Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Week 1 Studs & Duds + Reactions & Reality Checks - Fantasy Football Podcast for 9/9

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

Reactions to the first weekend of fantasy football! On today’s podcast, Andy, Mike, and Jason discuss the best and worst performances from Week 1. Which fantasy football duds will rebound in Week 2? Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast. -- Fantasy Football Podcast for September 9th, 2024. (00:00) - Intro (03:40) - Monday Punday (06:25) - Ready to Roll (12:05) - NFL News  (23:15) - Week 1 Studs (23:25) - QB Studs  (31:45) - RB Studs (39:15) - WR Studs (47:30) - TE Studs (49:40) - Week 1 Duds (50:00) - QB Duds (54:55) - RB Duds (01:03:10) - WR Duds (01:14:55) - TE Duds 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: Ready to Roll presented by Nissan. Visit https://www.nissanusa.com/vehicles/crossovers-suvs/pathfinder/rock-creek-edition.html 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,

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Welcome in. Monday, September 9th, the Fantasy Footballers. Mike Wright is here. Jason Moore is present and accounted for. I'm Andy Holloway, and we are... With our powers combined. We are Captain Planet. Deep breaths everybody.

Yeah. So we have a lot to react to. Happy to have you with us of course. We may be your therapist for the morning. We'll find out. But Monday punday on today's show ready to roll. News to

talk about. Studs and duds on the show, ready to roll. News to talk about. Studs and duds on the show. And it's going to be a doozy. So much to discuss. We have, you know, our first. We got one more game. We got Monday Night Football. Aaron Rodgers is going to give it another go on Monday night.

Good for him. And it's against the 49ers, so it should be a pretty entertaining game. How are you feeling emotionally after the first week of football? Personally? Yeah, personally. Outstanding. You're feeling great. Mike, how are you feeling emotionally after the first week of football?

Oh, man. Pretty good. Oh, awesome. Oh, really? Yeah, pretty good that you see your face betrayed it for about three days because i won everywhere except the most important yeah yeah that is it is funny how much that that is the only thing that matters at the end when you lose your most important league and things went really bad and just continue to get worse throughout the entire week for that team, but the rest of your squads are doing really good. So overall, pretty good.

I am happy to hear that. I'm happy to hear you're doing well. There was the normal fantasy football reaction this weekend, which in week one is always about 97% negative because somehow week one, like if you saw the NFL season broken up on one of those like line charts of importance to your emotional health, week one fills about half of the season for fantasy football reaction

because we are, you know, one game sample. If it's week seven of the season, it doesn't really matter. People don't pay attention to that to define the whole year. But in week one right now, we're going to walk you through it and talk about things that we think were really, really valuable and important and things that you should probably just, don't even think about just let it go now were you laughing at the thought of letting it go mike oh yeah that's not possible i will hold on to that rage as tight as i can and nobody turned the injuries toggle off again this year so

we have to talk about injuries as well because they suck they they really suck so we've got those to talk about but we always kick things off with the contributions of the foot clan in the most sophisticated way possible we have our good and bad monday punday to kick off the 2024 season so So we'll start with the good. These were hard to find, at least in your reaction to the weekend. No, no, no, no. I found them all. Opposed to me in the League of Records.

Well, let's go then, Mike. Go ahead and kick it off. Ooh, score, Quan Barkley. That one's terrible. Who put that one in? Well, how about this one? Remonster Stevenson. And, of course, guys? Remonster Stevenson.

And, of course, guys, I told you about him. J-Mazing Williams. What about J-Win Daniels? My favorite player of the week, Ladd McConkwee. And, whoa, JK3Lakes. Oh, no. Brock Powers. Jaden Ridiculous.

All right, it's time for the bad. It's time for the bad. We've got about 50 different variants here, but let's go with Starvin Harrison Jr. Or Trey McDyde. Or I'm a nah, St. Brown. Nah, man. Nah. And we got Bust Edwards. Chris.

Uh-oh. Lave. Nausea Harris. DK Metcrap. Chris. Uh-oh. Lave. Naja Harris. DK Metcrap. Dalton Kinfade. You got Fake London. And Puka Nakua. That one I don't like on a deep, deep, deep personal level.

You were going through it last night with the Puka injury. Now, is that because he's one of your highest rostered, most exposed situations? Yep, that would be why. He's in the majority of my important leagues. Well, he was in the majority of my important leagues. He'll be back. He'll be back, but not this week.

Yeah, probably not. Yeah. Do we have any updates on Puka no not no no definitive you know what we do have updates are they are on jake ferguson we have more updates on jake ferguson than we can shake a stick at i mean it was it was all day yesterday thank you sleeper questionable We get it. We get it. I was notified many, many times that Ken Walker had gotten hurt. I hope they pay per notification. I hope their server bill is through the roof. And then on top of that, not just them, but today it has been very sniff,

snap, sniff, snap with Jake Ferguson, but we'll get to that later. Yeah, we have some updates on Jake Ferguson. We're waiting on Puka. There's going to be more by the time we have to to talk about him let's start with some ready to roll welcome to ready to roll presented by nissan well uh it can be incredibly tough in week one to get proper context on what took place. We've got all those emotional investments, those hopes, those dreams, all the research, all the prior opinions. And so we want to zoom out a little bit on Ready to Roll today, give you that 10,000-foot view,

so we can gain some perspective, so we can understand what took place. And there were a couple major, major kind of league-wide points, stats that kind of were very interesting this week. And it really felt like you never got served the main course when it came to the passing yardage in these games. It was kind of ridiculous. The week one average, guys, 200 passing yards. That's not great. That's not a lot. I mean, you had the very bottom of the list, Caleb Williams.

If you told me. Game-winning quarterback. 93 passing yards from Caleb Williams that you get to try to distribute amongst DJ less and Roma Doonze and Keenan Allen. Oh, come on. Allen was one of the high, I think he was the highest target share player of the week. He was not. No, I think that was Michael Pittman. You're right. It was Pittman, but Allen was up there. Oh yeah. But 93 passing yards, you're not going to get anything out of 93 and zero. But, I mean, look at some of the other players.

144 for Justin Herbert, okay? Kyler, 162. Trevor Lawrence, 162. Joe Burrow, 164. Dak? Dak was 179. Yeah, I mean, that game was out of hand early. Yeah, that's the Cleveland Browns' fault.

It felt like Dak Prescott was about to – He looked on fire to start the game. He was about to give us a game, and then the Browns and Watson just – they couldn't do anything. I want you to name the two quarterbacks with three or more touchdowns this week. Oh, one of them is Baker Mayfield. Baker Mayfield. Former Cleveland Browns quarterback.

The other is Derek Carr. Yeah, I mean – Send in the car. Send in the car. Derek Carr. Yeah, I mean. Send in the car. Send in the car. Derek Carr. Oh, I mean. He only passed for 200 yards. Okay, that's very surprising.

They needed nothing from him beyond about two minutes into the game. Derek Carr looked like he was absolutely dominating, which to be fair he did, completing 19 of 23. He was perfect, and Carolina is. Oh, my goodness gracious. fair he did completing 19 of 23 he was he was perfect and carolina is oh my carolina is gracious jason you had you had the privilege slash uh court assigned uh punishment yes of watching the carolina snaps and yeah i'm gonna be putting out a really helpful tweet uh later be be sure to check it out is it gonna going to be a lot of proactive?

A lot of proactive. Now, do you want people to eat before they go to your Twitter? I want them to eat while watching this video. I'm going to post Bryce Young. My quarterbacks in the League of Record because of hospital draft was Derek Carr in a super flex. No, no, no. This is the listener league. Yes, I'm sorry.

In the listener league, Derek Carr on one side of that ball and Bryce Young on the other. So it was a fun watch. Anthony Richardson only completed nine passes in the entire game. How many yards? Now, the passes he completed were outrageously amazing. They were punts.

