Fantasy Football Today - Week 1 Recap: Strong Starts, Broken Offenses & a Bills/Ravens Instant Classic | Beyond the Box Score

Episode Date: September 8, 2025

*Timecodes Below Adam Aizer is back with Jacob Gibbs and Dan Schneier for another season of Beyond the Box Score! Josh Allen and Lamar Jackson deliver a classic in Week 1, plus strong starts, broken offenses and a rookie check-in. (0:00) Intro + Beyond the Box Score back on Monday! (2:30) An all-timer between the Bills & Ravens (4:00) Zay Flowers & only 19 pass plays (7:30) Keon Coleman & other Bills offensive weapons (14:30) HIM of the Week (17:00) News and Notes (18:30) Snap counts across the league (27:20) Strong performances vs. false hopes (44:00) Is the Colts offense for real? (45:45) Offense Broken-o-meter: Dolphins, Texans, Panthers (53:00) The Lions offense (57:30) Rookies: over-hype vs. under-hype #FantasyFootball #NFL #FantasyFootballAdvice #Podcast 🎥 WATCH • Subscribe to this channel: https://www.youtube.com/FantasyFootballToday • Watch CBS Sports HQ: https://cbssports.com/live • Watch CBS Sports Network on your TV or the CBS Sports App with your cable provider ▶︎FFT Express: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyK1zeDYsKPiLNzzFk3jHa199--RN6nff 🎧 LISTEN • Stream and follow & leave a 5⭐️ rating on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2fEvGGxwXqSM8xuSNgxjFR • Download and follow & leave a 5⭐️ rating on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-podcast/id261735167 • Other CBS Sports podcasts: https://cbssports.com/podcast ▶︎Fantasy Football Today Express: https://open.spotify.com/show/6qyGWfETSBFaciPrtvoWCC?si=51b16cab6d6747ed ▶︎Fantasy Football Today Dynasty: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=1a4cd6f9fc464606 ▶︎Fantasy Football Today DFS: https://open.spotify.com/show/5zU7pBvGK3KPhfb69Q1hNr?si=f330cceb49b34780 📱FOLLOW • Twitter: https://www.instagram.com/fantasyfootballtoday • Instagram: https://www.tiktok.com/@fbtpod • TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday • ASK all of your Start/Sit questions in our Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ 📖 READ • More fantasy football news: https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/football/ 🛍️SUPPORT • Shop our merch: https://www.paramountshop.com/collections/fantasy-football-today • Shop our store: https://shop.cbssports.com/fantasy 💵BETTING • Visit the betting arena on CBS Sports.com: https://www.cbssports.com/betting/ • For all the latest in sportsbook reviews: https://www.cbssports.com/betting/sportsbooks/ • And sportsbook promos: https://www.cbssports.com/betting/promos/ 🎙ABOUT THE SHOW Want to dominate your league and get Fantasy Football bragging rights? Join host Adam Aizer, analysts Dave Richard, Jamey Eisenberg, Heath Cummings, and the rest of our crew throughout the year. Start or Sit, Waiver Wire, Buy or Sell, Grade the Trade and mailbag from your emails and #AskFFT tweets. This is the only podcast you'll need to win your league. 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

This is fantasy football today from CBS Sports. What a play! And you believe this? No, I can't. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. It's just going to go the distance. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath.

Welcome everybody to fantasy football today, presented by FedMGM, the sports book born in Vegas. What's going on? It is Monday, September 8. We're recapping Thursday, sorry, Sunday night's insane game. Buffalo 41, Baltimore 40, game of the year in week one. Also, what the heck happened to the dolphins, the Texans, the Panthers, the lions? We'll talk about those offenses. What about those disappointing rookies like Matthew Golden and Trayvion Henderson and especially R.J. Harvey.

We'll talk about them. What are we buying in week one? What are we selling? I'm Adam with Jacob and Dan. Do you feel like I'm intruding on your show right now? Not at all. I'm excited. This is the show.

This is the original OG show. It all started with us three. And this is the one that I look forward to most, Jacob and I talked about. It is weird, though, because it feels like a cram session. Like, I feel like I'm back in college trying to watch as much as I can before noon on a Monday.

So that's the only part I don't like about it. But it's fun because it really cranks you into gear. And I'm just so excited if football's back and to talk football with you boys. I love football. I loved everything about yesterday, but football doesn't love me. As you can tell from my updated refrigerator magnets back there, and by tell, I mean, you'd have to use an eyeglass to see what I'm talking about. The Giants are now 0 and 1, and they looked as miserable as they've looked every week

one for the last three years. My fantasy teams, I did good. It was a good day there, but football just doesn't love me, man. Well, listen, my fantasy teams, I had a bad week one, but I didn't lose week one of a guillotine league and i'm not good news yeah he never want to be cold peanut butter either so oh no no no no cold butter is great dude the the food might be good but your team cold peanut butter is apparently which one which one which one is having a bad league you're gonna get chopped from the guillotine league i'm getting chopped from that guillotine league yes dude is there any way out who do i did i have

harvey jvys said you need a huge game from colson lovelin no hey for the brand i didn't even see that was the one league i didn't check yesterday i'm in 32 leagues this year that was the one my other two guillotine's were good wait a second what did i have worthy in that league what do i have in that league i don't know and i don't care jacob what's going on how we doing i'm psyched man highlight of my week right here being on this monday show let's go good all right buffalo 41 baltimore 40 had the ball for nearly 35 minutes in this game and it was a it was a bonanza 33.4 fantasy points for Lamar Jackson, six point per passing touchdown leagues, 42.8 for Josh Allen. We almost got six more points for Allen and Keon Coleman.

Coleman nearly scored a touchdown super late in that game, but it ended up setting up the game-winning field goal. So this was just tremendous stuff from these guys. But I think let's talk about Jacob, the lead-wide receiver. Zay Flowers gets nine of 19 targets in this game. He was started in 68% of leagues. Keon, and he had seven catches, 143 yards and a touchdown, plus two carries for eight yards. Keon Coleman had 11 targets.

Josh Allen threw 46 passes. Last year, he averaged 30 passes per game. He threw 46 last night. Keon Coleman got 11 targets. He only had three targets going into the fourth quarter. He did almost all of his damage in the fourth quarter. Who do you think, who are you more impressed by, is A Flowers or Keon Coleman, who has started in 8% of leagues? Definitely Flowers.

Yeah, but these are a couple of guys that Dan and I have talked about a lot on Beyond the Box score. I think I was wrong on Keon Coleman potentially, seeing him get his target total pushed up, even though it was the game script that influenced it. That was a career high in targets. His average depth of target was down a little bit. So we were seeing more short-yardage targets. He had six first downs, which is way more than he's ever had in a game. So all encouraging signs for Coleman.

But who am I like buying more at Zay Flowers? Like you said, only 19 targets for the team. If you can, if you're watching on YouTube here, I've got some comparisons on team level and player level stuff. So the bills had the most plays of any team. 78 offensive plays is an insane amount. The Ravens are 26th with just 50 offensive plays in week one. So that affects things. You know, that affects the total volume. But yeah, 41% target per route, run rate for Zay Flowers. This is a trend that we've seen developing from year one to year two. They got him way more involved in the offense, but it went a little overlooked because he only scored four

touchdowns. But in this game, you know, we saw him getting some looks around the, the end zone, red zone area. And then of course, we know he has the speed, the tackle avoidance to turn any play into a big touchdown as well. So that's how he gets to more upside than we've seen in the past is like continuing to evolve as a player, which is what we saw here with the target volume and the efficiency, but then also if he gets some of those big plays and touchdowns, and all of a sudden, he could be like a top 12, top 15 receiver. Dan, more excited about Zay Flowers or more concerned about Mark Andrews who had one target in this game?

