Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Crazy Trades + Week 7 Start/Sit, TNF Preview - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/15

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

Fantasy Football show for Oct 15, 2025. Crazy trade offers and decisions for the rest of the fantasy football season! Plus, Rashee Rice outlook and a preview of Thursday Night Football. Get Week 7 advice for some tough fantasy football start/sit decisions! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.(00:00) Intro(04:10) Backup Options(12:10) NFL News(17:00) Thursday Night Breakdown: Steelers at Bengals(25:30) Mailbag(26:05) Trade Saquon Barkley for Rashee Rice?(30:30) Is Rashee Rice plug and play?(31:40) Trade Emeka Egbuka for Saquon Barkley?(34:20) Woody Marks outlook(35:40) Trade Rico Dowdle for Derrick Henry?(38:20) Trade Rico Dowdle for JK Dobbins?(39:55) Jaylen Warren or D’Andre Swift(41:50) Have you ever “out-thought” yourself into a stupid trade?(45:45) Is Trey Benson an important stash?(46:25) Chris Olave or Bill Croskey this week?(47:20) Trade Jonathan Taylor for Derrick Henry AND Justin Jefferson?(49:00) Trade George Pickens before CeeDee Lamb returns?Connect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Fantasy Footballer's Studio is sponsored by Walmart. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. It's a Wednesday episode, October 15th. Mike the Fantasy Hitman Wright is here, Jason Moore. To my right, I'm Andy Holloway, and we have another great episode for you. The waivers just ran in all of our leagues. And the cursed Brock Bowers, so for those that have not followed a long way,

seven days. We are in a chopped league, a guillotine-style league, and whoever has picked up Brock Bowers has quickly been the loser of the league and cut and chopped from the league. If you drafted him, you were chopped. Yeah. If you picked them up off of waivers. For $501. You were chopped.

That would be. If you picked up him again off of waivers, then after 501, it was like 2.30? 217. 217, chopped. Chopped. He's back on waivers. What do you go for, Jared? $31.

And who do you go to? And this is, guys, this is a $1,000 budget league. So I wanted to be integrious and put a claim in on him because I felt like I had to. So I went as low as I thought I could do, which was $31, and I got him. wow so we'll see if you survive if you can break the curse you're in trouble what are we got today we got backup options on this show we've got NFL news to talk about a Thursday night preview and then a ton of mailbag questions so excited to get into it a reminder join thefoot dot com head over there the current

megalobole leader oh if you join the megalable it is the blue team oh there's a new A new leader in town. New leader. The blue team has got 937 points and is first out of a 20,000 plus pool of players. Hope you don't have Abuka or a Puka. Yeah, they probably do. They're not going to hold first.

They probably do with 937. But yeah, congrats on being in first. Well, we'll see. I mean, Puka's not been ruled out. And Ibuka is likely to miss a week. no I told you this the day that like I know Sean McVeigh is probably a big liar and he'll probably miss six weeks but they said he physically felt really good the next day after and that they would monitor and he's not been ruled out we uh he's just in serious doubt serious doubt yeah would you like to place a wager we usually we talk about how high ankle sprains are oftentimes you miss three games that's like the most common if you don't sometimes you miss zero like it's zero or three. games usually. I wonder if it will be any different with the travel and them kind of having to know

what's going on ahead of time because this is the overseas game. I don't know if that factors in or not, but it feels like some weeks, they rule people out really early on those London games when they're traveling. Now, the, this is an actual question because it sounds silly, but it's like flying with that injury, is there any sort of I wouldn't imagine that an ankle, I know what you're saying because altitude and press cabin pressure, all those type of things. I don't know if that would affect an ankle. I wouldn't think so, but not a doctor. All right, let's go ahead and

jump into some backup options. presented by progressive insurance. All right, we always say, and it's important every single week, but check out who was dropped today on the waiver wire. A lot of players making injury moves trying to adjust for, you know, kind of spot start situations, and they might drop a long-term valuable player. The most dropped players on Sleeper in the last 24 hours, I'm going to ask you real quick, do you care? Okay. It was a one-week wonder, but Matthew Stafford, do you care?

No, I do not. What about Hassan Haskins? Yes. Yeah. Too early. Michael Carter? Yeah. Chris Rodriguez and Jayton Blue?

No to Rodriguez. Blue is just a stash, but you can drop them. Ryan Flanoi. Nope. Don't care. Tyquan Thornton. Nope. Keon Coleman.

No. Joanne. Yes. Malik Washington. No. Darius Slateon. Yes. Calvin.

I do. I want to have him healthy before I need to roster him How far away is the healthy? That's the part I don't know. We don't know, but my point is I'm not sure that I want to play him his first week back Because like what if he's a little limited or whatever? I would like him on my roster. To me, he is Calvin Ridley, who you're about to say you don't care about.

But Ridley has been stinky doo-doo. And I don't know, I'm optimistic about what's going on with Jackson, Dart and the Giants. Okay. Tongus. Nope, because Georgie Porgy! Our hero, George, reportedly should be playing this weekend.

All right. Oh, man. Mason Taylor? Yeah. What are you doing? I mean, no. Oh, crap. All right.

Also, social media people, how dare you? Oh, he's been a lot of blast. I saw it. What happened? Our show? Yes. I don't know.

know what happened fill us in so the falcon's face the falcon flying a little too close to the sun he he like he knows he did something wrong he puts out fun graphics with quotes like hot quotes that come from the show and you know how i like intentionally whispered oh yeah about mason taylor being my number one tight end pickup of the week yeah we put it in in like bold block all capital letters i see your i see your face and i see this quote mason taylor is my number one tight-in waiver pickup of the week he is now the number one receiving option and is good candidate for 10 targets. Mike, the fantasy hit man right. I'm going to be honest. I don't think that's your quote. No, I did not say. Well, the second half was just made up. The second half was. No, I know.

