The Dumb Zone FREE - Action Is The Juice: Week 3 Action Items

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

With Mike “Machine” Marshall and Establish the Run’s, John DaigleWeek 3 reaction and week 4 action items ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

All right. Well, to me, the action is the juice. It's machine. It's John Daigle. He sounds like himself again. I thought that was a really good episode, man. I was like, do we need to be sick each time we do it? I thought it was I was too embarrassed to listen back. Not that I listened back to any of my shows, but I was definitely embarrassed for that one. I was just happy I showed up. So the fact you're telling me it sounded good, I will happily take it. I also got some. uh positive notes and some construction some constructive feedback from friend of the show ted emrick as well who said it helps him the most whenever we focused on buys and sales building your team for the future but also he's an established to run subscriber as dan mcdell is now too so they could just read my waiver content so when we talk about those things they don't care they could find it anyhow so

We'll spend a little extra time at the back end talking about more buys and sales. Yeah, that works. I mean, as the season kind of moves on and we get more information, I think like the conversations will shift a little bit, right? Because that's natural. Yeah, I listen to you the next day on the rest of season 150 show on ETR, which I'd recommend to anybody if you're into that type of thing. And you didn't sound bad.

You just sounded like somebody else. Yes. My voice was entirely gone. My throat was swollen, but as we talked about before the show, the work is the work. There is no, it's like radio. There are no sick days. Like, you may have PTO somewhere in this imaginary world in the back end, but imagine using PTO and I basically only work six to eight months out of the year.

That's not going to ever happen. Right. Like several times I had to remind myself, I was like, that's Daigle talking right now. Yes. Because it just didn't, it didn't sound like you at all. It was very funny. We showed up and most important, I nailed the Drake London by low call before the Thursday game. You got that one, dude. Damn, that was a blow-up.

There are a couple blow-ups this week that I was pretty proud of. I mean, happy Brock Bowers' Week to all those who celebrate and worship the Lord of Titans, Brock Bowers. But, yeah, we'll jump into it, man. Let's get going because, I don't know, there's obviously the running back injuries. are going to lead what you're looking for this week in terms of how to replace these guys if you didn't have one in your roster. But to me, in regard to A-chan,

well, I guess they're both called A-chan now. The A-chan brothers. One deserved to be called A-chan. The other one is still trying to deserve to be called A-chan. Yeah, but both of them were, I mean, not even silent killers, just like straight-up killers on your team, dragging your entire roster down.

And to me, having that guy that you feel obligated to start each week, and then you throw them in there and it takes you like six weeks to get off of it before you really like, man, this just isn't working. I'd rather have that guy injured. So I know, like, I don't want him out for the season. Like, I don't want what happened to Devonavada, the Dolphins version, because I told people to draft him. But I'd rather, you know, you'd rather have a dead guy than a dude that's like you feel obligated to start.

That's one of the oldest things. I think me and Fitz talked about that like year one of doing this podcast. I was like, dude, I'd rather take a guy that I know I can turn over that roster spot than to do this is kind of dragging me down. But obviously a lot of work for a lot of teams out there and managers to replace those guys. And likewise, Brice Hall, because you're probably missing a running back that you got in the first three rounds. this point. And so we'll dive into those guys and how to replace them. I'll start the same place I kind of always do at least this point in the season. I'll probably shift. Maybe next week, maybe the week after we'll start with who's added the most value. But beginning of this season,

I feel like negatives are just kind of compounding. We double count them because it is, is this how it's always going to be? Or is this just how it's, this is all I've seen this year? is this negative stuff from this player. So the guys that I put up here on dudes that lost the most value, five alarm fire in Los Angeles with the Chargers. And leading that front to me is a guy that hasn't necessarily performed awfully. Like all the metrics are like, okay. But it just feels like he's not fitting.

And they really like the guy behind him more. So Amari and Hampton, in terms of what you could trade Amari and Hampton for going into the season or where you had to take him compared to now, man, that feels like his value has been nerfed to hell in just three weeks. So that's tough. I know we talked about it a couple of times, but this week wasn't encouraging at all either with what Keaton Mitchell got to do. where we're at with Hampton right now actually I feel like that's where we were at with Travis ETN last week before he got injured where I didn't want to start him at all some teams I was forced to but didn't want that player whatsoever just wanted to keep him stashed a lot like Trayvion and Henderson last year hoping that his opportunity changed and he then emerged

but with Hampton what's happening is that he's really been the scapegoating but it's unfortunate because it's everyone's fault from the top down. It's a systemic problem that begins with Jim Harbaugh, and again, trickles all the way down. Right now, this is an offense under Mike McDaniel that they want to be run first. They're 27th and pass rate over expectation, so they're pass rate based on average and neutral situations,

but they're 30th and EPE per carry. So they're a terrible run team that wants to be a run first team. And Amarian Hampton is the one who's just been scapegoated here, For better or worse, again, hits his fault too, but it's not all his fault because now his share of backfield touches has dropped from 75% week 1, 81% week 2, all the way down to 54% last week in a game where the Chargers 1 should have won, 2 should have been covered, and then 3, you lose all hope after that when they can't even get that done with the bill scorching back. Not only that, but now if you look at the next month for the Chargers, they have at least, for Justin Herbert in the passing offense, literally the four defenses they face coming up, collectively allowing the fewest fantasy points per game to opposing quarterback.

So I also put Justin Herbert on my drop list. We will get to some of these individuals, but Amari Hampton is one, like you said, lost tremendous value. And I think right now you're either holding in deeper leagues because the options are far and few between anyhow or in shallower leagues. I'm probably selling for 75 cents in the dollar. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's a great call. I think if you can get off him right now before it dips to, you know,

50 cents on the dollar, a classic, a classic sell low. Just get what you can at this point because it's, I don't think it gets better. I think Keaton Mitchell is a realistic answer for what they want to do with the running back position. And I like to think Mike McDaniel has these fancy pass plays where he's like, all right, time to get left.

going time to get tray Harris going time to get around the gadsden going over the middle and then then uh john harball is like not calling from the bullpen he's like give me the run play again give me another run play brother he's like ah shit okay um and then they just ram it in there again even though they can't do it um a guy that i'm getting a little bit worried about um and we'll talk about later in our are kind of like are you worried pyramid where we send the guys up the hill and only pick one of them. David Montgomery. I thought this offensive line was going to be better. I don't know.

And you can say, hey, idiot. It's the Texan's offensive line. But they changed a lot of the pieces. And they drafted some dudes. And I was like, hey, this is legitimately, you know, all you can do is address it and change the personnel and get a hammer of a back. and David Montgomery, but I think he's getting hit behind line of scrimmage north of 60, something, 65%. What did Reeves have? Sixty-eight percent. So it's not just that. You always look at those stats like, Kyren Williams and Blake Corm, for example, last year led the league in success rate

at their position, which tells you that's a Sean McFay stat. Not a Howard Williams or Blake Quorum is good, even though I do think both players add an element to the running game. That's a Sean McFay call on the play's stat. Right now. Right now. Right now. right now both Dave Montgomery and Woody Marks are two of the running backs and the bottom three of getting hit hit before or rushing yards before contact is made. Thus, after contact is made. So thus what that's saying is they are basically both getting hit the moment they touch the ball. And that is an offensive line problem, not the running back problem. Yeah.

Yeah. It's it can be an offensive line problem or also play calling. running into situations. Well, this past week two against the Colts, they faced the highest rate of eight-man boxes because they didn't have either Nico Collins or Jane Viggins. And so the Colts just genuinely, like teams did last year,

with the Chiefs, except they backed up and gave him the lightest box in the league because they didn't respect their running backs. Now they had to respect Kenneth Walker instead of only defending Patrick Mahomes. Last week, the Colt just said, C.J. Strow has to beat us with Xavier, Hutchinson. That's it. So we're just going to play eight men up front and we dare you to run against

us and guess what? The Texans could not run against that. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously they had better plans in Nico and Jaden Higgins on the outside and then you can kind of, you know, counterpunch whenever they do that to you. But yeah, it's, I mean, when when the book gets out on you of he can't beat you over the top, who's going to do it? Jalen Knoll? Like maybe if Tank was healthy, and it'd be a totally different world if Tankdale was healthy and Jaden Higgins was healthy and Nico wasn't on his one month

sabbatical he takes each season then they could have something to work with but right now it is I don't know it's bad it's kind of like malpractice in the coaching ranks whenever you let your biggest weakness like just ruin everything else

and that's what the Texans offense is right now and Dave Montgomery has had two pretty bad weeks in a row and I think that's just a NICO stat almost. That's an absence of NICO stat to me. But I would dare you to try and get whatever end of fourth, beginning of fifth round value for Dave Montgomery right now. Like no one's paying that.

