this was something that ben gretch talked a lot about was that rb dead zone between like rounds three and nine or 10 from rounds three through eight, only three of the 20 running backs who were drafted are averaging at least fantasy 15 fantasy points per game in PPR while appearing in more than three

games. Well, that's the key out of 20. It's the wall appearing in more than three games because that's quite frankly, I bought into the running back dead zone. So I'm not criticizing Ben because I was totally bought in. I actually think those running backs are doing pretty well this year. David Johnson has been a must-start guy.

Now, he hasn't necessarily been pretty, but he's scoring. Todd Gurley, it depends when you count the dead zone, but Todd Gurley, Chris Carson, James Conner, as you mentioned, they've been great for fantasy raheem mostert got hurt but he's been he's been great kareem hunt has certainly paid off i think there's been a lot more success in that range than i anticipated well you've got mark ingram cam acres leonard fournette and fair okay but he was actually still going in that range after the after i think we should remove him because that that but he was actually still going in that range after the after. So I think we should remove him because that was he was still going there. Well, he was that was so it was it was so dumb. Right, but it was still happening.

I was like a week before the season started and we were not. I don't know. I don't know. Singletary. Yeah, bad. It's fair to say he's been bad. J.K. Dobbins.

Bad. Tariq Cohen. Yeah. DeAndre Swift said, you know, a couple of good games, but I wouldn't say he's been a big J.K. Dobbins. Bad. Tariq Cohen. Yeah. DeAndre Swift's had a couple good games, but I wouldn't say he's been a big hit. David Montgomery, fine, okay. Antonio Gibson, he's been okay. He's been good.

Phillip Lindsay, one good game. Yeah. Ronald Jones, he's been good. Marlon Mack. Zach Moss. Jordan Howard. Those guys were all drafted in the rounds four through eight range. And it doesn't get much better when you go past that.

Matt Breida, James White, carry on Johnson, Latavius Murray. Yeah, but that's what I'm saying. You got to, you got to get a lot of running backs late. So hopefully one of them hits like that. I had a lot of Ronald Jones and a lot of Daryl Henderson. It's been, it's been helpful. Yeah. I think the way to play

it this year was running back in the first round or second round or both. Yeah, maybe both. For me, it wasn't. But yeah, it would have been fine. Two running backs in the first three rounds would have been fine this year. And then after that, if you were ever

deciding between a running back and a wide receiver for the next seven or eight rounds, I think you probably should have gone with the wide receiver. Yeah, and then I think what really makes everything work is if you were able to get that Dak... Okay, look, you made the right pick with Dak. Circumstances notwithstanding. Dak, Kyler, Wilson, Watson.

Allen. Yeah, but those four were almost basically the same round. In every draft, once one was picked, they all started to go. So if you did get, you know, made that pick, that was great. But then if you waited on quarterback,

maybe you hit, maybe you didn't. Like Rodgers and Brady were great finds. You know what the real key was? Taking one of the top two tight ends. George Kittle and Travis Kelsey should be first rounders. They are so much better than everyone else. Three kind of disappointing games out of five. Has he?

Yeah. He had two games with 44 yards, and what did he have this week? Like 50 yards? But he had two huge games. Yeah, as someone who has George Kittle on my team, zero complaints. Happily draft him in the first round if we redraft it. Yeah, I'm not sure he's a... He's not a first-round pick for me

because he doesn't score enough touchdowns. Of course, that could always change. So, so far, he's what? Is he really the number two tight end? He's number one in points per game by more than a point than 1.2 points. That's really weird. He had a great game.

He had a 15-catch game. As a tight end, when you do that, you shoot up. He's averaging 50% more points per game than the number five tight end right now. 15 more points per game? Yeah, 50% more. Yeah, 50% more. Oh, 50% more. He is at 18.

John O. Smith is at 12. Yeah, they're pretty valuable. Chris, you're a stat guy. You know the averages when you only play in five games shouldn't be extrapolated. Right, but that was the case last year too. It's not like it's just a small sample. It's like George Kittle last, averaged 16 points per game.

The number eight tight end averaged 12. He is just... Him and Kelsey, every year, are just far and away above everyone. And you're just hoping you get a guy who can be decent enough to not be horrible if you don't draft them. All right, this question comes from

bada bing bada boom what are your thoughts on noah fant what are your thoughts on noah fant uh this is one thing that you should know in the four games or the five games that he has played denver quarterbacks have been on this pace 3661 yards 19 touchdown. So he's just on a really bad passing offense. But, I mean, it was kind of disappointing. It's three straight games with 35 to 46 yards and no touchdowns for Fant. He left one of them early. Ben, what are your thoughts on Noah Fant? I wanted to say he didn't play a lot this week,

and he wasn't on the field much. He didn't look healthy. But 70% of the snaps, they were just using all of their tight ends. Vanette, Albert O, they were both involved this week. He's still going to be a low-end starter as a tight end because he is seeing the targets, averaging seven targets a game, and his floor is three catches and four catches. And at the end of the day, that's the tight end position right now.

