Fantasy Football Today - Week 8 Recap! Have Michael Carter and Justin Fields Arrived? (10/31 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: November 1, 2021

The Jets beat the Bengals, and their offensive players really shined in Week 8! We discuss them among our biggest Week 8 winners (4:00) while Antonio Gibson and Kenneth Gainwell headline the list of losers (7:45). Can we trust GIbson anymore? And we review the big news (12:00) and react to Calvin Ridley's announcement and Jameis Winston's injury ... The Chargers offense was spooky on Sunday so are we concerned that Mike Williams is turning into a pumpkin (17:00)? And we've got more winners (19:50) and losers (24:00) for you including Eli Mitchell, Tyler Lockett, DeVonta Smith and Emmanuel Sanders ... We'll discuss which players may have broken out in Week 8 (35:00) and then we review each game with our Fantasy takes (40:00) ... Email us at [e-mail] Follow our FFT team on Twitter: @FFToday, @AdamAizer, @JameyEisenberg, @daverichard, @heathcummingssr, @ctowerscbs, @BenSchragg Watch FFT on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/fantasyfootballtoday 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

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BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. This is Fantasy Football Today from CBS Sports. On his way to the end zone. Tell you what, that was a spectacular play. It's time to dominate your fantasy league. What a play. Off to the races.

Touchdown. Oh, he's done it again. Now here's some combination of Adam, Dave, Jamie, Heath, and Beck. Alrighty then. Welcome to Fantasy Football Today, your Halloween edition. I am the worst costume ever, Ace Ventura. It is terrible, but we're going to have fun with it because we bought it and we have nothing else to do. Yeah, so Ace Ventura here with Dave Richard and Aaron Rodgers, right? Aaron Rodgers? R-E-L-A-X.

I'm trying to R-E-L-A-X, but I got some fantasy games that are in the balance here on this Sunday night. Welcome to the show, everybody. We're going to talk about our big fantasy winners and our big fantasy losers tonight. Oh, God. The who's her? Exactly, exactly. And Dave also challenged me to throw out Jim Carrey quotes. Just none from Ace Ventura. Right.

I think that would have been funnier. Okay, I can do that from now on. Heath wanted to start the show. Let's do a little preview of what's coming on the show today. We're going to talk about Calvin Ridley and that situation. Very unfortunate. Hope everything's okay with him. I'm glad to see that he's taking the time to get right mentally. And I'm sure everybody supports Calvin Ridley. We will, of course, go over the big injuries. Jameis Winston leaving with a knee injury. Is it going to be Taysom Hill time? He was really good as a starter last year.

James Robinson left with an injury in the first half, so we'll get into that. Some of the worst performances, like the Washington offense, the Chargers offense, what do we make of that? And rookie running backs doing their thing, like Elijah Mitchell. I guess not as much Khalil Herbert today. But, yeah, everything you need to know. But Heath said we need to start out with the stupidest moves we made this week.

So Heath, take it away. I don't even know if you guys made any. I think I can cover the three of us. Oh no, I got some. I hedged because I drafted a lot of Dak Prescott, and I still have him locked in as a starter in two different leagues, one of which Dave is the commissioner and has stupid waiver wire settings and wouldn't allow me to pick up

Cooper Rush after Dak was ruled out because everybody's on waivers always um it's not auction league auction league yes um I wanted to drop one of my bi-week players and pick up cooper rush which i should be able to and i can't so the stupidest move you made this week was really dave's stupid move as a commission no that's just number one okay number two and i need to i don't know who you are i'm not going to go back and find the tweet because it makes me a little bit nauseous just thinking about it i told someone to sit sit Michael Pittman this morning. Now, in fairness, he also had Brandon Cooks and Cole Beasley, and they both scored 20 fantasy points, I think.

But Michael Pittman scored 30. That's okay. Come on. That's all right. And then my undefeated podcast league team is going to lose this week because I benched Tyler Lockett for David Johnson. See, I don't think that's a stupid move at all.

I don't think that's stupid. I don't know that I made anything to... You know what, Adam? I benched Brandon Cooks. It feels stupid. It feels really stupid. Okay. Is that something?

Is that a thing? No. No, it's just how I feel. Okay. Well, let's talk about the best from Sunday, the biggest winner. Dave, who's the biggest fantasy winner from week eight? The biggest fantasy winner from week eight? I don't know if Pat Fryermuth is the biggest fantasy winner,

but I love the fact that he had seven targets again and caught four passes for 44 yards in a touchdown. And then on a week where a lot of tight ends absolutely were miserable and a drain on fantasy rosters, here's somebody that stepped up and looks like he's going to be a significant part of the Steelers offense moving forward. Brutal week for tight end in non PPR Friar Muth is number one tied with Brevin Jordan. So a couple of rookies there, but yeah, really bad week for tight end rookie tight ends at the top of the list and neither one named kyle pitts yeah the real in ppr it's hawkinson um by by a mile he had 10 catches for 89 yards so he had a legitimately good game um goddard was pretty good

do six for 72 but yeah disappointing him okay uh from from many tidings we take that heath who's the uh biggest winner in week eight um it's michael i mean it's the jets really jets fans jets coaches jets players um they finally after all these years found their franchise quarterback mike white becoming the first quarterback to throw for 400 yards in his first start since cam newton um like quite obviously this this offense got moving because they got the ball their best current offensive player that's michael carter he was absolutely awesome against a very tough run defense averaged 5.1 yards per carry again led the team in targets with 14 targets. Caught nine of them for 95 yards.

And the best part is Mike White played so well that this whole silly little Joe Flacco thing that they just burned a draft pick for just lit it on fire. Now they're going to start Mike White again this week. So Michael Carter's going to get a bunch of targets again. And Ty Johnson too. I mean, Ty Johnson had, what did he have, six catches?

Some five catches? Dave started him against me in the tank-a-thon, and I started Mike White. I'm going to win the tank-a-thon. If you're really tanking. He threw a touchdown pass, and I was all upset. And I saw it was to Ty Johnson, who Dave had. And I was excited.

71 yards and a touchdown receiving for Ty Johnson. If you really wanted a tank, you would have started the Bengals defense. I take full responsibility for that. No, wait. I need to go back to this because I almost tweeted it and I thought there's people on Twitter

who maybe don't get what we do. When this whole Bonanza thing was going on, you wanted to make it very clear, I am not a sorcerer. I don't have this type of power. And so now, four weeks in a row, you have disagreed with me about a defense. And oddly enough, I've been right. And your answer to that is, well, I must be a sorcerer.

It can't be that Heath was right on the defenses. No, that's true, actually. But here's the thing. It's not just that I disagree with you. It's also Dave and Jamie happen to disagree with you very much on all of those. They were so high or so low on a DST a particular week. In normal circumstances, I feel like you would be doing some sort of Azerstat research to discern what was the thing the four defenses

all had in common i don't know do you you well you haven't done the research yet i just don't understand how like the bangles have a really good defense and they're playing the jets and i just don't how did you do and you know what they gave up 500 plus yards and they still walked away with a decent dsd performance um all right anyway anyway, biggest losers. Biggest losers. Heath, give me the biggest loser in week eight. LeHue. Yeah, go ahead. That was a good one. I think it has to be Antonio Gibson.

Yeah. Not just sharing passing down the word with JD McKissick, but apparently he's in a committee in the running game and on the shorter end. I don't know like the only thing that makes any sense to me and we've gotten a lot this is all speculation so throw it away if you want to but we've gotten a lot better they talk about how they know when to rest guys in practice because all the biometric and all the medical information they have now it seems like they

just don't feel like antonio gibson can play a full football game with his current injury. He's been under 45% of the snaps three straight weeks, and this week was a season low, 31%. He had eight carries for 34 yards and three catches for 20 yards, and Jarrett Patterson had 11 carries for 46 yards. McKissick had eight catches. It's no surprise that McKissick had more catches than Gibson. Gibson with three actually is one of the highest marks of his season, but only eight carries to 11 for Patterson. I'm not sure

right now what the big difference between Gibson and Devin Singletary is, except maybe Gibson might get a goal line carry. Or Gibson could get it going again later on this year. I think the only way that Singletary really becomes somebody that you'd feel comfortable starting is if Zach Moss were to go away. Right. I know I'm going to probably forget this. It's not the biggest news of the day, but you see, if you saw Zach Moss, bad, bad fantasy game, basically did have a decent role in the passing game. He was once again, the fourth quarter guy. So that's still something, you know, if you need a bi-week

replacement or something like that, you could look to. Played all three of their snaps from 10 yards or closer. That could be part of the problem is that Buffalo only had three snaps from 10 yards or closer. 11 of the 14 snaps on third and fourth downs for Buffalo. 64% of the snaps overall. So another week where he's getting the work that we want and almost expect, but the numbers just don't match up. The fantasy production doesn't match up. All right.