212 yards on nine completions. So that's another storyline to talk about. But the headline here, very, very low passing totals. Fewer pass attempts per game in week one. That Caleb Williams game was the fewest passing yards by a first-round quarterback in week one in 24 years. And this is the final headline here. Week one NFL passing touchdowns you go back to 2022

51 in week one 2021 61 we had 33 we had half the touchdowns we had four years ago so if you want to know why most of the puns you sent in were bad just be comforted by the fact the other side of the team you played probably had some of those underwhelming performances, and tight ends didn't help. Yeah, that fell to the tight end position. So whoever, you know, you're out there, most of you probably drafted one of the top tight ends. You certainly drafted, I'm sure, one of the top 12 tight ends,

according to ADP. And you're saying, I made a mistake. No, you didn't.'re saying I made a mistake. No, you didn't. No, everyone made a mistake. I mean, literally the top 12, there was only one player who scored double-digit fantasy points. And he didn't even have a good game. Yeah. Just caught a touchdown.

Woo! That would be Kyle Pitts, baby. Kyle Pitts. You're welcome, Andy. But yeah, I mean. Golden ticket. All the people afraid of Andrews. And they're like, oh like oh no I made a

mistake disappointed in McBride oh no Kincaid disappeared I mean some of these might come to fruition to be bad but the nice thing is in week one is your opponent sucked too I mean unless they played Isaiah likely which they didn't that seems unlikely uh yeah you're fine so hopefully we got a free pass that was like the bingo middle square on tight ends for week one. Yeah, you get the free pass, but those of us that spent up paid the price. In tiers? Yeah. In fantasy points.

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News and notes from around the league. Presented by USAA Insurance. Well, I mean, Jerry, Jerry, quite contrary. Dude, guys, he's so good at it. He's so good at it. He's so old. He's so good at being the general manager, really getting the most out of his team versus the players really balancing those things out uh all of this is to say

Dak Prescott signed a four-year 240 million dollar extension seemed like you know moments before games kicked off highest paid player in NFL history way to you know really yeah you know Jerry got that contract down to the most ever you know that is that is negotiation 101 try to get it down to the highest ever my favorite part of both the CD and Dak Prescott deals were that basically it was reported once it was finally signed that what the player came and asked for from day one, so Dak wanted it to start with a six on an annual basis. They got him down from 61 to 60. So it's like if you had said yes immediately when the players came and kept things happy and given yourself time to do other maneuvers,

you would have ended at the same place you ended. That's what's so silly. But Dak and CD are locked up, so it's good for Dynasty. Good to know they're connected. And this game got out of control game script-wise really early, but it was hot and heavy CeeDee early on. They just didn't need to do anything beyond about the second quarter in this game against Cleveland.

Yeah, some of the – Had a special teams touchdown that put it out of reach as well. The questions about, well, how are the Cowboys going to run the ball? CeeDee Lamb is apparently one. That's one of the answers. We're just going to keep giving them end-of-rounds. Pat Fryermuth signed a four-year, $48 million deal. Good for you, Pat.

And I don't think we mentioned it, but Noah Gray also signed an extension. A three-year extension with Kansas City, which means in Dynasty, you should pay attention to Noah Gray long-term because his extension will take him two years beyond Kelsey's presumed end of his career. So keep your eyes on that. Jordan Love, the Friday night game, we have not got to talk about this, had the injury.

Great game right down to the end. last play of the game gets his knee wrecked and this this is this is uh it's good news how's Al doing over there how are you all the resident uh Packers fan was shaking his head with misery yeah I'm unwell uh it's good news that it's you know uh his left knee is just an MCL sprain. You know, when you saw it and you saw the close-up replay, you see the knee pop and you go, oh, no, is this going to be something where now he's done for the season? So the good news is he should be back in about three weeks or around then.

The bad news is in the meantime, I don't know if you could trust the awesome, like Jaden Reed is one of the most drafted and unfortunate on-your-bench players this last week. I know plenty of people, myself included, that had him on a bench. And it was like, oh, no, at least I know I can play him now. And then this next week, it's like, can I? So TBD there. Yeah, he was great, and they are supposedly deciding between Malik Willis

and Sean Clifford. Glazer reported it's expected to be Malik Willis. Yeah, that's not encouraging. I won't be starting any Packer wide receiver with Willis. Jaden Reed is the safest of them because they manufacture touches for Jaden Reed. Yep. I would agree. That is true, and we saw Malik Willis try to help run an offense, of them because they manufacture touches for jayden reed yep i would agree that is that is

true and we saw malik willis try to help run an offense at the end of the season with derrick henry in tennessee a couple years ago and it was bad um and then he just barely joined the roster doesn't help that he wasn't playing and practicing with the packers for for weeks on end they're going to play defense run the ball and then you can pray for the wide receivers for weeks on end. They're going to play defense, run the ball, and then you can pray for the wide receivers for a few weeks. Puka Nakua left Sunday Night Football with a right knee injury, same knee he injured in camp. This is not good because now you're in a position where Puka's going to need to take more time than he took then to put the team in the position

for the long haul. I promise you I will be on top of the news with Puka. That is a genuine, from-the-heart promise. As of now, we don't have more information other than knowing. In that game, he banged his knee a couple times. He came in with the Bursasak issue. This is going to be a wide range of outcomes. He could miss a week.

He could miss eight weeks. It was a discouraging thing to see. He came right back into the game, and it was like, okay, you might be fine. And then going into the half, he literally didn't walk into the locker room. He just had to take a cart, and he looked pretty dejected. But, again, that can happen, and then you can recover faster. So we're going to be all over it, like Jason said. Let's talk about another knee, Jake Ferguson's knee.

MRI confirmed a sprained MCL. He could miss time depending on the severity and grade of the MCL injury. Yeah, it's, again, like I said, the news on him is all over the place because there's another report. We do know it was the MCL. Yeah, well, another report saying it's a diagnosed with a bone bruise and a minor sprain of the MCL that he could actually still play this Sunday. I would expect, or at least I'll prepare.

If I have Ferguson, you've got to prepare that he's not going to play. Matthew Betts, our injury expert, pointed out that even if he played,'ll be less than 100 so it's one of those situations they are um I believe at home in Dallas this next week it might be time to pivot uh they're playing the Saints if you were a Ferguson manager because this will be one of our questions that people ask how hard in the pain are you going for Isaiah likely right now And let's throw another injury in there. David Njoku, high ankle sprain, he's going to miss time too. So if it's Njoku, if it's Ferguson, if you've been underwhelmed by your tight end, how hard in the paint are you going to go?

Man, Isaiah Likely is extremely difficult to gauge. We broke him down last week, but the too-long-didn't-read-if-you-missed-that show was Mark Andrews was super bracketed. Broke him down last week, but the too-long-didn't-read-if-you-missed-that-show was Mark Andrews was super bracketed. The entire defensive plan was Mark Andrews is not allowed to beat us. Almost everything from Isaiah Likely was short. He had the one huge play, the touchdown run, and Isaiah Likely is a very athletic guy. But if he is really just capturing those types of targets over the course of the season,

that won't pay off a huge return if you're expecting anything like week one. Let me put it this way. How do you project Isaiah Likely to finish rest of season at the tight end position? Because that is the relevant question for the fab spin yeah to me i think isaiah likely will finish between seven and ten i think he's gonna be okay it's like picking up a it's like picking up a slot wide receiver for this offense like his skill set speed a lot of people thought i was making excuses for mark andrews because i have him like i'm invested in him i have him nowhere I have no

leagues I have nine leagues I've got no Mark Andrews I've not I didn't buy into Mark Andrews coming into the year I just buy into the fact that this was the Steve Spagnola let's stop Mark Andrews situation but I think likely is a relevant fantasy option and I think that a question about whether you'd flex hammers a flowers becomes becomes interesting on some games. Yeah, he reminds me a lot of – I mean, you think about Dallas Goddard. Dallas Goddard's used in the flats. He is the third target behind two better targets on his team. If Dallas Goddard were out there, you'd be picking him up if you dealt with one of these injuries.