So this speaks to Kittle and Kelsey being amazing, but no offense, I don't think the upside is top five. Maybe it's top five, not top three, but he has a great floor, and I'm not sitting him at all. Okay, I'm satisfied with that. Let's go to Josh F. There is no pass catcher in Dallas that you can safely start. Chris, do you agree with that?

Yeah, they're starting someone named ben denucci james madison football powerhouse yeah like and they are down all five of their starting tenant are offensive linemen i'm not sure about right guard entering the season i think yeah it's just it's a it's a horrible situation and sure is you can you're starting ezekiel elliott because he's gonna get 20 touches um you're starting exactly i think 17 targets yeah you're probably starting mari cooper but i'm not sure you can trust him. I just don't know how the Cowboys are going to... Is it really going to be Ben DiNucci starting next week? Well, the problem with the COVID stuff

is you can't really bring in someone and have them start right away. Yeah, and they apparently aren't looking to bring someone in. I think Schefter or Rappaport reported that just before we started recording. Boy, they are bad. They are very bad. It's so bad.

Oh, boy. Okay. So, yeah, you can't trust any of them. Rest of season, would you rather have Brandon Ayuk or CeeDee Lamb? I'll take CeeDee Lamb. I'll take CeeDee Lamb. I think I would go with Ayuk. I really, really like Ayuk.

I love the way he's played, and no Debo Samuel for at least one week, maybe probably two, it sounds like. He can do everything in that offense. He can be Debo Samuel, and I think he probably will be because he was doing that earlier. But he also is a really good deep threat. I think Brandon Ayuk is a star. Yeah, I think he is too. I'm just scared of Debo Samuel and that offense not throwing a lot. And if Debo is out for a few weeks, yeah, I'd rather have Ayuk. But if Debo is back the following week, Ayuk could be back to his three targets for two catches and 12 yards from last week.

Okay, it's time to check in on Debo Samuel's average depth of target. It is now 2.4. It was negative two yesterday. Negative two yards. I couldn't believe it. I mean, everything was like right at the line of scrimmage or negative two behind.

Yeah, he's just an extension of the... Debo Samuel is an extension of the running game at this point. Okay, Sean's question is about the Chargers running back. Talk about the Chargers running backs not being fantasy relevant due to the success of Justin Herbert. Is that how you guys see it? I don't think it's necessarily tied to the success of Herbert.

Josh Kelly has been terrible. Two yards per carry in his last three games, but he's their goal line back where it's really just Herbert running or Herbert throwing at the goal line because he is good so maybe that's a little tied to the lack of touchdowns for Kelly but Justin Jackson this week was a disappointment used almost exclusively in the past game you know great receiver and he's probably going to be a startable fantasy option just because of that but yeah I don't know if it's tied to Herbert's success but they're just not running the ball very well.

I looked at a few things. First of all, there was this from The Athletic. Daniel Popper covers the Chargers. I will have more on this in my film review this week after the All-22 tape is released, but watching live, the run blocking is just insufficient. The Chargers are injured up front. They missed Trey Turner and Brian

Bulaga. Turner has only played one game this season. His groin injury has lingered far longer than the Chargers expected. Bulaga has been out with a back injury since week three. The Chargers need Austin Eckler back. He will inject some life into this running game, but based on Lynn's comments this week, I would not expect Eckler

back until week 10 at the absolute earliest. The linemen who are on the field need to step up. That is the only way to improve. Now, I also want to add this game against Jacksonville was very discouraging, but the previous two games were against Tampa Bay and New Orleans. And those teams are just very difficult to run on. So I can sort of excuse it. And Jackson had a good game against New Orleans, which was so encouraging. This game against Jacksonville is discouraging. We know Jackson was banged up coming in. The other thing is they've been in shootouts.

They give up a ton of points and they score a ton of points. You know, they've given up 29 or more points in each of their last three games. And those are the games that Eckler either missed or left after two carries. So, you know, I guess it's just not conducive to them being able to run the football a lot. It's not a great situation, quite frankly. And I don't really have that much confidence. This week, they're facing Denver. Gives up the second fewest fantasy points to running backs. Schedule gets a little better after that, but...

Yeah, I mean, are these guys just basically sits? Or if you can avoid it? I want to see what happens. Like, Troy Mayne Pope played 12 snaps in this game. You've got to figure that was probably because Justin Jackson wasn't 100% healthy. I think that Justin Jackson's usage is the key. Joshua Kelly just doesn't look like he has enough juice right now.

But Jackson's work in the passing game makes him the more interesting option. And so if he can get up to full strength and full speed heading into week eight, I'll feel a lot better about it. So, you know, I'll be watching like hopefully full practices all week. And hopefully that leads to more usage for him.

