Fantasy Football Today - Start or Sit (AFC)! Start Your Dolphins? Sit Your 49ers? RB Injury Updates (10/17 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

We give you some players we love (2:40) and players to avoid to start the show. Sam Darnold and Kirk Cousins are looking good this week, but we are less enthused about Patrick Mahomes and Kyler Murray. And we've got so much news and notes (12:10) to go through as we update you on the running back situations for the Jaguars, Patriots, 49ers, Colts, Packers, Dolphins and more ... One Question for Each Game (25:30)! Start Brandon Aiyuk? Tyreek Hill? Nick Chubb? George Pickens? ... Start or Sit for Chiefs-49ers (31:00), Titans-Bills (39:15), Patriots-Jaguars (47:10), Dolphins-Colts (53:15), Bengals-Browns (1:00:10), Jets-Steelers (1:07:05), Ravens-Bucs (1:13:25) and Chargers-Cardinals (1:16:05) ... Email us at [e-mail] Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcasts Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday SUBSCRIBE to FFT Express on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-express/id1528634304 Follow FFT Express on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=6529cbee20634da8 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 FOLLOW FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 SUBSCRIBE to FFT DFS on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dfs/id1579415837 FOLLOW FFT DFS on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=1c5030a3b1a64be2 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." Visit the betting arena on CBSSports.com for all the latest sportsbook reviews and sportsbook promos. 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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He's just going to go the distance. Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. It is Thursday morning, and week seven begins tonight with the Broncos and the Saints. And for many of you, that will instead probably be like the Mets and the Dodgers. It's not going to be a great game, probably, but you know what? It is football. It is fantasy football. And we're very excited to get things going here as we welcome you to Fantasy Football Today, presented by BetMGM, the sportsbook born in Vegasgas i do have some i think pretty easy trivia but it's really it's gonna be for the

audience heath okay it's gonna be for the audience here i'm gonna see how long it takes them to get it oh okay so we're just gonna you're gonna ask the question we're just gonna sit here quiet follow the audience guesses things on the chat yeah i just want to see like you know first person to get it i'll read your i'll read a question of yours on the air. Why not? Which game features a matchup of the top two quarterbacks in fantasy? Going head-to-head. Do you know?

Don't say, but do you know? Of course. Okay. So, yeah, see who gets that. Top two quarterbacks. Also a top two wide receiver. The number one running back in fantasy. It's a marquee game for sure from a fantasy standpoint.

Okay, players we love. Players to avoid. Jamie should be here shortly, but Heath, why don't you kick it off? Yeah, it is Bucks-Ravens. Good job, John. You win. Bucks-Ravens is the game. Oh, no, it was Troy.

Troy got it first. Troy, congratulations. You win nothing. Someone was guessing wrong. Lions, Vikings earlier. And I love the Vikings quarterback. And I love the fact that I was able to find Sam Darnold on waivers because people dropped him because he was on a buy.

And so my 17 Patrick Mahomes teams, at least a few of them get to start a good quarterback in Sam Darnold at home going up against the Lions, whose defense is a pass funnel, much better against the run than they are against the pass. Darnold has been legitimately one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in terms of production so far this season, really kind of fell on his face in his most recent game, but that was against the Jets, much more difficult pass matchup than the Lions are like his chances to be a top five fantasy quarterback this week. And he's available on the waiver wire in some leagues.

Yep. And I'll tell you one other player that was available on waiver wires that I picked up is Harrison Butker. I know that's not like a huge needle mover, but if you need a kicker, he might be better than the kicker you have. Which reminds me, I personally am not dropping Brandon Aubrey in the one league that I have him in. He is too good. So I'm going to try to keep him through his bye. OK, now, who do you love this week, Heath Cummings? Didn't I just say Sam Darnold? OK, that was your OK. I thought that was I didn't know that was the segment. OK, who are you avoiding this week then?

Let's let's can i can i just stick with the exact same theme and this was like i get accused of being the homer all the time i don't know why looking at the wall behind me um but i i like my projections which generally take a longer view and try not to react too much to what's happened recently you'll see that with the drake may ranking of him still outside of my top 20 quarterbacks. I can't get Patrick Mahomes inside of like my top 17. There's every league where there's two or three guys on the waiver wire that I would rather start over Patrick Mahomes. I've got Aaron Rodgers ranked higher this week. I've got Darnold, of course, ranked higher. I've got Trevor Lawrence against the Patriots ranked higher this week. I've got Darnold, of course, ranked higher. I've got Trevor Lawrence

against the Patriots ranked higher. I've got Kirk Cousins ranked higher. I held Patrick Mahomes across my bye week in a couple of leagues. And there may be a couple of leagues where I just start him because there's not somebody I love on the waiver wire. I don't want to carry two quarterbacks. But man, I just can't find any reason for optimism. And I wouldn't blame anybody for dropping him. He actually played pretty damn well two weeks ago, but even if he had thrown that touchdown to Juju and it hadn't been intercepted, that's like a 21-point game or something like that, which would have been a season high. And Mahomes is 100% rostered.

I'm not going to criticize that necessarily, but I don't know that he needs to be 100%. If somebody needs the excuse, they're like, I feel like I should drop Mahomes and start Sam Darnold or one of those other guys that he said, but I just don't have that. I'm giving you the excuse. It's okay. It's justified. You can drop Patrick Mahomes. Can I give you part of the reason why I think people are holding him is our projections have him for a top eight quarterback this week.

I'm not criticizing our projections by any stretch because look, he's got still the, the always the potential. There's always the potential for 21, 22 points, you know, which is sad to say that that's where he's at, but that's where he's being projected right now,

which is better than some of the guys you listed. Let's see. Last two games, 8.4 than some of the guys you listed. Let's see. Last two games, 8.4 and 8.5 yards per attempt. That's without Rasheed Rice. It's kind of interesting. Well, and I think that's the other thing, is a lot of times you try to troll me by calling him mediocre quarterback Patrick Bones.

And you just need to put fantasy football in that sentence. Because even over the last year, fantasy football, it's still like if they're in the fourth quarter and they have to go 80 yards and score a touchdown, they're going to do it. It's still winning Super Bowls and winning all of their games. He's still the best quarterback in the NFL. He's just an awful fantasy football quarterback.

Well, yeah, he's had now in his last 18 games, two games with more than 21 fantasy points. And one of those games was against the 49ers in the Super Bowl. All right, Jamie, give me players to avoid and players to start. Start of the week and a player to avoid. Start of the week is Kirk Cousins. Love the setup for him this week. Wow, Heath.

It should be great against Seattle. They are bleeding fantasy points the last three quarterbacks that they faced. Brock Purdy, Daniel Jones, Jared Goff, all over 26 fantasy points. Cousins is going to, I think, be in a shootout. It's one of the highest projected scores for the week, 50-plus points. So they just put another defensive back on IR in Rayshawn Jenkins. It's a great setup for Cousins at home. I know he disappointed us last week with 15 fantasy points

where it was 14 something after the 42 point game against Tampa Bay, but I think the Seahawks offense is going to show up in a big way as well. So I'm excited to see this shootout against the Seahawks and Cousins having, I might have them too low at eight. Okay, Cousins. So Heath,

you said, wow, Heath, we're looking at a graphic here. Heath has Cousins 15th. And I think that goes like what Jamie said immediately after that goes so well with what I was saying about like my process and generally taking the longer view. Because I don't have a spreadsheet for fantasy points allowed versus last three opponents. And that generally might be a fault because Seattle's all banged up. You look at what they've done against the past for the season, it just looks like kind of a mediocre matchup.

You look at Cousins' production, including last week, it just kind of looks like, eh, borderline QB1. I'm looking to see if it's changed a whole lot. Now, it does look like that over-under has gone up a little bit, so I wouldn't be surprised

when I do my Thursday rankings update if there's a bit of an increase in terms of his projection just because of the increase in the over-under. It's up to 51 now. Yeah. And yeah, it is. Rayshon Jenkins has played every single snap at safety this season for the Seahawks.

He is now out on IR. And we'll see what happens with their cornerbacks. Reek Woolen and one other guy, Trey Brown, I think, missed practice on Wednesday. But you see that 15th ranking on Kirk Cousins, and he's still one of the guys who's ranked ahead of Patrick Mahomes. There you go. All right, Jamie, give me a player to sit this week.