Biggest loser for you, Dave. Let's go with Kenneth Gainwell, who was Mr. Top waiver claim this week. The guy that we thought would, well, at the very least he'd play in passing downs for the Philadelphia Eagles. And he, I don't think he played in the first quarter at all. I think he barely played in the first half. And this was a game where you saw Boston Scott get a couple of touchdowns.

Jordan Howard got a couple of touchdowns. And you didn't really see Kenneth Gainwell play until the fourth quarter. He had 14 snaps out of 20, I believe he had, in the fourth quarter. So 20 snaps in the game, 14 of them came, fourth quarter blowout. Totally not what we were expecting. Total disappointment. And someone that we're probably going to cut off of our rosters as soon as we can. Boston Scott is 39% rostered.

Jordan Howard is 2% rostered. They both had 12 carries, right around 60 yards, two touchdowns. They did it against a very, very favorable matchup. All four of those rushing touchdowns were from four yards out or closer. It was such an unlucky game for Jalen Hurts, who had his first game

with fewer than 20 fantasy points. I think he had 10 fantasy points, but really just weird. They just did not use Gainwell at all. Very strange. And yeah, he's definitely a big loser. And for Boston, Scott and Jordan Howard, it was like, somebody

stop me! Right? Okay. No? Nothing? No? Okay. It's going to be harder for everybody listening to really appreciate this. Like Adam Scott, it looks like he's got a dead turkey on his head. This is the wig it came with.

The Hawaiian Ace Ventura shirt on with a white tee. The costume's actually pretty good, but the pants and the belt really hold it together. Since this is only chest up, it just doesn't really work.

Do you know how happy I was last night when I thought, you know, I don't know if Aaron Rodgers wore dark jeans or light jeans when he showed up to training camp. And I went and looked online and saw that he wore gym shorts and flip-flops. This is the greatest costume ever. Yeah. We really took advantage of the Halloween. We all wore shorts today. Some of us under our onesies. What did you wear? I was a gingerbread man. I have a gingerbread man onesie that I slipped into.

Okay. By the way, somebody stopped me. It's from the mask, I'm pretty sure. That would be the mask. All right. Calvin Ridley, stepping away from football to focus on his mental well-being. Keep him on your roster for now? Hold on. It's insensitive it's insensitive to just turn it to fantasy football i already said

at the top of the show i wish him well i'm glad that he's doing this i'm sure throughout the course of football history there have been plenty of players who have wanted to step away and couldn't so i'm glad that we have a society where you can do this now um that being said it is fantasy so i always have to talk you know you need to know this information so i'll just say i won't even put you guys in the spot keep them on your roster uh well there's one other thing to say and that is first of all good for him for doing it i agree with you adam second of all lane johnson stepped away uh for mental health issues as well i believe he was gone for three weeks. So maybe this is a case where Calvin gets the help that he needs. He feels better about himself.

He finds himself in a good place, and he's back helping Atlanta in the very near future. But for now, keep him on your roster as best as you can. And who knows what will happen? Maybe there's some sort of way that the Falcons are going to put him on IR. Maybe they're allowed to designate him on IR. And then he's out for three weeks. And if you've got IR spots, you could stash him on there,

and that will help you out a little bit. But I'm hoping Calvin bounces back from it and that we see him again this year. Derek Henry got beat up. He left the game very briefly. But he had, I think, 26, 27 carries, something like that. And this was only the third game of his career with, first of all, he's had more than 25 carries now, 17 times in his career. Only the third time he's had fewer than 100 yards. So off day for Derek Henry, but he wasn't completely healthy.

And I think he should probably be able to play next week, but they're going to probably take it easy on him in practice. He's got the Rams. Yeah. Gronkowski left with back spasms. They're on a bye. Hopefully he's back after that. Disappointing day for him. Jameis left with a knee injury.

So they get Atlanta next week at Tennessee, at Philadelphia. It's a serious knee injury for him. Taysom Hill was out again with the concussion. If Taysom Hill's the quarterback, and Trevor Simeon played okay, but if Taysom Hill's the quarterback, could this be the guy that joins the group of must-start quarterbacks? Because he was pretty damn good for fantasy last year in his four starts. I would expect him to basically be what Jalen Hurts has been

if he's the quarterback. Top eight fantasy quarterback for as long as he starts. And what if his opportunity comes right in line with Michael Thomas coming back? And I remember how those two connected last year. And even if not, Traquan Smith had a much better game. I mean, it looked like last week may have just been a shake-the-rust-off game. Traquan looked a lot better today.

He did. Okay, James Robinson left with an injury in the first half. Your interest level in Carlos Hyde would be what? If I need a running back who should lead a team in carries, I think this would be someone I'd look at, but I don't feel good about him. He played 74% of the snaps after James Robinson got hurt in the first quarter, including 9 of 15 on third

and fourth downs. They play Buffalo next week. Yeah, look, this is not a ringing endorsement for Carlos Hyde of him coming to save your fantasy season. I'd much rather add Boston Scott. Sure. Would you rather add Jordan Howard? Probably.

What happens if Robinson, you know, heaven forbid, is out for the year? Yeah, we'll reassess. Does that change your tune? We'll reassess.

We'll reassess. Let's not even, let's not even think about that. T.Y. Hilton left. He was evaluated for a concussion in the fourth quarter. Poor guy. Yeah. And Sam Darnold left in He was evaluated for a concussion in the fourth quarter. Poor guy. Yeah.

And Sam Darnold left in the fourth quarter with a concussion. Poor guy. Yeah. It's pretty bad for the Panthers, and we'll see if they make a move. Maybe Deshaun Watson. We shall see November 2nd, a couple days from now. That is the trade deadline.

That's Tuesday if you're listening on Monday, so trade deadline is tomorrow. Some spooky, scary performances. Do you want, should I do that violent scream again? I think you should do this. Only this.

Oh, I hit the microphone. You know, that scene at Ace Ventura where he's like, ah, ah, this is double pain. Soundproof glass.

Okay. All right. Thanks. Come on. When are you going to, when are you going to stand up, turn around and have Mr. Butt cheeks? This is double-paying soundproof glass. Okay. All right, thanks. Come on. When are you going to stand up, turn around, and have Mr. Butt-Geeks talk to the audience? Do you have a mint? So we already talked about the Washington offense

with Antonio Gibson. Another bad game, though, for McLaurin. I mean, that is five games for Terry McLaurin with 62 or fewer yards and no touchdowns and four or fewer catches. Still a must-start? Number two receiver. He's a must-start, yeah.

All right, and this is now for Justin Herbert, another spooky, scary performance. Justin Herbert with his fourth game out of seven with 16 or fewer fantasy points and six point per passing touchdown leagues that's pretty shocking what do you make of that dave the scarier thing is that this is a second straight game where we can't pin it on receivers making mistakes or his team having penalties that cost him right some some numbers this is second straight game where defenses were very smart. Defenses are showing how to limit him and how to limit this offense. Right.

It was Baltimore two weeks ago before the buy and it was new England. They have Philadelphia frustrating that they didn't come out of the buy with anything really special. Heath, are you concerned? You concerned about Mike Williams? He was a dud again. That was going to be one of my, believe it ors that the early season Mike Williams was a mirage.

And I'm concerned about that. Yeah. I mean, we had these guys, Mike Williams, Debo Samuel, really even Cooper Cup. He was on a higher level, but made this huge leap in the first five or six weeks. We shouldn't have expected all of them to keep it up all year. And it kind of looks like Cooper cup and Debo are going to keep it up. So I'm a little bit concerned that Williams is more of a, uh, boom bust number three or number two than we thought. How do you feel about the charger schedule after this week? They've got Philadelphia in Philly, Minnesota at home, Pittsburgh at home, and then at Denver.

And when they're playing at Denver, the Broncos are going to be coming off of a bye. I don't think this is such a... And then Cincinnati after that, if the Cincinnati defense is better than what we saw today against the Jets. It's not a layup. I mean, it's not a cupcake schedule. No, none of it is.