Yeah. So you not only did you whisper it, but you didn't even say it. I guess he didn't put it in quotation marks. So it's not technically. It is quotes on the graphic. Oh, those are in the background. Those are very artistic. Wow. Wow. Well, either way. Very tasteful. Either way. Oh, he did not say that, man. I said the second part. Yeah. You put them together. It's funny, Mike. I didn't know which one you're talking about, but I saw this and I almost messaged him and was like, this was not the quote.

Well, I have a message. Pack your things. Oh, okay. Yeah, why don't you leap right now? How dare you do that to me, even though I said most of it? You should go to the bathroom right now. Dawson Knox, do you care? No.

No, Juan Johnson. No, Mark Andrews. Nope, no. All right. Let's talk about. if you didn't get the waiver ads that you wanted, what are some backup options that you could pick up, spot start, maybe they're,

maybe it's not in that category, but somebody that you should pick up. Yeah, here's someone that's totally not in that category. It's Dalton Kincaid, who when I was looking at the most dropped list, I was shocked to see he was one of the most dropped players. Now, it makes sense because you have a combination of he didn't play football last week,

and then he was on by. He's on by this week. Yeah, he's on by after not, you know, playing. And people don't assume that, the Dalton Kincaid thing will stick necessarily. However, it feels fraudulent. We, it, it does a little bit because it was very, because he's playing, because he's playing half the snaps.

Touchdown heavy, half the snaps. But you can't argue a few things. First thing you cannot argue against is that he is a top five tight end right now and has been good most of the weeks of the season. Yeah. You can't argue that he's on a really good offense that just struggled without him. And it looked like they really needed him. And you can't argue.

with the fact that the rest of season, they have the fourth easiest schedule as of this moment for tight-ins in fantasy. Yeah, there's really three negative matchups coming up for them. I mean, it's a good schedule. He currently leads the bills and targets per route run, yards per route run, already has two red zone touchdowns on the season, which is great because they didn't used to, like, they haven't really involved him in years prior in that area. So Don Quaked to me is like, I keep bringing up these tight ends every week because I'm living that life.

I'm living that like... A lot are. Yeah, and so I am one of you. And we need to find our solution. I'm hoping it's Darren Waller. If it's not, and I saw Dalton Cicade out there, like I just traded for Darren Waller in our League of Record. I would still scoop up Dalton Cicade.

I've got to find the answer or answers. Yeah, yeah, or two players you could platoon with better matchups. Mike, your backup option. I'm going with Christian Kirk of the Houston Texans. Ladies and gentlemen, remember, Christian Kirk plays football for the Houston Texans. It's been strange because the first two weeks he was hurt and then his first two weeks back acclimating nothing really special,

three for 25, three for 20. But then in that blowout game against Baltimore, you know, a couple weeks ago because the Texans were just on their by, four for 64. This isn't like I'm so excited to play Christian Kirk. but I think he is an actual option for a flex or probably a double flex and against Seattle I don't I don't hate it I don't hate Stroud this week and I and I don't mind if you're really hurting from injuries or by week and you're like you're just scrambling looking at you know

sorting your waivers by projections I think that Kirk will outproduce what the platforms are expecting and we we may need to adjust like right now I know we brought Seattle up yesterday in the Waiver show is maybe this defense is a good situation at home and it is probably okay but we're coming off of two games where the Texans scored 26 and 44 points

whereas the previous three losses they had scored like 9, 19 and 10 they might be figuring some stuff out on the offensive side of the football and so something to monitor because you'd want a piece of that if they did in that same double flex flex category Calvin Ridley's hurt

and so it's a good chance to bring up Ellick Iow Manor once again, maybe even Epic Iowmanner if the week goes well. Rostored in under 50% of leagues, very good player. I think he's the best wide receiver that they have. Now, you don't have a lot of other things working for you, but we did talk about the interim coach bump. You know, play calling is going to be a little bit different. You're going to have no Calvin Ridley.

So the primary target for the entire game for Cam Ward will be Alec Iommanner. and Ridley had a pretty good game before the injury. So the next two weeks are really juicy for wide receivers. They play New England, who's 28th against wideouts and Indianapolis, 31st against whiteouts. So spots start, Helic-Giomanner. I think those are, you know, potential match-ups. So that was backup option sponsored by Progressive Insurance,

quote today at progressive.com. Let's talk news. News and notes from around the league. by Progressive Insurance. Okay, so we have an official report from DJ Moore. It's more like that. Yeah, really is. It's a groin injury.

Yes, so he was hospitalized with a groin injury? He was hospitalized for a groin injury precautionary or whatever. They didn't travel. He didn't travel with the team. And we didn't know, we didn't know what, like, you know, he played 94% of the snaps. Yeah, there was uncertainty as to why he went to the hospital. The only thing we know is a groin injury. Now, we don't, what's being reported, yeah.

Yeah, and I don't know on this one, is that like the, you know, like the groin muscle, or is that what, you know. Right, right, right. Is that what these are all about? Yeah, I mean, that's the word. Because I go to the hospital for that. Make sure I'm okay. Pooka Nakua, latest report, Ian Rapp report said in series, doubt for this week's game against the Jags

because they have the bye week next week. So that would probably be the smartest. I mean, honestly, for an injury to be timed up that you have a game and then the buy week. If you have puka, that's about as good as it gets. We have updated news on Emeka a big boo.

