Fantasy Football Today - Week 4 Recap! Winners, Losers and Injuries (10/01 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Fantasy Football Today is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts What's the headline coming out of Week 4? Is it De'Von Achane again!? Is it the injuries? Is it Christian McCaffrey? We've got the biggest winners (5:00) and biggest losers (7:10) as we were impressed with Nico Collins but disappointed in the Bengals offense. Then it's Buy or Sell (12:18) on Dallas Goedert, Jerry Jeudy, Rhamondre Stevenson, Alvin Kamara and more ... News and notes (20:10) and an early look at the waiver wire. Then more winners (24:15) including Jake Ferguson and Josh Jacobs and losers (31:35) including Kyle Pitts and Michael Pittman ... Is Taylor Swift the biggest star since Michael Jackson (36:45)? Also, we recap every game with our Fantasy thoughts (40:10) ... Email us at [e-mail] SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fantasy-football-today-dynasty/id1696679179 SUBSCRIBE to FFT Dynasty on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2aHlmMJw1m8FareKybdNfG?si=8487e2f9611b4438&nd=1 Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs Follow the brand new FFT TikTok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@fftoday Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday Get 20% off Fantasy Football Today merch: https://store.cbssports.com/collections/fantasy-football-today%20?utm_source=podcast-apple-com&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=buy-our-merch&utm_content=fantasy-football-collection Join our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/FantasyFootballToday/ Sign up for the FFT newsletter https://www.cbssports.com/newsletter You can listen to Fantasy Football Today on your smart speakers! Simply say "Alexa, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast" or "Hey Google, play the latest episode of the Fantasy Football Today podcast." To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Kick off an exciting football season with BetMGM, an official sportsbook partner of the National Football League. Yard after yard, down after down, the sportsbook born in Vegas gives you the chance to take action to the end zone and celebrate every highlight reel play. And as an official sportsbook partner of the NFL, BetMGM is the best place to fuel your football fandom on every game day. With a variety of exciting features, BetMGM offers you plenty of seamless ways to jump straight onto the gridiron and to embrace peak sports action. Ready for another season of gridiron glory? What are you waiting for?

Get off the bench, into the huddle, and head for the end zone all season long. Visit BetMGM.com for terms and conditions. Must be 19 years of age or older. Ontario only. Please gamble responsibly. Gambling problem? For free assistance, call the Connex Ontario helpline

at 1-866-531-2600. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. What does possible sound like for your business? It's having the spend to power your scale with no preset spending limit. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply.

Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. What a play! Can you believe this? I know I can. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. Off to the races, and he stays on his feet. He's just going to go the distance.

Now, here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, and Heath. Welcome to your Sunday night edition of Fantasy Football Today. What's up, everybody? Adam Azer with Heath Cummings and Dave Richard recapping Fantasy Week 4. You know, last week it was so easy. It was the Dolphins, specifically Devon A-Chain. Well, at that point it was A-Chain. Devon A-Chan, who had another big game. What's the big storyline? What's the big headline? Heath, write the headline for Week 4. I mean, it's just CBS Fantasy on top of the world. The start of the week is boom, boom, boom, boom.

Game of the week. Fireworks all over the place. The Anthony Richardson podcast of 2023. And he is a super duper star. You got Jalen Warren's already pulled even with Najee Harris, if not passing him. Things are looking great. Okay, let's sift through that for a second here because I

understand you made fun of me I think on two of those three. No, I didn't make fun of you on any of those. No, here's the thing. This is, I mean, no offense by this at all, but I don't think that the accuracy of the podcast is being judged by your takes.

You are the greatest male host in the history of podcasts. But we were the Anthony Richardson podcast. Oh, yeah, yeah. The three analysts were all extremely ahead of the industry on Anthony Richardson. Yes. And you deserve a lot of credit for that. I thought we were going to have a much different Anthony Richardson conversation at halftime of that game, but what a second half he had. But what was the Jalen Warren thing? He has to think of something to say about me. No, I think

he literally had the same number of points as Najee Harris today. Well, he's outscored him every week in PPR until this week. Right. But he hasn't passed them. Winner. Yay! A Steeler player. Yay! Well, you know what? are until this week right but he hasn't passed them winner yay a stealer player yay well you know what there's been one good play by the stealers this year yeah it's kind of true you know like maybe you count the touchdowns for pat friar muth but what a mess that offense has turned

out to be who could have guessed it d Dave, what's your headline? It's more injuries that are going to pull our hair out and make us frustrated as fantasy managers because we're not going to have a lot of the guys that we thought we would have to be useful and potential studs for our fantasy team. We lost Mike Evans. We don't know how long he's going to be. We don't know how long any of these guys are going to be off for.

But Evans, T. Higgins, Fryer Muth muth already mentioned him giovante williams had a hip injury not only is he out he might have been replaced by jaleel mclaughlin he's building a mystery on that denver office it's a mystery how the broncos came back to beat the bears kenny picketts out that means mitchell trubisky might end up being the the steelers quarterback moving forward that can't be a good thing for that offense, or maybe it could be. And we had a lot of other injuries that, you know, players that came back,

there was Adam feeling there was John Dotson, Matthew Stafford finished the game, limping Devonta Adams left and came back just a mess with all these frustrating injuries. And it's, it's never going to stop. And we're going to get to, to week 17.

And we're going to be starting players from the USFL hoping that they help us win a championship. Dave, where is the positivity, man? The chat is, the chat's just overflowing with positivity. And I think we're also the Puka podcast, thanks to Jacob Gibbs. So like everything's fantastic. Yeah. And you know, honestly, I didn't really think it was that bad of an injury week. I mean, they're going to have injuries. I really get have injuries every week, right? Like T Higgins. I don't want to start T Higgins at all. So

I mean, I hope he's fine. Like I don't want to be insensitive. I hope everybody's doing okay. But actually one of the good things about the injuries is that a lot of the guys who got hurt today have buys coming up. So the Steelers, for example, Fryer, Muth and Pickett, they both have Baltimore next week and then a bye. Javante does not have a bye coming up.

Higgins, it's not too far. Two games and then a bye. And then like Deshaun Watson didn't play today. He's got a bye next week. He's expected to be back after the bye. To me, the storyline today is the stars were shining. Christian McCaffrey a four touchdown game. Josh Allen to Stefan Diggs. A.J.

Brown was awesome. Justin Fields as the start of the week. I sent Jamie a text and I can only imagine what his emotions were throughout the. Oh, I can tell you. Well, not that. But I said to him and like, who wants to get a text like this on Sunday? I said, I know you're busy, but I need a huge favor if you have a second. And like anybody, any of you would be like, are you kidding me? It's Sunday right now during the game. He said, sure. And I said, can of you would be like, are you kidding me? It's Sunday right now. It's already the game.

He said, sure. And I said, can you make Trevor Lawrence the start of the week next week? It would really help my teams. And we had a laugh about it. But JB's on fire with four straight terrific calls. All right. Anyway, let's get to our biggest winners and biggest losers. Heath, since you're Mr. Positive, give me your, excuse me, your biggest winner.

It's the pharmacy down the street for me is the biggest winner right now. Yeah, I mean, there's a relativity to all these winners, but I'm going with the biggest winner was Devon Achain. Last week was no fluke. I think he actually had, I know he had more snaps in this game than Raheem Mostert. I believe he had more carries in this game than Raheem Mostert. Certainly performed a lot better than Raheem Mostert. Moving forward, I will rank Devon Achain as the number one running back for the Miami Dolphins he is a super

duper start he's so fast it's amazing how quickly he can just go after he gets the ball he played 66 percent of the snaps seven of 13 third and fourth downs all six of their snaps inside the 10. A decision was made by that coaching staff this week to get a chain even more involved than last week. And I think, I think he could end up being a very nice league winner for fantasy managers. Well, most are did something twice that a Chan didn't do,

by the way, we have a, we need a swear jar for every time mispronunciation jar for a chain i think we i think we've decided that this is like the kamara kamara one okay um i don't think say a chain because he there is i believe actual video evidence of him requesting for it to be a chain and a chin at different points in his life and so i'm just kind of throwing my hands up in the air on this one i I might say either one. Ah-chan. Yeah. Well, anyway,

Mostert did fumble twice, but this carries the touches. I think it was one more touch for A-Chain. A-Chain. So hopefully both involve going forward. Dave, who's your biggest winner? I'm going to go with Nico Collins, who stepped up in a major

way for the Texans. This was not an easy matchup for Houston. At least it didn't look that way coming in. That offensive line beat up Steelers defense. They've done a good job getting after the quarterback, and the Texans handled it. And Nico Collins handled the Pittsburgh Steelers quite nicely. I believe it's his third game of the year with at least nine targets. I don't know what happened in week three where he didn't get a lot of targets against Jacksville. I don't even know

if it's worth looking into because in every other game that he's played, he's been very nice for fantasy, at least 14 PPR points. Other than that game against Jacksville in week three, I think you can feel good about starting Nico Collins moving forward. Yeah. Seven catches, 168 yards, two touchdowns, this terrific game for Nico Collins, our. Yeah. Seven catches, 168 yards, two touchdowns, this terrific game for Nico Collins, our biggest losers, Dave, who's the biggest loser this week. So like, I hate that I've got to bring this guy up because this was one of Heath's guys, but I'm losing confidence in miles Sanders as, as a reliable starter and fantasy. And I don't know how much of it is on miles Sanders. I think a lot of it is just on the Panthers being a really, really bad team.

