Fantasy Football Today - Zach Ertz Trade and So Many Injury Updates! (10/15 Fantasy Football Podcast)

Episode Date: October 15, 2021

We react to the Zach Ertz trade! Does this affect DeAndre Hopkins or Chase Edmonds? Is Dallas Goedert a must-start TE now? And we run through the latest news as so many star players are either out or in danger of missing Week 6.  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. Wow, what a busy Friday. You get a tight end trade on a Friday, very unusual. Not a fantasy trade, by the way. This one's not getting vetoed. Zach Ertz is going to the Arizona Cardinals. And Christian McCaffrey is out.

Justin Jefferson is in. T.Y. Hilton may play. Nick Chubb could be going on IR. So we've got a two-for-one, I guess. We've got a bonus podcast that we're going to publish that's being out on Friday, okay, for everybody to listen to, and the mailbag on Saturday. Now, if you want to hear the mailbag portion on Friday,

you can go to youtube.com slash fantasyfootballtoday, and you can watch the mailbag portion, watch the entire thing in its entirety, like just entire, whatever, on YouTube.com slash FantasyFootballToday. I'm sorry. It's a little hectic right now. My head is spinning because we have so much to get to.

I'm Adam Azer with Chris Towers. Oh, my God, Chris. Zach Ertz. Is he a must-start tight end going forward now that he's on the Cardinals? No. No, probably not. Right.

Maybe. But I think he's probably going to be in that lower-end, tight-end streamer tier. I don't know. At this point, it's like, what, 7 through maybe 6 through 18 are kind of varying versions of the same thing at this point. So, yeah, I think he will be a starting caliber tight end occasionally, but probably not most weeks.

Because remember, this is a team that leads the NFL in four wide receiver sets with 76. It's actually really interesting that they're playing the Browns this week because the Browns have the fewest. They've yet to play a four wide receiver set this season. the the Cardinals lead the league in four wide receiver sets the Browns lead the league in one wide receiver sets so far this season so that's an interesting that is cool yeah um but yeah like he'll be he'll be on the field pretty regularly but if he is that's going to be bad news for one of Christian Kirk or Rondell Moore or I guess Chase Edmonds but

there there's not a ton of room for him in this offense if they continue to play four wide receivers as often as they do so no I think he's an upgrade on Zach Max Williams but you know maybe not a big one based on what we've seen so far well it's great it's great for Goddard right yeah so let's get to the Eagles in a second, but just to wrap up the Cardinals, do you downgrade Hopkins or Edmonds? Nah, no, I don't think you do. I think those guys' roles are set.

Okay, and Goddard, he's getting four targets a game, so that should go way up. Ertz has had six to eight targets in four straight games. He has had four more catches in three of those four games. Obviously, these have to go somewhere. You know they're going to throw to the tight end. Personally, I can't imagine

beginning next week, as long as he's cleared, I can't imagine I'm not starting Goddard. I sort of feel like he has entered the must-start territory. Maybe he is now part of the big six or seven. Yeah, if you have Dalton Schultz, I could see you sitting Dallas Goddard.

But even then, I think those guys are going to be very close moving forward. The Eagles so far this season, this was going into last night. How many targets did Ertz get? Five? Five on 26 passes? I have him as four straight games with six to eight uh he had six targets four catches 29 yards on 26 so for the season the eagles tight ends well goddard and ertz have about a 26 percent target share combined i don't think god it's going to get that but i do think he'll be probably in the 19 percent range which will probably be enough to make him a top eight tight end.

Yeah, it's a big deal. And I hope it helps Devante Smith as well. This is a fun trade, and I think it makes the Cardinals better. And I don't know how much of an impact it has on the Eagles, but obviously they're just looking to acquire pieces now. But probably not a huge fantasy impact on the Cardinals. And then it certainly helps Goddard, and we'll see about Devante

Smith, or maybe it's Quez Watkins who had a bigger role last night as the Smith was sort of taken out of the game plan, I guess. Todd Bowles is a great shot. I'm not sure Quez really covered himself in glory in this one outside of the long defensive pass interference drawn was nice, and the two-point

conversion. Hey, that catch on the sideline that was originally called incomplete, that was nice. Directly led to Jalen Hurts' interception. What do you mean? Wasn't that him being targeted on the interception where he just completely mistimed the jump? That was him, right?

I think it may have been Rager. Honestly, I don't know. But I'm talking about the catch he actually made on the sideline. That was a nice play. Hopefully those go to Devontae Smith. We're just seeing now Christian McCaffrey has been ruled out. It looks like Daniel Jones is going to play. So more and more news is coming in.