So I would certainly – I agree with you, Andy. I think 7-10 at tight end, which isn't great, but is totally relevant and playable. And when you look at the available guys on waivers or whoever you know really hit this last week like we said none of the big tight ends did but the other tight ends didn't either I mean you're not going to pick up you're probably not going to pick up Foster Moreau who was you know the tight end two or Jawan Johnson splitting targets with Foster Moreau like we got it I thought I remember Foster getting banged up at some point. He did.

Let me say this. If you're thinking about Isaiah Likely in the fab, do not be surprised if somebody really good at tight end hits the waiver wire on waiver wire Wednesday because you are going to see the panic on some of these picks, and you could spend big fab on likely or maybe get one of these panic drops at tight end cheaper. I think the only other – I mean, obviously, we're going to have a waiver show tomorrow. Very, very important.

Stay tuned. But Colby Parkinson, now with the – Huh? Now with the Puka Nakua injury. Who? And you lost a target. Oh, whatever. What did he do yesterday? now with the Puka Nakua injury. Who? And you lost a target. Oh, whatever. What did he do yesterday?

He was okay. Colby Parkinson had five targets, four for 47. It's not great, but it's playable. Yeah, it's playable. No, they have a role for the tight end in Los Angeles. And your point about Nakua's injury, do you want to try, like if you had Ferguson, you could pick up Parkinson and play him in his place for two or

three weeks and spend zero fab. Or you can go spend 70, 80 fab. Because I'm telling you, likely they're going to pay up for him. And if you disagreed with all my takes, then go pay. Yeah. Like, I don't have a problem if you want to call your shot on isaiah likely i'm just not doing that jordan addison left with a high ankle sprain it is the opposite other one right yeah yeah so um he missed two and a half weeks of camp with the

other high ankle sprain you would expect him to miss a little bit of time i mean a high ankle sprain is usually honestly usually with a high ankle sprain is usually honestly, usually with a high ankle sprain, you either don't miss a week or you miss three. Those are the most common outcomes. Keenan Allen left with an undisclosed leg injury. Keenan Allen often does leave with undisclosed injuries. Had a heel injury already.

Keep an eye on that. Roma Dunzick had hit waivers by skittish managers, and that would be a pickup. Kenneth Walker left in the fourth quarter of a game. Kenneth Walker looked so good, it hurt. I was against him in our league of record, and I knew every time he touched the football, my week could be ending.

That's how good he looked. Left with abdominal pain. Told reporters he was good after the game, but we will need to monitor practice reports. Yeah, I hope it was just to get that man some Pepto. He was unbelievable. He should have vomited like Pacheco and then got monitor practice reports. Yeah, I hope it was just to get that man some Pepto. He got a tummy ache. Unbelievable. He should have vomited like Pacheco and then got back out there.

Yeah, just get the demons out. Puke and Rowley, Kenneth. Puke them demons. All right, that was today's News and Notes presented, as always, by USAA Insurance. Learn more at USAA.com slash insurance. We will take a break. We will get right into the studs. All right, let's jump in and talk about some of the best performances of the week.

This week's Fantasy Stud Muffins. Baker, Baker, Candlestick Maker, 24 for 30, 289 and 4, led all quarterbacks in passer rating. He was cooking. Two touchdowns to Mike Evans, one to Godwin, one to McMillan.

Does this mean you can play Daniel Jones next week? Because part of this was Baker who looked great. Yes. But part of this is the commander's defense is hashtag not good. They're going to be. It's an easier defense to attempt to play against can I can I jump in there real quick and say no okay yeah negative four points for Daniel Jones no was it negative four yes oh he was so bad no on Jones however Washington is going to be a delight when you see that your your skill players are up against them this year Washington is going and I'll get right into Jaden Daniels he was 17 for 24 184 2 on the ground 88

rushing yards yeah this was a monster performance for fantasy mediocre in the passing game but if your team's going to get scored on like this are you kidding me Jaden Daniels is going to have every opportunity to put up these kind of games are better every week because washington is giving it up on the back side yeah and and if you watch the offense um the offense am i right was you said it just a bunch of screens just like it was just like here drop back and throw the ball to the left, throw the ball to the right, or maybe dump it a few yards ahead of the line of scrimmage and then run. And I'm shocked he didn't get to 100 rushing yards based on how the game was going and what you saw in the first half. Jane Daniels obviously was one of our favorite targets.

Andy, you're my guy. He's going to pay off in fantasy. Almost 30 fantasy points with no passing touchdowns. He proved this week that as a rookie he's going to pay off in fantasy. Almost 30 fantasy points with no passing touchdowns. He proved. And three fumbles. This week that as a rookie, he's going to be fine for fantasy because of his legs. Yes, I am, however, very concerned about every

other player on that team. Terry McLaurin? Yeah. Brian Robinson? Terry McLaurin played 81% of the snaps. He had four targets, two for 17. You know who I felt the most bad for other than like Puka? Was it Austin? It was Austin Eckler.

The two hardest hits or two of the three hardest hits I saw this entire week were both on Eckler. It was not fair to the man. Eckler had two attempts in the game. Yeah, and got crushed on both of them. But he did have four catches for 52 yards. He was in the receiving game when he got crushed. So speaking of the

wink-wink rookies, Anthony Richardson, let's talk about it. Oh my goodness. Because he was, on some levels, absolutely league-breakingly incredible. Yeah. He completed nine passes. Of 19,

so terrible accuracy. Which is what we talked about he missed uh adonai mitchell on a two of them right yes he missed him on two potential touchdowns one of them was just so bad because it was just he was running to the end zone and i mean it was it was a guaranteed touchdown six or 56 for one on the ground through two touchdowns nine completions you have to I am extremely encouraged uh by this not look the accuracy is poor but that's not why I drafted Anthony Richardson I did not sign up for someone who's going to complete 70 percent of his passes I want a guy who's going to run and it was fourth down like we have to get in the end zone and he took on

the defense and he won yeah the defense was ready and they came and they smashed right into anthony richardson before the goal line and then anthony richardson goes i'm stronger than you but it's not just that it's the way that the offense ran like you had the incredible throw for the huge touchdown to alec pierce which if you haven't seen the highlight, go watch. Second best throw of the weekend. It was incredible. And, yes, he missed Adonai Mitchell on two of those. But they're going down the field.

You're taking those shots. If you're going to be a mobile quarterback that is going to take these 20-plus air yard throws, complete 40% of your passes. If we get to see more of that, I'm happy to take an L on him performing. take these 20-plus air yard throws, complete 40% of your passes. If we get to see more of that, I'm happy to take an L on him performing. It's going to be tough. We have not seen a quarterback with this kind of completion percentage ever finish inside the top 12.

But if there's one to do it. Now, him crushing guys with his shoulder, that wasn't as encouraging to me as it was to you because that's how he hurt himself twice last year. If you do that every week, that is a risk factor for Richardson. Absolutely. You're putting yourself at risk. It was an impressive performance. They almost won the ballgame. I'm not trying to take anything away. I just didn't know how to diagnose nine completions when all the completions were amazing,

but then the short misses were ugly. I mean, he's my league of record quarterback. And every single time he dropped back to pass, I was just praying he didn't throw that ball. I'm just like, no, no, no. It was awesome. No, nobody's open. Just run.

The throw to Pierce was amazing. He completed another bomb to him later. It is. His arm is majestic. It was. I don't think his base was even fully planted. He slipped on the play and then quickly tried to readjust and then shot it out like a punt.

I mean, that ball could have hit the jumbotron. Are you saying if he didn't slip, he would have overthrown him by 20 yards? Maybe. Maybe that's the goal is you got to tell him, like, stop using your legs. Don't put your legs in his arm. Lamar was great in week one. Josh Allen got it done in week one. Two rushing touchdowns, two passing touchdowns against Arizona's defense.