This could turn really ugly for the Chargers. Yeah, and he might get... Mike Williams might get Darius Slade next week. And if you're curious, Darius Slade did not shadow TJ Hawkinson today. I know there was some thought that that might happen. Yeah, I think what's... I always like to see Mike Williams struggling, right? I'd be more worried if Justin Herbert had a great game

and Mike Williams didn't do anything. Because it seems like, for the most part, he's tied to Justin Herbert's production. And you know, as long as Herbert can bounce back, I think that's probably going to be a good thing for Williams. Okay. You agree with that premise? It sure won't hurt. Yeah. Agree with that. All right. Fantasy Football Today is now on Amazon Alexa Flash Briefings. You can ask Alexa to add CBS Sports Fantasy Football Today to your Alexa Flash Briefing. Time for more winners and losers here.

The winners for Dave are Eli Mitchell, T. Higgins, and Pat Fryermuth, who we already talked about. But Mitchell, this is his fourth, third, third hundred yard game in five starts. 18 carries 137 yards and a touchdown, but no catches. So how much faith do you have in, uh, in Eli Mitchell going forward, Dave? He's a must-start fantasy running back moving forward. It is what it is. He's, he's, he's good. He's getting two thirds of the snaps for the 49ers. They're not messing around by putting Trey Sermon in for a lot of work.

Michael Hastie is the passing downs guy. They've got Arizona, then the Rams, and then Jacksonville after that. It's not going to be easy, but I think that we could see Elijah Mitchell continue to get the work. I think everybody should be very comfortable starting him and considering him a startable fantasy running back until the season's over. T. Higgins, why was he a winner? Four catches, 97 yards on six targets.

He also came a yard short of a touchdown. Yes, he did. He did something in this game that he didn't do in each of the prior two games, and maybe even longer than that, he was able to separate from coverage. Touchdown, Adam Thielen. I think that we could see T. Higgins continue to he's earning the trust now from Joe Burrow in a major way last week 15 targets

this week a bunch of downfield throws against the Jets I'm a little more encouraged to start T Higgins than I was before this game and before last game as well all right and Heath your winners are Tyler Lockett and the Jets you already talked talked about the Jets, but Tyler Lockett, what a ridiculous game. He had a touchdown reversed. Actually, it was spotted down at the half yard line, but 12 catches, 142 yards, 13 targets at Jacksonville after five straight games with fewer than 60 yards and no touchdowns. And they go into the bye. Hopefully they get russell wilson back but your thoughts on lockett you know what the best thing was tyler lockett was starting started in 61 of leagues today that's wildly high i can't believe that like i did start him i think two or

three leagues because of what i said earlier in the week i wasn't going to drop tyler lockett and so if i didn't have somebody on my bench that I could drop for another receiver, then I was just going to start Tyler Lockett. And so I think some people might have been in that situation. They didn't have anybody they wanted to drop for someone to start over him. But it was nice to see that he's still able to play wide receiver at a high level and that Geno Smith knows that he exists. And it gives me a little more optimism that when Russ comes back,

Lockett can just go back to being the boom bust number two wide receiver. We all hate and love every other week. Okay. And yes, really hoping cross our fingers at Russell Wilson comes back. We will come back and talk to you about the losers. I'm not going to say like Ace Ventura anymore. It's annoying me. So I can't imagine how it's going for you. When we come back and talk to you about the losers. I'm not going to say it like Ace Ventura anymore. It's annoying me, so I can't imagine how it's going for you.

When we come back, we will talk about Matt Ryan. He's a loser. Who else is a loser? David Johnson, three touches. He's a loser. Emmanuel Sanders. Will you hear how many snaps he played? Oh, I'm not looking forward to that.

All right, we'll be right back on Fantasy Football today. Dig. Ensure your next project is safe. Visit OntarioOneCall.ca. It's free. It's easy. It's the law. Data sourced from the ORCGA 2023 Dirt Report. Back with our Week 8 Fantasy Losers.

Heath, you get to go first. You had Antonio Gibson. Gibson, by the way, he played today in a little place called Aspen. And David Johnson, Heath, is a loser for you. Two carries, one catch against the Rams. He was started in 25% of leagues. He's 66% rostered. Well, no wonder they didn't give Gibson the ball if he was in Aspen.

The game was in Denver. It was the closest thing I could do. I don't know what happened with David Johnson, really. Did you have a number you wanted to tell us about how many snaps he played, Dave? Because it seemed like four was my guess. He played 19% of the snaps. It was a season low for him. Half of the Texans, 12 snaps on third and fourth downs.

So the passing situations that we had seen him kind of dominating in, that went away. Rex Burkhead played more of those snaps. Some of them they played together. And Burkhead was the lead guy in this Texans' backfield, 48% of the snaps. So you probably think, okay, David Johnson was second. He wasn't even second.

He was third. Scotty Phillips, 26% of the snaps. Season high for him and coincidentally a season high for Rex Burkhead. Texans just flipped it on its head. They went with two other guys at running back that no one was talking about. I think so. And it did them so much good. I think those snaps are blowout. Yeah, that was a garbage time stuff, I'm pretty sure, especially Burkhead.

I think Johnson, look, they, the final score was like a 16 point game. He played into the fourth quarter. He had some fourth quarter work. He did. Yeah.

He, he did play a little bit in the fourth quarter. Right. Um, I do think there's a little bit, Adam, of what you said. Everything just went wrong,

even more than normal, um, early for the Texans. But you, like, I don't, I don't know what to make of it moving forward. I'm not going to project Scotty Phillips or Rex Burkhead to lead the Texans in running back snaps next week. And they do play a bad Dolphins run defense.

So it's uncomfortable, but you probably just sit them on your bench and hope one of them separates himself. And then Emmanuel Sanders, I guess it was just a good reminder of what Emmanuel Sanders is. He's not a reliable borderline number two wide receiver. He's a boom bust number three that had boomed more than he'd busted so far this year, but he's going to have busts as well.

And Beasley, I think people might say, well, one game without Dawson Knox, and look what Cole Beasley did. But I don't really buy that, because it's not like Dawson Knox is getting double-digit targets. If you look at Beasley and his game log, and I'm just going to make sure I'm right about this,

and you look at Josh Allen and his game log, it's basically been when Josh Allen and his game log, it's basically been when Josh Allen has thrown the ball a lot, Cole Beasley's had a pretty good game. So there have been some, and I didn't really think Allen would have to throw that much today, but he did. The thing is, I don't think the Bills have been very reliable in their number of pass attempts

correlating with the type of game we expect. Like sometimes they win by 35 and Josh Allen still throws 40 passes. That's true. So it might be hard to predict, but it is more or less true. Like going into today's game, Josh Allen had three games with more than 33 pass attempts. And Beasley in those games had eight, 11, and seven catches. In the other three games where Allen had 33 or fewer, Beasley had four, two, and one catch is. So it's been 100% tied

to Josh Allen's passing. How many did Allen throw today? He threw a lot today, right? Allen threw... I was looking at another stat to talk about with Beasley. 42 passes for Josh Allen. And one for Cole Beasley. Right, yeah, that's true. Incomplete. So yeah, I just wanted to point that out. I know we weren't really talking about that, but I don't know that... The connection between Knox and Beasley,

I'm not sure if that's true or not, but... I don't think that's it, no. Yeah, it's the pass attempts have been a bigger indicator. All right. My guess is that in the first half Beasley had two catches. So obviously they went into halftime and said, all right, let's get Cole Beasley a little bit more involved. And it worked for them in the third quarter. He had eight targets. He caught five of them for 51 yards.

And then the fourth quarter, I don't think he did a whole heck of a lot, but he was already very involved in the offense in the second half. So this is going to sound really simplistic and kind of dumb, but I'm good at saying dumb things. When Josh Allen needs to get going, he's looking for Cole Beasley. That's kind of his security blanket. And they may have come into the game with a different idea of what they wanted to do offensively. But Alan, I just think he, when he realizes, okay, we've got to get moving down the field. Beasley is who he goes to. And it kind of correlates with what you're saying,

which is whenever Josh Allen needs to throw a decent amount, Beasley's involved. And this was a game that I would have told you. I would have told you Josh Allen may not have gotten a 33 pass attempts, but he definitely would have had some good numbers. And it turned out that he needed a lot more than 33 pass attempts. And Beasley was his guy. It was kind of weird that Josh Allen finished with 32 points

because this game was really tight going into the fourth quarter. They ended up winning 26-11. It was 10-3 going into the fourth quarter. Dolphins game a game, and then the Bills pulled away. Dave, you're losers. So someone in the chat has actually cursed us out, used a profanity because we told them

to start Gainwell. Gainwell wasn't a top 20 running back or anything like that. He was a flex. He was a high-end flex, especially in PPR. Everyone was wrong about Gainwell. I'm sorry. Look, it stinks. This happens plenty of times. And he's one of your losers.