Well, if you do want to sell them, which I'm not even suggesting you do, I would wait until after this upcoming game against the Cowboys and then sell him high if you would like to because Dallas will have no answer for multi-tied-in sets that are stacking the box against them. Yeah. They'll pretend like they've never seen them. A couple of the guys here at the end. Janerian Price, there's obviously a fumbling issue that is happening.

I think it's, was it all three games he has a fumble? Was that right? Just two in his last two. Okay, two in his last two. And then a mecca had buka. It's just bad vibes around. And then Baker Mayfield, obviously dislocated or strained his throwing hand, thumb. three weeks for him

and then we get a quarterback who's not ready to play it's about to get tossed in there so unless I don't know that can go one of that can go very different directions sometimes whenever you have a wider seeper like that with a backup quarterback you can have a who is the guy for the Bengals

that just pepper Jamar Chase for like 45 touches whenever Joe Burrow went out not not Flacco but the whatever random Bengals backup decided like Jake Browning. Jake Browning. There you go.

He decided. Apparently, though, Jake Browning, that was the quarterback who lost to Jalen Daniels, the Buck's new quarterback in this competition. And Jalen Daniels is an undrafted rookie. So all bets are off here to explain the MECA Buka disaster as well to everyone. Just like last year, unfortunately right now, Bucca is top seven. both uncatchable target rate.

So targets that are thrown his way, but deemed and charted as uncatchable, so they're bad targets, Prairie yards, as I also call them, because they're not answered. And then he's also top seven in air yards. So he's getting deep,

uncatchable targets. And what happens is that you become an unusable fantasy receiver. So we need just more efficiency, more accuracy, which is what Baker Mayfield was in the first month of last year. And then we saw in the second half of the season, that's when a Buka taint because they were inefficient targets. Unfortunately, after signing the contract,

these first three games have been horrendous for Mayfield. Yeah, I can watch his games sometimes and go, he's going to get hurt today because he's just trying to do too much. And he was trying to do too much that entire game. He was like running into pressures, just trying to do Superman shit. I was like, he's going to get fucked up before this game's over. and it was a weird little like caught his thumb coming forward scrambling right like drifting throwing off platform like Superman throw type thing but he's been doing that a lot in the first

three weeks and they have not been close to anybody that plays on his football team and it's like come on bud like just play within the system just throw the ball these your rod receivers are okay they're not great they can get open pretty quick that's kind of the style you have deal with it quit trying to go 40 yards down the field and getting your ass kicked because he was just doing it over over. And I swear he made some Superman plays. And then they would come back because of holding. I saw like three or four during that game. And their offense just, they just couldn't sustain drives. They were doing the thing that the defense wanted them to do, which is I'm going to, I'm going to play you, keep everything in front. I'm going to bet that you're going to get a

holding or we're going to get a sack before you can get across the 50. And that's what happened. And he ended up hurting himself. And now he's out three weeks. And I know a lot about Jayland Daniels because he was a pretty big prospect after, I think, a sophomore year at Kansas, just like a dual threat kind of kid. And he never got better. He's fun. He's super fun, at least in college. I don't know how that's going to look next week in the NFL.

But, I mean, he was super fun to watch at Kansas. He was the average 36 rushing yards per game. His last three years is a starter at Kansas. He's a 24-year-old rookie. but that goes for a lot of the quarterbacks coming out now since we have all the red shirt years that stack up that include Tyler Shuck and Carson Beck. So don't even want to put that against him. I think the biggest knock is just to be undrafted and then somehow starting for this disaster

of an offense is the most worrisome part. Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's, you know, we play in some sicko leagues. He's a dude I do have a share of just because I was like, anytime a rookie, just vaults up the depth chart at the quarterback position in some of the leagues we're in. We're like, oh, got to have it because, you know, super flex angle to it. And Jalen Daniels, I was like, really? Really?

Really? I want to roll with Jalen Daniels as a backup? Like, that means he's showing something, but not ready to start in the NFL by any means. And then the last one I put in the list was, you know, same kind of bucket for that David Montgomery's in, and Jacori Kroski Merritt, Bill, his issue, I think, is a little bit more profound in that he is showing extreme trapback tendencies with Rashad White getting more and more work. And then his offensive line is borderline awful. And so he's getting a lot of touches and then he's doing nothing with them and he's not catching passes and not getting the touches in the green zone. And so it's like, wow, man.

Like, cool. I love the usage. Love the 20 touches, but what you should be getting out of that is like 15 to 16 points and you're getting like six to eight each week. And so I don't know what people had in mind for Bill, but it is maybe they had this exact thing in mind. Maybe this is what you thought you were getting out of Bill. But I would, I'd like to think there'd be like a game or two where he would pop. And right now it is just so compressed. Just compress the wavelength on it. He's going here each week. which is great for like a running back four. But I don't think it lets him do anything. May have escaped this past week, though, with the bump just because we are waiting out for Shahd White's potential injury. This team is now also going to London for their next game this upcoming week.

Thus, it may be Austin Eckler, who is not even familiar with the team's playbook, who's now suddenly backing up to Corey Kroski-Marrett. So he could be one of those guys who, still gets 20 touches and falls forward as an RB2. Yeah, I forgot about the heckler thing. I drove right past that. I was like, what's happening?

And then I sold a, I think Peter tweeted something. You might be talking about him with Chuck tomorrow night for the bids. So get familiar. Oh, perfect. Can't wait. Can't wait. That point this season's already here. Yeah.

Okay, well, this is the most interesting, I think, waiver wire week. And we'll get to some of that. I did want to ask, when do you, when do you start checking your best ball teams? Well, I see this note in the run sheet that says, Daigles shows us his highest scoring best ball team, which I did not expect. So I'm now pulling up my phone, which, by the way, I'm no case guy. So apologies that that discussed people. Oh, it's all good.

Living on the edge, brother. Here's a first place millionaire team with 483. It's one, two out of three weeks. It's got first place in two out of three weeks. Nice. So here is this. What is this? Darnold Gibbs, Hubbard,

Alave Burden, Cooper Cup with the Darnold stack, Sam Leporta, Keaton Mitchell, and then it's a three QB bill with Jared Gough, Jalen Hertz, Jameson Williams in the line stack, McCoy Lemon, and the Hurt stack, Jalen Noll, Tank Biggsby,

Nico Collins, Dallas Goddert. This is a good team. Well, these last four guys are not good. Jalen McMillan is now hurt. Nicholas Singleton still to back up Tennessee. Ray Davis is competing with Frank Gore Jr. for some reason in Buffalo. And then Elijah Oroyo really hasn't even been active.

So it's really just lions and eagle stack that's getting me there so far. But yeah, that's the team. Yeah, I like it. There you go. Awesome. Yeah, I, well, obviously, I don't think that was an underdog because it took you only five seconds to pull it up. Oh, no, sorry, that was draft kings.

No, you're good. You're good. I was just making a comment on how, hard it is to find my best ball results on underdog now. I actually haven't looked yet. Draft Kings, I'm on there often. So it just comes up. But Underdog, I actually haven't looked yet because I don't play the daily,

so I'm never usually on that app. Yeah, it's a tough one. They're trying to make it as hard as possible. It's trending in a direction in a direction that exists, yes. Yeah, yeah. Okay, before we get into a walk through the injury matrix, which will lead us to the way of wire stuff. I was reading your waiver

column and I was like is three weeks enough time to start determining if defenses can sway can you know can dictate your opinion of a running back at a week

and and then it brought me to a larger question of like what trends whether it is like this defense is destroying people. We didn't expect that to happen. We drafted on the idea that this wouldn't happen or something like that. Like what trend early in the season have you seen that you want to kind of play around and avoid or just play off of that people aren't necessarily seeing yet?

