Fantasy Football Today - Week 2 Fantasy Football RANKINGS & Tiers: QB, RB, WR, & TE + Starts & Sits (09/17 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: September 17, 2026

Jamey, Dave and Heath break down the Week 2 fantasy football consensus rankings and tiers at every position, starting with running backs (2:04), wide receivers (16:45), quarterbacks (32:13), and tight ends (43:28). Get the latest start, sit, and sleeper advice for every position as the guys help you make the toughest Week 2 lineup decisions. Hear where they stand on Jeremiyah Love, Aaron Jones, Zay Flowers, Davante Adams, Bryce Young, George Kittle and more! Tune in for essential Week 2 fantasy football rankings, matchup analysis, starts and sits, sleepers, and lineup advice!Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and wherever else you listen to podcastsWatch FFT on YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 

It's rankings time here on fantasy football today. Welcome to the show. I'm Jamie Eisenberg. That's Day Richard. That's Heath Cummings. We're breaking down all of our week two rankings and getting you set to dominate your fantasy leagues. It was a crazy week one.

A lot of people are overreacting, panicking. Don't do it. It's going to be fine in week two. And if you go to O&2, you'll still be okay because it's a long season. You can still make the fantasy playoffs. You didn't panic over. You didn't panic over.

Anybody? No. Anybody? Not even one player? Panic. Not even one player? No. Just cut them.

Good for you. Oh, I mean, that's what you do. That's what you do. You just scared with them. My life. See you later. Let's talk about running back rankings here. That's what you're here for to see what we're going to do with our rankings and players that you should be starting and sitting as well.

We'll give you some sleepers on top of that. Here's the rank list one through 12 for the running backs. And got a game tonight between the Bills and the Lions. James Cook, one of the rare first round running backs that did not perform at a very high level, despite his team playing well. When you look at James Cook taking on a lion's team that play. 91 plays last week and could be tired coming off of an overtime win. Do we like, love,

or just starting James Cook because he's James Cookie? I'm just trying to figure out who hates James Cook that he's all the way down RB7. I'm at 10. Okay, so you hate James Cook. I've got him at RB4. I think he's going to get more work. I think he's facing a much better matchup in the Lions

versus the Texans and this game. The over-under, every time I say what it is I'm wrong because it's gone up again. It's up to 55 now. Lots of touchdowns. Cook will get at least one of them, maybe two of them. I agree 100%. This is really a great opportunity for the bills to feed them

after they only gave him 16 touches in the game at Houston. And you said it. Detroit's going to be exhausted after playing into overtime on Sunday. I just hope we get the James Cook that we were hoping for, you know, because Josh Allen looked awesome. DJ more a big part of what we saw, Dalton Kincaid was great. And it was just like, okay, here, there's James Cook. Go, go do your thing.

So let's get the James Cook that we all draft. as a top five running back. Again, you're starting James Cook, no questions about it. Let's show you the list 13 through 24. Some of the more questionable running back decisions that you might have to make. And we're keeping an eye on some injuries. Hopefully Dandre Swift is going to be fine.

No real concern there. But maybe some concern and going to your question, Dave, about panic. Fantasy managers may be panicking a little bit about Devon, H.N. And O'Mary and Hampton, both guys did not perform up to the level that they were drafted to. H.N. was very disappointing taking on the Raiders, although you can look at the forecatch and say that's nice because we were concerned with Malik.

Willis, but Hampton scored the touchdown, had the fumble, no work in the passing game. How are we approaching those guys? I'll give you Hampton. Heath, you can take H-N. I'm nervous about Hampton from the aspect of the offensive line for the Chargers looking really, really bad. And I know that they have to address it. It might just mean more edge runs for Hampton. And he won on a couple of those last week and against the Raiders this week. He should be all right. And it would make sense for the Chargers to kind of go back to basics, not put it all on Justin Herbert's shoulders here, and let Omar and Hampton run. The end result could be good. I don't know if it's necessarily going to be great. I'm looking at him as a number two

fantasy running back, but a good one, one of those top half of the RB2 range running backs. I think I dropped Devon H&2 spots. I was encouraged actually that Malik Willis does possess the ability to throw the ball to his running back. He ran a route on 78% of Willis's

dropbacks. That was the second highest number for any running back, only behind Bejohn Robinson, who has a 53% target share somehow. I think when I looked at his line totals for rushing and receiving. They're expecting about 75 yards and about a 50-50 chance to score a touchdown.

I think that's probably right. If he scores eight touchdowns this year, he's probably a borderline number one, low-in number one this week for me. Were these the two guys that looked the worst from the top-end running backs for you? Does Sequin count? Yes, James Cook kind of counts just because James Cook didn't have a lot of work. So that's somebody who would make the list, but probably wouldn't be on the list. I thought A-chan looked good.

I just don't think he made the point that he got a lot of targets, and that's good. Two of the first three targets that Malik Willis threw in the game went to A-chan, and then he forgot about him until the fourth quarter.

I wish he was more involved in the office, and there were opportunities for him if Malik Willis had just checked down to him against Las Vegas. His numbers would have been better. I'll say Hampton is the one I'm most nervous about. Okay. We'll see if these guys can rebound in week two.

Tough matchup for A-chan. This was one of the more winnable games for the Dolphins. Now we'll see taking on a 49ers defense that should definitely be rested. after playing last Thursday night. I'll show you the list 25 through 36, and again, this is where the flex options

come into place and maybe more questionable starting options. You got Jeremiah Love on this list. Are we encouraged by Jeremiah Love or discouraged by Jeremiah Love after what we saw in week one where the Cardinals won the game, but he was out-touched and out-snapped by Tyler Eljure. I would love to trade for him.