You already talked about him, but safe to drop him, 80% rostered? He's droppable. He's droppable, for sure. And Matt Ryan, 90% rostered, 41% started. I'm sure a lot of people like myself sat him after the Ridley news. And yeah,

he only scored seven points. Would you drop him or would you hold him? I would, I would certainly drop him next week. They've got new Orleans. They've got the Cowboys after that, the Patriots after that. Maybe you'll feel good about starting Matt Ryan as a bi-week replacement in

week 12 against Jacksonville. Someone you could hold onto if Kyler Murray is your main quarterback or if Patrick Mahomes is your main quarterback, because they will be on by that week. But as long as Ridley's out, I'll go back and look and see what the Panthers did to try and lock down this Falcons offense. But Pitts had a miserable game. Carolina got a good linebacker back in Shaq Thompson and Stephon Gilmore played, and their pass rush was getting to Matt Ryan. So it was a lot different than what we thought may have ended up happening earlier in the week

and certainly when we ranked Ryan as a low-end number one fantasy quarterback. I think, and I don't know, correlation does not always equal causation, but I do think if you look at the games that Shaq Thompson's played, that has been a completely different defense in the game. He's they were awesome early in the year when he was on fire,

he missed some time and they went in the tank. He was back today and they were good again. Yeah. I have a feeling the matchups are part of that, right? I mean, I know they face like Dallas without, I don't know without him,

but they, they had an easy schedule early, but yeah, he's, he's really good. And they did get to Ryan. Three sacks. It seemed like he was under pressure a lot today.

And Devontae Smith, man. I had to start him over Kadarius Toney. And if Toney doesn't play, I might lose that. You know, 2.5 PPR points for Devontae Smith. Hasn't had a touchdown since week one. Dropped his first target on the opening drive. Dave, he was 62% started. Are we considering dropping Devontae Smith?

I think he's a droppable player at this point. And I hate to say it because he's a talented player. But even in a game where Philadelphia's offense was humming, the coaches realized, oh, we can run the ball. We're good at it. Let's keep doing it. And maybe some of that has to do with playing against the Lions. But I'm not going to feel comfortable starting Devontae Smith.

I know, but I don't want to drop him. I mean, Hurts only threw 14 passes. You don't think you should drop him? All right, so then why is he on the fantasy team? Why is he on your team? Because Jalen Hurts is going to throw twice as many passes as he did this week and more every week. Yeah, but we've had games where

that happens and Smith still doesn't do very well. Because he's a rookie wide receiver and you don't want to drop Justin Jefferson for Peyton Barber. You don't want to do that. So are you saying that Devontae Smith for Boston Scott is going to be the new Justin Jefferson for Peyton Barber?

It could be. They've got the Chargers next week. Do you see Devontae Smith getting 13 PPR points against the chargers no well if we dropped every player we didn't think was going to get 13 ppr points next week we would not be rostering enough players okay do you think he's going to have three games remaining this year with 13 or more ppr fantasy yes okay he's droppable and i'm i'm frustrated to say that because i really like him and he if you were talking about your dumb moves in a league i really wanted to win i started

davante smith over robert woods no i don't think i would have done that well it's not like woods had some huge he had the rushing touchdown he had a couple of touchdowns right but he had 40 yards it feels like when you miss out on a robert woods big game you're kind of kicking yourself over it because there aren't as many of those as there used to be yeah well the woods has scored i want to say at least 11 ppr now 11 is not good but he's had i think 11 or more ppr points in all but one game so he rarely would you mind if i yeah he doesn't get in on the next four game or the next three games for Devante Smith.

Yeah. Chargers at Denver, new Orleans. That's not good. It's not good. I don't, I don't know if it's particularly good for Jalen hurts either. I see.

I just think next week it's likely the chargers are going to score a bunch of points against Philadelphia. And so Jalen hurts is going to throw a bunch. I know, I know they have a bad run defense, and I think early in the game that Philadelphia would rightly try to run the ball against them, but I would expect 35-plus attempts from Jalen Hurts next week, which probably means 8-10 targets for Devontae Smith. But he hasn't been that good.

Yeah, I mean, he hasn't been that good with the targets. That's kind of the issue. Yeah, it's definitely part of the problem. I'm not dropping him yet. I just think there's too much potential. But it's scary. There is those final five games that they have against the Jets, the football team, the Giants, and the Cowboys.

The Eagles are in the playoff race. As long as you get those five games at the end of the season. Until you get to eight losses, you're in it. Yeah, that's true. Okay, I got a segment called Let's Get It Started in here. That's a song. It's a black-eyed piece. It's a good song.

You should look it up. And I'm going to give you a bunch of players, and tell me if you think that week eight was a springboard for their season. Are we getting it started with them in terms of rest of season value? Michael Carter, Taysom Hill, Justin Fields. 31% roster, 27 fantasy points. The sickest run of the year, basically.

Ridiculous touchdown run. And 103 rushing yards and a touchdown today. And I'm going to throw in Jamal Agnew in there because he's had three games in a row with five to six catches. He caught a touchdown today. Michael Carter, Taysom Hill, Justin Fields, Jamal Agnew. Let's get it started

in here. Are these guys getting started on a very strong fantasy finish? I think we can say yes to Carter. I wonder if even when Zach Wilson comes back, it'll be an edict from the coaching staff in New York to say, let's get this guy, the football in space. Let's check it down a

little bit more. Zach Wilson, don't have big eyes downfield. Neutralize that pass rush a little bit. Use your running backs more in the passing game. Because that's the one thing that's really helped Michael Carter. It almost feels like it gets them into a rhythm a little bit more in the game. It's just being involved in the passing game. So I say yes i think that this is absolutely a jumping off point for michael carter to be at least a middle of the pack number two fantasy running back 100 cheering for mike white to lead a victory over the colts next week 100 cheering for a quarterback controversy in new york in three weeks there will be weeks. They are going back to Zach Wilson. I want 300

yards and a win each of the next two weeks for Mike White. Who has a better chance of winning you your fantasy league? The problem with Taysom Hill is we don't know if he's coming back. Just because he didn't play this week because he's on the concussion list, it's not as easy to say

he's fine now. This was the second consecutive week. Yeah, and with a bye. Right. So obviously it's a long-term thing here. Potentially. It has been. It has been.

Could he be that guy? Yes. Would I take him over Justin Fields? I think I would. Because I really buy into what Taysom Hill did last year, and I can't remember exactly how it was in the preseason, but it really shouldn't matter anyway. The way that

the Saints are playing, I think it benefits Taysom Hill. You guys worried about Kamara? Because he kind of sucked with Taysom Hill, as I recall. He did. He only had a lot of targets in, I think, their last game together. The game they lost

at Philadelphia. Yeah, it was not good for him at all. But really, he's running the ball like 20 times a game anyway, another 19 carries today. All right, Fields. Unfortunately for Fields, look, San Francisco's a good defense, so I guess I can't just use that argument, but his next three games are Pittsburgh

by Baltimore. I should say next three weeks for Fields. But encouraging stuff. He's starting to run the ball more. Rushing yards in his last three games, 43-38 and 103. Alright, some news and notes real quick. Justin Jackson left with a quad injury.

Jalen Rager left with an ankle injury. Damian Williams' knee. Kyle Pitts dropped... Who did Rager left with an ankle injury. Damian Williams knee. Kyle Pitts dropped. Kahlil Herbert left for a little bit on Sunday too. Kahlil Herbert. Yeah, pretty briefly I think. He came back, but Ryan Nall was the last running back standing on the Bears offense for a period of time. Kyle Pitts had a bad drop. Dropped about a 20-yard pass. Would have set up first and goal. Chris Boswell.