Two quick trends. And this happens at the end of every year. We get to the fantasy playoffs and everyone stashing. defenses when I think it's ridiculous. And the higher stakes leagues we play in where people stashed two or three defenses, I'm not one of them, but I get it. We need to at least grab two only because we have to be reactionary because there's so many people hoarding incorrectly.

But what happens at the end of every year has now happened already through three weeks, and that is backup quarterback play makes streaming defenses really easy. Thus, you do not need to overbid or prioritize defenses at all. You can show up, as I've done every week in some leagues, grab the Titans against James Winston. They scored 14 points last week, for example. You can grab the Bears against the Eagles, if you'd like, who get 24 extra hours to prep for a Monday night football game at home

against the bad passing offense. We'll get to them in a bit. But overall, it is so easy to show up and grab a shitty defense that's going to score 10 points now. So I do not care about defenses whatsoever. I rank them on the site for everyone. But even in my own leagues, I don't bet. I show up last second, grab the one I believe in the most that's left over because I know,

like the Packers who have a terrible defense are playing Jalen Daniels, I will grab them last second, and I'll get 12 points and be okay with it. So that's how I handled that whenever quarterback starts failing and getting injured. More importantly, though, I play on, like we talked about, Underdog, I play draft Kings every single week. It's like a sixth paycheck for me. And in two of the first three weeks so far, the optimal big. build. So the guys, you know, we're paying this 50,000 salary for and then trying to win a tournament

for anything from a thousand to a million bucks, right? The two most optimal builds in the first three weeks so far have included two tight ends. So a tight end and it flex. And I think that's actually a roundabout way of also saying that's what your fantasy lineups can look like too, given the impact of multi-tied-in sets and really the death of the wide receiver three a lot of times we ask ourselves is this RB 3 or 4 that is on my bench being stashed or is this wide receiver three or four who could be in a good matchup but we don't know how many routes he's going to run should i be flexing him when the answer now all of a sudden this year is what if i flexed dalton shultz kenyon sedique george kittle uh even though he's most likely starting for you but you get my point

The list goes on with all these tight ends. Terrence Ferguson, then Colby Parkinson even. This week with Kobe Parkinson and Terrence Ferguson potentially out, it's probably Tyler Higby. You can pick these guys up and start them instead because they are better starts than the wide receiver. You're most likely weighing to flex instead.

So I think that's been a really big impact for fantasy lineup so far and how I've been bidding on Kenyon Sadiq, Darren Waller this week against the lines, which every tight-in, not just Titan one, every tight-in room has gotten there so far this year. I want to flex Darren Waller instead of weighing like A.D. Mitchell, for example. Yeah, tight-ins are scoring like crazy thus far. And I tried that, I tried to jump this trend a little bit last week with Gadsden, where I had him.

You had the right idea. I mean, he did run a season high at routes. Do not look at how many of the three targets he caught. That was my joke at the top of the run sheet was, let me see your fullback rankings because the first half of that game, Alex Ingold was like 25 yards down the field just catching crossers. And I'm like, where the fuck is against it? He's playing, right?

And I was like, ah, cool. Like, the one time I like trust. And maybe they're less than theirs. is like all of this applies except chargers. Maybe that's the rule on the tight end stuff. But yeah, I mean, I've made a couple bids that hopefully tonight go through that are, hey, my fourth running back, I don't really have any reason to have this person. Yeah, Kenyon, Sadiq, come on down.

You know, that type of dude. And these are dude I own a lot of places. I think I own them on every single made event I have just because I was like, y'all know he's the most athletic titaned ever right and that tends to land pretty well it has clicked much quicker than i thought even for a first round player just because he came in uh 20 years old is he still or is he turning one it might be it might be 21 yeah he was so young and then more importantly a lot like luther burden last year whenever you lose that last month or two with an injury and training camp you naturally and logically just get off to a slow start and that actually

hasn't happened whatsoever, oddly enough for Sadiq, who scored that rushing touchdown in week one despite limited usage, and then his first game without both Mason Taylor, dealing with a thumb injury still, and A.D. Mitchell, who got his thumb caught in a jersey randomly when we last recorded on Wednesday, then ruled out, again, the best spot possible against the Lions. Sadiq goes nuclear for over 100 yards and a touchdown. Only Brock Bowers and Mark Andrews were targeted at a higher rate of their routes than Sadiq last week. And so you just naturally think, how can you possibly put that first round genie back in the lamp? I don't think you can. Yeah, we got pretty hardcore rug pulled on two guys last week of

A.D. Mitchell and Jonah Coleman. Like it's not our fault for either. Like it, it sucks because and it's the worst part about it is that's hard to tell everyone to to keep Jonah Coleman because, Because, yes, you have an IR slot most likely you can use for fantasy. However, that IR spot could be taken up by eight different guys right now. So I don't even, like, you have to look at your own roster and assess it yourself. Yeah, yeah, for sure. I mean, you probably might have a quarterback on there at the moment. Yeah, if they let you slide guys that are listed as out over to IR.

That's kind of how I'm utilizing into a lot of leagues with Jalen Daniels, or Jaden, Daniels, sorry. Okay, so let's get into the injury matrix. over here and this will lead us to where we're going with WeberWire stuff. And we can talk, yeah, we can talk about who makes more sense, I think, because the first one is probably the longest and most important conversation we're going to have in which the dolphins are looking for replacement for Devon A. Chan. Ali Gordon is obviously, I don't, I'm having trouble understanding why people are leaning so hard. Ali Gordon and not Jalen Wright besides the fact that Jalen Wright didn't play last week.

And that might have just been like a roster numbers thing because I don't think he's a special teams guy. No, he was dealing with an injury and still is dealing with an injury. He still, yeah, if that's still lingering. And they have a buy in two weeks. So it's such a short turnaround against the Vikings and the Bengals and go on by that I would imagine the way I'm viewing in any ways. And I could very well be wrong.

Jalen Wright could be active, which is why I'm. it's such an ambiguous situation that in the deeper leagues like you and I are in, Jarko as Hunter, I have him a suggestion as well to pick up just in case. But in the 10-team, 12-team leagues that everyone's probably listening to this show for, it is only Ollie Gordon and Jalen Wright. From what I've seen so far from like some industry leagues that run Tuesday afternoon just to give us an idea,

I am right in line there where what's happened, I believe, is there is a sheep consensus that is making everyone feel so bad for picking up a dolphins running back that you can now get away for getting a dolphins running back for cheaper. Like the pendulum is swung so far the other direction, where now I like it to where I feel like you can get Olly Gordon for 15 or 16 bucks out of 100 fab, whereas perhaps if you're so desperate,

you may go up to 25, 27 out of 100. Same thing for Jalen Wright. I can't imagine he goes, goes for more than nine, it would be maximum 11 in your league. Because again, we haven't seen this guy in basically a week and a half. Yeah, that's the thing is I feel like people are either approaching it as if Ali Gordon is like a certified league winner like kind of replacement. And he might be.

I mean, the usage might be there. I've just seen it play both ways with this exact situation in the past where they've, they've got into situations where A. Chan's out and Ollie Gordon goes. out there and is a hammer for an entire afternoon of football. And then I've seen it, I think, week 14 last week, where Jalen Wright is the guy that they trust. And obviously, the injury is the biggest factor. But I don't know if we're going to get any information that's going to, like, give us

any insight there. And so, I don't know. I think in home leagues, people are going to freak out about Ali Gordon. when in reality, if they're going to freak out and go like big fab bid or use their top waiver priority on Ollie Gordon, I'm like, man, I'll wait around for Jalen Wright. I think that's okay. I have a 12-team.