I'm very encouraged by Jeremiah Love. The workload is going to come for him, the opportunities, the snaps. That's going to be there too. this is not going to be a backfield where Tyler Alger is dominating snaps in the fourth quarter of their wins. We're going to see Jeremiah Love get some work. And he did not look like a running back

that suffered a high ankle sprain in the preseason. He looked great. He was bouncing all over the place, had that acceleration in speed. This will sound a little funny. He would turn negative runs into zero yard runs and they would impress me. So I think that there's absolute upside

for Jeremiah Love and people should trade for him. Encourage for rest of season. Discouraged for week two. Agree. Where the workload is right now and the fact that you're now facing the Seahawks, I don't want to start Jeremiah Love this week. I would love to have Jeremiah Love on my roster

in the second half of the season. Yeah, I think if you are trying to make a trade, you could probably get him for a good price. You might get him for a better price after this game because you take away the touchdown last week and it wasn't a great stat line. So he did perform well. He did look good, but then again, you would like to see,

hey, Cardinals playing with a lead. Let's give Jeremiah Love some work. And it was, we're going to Tyler Alger, maybe to protect the ankle. but I don't think we're out of the woods yet from what we know how this is going to look for these guys. A couple of injury notes, you can show the list 36 through 48, but a couple of injuries

that were keeping an eye on, RJ Harvey missed practice Wednesday with a, or would have mispractice Wednesday with a hamstring injury, they were estimating that. Kyle Monongue, DeAndre Swift, both dealing with injuries. We expect both those guys to play. And one note, which we'll talk about

when we get to the starts and sits, is Jordan Mason is out for this week. He's actually been placed on IR with that thumb injury, so something to keep an eye on there. if you're looking for maybe a dart throw late, DeMond Claiborne, their sixth round rookie, maybe he gets some opportunities to share time with Aaron Jones, but we'll talk about how much we like Aaron Jones

right now when we talk about some starts and sits. Let's talk about the start running backs that we're looking at. Dave for you, it's Tubahubbard. Heath for you, it's a Darying Price, and for me it's Aaron Jones. I'll start with Chuba Hubbard and tell you that I think he's a top 20 running back this week. I really do. I love that he had nearly 70% of the snaps for Carolina,

dominated on third down, had all three other snaps inside the five. Should have a favorable game script this week. against Atlanta. That Falcons team did not impress me very much against Pittsburgh. I think they stayed in that game because Pittsburgh allowed them to there. And I think that we will see Chuba Hubbard continue to get opportunities to score, certainly get a few opportunities in the past game, and get a lot of carries. He's the number two running back. Are you dropping Jonathan Brooks yet in a 10 team league? No. Oh, in a 10 team league? I don't want to. Let's put them on that list of

guys that I'd like to keep on the bench and not necessarily part ways with yet. We do know that this coaching staff does have a tendency to flip running backs at some point in the year when they're unhappy with whoever their lead back is. Jedarian Price looked great in Wednesday's season opener last week. Does he get more work? I think he gets a little more work. I think it's a very similar situation to Jeremiah I love. It was pretty obvious watching both of those guys.

They are the most talented running backs on their team. They also didn't get as much work as we would like. I think they both get a little bit more this week. The big difference for me is the Jadaradian Price is playing against the Cardinals' defense as a four-point favorite. Jeremiah loves playing against the Seahawks defense as an underdog. So I would like to start Price. I would like to sit love this week.

I think both of them will just continue to get better, except when Zach Charbonnet comes back, I'm not sure that's going to be great news for Price. Yeah, it's funny how the NFL works that everybody wanted Jeremiah Love. They settled for a Deerian price, NFL-wise, draft-wise.

Probably they settled for him. I think they kind of reach for him by taking him at the end of round. Well, I mean, I think they realized they needed something to help their run game and they went out and got somebody that they like. That being said, here we are. I'm with you. I think you probably like Love more than Price. I do. I'm with you, Heath. I would start Price over Love if I had the choice to make between the two of those guys. I'm just guessing Seattle backup quarterback, favorite defense should be good. Lean on the ground game. Lean on the better player. Hopefully he gets those touchdown chances.

Aaron Jones, we'll see how much work he gets now that Jordan Mason is out. This is a great opportunity for him. And he loves, loves, loves playing the Chicago Bears. He's played them 17 times his career 14 of those games, he's been 10 ppr points or more, but he averages just shy of 15 ppr points per game, and he's had some dominant games. I put in a lot of the mediocre performances there. What you see on the screen hasn't been updated. He's a top 20 running back for me. I know he's

top of 20 for you. Same. It's just exciting to see what this could go. And we were talking all offseason because Jones, you know, in his early 30s, Jordan Mason 27, that Mason got great, could be awesome if Jones missed his time. He missed five games last year. Well, here's the reverse now that Jones will hopefully get the majority of the touches. We don't know again what the split will be. be DJ Dallas, could be Claybourne, but this is just a great opportunity for Aaron Jones to

hopefully take advantage of a matchup that he has had a lot of success against. And as we know, despite the fact that the Panthers got obliterated defensively, Truba Hubbard did have a very good game running the ball score two touchdown. So maybe that happens for Aaron Jones. All right, sit running back for this week. You got Bachel Tooting for you, Heath. Dave, you're staying away from the entire Steelers backfield, and I'm going to try and sit Quinchon Judkins. But let's start with Bachel Toon. Yeah, I don't think people should look at what Kenneth Walker did in week one and think Bachel Tutin's going to do the same thing in week two. I do not think those are the same types of running backs. And I think there's something actually kind of discouraging for Tutin

in Walker's data. He had negative yards before contact. This Broncos defense is still very good. They had their worst tackling day, probably of some of their lives. That is not something that I think is predictive for this week. In fact, I think it probably means they show up just a little bit more focused on the fundamentals of tackling in week two. Tudan's a fine flex. You may have to start him. I don't really want to. And I don't want to. And I don't want to. really think he's the most likely Jacksonville running back to score a touchdown if they get inside the five-yard line. We talked about Judarian Price and what he did last week, and he looked good doing it. He just didn't have huge numbers with it. He went up against the Patriots. And that run defense,

as long as they've got Milton Williams on the field, that's going to be a unit that's going to be formidable. We saw Warren and Dowell pretty much rotate drives last week. So Warren started, he had the first drive. Then it was Rico. Then it was Warren. So you're going to need the luck of the draw on which back will be in there when the sealers actually go. Warren's the one who passed the eyeball I'd be a little bit more encouraged with him, especially since on passing downs when he was on the field, he didn't do any pass blocking. He was running around, and Aaron Rogers was looking for him.