Everybody criticizing Tomlin for that. Chris Boswell, their kicker, got hurt on a fake. Got crushed. And they could not kick the rest of the game. Los Angeles Chargers. They lost two cornerbacks in the game. I'm not sure if Samuel came back in, but Michael Davis left. I don't think he did. I think it was a concussion for Samuel.

Okay, so I think they lost two corners. I'll double-check. Maybe he did get there. That's actually a pretty big deal for Devontae Smith, potentially. Melvin Gordon fumbled for the first time in 207 carries, I think, was the stat they gave on the broadcast. And that was a huge fumble. It gave the football team a chance to win the game. Late, I'm trying to watch this highlight here

on this Minnesota game. Justin Jefferson just missing a big play. And if you look at the Saints box score, five New Orleans Saints pass catchers had 30 to 38 receiving yards. So that was weird. Very evenly distributed. Spreading the wealth. Samuel did not

come back. He was concussed and was ruled out for the Chargers. So he probably wanted to come back in the game and the coaches were like, do not go in there. Woo! Alright, to the games. Remember when I said R-E-L-A-X? You didn't.

That was fun. That was was good I like that one I support it Jets 34 Cincinnati 31 Heath what do you got well I think we need to stick with Michael Carter believe it or not Michael Carter is the second best rookie running back rest of the season

behind Najee back rest of the season? Behind Najee, the other candidates would be Javante Williams and why am I blanking? Yeah, Trey Sermon? Yeah, it can't be Trey Sermon. That's it, right? Khalil Herbert?

Herbert could be pretty good. Are we missing somebody, Heath? No. Mitchell. Elijah Mitchell. Oh, yeah. He's a derp. Yeah, Elijah Mitchell.

There's Eli Mitchell. There's Chuba Hubbard. There's Khalil Herbert. Right. All these bums. I'm going to say no. I don't believe it because Elijah Mitchell I'm buying into. Yeah. I'm also going to say no. I don't believe it because Elijah Mitchell I'm buying into. Yeah.

I'm also going to not believe it. I think I would believe it in PPR and I'd take Mitchell in non-PPR. But Mitchell doesn't catch the ball at all. What happens when Zach Wilson comes back? Are the Jets going to do what I suggested they do and draw more plays for Carter? Well, I think regardless if Michael Carter is playing 70% of the snaps, he's going to be...

They were still throwing all their running backs a little bit before. It's just Tevin Coleman was getting a couple targets, and Ty Johnson was getting even more than Carter was. Right. So what happens when Tevin Coleman gets healthy, Zach Wilson gets healthy? I don't think they're going back to a bigger split away from Michael Carter after what he's done. That wouldn't make any sense.

I would hope not. Okay. Anything else? Yeah, there's got to be something else from this game. So Burrow is Joe Burrow. Superstar? He's scored 25 or more fantasy points in four of his last five games.

Is he just fantasy elite right now? He's up there for sure okay i don't really know if there's anything else you could you could say about it any interest in tyler boyd now or is you know would you have the guts to drop tyler boyd if you needed someone after a five catch 69 yard one touchdown game yeah i would because we know that he's not going to do this every week he tends to only show up in games where the bengals are you know frenetically competing or playing from behind there haven't been a ton of those games this year where he's been there in any other game where they're not frenetically playing from behind he's been a non-factor so i mean this isn't to say that cincinnati is going to you know have a bunch of cakewalks the rest of the year but i can't imagine that he's going to be um the

biggest fantasy point getter in this passing game many more times the rest of this year not when jamar chase is around not when t higgins has a chance to make some plays downfield or get 15 targets in a game. I, I, if, if I'm loaded at wide receiver and I need to make room for somebody off the waiver wire, Boyd is droppable. He's not as droppable as some of the other players that we're going to talk about, but he's, he could be, would you drop Tyler Boyd for Jamison Crowder? I don't know. That feels like a lateral move because Crowder what did Crowder have nine targets and eight catches and a two-point conversion and like 10 yards per catch something like that he's just as likely to come up next week with three catches for 25 yards

okay I'm gonna put my headphones on because I'm having trouble with the earpiece here. If I'm not back in five minutes, just wait longer. I can't hear you guys, but let's go to our next game, which is Philadelphia 44 and Detroit 6. Heath, believe it or not. This one is a weird game for believe it or not. We already talked about Gainwell. We talked about Devontae Smith. I don't know if there's anything to say

about DeAndre Swift. It was a crappy game. Believe it or not, TJ Hawkinson is going to be better than Kyle Pitts in PPR rest season. I don't want to believe it. No way. I don't want to believe it. You don't believe that, Heath.

I asked you. I said believe it or not. I don't believe it. I don't believe it at all. No, but it's really nice to see that Hawkinson's still capable of having these types of games. I know it's not going to happen every week, but... Well, but I also think it was a reminder this week that Pitts is still capable of having those kinds of games. Yeah. It was pretty surprising. Yeah, so does anybody believe that, that Hawkinson will be better than Pitts?

No. I think in full PPR, it's basically a coin flip, but I'd probably take Pitts. Why? Would you have said that a day ago? Well, I got maybe fooled a little bit by two incredible Kyle Pitts games of thinking, oh, he arrived. And now he's just going to be this guy. But everybody has it. Yeah. All right. So are you further, are you closer to he arrived or he's

going to be a tight end in this fantasy sense? I am closer to he's TJ Hawkinson than he's mark andrews or travis kelsey i don't know if i know what that means i know i think mark andrews and travis kelsey are part of the elite tier of tight end that waller is still a part of and kittle might be when he gets back i'm not sure the pits is or hawkinson no i they're in that same group right behind them.

And I would say that pits still has more upside than Hawkinson does. Well, a day ago, nobody was taking pits over Hawkinson. I'm not, this isn't a criticism. I'm just saying perception wise that yesterday, Oh,

everybody was taking pits over Hawkinson. Like 15 days ago, everyone was taking Hopkinson over pits. Yeah. Yeah. So it is frustrating. I kind of thought that Ridley absence would benefit Pitts because it certainly did against the Jets, but it didn't today.

It's not really fair. It did against the Jets, and that's the Jets. It's not really fair against an average NFL defense to expect a rookie with five games to be able to succeed when Russell Gage is the second best option in the passing game?

Not today. Russell Gage didn't have a target. Tajay Sharp. Yeah. Okay. Dallas Goddard. Let's factor him into this equation, too.

He had seven targets and Jalen Hurts threw 14 passes. This was the first game with more than five targets, I think, for Goddard. Maybe more than six. I don't know. It was season high. He's obviously a must start, right? He's a must start. I like his matchup next week against the Chargers. It should be better for him than it will be for the wide receivers.

Is it wrong to say that he could be the number one target for Jalen Hurts in Philadelphia? And not Devontae Smith? It could be. Jalen Rager, provided that Rager's healthy, etc., etc. I think they really like Dallas Goddard. Yeah, could be.

Can we stop with Amonra St. Brown and Kalief Raymond? Can we just stop? Oh, my God. I had to double-check to see if Kalief Raymond even played a lot this week. He did. One measly target. Well, that's what I was wondering.

Adam made the point that Darius Slay was not on Dallas Goddard. Was he on Kalief Raymond a lot? I doubt it. Well, he guarded somebody. Yeah, I think he was in zone and probably stayed at left cornerback. I don't think he...

Does Raymond play out of the slot? He does. I remember St. Brown plays out of the slot a lot, doesn't he? He's been moving around, but I think he's been more slot dominant than... I really don't think... I'd be surprised. I don't think he followed him.

I'm wondering if they just ended up in the same place a lot. I don't think he said, I'm going to follow Kalief Raymond. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know the said i'm gonna follow calif raymond maybe i i don't know in week eight darius slay played outside almost exclusively three snaps as a box like inside the box so he didn't really go in the slot at all all 43 of the outside snaps were at left corner yeah so he didn't follow anybody well that's where did raymond focus where did cleve raymond line up today where did cleve

raymond line up yeah if you give me a second i'll tell you i can also sing the song line up which was in ace ventura very underrated aerosmith song all right dave's gonna tell us as he looks this up we'll check out it yeah all right what do you got you want an hour you want to say something no go ahead 15 of 50 snaps in the slot for Kalief Raymond. But you don't know left or right? I mean, you really... More on the right side than the left side. Four in the left slot.