Heath gave you Mahomes. I'll go Kyler Murray. No Marvin Harrison against the chargers team. That's been very good against basically everything that they faced for the majority of the season. I know Bo Nix had a better, had a good game against him last week, but I think that's more fluky than anything else. Um, they've yet to allow a team to score more than 20 points, a team to score more than 20 points, not a, not a fantasy option, you know, a team to score more than 20 points,

uh, in the five games that they've played. And so taking away Murray's best receiver or one of his top receiving options and the way that he's been as a fantasy quarterback, I mean, he's been a bust. He's had two games over 16 fantasy points on the season. So if he had Harrison, I'd be a little bit more optimistic. But without Harrison, most likely in the concussion protocol, I would sit him. Would you start Daniel Jones over Kyler Murray? I'm nervous about Daniel Jones. His last five games at home, he's been 11 fantasy points or less and now losing Andrew Thomas. So I'm nervous

about Jones. I would actually start Drake May over Kyler Murray and Patrick Holmes this week. Drake May? I mean, he's getting an MRI. I'm sure Drake May is okay. So yeah, if he's okay, we'll start. He practiced it full. He did, but then they said he was getting an MRI. So that was kind of weird. We'll see what's going on with Drake May. Sunday, Schaefer, correct me if I'm wrong. We are 9 to 10 a.m. Sunday again.

And I don't know if we're going to be on HQ, but we'll definitely be on YouTube. YouTube.com slash Fantasy Football Today. 9 to 10 a.m. answering your start sit questions. So join us there, youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday. Again, 9 a.m. Eastern for one hour and then noon to 1 for another hour. So that will be our Sunday sketch. Let's take a little break here, and when we come back,

we'll give you all the news and notes. There's so many. We have to talk about the running backs again. It's another week where we are looking at replacement running backs, perhaps, perhaps. Some guys getting healthy, some guys not so much. You know what? It's really a lot of uncertainty. That's what we'll tell you about when we come back on Fantasy Football today. Did you know 66% of utility damage is caused by not requesting a locate? Don't let your project become part of this statistic a quick locate request can

save you from unexpected downtime financial penalties and keep you safe don't let avoidable damage cost you time and money click before you dig ensure your next project is safe visit ontarioonecall.ca it's free it's easy it's the law data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. All right, here we go. I feel like Adam says that to his kids, like when he's trying to get them to do something. Hang on, there's a toy. No, I'm not really a big briber. You're not supposed to bribe your kids. Wait till they get older. You're not supposed to. You're not supposed to. Well, there's a difference between bribing and incentives.

Yeah, we have like a sticker chart, you know. We do that kind of stuff. Okay. Derek Carr is making progress. He is apparently closer to day-to-day than week-to-week. He's not going to play today, but he might come back sooner rather than later. They are at the Chargers next week. So that's, again,

a bad matchup on paper. I'll say this about the Chargers. They've seen the second fewest plays per game defensively. So I can't quite figure out if they really have a good defense. I haven't looked at time of possession. I'm guessing they're just running the ball so much, keeping teams off the field, but they have not been a good matchup. That's exactly what Harbaugh

said, and everybody jumped down his throat when they said he's like, why do we take a receiver instead of an offensive lineman when he was asked pre-draft? That wasn't exactly the way he framed it, but he was kind of vague about, oh, you have a need for a receiver, and you're going to be staring at one of the top three receivers. He's like, you know, offensive line is pretty important.

Oh, it is, yeah. They're sticking to their formula. It's not like Malik Nabors would have been good for them. No, but they are doing what they do. Drake May did have an MRI on his knee. Pittsburgh still hasn't decided on a quarterback. Russell Wilson took some first-team reps. We'll see.

Okay, running back. Here's the big one. Ramondre is the big category. Ramondre Stevenson mispracticed. They got the London game at Jacksonville. Aaron Jones didn't practice. He's hoping to practice today. Jordan Mason was limited. Devin Singletary was limited.

Devon A. Chan looks like he's good to go. Brian Robinson returned to practice. Love that. Yeah, against Carolina. Heck, look at him. And he said, we should probably rank him. He said if it was up to him, he would have played last week. And he's ready to go.

And it seemed like the one story I read was Jaden Daniels was like, yeah, it's good to have B-Rob back. And one of the offensive linemen was like, yeah, I was so happy he's ready to go. And it seemed like the one story I read was Jaden Daniels was like, yeah, it's good to have B-Rob back. And one of the offensive linemen was like, yeah, I was so happy he's back there. So he's got top ten upside. Brian Robinson. Yeah. Nick Chubb, you guys ranking him yet? Yeah.

Okay. Yep. All right, so he and Naheem Hines, another guy, you know, good for him getting back out there. What year is this? I know. He practiced in full. Jerome Ford mispracticed. And Naheem Hines, another guy. You know, good for him getting back up. What year is this? I know, he practiced in full. Jerome Ford mispracticed.

Jonathan Brooks is back at practice. It's going to be maybe a full three weeks before we see him. Zemir White was limited. Travis Etienne was limited. Gross. How crazy is this that we keep getting these reports? Michael Pittman last week. Somebody else was also.

We were just talking about this before the show. It is multiple guys of like he's going to play on Monday and then is inactive. And then guys that are like crushing injuries and then they just play the next week. Yeah. And Drake May going for an MRI, but not on the injury report. Yeah. And well, he was on the injury report,

but he was listed as full. And then you had, obviously, James Cook last week, which was crazy. Trey Sermon and Jonathan Taylor mispractice. Tyler Goodson is someone that I've picked up, because if he's the starting running back against the Dolphins, that could be very good. Can I tell you something that I fell asleep last night?

Usually, I make my waiver moves around 11 o'clock on Wednesday. And I fell asleep, but I woke up at 4. And I make my waiver moves like around 11 o'clock on Wednesday. And I fell asleep, but I woke up at four. And I went and looked. I was like, damn it, Adam took Tyler Goodson in every stinking league. That's right.

Yeah, I mean, I think he could be the lead running back even if Sermon plays, not if Taylor plays, obviously. You had a great comp the other day about the Houston situation. Yeah, right.

He's Daria Gumbawale. No, I just think Trey Sermon's bad. Najee Harris mispracticed with injured ribs, and James Cook was limited. You're going to find out another one today, too. Connor, keep an eye on that one. Yeah. Okay, so, oh, by the way, I stayed up super late last night working, but also watching that movie.

What was it called? Terrifier with that creepy killer clown. Absolutely bizarre movie. But anyway, for you horror movie fans. All right. So we look at running back here. Who do we need to be adding right now with all these injuries? Is there anyone to get or are they all gone at this point? So as, as someone who went through two days worth of waivers, um,

in 30 leagues, I see still a lot of Isaac Arendo out there. So he's someone to keep an eye on just in case I know Mason was, did you mention Mason? He was limited. Yeah, he was limited. Yeah. Um, so that's one to keep an eye on. Uh, you mentioned Goodson. He's still available in about 60% of leagues. I picked up a few shares of Trey Benson just because I do think we're going to get some negative news, not necessarily bad news, but negative news on James Conner that he may be limited or not practicing on Thursday. Remember, this is their first practice day.

Guys who are available. Sean Tucker is still available in a lot of leagues. That's one to definitely keep an eye on because of Rashad white's injury their first practice day is today as well now we do our show on wednesday on cbs sports network with robert turbin a former nfl running back and i said this a few times he's going to become my new pre-prisco he's he's done a very good job of for example singling out not that this was a huge stretch but we were clearly all over the place from our perspective of how we felt about Barkley as a show how we felt about Henry as a show and he was all in on those two guys being great um there's a couple other examples as he might remember of him being all over running backs uh he thinks that Tucker is going to be

the best running back for the Bucs moving forward. Wow. I mean, he looks so good. But a couple other guys besides Tucker, Ty Chandler. These are the guys you're not that excited about, but they're still available in more than 30% of the league. Ty Chandler is 63% rostered. Antonio Gibson is 69%. Ramondre wasn't at practice. Jamie said Gurindo.

He's 51% available. Um, if for, in terms of stashes, come on, if at all is not really being added, he's, he's rostered in 34% of league.

Tucker's only 30% rostered. There's, there's still a lot of running backs to add. Okay. Tyler Goodson's 12% rostered. Yeah, baby. I'm,

I'm like all of that 12%. Well, there's the thing because all these replacement running backs, we talked about it on Tuesday's show, many of them have really bad matchups like Garendo and Chandler and Ray Davis. So, I mean, like if

every starter were out, I think Goodson, well, Sermon would have to be out too. Goodson would have I'd start him over Garendo, for example. In fact, I think I dropped him. I dropped Garendo. Oh, I think that's an easy call. Yeah, if you say that they're both starting, yeah, I would agree with you 100%.

And there's a probably pretty strong chance that he may be starting because I'm pretty sure they added a running back to their practice squad. The Colts? Yeah. Oh, I didn't see that. But also, Trey Sermon didn't practice last Wednesday either. Okay. Yeah.