And as they fell behind against Minnesota, Chuba Hubbard played more snaps. He's certainly been the guy playing more on third and fourth downs. And even Hubbard had a bunch of snaps inside the 10. Sanders had an edge there, but it was four to three on seven snaps inside the 10. And are we at the point now with Miles Sanders where he's a touchdown or bust type of fantasy running back? Well, that would make me a little bit nervous too, considering he's got Detroit next.

Then they're at Miami. That's a game that could fall behind him pretty quickly. Then a bye. And then Houston, maybe that's not such a bad matchup. I don't know. As Steelers, Colts after that, and then the Bears in week 10. So you might not feel good starting Miles Sanders until Week 10? Is that where we're at with him?

I'm very nervous. I think Miguel nailed it because the split in touches we saw this week resembled more the split in touches that we saw Week 1. Sanders was on the injury report with a groin injury all preseason and Week 1. He was on the injury report. Didn't practice Friday, I don't think with a green groin injury all preseason and week one. He was on the injury report. Didn't practice Friday. I don't think with a groin injury, there was a report this morning for me and report said no issues.

I just don't believe that was the case. I don't think miles Sanders was completely healthy. Then why play him? Well, they're trying to win games and they, like they paid him 16 or $17 million guaranteed. They think he's really good. If he was close enough to win games, and they paid him $16 or $17 million guaranteed. They think he's really good. If he was close enough to being healthy, they should have played him,

and that's my guess is that they did. So I don't know if we can blame it on the groin injury being what shut him down. I'll go back and watch him. I think he deserves at least that much. I don't think he looked like himself today. No. Well, when did he last look like himself? He made a couple good plays last week

in the passing game and i said last week maybe he's a sell high and maybe he is but also like that's that schedule you said after the buy sounded pretty appealing so i'm probably gonna hold on all right well he did have three more catches today so that's at least three catches in every game for mile sanders that's the one do you want to hear who he plays after chicago not just look it up for yourself yeah we don't need to i Do you want to hear who he plays after Chicago? Not just look it up for yourself. Yeah, we don't need it. I don't want to spoil it for you. Just what's coming after the Bears game in week 10,

which is like it feels like it's a million years away. I think everyone in Tennessee. Okay, so Heath, who's your biggest loser? The Bengals. Undoubtedly. What a disaster to face that secondary and have that poor of a day passing T Higgins, maybe lost for a while with a rib injury. Um, Burroughs, not okay. There's no way you, I don't think you can consider starting Joe Burrow for the next three weeks.

Yeah. Um, and so it can't be great for Joe Mixon. Like he had a good efficient day today, but only had one target. I don't know how Joe Burrow can't throw the ball more than 10 yards downfield accurately. And Joe Mixon gets one target, but that's the state of this offense right now. And he,

he tried from what I saw. And I don't know that like, we'll see the stats on the stats on how many seconds it was, but he tried to take deeper drops and not play that quick game so much, and Tennessee just hammered him. His time to throw was the lowest it's been all year, 2.25. Then he was getting hammered on that. His ADOT was 4.6. Completion rate was 66.7%, but nothing was going downfield.

Let's see. 6.9% of his attempts traveled 15 or more air yards. Lowest off-target rate of the year. There's a positive for everybody to feel real super about with Joe Burrow. I'm with you on this one, though, because he's got two weeks before his bye. And then when he comes back, maybe he'll be healthy, but it's the 49ers, it's the Bills.

Those are his first two games after the bye. The 49ers, no trouble for Josh Dobbs. Yeah, that's true. Look, if Burrow is himself, you'll start him in those games. It doesn't matter the opponent. How will you know? You won't, and that's part of the problem.

You've got to find another quarterback if you've got Burrow. He practiced in full all week. He's awesome. Yeah, they fooled you. They might want to do some different things in practice. All right. So those are some of our biggest winners and biggest losers.

Live stream tomorrow night, Monday night at 7.30 p.m. Eastern. I will not be on that, so I apologize, but it'll be great nonetheless. And, yeah, you know our schedule. We have a lot of other podcasts, cbssports.com slash podcast. Pretty much any sport you want to hear about, we've got you covered. Buy or sell the,

I'm sorry, I'm stealing some of Heath's Losers edition. Buy or sell Dallas Goddard is a bust. Two catches for 25 yards. So that is 0, 22, 41, and 25 yards. No touchdowns in four games. Buy or sell. Dallas Goddard is a bust. Sorry, let me clarify. Obviously, he's been a bust so far.

But at the end of the season, Dallas Goddard will be a bust. Buy or sell. I think it's too early to say that because this position is so bad that a 50-yard game with two touchdowns could make Dallas Goddard a top 10 tight end for the season. So it's really discouraging, but I'm not ready to say. I just don't think the position itself is good enough to where we can say that for sure yet. His last game with 11 or more PPR points was in week nine of last year. That's a while. It's been a while since he's been able to come through with a really good game.

I think he's right that if you get 10 PPR points from your tight end, can you really complain? I don't think you can. But what if I'm only getting four or five non-PPR points from my tight end. Can you really complain? I don't think you can, but what if I'm only getting four or five non PPR points from my tight end? Can I complain then? And I kind of think you can. And this is another player that I think fantasy managers would be wise to just find another tight end, find somebody else to go along with it, carry two and start the one you feel good about from week to week. They've got the Rams in LA next week. That's the part that I am probably going to be different on. Like I,

I can't think of anything that sounds less appealing than carrying two tight ends that I don't think are any good and choosing which one to start every week. I would rather just have an extra running back or wide receiver on my roster and just keep starting the same crappy guy. And when he gets a touchdown, yay. And when he doesn't, oh, well. And for whatever it's worth,

Dallas Goddard did have two games out of three in the playoffs with more than 11 PPR fantasy points. Okay, that's a fair point. Yeah. All right. I mean, it's funny. It's like Dallas Goddard and Kyle Pitts have both been so bad. For some reason, I feel a lot better about

Dallas Goddard. I suppose Taylor Hines is the offense. That's why. It's true. That's exactly what it is. Pitts, I don't even know what to do with at this point, guys. Drop Kyle Pitts? If you're like Heath and

you don't want to carry two tight ends, someone else in your league won't be like Heath, and they'll pick up Pitts and stash him just in case. Now, listen, that could be like handing somebody in your league a grenade and you're going to make their team worse. It's possible that that happens. I'd like to see what this Falcons offense looks like with Taylor Heineke. I wonder what that might do to help Kyle Pitts out a little bit more.

And Drake London. But Kyle Pitts is a big-time loser. How in the world are you going to feel good starting him, even against Houston, in week number five? I don't know how you do it. I don't know how you do it. I just think about the way we're maneuvering with these. Last week, I was pretty excited about Cole Komet.

I don't think anybody else was and he was terrible this week none of us like cole commit and he's one of the best tight ends in fantasy this week um i just i don't we we totally missed the hunter henry good games um yeah we play him two weeks when he stinks i don't know he had 9.1 PPR points. He did have 50 yards again. It was not terrible. I mean, I'd take that. Last thing on Pitts here. Now he has fewer than 50 yards in 13 of his last 15 games.

And he has two touchdowns in those 15 games. So it's becoming a pretty big sample size. All right, next one here. Who's got more career touchdowns? Devon Achan or Calpet? Definitely Achan. Yeah. Oh, my gosh.

Buy or sell. Jerry Judy is a bust. It will be a bust. Yeah. Could be. Buy or sell. Ramondre Stevenson will be a bust. One a hundred percent.

He was the number one guy on my bus list. The don't want to draft list back in August. Yes. Yes. He's a bust. You can't. How about this? There was a report for the game that said,

Ezekiel, it's going to be the starter. He wasn't the starter. And if you look at the playing time, it was, Ramondre dominated. He played like 60, I have it right here. It's 66%, 64% had a little edge on third and fourth downs, both the steps.

