Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - 2nd Half Sleepers + Hungry for More, The Goose Queen! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/25

Episode Date: October 25, 2023

Sleeper picks for rest of season! On today’s fantasy football podcast, Andy, Mike, and Jason each pick trade targets with big second half potential! Plus, a new “Hungry For More” segment, NFL News, and Thursday Night Football preview! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for October 25th, 2023. Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on Twitter Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats. Visit https://www.ubereats.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by McDonald's. Monopoly is back at McDonald's, everybody. This is an alert. It's time to get back to Mickey D's. Monopoly Double Play is back at McDonald's, and it's easy to get into the win. First, you peel on pack, and then again in the app. There are millions of prizes to be won,

including a new chance to win cash every minute in the app. Get into the game with Monopoly Double Play at McDonald's. While supplies last, one in five chances to win game piece prizes at outset, chances to win Double Play prizes based on time of code entry, and draw prizes based on number of entries in each draw. See rules in the app. Get a credit card annual fee waiver and earn C-plus points faster with the Scotiabank Ultimate Package and bank more entertainment. Learn more at scotiabank.com slash banking packages. Conditions apply. Scotiabank. You're richer than you think. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.

Oh, welcome in. It's baseball time. Oh, yeah. It's baseball time! Oh, yeah. The best worst moment of our show's history. Woo! It's baseball time. Oh, man. As the Philadelphia fans tune out of the show,

we welcome you in to the Fantasy Baseballers. What happened, Philly? Oh, Mike has never been. You got the Eagles? Let's be clear. There are three situations here on the show today. There is the true baseball fan that has celebrated and enjoyed the night. Me.

Then there is the lifelong baseball fan. Jason. Jason, who is, I mean, you forgot to wear your gear, but I'm sure it'll be on soon. Yeah, I can't believe that I didn't find the shirt in my closet. I mean, favorite players, top three on the team. Top three on the team is definitely the dude with the goatee. He's so good. The rookie.

The guy with the hat. Yeah. Love my Diamondbacks. And then on that side of the desk, there is the man who I think hated the Phillies more than he even liked the D-backs, Mike, the fantasy hitman. Look. Oh, man. Philly fans are a very special breed. Yeah.

And they celebrate in the fact that everyone dislikes them. Like, they enjoy that. But then these moments pop up and everyone else is gonna dunk on you yeah well you can't have your cake and eat it too it was a uh it was a special evening for us arizonans uh the improbable i saw that if you had bet on the diamondbacks to just make the world series and you put 60 bucks on it it would have paid out like 4900 just to make it those are some long odds but this is not the fantasy baseballers we will talk fantasy football today and we have a fun show because we're talking second half sleeper picks on the show today

well you're doing some uh? No, I'm just excited to talk about the sleeper. Just threw a mmm in there. And we have Thursday Night Preview today. Hungry for more. Matthew Betts is taking the day off, I think. Billy fan. Stay out of traffic,

Matthew. It's a good day. It's a good day. Follow the show over on X at the FF ballers. Follow the, uh, lifelong baseball fan, Jason Moore at Jason FFL. So many good baseball tweets. Uh, you can always game of baseball, my game, America's game. I mean, you like a hot apple pie. so I'm surprised you don't like baseball as much. I just love eating, Andy. At FFHitman

at Andy Holloway. If you want to join the Discord community, it's free, ballersdiscord.com and it's one of the largest and most active, it is the most active, fantasy football community in the world over on Discord. So ballersdiscord.com for that. There is a new Dynasty podcast that has released.

Jason recorded that yesterday. And let me tell you, if you listened a couple weeks ago here on the Fantasy Footballers when we did the redo of the first two rounds, that was such a great episode to kind of really push comes to shove player versus player in redraft. We did that on today's Dynasty episode where we looked at the rookies and said, okay, if we were going to draft them now, where does Puka go? Where does he slide into those four first-round wide receivers? And same with A-Chan.

There's just so much good debate, and I think it's a very, uh, important, good episode. So while we were, while I was walking out of the studio yesterday, you're like yelled to me and you're like, Hey, what would you do?

Would you take Gibbs or would you take HN right now? And a rookie redo. And I was like, I was like, Oh, I gave you an answer, but it was, it was tight.

Um, crazy. Yeah. And reminder since waivers just went through in our main league and in your leagues this morning drop it like it's hot there's no better time than right now see who people are giving up on who are letting go to the

waiver wire because there's been a name or two in our main league every single week where you're like I'm going to bid on that and that player I want to get tomorrow and let's just give you a further pro tip on the drop it like it's hot because you're listening to this show. You probably are in a good league with active managers.

Before your waivers run, go look at who was just dropped, like prior to them running. And after they run, scroll up a little bit and see who was dropped beforehand because it's not just you know a lot of times people will pre-drop players and those guys get missed when you're dropping it like it's hot and looking at who was dropped so scroll up and look at who was dropped without a waiver pickup yeah it makes sense and um let's move on welcome to hungry for more presented by Uber Eats. You care to comment, Jason, or are you just giggling for the fun of it?