More excited about Zay Flowers. I mean, we kind of knew at this point with Andrews, he's becoming a touchdown or bus type player in fantasy football. I think everyone kind of project them to his value. But Flowers is an interesting case because Jacob and I put him, like, we, when we did our breakout show, we talked about Zay Flowers, we broke down all the exciting stuff. And then we kind of just, not fell off, but just kind of stopped talking about him because it's like, well, is there any touchdown upside? But it's the situation that we always see in fantasy where you follow the actual player who looks really

good on tape. The targets weren't amazing, but the yardage was there and the yards per target were great. And if he just falls into more touchdowns this year, he's going to be a breakout in fantasy. The touchdowns are the reason he hasn't been a breakout to this point. And I thought he looked unbelievable last night watching that game live. So I'm really excited about what Flowers can be this season. And there was also opportunity for more, I thought, in that game. So it will depend somewhat on game script. Like, I don't want to make too much of a 40, a game like this where there's 80 plus points scored because it won't look like that every week. But man, he looks good out there, Flowers. He always looks good. You know, for the people who didn't want to draft Zay

Flowers or on like our FFT show, we kind of said he was going too early. I think he was a early round six pick or something like that and maybe even round five. And we just didn't think there was enough pass volume so i think the good thing is yeah i got nine targets incredible target share he had a 25% target share last year and that a 25.4% that was with leaving week 18 early with an injury he was on pace for 121 targets in the first 16 games of the season for him but still they threw 19 passes you know so it is going to be a problem some weeks right it's a problem a lot of weeks for for zay flowers um but that doesn't mean you have to like sell him you know you can could just write it out and accept there are going to be some highs and lows,

but he's obviously going to be the focal point of the passing game. He's so good. He's very good. He was top five in average separation score last year, and that's just before he gets the ball in his hands. And he's very, very good with the ball in his hand. So in this offense, you might have to take some bad weeks, but that's kind of the case with pretty much any pass catcher.

I mean, look at what Nico Collins and Brian Thomas Jr. And Jamar Chase and all these players did this week. Yeah, exactly. All right. It is weird to think that Flowers finished his wide risky 36 per game last year and he had a pretty solid year but it's four touchdowns killed him four touchdowns okay um so with coleman hang on to him or or try to turn him into something i mean look jacob and i were somewhat split on him this off season and i want to give credit

to dave richard who i think was first on this breakout and really solidified his take once he got to see it live in practice but i'm not trading keon coleman i think what keon coleman offers is exactly what Josh Allen has needed in this offense for a while because it fits Alan's skill set so well as a passer. Alan has the ability to hit those outside the number, vertical shots in that intermediate deep range, those stop routes that I saw him rip to Coleman when he needed them when they started to have to pass the ball when the game script called for it. And they look great on it. I thought their connection was great. Their timing was great. Coleman made some really good catches away from his frame, some good adjustments to the football. And then as a mover, I thought Coleman looked really

strong as well, just moving in and out of his breaks. Even though there were a couple vertical routes, I thought he had a really nice release off the line of scrimmage. Coleman could be a year- or two breakout player. I always liked his tape at Florida State. I never made much of the 40-yard dash because if you watch the gauntlet drill and you looked at

some of the tape from him at Florida State, he was really good outside of straight-line speed. I don't think he needs that in this offense. I think he'll be leaned on in the red zone as well. We saw him the design two-point conversion for him. So I'm high on Coleman this year, and obviously the game script will be not like this every game. We're going to run into some bad, tricky games so the bills don't

throw the ball a lot. But he's in my mind a good bet, at least, to score somewhere in the 8 to 10 touchdown range. And if they could really start to continue to get that timing connection down on those outbreaking routes toward the sideline, we could be looking at a big gear for him. I guess my counter would be, you know, you had Josh Palmer get nine targets. You had Shakir get nine targets, right? So there's competition there. But also, this Bill's schedule. We knew the Patriots, for example, had the easiest schedule in the NFL.

Well, it's the AFC East. I mean, their next, look at their next upcoming games. Jets, maybe the Jets are good. Dolphins, Saints, Patriots, Falcons, biweek, Panthers, chiefs, dolphins. I mean, it is so many easy games.

So what does that mean? Does that mean 30 pass attempts per game? Does that mean six targets for Keon? That's the issue. You know, it could be a problem. But again, I think you're happy if you, if you drafted him, and he hopefully is the number one wide receiver for one of the best offenses in the NFL. Dalton Kincaid, 51% of the snaps.

He did catch a touchdown, but not that encouraging of a game. I think we'd have to say. Same Kincaid as last year, I think. Khalil Shakir, basically as Kalil Shakir as it gets. Anything else from this game, guys? Just James Cook, a player I was high on all offseason. Have to be enthused with what you saw from James Cook if you also drafted him a lot like I did. didn't come off the field a lot,

played sometimes came off the field. Not often. He, well, I think he only played like 55% of the snaps or something, but he doesn't play on third down, but it doesn't matter. He's a goal lineback.

He's, that's what I was going to say, used in the red zone, which is the most important thing for James Cook, used in the passing game, made an incredible play in the past game. I think Jacob's having computer issues. And also was used when they went to that hurry,

that hurry up no tempo, up tempo offense. They brought in Johnson for a few snaps, but it was mostly cook. And so I just thought it was all enthusiastic. And really with Cook, it comes down to the talent. He's unbelievable out there. He's incredible in space.

He processes the defense incredibly well, makes awesome cuts and has long speed and burst. I think he's just simply put one of the most talented running backs in the NFL. Yeah, I still, if I were drafting again today, I'd still draft him in the third round because he played 56% of the snaps. He had five catches in this game. Again, a lot of pass attempts. He did not have, he, that tied a season high from last year. So he had two games with five catches. But last year,

I already had like 30 catches or something like that. Yeah, but he also came inches away from two more touchdowns. I love him. I mean, I thought he was one of the safest round three picks. You know, it's even if Cook and Coleman have flaws, right?

It's the offense that they're in. Exactly. It's going to boost them. I would say that he should be, if we could redo it over again, I'd take him right in the range. I took like the Bucky Irving types. All right.

Jacob having some computer issues. so I never said a simple advanced that's from simple people now it's the tagline simplest people that without Jacob here forget it oh yeah we're screwed without Jacob all right super simple if for those of you who have kids super simple songs is that is that what it's called oh what's the beyond the box score schedule for this week yeah beyond the box score obviously you had our offseason schedule and you can check us out on YouTube on the beyond the box score feed or if you want to do us a favor go to your iTunes and Spotify, leave our five-star rating a review.

We will ultimately answer any question you leave in a rating review. It helps us grow the show. This week, we'll have a show tomorrow, which is going to be an interesting crossover show with Heath Cummings. It's a dynasty beyond the box score crossover show where we're really dive deep into some of the rookies and younger players in the NFL to give you guys, hopefully an edge for dynasty, but also for the back end of your rosters. I know a lot of people think you need, you know, to find some up.

side on your bench and that's going to do it. Sorry, I was looking at what Jacob said. Also, Wednesday will be usage reports from every position. That's going to be a show that we're going to get every week with Jacob Gibbs. And there's also going to be a solo show coming. Sorry. No, that's okay. Let's go off there.

All right. So, yeah, there's a lot coming up this week. Coming up on today's show, Dan, if you could check the chat for me real quick, the private chat. All right, coming up on today's show, are we worried about Nico Collins? Are we just bailing on Tyree Kill and Jalen Waddle? I'm going to give you some screenshots to show you some of the opportunities that the dolphins had. I'm going to give you some screenshots to show you how big of a day Marvin Harrison Jr. could have had. But also, it wasn't the most encouraging day for Marvin Harrison Jr.