Now, to be fair, we've got to continue. If we're going to say Robert's takes, Robert did say that he feels Sermon is still the guy while Taylor's out. Now, that I don't think was factoring in injury. I think just if everybody's healthy. All right. Let's go to the wide receivers. Rashid Shaheed, he could need season-ending surgery.

He's having surgery on his knee, meniscus surgery. We'll see how long it is. He might go on IR. I think you could drop Shaheed. What do you think? I mean, clearly he's droppable if he's going to have season-ending surgery. That's obvious. I would imagine if he goes on IR,

that's a bad sign that he's going to come back in four weeks. So it's probably going to be more than that, even though that will be the designation. It just depends on what your roster looks like. He's definitely in the drop category. And look, if you want to get ahead of it, you drop him now. Nobody can pick him up anyway. And then you find out what's happening moving forward.

Cooper Cup trending in the right direction, has a chance to play this week. And Jordan Whittington was limited. Malik Neighb Cooper Cup trending in the right direction, has a chance to play this week, and Jordan Whittington was limited. Malik Neighbors also trending in the right direction, looks like he'll play. Jacoby Myers mispracticed. Dontavian Wicks practiced. That's another guy we thought week to week, and he practiced yesterday. DJ Chark has been designated to return from IR by the Chargers, so he can come back in

the next three weeks. Deontay Johnson mispracticed. He usually misses Wednesday practice. Amari Cooper, no decision yet come back in the next three weeks. Deontay Johnson missed practice. He usually misses Wednesday practice. Amari Cooper, no decision yet on whether he'll play this week. Khalil Shakir practiced in full. Khalil Shakir did not play a full snap share at the Jets in week six. They get Tennessee this week. And Josh Downs and Michael Pittman, again, missed practice on Wednesday.

They did that last week too. Tight end, TJ Hawkins. I thought Downs did practice. He did? I did not see him with an injury designation. Okay I'll double check on that. TJ Hawkinson was limited. Taysom Hill doubtful for tonight. Dallas Goddard mispracticed but has a chance to play. Offensive line news. Giants left tackle Andrew Thomas is out for the season. Two Raiders offensive linemen mispracticed. They're at the Rams. And Philadelphia left tackle Jordan Maialata mispracticed.

He was designated week to week. Defensively, I won't... Which means he's starting with no issues. Yeah, exactly. I won't go through everything defensively. The Jets, though, they're at Pittsburgh Sunday night, and they could be missing three starters in their secondary. They will be missing Chuck Clark, safety.

But DJ Reed and Michael Carter, they mispractice. And I wonder if Michael Carter, if DJ Reed is out, would they move Sauce Gardner around to shadow George Pickens? Kind of interesting. That would be an interesting decision to make. It does look like both Downs and Pittman were DNP'd yesterday. Yeah, what's up?

Minnesota linebacker Blake Cashman expected a miss this week and Harrison Phillips defensive tackle mispractice. That's never good coming out of a bye. But Houston, Houston is one defense that's banged up. They're at Green Bay. Arizona is banged up. They didn't practice yesterday, or they didn't release a report because they played Monday,

but we'll wait to see on them. LeJarius Sneed mispracticed with a quad injury, so if Cooper plays and Sneed doesn't, that would be big news. Patrick Sertan's out tonight. Giants, their two best defensive players mispracticed yesterday. They're being labeled as day-to-day. Brian Burns and

Dexter Lawrence, we'll see on that. I don't think they're going to miss the game, but we'll see. Javon Holland, this is another guy. Javon Holland I thought was going to go on IR. He practiced yesterday. He was limited. He might play with like a cast on his hand, safety for the Dolphins. Seahawks secondaries beat up.

Atlanta safety, Justin Simmons mispracticed. San Francisco looks like they're getting their cornerback, Charverius Ward, back. And same thing with Darius Slay and the Eagles. He was limited in practice. Okay, if you haven't signed up yet. Real quick before you move on, just because you brought it up. I wonder if, with the coaching change, if they will allow Sauce Gardner to travel.

Because it's not just an injury situation. It also could be a schematic thing. Because Salah did not want to do that. Even though this is the defense coordinator. Yeah, he traveled like a little bit against Cortland Sutton, but for the most part, he stays put. But no DJ Reed, new coach, could happen.

And obviously, we wouldn't want that for George Pickens. And I have some interesting stats on George Pickens, by the way. I'll tell you right now those interesting stats on George Pickens after I tell you about BetMGM. If you haven't signed up for BetMGM yet, let's do it.

Use that bonus code FANTASY, and you'll get up to a $1,500 first bet offer on your first wager with BetMGM. That's a great offer. Here's how it works. Download the BetMGM app. No, don't download the BetMGM app. Download the BetMGM app,

sign up, and use that bonus code FANTASY. All you gotta do is deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game, and you'll receive up to $1,500 in bonus bets if your bet loses. Just make sure you use the bonus code FANTASY when you sign up on BetMGM. Okay, here's what I want to tell you about George Pickens. He has 32.3% of Pittsburgh's receiving yards, but they're 27th in gross passing yards per game.

If you think Russell Wilson is going to change that, that they're going to throw for more than 187.5 yards per game, and Pickens can maintain this target dominance, I don't know if he'll have a third of their receiving yards, that would be great. Also, he has five drops this year, and two of them are in the end zone. Just think about how differently you might be valuing George Pickens

if he had caught both of those balls. I know they're drops. Maybe it depends how you feel about drops. Is that a sign that he's not that good? Maybe. Is it a sign that he's been a little unlucky? Maybe. You put it that way, but you can decide that. But a third of their receiving yards, two end zone drops, five drops overall, some meat on the bone for George Pickens. I talked about this on the network yesterday with Jamie. Like it's impossible. If you do projections to move from Justin Fields to Russell Wilson, without having an increase in the team's passing yards, even if you thought that they were the same as passers,

which I don't think anybody really does. Like Russell was at least a little bit better than George Pickens, just at throwing the ball, but also Fields ranks top five in scramble attempts and design QB runs. That's not going to be the same way with Russell Wilson. The pass attempts are going to go up, and I think that it's more likely that the targets are worth more than they were before. I need to probably lower Pickens a little bit, but just on changing the numbers for the quarterbacks, he moved into my top 16 this week. And Fields, I don't know if you meant

he has five or six rushing touchdowns. So those are opportunities near the end zone that don't go to the receivers. All right, one question for each game. Kansas City at San Francisco, are you trying to get away from 49ers players this week? How do you feel about starting the 49ers this week

against this defense? So if Mason is active, he's definitely a top 24 running back. He's probably not a top 10 guy, but you're definitely starting him still unless you're just completely loaded at the position. I would say the same thing about Debo

and the same thing about Kittle. It's just what they have done and still should be able to do. Debo gets a little bit of a downgrade if Mason plays, but still a starter. Ayuk for me is a sit. Starter in three receiver leagues, but you look at just how he's played this season and his production. He's got two games with more than, I think it's five targets. He's got one good game on the season. This is a team that is seventh in terms of fewest fantasy points allowed to receivers for the year. We know they do a good job of taking away an opponent's number one receiver. So I think that's still Iuke from a receiving standpoint just because of how Debo moves around.

So for me, I'm just completely out on Iuke in a two-receiver league. And I would still start the other three guys just based on still their potential and upside in touches. All right, New England's at Jacksonville. This game is in London. Heath, who's the best running back in this game? And there are, this is a, well, if. Like we literally have no idea which running backs are playing. This is an impossible, like Romandre Stevenson, if he plays.

So let's say, let's say Stevenson plays and ETN is out. Would you go Bigsby or Stevenson? Stevenson plays. I would probably still go Gibson over Bigsby. And I know Gibson was awful last week. So it was, wait, wait,

I'm sorry. Stevenson plays. Oh, then definitely Stevenson over Bigsby. Okay. So Stevenson's out and ETN. I'm going with Patriots starting running back is probably the best. That was a hell of a sequence.

Who played? Who's the best running by this game? Heath Stevenson. If he's healthy, Adam Stevenson plays. No, he didn he's healthy. Adam. Stevenson plays. No, he didn't say that. He did not say that. Check the TV.

I did 100% say that. You just weren't listening to me. No, you did not. Which is pretty usual. You did not say Stevenson if he's healthy. Patriots running back is my favorite running back in this game. Okay, fine. All right, but the Jaguars running back has a great matchup too.

ETN would really complicate things. I would actually go Bigsby over Gibson if everybody's out, but it's just slightly better. But you'd go Stevenson over Bigsby. So everybody's healthy. It would be Stevenson, ETN, Bigsby, Gibson. Stevenson's out. It would be ETN, Gibson, Bigsby, nobody else.