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't seen on video. We had that delicious delicious hunger for more intro graphic but you saw me cackle and laugh because I looked at our waivers I looked at our waivers I was like the guy I wanted the most was Taysom Hill and I didn't get him because I bid uh I I bid three dollars and he went for 38 and so I went to look I was like oh okay so I I was clearly way mispriced on my bid and I went to look at all the bids and it was there are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

bids in on him and it's 0, 0, 3, 3, 3 38! 38 dollars I'm gonna burn this fab! Yeah I bid 3, you bid 3 um sometimes that's the way it goes the economy of our league i mean it's been

pretty wild this year and you know what the 38th worth it if it wins them a week could potentially could be all right hungry for more players we've seen flashes from some nibbles you're hungry for more fantasy football goodness mike i'm gonna hand you the baton jameer gibbs baby we finally we finally got to see jameer gibbs which gives me more of that which in a uh very negative game script if you happen to catch any of the baltimore versus detroit the Baltimore versus Detroit matchup. It was a behind whooping for the Detroit Lions. But in the process, we got 10 delicious targets for Jameer Gibbs. He turned it into nine for 58. He also had a good touchdown run where we got to see the burst, see the speed. But it's more of 87% of the snaps.

I know David Montgomery was out, but 87% of the snaps coming off of injury where Gibbs had just missed two games right into 21 opportunities, 20-plus points depending on your scoring format, the running back three on the week. This is the guy that we have been waiting for, and all signs signs at least that I've seen point to Montgomery being out for another week and we get Monday night of of Jameer Gibbs versus the Las Vegas Raiders give Gibbs 20 plus opportunities in that game and good things are

going to happen I think and I'm hungry I think it would surprise people to know that Jameer Gibbs is number two in the NFL in targets per game at the running back position. Sure. Like behind Alvin Kamara, it's Jacobs and Gibbs tied for the second most targets per game at like 5.6. So, you know, it's not – you come into the season with expectations that are through the moon for a player that was drafted in the top 12 picks

of the draft but it often when we've said this so many oftentimes rookie running backs it takes some time to get going so let's hope you're right let's hope we uh are well fed i mean i i'm not saying for sure because dan campbell and ar and Arthur Smith keep doing weird things with their highly drafted running backs, but all signs point to Jameer Gibbs eating again on Monday. Jason, you've got a name here to share for your Hungry for More candidate. Yeah, he is the star actor in the movie the plan 2023 uh remandre stevenson was my uh you know we talked about this starting five weeks ago when he had a massively horrific schedule of back-to-back to back matchups said to trade for him after that that it would go better after that point and after

that point it's gone better he has been on the field the last two weeks 65 percent of the snaps both weeks last week he had a touchdown vultured by Zeke but he still ended up as a top 20 running back the week prior um he was the running back eight and I I want this plan to succeed he is someone that I you're invested I'm invested in I I I went through the walk of my plan grabbed him at that week I need more from Ramondre Stevenson the thing that I love is that even though you watch Zeke's involvement and he's inside on the five the targets are still Ramondre and the snaps are dominated right now by Ramondre. You know, there's, it was 65, 35. They're not running two back systems here. It's like one of these guys is on the field and it is the vast majority of the time. It's Ramondre Stevenson.

What I'm hungry for more of is more efficiency. He looked good in the receiving game this last week. I really want a good performance this week against the Miami Dolphins, and that is an exploitable run defense. Right now, schedule adjusted fantasy points to the running back position. They are not good. They're 24th in that, and they're allowing a first down on 28.7% of opponents' rushing attempts, which is 31st in the NFL. Yeah, I mean, Ramondre is in the identical category of, I mean, it's Ramondre, Josh Jacobs, and Damian Pierce. Those are the bottom three in yards per carry of any running back

that's had at least 79 carries this year. So you're looking at players where, you know, you say you want more efficiency. How about some? Right. That's what we're saying from Josh. Just a little bit. You know, Pierce doesn't get anything in the passing game.

So I'd rather have Ramondre than Pierce at this stage in the season. Jacobs and Ramondre, if you can't run them, you know, you're not efficient on the ground. You're going to need the passing game work. And we said that a couple weeks ago. We're like, well, he had six targets in week one. What if he went back to that? Well, six targets last week, six targets this past week,

caught 11 of the 12 targets. This is an opportunity, and I think you'd be really disappointed if he doesn't do something on the ground against Miami this week. For me, I'm hungry for more Trey McBride. Yeah. Tight end for the Arizona Cardinals. T-McB. T-McBee. T-McBee.

Look, 11 targets over the last two weeks for Trey McBride, and that was with Zach Ertz as part of the roster. The Arizona Cardinals pass the ball to the tight end position. They're fifth in the NFL in targets to the tight end, and Zach Ertz just went to IR. So I am optimistic about just the way this offense functions and the fact that you're going to put the ball into the hands of your more athletic second round tight end that came into the league with a lot of pedigree and opportunity and ended last year on a bit of a run.

I mean, he had a performance against Atlanta where he was the number two tight end on the week. Yeah, he was like seven for 70 with a touchdown? And so people were asking me when I brought up Trey McBride this morning, like, you know, do I want McBride or Dalton Kincaid? I'd rather have Kincaid because I'm going to attach myself to Josh Allen instead of Dobbs, eventual Murray on a team that's losing. However, they also asked, do I want Logan Thomas or Trey McBride?

And that's much closer to me i feel like maybe your floor is a teeny bit higher with logan thomas but your ceiling's higher with mcbride because you have an athletic player that might make a big play so i am hungry for more trey mcbride you've seen it over the last couple of weeks um you know a lot of snaps design screens to the tight end as a part of this offense. And you're going to see them out there 60%, 70% of the time moving forward. And I am hungry for more opportunity there for Trey McBride. So that was Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats.

Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Cornerback? Nope. No. No. Baby back ribs? Oh, yeah. Delicious. uh cornerback nope no no baby back ribs oh yeah delicious order now on the app product availability may vary by region see the app for details all right let's move on

news and notes from around the league presented by USAA Insurance. You want those baby back Gibbs, right? No. No? It's all right. It's all right. You don't mind? It's okay?