Waivers run at 9 p.m. Eastern on Tuesdays. So at 9.02 p.m. Eastern, I went in and got Jalen Wright for free rather than winning Alda Gordon. Because that's just, that's a team with strong running backs. I have Kenneth Walker, Jalen Warren, and David Montgomery, so I'm not in need really. But if I'm more desperate than that, I don't mind getting into bidding more personally for Ollie Gordon, which I know also is the minority opinion. Yeah, yeah, like I'm putting bids on Ollie Gordon that if I win it, like I'm pretty happy

that I want at that dollar. Exactly. And if you miss, that's okay too. Yeah, and if I get smoked, I have like a backup like $2 bid on Jalen Wright. it's totally fine. Okay. Breece Hall, he's week to week. Never know what that means.

I think Caleb Williams was week to week there for a minute until they said three to four weeks there at the end, which was very hilarious because a mutual friend of ours, Pi, Mike Palucci, like acquired him in every league. He could buy Caleb Williams because he's a USC guy. And then literally, like, in the next 12-hour window, it was like actually he's out a month he's like ah shit um yeah so brees hall um at least gonna miss this week maybe a couple more uh brailyn allen everyone's favorite the universe is number one uh backup running

back on the planet uh finally for sure he does yeah yeah for for a young fellow that's like still 22 and a half years old um everyone everyone everyone's the planet earth if you put your football team together. It's like George Kittle tied in. It's like backup running back, Braylon Allen. Everyone loves Braylon Allen. And I get it. I get it. The size is like, you know, you can't help but think of like Derek Henry and stuff like that. He's just never been as fast as Derek Henry. But, you know, he's going to get a shot against who the hell do the Jets have this week? The Bears, the best spot possible. That's good. The Bears actually been okay, the last two weeks, though. That's kind of worrisome.

that their defense is leveling off because I don't want that. But Braylon Allen, Jets overall, as an offense, they can move it, man. They can move it. They've got a good offensive line. They're figuring out how to get a lot of these different dudes involved, see Kenyon Sadiq last week, and Garrett Wilson having a super productive day in the same week. So Braylon Allen, I don't want to say like, Greeks Hall needs to miss more time necessarily.

But I love the opportunity that Braylon Allen has in front of him. And I think he's going to impress. And I don't know if that leads to a split, a larger split of the backfield. But there isn't another running back. Like Isaiah Davis hasn't touched the football this year, I don't think. So how are you feeling about Braylon Allen? Yeah. So for starters, the Bears passing offense has been opportunistic.

as they were last year and being a bend don't break, don't break unit. And they've been better at limiting pass production. But in terms of against the run, they were still horrible last night. 23% of Saquan Barkley's yards came with 10-yard gains alone. Not only that, but he still finished with the fourth highest success rate of the week behind Bejohn Robinson and Jemir Gibbs and, oddly enough, Travis E.T.N. So he's actually like gaining chunk yard still. The bears are still allowing that.

Remember, week two, the bear's allowed 100 yards to the courts with Aaron Jones. Week one, Chuba Hubbard, of all people, was the RB10 in fantasy. So running backs are still attacking them easily. Thus, the way I like to discuss this, I'm glad you brought up both players, because if you, one, are looking strictly for the best RB2 or flex for week four, you have no regard beyond week four, or two, you roster Breece Hall, those are the two situations where I'm instead prioritizing Braylen Allen over Olly Gordon personally. Otherwise, I do want to zoom out and remind everyone that the Jets tried to use Braylin

Allen in an interim role in like a committee with Brise Hall a couple years ago. Last year he missed 13 games. He was just injured all year. But before that, they already tried this and he was one of the worst running backs in the league. In terms of just efficiency, 61st out of 70 qualifiers with 10 runs and his rate of 10-yard carries, 53rd and 1.1. rushing yards over expected. So it's rushing yards in an average situation to an average running back.

And 49th and mistackles force per carry. Literally one of the least efficient running backs in the entire league. Again, it's a great spot against a Bears defense that has allowed a league high in yards before contact per run. So the Jets offensive line has the edge in this matchup. Braylon Allen, the better start over Olly Gordon, especially because the Vikings are literally the opposite spectrum of the Bears. And we have a stat, establish the run that we keep.

rolling and have a look a month out to project for opposing schedules. And that's, it's just called DVP, defense versus position. And the Vikings are literally deflating running back production against them at the league's highest rate, like 6.6% below what an average running back scores. The Vikings crush opposing running backs. None have reached over 50 yards rushing, 50 against them so far this year. So it is the worst possible matchup for Ollie Gordon. Most likely he was going to.

fail short term. But it's like you mentioned earlier. Braylon Allen has one maximum two weeks and he is not starting over Brees Hall. Breast Hall is coming back. Whereas Devon A. Chan is now out for the year. And after this one pesky week against the Vikings, take this with a grain assault because of the dolphins and nothing comes easy. They're not even favored in another game for the rest of the year. But the dolphins do have the second easiest schedule of opposing run defenses from week five on. We have outs here. Again, it's the Dolphins.

It's still probably like a median hit, median if Ollie Gordon hits. But there is outs here with the schedule. So he has a path to starting, which again, Braylen Allen, in my opinion, does not from week five on. And that's why in a vacuum, I lean Gordon over Braylon Allen.

Yeah, it's almost the question that I'm asking myself. If I'm just a guy that's in need of a running back, in general, would I rather have a guy, say the fab money is the same. It's going to take 28% of your fab to get either Braylon Allen or Ollie Gordon. Sure. Would I rather have Ollie Gordon, who I think can probably start in my flex position for, I don't know, maybe like six of the next, how many weeks we have, 14 weeks? Or do rather have Braylin Allen, who I think.

can win me two weeks. And that's kind of the thing. And I'm bidding on both of them in just about every league because I know that most owners are interested, about half your league is probably interested in committing some sort of resource to one or both these guys. And I'll immediately sign that guy via just five dollars or waiver priority and then immediately put him on the trade block. I think that's what I do.

Best case scenario, I think Olly Gordon is David Montgomery. Worst case scenario, he's Marshawn Lloyd, where he's in purgatory on your bench. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be pretty gross. But yeah. And not to be outdone, the Saints have their own major running back injury with Travis Etienne. Camara getting a concerning amount of touches.

Kendra, I guess, is just healthy. not healthy every other week, it seems like he's missing a significant amount of time. How do we make sense of what's going on with the Saints and they're running back position? Travis E.TN left in the third quarter. From that point forward, Alvin Kamara out touched Kendry Miller six to five. I think it's really, really what happens here is one, they do prefer Kamara. That's why they healthy scratch Kendry Miller in week two. They don't care about Kendry Miller, even though I still suggest sprinkling a little bit on him just in case.

There's still a range of outcomes here that things happen. But I think it elevates the passing game as a whole. Like the winners here are Devon Bailey and Juan Johnson, as opposed to the winner being Camaro, who even with 15 touches were asking, can he put up a top 24, an RB2 score? I don't know, and I don't think so, unless, you know, 12 of those 15 touches are catches

where he just spams PPR points the entire way down the field. So I think the Saints passing game is the real winner here, because now they truly have no running game whatsoever. Yeah, I think the secret long-term winner might be Jordan Tyson because they're going to get into this games pretty quickly. And I mean, we've seen it with the Packers where they're just like, F this running the ball bullshit. Like, we're not doing that.

We can beat you on the outside. And as soon as the Saints have some kind of advantage, and you can roll out, you know, Velae, Olave, Juan Johnson, and Jordan Tyson, I think they can cause some headaches through the air. It's just, I don't know if Tyler Shuck is the guy to run the Kurt Warner offense. But, you know, he plays, he can do it for a half at a time, which is pretty impressive thus far. Okay, let's check out the rest of these names, see if any of them peak your interest. Those are the most important ones that everyone needs to be aware of.

For sure, you're going to go to the waiver wire and definitely fight for Ollie Gordon, Braylon, Allen, Jalen right to a lesser extent, Alvin Kumar and Kendra Miller. Yeah. And I guess some of the new ones that got added on here, let's knock two birds out with one stone and just talk about the

ram situation. The puka to Ferguson. And then Ferguson, like, I don't know what he did to his ankle, dude, but it was really nasty whenever he was attempting to play through it. And then Ferguson gets hurt. And then, dude, they're running. Is it Davis Allen, is that their tight end?