ETN and Stevenson are out. It would be Bigsby, Gibson, Dearness Johnson. And Heath would go Gibson over Bigsby in that scenario. Yes, and they're both very close. So I have no problem

if you want to go Gibson and have Bigsby. All right, Miami's in Indianapolis. Start or sit Tyreek Hill? Low end number two receiver. He's a number, yeah, number two. Cincinnati's at Cleveland.

Who's the best running back in this game? Chase Brown. Yeah. Zach Moss or Nick Chubb. Nick Chubb. Chubb.

Nick Chubb is 100% scoring this game. Yeah. You know. Well, first of all, Cincinnati last week was the first week where they had three defensive

linemen all playing together. BJ Hill, Chris Jenkins, and Sheldon Rankins. And they were great against the Giants. So we'll see. But Nick Chubb against all these replacement running backs is going to be really interesting. And honestly, I'm just going to save it for tomorrow. I'm just going to save it for tomorrow because let's...

Yeah, probably not. Let's just save it for Sunday morning. All right. The mailbag on Friday, actually, because we're doing it at 2.30 p.m. We'll know a lot more injury stuff. But Nick Chubb or Javante Williams tonight? Got to play Javante. Yeah.

Okay. And that goes for, like, all of the injury replacement running backs for me. You got to play Javante. Tennessee's at Buffalo. Would you start start a bills running back in this game if james cook plays it i feel the same way about james cook i do about jordan mason if he plays i'm not sitting him i'm just not ranking him as high as i normally would and not having the same expectations uh if james cook is out then i would try to avoid Ray Davis if you can, but you might be stuck. Is this a one o'clock game? Yeah. Yes.

So I think I would definitely start Javante over a Bills running back tonight, but I'm probably starting the Bills starter, whoever it is. Jets are at the Steelers. Starters hit George Pickens. Starter in three or four leagues. I'm starting him if Russ starts,

and he's a low-end number three if field starts. Baltimore at Tampa Bay. I know this is a big bonanza kind of game, but it's going to be one of the last games we preview because it's kind of, I think, an easy start. I thought we banned that word. No. No, I think I'm fine.

I'm very confident in a bonanza here. Can you trust the Bucs running back, though, against this ridiculously good run defense? No, because you can't trust which Bucs running back is going to touch the ball. Correct. I think they're both flexes. If two of them are playing, which means white is out.

If all three are playing, it's an absolute auto avoid. Yeah. Okay. Uh, chargers at Cardinals Monday night, James Connor or JK Dobbins. Dobbins.

Dobbins. I think it's top 12 for you guys. So I almost said him and the players I love. Oh, there you go. But you said Sam Darnold and the players you love. I was listening. Yeah, you weren't.

Kansas City's at San Francisco is our first game. Let's get into it. I love J.K. Dobbins. Do you like Dobbins better or Conner better? The Chiefs' defense has been so good. They held the Ravens to 20 points, the Bengals to 25, the Falcons to 17, the Chargers to 10, and the Saints to 13th. All right, let's see.

So we know that the Chiefs run defense arguably the best in football. They've been great. How about the stat of the game, though? Lead running back, yards per carry against the 49ers. Brees Hall, 3.4. Aaron Jones, 3.6.

Kyron Williams, 3.7. Ramondre Stevenson, 3.3. James Conner, 4.5. So that was like, oh, maybe they're not so good without Javon Hargrave is out for the year. And then Ken Walker, 2.3 last week. So I wonder without Hargrave if they really are that great, but they have been great.

And Kareem Hunt's longest run on 41 carries is 10 yards. So how do we feel about Kareem Hunt this week? Low end number two running back. Yeah, yeah. I would put him maybe just outside of the top 24, depending on which running backs play. But he is currently somewhere in that 20 to 28 range at running back. I think I got him 25 maybe right now.

It'd be really interesting to see what type of like coming off the buy if clyde's activated is it is activated yeah he's 65 i thought he was designated to return but okay if is it 65 percent of the snap share which i think it was last time for kareem hunt or or is it the, or the, is the labor more evenly divided? Yeah. Well, one, he's not going to play on passing downs,

but it does. He get basically all of the carries and Clyde. Yeah. Clyde, like you can't put Clyde on an IR spot anymore. Uh, he's off, he's activated,

but he could be inactive for the game. Correct. But he's activated. I think the thing you gotta like for me, hunt falls into what we were talking about with james cook and jordan mason and some of these guys that just are going to get a lot of work and are on good offenses but tough matchup and hopefully have better options all right so mahomes is a sit kareem hunt hopefully have better options if he gets 27 carries he'll

be fine but that's what he had last time out. And then there's Juju and Xavier Worthy. Part of me wonders, are they going to take this bye week to get Xavier Worthy a little bit more active? He had six targets last week. I believe that was a career high. Juju's 58% rostered. That's still crazy to me.

That's so crazy. People aren't buying it, and I get it. I mean, I sort of get it. Maybe we are a little bit too excited here, but would you start Juju over Kareem Hunt? Yes. Full PPR, I probably would. Everything else, I would

start Hunt. Would you start Xavier Worthy over Kareem Hunt? No. Would you start Juju over Brandon Ayuk? Yes. I would not. Well, that's pretty bold, Jamie. That's pretty bold. All right, start Kelsey. Start or sit Brock Purdy?

Better than Mahomes, but not a must-start guy for me. I think he's 11th for me. I'm probably starting him. Okay, Goff. Purdy. Purdy over Goff. Darnold or Purdy? Darnold.

You would start Purdy over Cousins. I do have Purdy over Cousins, yes. Interesting. Okay. San Francisco running backs we've talked about. So Mason, you know, where do you think you'd have him ranked? 15th? 20th?

Garendo. Right now, I think he's like 30th. 29th. Okay. What a shame. Better, better in non-PPR.

Yes. Chiefs, the fewest fantasy points to running backs, 3.1 yards per carry to running backs. And they even, going back to the Super Bowl, held Christian McCaffrey to, uh, three, like, 3.6 yards per carry or worse.

I don't know exactly what it was. He did have a huge game because he had a big receiving game, but that's not what Mason and Garendo are going to do. And then, all right, so Debo Samuel, expecting Devontae Adams to play. Would you start Debo Samuel? How many Jets receivers would, you know, rank him with the Jets receivers, Debo? If no Mason, Debo is ahead of both.

If Mason, I probably would go Adams, Debo, Wilson. Full PPR, I would go Adams, Wilson, Debo. Half or none, I would go Adams, Debo, Wilson. By the way, you know, Brandon Ayuk is basically on pace with the same amount of targets that he had last year. Right. I think he's been kind of unlucky. Yeah. Four yards per target fewer, basically.

I was saying on Beyond the Box score, if you go back and watch Debo's 76-yard touchdown last week, Brandon Ayuk drew triple coverage in the middle of the field. He's running these deep routes in the middle of the field. He's drawing double teams so often. He's freeing other guys up, and there's no threat of McCaffrey coming out of the backfield.

It's kind of an interesting dynamic right now. And then Debo, I still have concerns with Debo. I know you're expecting some in the rushing game, but for Purdy, he's throwing the ball downfield so much. It's not Debo's game. What does he some in the rushing game, but for Purdy, he's throwing the ball downfield so much, it's just not Debo's game. And what does he have, three straight games with like five targets or something? 5-3-5.

Yeah, that's terrible. Yeah, it's just one, like, if he hadn't had that, but he had the one we played, but if he hadn't, like, my PBR projections, I think I'm 28th, but I've ranked him higher than that just because he does have the ability to make those plays and he might get more in the running game.

I mean, even if the safety just tackles him, like if you've just given the catch and not all the yak after that, I wonder how people are feeling about Debo Samuel. He's the only one that has yak on the season. Yeah. Well, they throw the,

now that Anthony Richardson's no longer passer rating qualified, Brock Purdy is now your leader in air yards per pass attempt. Never thought we'd say that about a 49ers quarterback. All right, anyone else that I'm missing in this game? I want to go back to the Juju thing, and you said maybe we're too high. John said in the chats it was one and a half games with Juju, and it's the Chiefs. You guys are just a little too excited about him.

I've got him ranked as a number three wide receiver. There's a difference between he's a must start player and he's a must like roster player. What we're saying is there's no way he should be available in 40% of leagues. Not that you might not have two or three better wide receivers to start this week. I don't think he's going to score 20 fantasy points every game like he did last game,

but he should not be available on the waiver water. And also if if you go into any week with the potential of a receiver getting seven plus targets yeah and the quarterback that they're getting those targets from we could you said it best teeth we could sit here and say patrick holmes is not a good fantasy quarterback because he's not getting the type of numbers that we like to get he still is going to elevate his receivers to a level that they should perform better than most quarterbacks elevate their other receivers.