It's okay. Thanks. I got five. Yeah, we don't have a sound for a five. Out of a hundred. All right. We have all sorts of reports out of Tennessee. Yeah, we do. Ryan Tannehill, not likely to play.

I think that if he's out there, I would be shocked. I would retire. I would just retire on the spot. You owe us a retirement, Mad Dog. Yeah. Did you see the D-backs chanting yeah in the dugout but i mean if if if mad dog is a man of honor yeah and is true to his word he will actually retire yeah i think that's so i mean just saying that if he doesn't right it's retire or liar yeah it's if you don't retire then you are not a man of honor, and you're just a big, fat, fat, phony liar.

Double fat? Wow. I don't think that'll happen. I think he will follow, be true to his word. Right. Yeah. Right. Otherwise.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, it's going to happen. Yeah. Back to the Titans. Ryan Tannehill not likely to play, and there were some reports early this morning that Will Levis, Bananarama himself, may start and be the primary quarterback. But then Vrabel, in what's being passed around today, said,

I never said that Will Levis would be the starter. Both Levis and Malik Willis will play if Ryan can't. Fun. Yeah. So who do they play this week? Yeah, no. Absolutely you want to pick up, I believe it's the Falcons? Yes, the Atlanta Falcons.

Yeah, that's who you want. Yeah, yeah. Pick them up. Play them. Because honestly, if you spun, you know, we have the Wheel of Shame, and if they have a wheel and it only can land on two options and it's Levis or Malik willis i want the falcons on both of those oh but there's three options oh they could all they could both play yeah yeah and that's truly banana ramas actually that's true that's your path to four

interceptions yep yeah uh all right the browns quarterback to sean w. He had a new MRI. It showed no additional damage to his throwing shoulder. Don't laugh. His status for the week is up in the air. The team is calling him day to day. He's going to work on strengthening his not re-injured arm. No, not additional injured. Currently same injured. Currently supes injured.

Just not anymore than when he was medically fine. So, Deshaun Watson, waiver wires, right? He should be out there. You should not have been thinking or hoping for a return to glory here. No. Watching him throw the ball this past week, I mean, he's still making the same bad decisions that he's been making since he's been at Cleveland Brown, but he also couldn't throw the ball.

Matt Eberflus, Bears head coach, said Roshon Johnson will return to practice on Wednesday. Oh, great. Oh, okay. But remains in the concussion protocol. So I think he's back on the field this weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the normal progression. You're still in the concussion protocol when you get back to practice limited. So that's the expectation. It looks like he'll play.

All right. That was today's news notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. Second half sleepers. I didn't know we had a drop for that we got we got drops on drops man we got drops on drops on drops this is fun

second half sleepers you might as well call the segment trade targets because if you're bringing up a name on this segment it's somebody that you believe is underperformed in the first half of the season or has been injured or, you know, the team, the quarterback, dependent parts weren't functioning

to the maximum. So, look, I didn't see yours until just now, Mike, and I'm actually – I can't wait to listen. Okay. Did you think I was in agreement? Yeah. Oh, no. Goodness, no.

Yeah. All right. Well, you're up mike okay sure i will go first it is the the quarterback of america's team it is dac prescott who it's been a very strange a very weird start for the dallas cowboys of blowing out the the giants and the jets then somehow losing to the Arizona Cardinals, shellacking the Patriots, getting crushed by the 49ers, and then we finally had a good fantasy performance from Dak

against the Chargers where he had the rushing touchdown, his highest passing yardage of the season, his yards per attempt was at 9.1 in that game, which that's what we like, that's what we need. That's what we're talking about from Dak. There seemed like a renewed focus to get the ball to CeeDee Lamb because there had been strange usage for him as well, but that's what we got to do. And why I'm bringing him up here is just looking at the schedule here. Moving forward, the Cowboys are tied for the third best schedule

and when you're adjusting fantasy points to the quarterback position, they have essentially two. They have one really tough matchup, which is it's the Buffalo Bills in week 15 and that's on the road. That won't be great. And the Giants in week 10, because the Giants have been improving. But other than that, it's very plus matchups for quarterback scoring. On top of that, it's the third-best schedule for fantasy wide receivers,

the tenth-best for fantasy tight ends, and yet it is fifth-worst for fantasy running backs. So they're facing a bunch of pass funnels. Correct. I mean, we're talking the Rams, Philly twice, Detroit is in there, Washington. So, I mean, the playoff schedule, which week one is the Buffalo Bills, but then it's Miami and Detroit, which you got to throw on those guys. That's how you get it done. So Dak is likely on a lot of waivers out there,

or he's just chilling on your bench. But I think that he is a quarterback that over this second half can get it going. I'm not saying Dak's going to be a top five guy over this time period, but if you're struggling with the quarterback position, I think that Dak is someone you should be looking at rostering right now just in case things do start spinning in the right direction. It's interesting. I was just going to ask, what if I told you that Dallas was one of the fastest

pace of play teams last year under Kellen Moore, and this year, in neutral pace, they are the slowest. Yeah. That's Mike McCarthy. That definitely makes sense. How's that working? For the offense, not great. Yeah.

I mean, what are they sitting at, 4-2 right now? That look, yeah. 5-2, or 4-2, yeah. Yeah, it's been harder to watch. I mean, I wouldn't say Dak's on the list with Derek Carr and Deshaun Watson of players that I can't handle watching, but he's not on the list of players I'm actively seeking out right now. I get it.