He's their fourth guy. Maxis Claire, who is basically in a red shirt year because I believe it's both Colby Parkinson and Tyler Higby, who were at the final year of their contract. So they're just preparing for 2027. But Davis Allen is the tight end two behind Tyler Higby, who if you recall, you've got to go back a few years with Shaw McFay. But there was a time when they didn't have either Ferguson or Parkinson.

And Tyler Higby was basically Rob Gronkowski for games to close the season. I remember. I remember very much. I've had a lot of Tyler Higby over the years on my, on my rosters. And yeah, he's, he's like, I don't know, I feel like he was almost like a Jake Ferguson before Jake Ferguson, whenever he was actually good.

He would, he would cook. But yeah, they were just, you know, doing their ram shit and getting people wide to F open in the first half the other night. And I was like, wait, I thought I knew the Rams tied in depth chart. And then it's like Davis Allen. And I was like, isn't that guy a coach? Like, and I was like, nuts Dennis Allen.

I don't know anything about Davis Allen. But they got another dude. But yeah, you know, the through line, I think is Ferguson, Parkinson, Higbee. And then Kanata Mumfield if Puka misses more time, which I'm not loving the reports on Puka, to be honest. to be back. Again, I don't know if I believe them, but they said it sounds like week four is the target. Gotcha. Okay, I think we went over Ali Gordon pretty extensively and Braylon Allen. Moving down to your waiver wire targets. You got Kenyon Sadiq would be the next flex player in this bundle. Chris Bell making an appearance, A.D. Mitchell and Khalif Raymond. So tell me which one of those dudes you want to jump into.

or you can just hit them all in order if you want to. I talked about Keny and Sadiq already and why I'm really excited about him. Just want to make sure that I have him rostered and can flex him, assuming the Jets cannot just bench him and go back to other ancillary players. He is probably the guy behind Garrett Wilson. I'm assuming for the rest of the year.

The wide receivers are just thin, which is why a lot of these guys pop up, because there's not really many good ones who are available in most leagues. Like if for whatever reason Michael Wilson was dropped, you can check on him since the Cardinals. This Cardinals is doing the right thing and playing their best players, regardless of your stature before this year. So a Tyler Ralejir, they have basically eliminated his touches, at least in week three against the Niners.

They gave Jeremiah Love a season high share of backfield touches. He prospered. Same thing for Michael Wilson. His target share has grown in every week with the team as they basically eliminated. Marvin Harrison Jr. because he can't do the job. They're just playing the best players, which every team that go, you know, go figure should do. So check on Michael Wilson. He should be rostered everywhere.

Also check on Jacobi Myers as Brian Thomas now splitting reps in two wide receiver sets with their backup wide receiver, Josh Cameron. But that also means that targets, at least for this past week, were unsurprisingly, Parker Washington, and then Jacobi Myers, and then Brenton Strange plus some other teammates, a distant three behind. If we are finally getting a concerted target share from Trevor Lawrence, like that's awesome for the Jaguars players. I saw a stat on social media from Ryan Pegnetti,

who I believe you've cited on this show before, that Trevor Lawrence has actually been benched in five of his last 11 games because the Jaguars have scored 40 points and been up by too much. Like they can't even keep him on the field because Liam Cohen's offense is so damn good. So if we're getting now only two guys, pepperwood targets from that kind of offense under Cohen, we should be excited. Jacoby Myers, I know I'm in some 10 team leagues where he was dropped. Just double check on him.

As for Chris Bell, the top of the available players, I write about him as if I'm eyeing week six. No, week seven. Remember, we're in the time of the year where we teams go into their buy. They finally have 14 days off to make adjustments. And then it is not surprising at all, if not probable, teams come out then, and they're just doing something different on offense. They're giving a new player a different role. This also happened with Travis Hunter last year for the Jaguars before they then tried to trade

for Jacobi Myers, the trade deadline. But Chris Bell now, who remember was the better prospect than Caleb Douglas, only failed because he suffered a torn ACL training for the NFL Combine. He in week three, without Caleb Douglas, yes, but just this past week against the cheese, season high, 64% route share, targeted on 26% of his routes, which is 29th among all wide receivers. I'm picking him up as the better prospect to start in week seven when he returns at full health because clearly he is the one who can survive here.

But I'm trying to be ahead of this two, three weeks in advance. Yeah, and we talked about Keaton Mitchell also makes the list. And we talked about him by way of Armari and Hampton earlier. but he's a very sneaky one that I'm like if I don't need I don't really need a running back and I'm just trying to like add somebody to turn over a spot deeper on my my my bench I'm like yeah y'all fight over brailyn and holly and uh jalen right and I'm just going to sneak in there and put like a really low bid on keaton Mitchell and just let it chill there for a couple weeks because um that yeah the back that back field feels like it's turning over in real time

And just because the only reason it's not going to turn over in real time with like just a full table tilt is because Keaton Mitchell is not that style of back, which is kind of better. I don't know to just be the third down two minute catch past this kind of guy. It's a pretty secure role and you're not less likely to get hurt. You're less likely to get bench consistently. So I really like the Keaton Mitchell stuff that's going on. And I, he's sneakily, if I'm secure at running. back, which this year, I think I over-adjusted away from wide receivers everywhere to running backs everywhere.

Then I'm like, Keaton Mitchell seems like a really fun sprinkle some fav towards that, dude. Okay, here's my favorite part of the show because I get to make some confusing collections of players and watch Daigle fight through them. But here's three pairings or whatever you want to. three throuples we got going on here. This is the what's more real. And that means guy you want to, you know, have the most confidence in,

want to believe in the most the rest of the season. And I try to do this close to ADP or close to, you know, expectation. So they don't have to all be in the same position. I got off that after you're doing it one week. So what's more real? Kenyon Sadiq, Pat Bryant, or Khalif Raymond.

It has to be Sadiq, although Kleefe Raymond is probably closer than we unfortunately want him to be, especially with Colston Loveland now, three games tied in 64, 55, and 26. So unstartable so far, as a lot of us with Colston Loveland know. And it's because Khalif Raymond, as I'll talk about him for a second, is just kind of sticking around oddly enough and this Ben Johnson offense that runs itself through the slot and multiple players, but three games now, Clef Raymond's bid the wide receiver

34 and 29 in Target share, which is out of all the entire league, which is insane because he was a free agent special teams player that moonlighted on deep shots with Detroit just last year and prior with Ben Johnson. But now he's become somewhat a focal point of this offense. It was good to see Luther Burden involved, but rather than complain,

or keep on wondering. I'm just sucking it up and finally saying in these deeper leagues, 12, 14 team leagues where I do have flex questions, why don't I just start a Ben Johnson wide receiver? We just saw Case Keenum go 11 of 11 against the Blitz with two touchdowns at his first start in three years. His last start, by the way,

where he was benched for throwing two interceptions in the first half. Like, let's just trust the best play call in the league in Ben Johnson, and let's see what happened. So that's where I'm at with Khalif Raymond. But Sadiq, for all the reasons we mentioned earlier, young first round player who now has a starting path because everyone else around him is injured. I can't imagine they bench this player or take targets away. Yeah, it's almost, you know, what kind of league you're in? You know, Sadiq shouldn't be available in a lot of, you know, dynasty or long-term leagues.

But if he is, he's, I believe in him. I have a lot of priors baked into Kenyon and Sadiq. So I'm like, yeah, I know he's this good. You don't need to show me this. And so I'm just like, yeah, Kenyon Sadiq's the most real. But in reality, you don't have to think of every single player that is on your roster as some kind of trade asset or what's cool. Sometimes you can just think of guys as, hey, I need my second flex position is ass this week. You know who could play above ass level?

Khalif Raymond. He could probably give me a nice 10 points. no matter what's going on with that bears offense. And I don't know how long that lasts. I think it probably ends. Someone's going to get rug pulled on this. Trying to ride the magic carpet ride of Khalif Raymond. And then one week, it's just going to be like, all right, F it.

It's just Loveland. It's just burn. It's just a dunce. And we're over this. But while it's working, use it to your advantage. Okay. I'm going to throw some quarterbacks at you. What's more real?

