Fantasy Footballers - Fantasy Football Podcast - Week 5 Start/Sit + TNF Preview, Breaking Benson News! - Fantasy Football Podcast for 10/1

Episode Date: October 1, 2025

Fantasy Football show for Oct 1, 2025. Week 5 start/sit decisions! Bye weeks are here and the injury news keeps coming. Lots of listener questions answered on today’s show including rest of season rankings, and trade talk! Plus, waiver wire backup options, and a preview of Thursday Night Football. Manage your redraft, keeper, and dynasty fantasy football teams with the #1 fantasy football podcast.(00:00) Intro(08:45) Backup Options(18:50) NFL News(26:20) 49ers at Rams(36:40) Mailbag(36:50) Kenneth Walker or Quinshon Judkins rest of season?(37:45) Start Jordan Mason or Quinshon Judkins this week?(39:10) Flex Travis Hunter, Malik Washington or Harold Fannin this week?(40:25) Dynasty superflex - Start Jake Browning or Cooper Rush?(42:00) Start Bo Nix or Daniel Jones this week?(43:10) Breece Hall or Travis Etienne rest of season?(44:40) Is CeeDee Lamb for Omarion Hampton a fair trade?(46:40) What is Bill Croskey worth in a dynasty league?(47:45) Start Chris Olave or Elic Ayomanor this week?Connect with the show:Subscribe on YouTubeVisit us on the WebSupport the ShowFollow on XFollow on InstagramJoin our Discord Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Fantasy Footballer's Studio is sponsored by Walmart. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers podcast with your host, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in! Got that waiver pep in the step right now. October 1st. Mike Ry, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, the fantasy footballers. Back with you.

Al Borland, Papa Josh, the Falcon overinducers Ellie this morning. Yeah, the waiver wire just went through. It always times up with like when we start recording. Until everyone changes their clocks. Right. Yeah, then it's. when we're done recording. But at least right now,

it's like an audience to see what happens, right? It's like we gather. We do. It's very fun. And react to who spent too much or too little and all of that good stuff. But, you know, a lot of Darren Waller, a lot of, I mean, in your leagues out there,

Woody Mark's probably going for a lot this morning. And then we got news this early morning that, like, Bucky Irving's pretty much not playing this week. When you're on crutches and in a walking boot, It's not usually like I'm going to play on Sunday. No, no. And so Sean Tucker, Rashad White, discussions. That one was really hard for me to decide what to invest on Sean Tucker and what not to.

Like, Sean Tucker has one carry on the year. Okay, one attempt on the entire year. It's so similar to what's going on in Arizona because Tray Benson may not play as well. And they have Amari DiMarcato in this very defined third down role without James Connor. and you have Rashad White, who has done wonders with kind of limited touches, efficient touches, looked really good this year. So I can see the logic of keeping him in that role. And Michael Carter's off the practice squad could play and start for Arizona,

where he did that last year. Apparently the team gave Michael Carter a standing ovation when Jonathan Gannon announced that he was being signed to the active roster. So he's going to be a big part of this. And we saw last year, the last three games of the season, when Michael Carter had the opportunity, he was given a lot of opportunities, 10, 15, 21 total opportunities those last three weeks and was twice a running back too. However, in those three weeks, Amari DiMarcardo missed. So we don't know. And then, you know, Sean Tucker walk into that

same situation. Do they want to use them on first and second down? He's a great runner. He's among 72 running backs of 60 plus opportunities last year. He was second in yards per touch. He's so capable of doing it. He has had, but there is. that doubt in the back of your mind that Rasabai gets everything because he wasn't a starter before. Yeah. Sean Tucker's career is so wild of of, you know, the beginning of the story of

coming out of college. I freaking loved Sean Tucker. You did. You talked about him all the time. I loved him, only to have him be one of those players that you go into the draft. You're so excited to see, man, how high does he go in the draft? Could he sneak into the first or is it going to be a day two pick?

Like there was, early on, that was supposed to be. Yeah. And then no one literally no one and then the news comes out after that he had been taken off of a lot of boards because of medicals that heart yeah something with a heart that medicals that we had no one of his hearts we didn't have access to that because like that was only teams at the combine found out and then he goes to the bucks and rarely gets opportunities when he gets them he's fantastic and then they're like okay thank you Tucker back to the bench it's so he's odd He's 23 years old.

You were surprised he didn't get more opportunities when there was no Bucky Irving there. I do remember, it brings to mind Michael Turner when he played for the Chargers. He played four seasons, Michael Turner. Oh, yeah. For the Chargers where he had. I didn't remember it was that long. Yeah, it was four, I wanted to look it up because I stuck. Four seasons, 20 carries, 57, 80, and 71.

And every time he got those carries, he did great with him. Yep, similar to Tucker. Who was he behind? He was behind a, oh, it was. Ladangian. Tomlinson. Yeah. I knew he was behind a stud. I forgot he was behind the stud of all studs. And he left and he had 376 carries for 1,700 yards in Atlanta. So it's not to say he's that. It's just there are really talented running backs that spin some time in the background, especially when you're lower draft capital. And maybe Tucker breaks out this week. I still think like I will, I would much, much, much rather have Rashad White going this week than Sean Tucker. I do, I do agree with that. But I, as I. And that's why I had such a trouble. Like, I adjusted a lot of Sean Tucker bids up, down all around.