It's unfortunate because that's been an offense you can count on. The schedule is wide open for them. So you have a situation where either he's a second-half sleeper or this team is floundering, and you probably have question marks around Dak as the future of the franchise. I feel like they just need close games. This last week against the chargers was a close game

but it was like every other game is a blowout win or a blowout loss it's it's been very weird i have leagues where i am looking for a quarterback that i might be able to count on in the second half and have been bouncing around the streaming options so it's a it's a good name to bring up we're going to take a quick break and come back with Jason's second half sleeper. All right, we're back looking at second half sleepers. One other bit of news that I skipped over but Jason wanted to bring up, the Marvin Jones news. He made a decision to step away from the Detroit Lions,

and then the team waived him. Yeah, I think it was just an agreement. Just a mutual agreement to move on. It sounded like there was some family, personal life stuff that's getting in the way for Marvin. So no longer in the mix for snaps. Yeah, and this is, you know, for fantasy football, and the reason I wanted to bring it up, it's obviously irrelevant for Marvin Jones,

not a player that you were playing necessarily, but he has played 43% of the snaps, and he is the field stretcher for a really good offense. And now Jamison Williams, this is second-half sleepers. Jamison Williams fits right into a second-half sleeper candidate where it's like my issue with him is he has just not been playing enough snaps he you know he he has been a guy that has had his role established while they wait to build trust well with marva jones gone and 43 of snaps of a field stretching role opened up we trust you we trust you yeah like let's maybe it forces them to you know did you see his numbers last week by chance jameson williams yeah because his snaps were they were up in the 40s uh the week before

he was at 23 but did you see his numbers uh tell me what have i told you had six targets oh that's nice i tell me he caught i'm at least three of them. As one who was very invested in Jared Goff having a good game, I saw them. He had as many receptions as Al Borland. Oh, Al, how many receptions? Tell me you had at least three receptions this week, Al. Not this week. Not this week. No, I mean, one of them was, you know, it's a nice catch out of bounds.

But, yeah, zero receptions on six targets. That's probably hiding away the fact that i mean six targets for jameson williams on just 44 snaps there is a second half sleeper possibility there the only the only worry there is that it reminds me of his rookie season when he had nine targets through all the games and caught one ball let's let's let's just catch the ball okay yeah? Yeah, yeah, help Jared Goff. Honestly, him being on the field, when you look at the equation, like Marvin Jones was dropping passes, taking snaps from more explosive players, this for Goff is better to have that talent out there.

So, Jason, your second-half sleeper, I forced you into a tandem because I wanted to go with another player on the same roster. Yeah, you wanted to bring up Hollywood Brown, and you saw that I had already put in Kyler Murray. So the truth here is the second half sleeper is the Arizona Cardinals offense. You can add Michael Wilson to the mix. We talked about it a little bit on waivers. You brought up Trey McBride and the way that things are going to go.

Kyler Murray will be back, I think, in two weeks. And when he is back, you're going to take an offense that has looked like a legitimate, schematic, modern NFL offense. There have been open plays designed to get wide receivers or tight ends the ball. You're talking non-Cliff Kingsbury kingsbury that's what i'm talking about it's like cliff kingsbury was running a a fast paced uh which is good for fantasy collegiate style offense that really didn't work great and kyler kyler was great for fantasy in that offense but he had to make a lot of that work i am more hopeful over what we have seen from schematically speaking of the Arizona Cardinals offense and Dobbs has done an admirable job as a guy that was last year

off the street and this year traded for the week. You know he wasn't on the Cardinals team and he stepped in and he's done an admirable job, but he is not Kyler Murray. Yeah, they're just throwing this out there for you to ammo to what the offense is doing. Bottom third in pass rate, 26th in targets to wide receivers under Dobb because he's targeting the underneath players, and producing it 24th in points per game. So good scheme, but not good results.

Right, and I think that when Kyler Murray is added to this, there's going to be a massive shift for the success of the offense. This defense can't, no matter how much effort and heart they put in, they don't have the talent to really stop people for four quarters. In fact, if you watch these games, it's't have the talent to really stop people for four quarters. In fact, if you watch these games, it's like in the beginning of the games, the Cardinals are like, hey, they're competing. They're looking good. They're giving it their all. And then they just run out of gas and the second half get stomped by their opponents. Kyler's going to have to throw. He's going to have to keep up and try to win these games. And, you know, the real question

for Kyler for fantasy football is what about the knee? What about the running? Mike, you know, the real question for Kyler for fantasy football is, what about the knee? What about the running? Mike, you brought up in the offseason some of the statistics and the horrible historical data. Well, they are in most of them. Horrible data. In most of them, they were bad. A quarterback returning from ACL.

Right, and the dip in rushing. But if you really dig down into that, you know, there weren't a lot of those quarterbacks coming back from the ACL. They weren't mobile rushing quarterbacks to start with. So, yeah, they stayed in the pocket. But Deshaun Watson was the one example that really stood out to me. He was a guy that was rushing for 500 yards a season, gets that ACL, comes back, and he was very, very mobile, very good for fantasy right

back off of the ACL. And so I do think Kyler will include the rushing. And when I talk about the schematic fit that we've seen from the Cardinals that is nice, where Dobbs is getting it done is in the designed runs for him. It makes me really hopeful that this is a perfect system for Kyler to come into. And so I am stashing Kyler. You talked about, Andy, you've got leagues where you drafted Deshaun Watson. You're saying, who do I rely on the second half of the season? I think Kyler's going to be good. And if that's true, if Kyler is good, as he's always been when he's on the field, then Hollywood Brown is his number one target, is a great acquisition, and should be really a top, for sure a top 20 wide receiver the rest of the season once Kyler's back.