I was going to bring this up earlier with Kirk, and I might add Gino Smith to this instead of, but let's just roll with this. Kirk Cousins, Sam Darnold, Deshawn Watson, and I'll let you have Gino in there if you want to. Which one of those quarterbacks do you believe in most rest of the season? And I know there is some short-term starting risk with Kirk Cousins, obviously. Yeah, and we keep saying short-term.

starting a risk, but the Raiders are undefeated, 3-0, and Brock Purdy and cousins are tied for the league lead and passing touchdown. So, like, how short is the leash if you keep winning and you keep executing the offense, not to mention you just got your best player back onto that offense, too, who looked exactly like we thought he would when he's at full strength. So having said that, I still think Sam Darnold is a winner here, just because we will always have in the back of our minds, the fact that Kirk Cousins is playing just ahead of the number one overall pick

in this year's draft. Sam Darnold's actually helped out similar to how we talked about Tyler Shuck and the Saints offense because Seattle can't run the ball whatsoever. Like this is not the vision they have at all. They drafted a running back in the first round, whose profile, by the way, was awful, which is why I don't have much of Gendarion Prize. He was a player to worry about from the very beginning.

but they drafted, I'm assuming we want to be a running team that plays with Mike McDonald's defense and wins that way, except now they legitimately have zero running backs they trust. So I think for the time being, especially against softer schedules, including this week against the Chargers, Sam Darnold is an excellent streaming option. Yeah, I agree. Their inability to convert first downs on the ground and forcing them to find chunk play through. the air, whether it's A.J. Barner or Cooper Cup or obviously, J.S.N. It's changing a lot. I did not think I'd see a world where Sam Darnow would get this many past attempts in a game. But they just- I mean, this is why Jackson-Smith & Jigba has a 40% target share. He's averaging 31 fantasy points per game through three weeks because they have no choice but to lean on their best

player. Turns out, I don't know if you mentioned this last week, but it turns out this year's Jackson-Smith and Jigba is Jackson-Smiths. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I kind of like, besides maybe Watson, which I think eventually will get benched in the next four to six weeks. Cousins has been. Has been playing surprisingly okay, though. Yeah, surprisingly okay.

I do like the, I don't know, the thing we do where someone plays terrible week one and they play okay week two and everyone's like, actually, you know what, he's been all right. I'm like 50% of the time, he's been okay. And that's what we were doing last week, going to the week three. And I was like, show me again. And then he actually did. Well, just wait because Thursday night, it's supposed to be pouring against the Steelers.

Beautiful. That's why that total has gone down to 37 and a half. It's going to be an ugly, sloppy game. The Steelers don't need an excuse to play an absolutely diarrhea football game. And like, that's, yeah. But he brought Harold Fanon back to life off the mat, dude. So I was like, all right, let's go, bro. All right, and the last, I'm going to stick to some wide receivers.

What's More Real? Debo Samuel, Jacoby Myers, or Jordan Addison? It's as I mentioned earlier. I believe it's Jacobi Myers, if only because one, although the Vikings are also undefeated, I'm still waiting for the first good Kyler Murray throw. Like when you watch him, you were still terrified. when the ball gets thrown through the air.

Now they have the dolphins this week. I'm sure all will be right in the world. And Jordan Addison stepped up clearly the moment Justin Jefferson suffered his ankle sprain. But I can't say Addison's real when he hasn't done literally a single thing while Jefferson's been on the field. And we can't trust Kyler Murray just yet. So given the reasons I mentioned earlier where Jacobi Myers had that 19% target share this

week compared to Parker Washington's team I 30% share. like let's just keep the targets between those two guys and one of the best offenses in the league and say Jacoby Myers is the real deal. Yeah, Kyler sucks, man. Like he is playing bad football. It doesn't look good. It's very gross.

And then Debo with a big play, and I assume he'll get more usage as the 49ers are just kind of grappling at things. They just signed Dante Pettis, so going real well out there. All right, most worried about Malik neighbors, Jalen Waddle. Judarian Price.

Oh, it's Judarian Price by far because you know, this is supposed to be happening to protect his lead before Zach Charbonnet returns. And instead he has literally gotten picked off multiple times and they're like, how can we not send this guy back down

until he learns how to run the basis? This is not good at all for Judarian Price who you can't comfortably start in any league right now. He's just on your bench because you also can't drop him yet. We're in purgatory here. So definitely most worried about Judarian Price, though a reason to worry about all these guys.

Yeah. And then the next grouping is Trevion Henderson, who went back down to whatever. I don't know what they're ever doing with their running back rotations, man. I'm just admittedly just like, can't figure it out. Sorry. Colston Loveland, who again, a better game, but still quiet game. And then David Montgomery, who is playing against, playing with an offensive line and an offensive ecosystem that just, I don't know, can't get him three yards to carry. We talked about earlier, though.

I think it's just really easy for opposing defenses to play against the Tekins whenever Nico Collins is not on the field. And David Montgomery still handled 70% of backfield touches. So it's not pretty, but I wouldn't say I'm actually worried just. yet. At least I can tell you why he has struggled to this point. Whereas Colston Loveland, like I need someone like Ben Solok or someone is just smarter at looking at the film than I am to explain what's going on because I personally cannot explain it. Why, how Colston Loveland has suddenly still moved to be now a low end, tight in one. And even that is probably me just hanging on to priors.

Like if someone wanted to start Kenyon Sadiq over Loveland this week, I wouldn't do it, but also I would tell them to do it because I don't want them to go through this mental hell that I'm currently battling against in my own lineup. So I think Loveland, this is the one I'm most worried about, just because I don't understand what's happening, whereas at least I can point to the Patriots coaching staff and say they, for whatever reason, are very stubborn

with their usage of Remondry Stevenson, believing he's the best past protector. but also Remandre Stevenson leaves the league and fumble since 2024. So like that's the biggest knock I can think of to not play a player is that he literally gives the ball away. And Trayvion Henderson, when he played more in week two, he provided to spark what a bad offense needs, like what the Patriots are right now.

They have zero juice without A.J. Brown. And they need juice, especially with the way, for whatever reason, that Drake May is playing as by all, advanced metrics being one of the worst quarterbacks in the league through three games. So I also don't worry about Henderson understanding a flip has to switch at some point and just say, like, go out there and get us 20 yards, kid, because we got nothing else. Yeah, and Craig Mays will probably a late add to my, my, my, uh, by, by curious list as we move down to that.

I definitely can't drop them yet, but through three games, it has been, it's been worse than Sean Watson, and I don't know what's happened. Yeah, yeah. I think he'll snap out of it. He's Drake May. I think he'll be fine. But yeah, we rolled out a, we rolled out a Gino Smith at quarterback, Kenyon, Sadiq, got our second flex spot last week.

That's not, that's QB3, Gino Smith to you in week three. That's right. And tight end two, I guess. Well, it was, it was cool because we also had the tight end one. So got off, got off an O and two start in FFC, made event team, just bullying the piss out of some folks with tight ends. So that was fun. All right. Here you go, Teddy ball game.

Here's your buys and sales. Let's see. I'm madden Drake May. I'm adding Drake May. I think everyone's about done with him. And I think, you know, I don't need it right now because that's the other thing I wanted to bring up earlier. And trends or whatever was, I know there had been some quarterback injuries. But some of these dudes that are further down there, like we talked about are performing so damn well.

Like, I'm not stressing quarterback. at all, like at all. And so if I'm trading for Drake May, then I probably have the luxury to just let him sit over there in the corner for a month and figure his shit out. You could literally start, I mean, go down the list.

Kirk Cousins and one of the highest totals of the week against the chiefs, again, like I told you, Purdy and Cousins lead the league and passing touchdowns right now. Jacoby Reset gets this giant's defense that just lost Brian Burns and dropped to the league low and pressure rate whenever he was off the field.

again in this last game against the Titans. I mean, Marks Marriota against the Colts. It's in London, but that's still been one of the worst, even especially throwing over the middle of the field. I mean, there's just so many options to stream for. Michael Pennix indoors against the Saints. Like play him. Just find a quarterback because you easily can right now.

Yeah, yeah. Moving down the buys list. Top of my list. Well, I'll start with the expensive guys, because it makes more sense. These are guys that if there's any kind of discount from what you were getting, having to pay for them, either preseason or at ADP around draft season, then start digging in, start figuring out what that other owner is looking for.