That never stops being funny to me. Usually jokes just get played out, but every time he says it, it's just Amika egg big boo. He's so dumb. Well, Amika Igbibu has a boo-boo and the hamstring injury likely to keep him out of the Monday night game. You really cannot ride dirty on that one. You cannot go on to Monday night without a battle plan.

I mean, maybe it's Tess Johnson. Yeah, if you had Tess Johnson or Cameron Johnson, would you be fine waiting and playing them? Like, I would I would not really. bank. I'd consider Emeka out today. That's how I would think about it. So if you had someone like Jordan Addison. Yeah, I would play Jordan Addison. You would play a little bit like I want to be excited about Tes like he played 72% of snaps, had the big touchdown catch. I want to be excited about somebody there. But like Mike Evans could be back. Right. That's the latest report that we have is that Mike Evans could give it a go. Like there's a chance that all those names

on Tampa Bay are not going to do much. Kate Otton we still bet against Baker Andy you just do it yeah okay all right well CD Lamb I won't but I will bet against these other guys CD Lamb has a chance to be back in week seven

please if he's healthy let's come back and play David Najoku not expected to practice we had talked about Harold Fanon and then the Panthers the report this morning from Jeremy Fowler on ESPN saying that Rico Dattle and Chuba Hubbard

will both get touches regardless of who gets the first snap I mean, this is where you guys were bullish, like you can't take Rico out of your lineup, you know, with what he's been doing. But the way that I look at this is the first week back for Chuba, I feel like you can't play either of them. If you play, I don't know how far off Chuba would have been from these numbers against those defenses, to be honest with you. I don't know. He would have had very good games, but I don't think he would have done that. Miami and Dallas were obviously the attempts 23 and third.

Yeah, I think both guys are going to be startable. I actually believe that. It's possible. It would be nice if you could watch and see. But I've learned that benching Rico has been costly in a lot of ways. All right, that was news and notes. There's one more piece of news. I missed it.

Oh, well, the Colts, because they put Anthony Richardson, you know, on IR with his eye injury, they... I are. I got you. I hear what you were doing. You made that joke. They, uh, they signed Brett ripping farts. So now we're done with the news. I just had to, I mean,

any chance to get a Brett Rippin Farts in here, you gotta take it. It wasn't. It was the fart. It was the, it was really explosive. It was so, like a child. It's like you ran into a room, said Brett Rippin Farts.

A, Prat Rippin Farts. And then. ran out of the room. Just cackling. Oh, man. That was pretty good. Footy Award winner. That was News and Notes sponsored by Progressive Insurance.

Quote today at progressive.com, progressive casualty insurance company affiliates and third party insurers not available in all states or situations. Coverage subject to policy terms, limits, and conditions. We're moving on. Thursday Night Breakdown. Oh, are you making the sound of the quarterbacks here at Thursday? Let's play football. The Pittsburgh Steelers who are four in one and cruising along take on the two and four Cincinnati Bengals. That's right.

The geriatric icy hot bowl. They have, both teams have officially asked the NFL to move the game time from 8.15 Eastern up to 1.15 p.m. Oh, my gosh. That way they can make the 4 p.m. dinner. dinner time. Look, Aaron Rogers and Joe Flacco in this game will be the second oldest quarterback matchup. The second? Of all time.

How is it not the oldest? Well, Tom Brady has to be in the first. Yeah, Brady played forever, but he played against Breeze in 2020. Rogers says, I think it's great for all the old guys. But you look at this division, the Bengals, Ravens, and Browns have combined to lose 11 consecutive games while

the Steelers have won their last three. The number two seat in the AFC. Do you know who the number one seat is? I do. Yeah, it's crazy. Indianapolis Colts are the number one seat as Tampa is in the NFC. Yeah. So Aaron Rogers, completing almost 70% of his passes, his highest total since 2021.

Aaron Rogers getting it done, right? It's not been amazing, but four in one. Got to give him credit. Joe Flacco made his debut for Cincinnati. And he gave us hope. And so, you know, I said, look, you have hope. That's exactly what you brought up. You have hope for Jemar Chase.

We saw it in game one. T. Higgins, I don't know what's going on. I do have a little bit of hope for T. Higgins. T. Higgins had eight targets last week, 65 yards. And that was in a tough matchup. So, like, to me, it wasn't a dreadful disappearing act the way he was with Jake Browning. so there's hope there. I'm not saying like you have to...

Season high in yardage. I'm not saying you have to start T. Higgins, but I think you can start T.Egan's, and I certainly have hope that Joe Flacco can make him relevant. Where are you with Chase Brown? The schedule should lighten up for him in the second half of the season.

He was the RB 20 last week, but only scored 7.9 fantasy points. It was a rough week. Like, are you playing Chase Brown on Thursday night, getting that advanced intel on your roster? Are you playing somebody like Travis E.T.N? I would play

Yeah, I would play E.T.N. What about Romandre against Tennessee with that matchup? I'll play Chase Brown. I know you're contractually obligated to do that. Romandre's been so bad. The matchup is good. Yeah, I think I'd go chase Brown. What about Kinbone Walker? The

invisible Kinbone Walker. I would still roll with Kinbone because I feel like most of the people you're naming don't really have a really high ceiling, an upside. You know, obviously we saw this last week how low the floor can be with Kenneth Walker, but we still know he can have a huge, massive game. He can, you know, have a breakaway touchdown

like we're going to see in this game from Caleb Johnson. Remandre could have a breakaway five-yard run. That's true. He could. Jason just sold Caleb Johnson in our league of record. No, it went through? For 30 fab. What? Oh.