Let's get to it right now. That's your recap of the Zach Ertz trade from the Eagles to the Cardinals. And, boy, let's go to the Browns. They're the most run-heavy team in the league, and Kareem Hunt might just be... If Nick Chubb has to go on IR, which hasn't been ruled out, I don't think it would surprise anyone if he is the number one running back in fantasy for that stretch.

So we won't state the obvious. He's an absolute must-start. But Chubb has had 20 20 plus carries in three straight games. Do you think Dearness Johnson is actually going to have a role here? Yeah, I mean, it's worth remembering that we did see Kareem Hunt start four games with Nick Chubb out last season. And he was good, but he wasn't incredible. He was actually worse than he's been so far this season.

He did average 16 uh carries per game which is a healthy number though not you know an incredible number and he averaged right around 80 total yards with two touchdowns in four games two those are actually two receiving touchdowns no rushing touchdowns so a little bit of bad luck there given the way they work but yeah i think he's definitely going to be a top 10 running back while Nick Chubb is out. I'm not necessarily sure. I think he's going to be the number one running back, but yeah, we'll see. Well, put it this way.

I don't think if I told you Dalvin Cook was going on IR, you wouldn't expect Alexander Madison to be the number one running back, but it's within the realm of possibility. And they are just running the ball. The two of them are running the ball more this year than they did last year. And Hunt has just been so much better this year than he was last year. So, so far they've combined for 21, 24, 32, 35, and 33 carries. Three straight games where Hunt and Chubb have had 32 to 35 carries. So whatever, obviously you can't pick up, you can't pick up Kareem Hunt on waivers,

but you could pick up Johnson. Felton is another option, but do we think that Johnson is more likely to get the carries if they use a two-back system? One would assume so, but Felton's played a bigger role so far this season, but that's been primarily in the passing game, and that would be the expectation.

So I do wonder if maybe this does make hunt a little less, um, or at least maybe he doesn't see an increase in his role in the passing game, but maybe, um, you know, Demetri Felton sees a few more targets and Darren Johnson gets maybe nine

to 10, I think would be a reasonable expectation. And Jarvis Landry could play this week. Maybe they throw the ball a little bit more. We will see. They have the Cardinals this week and then some kind of low-scoring teams coming up. And look at the schedule.

Denver, Pittsburgh, Bengals, Patriots, Lions coming up. Hopefully Chubb is only out a week or two. We won't overreact. Yeah. Christian McCaffrey is out. and related, Michael Pierce is out. That's Minnesota's starting defensive tackle. I had been saying I like Darrell Williams better than Chuba Hubbard, but I think I'm

going to flip that. I like Chuba Hubbard better than Darrell Williams. I can't really see sitting Chuba Hubbard. Where did you end up ranking him? I think he'll probably, I haven't done it quite yet, but I think he'll probably i haven't done it quite yet but i think he'll probably be around 17 to 18 maybe between khalil herbert and davante booker because i do have khalil herbert better seven well yeah we'll see when i you know actually go through the process but um right now herbert is ahead of all the waiver

wire running backs from this week that we were more excited about than him um with damian williams likely out and or out out at this point yeah and then um i i could see hubbard being in that i think hubbard will be in that mix josh jacobs missed another practice just seeing that, so he's got an illness. Yeah. Which, that's the kind of thing that it could be that it lingers to Sunday and he can't play, but he also has 48

hours to get healthy. You would think he's going to be okay. Usually, illness doesn't, unless it's COVID, obviously, doesn't keep people out. I'm going to expect Josh Jacobs to play. Would you go with Peyton Barber or Kenyon Drake if he couldn't? Probably Barber, based on the way they've used them. I mean, Drake has seen his role diminish pretty much,

I think, every game in this season. His snap share has gone down. Yeah, but if Jacobs doesn't play, I would think that Drake would get back into the passing downs role. You would think. And I honestly think it might happen anyway now that Gruden's out. I have no idea. It could be completely unrelated to John Gruden.

It's such a weird... The thing is, Gruden was part of the decision making process in bringing in players. According to the team president, or maybe Mark Davis, I think he said that Gruden had 51 control over personnel decisions over mike mayock so clearly he was involved in the decision to hire kenyan drake which you know hire kenyan drake it's a funny way to put it yeah to to sign kenyan

i mean it's the same thing right he's technically hiring technically hiring him. But yeah, I don't know. I don't know. That organization's decision-making process when it came to signing free agents and making draft picks didn't really make a whole lot of sense anyway. No, but look, he had the role for two or three games, and then he just lost it. But okay, anyway, let's see what else we got. Christian McCaffrey, Alvin Cook is good to go.