Did bang up his left hand. Should be okay. I will say he did not look great. And this offense did not look great. Andy, good call on the almost upset. The Cardinals were right about to tie the game on the last. So close. That's what you called it, almost upset.

But it took a while to get going. I was very disappointed with their offense, and it was against a bad defense. Like, the Cardinals' defense is bad. So I'm a little bit worried. We'll see how they fare against Miami this next week. Yeah, that'll be an interesting test. Miami's a much better defense.

I mean, obviously, still a great fantasy performance. Do you care about Carr or Baker moving forward in terms of the – Baker, I do. For streaming or for, like, would you sub him in for somebody that underperformed this week that you thought was a starter? Like, best example would be Tua. Tua had a tough week. Would you be pivoting or just moving forward with

who you draft? I think I'd be willing to hold on Tua. Just Baker, he's not going to be that good every single week, but the fact that the offense didn't completely crumble after the shift of offensive coordinator, it's encouraging.

And also, they improved their weapons. You know, Godwin looked really good in week one. You add McMillan there. He looked good, caught a touchdown in the game. And Bucky Irving adds a little bit to the offense. So, yeah, I think Baker's very interesting, is a good pickup, I believe. I'm not, you know, I'm hopeful for Derek Carr since I've got a lot of Olave, who ironically had a terrible week.

But no, I'm not playing him. And Carr's at Dallas. I talked about the schedule for the Saints, how they get to open against the Panthers. Great. And they looked great. But now it's tough sledding for four weeks. We saw Saquon on Thursday, or I guess it was Friday night. It was amazing.

He got everything. Chunk plays all the time. Eight carries inside the red zone, the most in the NFL. So for Saquon and Joe Mixon, two players that moved teams as veteran stars. Mixon was 30 for 159-1. That tied his career high in attempts. And he looked great on every one of them. We tweeted out every carry today,

four carries inside the 10, 92% of touches. Everything they wanted when we were like, well, Singletary was pretty good for the offense. Well, this was an offense that was 3.5 a carry last year on average, and they come out in week one and they literally put in place a perfect offensive scheme with Joe Mixon 30 for 159 and one he looks like a workhorse and he's one guy that doesn't generally get hurt yeah the utilization of Saquon and Joe Mixon mixed with how how good they looked and they're on great offenses genuinely like if you were redoing the draft right now,

those two guys would be right after Bijon and Brees. I mean, they would be middle of the first round over a lot of those wide receivers. It was a good day for Alvin Kamara in a blowout, 15 for 83 and one, five targets. So that was nice to see. Ramondre Stevenson,son workhorse 25 for 120 really was he was at a running back attempt share that uh let me just double check it so he hit it no he didn't even get there he was at 78 of the running back attempts he never hit that one time

last year and he was number one in yards after contact. It was the recipe that this team wanted to put into place when they paid Ramondre, when they drafted a rookie quarterback, when they brought in Jacoby Brissett, and it worked flawlessly. Play defense, run the football. If they're in a negative game script, we're not going to see 78% for Ramondre Stevenson,

but right now he looks like a great selection. I would say this is a team where Joe Mixon, that feels like I great selection. I would say this is a team where Joe Mixon, that feels like I'm wrong. I was wrong about Joe Mixon because he looked so good. You were right. I remember you telling me what a great football player he was. That's true. I did change my opinion at the last second. For Ramondre,

I want to see him play not the Cincinnati Bengals because that team was an absolute dumpster fire. What about Seattle? You want to see him play Seattle? He gets Seattle next week, but then it's the Jets and the San Francisco 49ers. All I'm saying is I'm not rushing out to immediately

try and trade for Ramondre. He's going to have some nausea games because of the fact that this offense could get behind and still be relentless with the run, but if he doesn't get into the end zone on a handful of games this year you'll probably be disappointed but he looked good and that was the important yeah i think i think to mike's point is and it goes with the yards after contact like he led all in yards after contact part of that's good part of that's bad you know

he's getting contacted early but right but the bangles did not have the defense to take him down and because he's strong and play a good, you're going to get contacted early and taken down early. A 13% target share is very nice. J.K. Dobbins, 10 for 135 and 1. The best, worst performance of the week. Have you ever seen a better bad performance? I don't know. We're talking about the fact that he it was a great it was a

great day for jk dobbins but he had a 46 and 61 yard run and on both of them he could have most most players would have scored but the one leg was all he had going after about 20 yards it was so funny on the second one when he's running, and he's ahead. I mean, he's beat the defense, and so he should be running to the end zone, and he gets whatever it was, however long that was. 61 and 46. So about 58 yards down the field, he just wraps up the football with both hands. He's still like 15 yards from the end zone because he knows he's out of gas.

It's like the end of the Daniel Jones run from years ago. He was three and a half a carry on his other eight carries, but those two big plays are amazing. The team did everything they wanted to do. I do think that the Gus Edwards-JK Dobbins split, you'll still see that, and that means that there's a possibility Gus has a better game at some point. If this continues for two or three games, I think you'll see a little bit more distribution to the J.K. Dobbins side.

Dobbins will certainly be one of the biggest waiver wire pickups of the week. Well, Devon Achan, 10 for 24 on the ground but had a rushing touchdown, seven targets for seven receptions and 76 yards. So split time with Raheem Mostert. Mostert had kind of a dud of a game. He did. Seven targets for seven receptions and 76 yards. So split time with Raheem Mostert. Mostert had kind of a dud of a game. He did. And he looked like he got banked up too.

A-Chan was amazing in the receiving game. So there was a video of him kind of getting banged up at the very end of the game. Hopefully he's okay. Kenneth or Jason won't be okay. I just can't. Too many injuries to my guys. It's the one scary thing about Aiton, man. He's a little guy that runs really fast. He gets hit really hard.

I hope he's okay. At least what we saw is what we hoped for. He was their primary dude. I know he's splitting time he's always going to split time but being involved in the passing game that much that much slot work set I mean seven for 76 is good for a wide receiver and then you add the ability to have rushing touchdowns and that was a goal line rushing touchdown they didn't take him out and put most are in when they got down to the two and the one Ken Walker was 24-103-1. He didn't get going until the second half.

The game script was conducive for him towards the end of the game. We'll pay attention to the abdominal injury, but he looked electric. He looked a lot better than the passing game did. Let's put it that way. The passing game looked troubled on a lot of fronts, and we've got people to talk about there soon. Other good performances on the ground, and I'll go through them quick. You can pick one out and talk about them as you want.

Connor, 16 for 50 and one. He also had three catches. Aaron Jones, 14 for 94 against the Giants. Had a touchdown. Pollard got into the end zone. To me, my take on him is that he's just so much better than Tajay Spears. That was mine, too. In my opinion. 16 for 82 and a touchdown against a good Chicago defense to me

was impressive, 5.1 to carry. Brian Robinson got into the end zone. He also caught three passes for 49 yards. I liked what I saw from him in a game where they struggled on offense. Jerome Ford was good on a bad situation. David Montgomery and Jameer Gibbs both scored. Phew. And Gibbs caught passes.

They were basically, there were two drives in the game where I saw a swap, because I watched this game very closely with Gibbs on my roster. Jason has Montgomery. I saw two drives where they had a swap mid drive. Otherwise, they were pretty much going, this is a Monty drive,

this is a Gibbs drive. So, you know, Gibbs got a couple back-to-back in the fourth quarter, which I thought was interesting. But then in overtime, they decided, beef boys, we're going to get up there, hit you in the face, and let Montgomery run through you. I mean, David Montgomery won that game. He was unbelievable in overtime, and maybe that was partly because his legs were fresh from Gibbs having a lot of the fourth quarter.