Rico and pass protection struggled in week one against Atlanta. Of all teams, that's a bad team to struggle against. The matchup further enhances Warren's chances to get some decent numbers. He's the one I would flex out of the two, but I really don't want to start either one. I would agree with both those calls, except maybe a little bit more encouraged by Baseball Tutant, but we'll see, you know, I think just Jonathan Cooper not being there's a big boss for that

Broncos defense so we'll see what happens moving forward in this game. For me, Quinshan Judkins, I think we were all somewhat excited about him coming into the season and then you see the downfalls when this Brown's offense actually takes the field and has to play real games. We'll see what they do without Dylan Samson there. My guess it's going to be Rahim Sanders or Julian McLaughlin are both working on passing downs. Now, we did get some work in the passing game for Judkins last week, but this is the game script that you fear is that they're going to be chasing points and probably chasing points a lot, not having a lot of time of possession, not having a lot of fourth quarter opportunities, and Judkins could definitely be the

definition of a trapback. If he's not getting goal line chances or touchdown chances, he'll get goal line chances when they're there. But if he's not getting touchdown chances and not catching the ball, so I think Judkins is at best a flex, someone you might want to avoid. All right, let's talk about some sleepers that we're looking at here, maybe some, you know, options that can help fantasy managers that are stuck. We know a lot of injuries at the wide receiver position.

Dave, you got Kenneth Gainwell. Heath, you're going back to Marshall & Lloyd, and for me, I'm going to go Kailon Black. So what do we like about Gainwell after a disappointing game last week? It's the Browns. Thank you. No, there's more to it than that. Obviously, the Brown's defense is going to be putting some tough spots by their offense,

and that could open the door. But Gamewell played nearly 50% of the snaps last week. All that was in a negative game script. This is going to be a positive game script. He had the edge on snaps inside the 10-yard line as well. And the buck should run away with this one. So I'm really just saying the Browns, Gamewell had a decent amount of work last week, and it's the Browns.

It really just comes through where Gamewell, if you're in a pinch of running back, I think he can be around 10 fantasy points. Do you think the one who benefits, though, as the backup is more Sean Tucker or more Kenneth Gainwell? I think it could be Gainwell just based on what we saw last week. Well, Tucker didn't play last week. Right. So if Tucker comes back this week,

are we sure he's going to have that role or does Gainwell have it? More importantly, Bucky doesn't have it. That makes me a little worry. I'm just thinking blowout situation because it sounds like that's where you're going. If it's a blowout, is it Tucker more than Gainwell because they just decide to sit at the top together? If it's the last five minutes of the game, that's where you'll see Tucker. I'm not starting Kenneth Gere. I'm not calling Gainwell a sleeper.

I'm not saying he's a starter. But he's not a sleeper. I'm calling him a sleeper. not a starter. He's a sleeper because of what he does in the first 55 minutes of the game, not the last five minutes of the game. Marshawn Lloyd, obviously disappointing last week. We get a better version this week?

I think we get a better version. I was actually encouraged by the fact that he had 62% of the team's rush attempts. I think this is a much better matchup against the Jets. Tony Pollard just averaged five yards per carry against them than they had last week against the Vikings. I kind of think they might have a decent size leads in the fourth quarter of this game, and you get a few more carries for Lloyd. A good high-inflex for me.

I like what I saw from Kailin Black last week. You know, we'll see how this game goes, but they're nearly two touchdown favorites against the Dolphins. Christian McCaffrey should dominate this game. But Black last week, in the early part of the game, when it was still very much in question, 14 carries, overall, 65 yards, did have a couple of catches. I think we'll see him just get these fourth quarter opportunities.

We'll see if Jordan James is inactive once again. But Kalin Black could be a very nice flex for you in week number one. All right, we're going to take a break. We come back and get into the wide receiver rankings. We'll talk about Parker Washington, Luther Burden, Devante Adams. A couple of those guys were disappointed. last week. We'll see if they bounce back in week number two. Time for your

wide receiver rankings here on fantasy football today. We're talking about the players that may be very impactful because there are a lot of injuries that we're monitoring. We have Zay Flowers, Ladd-McConkie, Nico Collins, all questionable as of Thursday for week two. And we know A.J. Brown, Dejohn, Stribling

and Jacoby Lane are out as they have all been placed on IR. Here is the list of rankings 1 through 12. And we have a guy on this list in Zay Flowers that, as of now, We don't know if he's going to play. I haven't seen the Thursday update yet, so I apologize for anybody's watching this.

Does it make sense to play Jamison Williams over Zay Flowers in Thursday's game? If we know that... He misses practice. If he misses practice on Thursday, yeah, you've got to play it safe if those are your only two options. Well, I think most people have at least one more wide receiver.

The Zayflowers guy. Always says yes to play the Thursday guy, except Zay Flowers. Well, who's your fourth wide receiver? It's like, Jamie's not your fourth. What if it's Romeo Dobbs? If it's Romeo Dobbs and I would play Jameson. Right. By the way, you're not the Zayfowler's got this week.

If it was Quentin Johnston, then I would wait it out. I only have Zayflowers ranked where I do because I'm concerned that he's not 100% and going to be on a limited snap count. So that's the reason why he's a little bit lower. And by the way, if sports lines down on Zayflowers, you should be a little concerned knowing who does the projections there. Obviously, if he plays your starting, and that's the good thing. Let's talk about DJ Moore, who's now gone from a guy we were concerned about last week,

has five for 100 and a touchdown. must-star guy now in tonight's game? I think so. I was so encouraged by his usage in week one. The fact that he went up against Houston and Josh Allen just took it to that Texan secondary through downfield to DJ Moore. The touchdown was fluky, but all the other targets that were downfield, I think that's something that the bills can lean into if they so choose. I don't know how much they're going to need to lean into it against Detroit in this game,

but DJ Moore just has way more upset. That's a better matchup. It is a better matchup, but I also think that they could run their way to victory. My only little bit, he's definitely a must start this week. Yeah. My only hesitation is if the touchdown was fluky, we're looking at like four for 60. Yep. Without it.

