The Ringer NFL Show - CMC Panic, and Waiver-Wire Pickups for Week 2

Episode Date: September 10, 2024

The guys start by reacting to the Christian McCaffrey injury news (0:43). Then, SHOWDOWN TIME! Must-add players at each position ahead of NFL Week 2 (6:42). “You guys want to do some emails?” (57:11) Running Backs (9:04) Wide Receivers (26:53) Tight Ends (41:56) Quarterbacks (52:58) Defenses (55:44) Check out our 2024 Ringer Fantasy Football Rankings here! Email us! [e-mail] The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Social: Kiera Givens Producers: Kai Grady and Carlos Chiriboga Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the fall of 2014, a group of hackers pulled off the biggest Hollywood heist of all time. They broke into computer servers belonging to Sony Pictures and released hundreds of thousands of top secret documents. The attack would cause an international incident, upend thousands of lives, and change the movie industry forever. From Spotify and the Ringer Podcast Network, I'm Brian Raftery, and this is the Hollywood Hack. Listen on the big picture feed. Your Fantasy Football Show. My name is Dan & Hyford's. I am joined by Danny Kelly and Craig Corlebeck.

And this is not a drill. This is not a drill. Christian McCaffrey. Inactive on Monday Night Football. We're going to get to the rest of the episode in a little bit. We already recorded the whole thing. We left and then we found out that Chris McAfri is not playing a Monday into football. We're going to get to waivers and trivia and all that jazz in a moment.

But for right now... All that jazz. All that jazz. D.K. Just, Christian... I mean, this is basically chaos. Christian McCaffrey got injured a month ago. We hemmed and haunt about where to put.

put him and now we get, I mean, it's 710 Eastern. You guys called me. I was making dinner. The lesson here is when Haifitz decides to become a nervous Jewish grandmother, as he likes to call it, he's undefeated. I mean, you guys tried to talk to me all preseason about how we should rank Christopher McCaffee lower, this calf injury, blah, blah, blah. There wasn't a lot of reporting on this.

In fact, there wasn't even any reporting that I saw that it was an Achilles injury and not just calf. What we'd heard is it was a calf injury. And so anyways, now he was limited all week. with this calf slash Achilles injury, and now he is inactive week one. So this is a bombshell. Bummer for your fantasy football team. Probably a good thing if you're a 49ers fan long term.

Also tough. Shefter tweeted out this graphic 49ers inactive. And it's funny, one, because it just says presented by dignity health. And I'm like, you know what? I don't feel like I have much dignity or health in the situation right now. So, I mean, to get to actual waiver part of it, we're recording this before Monday at football because we wanted to get this out. But, I mean, Jordan Mason, like, that's the guy.

Maybe I'll eat my words and we'll need a third. third topper after this game ends. But basically, there's no one on this roster at running back that Kyle Shanhan trusts anymore except Jordan Mason because Elijah Mitchell is already out

for the season. Christian McCaffrey is now out. We have no idea. I'm sure if you guys watch money of football, check our Twitters and stuff, we'll have more information of what's going on with him long term. But Jordan Mason's the only guy

that's played for Kyle Shanan for longer than like since April, I believe. They had like Patrick Taylor, Isaac Oireando, the other, the rookie. Jordan Mason, actually, Kyle Shannon used to not love Jordan Mason.

And now he's like been singing Jordan Mason's praise all year all year. So I feel like he's a must. Probably like a weekly top 15 running back minimum. We'll see how he does. But I feel like Jordan Mason and Debo Samuel, frankly, are going to get most of the carries for San Francisco. How good do you think Jordan Mason is just because I couldn't believe this

stat from Nate Junkie at PFF? Jordan Mason has the highest PFF grade of all running backs, regardless of sample size the last couple years. Part of that's playing for the freaking 49ers. But he is talented. Yeah. And this is the perfect example of, you know, just the idea that any running back that knows the system and does exactly what Kyle Shanahan wants him to do can be really successful

in the system. I mean, he's not like especially fast. He's not especially explosive. He's just a tough physical downhill runner who makes the right cuts and makes the right decisions in this offense. And he's really effective. And I think like, yeah, when you said top 15, I'm like, at least because it seems like he's probably going to get a ton of volume. And I don't, you know, I don't know what Patrick Taylor's deal is. I mean, he was with Green Bay last year. I think that your point with Devo Samuel getting a massive bump is a good one, too. A little late to bring this up for everyone, of course. You know, I have a couple of teams with Jordan Mason and I've already played all my guys.

So it's kind of tough. And maybe Brandon Ayu plays a little bit more. I think he was expected to be a little limited tonight. Adam Schaefter just tweeted, without Christian McCaffrey, Jordan Mason is expected to start at running back. This will be Mason's first career start. The former undrafted free agent out of Georgia Tech has never had more than 69 rushing yards,

11 carries or 27 snaps in a game. What are you trying to do, Adam? You're trying to scare me? Look, it's like, anybody who has McCaffrey doesn't care. They're starting Jordan Mason if they drafted him. It's kind of, I mean, this is just kind of nuts. Fantasy's insane.

This is wild. This is crazy. If you draft a Christian McCaffrey, I'm so, you know, it's funny. I do want to give ourselves a pat on the back because I think we're the only ones who even move Christian McAfre down. I don't like usually, like,

gloat or whatever. Yeah, you guys. Everyone stuck with him at number one. And we were like, it felt like we were taking crazy. easy pills. Yeah, one of my rules

is calf injuries, not for me. Don't mess with calf injuries. So, not for me. It's kind of like a dumb, true crime movie where you look back

and it's like, you know, Charlie Kelly with all the string and it's like, McCaffree. Yeah, yeah. This is like a sixth cent situation. He's been dead the whole time.

Yeah. But yeah, so fantasy's dumb. If you took him, I'm sorry. Yeah, if he makes you feel better, this just,

I almost like the brand of a yuk was just slayed of him. Slight of hand? Slate of hand? Slate of hand? Why did they spell it that way? Slate? Not sure. Slight. Not sure. A magic trick. It was like, you know, distraction. Like the Brandon Iuke thing, everything going on. Like the 90s have had such crazy vibes. Also, just all time bad vibes offseason for the 49ers. I mean, even the Ricky Parasel shit, put that at a different category. Think God he's okay. Even ignoring that, like, Trent Williams contract that just got resolved, Brandon Ayuk contract that it turns out that they actually were on the phone with the Steelers trying to trade him. He came into work early. Kyle Shannon saw. him ran upstairs, told him to hang up on the Steelers, ran back up downstairs, talk to you for two hours, and they figured it out.

And this is, this vibes with like what Iyuk said at the press conference where he was like, I probably made this a little tougher than I needed to make it. It's anyway. Yeah, they're like, wait, you don't actually want to go to the Steelers, do you? Because they're signing the paperwork right now. And he's like, whoa, wait, really? No, I'll stay. It's insane.

Don't leave me. Yeah. All right. Anyway, add Jordan Mason, like your life depends on it. This is such a mess. I think you have to credit the 49ers a little bit that this didn't get out earlier. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was thinking too.

Credit to the 49ers. That's what I was thinking of the situation. Thanks, D.K. Loose lips sink ships, guys. This is a disaster for fantasy. For all the Christian McCaffrey people out there, this is a catastrophe. As Bill would say, this will go down

as the McCaffrey Caffier. Like, that's what this is. That's how it will be known among your friend group. All right. Let's get to the rest of the show. Add Jordan Mason like your life depended on it. Here's how this works. We're going to go position by position,

and we're each going to give our top pick from the waiver wire for fantasy football at that position. But it's like waivers. We're only one of us is going to get that player. And then if any of us pick the same player, we're going to do a little trivia tiebreaker to see who gets them. The loser has to pick someone else. It's not that complicated. I promise you will figure it out as we go along. Craig, I think this year we're going to add some stakes to it.

Yeah. So last year, we've been doing this trivia thing for a while now. We call it showdown time. We wanted to add stakes. We want to test. Ali, you know, who is the best at trivia and come up with some consequence at the end of the year. So rather than us come up with it, why don't you come up with it? Our listeners at home.