And then you might, you know, that's how it always works for me is just like, hey, how are you feeling about this? Do you want off this? Can you think you need something else on your team? hey I've got this stuff and maybe you know you start poking around and they start applying value to positions where you're like yeah I don't see any value in this guy I'd love to give that guy to you um but kairn williams looked flat out effing awesome in that game like just next level running back play I was so impressed and maybe he feels Blake corn and breathing out his neck and he was like

you know what watch this shit um but catching passes out of the backfield like toe tapping on the sideline like gashing gashing defenses for 20 yard runs. He doesn't do that if he does it. Like there's a reason, you know, people are so worried about his profile coming out is because he doesn't have that explosive like long speed. But Kyron looked awesome. Chase Brown likewise, I don't, he doesn't look as awesome necessarily, but I think he's a he's an underperforming utilization score guy on, on Duane's right up, on Duane McFarlane's right up. And I'm like, yeah, it's like it's felt good. Chase Brown's felt good. It just hasn't, the numbers haven't quite been there yet. And so I'm big, big I did actually

just acquire Chase Brown. You can tail my moves. The Bengals also lead the league in 12 personnel, like they want to help pass protect and just run bigger offenses to run the ball and help Joe Burrow. And over the next month, they also have the seventh easiest schedule of opposing run defenses. To this point, it's been a much tougher schedule for Chase Brown. I believe it's going to lighten up a lot here in the next four to six weeks. Yeah, he's, he's high on the list. Malik neighbors, I don't know what J.J. McCarthy's going to look like. I don't have high hopes for J.J. McCarthy, but man, something's wrong with James. I don't, I don't know what it is, but he. I mean, I could, I could tell you what it is. He spent all offseason talking about soccer on TV.

He's playing like he did that all off season. Yeah, as if, as if. He traveled the world talking about soccer. But he lived his best life. I enjoyed it. He did. Like, no, no regrets misspelled in the tattoo across the chest. Like, fuck it. Let's go.

But yeah, his arm looks kind of broken. And that's a problem from league neighbors for sure. And, you know, I don't know if it's, like I said, I don't think the answer is JJ McCarthy. But he's done a couple, he's done a couple things in his starts. And a few of them, he's supported Justin Jefferson just enough. So I don't know. I want to see what the new plan is. First one didn't work so well, guys.

Jamis isn't going to work for you. You need to get another quarterback in here. And I was really, I was borderline really, really interested whenever they were flirting with Mac Jones. I was like, ooh, get Mac Jones over here. Like, let's have some fun because he would just, Mac Jones made Brian Thomas Jr. I think we can honestly say that as a community now. Yeah, as a community. we can just say Mac Jones, you're welcome Brian Thomas Jr.

For whatever future riches you have, you owe Mac Jones about half. And if he went to the Giants, I'd feel the same way about Malik neighbors pretty quickly. Michael Wilson, I know he popped off, but he was always kind of like a little bit undervalued for a guy that could potentially be a wide receiver one to me during draft season. So the owner, Michael Wilson owner probably passed on him about seven times and probably like two or three rounds, honestly, whenever he was looking for a wide receiver. And so those first two weeks were pretty bad, just not very impressive stuff, at least on a raw score output. And then he finally pops.

So that guy might be looking for a cell window. And I'll gladly pull up next to him at the stoplight and throw him a little bit of money from Michael Wilson because I think we saw their plan moving forward. Is a shit ton of germ I love, a shit ton of Michael Wilson and Trey McBride, every other play. And I think that's smart. and they're going to throw it 70 times a game. And that sounds like a hell of a fun time with the Cardinals offense. Again, again, they're going to give it to us, which just blessings from the Cardinals every single season. I love it.

You want to go over some of your buys? Yeah. It's an ugly week. We need to sound the alarm for me because everyone forgets. We are only three weeks into this thing. It is a long season. So while I'm adjusting my takes, I'm still hanging. on to some priors, especially players who have shown us immense ceilings in the past that I know

I can check in with now and get for significantly cheaper. So a few here, Ladd-McConkie, we haven't even seen Ladd-McConkey play a full game yet. I can write off everyone else in the Chargers' offense with confidence. I refuse to write off Ladd-McConkey just yet because when he's been on the field, the Chargers actually have the eighth-high success rate in the entire league. When he's been off of it, they've dropped the 28th. And that's because he's only run around on 49, 68, 84% so far, dealing with the injury that basically kept them out of week one and two full time. So I am still very interested in playing and starting Ladd-McConkie every week. Ashton Genty is one who I have no hard info. I have to believe it's either a reaggravation

or new injury based on what he suffered in the preseason. It's the only thing that makes since given that the last couple of weeks, 2.6 yards per carry, one 10-yard run. Now, oddly enough, Mike Washington, who had that 26-yard touchdown run this past week, Mike Washington now has as many 20-yard runs

as his career through three games that Ashton Genty does since being drafted last year. Not a great stat for Genty. At the same time, though, if you look at these last two weeks when he's struggled peripherally, he's actually the RB2 and expected points per game, because the Raiders backfield. gets so much usage, including the fourth highest target share in his position.

So if this is an injury is battling, you need to buy low before he's suddenly healthy and becomes the player we saw on the Mountain West Knights watching football. So I love buying Ashton Gentile as well. Saquan Barkley is another one because as we talked about, it is ugly for Philadelphia's offense, but it's all the passing game. Barclay has nothing to do with this. The passing game in general is what is 25th in EPA per. attempt and 28th in success rate through the air. But Barclay on the ground, completely fine,

as I mentioned even against the Bears last night, I think where a change could be coming to make them better potentially is getting Barclay more involved through the air, especially on early downs. Because right now, he's only averaging a route on 21% of dropbacks, basically chopping what he did last year in half times two. So I just think I want to bet on Barclay, since he's doing fine, and they are still figuring out a new way to pass the ball under center under a new offensive coordinator. So I like him getting him low. If you told me he was going to wear the cowboy collar, I just would have taken him in the first round.

It did look pretty sick, actually. I just would have taken him in the first round if he just like was rocking the cowboy collar preseason. And the weirdest one I'll mention that no one will give a shit about, but I'm still going to throw it out here right now. Jordan Mason is on someone's I are on the waiver wire because he's injured. But it's these injuries I always monitor because it was a thumb injury. It's not going to reaggravate like a knee or hamstring, a soft tissue injury that we'd be worried about. And I mentioned the Dolphin schedule from week five on second easiest in the league

in terms of running the ball. The Vikings have the easiest schedule far and away of opposing run defenses left on their slate. And so if the Vikings right now are already, running Aaron Jones, who has a lengthy injury history, and to the ground, he's even left a couple times the last two weeks because he's injured. When Jordan Mason comes back, that's a player we want against this schedule. So I'm definitely going to low ball for Jordan Mason everywhere, thinking this is a player I can start from week eight on.

Did they just sign Devin Neal or trade for Devin Neal? They did, yes. He was on waivers, I believe, because he was cut. What was that caveat called? Cut due to injury. Okay. Yeah. I mean, if he's healthy, I do have some interest in Devin Neal because he's just the type of dude that, like, coaches love to give the ball to that you, like, can't explain what's going on.

A very, like, Chuba Hubbard kind of player. But yeah, just over productive in college on a football team that, like, was never very good in Kansas. I mean, Jalen Daniels, a backfield bait. But good size, good pass catcher, really fluid. Always believed in Devin Neal at some level. but I also believed in Caleb Johnson when he came out. So maybe I don't know shit. But Devin Neal was interesting.