What? That's, look, this is, this is crazy timing. I also just made a bet on a Caleb Johnson anytime touchdown. That's what I was doing on my phone. That's what you were doing on your phone? That's what I was doing on my phone because it's coming. There's a breakouts this week. But I can't believe I got 30 fab.

I made that as a joke offer. What? I made it as a joke offer. And then I was like, I'm going to have to retract that when he breaks out tonight or tomorrow. Well, he's not on your team. I guess so. Also, what are you talking about? Yeah.

What? Why do you think he's going to? break out? Just because the Bengals defense is so bad. A big breakaway run. Like if you come, he got, he's he got as many carries as Kenneth, as Kenneth Gainwell last week. So, which is six. Yeah, no, I look.

You're, that's your statistic. Touchdown guarantee. You're pumped. You just made a bet. Touchdown guarantee. This is my touchdown guarantee. He had as many carries as Kenneth Gainwell. Yeah. Six. How many carries do you need to have a breakaway against the Bengals? Three, four.

I don't know. Mike, you and are what is happening you and i are we're over here and he's way over there the matchup the matchup is great i i totally agree with that that's why i'm very excited for jalen warren who and i'm on the side i'm on the side of the the snaps and the opportunities for warren were more of a product of he's that's his first week back and he will the work will start going up that is you're a crazy man. That's bold. Yeah. That is bold. And I don't even want to ask how much you bet. My standard, my standard issue. Oh, no. Your unit? My unit. You just want to burn money every week. Yeah. I, uh, you just bet, hold on. You didn't have to do that.

You just bet on Caleb Johnson. The odds are good at this point. Yeah, of course. The odds are bad. Plus 900. Yeah, your, your odds in the book, you're saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's, odds that Caleb Johnson gets zero opportunity. Yeah. That could happen. Probably higher odds, to be honest. Look, all jokes aside, Caleb Johnson, my, I do see a world where

he has a good game, but this is not advice that you're giving. This is not prescriptive. He's not playing enough football. I advise, do not listen to anything Jason is saying right now. Yeah, that's fine. Point, in fact, I may, so in our league of record,

in our league of record, someone else there in our league said is anyone willing to sell a running back for fab yeah so i made a joke bid because i'm looking every time waivers are going through i'm like why am i still rostering caleb johnson you know and then i and i was like okay i i made him a joke offer of i'll give you Caleb johnson for 30 fab and you got it went through i mean so obviously i'm not super bullish here on um you know the break i didn't think you'd be talking about him this much today I didn't. I knew I was going to say that I saw a touchdown coming for him. And you had to get on your phone just like right now to get those great odds.

Yeah. Because after I, you know, let everybody know. Oh, yeah. It'll go to 890. Since we're alive. Jalen Warren should be a very good play. Things are looking up for Metcalfe, by the way. I mean, he is now the wide receiver 16, two top 10 weeks in a row. you like to see it you know he's going to get his opportunities and i i mentioned this a little hey check out uh today's dynasty pod we did a redraft of the rookies that was really fun and extremely difficult to try and organize the uh very disappointing seasons from rookies who are supposed to be great the pittsburgh steelers schedules for i for all three of the top skill

positions quarterback running back and wide receiver are among the best rest of season that you could possibly get. They're going to cruise to this division, aren't they? They are going to, yes. Wow. It's never going to stop for Tomlin. And Jason, you're going to be wrong about Rogers being their demise. Yeah, for sure.

I mean, that was clear pretty early. Yeah, it's a good matchup for basically all your Steelers. Start Steelers against the Bengals. I don't think I've mentioned it. Pittsburgh's five and a half point favorites, the overrunners 43 and a half. Hendrickson, yeah, I think he's okay.

because it was like a back issue, but I'm guessing. Oh, he did not practice, but at least the reports I was hearing where it wasn't a serious injury, but Davey D. If he's out, oh, man, even better. Yeah, I mean, you can get a, maybe Al, take a look and see what the latest update is on Hendrickson. We'll take a break. We'll jump into some mailbag.

Mailbag Presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV All right, if you have a question for the show, we'd love to answer them. Go to the website, the fantasy footballers.com, click the submit a question button or dial our voicemail hotline 302-464 TFFB. We've got a handful of voicemail questions in there today.

We're going to dig in, see if we can get you ready. There's a lot of excitement around the return of Rashi Rice this week. Let's jump into a voicemail. So am I a big old idiot if I trade Sake-on for Rishu Rice now? I'm pretty solid at running back. Receivers are lacking. So I'm trying to see if that's a smart move or if that's going to screw me. Thank you.

Right into the question. Am I a big old idiot? I love it. No, hey, this is Frank from... No. Am I a big old idiot if I... I loved it. Wonderful question.

Also, what was the question? It was Sake. All everyone heard is, am I a big old idiot? Yeah, are you an idiot if you trade Sakewan Barkley for Rishi Rice? Oh, okay. Ooh. Let's answer at the same time for the fun of it. For the same?

It's a yes, no, on the idiot. Are you a big old idiot? Are you a big old idiot? Ray Barkley for Rishi Rice. Ready, three, two, one. Yes. Yeah. And I'm more with you.

I heard the reluctance because I do see a world where Rushie Rice is like a top five wide receiver rest of season. And if that happens, then it turns out you weren't a big old idiot if you trade a top five running back for a top five wide receiver. He's not a top five running back. No, I know. He's been very disappointing so far, Sequin. But if you're just playing probabilities and odds, the Eagles team is good. Their offensive line is still good and it's going to be better. Their guard isn't going to be out.

their defense is going to be better. Carter isn't going to be out like the way we saw this last week. And so, brighter days are ahead for Sakewan. If you want to make this trade because you want to go get rice, that's fine. You need to get the right value, though. To me, Seekwan is worth a lot more than Rashi Rice in a league. So making that trade straight up, you're not getting the value, I think, that you need. And you need to remember that, like, players get hurt all the time. You might feel really good at running back right now, but a disproportionate value trade doesn't help you win that depth situation hits. So what if you could get right? and a backup running back.