Why don't you get off your ass and help out a little? Yeah, so at least this is a free podcast. So yeah, email us ideas you have for punishments, consequences for whoever gets last in trivia. For the winner, he gets to do something to the other two. I'm not sure what. We can figure it out as the season progresses, but not too far deep into the season. because if I start losing, I'll bail on the whole thing. We've got to come up.

I'm not doing it. Within the first few weeks. Email us at ringer fancy football at Gmail.com. DK., you're the dad. You have constraints in your life. Will you just give us a list of things you won't do at a principle? So no one, I mean, like, probably no 24 hours in a place-type deal where I have to, like, my family has to sacrifice why I'm away.

Yeah. This should be like a funny stuff. A three out of ten on the insane scale. This is not last place in your fantasy. league level punishment. Yeah, we're not taking public transportation like 700 miles away. Yeah. You know, we're probably just...

That is a funny thing, but yeah, we're not doing that. It's funny when you're... Yeah, we're going to go draft in Michigan and you have to get there without a plane or a car. But that's for when you're, you know, 25. I have a child. Yeah. I have to take him to school every day. All right.

And again, emails, trivia questions, too, because we... I love doing the trivia. Email is trivia at ring your fancy football at gmail.com. And just remember questions. Got to have a number in them. answers, or not the question, the number has, the answer has to be a year, a date, and a number, an amount, a weight, a height,

whatever, it just has to be something that if we're wrong, we can still be wrong in an order. So that's all. So it can't be like colors. We need to quantify how incorrect I am. Exactly. That's the whole, that's what this whole shows about. Okay, so without further ado, we're going to get right into it. Yeah.

Go on position by position, starting with running back. D.K., who's your number one running back waiver ad after week one? I got to go with J.K. Dobbins, who was the RB3, on the week, 21.4-5 pvr points, 10 carries, 135 yards. He had the second most scrimmage yards of any running back in the NFL this week. And it looks like his role is pretty secure. And he's been basically their pass-catching guy.

Gus Edwards was basically not involved in the passing game. So I really like the longevity potential for J.K. Dobbins, if he can say healthy, which is, of course, a big question. But for now, just riding that usage right now. J.K. Dobbins, aka Rahim Sloster. That's right. The poor guy

broke free twice on Sunday. Couldn't quite make it to the end zone. But look, he still looks spry in the short to intermediate parts of the field. And again, we're going to hit a wide range of players here. So if you're listening and you're like,

well, I have J.K. Dobbins that drafted him because you told me to. Cool. We're going to get through like a whole, just week one, I feel like it's really important to hit a whole range of players. So yeah, Dobbins. I had Dobbins.

Craig, you had Dobbins. No, I had, yeah, I didn't Jake it out. Okay, cool. All right, so there we go. So we all get Dobbins. Right off to bat. So now we're going to have to do our very first showdown time of the year. Yeah.

Wow. For those of you just joining us, welcome. This is a treat to do every Monday. I can't tell if I'm getting sick of it, but not yet. So here we go. Did you, did you say that if we all select the same guy, we only do trivia when we all land on the same play? We're back to the old way. Yes.

We're doing trivia if we all pick the same guy. Okay, it is the Rahim Slow Sturt Showdown Time I love the gone Now I'm on video, now you actually can see me I feel like I caught the Holy Ghost Oh my God, that was incredible. All right, shutdown time trivia.

This is big, this is big. This is big, I mean, he and one other guy are probably the two biggest ads of the week, so. This is from Jules. Jules. Jules. Jules. Say what again!

Sorry, doing Pulp Fiction, Jules. You guys, recently talked about Michelin Star Restaurants at the show. The first Michelin Guide came out in 1900, but the three-star restaurant system came out in 1931. 1931? Dude, I didn't know. It started 1900, the Michelin Guide? Jesus. The three-star system came out in 1931. How many restaurants worldwide have been granted three Michelin Stars? Since 1931? I believe, yes. I'm pretty sure we've had this question before. Yeah. Have we? Yeah. But I don't, I have.

have no fucking idea what the answer is. How many three Michelin Star restaurants have there been in essentially a hundred years? Yeah. Man, how many are there a year? That's kind of, yeah, that's what I'm wondering too. That's all I can name five of them from just watching Chef's Table, then. Are all of those three star in Chef's Table? Don't make me doubt myself.

I don't know, Alinea. Oh, I don't think I can name any of those. Where did Carmi cook in the bear? I don't know. The place in Copenhagen? Yeah, I guess I'm out. Okay, so the question is how many three-star Michelin restaurants are there in the world since 1930? I have been in the world. Eish.

All right. You guys ready? We'll be, yeah. All right. Three, two, one, a thousand. 700. Oh, you son of a. I said, 702.

What did you say, D.K.? I said 700, but I guess it's actually probably good because I get the low number if it is one. I know. I'm kind of stuck. I had that middle 300 range. 153. That's it? Yeah.

Okay. So there's not that many a year. Yeah. I feel like, so, I mean, that's basically there's like one to two a year. Yeah. I guess that makes way more sense now that I think about it. I like never hear about three star. Like you hear about one and two all the time.

I almost forgot that their, like a third was even possible. It's so hard to achieve. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Okay, so wait. So I get Dobbins. You, D.K., you get, you get J.K. Dobbins? Yep.

And then Craig, you get the next pick here. I feel like, do you guys agree broadly speaking? I feel like there's two groups of running backs after Jacob Dobbins that are available. There are like younger-ish veterans that have some degree of flex appeal and then there are like upside rookies. Do you guys like largely agree with that? Yes. When you name a younger veteran that you're referring to, like Alexander Madison. I would, well, no, he's about deeper.

I think, I don't think he's. I guess I'm curious what you pull here, Craig, because I feel like there's a, a group of, well, actually, you pick and then I'll, I want to influence you. Yeah, let's just go into them. It's week one, right? There actually weren't a lot of injuries at the running back position. In general, knock on wood, there weren't like a lot of injuries this week, really? So my picks

coming out of week one are usually like promising signs I saw that I want to bet on for the long term. Guys, I want to bet on long term. So I'm going to go with Bucky Irving, the running back for the bucks, rookie, who looked great at the gate. He had a great camp. Everybody thought he was going to challenge Rashad White, who was a guy who maybe didn't have all the talent last year,

but got a lot of touches, which is why he was good in fantasy. He got most of the touches last week. He had 15 rushes, but it was only for 30 yards. Meanwhile, Bucky Irving, nine rushes, 66 yards, looked really good. They played about 70, 30 snap split. But I just think long term, I think it's very possible that come week eight, Bucky Irvin's just like the guy on the ground, and Rashad White's the receiving back because he is a good receiver.

And so, yeah, I think I'm going to go with with Bucky. Honestly, so that's not, I wasn't going to go with Bucky. So first of all, just to step back for a second, week ones is really important because, I mean, week one last year, you could have gotten Kairn Williams, could have gotten Pooka and Acoa and those living two of the most impactful players of the entire year. And so it is important in these spots. And when I look at like, and I hate the whole, who's this year's Kiron Williams?

Probably nobody. There probably is no Kiron Williams this year. Having said that, when I was looking at it, I think the biggest determinant for me is because it's actually, I think, year two running backs. I feel like rookie running backs, you know, the guys who go on day one or day two are usually on teams already. And then you look at the guys who are on WaverWire,

like a buck year of it. Did he go in the fourth round, fifth round? I think fourth. Fourth. And then so I feel like the rookie running backs going that late, there's always some kind of deficiency in their game. But you look at year too, like Kyron Williams last year was in his second year.

And I feel like there are second year running backs that kind of get, we forget about. So in fantasy drafts, they don't get taken. and then all these invisible improvements in their game, get them on the field more. That's the group I lasered it on. The two guys on between would be Tank Bigsby for the Jaguars, who got the same amount of carries as Travis Etyn,

but had almost double the yards. Travis Eton fumbled the ball out of the freaking one yard line, and I kind of wonder if Tank Bigsby is going to get the goal line work. He also is just like a really good running back. Like he just runs up Hill. He glides. Like I like the way that he switches lanes. I kind of just think that to your point, Craig,

about long term, I think Tank Bigsby could just be good all season. I had him third. He was right after Bucky Irving for me. The only difference for me was like, I do think ETS good and I don't necessarily think Rashad White's that good. That was the only difference.