We talked about him. Talk a little bit about the Colts. Yeah, the rookies, of course. What do we do with R.J. Harvey, for example. So that's all coming up. We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, we're going to give you a player of the week and some news and notes, some snap counts that you need to know. We'll be right back on fantasy football today.

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is taking on the Dakar Rally, the ultimate off-road challenge. Learn more at landrover.ca. Welcome back, everybody. Now it is time for the Hymn of the Week. Sponsored by producer Jordan Peel's upcoming sports horror film, Him, only in theaters on September 19th. Dan, who is him in week one?

I think you got to go with Justin Fields, right, from our fantasy standpoint. It's so interesting. As I worked through the draft season, Fields became a player who in auction drafts just wasn't bid on. And he would fall into a price range that was more toward the quarterback 18, 19 range than the projected 8 to 10 that he was ranked at. And you just kind of shrug your hands and be like, well, I don't believe in this offense.

I thought Justin Fields looked phenomenal out there yesterday. I thought he made excellent throws on the run. I thought he was more poised in the pocket than I've seen him at any point in his career. Maybe this is the system that best fits his skill set. And his connection with Garrett Wilson was obvious. It goes dates back to their days at Ohio State. But in addition to all that we expected from fields in the run game, what he did as a passer was really interesting to me.

And it's not like he did it against a bad team. The Steelers are, or at least were a good defense last year. I think one of the biggest factors is the Jet City really impressive job locating two offensive tackles, which is really hard to do in the NFL, even when you have those top draft capital. Just ask the Giants with Evan Neal and several other teams. I mean, Ikiyguan, all these teams that have missed on early tackles, both Membu and Fashanu are studs at the offensive tackle position.

And that makes a big difference for Justin Fields from a passing standpoint. In addition, everything he offers as a runner. So I got a buy on this. I think he could easily be a top six fantasy option at quarterback this season, potentially a difference-making player who, like, reaches that top tier. Good. Good start for Justin Fields. And we're hoping that he can keep it going.

Next week, he gets Buffalo. So they're pretty beatable. Oh, Jacob's back. Thank God. all right um that was the hymn of the week sponsored by the upcoming film him producer jordan peel invites you to the football sports and horror event of the season which asks asks the question what are you willing to sacrifice see him only in theaters on september 19th nice i had one note on the bills ravens that i didn't want to get in and it was the calil shakir's route rate was 90% last night um for a comparison it was 75% last last year and he's only top to 90% one time one other game in his career okay that's awesome like how about joan johnson we'll talk about he played 99% of the snaps yesterday for the saints uh some news and notes giants have not committed to a quarterback for week two at dallas

joan jennings shoulder injury savior worthy shoulder injury drake london shoulder injury so london day to day they're calling him but we'll see at minnesota in week two savior Worthy gets the Eagles in week two. Joanne Jennings, the Saints. George Kittles got the hamstring injury. The other tight ends, I think, are okay. Evan Ingram and Brock Bowers. Offensive line.

So the Texans' offensive line is a mess. They played the game without starting guard Ed Ingram. And then they lost two linemen during the game. One came back, but David Andrews, their center left with a foot injury. So that's two starters. They could be down next week against the bucks. We'll see if Ingram can make his way back for them. And then you just had some other, like, oh, New Orleans, they were without an

offensive lineman. Talise Fuwaga left with a knee injury. They get San Francisco next week. Miami's offensive line is a problem, but I don't know. It wasn't that bad. But they lost Austin Jackson, starting right tackle to a toe injury. On defense, big ones, the Giants linebacker Mike and McFadden was carted off. X-rays were negative, but he's a good player for them.

Denzel Perryman for the Chargers linebacker. He left with an injury. Pittsburgh safety to Sean Elliott left with a knee injury. Raiders linebacker Alannon Roberts could miss some time with an elbow injury. Terry and Arnold has a groin injury, starting cornerback for the lions and a good one, but apparently it's not serious. My favorite player of the world,

the Jarius Sneed, did not play in the second half. He says he's healthy. The Titans did not use him in the second half. I don't know if that's because he's recovering from an injury or what. Seattle safety, Nick Eamon Worry, left with an ankle injury. All right,

let's get into some snap counts here. So Travis Hunter played 64% of the snaps on offense, and he played only six snaps on defense. defense, but he was supposed to be like an every down wide receiver. He wasn't, and he was basically exclusively in the slot. Possibly game circulated, too, because they were up by so much. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, I guess we could look like the first three quarters, but they didn't pull the starters,

you know, at the end. Travis, ETN, 61% of the snaps. Tankpigs be 21%. Anything to say about the Jaguars, guys? Awful play from Trevor Lawrence, from what I've seen so far. He had the lowest pressure rate of any quarterback at just 13%. it's been pretty rough that and the Texans have been the hardest watches um i've only watched like three or four games so far this week and like half of them have been awful so that's fun and the thing

about that is at least with the texan situation the rams were in a phenomenal defense with young talent that's improving and could it ultimately be one of the better defense in the NFL the panthers are going to be the stone worst if not the second worst defense in the NFL and a fantasy matchup we target all season long there's just no talent on that defense and lawrence was just missing routine throws from what I've seen without pressure. That's a big, big problem. For BTJ stock, it's a big problem for Hunter stock and obviously for Lawrence stock. On the Travis Hunter note, he had an 84% route rate, which I do think speaks to Dan's point

that like, I think in a more neutral game script or even where they're playing from behind, you'll see more playing time for him. He was out there when they needed to drop back and do a normal passing game. The Texans were so boring, weren't they? I mean, just have no offensive line. They do. than no run game yeah it was inexcusable i don't know like it looks like the same crap from last year where there's no hot they're running all these like complicated deep play action dropbacks and

deep route concepts and stuff that take time but then the offensive line is a complete mess and they're not prepared to handle even three and four man rushes and stuns and stuff like that where it's just like immediate quick pressure on stroud i don't i have no confidence like nico is the man Niko is the man, so I think he'll be fine, but there's going to be games like this, it seems like. Yeah, it's interesting. Sorry, go ahead, Adam. The Rams are good.

You said it. I mean, the Rams have a good defense. They played well. When you have these matchups where you're a defense versus an offensive line and a defense is able to get pressure with four and drop seven consistently, just by what Jacob said, just running simple stunts and games up front, and the offense line just can't pick it up, it's almost like a death knell from a fantasy football standpoint.

You do not want to have anyone on that all. offense that day. And that was the case for the Texans. I don't know how many more games will look like that. Hopefully not every game, but it's something that has me worried a bit about Nico. I saw a couple of the things you posted, Jacob. There was a route where Nico just absolutely torched a safety with a double move. Should have been a long touchdown. The ball never gets there, and a ball never has any chance to get there because of the offense. Bishon Robinson played 83% of the snaps. David Noghoku and Harold Fanon both played around 75. It's time. wild. And then you had Judy and Tillman playing most of the snaps as well. This is nothing new, but Josh Downs played 49% of the snaps. And that's kind of what he typically is, right? He doesn't play in two receiver sets. He had one target yesterday, I believe. Josh Downs. Ashton Genty played 86% of the snaps. This, I did, okay, what happened here? Stefan Diggs played 41% of the snaps, which aren't yet. Yeah. You know, and he's playing mostly outside this year. He played eight snaps on defense.

Stefan Diggs. That's odd. I saw it in the game book. And then I looked at a full football reference and it said that I'm going to check again. That can't feature, can it? That's wild. Do you mean special teams? Stefan Diggs.