Yeah. Because I wasn't sure exactly what to spend. Well, the news was like, oh, he's on crutches and he's in a boot. And he has a footspring and doing some digging on. What's with the feet this year? Hey, it's the hot injury. And then you look at it like, okay, if it's a grade one, it's just one to two weeks or so. A grade two, now you're talking multiple weeks.

And you bet we don't have the information. You got to make your decision. decision that like an hour I think before waivers start running. Chefty tweets out oh it's just week to week and it was like oh pull the bids pull the bids down we're spending way too much

but Tucker is probably unless you hear otherwise he's going to be a bit of a desperate play but he is fantastic to have on the bench right now yeah there's to see how the news proceed like who knows you could get news tomorrow the Bucky oh we were wrong

it's way worse than we thought I'll tell you this if I had Chubb and Sean Tucker on my team. I'm starting Sean Tucker this week. Yeah. I think that's fair. Because I want upside for that position group. They're probably going to get about the same. I would project them to get near the same opportunity and both be essentially the RB2 for their team.

And one has juice. All right. We have a great show for you today. It's a Wednesday episode. We've got the Thursday night preview. We've got NFL news to cover backup options. Some mailbag. Going to answer your questions on the show today. Get you ready for week five. We also have

our current Megalobole leader out of over 20,000. Now, Jason, you had been completely undefeated, dominant, and you were at spot a thousand in points scored? Yeah, no, I'm still undefeated and dominant, and right now my team, let me look it up, I am nowhere

near the leaderboard. I have 532 points scored. Well, the leader has 622, and that is dude without. Dude with? Yeah, it sounds to me. So, very nice. That is the current standings.

Look out for Crazy Joe 9-9. He's right. He's right on his tail. And he's crazy. A reminder. A long lineage of Crazy Joe's, too. Oh, you're 98 of them before. They each gets crazier.

Man, I'm still not in the top thousand. I'm 1,049. She's Louise. 8-0? Yeah. Well. Goodness. There's a lot of good teams out there.

Yeah, you got to keep working. A reminder, join the foot.com. That's the fantasy football community. If you want to become an official Foot Clan member, support the show, get access to tons of great perks, including the brand new rest of season rankings. We've got trade tools that were in the process of developing, and if you have jumped into the rest of season rankings,

this is a reminder for you. Right now, they're only on the web. There is a new version of the in-season app that is, I believe, going to get pushed live today or tomorrow. So it will be in both places shortly, but I didn't want any more confusion because we had some people saying, where are they? Right.

Only on the web until the new, app update hits. Hopefully today. We'll see. YouTube.com slash the fantasy footballers if you'd like to watch the show. I will be handling the duties this Sunday for Sunday live. Zip duty. As, yeah, I'm going to take over for Sunday this week.

So you can join me there. Subscribe, click the bell. Check out the live reactions. We had, well, we had football during your Sunday live last time. I believe we do again. We do again, right? Yes, we do. Another international. Minnesota's staying overseas.

It was very distracting for me as I had Jordan Mason everywhere, and I could not watch what was going on. It was frustrating. Yeah, you did. You came out of that show going, come on, man. I wanted to watch. But, yeah, check out the in-season mobile app as well on the App Store. Let's jump in.

Backup Options, presented by Progressive Insurance. Well, you might not have gotten every waiver wire ad you were hoping for, and so we like to take a moment on Wednesday mornings to look at some backup options. Look at the most dropped players on the platforms over the last 24 hours. And right now, the most dropped players, Caleb Williams, and that would be due to biweek, I think. Bayshalt-Tooten. Here, let's play Care Don't Care. Okay, okay.

These players are dropped. Do you care or not care? And, like, I care that you should probably put to pick them up. I care enough to, like, maybe try to put them back on my roster off of somebody else's. Caleb Williams? Yep, I care. I care. I do care. I do.

I do. Chris Rodriguez and Jacori Crosky Merritt. I do care. We'll talk a little bit more in dip. Okay. All right. Ollie Gordon? I care.

I don't. And then Braylon Allen with the injury. He's, don't care. We just saw another one from Coach Glenn saying it's a serious injury. Oh, really? I haven't seen that update. I mean, it, Betts just posted. I couldn't, seeing the hit and the fact that he was even on the sideline trying to walk it off,

it's like, dude, I feel like a mortal, their knee would have just, you, it would have looked like the Tyree Kill injury. It's like, I could not believe it wasn't an immediate multiple ligament tear. Tyquan Thornton, do you care? He was down to 34% of snaps. Still better touch to. Yeah, but Rice is on his way back. So, hey, care, don't care. Care.

Calvin Austin. Don't care. Don't care. Tray Tucker. Don't care. Sterling Shepard. Don't care. Evan Ingram.

Never care. Johnny Smith. Don't care. Don't care. Let Jay take it. Yeah, yeah, no, that's good. That's good. All right, let's talk about, we each picked a backup option.

We've kind of already dug in on this player, so I'll just throw the name out there. Michael Carter was the pick for this morning, running back for the Arizona Cardinals. Trey Benson's taking it. day by day. He said, hopefully we'll get them back out there. That's the language currently being used by the head coach. But signing Michael Carter to the roster, we'll see what happens.