So Juju's going to get those opportunities now, which it seems like he will. Even in a tough matchup, I'm still going to consider him. I'm more optimistic than you are. I consider him a number two receiver. Yeah, you got him, I think, 21st in PPR. All right, start a DST in this game? No.

Okay, let's move on. We'll go to Tennessee and Buffalo. But first, we're going to move on to a commercial break. We will be right back after this on Fantasy Football today. Uh-oh. What's this sound? It's the squeaky wheel or the crickets. It's the squeaky crickets. It's Calvin Ridley. Tennessee is at Buffalo. This is usually a spot, Jamie, that you love. You love the guy who's complaining, get me more involved. The coach says we're going to get him more involved. No catches on eight targets last week. One carry for nine yards.

What do you think about the squeaky crickets this week for Ridley? Yeah, it's usually a situation where the guy had minimal targets the game before. He just had eight. What are they going to do? Give him 15 targets from Will Levis. Okay. So he'll have four catches as opposed to none. Like it's just not,

it's just not trustworthy right now. So I don't, I don't want to start Calvin Ridley. I don't want to roster Calvin Ridley if I don't have to. It's just bad news right now. You know, Bill's secondary I know has been sort of a little up and down. I still trust them in this type of matchup.

At this point, maybe Mason Rudolph's got to play to help Calvin Ridley, just based on what Rudolph did for George Pickens last year in Pittsburgh. Levis is just not getting the job done. Who knows if his shoulder's right? They're trying to defend him at this point in Tennessee, the coaching staff is at least. He's awful. He's had just a miserable season.

And so based on that, the matchup, I think they'll be able to run the ball against Buffalo, so it's going to be a big game for Tony Pollard. Why would you even consider Calvin Ridley until you see some first? I certainly don't want to start him. He's not a top 48 wide receiver for me. He's still my second favorite wide receiver in this game, and I don't want to drop him.

Now, who's that ahead of? Are you banking on Cooper playing? Yes. Okay. And if Cooper didn't play, then he'd be my second favorite in this game behind Khalil Shakir. Okay, fair enough. And I'll say this.

Going into the year, remember, we said that the per route data was better for Hopkins last year than it was for Ridley. Well, right now, among 78 wide receivers with 20 or more targets, 78 of them, DeAndre Hopkins is 21st in yards per route run. Calvin Ridley is 74th. So

Hopkins played more snaps last week. He's still not a full snap share guy, but he was closer. Might just be the better guy. Not that it necessarily matters. He can't run anymore, though. He looks so slow. All right. so we'll have a sit. Tony Pollard is an absolute must-start. You guys have him in your top 10.

Great matchup. Bills give up the second-most fantasy points to running backs. Although, did Tajay Spears practice yesterday? No. He mispracticed? Okay, finally, a guy that was week-to-week that mispracticed. Josh Allen. Who would you start over Josh Allen this week?

Daniels, Lamar. Baker, Jalen. Okay. Start Josh Allen. Darnold's the one I'm really struggling with, but I've got Allen just one spot ahead of Darnold right now. And then the Buffalo running backs. We'll get back to that in a minute,

because we talked about it earlier. Let's talk about the passing game a little bit more. And Heath, you want to talk to you. So Cooper, how much do you like him? If he plays Shakir, how much do you like him?

If Cooper doesn't play. Cooper's in the wide receiver three range for me. If he plays Shakir would be probably a little bit lower than that. If Cooper is out, um, it's a terrible matchup, but I think like Amari Cooper is going. This is a terrible matchup, but I think Amari Cooper is going to be

pretty thrilled to have passes that are within his general vicinity. Probably do something with it. Low end number three. I got to go back and look at this. He's definitely second time he's been traded midseason, right? Third? Yeah, second.

What he did in his first game following trade? I don't know. He had a good season. He had a good half-season with the Cowboys. I'll look for you right now. I'm looking. Does he get the 8.8 targets that he averaged in Cleveland? Probably not.

Not in week one. No, not in week one. His first game with the Cowboys, five catches, 58 yards, and a touchdown on eight targets. Hey, cool. I can see that. Now, you mentioned something earlier, Adam, with the news and notes. If Snead is out, you're starting Mark Cooper.

Okay. You have him ranked similarly to Heath, so I think you guys are on the same page there. And then Dalton Kincaid, I want to say, the advanced metrics on Dalton Kincaid are really interesting. So the Bills have run, I think, the fewest plays per game in football or the second fewest plays per game, something like that. And for Dalton Kincaid, it's such a shame

because he's doing some good things. 22 tight ends have had 20 or more targets. Dalton Kincaid ranks 17's such a shame because he's doing some good things. 22 tight ends have had 20 or more targets. Dalton Kincaid ranks 17th in routes run. So he's just not, they're not running enough plays. He's not running enough routes. But he's sixth in targets. He's fourth in target per route run rate. He's sixth in yards per route run.

He's 10th in yards per catch. He's 10th in ADOT, and he's second in YAC per catch. Pretty good profile for Kincaid. But now you've got Cooper coming in, and you guys have him about ninth. I think you both have him ninth. He's actually going to drop for me. And it does depend on Cooper playing.

So if Cooper's out, then he'll probably stay here. But if Cooper plays, Titans is a little bit misleading. They are number one in fewest fantasy points allowed to the position. Now they got Kemet and Caleb Williams' first game. They got Tucker Craft with Malik Willis. They got John Newsmith with Tyler Huntley. So they've shut down basically every tight end they face. No tight end's got more than four PPR points against them.

So you got Kincaid here who has had two good games on the season and so in a little bit of a tough matchup, if there's going to be a target and he's also a collarbone injury, so not a slam dunk. I think 100% usual set it and forget it tight end. It is like most of those stats that you were talking about are more useful than like per target stats.

I understand that. But his per target stats are still awful. Oh, yeah? Like, yards per target, seven. He's not turning targets into fantasy points. It's just like... Well, one touchdown. Yeah, only one touchdown.

There's just not very many routes. Yeah. And it's not just because they're so slow. It's also because they're not throwing. Yeah, true. Yep, they're so slow. It's also because they're not throwing. Yeah, true. They have the second lowest pass rate in football, I think we said yesterday. All right, so revisiting the running back situation.

I don't want to do this necessarily. This is how the show gets to be an hour and 20 minutes. You guys already talked about this, but if James Cook plays, he would be where in your rankings? Somewhere between 18 and 24. I was going to say 10 to 15. Yeah, that's pretty low, Jamie. Are you thinking, I know it's a tough matchup,

but are you also thinking he'd share more than he had been? He's not 100%. I would imagine Ray Davis has earned a little bit of a bigger role. Why wouldn't he? I like Keith's phrase yesterday, why would you put that back in the bag? And tough matchup yeah okay and then if he's out ray davis is where ray davis is like 26 for me uh right now i have him ranked similarly because he's behind giovante but if james cook was ruled out he would move into the top 20. So I would say Davis, if we're talking 49ers running back,

not named Jordan Mason, Ty Chandler, and... Garando. Huh? Garando. I was at 49ers running back, not named Mason, and Ty Chandler. And Ty Chandler. Wait, no, there was one other, though. Who was the other?

Goodson. Goodson, Sermon. If Goodson is the starter, I would take Goodson over Ray Davis this week. Who were the big four that we talked about that all had? What about Tracy Singletary? Oh, the Bucs. The Bucs. Yeah, but the Bucs is, I think, easier to get away from.

I would start Davis over the Bucs, guys, because of the split. All right. Well, that brings us to New England at Jacksonville. Your updated stat of the game, the Patriots have allowed 80 rushing yards or a touchdown to nine running backs in six games. And this is a great, just like a great matchup for the running backs. But I think today I'm going to kind of not avoid the running back talk.

Look, we're previewing the games, but we'll get into it more later in the week. But just know, good opportunities for the running backs in this game, whoever they may be. Okay, so how would you feel about Drake May if he plays? Is he the best quarterback in this game if he plays? I would start Lawrence over him. Right now I have May over Lawrence, but they're back-to-back. Okay.

They're both QB2s. Yes. Better than Mahomes. Yes. I would start Lawrence, Mahomes, May. Okay, okay. Demario Douglas or Christian Kirk? Douglas.

That is a very good question. I have Kirk a couple spots higher. Would you like to hear a Christian Kirk breakdown statistically? Yeah. Okay, let's do it. The target per outrun rate is basically the same as it was in each of the previous two seasons for Christian Kirk. In those two seasons, he was on pace for about 85 catches, more than 1,100 yards on 130 to 133 targets,

but he's getting a lot fewer targets. He's on pace for only 110 targets this season. Trevor Lawrence is averaging three and a half fewer pass attempts per game in 2024 compared to 2023. Lawrence is also throwing downfield a lot more, and Christian Kirk has a career-high ADOT of 13.1 yards. It was about nine yards the previous two seasons. Brian Thomas Jr. is getting about the same amount of targets

that Calvin Ridley was getting, so I don't know if that's the issue, but Kirk has played fewer snaps, is seeing fewer pass attempts, has a higher ADOT and worse efficiency. Not a great profile for Christian Kirk. Okay, there we go. How do you feel about Brian Thomas Jr.? Bounce back this week? Number two wide receiver.