My concern with Bucky Irving is this was like the perfect game for him to participate because the Bucks kind of blew out Washington. I think Bucky Irving, a lot of his touches got touched. That sounds weird. But he got a lot of his touches.

He got more looks later in the game when it was like... Yeah, when the Bucks were up a lot. And I wonder, I feel like, I do agree that he could be the goal line back soon. It's a strong showing for a, a rookie fourth rounder in week one. Absolutely.

Especially considering Rashad White 15 carries for 31 yards. Yes. Like Rashad White, I don't think is a very good running back. Like in terms of what he does on the ground, he's a really good pass catcher. And so like what Craig was saying is I could see.

I don't understand why the Buccaneers wouldn't do this. Bucky Irving is so much more efficient. He's so much more north-south, so much more decisive as a runner, at least what we saw yesterday and what we saw in the preseason than Rashad White. And so, and by the way, But Becky Irving was one of the better pass catching backs in college football last year.

Like he played with Bo Nix. You know, he was having to catch the ball a lot. Rishon White's a late third round guy in the draft. It's not like the Bucks committed a lot to him or the coaching staff is like particularly in love with Roshad White or anything like that. And there's nobody behind Bucky Irving. You know what I mean? I'm not that worried about Sean Tucker. Like it's, you know, if anything happens to.

I think, yeah. The tiebreaker for me would be with Bigsby is that Bigsby only ran four routes. And he didn't get any of the third down, long down and distance. situations. It was all ETS still. And so they clearly, and this goes back to last year, like, every time they threw to Tank Busby, it was like an interception. Like, there was like, I think he got three targets on the year and two of them were picked. And so they clearly don't trust him in the passing game yet. So that kind of, you know, limits what his potential upside could be. The other guy I really like and is the exact opposite. And actually the exact middle ground between

what we're saying is Jaliel McLaughlin for the Broncos, who I also think is right there. And honestly, probably maybe you should go ahead of both the guys we're talking about. He is the one catching passes from Boonex. So running back for the Broncos, he had 15 touches this week. Now, do you guys like a PPR? You like PPR scoring? Of course I do. Don't love it.

I love points. Jaliel McLaughlin, five catches, one yard. Five catches one yard. That's the Broncos offense. I feel like he's the definitely. He's high tea. I like high tea in running backs, talent, touches, timeline. I think you look at the talent.

McLaughlin's like the all-time NCAA rushing leader. don't check what division of college that was in. And then I just look at it. I'm like, clearly he's like they're designing plays for him. He's catching screens. Like, I like the way he runs.

He's hard to bring down. He's kind of feisty. Sean, he's there at 5 a.m. every day. Sean Payton said he's beating him to the building every day. Which is waiting outside. It's not even open yet.

Yeah, exactly. It's just in the parking lot. Just like threatening Sean Payton. On his phone. Yeah. Yeah, like who are those guys who serve papers? Like that's basically him every day. Yeah.

Process server. Yeah. But yeah, I just think McLaughlin, like, he got more touches than Giovante Williams and stuff. And I think he's the definition of like flex appeal where you're going to be able to throw, like on by week, you could put Julio McLaughlin in your flex and he won't disgust you

when guys are going on and that if Giovante Williams gets hurt. I don't know what the ceiling is because the Broncos are probably going to suck, but he's going to catch a ton of passes and he's also actually like a real running back, which he played on early downs quite a bit in this game. Yeah, the weird part about him is that Javonte Williams is actually used more in the past game in terms of like routes run. on passing downs, which was odd, considering that they're not,

they both don't, they seem built for the opposite. Julio is like, seems like the receiving guy. I talked myself out of it. I'll take McLaughlin. And then. McLaughlin had 15 touches to nine for Chavante Williams.

That's just a lot to have on waivers. The guy who's leading his, even if it's a bad team, like a guy who's leading his team in touches on the backfield is, and catching passes. I had McGloughlin, McLaughlin, second.

McLaughlin with an F. McLaughlin. The phonetic F. Is that right? Okay. Yes. It's not McLaughlin. Dude, to tell you the truth, every time I've never said this to anyone,

every time I see his name, I think of the Dark Night, when the Joker has the truck that comes through the tunnel, and it just says laughter on the truck, and he just spray paints the S&S and puts slaughter. Like you put the slaughter, like the laugh and slaughter, and that's the Joker. And I just think of that. I guess no one cares about that.

But he puts the laugh and slaughter for Julien McLaughlin. So you're taking Julio over Tank. I am. And then I think Tank belongs in actually this perfect bucket of other running backs. Jordan Mason for the 49ers, who it's Monday afternoon recording this, guess what? If Christian McAfrey's gotten injured, you should take Jordan Mason ahead of all this guys you're talking about except Jake Dobbins.

We should mention because I don't, I think it's happened after we had talked. Chris McAfrey was listed with an Achilles injury. Yeah. Which they didn't have to disclose during the preseason because there weren't injury reports at that point. So that is slightly more concerning than just a pure calf injury, right? And so he's got, so McCaffrey's, again, I think it's funny. The Caff is in his name. But McCaffrey's going to play tonight, which is, you're listening to this.

I'm not sure if the game's already happened or not. Basically, whatever McAfrey does in that game, if Jordan Mason is splitting work with McCaffrey, you should probably just pick him up. So I think Jordan Mason's like, you know, because there's no one behind him. Elijah Mitchell is already out for the season. Frankly, there's no one else that Kyle Shannon and Trust in San Francisco. Like Shanahan and McVeherer, total control freaks with what running backs they put out there. There's three running backs he trusts.

One's already out for the season. If McCaffey goes down too, I think Jordan Mason and really, and then Debo would be getting all the work for the 49ers. Mason's as high upside as there is, and we'll see. If McAfrey comes out, plays 99% of snaps, then Mason's no regular value until McCaffrey gets hurt. But if they're limiting McCaffrey's work so he can get the whole season, that's a different conversation.

The other guys exactly, it's similar bucket to me, or Tai Chi on there on the Vikings, Justice Hill on the Ravens, and then I think they're right there with Tank Bigsby, where they're all kind of like the short end of a two-man backfield. But if one of those guys got hurt, they would get all of it. Like Justice Hill would get a lot of it, if anything happened to Derek Henry, but Justice Hill is like past catcher for now.

Tide Shailner, if Aaron Jones got hurt, Todd Shielder would have a lot of that backfield. I think you could add in Zach Charbonnet on Seattle for that group as well. Especially since Kenneth Walker left the game yesterday, late in the game, complaining of abdomen pain, which is... And Zach Charbonne immediately caught like a 20-yard touchdown after Kenneth Walker went out. I'm not worried about Ken Walker playing for this week because they let him do the post-game press conference

and generally speaking, if you do the post game press conference, you're not, like, injured. He probably had to take a shit, let's be honest. Yeah. I mean, I had to have to have you in pain

after eating some jalapenos the other day. Dude, the play where they, WWE, like, threw the, like, Ken Walker, like, picked the guy up. And that was actually,

I've never seen an uncorriographed WWE move, but that's exactly what it was like those are saying. He's the best. More NFL players should suplex each other. I don't know why that's against the rules. To add on to that list, uh,

Alexander Madison for the, for the Raiders. He ended up... Alexander Madison. He ended up playing more than... Yeah. White. Just straight up.

Zemir White. And that was definitely not expected coming into this week. So, and Madison, I think, is a much better pass catcher. The Raiders are going to be playing and trailing game scripts most of the time, I would imagine this season. And so Madison is probably actually the guy you want in this backfield,

at least based on the usage from week one. He played 60% of snaps compared to 40 for Zemar. were white. He ran more routes. It looked better. I don't know if you really want any running back in this group, but if you're desperate, I feel like Madison. Can we tier of these guys? I feel like J.K. Dobbins were saying he's in his tier of his own. Yeah.

