Purple Insider - a Minnesota Vikings and NFL podcast - Is the Jets run game more dangerous than Rodgers? Where's Adams going?

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

Matthew Coller and Mike Schopp of The Deep End Fantasy podcast and WGR550 in Buffalo talk about Davante Adams' trade request and whether Aaron Rodgers is really the threat to the Vikings Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Purple Insider, Matthew Pollard here and it is the Purple Insider Fantasy Shope with Mike Shope, the Deep End Fantasy Football Podcast and WGR 550 in Buffalo. And of course, our show is presented by Underdog Fantasy, the easiest place to play fantasy sports. Make sure you sign up with the code purple to claim your special pick and first time deposit offer up to $1,000 in bonus cash. Must be 18 or older.

Terms apply. Concern with your play. Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. Mike, we have a lot to discuss here, but I think the best place to begin is with Devontae Adams. I thought that we had escaped the dark world of trade rumors when Brandon Ayuk re-signed, and apparently not, because Devontae Adams wants out of the Las Vegas Raiders, and he wants to join his own friends, which I think is precious. He wants to go to the Jets. He wants to go to the Saints. Give me back my old favorite quarterbacks. But do you think that Devontae Adams gets traded?

Where does he go? What are the implications? Talk to me about football. I would think at this point he probably does get traded. It probably also should have happened way long ago if the Raiders really were realistic about their chances. You never know. Even last year's Raiders season is sort of an example of why you don't necessarily think that way.

Everybody tells you that you're going to be bad and it makes sense, but it's football. There's a lot of luck in it, a couple injuries. Somebody's better than you thought. And that team won at Arrowhead last year on Christmas day I think and ended up around 500 which gives you a look at a playoff spot these days with seven seven spots per conference but you know again probably the Raiders were going to struggle and the move was to trade him earlier they didn't so now assuming everything we've heard is accurate, that he wants out,

I mean, we're not even sure if we believe that he's injured. And that, I think, was reasonable to say last week, given the circumstances. What do the Raiders do about his whatever, to whatever extent, demands we're talking about here? The Raiders should only want the best deal. It shouldn't matter, in my opinion, even if it comes from inside their own division. They should want to get the most they can get. So is that necessarily the Jets? No. Or New Orleans? I think there are four or five other teams that you could make a case really should try to acquire him. Buffalo, Kansas City are kind of obvious. Kansas City has the Rashi Rice injury now. You also have, I think Baltimore could make some sense. I think Dallas could. Now they've lost

Brandon Cooks apparently. So I think there's got to be plenty of demand for him. And if he wants to go for a team like that, where they are in the pecking order here, I think probably he does get moved. In fantasy, it gets really complicated to think about what the landing spots might mean for him and for the other players on that team. Yeah, with him, I feel like he is the caliber of player that there's going to be half the league making that phone call because he is a legitimate difference maker. And even last year, the Vikings played them and the Vikings shut them out, actually. But when you watched him and how good he still was, he was getting open all the time. And he had that meltdown with the Jimmy Garoppolo thing.

But that was because he was wide open and Jimmy Garoppolo could not get him the football. So I think that Devontae Adams' frustration, especially his team, doesn't find a way to draft quarterback. They're running out Gardner Minshew, who is not very accurate and is just your classic sort of Ryan Fitzpatrick-y backup quarterback, who they're asking to start an entire season with basically no other option. I fully understand why Adams looks around and goes, I'm not going to win here. I've only got so many more years in my career. Give me an opportunity to potentially win somewhere. But then when you have every team calling, like what do the Raiders do?

I guess I agree with you. They should go to the highest bidder because I don't look at them as being a year away from winning. Like, oh, if we give Kansas City a good player, then what? Well, I mean, by the time you're good, it's not going to matter. Maybe they don't look at it that way, and they would prefer to give them to the Saints. good player then what well I mean by the time you're good it's not going to matter maybe they don't look at it that way and they would prefer to give them to the Saints the Saints don't have a lot of cap space as per always with the New Orleans Saints but it looks like it would be

tricky to make that happen could we make a lot of snarky remarks if Buffalo traded for him after talking about how great it was not to have a number one receiver I mean I I'm just so locked and loaded for that conversation and have been for a few days here just I mean it just goes against everything they said this year's team was about like oh well you know whoops I just he's exactly what we're talking about here I mean I don't know I I want to be and I am I've changed a lot over the years. I've kind of gone the other way, I think, in terms of how people, their impressions and their attitudes about sports change as they get older.

When I was younger, I always sided with the team in these disputes. I always felt like, no, you work for them, and they will tell you how it works. And if they can rip up your contract in football, unlike other sports, they can. and just very pro management and and now 25 years later I'm almost always on the player side they have leverage they you know have rights etc Adams I mean it's a little rich if it's about winning you signed with the Raiders or were traded to the Raiders, and we knew that you wanted that.