This is a team that just stinks. And Ramondre isn't great. If you sat Ramondre because of the report, the report was wrong, but your fantasy team was better off for it. This is another player you can't feel good starting next week. It would not be hard to make the argument that they should play Zeke's starter snaps

with the way the first month of the season's gone. Buy or sell. Alvin Kamara is here to ruin Chris Olave's fantasy value. That I was actually going to say, and I felt so dumb because I was worried that they were going to ease Alvin Kamara in, and I was worried that he wouldn't be good. One of those two right but he was awesome for fantasy so it didn't matter i was going to say believe it or not the saints got worse when alvin camara showed up because if you're going to throw it throw it to him 14 times and take targets away

from chris olavi and michael thomas you were worse it has nothing to do with their quarterback shoulder being messed yeah that's what i was thinking maybe maybe why'd he play yeah he shouldn't have yeah i agree he should i think i have a feeling they they may regret that decision to let him play uh he threw 37 times derrick carr for 127 yards and 14 targets to camara do we agree that we should we should wait and see what happens going forward before we freak out on Olave? Yeah. Yes. And I think I had one more by herself. Oh, by herself, Joe Burrow

is droppable. Gosh darn it. That was my believe it or not for the Bengals game. Come on, Adam Azer. Sorry. Well, do you believe it or not? Great minds. I'm supposed to ask the questions, Dave. Wait a minute. No, I don Dave. Wait a minute, you're not the male host. I don't think you should.

I don't think you should drop him either. Maybe if it's like an eight-team league and everybody's loaded, maybe you could do it then. I don't know. I mean, this is almost exactly the moment that Justin Fields was dropped in a 10-team super flex league that I was a part of last year. All right. So listen, that was definitely at me. Listen, we, we got to take a break here. When we come back, we got all the big news. You need to know quarterback injuries, Mike Evans, T Higgins, and more winners and losers and an early look at the waiver wire.

We'll be right back on fantasy football today. Welcome back everybody. Eight o'clock on the dot and Eastern, the Eastern time zone and waiting for that chiefs jets game to start, or at least, you know, like five people are waiting for that to start. Um, and,

uh, yeah, let's, uh, we'll get to the big news. So I got thrown off his thing about Taylor Swift. Justin Herbert was shaken up. He has an injury on his non-throwing hand.

He finished the game and scored two rushing touchdowns to save his bacon today. They have a bye. So, again, you know, quarterback injury but going into a bye. Kenny Pickett left in the fourth quarter. Baltimore next week, then a bye. Mac Jones got benched for Bailey Zappi. It was a blowout, but I don't think it would be shocking to see Mac Jones not starting next week, so we'll see what happens.

In fact, by the time you hear this, you'll probably know what Bill Belichick said, and we're probably sure it was really riveting. Javante Williams left in the first half with a hip injury. Mike Evans, hamstring injury. Boy, he really just doesn't want to face New Orleans. Tee Higgins left with fractured ribs, and Pat Frymuth left with a

hamstring injury. There was some other stuff that I have later, but Toronto Armstead actually was a pretty big deal. Miami's left tackle. He just can't stay healthy. He left with a knee injury and that's most of it. Jawan Johnson also with a calf. I have more injuries later, but an early look at the waiver wire for you guys, who jumped out at you? Who is the big waiver wire ad? So, so if I'm going to piggyback off the injuries, Tyler Boyd,

Jaleel McLaughlin would be names. Are they names? Jaleel McLaughlin for sure. He was going to be one of my winners. Um, again, one of Sean Payton's guys popped for 72 yards on seven carries, scored on a pass.

I think he's got a lot more juice than Samaj AP Ryan does. He's got a lot more juice than Javante Williams does, too. More juice than Javante currently does as well. He could be a high-end flex next week. Yeah, I'm definitely not chasing Tyler Boyd. He wasn't any good last year when Chaser Higgins was out. No. And you can't imagine he's going to be good this year

with the way that offense is playing. Cole Komet, anybody want to make a move for Cole? Should the Dallas Goddard manager be looking at Cole Komet? If you only have Dallas Goddard and you want to add a second tight end, he should probably be toward the top of the list. I just can't say that what we saw this week is going to happen every week. In fact, it's been a long time since it's been anything like this, but he had 9.4 PPR points in week one. He's had at least six targets, three or four games this year. If the bears offense is

coming around, if you, if you're buying into that based on what happened in week four, then you've got to run out and get Cole Komet. I think there might be some other tight ends that could go ahead of Komet, but he'll be popular. People are going to pick him up because of this. I think if you're looking at the next month, and next week's not that great, maybe even bad at Washington, but then the Vikings, the Raiders, the Chargers. That sounds like a three-week span I could get behind starting Cole Komet. Yeah. And there's some good matchups coming up later. So, yeah.

And you have to go pick him up this week because Dave's right. He's going to be really popular in the waiver wire. I'd be okay just go pick him up and say I'm going to start him for the next month and not think about tight end. And we'll come out the other side with maybe one and a half good games and a couple of stinkers. And okay. Yeah. Would you rather have Ferguson from Dallas?

Probably Ferguson. I would too, but he's only rostered in 5% more leagues than commit. Okay. They should both be added. I'll give you one more name. Obviously we have plenty of time to talk about the waiver wire, but Matthew Stafford,

it's really, you know, he hasn't played so poorly, but he's getting very few touchdowns. Did he throw one today? Because he had two touchdowns coming into the game. Yes, the game winner was Tupu Kanekua. That's right. So he has, I think, three touchdowns in four games.

But guess what? Cooper Cupp's on his way back. So if he keeps throwing the ball as much as he is, you might have a start-worthy quarterback. Just make sure he's got two working legs. Because by the end of this game, he may not have had that. He may have only had one. Well, yeah, that would be, yeah.

We need him. You kind of need that. All right, let's take a look at our winners here. Dave has Jake Ferguson. He has now seven targets in three of four games. And he really produced seven catches on seven targets for 77 yards. And he's just won the slot machine

with all those sevens, Dave. Anyway. Won the slot machine. That's the saying. Is that what happens when you get three in a row on the slot machine? You don't get to take the machine home with you? You have to rent a truck though. You got to use some of the coins in the machine to rent a truck to get

the machine to your house. You must have never been to a casino, Adam. What do they call it when you win while playing slots? You're lucky. That's what they call them. All right. Anyway, Jake Ferguson's a winner. Devon Achan is a winner.

And Jaleel Mc... Oh, these are Heath's winners. Well, I'm very sorry. Heath. Yes. Jake Ferguson, Devon Achan, and Jaleel McLaughlin are your winners. We've talked about the running backs. Go add McLaughlin.

Probably not more than like 15% of your budget unless you're super duper really, really desperate because I think he's still going to share and probably be more of a flex rest of season, but he matters. Achan definitely matters. And Ferguson, I was shying away from both Ferguson and Hunter Henry because Dallas and new England historically have been difficult matchups for tight ends. And so far this season had been as well. Ferguson overcame that Henry was okay. Um, but I, I'm, I think if you, for Ferguson is a must-start guy,

if you go pick him up, you can drop Kyle Pitts or Goddard if that's what you want to do. Ferguson's had at least seven targets in three of four games. He's had at least 9.8 PPR points in each of his past three. And eventually he's going to have a game where he has this nice target volume with catches and yards and a touchdown. The exact type of tight end that you want to go and get to have probably is your

starter over Pitts and Dallas Goddard for at least a little while. Listen, we'll get to Dave's winners in a second. I want to add two news items here that I'm just seeing. Actually, three. Matthew Stafford says he has a hip injury, but he'll play next week. Tredavious White is

believed to have torn his Achilles. Oh, boy. It looked bad when it happened. Yeah, that would be the second season-ending injury in three seasons for the Bills' top cornerback, Tredavious White. They have a ton of secondary injuries as well. The Buffalo Bills, another one of their guys left early today, and Jordan Poyer didn't play, so they're really beat up there.

But that really sucks for them. That guy's a, you know, he's at his best. He was a shutdown corner, one of the best in football. And Matthew Judon has a biceps injury for make things even worse for the new England Patriots,

maybe their best defensive player and Christian Gonzalez, another guy. So Christian Gonzalez has been shadowing number one receivers basically, and more or less shadowing. He left in the first quarter on the next play. I believe they threw a 20 yard touchdown pass. So Christian Gonzalez has been shadowing number one receivers, basically, and more or less shadowing. He left in the first quarter on the next play, I believe. They threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to CeeDee Lamb. So rough, rough day for the New England Patriots.