Devin Neal was interesting to me when he was with the Saints. I was like, hey, get out of the way, guys. And then he gets Uber hurt. And you're like, ah, no. But yeah, Jordan Mason. I would love to recoup some value on my Jordan Mason shares. All right, my cells. These are guys that either have cell windows or I just don't think it's going to get better.

to me Rishi Rice after that game, good usage maybe there's a I don't know, I'd look schedule and see if there's another fun matchup in there for Rishi Rice but I think Rishy Rice needs to get off your team pretty quickly because it looks like he is like low-in wide receiver 2

whenever you were trying to whenever you were having to draft him as high-end wide receiver 2 or even later one prices talked a lot of about a Marion Hampton already. I think you get it on that front. The schedule is absolutely brutal. It's getting cut into by Keaton Mitchell left and right. And, you know, I'm not

an offensive play caller. I'm not an offensive line coach. And I don't love it whenever people that don't have super informed opinions say like, oh, he doesn't look like he fits in Mike McDaniel's system. I don't know entirely what Mike McDaniel's system is. What I can tell you is whenever they call plays, Keaton Mitchell hits the goddamn play. Ironhampton is not really hitting the play consistently, or as frequently as Keaton Mitchell is. So it feels like a mismatched fit right now. I know my boy, our boy, George Kittle, popped off last week. What I will tell you, in my experience, having George Kittle at least on like half my teams for the last decade is whenever George Kittle starts getting used too damn much, George Kittle starts getting hurt.

And so, you know, maybe hold on, see if he does it again this week. There's going to be some tight-in needy teams. There's going to be a Colston-Levelin owner out there that thinks they were promised 20 points a game at tight-in and aren't getting it. But I would, and maybe you didn't have to draft Kittle as your tight-in-one. Who knows? But I'd get off Kittle, if you can, just the age and the recovery from injury. And he has a very, very long history of injury.

And it's, I don't think he's ever going to get that. kind of usage consistently. If he does, I think you'll break down a little bit. Debo's pretty self-explanatory. I just put it on here because I did just sell Debo in a dynasty league so you can get a deal out there. I think I got a third and a fourth for Debo, which is fine. Totally fine, yeah. And then the guys above, this running back group, it's going to, people have been kind of handcuffed the first couple weeks on wanting to drop a lot of fab dollars. And there hasn't really been guys there to do it with. And this week, I think they're going to feel like there is.

There's guys that are worthy of your 25, 30, 35% bid. And not necessarily, you don't have to have like a glaring hole at RV2 to bid on these guys. Most of the times when I land dudes, I don't. I'm just trying to stack my bench and keep players away from other people and turn them into trade assets. So if I add Ollie Gordon and I don't necessarily deeply believe in Ollie Gordon, Fun thing about Fab bids is you can see all the people below you that bid on that player. And you can see how they value that player. And so you immediately can create some level of market in your mind of how other people value this player compared to other players.

And that is so rare that you get that edge. You hardly ever, like unless you are in an auction league, you could literally just watch somebody nominate people. and then throw out dollar bids. But fab, I think you get more information out of fab bids than people give it credit for. And you can use that if you're slick enough and go like, hey, you just missed out on Ollie Gordon. How about I give you Ollie Gordon and this other thing? And you give me this wide receiver.

And that's kind of how I always play it. I'm always trying to turn these waiver wire guys into assets. So anyway, that's kind of a cell window for me. How about you? just one bombshell for you because if you're a 0 and 3 or 1 and 2 team I am interested in because I get asked right I'm 1 and 2 oh and 3 I've Kenneth Walker you know would you move him would you move this guy and a lot of time it's like no I think you can plug and play these these positions especially quarterback and tied in right now Jonathan Taylor's a player I think I'd actually weigh offers for so so far these last two games since alec Pierce got injured

re-injured and moved to injured reserve and we've been told his timetable is maybe in the second half of the season which means we won't see him again this year that's the way it usually goes. In this two-game span he's faced eight-man boxes, heavy boxes at the sixth and tenth highest rates in the league and because of that he's dropped to 45th out of 49 qualifiers with 10 carries and rushing guards over-expected.

Logically, just zoom out and think about it. There is no Alec Pierce who gets downfield. There is only Keenan Allen and Josh Downs who do not get downfield. Tyler Warren's depth of target is basically being used like Colts Khalil Shakir. They have no one who threatens any safety anymore. Thus, every defense can play up front and force Jonathan Taylor to beat him. Jonathan Taylor is so good and gets 20 plus touches per game that at times he will beat them. But I'm worried we're going to see a lot of what we saw this past week

in that we just get a lot of 20 for 60 and hopefully he finds the end zone, tax on two to four catches, and he's an okay, maybe RV1. So I'm comfortable selling, especially if you're a losing team, John Taylor for two and three starters, who I can all plug in instead of just this one individual. Yeah, I don't ever like questioning what the queen, Carly Ursa, is doing down there on the sideline. but if if she could if she could listen to 30 seconds of this show just go sign somebody

almost anybody or go trade a fifth round pick for a clear out deep route wide receiver like do what the Seahawks did with Rashid Shahid yep do I go find because your offense is broken without that. Eagles got Mackay Lemon. Go get Don Tavian Wicks. You just think anyone who can win downfield because they literally don't have that player. Yeah, you just got, you have to create more windows for your quarterback to throw into that are deeper down the field and thus create running lanes for your running back. Because the offense is, you're cooked. You're done. You have no real playoff possibility with this form of the Colts offense. you're it's it's something that would lift every single boat and it's an obvious like I'd be calling everybody that thinks they have an X wide receiver that can stretch the field and just be like

cool can I can I get that guy for a fourth call the call the fucking dolphins they got like 19 kids down there that just want to run go routes all day that don't they're not going to bitch if they don't catch one ball like just find one man you got to find one like you just have to do it at this point because Jonathan Taylor's season is on the brink of, you know, being mediocre and underperforming and the whole offense as a unit. All right. I think the only other thing, which we can probably say for another week is Charbonnet time is coming.

I don't know what it is. I don't know how it's going to happen, but I'm feeling really uneasy about the Seahawks backfield. and it feels like they're waiting for an answer. And then, okay, let's leave on this. There have only honestly been a handful of people that have mattered thus far in the season. You know, JSN, Christian Watson. You can go down the list.

Brock Bowers just entered the chat. Yeah. As a guy that can very, very much fucking matter. in terms of if you had Brock Bowers, it might not matter what the rest of your team is. That's what he looked like in his first full game this season. How confident are you? They said he would be limited in his first game action. He was the only tied in to run a route on over 90% of dropbacks,

and he led every tight in target share by 11 percentage points, 39%. So we talk a lot about target share. But just think about it. So 40% of the time when Brock Bowers is out there, he's seeing a target. That is absolutely like life changing as a second round player. So yes, Brock Bowers and this Clint Kubiak system that runs two tight-in sets at a top 30 rate in the league. Yes, he is here. He has arrived.

Yeah, I'm kind of losing my mind. I'm like, I thought, you know, it sucked. The injury sucked, obviously. But then I'm like, my God. Like that is week one. That is like the restrained version. That is the first game action he's had with Kirk Cousins. Like, holy shit, dude.

Like the rest of the stuff might not matter as long as you got the, did you draft Brock Bowers at ADP question, correct? They had me at the first half. I'm not going to lie. Because I did have that bet out there at 100 to 1 for Brock Bowers to lead the first three weeks in touchdowns. He played the third game, so I didn't have a chance. It was a fight uphill against Jackson,

Smith and Jigba anyways, but I got good odds. They had me in the first half, but I still got that, that hefty bet on a eight to one on offensive player of the year. And if Jackson, Smith, and Juba gets hurt or slows down suddenly, Brock Bowers is coming for that award. Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm excited. It added a new, you know, I have fun doing this no matter what, but like, you know, your big money.

teams you're like if a couple of them if you know half or two thirds of your big money teams are kind of like dead in the water um and the rest you're just like fighting for it dude you're just like scratch and you're like shit but so so yeah to walk in there with like the bazooka and just be like hope you all had fun those two weeks because you're about to get fucked up me i'm showing up the Brock Bowers of the party. All right, man. Awesome show. Thank you for your time.

Everybody can go check out Establish the Run. Get you a subby over there. Check out Daigle's Waverwire article before you put your bids in tonight or tomorrow night. So you can get your team correct. Daigles off to watch some Pete Crow Armstrong in the playoffs. And yeah, I'm going to go to sleep in a minute. But I hope you got some great information this week. as always, we're trying to help you win your league.

So if we can do that in any better fashion, we're here to help you, man. But this is action and is the juice for week three. Dagle, thank you so much. I'll talk to you soon, brother. Catch you next week.