Yeah, have you told me trying to think of a good category like of a backup running back? What if it was rice in Ramandre? Yeah, exactly, something like that where it's like, yeah, I'm on the fence. Because then I get to cut Ramandre?

Yeah, that's fun. Tony Pollard. Yeah, I mean, that's, it's more palatable. What's really difficult about this is just does rice go right back into dominating? and then you combine that with how hot the chiefs are playing. Like Mahomes is back.

Let me. So you know what I mean? Let's talk about rice for a second. If the chiefs were still playing bad and you're like, oh, Rishi Rice has to be the savior. No, the chiefs are cooking right now and rice could just jump in and be their number one guy. So let's just give a lay of the land here in Kansas City because to me this is selling low on Saquant and buying high on rice. That is what it is.

Yeah, that's fair. Because Rice is now this mythical figure. Yes. That is here to save your season. When Rashi Rice last played for this team, he played four games. One, he got hurt in. The three he didn't get hurt in. He was, he had seven receptions for 103 yards, five for 75 and 12 for 110.

He was off to a. He was awesome. He was off to a great start, wide receiver 16, 18, and 3. We also, like, Hollywood Brown is a part of the offense now, right? Xavier Worthy is a part of the offense now, right? Juju Smith-Schuster is a part of the offense. Travis Kelsey is a part of the offense. Rice will be very good, but I think it is well within our rights to debate

whether he's top seven or top 20 or 25. I think that that is more the range that is in debate, and we cannot trade for him as if he's a top five back value-wise before he comes back. Sorry, wide receiver. So that's the risk. Like, if I had Rashi Rice, I would look to trade him right now. If you could get value for trading him as if he's a top five wide receiver, yeah. I mean, because there's no guarantee.

Right now it's hype and lore and hope. It's not what we know for sure. So if you can capitalize on that, that's great. Do it. That's where I'm in. I mean, Rice should be very good. But is that good top five or is that good top 20? And that's a big difference in trade value.

And we just don't, I feel like everybody's trading him at top five right now. All right. Speaking of which, the follow-up question by Ben over on X, is Rashi a plug-in play right now? Yeah. Or do you need to make sure he's healthy? Or ready to go for fantasy? I think he's plug-in-play.

Yeah, if you held on to him and you made it through, then he is going right into my lineup. Yeah, I'm looking at our rest of season rankings, and we actually don't have Sequin and Rice very far apart. Yeah, I'm in the cumulative, multipositional. I am very bullish on rice So what number in that range that I gave Are you believe?

Is he more 5 or more 20? Yeah, like where do you actually think he'd be rest of season? I think he'll be a wide receiver 1 rest of season. I think you have him as 13 in all positions? I tell you, I'm very in. I have Rushi Rice as my rest of season, wide receiver 10. Okay.

Yeah, I mean, maybe that trade's not wild. No, it's definitely not wild. Maybe you're just a regular idiot, not a big old one. It's hard to trade a running back of who could do that. Yeah. It's a bet on so many different options. Speaking of which. What's up, Ballers?

It's Trevor from Oklahoma. Got a quick question. Would you trade a Mecca-Ikbuca for Seeklon, Barclay, straight up, 10-man PPR? Love the show, guys. Thanks. man this is so fascinating because then the next question inevitably becomes a buca or rushing rice right yes it does and then it might be one of those triangles where this team beats that team but this team beats that team the algebra doesn't add up

yeah i i think i would trade abuca for a sake one yeah i'm i'm worried about the the injury honestly i mean if he hamstring how long has mike evans been out no they did come out and say that it was not a as serious as Mike Evans. Obviously with Evans, they put him right on the IR and there's different grades of hamstrings. So I don't think that it's apples. No, Evans didn't go IR. I don't think.

I'm pretty sure he did. Did he not? No. He's just, he has missed three weeks. If he misses this week, they should have put him on the IR. But, I mean, you're talking two, I would say at least two weeks. And then, so that's week seven against Detroit.

Or, I guess that doesn't matter for Abuka. But if he misses the next two, Then week nine is their by week. So you're probably without Abuka, at least until week 10 against New England. It does seem like that's at least very possible to happen. Yeah. And if that is possible, like if that does happen, there's no question. It's a worthwhile trade.

Yeah. Abuka or Roche Rice wrestling season. Who would you rather have on your roster? Because he's healthy, I'll take rice. Yeah, I think so. I think I would trade Abuca for Rice with the injury and with the unknown like we've talked about Abuka is awesome I mean what if Abuka misses one week though because both guys have a bi week coming up right both teams still are going to miss you're going to miss them for one so we can throw the buy weeks out

so then you're talking about if it's one game for Abuka are you still on that same page if I told you he's coming back next week man it's really really tough um I know you are he's my guy I love him I I believe in him as a player, but it has coincided with Evans missing three weeks, which just gives me that little pause of like, he was great the first couple weeks with Mike Evans. So I don't think it's going to go away. It's just a matter of does it stay as hot as it's been? Really tough.