So who goes to the Raiders to win? Like, what's your story now? Now it's about winning. I mean, I'm not sure he's exactly said that or said anything at this point except how his coach didn't call him. I guess, you know, players have that kind of power, and they expect things, and I guess it's a coach's job to make sure, you know, in most situations,

the player gets what they want. The Jets, who the Vikings play Sunday morning, of course, are everybody's number one for this because of Rodgers. And they're so, they've so set up a season where they really need to win and they don't look that good. Like everything about it would have you think that they should just push in their chips for Devontae Adams I think

and if that's where he wants to go that would make it easy if there's a negotiation there the tough one is Garrett Wilson Matt I mean Garrett Wilson is so talented you have so many of these receivers this year one who plays tonight I think Drake London is kind of the same where you've got a first-round pick, lots of ability, but their offense really can't, or their quarterback, who might in both cases are coming off torn Achilles tendons, they can't figure out what to do or how to do it, or even necessarily in Rodgers' case, if he wants to do it.

He's always so cryptic with him. And I could see Wilson being like these Packers receivers he shunned before he was traded to the Jets, being frustrated. And so they've already got Lazard, and Rodgers is feeding him. And if Adams comes in, I mean, I can't imagine Wilson gets moved. But, I mean, that just basically takes him to almost zero, maybe, in fantasy football, which is super tough. I mean, that can't imagine Wilson gets moved, but I mean, that just basically takes him to almost zero, maybe, in fantasy football, which is super tough. I mean, that's a late first-round pick.

We've already had enough of that this year. That's just one possible outcome. Yeah, the Jets one is the most interesting and makes the most sense to me because they took this huge shot at Aaron Rodgers. Please come save us. We've failed on all of our quarterback draft picks, mostly ever since Ken O'Brien.

But even then, there were better options that year than Ken O'Brien. And since then, it's been such a struggle for the Jets. Let's just go for it. Let's just make the big swing. Even though there were some warning signs with Aaron Rodgers that it was starting to drift in 2022 and also that he had become more difficult to work with in 2022 I think that Matt LaFleur did a great job of kind of reinvigorating him for a couple of years and dancing the delicate dance with him and his

personality but when he decided it was more important to go on vacation than mini camp. And I know that sometimes a quarterback shows up at the end of the year and plays pretty well or something or the end of the summer plays pretty well. And we go, Oh, that doesn't matter or whatever. But to paraphrase something Kirk cousins once said, it's not the mini camp. It's what the mini camp represents. It represents that you thought going on vacation was more important. That sends a message to everybody and now it seems like he just only wants to be with his buddies randall cobb has got to end up playing for this team at some point uh because i mean it just he

won't throw to anyone who hasn't played with him before i also think too there's a lot of things offenses have changed in the last five years a lot of these motions a lot of the way that they react and respond to defenses and the ebb and flow of offense versus defense in our wonderful game and rogers just seems like he wants to play like he's always played and that's it and i think that that's hurting everyone because the receivers have come up in a different game than aaron rogers and everyone's looking at each other going what what exactly are we doing and I honestly think Devontae Adams isn't the only answer because he knows how Rodgers wants to play yeah that could be right I've seen a lot of the same

things you have and I'm by the way thinking of along some of these same lines you know more important to go on vacation as it were. You remember the former Buffalo Sabres player, Paul Gostad, who I did with my co-host on WGR, the Bulldog regular shows with when he was on the team. And, you know, he was fine. We had easy conversations between the segments. So we got to know him a little bit and that was at the time where the Cowboys had lost or maybe the game hadn't even happened yet to the Giants in the playoffs and Tony Romo reportedly had gone on vacation with his girlfriend Jessica Simpson maybe does that sound right I'm old for this kind of thing but that they that they went away for a

week this is the Beckham and the boat story too, like before a playoff game. And I remember Paul during a break asking us just kind of randomly, Hey, you guys, do you think that was the right move for him to go on vacation before the playoff game? And I think we both were sort of like, sure, that's his time, you know? And Gostad just went like this, just shook his head. I mean, there are times in any job when it's just sort of the right thing to do is to be a part of it. And while it seems, sorry to go on on this, but it seems correct that the employee has rights and should have earned certain privileges

sometimes, especially in a team sport maybe, where that can backfire, and if you're the quarterback. So I think a lot of that same baggage is there with Rodgers. I don't even know if it works. I just think the Jets have to make that move if they can. I think an expensive defensive tackle could do that, and no one would say anything. But a quarterback is very different. And it's sort of funny how that works because I remember a story that there's a guy, Ryan Harris, who is from Minnesota, but he won the Super Bowl with Gary Kubiak and the Denver Broncos.

And I asked him, I was like, what was that like, man? Going to the Super Bowl and working with Gary, who's such a legend. And he said that when they won the AFC championship, that Gary gave a big speech about the, give me two weeks of your life. You know, the, give me two weeks of your life and we, then it will pay off. And it just resonated with everybody. He said, everybody was locked in from there. And it's sort of like with Rogers give, give mini camp two weeks of your life man uh

but rogers quiet quitting may be the only uh thing that holds them back no matter what and if you're adams i think you have to be still concerned that you're going to go there and he's just not the same guy which does tie into our contest in london on sunday, how much of Rodgers is still Rodgers? Because Kevin O'Connell in attempt to lock in the team, got a cut up of all the great Rodgers throws from this year so far. And he showed them to the defense and he said, see, he could still throw the football, which I fully believe. But you know what I've also noticed, Mike? Average depth of target, very short. This man does not want to get hit. That is my impression, is that Rodgers does not want to get hit.