Did you have some to add? It's just a, you know, thank you to everyone who listens to this podcast. Okay. Because you're getting, like, I agree. Number one, you understand? I completely echo your thoughts. Just an overall gratitude. Hey, thanks for listening. But like we talked about this.

on yesterday's show that there was some weird bonus practice that is not normal and Trey Benson wasn't there because I tweeted out there was an article from AZ Central that's our local hub and they were the ones in the article

who put out it might end up being Michael Carter instead of Demarcato and so I post this because it was breaking news of we had talked about demarcato and my replies were just like what are you talking about it

and Trey Benson no one's saying that Trey Benson's certain Rick yes that's the point like I'm giving you news and they're like none of the fantasy things say that he's hurt like okay what was the voice again though

it's very it's very Liam Cohen okay okay very similar to yeah so last year Jason alluded to it like in the two games that Michael Carter started in week 17 and 18 so you probably didn't even pay attention to it you know we had

15 opportunities 21 opportunities and Arizona has a matchup against Tennessee this week that seems like it would be a heavy run-oriented situation maybe salting things away in the second half and again we still don't know what's going on with Trey Benson but the point is you have to be prepared for these situations you don't want Friday to pop up and you're like oh Trey Benson has a practice all week and then someone else beats it to the wire

all that being said the other side of the coin that we haven't talked about is like if Trey Benson was active how confident do you feel in Trey Benson with all of this injury news. And is that more dependent on the end of week practices? Yeah, yeah, we got to get more info. It feels a little nerve-wracking sometimes when you have these guys that are, like even Lamar this week, they're saying Lamar is going to try to play. Oh, no. And so then you're like, well, okay, I always play Lamar. And that's probably going to be my advice. Yeah. But then how much does he run? Like, do you, it's like when Tucker Kraft played through the injury and you're like, oh, crap, I have to

play him, but then you kind of knew the numbers would be lower. It's scary too, because like with Lamar, it's a hamstring, which is like, okay, maybe we don't. get the rushing orders, but whatever. The dude threw for 4,040, you know, or 40 touchdowns last year. So you know he could do it from the pocket, but what he can also do is exit the game early. He can go out there and have a good run, and all of a sudden you got one fantasy point. So the floor is, the floor is basically zero when you're starting Lamar. But speaking of Trey Benson, before we move off of that, one thing that, I mean, is kind of good news in his injury. I was so furious with the end of game management from the Arizona Cardinals, as a Cardinals,

as a fantasy analyst. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the fact that at the end of the game, when they needed to score the most, Trey Benson was not on the field, I was so angry. I was like, why are you running out there

with Amari Di Macardo? Who scored? Who scored? I get it. But that you still got to put your best players out to have your best odds of scoring. And it turned out that he was hurt. Yeah.

So maybe that gives me hope for, you know, the rest of the season that Trey Benson is maybe in those. No, not yet. Okay. No, probably never. Um, you know who else doesn't apologize? My pick. Bill Krausky.

Okay, so you're back up option? Never apologize because he's never been wrong. Okay, fair enough. Doesn't have a backspace on his keyboard. He's never made a mistake. Beal Grosky. I like that. I do.

I like that. Uh, but he's been very disappointing. People are dropping him. He was in one of the, you know, he was one of those players you talked about are on the most dropped list right now. And I think that's a mistake. keep in mind he got off to a good week one start because he had that touchdown but he wasn't he wasn't like a starter in training camp you know what I mean like Brian Robinson was there the entire camp right up until like a week before you know preseason was over and then he had a little bit of time and now as he's working his way into becoming a starter well he missed practice this week he was limited participant in practice we weren't even sure he was going to play this week still ended up with two targets so I'm not like I am I'm not dropping Bill, if I saw him on waivers, I would pick him up.

And I want to throw one other name out that I've, Jaden Blue needs to be on your name. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It needs to be on, you know, the possible pickup. Jaden Blue is a rookie running back for the Dallas Cowboys, who has not played yet. He's been inactive. He's been inactive.

He had some hype during the offseason during training camp. And Schottenheimer came out and said that he's getting really close to being active. Like he might start, he might be on the roster this week. And Miles Sanders hurt his ankle. And while he's trending towards being able to play this week, there's a chance that Jaden Blues just straight up the backup to Javante Williams. Kyle, are you with us this morning? I am and I'm going to try to read your mind.

Okay. Go for it. No, I have no idea. What are you going to do. What I was going to bring up is that, you know, when Sean Tucker's name came up this week, I don't know. I would have been amazing because, look when Sean Tucker's name came up this week

that's the second name from a list that Jason provided on our top 10 tips and tricks show and it was like these three guys are going to win your league what were the names on that do you remember Trey Benson okay so Trey Benson Sean Tucker I think the other one was now hurt Will Shippley Will Shippley's back

you read my mind Kyle amazing but look two of those names are already relevant and we're four weeks into the season well we do have another update Bucks still are not ruling Bucky Irving out for Sunday. Bulls said, we'll see if he's out of the boot by Friday. Okay. Yeah, this is...