I haven't seen the tape in that game. It's on defense. Wow. What it says, I just watched the Raiders offense. I didn't watch the Patriots offense at all. On the Josh Downs note, he had a 52% route rate. And that is the second lowest. of his career in a healthy game.

So I think it was even less than we've seen in the past. His rat rate was 75% his rookie and second season. Part of that is game script. They were playing with the lead. They were running a lot. And so he comes off of the field and like two tight-in sets and stuff like that. But I also think Tyler Warren was just like really the focal point in the short area passing game especially.

And that affected him. So we'll see going forward. But he might be like not someone you can use in fantasy this year. Yep. it's it's uh not that fantasy relevant but i need some i need to figure out this stephan digs defense thing he had never played a snap i know someone needs to figure this out i'm also just totally confused by that he's listed as having played eight snaps on defense on on both the NFL like game book official thing that we use and pro football reference i'll get to it let's let's move it along

here i'm going to go find him joan i will say one note on that that i did want to add shout out mike renner who's a CBS podcaster now, he watched the tape of the Patriots offense and I didn't have time to, and he said Diggs looked completely cooked. So that's just something that's interesting. He feels that Digg shouldn't be taking any of the routes from these young Patriots receivers at this point of his career.

Kishon Booty at one point was listed as the number one wide receiver NFL draft prospect going into his last year at LSU or maybe it was a second last year might have stayed another year. He was a crazy high prospect. It was supposed to be a star, and it just never happened. And he had some off-field issues, too, and weird stuff, but that seems to be part of his past. And he played, he and Hunter Henry played most of the snaps for the Patriots. They played of the majority, they played the vast majority of the snaps.

Joanne Johnson, as I mentioned, 99% of the snaps for the Saints. Late last year, John Johnson was playing about 75% of the snaps. Kenneth Gainwell out snapped Jalen Warren and had eight more third down snaps. Kenneth Gainwell was a little bit back. Zach Sharbon, we're talking about this a little bit later. They played nine more snaps than Ken Walker. JSN's an outside receiver now. He played in the slot 30% of the time,

29% of the time in week one. Yeah, and his slot rate was 77% last year was 29% in week one. And the only two Green Bay pass catchers who played more than half the snaps were Tucker Kraft who played 92%. And Romeo Dobbs who played 71%. So big concerns for me about all the Packers pass catchers.

Honestly. So I just watched all the Stefan Diggs defense snaps, and he was, in fact, watching from the sideline. He's not on the field. Yeah, I don't know. That's so weird. You were just like too close to the field? I don't know.

This is why you go beyond the box, Gore. You got to watch with your eyes. What the heck happened there? Some things charting is wrong, yeah. Are you guys as worried about the Packers receivers as I am? Yes. Yeah, I think so.

Just watching. First of all, Jordan Love looked amazing out there, and I thought LaFleur looked even better at scheming open players. But it seems like it's just going to be a repeat of what we've had with the Packers' receivers. Hard to predict different players making different plays every week. We needed to see Matthew Golden be like the guy. His snapper was below 50%. So if he's getting eased in,

and we have a history of LaFleur rotating a lot of receivers, which is exactly what he did in this game. Yep. And the Packers defense looked so freaking legit in this game. It sets up to be not favorable at all for the receivers. It's everything that you guys were scared about going into the year. It sets up to be a massive year for Josh Jacobs, though, if that's the case. Just a reminder, Justin Jefferson in the first two games of his career had six targets.

He played 69% and 54% of the snaps. For the rest of the year, he was on pace for 145 targets and 1,600 yards and 11 touchdown. How many touched? I don't know, a lot of touchdowns. nine touchdowns. So be patient, but it wasn't what we wanted to see. It is time for football at BetMGM. Register with BetMGM to get instant access to the best variety of parlay selection features.

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All right, four big topics. I want to thank our audience for giving us these topics. I didn't feel like doing any work. So thank you, everybody. Strictly Sports says after week one, which strong performances are you confident will continue through this season? and which are false hopes I've got a list but I'll let you guys go first

you can reel them off first I was going to give way to you so go ahead get us rolling all righty confident I'm going to go position by position confident in Justin Herbert and what we saw everything just looked so easy and yeah to see them

go so pass heavy really stood out to me I do think the chiefs were really selling out to stop the run if you noticed any time the Chargers ran play action And the Chiefs, the finishers like, oh, crap, like not ready for it at all. So I think that had something to do with the play calling for the Chargers. But we saw this down the stretch where they went a lot more pass heavy. They have awesome weapons.

So if they can get the ground game going as well, there's just going to be a really, really hard offense to stop. And Herbert with the rushing as well that we saw in this week one could be like a top 10, top eight quarterback in fantasy. That's what he's been over his past like 10 games or so, like since he's recovered from that injury early in the season. last year. Intrigued, maybe not confident, but intrigued in Michael Pinnock's Jr. And Justin Fields. That was the best game of Justin Fields's career, as far as I remember. It has to be, right? I don't know. I don't know. It's probably not the most points he scored, but yeah. He was charted with zero off target throws. He was making plays, you know, like not just doing the simple read he was also play making 10 design runs is just incredible for fantasy

the offensive line looked good the run game looked good so like if this can be a middle of the pack offense he could easily be like a top six or seven quarterback for fantasy yeah he he pops off with these big games sometimes um can you believe they lost i'd said this on the show last night just like i cannot believe they lost things so many things went well for the they just they gave it away he should have never lost that game the fumble on the kickoff killed him and then they had that late hit out of bounds that I really didn't think was a late hit but it like was so far out of bounds they had to but it wasn't yeah it was but he was his momentum was going into the player and he barely hit him but it's i know the NFL it would

have been a drive killer no they'd like changed the whole possession unfortunately they would have had the punt so bad things happened but they should have won that game you're right for my detour there jacob confident justin herbert intrigued by fields and pennix anything else yeah pinnicks performed really well against pressure um Todd bowles blitz is a ton doesn't necessarily get there a ton. He I think just wants to speed quarterback's up, but Pennix passed the test for the most part. He needs to get Drake London back and he needs to get Mooney on the field, but I was pretty encouraged by that because he was playing with a banged up offensive line, but I thought he stood in and played well. At running back, I'm confident in Chuba Hubbard. I thought the usage was really

good for him, all the underlying usage points towards him being like a low end RB1. And this was not a good game script for him. Typically, we think that Hubbard is someone we can only use when they're playing with a lead, but he still had a pretty good game. Bucky Irving, I'm also very confident in. Bucky Irving, we didn't know what the role was going to be. Last year, at the end of the year, they totally gave like everything to Bucky. You know, he was handling almost all the work. And that's what we saw in week one.

The offense scared me a little bit. You know, they gave up a lot more pressure than we're used to seeing in Tampa Bay. And the run game didn't work as well as we're used to seeing. So I think, you know, we're going to feel the Liam Cohen departure. but just in terms of usage, this is exactly what you wanted to see in week one. It's really encouraging. And he's such a special player that even in a bad game like this,

he makes that incredible play to get into the end zone on the sideline. He's so good. So confident in those two because of the usage. Intrigued by Breece Hall looked like the old Breeze Hall. Jacori Kroski Merritt, he only had a 29% snap rate for Bill, but I think that's going to increase. He played really well and the offense looked good.

you know we've speculated like now that teams have all this you know full year of film on cliff kingsbury maybe they'll be able to stop this offense it did not look that way uh in week one i'm definitely curious to get your your guys thoughts on that as giants fans um but it's it's just a lot to stop especially if you have an explosive element in the run game and so i think we're going to see more and more bill and then zach charbonnet i'm very nervous about this one because i have a lot of kenneth walker i wonder if maybe it was just that they were easing Walker in because he had a slow start with injury with the preseason in training camp, we haven't really seen Clint Kubiak split backfields like this. He normally leans on one guy

in Seattle has always acted like Walker is that guy in the past. But Charbonnet is legit. Like, we know how good he is. And he came in and just like laid wood, like just looks like the guy that we know he is. And it's like, well, he can do that. You know, if the Walker stuff's not working, like maybe they just lean more into this as the season goes on. So intrigued by those guys. I'll throw some names into the mix of players that intrigued me. I'll start with the one and we'll have a few repeats. I'll try to limit them.