But I think he's got top 12 potential. All right, my second half sleeper is a wide receiver that has been outside the top 78 in four of five weeks, but has the sixth easiest schedule for wide receivers in the second half and was just on the buy. So it's T. Higgins. It's a player that you drafted early in fantasy drafts. It's been catastrophic. I got T. Higgiggins and it sucks i think i saw a i was i don't have it in front of me like the adp um maybe you can pull it up i believe every second round wide

receiver has been a disappointment for fantasy players you might want to look at at that. Oh, pretty much every second-round player. Yeah, maybe that's what it was. Maybe it was literally almost everybody in the second round, but that includes T. Higgins and Devontae Smith, and for a while there, Jalen Waddell, and maybe still Jalen Waddell. The players you took there? Yeah, you've got Devontae Adams. Cooper Cupp was injured.

You've got, as far as wide receivers. In the second round? In the second round, yeah. Oh, because Cooper Cup went later because of the injury. Garrett Wilson. Yeah. Jalen Waddell. Sure.

Yeah, I mean, just, well, Olave's in the third according to RADP data that I'm looking at. But, yeah, it's not. The second round was a lot of problems. Even at running back, you know, Josh Jacobsacobs derrick henry yeah and you look at not just the schedule being the sixth easiest for t higgins you have a history of success you have a player that is going to be heavily targeted in the offense um obviously healthy he needs to be on the field but he's had some extra time off going into this uh this final run and then your

your fantasy playoff schedule you get get to play Minnesota at home. You get to play Pittsburgh, whose secondary has been just the worst. It literally is the worst in terms of fantasy points given up. And then you have a potential shootout against Kansas City, which, look, their defense is very good. But, you know, we saw from this past week, like, you know, there's the potential that you could be in a battle there in championship weekend. So it's exciting to think of, you know, T. Higgins as a buy low candidate

that teams may want to rid themselves of, that they might be putting him on the bench. You know, that's one of those things. Go watch a team and what they set their lineup as Saturday. And is T. Higgins sitting on their benches? Because that'll tell you everything you need to know about how they view that player. Because he's been a lineup lock type of guy for a long time. So to me, T. Higgins is that player that sticks out as, you know,

as a guy that doesn't necessarily love the wide receiver two options and fantasy, he's one of those guys you need to pick up and you're going to be very happy. I think. And then just let's we'll be brief here, but a bonus second half sleeper pick from each of us. Mike? I'll throw out JSN of

this is when we were even I've been a Tyler Lockett was one of my guys. I thought he would still have it. He has been underperforming drastically, but JSN still had him to get on the field. But then when people were saying, can I drop JSN, it was, no, if you drafted him, you have to,

maybe you didn't realize it at the time, but now you know moving forward. If you draft these first-round rookies, you're doing so to hold on to them for for for at least the first chunk of the season to see if they do anything this isn't a well if the rookie doesn't show up in week one or two I'm going to drop them I mean it's like imagine I guess Addison had the huge touchdown week one but it's like you can't drop these guys because they start coming through over the second half of the year.

And if Tyler Lockett continues to be disappointing, there's production to be had from the Seahawks, and it might be JSN coming in and stealing it. I'll throw a fat Thor out there. We're talking Josh Jacobs. He eventually got into shape in the movie. I will not. Yeah, that's true.

That's not my argument, but that's true. And look, honestly, it comes down to the fact that Jimmy Garoppolo, their starting quarterback, has missed two and a half of their seven games so far. The offense is not going to be as efficient without their starting quarterback. They did not put up a lot of points. They're still in the mix as a team, and I think Jacobs, this is a player who's getting more opportunity at running back than anybody else in football.

And so if you're on the field, like last week it was 66% of snaps. That's because you had a quarter of garbage time where he wasn't on the field. Adams was off the field. Previously, it's been 80 plus percent of snaps. You just have to trust the fact that a player that's out there that much

who catches the ball that much is going to deliver. Yeah, I agree completely with Jacobs having a much better second half of season I'm going to go with a sleeper we mentioned briefly on yesterday's waiver show Tajay Spears rookie running back day two draft capital pick for the Tennessee Titans this is a player that he's shown flashes he's involved in the passing game. So far this year, he's got games with targets of 4, 4, 4, 5. Those are great numbers for a running back. And he's, you know, had a last week he had a 48-yard reception.

He's got the juice. He's young. He's athletic. And the real sleeper issue here is as we come near the trade deadline, which I believe is a little spooky this year. Friday the 13th no no halloween which it's it's also spooky um if derrick henry gets moved because this tennessee titans team says we're playing for the future then tajay becomes the future today so let's

follow that discussion up before we get into tnf preview just with the other side of the coin like we it's absolutely possible that derrick Henry, they move on from him. They just let go of one of their best defensive players. You have your head coach saying, I did not say I'm starting Will Levis. How dare you? You said that. It could go real bad for Tennessee, but we have not talked about Henry.

Because if Henry's traded, the team that I keep hearing that makes so much sense and needs it tremendously is Baltimore. Like this is a team that – It feels like the only one that when you look at all the teams that actually makes sense. Like do you target Derrick Henry knowing that there are two outcomes? There's either Derrick Henry's just Derrick Henry in Tennessee this year, which is good, not great.

Or he's going to a Baltimore offense where, look, the competition for touches there, like they're happy to throw Justice Hill onto the bench for all but a snap. And Gus would get some work. But, like, it would be the Derrick Henry show in Baltimore. Yeah, this happened last year with Christian McCaffrey. Oh, gosh. Oh, what if he goes to a contender?