Okay, also Dave's winners now. There we go. Nico Collins with a, oh, timeout. Sorry. Schaefer, different lower third. Back to Heath's winners. I think we have to talk a little bit more about A-Chan and where you rank him rest of season. I mean, is it easy to put him ahead of Miles Sanders and Ramondre Stevenson, for example?

Yeah. Yes. I would find it easier to put him ahead of Ramondre. I think either of those guys that you were skeptical about, it would be easy to put ahead of. Anybody you had faith of, faith in, faith of, I'd say he's somewhere

between that RB15 and RB20 range rest of season. I was going to say he's at worst RB20 rest of season. And at best, maybe RB12.

I mean, there's a lot to love here about what we are getting just insane efficiency. And this is where he will say, you can't keep it up. And he's right. It's hard to average.

What's the averaging this season, rushing the ball. It's gotta be like probably like 15 miles, 15, uh, 15 miles per hour. Think about him versus some underwhelming veterans like Joe Mixon. I was about to say that. Wait.

Let's close your eyes. You just got your phone just vibrated. You have a notification. Now you can open your eyes. Someone just offered you Joe Mixon for your Devon A-chain. Are you clicking accept? It's A-chan. Damn it. Heath,

it's A-chan. Don't get this in my head. I think either one's fine. A-chan, A- It's A-chan. Damn it. Heath, it's A-chan. Don't get this in my head. I think either one's fine. A-chan, A-chan, A-chan, A-chain. Someone just offered you Joe Mixon for your A-chan. What are you doing? What are you clicking? Accept. You're taking Mixon.

Yeah, I don't think I can do it. Okay. Listen, and I don't want to be mr living in the moment at all but we're just we are seeing this running back having unbelievable play it's different when it's against denver because that defense is terrible but the bills defense that's a step up in competition and he didn't get a lot of work, and he shredded them. And it's not like their schedule moving forward is a terrible gauntlet. And just look at the Bengals offense and how it's been right now.

I think A-Chan can outscore Mixon. Mixon might have more carries and more touches, but I think A-Chan can outscore him the rest of the season. It's funny. He only had 11 touches today, and he was a huge winner. Okay. Sorry. Now lower third Dave is winners.

Sorry, producer, uh, Nico Collins with his name, you know? Yeah. Well, uh,

I do. I, I forgot it. Terry McLaurin, eight catches for 86 yards on 10 targets at Philadelphia. The Eagles seem to bring out the best in Terry McLaurin gets the bears next week. And Josh Jacobs,

Josh Jacobs had more receiving yards than rushing yards. Another inefficient rushing game, but eight catches for 81 yards, which is basically what Terry McLaurin had. Anyway, you talked about Nico. How about, well,

who'd you rather have McLaurin or Nico rest of season? I think I'd rather have Nico than McLaurin, but I'm encouraged by McLaurin and what he's been doing lately. Another huge game, he had those catches and yards. He also recovered a fumble for a touchdown. Most leagues should give credit for that. If they're not, double-check with your commissioner and find out why if you're not getting credit

for McLaurin's offensive fumble recovery for a touchdown. But that's the commander's receiver that fancy managers should be more encouraged to start than John Dotson, who also scored today, but McLaurin's just getting more work. Yeah. And Jacobs. Just no more questions about him.

Okay. The only concern is, is he still going to get even a modest target share when Garoppolo is back under center? Yeah, it's hard not to notice that O'Connell threw basically all the Jacoby Myers targets went to Josh Jacobs today. But

yeah, undisputed lead back, still catches passes regardless of the quarterback. And he scored a touchdown. He almost had two or three in this game. So big game for Jacobs. All right, let's go to the losers here. Dave's losers are Kyle Pitts, who we talked about,

Miles Sanders, who we talked about, and Jerome Ford, who will go into a bye week and then face San Francisco, Indianapolis, and Seattle. And I think all three of those teams have been pretty good against the run they have and then a week after seattle it's seattle then arizona and then it's the ravens the steelers steelers still have a pretty decent run defense he does get denver in week 12 so that's good but i wonder if there's an opportunity to pawn off ford now if you're running back rich

knowing that he was such a hot waiver claim two weeks ago. The advice might have been better a week ago after he had scored two touchdowns because in this game he was terrible, but you could just turn to people and say, well, of course he's going to be terrible. Deshaun Watson didn't play. I think that there's going to be some rough games ahead for Ford, who's still not seeing more than like 62% of the snaps.

I think that's what his number was last week. It was 60. This Browns offense didn't get inside the 10. You can, you can either throw it out and say, you know what? There was no Deshaun Watson. He'll be back after the buy.

And that's when we'll see Jerome Ford take off. But Heath had a great stat about Jerome Ford's inefficiency on, on fantasy football today, this morning on CBS sports HQ. And that was ringing in my head when I was thinking about Jerome Ford's inefficiency on, on fantasy football today, this morning on CBS sports HQ. And that was ringing in my head when I was thinking about Jerome Ford moving forward is that he's just not going to get a lot of those quality runs. And if that's going to be the case, then he's touchdown dependent and maybe target dependent.

I don't know if that's really who he is though. What was the sad? I 100% stole the stat from you. That's why I was laughing so hard. Oh, the stat that he had the one run, and then other than that, he's been absolute garbage? Yes.

He had a 69-yard carry. I tweeted it at the time. I said, that could be the best carry of Jerome Ford's career, which wasn't... It was an amazing carry. But yeah, I don't know. He's done nothing since then.

When we knew he had this terrible schedule, I'm not like... I don't know. He's done nothing since then. When we knew he had this terrible schedule, I'm not like, I don't know. I don't feel like Jerome Ford is going to be useless. He still catches passes. I didn't expect anything from the Browns today when they ruled Deshaun Watson out. Watson will come back. The San Francisco matchup is going to be really tough. Get through that.

Just don't lose your job to Kareem Hunt. I feel like he could still be, Jerome Ford could still be an RB2. Not gonna be a league winner or feel like he could still be, Jerome Ford could still be an RB2. Not going to be a league winner or anything like that. But I personally think he could still be an RB2 later in the year. I don't think this is the time to sell him. I think selling a guy coming off a bad game who's been extremely inefficient,

going into a bye week, it's like you're going to get nothing for Jerome Ford. So I would just hold him personally and I think he can be a decent bye week replacement or maybe even a starter for you down the stretch. But I mean, it's obviously he's not like a great player. I think that's kind of it. I think that we, and I'll just transition here to Michael Pittman, who was one of my losers.

But I think that we could maybe say Ford fantasy managers were losers because they didn't sell before this game. Because I think Adam's probably right. You're probably now waiting until after the buy, you hope that he has a good game and then you try to sell them. It would be hard to sell him for much of anything right now. Adam asked me to make that transition because he needed to turn his TV on because he wanted to make sure he didn't miss any Patrick Mahomes touchdowns. Michael Pittman,

Dave was a big loser for me because I think as much fun as we've had at Adam's expense with Anthony Richardson, and as surprisingly good as Anthony Richardson has been, we recognize there are going to be some bad Richardson games. He's a rookie quarterback. They're not all going to be this spectacular. And I was okay with Pittman having bad games

when Richardson has bad games. But if he's going to have a bad game when Richardson has a great game, and he's going to have bad games when Richardson has bad games, then I'm a little bit concerned that maybe I got a little bit over my skis with him as a no doubt about it top 20 wide receiver. Or was this game just a blip kind of like the Nico Collins game was in week three? Because you look at his, just the box score from each of the first three games, double digit targets every single game, at least eight catches every single game. I'm not expecting a ton of touchdowns from Pittman, but I think you can stick with them as a

top 24 ish PPR wide receiver. But we only have two games of him with Richardson, and the first one he was saved. Richardson left early. No, that was week two. But week one, Pittman had the 39-yard screen pass that went for a touchdown, which is kind of hard to replicate. So, yeah, I don't know.

But he still had 11 targets. He's still out there. Even if you take it away, he had seven catches for 60 yards, and that might be where he lives. That might be his average is around 13 PPR points. He's got Tennessee next week. I'm not – I don't think I would be nervous to start Michael Pittman against Tennessee in week five.

That's a fascinating game. That might be for the lead in the AFC South. Could be. And then they get Jacksonville after that. I don't know who Jacksonville is playing next week. Jacksonville's got Buffalo in England. Oh, so you're right. Hopefully a good game.

All right, I have a random question before we move on to the next segment of our show. I said this today, and I wonder if you guys agree. Is Taylor Swift the biggest star since Michael Jackson? At least. If not, then who? I was saying, like, Lady Gaga had a run, but Taylor Swift is destroying that. I don't even know.

