Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Hungry For More + Cooper Heads to Buffalo! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/16

Episode Date: October 16, 2024

Get ready for Week 7 on today’s fantasy football podcast! How will Amari Cooper impact the Bills offense? Plus, “Hungry For More”, rest of season player values, and a preview of Thursday Night Football. Start/sit advice and tips for your fantasy football teams! Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for October 16th, 2024. 00:00) - Intro (05:30) - Hungry For More (05:35) - Christian Watson (09:50) - Raheem Mostert (12:25) - Drake Maye (14:20) - NFL News (29:40) - Saints at Broncos (39:15) - Mailbag (40:50) - Inactive player management (44:25) - David Njoku or Evan Engram rest of season?  (45:30) - When to start Nick Chubb  (46:55) - Trading to balance out positional depth (50:05) - James Conner or Tank Bigsby (53:00) - DK Metcalf or Mike Evans rest of season? Connect with the show: Subscribe on YouTube Visit us on the Web Support the Show Follow on X Follow on Instagram Join our Discord Check out today's sponsors: Hungry For More presented by Uber Eats News & Notes presented by USAA. Visit https://USAA.com/Insurance 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. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in! Happy Wednesday, everybody. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the Fantasy Footballers Podcast back with you.

Excited to be here. We have a good show for you today. Lots to talk about. We had another trade break. We just made the comment on the show that the league always schedules their trades around our show for us. And the league heard that. You poked the bear. And the league said, no, we are in control.

And so we got to talk about Devontae Adams and that big trade, but we did not get to talk about Amari Cooper. And so that'll be part of today's episode. Before we get into things, I need to come out and make a public apology. Oh, thank

goodness. I don't know what it's for. I think I know where we're going here i um i really have no interest in being associated with the referees of the national football that's not what i heard yesterday i'm pretty sure you were all about the rules and restrictions i'm i think you actually said get off my lawn yeah you're half zebra to all the fans out there on the lawn tailgating and you're like that's too much fun this is part of why i need to make the public apology is i have no interest in being associated with the the linesmen and the stripes and the the rules i I see the error of my ways.

Okay. I would like to publicly apologize for going no fun league for about two minutes yesterday. I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to accept that apology, Andy, on behalf of the people. I accept your apology. Welcome to Team Fun. Thank you.

Thank you. Very, very important. So I'm sorry, everybody. I don't care if the rules are followed anymore. Nice. I am only here to be entertained. Yeah. And honestly, I think we get rid of the refs and it's animal ball out there.

It's more about what is a good rule and what is not. Exactly, Mike. That's it. I want them behind the line of scrimmage. Like pass interference? It's a good rule yeah shouldn't be able to just clobber a guy and then just these these things that have nothing to do with the play in reality stop it stop taking away DK Metcalf 50-yard touchdowns you know what

I would love to see I would love to see that when they throw a flag that they have the option to pick it up if it did not affect the play. Like, I've thought that before. Like, if there's holding, but it was on the right side of the line. Like, you know, you see the holding, you throw the flag. You got to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

But if then it was determined the play ran to the left and that had absolutely no effect on the play, you pick it up. It would be awesome. Yeah. After further review, I have changed my mind. Yes. I have changed my mind for fun. Touchdown. We have the advanced mind. Yes. I've changed my mind for fun. Touchdown.

We have the advanced stats. Right? We have the... The play was too good. I'm gonna let it stand. What is the AWS next gen? Next gen stats. We have the ability now when we're watching football. AWS is proof. Yeah, Mike. Shout out to

your distant past. Yes. And your boy, Aaron Rodgers. When you look at AWS now and you watch an Amazon game on Thursday Night Football, they have the ability to predict based on the visuals and the AI of the history of the NFL, what players are going to blitz based on formation. That technology could easily apply to, did the penalty happen in the quadrant of the field of irrelevance?

Right. You could actually decide that the penalty isn't a penalty if it literally didn't affect anything. It could, but you're also talking about the league that was testing out, what, chips or just ways to digitally track did you get a first down they're like oof no no we we gotta have these metal chains that are kind of they're put in there it's pretty close i do think it's pretty close to the right spot that'll happen yeah it'll happen they'll move to that it's it's it's a slow progress but let's

let's progress and i, but let's progress. And I like that. Let's just have the machine tell us if it didn't affect the play, then it can stand. All right. Are we feeling better? Yeah, I feel much better. Thank you for that apology, Andy.

Yeah. We have Hungry for More momentarily. If you want to follow the show, you can do so on X at the FF Ballers. You can follow Jason at Jason FFL. Mike is at FF Hitman. And you can follow me at Andy FFL. Mike is at FF Hitman. And you can follow me at Andy Holloway. Thursday night preview. I'm hoping there is something special that we're not expecting to see that happens on Thursday night. Because right now there's just injuries and

offenses with rookie quarterbacks that makes the evening feel a little bit sketch. But let's jump in. Welcome to Hungry for more? We're looking for some rising stars, some players we've seen little bits and pieces of, and we want to see a lot more. And I don't know if there's a player that fits this description more perfectly than the Costco sample of the NFL,

and that is Christian Watson. Give you a taste? Yeah, you don't get the whole meal ever with Christian Watson, whether it's injuries, inconsistencies. I have never been a Watson guy. That is true. When you said you wanted more of Christian Watson in this show before, when we were prepping the show, I was like, well, let's hear that because you've only besmirched his name.