No, no, no. Outside. Was he lined up across from Darius Slate? I don't know how many times he was lined up across from Darius Slate. Hold on. Wait, we can figure it out. Because we know that Darius Slade played left corner back all game long. No, if we know that Darius Slade played left corner,

that means that the guy who played at right wide receiver at wide saw him the most. Raymond was there for 15 snaps. Okay. Okay, Carolina 19, Atlanta 13. That might be the most we talk about Kalief Raymond the rest of the year. Okay. Okay. Carolina 19, Atlanta 13. If still feels like we just, we talked about Kalief Raymond the rest of the day. I hope so.

It feels like we just talked about this game, but Carolina 19, Atlanta 13, we're all big dummies for dropping Mike Davis and he needs to be picked back up. I'm not going to believe that because he's still rostered in 86% of leagues. So that 14% of us are big dummies. I pick him up.

He probably had a monster game, though. He had more carries. Well, Mike Davis is about to be our number one. And more targets. By one. Same catches, right? Same amount of catches. Same amount of touches.

Same amount of catches. He was involved more. I wonder if he was involved more because of Ridley not being there. I think that's pretty reasonable. So for Mike Davis, it was nine carries, 44 yards,

and five catches for 22 yards. I don't know if you saw the update on Mike Davis. I saw it on Saturday, I believe. I had not seen this quote. Let me go Mike Davis. I saw it on Saturday, I believe. I had not seen this quote. Let me go see if I can find it. But they basically were saying that they need to get him more involved. Okay.

So while you work for that. I have it. I have it. But that was it? No. He played 64% of the snaps. So a little uptick from last week. Smith hinted that several of Atlanta's rushes were audibles from called pass plays,

which favored Patterson being in the backfield rather than Davis. There was also a point in the game where Davis appeared to limp off the field, but this is from week seven. He returned shortly thereafter, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, anyway, they said that they were going to get him more work, and the reduced volume during week seven was largely a product of the team calling fewer run plays. So if you see Mike Davis,

you can get him. But again, it's not like he did so well. You know? He had 11 PPR fantasy points. That is basically where he lives almost every week. He has had 11 to 14 PPR fantasy points in six of seven games so far.

And also in this game, DJ Moore. Oh, I thought this would be a big game for him. He can't have a big game if his quarterbacks are throwing for 150 yards. Or 129 yards. Well, PJ Walker did something. I don't know how much he threw for. He had one incomplete pass.

Okay, then zero. Right. This is what I was trying to say. He had one incomplete pass. Okay. Then zero, right? This is what I was trying to say. It's like, I love DJ more. I wasn't trying to rip the guy, but I'm worried about him fulfilling his potential because this offense is so bad right now.

I was thinking about calling him a loser because of just how things have been going for him. But I don't know. I, I believe in the talent still. I think he's a good talent, just stuck in a bad place. You're going to start him next week. Yeah, you are going to start him.

Okay, Los Angeles 38 and Houston 22. Heath, what should I believe? Oh, Heath left. Okay, we'll get Heath back. You want to believe it or not? Yeah. Believe it or not, Tyler Higbee is droppable. Believe it!

I would believe it too, because they've tried so hard to get him in the end zone, and this is the easiest matchup you could come up with for a tight end. And Bupkis. Heath, you heard the end of that. What do you think Dave's believe it or not was, uh, Tyler Higby is trouble. Yeah.

Damn straight. It was, uh, and do you believe it or not? It could have been tight end versus defense is not helpful. Um, but I don't know if I would believe that either. Um,

yeah, I think Tyler Higby is droppable for sure. It's just, he's not a spike drop. You've got to have a different tight end that you think might do better this week. And there probably aren't going to be more than one. Well,

what about Pat Fryer? Muth? Uh, yeah, I think I'd rather have fire up for him. Yes. I think I would too. It's tough to turn away though.

Higbee is among the NFL leaders in red zone and green zone targets on arguably the best offense in football. So it's not a, it's not a huge endorsement for him, but I just want to point that out. I mean, he's getting opportunities. He hasn't cashed in, uh, got Matthew Stafford is on fire in 30 or more fantasy points in five games. He's just, he's, I can't believe how good he is right this year. I mean, I just didn't see this happening quite like this. Um,

anything else here, guys? Yeah. Robert Woods. Do you want to talk about him? 35 yards and a touchdown on nine targets had a rushing touchdown as well. Still only one game. What?

Probably a sell high. You think so? You could try. I just don't know if anybody's going to buy it. I like that he had nine targets. I think that part's good. But I just don't know if anybody's going to fall over themselves to trade for Robert Woods.

Who would you rather have rest of season, Finkel or Einhorn? Also, Robert Woods or Brandon Cooks? Cooks. I'm so tempteds? Cooks. I'm so tempted to say Cooks. You've got Terod Taylor coming back. That's going to be an upgrade in the quality of target. He could get overloaded with targets like Woods was today. Here's a game where Woods got a ton of targets

and he didn't get a ton of catches. How often is he going to have nine targets moving forward? They're going to be close in the trade chart. Maybe Woods ends up like a point ahead of Cooks, but they're going to be close. Okay. Buffalo 26, Miami 11.

Believe it or not, you should just ignore this game and start Jalen Waddell next week. Dave hears the believe it or not. Dave goes to the schedule. Dave sees that Miami's taking on Houston at home. Dave is excited to start Jalen Waddle next week. 12 targets today, right? Yeah.

Four catches. Four catches. Four catches for 29 yards on 12 targets. Yeah. On one hand, yes, it's the Bills. On the other hand, come on, Jalen Waddle, do something with your targets. Catch at least half of them for crying out loud.

It's the yards. I just don't think unless you guys have already seen all 12 targets, I don't know how many of those were even catchable. Give the guy a break. He's a rookie wide receiver. He had a bad game against the Bills. I'm talking about the whole season. His yards per target is very low, isn't it?

His yards per target is low. Contextually, based on the types of targets he's got, I'm not sure how low it is. Okay, but he doesn't do a ton with his targets. Well, unless he counts scoring touchdowns. He's going to be a pretty safe PPR floor guy. But do you really view him as a must-start?

I'm not talking about Houston. You're going to start him against Houston. But do you view him as a must start? I'm not talking about Houston. You're going to start me as Houston, but you view him as a must start on a weekly basis. If you have, if you have three wide receivers and he's not playing a defense like the bills, then I think he's a start in PPR every week. Okay. Uh,

Devante Parker. Oh, I forgot to put his stats in. Let me go get those because he's been good. Yeah. He would. Well, he's been targeted.

I mean, seven or more targets in every game and he's only played five games and he's pretty available. So you could do worse. Let's see. Sorry. I mean, seven or more targets in every game. And he's only played five games, and he's pretty available. So you could do worse. Let's see. Sorry, I should have this. Devontae Parker had, oh, eight for 85 on 11 targets. Wow. Definitely started David Johnson over him in the league as well.

You were not tanking it, right? No. His ADOT is almost twice that of Jalen Waddell's. Waddell's ADOT is 6.3. Devontae Parker's is 11.9. Yards after catch per reception, that's actually in Waddle's favor at 4.38 yards to 3.04 for Devontae Parker. Explosive catches, they are tied with six.

Keep in mind that Waddle has 70 targets this year. Devontae Parker has 43. I know it doesn't really matter because he's going to be a must start. He's going to be a stud. It's just a matter of how studly. At what point are we going to no longer consider Stefan Diggs

say a top five wide receiver? Now. Okay, top 10? Ish. Okay. Yeah. Debo or Diggs, rest of season? I think we're at that point where we can look at Debo

and say, all right, it's for real. He set some kind of record for, I think it was the most receiving yards for a 49ers wide receiver through the first seven games. When you think about the one specific wide receiver in 49ers history that's incredible this is a funny comment by the way did adam cut his hair this is the most uncomfortable wig ever i am just struggling right now i you really like really it comes down to it i'm asking you right

now digs or debo rest of season you're really taking debo and i'm going to tell you right now i'm not taking debo because they could turn to Trey Lance and that I don't think would be good. Here's the, if, if I really thought that digs might be the guy that he was last year, then I think it obvious I would not, but there was always a risk that last year was career year Stefan Diggs, and he was going to go back to being before career year Stefan Diggs in some regards. And he has seen his yards per game go back to right about where it was in 2019. He's seen his catches per game come back to the range that it was before last year. I just think they have enough weapons now. His volume

is not quite the same, and he's not getting the same elite efficiency. But his volume was really good, and this was a season low in targets, I think seven. He was averaging about 10 targets per game before this game. And what was Debo Samuel averaging in targets? Not sure. He's got more

on the year than Diggs does. He has more targets? Yes. With a buy? Oh, they both have a buy. Debo is 72. year than Diggs does. He has more targets? Yes. With a buy? He's 72. Stephon Diggs has 66. And he's played one fewer game. No, no.