We'll see. It'll be interesting. I will say that no matter what, I'm starting Rashad White this week. We saw a game where last year, Bucky Irving was mummified, leaving the game. Remember, just wrapped in Ace Bandages and ice. Like, he got so much work. And the following week, he was active because he's top.

off and he was there. I think he played like two snaps. It was very low. So I would not, I'd be worried about starting Bucky. Yeah, Mike, you have a backup option at the defensive position that you want to flag for people. Yeah, the DST position, it does matter. I mean, especially this year, it's been wild with the with the field goal blocks and defensive scores and punt returns and everything. Pay attention to the New England Patriots DST because they are, are playing Buffalo, and they may, they're currently they're available in half of leagues,

what we're seeing 45%. And that could become even more as they face Buffalo. And people aren't going to, I'm not playing New England against Buffalo. Of course not. However, after that, they have the easiest upcoming schedule for DSTs. We're talking the Saints, Titans, Browns, Falcons, like all in a row.

Then Tampa Bay, maybe you don't want to do that. But then you get the Jets, the Bengals, and the Giants. Like the run coming up for that DST, as they are getting healthier, is a team. It's a good stash. The schedule is so good that we're saying, hey, it's a middle of year. You might want to go stash this DST not to play them against Buffalo. Super smart. All right.

That was backup option sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at progressive.com. News and Notes from Around the League, presented by progressive insurance. Well, we talked about Lamar Jackson, likely to miss this week. It would be Cooper Rush. If it is Cooper Rush, let me ask you a simple follow-up question. How do you feel about Zay Flowers? How do you feel about Hunter, or Hamill said Hunter Henry?

Derek Henry? Who's on the block in our League of Record? Hunter Henry is not the player. Derek Henry is the player. I feel honestly, perfectly fine about both. like Cooper Rush Zay Flowers was having an okay-ish day

and then he actually ended up with a good day after Cooper Rush came in I mean there should be you don't have to worry about the Lamar scrambles you know with Cooper Rush at least the amount of course and so I'm still good playing

Zay Flowers and you have to imagine the game plan where they don't have Lamar is a big big dose of Derrick Henry. If Lamar doesn't play, how do you play him the following week with the bi-weeks of week after? Oh, you're saying to the Ravens? To the Ravens. If he does miss this week, which seems the most likely situation. I'll tell you how you play him next week. You're one and four? Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm not worried at all about Derek Henry. I do

worry a little bit more about Zayflowers simply because of the matchup. I feel like the Houston Texans are kind of a run funnel. They're not a terrible run defense, but they've got a very good pass rush. You know, right now they've given up the second fewest point. points to fantasy quarterbacks. And I think in this matchup, they are going to really focus on let's have Derek Henry win this game. And I think he can in that matchup. You realize, I was going to make this my almost subset.

You realize they're favored in Baltimore? That Baltimore is favored? Nope. The Texans? What I'm seeing in front of me, unless this is wrong. Houston minus one and a half. Whoa. Once, it moved five points once Lamar was ruled.

I would take Baltimore with Cooper Rush. you shouldn't you don't think so going to win that game oh man they cannot score enough on offense that's not true I mean they're not favored I've got a bunch of smarmy bookmakers

agreeing with me right now I mean I would I don't like being on the other side of the books yeah I love when my opinion is like yours right now and backed up by the books because they're usually right but my opinion is very much that Derek Henry can go and eat this team for breakfast lunch

of dinner. I think Houston's defense is very good. Yeah. And I think if you have no threat or don't feel the threat of Lamar it could be an interesting game. I can't make it an almost upset because it wouldn't be an upset. You could make them the upset. They would be my almost upset. Dylan Gabriel will start week five against the Vikings. The Brown's finally making the move. You've been calling for this

forever and not because you think that Gabriel is great, but you have come to the conclusion that Flacco cannot get it done, which Flacco has been getting it done. one of the worst quarterbacks in football this year. The offense cannot score points. They have a great running back now. They still can't score points.

And I'm finally putting the blame at his feet. I love Joe Flacco. He had an amazing career. He's now 41, I think, and leading the league in turnovers, throwing two picks a week, statuesque in the pocket, easy to sack. He's the best. Like, if you're a defensive end, you're like, yes, I got Joe Flacco over there.

Dylan Gabriel is more of a tactician. I think he'll be able to complete some easy passes, lean on the running game and get outside the pocket if he has to. It's better for the Browns to me. I'm okay with them giving it a good college try here. Oh, this is my almost upset then. Okay. Do you tell.

The Vikings are four and a half point road favorites of Cleveland. Well, because they're both on the road. Oh. Yeah, which brings me to my next point. London, get wrecked. Enjoy your Carson once Dylan. Gabriel game. This is what you get. What did London do? Oh, we know what they did. Oh, you're talking long ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So quickly we forget. I apologize. Do we need to throw

more to you? Are you the Kingsman? Hey, this, this weekend, I'm going to New York. We're not going to old York. Who cares about that? You are. Okay, we're all on board. Yeah, you're going to tour all the great sights from the revolution, right? Oh, yeah. They're over, the over under, the over under is 35 and a half points. What? Can I, I can take this though, right? Oh, sure. Four and a half point under dogs. Andy's almost upset of the week. I don't want this to sound inappropriate, but it's gonna. Okay. I can't wait to hear it. This is a family show. Carson Wince, Miles Garrett is going to be inside you. Like a taun-ton?

Yes, thank you, Mike. Thank you so much. The offensive line. He's going to wear you like a sleeping bag. I mean, he is going to be. It's not, you're going to have him in your nightmares. He's going to wear your skin. Oh, my gosh. That's why I'm going browns. All right, Cedric Tillman's on injured reserve.