Well, Dontavian Wicks is hurt. And Romeo Dobbs, while a great possession receiver, is just that. He's a role player in the offense. And Jaden Reed obviously is, you know, a jack of all trades, into rounds and big plays and everything in between. I just think there's opportunity and room in this offense for Christian Watson without Dontavian Wicks to maybe, maybe inch his way towards a more consistent big play type of player.

He had four targets and 60% of snaps last week. He scored on Arizona and he helps this offense and Jordan Love has been slinging it. So I am hungry for more Christian Watson. I don't want just the Costco sample. I want the whole meal for the rest of the season, and I want to see what he's got. Well, and you really wanted him on waivers today because you made a great trade for your team yesterday, but you lost a little depth, and you thought he'd be a good flex option,

so you went hard after Christian Watson. I'm happy to report you did not get him yeah a very smart manager in our league bid one dollar more than the fab i have yeah i just realized that that was a personal attack on me i just realized that was the bid hope there are bid was exclusive it's a division made it's a smart move but it was exclusively to take him from me nice which would infer that they knew how much you were going to spend on other players. What do you mean? Well, because you got a quarterback for 10. Yeah.

But see, I actually set up my waivers today in a structured pattern of like, I had multiple bids on Caleb Williams, which you can do as long as you have players to drop. So I had a high dollar on Caleb. Then I had a low dollar on Caleb with a player drop in case I got the first player. So I would have got them both if he didn't ruin my life. But anyway, very excited to see what Christian Watson can do. And if you're in a league where you need some explosive potential on a week-to-week basis, he does fit that mold, just like a Rashid Shahid did.

Players that have big play – Darius Slayton, when he's got opportunities, he's not Elijah Moore is what I'm saying. Right. Yeah, yeah. Any moment could be a 50-yard touchdown, and there's not 20 guys just sitting on waivers or easy to acquire that can do that. There's also just, for Green Bay, there's no one who is dominating targets.

It's Jordan Love. The real answer for the Packers is just Jordan Love, and then you hope that you played the right wide receiver on the right week. Right. Yes. Not having a true number one, though, gives you that option every single week. Like, it's Jaden Reed. Jaden Reed's the best one of them.

Jaden Reed's the best one, but he's sitting in a 20% target share. This isn't an elite player in terms of, well you we got to give him 28 of the targets no matter what they're finding the guy who's open yeah my hungry for more um in truth is troy franklin but i'm not gonna i'm not gonna go i'm not gonna go there i'm just saying you want to touch that machine there you want a touchdown machine he's coming um no the the player that i'm hungry for more is is almost a reminder and and reminder and a wake-up call for a player that has really poofed and disappeared this season. Talking about last year's running back two, if you can remember that far, Raheem Mostert, who came out in week one, had nine opportunities, 44% left with a chest injury,

was gone for the next several weeks. And then in week five, and this is what I think people, I know even myself, you know, we're watching all these games, taking everything in, watching the film afterwards, doing all the analytics, everything we can do. And I was surprised afterwards to be like, whoa, did you know Raheem Moster had 21 opportunities? You know, he was given, I think, 18 carries, 98 total yards. Raheem Mostert was the running back 22 without Tua. Without A-Chan as well. Sure, without A-Chan, but he looked good.

Like, this is a team that has not been able to run the ball. Even with A-Chan, without Tua, they have not been able to move the offense at all. And I talked about this with A-Chan. His ability and size does not fit a team that is going to stack the box. Like that's just never going to work for him. That's why it hasn't been working for these last few weeks. When Tua comes back up and he, you know, in the field is spread and defenders are, you know, two safeties are super far back and they're not able to stack the box, Devon Achan is going to eat again. But right now, right now this is built for a tackle-breaking,

big-bodied fastback, and that's where he mostered. Tackle-breaking, big-bodied fastback. Yeah, and he's coming up this week against the Indianapolis Colts who have not been able to stop most anything. And so I think you've got to remember, like, this is a player that you can start this week against the Indianapolis Colts, who have not been able to stop most anything. And so I think you've got to remember, like this is a player that you can start this week. I think Raheem Mostert is a very good flex. So I'm excited to see a little bit more of him.

He might be out on certain waivers, you know, because they had their bye week. I think he's about 70% rostered. So he's not readily available, but that's just a player that's like, don't forget, he had 20 plus touchdowns last year. Tua could be back, not this coming week, but the next week against the Arizona Cardinals. So I think Mostert is just someone I'm hoping gets going. I'm hoping he gets a lot of the work and continues to look good. I like the fact that when you're talking about Devon A. Chan,

you can then say Raheem Mostert is big. Right. No, giant. Because Mostert is not big. He's not like a 225. That's Jalen Wright. Yes, but Mostert is someone that compared to A. Chan. He's big in the sense that he can run through

contact a lot easier than A. Chan can. I i'm gonna go with drake may rookie quarterback for the new england patriots because look it's his first start and we already have a top 12 quarterback finish from him this is great news for not just the patriots it's great news for teams that play against the patriots that it is no longer, okay, well, Jacoby and the offense, they're not going to get anything done because, or my team against Jacoby, there's no chance for a shootout. But 243-3, 38 yards on the ground. We have a note here that Drake May's first career touchdown pass to a booty,

it traveled 51.7 yards in the air. That was the longest completion by a Patriots quarterback over the last three seasons in his first game. This is just such good news. He plays the Jags, which I guess is wild to think about. No, in certain situations, you could stream Drake May. He's my stream of the week. Yeah, it certain situations, you could stream Drake May. He's my stream of the week.