Do you think that this comes back to life for him at some point, or is this just going to be the version of Rodgers that's there the whole season? I think the offense he's in, I mean, I know you're talking about how much power he has over it. I mean, he probably picked the coordinator, Nate Hackett himself too. So, you know, I think the point about old school, new school, kind of when it comes to him and that offense makes sense, that makes you really question whether they can find more. And Adams as a singular piece of that could help a lot.

But are the schemes going to change? Do they even want them to? Can they win enough games against teams like the Patriots, which they did, or even the Bronco game? They missed a field goal to win that game and be 3-1, and the defense is really good, so it makes you think that they're probably not thinking about structural changes, even if it were possible

with this quarterback. So I don't know. I mean, this is not the team, the Vikings you want to play when you're worried about not getting hit or getting hit because that's been the story of their, their season, at least on defense this year. And it's been, you know, one of the great stories in the league, both sides of the ball, Minnesota, um, Wilson, you know, back to him, he's the game changer. His higher, lower number on underdog, I've just gotten so good at that, by the way. I'm jinxing it now, but knowing how to say it,

56 and a half yards, something like that for this game Sunday. Come on, it's Garrett Wilson, and he's the clear only, sorry, Conklin fans, but like dangerous player in that passing attack, 56 and a half or something around there just is very, very modest. So I don't know, like I, in fantasy football, Garrett Wilson was one of my favorite picks this year, late first round. I liked him over Puka Nakua, injuries being a part of that too, just Nakua and his college career and you know he's gotten hurt already and I liked him over the running backs there one of whom was Saquon Barkley

who has kind of been the pick of the year or one of them in fantasy football so Wilson is a source of frustration there I don't see you know a huge I think what I would do this week with him is maybe pick the lower, but also pick a touchdown. The game against New England is an example of that, where he really didn't, he wasn't making a meaningful difference in that game, but he made a beautiful catch on a touchdown play in their win over the Patriots. That's the kind of game I would guess we get from him Sunday.

So with Rodgers, I just have a rule, never doubt the legends, because for some reason, every once in a while, they'll just find it. Even if we're all talking about how washed they are, like Peyton Manning in the playoffs in 2015, in I think not so much the Super Bowl, it wasn't necessary, but in the two playoff games, he played fantastic, even though he had been hideous for the entire season. Tom Brady had that one last gasp of breath where he got the bucks into the playoffs.

So I don't think that you can look at Rodgers. Even Favre in 2010 had a couple of games where he went, whoa, is that still the same Brett Favre? So you should never doubt that last gasp. But if he's not throwing to Wilson, I just don't see that team as having too many other people that really scare you. But what have you made of their backfield? Because the Vikings have not been tested at all by anyone's run game.

Jordan Mason averaged five yards to carry. It did not matter because they were San Francisco was losing Josh Jacobs. I think average 5.7 yards to carry. It did not matter. They were losing by a lot of points. So I don't have any real sense for how good this team could be if another team was able to dominate in the run game yeah that's probably the Jets path to victory here if they can get it going and Brees Hall who is one of everybody's favorite running backs for talent in the league just went 10 carries for four yards

against Denver so that's in question. They're using Braylon Allen quite a lot, actually, right from the get-go this year as a compliment to Hall. That's been kind of a surprise that they haven't. I mean, Hall is pretty close to that prototypical Belcal running back, but the Jets have still used Allen a lot. He's been very effective. So that could be it.

You want to keep the pressure off Rodgers here, have still used Allen a lot. He's been very effective. So that could be it. You know, you want to keep the pressure off Rogers here. And obviously the running game is how you could do that. I don't know, like Minnesota against the run so far, you're talking about there have been weaknesses, but the game script might be, you know, telling you that that's kind of a lie. Still, that's what I would want to do if I were the Jets here. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. Another Viking question for you philosophically, maybe. So I was poking around the early Vikings statistics and I noticed something sort of curious. They have three receivers who all average 17 yards per catch or more, which is wild. And in a world where Meluiper wants to ban safeties from trying to play football or

whatever and that no no one found that funnier than the vikings coaches by the way they're like we've had justin jefferson for years and we never see single high so we've still been okay and been able to carry on playing football but this is kevin o'connell's bread and butter manipulating defenses creating space for his wide receivers he is this is his cheat code and i also think that he leans on his cheat code a little much because even though 17 yards per reception is fantastic what year is it i mean is it like 1994 where you only threw 300 times a year and tried to complete, you know, a 40 yard pass every time this is, I think with O'Connell, I'm curious to see if he starts to adapt a little bit to get his wide receivers

more volume type of receptions than just trying to hit them down the field. Or if potentially when TJ Hawkinson comes back, which sounds like it's going to be LA in a few weeks, that that's going to be their underneath option. I don't know what to make of this because I just don't feel like any of these receivers is getting big volume, but they're rather using them

for all these downfield passes. I mean, I think in terms of Jefferson, I would still be super optimistic. We're talking about statistics and he is a game wrecker. Like he's somebody that the Vikings can do anything they want with. He's the number one problem every team the Vikings play have. So I don't know that that really has to regress. I think for Addison, I mean, coming off last week, the touchdown efficiency with Addison has been crazy in his career so far. I mean, that's not something I would want to bet on continuing on the same rate.