You know, Baltimore's in the running. The Niners are in the running. Do you trade for him and hope? And then he went to San Francisco and was the dude and won people, you know, championships. It was great. With Derrick Henry, it's a little dicier simply because if he's not traded and Tannehill is gone, you expect really bad production from the Titans in general, and he's going to cost, you know, like Tajay Spears being a sleeper target is because he's on waivers. This costs you nothing and then will become relevant

if he gets all the opportunity. Not that he's going to be a sensational superstar. Derek Henry is going to cost you a lot to acquire him. The only good news is, you know, I I know Mike, you've brought this up, their playoff schedule for the Titans is great. It includes two matchups against the Houston Texans. Houston twice. So I don't mind if you want to call your shot

and try to get a Derrick Henry Baltimore Raven and end up with a runner-up consolation prize of Derrick Henry twice against the Texans in the playoffs. But I do believe it is worse days ahead for Derrick Henry along the stretch run of the season if he remains a Titan. Which I will, looking at the game log, you had Tannehill miss some time last year. So week eight and week nine, that was Houston and Kansas City. Derrick Henry was the running back three and the running back five. One of those weeks they gave him like 100 carries.

Both, yeah, he had 33 opportunities. Do you remember how many? He closed out the season with a game against Houston, and he was the running back nine, no Tannehill. But this is a much different situation with Spears on the field so much. If you had to guess, top of your head, do you know where Henry is on the year so far? He's still, I would have guessed, running back 12.

I'll put him like a middling running back two. He's 13, but I guess they had the bye. Yeah, so he's 13 even with the bye week. He's 13 with the bye week. And do you know, the last three games, Derrick Henry is on pace for 1,500 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns. He's a king. 314 opportunities is still the pace on the season despite the snaps to Spears. So we're thinking about – we did get some more news.

Jerome Ford, Mary Kay Cabot tweeted, high ankle sprain, left the locker room, still wearing a right walking boot, and Ford is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks. So, Pierre Strong went in fantasy. The waiver wires, Kareem Hunt Will be the guy there Let's talk Thursday Thursday Night Breakdown Well Thursday night we get some

Baker On Thursday night, Tampa Bay They're now at 3-3 After the loss to Atlanta and they traveled to Buffalo. Or they're just sitting at four and three. The DraftKings Sportsbook line, Buffalo minus eight and a half. The over under is 42. Not a high over under, but a big line.

So the bills are projected for 25.3 points, 16.8 for Tampa Bay, who has been reeling. Both teams have been reeling. So you would expect this would be a great get-right situation for the Bills. The defense for Tampa has been very good this year. Very good. You know, their losses, I remember the Detroit game, they still made some plays on defense, lost to Detroit, couldn't score on Detroit.

Then they lost to Atlanta, but it was 16-13. But Atlanta's offense also not that intimidating. So from a matchup perspective, you're going to face a much more difficult task with Josh Allen, Stephon Diggs, and company. Are you expecting this to be the get-right game for the Bills? I don't look at it that way. I mean, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, pretty stout, adjusting for schedule, fifth against quarterbacks, fifth against running backs,

first against tight end. So, no, I don't expect, like, Josh Allen to – where do we go? Yeah, yeah, yeah, there he is. There's Josh Allen. You're never benching him, but it's... The Bills are just... You can't possibly bench

anybody. It's like Allen, Cook, Stephon Diggs. I would move the conversation to Latavius Murray, who saw 45% of the snaps. He started the game? I missed that note. Yeah, but he played a lot less this game than last game, and Cook ended up having a big one.

Those players are players that the matchup matters completely. Davis, Kincaid. James Cook really hasn't had big games unless those situations have transpired. So what do you expect? For me, I don't expect a great offensive production here from the Bills. They haven't looked excellent. The last three weeks, they are averaging 19.6 points scored, NFL team points scored.

They seem a little broken. They seem a little broken. But they had a three-game run of 38, 37 and 48 points and so we saw the potential and and you know that they're great right like you know they're going to figure it out because josh allen will figure it out but we've also seen this tampa bay bucks defense be really really solid i think that you know they they took a step backwards last year you know at of Tom Brady's career when he's thrown it 750 times. And this offense helps this defense this year for the Buccaneers. So I don't expect it necessarily to be a get-right game in a difficult matchup.

They seem like they're a piece short on offense. They seem like they need a better wide receiver too. So you're sitting Gabe Davis. I am sitting Gabe Davis in this matchup. I have him in our league of record. We are actively trying to set him in this one. James Cook last week had a big game. He's been a running back two this year.

The matchup is tough. Like you said, he was the running back eight last week, but then the lows are low for james cook yeah it's really hard for him to get into the end zone he has one rushing touchdown this year and he's got one receiving those were two nice games but other than that it's it's not been as great i do think i'll be the one to call the blowout i think buffalo eviscerates them oh really yeah do. I think this is the game that things get right. So you should start Gabe Davis. No, no, I don't think

so. But Kincaid and Cook, I have confidence in. This is one where they're at home. People have been talking and I just... Prime time. Yeah, I just think like the Buffalo defense in prime time, some short fields, turning over Baker Mayfield.

I'll be the lone wolf believing in the bounce-back game for Buffalo because if they can protect Josh Allen at all, I think that'll make the difference. Now, the Bucs games in general have hit the under. Five of six weeks, the Bucs defense has ruined people's fantasy hopes. What is Rashad White? Rashad White is a running back. I mean, I faced him last week. It was annoying as heck because he...