Yeah, it is a viable play this week. So just hungry for the Patriots offense. Maybe they have a guy here that can actually get something done. He's athletic, so he's going to be under pressure a lot because of the Patriots offensive line. But he can do something about it. Like I said, 38 yards on the ground. So I'm hungry for more. I want to see what's going to go on with the rest of the Patriots

and still waiting for the wide receiver room to shake out as Jalen Polk went from 100% of the routes two weeks ago to kind of dog-housed here by the Patriots and the coaching staff. See if that gets back on track. It's just I think it's going to be really fun to watch now how this plays out. All right. That was hungry for more presented by Uber eats, where you can get the best deals on game day food,

all season long Uber eats, the official on-demand delivery partner of the NFL order. Now news and notes from around the league presented by usaa insurance okay so not long after we released yesterday's episode of this show we got some pretty exciting news um freed from prison amari cooper to the bills when you overcome the shadow of the dark lord uh and you're allowed to uh you know go away from he who shall not be named only good things are going to happen for you welcome to the resistance amari cooper

the resistance you're mixing analogies i know're a nerd enough to do better than that. All dark lords apply. Amari Cooper to the Bills. The Bills get him for a third and a seventh. They get Amari in a sixth. So he has been freed. He is under $1 million of cost to the Bills, which means that's a pretty good price for 10 games.

And they really need him. They really do. We talked yesterday about how Dalton Kincaid has not been able to step up. They invested a high draft pick in Keon Coleman, who has shown flashes and has ability, but he is not a one. They need someone who can go out there and create separation

in the medium and deep areas of the field. Amari Cooper has been doing that consistently this year. Sometimes he has not caught the ball when it's arrived, but I think he's always surprised when it's arrived. And so now he's going to be expecting that ball to be near his hands. Yeah, I mean, fantasy expectations, this is good for amari cooper it's been uh you've been in the you've been in the uh the turmoil of of watson for a while starting cooper because of his target totals but getting no output and that's been the the essence of Amari Cooper in 2024. Just to bring up the whole

picture though for Amari Cooper, he is going to a team that is 29th in passing, that is 32nd dead last in plays per game, and that is, I believe, fourth or fifth in running. So the identity of the Bills since Joe Brady arrived last season, even when they had another downfield separator, two of them actually, Gabe Davis and Stephon Diggs, the identity of the Bills became the running game. And now they just discovered that Ray Davis is a really good fit in this offense on top of James Cook. So I'm wondering what the expectations should be. I have him in two leagues.

I've already traded him in one of them. I made the comment to you yesterday, maybe I should trade Omari Cooper on the promise of this amazing success moving to the Bills. So I did. But what are your true expectations for where he slots in rest of the year? We did this with Adams yesterday. Yeah, I mean, this is a clear and obvious upgrade for him,

but that doesn't make him some top 10 wide receiver. And if you can trade him as if he is going to be a top 10 wide receiver, then you should always capitalize on that. Like you traded him, but you traded him in a package piece and received Jamar Chase. I feel good about that. Oh, and you should always capitalize on that. Like, you traded him, but you traded him for – in a package piece and received Jamar Chase. You know, so – Yeah, I feel good about that. Oh, and you should. It was a great trade.

The – you know, the issue here is, like, they won't always need to throw the ball. And when they don't need to throw the ball, they're not – Their identity is not changing. Joe Brady really ruined things for our sweet, sweet, high-powered Bills offense. And this is good news, I think, pretty much across the board for the Bills. I know yesterday we talked about how Garrett Wilson takes a hit with the arrival of Devontae Adams. The reason for that is because Garrett Wilson has literally led the league in targets.

His volume has been what has really propped him up for fantasy. He's good. He's not going away. Whereas Dalton Kincaid, Keon Coleman, these guys have shown themselves not able to be the absolute one for their team. And I think this is good news for the offense as a whole. Like Keon Coleman can now stop trying to be the separator, the Stefan Diggs, the X receiver in this offense that he wasn't really built to be coming out of college. And he can play the Gabe Davis role, go stand in the end zone and get these, you know, a little bit easier one-on-one targets where, you know, you come down with that 50-50 ball. Mike, the wide receivers for the Bills through six games

rank 27th in fantasy points. They average a combined 21.4 fantasy points per game for the entire group. Obviously throwing the football to the tight end a little bit more than average, but do you think Cooper is going to be an every week start and does it begin this week or does it take a couple weeks I would imagine it takes a couple weeks uh I would put Cooper yeah he'll be a weekly start a like a top 24 type of a start so it that's a very valuable player it's

just the I think the when when the trade went out it, it's Amari Cooper, who has been a fantasy superstar in the past, to Josh Allen, who is a fantasy superstar. So the antennae just go way up in the air like, yes, what could this be? And then it's take a moment, and the team is not changing who they are. Yeah, they're 4-2. But I do think Amari Cooper can come in and be like a – we were talking about how Jane Reed's not getting that target share.

Cooper could get that, but it's just what is the size of that pie? Well, let me tell you where Josh Allen is through six weeks if this would be helpful for you. Because he's had three top five weeks and three 20 or below weeks. He's on pace for 442 passing attempts. Yeah, he's throwing the ball 26 times a week right now. He's on pace for 3,200 passing yards. 3,200?