I mean, it's just good football. Obviously, Gibbs is going to be far, far, far, far, far more safe because of his work in the passing game. Only one target for David Montgomery through a full game and overtime. Montgomery should be fine most weeks, should be used, and he's successful. Montgomery had the highest rush success rate of any running back in week one, but he doesn't get used in the passing game, and that's just bad for fantasy. Going back to Tony Pollard, because I think that is one of the biggest –

we were talking about what we're watching for going into week one and what matters. Every word all offseason out of the coaching staff's mouth is that this is a 1A, 1B situation, a 50-50 timeshare. It was not. You're talking about Tony Pollard had 16 carries. Tajay had four. Tony Pollard's the starter.

Pay attention to that. Spears wasn't bad on his four touches, but he didn't get a lot of touches. At wide receiver, studs, Jaden Reed. Six targets. Four for 138 in a touchdown. Had a rushing touchdown. He's very good. He had another touchdown as well in that game.

That was called back, but it was 12 men on the field. Yeah, for both sides. For both sides, so it was an irrelevant thing. That's equal. Just let him play it out. I know. I mean, both players had no effect on the play, and Reed broke tackles.

Reed just looks so good, man. 21 targets? Yeah. Did you see that? I didn't realize that. Fantasy MVP. Oh, man. Cooper Cup, 21 targets, 14 for see that? I didn't realize that. Fantasy MVP. Oh, man. Cooper Cup, 21 targets, 14 for one, 10 and one.

He was in motion. Oh, I watched this thing, man. He was in motion before every play, and it was like you just couldn't guard him. It was impossible. Also scored. Cooper Cup, we told you he was going to be a steal. He's going to be an accidentally even better steal with no Puka Nakua.

He's going to perish, though. If you give him 21 targets a game, his body will disintegrate. He's fine. They're little bitty baby targets. Even just the motion, man. That guy's got to be on an IV right now. But I would say to get tackled that many times in a game. Cup was in motion at the snap on 30 plays,

which is six more than any other player in a game over the last seven years. Shout out to Cooper Cup. He also sent us some coffee. Oh, thank you, Cooper. Sent Jason some coffee. Stay healthy, man. Tyreek Hill, 12 targets, 7 for 130 and 1. Just missed another bomb touchdown.

He's impossible to defend and he will probably score a long touchdown every game. That's how it feels. Alright, let's talk about this one because this one has implications moving forward. Jamison Williams! Kyle, eat it! Eat it!

Alright, Jamison Williams, 9 targets, 5 for 121 and a touchdown. Had a rush. I'm saying that all very loudly and directed at Kyle because I know there's a chance I won't get to say it next week. But here's what was really, really obvious in the game to me, and you guys watched it in its entirety as well. What was obvious is that they didn't have receiving weapons that were –

Josh Reynolds wasn't popping in and out of the lineup. There wasn't Kalief Raymond receptions. This was really – you line up and it's Laporta, it's Amon Ra, and it's Jameson Williams. So moving forward, were you super encouraged? Were you just kind of like, this is an outlier? How did you take the JMO debut? Because he scored a lot of fantasy points. Nine targets. So he's a talented player on a per touch

once the ball is in his hands type of situation. The question is, can he get the ball in his hands enough? Nine targets is great. So I'm very encouraged. However, you had him out target Amon Ross St. Brown. I would almost take the bet that that won't happen again this season. So I do think this is a bit of an outlier. I need to see a little bit of games put together in a row where – Would you trade him? I would trade high on Jameson Williams. Would you try to trade high on Jameson Williams?

Yes, I would. I don't think I would. Tampa, Arizona, Seattle are the next three matchups for them. If Jameson Williams was a seventh-round pick that had a breakout game, it would be different to me than what – I agree. Jason and I were in love with this guy coming out of college. And it feels like the Lions,

if he did what needed to be done this offseason and they commit to him, you just picked up a Harrison, Chase, neighbors type of talent, Waddle. Like Waddle, he's the most similar to Waddle to me because crossing routes for Jamison Williams somehow turn into big, big gains because he's just faster than you. Jason, are you wavering now? I'm wavering because the truth is, man, I remember how much I loved him coming out. And this is a great offense. It's just, do you believe?

It's just a great offense. So do you want a piece? Do you want the wide receiver, too, of a great offense? Yes. I'm scarred by how little he's done for how much he's been on the field in the past. But, yeah, I mean, I guess these are the type of players that when you hit on, they change things for fantasy. So I guess I would hold on to him.

Mike Evans, two more touchdowns working on that first ballot. Yeah. Yes. Every time he scores, I'm in on the first ballot thing. That's what I'm doing. When he doesn't score Jason,

I'm with you. Not on the first ballot. Still a hall of famer. Second ballot, obviously eight for 83 and a touchdown for Godwin. It was a really nice thing to see. Plays Detroit next week. A.J. Brown looked great.

5 for 119 on Friday night. Alec Pierce, 3 for 125 and a touchdown. I think you're going to see big plays bounce around between Doolin, Pierce, and Mitchell. And so all three of those guys, you could be playing the, you know, play the wrong hand every week is that your interpretation of it 100 it's gonna be you know if i'm playing dfs that's fine take a cheap uh shot but if you're putting these guys in your lineup that is so hard to say a guy who completed nine

passes i want to slice that up and have the majority going to pitman so worthy had the great debut with two touchdowns. Stephon Diggs, start of the week, and I'm going to say it right now, trade the heck out of Stephon Diggs. Okay. I wondered where people were going to land on that. Stephon Diggs scored two times. He will be a red zone factor.

His air yards, it was nine on the day. I heard it was nine. His air yards averaged out per throw was like one and a half. He caught two touchdowns. Compared to the other two guys, which was double digits. Both Nico and Tank Dell had over 100 air yards each. So, to me, it made sense in this offense, this situation, to play Diggs. You got the two touchdowns. You got the start.

I would try to see if you can find somebody that believes in the name of Stephon Diggs combined with this performance and just says, oh my gosh. Like Diggs is going to – they're going to have good games with Stefan Diggs. But around the end zone, you're going to see Nico. You're going to see Tank Dell. You're going to see Joe Mixon. So you're going to have some – like you want bigger plays from Diggs. He was 6 for 33.

If you can trade him for someone who believes in him as a one, as like a fantasy one, then get that haul. Rashid Shahid, three for 73 and a touchdown. By the way, Nico was amazing. Nico was amazing. Nico is that dude. In the game, the breakdown so you know for week one, 64 snaps for Nico, 62 for Diggs, 51 for 62 for digs 51 for tank they ran 33 35 and 34

routes the targets were eight six and eight and tank had two carries so this was you know there wasn't one person that was squeezed out which was nice to see they ran three wide all the time yeah i mean if you look at the routes there's no there's no difference in routes run which is the only thing that matters for wide receivers it doesn't, if you look at the routes, there's no difference in routes run, which is the only thing that matters for wide receivers. It doesn't matter if you're on the field not running a route. So the routes were even, and there were two in-zone targets to Tank Dell that just didn't connect. You will not get all three of these

guys every week. No. Period. Most weeks you will not. This week, Tank Dell was the one that hurt for fantasy, but it's going to rotate. Shahid, 3 for 73 and a touchdown. It was Carolina. The game was out of hand. It was a big play like Shahid is always good for, but it's going to rotate. Shahid, three for 73 and a touchdown. It was Carolina. The game was out of hand. It was a big play like Shahid is always good for, but I will tell you this from the beginning of

last year when I had Olave on my roster and I was watching the Saints each and every week and I wanted Olave to have big plays. Derek Carr and Rashid Shahid are like, these are like friends. These are like, they probably have breakfast. They might go out to movies, right? Like they might, they are buddies.

And Derek Carr is going to take his shots. And I don't know what to make out of it because it's not like he had a billion targets, but they also didn't need to throw in the second half. So are you in on Shahid, Mike? Oh. Jason, you can, or Jason. I'm fine. Like if you're looking at, who do I put in my flex here that I know can go off.