I mean, is there like a country singer? I mean. She was. She was the top of that as well. It's unbelievable. I was reading a great article on CBSSports.com this morning about the impact that it's had on the NFL and how much more popular even the NFL is. And Travis Kelsey gained all the like hundreds of thousands of followers and viewership is way up among women in a certain age group. I guess this is amazing. I love it. I love it.

Well, that's the thing. It's like I see people, especially in our industry, complaining about it. It's like, are you kidding me. If 100,000 people start watching and 40% of them play fantasy football, we just grew. Come on. I'm looking at our chat comments and a lot of people are chiming in with Beyonce. And I think that that's a really good one. Yeah. I think about how Eminem was. I'm thinking about artists who were able to sell out massive stadiums right yeah m was able

to do that he's been he's he's stood the test of time those two come to the front of my lobe i think the difference with her is that she crosses a lot of um barriers there's there's a lot of it's a wide wide audience yeah. Bruno Mars also, I think, deserves a little credit there. Bruno Mars. Yeah. Basically, Michael Jackson and Beyonce, Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars. Bruno Mars was huge. Bruno Mars is going to have a hell of a legacy. He'll be dancing in Bruno Mars songs for decades. All right. News and notes here. Kyler Murray is still several weeks away from playing.

Rico Dowdle left in the third quarter. Jahan Dotson left but came back. Chase Claypool was not invited to the game. So that's a pretty bad situation there between Claypool and the Bears. He wasn't invited to do his job. Yeah, so they're hopefully going to trade him. Devontae Adams left in return. Alec Pierce was evaluated

for concussion. Juwan Johnson, calf injury. Donald Parham left in the first half. Prince. Prince is a good one. Prince was like the same time as Michael Jackson, though.

A little bit after, wasn't he? Well, not really. Like, Jackson really extended into the night. Bruno Mars was a good call by me, by the way. I think you're underestimating Bruno Mars.

A lot of offensive line injuries, obviously. Pittsburgh's left tackle, Dan Moore left. On defense, another Carolina cornerback out. Another defensive back for the Ravens was out. Another defensive back for the Buccaneers left. Philadelphia right guard, Cam

Juergens left. Cleveland center Buccaneers left. Philadelphia right guard Cam Juergens left. Cleveland center Ethan Posich left. Baltimore is the most injured team in the world. Right tackle Morgan Moses left. Houston, another offensive lineman for Houston. Doesn't seem to matter to CJ Stroud. Kendrick Green left with a knee injury. And those are some of the big ones here.

All right, let's get to the games here. Let's start recapping them. Jacksonville 23 and Atlanta 7. We start in London. Heath, give me a believe it or not. Believe it or not, Christian Kirk is the fantasy wide receiver one for the Jacksonville Jaguars. I don't believe it. I think it really comes down to who they play from week to week.

And it's a combination of who they play and how well they're able to run the football. And eventually Zay Jones will be back. And I'm worried that he will further water down the targets for everybody there. Okay, I'm not sure if I believe it or not. I did bring this up on the stream this morning that I was listening to the game

and the broadcasters were talking about how Calvin Ridley struggles with press coverage. He got shadowed in this game by A.J. Terrell, who did a terrific job on him, except, you know, the blown coverage on the touchdown. But Ridley apparently struggles with press coverage, which is nothing new, and the Falcons were going to try to take advantage of that,

and they did. That's now two weeks where he's been shadowed by a cornerback, LeJarius Sneed and A.J. Terrell, and taken out of the game. And that's concerning. You know, I don't know how many great corners are left on their schedule. We don't have to go through it,

but he shouldn't be the guy that is getting shut down by A.J. Terrell and LeJarius Sneed. So I'm not going to believe it, Heath, but nervous about it. And meanwhile, you know, we talked about this on Beyond the Box score, and I thought Trevor Lawrence played really well,

but the problem is they can't hit big plays. Their offense does not produce them, and it's killing everyone's fantasy value, basically, except, I guess, for Kirk, who's just catching passes.

But, I mean, that's the problem right now. They just don't make big plays. So, I don't know. What's the concern here? What's the level of concern for Jacksonvilleville in general i don't really want to start trevor lawrence against buffalo no either i get it i mean are we starting brock purdy i don't even know purdy's playing but are we starting like a bro i want to give some credit to luke rogers

i went up against luke in the yO Dynasty League and he started Brock Purdy over Trevor Lawrence correctly today against me. Yeah. Nice. Purdy's got Dallas on next Sunday night. Doesn't bother me. I don't know if it matters. Doesn't bother me. Purdy almost had an even bigger game because

this was the second time this year, Dave. Sorry, I know we're getting ahead. That he threw a pass to, first it was Debo a few weeks ago. This week it was McCaffrey, and it was ruled a lateral. That's not a pass. It was a rushing pass. But it was like a half a yard away from being a pass. It could have easily been a pass.

Let's just get this out in the open. You would really like to change the rules of a pass. And like shoveling it forward six inches should not be a pass. Throwing it 20 yards behind you should be a pass, correct? I'm just saying, Purdy have buried it. But anyway, let's talk about the other side of the ball. Purdy was very close to having a bad fantasy day if they didn't give him that last touchdown on a quarterback sneak.

Yeah. 20 of 21 passing. Amazing. Great day. Is the dude not a great fit for this offense or what? All right. Bijan Robinson is amazing. Yeah. Anything to say? I mean mean you guys talk about drake london no i think bijan is the only must start from the falcons offense until further notice okay yeah yeah i do i get best running back in the nfl right now i do think that john who smith is kind of carving something out.

It's a weird thing because why would he be the guy, but eight targets last week, six targets this week, six targets in week two, he's been involved in the offense and he had a big play. That's really the only difference between this week and last week, but he's getting involved in what they're doing. All right, let's take a break here.

We'll do the rest of the games, and I think we'll be joined by a special guest when we come back on Fantasy Football Today. We're back to talk about Tennessee and Cincinnati. That should be quick. Yeah, yeah. What do you want to talk about for Tennessee? Heath, go ahead.

Give me a believe it or not. Well, I was going to say Joe Burrow is droppable, but I think we could just go the other direction and say, Derek Henry's fine. You have nothing to be concerned about. I'm a little concerned. I, I think that he had like one or two nice runs and then he had a

touchdown throw. Yeah. Also known as a pass. The touchdown run was vintage Derek Henry. It was, it was, but there were a lot of runs where he looked like vintage Derrick Henry, like 29 year old Derrick Henry.

And now we've talked about before, like, what are you going to do the first time Derrick Henry has a big game? Do you feel confident? You're just going to keep rolling with them or do you sell high? Do you try to sell high? That's a great question. What's your answer?

They're Colts, Ravens, and a bye week coming up. Yeah, I mean, those are tough matchups. I still don't necessarily believe that this is a great offense in Tennessee. And even though the offensive line could get a little bit better in the coming weeks, I might try and shop them around if I'm rich at running back. Hey, Jamie. Hey, guys.

What's up? All right. We're talking Tennessee and Cincinnati here. Yeah, I'd be selling Derrick Henry if you can. For A-chan? In a heartbeat.

You'd rather have A-chan? Wow. I mean, I'd probably expect A-chan and something else, but yes, I would. I mean, who knows what the seller Chan and something else, but yes, I would. I mean, who knows? That's not the offer. Jamie, close your eyes. Your phone just vibrated. You got an offer. You're Derek. You have Derek Henry.

The H and managers just offered you a Chan straight up for Derek Henry. There are no other players involved. What button are you clicking? Yes. Oh, all right. He said yes! They will be close on the trade chart. So it might not take much with HN to get Derek Henry, or vice versa.

You might not need to get that much with HN to give up Derek Henry. Who's faster? Just kidding. Anyway, a final word on Hopkins. How does Hopkins feel? He led the team in receiving. Who's faster? Just kidding. All right, let's go to our, well, anyway, final word on Hopkins. How does Hopkins feel? He led the team in receiving, I think.

It's nice that you're trying to say sweet things about DeAndre Hopkins. They had a flea flicker play in the first half that was designed for Hopkins to catch a long touchdown, and it was well covered. So lastly, Adam, you were praising all the 30-year-old wide receivers. How do you feel about them this week? Yeah.

Well, Devontae was good, good enough. Devontae was okay. Keenan Allen was not so good. Scored. Mike Evans got hurt. Devontae got banged up in the game. Yeah, no. DeAndre Hopkins not doing so great.

Wasn't great. Baltimore 28 and Cleveland 3, Heath. Believe it or not, none of the Ravens running backs matter. Believe it. I believe that. Gus really dominated. Here's a second round pick.