Jason isn't going to be tempted anymore. You've been protected from yourself. We already talked about Bucky and Benson. Braylen Allen, MCL sprain, injured reserve likely. It is, and this is the fantasy football reality. Terrible for Braylon Allen, obviously. It is very good for Briece Hall. I mean, like, Breece Hall is, you saw it in the game.

Breast Hall got taken off the field for a touchdown opportunity. He has so much work in the passing game. Like, Breast Hall with his games with Justin Fields. Like, Justin Fields in the pocket is comical. He's going to look at, here's what he does. Look at Garrett Wilson, look to run. Then look at Breece Hall, look to run. That's the offense.

Yeah. I mean, it is really good for Breece Hall. You know, Isaiah Davis will be involved. Yeah, so deep leagues, you need to know the name Isaiah Davis. But unlike Braylon Allen, Isaiah Davis is not going to impact Brees Hall. Isaiah Davis is an insurance option for if Breece Hall goes down, Isaiah Davis will not have a massive impact on Breece Hall. I think he'll get more opportunities than you want.

I think he'll be. Well, I want him to have zero, so you are correct. I think he'll be over 10. You could be. There were a lot of times he was in that game. I'm like, dang it. He was at five last week. Jaden Daniels?

Yes. Got the clearance needed from doctors and will be a full go for the commanders in practice. Finally, some good news. So barring a setback, Jaden Daniels. else will be returning to action. I don't think we have any other news, do we? Have we been? Is the show canceled? No? The show's still here, but no new news right now.

Okay. That was News & Note, sponsored by Progressive Insurance. Quote today at Progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and third-party insurers. Not available in all states or situations, coverage subject, policy, terms, limits, and conditions. We'll take a break, and we'll talk about Thursday. Well, we never go very long without football. Thursday night football coming up. It's going to be the 49ers and Rams. Let's get into it.

Thursday night breakdown. Well, it wouldn't be a 49er ball game without talking about a myriad of injuries. No Brock Purdy in practice, no Ricky Pearsall in practice, no Joanne Jennings in practice for Tuesday's walkthrough. you'd think that you could do the walk through you think but you still need toes to walk and in fact it's one of the most important parts of walking your foot it is probably the most important part um 49ers three and one the rams three and one Vegas line Los Angeles Rams Rams minus six and a half the over under is 46 and a half is there some uh is this just respective of how good the Rams have been, or is this a little bit of baked-in Brock Purdy issue?

I interpret this as Brock Purdy fears. I mean, we are, you know, when you're not participating at all two days before game, it's not that he can't play or won't play, but that- It's more of a limp-through. He participated in the lim-thru? Yeah, I mean, it's a sign that maybe he really can't go. Obviously, he's already missed games this season for this injury. And, you know, we don't, we don't know for sure who the quarterback is going to be. And if Brock-Purdy starts, the game, we still don't know who the quarterback that finishes the game is. So I think that's where the line is moved. There does seem to be a recent post here of Mac Jones talking to the press. Mac Jones saying the Rams have the number one defense in the league that he can't wait to go against them. Well, did he let something slip? I don't know. Is he just going to rip it? Max Jones? Yeah, that's what he said. Yeah, he always does. He's just going to rip it. I mean,

the healthy quarterback always talks to the press so maybe that maybe this is our answer yeah it's Brock party very very questionable and then if Mac Jones plays you've got a re-injured Ricky Pearsall you have Mac Jones who was

hurt yeah Mac Jones was hurt Juan Jennings also hurt it's not it's like CMC is alone play quarterback play just have him play Ronnie Brown style Wildcat It's one of the, it's, it's kind of crazy to think.

I bet you could do it. I think it, Tomjus Macbasketball might be a decent play. I mean, they just, they don't have anybody to throw the ball to. They use the tight-in position. Last week he was three for 58 in a touchdown. We've seen a couple, you know, the week one, you know, if Mack Jones is there, I feel less good about it, but they've got to throw the ball somewhere. And they just, they're injured everywhere. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, I do think Tonjus, I did look at him a little bit as an emergency start at tight end. On the other side of the ball, Kairn, you play on Puka, unbelievable. Most receptions through the first four games of a season incredibly tied with what Cooper Cubs did in 2022

with the same quarterback. It's like a repeat season going on right now and Michael Thomas in 2018. So first read targets, according to fantasy points, 48 for Puka Nakua. Next highest is 34. Puka is

That's unbelievable. The best players. 34 is the second most targets and Pooka is at 48. At first read, yeah. At first read. The best players in football at the wide receiver position,

tight end position, they're the ones where they're like, as a fan, you're like, how are they open again? How is the defense not just stop that guy? How does that, how do you not just go in and say, I'm going to put three dudes on him?

You watch Justin Jefferson open all the time. Kelsey in his prime. Like, always. Maybe guard that guy, but they're trying. Yeah, they are trying. It's that guy. Yeah, it's the dude. They would have.

I mean, then they heard us screaming from behind the television. They're like, oh, that's what we're supposed to do? You're welcome. Devante Adams, on pace for 150 targets. You play him. Yeah, for sure. So pretty simple on that side. Like, some people thinking about tolling with Stafford as a streaming quarterback option.