But Charbonnet, man, I've been so high on him and I just thought he was the best back for that specific game against the 49ers defense. And I wonder how many games he's going to be the best back out there. Walker adds an element different to this offense. And yes, he can hit big runs on outside zone. But there are times where defense like the Niners are just going to understand how to funnel everything back into the middle of an inside zone. And you need a hammer like Charbonnet.

So I'll throw him out there. I was super not intrigued. I'm believing in Brock Bowers. Jacob and I have been insanely high on him all offseason. The only thing that stopped him was a knee injury that he appears to be fine on. He was unbelievable. And Chip Kelly completely understands how to design explosive plays. I saw a stat about the Raiders explosive plays in this game versus last season.

It was night and day. We're going to see explosive plays all year from that Raiders offense with Chip Kelly at the helm. And Bowers will be the benefactor on a vast majority of them. So super excited about Bowers. is moving forward. I'd mention him before, but I'll say it again, Josh Jacobs. Jacob said it best. If this backer's defense looks the way it looked last game and like you have Edron Cooper breaking out, they have just so many studs on that defense. It's going to be a great Josh Jacobs year. There's nothing else to compete with. He's one of the few workhorses we have, a good, a solid to good

offensive line from a run blocking standpoint. And game script, that should be amazing. Here's another player I'm going to throw in there. And this is not because he looked good at all, Adam and Jacob. It's because of the role, and the role will continue to be this way. It's the most obvious player in fantasy from a role standpoint. Christian McCaffrey, like this is exactly what I thought it would be. A ton of targets in the passing game, the outlet for Brock Purdy that he needs, and then a ton of run game. Like, he doesn't come off the field a lot.

Brian Robson played a little bit, not much, and CMC would just rotate right back on the field. So as long as he stays healthy, he doesn't even have to look good. He just gets so much volume in the past game that he becomes a fantasy cheat code, in my mind at least. So those are players that sit out. to me. Let's see if there's other guys I can, I can pinpoint here. I've got more. Yeah, go, go for it.

Yeah, let me finish up a receiver in tight-in. So we talked about Zay Flowers and Keon Coleman already, but I do think it was extremely encouraging. I'm confident in flowers. I would put Coleman in the intrigued bucket. Jackson Smith and Jigba, super confident what we saw in a game where the passing game wasn't really working. He's still dominated. Also, weirdly, Clint Kubiak didn't do any of his pre-snat motion play action stuff that are efficiency boosters for receivers. And still, Jackson-Smith and jigba dominated as an outside receiver um i think this is who he is if he's locked in all year like he's just really really hard to stop um hollywood brown the role is there i don't know if i believe in

him long term he like his average separation score was negative in week one so it's like basically a below replacement level player but the role is so good for fantasy i'm confident in him for the time being chris alave i wanted to point out because no one believes in chris alave but here we are Week one, Kellan Moore plays super fast, produces a ton of pass volume, even though it's Spencer Rattler under center. And Chris Alave gets the pre-snap motion stuff. He tied Debo Seema for the most routes where he was in motion before the snap with 10. Since entering the NFL, Chris Alave is wide receiver two in yards per outrun on pre-snap motion

routes. He's a very good player, and the situation is good. So I'm pretty confident in him. Oh, right. Hold on a second. targets and receptions the situation is not good for touchdowns or for yards seven catches for 54 yards he's so efficient at creating yards yeah i mean that's fair that's i mean like i didn't check rattler's a dot i imagine it was it was like five yards yeah that's the

thing i i think rattler is look is better than i thought he'd be but i i don't know that he's going to make any plays down feel rarely anyway so it was good in the sense where i feel like i can throw Olave in there as a flex, but I am not really going to want to start him without bioweaks personally. I have a few more I need to throw in there. I'm confident that Liam Cohen is an absolute genius when it comes to designing the run game. Take that for what you will.

It could mean Travis Etyn is going to be a massive great buy for us this season, but this run game has carried over despite offensive line concern. I am confident that you are not going to want to start quarterbacks against the Broncos defense. I did watch Cam Ward against the Broncos defense. That defense is the best in the NFL by far right now, the Broncos. They're going to see about that. No, we won't see about that.

They were the best defense last year, probably. They played such an easy schedule last year. And when the Bengals came to town in week 17, they lit them up. So I think they're going to stop a great, but okay, but you're going to give them all these kudos for stopping Cam Ward. No, no, no, I'm going to give them all those kudos from that was the game I was. watched yesterday where it seemed like the offensive line had no chance at all at any point because of the pass rush. They're great defense.

And that offensive line is not great for the Titans, but it's much improved and it's better than a lot of the offensive lines they're going to match up against this season. We'll see if I'm right on that. I could be wrong. I'm also confident. I like this segment. I'm confident that's the best I've seen Kyle Pitts looks since Florida. Honestly, I don't know if that's going to mean he's relevant.

Let's put him in intrigues. Yeah. I'm just confident in that one part. I'm not confident in him as a fantasy asset, but I'm intrigued by him. as a fantasy asset because he looked moved to move to be moving with the ball and without the ball better than i've seen since the florida days maybe he's finally healthy i don't know how that could be like i don't know how he could go so long being on looking the way he looked and then look the way he looked yesterday but doesn't mean he's a fantasy asset just yet but it's possible there um and i'm

definitely intrigued by that one well he had a he had a four point six yard a dot yesterday kyle pitts and he's always been a pretty high a dot guy last year was eight point four which is not that high, but a lot of the best fantasy tight ends, like the Njokos of the world, the Ingrams, they're five, six-yard Addot guys.

They just rack up a lot of easy catches, get some yak. Kyle Pitts has never been afforded that opportunity. I think he led the position in Adot each of his first three seasons in the league. So it's one game, but that's how a lot of these tight ends are scoring points. They're just outlets.

They just make, like even Tyler Warren yesterday, like a 5. 5.3 yard. or something like that. That's kind of what we want from most tight ends. I'm concerned about Brock Purdy in the short term. I don't think we've done guys that were concerned about.

They gave up a ton of pressure. Yes, I think the most pressure in week one going into Monday night football. I just look, if Tennings is out, if Kittle is out, Purdy had to force some balls. He got pretty lucky on that last drive. Yeah. Will and misplayed two balls. That last throw into the end zone, all they were going to tie the game.

he's just thrown an interception there would have been a third of the game total luck play i don't want to rock purdy at the moment and one of the most under discussed fantasy narratives of the offseason was the 49ers offensive line they did nothing to improve it it's been aging for years now and now pooney might be hurt like that could end up being a big factor in the fantasy season i'm gonna ask you guys about two players and you tell me what category you're you're putting them in here in terms of week one buying or selling Marvin harrison jrison junior we get some should we run some screenshot game here. Big bye for me. All right. Let's take a look at how open Marvin Harrison Jr. was a number of times

and not getting targeted. I've got four MHJ screenshots. We'll throw them up. But in the meantime, I'll give you a stat line. Five catches, 71 yards and a touchdown on six targets. Okay. Look at. Hey, Kyler, I'm open. Clean pocket. He gets like, if I let this play run another half second, he's even more open right in the middle of the field. Yeah, in the middle of the field. Is that bad for Kyler? Yeah. All right.