Give us Jonathan Taylor. Thank you. Yep. It's got to be. Take the second? Okay, Indy, close your eyes, Colts. Your phone just vibrated. I have been really neglecting this, but let's just take a second here to talk. Lamar Jackson has been so good,

and it looks terrific this year. Jamie, let's give Lamar Jackson some props. I've really failed. It's almost like as an afterthought, but he deserves some credit. I mean, yeah, look, he hasn't had, I think prior to today, like the high-end games, right? He hasn't had such a standout fantasy game, but he's been consistent. And I think that the promising thing is that we have not seen what

we were expected to see, which is the boost in the passing game. Now you could say the downside of that is, is it ever going to come because what are they waiting for? But if, if that does start to happen and he continues to give you some rushing production, like we're used to, then you're going to be thrilled about what you got in Lamar Jackson. But with the up-and-down play that we've had from some of the quarterbacks and factoring in Jalen Hurts and some of his inconsistencies and Joe Burrow and Justin Fields prior to today, to know that you've been getting what you're getting from Lamar Jackson, especially today against a really good Browns defense

with some offensive line concerns. So I don't think you should be upset about what Lamar Jackson has been so far and hopefully can get to a next level. If the receiving court gets healthy in the passing game, numbers will follow. Adam, you'd mentioned this in the preseason about Lamar not having quite the touchdown numbers that he should for as much as he runs. And I saw a number of designed Lamar Jackson rush attempts in the red zone, and it was not much more than what we used to see. So he might have a career high in rushing touchdowns pretty soon. All right.

Would you rather real quick last question on this game? We'll go to our next game. Would you rather have Zay Flowers or DeAndre Hopkins rest of season? Zay Flowers. Zay Flowers. Flowers. All right. Denver 31,

Chicago 28. Somehow the bears blow the 21-point lead. Late in the game, they lose. And I thought they did the right thing going for it on fourth down, by the way. But anyway, Heath Hilton. How? Why? Because, I don't know, there was roughly three-something minutes left.

They're pretty deep. They're in field goal range. It's a tie game. The Bears have the ball. It's fourth and one. I feel like they should have been able to get it. What you don't want to do is kick a field goal. Your defense stinks. You kick a field goal range. It's a tie game. The Bears have the ball. It's fourth and one. I feel like they should have been able to get it. What you don't want to do is kick a field goal. Your defense stinks.

You kick a field goal. You give the ball back to the Broncos. There's a good chance they drive down the field and either tie it or score a touchdown. I think you pick up the first down. You try. You run the clock a little bit more, and you win the game.

So I think, unlike Brandon Staley, I think they can do the right thing. So I disagree. I actually agree with Brandon Staley and disagree with the Bears. And I think the Brandon Staley one's been proven. Either one of those last two weeks, if they get it, they win. And as you've seen, they cannot get it and still win. I suppose.

All right, what's our believe it or not for this game? I've got two of them. But one is the Bears figured things out. Nothing to worry about there anymore. And two is Russell Wilson is Russell Wilson. I don't know what that means. Like old Russell Wilson? That means he's back to being old Russ.

He's a top 10 fantasy quarterback. I don't know if I'm ready to say that he's a top 10 fantasy quarterback. He took advantage of a great matchup today. And the metrics going into this week compared to where he was a year ago at this time. He just, he's, he's just much better now. Way better scheme. He seems more comfortable. So I agree with that one. I buy that Russell Wilson. He should be rostered. Like people didn't want to roster him after three weeks last year. He should absolutely be on a roster. He might be a good guy to try and trade for.

You're not starting. What? You're not starting Russell Wilson right now. Depends on who else I have. Because he was one of those guys, right? He was one of those guys that you took late. Maybe,

but I'm like, you're sure. And then I'm just thinking of the guys, the guys who are drafted. He's better than Deshaun. He's better than Prescott. He's better than Burrow. Yeah. Lawrence.

Better than Lawrence. Wait a sec. Okay than Prescott. He's better than Burrow. Yeah. Lawrence. Better than Lawrence. Wait a sec. Okay, hold on. Let's take a game-by-game look at Russell Wilson. Week one, he scores 19.2 fantasy points against the Raiders. Week two, he scores 32 fantasy points against Washington. About 10 of those points came on the last possession, and about eight of them came on the Hail Mary.

Week three, he scored 16 points against the Dolphins, and week four, he scored 28 points against the Chicago Bears. I don't want to overrate him. You're also talking about the 16 points against the Dolphins was still a 300-yard day. He just didn't have the second score. He didn't have a second touchdown.

Okay, but I don't want to overrate him coming off a Bears game. I think that's the danger here. I don't Okay. But I don't want to overrate him coming off a bears game. I think that that's, that's the danger. I don't think you're wrong in saying don't overrate him. And, and he can still be a starting fantasy quarterback. The thing about it is outside of the elite guys,

like who has four great games so far? He does. He doesn't. He is. I think if you're joining him to the way, like the way where I would put him in, I'll use Heath's, you know,

buckets. If you're going to put him in a bucket, um, he's in the same bucket as like Jordan love. And. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't think anyone's arguing that. I think everyone's on the same page then. So. Is he in the same bucket as Justin Fields? Uh, believe it or not right no i'm trying to move this along for everybody yeah no i'd rather start justin fields yeah i i'm gonna be very nervous when fields has a tough matchup and i think thursday at washington might be one of those tough matchups but after that vik Raiders chargers, yeah, those are going to be good games. He had all day to throw.

So like fields having this monster game, if he hadn't had a monster game, we'd be dropping them because he literally had a huge matchup. The easiest matchup you could ask for this Broncos defense is going to be great for fantasy, except next week because they play the jets. So I don't know. I don't even know if the jets can put up numbers against them all right but what really though is you do have

to wonder i mean what do you make of this we have to talk about just fields first of all it's a great start of the week call is very bold and um he comes through with a huge game and we also have to talk about khalil herbert actually i think a huge winner today that we actually have not mentioned herbert had 18 carries and four catches and 122 total yards and a touchdown. But, yeah, I mean, how much faith do you have in Fields moving forward?

Do you still think he's, as Dave seems to think, he's matchup dependent. Does anybody think that Justin Fields is back to being a must-start guy? Yes. I haven't sat him yet.

Yeah. Okay. I mean, we have, what, how many teams on a buy next week four right like i don't mean in that i mean do you think he's a stud do you think do you think the first three games were the mirage you're doing this game's the mirage i don't think we've seen the the justin fields that we're going to see on a consistent basis yet, because you had two, what I would consider relatively rough road games back to back with the bucks and the chiefs. And so he struggled in those games, like the game that you got against the Packers.

To me, that's probably what the floor is going to be. And this is going to be the ceiling, what we saw this week, you know, so 17 points is a bad day. And the 30 something as a great day, you know? So I think when he's got by the time

the season's over like he'll be in that 22 to 25 point range does it bother anybody that he had this monster game while only having four carries for 25 yards and that the staple the staple of what we wanted from justin fields we drafted him was the rushing. He was. Listen, I thought he looked amazing for the first three quarters and then kind of struggled a little bit in the fourth. But part of the reason why everybody drafted him was because he'd be able to wake up every Sunday and get at least 70 yards on the ground.

He hasn't done that yet. And so if we're going to ride with Justin Fields, are we riding with him because of his arm? Because his legs aren't doing what we thought that they'd do. All right. I do have to wrap this conversation up here. Khalil Herbert, rest of season. This is the first. It's something even resembling a good game, basically, for Herbert.

So back to being a starter. Flex. Flex. Bi-week replacement. Flex at best. High-end flex. He might be an RB2 some weeks, but high-end flex. Look, I'd be selling if you can.

Yeah, sure. But here's an example of what his workload will be when the Bears are in a competitive game. Hope so. Rams 29, Colts 23. Anthony Richardson is a top five quarterback. Believe it. I don't believe it. Mahomes,

Allen, Hurts. Hurts. Who, by the way, does not even have a 40-yard rushing game yet. Jalen Hurts. You got to put Cousins still as a top five quarterback. No, I don't know. Cousins, this was such a Cousins game.

Really? One game is going to do it to you? I would not. If you tell me I have Anthony Richardson and Kirk Cousins on my team, I am starting Anthony Richardson every week. Well, I don't know about starting him every week. I mean, you could definitely play the matchups there with those two. You need to drive yourself crazy. Yeah.

No, I maybe still the big three. I'd rather have Lamar Jackson than Richard. Did you say that? Did you say that? Okay. So that's four. He's not top five. I don't know.

Five. Who's the fifth? It's not Burrow. Can't say Lawrence. Can't say Herbert. Oh, to a to a to a to a to a or Herbert. But that Tua. Tua. You could say Tua or Herbert, but we'll have a believe it or not on the Dolphins offense. What has Richardson done in the three games

that we've seen him to make him not feel like this? He was a top 12 quarterback per game coming into this game, and one of the two games he played, he played one quarter. Yeah. Okay, what else from this game? Adam's going to die on that hill. No, I'm not. I think top five is a little too high.