3,200. He has, for the last several years, been a 4,500-yard throw. He's averaging 193.3 passing yards per game. He's had games of 139, 131, 180. He has not thrown for 300 this year. So obviously, that's chicken or egg to a degree, but what removes that chicken or egg situation for me is the fact he had Diggs and Gabe Davis,

and their identity changed last year while they had those players to throw the ball to. Yeah, 100% I agree with you. I do think that they'll have more success throwing the ball, so Josh Allen will throw a little bit more, but we already saw this system last year not throw the ball a ton. And this week, I would pump the brakes a little

bit on Amari Cooper not that he can't get a nice touchdown you know and have a great first week he's a flex option to me this week um but I've got him like near wide receiver 30 which I think he I think bright days are ahead for him this season I love this for him but coming in week one it you know at least with Devontae Adams, you're coming over. You've played with Nathaniel Hackett, the offensive coordinator, with this quarterback. There's not going to be the same learning curve for Devontae Adams coming over in week one that there will be for Amari Cooper, who is arriving and is going to play soon. They'll have some packages for him, but I'd be shocked if he's out there you know 90 of snaps

week one okay that makes a lot of sense so big trade in the nfl big trade for maybe josh allen's floor coming up a little bit in this offense i'm gonna blitz the rest of this news real quick uh we do know davante adams is gonna make his debut on sunday night football against russell wilson against Russell Wilson. So that's must-see TV. Cam Akers was traded to the Vikings. They just don't need him in Houston with Mixon back. They already brought Damian Pierce back who took his backup role, and they have Agumbo Wally for third down. He was the fourth man in that offense.

He goes back to the Vikings where he already was. The Vikings have a hurt Aaron Jones, and they add some depth. That's the question to me. The fact that Aaron Jones has been hurt, he was working off to the side, and so I thought he'd be good to go this week. The fact that they went and traded for Cam Akers, maybe that's just, hey, we need to have some depth. But also maybe it's, I'm not sure that Jones is ready,

and we need another player this week. So it gives me a little bit of heebie-jeebies. Yeah, that makes sense. Clyde Edwards-O'Leary returned from injured reserve. Our designated return for the Chiefs. Here we go. James Cook has a chance to play this week against the Titans. Most players do. I have a chance to start him in my leagues.

You put him right back in. Yeah, if he plays, you start him. And the target right now being put out there at least by the athletics joe person says jonathan brooks could be back by maybe week nine as a target which means they're taking it slow as they have done this whole time they're not rushing him back which also means when he's back they're not going to rush him into workhorse volume i still think at the you know the last month of the season you're going to rush him into workhorse volume. I still think at the last month of the season, you're going to see some special stuff, but it might be a little too late for most fantasy managers,

maybe fantasy playoffs, but getting there, he might not be that helpful. That was today's News & Notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We'll take a break. We'll hit the Thursday night game. All right. Before we jump into Thursday night football, there was one other side of the trade, believe it or not.

The Cooper trade wasn't from nothing. Right. I mean, close to it. Very close to it. The Browns have said that they are resigning their fate of having Deshaun Watson at quarterback. I saw one of the most incredible stats ever about the Browns. They had a two-year run. Remember they ended up with Miles Garrett and Baker Mayfield.

Sure. Number one pick, number one pick. Yeah. During that two-year run, I believe they were 1-31. I think that was the record. I think they were 1-31. I think that was the record. I think they were 1-31 across two years or something close to that. They had a stretch of being 1-31. You can go vet that.

That's the number I saw, something like that. They didn't win a lot of games. They got the number one pick twice. The offensive numbers for the team that went 1-30 or 1-31, whatever it was, 2-30, the offensive numbers for that team were much, much better than the offensive numbers for the Browns today. The team that won no games,

the team that got back-to-back number one picks had a much, much better offense. They were over 300 yards a game. Everyone has a much, much better offense. I just want to be clear that this is historical. This is not a blip. We talk about the gap you have to go

from worst of the worst of the worst to just okay. Every single team in the NFL has scored 20 points so far, at least once, except one, and they are losing Amari Cooper. This is a really bad offense. Where do you find value there?

Well, I saw a great tweet from Andy Behrens about, this is just a quote from him, he says, Jerry Judy jumps from wide receiver 53 to wide receiver 51 in my ranks following the Cooper trade. Oh, that's good, Andy. Judy is the wide receiver who benefits. Elijah Moore can't do anything. This isn't Najoku.

To me, it's just David Najoku is going to end up with a lot of targets. And garbage time targets. And targets that are easy to catch. He's not going to do much with them. But if you're in a full PPR, I think you're going to have a lot of Evan Ingram type of lines the of season for Njoku. They did go 1-31. That was the record.

They went 0-16 with Hugh Jackson and 1-15 with Hugh Jackson. Yeah, he's great. The only player I have interest in on the Browns is Nicholas Chubb. So you don't have interest in Njoku? I have zero. I don't understand that. Well, how can you have no interest in him? That's wild.

Because Deshaun Watson sucks, dude. He sucks. Yeah, but like Najoku would be fine. Yeah, Najoku should be. Those are the targets. He should be fine. You know, Amari Cooper, is Amari Cooper still a very good player? Yes.

And, okay, that's the. But Amari Cooper is down the field. Yeah. Najoku is going to be across the line of scrimmage, and he's going to get seven to ten targets. For me, it's the— Would you rather have David Najoku or Dalton Kincaid? Dalton Kincaid.

David Najoku or Pat Frymuth? Najoku. I mean, he did— With Russ coming back, it might be the Muth. Wow. I didn't realize you were so anti-Njoku. It's going to be, my opinion is it will be nothing but pain. And the process says I need to keep starting Dave Njoku,

who has been on the Browns for nearly a decade. We saw the best of him with Joe Flacco. I know the numbers for last year, you had some showings of like, oh, it's been okay with Watson. But years and years and years of nothingness. And so my fear is everything will say this should work. This should work. But like you just pointed out, historically bad offense.