Justin Jefferson is off the injury report. Terry McLaurin, on the other hand, he may not play. And this is obviously a big deal. I know you like, everybody's got Taylor Heineke close to top 12, but if McLaurin doesn't play, we got to pivot, right? Yeah. Yeah, that would be a bad thing for his fantasy value. Sammy Watkins out.

Rashad Bateman will play this week. They said earlier in the week they may not throw him into the fire directly, but Watkins is getting about seven, eight targets every week, except for the week he got hurt last week. They said earlier in the week they may not throw him into the fire directly, but Watkins is getting about seven, eight targets every week, except for the week he got hurt last week. So there's targets to go around. You're not starting Bateman. Would not be the worst stash. Devontae Parker is out. He's a good stash. I'm sorry

about that. Devontae Parker is out. So is Zavian Howard for the starting cornerback for the Dolphins. Antonio Gibson, he's questionable. I think he's going to play, right? I mean, he's expected to play. Yeah you seen anything on Gibson? Yeah, this has been the case for three weeks in a row now since he had that stress fracture in his shin that he's been dealing with. And the thing about that kind of injury is it doesn't tend to get better when you continue to play on it. So I don't know, maybe he suffered some sort of setback that makes him less likely to

play, but I don't think so. I don't have any reason to believe that. I think he's been questionable three straight weeks now. Someone asking in the chat, should I pick up Russell Wilson and put him on my IR spot? You can't. He is not on IR yet.

That's right, yeah. You should pick him up. He actually was listed as a limited participant in practice on Thursday. It's interesting. Maybe he makes a miraculous recovery and he's back in three games. No, he was throwing

with his left hand. No, I'm not going to play this week, but if they haven't put him on IR yet, maybe it's only, you know, two, three weeks or something. But there's a... God, who's the other player who's not on IR yet

who we know is out for a long time? I'm not sure. Someone on the Patriots? I don't know. There was someone who hasn't been placed on IR even though we know he's pretty much done for the season.

I was looking at it the other day. And it's just some teams don't necessarily... Like, if you don't need the roster spot yet, you know, maybe they don't do it. Well, that's pretty messed up, okay? Yeah, it's annoying. Fantasy managers need that, okay? So put Russell Wilson on IR.

I need it. Let's go. By the way, I do have Chuba Hubbard at... 17. So right above Khalil Herbert. Yeah. He's got a better matchup than Herbert. I don't know who's a better player. I don't, you know,

the opportunity should be similar, you would think. Yeah. Hubbard is in a better offense, I think. Yes. Certainly an offense I have more faith in. And what else? Joe Mixon. Joe Mixon should get a full workload.

I mentioned it on the Starter Set episode. There have been four running backs who have had 17 or more carries against the Lions. They've all had either 100 yards or a touchdown. Mixon's full workload should be 17 or more carries.

Start him up. Trayvon Diggs is going to be... Actually, Trayvon Diggs is going to play. Jerry Jones just said that he should be 17 or more carries. Start him up. Trayvon Diggs is going to be actually Trayvon Diggs is going to play. Jerry Jones just said that he should be good to go. Daniel Jones seems likely to play. He is close to clearing the concussion protocol to his starting and T.Y. Hilton could play

this week. If T.Y. Hilton plays, would you back off on Michael Pittman? No, no, I don't think so. I don't expect T.Y. Hilton to play a full role anyway. The Zachs Pascal and Harris' Campbell, those guys are still getting 30-plus percent of the targets, so there's still room.

Zach Pascal has a 17% target share on the season. There's still plenty of room for for ty hilton to step in without taking from pitman heath pointed out i had forgotten ty hilton just destroys the houston texans so i'll try to get uh i hope it happens but i'm not going to have him on any in any no no you can't uh let me see let see. Let's look up the old splits career. And Texans, 18 games, 1,235 yards. Nope, nope, sorry. 18 games, 1,718 yards and 11 touchdowns in his career

against the Houston Texans in 18 game, about almost a hundred yards a game. Okay. That's it for the news and notes portion. I want to remind you Sunday is an NFL on CBS double header starting at 9 30 AM Eastern with a special game in London between the dolphins and the Jaguars.

Then at one, the afternoon schedule includes the chargers and Ravens, the chiefs on the road in Washington, and that is followed by Dak and the Cowboys paying a visit to the Patriots. So we'll be up at 9 a.m. and then later at 12.30 to get you set for all of the action on the NFL today. That is all Sunday, the NFL on CBS. And FFT at 9, right?

FFT at 9. Me, Chris, and Frank at 11.30 right here on YouTube. So for all of you YouTubers, we're going to stay here and continue with the mailbag. For all of you listening to this bonus podcast, check back tomorrow for your questions, your Apple Podcast questions, your fantasy cops, and your emails.