So, like, that made the difference between us being really excited about DJ Moore and us thinking, well, DJ Moore is DJ Moore. Right. Well, it's also, and again, they ran a lot of plays, but Crystal Lave and Devon Valet took advantage of the secondary, and you've got to assume that DJ Moore will have enough. This week for sure. As well. All right, let's talk about Rashi Rice and Drake London, as we show you, the list 13 through 24 here, and two receivers that are coming off some disappointing performances.

We know about Rice what's more about the run game there for Kansas City and just how great Ken Walker was, but got lucky with the touchdown. And for Drake London, it's the quarterback situation right now for Atlanta where we don't know who's going to be the starter against Carolina in week two. Could be Cooper Rush. We're hoping it's maybe Michael Pennix or Tootonga by Loa, but it's not trending in the right direction. So Heath, Rice, I know you've kind of defended him on our podcast the last couple of days

because Adam Azer's been a little bit more concerned maybe than most. just easy to start him. I'm not really even thinking about it. I'm starting Rashi Rice for at least one more week. He's one of several guys who just has the polar opposite matchup of what he had in week one. Going from the Broncos to the Indianapolis Colts after what we saw from their defense last week.

If he's bad this week, then I will start really being concerned about Roshy Rice. But I'm not even thinking about it this week. Dave, the quarterback situation is bad in Atlanta. It's bad for Drake London. It's bad for Kyle Pitts. We saw it against Pittsburgh. Is it going to be bad once again in this matchup against Carolina?

I think I've got him ranked too high. I'm looking right now and I see him at 15. And I don't feel good about that at all. I think he should be considerably lower. Scott Turner on reality versus fantasy this week said that if he had Drake London or Kyle Pitts on his team, he would be out on them because of the quarterback situation, hoping that maybe when Michael Pennix comes back,

that'll be the guy that gets them unlocked a little bit. This has nothing to do with the matchup. In fact, with both these receivers, I don't think the matchup has nearly as much to do with it as you think it does. It really comes down to game script and who's throwing them the football. The game script for Kansas City, obviously, very run heavy. That led to a minimum targets for Rishi Rice.

That was something that I was worried about. And then Cooper Rush under center is just a disaster for Atlanta. Even if they put two of there, yeah, that might mean more catches for Drake London. And you can feel a little bit better about that. But I don't think he's going to get a lot of downfield work. I don't know how well they're going to be able to move the ball through the air. I think Carolina's going to be able to put some points on them, both on the ground, through the air. It makes me nervous about Drake London.

Let's just call him a number two wide receiver. but there could be some really bad games coming up for them. Yep, well, unless the quarterback situation change. Pennix needs to play. Yep, and we don't know when that's happened. We'll come down to Pennix, but we'll see what they decide to do. For week number two, let's look at the consensus rankings 25 through 36 and some names that we didn't expect to be in this range so soon.

One in particular is Jalen Waddle. The other one is Jamison Williams. So we talked about Williams maybe versus Dayflowers or any of the other injured guys, Newell Collins as well. Heath, nine targets last week for Williams, very encouraging production, So much, do we get the production in this game against Buffalo? I think where he is ranked is almost exactly where I have him. And this is kind of where he best fits.

When I think of number three wide receivers, I think of boom bust. He's the very best of those guys. And his booms might be bigger and his busts might be a little bit smaller. But he's still, for me, a boom bust number three wide receiver. You tell me anything north of six targets for him and I'm starting him almost continually. So hopefully we get nine targets again. Again, a lot of plays were ran last week in that overtime game. game, but still the emphasis was on getting James and Williams involved. That was not the case for

Jalen Waddle, Dave. Are we going to get a bounce back game against a very good Jacksonville defense? I want to say yes, but you were right. That Jacksonville defense was better than expecting. Their pass rush is really good. And I kind of want to take a hands-off approach to this Broncos offense until they can figure out how they can be better in terms of play calling, better in terms of past protection, and better in terms of just scheming up ways to get Jalen Waddle the ball. I was encouraged that he was playing in the slot a lot, about two-thirds of the snap. snaps, that's good. And he looks great, Jamie. There's no injury to talk

about it. Like, he's definitely quick and all that stuff. But man, until that offensive line can get fixed and until Bo Nix plays with a little bit more confidence and the play calling is better, I don't want to use them unless it's as a flex. And that's just where I'm going to stand on Jalen Waddle. This is a big game for Davis Webb

as the play caller, big game for hopefully Bo Nix and you'd like to see Jalen Wadle just get more than three targets. All right, let's go to the starts and sits. We'll just stick with Jacksonville here, Dave, because Parker Washington, I said this on our podcast today. The number that stands out to me the most is his start percentage. It's under 60%. I'm just shocked based on what he did last

year and what he did in week one following the hype. You're calling him a must start guy. He is absolutely a must start guy. You tell me, Jamie, is a 42.9% target per route run rate good? That's what he had in the first half against Cleveland. And I think we're going to continue to see him get a lot of targets. It's those short and intermediate

targets over the middle of the field, certainly in the red zone. And against Denver, yeah, you think about Denver and you think about a tough defense and a strong secondary, their best cornerback probably will not be lined up on Parker Washington very much. Pax Stratan plays the outside, Washington plays inside. Trevor Lawrence has complete trust in him. Their chemistry is great. I think he's a must start. I would start him over Drake London easily. Yeah, six for one forty five and a touchdown on ten targets in week 16 against them last year.