He was the number two quarterback last week. He's not normally there. That was that 2-2-at-well, 90-yard bomb touchdown. Stafford is one of the strangest quarterbacks in football for our purposes of being so incredibly good, having two wide receivers that are dominant for fantasy football. I don't want to play Stafford. It's like Philip Rivers from days of old. Sure.

Yeah, at the end of the year, he'll finish okay, but on a weekly basis, he's not going to help you win games. He's completed 72% of his passes, 70% of his passes, 71% of his passes. he's had three touchdowns, two touchdowns, two touchdowns, and he's not usually good for fantasy. And the reason why is because his rushing yards so far on the season are negative one. Do you know his – The prize picks projection on Matthew Stafford, if you went for his rushing yards because I looked at it this week, it's 0.5.

Yeah, which does see it. I don't know if I want the less or more on that. Well, considering – you would have lost three out of four weeks. Yeah, negative two, negative six, zero. negative 0.4 on the year. Crazy. Per game average. I will ask one more follow-up on the 49er side,

just based on the wide receiver situation. If you have to, like if John Jennings, Ricky Pearsall, they'll be limited if they play. Do you take a shot on a Bourne or Robinson or anybody else? I don't. I wanted to be able to do that with DeMarcus Robinson. He only ran 13 rounds last year. I wonder if it's a little bit of a...

you've got to shake the rust off. He'll be more involved this week, but I don't. Trey Benson, oh, no way! Oh, baby, we got to push a button here. Okay. Breaking news.

Trey Benson is being placed on injured reserve due to his knee injury. So, Mike, you're going to apologize now? I will never apologize. Okay, okay. I mean, I love that you just dunked on people being like, dude, you, you don't know what you're talking about with

this possible Trey Benson injury. So back to back weeks, we have Connor and then Benson down for. Dude, that's so brutal. I am now thinking about the person who lost him in our league of record. Yeah. Oh, he's. Who has lost Malik neighbors. Oh, no. Joe Burrow. James Connor. And I don't know what you call, like I've been referring to the Jamar Chase situation is basically an injury. Yeah. It's an injury of the. It's almost, you've lost worse. It is almost worse. Like I have, you're like, what do you do with tomorrow chase? I have not lost as much losing C.D. Lamb because I've put other players in.

You know, I was like, okay, I'll start Pittman. What an incredible amount of time we've spent talking about Trey Benson before we got this news today. Yeah. I mean, at least we got it on the show. And. Oh, my gosh. I mean, Michael Carter. Yeah, Demarcato and Carter are both going to be involved.

So we will need more news. to know exactly what the Tray Benson knee injury is. Right now, I haven't heard if it's MCL, PCL, whatever it is, whether this is like, okay, he's going to miss a month. But now that you're going on injury reserve, you know it's a long-term injury. It's the shift he did update says he is expected to return. Yeah, four games.

But you'll miss the four games. Look, I would bet my life that Michael Carter gets more carries than DiMarcato. So whatever you want to take with that, you want the passing game work. You know, Kyler. Kyder needs to run more. He's running out of running backs. That would be nice. Wow. Breaking news there. Trey Benson. Man, that Cardinals' offense. Did you listen to the blobfish?

No. And for those who don't know, the blobfish is Drew Petsing, the offensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals. And we'll let you understand. It is very in hindsight. It was a. As is his offensive play calls. It was a disrespectful nickname. that was kept in private, but it is, it, no longer. It's too good. No, now that we're at the point that we beat our chest and we stand behind what they're doing. But did you hear his comments?

This is his comments. He said that he evaluates whether the offense played well as whether they scored more points than the other team. Okay. Which undeniably is not the way that you should be evaluating that. Yeah. I understand if you win 13 to 10, you're like, oh, cool, we won. Does he factor in defensive scores? Because.

That's great. because the Cardinals, when we lost the other game, we scored two points from our defense. Yeah. He's like, well, we've done it twice and we didn't do it twice. Mike is, Mike can't handle the blobfish. I'll tell you that right now. It, how do these,

how do these people maintain their jobs? Like, these are, to be honest, they don't. These are, for long. There are a lot of other ways to measure an offense, right? Yeah. Then just, did you score more than the other team? Yeah. It's like, did you score more than, like, I don't know.

What an idiotic thing to say? More than the bottom third of the league. Your defense could have turned the ball over on to five, and then you get a touchdown. You're like, look how great our offenses. Get out of here. It's ridiculous. You cannot evaluate an offense that way. In fact, a couple years ago, we saw this with the Philadelphia Eagles.

They were undefeated. I think they were 7 and 0. They were doing great coming off of a Super Bowl loss. Defense playing great. But their offense looked bad. Like, their defense was playing good. Did they come out and say that their offense was amazing? Because that's what Petting would do.

Yeah, I mean. It was like, you saw it and you were like, this offense. And honestly, it's what's happening right now again with the Eagles where you're watching the office. You're going, okay, I know you're winning, but your offense looks really bad. No, Mike, don't watch the video. It'll get you, it'll put you in the state of mind that Jason was in on Monday. You don't want that. I need to meditate, man.