And the next group, I think, is led by Joluma Glofflin. Honestly, he might be his own tier, too. I know that's kind of a bit, but like he's a starting, he's basically like a lead running back on a team. That's kind of its own thing. Yeah, I mean, he still played less snaps than Javante, but yeah. And then true. And then the next group, though, we got Tank Biggsby on the Jaguars, who, no

past catching work for now. I if it hates my bucky or I'm putting him in there right now. Craig, I had him third. But Tank Biggsby and Bucky Irving are similar-ish players where it's like they're both probably not getting receiving work right now, but they have a path to getting like all a lot of other between the tackles early down work and maybe goal line work, right? So there's similar players in that regard. Justice Hill for the Ravens, who's just more of a receiving back wall as Derek Henry's

obviously Derek Henry. Charbonnet for the Seahawks. Rico Dattle is, is that, is that. a tier below because he's not, I actually think he might be better than Zeke eventually, but I don't know if Zeke's going to hold up. Well, they were just rotating drives based on the usage. By the way, so a lot of this information we get from PFF, Nathan Yonke does a great job of charting everything and talking about how they utilize the backs. And so I believe Dowdell and Zieg were just rotating drives more or less. Obviously, there's like a little bit of, you know,

shifting throughout the game. But it's like you said, it wouldn't be that surprising if Dowdell ended up being sort of the lead guy because he just has more juice. I don't know. I thought Zique looked okay, but nothing special. It's just an old man pickup game at running back. Yeah. Jamal Williams? I would say,

I think there's another tier below that. I think Deep Flyer, it's like Ray Davis on the bill, so I don't think it's going to be playable anytime soon, but I do think eventually we'll have like a time share with James Cook. But he's a rookie. And so I don't know. But it's deeper.

Yeah, Jamal Williams, if you're in a deeper league. Any other guys? That's all I had written down. Yeah. Okay. So I end up with Jillim, Jolilla McLaughlin, D.K., you get Jalbonds, and then Craig, you get, or Bucky Irving. All right. I like that Bucky Irving pick, Craig.

Thank you. It's a long-term play. All right, it was a great NFL weekend, and Fandall is giving you another chance to start the season with a big return on America's number one sportsbook. You'll get started with $200 in bonus bets, guaranteed when you place your first $5 bet on tonight's game. Jets Niners, McCaffrey was just ruled out. You can take the Jordan Mason over. He's the only other backup that's worthy on this Niners team. Bear it with some Aaron Rogers Red Zone.

A little Mike Williams is going to be back today, even in a limited role. I kind of like him for a sneaky touchdown. Breece Hall was our number one guy in fantasy. You can pair that all together on Fandul. Just visit fandle.com slash ringer fantasy to make every moment more this season. Fandul, an official sports book partner of the NFL. Must be 21 plus in select states or 18 plus and present in D.C. first online real money wager only, $5 first deposit required,

bonus issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets, which expire seven days after receipt, restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fandle.com. Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-hash-help.com. All right, wide receivers, Craig, then why don't you go first? A lot of options here, to be honest. I would say there's not a glaring, cleared number one, like at J.K. Dobbins And like who we will be talking about at the tight-end position.

I went with Brandon Cooks. This, I mean, this should just every episode we do on Monday should be in honor of Brandon Cooks, who every year does this. He was not drafted. He is the, he is the Stephen Glansberg of the NFL. Yeah. Once again, seven targets, 45 yards, touchdown. And this was even in a blowout when they didn't even throw the ball a lot.

And look, Jake Ferguson, their tight end just got hurt. So Brandon Cooks was already kind of like the fringe number two, number three guy in this offense. Now he seems to be a clear number two, depending on how long Jake Ferguson. the tight end is out. Good offense, good quarterback, number two option. Brandon Cook is a smart veteran who is not going away. You can play Brandon Cook's next week, I think,

and not really have to worry too, too much. Yeah, the number two receiver on an offense with Dak Prescott, they're going to pass probably a lot more than they did in this last game when they got up really early. Yeah. Seven targets when Dak threw the ball, like, what, 30 times? It's pretty good. 23% target rate.

He ran the same number of routes as C.D. Lamb. I thought he looked pretty sprightly. Sure. I mean, look, he's Brandon Cooks. He does the same thing every year. Yeah, I did have him as my number one. Okay. I did not.

I had Rashid Shaheed for the Saints. That was a close second for me. I love Rashid. He's just starting receiver for the Saints. And I think, again, so he had, you know, 70 plus yards at a touchdown this week. I think he's just really good. I think he's just a fantastic. He's just like, he's just like, incredible.

He's just always over. He's number 22. It throws you off. Yeah, he looks like, what safety is. that. Dude, exactly. Do you think the defense loses him

because they think he's on their team? Oh, that's interesting. There's something there. How many receivers in the NFL right now are in the 20s? It's like Sky Moore.

Oh, God. He's the only good one. Sky Moore is 20 because I think the Chiefs want to move him to defense. I think because he can't freaking catch. Shahit is hard for me.

I have him as my number two guys as well just because he feels like the most unsustainable player in the league that continues to sustain his play. Every single game he has like two catches for 80 yards in a touchdown.

And I'm like, all right, well, can't keep that up. Can't keep doing these 50-yard touchdowns? Can he? Or can he? Yeah. So part of me is like, I don't know, they played the Panthers

and he had basically like one great deep shot, but also he does this every single week. Is it wild? Alave had two points. Yeah. It was a dark day for all of the wide receiver ones across, the Drake London, Terry McLaurin, Chris Olave,

Amory Cooper, D.K. Metcalfe, all of those guys had terrible days. So I have Shahid. You guys have Brandon Cooks. That means, okay, so you guys have to do a little Brandon Cook showdown. See, this is what's tough. So now you don't participate in the opportunity to get a point here. Well, I'll still guess.

And if I get it, then you guys just... Yeah, let's just... Yeah, that's fine. I still do the trivia. If I beat you, I just, you know, for the love the game. Everyone gets to play trivia. Participation Award, soft. Yeah.

All right. It is the Brandon Cook's showdown time. I'm imagining the sound of the gong. We can't hear it right now, but I know you all are hearing it. It's from Mark. Marko. Specifically from Mark's eight-year-old son.

Marky Mark. Mark's son. You really put a lot of effort into that. You literally just had such disdain for Mark's child. Did he say a name? Mark's son. My son is the only son that we talk about on the show. Mark's son. Mark says, my eight-year-old son came to

me with this tidbit the other day. How hot is a bolt of lightning? Oh, sweet God. I actually hate this episode every week. The second hyphids begins the question, I'm like, I'm fucked. I hate these questions.

Answers in Fahrenheit, obviously. How hot? It's a bolt of lightning. Bolt of lightning. You guys, see, this is one of those situations where I'm so embarrassed that I'll just be so, so deeply incorrect. I got a number in mind

How hot? How hot are other things? The boiling point? Isn't the boiling point 300 something? 212? It's 212? Okay. Well, I was wrong.

I think lightning is harder than boiling water. People stop setting us like how many stars are in the universe? It just said it's like how many cups are in a court? Oh, I'm screwed at that. Like basic shit. 212 degrees. You're going to go like. Like 214 DK?

No. All right. You guys have a number in mind? Hyphids, do you want to count us down? All right. How hot so bolts of lightning? Three, two, one. $7,000.

What did you say? I said $10,000. What did you say, $700. I'm just going back. $700. I'm running the Michelin Star and number back. You know what? It can't be as hot as a pizza oven.

It has to be hotter than a pizza oven. DK. DK. There's a chain of pizza called 800 degrees or whatever. I didn't know that. That literally crossed my mind, Hyvitz. I was like, it has to be hotter than 800 degree pizza. I said 2,000.

I said 10. I literally just guessed the same number I did with Michelin Stars. Just always guess 700. That'd be really funny. I wonder how many times you win. I'm just going to guess 700 for everything. That's the version of Taco from the League, like just Autodraft never sets his line up. People are going to start writing in trivia questions that only have the answer 700.