So that's good. Luther Burden, not the best of games last week, but does we get a better performance against a tough defense in Minnesota? Yeah, I think it's a tough defense. They also gave up more fantasy points to wide receivers in week one than any other defense. So I don't think the bears will have near as much success running the football as they did in week one, which will mean a few more pass attempts for Caleb Williams. Hopefully he doesn't just run on all of those, which should mean more targets for both Luther Burden and Colston Loveland. I think what we saw with the Kleefe Raymond nonsense, hopefully it does not repeat itself in week two,

or we're all going to be panicking just a little bit. But yeah, must start wide receiver. Basically ranked exactly where I had him ranked last week. I hope because of Chicago's defense, we get a shootout. I think we will. I hope so. I mean, look, it's hard to say, oh, Carson Wentz. Hey, you're going to be encouraged by that.

But, you know, he does give his receiver's chances to make plays, and we'll see Aaron Jones and what he does against his defense. But it's really just about if Chicago can't stop anybody, they're going to have to score, and maybe just knowing Ben Johnson, he gets a little bit more creative with the passing game, as we saw last week with the run game. I'm going to go back to Devante Adams.

I know what's disappointing last week, three catches, 26 yards on six targets. The thing that was the most discouraging was the goal line opportunities that's usually where he's had a lot of his chances, at least last year's had a lot of his chances. And then the 13 personnel package, it was much more heavily favored for Pukua, which we saw toward the end of the last season,

but we got to see a little bit more of that for Adams. He only went two times, there was only two instances last year where he went back-to-back games without a touchdown, so hopefully he scores. That's really what you're counting on here. I do think that the Giants defense, because they were not on the field as much last week, we didn't see how maybe their secondary can get exposed.

And so while they did do a good job collectively against C.D. Lam and George Pickens, I think this is a bounce-back game for the Rams after what happened last week. So expect the Rams back in America to look more like the Rams. Let's talk about some sit wide receivers. Dave, you kind of already covered it a little bit with Jalen Wallen. If there's anything you want to add.

I don't think there's anything else you need to add. Let's just see it before we start him again. Heath hates fun. So everybody, the most added player in CBS Sports League is Devon Vela. You're calling him a sit. Why? I don't even want to start him in a three wide receiver league. Wow.

I know. It's just I don't think we should take very much at all from last week for them. I mean, you can take his target share if you'd like. It was 17%. That is not a wide receiver that we start. Unless they are one of the most talented wide receivers in the NFL, I don't think anybody's arguing that Devon Valle is. They played overtime.

They ran 86 offensive plays. He had nine targets. They're probably going to run right around 60 offensive plays like normal teams this week. Maybe it'll be 65. So you're probably looking at six targets from Devon Vaila. So you probably need a touchdown for him to reach double-digit fantasy points. So you don't even like him as a low-end flex. A low-end flex?

Yeah, he's my, I think he's, because he's not, his list is not ranked here, and that sounds worse than it is. We rank 48 wide receivers. Yeah, right, right. He's 50th. He's within a point of wide receiver 41. So, like, he's a wide receiver 4. He's a flex, that's fine, and maybe he'll score a touchdown.

What's your threshold because you do your own projection? What's your threshold for a wide receiver 3? How many fantasy points? PPR. PPR, we've got that for this week is a right around, right? Just right around 11. Okay, so perfect number for him. Because when he got involved, he was averaging 11.9.

That was last year? It's four of his last five games. So when he became involved last year after the Rishi T. That's kind of what I'm looking at is that 11 to 12 point threshold. I'm not expecting 19 like you got. So I do think that they're going to have to throw in this game because they're chasing points. That's kind of why I like them on melee, but I can understand you want to take a little bit of a wait-and-see approach. I love that D.K. Metcalf had 10 targets last week.

It was awesome. The production, however, was not. And now he's got to face Christian Gonzalez, so I think he's going to shadow him. I'm expecting a very low-scoring game between the Patriots and the Steelers. I don't think we're going to get a lot of points. The only player in this game that I would start with any confidence will be Remandre Stevenson, and even that's questionable now that Trevion and Henderson's back. So if you can avoid D.K. Metcalf, that's something I would try to do.

That's a sleeper for you, though. So make the counterpoint. The counterpoint is what you said. He had 10 targets. It wasn't just 10 targets, though. He was second amongst all wide receivers and air yards. Aaron Rogers attempted to run the Mike McCarthy offense in week one. It didn't work out, partially because of D.K.'s fault.

partially because of a couple of pass interference penalties. but still, I don't think they're going to change that entire philosophy because in one game it didn't work out. And I actually, in connected to this, is we have a disagreement on Drake May. Drake May is a top 10 quarterback for me. I think Drake May is going to put up points this week. I think the Steelers are not going to be able to just run the football

and DK's the clear and obvious number one wide receiver. And Christian Gonzalez didn't follow last week, so I'm not entirely sure he's going to follow this week. He's not going to follow JSA. Yeah. When you typically see guys follow, it's big physical receivers because those are the guys they can lock up and take out of the game. And knowing he got 10 targets last week,

listen, he didn't play in the game last year, so we don't have an idea of what this looks like. And DK. had three catches of 32 yards. Happen to find the end zone in week three in that game. Different offense, but we'll see. I hope he still gets the targets. I just don't think we're going to get a lot of volume for the Steelers offense in general. They had the ball a lot last week because Atlanta stinks.

Hopefully the Patriots show up and play a little bit better this week. Dave, you like Jordan Addison. Why? Is he going to be a good at cats? I thought the film showed that he's still plenty of explosive. He didn't have his timing down with Carson Wentz. That was one of the things I actually liked about Addison with Kyla Murray, was that they seem to have their timing down.

At least that's what reports said. And then, of course, Kyler gets hurt, and Carson Wentz comes in and once just hyper-targets Justin Jefferson. I am hoping that that changes this week. We've already talked about how we think the Bears and the Vikings will be a high-scoring game. I'm not a big fan of what this Bears defense can do. You saw the two wide receivers from Carolina.