But for regular, any type of consistency, I would still be out. I am in on Rasheed. And that's from an Olave manager. Yeah. It's probably because I'm an Olave manager. Likely had the big game at tight end. Kyle Pitts got into the end zone. Three for 26 and a touchdownave manager. Yeah. It's probably because I'm a Lave manager. Likely had the big game at tight end. Kyle Pitts got into the end zone three for 26 and a touchdown is a horrible line, but it's an amazing line because it was the best of any draft at tight end.

He also played every down and he participated on all routes, on all passing opportunities, which is awesome. Like him and Bijan are actually takeaways from week one that are really relevant because they had so much work. And the snaps, Arthur Smith is not there no more, and you felt it in the snaps. You didn't feel it in the fantasy production. So we'll talk about Drake London later.

But those two guys, I think. Yeah, the behind-the-scenes utilization is perfection. It is what you dream of for fantasy it didn't come through I mean Pitts got the touchdown which was great but he also had like a little crosser that I just don't remember ever seeing Arthur Smith use it that was Johnnie Smith's role it's like some of the layups you got to get that the ball in the hands of your athletes easily not just like you know gunslinging it downfield so it was great to see even though it was it's so funny because it's a bad stat line, but he's in the studs

because he was pretty much the best tight end that was played this week. That was drafted? Yeah. The only other takeaway because it was a great debut for Brock Bowers. It was. Six for 58. You're not going to... You can't stop him. If the team has any brain cells at all, you will target

Brock Bowers all the time. And it was a great, great debut. This was only two rookies since 2014 have had eight-plus targets in the first game. Here's the hot take. If I'm going out to spin Fab and Bowers didn't get drafted, if he didn't get drafted, I'm spending way more on Bowers than likely, though. That's the take that I'm giving you is that Bowers than likely, though. That's the take that I'm giving you, is that Bowers is the better

player. Yeah, I agree. I agree. If Bowers were in our league of record because I have lost Njoku and I'm going to have to find one. If Bowers was on waivers, I would drop 80. You want pits? Sure. Alright, we're going to take a break and

then come back with us and commiserate on some of these duds. All right, let's jump in. Pooped in his big boy pants. There was plenty to go around this week because we talked about it. The performances, the passing yardage, touchdowns, they weren't there. That meant disappointing fantasy performances. Some were excusable.

Some were concerning. So Dak, excusable. Didn't need to throw. Punt return touchdown. He came out, was cooking, looking great, and then they just easily coasted to a victory. Concerning. Joe Burrow, 21 for 29, lost against New England.

At home. At home. Had Jamar Chase back on the field. And Chase played essentially the whole game. So, and he was only pressured on six dropbacks. Do you want to know what it looked like? It looked like this team desperately missed Joe Mixon. They did not have a threat in the run game.

They did not have a balanced-looking offense that allowed Burrow to sit there and pick them apart. And I think it's going to be a real problem. I'm concerned. The fact that they go from at home against New England, who was basically one of the two worst teams by Vegas coming in, to now they go on the road in Kansas City, they don't seem prepared for this. And the vibes have just been so bad in Cincinnati the last, like, month.

T. Higgins is injured. He's playing without a contract. Jamar Chase is. If you don't have a contract, guess what? That hangnail suddenly keeps you out of a game. You protect yourself. I'm a little worried. Because you need money.

It's stupid. They're stupid, stupid dumb. And they were dumb to lose Mixon and not replace him with somebody that was a threat for a team that competes for a Super Bowl. I would have to go back and rewatch it because Moss was not inefficient. Moss was 9 for 44 on the ground. He caught two passes for 17 yards. They only had 12 rush attempts as a team.

Yeah, Moss is a takeaway that he is their main lead guy, like some of us thought he would be he got the touchdown he looked fine but it's still different when you you have now an identity of you know there's there's a big difference between Joe Mixon and that that's why they didn't run the ball much Goff and Lawrence were disappointments because the over-unders of these games the expectations of these games Goff and Lawrence did not perform up to expectation. Amon Ra's disappearance was a big part of why Goff had the game he had.

I feel like Goff won was – that was baffling. Like Trevor Lawrence, you're hoping that if he's in a game against Miami and we're going to get a bunch of points around here that he's going to have a better game. That's fine. But Jared Goff was, I mean, this was brutal. It was, the first half was the highest tee first half of just guys saying, like, well, no, we're only going to run the ball.

No, we're only going to run the ball. We're going to end up running the ball more than you. I dare you to run the ball. I mean, to end up running the ball more than you. I dare you to run the ball. I mean, he ends up by the end throwing the ball 28 times, but that was not the game script I thought we were going to get. From a film standpoint, obviously very disappointed with the fantasy output in both Goff and Lawrence. From a film standpoint, I have no concerns.

Lawrence actually had some really impressive plays to me. So Goff and Lawrence, I think I still have the expectation I had prior to this week on them. Kirk Cousins, this was a tough situation for him. Pittsburgh's defense and TJ Watt were unrelenting, and Cousins was coming back from an injury that made him nearly immobile, and this combo did not work. Hayden Winks tweeted out a play, a single play, that I've never seen something like it.

It was like, you know, Kirk Cousins was in the pocket, and he doesn't plant on his throwing leg, which is the Achilles leg, and then throws this ball basically into the dirt because he didn't have power from his throwing leg. They didn't run play action. Right. Because Kirk cannot move. And a different leg, again, for the big science experiment we get to watch of Kirk Cousins' recovery, Aaron Rodgers' recovery.

But my first thought after watching Kirk was, uh-oh. Well, and you know he's going to be tentative. And then when you know TJ Watt's bearing down, maybe you're even more tentative. We need to see more. Yes. But if this is what you're going to get, you're going to have a problem in Atlanta.

I had questions on this game because part of me is scared of Kirk Cousins' health and ability in this. And then part of me is just of Kirk Cousins health and ability in this and then part of me is just like oh my gosh that Steelers defense was unbelievable what was unbelievable that was one of the best defensive performances I've ever seen he was just he was he was on Kirk Cousins back all night long so you know I All night, all night. I don't think Cousins really enjoyed that. No. No, it was a bad night.

Yeah, he was not dancing in the street. All right, there were some concerning performances at running back, and I think some that are going to have longer effects than just one week. We say don't panic, but you're supposed to react appropriately. Javante was 8 for 23. I'm out. Yeah, that's red alert. This is five red alerts.

Oh, you want me to hit it? Yes. Two targets. Two targets, and you have 36 snaps? Three-way timeshare, too. And this was against a bad defense. Not good. He didn't look like he was against a bad defense. Not good. He didn't look like he was the two-years-ago version.

You know, this was the question. Either he's back and he's healthy, or if he's not the healthy two-years-ago version of Javante Williams, then he's in a committee for a bad offense. I'm out. It's trouble. I don't have any shares of him this year because I was already out. But, like, it was just confirmation bias or no, what am I looking for? It was, yeah, that works.

Yeah, you did it. Thank you. I got there. Look, if I have Javante and I have anybody else as an option, I'm putting Javante on my bench. You have Javante. So who's your bench option you're playing ahead of him? J.K. Dobbins.

Yeah, I'm glad you – you should be glad you drafted J.K. Dobbins. We are very glad, but I'm saying – Because Javante was like, just kidding, I'm not back. Even if you have what feels like a really gross option, I'm just playing Javante right now. He looks bad. This isn't a, oh, man, things didn't go the right way he does he he looks bad this isn't a oh man things didn't go the right way no he looks bad he's got a rookie quarterback who also looked bad yes uh bo nicks had the lowest

a dot i think that we've seen in quite some time it was something like three so uh which bo nicks can do well but most guys can do that well but But Bo Nix had more yards than Caleb Williams. Bo Nix looked really good sometimes and really bad sometimes. Anything downfield, the two times he tried to threaten on downfield balls were horrible decisions. Triple coverage on both, picks for both. He was 2 for 12. 2 for 12 on any throw over 10 yards.