Could the number 700 every time just win this game over us? I'm going to start submitting questions like from fake accounts. Burners. 50,000 degrees. I was off by a bit. I was off by a vet. I did not know there were 800 degree pizza ovens, to be honest. That would have swayed you?

It would have helped. It would have helped. I literally, that probably would have swayed me a little. I was so off as well, but I do feel better that D.K. What was the answer? 50,000? I mean, Hyvins was technically really off, but still much better. So who won?

Me. Okay. See, this sucks. I got two second places. I get nothing for it. Okay, so High Fitz already gets his... Yeah, I got my Shaheed, baby. He got Shaheed.

So then I get cooks. Oh, shit. Okay. I have a hard decision here, I think, because there's two guys I really like. I think there's one sexy guy left. So Khalil Shakur, technically, I think, falls in our category under 50% ownership on one of the two platforms, ESPN or Yahoo. And then the other guy that I've got in mind here that I think is sneaky is DeMarcus Robinson for the Rams. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

who played 92% snaps. He's a clear number two behind Cup in terms of snaps and routes. And especially in particular with Puka Nakua, probably missing time. We haven't really gotten the official word yet on what exactly happened with him. But the burst sack, you know. I think we're going to have to assume he probably misses a week or three. Everyone insisted the bursasack was okay. And us, we are not doctors.

However, we perhaps correctly said, can your bursus sack ever truly? cover. No one ever said I used to have a bad burst of sec. It's always a bad burst of sack. I used to have a bad back, right? No one's ever said that. Right. DeMarcus Robinson last year, when Cup and Nakua were banged up,

particularly Cup, DeMarcus Robinson was very good on the ramp. She had four straight weeks for the touchdown at the end of the season. He was like a top 20 guy in fantasy. He went seven targets, four catches, 42 yards, 15% target rate on the day. Tyler Johnson had like that big play, but technically Robinson was playing in front of him. I'm so tempted to pick Kalir Shakur

because he's more sexy and more fun and does more stuff, but he only played 53% of snaps for the bills this last week. I think I'm just going to go with the floor play and pick Robinson, even though I like these guys. I like both of them a lot. I'm going to assume Puka's out next week. I'm going to go Robinson for the Rams and just kind of just bank on he's going to get a bunch of targets from Matt's effort.

There's two players. One, I'm stunned. you didn't bring up Greg Dorch, D.K. for the Cardinals. Love me some Dorch. He only played like two-thirds of the snaps, but great Dorch, just some of the plays he was targeted on. Third and six, third and five, third and five, fourth and seven with the game on the line. He's clearly Kyler's guy when they need a bucket.

It's kind of a short guy solidarity thing, perhaps. Exactly. Brother. I did the math earlier. Dorch going back to 2022 has played in 15. There's been 15 games where he plays 60% of six. snaps. That's a pretty low bar. So 60% plus, there's been 15 games. And he's averaged nine and a half ppr

points in those games. So that's like I don't know if that's really worth getting excited about too honest, but like... You said how many... Nine ppr points? Nine half ppr points. Nine half, okay. Kyler also said that Dorch, if he was like six, four would be the number one receiving the NFL. How would you guys feel

if I said that about you? Because George is like 5'8. If I said, Craig, if you had four more inches, you know, well, that's a different conversation. He'd be if I had four more inches, man things would be very different things would be very different I'm going to make you a star

I'm going to be a star what's the what's the line you're talking about boogie nights yeah yeah boogie night there's like a famous line at the very end of the movie that I'm sure Simmons would be very upset with me for not getting it the other one I just feel like we have to mention is

Alec Pierce who just went absolutely I mean kind of nuclear this week for the cults I mean Alec Pierce has kind of like on the outs last year. I feel like he wasn't really like good for the Colts. And they did three catches for 125 yards at a touchdown. Yeah, for some reason, Anthony Richardson has taken it upon himself to like make Alec Pierce a thing. He was mad that people were talking shit about Alec Pierce.

He was like, I'll show you. And basically just launched two bombs to Alec Pierce that he came down with. I think a couple other guys, Wondale Robinson had 11 targets. He was one of only four guys in the NFL to have double-digit targets. I know the Giants are an absolute dumpster fire, but the guy had 11 targets. Don't do the other guy. Romeo Dobbs played the most snaps of any Packers-wide receivers.

He's 12-12 targets, sorry, Craig. 12 targets. Romeo Dobbs on Green Bay played the most snaps of any Green Bay wide receiver. It's largely kind of a big rotation over there. The Jordan Love thing makes that super difficult. If it's Malik Willis, you're just not doing that. But depending on Jordan Love's health, you know, you could potentially add Dobbs if love comes back

sooner rather than later. I think if Jordan Love had not gotten hurt at the end on that weird field in Brazil, that I think Romeo Dobbs might be the best player available. And yet, Malik Willis is awful. And if he ends up being the Packers, first of all, it's so weird to me.

Like, you know what, put this as another feather in the cap for I could be a general manager. If your backup quarterback is so bad that when your starter gets hurt, you're like, oh, we got to call someone because we can't play this guy. Why the fuck is your backup quarterback? Like they're calling Ryan Tannahill.

And like, Malik Willis got caught from the Titans. Like, he's been awful. The genuine answer, I'm not trying to like disagree with you because I agree. It's like important to have a backup. But I think they just want to develop him.

And they weren't assuming that love is going to get hurt. But that doesn't, that is not a good reason because they need help. Like so many guys get hurt. So many guys will have a concussion randomly, you know, they should have her backup. If you want to develop him,

make him your number three. Like if you're, The Packers are trying to win the Super Bowl. They should have been the NFC championship game last year. And again, to your point, DK, you say this all the time. More quarterbacks played last year than ever before last year. Yeah, it was like the concussion for that. It was like the record too.

So it's like it's happening more and more. He's been on the team a week. How was this your plan? And the Packers are the team with foresight. They're the one who replaced Farve with Rogers and Rogers with love. If any team's supposed to understand this, it's the Packers and then the Eagles won a Super Bowl with the backup quarterback. I just don't understand how Malik Willis might play for the Packers.

Did they not have a third QB? Do they not even have one available? They had no experience. It was like Sean Clifford and like all these, like they had no experience. Ironically, they had nothing behind Jordan Love because I guess he's getting on the practice steps. Either way, all that's to say, I have very little confidence in the Packers passing game until Jordan Love comes back. They need to get Tannahill or somebody. It's so funny that once again, Terry Fontno just kicking his feet up right now, looking like a genius.

Michael Pennix. Quarterback, most position important, most position important, most important position in football. Dude, is backup quarterback like top five, low-key? Yeah, yeah. Having a competent backup quarterback that can keep your team alive afloat during a three, four, five-week stretch rather than just torpedo the season and now the Packers are one in five

because Jordan Love came back in week six. Your whole season's over. A backup quarterback, it's like quarterback, left tackle, backup quarterback are the first three things I'm focusing on. I don't, I just don't understand, man. I totally agree. It's like the Eagles won a Super Bowl with Nick Fuller. is making that run.

And no one learned the lesson. And I don't understand. And it's, I, I really just don't get it. Like 20 years ago, they had all. Matt Hassabek told me his story once of just like his whole career, he doesn't think what happened if he had to play because he was like the fourth quarterback in the room. And they had four quarterbacks in the roster.

And they all developed. And I don't know. I don't understand how like quarterbacks have less runway than ever. Anyway, all that's to say, if Ryan Tannel gets down to Green Bay, I'm okay to remove Dobbs. But I'm very aware of Green Bay until then. Of these guys, who are you? Who are you most afraid of going off?

Because, like, Alec Pierce, it's easy to be like, oh, it's the one-week boom. But if Alec Pierce just had another 60-yard bomb from Anthony Richardson next week, you'd be kind of like, pucker fact you didn't pick him up. I don't want to live that life, though. Just relying on 60-yard bombs down the field. I don't want to live that life. I still think Khalil Shakir is the best, like, long-term option here. Yeah.