Emeka, Abuka, or Rushi Rice, I mean, I know my rest of season rankings have Abuka higher. Yeah. Yeah, I think I still think I like Abuka a little bit more. here's an Instagram question it's a good one is Woody Marks an afterthought what is his outlook coming out of the buy no he's definitely not an afterthought at all

the you know we are in now the season of the rookie bi-week bump it is very common for rookies to be acclimating into the NFL they go into the buy week they start retooling things of like okay you ready all right now you're more integrated

into the offense so it would he is not an afterthought it wouldn't be surprising for him to have even more work out of the biweek, but it's not a guarantee. Yeah, yeah, I think he's still, you're still watching him closely and what happens in that offense. I understand not starting him after it felt like a debacle. Yeah, the last time we saw him, he had more snaps than Nick Chubb, 39% to 34%. However, Chubb had 33% of the rushing volume versus 21% to Marks. Yeah, and that was the game they were killing.

the opponent. Exactly. That made a big difference because the week before, you know, they also won, but Mark's had so much work. So, you know, keep them on your bench. And it's like Woody Mark's profiles more of like, I want some pass catching here. So when you're dominating the Baltimore Ravens, you don't need to do that. Something to watch. Let's go to another voicemail. What about ballers? My name is Zeb from North Carolina. Crazy enough, had a guy in my league actually offer Derek Henry for Rico Dowdell. straight up. In a normal world, I thought that would be a no-brainer, but my gut has me wanting to hold on to Rico. Am I crazy for doing that? Big fan. Thank you all.

What did you eat the night before to get that feeling in your gut? I get it. The two weeks of Rico are magic, but it was the perfect scenario. If he's the only guy, it's, I mean, it's pretty much the two best matchups for fantasy running backs. on top of the, not that guys don't, you know, they're not amped up to play on Sunday, but I promise RICO Dowdle was just that whole week, getting ready for Dallas of the team that he's like, I gave you 1,000 yards last year and you, you do that to me? Toss me by the wayside. Yeah, you just are like, thank you.

No, I'm going to destroy you. You do that trade. Derek. I mean, I traded Rico Dowdell before last week to the opponent I was playing, knowing it was going to be the end of me to get, I got Jaden Daniels and we're a keeper league. And Derek, and I just couldn't say no to it because this is a temporary elite Rico Douddle. He may be an okay RICO Doudal, but the elite period for Rico Doudal is very limited. I also think Derek Henry is a great trade four candidate. I think

so too. He had such bad public displays. Like after the great week one, after the great week one, It was fumble, fumble, fumble, lose the game, lose the game. Lose Lamar Jackson. You're losing games. That's not Derek Henry. That's not where he's good. That's not where he wins.

He's so much better in victories. Now you're going to the buy week. You're going to get Lamar Jackson back. And then you also had kind of the proof of last week. He had 120 rushing yards. Yeah. He looked great. So Derek Henry is not toast.

He's not washed. The RICO, one of the RICO games, Miami Derek Henry three weeks Miami he's going to destroy Carolina has the second

hardest rest of season schedule for running backs oh man so you're going to take Rico you're going to split his work yeah and you're going to give him the worst schedule

hopefully you got him and then you're going to say let's like Rico can't be looked at as a rest of season top 10 back I feel like you should based on this question

we should be if you have Rico you should be offering him for guys shop them and see if you can get you know Jayden Daniels Judkins or you know

see what you can get see if there's something that's more permanent because he's been number one two straight weeks yeah number one we do have a follow would you trade Dowdell

for J.K. Dobbins that one's a little bit harder for me I think I personally would I think Dobbins I think that one I actually wouldn't do if it were me just because I the possibility of Dowdle

there still exists the possibility that he gets more work than we're thinking so I think the only I think Dobbins feels like it can go the other direction. Right. That's what I was going to say. The only hesitation I have is is in the RJ Harvey. When I say quench on Judkins, it's like, that's the rookie. He should get more and more work. Yeah, that one I would do for sure. Judd... Dobbins, I still believe, is better. Here,

how about this name? What about Scataboo? Doubtle for Scatibu? Yeah. I'd think I'd rather have Scataboo. I'd take Scataboo. Yeah, me too. That's a good name. Yeah, this is the cash in time, probably for uh for rico i mean it's double cash you got to play him and then you get to trade him that's great yeah i did the second part i didn't do the first part the playing him part we'll take a break one some more questions oh we we have a new quote from mike hold on i was wrong about mason taylor he has the dog in him and he is my favorite player to watch i may even buy his Jersey. Mike attributed to Mike write a totally real quote. Some new graphics. Like the hearts on the graphic. Yeah, we should get that up on the screen. Send that over to

Al and we'll get that up on the screen because that's super real. All right. Rest of season question from Instagram. Jalen Warren or DeAndre Swift? I'm going to stick with Warren. Warren has been so good They gave him the money I still obviously am a believer in Caleb Johnson As a second half Maybe gets involved Gets fewer mistakes on the field

But Warren's been so good I will say that I believe The rest of season Schedule for Swift is Pretty good and it looked good Coming out of the buy I put them near each other

Do you feel like Warren Do you feel like they figured something out Because the way they were using him, using his speed versus his vision, I think was really good. You know, I'm hopeful that they figured that out. Because the first four weeks of the season, Swift was running at 3.3 a carry. And then he explodes for 14 for 108. And I mean, we pointed out they were using him different. They were doing some more creative things to utilize the speed.

It's just, do you buy that is real? Ah, no. Goodness, goodness, no. Heaven's no. Not one week of, like I'm still fine if you pick him because he's going to have boom games and he's the primary back and there's not a competition and you might see, you know, you get Gainwell worked in and Caleb Johnson worked in and I don't. But you talked about the schedule for Pittsburgh too. So I think I like Jaylon more and more. Oh, there's my quote. Thank you. Yeah, it's up on the street. I was wrong about Mason Taylor. He has the dog. Oh, yeah, you put a bunch of hearts up there, Mike. That's how you know it's real. Yeah. Yeah. Look at that. That's great. We're just doing whatever we want on social media now. What are we doing? We're really leaning into the alternative news. All right.