I'm off the hill. That's fine. I'm not trashing Richardson at all. I was wrong. That's it. It's over. What else from this game? That's fine.

Puka was great. We'll have time to talk about those guys after. We got to talk about Zach Moss at some point, what you do with him now. All right, yeah, Jonathan Taylor is eligible to come back now. Moss had 18 carries. He did not have a catch. He only had one target, which is interesting.

What's that going to look like with Richardson? How much is he going to throw to his running backs? All right, go ahead, Dave. Talk about Zach Moss. You don't know what's going to happen. If Taylor is in the good graces of the Colts All right, go ahead, Dave. Talk about Zach Moss. You don't know what's going to happen. If Taylor's in the good graces of the Colts and they agree to some sort of extension or just an agreement for the rest of this year,

it's going to be a lot of Jonathan Taylor and very little of Zach Moss, and Moss will be a handcuff. But we don't know what's going to happen. It's a gamble if you trade for him, and you shouldn't have to give up that much to trade for him because there's still the chance that Taylor gets traded and Moss is the lead back rest of

season. We just don't know. We've not heard anything suggesting that Jonathan Taylor's changed his stance about playing for the Colts, right? No. In fact, I read on ESPN that his stance remains steadfast that he does not want to play for the Colts.

Not to say that they're going to trade him, but I read that it has not changed, in fact. I believe Jay Glazer reported on Fox's pregame show today that the Colts have not received any trade offers, and they are ramping him up to play. Whether he is in agreement with that is a different story, but that's what the Colts, I think, are hoping to do. Let's move on here and go to our next game.

It's just easy to forget how good Jonathan Taylor was. He was like, yeah, I know, that was pretty sick. He was like Bruno Mars back in the day. You know what I mean? All right, Buffalo 48, Miami 20. Believe it or not, on the Dolphins' offense, Heath and I are reacting to the Isaiah Pacheco run.

That was sick. Buffalo 48, Miami 20. What's our, believe it or not, on the Dolphins offense? And Heath and I are reacting to the Isaiah Pacheco run. That was sick. Yes. Buffalo 48, Miami 20. Believe it or not, the Dolphins offense is mid without Teron Armstrong. Don't believe it. Just okay. I don't believe it. How much has Armstead played this year? Was this his first game or second game?

I think it was. He played last week. Yeah, they were great in week one. Let me check. They week. Did he play in week two? Let me check. Did they score after he went out of this game? I'm not sure. I think they did. I can double check if they did.

He only played week three. The Dolphins get their slump buster next week. Oh, come on, Jame. That's not. The dolphins get their slump buster next week. Oh, come on, Jamie. That's not cool, man.

Giants giants in Miami on a short week next week. Yeah, that they're going to light them up. All right. So if he said that Devon, a Chan is at worst, a top 20 running back where he most served is what's going forward, guys.

Same. I think he's more in the khalil herbert range can i say that james cook has not scored a touchdown uh that james cook still has a touchdown problem because the touchdown he scored today really shouldn't have been a touchdown and they should have overturned it but alas they did not they were intentional about getting him that's. It was obvious. Let's get James Cook a touchdown. What the hell do we do with Gabe Davis?

You're going to get three to four targets every week and catch a touchdown? Come on. Sounds a lot like Gabe Davis. Yeah. You shard him any time you think Josh Allen's going to explode. That might be most weeks. That's what he does.

But it's certainly a boom-bust type of flex play, which is what he's always been. I don't know how many more times. I'm going to guess there's probably a few that Nance and Romo are calling the games. They alluded to this on the broadcast that every time they have a Buffalo game, Gabe Davis does something great.

So keep that in mind, that maybe he's a primetime player. Minnesota 21, Carolina 13. Carolina had the ball for almost 39 minutes in this game. So we talked that. We talked that. Give me Vikings running backs. Yeah, believe it or not, Cam Akers is a non-factor.

So let me set up the stats real quick here. Madison had 17 carries in one catch. Akers had five carries in this game. Madison had another solid game, 98 total yards. All right, so believe it or not, Cam Akers is a non-factor. Don't believe it. He will be a factor at some point. At some point, yes, but I think right now

you should feel comfortable starting Madison as a number two running back. One target for Jordan Addison. Just chalk it up. I mean, look, Cousins, what did he throw? He threw 19 passes. 19 passes, and like you said, they barely had the ball. Yeah.

All right, so just kind of chalk it up to a bad week. Yes, for everybody but Madison and Jefferson. Would you rather have Adam Thielen or Jordan Addison rest of season? Madison. That's a great question. but Madison and Jefferson. Would you rather have Adam Thielen or Jordan Addison rest of season? Addison. That's a great question. I probably lean toward Addison because of Thielen's age and quarterback,

but Thielen's look good. He really has. He has. Yep. Yeah. Seven catches, 76 yards on eight targets for Thielen, who has started in 62% of leagues. Houston, 30. Yep. Yeah. Seven catches, 76 yards on eight targets for Thielen, who has started in 62% of leagues. Houston 30, Pittsburgh 6.

The Steelers do not have one offensive player you can start. Not yet. But, man, A, Deontay Johnson needs to come back quickly. And, B, they need to fire Matt Canada, which sounds like they might be doing. For what it's worth, Deontay Johnson was a million times better with Mitchell Trubisky last year

than he was with Kenny Pickett. So is Pickett done? No, I don't know. Four to six weeks is what I'd seen, but it was speculation. Yeah, no, you can't trust anyone right now, for sure. And it's weird. The thing is with Najee, he's got what?

What did he have? 19 carries last week, 14 this week. He totaled over 100 yards this week. He's actually had a bunch of runs now. I think it's like three games in a row where he's actually looked decent. Yeah. So maybe, I don't know if it's necessarily more consistent it's worth a review let's have some fun and talk about cj stroud here 68 percent roster jamie 25 or more fantasy or 24.6

or more in three straight games been right around 25 all three of those games but very impressive stuff his receiving core is doing great things for him too. And, you know, despite the fact that the offensive line is a mess from an injury standpoint, you know, it hasn't impacted him. No interceptions to start his career. I think it's, I saw today, like most completions without an interception to start an NFL career. So he's on fire.

And, you know, I think anybody in dynasty that drafted him is going to be pretty thrilled about that. Texans seem to have found their guy. And he's made Nico Collins into the third year breakout that I was expecting him to be. He's gotten two great games so far to tank Delta. It was disappointing, but you know, I wouldn't necessarily be, you know, panicked about that. And so, you know, hopefully Damien Pierce gets going to give this, this team a little bit of a run game, but they're in it. I mean, that, you know, hopefully Damian Pierce gets going to give this, this team a

little bit of a run game, but they're in it. I mean, that, you know, you can make case that the best team in the AFC South at this point, you know, especially once they get, get a little bit healthier on the, on the offensive line. So yeah, I love what I see from CJ right now. They're, they're two and two. They just punched the Steelers in the mouth. And, and I think they're realizing, and we talked about this two weeks ago that eventually they would whittle down their three running backs down to two. And we talked about this two weeks ago that eventually they would whittle down their three running backs down to two. And that's really what happened. Pierce played 58% of the snaps season high three of six snaps inside the 10 Singletary was up next 36% of the snaps played

a little bit more on third and fourth downs. Mike Boone played, but he only played 6% of the snaps. So they're starting to lean into Damian Pierce even more. When that offensive line gets healthy, and C.J. Stroud has already established himself as a great thrower, you're going to see some great games from Damian Pierce. Back-to-back game with no sacks, too. That's crazy. That's insane. And Pierce, by the way,

had a touchdown catch, about a five-yard touchdown catch, called back on a penalty. Yeah, that was good for Nico Collins. Right, right. Did it end up good for Nico Collins. Right. Right. Did end up with a Nico Collins touch. They have like three touchdowns in a row to call back. They, they,

yes, yes. It was a wild sequence. Yeah. Uh, Tampa Bay, 26, new Orleans,

nine Heath. I think I'm going to go back to the Chris Olave one because it is interesting. You should ignore Derek car shoulder, ignore Alvin Camara's impact, ignore the matchup at Foxborough and still start Chris Olave next week. Well, are we getting the Patriots without Matt Judon and Christian Gonzalez?

Cause I might, but no Matt Judon. I definitely think that car shoulder has to be a serious concern. They need to set him. Yeah. And if they do, it's Jameis Jameis is only throw was intercepted on a deep him. Yeah. And if they do, it's Jameis. Jameis' only throw was intercepted on a deep lob.