That just got worse. Teams don't have to worry about Amari Cooper anymore. I can see the path. I will not sit here and say that there is no way that Njoku is not a good rest of season start because, of course, he has he who shall not be named trying to throw him the ball. And I do mean trying. But Amari Cooper has been super, super disappointing. I think the difference here is if if Najoku was a wide receiver,

I'd be pretty much out. Like Judy? Right, exactly. But like it's not just a matter of depth of field. It's a matter of what's the bar you have to hop to be a good start because if you could have started Amari Cooper as a tight end, you'd be like, dude, yes, because tight ends suck. That's absolutely true.

And like Najoku, before he got hurt, he only played 37 of snaps in week one still finished top 10 tight end was four for 44 in like a quarter of the game he was and then last week seven targets i am still of the opinion that i would grin and bear it and put him in my lineup i so cincinnati this week but then at baltimore the chargers by week the saints pittsburgh denver pittsburgh kansas city that's the that's the run almost Cincinnati this week, but then at Baltimore, the Chargers by a week, the Saints, Pittsburgh, Denver, Pittsburgh, Kansas City. That's the run here. Those are almost all good for tight ends.

I know that they're good defenses, like Baltimore is a good defense. Kansas City is a great defense. Kansas City is like the worst defense against tight ends. Just check down in garbage time. They're going to be in garbage time in every one of those games. He won't have 10 yards of reception. He'll dream of 10 yards of reception. But, you know, if you can get six, seven receptions at tight end

on a weekly basis. Mike is hands off of anything that Voldemort's aura has touched. That is correct. I don't blame you. Thursday Night Breakdown. Also known as the Troy Franklin coming out party, baby. Oh, this Thursday. You're really putting a lot into this.

Look, I'm just happy that this... He caught a 20-yard pass. I'm happy that he's on the field. No, my bar is lower than that, Andy. It's baby steps right now. fact that he uh yeah the fact that this is a rookie who has not been involved at all and then last week you know got 65 percent of the snaps the coach comes out and says we're gonna see more of him because we're a young team and we need to get our young players on the field I think he is a talented player I think he's dealing with a

hard transition to the NFL but the fact you know he got a touchdown last. I think he's dealing with a hard transition to the NFL. But the fact, you know, he got a touchdown last week. He's on the field. I just want to see him. I want to see him have the chance. I didn't think we were going to maybe ever see that based on how training camp went for him. Vele winning the job as a fellow rookie over him. And so now that he's on the field, I'm excited to see the chance.

Well, Vele's on the field as well. Cortland Sutton's on the field. I'm excited to see the chance. Well, Vele's on the field as well. Cortland Sutton's on the field. And the Saints matchup this week is an interesting one for the do you start anybody category. You know, Bub Means looks like he's the number one wide receiver. He means business. For the New Orleans

Saints. Busted! Oh, hey, look at you. You got busted. I got busted. Bob Means was a fifth-round pick. He went four for 45 in a touchdown last week. Hey, we have backup quarterback, backup wide receiver narrative in full force right here.

Well, and it's two rookies in this game, Spencer Rattler and Bo Nix. I got a snake, man. This is a game where we don't have players to talk about, just buttons to push. Devon Vele or Bub Means, who would you start in this game? Last week, Vele had been a healthy scratch previously, despite the fact that he won the job. Week one, Vele had eight targets, eight receptions, but just 39

yards. Last week, played 62% of snaps, four for 78 with a 37-yard catch. In the limited work we've seen of him, who would you rather play between those two? This is not a hypothetical that nobody has to think about.

This is literally my choice. People have to think about it. Between those two, I would go Bub Means. Bo Nix is a better quarterback than Spencer Rattler. However, Rashid Shahid and Chris Olave, probably not playing with Bub Means there with the guy who has been – he's been practicing with him. Like Mike said, the backup quarterback and the backup wide receiver narrative, these guys have been working together.

So I think Bob Means is – he's not a good start because this is a very difficult Broncos defense. I don't think there are good starts here. The Saints defense is the easier defense to play against. Yes. We saw Baker carve it up. And you've got a better quarterback in Knicks. But the bet feels bad on the Denver side

because you don't know which guy is going to get the opportunities. Cortland Sutton should be the primary read. I mean, so far this season, he hasn't been phenomenal. But the last couple weeks, you're talking about the wide receiver 25, the wide receiver 24, two of the three weeks, he's getting the target share. Bo Nix is coming on, and this is one of those type of games where Sean Payton coming back to New Orleans, this is going to be an emotional game, and, you know, the team is really going to want to do it for the Broncos. I think Sutton is an okay play this week.

Denver is going to New Orleans. New Orleans is 2-4 now, Jason. So they went 2-0. We built you a little thermometer, and they've lost four straight games. Denver's 3-3 right now. The DK Sportsbook line on the game is Denver minus 2.5 on the road. Wow. So they're the favorites.

So they have – The over-under is just 37. 11 more games? Am I doing that right? Six. Yep, that's correct. So if they lose two more – wait, what I'm trying to do is math. You're trying to say one game.

It's not that advanced of math here. Okay, what is it? How many more games? It's big seven. They need to lose – So three more. They need to lose eight games. Eight games, okay.

Yeah, there you go. So, look, I'm not worried. They need to lose eight games. Yeah, there you go. Look, I'm not worried. I'm not shaving my head for the reason of the Saints winning. But that means they've got to go eight losses. We'll end it. They need to go nine and three? Yeah, it's not happening.