This is a great question from Instagram, a trade question, which a lot of these have been, Mike, writing in. Have you ever out-thought yourself in a stupid trade? Of course. Of course. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I have the most famous one of all time, of all time. Me and my co-manager, we sat down.

We got this offer. We got this offer. This was a year and a half ago. So going into last, at the end of the season before last. Also known as the eventual Andy Holloway Championship of year. Yes. It is hard to even fathom that I wouldn't take this trade. But in the moment, it was a reasonable and rassable thing to do.

So second round picks are the highest thing. we could trade in our Keeper League. And Andy offered me a pitiful Sequin Barclay at the time and the Giants. He wasn't doing well. It's all right. And two second round picks. Oh my gosh. I thought it was just one.

No. And two second round picks. That is the offer of all offers for a dominant. And resurging. Resurging Austin Eckler. Well, that's the thing is it wasn't a dominant. It was a, what happened to Austin Eckler? And then we got a couple games. and it was, oh, he's back.

He looked so good. And we overthought that we went down week by week through the schedule together, looking at every single matchup for everybody and who our opponents were. Like, we're looking at, well, I played this guy this week, and I've got Barclay in this matchup. Oh, man. So we dug as deep as we could possibly dig and gave it the most information overload we could and decided we wanted to go for the championship that year.

and because I think that would have been my back to back and instead we sacrifice a great trade offer and from that freaking point on not only was Sequin better that season and Austin Eccler basically dead from then on out wasn't even a worthy keeper by the end

of the season but then Sequin goes outside with the Eagles and I would have had two firsts like I would have I would have had the championship that you had the following year had we made that trade. Oh that's upsetting. Uh, so yeah, I've got one. Uh, yeah, Alice sitting here saying you can find the right stats to talk yourself into any trade if you try hard enough. Um, I like that quote. If you torture

the data long enough, it'll tell you whatever you want. I mean, yeah, sometimes, sometimes you can overthink it. We've all done it many times. Uh, sometimes you don't feel like, maybe this is one of the reasons that trades get done for me a little bit more than Jason. maybe is sometimes you just got to pull the trigger yeah they go away sometimes you just got to you gotta rip it you have to you have to be

willing to lose traits yeah I mean it's just like you will not win every single one of your traits it's not possible yeah you can run really hot sometimes and feel like you're invincible but eventually you will make a trade and you'll be like holy crap that was the stupidest thing I possibly could

I'm aiming at a target with a rifle, and I'm wanting to destroy that target right in that bull's eye. And he's shooting at that same target with a shotgun. And he's got a lot more bullets to hit the target. And so he hits the target more often than I do. Yeah, I miss it sometimes. Yeah. And so. But that one's a great.

I mean, that's a great. Yeah. It's a great. But we all have. We have tons of stories like that where we look back and we regret and we pull the trigger early or over things. think it or don't say yes to deals and I mean it happens we don't know the future nor do we pretend to no we know the past and we know the future schedule and do your best with the uh the trends and the stats yeah uh youtube question from thomas do you think tray benson is an important

stash is he going to be their workhorse when he comes back i have uh i've thought about this a little bit what do you think i uh i won't call him a very important stash but but a decently important I think when he comes back, he will be the guy. And I think he's good. I think he is significantly better than whatever else is on the roster. He will have a lot of fantasy value at the end of the season. That's my belief in him. Will he be a league-winning workhorse back?

I doubt it. Okay. Chris Olave or Bill in a flex spot this week? Alave against Chicago, Bill at Dallas. This is from Lou on Instagram. Oh, man, probably Bill. Bill against Dallas? Yeah.

You know what? This will be... Yeah, it is. This will be a... We said last week it was going to be a make a break. I was going to say, again, it was Bill against Chicago, which, I mean, his yards per attempt and everything was great. He had the fumble, right? Yes.

So, I mean, you have a minus two, and then Jaden hit, like, really good throw. Oh, well, the broken play to Luke McCaffrey, and then some really just tremendous touchdown throws that takes that away from Bailey. And he underperform the matchup. He's at home. Chicago gives up 25 points a game to running backs. He got all the running back work. He didn't get close to 25. I'm going.

But it's still the right call there. Instagram question from Freddie. I was offered Derek Henry and Justin Jefferson. Take it. What? For Jonathan Taylor. Do I keep rolling with JT or take the two for one? We just talked about the schedule for Henry.

We talked about Henry quite a bit rest of the season. This is a really, I think it's a very fair trade. and I would take the Justin Jefferson Derek Henry side. If I felt pretty good at running, this is why everything's contextual, obviously, but if I felt good at wide receiver right now, like pretty decent,

I'm not doing that trade. Jonathan Taylor is a true difference maker at a position where he can go in, you know, on a bad week, score 20, and on a good week score 35. Those guys, you know, you can usually count on one hand. So that's why I say it's fair trade.

It's worthwhile. What is in, I mean, we don't actually have this answer, but it's a question you've got to think about. What's Minnesota going to do at quarterback? Because with Carson Wentz, it has been much, much better. I mean, you got back-to-back hundred-yard weeks for Justin Jefferson. J.J. McCarthy's the future of the team. They need to get him reps.

He missed 30 days of practice. Yeah, there's been some reports of even maybe when he's healthy, they might hold him back to try and work on some things. Like, you know, rhythm and timing they talked about, or at least this report did. If he misses 30 days, it's hard to throw him right back in there without coming back and getting the practice reps in as essentially a rookie, right?