Yeah, tough matchup. He's going to probably see Gonzalez, so just keep that in mind. But it's just so much upside for him. So yes, I do think there's bounce back potential. Let's give Trevor Lawrence some credit here. Three straight games with two touchdown passes, three straight games with decent games,

18.8 or more fantasy points, sorry, six points for passing touchdown leagues. He's actually had a very tough schedule this year. Does it matter that they've been in London for 10 days and New England's just getting there? They did this last year, so

I actually remember talking about this last year if this was going to be an advantage for them um and let me see sorry wait jamie you can answer that while i look up the well first off it's new england so i can't imagine that you know that's fine yeah it's barely even a long flight uh well, that is interesting, though, because is this any different than New England going to Seattle? They beat the Bills 25-20 last year in their second straight game in London.

They went 2-0 in London last year. They beat the Bills 25-20. This game will be somewhat telling how the team feels about Doug Peterson. Because if they get behind, do they give up? Because this is the fire game. If he loses this game, like you leave,

you don't want to fire him going into London and staying in London for two weeks. Like this is the game where he gets fired if he loses. If Drake May plays, would you start Demario Douglas or Juju Smith-Schuster? Juju. Juju. Would you start Demario? Well, this one's for Jamie because he has Juju ahead ofSchuster. Juju. Juju. Would you start Demario?

Well, this one's for Jamie because he has Juju ahead of Iyuk. It is 10 minutes shorter to fly to Seattle than it is to fly to London. Demario Douglas or Brandon Iyuk, Jamie? Iyuk. Do you think you'll have Demario Douglas ahead of a lot of the replacement running backs? In PPR, I would start him ahead of the 49ers, not named Mason. Yep. Chandler.

And I would start him ahead of Davis. I would start him ahead of the Bucs. And ahead of the Bucs. All right, how do we feel about the tight ends in this game, Ingram and Henry? Very good. I mean, Ingram coming off the game that he just had, and the Patriots, I believe it's either three or four tight ends have been over 11 PPR points against them this season. Obviously Henry's looking at a great matchup. I mean, based on what Cole Clement just did and the fact that he got, you know, better quality of targets

from Drake May. So clearly Ingram's in a different category than Henry is. But Henry, I think, is in that, you know, Zach Ertz, Cade Otten. Like I'd start him over Fryermuth, for example. Mark Andrews? I would start him over Andrews, yeah. That's what I was just going to say is that Henry is still in that group of tight ends that I'm faking Mark Andrews and Sam Laporta over. Because they both do project behind Henry, but I've moved Andrews and Laporta ahead of them in the rankings.

Ingram's a must start. And I, I wouldn't blame somebody if they wanted to start Henry over like the data suggests you should start Hunter Henry over both Mark Andrews and Sam Laporta. Okay. Anything we're missing from this game. All right.

So yeah, to sum it up, how high, what is the highest ranking that a running back in this game could have in what scenario? Etienne and Stevenson out and Bigsby and Gibson are both somewhere between 15 and 20. I would say Ramondre plays and he's between 15 and 20. Okay. Yeah. I have Bigsby in a lot of leagues and I'll probably start him if ETN is out. Miami's at Indianapolis. Okay. Oh, just real quick. I'm sorry. Any interest in the Patriots or Jaguars DST?

If you're desperate, but I don't think this is, you know, bad offense, you use bad defense. Like, these are just bad defenses. Yeah, I think the defenses are too bad. All right, Miami's in Indianapolis. The Dolphins allow the fewest fantasy points to quarterbacks, third fewest fantasy points to wide receivers, the fewest receiving yards per game to running backs. Why? Well, one of the reasons is they've seen the second fewest pass attempts in the NFL.

But they also have the highest pressure rate, according to True Media. Pressure rate's an interesting stat. True Media has the Dolphins number one. Pro Football Reference has them 14th. And the Dolphins have only nine sacks in five games. So do they have a good pass rush? I honestly don't know. No, they just, and they might be down Agba too, so. I don't know if any of that matters for Anthony Richardson.

The thing about the Dolphins, you said it, like pressure rate, I'm guessing, is how many times the quarterback is seeing pressure. They're getting run all over the place. Yeah, but it's per drop back. Yeah. Yeah, right. So there's not that much pressure.

Right. The rate is good. There's not a ton of pressures because they don't see the second fewest pass attempts. But they do get run over all the time. All right. How do you see it? First of all, stat of the game is just really important.

Tyler Huntley more than doubled his passing yards from weeks four to five. If he does that again, he will approach 400 passing yards against the Colts. So that is your stat of the game. So with that said, Jamie, how do you see this game playing out? We've got some bad defense here potentially, but we also have some bad offense potentially. How do you see Dolph playing out? We've got some bad defense here potentially, but we also have some bad offense potentially. How do you see Dolphins-Colts looking? It's a shame that Jonathan Taylor is most likely going to miss this game

because the Dolphins' run defense is abysmal. You would love to have Taylor out there, which is why we're saying I would say don't drop Trey Sermon yet and go pick up Tyler Goodson. I know that sounds weird to say both in the same sentence, but if Sermon plays, he should still get the majority of carries. yet and go pick up Tyler Goodson. And I know that sounds weird to say both in the same sentence, but if sermon plays, he should still get the majority of carries, but he's banked up right now. So we could be looking at Tyler Goodson and one of the best fill in spots that we've had all year.

The other side of the ball, it's still tough to say you're starting Tyree kill with the usual confidence. I think he's still a number two receiver and Jalen Waddle. I still want to bench if I can, but better opportunity for him this week because the Colts are so bad. You have Devon HM practicing in full. He's a must start running back if he's out there. And I think Raheem Mostert's a must start running back as well, just because they're probably going to go back to what was working for them last season when everybody was still healthy, was just using both those running backs to whatever degree that they can. And so I could see 15 plus touches for both those guys against the Colts. That's a start for me.

How do you see it? Heath? Who's a must start in this game? A must start. Um, poof. I, I think like Tyreek and HN probably are.

I can't see myself getting away from either one of those guys. I'm a little bit less optimistic on most shirts, though. If he can break one long run or score a touchdown, he's probably going to be a start. I think downs is a number three wide receiver. Waddle is a number three wide receiver. Pittman is a flex a number three wide receiver. Waddle is a number three wide receiver. Pittman is a flex or number three wide receiver. And then the Colts starting running back is a high end flex. Unless it's Taylor, then he'd be a must start.

Right. I would start Richardson this week too, just because he should be healthy. And I don't know if you have in front of you, Adam. I think he had 24 rushing yards in the first quarter against Pittsburgh. He actually, and he had like 70, he had 71, okay, 71 passing yards, three or four for 71 yards and 24 rushing yards. He may have been on his way to a pretty good game against the Steelers in week four. That felt like what we had a lot of last year.

Remember he had good first quarters and then he got hurt in a couple of games before he got knocked out for the season. I do think that this is one of those games where like his ability to run is going to show up in a big way because the Dolphins don't have, I think they're, again,

if Agba doesn't play, they could be done another pass rusher. This isn't a game where he has to throw the ball very much to have success. You know, he could take a few shots down the field like he's not a top five quarterback for me but he is a top 12 guy i would start him ahead of mahomes for example i'd start him ahead of the two guys that we talked about in jacksonville and new england that's not a big stretch about purdy purdy i was talking about a purdy i think there's more much more upside in his matchup than there is for Purdy. There's a lot more upside.

Go ahead. A lot more downside, yes. But this is a game where he could have 40 to 50 rushing yards and two total touchdowns and 180 passing yards and be right around 20 fantasy points. So we've laid out the running back situations here. If a Chan does play, would he be in your top 12? I ranked him this morning.

I don't know if he did not or not yet. So I, I had most are at 14. I just put a Chan there and I dropped most are down like four or five spots. So both are top 20 running backs for me. I mean, we got last time that this, this team played when a Chan was hurt early in the game against New England.