I think that's fair. The other guy I want to throw in just as a stash is Josh Downs for the Colts, who was getting a ton of hype in preseason. basically their number two alongside Pittman for most of the training camp in preseason era, and then he had a high ankle sprain. And I think he's getting close to being back. It might not be this week, but it might be next week. They didn't put him on IR, which suggests that he's healthy enough to be back soon.

And if this offense runs a lot of RPO's on, you know, slant routes over the middle and things like that, like I think Downs was feasting on that stuff in the preseason. I should say in training camp, according to reports. And so I think he's just a guy to stash a few. don't have, if you don't feel good about your receiver core, he could end up being the number two on that offense this year. Yeah, they're going around high ankle spins. I'm dubious of high ankle sprained, man.

Anyone with high ankle sprains, especially when down since five foot eight, I feel like the explosive, this is everything at that size, that stuff. But they're going around like, because clearly, so if we go to tight end here, David and Jokker for the Cleveland Browns, and again, it's Monday afternoon, you know, can always change. But it seems like David and Joku has a ankle sprain. He's week to week again.

I just heard like in joke his whole thing is he's this crazy athlete I know it's one of those things I'd most rather him take a month high ankle sprain is what turned Austin Echler into looking like running he was running in mud last September

because he came back too soon I just think high ankle sprains there's just nothing like lower ankle sprains we need to rename it and then Cowboys Titan Jake Ferguson also has an MCL sprain for Dallas so he's week to week who knows how long that's going to take

either way just I don't know just try it and drop it like flies to start so with that said do we even have to do the thing. Everyone's number one tight end this week is Isaiah likely. We don't have to do the thing. It's Isaiah likely. So yeah, I mean, Isaiah likely. Nine catches 111 yards in a touchdown and there were only three tight ends in the entire NFL this week, pending Monday football. Only three tight ends had 10 fantasy points and Isaiah likely

had one of the 20. So likely had more than 20. There's not. And he also should have had more. He almost cut that touchdown at the end. Should have had 30. And there's also, it's not even like a fluke. Like Mark Andrews, his last game in 2022, Isaiah likely had eight catches for 103 yards. Last year, Mark Andrews got hurt. Isaiah likely was a top four tight end from week 13 on. So he's just really good. We didn't talk about this.

Isaiah, the things he, I get he was pissed because he should have had a game winning touchdown first game to season. Epic, best moment of your life you've ever had so far. Having said that, when he was at the press conference after the game, because this is probably how most people know him, when he was like, if that's the best the chief's got, you know, not afraid of that. We're good. Yeah.

Good luck in the postseason. and instead to the Kansas City Chiefs. Yeah. Yeah, you know, people hate losing and they'll say stupid shit. I feel like to get to any level of athletics, you have to be a little bit delusional. Yeah.

You know what's funny, though? Mahomes takes the opposite approach. Mahomes is like the anti-shit-talker. He's like the complimenter. Mahomes, like anytime anything happens, if he gets sacked, he'll compliment the guy. Be like, oh, you almost got me there. I'll take it easy on me.

Kill him with kindness. Yeah, so subconsciously, right before, you know, Miles Garrett is about to declate Patrick Mahomes, maybe in the recesses of his mind. He's like, Mahomes, nice guy. I'm not going to hit him as hard. That's Mahomes's point. Mahomes doesn't do it because Mahomes does the Mike. Mahomes says the Michael Jordan takes everything.

Like, if you think Patrick Mahomes hasn't connected in his head that he was the fourth player on the NFL 100 and he's going to go for his fourth Super Bowl ring, like, you know, like he's thinking about all this shit. So I think that's why he's nice. But these I say, likely quote, they're going to beat the Ravens in the playoffs and he's going to bring the shit up. Anyway, to Dick's point, he's delusional, that's an asset way you need to say likely. Complementary. Unconnected to reality. That's awesome. Gotta be a little bit fucking crazy to be this level of anything, I feel like.

Got to believe in God or think you are God. Right. That's why I whiffed on Austin Eccler. I actually met him his rookie year and I was like, that guy's super normal. He's too nice. He's too nice. Yeah. All right.

It is the Isaiah likely showdown time. Yeah. I already know my answer, guys. D.K., you should open a restaurant, 700-degree pizza. We don't have to get our ovens quite as hot, so save the money, you know? Hot grease lighting. Questions from Aurelio. Orelio. Great name. Fun to say. As of 2023, how many satellites have been launched into space? Literally, shoot me into space. I would rather be shot into space than answer this question.

See, there's a lot of satellites, man. Have you ever seen that image of Earth, but like with all the junk around in orbit we have? Yeah. Does the Tesla that's floating around up there count? Oh, my God, I forgot about that. Does that count? That's crazy that kind of that just happened.

I can't believe Elon Musk was allowed to just... I think it's... Isn't it floating away, or is it coming back in? Sent it into the universe. Yeah. Google right now Earth orbit satellites, like the actual thing of like what's going on around Earth. It's crazy. It would be a great question is how far away is the Tesla right now from Earth?

Oh, man. Someone already asked that. We did that question. I know, but it'll change every year. Yes, you guys. We did. How far is the Tesla from Earth? Yes, we did that question.

But it's funny bit because it's always going to get further and we'll never remember what the answer was. Good thing our memories are like just absolute trash. So we've done the Michelin question and this Tesla thing has been asked. And Hyphids clearly didn't remember the Michelin thing. Yeah. I don't think we did the Michelin thing. Oh, I'm pretty sure we did. No, it was different.

It was like how many miles. I don't think it was how many three stars. Maybe not. There's a lot of ghosts screaming at us right now in the show. By the way, this is off topic, but this has happened to be several times now. I don't know whether I feel it's funny or I feel sad doing it, but I've now debunked people's theories that they've seen a UFO a couple times because they see Starlink going by. You guys have seen Starlink go by?

It's like six or seven or eight lights or satellites or whatever, all connected together and they just go in the same. they're like all together and I've had several instances where people are like, holy shit, did you see that? I think we literally just saw a UFO. I don't know if you guys saw the Boeing Starliner capsule

successfully returned to Earth a few days ago. Have you seen what that thing looks like? It looks like an alien ship. So anytime anyone has ever seen a UFO, it's that. It's us. All right. It's us.

I promise. The premise of UFOs means you can identify all the spacecraft in the world. Yeah, I can't. I sure is I can't. These things look like floating jellyfish, these Boeing starliners. So not an alien.

That's interesting. That's very interesting. I'll send you it. It's very interesting. That whole story is wild about those two astronauts who are stuck up in space right now. I'm looking at this picture.

I'm trying to count what. You guys ready? You're looking at a photo of the Earth's atmosphere? I just just fucking cheating over here. I told you to Google it. It's interesting. What am I Googling?

I already know my answer so. There's a lot of fucking satellites. It's like crazy. I'm done. It's not fair to look at the photo. This is like, what are we doing here? Well, I'm looking, so you should go to it. It's definitely not fair.

If we all do it, it's fair. Well, I know, but this shouldn't be a pattern. It's just a cool picture, man. Well, we could have looked at it after we guess. Would you Google? Earth orbit satellite. Okay. This kind of freaks me out, to be honest.

I'm like, this does not look natural. But that's how you like your text work. It's like going up to space and going around. It's insane. The beautiful. planet obscured by a bunch of metal machines floating around in the air is a little scary. Yeah, it looks like we're giving Earth acupuncture. It does.

All right. You guys ready? So how many satellites have we launched into orbit since 2023? No, as of 20203. As of 2023. Ever. Oh, ever. Oh, I thought it was since.

Yes. No. As of 2020, how many have we launched in space? Okay, I need to recalibrate. When did we launch our first satellite? 50s. 60s? 50s.

all right you ready sure three two one 700 700 yeah I'm going for the under

I just said 701 it's just as being a dick that's I said 701 you said 700 what did you say Craig 6,000 that's probably right

15,9446 that's not that I can go that's a lot Craig you get Isaiah likely oh Shit, I forgot about the stakes of this. I was too committed to the bit. So Craig gets it likely.

I'm second. I will take Taysam Hill. Because you know what? All the tight ends have the same downside. We just saw all the great tight ends and Trey McBride and all these guys get like five points or three points or whatever. Taysa Mill is the same downside. He didn't do much last week, but he almost caught a 30-yard touchdown. That's not going to appear in the little box score when you click on his name.