And then Naylor, of course, too. You also have Jones. I mean, what a game this is. The NFL with Darnold versus the Jets and then Aaron Jones against Rogers here. And, you know, two interesting teams. The Vikings, a great story. They did great. I'm glad, you know, Sunday mornings are a fantasy hell

because you just have to get everything in position so early. Still, I love that matchup. Jones is catching four passes a week. He's been a huge priority in their offense overall. Tried to get him in the end zone last week to no avail, maybe against the Packers in that game. So, you know, he, he's a great, he's a great running back and he's kind of perfect for that kind of balance when your receivers are hitting downfield, like on that same rate,

which is what Darnold wants to do. He's got Jones and then it'll be Hawkinson who can kind of be either, I think when he comes back. So they're in a great position. You know, Jefferson is right now, if we were drafting again, which you can do on Underdog, by the way, in Best Ball Resurrection, starting in week six. Those drafts are live now, but the tournament starts next week.

Jefferson is sometimes the first overall player. Oh, yeah, and I think that he should be because Darnold has really learned to trust him, especially in the biggest moments. And the funny thing at Jefferson is so good. There were five other times on the tape that Darnold probably could have just thrown it to him. And he still ends up with a huge day. He still ends up with a fantastic touchdown. I've just, other than Randy Moss, I've never seen anyone who tracks the football this way he was talking yesterday about the touchdown that he caught on his back shoulder and he said well the guy was in front of me and I didn't really see the football until it was right there and

it kind of just hit me and then I grabbed it like oh as one does I mean and after the game Darnold was talking and he said yeah that that catch was one of the best I've ever seen. I was like, I'm not sure which he's talking about because that was one of them. But then the sideline catch was another one. It's just, it's absurd. That's going nowhere. But the distribution between Addison and Naylor is interesting, especially when you get Hawkinson back. And you mentioned Jones.

We went back and forth. Every fantasy, when I go on XM sometimes, they always ask me, Hey, what's Ty Chandler has a quarterback sack this year by the way do you notice that there's a play where he's like zero for zero he's listed at pro football reference under quarterbacks and he's zero for zero but he's been sacked once oh yes oh yes what happened was they ran a trick play and he was supposed to throw it so he went like this to throw it yeah and then he decided the guy wasn't open or whatever and he didn't throw it and he was supposed to throw it. So he went like this to throw it, and then he decided the guy wasn't open or whatever, and he didn't throw it. And he, I think, may have just ran out of bounds,

but they had to give him a sack because he was meaning to throw the football. That's complete silliness. Love that. Also, I didn't know that, do they take away the quarterback running yards when the guy fumbles? Because Sam Darnold scrambled a couple times and should have averaged like eight yards a run, but he ended up with two yards a run

because I think they gave him a seven-yard loss on the fumble. Oh, I don't know. I think those are team yards when that happens. Maybe there were other causes for that. I'm not sure, but fun with numbers. We've gone into a silly place. Hey, that's my fault. You bring up Ty Chandler, you know, quarterback sack rate.

That's my fault. But these are the kind of, like this didn't happen to me, obviously, the kind of happenings that sometimes tip fantasy results and we never forget them. You know plays the lateral plays at the end of games where your guy gets charged with a fumble lost or negative 10 yards anything like that at an interception sometimes I mean just crazy stuff happens on that last play and if you're following your fantasy week closely you sort of dread that you want to you're rooting

against the possibility for one team to have one snap from their 30 and four seconds on the clock so there's a couple other things that i wanted to run by you mike and one of them is rishi rice getting injured by his own quarterback unfortunately and he was one of our favorites in the offseason to go back to and say he should probably be drafted rishi rice he's going to be good don't worry about the office the field offseason to go back to and say, you should probably be drafted Rasheed Rice. He's going to be good. Don't worry about the field offseason stuff. He's going to catch passes from Mahomes. And I think that as much as we do laugh about,

oh, we don't need a number one wide receiver, if there's any team that can actually say that because they won the Super Bowl without necessarily having that player last year, although Rice kind of emerged. I still think that this is problematic for the Kansas City Chiefs, that they need to find an answer because Travis Kelsey has not been the same. How do you think they respond?