You should probably shave it anyways, though. Yeah, no, I know. I was hoping I had an excuse that wasn't just my balding nature. Do you want to make some more bad bets? Because we could do some Troy Franklin stuff. I'll tell you what. If they get to five wins, I'll shave my head. You might be safe. Yeah, I think I would.

I mean, the season has gone sideways there. Matthew Betts put out a tweet, and he said the injury list for the Saints right now looks like a CVS receipt. You know, because you don't have Carr. You still have a limited Camara. You don't have a Lave. You don't have Shahid. What's up with that?

What's up with the CVS receipts? Why is it legal? Why is it legal for them to do that? What is this, like, you're trying to save the trees? It's very wasteful. If you want to save the trees, you can look at 1,000 businesses and change how they operate or just CVS. Because when I get a CVS receipt, it's like- Receipts don't even feel like paper, though.

You know what I mean? It feels like plastic. Santa Claus's list is shorter. They have been changing, though. I mean, I don't- Look, hashtag not a sponsor either of these companies, but I'm a Walgreens man. And Walgreens is like, do you want me to email you the receipt and i say does it come as a giant email that'd be amazing if you had to scroll it's so five individual everything is itemized just advertisements i mean they're selling the bottom

of the cvs receipt is like the survey it's coupons right yeah yeah don't know. I don't read it. Nobody does. Hey, do this survey for us and you might win $10. Oh, my gosh. But look, we've talked about a lot of things other than starting players in this. Do you play? No. I knew that was the name and no. Javante Williams, who, let's see. So last week it was still, whatever.

55! It was still 55% of the running back attempts. Oh, I knew that couldn't have been the yards. No, no, no. A 19% target share. Like this, his utilization is. He lost a fumble. Yes, he did, but it's elite utilization, or is this a.

I wouldn't call six attempts elite utilization. And betting on him receiving the football is terrifying. But percentage of the work is like this is how we get points. So it's just do you play Javante? You have been happy one time in six weeks and then on the road against New Orleans with Estimay back. That'd be the bet that I'd be betting against if you don't have another choice.

The real question is, would you rather flex one of these dart throws at wide receiver or would you rather flex Javante? Well, I would never flex anyone on Thursday night football, Andy. They will be in my running back or wide receiver spot. Well, no, listen. That might be true. That might not be true. Really? We always tell you to do that, but sometimes you do get boxed in by the

players that you have. If you're still waiting on another decision, you might get boxed in. Which would you play? I think I'd still play Javante. Three fantasy points. I mean, really.

It was terrible. Doing three fantasy points on six targets is an impressive feat in and of itself. Fumbling. Yeah. So there you go. 5.1. Mike would play Javante Williams. Mike, Javante Williams.

Put those two things together in your brain. Yeah, this is a low-scoring affair that without a defensive touchdown, I don't feel like it's going to get to 37 total points. Both defenses, right? Both defenses are in play. Alvin Kamara obviously in play. And then outside of that, I mean, we talked about Sutton. There's things to watch.

There's a lot of things to watch. The youth movement for Denver, I'm excited to watch that. I want to see Valle. I want to see Franklin. I want to see Bolin i want to see bo nicks i want to see estimate i didn't hear marvin mims in there i want to see marvin men you don't want to see him that same targets as troy franklin last week just throwing it out there uh but you know outside of like what to watch for mims for life there's not a lot of fantasy relevant stuff here. We should do a senseless Mims Franklin bet just to have something to care about

on Thursday night. Okay. And I realize I'm on the like give me odds because of snap counts. He was 66 Mims was like 30 something. Same targets. Give me two to you know I'll give you a two point fantasy gap. Troy Franklin will outscore.

All right, $100? $100, unless the bet is null if no one scores any fantasy points. Oh, yeah, that's fine. If it's 0-0? Yeah, because I'm not giving you the gap until my guy has at least two. Oh, okay. Just a couple dudes running routes, man. All right, I don't feel like I want to talk about it anymore in this game.

Play both defenses. Let's take a break. We'll hit the mailbag. Alright, it's time to get you ready to win in week seven. Mailbag. Mailbag. Mailbag. Yeah. Heck back, back. Yeah.

Heck yeah, man. Sir, sir, sir. That's my airspace? It's a no-fly zone? I was supporting you. I was congratulating you. I was waving from the ground looking at that beautiful jet flying overhead. You're saying I'm not allowed to wave?

No support needed. Okay. Stay in your lane. Funny boy. I'm going to get a rocket launcher and watch out for next week. Shoot those planes down. We have lots of questions. We've got a voicemail channel.

We'll get into that. You can dial it, 302-464-TFFB. Leave us a voicemail. You can go to the website, thefantasyfootballers.com. Submit a question over there. We like to get you ready for the upcoming week. Answer these questions. Our goal is never to tell you exclusively what to do

because every league is different. We're big on the context of your league, the scoring system, the amount of players you start, the other players you have on your team, the opponent you're playing. Our goal is to illustrate based on what we see on film, what we see in the box scores, and all of the advanced metrics and kind of lay out the case for and against starting certain players and giving you the best odds because we don't know what's going to happen on Sunday.

We just give you the best opportunity to make an informed decision. That's the goal here. Let's start with a voicemail question because we'd like to help with league issues as well. What's up, Ballers? I had a question. I'm the GM for my league, and I have a player who's inactive. Is it more fair to let him not set his lineup every week, or should I set him to the AI-controlled and let the AI make changes for him, trying to figure out what is more fair for the league?