He was the running back, what, 16th and a half points. Rashad White is a volume running back who gets a ton of work and opportunity. He is not an extremely talented running back, so things have to break right for him you hope that he gets uh you know a touchdown in the passing or rushing him you hope that he gets eight targets in a game he's really gone back and forth we we joked about it um last time we were covering his matchup but you know running back 38 then 9 then 40 then he's top 20 then 37 then 16 to me what he is is a flex option that obviously because he's on Thursday night football if you

are going to play him move him into your running back uh slot to give you flexibility but he's just someone that is a middling talent and if you think that they're going to get blown out i mean does that really matter for someone that catches the ball so much no he's on pace for 62 receptions on the 65 targets so he's catching everything thrown his way i think you were dead on though with how you project him this week as a flex option he has elite usage uh would you play him or or now we know that roshon Johnson's coming back. So Deonta Foreman against the Chargers or Rashad White against a – Oh, man.

The Bills rushing defense is the second worst in the NFL in terms of yards per carry given up. They're actually 21st in fantasy points against. I'd go White because he's – The Foreman situation, I'm sure when we actually get to that matchup, we'll discuss it. But it's what do you possibly do with Bears running backs? Roshan, the whole season had been groomed to be, you know, to take over a huge workload.

But if you're the Bears and Deontay Foreman does that, how do you not go back to him? Mike Evans, of course, you play him. Chris Godwin is this year's Deontay Johnson right now. He's on pace for 93 receptions and zero touchdowns. In fact, Godwin and Judy are two of the most highly targeted players that have not found the end zone at all. You know, last week, cool, 12 targets, only caught six of them against Atlanta.

He's just kind of sitting right now. I mean, he had the bye week, but he's sitting outside the top 36 on the year. He's still a solid play. I mean, Gabe Davis or Chris week, but he's sitting outside the top 36 on the year. He's still a solid play. I mean, Gabe Davis or Chris Godwin? Chris Godwin. For the PPR value? For the PPR value. Deontay Johnson or Chris Godwin?

Chris Godwin. That one I might go Deontay. Yeah, I think that's where I sit. It's tough. You're not getting goosed by Godwin. No, no. But so far this year, you also haven't been. What's the opposite of a goose in a good way?

Like, what would that be? You're not getting swanned. Okay. You're not getting swanned. Swan is the end. It's the swan song. No, I think it's great. A beautiful swan?

Yeah. I mean, what else would it be? Hold on, hold on. Like a dragon? I know we're talking on the podcast, so this is embarrassing, but like, is a swan, that's the same animal as a goose, right? No. No, they're different.

Is a swan its own thing? Yeah. So I will say this. A swan's its own thing? It is. So if a lake is filled, there'd be ducks, there'd be swans, there'd be geese? Yeah, that's possible. For some reason, I thought maybe a swan was just a real pretty goose uh when i said it because of the

ugly duckling i was waiting for someone to be like dude yeah you were right that's the same animal so a swan's just its own thing yeah the swan's got the real long neck what do geese have i'm looking at a photo swan versus goose. They are totally different. Just unbelievably different. But let me tell you, one is ugly, one is beautiful. There are many differences between geese and swans. Yeah, you're right about

the whole neck, man. A goose is... I mean, the wing... You'd rather have the longer neck, right? If you're choosing what you want to be. You want the beauty of the swan. You want the massive 10 massive 10 foot wingspan you don't want a wingspan of geese that's generally between three and four feet you are so knowledgeable oh man exactly like i was saying you're not getting a goose from godwin but you're probably not getting a swan right so it's like a mallard oh dude mallards are great oh you love them i's like a mallard. Oh, dude, mallards are great.

Oh, you love the mallard. I love me a mallard. That's like the iridescent green? Yeah, this is just a duck. It really is. It is. I mean, yeah, when you say duck, you're thinking about a mallard. Yeah.

Are we done with this discussion? The bird one or the football game? Baseball and birds. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Welcome to the Baseball and Birds Pod. Oh, man, we're dumb. We're in off-season form. Very nice.

In the middle of the season. Just to take a quick straw poll of Deucer's Alley over there, a bunch of knowledgeable individuals. All three of you knew that those were separate animals? Yes, sir. Yes. Yep. That's a 100 hit 100 the swan seemed like you know like the like the goose wearing the wedding dress you know what i mean like the most elegant like the queen if you queen of the geese is the swan if you told me that a goose is a male version and a swan is a female version, I'd be like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I knew that. Of course, I knew that.

Everyone knows that. Yeah, that's... Do you know that the mallard, like the one with the green, that's the boy mallard. Wait, what do you mean? There's female mallards that are ugly? The female mallards are the all-brown ones. Yeah, yeah, I guess that makes sense.

Usually I feel like... So a mallard is only a male. It's a mallard. Oh, boy. Jason just fell over in his chair. Yeah. Brooks, you want me to hit this outro button? Would you recommend that?

Actually, I want to get into a few mailbag questions. Oh, do you now? All right. Yeah. Oh, boy. Mailbag. Mallard man. Mailbag I'm so sorry everyone This Wednesday

Rapscan's even smiling over there The train is running down the hill Yeah we're doing good Alright we have voicemail questions Yes sir What's up, ballers? This is Luke. I'm a big fan of the show.

Quick question. Is Kirk Cousins now a must-start or an auto-start candidate for the rest of the season? Thanks, guys. No. No, I don't think so. He's been very good, started the season, obviously, on fire those first three weeks.

This last week was great in a tough matchup against San Francisco but a lot of that you know was like you know at the end of the half he threw a ball that should have been a pick yeah and instead of it being a pick it was like a 70 yard touchdown bomb to Jordan Addison that you know it's like he is a pocket passer that's going to need a lot of yards and a lot of touchdowns throwing to make up for the fact that he's not a mobile rushing quarterback. So, to me, he's a streaming option that you play the right matchups, and you won't always get it right, like Jared Goff. I feel like people think Jared Goff is an auto star,

and in that respect I would put Cousins in that category. But I understand. Like if you say three times, if you say should Kirk Cousins in that category. But I understand. If you say three times, if you say, should Kirk Cousins always be in my lineup three times, he will not perform for you. No, he'll get one of those bad. But he's on pace for 680 pass attempts, brother. Oh, I love the system that he's in.