What are the fantasy implications of losing their best wide receiver? The Rice injury is pretty much the worst thing you have happened to you in fantasy football because everything you said, and he was kind of a steal, and you almost knew that if he weren't suspended, you would have just a great mid-round pick that was in such a position. I talked about that underdog best ball resurrection tournament. He would have been, or maybe, I don't think it had started yet before the injury, but he would have been a first-round pick in that easily

for what kind of volume he was getting in Kansas City. Now what? The combination of Marquise Brown never getting there, then Pacheco getting hurt, and now this. I mean, they're squeaking by. They're Kansas City, and it's easy to just assume they're injury-proof and they'll win anyway, but I don't think so. I don't think any team is really that. So what do they do without Rice, who, by the way, as we're talking, maybe even comes back? They didn't announce the torn

ACL like teams will do immediately once they know that that test happens right away, and there's nothing to fool around with, he's done. That did not happen with Rice. And yesterday, Patrick Mahomes was talking somewhat optimistically about him coming back. It still won't be for a while, though. You're going to get Kelsey, as happened last week after Rice got hurt, doing more of what Rice was doing. You know, shorter over the field, the kind of stuff that they're obviously hoping and his fantasy managers also are hoping, you know, he's still got enough in him to be able to do. It's not going to be what Hawkinson does in terms of downfield stuff, certain other

tight ends, but, you know, it's still Travis Kelsey. So I think him for now, Xavier worthy, it's still not going to be, or it hasn't been at least much volume, but there's the big play potential that hit last week in LA for a winning touchdown. And they'll probably, and this time's well for them. Cause he's now a month into his career. There's probably more there. And after that, I think the next guy, at least from a fantasy standpoint who might be relevant is Juju Smith Schuster, who they brought back after new England had cut him.

And he got in the end zone. Like he, a couple of weeks ago, he's playing a role. Really, there's almost no one else. There's Justin Watson, who's run routes for them for a couple of years, but has never made any sort of statistical impact. And I think with Kansas City also, you're looking at Noah Gray, multiple tight ends, and he has a little bit of talent too. So, I mean,

they're in tough. Kareem Hunt is the running back now. Juju is going to play meaningful snaps. Kelsey, that's kind of five years ago right now in the Chiefs offense. Again, there's still maybe a chance they get Rice back. And one more name I think to consider for Kansas City, even though he's not on the Chiefs, is Amari Cooper. As we talked about Devontae Adams and trade possibilities for him, Cooper is out there, I think, too. If the Browns decide to move on from him, they did a thing with his contract to convert all his money so he wouldn't cost a new team the real money. Maybe that's somebody that ends up with Kansas City

who could really be know that could really be a good match yeah I feel like at this point they have to make some sort of move and Adams I just don't see the Raiders giving it inside the division I could see inside the conference but I inside the actual division but the one thing that Kansas City has going for them is who is going to challenge them in that division. Bo Nix is out here throwing for 60 yards. The Raiders are on fire. It's just the Chargers are just clearly not there yet. They probably need another year or two of trying to build up high-end talent. So even if Kansas City can grind their way to 10 or 11 wins, they're still going to be fine. But can they

be a dynamic offense from a fantasy perspective? I think they're going to to be fine, but can they be, you know, a dynamic offense from a fantasy perspective? I think they're going to have to distribute the ball all over the place unless they do get someone like Cooper. If anybody should be making noise and demanding out of a place, it's Amari Cooper. He had to have gone there thinking, well, this is going to be great. I've got Deshaun Watson, and that is just never coming back. Whatever used to be there for Deshaun Watson,

but an exciting quarterback who is uh young and up and coming who does not seem to know how to throw an incompletion is uh jayden daniels i have enjoyed or i'm just fascinated by a rookie class that's this big normally we get two first round quarterbacks oh Oh, we'll see which guy is better. It's not often that we have six of them. So McCarthy is out till next year. Does not look like we're going to see Michael Penix, at least as of now.

And Drake may pray for Drake may, if he has to play for that football team, I think they're doing the right thing, keeping him on the bench. But Jaden Daniels has jumped to the front of the line as the clear-cut leader for this draft class. Are we thinking that this continues? Is it fluky?

Is it they kind of jacked up the offense a little bit, enough to get him some easy completions and allow him to run? Or is this dude just amazing? Well, they definitely have, and this was a surprise to me, built it right, I think. Throw in the horizontal raid, the so-called Cliff Kingsbury horizontal raid, seems to be the right plan. I mean, Zach Ertz, speaking of five years ago,

he matters in that offense. And the running backs have been productive. They lost Austin Eckler, but then they got Jeremy McNichols involved. He might have scored twice in Arizona. I was really, by the way, taken aback by how easily they won that game, that Arizona couldn't move the ball on them, which I think is a very bad sign potentially for the Cardinals. But Daniels has done kind of everything right.

He has executed the offense. He's got the 81% or something completion percentage, which is madness. You're seeing the big throws, too, to beat the Bengals. That McLaurin play was insane. He's taking that hit and just drops it into McLaurin beautifully there. So there's that. And, of course, the rushing is what helped get him to the Heisman Trophy and second overall draft pick.