Let's go to our next one. Let's go to our next one. Dude. So this is hard. I mean, Kyler's stepping up. I think there's an opportunity. You got like,

he's pretty freaking open there. A great quarterback is making a throw to Kyle to Marvin Harrison, Jr. All right, that's number two. Where's number three? This one's the hardest one. But he's going, why do you hate me? I'm captioning all of these.

I like the captions. This is great. So, Kyler's role. into his right. This is not an easy play. But I think, like, take a shot, throw it into the end zone, see if he can make a contested catch. I don't remember what he does that. I think he threw an incompletion or scrambled or something. And then the last one, I think a lot of people probably saw this one, from the three-yard line. Look at the step that he gets. He beats the safety. The safety is stumbling.

Kyler throws, they can't connect. You genuinely had a chance for a 93-yard touchdown on that play. So those were some opportunities that were left there. The good thing, is he had a good game. The bad thing is he had a 17.1% target per outrun rate, only six targets. But yeah, Dan, you're buying. You're in on Marvin Harrison, Jr.? I'm in a Marvin Harrison Jr. because of how he looked. And he was my favorite prospect in last year's class, spite neighbors and Thomas in that class. On tape, he was phenomenal. And I thought he looked better today than he looked at any point in his rookie season or yesterday, I should say. And they finally used him on some horizontal breaking routes. The red zone touchdown that he had was something

we just didn't see it all last year. So I think they're finally understanding like they need to use him in a different way. I'm not full buy on him. Like I'm not saying he's going to be a wide receiver one elite tier because Kyler Murray, I don't think we'll ever support that. I know he did with Hopkins in the past,

but that was a completely different system that he was running. It was shotgun. It was spread. It was a lot of those quick outlet passes. And it was mostly PPR-based ascension for DeAndre Hopkins. This offense won't be like that. But I do think that he's going to return value on what his ADP was. Okay.

not for me you're out still yeah they used him a lot on horizontally breaking routes at the end of last season and he didn't produce during that time i just don't want any part of color murray he's fine i think he's fine where he's at but it's like he was a good player last year he really was i did nothing has changed in my opinion i i know what you're saying but like he had eight touchdowns last year he has one touchdown already if he gets the 10 plus touchdowns he will return value he's fine where he's at i'm not buying him okay that's fair you one player we We miss, though, in the confident factor that I want to take a break. Very quickly, very quickly.

All right. Luca Nakua is going to be an elite. You just, but you're basically just naming like all the first round, second round picks who had. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not true. Puka fell deep. Puka fell beyond all the top guys.

Same issue that's still there right now. It's no one. Yeah. No one's concerned about Puka when Stafford's healthy. Jackard made it through a fine this, this game, like, we're overreating. He's going to be fine. He's going to be fine. He doesn't have a lingering back.

More importantly, Puka was used, and Jacob pointing this out, and it was a really good astute point that he made in some of the Cooper Cup ways. And that's the real factor that should be noted. Like the way they used Cup, that's the heaviest PPR role you can find in fantasy. And it's the most guaranteed path to points. Yeah, no, he's insane. He's incredible for sure. All right.

We'll take a break and come back and talk about three offenses. Actually, four that completely stunk yesterday. We'll be right back on fantasy football today. Tim's new scrambled egg loaded croissant. Or is it croissant? No matter how you say it. Start your day with freshly cracked scrambled eggs loaded on a buttery, flaky croissant.

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I'm getting cooked by the chat for this puka take and I stand by it entirely. I've got two non-puka Brock Bowers ones for you, Debo Samuel and Michael Pittman. They both look like the guys they've been in the past. The target volume was great. Pitman, yeah, I mean, Pittman, I think, was a completely wide.

open on two of his biggest plays because the dolphins are just pathetic and honestly i think we have to sit here and decide what we're going to do with our colts how much are we buying it you know tyler warren had a very good game pitman had a very good game you know what do we what do we do with that because i i still think daniel jones is bad is a bad quarterback um one game can't change that for me but he played well with no no question i mean i assume this is all relative right like i don't think Pittman's wide receiver 8 or whatever he finished as this week, but relative to where he was drafted, I feel confident going forward. Okay. Well, what about Warren, though? Same exact thing. I feel confident relative to where he's drafted. I think he looks like a good

value, potentially like one of the best values that tied in. Don't necessarily see him as like a, what did he finish in fantasy? Like tied in two or something? No, because he didn't score. He had seven for 76 on nine targets. It's probably actually pretty close. Tight end one was Juan Johnson. Brock Bowers was tied in two. So Warren was probably up there. Yeah.

I don't think you can expect that every week, you know, in this offense, but he looked really good and it was obviously an emphasis to get him the ball. Okay. That's all he can ask, it tight end. He doesn't have like as much touchdown upside as like you would maybe want it tied in in this offense. But I think like for a rookie tight end to come in and have the role, get the targets, produced 15 he was tied in three in ppr um yeah super encouraging okay yeah my bad i didn't realize

it was that good okay so um the question from hog fan hog fan reminds me of the movie buffy the vampire slayer oh i thought you're going to say the movie swim fan you ever see that one no i never did but that's you with jamie but um you ever see the movie uh he with jamie what you love I was always agreeing him. Do you see Murphy the Vampire Slayer? No, I never saw it. I heard it was a good show. No, the movie.

I never saw the show. Definitely never saw the movie. Yeah, it was good. All right, are the Dolphins and Texans and Panthers offenses broken? Let's rank them on the Brokenometer. Who's the most broken to least broken, Dolphins, Texans, Panthers? I kind of feel like I have to put Texans to the top, even though it seems like it should clearly be Dolphins.

were like the most depressing team yesterday but man i can stand watching that texans game i might so the texans obviously played the best defense so i i want to factor that in of those teams that you mentioned and i do have respect for luana rumo and what he can do with that coles defense but that colt's defense was one of the worst in the NFL last year and to completely shut down the dolphins like they did i want to put the dolphins first i have no belief in toa personally um and I have no belief in the rapport with him in Tyreek, Mike McDaniel, any of it, really. So I'll put the dolphins first. Or will any of them bounce back?

Panthers are the one I have the most hope for, if that's the answer, if that's a question. I want to show, can we show the first Tyreek Hill? This is to his first interception of the game. This is a play where if you see Tyreek Hill, and I wrote Open, there's three defenders around him. And we're used to seeing the dolphins complete this path. Tua makes a pinpoint throw in between two levels of the defense. Here he overthrows it and it's intercepted. We can show the next one, whether it's Waddle or Tyreek Hill, whatever.

I am seriously so wide open Tyree Kill. Like that's how open Tyreek Hill is. Tua is rolling to his left. He throws the pass to Hill. His momentum carries him out of bounds. Like they don't complete that pass. Right. Your offensive line was not the problem.

I'm not saying it was great. They had a couple of blitzes that they just didn't pick up. One of them led to a fumble and a turnover. They turned the ball over three times in this game. That was bad. But the Colts were 29th in pressure rate. Only the Panthers actually had a lower pressure rate than the Colts in week one through the Sunday games. And yeah, I think there were plays that they usually make that they didn't make.

And they barely had the ball. So I feel like they can rebound, but also I feel like I have aqua and orange colored sunglasses because they're, they suck right now and everything's going again. I don't understand how they're so, how they're this bad when they, as Jamie pointed out, were 20 and 11 when Tua was healthy with Mike McDaniel. They're good. Why are they this bad? Well, first of all, their defense sucks.