It's good for the ratings, apparently. Some breathing. All right, we're going to jump into the mailbag. Presented by NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV. If you've got a question for the show, it's easy. Go to the website. The Fantasy Footballers.com. Click the submit a question button,

or you can dial the voicemail hotline 302464 TFFB. Let's jump in with a voicemail question to kick it off. Hey, footballers, Dylan here. I was calling because I'm really into Junkins. I wanted to know what you would be willing to give up for him. and in that line, who would you rather have Kenneth Walker or Judkins' rest of season? Thanks. That's a pretty easy Judkins for me.

I think it's fair. Man, it's probably, so it's a Judkins versus Ken Walker rest of season. It might be Judkins. Yeah, I think it's very, very close. It would be Judkins for me. I'm looking at our rest of season rankings, and I've got them ahead. we'll take a quick break and jump into the rest of the mailback all right our next question comes from Brady

starts it questions start Jordan Mason against that Cleveland defense in England or quench on Judkins against the Minnesota defense in the same game so another Judkins question Mason Judkins, what are you doing? The Dylan Gabriel variable is it does matter. I mean, Joe Flacco has been bad, but I still think that defenses paid attention. And if they feel like

if Gabriel is the quarterback, they can just fully sell out to stop the run. That could be it could be an issue for Judkins. I mean, haven't they done that the last two weeks? They've done that. They've done that for Joe Flacco. You don't need to stop Joe Flacco. And also the Cleveland Brown's rush defense is... Yeah. They're the number one in the league.

And they have shut down. It's not like... Kenny Gainwell just went ham on Minnesota. Yeah. They had not been a good rush defense this year. This is... He's not a must bench, but he is an absolute... This week, I'm looking at my roster and I'm saying, do I have someone else to put in? Because if I do, I'm going to throw in a, you know,

a Cam Scataboo. I'm going to throw in guys who haven't necessarily been as good as Mason's so far, but they shut down the Detroit Lions. They shut down the Packers and Josh Jacobs. They shut down Derek Henry. Like, so far people are not doing well against the Cleveland Browns. Yeah, I have Judkins

higher for the week. Drew and Illinois, hey, ballers. I'm having a rough by week and going to have to start at least one of these nasty boys in the flux this week. Please pick one of the following for full PPR. Ready for the nasty boys? Travis Hunter.

Okay. Malik Washington. Harold Fanon I know that if I had those guys on my roster I would start Malik Washington Oh that's what I would do I feel like he's in third place for me The PPR

Gabriel man That matters If it was Joe Flacco It would be an easy hill I mean Travis Hunter isn't even starting Right he's he's playing very limited snaps They seem very confused on how to use them right now They do seem confused, but if last game is any indication,

they basically stopped playing him on defense at the second half. And they moved him to basically just be an offense towards the end of that game. But on the game, it was still like half of the game. By the end of the game, still 56% of stats. So wait, what's your order then? I go Malik Washington, Harold Fan, and Travis Hunter. I'm going to go Fan and Hunter, Washington. I think Malik's at the top for me.

So I'm with Andy. All right, we'll jump into a voicemail. what's up ballers this is josh from new york i am in a dynasty super flex league so this is a real question that i'm facing would you start jake browning or cooper rush love the show bye cooper rush uh who's who's browning play doesn't matter could be your grandmother's no he plays against the detroit lions he scored five fantasy points two games in a row if he was if he's playing Alabama this week, I'd play Cooper Rush. What about when he was the last time we saw him as a starter?

I just want to remind us because he played two of the best defenses in the league. And he's got a tough defense. I'm not playing Jake Browning this week. But I do think after this week, it will open up for him. We saw him start seven games back in 2023. He was the quarterback four, quarterback four, quarterback eight, quarterback eight, quarterback nine. He's not going to score five fantasy points every time. No, but the last time we saw him play was actually the last few weeks.

And those are the ones I care about. Yeah, I'm just saying those also were great defenses. Yeah, either way, it's Cooper Rush this week. Yeah, it's, he might have forgotten how to do the football thing. I mean, that has to be one of your interpretations, right? He's forgotten how to do the football thing is one answer to why it's been so, so bad. Now, I will say this, in 2023, there's no way that their offensive line was as bad as it is right now. And so

that's going to happen the rest of this season. Bad defenses might look good against them. This is a good question. Starts it from you to Matthew writes in. Would you rather start Bo Nix against Philadelphia in Philly or Daniel Jones at home against the Las Vegas Raiders?

Because Bo Nix had a good week but Philly's a tough matchup. You've seen him flounder at times. I think Bo Nix is going to be Are you playing him? Okay. Are you playing him this week? No, because I'm playing Justin Fields. against Dallas. Oh yeah. That seems like a good thing. The Dallas

matchup makes that easy. But Bo Nix is not a abandoned at all costs this week, but Daniel Jones is, I think, a better option this week. I think that's well said. You don't have to bench Bo Nix, but Daniel Jones looks like he's got more upside and a

safer path. Yeah, you got to remember last week, one of the worst looking matchups was a talented Dak Prescott against the top-tier defense without his top-wide receiver, you know, sometimes things work out. And sometimes, you know, you have to come back in a game and you're throwing the ball all over the place. And so Bo Nix is, they're a good enough offense where I don't think they're going to completely collapse.

Who do you prefer rest of season? We just got the Braylon Allen news. James writes in, says, Breece Hall. Okay. Travis E.T.N. Who would you rather have rest of the season? Oh, wow. We know.

know that the schedule had been pretty good for ETM, but then he had another big game. He's played very, very well. Breece Hall does not have Breland Allen to contend with. Kansas City, Seattle, the Rams, the next three weeks. We talked about ETN on the Dynasty pod.