So that shouldn't be going away. They're a good story, and so is he. And my favorite thing about it, and I know we've talked about it, is just how much of a guess it is the whole time trying to project what rookies are going to be able to do, who's good, who's not. You have Caleb Williams, who with that offense, which is really, really tough to watch I mean the the route trees on their guys all the hype about the Bears and their talent at receiver

no you know rookie quarterback has ever fallen into a better situation but their offense is really bad and making his life harder and And Washington's, again, I think surprisingly, makes a lot of sense. So very exciting times there. Yeah, what's always hard to figure out with something like that is with the Caleb Williams part. Is it because Caleb Williams can't handle anything more than what Shane Waldron is trying to give him? Because the chicken and egg, is it the quarterback's fault? Is it the coordinator's fault?

And we've done that a lot with Sam Darnold where, Hey, this guy was playing for Adam Gase and Matt rule. No wonder he didn't win a heck of a lot of games. And then he comes to play with Kevin O'Connell and Hey, suddenly the guy looks really confident throwing it to Justin Jefferson and Jordan Addison. So they surrounding cast and circumstances, but there's also that coaches can only do what they believe their player can execute and if they don't think

that Caleb Williams can execute kind of a full field type of offense and they're trying to get all these short passes to just get him completions and some confidence the other thing is too if someone is wide open down the field Caleb Williams has to them, and he has not done that at all so far. I've got to think that that starts to show up. But there's an age gap between these guys now, where it used to be every rookie quarterback was going to be 20, 21, or maybe 22. And if the guy was 23, we're like, get rid of him.

Don't even talk about him anymore. He's way too old. But now, with the covid year and everything else we saw a lot of quarterbacks come out older and it just seems that jayden daniels was more ready for this and if they continue to build to his strengths i think it will carry on because he has such natural athleticism natural deep passing he's a huge guy which also helps uh the one thing I wonder about though, is the Kingsbury effect where first halves of the season, 2021, Kyler Murray is untouchable.

And then second half of the season, it falls off the edge of a cliff and it happened edge of a cliff. It happened so many times with him that I want to see this over six to eight weeks and see if this offense is going to work rather than, well, of course he could trick people for a few weeks in the league. Right. And there's always that dilemma too. When do you trust it? Jordan Love gave us that challenge last year with his huge second half. Like, all right, do we want to buy into this? Speaking of guys, a guy who had gotten had gotten older uh then another guy in this conversation i'll give you two today is cj stroud's 23rd birthday and he had that insane rookie year you know what's going to happen this year so far mostly so good and one more would be anthony

richardson who the colts drafted super young and far, I think in pretty obvious and important ways, he looks super young. You know, he's not been able to protect himself on the field, and that sort of concern has limited, I think, their offense overall. And he's passing up, no pun intended, seemingly easy chunks on the ground by trying to figure out where am I supposed to go with this ball and ends up kind of in a negative play. So really fun time in the league, and Daniels is right up there with Stroud and these young quarterbacks who've made a great impression so far. Is it too early to anoint? Yes. Oh, of course. Yeah, of course it's too early. It's always too early to anoint.

If we're still arguing about Brock Purdy and whether he's good, which I think we were there you love younger players for this, that unknown. And then, Oh, Oh, Oh, okay. Washington. Now you have a quarterback for the first time since Mark Rippon or something. Well, it's what I like to do. Anybody who's playing a lot of fantasy football, drafting a lot of these underdog best ball teams every once in a while, you look them up, how's it going? and which teams have a real chance to win there are always going to be plenty of dead teams you can't control the injuries and you know the brightest drafter

is still going to succumb sometimes to the randomness and you know whatever it is puka or mcafree just guys that you're not getting. A.J. Brown, even since week one. It happens. But, you know, like a lot of people probably go through, oh, this team is winning. Why? Jaden Daniels. Like, the quarterbacks are on top. And so often you see his name where a guy like Mahomes has hardly ever had a big fantasy week in going on a year now almost.

I've got a team that I have to decide by 9.30 a.m. Eastern Sunday, Mahomes or Darnold. And the prospect of starting Darnold against the Jets, you know, it seems reasonable to do. I think we've talked about this last week. It's back to that decision you make. How is this going to feel if I'm wrong?

If I bench Patrick Mahomes for Sam Darnold, you know, but it seems Geno Smith, same thing, Mayfield tonight even, Dalton Flacco it's crazy right now how you've got this packet of young sometimes really young quarterbacks that are so exciting but maybe struggling and then these olds that wow I mean who are they still in the league uh Just what a, what a time. Well, what, and also you mentioned that like, what a time for Deontay Johnson to get a quarterback who knows where to throw the football to him, which is that,

that seems to me that the offensive minds have gotten so good at scheming that if you can throw it to the right place, you can get pretty far with that. But with the rookies, it's also so complicated on both sides of the ball that if you can get pretty far with that but with the rookies it's also so complicated on both sides of the ball that if you can't see it yet you better have jayden daniel's wheels to be able to bail you out and if you don't or you better have cj stroud's brain which is absolutely freakish in order and even he struggled uh against the vikings just real quick somebody brought up to