Yeah. And so I don't think Carson Wentz has been, he's been better for Jefferson. Yes. For sure. He's not necessarily better for the bike. But I do think the transition will happen at some point. Yeah, it'll go back to him.

go back to McCarthy. Last one here, Jacob, it's a good one. I've seen it. A lot of places just got traded in our league. Should I consider trading George Pickens right now this week since CD is coming back from injury? Well, number one, the report was he has a chance

to play. So it could be at least one more week without CDLand. You know what Pickens is on the year? Oh, he's... I would assume he's wide receiver three. That is correct. Oh, man. He is yeah he is running hot he is 11 targets 9 targets 11 targets he is making himself so much money touchdowns in five consecutive games and one of them with two touchdowns so he has six on the year across the last five games i think that pick is still going to be very very good though

yeah i do too so this is not a it's just not a this is not a like oh it's not like ricka where you're like man i it's not going to be the anything close to this like pickens could still be. Pickens can still be a top 12 wide receiver. The way that DAC is playing that DAC could support both C.D. Lamb and George Pickens' top 12 options. What was the fantasy finish of Waddle and Tyreek during their

super year? Because I feel like Waddle finished in the top seven. I think he was wide receiver seven. That'd be a quick one to look at because I'm pretty sure Waddle was of wide receiver 1. There are plenty. I was saying seven. There are plenty of examples.

It's not even unusual for a team to have two wide receiver ones. And it's very common for a team to have two wide receiver twos on a team, whether it's Chase and T. Higgins or, you know, there's so many examples. And it's happened in Dallas before. So both those guys can thrive. Tyreek was the wide receiver two, Wada wide receiver seven same year, 2022. Yeah. It happened.

When a quarterback runs hot. And a defense runs. terrible. Yeah. You, this is not, it's not weird or uncommon. You didn't want go cold there? You didn't want to go the hot cold combo? I should. You wanted to, you felt like cold was like underselling how bad Dallas's Devens. Exactly. Dallas's Devens is really, really bad. All right, that was today's mailbag. Watch every game, every Sunday with NFL Sunday

ticket and YouTube TV. Visit YouTube.com slash fantasy footballers. Local and national games on YouTube TV, NFL Sunday ticket for out-of-market games. Base plan required. It includes digital only games. Commercial use excluded. No refunds. Before we close it out, Mike, I do need to ask you a question. Oh, goodness. Because we had the Monday night football double header, which I think we're going to keep doing that or it's going to happen. Well, no, now it's the back-to-back this week. Is it? Oh, the back to, yeah, because now the East Coast is like a 10 p.m. game. Yep. I know you figured out how to split screen. I did. I did. I'm assuming yours is set up like ours on YouTube TV where you can go back.

and forth left and right for the sound. Yes. Immediately when you put it up on split screen, you messaged us, you said you hated it. Now, you eventually watched these games. Did it change your opinion at all? No, I hated it. Oh, you still hated it. I hated it. I was not... You're not ADD enough.

Jason and I were like, every time the commercials hit, I got something else to want. You want to know where I am when those Monday night football games are going? I am standing in front of my TV. It is wonderful. Do you do that? Oh, yeah. I'm just standing there the whole time. You get up. from your TV tray?

I finished my gourmet steak dinner. I mean, yeah. My woodbiled TV tray is done. I'm not eating a dinner for three hours. So, yeah, when I finish, I get up from my TV tray and I walk over and I stand in front of it. And I stand and I watch it like a dog looking out of a window. I feel like just people watching Jason secretly watch games is entertaining to me. Yeah.

Frequently, although frequently you don't have pants on. That's true. I'm at home. Yeah. I mean, I'm either at home or sometimes I'm Monday or Thursday, often I'll go out to, that Apple Cobbler. I'll go out to like a sports bar and watch, watch this game. I couldn't. Monday or Thursday.

Okay. I couldn't invest properly. And I like the entirety of the story where I jumped. And I mean, my focus was the Falcons game because I had, that's where my fantasy matchup was. Yeah. On the week, me versus Papa Josh, Bijon versus Drake London. And it was, I mean, it was. back to back you saw what was going on and so by the time the the falcons game is done

all the the setup for the for the washington game like i wasn't truly invested in it and i didn't like that all right fair enough mike different strokes yeah um so you prefer the back to back uh if west coaster you can live with that if that's what i have to do that's what i prefer but i if you have two games on a monday you're going back to back versus but just but just do one one Monday night is special I do feel like it makes both less special yes that's that is true

because when like when the the the Falcons Bill's game started it felt special yes and then as soon as the other game started and I'm kind of going back and forth it was like yeah that's stupid we got I'm oh I enjoy I can enjoy the two

but one is better It is more impactful, more important. I mean, that that argument goes to the amount of days a week that the games get played, too, in some respects where it's like, we should not own the domains Tuesday night football, Wednesday night football, Saturday night football, but we do because we had to. And Christmas football, man, Christmas football. Yeah, I don't need Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. And was it COVID that would push them into Tuesday sometimes? Is that why we have Tuesday?

One or two. Yeah. They'll just add it sometime. Tuesdays will become like international football day. Oh, well. Good. I guess we have, I guess our jobs are secure. There's something to that.

That'll do it for today's episode. Shout out to the Ducers over there in Ducer's Alley. Appreciate you guys holding it down today. And we'll be back with all the matchups tomorrow. Don't miss it. Goodbye. Thank you for listening to another. episode of the fantasy footballers podcast, join our fantasy football community on

join the foot.com and follow us on Twitter at theFF ballers.