Thanks. Yeah, I don't. At first I thought you were going to say, do you set the lineup? And I don't suggest that with you participating in the league. I like turning that into a game against the league median. That's the way that I would do it, as opposed to having the AI run and make decisions. The question was, we have a manager not setting their lineup.

What do you do? It's actually a very complex and difficult question. I think you're fine if you're like, oh, the oh the ai well just whatever the projections for the platform is that's the players that are going to go in but that team might have a full roster right now and next week they may not i mean like waiver moves have to be made for this team because by weeks yeah you're going to have the by weeks and then someone's going to go up against that team, and they're down two or three players. That doesn't feel very fair when someone had to play against a full team. See, I understand that there's nuance.

There's never going to be a great answer when you've got an inactive member. But you have to set the lineup to the best of that team's ability because let's say the schedule bears out, and I don't play this guy anymore, but you sure do, and we're competing against the playoffs. Why do you get to play against a dead team and get an auto win? That's not good for the integrity of the league. I agree. Whoever plays against it.

And so you could do it a number of different ways. You could do it like Andy said where you're just taking the league median, basically the average score of the league, and if you're one of the league, and that if you are, you know, if you're one of the teams that scored in the top six, if it's 12-team league, or top five, if it's a 10-team league, then you would get the W against the fake opponent. I'm also fine just setting the lineup based on, basically, just like, what's the projection? Set their best lineup, and then move forward.

Yeah, unless you have to make waiver moves. Yeah, I mean. That's the hard part is you probably will. Based on the way this season's going, Jason. So here would be my rule that I would say. If you have to make waiver moves because they have bye weeks or injuries or, you know, they can't feel the roster, I would say you wait until Saturday,

and then you pick up whatever waiver asset has the highest projection for that position. Yeah, it's not bad. And that's it. That way it's a rule. This is no... You can't have someone making what they believe is a good decision or a bad decision. It's all just, what is the projections of the platform? That's what they get. Move on. Or,

alternatively... Yeah, the better option. Find somebody. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. Go to FootClanLeagues.com or to our discord discord uh for the fantasy footballers it's free you can go to discord find someone who wants to take this over it's gonna be tough it's gonna be tough because i got a bad record yeah hey we're uh we're going into week seven here you want to take over this team that's one in five and it's a lot of lovely people it's a lot of work to do the like, I'm going to sign this guy versus that guy.

It's tough. It's not an ideal situation. You really got to fix that in the offseason. But in the meantime, those are some other options you can go with. First question we got from X came in from Skyler. Dave and Najoku are having an Ingram rest of season. I only want to roster one tight end. That's an easy Evan Ingram rest of season? I only want to roster one tight end. That's an easy Evan Ingram.

Despite Andy and I believing in Njoku, they're very similar. Short, you know, participation, heavy targets. One of them has a legitimately okay quarterback. Yeah, Njoku's the much more athletic, explosive player. That's what we saw at the end of last year where he can take a short area target. And, I mean, man, his numbers were outrageous last year. Outrageous. Would you consider Njoku over Ingram?

No. Okay, I didn't think so. No. Maybe if they bench. Like, that is not impossible. Like, owners could bench, make the call and bench Watson. I feel like owners are already making the call to not bench him i mean for now for now i'm just saying like at some point in time

the ben simmons situation happens give us jamis and if jamis came in like changes everything that is very it's a very big deal and who knows knows? Jerry Judy could be relevant at that point in time. Instagram question from Steph, is Nick Chubb an immediate start? No, no, no, no, no. He is an absolute must-grab mustache, but you have zero idea. Pierre Strong Jr. could end up with 65% of the work, and they give Chubb five carries to kind of test out the the contact you have no idea the utilization well let's not forget they're starting running back right now

deontay foreman oh he's you think it'll be for i think the other foreman is at every turn they have given him way too much opportunity yeah the last week, it went pretty in Pierre Strong's favor, I think. He was 53% of the snaps. Yeah, Foreman played 30. 11 opportunities. Foreman played 35% of the snaps. If you were spot starting one of them, though, when you lost Ford, I mean, is that who you're going with, Strong?

I think I would go Strong. Just for pass-catching ability? Yeah, and they just – I mean, how many weeks has Foreman actually – did he still have his thing pulled up? Sure, yeah. Like, done – not done stuff, but opportunities of note. He's had that one crazy week where – The last two weeks he's had 10 and 12 opportunities,

which is still not a great number. Week two he had 40, but, I mean, he's – you know, he hasn't done anything with them to date. Would you start Gervante or pierce strong this week i'd play giovante man those stink i think i would go giovante youtube question uh the sax loan writes in and says when you have a surplus of one position and a lack of another but are winning games is it really worth making a trade to balance your team not to balance your team but to improve your team like i'm not trying

to just replace a running back with a wide receiver a wide receiver the running back of the same tier what i'm trying to do is look and say like if i've got if i've got a guy on my bench that i can't really get into this position group and I can package him with one of the other position groups to just make a serious upgrade I would do that almost every time yeah the depth versus level up decision making that you have to do for your team is very hard because I always try to put some trust in the fact that I'm going to go find guys on the waiver wire that after a couple of weeks are valuable like there's been three times this year I've made trades that are two for one level ups in our league of record.