They were in a hole immediately. They're down 3-0. Then they get the ball back. They turn it over. Next time they get the ball back, they're down 10-0. I mean, they're just immediately in a hole. And that could be a problem for them. The Texans, one thing I wanted to point about the Texans,

their field position was awful. They had one drive that started better than their own 24-yard line. I was watching, it was like, man, they're backed up a ton. Right. They had twice. The Rams only kicked off three times in the game. Twice, they kicked the ball into the landing zone. It bounced and rolled into the end zone for a touchback, which puts the ball on the 20-yard line.

That is like one of the worst-case scenarios for an offer to let that happen. They let it happen twice on three kickoffs. So they were backed up deep in their own territory. a lot. They started their first two possessions were from the first three or the 20, the five. No, they started from the 20, then they had a holding penalty. So they really started from the 10, then the five, then their own 20. And then Carolina, I mean, I watched every snap for all three of these teams. I actually saw Carolina looked like the most competent offense. They had some chances. They missed a few plays. Problem being, they played by far the

easiest defensive matchup. Well, the Colts should be a pretty easy matchup too. But I didn't see any like you know issues with the panthers that didn't seem fixable i just i see a team that doesn't have a lot of speed and it's probably not going to make a lot of big plays that's my concern with carolina yeah i wonder if sorry go ahead jacob oh i was just going to say the fantasy points data advanced stuff just hit their charting data and they it looks really good for bryce actually like they have them with one of the lowest off target rates and a decent highly accurate throw rate decent catchable ball rate i haven't got to that game yet But his time to pressure was very fast.

They were getting there fast when they were getting pressure. And I know his overall pressure was decently high, too. Yeah, I think my guess is that, like, they just kind of got in a hole, you know, because their defense, they got down early. And then the way Bryce plays is volatile, right? I feel like he kind of falls into the hero ball stuff sometimes. And we need more, like, success rate kind of plays. and especially with Thielen and Coker out,

I just worry about that. I don't really trust Xavier League it that much. We've got a lot of young players who are trying to make this come together offensively. So my guess is, before watching it and looking at the data, seeing that it is accuracy charting is at least decent, is that it was just kind of a randomly bad game.

I hope you're right. Yeah, well, I've got Tetero and McMillan dropped a 33-yard touchdown pass. It wasn't an easy catch, but it was a really nice throw. So then he had a cornerback beat for a deep ball, but Bryce Young was throwing it to him. He was hit as he threw. That's this play here, right? See that step he has. He's got a step or two on the defensive back.

Bryce Young is getting his ass kicked at the 49-yard line on this play, but that was almost a big play. Renfro almost had two chunk plays, but couldn't come down with one of them, was out of bounds for another one. Detavian Sanders nearly had a 20-yard catch, but he couldn't make the catch. So they were close. They were close. It was the Texans that were the one that really.

jumped out as just boring, no time to throw, no explosiveness, concerning. Yeah, I think we've covered that, though. So why don't we go to our next one? It's from, hold on. Evil. Eric. There is. Evil Eric wants to know about the Lions offense.

And ESPN had a note. They averaged 3.8 yards per play, the second lowest in Dan Campbell's tenure. Yikes. Yep. Yeah, so what are we thinking about the Lions offense getting spanked by Green Bay? This is what we were worried about. Jacob and I were worried about this Lions offense all offseason, and we didn't really buy into any of the players because of it.

Now, I don't want to say it's over now, right? It's, this offense is done because the Packers' defense may be the best in the NFL or one of the best in the NFL. So I want to make that clear, but it didn't look like the Lions offense to you guys, right? Like, it didn't look at all like the Ben Johnson offense. First of all, the run game was non-existent, and the run game was getting no push up front. That's an issue. Frank Ragnall was the best center in football.

He's gone. They basically have a, no, they do have a brand new interior offensive line. And I mentioned that throughout the offseason as a major concern for me. And it didn't look good, the interior offensive line. So he's still there. He looked awesome. But even he had some trouble in bass production with Parsons. It just feels to me like I wasn't watching the Lions.

offense at all. And we'll see tonight. I think tonight's going to be really interesting. If Ben Johnson can get that bear's offense humming against a coordinator and a defense like Brian Flores and the Vikings, we kind of know. Like, we kind of have an idea of what happened there with Detroit and what's going to happen moving forward, maybe. They didn't use play action and pre-snap motion quite as much as we're used to seeing. 38% play action rate last year on passes. That was down to 26%. Their pre-snap motion on passes last year was 60%. It was down to 51% so it's still above league average but last year ben johnson was just like cooking with those types of plays um we heard that they're going to ask their guys to go win more and i don't think

that that really happened here and like dan said it's a it's a really brutal matchup especially for that kind of approach because green bay doesn't they kind of take away the receivers and let you just do short dump offs and stuff i didn't think golf played very well and the charting kind of backs it up to he he had 13 games what was it 12 or 13 in a dome last year. Yeah, I knew you were going to go there. Someone went there in the chat earlier, and it is true. But I feel that way. You look at the end of last season at Chicago, at San Francisco. True. Jared Gough, nothing was stopping him. He was in the zone. They were playing great. Their defense was terrible, and they were throwing a lot. But he seemed to conquer that last year. So, you know, he's got a lot more outdoor games this year. He's never had a big game at Lambo, at least not with the Lions. Yeah, at Chicago, 31 points, at San Francisco, 32 points in week 16 and 17 last year. So, I've got on the screen here, the usage for the dolphins, only a 5.2, yeah, for the lion, sorry, 5.2 average depth of target, 5.2 yards for Jameson Williams, which I thought was

interesting. It's just a one-game data point, but that's, I'm curious to get in here and dig into how they used him he's been one of the most curious cases for me this year of at any position because so much of his production last year was schemed up if you take away the play action plays and stuff like that his per route data all gets much much worse obviously it was it was bad in this game he only drew a target on 12% of his routes um so i'm definitely like look out for that all update you guys on that sam la porta is the one who stood out to me really good route rate and played well and had you know 24% target per route run rate and i thought he looked at

looked great out there. A lot of people have said that he played through an injury last year. And I thought he played pretty well, even given that. So we don't really know how things are going to shift with a different offensive coordinator, and he's a really talented player. So maybe he's the one who kind of benefits more here. But again, I do think the matchup lends itself more towards Leporto type of targets than wide receiver targets.

For what it's worth, Jared Gough scored 15.6 fantasy points in week one last year. You know, a lot of guys got off to slow starts. Actually, I'm at 13.4 fantasy points in week one last year. I think he'll still be fine in home games. Here's the real problem. Three rounds for Isaac Tesla? That's how you fix the offense. Incredible catches I've ever seen.

That's how you fix the offense right there. Another note was that in the first half, dead even split between Montgomery and Jemir Gibbs, 50-50 playing time with more touches going to Montgomery slightly. when they got behind, it became more and more Gibbs. It was just so disappointing watching a lion's offense not get the push-up front that they get in the run game or they have gotten in the run game. And I just ultimately think that could derail a lot of things offensively. Okay.

So let's go to our last topic here. And it's from Chris Donor. And he says, rookies, who did we overhype and who did we under hype? Yeah, a lot of thoughts on the rookies. I can start with a few. Credit Jacob for cutting up some of the film on them. got a chance to watch Ashton Genti. I felt like on Genti, the Raiders run blocking is still an issue to me.

And that was an issue I thought was going to be there all season. I didn't think they did a good job upgrading that unit. But he did, I did, they did block up one run. I thought to be honest, I thought, and you could correct me if you disagree, Jacob. On the film that I watched, which was every touch, I only thought they blocked up one run well. It was a duo run. And he did a good job of bursting through the only open hole he saw. Other than that, the touchdown run was just incredible.

effort on his part post-contact like the play was completely blown up from a blocking standpoint he did everything there he was hit behind the line of scrimmage often mostly throughout almost all of his touches but he did look natural as a receiver at the backfield too um not that there was that much designed to him as a receiver out of the backfield so i like what's the ceiling for a play like that it still should be pretty high because he's an amazing talent with a great role uh ultimately more so i think for non-pbr leagues Okay. Yeah, I mean, in terms of Hampton, I'm fine with it.