me that sam darnold is younger than Joe Burrow, and my mind was absolutely blown. How funny is that? That might have been me, yes. Yeah, maybe it was. Just what a strange league with how that works out. So the Vikings playing on Sunday morning means that football fans in Minnesota get their result early and get to just chill and watch football. So rather than the Thursday night game, I wanted us to look at the pickums from Bill's Texans, a game that has a particular interest for me and the Cowboys and Steelers, which should have interest from anyone who remotely likes football. Maybe you have to be, do you have to be older for this like do do people who are 22 do they look at

the Steelers and Cowboys and say well this is great probably not doubt it doubt it uh but if you're a little bit older than that like I am and maybe you are if you want to own it uh it's a great matchup it's pretty oh yeah I have i have started to embrace that i mean once once uh once players who i watched growing up are having their kids play in the league it's like okay well just just accept accept fate but you know greg lloyd versus michael irvin or something back in the day anyway so let's look at some uh some pickups here for the uh the buffalo game i don't know if you have uh your list of them or you want to talk about a couple of specific players but i i am curious what you think stefan digs does in the revenge game uh several revenge games for

him this year 54.5 yards is his number yeah i think it's he smashes I think I mean the personal motivation the team will want in home stadium to sort of get him there and I think the matchup you know he's running more conservative route trees now more close closer to the line of scrimmage and that's ideal for I think attacking the bills uh at this point Collins over the top opens that up even more. They probably get Tank Dell back. So I think their offense is in a tremendous position for that matchup. The Bills are, at least last time I looked, a one-point favorite.

But I do like a continuation of, although in a different way, what Baltimore, Baltimore just kind of ran through the Bills on Sunday night. I think Stroud and Houston should have a lot of success through the year. Key is always, you know, the pass rush. The Bills have lost Von Miller now to a suspension,

and he wasn't playing a lot, but he did have a sack in each of their first three games. So I don't have a specific pick-em, like, in place for that game yet. But, you know, in terms of digs, I would like the hires, whatever that might be. I think 5.5 catches, 54. half yards, if you can do both. Sure. And even the touchdown is 1.5 X, you know, figure out different ways to build around him.

I think that that's probably pretty good. The bills on offense right now, you know, their, their mantra, everybody eats. I've been calling it everybody snacks because there is just not enough food on the table here. And after three games that went very well, two of which were over pretty much by halftime, the Ravens show up and it was just demolition. And the running game didn't get there and nobody did much. There was a broken play to Shakir,

and that was almost anything they got that mattered in terms of passing game. So I think they could be looking to change things up. Maybe that gets you to Curtis Samuel, who hasn't done almost anything yet. I could see that. I think they should always have incentive to do more with Kincaid. That just kind of goes up and down. But I would like maybe if I'm thinking optimistically,

hires here in terms of the bills, Samuel Kincaid could be two good choices. I feel like I just have not heard a lot about Keon Coleman. What is our Keon Coleman update? Has he become a thing, not a thing? It's just extremes. I mean, he has made a couple of nice plays big catches I think he has eight catches in four games so there's not a lot going on he had a touchdown against Jacksonville he was also benched for a quarter of that game because he missed a meeting

or something and so there was that and then last week there was a big drop in the Ravens loss. So, and that was kind of the story of training camp was he'll do something spectacular, but then seemingly be out of position or make another mistake. And that's tough to live with. You know, you want to make that long-term investment, but for a team in the so-called win now mode, you can only deal with, you only live with so much of that kind of inconsistency. So I'm not really on Coleman right now. And it's such a narrative street game with the digs trade and how Buffalo makes that transition away from him. And Coleman being their first pick is kind of the spotlight would be on him. Of course, they're also in the Devontae Adams discussion too.

So that's weird for me because we spent the whole summer talking about their new approach and it's culture-y. Everybody's happy. Allen made the quip a couple of weeks ago. He's happy to have receivers who don't care about stats, almost definitely pointed at Diggs. And now like, oh, Devontae Adams. So that hasn't happened yet or anything but

they're they're kind of a curiosity right now i don't think they're all set yeah no i i don't think that they should be and it just it's always interesting to me not just that some of the things they say but the fact that they're even saying them like are you guys are you guys nervous that you know like when you say something like that oh well we don't ever seriously care about stats or something like it sounds like you're nervous that you don't know how this is going to go without stefan diggs when you're sort of taking shots it's very much like the i'm this new girl i'm dating she's she's great so much better than the other person she was she nagged you're like i you miss her, don't you? If you knew it, you wouldn't need to say it. The example

for me with the Bills last year was, we're all guessing at what this relationship really is between Allen and Diggs. I just know Allen is working so hard to tell everybody how much he loves him. It's both of these points you just

made combined. Really, why is it so important to just be completely constantly insisting how much you like, I don't know, people weren't exactly questioning that so much, like, yeah, we're fine. I mean, just like you would do if it were normal. Right, right. Maybe a bad time. It's actually some of my favorite things is to try to figure out why people are saying what they're saying at podiums. And, you know, some people will say, oh, well, these interviews, they just they're all cliches like, oh, no, no, no, no. They are windows. They're cliches after games when the guy says we just did it for God or whatever. But on a daily basis, they can't hide. uh justin fields justin fields steelers and cowboys his higher lower number on underdog fantasy 185.5 yards maybe a more interesting one might be total yards 233 and a half and 1.5 touchdowns