You know, we saw like Joe Reed scored a short rushing touchdown and Jackson, like they, Jackson and Kelly still had 11 targets, I think, which is actually encouraging with Herbert. Like I feel better about the running back role in the passing game than I would have with Tyrod Taylor.

And so it's just a question of if Jackson can get to 10 carries next week, I think he'll probably be a starting fantasy running back. Those are our five big topics would you guys like to contribute any any fun interesting statistics it's today's show um i'm sure i would okay i have some snap count stuff we already mentioned my interesting statistic was actually on your list too adam so i didn't want to you know take steal your thunder maybe you stole mine just by seeing my google doc but i didn't chase chase claypool 65 of the snaps i don't know if that's a good or bad thing because james washington was at 23 and chase claypool

might be a buy low because he's going to be a boomer bus guy for the rest of the year and if someone just wants to get rid of him, I'll take him. Yeah. I don't think it's a good thing, but he played fewer than Juju Johnson and Eric Ebron. Actually, I think played more than all of the wide receivers that caught my eye, but snap counts are not necessarily set in stone,

you know, it can change, but I do not think he's their number one receiver. I guess I, I think at this time last week, I probably would have taken him number one overall, but Deontay Johnson's played three healthy games, and he has just gotten a

crapload of targets in every one. Deontay Johnson is their number one wide receiver. Who the number one wide receiver for fantasy among them is, I think still remains to be seen. Yeah. It's worth noting, I don't know if I've said this on yesterday's show,

Juju did have an end zone target. It ended up being a really big play in the game. I think it was an unnecessary risk that Roethlisberger took really late, threw it to the end zone. Juju got his hands on it. Great play. I don't know who the defender was. Knocked it out of Juju's hands, got an interception,

and gave the Titans a chance to win the game. It didn't happen. Frank Gore played 28% of the snaps. LeMichael Pirine played 70%. That's a big one. Maybe. Terrible offense, but it'd be great to see Pirine continue to dominate snaps.

He also was not running the ball well at all, though. I mentioned this several times. Philip Lindsay had more carries than Melvin Gordon before his injury. Melvin Gordon really needsindsey to be out i think that's yeah melvin gordon played one more snap than lindsey or no i think he played five more snaps than lindsey in the first half but lindsey left on the first play of the first of the last drive so lindsey was probably in the snap lead before that melvin was also playing like the spell Lindsay role after a couple of big Lindsay runs in the first half.

Melvin just went in so Lindsay could get a breather. So it was supposed to be Lindsay's backfield. Gordon was bad yesterday. Two fumbles. One of them was just an absolute disaster on a flea flicker. Yeah, that was great. It was like in Remember the Titans, you know, when they're trying to teach

what's his name to pitch the ball ah yeah yeah yeah good call uh yeah it's um melvin gordon's been pretty mediocre so far this year i think lindsey's probably the lead back if he can get healthy i just don't know what that means because I just don't think he's getting more than like 12 carries, Phillip Lindsay. He's not getting targets either. They're just too afraid of him breaking down. It's been very clear.

And put it this way, Melvin Gordon as the lead running back, I think gets more work than Phillip Lindsay as the lead running back. Sure. Agreed. That offense kind of stinks right now. Drew Locke is not good yet.

Yeah. He could really use Cortland Sutton. Yeah. But yeah, it's a struggle. Okay. Anything else, guys?

That's it. That's it. Just all time bad beats in the falcons uh lions game there had to have been like send in your bad beats from that game if you lost because todd girley if you lost by fewer than six points because your opponent had todd girley send it in if you lost by fewer than two points because your opponent had calvin ridley send it in if you lost by more than nine points or fewer than nine points because TJ Hawkinson send them because like, or Stafford,

none of that should have happened. None of it should have happened. None of that should have happened. If Todd Gurley just falls down, it is like all time fantasy football, bad, but that's the thing. Like Gurley school,

you know, it's like, what are you going to say for the people who had Gurley? Yeah, I know. Like you. Yeah. Right.

You lost because you lost to Todd Gurley, who was actively trying not to score a touchdown. That is a pretty bad beat. That is pretty bad. I'm glad because I started Matt Stafford in a bunch of leagues, and he was not having a good game because Matt Patricia's a... No comment. He's got a 3-3 team here.

I think I saw the Falcons have lost three games where they've had like a 98% win probability. They've lost three games where they've had like a 98% win probability. They've lost three games that like you've never seen a team win before. They could be four and three. I mean, they could be four and three right now. That's wild.

Okay, well, thank you guys. Good stuff today. Thanks to all of our listeners for getting your tweets in and helping us out crowdsourcing on this Monday. Really appreciate it. We'll talk to you at the Waiver Wire show tomorrow. Have a good one.