That was from Greg Rosenthal. He's not going to get it done. 42 total yards and two picks. DeAndre Swift, this was not good. 10-for-30 on 70% of snaps. That seems impossible to do and didn't get past the football. So the Bears were a mirage win this week on offense. This was a defensive performance.

This was a meltdown by Will Levis. This was the special teams making a play. We need to see so much more from Caleb Williams and company to have any confidence in their fantasy players. The Chicago offense was putrid. Arguably the worst of the week. Yeah, I mean, that's a fair – Shout out Daniel Jones.

Bryce Young, what's up? Arguably third worst. Arguably third worst. Arguably third worst. I want to go back and just try and figure out what happened to piece the puzzle together because we're watching early, early in the game, DeAndre Swift gets a touch and you're like – He looks fast. He's fast.

I mean, that's what Swift is, as advertised, is fast. Probably not a very good running back, at least in my opinion. And we're like, man, but Swift, if there's a hole, he'll get there and he'll get you some yards. And then we get to like halfway through the game, like, Jason, Swift's like five carries for six yards. What happened? Nothing worked on offense for that team.

Nothing did. Well, I mean, they were playing against Tennessee. Well, maybe that'll be true in the end. We're gathering that strength of schedule data, and it's going to need a few more weeks. Raheem Mostert, pure dud of a game. As bad as it gets. It's concerning. I thought both players

would be good this week, A-Chan and Mostert. They were both starts of the week. One was a start. One was a huge fart. And neither ran the ball well, though. The yardage on the ground was bad, and there are Mostert games like this. 44% of snaps. I'm not out on Mostert permanently.

Next week against Buffalo, we want to see more. This is a watch the injury report situation. There was a play where Mostert looked like he hurt his shoulder, played very few snaps from that point on. So I think that is actually part of why you saw a lot of Jeff Wilson towards the end of the game.

Jalen Wright was inactive? Right. Wrong. Correct. Right. Amen. Yeah. So we'll pay attention to this,

but I think it was more injury and and snaps than than just bad performance all right chuba was not good six for 14 uh this offense is bad enough for you to be scared zamir white was not good 13 for 44 and the worst part was he only played 38 of snaps yeah both of these players you You had Miles Sanders with five carries. So it was a split with Chuba. And then with Zamir, what happened was, I think this was a hot hand situation. Zamir started as the starter. You watched him get everything at the very beginning of this game,

and he did jack squat with it. It was like killing drives. And then all of a sudden, you have Alexander Madison get his hands on the ball. Cool man. Hurdle a guy run for a 31 yard touchdown and then they were like okay he's the hot hand. We're giving him the ball the rest of the way and so this is I mean

and they blew this game because Antonio Pierce was it was what a coward I mean fourth and one. I don't even know if you've been in a positive position with little time left and you need a touchdown. I apologize. What was it, four minutes left?

Something like that? Four minutes because they never got the ball back. It was egregiously cowardice. I actually want to reel that back because I don't think it was being – Oh, I don't. I think it was – I don't think it was cowardice. 7-15 in the fourth.

I don't think it was cowardice. I think it was idiocy. I think it was cowardice. 7-15 in the fourth. I don't think it was cowardice. I think it was idiocy. I think it was just pure bad decision-making. 7-15 in the fourth seems like you should be able to do it. You're on their side of the field. You need a yard. If they kick a field goal, it's a two-score game. You cannot punt that ball.

You need one yard. I agree. One yard. I agree. Coward is a dum-dum. You're a dummy. That was a dum-dum. Dum need one yard. I agree. You can't call him coward. Coward is a dum-dum. You're a dummy. That was a dum-dum. Dum-dum-dummy.

My zoomed-out look at Zamir is it could be hot hand. I need some more data here. But it's the Madison ran 24 routes. Zamir ran 10. That was pretty much my entire concern with Zamir White is that Madison will be the receiving back. He was only 3.38 a carry, too. I mean, he didn't do enough, and they play Baltimore next week.

So, you may need to save him through to Carolina and see what happens there. He was not – like, Chuba got game scripted out because the Saints just blew out the Panthers. You know who's in trouble? Chuba and Devin Singletary. Singletary is in trouble because that offense is in trouble. You cannot – it just brings back memories of when Cleveland said they wanted to run the ball with Isaiah Crowell,

and then you came out and your defense was so abysmal that you don't get to do what you want to do. I disagree. I agree with what your take is on you can't always run the ball a lot if you're down, and they're always going to be down. But he got five targets, and he played 70% of the snaps. So you're okay with – you think Singletary versus Chuba is a safer situation? Oh, that's 1 billion percent.

Chuba's in a split. Devin Singletary's usage behind the scenes were great, and one of the storylines that is you go away from week one and you try to make your you know we're talking about the Falcons like is Kirk going to be a problem or was it the Steelers defense the Minnesota defense you know versus the the the Giants offense this is one to watch like the Giants offense looked beyond putrid but also maybe part of that needs to go to Minnesota, whose defense really looked good.

Their defense got clicking last year with Flores. And so this was tough sledding for Singletary. They go up against Washington this week. I'll bet Singletary has a great game. Okay. All right. That's good perspective. And you probably, I think I agree with you on the fact that Singletary's bad game was, you know, the snap counts, not being in the committee,

gives him some hope in better matchups. At wide receiver, Amon Ross St. Brown. Three for 13. We've already talked about it. This was just weird. And we know how good a player Amon Ross is. You just move forward. Jamar Chase, six for 62.

They played so poorly, and now you've got to go to Arrowhead. Now, you don't have Snead. So, Jamar Chase, you're going to play him, but it was not encouraging to see how Burrow played. Olave, let's talk about it. Uh-oh, Olave. Yeah, Chris, uh-oh, Olave. 47 points. 47 points scored.

That's part of the – Are you kind of choking up a little bit? I'm a little choked up. Part of it is that he was completely unneeded, right? Similarly to what we saw with Dak having a bad game. The early touchdowns didn't go to Olave, and Derek Carr didn't need to throw the ball much, didn't throw the ball much, right?

Not 200 passing yards because this team won. They just blew the doors off of a hapless Panthers team. There's no doors. There's no walls. There's nothing. There's no foundation. Just cement. No, cement slab is gone.

Really? There is nothing left. I know you could take the foundation and disrupt it. Jack poured it up. Yeah. I thought setting a good foundation was the whole point. 47 to 10. There is. The twister hit. You don't even know there's the setting a good foundation was the whole point. 47 to 10. There is.

The twister hit. You don't even know there's a house there. That is the whole point. The problem is they never set a good foundation. Oh, sand. Bryce Young is the sand. They traded away a hall for sand. The sand man?

The sand man. Oh, Bryce Hall is the sand man. For sure he is. He's the sand foundation. Do your work, Al. Sand man should be easy enough to figure out. So you're not worried about Olave? I'm not.

It's not a good start. It's not a good start. I'm not super worried about Olave. Two targets sucks. That does suck. But no one on this team had a bunch of targets. That's true. So you wash it away.

But Dallas next weekend, Dallas is going to be very, very difficult. We get to talk about it now. And if you check out. Because you called him a bust. He was my bust pick. I'm just saying. Marvin Harrison Jr. was one for four. He was the worst performing rookie wide out of the week.

He had three targets. There is a very good tweet out by Kyle Borgannoni that shows the breakdown of his routes. The Cardinals offense, they got up 17-3 against Buffalo. I don't know if they just decided to go hyper-conservative at that point and try to protect a presumed win or what. The opening part of them getting

the lead too was they were getting incredible catch and run out of the running back position. They did not target Marv and they did not look to him early. I don't think they got conservative. I think they started are conservative like their offense looks kind of

dumb like they don't throw to their outside wide receivers we saw this last year and we thought it was a talent issue they need better outside wide receivers but the way Kyler's work in the field it's like Dorch and and Trey McBride Trey McBride might have finished you know poorly but he was still involved his target share was good it it was but it was also it was shallow I think there was at least Kyle I don't maybe you remember at least two of the recept of Trey McBride's receptions were that fourth quarter we're going down to to try and and take or tie whatever it was and they were just check downs to McBride I did not think that I genuinely and I'll say this right now I did not think when you look at the grand scheme of the offseason

and projecting Marvin Harrison, I didn't think a game like this was possible for him. So I'll say that to start. I didn't think it was possible for your wide receiver one to play every snap, to be out there, and to go one for four. I did not think that that was in the realm. I thought even if he wasn't as prolific as Malik Nabors on the big games, that you would never get a game like one for four.