Yeah, another example, good role. Yeah, the Cheaps might have a great run defense like they did for two-thirds of last year. Not a great run defense, but the best in football, basically. So, you know, I thought we saw a little bit of burst from them, and we're buying into the Chargers offense. The concern would be does Najee Harris get mixed in more? Personally, I don't really think that's the solution, but it definitely could happen. The ones that you'd have to be concerned about would be Henderson and Harvey.

Obviously, Caleb Johnson is a big concern right now, but maybe that's a long-term play. But Henderson and Harvey, Harvey being much more concerning than Henderson to me. I feel like you guys would agree because Tyler Badegh had six targets for the Broncos yesterday. Harvey wasn't used at all. I don't really understand the preseason. I mean, it seems so clear what RJ Harvey's role was going to be, and he just didn't really have it. all I can say is that there is a history, a very long history of rookie running backs that were not drafted in the first round, being eased into action, and it does take some time,

even for some of the best ones, like Nick Chubb, for example, it does take some time. But Harvey, yeah, super concerned, not even close to startable until we see something, whereas Henderson, I feel like, is knocking on the door of taking over there in New England, but maybe I'm just being too optimistic. So, Jacob, how do you feel about those two guys? you know I'm going to defend R.J. Harvey. I thought he looked great. And I think that like great players get more and more opportunities and that they're probably going to need him. It doesn't make any sense to me that a team that's contending and trying to knock off the chiefs would draft

a 24 year old rookie in round two and not play him. They cut out the Tyler Beatty stuff in the second half. He just barely didn't. He barely played it all in the second half. Sean Payton did some shenanigans at the beginning of the game and it didn't really work. And then they got kind of into a more natural flow in the second half for what it's worth that didn't result in a ton of more opportunities for harvey it was actually more for daubbins yeah but i think we could see that shift more towards the rookie as time goes on i'm just mostly encouraged that he looked good because a lot of people right were panicking about his preseason film um i thought he made some nice cuts here looked elusive he gained a lot of yards after contact yeah looked elusive had great burst his one long run

was a phenomenal individual play um with jacob i mean i was high on dobbins all offseason So I still am proed Dobbins. I kind of had an idea this was going to be his role in the offense as a veteran player. And I think he'll score a lot of touchdowns as long as he's healthy. But he has an injury history. And if he goes down, that could be what they need or what RJ Harvey needs to break out. But I'm with Jacob. Like I think this role will expand.

I'm actually more worried if it were me about Henderson, not because of the player, just because of the role and because of the Patriots offense and their offensive line specifically. That was what had me worried about Henderson. I don't have any shares of Henderson. mostly because of his price combined with what I project that offensive line to be. And then being in a Josh McDaniel's offense, not like not a volume heavy. I never saw the volume coming. I still see potential for Harvey's volume to take a big jump.

But he had, what, he have, six catches, five or six catches in this game, right? So he's already being involved. PR-wise, yeah. I just think that he has to beat out Ramon-R-J-Harvey has to beat out J.K. Dobbins. I don't think it's ever a beat-out thing. Like, to me, McDaniel's offense, there is no beat out. they're going to use a lot of backs. We'll see if I'm wrong about that.

He really hasn't had great running backs. And one time that he, there's a spider in this room, I'm happy about this. So we're actually scared of spiders. I'm fine. He had Josh Jacobs and didn't really split things up there. He just gave it to Josh Jacob.

Now Henderson's not Jacobs. He's not a workhorse. Different back, yeah. Right. No, he's not going to be a workhorse. But, you know, all right. So let's try about the wide receivers. I think maybe overhyped Matthew Golden,

but again, we're not going to make a judgment in week one. Maybe underhyped the Mecca Abuka. He only had six targets, but boy, did he make them count? Don't know about Hunter yet. I don't think, I know like the question is who's overhyped, who's underhaped.

I don't think that we need to take a stand in week one. I think it's perfectly fine to say, I don't know, and let's let it play out. Yeah. Yeah. But obviously I'm worried about Golden, and I'm worried that I didn't draft the Mecca Abuka, which might have been really stupid.

He looked terrific, but what do you guys think about rookie receivers? The only thing I would add is that Elika Yamanor played a ton for the Titans. He also got a surprising amount of first-read targets. So he's somebody I'm keeping an eye on because I think he is a talented guy. I know that you aren't a fan of his at him. But this top opportunity, 133 air yards for a rookie. He's intriguing.

Yeah, I didn't like the way he was used. He did almost nothing that was not on the boundaries. almost he's some crazy thing like four catches in the middle of the field between the hash marks yeah it's deep deep leagues nobody's rostering him but it's just like i want you to know that this guy's playing is very big and athletic and could be something at some point i think i've tetero mcmillan absolutely happy if i drafted him yeah um do you who do you guys think is going to lead the buccaneers and fantasy points at wide receiver mike evans i still think it'll be Evans as well.

Okay. I was hoping to see more targets for a Bucca in this game, 17% target per round, right? I'm not like worried. This is great. Obviously, it's great to see him out there and produce and do the things we know we can do. I just thought, given the state of the receiver position there, that he would probably see more targets.

Yep. You mean a Bucca Joe? That's right. Thank you. No one said it was, he said that was right. He didn't say a great team name, Adam. He didn't say great team. Well, I think it was implied.

I don't think it was implied there. How about his average route depth? I didn't, this not, did not expect this, 10.5 yard average route depth for a Mecca Buka. Yeah. Yeah. That's very high. That's how they used in the preseason. I thought that was maybe just a test run.

I thought we would see him get more Chris Godwin's stuff, but they didn't really do a lot of that. And maybe that's just Liam Cohen was the one skimming that up last year. The final touchdown he caught was, it was good by him. but man, was that an incredible ball by Baker Mayfield? I thought that was one of the best throws by any quarterback this entire weekend. I'm pretty annoyed that Baker Mayfield had such a big game. Why? I still think he played very well.

Got lucky again, like a couple balls could have been picked. I don't know. Just kind of bothered by it. It's time to talk about Harold Fanon Jr. In the show on this. Yes. I love this guy. They used them all over the plays.

Using the backfield. Use him wide. Use them in the slot. Using the tight end. He played a ton. targets out targeted David and Joku got some yak as well got some downfield looks what if he's just really good you know like I compared him to trade McBride who also broke out at a small school similar to Fanon similar levels of competition and Fanon was better across the board he tested better

than McBride in any athletic testing the McBride did I don't want to say he's better than McBride but like what if he is good you know he could be good and he's just kind of an unorthodox mover and maybe some people judged him a little bit too quickly and now we seem at the NFL level and it's like, okay, yeah, he's still doing the same stuff. It's going to be contingent on Joe Flacco, I think.

Like if Joe Flacco is not a QB anymore, you don't probably want any of the Browns, let alone the ancillary pieces. Yeah. Okay. I always pronounce that ancillary. Have I been wrong the entire time? No, I think ancillary is right, actually, yeah.

I never trust me with, well, I'm good at regular words in the English language. I'm not very good at pronouncing. Okay, we're out of here. Thanks for watching. We're out of the box score. There's a lot more of it. It's got its own feed.

So check that out. And we have the waiver wire on the FFT feed on Tuesday and on FFT Express coming up very shortly. For Dan and Jacob and Josh, our producer, I'm Adam. Have a great day, everybody. Talk to you soon. Paramount Podcasts.