Mostard had 18 carries and Jalen Wright had 15. So we're going to most likely get 30 plus carries for 30 plus touches for these two guys. Most are at two catches in that game. I don't remember what the other guys combined for reception wise. Like that's the game plan. If you're Mike McDaniel, run the ball,

try and get a win, get to week eight, get to a back. It's pretty simple to me. If I'm, if I'm coaching the dolphins, I I've got HN closer to 20. are closer to 30 okay are you worried about jaylen right are you just worried about their offense i'm just worried about their offense like they they

this is one of the lowest over unders and they're an underdog like i know the Colts defense has been bad, but they also might score one touchdown as a team. Tyreek Hill or Devon Achan? Achan for me. I've got Tyreek. Tyreek Hill or Debo Samuel? Debo.

Tyreek. Jonu Smith Smith any interest there no Josh Downs and Michael Pittman so Joe Flacco threw for 189 yards last week and Josh Downs still had a huge

game 7 for 66 and a touchdown on nine targets. Andy Richardson can throw for 189 yards. It's a different kind of 189, though. I mean, he's only played one game with Richardson. And what did he have? Three catches for 22 yards on five. They had a great relationship last year when Richardson was healthy.

That was his first game back from injury, too. So, yeah, like Downs or Douglas? Downs. Douglas, assuming May is healthy, but they're very similar. Downs or Waddle? Downs. Downs. Waddle or Pittman?

Pittman. Waddle. All right. You don't want to start Pittman or Waddle? No. I hope I don't have to. Then let's move on. Cincinnati's at Cleveland.

All right, Joe Burrow. Six for Jamie, seventh for Heath. Does that sound right? Yep. Start Joe Burrow. Although it would be nice to see him have a good game on the road. Okay. All right, there we go.

So we got a lot of question marks at running backs. Jaguars, Patriots. I'm not even going to go through the list. Is Chase Brown kind of ahead of most or all of those? Oh, Heath's mic dropped. I got it. Mic drop, Heath. Is Chase Brown ahead of basically all of those guys?

He's, yes. Yes. All right. It would be a shame if the roles went back to what they had been, but we're hoping this is the week that Chase...

We're kind of hoping that Chase Brown has claimed the job, right? How would they go back to that, though? Right. Well, for one thing, passing downs is probably...

I'm guessing it's still going to be Zach Moss. Agreed. But yeah, carries, it should be Chase Brown. Agreed. But yeah, Harry's, it should be, it should be chase Brown. It's just,

they both fumbled at the end of the game last week. One went out of bounds. One was recovered by the other team. Chase Brown's the one that went out of bounds. Yeah. So I, I think there's a chance that like chase Brown fumbles again, and now he's the fumbler. Um,

and there's going to be games with Chase Brown. It's still a split, and Moss has the passing downs. So there's going to be games where Chase Brown doesn't score a touchdown, and it's not that great. But this is a game where they should probably run the ball 40 times because they're playing the terrible Browns. Here's a question in the chat. Chase Brown or Antonio Gibson if Ramondre's out?

Brown. Brown or, I'll ask, Brown or James Conner against the Chargers? Conner. Brown. Chase Brown or T. Higgins? Flex. Higgins. Higgins.

All right, start, Chase. You guys like Higgins? A lot. How do you not at this point? He's been good. He's been great, but he's been good. Okay. Well, I don't know.

Do you think it's a tough matchup? It's not an easy matchup, but I think the way that Burrow has been playing and the way that Higgins has been out-targeting Jamar Chase, it's hard to not say Higgins should be started across the board, whether it's, you know, you're considering him a top 12 or top 20 guy.

Like it's, he's in that range for sure. He has six more targets than Jamar chase since returning four weeks ago. Uh, start us at the Sean. Uh, let's go to the Cleveland running backs here. How do you feel about Jamie?

I dropped the Sean Watson in a super flex league for Russell Wilson. Good for you. Good for you. Dropping quarterbacks in super flex leagues. Jamie, how do you feel about Nick Chubb this week? Low end number two running back. Probably better suit as a flex. It's a great matchup. You said it.

They did get healthier last week, and it showed up against the Giants. Tracy did some things in the passing game that I don't think Nick Chubb will do. You don't know exactly how much they're going to use Chubb in his first game back, but at this point, if you're the Browns, you got to get a win. Stefanski, I don't think his job is in danger, but Nick Chubb is their best offensive player right now. So

I'm going to guess he's going to get around 50, 60 total yards and score a touchdown. Do you guys like Jerry Judy this week at all? No. I like him as much as I like Calvin Ridley. I like him more than I like Calvin Ridley. Agreed.

But you like DeMaro, Douglas, and Juju Smith-Schuster, all those guys. Do you like Josh Downs or Jerry Judy? Downs. Jalen Waddell or Jerry Judy? Waddell. Waddell. All right. There's a possibility that Jerry Judy can't be the most added player

because he's already, I think, 70% added. But he comes out and he gets 12 PPR fantasy points or something like that. We're going to be telling people to roster him. So he was getting 12 PPR fantasy points at the start of the season, like 11 at the start of the season. Again, you got 8.8 targets to replace in this offense. And so he's not a bad. I shouldn't, you know, completely dismiss him. So I apologize.

He's not a bad receiver to put on the end of your bench to see what happens. He's not a bad desperation flex in a three receiver league where you start four, you know, you can use one as flex, but you shouldn't go, oh my God, look what just happened. They just got rid of, like, if you're comparing the two situations, for example, I would even hurt rather have Jacoby Myers than Jerry Judy right now. Okay.

But what about like Michael Wilson? Who's got some appeal, right? Michael Wilson or Jerry Judy roster or to start this week to start this week. I would rather start Wilson. If Harrisonrison is out all right are we done with this game anything else the tight ends we're not oh the joku yeah how do we feel about a joku so he's he's interesting he's a starter he's coming off a game with seven targets which was a season high for him we know he's been banged up throughout the course of the season the matchup is

interesting they haven't been bad against tight ends except for the Ravens guys that scored touchdowns two games ago. But this is now two games in without Dax Hill. So we'll see how that impacts this defense. So I think Njoku is probably going to see a lot of volume. Like wouldn't surprise me if he has 10 plus targets. That should matter.

So who is the guy we talked about earlier that we kind of liked compared to mark andrews oh hunter henry hunter henry or nijoku uh right now i have them back to back i would start in a joku ahead of henry simply because i don't know if i want to carry two tight ends so if i happen to joke i just stick them and which ds i would start in the joku over kingid this week. Which DST do you prefer? That's interesting. Bengals. Bengals are actually rostered in fewer leagues than the Browns. We're going to take one last

break. I think we have three games left, so we'll get to them, starting with the Jets and the Steelers after this on FFT. Starters at Aaron Rodgers. Jets are at Pittsburgh Sunday night. Heath? He is the definition of a borderline QB1. I think I've got him 13th maybe right now. That's where he's going to be.

Wouldn't be surprised at all if he comes out and throws two touchdown passes to Devontae Adams, throws for 250 yards, scores 20 fantasy points. Sounds about right. Not so much for Jamie unless you changed it, but you have him 18th. Pittsburgh's a really good defense, and this offensive line is still a little bit shaky. He does have four interceptions and four touchdowns in his last two games.

And let's face it, while Adams is certainly a significant upgrade, it's not like Alan Lazard has not been producing for him, and it's not like Garrett Wilson's not been getting 33 targets in his last two games. Like, I don't see how his production dramatically changes. It should be better. It should be better quality of throws to a receiver.

That's going to be more involved. It took him a 58 yard hail Mary to get the two touchdowns last week against Buffalo. Like this is a little bit of a tougher opponent. You mentioned, you know, the over under earlier Heath in the, in the dolphins Colts game.

This is also going to be a pretty low scoringscoring affair based on what Vegas is telling us. So he's not a slam-dunk must-start for me, no. It is certainly not a slam-dunk must-start. It is. This may be the most difficult matchup that he's faced, but also it's hard to take his stats from this year and then say he's playing a difficult matchup because that's pretty much all he's seen this season. It's been an awful,

awful schedule. 49ers. The Titans did have one easy game against the Patriots, the Broncos, the bills. Like it's just good past defense after good past defense, after good past defense. And he had a great game against Patriots,

25 fantasy points, Pittsburgh fifth best against quarterbacks so far start breeze hall. So Heath, you just seem really pumped for Devontae Adams this week. I just, I mean, Jamie always talks about the show off the new toy game. And this is the show off your best friend is back game. In prime time. In prime time.

Like Aaron Rodgers was just like, look what a good GM I am. I went and got this player who's my friend, and now he's going to score all the touchdowns. I wouldn't rank, I think Devontae Adams is like fifth or sixth. I wouldn't rank him that high rest of season. But I do think in his first game with Rodgers, when it's so much different than most veteran wide receivers we have changing teams, we know that he knows the entire playbook.