One had a good game, one out the game. one at the game, Jalen Coker having the game. And part of it, I think, is because Jalen Coker was just able to elude defenders and had a little bit more speed than somebody like Tetero and McMillan had. So I think that there is going to be opportunities for Jordan Addison to come through. And as far as sleepers go, I think he makes the cut. He's not exactly, he's like a borderline flex player or a number three receiver for me. But I still think that there's some upside in DFS.

I would absolutely take the chance. Oh, I think it's a great bet. I mean, you know, you said there was in chemistry. Last year there was great chemistry between these two guys. There was last year. He had three of his five touchdowns or four touchdowns with Carson Wentz, and, you know, you hope to see that continue. I just wonder, again, you know, you get the quarterback thrown in no game plan there.

Right, sure. A week's worth of practice. It was a T.J. Hawkinson game, which we don't often get, or we haven't often gotten lately. Well, he had the touchdown. It was both tight ends. But what I'm saying is, you know, we're used to seeing these two receivers do well when there's competent quarterback play.

Hopefully that happens this week. For me, Trey Harris, we talked about this on our podcast. There are a lot of wide receiver scenarios. that could be unfolding this week. You have the situation with Nico Collins, so it could be pick your favorite Texas receiver. You have the situation with the Patriots, no AJ Brown, pick your favorite Patriots receiver.

But we do know that if Ladd-McConkie is out. Trey Harris will see a bump in production, targets, opportunities, et cetera. So just keep an eye on what's happening there. I don't think this Cardinals defense is very good, despite what they showed last week. I think we'll see opportunities for both Quentin Johnston and whoever the second receiver is.

We'd love to be McConkey. But if McConkey's out, Trey Harris could be a good dart throw to put in your line. All right, we're going to take a break. right now we come back, got quarterbacks to cover, still tight ends to get to, still your questions to get to as well. But we're going to talk quarterbacks next here on F50.

You may or may not like this segment, depending on how you feel about the Patriots quarterback. We're going to talk about quarterback rankings, and one of the more big topics is obviously Drake May, and can you start him or sit him coming off last week's disappointing loss against Seattle, as well as A.J. Brown being out. Let's see where Drake May ranks when we look at the quarterback rankings, one through 12.

And as you see, not in the top 12, We'll talk about that in a second. But one guy that is flying up draft boards, or not draft boards, rankless, excuse me, but probably should have been flying up draft boards. It's Caleb Williams, who comes in at number two for us. Is it just, hey, he looked awesome. They scored he had 40 points.

I don't care who they're playing. It's the Minnesota Vikings. I'm starting Caleb Williams, no hesitation? Yeah, that's pretty much it. I mean, his history against Minnesota last year isn't very good. He had one decent game, one bad game, only one passing touchdown in two games combined. They really tried to get after him with the pass rush.

and in some ways they definitely succeeded. But the way that he played last week, the way that this offense has been restructured. I don't think Khalif Raymond is a silly thing, by the way. I think he's going to end up being, unfortunately, like an integral short area target and an option for Caleb would go to. Plus, he was running a lot more, and he was running faster.

He was a little bit leaner. I think that the sky's the limit. You're right. We should have been higher on Caleb Williams. I do wish he'd stop running out of a clean pocket when Colston Loveland's 20 yards downfield wide open. You just throw it to the open guy. But no, for fantasy,

purposes. We love it when he runs. It's awesome. It's going to be fun. This is a, you know, Jordan Love destroyed this defense last week. We'll see if maybe, you know, the changes that the Vikings made, they got rid of some older players and, you know, working in some younger guys. We'll see if that eventually clicks for Brian Flores' group. But yeah, you're starting Caleb Williams, no

hesitation. And you look at the list 13th through 24. This is where you see Drake May. You also see Jared Gough, who was the start of the week last week and had a little bit of a disappointing performance. Got to 20 fantasy points, but needed that touchdown in overtime for it to happen. Is it just easy to go back to Jared golf taking on the bills and what we hope to be the shootout tonight, Dave?

I don't think so. I'm nervous about him. Okay. It's Thursday night. It's a short week. His offensive line is down now three starters from what they were hoping for when the year began. Buffalo's pass rush did eventually get to C.J. Stroud. And what's he doing? He's playing outdoors on grass on the short week. This has not been a great tracker for him. Do you know what his career best fantasy point total is on a Thursday night road game? No. In his career, 13.4. Okay. And I get it. It should be a great matchup, and he should have put up a ton of points. He should have done that last week, too. And he didn't get there until overtime of 20 fantasy points. I think I can find a dozen other quarterbacks with more upside than Jared Gough. The offensive line worries me, but how many yards and touchdowns did C.J. Stroud have, while the bills. DeV. He had a bunch. He had a bunch. 360 or 330 and 3.30 and 3 or something. So if I had golf in my starting lineup,

unless there was somebody else that I paired him with it, we just hated week one that's now moved ahead of them. I'm fine with those guys. I would start Baker-Manf over Jared golf. I probably wouldn't drop Jerry Goff to go pick up Baker-Mayfield. That's just the thing. You know, when you get to the situation of you love your bench, I'm not going to make a lot of changes.

I get that, but if I have both, I'm going to start Baker-Maker with Jordan Love over Jared Gough. And Jordan loves a guy that you like for this week. Yeah, listen, for the last three years, Jordan Love has been a remarkably efficient passer who just does not get to throw the ball. And then now they can't run the ball very well, so he gets to throw it more. And surprise, he scores a bunch of fantasy points. I think he's probably just going to keep doing that for most of the season. Very encouraged.

I don't think it's going to be quite as good as last week, but a top 12 guy. Yeah, agreed. I said this when the Josh Jacobs situation unfolded, that give him 30 plus attempts, he'll be a very good fantasy quarterback. Let's hope this continues until at least the run game gets situated. You were down on Jackson Dart last week. You're in on Jackson Dart. I love that they let them run. Let's just start right there.