They both had a buy. Did they both? I know the Niners did. Yeah, Buffalo did. By NATO. You're right. All right. Pittsburgh 15, Cleveland 10.

Believe it or not, Chase Claypool is a boom bust flex believe it yeah I'm getting pretty pissed off about this one I'm losing my I think well I think what's happened and it kind of makes sense the juju targets those aren't the type of routes that chase Claypool generally

runs and so that's that's when we've seen the Friar Muth increase in the offense. He's taken – that's what Tom Spencer said on FFT this morning. He said that Juju had that trust of Ben Roethlisberger, and now Roethlisberger's developing that same trust with Friar Muth. So I think Claypool will have some good games, but you can't feel – I think he's kind of some good games, but you can't feel like... I think he's kind of in the Tyler Lockett conversation.

Actually, that's one of the guys I think I had Lockett ahead of this week. But you just don't know what you're getting each week. Would you rather have Claypool or Waddle? Waddle. Oh, man. Oh, and non-PPR, that's an easy one. I'll take Claypool. Full PPR.

Yeah, I think I might still take Claypool. Waddle's probably been better in non-PPR as well this year, right? He might have been. He's played two more games than Claypool, I think. No, I meant per game. Oh, I would assume so, yeah. Claypool only has one touchdown. I mean, that's a big problem here.

Roethlisberger. Right. That's what he did a lot of last year was score. I think Roethlisberger is averaging one touchdown pass per game. So it's like. I think he's averaging like seven yards per catch. Like he's not challenging downfield that much. It's a byproduct of that offensive line,

which still hasn't completely recovered to the point where Roethlisberger can operate a normal NFL offense. Yeah. Okay, let's see. From the Cleveland side, surprisingly bad game from Nick Chubb. Dearness Johnson scored a 10-yard touchdown

but only had four carries. Beckham, man, one catch. Anything here? I mean, do you feel good about Jarvis Landry 10 targets five catches 65 yards he's 69 percent roster we could pick up Jarvis Landry in some leagues I don't know do you like Landry going forward no if you if you need a receiver that can get you five catches per game and give you a safe full PPR floor he's That's what he is now. I don't see him breaking back to a huge year like we saw from him before

with Baker Mayfield, but I do think he's the better receiver over Odell. Rustbelt Hunter Renfro. Rustbelt Hunter Renfro, I love it. Chubb only played 55. This bears mentioning. Chubb, 55% of the snaps. Dearness Johnson johnson 31 dearness played more on

snaps from 10 yards or closer than chubb did it was only one more but the fact that it was even like close to being a split between the two of them makes me nervous about chubb does that make you think that he's not fully healthy probably that more more than... It's probably like 75% that, 25%. Well, we can't just let Dearness Johnson die on the vine on the bench. Sure, but at the end of the day, Chubb had 16 carries and Johnson had four. And he only played...

I mean, he never has played more than 57% of the snaps. No. Johnson was basically in the Kareem Hunt role. 10 of 12 snaps of third and fourth downs for the browns okay all right then let's go to san francisco 33 in chicago 22 believe it or not justin fields needs to be stashed everywhere again not believing it there's only one reason i don't believe. I do think that he has a chance to have a spectacular finish to the year. But Pittsburgh by Baltimore means that you're probably going to have another chance to add him in the next couple of weeks.

This is probably not your last chance. You get past that Pittsburgh by Baltimore situation. It wasn't just the run. His ball placement on the first touchdown was fantastic and he had several other throws like that again i do think he's improving and you get to the later in the year and you go detroit arizona green bay we'll see what their defense is like at that point the vikings seattle the giants i i think he could have a good finish to the year i really think that's the only thing from this game that, that is worth discussing because how many,

how many people still have Alan Robinson on a fantasy roster? 83% rostered. He did some nice blocking last week. Well, look, you'll, you'll know by the next time you get a chance to drop him, if he's still on the bears and if he's still on the bears,

it's time to drop Allen Robinson. Tennessee 34, Indianapolis 31. Believe it or not, Michael Pittman is a top 20 wide receiver rest of season. It feels a little high, just like off the cuff. It kind of feels high. Okay, what if you amended to top 24? I would like to leave it at 20. I'm going to sell. okay what if you amended to top 24 i would like to leave it at 20 could i name 19 other receivers uh in non-ppr i think i could name 19 other receivers in full ppr that could be tougher because ty can't stay healthy unfortunately and that means and even

even when ty was healthy in this game pitman was dominating targets i mean he was getting end zone target i think he had like two end zone targets before he finally caught a touchdown this sounds like a yes to me it's it's starting to that's why i'd be more comfortable saying like full-fledged number two fantasy wide receiver and full ppr yeah i could see that here's a good one brandon cooks or michael pitman okay i think i'd rather go pitman i think i would too and we already put cooks ahead of woods so now we're right two guys off the list uh yeah how about see i don't think so i think i'm looking at the top 20 now and i don't think so i don't think he's going to be. There's a bunch of names out there. All right. Cup, Chase, Hill, Debo, Marquise Brown.

I mean, obviously none of those guys. You stop me when you get. I would not be surprised. I think he's in the Marquise Brown class in PPR. Which means that that's more about Brown being closer to a middle of the pack number two receiver than a top 12 receiver. Keep in mind, when I find names, somebody stop me. Okay. Devante Adams

Mike Evans DeAndre Hopkins, DK Metcalf Cordaro Patterson, Mike Williams Terry McLaurin, DJ Moore I might take him over Mike Williams I wouldn't but okay I'm not there yet but you can kind of see it

like he's turning into what Mike Williams was. Chris Godwin, CeeDee Lamb, DJ Moore, Justin Jefferson. I think he's right there with DJ Moore. He may be ahead of DJ Moore. And then you've got guys like Christian Kirk and Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders. I don't know if he's ahead of Antonio Brown. I guess if Brown's going to be on the shelf for a while, then yes,

but we know that when Brown's healthy, he's pretty good. He's ahead of Emmanuel. So that's about 16 or 17. And then behind him, you've got lock it. Amari Cooper digs, Deontay Johnson and that,

and Keenan Allen, uh, AJ Brown, AJ Brown is definitely. So I think you're, I think you have 20. I think we're somewhere 20-24. Okay.

What I was trying to get. Trying to weasel my way into changing that, believe it or not. This was a really good game. Believe it or not, Carson Wentz threw an interception on purpose to avoid the safety. It kind of looked like he did. If he did, it was a poor choice. Yeah, it was brilliant.

Saved the game for them, for the time being, anyway. Anything else here? I think that's pretty much it. Right? A.J. Brown is awesome. Tannehill. Tannehill, nice game.

26 fantasy points. Are you going to start him at the Rams next week and then the Saints? Ooh. Probably not. What was that that's like that oh you know that's not effect

no all right moving on he's going to be like a streaming type four games left the eyes let's do it 10 minutes Seattle 31 Jacksonville 7 believe it or not sit all the Jags until James Robinson returns I don't know how confident i would be in starting jamal agnew or dan arnold certainly not arnold

so it really comes out of like marvin jones and agnew yeah i could believe that i might feel like the one that gives me pause is arnold but against buffalo i I'm not going to start him. Yeah, I don't know how good Dan Arnold is. He's better. Jacksonville appears to think he's good. Well, they didn't two games ago, because he didn't get a ton of work and good numbers in that game, and that was coming off of a game

that was about as good as this one, if not a little bit better. This one for Dan Arnold was eight catches for 68 yards on 10 targets Lawrence threw it 54 times that's like double what he normally gets in terms of passes

well I mean the one that gives me pause is Carlos Hyde because you can't just turn your back on a starting running back but I mean you can against Buffalo he had 6 catches remember this is Seattle Seattle and the Jets are the two teams that just every running back catches a ton of passes against.