We know that he knows exactly what the quarterback wants him to do. i think he's actually living in roger's house right now yeah uh okay it's probably a better life and that happened with a receiver who was added to another team no was it my homes cadarious tony and my homes or something i'll give you a clue it does relate to the jets in some fashion how he exited his career antonio brown and brady about that um okay so how would you start you're gonna start would you start garrett wilson or tyreek hill uh tyreek tyreek garrett wilson or brian robinson jr if he plays robinson robinson garrett wilson or naji harris wilson

uh wilson and full ppr naji. All right, let me just double check. Wilson in PPR is 22nd for Heath, 21st for Jamie, 18th for Dave. Adams is 20th for Jamie, 14th for Dave, and 4th for Heath. All right. As a Devontae Adams manager, Heath, I am fired up for your rankings. I love them. Sit Tyler Conklin, sit the Steelers quarterbacks. Yeah. What do,

how do we feel about Najee Harris coming off his best game of the season and the jets? They had been solid, I guess, until last week and they were awful last week, but they, how are we feeling? One of the other things Robert Turbin,

our running back expert said was that this, that Russell Wilson, and we don't know for sure, but Russell Wilson starting would be better for the running backs. Cause it's going to open up more pass catching opportunities for them. This Jets defense has been kind of up and down. Like they got ran on early in the year as well. Um,

I don't, I'm not really fearing them. It's not as good a matchup obviously as the Raiders was, but I'm starting Najee Harris top 20 running back. He's just outside of the top 24 for me but that's a lot of moving parts obviously with some of these injury situations so i feel more comfortable with him as a flex i don't like that he's got a rib injury i don't like that's also jaylen warren second game back you know so shake off the rust the last game from the knee injury how much more

will he be involved he was awesome last week but is that the naji harris that we're getting or is it just the raiders yeah at this point i I'm comfortable saying that it's four years now where he averages 3.9 yards per carry basically every year. It was a regression of the mean. Going into last week, he was averaging 3.3 yards per carry. Now he's averaging 3.9 yards per carry. He just had to get back to normal Najee Harris. Okay, Pittsburgh wide receivers is really just George Pickens.

Pickens or Wilson? Wilson. Pickens. I'm assuming Wilson's starting. Russell. Okay. Okay. And Jamie's got Pickens like 28th,

and you've got him about 17th or so, Heath. Sounds right. So, you know, I... I am optimistic. I just don't want to start him this week. That will change if all the Jets are banged up defensively. I will move him up a few spots. One of the

things I like to do as kind of a measuring stick is have any good wide receivers struggled against this team. The 49ers wide receivers were bad, except Debo had a rushing touchdown. Ayuk did drop a touchdown, but even if he had caught it, it wouldn't have been that good of a game. Justin Jefferson was okay. He had six for 92 on 14 targets, but if you recall, he drew a lot of penalties in that game and was consistently getting open, and that's pretty much it. They

haven't shut down a good... I can't put Pickens in this category. He's not Brandon Iuk, but they haven't shut down a good outside receiver yet, except Ayuk in week one coming off no training camp. Starter sit Pat Fryermuth. Sit. I'd like to sit him. He's in that big glob of somewhere between 12 and 18. Which DST do you prefer?

The Jets right now. Yeah. Ravens are at the Buccaneers. Bonanza! Okay. No running back has rushed for more than 46 yards against the Ravens. But the only one with more than 12 carries is Isaiah Pacheco. Who had 15 carries, 45 yards, and a touchdown.

I don't want to start a Bucs running back. I don't have confidence that any of them are going to have more than 12 carries in this game. Okay. If Rashad White's out, does Irving crack the top 24? No. No. Damn it. I'd love to start him, but no, you just can't do it. And I think, like, I don't have Tucker ranked over Irving,

but I think they're 30 and 32 or 30 and 33. But I do think, as far as what Robert said, that this is a game that would seem to favor Tucker because they favor him more on passing downs right now. And I don't think either one of them is going to have a lot of success running the ball against the Ravens, but one of them might catch three passes for 40 yards. Okay.

We love Baker this week, I'm assuming. Yes. Must start. Okay. I think you said you had, Jamie does not, but I think Heath, you said you have him over Josh Allen, right? Yes. I have no problem with that.

Zay Flowers, I don't really know what to make of those two games where, you know, it was 18 pass attempts, 15 pass attempts. He had two terrible games. Other than that, Zay Flowers is a must start. He's in your top 12, top 10 in PPR. And is it – you all right? Maybe not. Probably not.

Okay. If you have to go, feel free. Zay Flowers – There was a comment in chat about Mike Evans, the IR. I know he saw the same thing. Mike Evans, the IR. I'm sure it the same thing. Mike Evans, the IR. I'm sure it's just somebody trolling us. I think it's somebody trolling us.

Oh, come on, John Cougar. Yeah. The other John Cougar would be very disappointed in you in the chat there. Okay, so anyway, any tough calls in this game? If we don't want to start the Bucs running backs, and we're not going to start Justice Hill, any tough calls in this game? Tough calls? The tight ends for the Baltimore Ravens. Yeah. What are we thinking about them? I mean, likely has just been touchdown dependent. He's gotten since week one,

27 yards or less in every game. He's gotten four targets or less than every game. It's just a matter of, well, he scored this week against a bucks defense that hasn't allowed a tight end to score touchdown. So the answer is probably no. So do you trust Mark Andrews? And that's the same question we've been asking since week one. I would guess the answer should be no. But again, his last two games, he's been better. Still not a lot of targets that you say, okay, he's back to being Mark Andrews.

So borderline starter at best. I think they rank like 11 and 13 for me at tight end. Which is probably cowardly, but let's see. Otten's like 18. The Buccaneers, by the way, they do give up the fifth most

receiving yards per game to tight ends. So they are giving it like Pitts had 88 yards. How many of that is with Winfield and without Winfield? That's a good question. But Pitts, 88 yards. Morrow, 54 yards. Jawan Johnson, 48 yards. Goddard, 62 yards.

So they've been struggling a bit. Winfield played last week, right? He did. All right. And then, yeah. Any interest in Rashad Bateman? He's in that Calvin Ridley range. I would start him over Calvin Ridley.

He's a touchdown or bust fantasy receiver. Chargers are at the Cardinals. Last game here. Last week, the Chargers ran 75 plays ahead. You could just do them all at this point and just bleed into tomorrow. Yeah, well, is there... Is it not tomorrow already? I could save this for...

Should I save this for tomorrow? No. I could save it for tomorrow. This is an easy game. Start Dobbins. Start Connor if he plays. Don't start Herbert. Kyler's the tough question.

Kyler's it. And Ladd. I guess Ladd's a tough choice as a wide receiver three. I don't think Conor's a slam dunk, by the way. What do you mean, to play? Or to start?

To start. It's hard to sit him, clearly, but why did he only play 16 snaps last week? Ankle, game script, what's happening? I think he's hurt.

Ladd McConkie, by the way, he is six to eight targets in four or five games. Has two touchdowns. Has a 26.4% target share. 9.4 yard ADOT, which is pretty high for a guy in the slot most of the time. Tied for the team lead in red zone and end zone targets. Leads the team in green zone targets.

Has played 72%, 77%, and 63% of the snaps in his last three games, but he got hurt last week. There's some encouraging stuff with McConkie they just don't throw enough so yeah this is an easy game but what about Michael Wilson and Greg Dorich assuming assuming Harrison is out I don't know how you can trust Dorich at this point he just has not done anything since week one of significance and just based on how I think they'll use him, plus you have Zay Jones coming back, that shouldn't really impact him too much.

But it's McBride really is the only safe one for the Cardinals, of their pass catchers and probably of all of their players, at least for me. I think in terms of Michael Wilson, you're hoping that he scores. He should see an uptick in targets if Harrison doesn't play. This has been a bad passing attack for the last few weeks. And Kyler Murray right now is just not playing well. Who are some players you'd start over Kyler Murray? I would start Drake May if he's healthy. I would start Trevor Lawrence. I would start Brock Purdy, Jared Goff, Kirk Cousins. Um, you know, I continue. No, that's fine. Not Daniel Jones,

not Daniel Jones. I would not start daniel jones and there's a few of the other names i think jamie said that i don't have over kyler but definitely darn old jano purdy lawrence rogers okay and that is it i think for this game chargers dst jamie has him third dave fifth heath 11th. So you could go to the Chargers team. They have scored 16 points or less in three of their last four games, the Cardinals have. And the Chargers have not allowed a team to go over 20 points. And the last thing I'll say is please check all your leagues for Trey Benson. He's 35% rostered.

This is a guy that you want to put on your bench if you can. That is Heath and Jamie. I am Adam. We will talk to you next time. We'll recap the Thursday night game and preview six games tomorrow, I believe. We'll be back then

on Fantasy Football Today. We'll be right back.