All training camp long, we're hearing about how Jackson Dart isn't somebody that the Giants coaching staff wants running the football a lot. And then what happens in week one? He's off to the races. He gets numbers that way. He also threw the ball very well. And it was Dallas's defense. And maybe I overrated Dallas's defense. I'm not going to overrate this Rams defense.

I didn't think that they look good last week. We know there's no Miles Garrett. Big question mark on Aaron Don. playing in the game. Secondary did have some holes in it. I think Jackson Darts is a pretty good start this week. Let's keep it going and, you know, we'll get better Malik neighbors who played well. Obviously, Isaiah likely looked great. Yeah, if Jackson DART runs, he's been a chance to be a top 10 fantasy quarterback, if not more more. This week, I like Baker Mayfield as top 10 quarterback. He's a start of the week for week number two. We love the revenge game narrative taking on the Browns. And last week was a bad Browns defense, which I think we'll see more times than not, allowing four passing touchdowns to Trevor Lawrence. Lawrence did whatever he wanted to. Mayfield did not have a great game, had three fumbles in that matchup. But at home last year, despite some of the struggles, average 20 or more,

average 20 fantasy points per game in Tampa Bay. So I think we get a top 10 finish for Baker Mayfield, somebody that I would start over Jared Gough, and I would definitely start over Drake May, as well as Justin Herbert, a guy that you're going to sit, Dave. I hated what I saw from that offensive. I love the way that the game started for Justin Herbert, but that was really almost all Ladd-McConkey. And if McConkey's not playing, there's something wrong with,

with Herbert to Quentin Johnson, Herbert to Trey Harris. He was passing up Quinn Johnson wide open in the middle of the field against Las Vegas. I'm sorry, against Arizona. Now he's playing Las Vegas. If he does that again, I don't know where the numbers are going to be. I think they go to run the football. I don't want to take the chance on Justin Herbert knowing that he could be a couple of turnovers away from like a 15-point fantasy game.

There's going to be more upside with a bunch of other quarterbacks. You heard me talk about how much I didn't like golf. I'd rather start golf than Justin Herbert. And you don't like Trevor Lawrence this week, which is a little bit of surprise. I don't like Trevor Lawrence this week and any time that I'm kind of the outlier which I was on Trevor Lawrence the thing that I like to go look at

is the Vegas lines like what's the passing yardage over under what's the touchdown odds am I the weird one here and no I'm not Trevor Lawrence has a passing yardage over under one yard higher than Bo Nix well behind Justin Herbert Drake May all of those guys Trevor Lawrence

you can get plus money on Trevor Lawrence throwing multiple touchdown passes this week And if you want to bet on him throwing more than 220 yards and two touchdowns, it's three to one. So I do think that this Denver defense, and particularly the past defense, is still very, very good. They still won the battle at the line of scrimmage more often than not last week. And could grief, could a team that is this talented be more embarrassed by what they just showed against Kansas City and what they showed against Trevor Lawrence in the playoffs? I don't want to start any Jacksonville Jaguars except for Parker Washington.

The narrative definitely makes sense, but this is a quarterback that's as hot as anybody that we've seen the last nine games, he's averaging 23.1 fantasy points and destroyed this defense, which might have been better last year in week 16. You've been fantasy playoff. In week 16, 37 fantasy points in that game. So I'm going to ride the hot hand.

I think Trevor Lawrence still has one more good game. Now, you're going to go back to Drake May. I'm avoiding Drake May this week. I just think, again, we're not going to get a lot of points. No AJ Brown. We'll see who steps up and helps in the passing game. We'll see if he uses his legs again. The Steelers defense, I know you can't judge anything based on what they did last week,

but they still have really good players there. They're going to get Joey Porter back in the secondary. I don't have Drake May as the top 15 quarterback as week. I'm going so far as I would rather start Bryce Young over Drake May. Bryce Young's history against the time. It's absolutely amazing. I just don't like Drake Bay, but make your case for him. Well, first off, just in comparison to Trevor Lawrence,

he has a higher passing yardage line. He has a higher rushing yardage line. He has a higher touchdown line, both for passing and for rushing. I just think, like, he played this defense last year. He did not have a receiver that reached 30 receiving yards, and he scored 23 fantasy points. All right. Hopefully he gets back to it. Listen, a lot of people drafted him to be a top five guy.

I just can't trust it right now. Malik Willis, you're going to go back to him as a sleeper? Well, as a sleeper. And this is a pretty big desperation sleeper. It's more to say that Malik Willis is still the backup quarterback that I would like to have on my roster, because I do think that there is a chance. This is new to everybody in Miami, what they're trying to do offensively.

I think this is an offense that could be improving. What are they trying to do? Improving throughout the year. Caleb Douglas has been very encouraging as a rookie. Chris Bell, I expect to continue to emerge. And Willis gives you 12 points on the ground upside every single week. So I'm not going to start him this week, but I do want to have him on my bench

because if things start to click just a little bit with maybe one of the worst defenses in the NFL, Willis could be a fantastic fantasy quarterback later. All right. So, Dave, the narrative clearly with the Saints, a lot of plays, overtime, Tyler Suck looked great. Is he going to do that against Baltimore? I think he's going to have to.

And I know that the matchup is, you hear Baltimore, especially in Baltimore, and you get nervous about the matchup. And you saw what the Ravens did to the Colts last week, and it was Jonathan Taylor and not really a whole lot else. I'm encouraged by what I saw from Tyler Shuck last week. Just as I was encouraged from Tyler Shuck in the second half of last season, It's why I'm personally inclined to start Devon Veilé as a flex

and why Chris Olivae is a top 10 type of fantasy wide receiver. He's willing to take shots downfield. He's also willing to move out of the pocket. I think the Ravens' defense is good. I don't know if they're amazing. I don't know if they're going to be able to get enough pressure on Tyler Shuck to turn them into a dud. And this team went past crazy, starting in the second quarter last week

when they were down to 7-0 against Detroit. 70% pass rate from that point on throughout the rest of the game. And it's the reason why they were still in that game. Shuck made some unbelievable throws there along the way. So I kind of like him this week. I think he's got some huge upside. Bryce Young in his last two games in Atlanta, 699 passing yards, 6 touchdowns, no interceptions,