But, yeah, you can't just ignore it. All right, Alex Collins. I mean, look, it was a disappointing game from Collins, but he had 10 carries, and Rashad Penny had seven carries for seven yards, and most of them came. Four of them came, and it was 24-0. So I just don't think Collins is fully healthy,

and they're going into a bye. But as of right now, it's pretty clear he's the number one guy, right? He is, but no Seattle running back had even 50% of the snaps. Collins was at 48, played six of nine snaps from 10 yards or closer. Homer continued to work as the third down

slash passing downs back for the Seahawks. Penny stinks. New Orleans 36, Tampa Bay 27. Believe it or not, against the right matchup, Mark Ingram is going to be a good flex again. I do believe that. That's an easy

belief because when there's a matchup where you feel like he's got a chance to play near the goal line or at least get 10 or 12 carries, you could look at him as a potential fill-in starter. What about against the Falcons? I was kind of believing that the Falcons' run defense was improving, but I think they broke down in the second half against Carolina on Sunday.

Maybe you look at Ingram as a touchdown or bust type of running back. He played 28% of the snaps. First game back in New Orleans. I also thought it was cool that his number is 14. The opposite of Kamara's 41. So, like, the whole boom-zoom thing is... They're loving that. He's apparently not happy about that.

They were talking about it on the broadcast. Oh, about wearing 14? He wasn't happy about that? He doesn't necessarily love 14. Yeah, but he couldn't... Whoever had his number... Oh, it was CJ Gardner Johnson has his number and they're not allowed...

He offered to give it to Ingram, but you're not allowed to do it once the season starts. By the way, you know who's playing shortstop? Oh, Astros must have just hit a two-run homer. You know who's playing shortstop for the Braves tonight? I'll see these out. Dansby Samsonite. Dansby Samsonite.

Some people will get that and laugh. New England 27. Oh, I'm sorry. Is there anything else from this game? No. Tom Brady's ridiculous. And Mike Evans had two catches in the whole game. How many fantasy points did he have?

He had 12. 12.8. 12 in PPR. Yeah. Wow. No one got that. Was that last nine against the Saints? 12 or fewer.

Yeah. I mean, if you want to go decimal, then it's 13 or fewer. Amazing. No one got that. That was actually the best joke I made all night. And for those of you who got it, you're welcome. Do you guys get it or no?

No. No. All right. Come on. Seven minutes, three games. No, two games. Two games. I just want to make sure.

I don't want to gloss over anything here. All right, we're good. New England 27, Chargers 24. Jacoby Myers caught another two-point conversion. If he catches three two-point conversions on the season, can we give him credit for a touchdown? Believe it or not, none of the tight ends in this game are more than touchdown-dependent streamers.

Oh, for sure. I believe that. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. You know, Heath, I was kind of mad at you this morning. You didn't do anything, but I was trying to set our lineup for the People League, and I wanted to drop Jared Cook for Hunter Henry. But I looked at your rankings, and you had

Cook ranked ahead of Henry. And I don't even know who won. Cook had two for 25 and Henry had one for 33. That is basically a draw. It's exactly a draw on full PPR. It's half PPR. So who wins, Henry? Half PPR.

You've got 3.5 out of Cook and 3.5 out of Henry. Oh. That's so boring. Wow. All right. So, yeah, there's that. Keenan Allen, nice downspout. Actually, you only got 3 out of Cook

if it's non-decimal scoring. It is decimal scoring. So, exactly 3 point... Why are we talking about this? I don't even care. Never mind. Talk to me about Damian Harris. 23 carries, 80 yards, and a touchdown.

That's four straight games with a rushing touchdown, I believe. And yeah, I know he's got a lot of downside. And in full PPR, he doesn't have a huge upside. But he's getting the job done. So how do you value Damian Harris? Anytime he's got a matchup that is favorable for the run, you can count on the Patriots trying to get him going.

And this game was a perfect example. This was an easy start against the Chargers. We just got done talking about the Panthers and how their defense is different with Shaq Thompson off in the field. I wonder if that's going to make it a little bit of a tougher start for Damian Harris next week. Is it fair to say that Damian Harris and Eli Mitchell

are doing the Spider-Man meme from across the country at each other? Kind of. I like. Finkle as I learn. Finkle as I learn. I feel like Mitchell is on safer ground than Harris. This is a great one. I mean,

you are one pathetic loser. Sorry. We've got some jim carrey um they both have head coaches who have changed running backs not a moment's notice no notice at all um they both have like 17 other running backs available on the roster at some point this year neither one of them does much in the passing game they They're both on mediocre teams, but when they're winning, they get a bunch of carries. Yeah. I think that the Niners are more likely to stick

with Mitchell in a bad game script than the Patriots are Harris. Didn't Mitchell just have a nine-carry game like two games ago? Yeah, it was against the Cardinals, but that wasn't a bad game script. That was a close game. They just got away from running the football. That was the Trey Lance start, I'm pretty sure.

What did Ben dress as today? We have a question from the chat. Ben, did you get dressed up today? An Ohio State fan? Oh, yeah. Ohio State assistant coach. That's the worst costume ever. You're still young enough to go trick-or-treating.

You can get out there, buddy. It's only 920. Alright, last game. Dave brought Reese's for me. I already did my trick-or-treating. What a guy. Last game here. Again, I want

to make sure... I don't think we're... Yeah, everything's pretty obvious in this game. Denver 17, Washington 10. It was a thriller. It was not. It was a thriller in Aspen. It was not. It was exciting. I don't know what to make of this game because it was so weird and only 26

pass attempts for Teddy Bridgewater. I don't know that we necessarily learned very much about the Jerry Judy Cortland Sutton dynamic, other than they both had four targets, which was the same number that Noah Fant had. And Tim Patrick had three, um,

believe it or not, Melvin Gordon is the best Broncos running back rest of season. Yuck. Can I say who cares? Well, each week they're in that. Do we start them low end number two running back discussion like we have to care about them every week they're never must starts and they're never must sits

and i've i've routinely been putting williams ahead of gordon right because williams is more involved in the past game or at least he has been this week he wasn't gordon was williams the more explosive running back you're always looking for that but gordon has been steady for them caught a touchdown two weeks in a row ran for a touchdown in this game and he's played a considerable more amount of snaps than williams has in at least the last two games i know it was like 57 43 something like that in week seven and in week eight it was 51 43 in favor of g. So they're giving him the nod right now. This is the running

back that you could trade for on the cheap if you're really desperate for a running back. Someone that might be able to get you 10 fantasy points even in a non-PBR. Was that a believe it or a not? I think it means I'm believing. It's like how much longer throughout the season is he going to outscore

Williams without us believing that at that point, I guess. But I guess I'd rather have Williams. I feel like there's more upside. If they both stay healthy and keep these roles, it'll probably be Gordon. And there was one other thing from this game. Maybe there wasn't. No, I know what it is.

I was going to say, believe it or not, next week is Javante Williams week. What's the astronaut meme with the gun? I don't know, Biebs. I don't know. Always was? Sure.

Makes sense. They've got Dallas next week. What a crap game from Noah Fant. Two catches for eight yards and Albert O

came back and had a better game than Noah Fant. Two catches for eight yards. And Albert O came back and had a better game than Noah Fant. Three catches for 34 yards. So that's, I think, could be... Do you really believe that Javante Williams could eventually take over? No. And be head and shoulders ahead? No, I don't.

But Melvin Gordon's been on the injury report three or four times this year, I feel. So if you had to put a percentage on it, no, I don't, but Melvin Gordon's been on the injury report three or four times this year. I feel so. So if you, if you had to put a percentage on it, 20%, what's the percentage chance that Melvin Gordon gets hurt? Yeah, that's basically,

I'm asking Acer 20%. I don't know. Javante. Well, you're saying there's a chance. Like he came back, but he did. Williams was hobbled in this game. So you're saying there's a chance. Except on my job. He came back, but he did... Williams was hobbled in this game

and left right before Gordon scored the touchdown. Oh, so that was the reason why... Oh, that was why Melvin Gordon had a better game. Well, the other touchdown. I think Williams came back. All righty then. I was trying to work in a... Let me show you something.

I couldn't figure anything out. Okay, I'm going to explain the joke to you now. The starting shortstop for the Braves is Dansby Swanson. I called him Dansby Samsonite because the whole briefcase bit. Have a great night, everybody, or a great day, depending on when you're listening.

Hope week eight went well for you in the movie Dave in Dumb and Dumber you can't remember the girl's name it's Swanson so he looks at the briefcase and he said oh maybe it's on the briefcase Samsonite I was way off with the title on the podcast you might just want to use

Dumb and Dumber for all your jokes okay I'll see you later everybody thanks so much