So that is a reality check. We need Marv Seniors to come in here. He is. He will. There was the clip of, oh, what's something that your son should do better? My son needs to go tell the quarterback that you need the ball. So, Mr. Junior, Mr. Harrison Junior., go tell Kyler that you need the ball. Listen to your father.

Be a good son. Drake London, two for 15, 56 snaps, three targets. This is why Drake London was a risky pick. It's because this is what you've seen from Atlanta for all of the time Drake London's been a member of the offense it's it's Kirk it's I'm afraid of Kirk that sentence after week one is why Drake London was a risky pick in fantasy football because he's never done it and if you're just afraid of every quarterback he has well we I mean we talked about going into week one about how this could look so, like, duh,

how good Drake London's going to be for fantasy. And it was all based around the fact of, like, if he's got a healthy Kirk Cousins, we're going to go out there and be like, duh, Drake London is the one for a great offense. So this is really Kirk Cousins' watch. And I think it's not red alert yet because this was a great unbelievable defense from the Steelers I want to see that Philly game next week exactly I want to see him against another week of confidence in the Achilles like that's another thing this was his first game on that he's so week two this week two is where I'll start don't panic on Drake, but be careful because if Cousins isn't Cousins,

there will be a problem. We already talked about Tank Dale. We can move forward. Amari Cooper, nine targets, two for 16, had a brutal touchdown drop on a pass that Deshaun Watson chose to take a huge monster hit to get him. He was out there. Jerry Judy left with an injury. He had the touchdown.

Brighter days ahead for Amari Cooper. We know that Najoku's week to week on injury. This was one that I think you just chalk up to Dallas defense and a drop. Because if he scores a touchdown there, we're not even talking about it. Yeah, a little bit. I like nine targets. I mean, that one particular play, that's Amari Cooper's

fault. The rest of them, though, are like Deshaun Watson looks like a big problem. Give us Jameis. The way that Kirk... Jameis would be great. Give us Jameis. The way I'm concerned about Kirk, I'm also concerned about Watson.

Oh, that's not fair. That's not fair. Well, one of them is injury-related. One of them is mental injury-related. Yeah, Watson's been bad since forever. DJ Moroma, Dunes, Akin and Allen, we talked about those. Lots of targets, no catches, and we need more yards. Rookie quarterbacks.

A storyline. Jackson, Smith, and Jigba, two for 19. Look, it's one game. It's one game, but Tyler Lockett was healthy. I had been saying that he was healthy because they're managing his load, and he had been warming up in all these preseason games. He was their best receiver by far. He had better numbers than Metcalf and jsn combined

metcalf huge disappointment people should should be mad that was the worst one i've ever done that was the worst one um i'm so sorry everybody uh you don't know no no you don't have to be sorry i had a youtube comment that came through and they thought that I was chewing tobacco on the show. They thought that it said, very professional of you to be chewing tobacco while doing a podcast. That's my life now. Just for a couple more moments. For those that are new to the show and don't understand, if you hear a whistle, if you hear something weird from me, if I can't say the letter S, I'm still dealing with my front tooth being knocked out. I'm sorry.

I'm not chewing tobacco on the show. That's the craziest thing I've ever heard. Or off the show, for that matter. Or off the show, or ever. Yeah, I have never partook. I think that would be about the billionth thing i could see you do could you imagine i'm gonna start putting in a wad mid-show um that whistle was amazingly loud it was good matt caff and jason jason

i thought that the time was not yet here but i'm'm not willing to victory lap this. I'm just saying if what I said ends up true, which is that Metcalf and Lockett are the better receivers today, you will never be happy with Jason. And for Metcalf, he had the newly paid Mr. Patrick Sertan on him. So that sucks. Metcalf will be fine. sucks but that happens yeah I had an expectation going into this week that Metcalf was was going to have a bad week the JSN thing is legit and the locket looked great Pittman had eight targets he was four for 31 he can't get

downfield and doesn't need to the way that Doolin Pierce and Adonai, that was the only worry, and that was the reason all three of us had Pittman regrettably lower in the rankings. It was not a lack of love for Pittman. It was a realization that they're not going to throw that much. When they throw, he's inaccurate. And when he throws deep, it's not Pittman. So those three things mean that he was the focal point of the passing offense. He was 40-plus percent of the targets.

It's insane that you end up with four for 31 with that. Yeah, it is. Yeah, I mean, his routes aren't as valuable. All right, really quickly because we're going very long today, but we needed to. Panic alarm levels, Christian Kirk one for 30. Let's just go out of 10. 10 is I'm crying and I'm putting them on my go six i'm gonna

go seven because brian thomas jr is awesome terry mcclure and two for 17 i'm going with a nine i'm gonna go eight uh calvin ridley was three for 50 in this game against chicago jalen johnson deandre hopkins was one for eight. Give me Ridley. Ridley is going to be a seven. Will Levis was a knucklehead, man. I would go four on Ridley. But, yeah, the theme of today's show is if you watched all the games yesterday, we don't have enough quarterbacks.

No. In the NFL? Yeah. I think Ridley will be okay. Chicago's a great defense. The Jets are a great defense next week. Yeah, that's going to will be okay. Chicago's a great defense. The Jets are a great defense next week. Yeah, that's going to be the challenge. So maybe Jason's right.

Josh Palmer, two for 15 and was ejected. Get out of here. Cortland Sutton, 12 targets, four for 38. Palmer got McConkey'd. I love that. He got McConkeyed. No. Yes, he did. No, he did not.

Yes, he did. No way. If he doesn't score a touchdown give me his line uh okay let me look he had a short area touchdown he was five for 39 with a score okay that is exactly the worry with that's exactly what we said about McConkie that if he gets in the end zone that week you'll be happy and if he doesn't you'll be sad but his the the thing that I'm pointing out though is he had 44 percent of the wide receiver targets. He had a 29% target share in his first game. So this is a game against another not good offense in the Raiders

and a great defense where they didn't have to throw the ball much. They're not going to throw that much. I know. I know. They're never going to want to, but there are going to be games where they need to. Disley, Hurst, Palmer, Quentin Johnston. I get it, and his targets will be short. But a 29% target share in week one, I'm thrilled with. All right. Hurst yeah yeah no Palmer Quinton Johnston I get it and his his targets will be short but

a 29 percent target share in week one I'm thrilled with all right uh tight ends we've all of them we've already talked about tight ends all of them are you worried about any of the big ones because I am not maybe well I was kind of out on Kincaid the only one I would be a little bit worried on from utilization was Kincaid it It was concerning to see him not be the target leader, let alone, like he wasn't even. They were in a negative game script. Yeah, it was. That one was concerning. I'm not like, you know, pulling a ripcord yet, but he is of the big five.

He's the only one I'm holding my breath on. Yeah, 100% play him next week. All right. You got a bonus extra long episode today. Bonus. the only one I'm holding my breath on. Yeah, 100% play him next week. All right. You got a bonus extra long episode today. Bonus. And tomorrow, guess what? We get waivers and streaming options.

It's a big show. Maybe the biggest waiver show of the year is week one when you get to take your shot on some players. So we've got a big week two waiver show tomorrow. Check out the community, the ultimate dashboard, and tons of tools at jointhefoot.com. That'll do it. I'm going to go get some more tobacco. Get a spittoon over here.

Goodbye, everybody. 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.