Yeah, I got to say, we got to check the weather in case it's unusually cold in Foxborough. For Derek Carr. I hadn't thought about that for a while. It's sweatshirt weather for me. So, you know. All right. Chris Godwin has a huge game here it catches 114 yards and 88 of those yards came in the last 13 minutes of the game and that was all without mike evans so i guess my question is do you go back to chris godwin they do have a buy

coming up so maybe this is a silly question, but if Evans has a multi-week absence, do you only consider Godwin a start if Evans is out? In the immediate future, yes. You might not have that option, though, because we're getting into the buy week starting next week. So obviously next week you can't use him, but then there's going to be weeks ahead

where there's going to be other receivers missing. You're not going to have a choice, but to start Chris Goblin, whether Evans is there or not. Miguel is keeping track in our chat of all the Taylor Swift camera shots. He's got six with a quarter. I set the over under this morning, more Taylor Swift or Aaron Rogers.

And I think that that was answered when Pacheco had a rushing touchdown and they immediately went to Taylor Swift. They're going to Taylor Swift after the Pacheco touchdown. It's going to be Taylor Swift. All right. Let's go to our next game. Philadelphia. This is a heck of a game.

Washington really plays the Eagles tough and they lost in overtime by three Philadelphia, 34 Washington, 31. Brian Robinson is a must-start running back for at least the next three weeks. The Bears at home, at Atlanta, at the Giants. Yep.

And maybe even four weeks because he gets Philadelphia again in week number eight. Oh, yeah. I think you're right on that. Chicago, Atlanta. Well, give credit to Atlanta. Their defense, not bad. But those will be competitive games. Yes. Yeah. Give credit to Atlanta. Their defense is not bad, but those will be competitive games.

Yes. That's the point. And Chicago's defense is still so bad. Is there a difference? What's the difference between Bryan Robinson and Damian Pierce? Who's better rest of season? Pierce. Rest of season, I would

take Pierce. I mean, this wasn't a great game for Robinson. I know he should have had two touchdowns, but it's not like he ran that well. Played a lot, scored a couple of catches. I almost think that that's what you're going to get from him. But when you've got a plus matchup, you're going to love him. 54% of the snaps. It feels like a season low. It's also a game script, as we've said.

Yeah. I was worried that they'd get blown out, and they most certainly did not. Right. That's why we were nervous about starting Robinson. All right. On the other side, we already talked about Goddard, Hurts. Yeah, it is weird that Hurts has not had a 40-yard rushing game yet.

DeAndre Swift is the guy, and he scored a touchdown. That was great, and he had four catches. He was started 95% of the league, so keep starting him. He's an eye for catches for Swift. Chargers 24, Vegas 17. I think this is probably an important one. You need to hold Quentin Johnson over his bye.

Again, let me set it up. Quentin Johnson had, because we have stats in front of us, for those of you listening at home or wherever, one catch for 18 yards on three targets in a pretty quiet day. Only 167 passing yards and 24 attempts for Justin Herbert.

But a terrible game for Quentin Johnston. So it is a good one, Heath. Believe it or not, guys, you need to hold Johnston 69% rostered through his bye. I don't believe it. I don't think it's a must well you have you have two things here one I don't know how many people are running to pick up Quentin Johnston in a redraft league after the game he just had you have Austin Eckler coming back after their bye week and that's another mouth to feed that's going to be a much bigger upgrade over what the running backs have been certainly in the passing

game so I think it's going to be a while before we see the best of Quentin Johnson. Okay. Alright. I'm good there. Jacobs we talked about. Yeah, let's go to our next game. San Francisco 35, Arizona

16. Believe it or not, we totally flubbed it and forgot Michael Wilson when we were talking about the early waiver wire. Yeah, probably. He had seven catches for 76 yards and two touchdowns. I don't think I'm going to pick him up. He's a must-add player.

You think so? Yes. Drop Quentin Johnston player. You think so? Yes. Drop Quentin, Justin, add not Michael Wilson. Yes. I mean, this time last week we were calling Quentin Johnson,

a must add player. So we were, you know, well, we were, we were saying that Josh Palmer would be the better of the two early and that Quentin Johnson would be somebody that you want to have on your team just to see what happens.

And we saw a game of what could happen. And now he's on his bye week. Josh Dobbs is playing well. I don't want to discount what he's done. For the role that he's been put into on what we thought was going to be an awful team, they're not an awful team. I know they got hammered by San Francisco. They're going to do that to a lot of teams.

They were in this game. The fact that they cut it to 21 16 at one point was was extremely impressive and so i i think right now what you're seeing is you know somebody else is gonna have is gonna have games where there's gonna be a second there's gonna be a second pass catcher on his team zachert should have caught a touchdown by the way at the end which would have covered the spread for anybody that took a's points. Hi. In any event, I think we're just seeing an offense that's developing and improving, and a young player that might be their best receiver by next season.

And hats off to Marquise Brown. He's had three good games in a row, too. Yeah, I said that to Dave as we were watching the game. He's had a very quiet, good season for him. 32% started, so I think that's going to have to change. They don't have a bye, by the way, until I think week 13. Week 14. Week 14, right.

Arizona and Washington, the two teams that have a bye in a potential fantasy playoff week. Okay, and that's going to be it for that game. News on Javante Williams, he's not expected to miss much time, if any. Okay. Actually, let's talk about, real quick, Brandon Ayuk. It's like, if you look at week two, let's see if they go to Taylor. We got a Taylor Swift shot here?

Let me know. Week two, he didn't play much. Yeah, cheap score again. And I was so sidetracked here. Anyway, okay, I know what I was going to say. Combine week one and week four for Brandon Ayuk. And it's 14 catches, 277 yards or something like that, and two touchdowns.

But it's 14 catches on 14 targets. So I don't know what you can expect from Brandon Ayuk, but he doesn't get enough targets for this kind of production. He must be number one in yards per target. Anyway, sell or hold? Buy, sell, hold, Ayuk. Buy. I'll say hold.

You had a Debo Samuel injury already coming into this week. If he misses any time, my goodness. By the way, what was Debo's snap count? Because he didn't have a target in this game. He had three carries. Yeah. I started him. Tell me that one.

He played 46 of 53 snaps. What? And didn't have a target? Decoy Samuel. All right, Dallas 38, New England 3. Our last game, Heath. Matthew Judon, according to Schefter, is going to be sidelined. They just don't know how long yet. He suffered a lower bicep tendon tear.

That could be a year under. Oh. Dak Prescott is droppable in one-quarter rec leagues. Nope. Don't believe it. I believe it. At San Francisco next week. I'd rather have CJ Stroud.

I don't believe it. I did that exact thing today. I don't feel like Dak is playing poorly. Just feel like the fantasy production. Doesn't have to be playing poorly to be a good fantasy quarterback. Yeah. Another quiet, nice game for Michael Gallup. He had five catches for 60 yards coming off a 92-yard performance.

He's 15% rostered. We talked about Ferguson. Disappointing game for Pollard, but no big deal there. And the Patriots stink. Bad. Mack Jones is terrible. Do you want to see Bailey Zappi? Would that change anything for you, for Stevenson?

Do I want to see Bailey Zappi? Yes. I don't want to see Mack Jones anymore. I don't think anything's going to improve things for Stevenson. Dave, did you get any offers on your Zeke on the block today? Not one. That's what happens when you put a player on the block 10 minutes before the

game starts. I think you could have done it 10 weeks ago and nobody would have made sure. Yeah, probably. Wait a second. Wait a second. If you're going to,

if you're going to poke fun at Dave for that, let's talk about the trade you offer Dave in that league. Cause that was such an Acer trade. They're no longer called Acer trades. They're now JB trades. Dave, what was the trade JB offered to you? I don't even remember.

I know that it was Jordan Love and somebody. Jordan Love and Brees Hall for Aaron Jones and Joe Burrow. And I believe Jordan Love outscored both Aaron Jones and Joe Burrow. So you could make fun of that trade all you want to. That was funny. That was, yeah, the thought of trading, yeah, for Burrow at that point. But now it's so much different. I will say, and this is my favorite Jamie story ever in the league

that I thankfully no longer participate in. I think it was my second year at CBS, and Jamie made a trade so lopsided that somebody threatened to quit the league. He traded Devontae Freeman after week one or week two for Jamal Charles in a huge package deal. And Devante Freeman finished the year as RV one and Jamal Charles, I think played one more game. That's awesome.

All right, guys, thank you so much. Great show tonight. We'll talk to you all tomorrow with Beyond the Box score. Have a great evening. Or if you're listening in the morning, have a wonderful Monday. And we'll talk to you soon.