He also got five carries. And then he barely played in the second half. Like, you know, shout out. Because they were winning like 30 to 3 or something. Yeah. Nate Jockey, pro football focus. He does a great job with this stuff. Like they took Taysan Hill out because why are you going to play Taysan Hill?

You're up 30 points. He's 34 years old. Yeah. He's too old. He's really a large part of their offense. I don't know. The same play the Cowboys next week. I just,

he has the same downside as any other tight end. But the difference is he could catch and rush in a touchdown as likely, more than likely than almost all the other tight end. So I still freaking love Tason Hill. D.K. All right. The scraps. I like that.

I'm going to go with Colby Parkinson from the Rams. He was, this is sad. He was the tight end seven this week with 6.7 fantasy points. Oh, we're so bad. I sure love fantasy. This is the best. I will say he ran a tight end, a position best 42 routes this week. He ran more routes than the other tight end.

Wow. He played on 87% of snaps, five targets, four catches, 47 yards, which relative to the rest of the tight ends, this week was pretty good. Yeah. And I thought he looked pretty decent out there. He had three first downs for the Rams. Yeah, he looked good.

You know, it's like Higbee, the last five years where it was like a top eight tight end and targets. The nice thing about the Rams is they play the guys and they don't rotate. You know what I mean? Like, Colby Parkinson's going to be on the field and he's going to be running on a lot of routes. And that's what I'm looking for when I'm like, you know, digging in and creates third place finish at the tight end spot here this week. So I'm going with Kobe Parkinson. And the other guy, I think, is worth mentioning is Tucker Kraft for the Packers, who surprisingly played ahead of Luke Musgrave this week.

He basically Musgrave only came in when they did two tight-in sets. And Tucker Craft, you know, going back to last year when both of those guys are playing, he honestly has looked just better than Musgrave, a little bit more versatile. I think they trust him more to be on the field as a blocker and things like that. So, you know, obviously with the Jordan Love situation unclear, he's probably not going to do a whole bunch this next couple weeks. but this is more of like a long-term stash. He's going to be, it looks like, their starter.

Tucker Kraft played the second highest percentage of snaps among any tight end in the league this week. You know who was first? Parkinson. Kyle Pitts. Oh, yeah, Kyle Pitts, like 97% or something like that. I'd love to see it. Too bad the quarterback stinks.

Incredible playing the fourth tip on the, putting him on the field. Yet, the other thing I'd say, because I think this is hard this time of year, figuring out people to cut. If you have just on the off chance, if you have like Cole Commet, you can cut Cole Commet.

Like between Caleb being Ricky. Or Everett, frankly. Yeah, well, it's like Gerald Everett is like the receiving guy anyway. You can cut Cole Comatt. The other one, honestly, if you're trying to get Isaiah likely, you can cut Pat Friamuth.

Like, it's fine. He's rotating a tight end to the Steelers. He's talented, but like, I think you can cut Friottis. It's crazy. They just gave them like a massive contract extension. Yeah. Arthur Smith, rotating tight ends?

So, all right, quarterback. We're not going to we're not going to do trivia here of quarterback, but speaking of Arthur Smith, I think Justin Fields has to be the top streamer quarterback just because the upside is higher

than the other guys left. If you need someone, if you have Jordan Love, I don't know if you do want to play Fields this week. The Steelers are playing the Broncos defense, so that's mixed results. This was an eye test thing, and I looked into it, it's real.

Justin Fields averages three times more rushing yards per game in November than September. Okay, that's interesting. He averages 90 yards per game rushing in November. 30 in September. And I swear- He's trying to be a regular quarterback

and throw the ball in September and then by November he's like, fuck it. I kind of think, yeah. I kind of think he needs to warm up. I think that he's like doing all the coaching points

and halfway through everyone's like, fuck it, Justin, just do your thing. Just go, man. You got to let him warm up. So like the thing with Justin is like people cut him and then, you know,

he moves on on fantasy. Like you cut him, he's on waivers. And then he's like the best guy in fantasy. And so, but from week,

on last season by points per game. Justin Fields was the number seven quarterback in points per game, like ahead of C.J. Stroud. So the upside's crazy. I also don't know if you want to play them immediately, but I think Fields for the upside, you do want to have them. Russ started the end with the calf injuries, 36 or whatever. I just think he's going to play. And he'll get better as the season goes on.

But if you really do need something for right now, and that doesn't sound cool, the three guys, I'm curious you guys disagree. I think Baker Mayfield, obviously, where I think Washington, again, was a perfect storm for him to play well. but Baker's playing the Lions. It's probably going to be a shootout this week. I don't think he'll be as good as last week.

Obviously, he was like the number two quarterback. The other is Matt Stafford for the Rams, which MVP level from Stafford, little concerned that the Rams offensive line is in fucking tatters. Like the Rams O line. Everyone on that team is injured right now. Third string left tackle, second string right tackle.

Second string left guard before half time of week one and Pukukukua got carded into the locker room at first half. And I'm like, that's insane. This was my worry with the. ramps coming into the air. It feels like there are house of cards. Everybody on their team gets hurt. It's crazy. Cooper Cup's going to have 28 targets next week. I know. It really is insane. 21 targets, Craig. Craig's like love an admiration of Cooper Cup in the preseason is that's aged extremely well so far. Yes. Well done. We need to do that next year the week one test of like just we

it might have to be a badge on the fantasy rankings. Just do victory laps. The week one where it's like If you saw this in week one, would it change your mind? Because sometimes it's no. But for some players, you're like, if Cooper Cup got 14, his most catches of his career in week one, what would you say? And you're like, oh, I guess he's fucking fine, isn't he? Yeah. So, okay.

Those are the quarterbacks. Defenses, needless to say, but I'll just throw it out there. For whatever reason, if the Steelers, the Jets, the Cowboys are there, need this to say, add them. And Steelers, Jets, Cowboys are good defenses. And if anyone drops the Browns defense, because they were fine against Dallas, I would add the Browns too because they have the Jaggars this week. And then the Browns get like the Giants, Vegas and Washington. I think that's, so I would add Cleveland if anyone cuts them.

But unlikely that those are available. So among defenses that are actually available. The Chargers, hello, playing the Panthers. Don't think I need to say much more. It's Khalil Mack versus Bryce Young. It is Jim Harbaugh versus Dave Canales. Give me the Chargers over the Panthers. They're available in 90, 90% of leagues at ESPN and Yahoo for the Chargers.

Seahawks are playing the Patriots. I think the Patriots are definitely better than we thought they were. But Seahawks, I still think that defense is going to be pretty good versus New England. And Broncos are playing the Steelers. And I'm not really afraid of the Steelers death by a thousand field goals offense. So I think, you know, the Broncos got two safeties versus Seattle. I think that's pretty solid. God, that was weird.

But I would definitely go with the Chargers because you can play them two weeks because the Chargers play the Panthers this week and the churches play the Steelers next week, then you can cut them. But yeah, I like the Chargers a lot as a fantasy defense. And if none of that works out, Jags versus the Browns, or I don't really like the Colts defense at all. But if Malik Willis does play for the backers, you could play the Colts defense. So, emails? Emails. All right.

Got an email from Nick. Nicholas. Nikki. What do you got for us, Nikki? Mickey Pooh. An actual answer for turf. We had an argument about turf on Sunday. Oh, right, right, right.

What are you to say, DK's used the term field turf and that he pretended? No, I just said the word field turf and you look like you'd never heard of the word field turf before. I had no fucking idea what the hell you were talking about. And I, that's wild to me. Someone tweeted us and said it's a generational thing because astro turf was not really a thing

for Craig and I's generation. So field turf to us is just turf. There's no differentiator. Yes. That was the crux of the, of the misunderstanding was that I was asking if turf and field turf for the same thing. And then D.K. was baffled that Hyvids had never heard of field turf.