But how long is he without Justin Jefferson? We don't know. I mean, the nice thing, we should talk about that because part of the threat of people are, do I trade Justin Jefferson? Do I keep him? Do I wait? Do I not wait? Part of the narrative has been Justin Jefferson might

not come back if this team is circling the drain and they trade Kirk Cousins. Now they're 3-4 in a winnable division. I think they're going to keep competing. The schedule is not bad. They play Green Bay this week in division. They win that game, in my opinion.

I know it's in Green Bay. It's a close line. Green Bay, Atlanta, the Saints, Denver, Chicago, bye week. Win, win, win, win, win. Those are five winnable games. To me, Jefferson's coming back if that's the case yeah to me kirk cousins is in he i'm playing him like as a as a must start until i until the system changes if you had this is this is it's like now i guess brady was was not good last year but the point being they were throwing so much. I believe Minnesota has zero rushing touchdowns,

which that will bounce back. I thought you were going to say zero rushing attempts this year. They will eventually get rushing touchdowns, and that will be devastating for Kirk's value, but they're just throwing it so much. And even with Jefferson out out you have addison and hawkinson i mean we those two guys can absolutely get the job done for fantasy football so until further notice i think that he is in the muster if he would you rather lock him in or golf

kirk i would rather lock golf in i think i I'm on the Kirk side just because the rushing game in Detroit is going to have its weeks. Montgomery will be back in about... They have a game this week and a bye week. I expect Montgomery back after that. Another voicemail question. Hey, Ballers. Big fan of the show.

Quick question. After the Gibbs breakout, are you trading for Jameer gibbs and if so what would you trade to try to get gibbs i am now is not the time yeah i am not trading for gibbs off of a big performance you trade for him off a bad performance because you believe it will come also i believe that it is probably worse days ahead when David Montgomery comes back and reclaims the primary ball carrier role. Not that Gibbs will be bad or irrelevant when Montgomery is back, but you know, let's say Montgomery was back this week,

right? We would rather have Montgomery than Gibbs yes for fantasy purposes going forward right so like I would yeah yeah I would I mean Andy in the redraft uh basically said he definitely would where he drafted David Montgomery so um yeah I'm not trading high for Jameer Gibbs right now Instagram question coming in says can I play Josh Downs over Chris Olave? And so the old can I? That's the, can you give me permission and take the blame if it's wrong? It's your team, brother. You can do whatever you want. You can. I would not.

I realize that you've had a couple really good games with Josh Downs with Gardner Minshew. That doesn't mean that it's going to be universal and 100% of the time when he got a 59 yard touchdown to start the game on a broken play that is really cool that is not um prescriptive or easily repeatable um points per game Olave is still ahead of Downs even with the big games I mean he's at 10.4 Downs at 9.8 15, Olave is still ahead of downs, even with the big games. I mean, he's at 10.4, downs at 9.8.

Good. 15 targets last week. Yeah, Olave had 15 targets last week. Derek Carr. He's just not getting touchdowns. One touchdown on the season. Olave is more talented, more targeted, more important to the offense. Drives faster.

Yeah, that's true. That's true. Than everybody but Addison. Yep. Can you name the top five target leaders in the NFL right now? Ooh. Just totals? Raw totals?

At the wide receiver position. We'll go. He's not number one, but I'll put Diggs in there. Number two? Tyreek? Tyreek is lower. Number four. Okay. Number four. Very close. He's not number one, but I'll put Diggs in there. Number two? Tyreek? Tyreek is lower. Number four. Number four.

Very close. He's been crazy. Oh, yeah. For sure. Number one. Number one. Puka Nakua. Yeah.

You guys have nailed three of them. Do you want to take a shot at the last two? I feel like at this point we have to. You got to. Cash out? We have to retire. You know them. AJ Brown. We have to retire. You know them. AJ Brown.

AJ Brown, number three. So that's one, Puka, two, Diggs, three, Brown, four, Hill, five. I think you're going to hit it. I think you're going to hit it. It's your call, Mike. I mean, because Keenan missed a game. Not Keenan. Amon Ra missed some time as well.

It's not Amon Ra. Oh, gosh. Is it me? No, it's not him. I know who it is. Who? Jamar Chase. It's Jamar Chase.

Oh, yeah. It's Jamar Chase. Okay, so we got him. I thought I got in. Do we not have targets per game on our stat sheets? We don't. Uh-oh. Make a note.

That would be nice, right? Well, yeah, anything per game would be nice. What does that mean? I mean, like, you know. Well, we have their average. We look at, like. What are you talking about? We don't have the target average.

You're talking about on a list of all. Yeah, like on our fantasy footballers stat sheet. Maybe we can add. We have points per game, but we don't have targets per game. Well, we don't have anything else per game, right? So maybe we could add a button to convert all totals. This is a live dev meeting. Yeah, but hey, peel back the curtain.

The football needs to know we care about how good our tools are and how we use them and what's valuable here's footland we are going to add this feature where you can uh we are click a button to easily quickly convert all of these you can see them all individually you know like amon raw is at 11.3 per game so if amon raw had not been injured that's well i can't see the other per game. So never mind. All right. That is going to do it for today's show.

Thank you for joining us. All you ducks, geese, and swans out there. You silly mallard. All right. Then we'll move on to start the week tomorrow. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye. Goodbye.

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast. Join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at the FFBallers.