at least, and, excuse me, two rushing touchdowns on top of that. 37.8 fantasy points or more in those two games. Atlanta's defense just lost another defensive lineman. Young is coming off an amazing game last week against the Bears. Six of his last nine games, he's been over 20 fantasy points that coincides with Jalen Coker becoming a thing for the Panthers. so hopefully Coker plays dealing with a little bit of an ankle injury. I think Bryce Young has another good game,

and it's going to be fun to talk about this next week, of coming off two strong games, strong finish to last year. Can you buy into him as a must-start fantasy quarterback? That's a conversation for another day, but obviously something that we can keep an eye on this weekend if Young plays well. All right, we'll take a break. We come back, talk about some tight-end rankings for week number two here on fantasy football today. Welcome back to fantasy football today.

We're taking a look at our tight-end rankings for week number two. They show you the list one through 12 and really a lot of shaking. because still no Brock Bowers not expected to play in week two dealing with that knee injury. And we don't know what the status is yet fully for George Kittle. You see not the top 12 tight end for us. We'll talk about him. We look at the starts and the sits. Kyle Pitts, very disappointing game for him, knowing that he did not have a catch, only one target.

So the quarterback situation matters there. And as you see, we're going right back to Colston Loveland as a top three tight end, despite the fact that he also did not have a catch. We're expecting that to change in week number two. All right, it's getting to the starts and sits that we're looking at here. Heath, you got a fun one. He's a sleeper for me as a starter for you in Hunter Henry. Mustar guy? He might be the number one wide receiver or pass catcher for the new one of my Patriots.

Last year I mentioned how good Drake May was against the Steelers with no wide receivers. It's because Hunter Henry had eight catches for 90 yards and two touchdowns against this defense. He averaged 10 and a half PPR fantasy points per game on a team that had Stefan Diggs and Kayshan Booty. They don't have those guys or A.J. Brown right now. Hunter Henry should be a start. Let's hope you guys, you know, I just want some clarity. I want to see somebody step up. You know, last week it was Eli Raritan with the touchdown.

Henry was more of a blocker. But great sleeper if you're looking for just somebody to find a replacement option. If you're worried about pits, if you're worried about anybody else with the position, Kittle with his playing time. Dave, Michael Mayer, looks like he's going to be the starter again for the Raiders. Is it a must-start situation? Because seven targets were great, but the production was not. Yeah, the yardage was terrible.

You're disappointed in that if you're playing in a half-PPR or a non-PPR league. And frankly, you're probably a little bit disappointed if you only got you 9.2 PPR points also. But you said it, seven targets that means something. I think the Raiders are going to have to continue to throw at a decent rate against the Chargers. Don't think that this is going to be a blowout the same type of way that it was for the Raiders in week one against Miami. So there should be more opportunities for Michael Mayer.

And if he's lined up against Derwin James, man, two years ago, that would have made him a no-go. But Derwin James, and it's Trey McBride, but he got absolutely whooped by Trey McBride. And I wonder if Michael Mayer can replicate that to, I mean, like maybe half of that. But I would take half of that if I'm Michael Mayer and I'm starting them this week. Top 12 tight end for me. Seven catches, 87 yards, two touchdowns, 15 targets. That's what the Saints tight ends did to this Lions defense.

And this is what Dalton Kincaid is facing coming off a very strong game for him. Five catches, 130 yards on six targets. So team that struggles to defend tight ends. We know the safeties are still out for Detroit. I think Kincaid has an opportunity for a big performance start him. Don't even question it. And hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Let's talk about the sit tight ends here.

Dave, you're going away from George Kittle. you're going away from Kyle Pitts, and for me, I'm sitting Harold Fanon. So is it just sit, Kittle, until we see something better? Didn't even play 50% of the snaps last week. I love that they got him involved early. They tried to give him a touchdown early, and then after that, he might as well have been a ghost. I don't know how much they're even going to have to throw in this game

because they should be able to run the ball effectively against Miami. Kittl to me more of a touchdown or bust tight on. Heath, is it a quarterback dependent only for Cal Pitts? Cooper Rush. Yeah. Cooper Rush. Are you actively carrying too tight? Like, you see Hunter entering on the waiver while you're dropping somebody to pick him up and just didn't get.

You're not cutting kiddle, obviously. Not cutting kids. No. Cooper Rush. Yep, all right. He was this close to having a big play last year. Yeah, Cooper Rush. Let's get a better quarterback performance for the Falcons.

For me, I'm going to sit Harold Fanon. Just don't like what I see from the Browns. This is my concern about Fanon going into the year. And I'm going to sit him until further notice. And he may be somebody, unfortunately, that we're dropping very soon. All right. We're going to take a break. When we come back.

It's your questions to wrap up the show. That's next on FFT. We're back with your questions. Thank you for sending them to us using the hashtag AskFFT. And we got one here. Do you like Parker, Washington, or Jameson Williams this week in full PPR? So I know Dave's answer. Heath, who are you going with?

Washington or Jamo? Washington. There you go. I think we all agree on that. Next question. In sweet. On a scale of one, not worried to 10. Worried.

How worried are you about Nico Collins hamstring injury? Hey, I'm worried about, it's like an eight or a nine for this week, but maybe like a three for the rest of the season. Maybe that should be higher. Maybe like a five. I would rather sit him week two to have him. rest of season, then have him go out and get re-injured. So just something to keep an eye on there. Thanks for the question, Rob.

All right, last one here. Which tight end would you start this week? Sam Leporta or Isaiah likely. Lipporta? I'll take likely. I'll take likely too, but I'd try and trade one of these guys if you can. All right, thanks for watching. Thanks for listening to Fantasy Football Today.

Our podcast, would you can find wherever podcasts are available? For Heath Cummings, for Dave Richard, for our wonderful production staff, I'm Jamie Eisenberg. This has been Fantasy Football Today.