And they were contingent on somebody on my bench being good. You know, picked up Darnell Mooney off of the waiver wire. Darnell Mooney puts up a big game. He's part of a trade offer. You know, you, you do free up when you do a two for one,

three for one, you free up the opportunity to sign players. Um, if you see weaknesses on your team, you should always be, you do free up when you do a two-for-one, three-for-one. You free up the opportunity to sign players. If you see weaknesses on your team, you should always be – it was part of our 10 things to remember, right? You don't want to settle for what you think you have because it will change. The injuries this year have been outrageous. Most players right now are stuck in a position of, how do I fit enough players on my team because I don't have

enough IR spots and do I have to trade an injured player to just free up an opportunity to start somebody? Jason has a couple teams. I just want to die. My teams. I was looking at it. I'm shocked you haven't traded those players

to give you flexibility. In some leagues it's possible if you're a dynasty or keeper, and others, because it's all of them right now. In others, people don't want an injured player. Yeah, I got my own. I don't need yours. Yeah, it's been tough. But to speak to the never being content when you're doing well,

that was Mike's tip last year. He followed his practice and won in our Dynasty League. Both of these two gentlemen who, I apologize, both these two scumbags here. No, no. Who are you pointing out? I'm pointing out you two. You two scumbags have

just literally yesterday taken your own advice here and both of you went out and added an exceptional player to your different leagues, where, Mike, you were the Dynasty League champion. You went out and you paid up for Christian McCaffrey. Yeah, I'm pretty scared about it. It's a risk, right?

But you weren't resting on your laurels. You added him to the chance to back-to-back, and Andy, you did this Amari Cooper trade with other pieces, upgraded to Jamar Chase. You're just not resting on your laurels. Both of you have good teams. Both of you are in position to try to repeat those leagues. What was your, what was your big move? Oh, I lost players, dude.

I lost Chris. I lost, you just, you know, look at the injury report and then those are, those are my moves. Uh, this start is wild to me but i'm gonna read it instagram says week seven james connor tank bigsby bigsby's got new england in london connor uh and he's obviously sharing some time with uh uh what dearness dearness too much time last week and then james connornors, Monday night at home against the Chargers. You know, this one's really – I'm on the Connors side, but maybe I'm biased. I'm on the James – You are wearing a shirt with James Connors right now.

Concrete. Okay. That's pretty funny. It is probably James Connors, but it's the Monday night game, so we haven't heard anything yet out of Arizona regarding James Conner's health. He's probably fine. What do you mean?

He got banged up in the game, and then DeMarcato played... Go look at the snaps. But it was also... The game got out of control quick. They're saying it was game script, but it's James Conner. That's all I'm saying is wait. You need an actual practice report.

I didn't know he got hurt. My face is saying. He came back. He came back, but then they were like, well, the game's out of hand. But that's a. Okay. It's a. I was unaware. I'm just reacting to the news.

I thought he came out because they were down 600 to three. Well, yeah. He left initially to. He got banged up. He did come back. But for the Cardinals to take. So he got his ankles taped and then fumbled. For the Cardinals to say, oh, the game's over

and not play James Conner for that much of the game, that to me was enough for me to pay attention here to the practice reports. Tank and the split with Tank and Dearness Johnson, that was full-on game script. So when it's neutral, it will be Tank-Bigsby. If they're losing to the Patriots by a lot, it'll be Dearness Johnson. Don't think that that's the case,

but just pay attention to the practice reports. As long as Conner's good to go, it's James Conner. It is a little bit closer tale than we might think. I mean, if you look at the matchups as well, New England has not done a good job stopping the run this year, mostly because they're down and the other team gets to run a lot. And the Chargers have been one of the more difficult teams to run on, partly because they slow the game down

and make it just ugly football where no one is happy. It's high-T stuff. You've got to shut down the run. Tank Bigsby is a good play this week. I do think he's a good play. I expect them to win that game. That's also the full assumption is Travis Etienne is out. Correct.

With the hamstring. Correct. So, you know, wait for practice reports later in the week. Probably James Conner. If he is missing fully fully if he's like a did not participate on a Thursday even if he's active then I might switch to Tank yeah that's good information

I didn't realize I thought he just came out after the fumble and they didn't bother putting him in but it looks like he had his ankle taped Liam says DK Metcalf or Mike Evans rest of season ooh I'm a Metcalf I think I'm I think I'm on DK Metcalf or Mike Evans rest of season? Ooh. I'm a Metcalf.

I think I'm on the Metcalf side. They are playing so fast, so furious. Yeah. And it didn't work out with the 11 targets. Just we talked all about that game. Remember what happened? It was the weirdest stuff of DK Metcalf getting the play taken away from him some weird drop PI questionable stuff but in Geno Smith is

playing excellent football yeah there were there were two touchdowns that were hairlines away for for DK Metcalf right now DK Metcalf is on a 17 game pace of over 150 targets over 1300 yards um and I I do think the touchdowns are coming because we've seen him be a touchdown machine in the past in his career and they literally were right there last week so I I like DK quite a bit I think he's a great trade for Canada off of two mediocre weeks yeah I'm for that I'm with you guys. Reminder, everybody, if your waivers went through this morning,

which they did, check the players that were dropped. Yes. Drop it like it's hot. This week, especially, anytime bye weeks are going on, players are going to get dumped. And if you don't browse that,

you're going to miss out on opportunities. So drop it like it's hot. Check it out. Tomorrow, we'll get into starts of the week and the matchups, and we'll get the parlay partay out there and a whole lot more. Check out jointhefoot.com. Become a member of our community of incredible Foot Clan supporters and get access to the ultimate dashboard coming soon to a mobile device near you.

All right, that's it. That's it. Get well, James Conner. 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.