Did you? Yeah, of pointing out, like, not, I don't want to take anything away from Travis E.T.N. or what the Jags have done. But the, they played Carolina, the Bengals, Houston, and San Francisco. Like, this, this happens every year in fantasy football someone starts out real hot and because we don't have the we don't

have enough knowledge to know which ones are the defenses and then you look back when when a player falls off and you go oh well they started with at what turned out to be more cupcake matches this year and the the next three are very very tough for ETN yeah i mean san francisco's a pretty good defense they're okay yeah and and he torched them so i don't i don't think it's going to be I have both these guys in my dynasty league. They're my running back two and three, and I would prefer Brees Hall. Yeah, that's where I am as well.

Hopefully, you know. They're both great. Yeah, exactly. Hopefully they're both great. But if I had to pick one, especially without Braylon Allen, it's Brees. Instagram trade question from Ramir. Is C.D. Lamb for Armani in Hampton a fair trade? if you really need a running back, I wouldn't do it. You wouldn't do it if you had CD? No.

Oh, I'd be totally fine. I thought it was actually the other side that you were. Yeah, because I value running backs more than wide receivers, and I think Hampton's a potential top five, six, seven back the rest of the season, and you miss, you get games that you're not going to have CD. So I actually, based on that conversation, super fair trade. Sure, fair trade. For two people to disagree on.

who wins. Yeah, exactly. I don't think it is completely unfair. I'd be on the C.D. Lamb's side. What's funny is, would you trade Justin Jefferson? Same question, Justin Jefferson for Armani and Hampton. Yeah, I would do that. Yeah, I mean, and Jefferson's healthy. So, and was drafted higher than CDI. Yeah.

In some leagues. But you see the quarterback play difference. I'm still Dack is playing so, so, so well. I'm still so excited for my C.D. Lam Dack stack that I'm, you know, I'm not, I'm not moving off of that. I know it's been tough sledding. and you've got to get through this injury. But, I mean, we just saw it with DAC and George Pickens last week.

There's going to be potential outputs that are like when DAC and CD a couple of years ago won people their leagues. It's not going to be Jamar Chase and Joe Burrow anymore. So if you're like, who's the best thack to have by the end of this year, you know, it's not Stafford and Puka because Stafford doesn't end up finishing usually great. I don't know. It's not an argument against CD Lamb's. It's an argument for Omarian Hampton, who's been a top. I mean, RB6, RB5 last two weeks, and it's only going to get better, I think.

Man, do you realize a snap count for Hampton last week? I would imagine it was... 80? Probably higher. 90? Lower. Okay. 89. Yeah. He is... The Noggi absence, big, big workload. YouTube question from Jacob.

What is Bill Worth in a dynasty league? less than he was a couple weeks ago. And also, I would say not that much. I would I like Bill more. It's so funny for a player like this to exist. But I prefer the rookie more in redraft

than I do in Dynasty, which that's a rare thing. Usually a rookie is even more valuable in Dynasty. You've got a long career ahead of them. But this is, we talk about it all the time with guys that break out on day three or later undrafted. They're usually replaced in their career. You know,

maybe Bill Krosky can end up being incredible and just he takes over the role by the end of the year and they double down and say you're our our bucky Irving and you're going to be our future that is in the range of outcomes that is not my expected outcome here I think this team is desperate for a running back and next year they're going to either on the free agent market or in the draft invest in a running back that will make him irrelevant Would you start Chris Olive against the Giants

or Elylech-Ele-Manner against Arizona? I would be OLAVe for me. Yeah, I would start OLAV. OLAVe is getting incredible volume. I mean, the Pooka-Stat, the player of first

Reed targets, the guy who was tied for second is Chris O'Lave. Olave is on pace for 182 targets. These are not super valuable targets, but yeah, they're thrown

by a snake. Well, it's becoming his thing. It's actually becoming who Chris Olivae is. Because you were at 5.7 a catch last year. You're at 6.7 to catch this year. This is now the new Chrysolawee to some degree. And part of it is, like you said, it's Spencer Rattler or... I think it was a Derek Carr-Spenter-Ratler combination.

But it's also, like, you've seen this. I mean, there becomes a point in certain players' careers where they're not the downfield guy anymore. You know, you have much better downfield players. Rashid Shaheed is a better downfield player than Chris Olavie. Yeah, I can agree with that. I think the area of the field where Olavé is very good and is not

good with the current quarterback situation is not the deep shot, but the mid-range. You know, the middle level, that 15-yard reception where I think he can thrive and I don't think the quarterback can get it to him right now. That was today's mailbag.

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excluded no refunds do we get any other injury news to end the show any other players placed on season ending I are that I need to worry about no sir yeah let's make sure that backup options that Michael Carter like this news for everybody

came out after their waiver wires went through so he's going to be competed for tomorrow if nobody picked them up so make sure you do that and we will catch you tomorrow with starts of the week breaking down the matchups for week five we'll get into our first bye weeks of the season and make sure you check the community out join thefoot dot com we'd love to have you goodbye thank you for listening to another episode of the fantasy footballers podcast join our fantasy football community on join the foot dot com and follow us on Twitter at the FF Ballers.