i'm intrigued by all of those against mike zimmer who has played fields before and mind F Mike feel or adjusted fields before, but also Micah Parsons that defense is beat up. I'm not sure that I'm buying them at this point. How are we feeling about Justin Fields? I another really interesting one. I like the higher on the total yards because I think it's about time that he gets loose and you know, they lost last week, but it's been a good first quarter of the season for Pittsburgh, 3-1. That particular thing really hasn't happened yet, though. Like, they won a couple of games early where they scored only one touchdown combined. It hasn't really been that good.

Running game either, the weapon that they have isn't Najee Harris, and it isn't wide receiver too. It's Justin Fields' legs. And the way Dallas got run on by New Orleans in week two and then by the Ravens makes me think there should be a way for as much grief as he gets Arthur Smith. This is kind of like his baby where he can get his yards on the ground, and that's an opponent where I think that should be

doable so I don't know if you can get a higher lower on just his rushing but I'm looking for that to pop this week and if the 185 and a half passing is sort of the right number if you will then I'd want to go higher on the on the other one and maybe maybe a rushing touchdown as well the rushing is you can get a rushing touchdown that's got a little odds with it and uh rushing is 43.5 oh yeah for justin fields which i think he should cruise to longest rush 13 and a half i'll do that yeah i mean he is one of the most special runners at the position and if they go back to russell wilson i just will lose entire faith in mike Mike Tomlin because you can you can win with this in that division yes and you this is sort of maybe stealing your thunder with these pickums you got

to pick a pick one on the other side of the game and there are obvious ways to do that with Lamb or whoever but Hunter Lepke Matthew like this is made up. And this is one of these sort of deep divey kind of ones, 10.49 X to score. He's getting the ball fullback and they have no real answer in their running game yet. So I'm not sure the touchdown pick is my favorite way to play that, but I do think he's relevant. I love it. Hunter Lepke, he could only be, you didn't have to tell me he was the fullback.

No, I just knew. I just knew that he was. I did have to tell you he was real. Maybe. No, probably not. Well, he's right in front of me on my phone and my underdog app here. So I did know that, but I should also be aware of all fullbacks that are still existing in the nfl i love that let's let's do that i'm all in i'm all in on the touchdown for

hunter lupke no cooks now either so yeah tolbert is probably relevant in their their offense too maybe i only see touchdown for him on pick them but somebody who i think he's okay. Doesn't it make sense on this to pick like Tolbert, Schoonmaker, Lepke, some weirdo catches a touchdown, right? All of it. Just go with all of it.

I mean, they all are giving you a little extra there or a lot extra. Well, that's kind of what happened in their Ravens loss. Cause it was all garbage time. And it was Kavante Turpin and Schoonmaker and Lepke. Like they all got the ball late in that game. Did they just get all the players with the goofiest names in the NFL?

You got to love it. And I got to love the show as well. It's a very fun as always. And just a quick reminder that if you want to play along with these pick-ems underdog fantasy, the best place in the world, the easiest place to do it in the fastest growing fantasy app in the industry, the pick them so easy to play.

Just pick two and between two and eight stats of your favorite players, just how we laid out. And you can win up to 20 times your money. If you go five for five, sign up with the promo code purple, it helps the show. And it'd be fun for you. Claim your special pick and a first time deposit offer up to a thousand

dollars in bonus cash must be 18 or older. Terms apply. Concerned with your play? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org. Mike, we will do this again next week. Yep. Can I force in the pick-em I did for the Thursday night game just to get it on the record?

Oh, 100%. Yeah, 100%. I haven't won one of these yet, and I want to make sure if I do that you heard about it. I'm going kind of obvious, maybe a little bit not clever enough, but this is where I'm at. I'm going lower on Kyle Pitts, 29 and a half. I don't think they know what to do. And he looks sloppy, maybe even slow for a guy that was such a highly touted prospect. I'm going higher on Tyler Algier, 35 and a half rushing.

They're still using him a lot. I'm going higher on Bucky Irving. I really like Bucky Irving with Tampa, 55 and a half total yards. And I'll go higher on Sterling Shepard, who I know you know is real, but maybe none of us knew until last week that he was in the league on the Bucs. They've lost Jalen McMillan, and Shepard played a role in their game against the Eagles, only 22 and a half receiving yards there, higher for Shepard.

Yeah, I think a game I covered in 2016, Sterling Shepard was a guy the Vikings were worried about. So yes, it did come as a test. Well, no, because this offseason, I was trying to convince Vikings fans, you don't have to get Sterling Shepard because Jalen Naylor should hold down this role. And now there you go. Well, you were wrong. Well, always, always a really good time, Mike. And I'm glad we could do it. And we will do it again every single week for the rest of the season. So I'm having a great time with this. I'm really glad that we've been doing it and we'll talk to you soon.

Thanks.