I couldn't hear anything else. I was just shocked and dismayed. Anyway, but the reason we brought that up was Craig correctly noted. Everyone was slipping all day. It wasn't just the field on Friday with the Brazil Packers Eagles game. Everyone was just slipping everywhere. We were like, what the hell's going on? And I rewatching games today, everyone really was slipping.

It was crazy. And so Nick has an interesting answer, specifically about the Browns Cowboys game. Nick says, I just wanted to give a little clarity to at least the Browns field turf situation versus the Cowboys. I worked as a Brown's ground keeper during college. God, I love it. And for a few years until after the Owen 16th season, which I like that's when he was like, enough is enough. Yeah, he's like, I'm good. Nick said, I guess he went to Baldwin Wallace University's two blocks from the Brown's facility and also the home of Jim Tressel who graduated from and played for quarterback for Baldwin Wallace.

All right. Shout up Baldwin Wallace. Okay. Nick says the Brown Stadium hosted summer. slam a few weeks ago. And so the field was brand new sod, which is natural grass, not turf. And in my experience, Nick's writing, in my experience, over the years with brand new sod, there's a lot more slipping than a, slipping around than in a broken in field.

And also, Cleveland got like three inches of rain Friday into Saturday, which also may have played a part in it as well. And that would also explain the other newer grass fields potentially having slipping issues. However, the artificial field slipping doesn't make much sense to me either. Right. Yeah. Yeah, that was all, that's very interesting. That's, that all makes sense. The field turf thing, the reason we got on that, it was like, Gino Smith was slipping a bunch on the Seahawks field turf. And I was like, what's going on with that? Like, that is much more regulated and like, I think, consistent than tur, than a sod field or whatever, like a grass field. The best play of the weekend. The best play of the weekend was Anthony Richardson. She's slipping at the top of his drop, too. A lot of the guys were slipping at the top of their drop. It was very bizarre. I first thought was that it was, I think those logos are slippery too. Like that was my first thought.

Like paint? Yes. I think do you see that sometimes? You know when you like the players, you know when players get tackled? I think this happens more in college and then they get the paint all over them. I think sometimes that surface is slippery. Whatever they do, it's different than the rate. And I think that sometimes it's slippery.

But I don't know. Maybe it's just we're paying attention more. But I. No way. There was way more slipping. It was all. Rewatching games. I was like everywhere.

Like there was a, there was the Monra play. There was a play. The Stroud play. Stroud fell and still completed a pass. Yes. Yes. From his knees, yeah, Julim McLaughlin was re-watching. He just fell a coach. Like, it was like every game.

I was like, it was very strange. I don't know. The NFL makes $20 billion a year roughly. Figure out fields. Maybe make it so the players that generate the revenue for your league. Don't slip all the time. Be great.

Ground man. That reminds me that this is super random, Craig. But there was a, I just saw this video on Twitter one time where Steph Curry had discovered like a dead spot in the floor

because he was like warming up before the game and you know he has such the ball wasn't bouncing up the same he has such incredible handles that like

when he went around his back or something it just didn't come to the exact front spot and it didn't hit him in the hand right and he was like something's fucking wrong

and you know like Jackie Jackie loves that video she's just like I just want to be good at something enough that when I make a mistake I'm so good

that I'm like clearly he literally could blame the floor yeah Anyway, that reminds me of that. These are finely tuned athletes, and it is bizarre that you just see them slipping and falling constantly.

Yeah, it really, like, oh, the one that where I was like, damn, Craig's onto something. I guess, no, I never mind. Sorry, that was the Friday game. The Friday turf was so bad. I remember thinking Emmanuel Wilson, I believe, I want to say in the Packers,

was running, and he tried to stop, and he fell forward like ice. And so I've never seen an NFL running back do this. He fell forward. forward on his butt with both his feet ending up in front of him like he was sliding down a hill. And I remember thinking, do you know how fucking hard it is to be the number two running back for the Green Bay Packers? Do you know how incredible of an athlete you have to be? It's like, how bad does the turf have to be that when that guy tries to stop, both feet end up,

end up in front of him and he's on his ass? Yeah. Like that just, I don't know. It's crazy. But yeah, I've seen people falling. I've never fell. All right. We got another email here from Mark. Mark. Mark. The same Mark? What's a lot. Lots of marks today. Wait, we're both. No, the other one was Nick. No, but we have Marker. Oh, this is Mark with a K.

The other one was marked with a C. Nice. Keeping me sharp. I don't know if Mark is any eight-year-old children DK can disparage. Mark's son. Disparage? I just didn't say his name excited enough, all right?

I didn't disparage his son. Mark's son. It's like a, should like make this show like a wedding with no kids. All right. We love your little ones, but would prefer they stay home this weekend. Mark has an email, Mark says, the Tyree Kill cop altercation reminds me of when I was about 20 years old. Specifically, we were talking about how Tyree Kill, you know what Tyree Kill said the thing to the cop? He was like, I'd like to be in law enforcement one day.

Yeah. I want to be a cop too. Mark says the cop, that reminded him of when Mark was 20 years old, I got pulled over for speeding, doing 40 to 25. I was pretty nervous. The cop comes to the door. and asks if I have anything in the car that he should know about. And mind you, okay.

Mind you, I had been driving around with a camera bag, with a dime bag in it for a while. But recently I'd cleaned my car. Marijuana to the layperson, or maybe something else. I don't know. Devils lettuce.

So. Cicane. Mark says, so I look around behind me to check for the camera bag. And I don't see it. Turn back around. I tell the officer, there's nothing to worry about.

And the officer says, were you checking for something? This is like me. I'm the worst liar in the world. I would break immediately. I'm going, hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

He's here right now. Nope. No, we're okay. The cop is like, were you checking for something? And I'm like, uh, no,

sir. So Mark says he was so nervous that he had botched that interaction that to recover. He's nervously. He's like, uh, do you like carrying a gun?

Does that make you feel powerful? Oh, for Christ's saying. Mark really panicked. Can I hold your gun? Yeah. He's like, all right, buddy, get out of the car. It's like super bad. It's like having a second cock.

So, yeah. I love it when small talk goes seriously, seriously wrong. That's the best. Oh, good, huh? Biggles, huh? Email us at RiggerFantasyf Football at G-Bel.com. If you have any other just incredibly botched encounters of any kind. Batched small talk.

Just boxed small talk. Or botched interviews. Yeah, botched interactions at a restaurant. Just anytime you botched a communication situation. That feeling when, you know, the waitress is like, have a good dinner and you're like, you two. But like times a hundred. Yeah, the people at the airport have a nice flight. But like the, you know.

worse. Shout out to the person who emailed us that they were giving a business presentation and they were like in front of a thousand people informing all these like hospital employees that they'd be like basically reducing their pensions and this like 25 year olds giving the presentation. And the CEO like stood up to try to help him and quell the crowd because everyone was pissed. And he's like, why don't we look at me? They're like, yeah. And they're like, why don't we? And the CEOs like, why don't we look at this from the 30,000 foot view? And then this, the 25 year old speaking was like, great idea. And then walks over to the floor to ceiling windows and is like, wow, what a great view.

No way. And turns, you know, this was on the show too. This is a story we've already told them. You told them. Everyone turns around and everyone's like looking at them. Wow. And that's how we learned what 30,000 foot few as a phrase meant.

I don't remember that. Look, when you've done as many pods as I know. I was going to say. I just, I, that's like the, oh, what a nightmare. We could do it. We could do two pods completely verbatim. identical to each other and not know it. I think that's right.

Probably already have. I mean, basically. All right. Thank you, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you, Carlos, and Kai, for producing this episode. Thank you, everyone at home. Emails at ring your fancy football at gmail.com. More waiver trivia.

Email us awkward botched encounters. Happy birthday, Carlos. Happy birthday, Carlos. Yeah, congratulations. Dolphins win. Dolphins win, baby. Sorry, it's going to last two days until they get throttled by the bills again. and it'll go back to reality.

How dare you? Thank you, Lord. Lord. Thank you, Pat Benatar. Okay. I don't know who that is. Love is a battlefield. You would know her if you saw a photo of her from the 80s.

From the 80s. All these 80s photos. Oh, yeah, see. I don't know who that is, but I know that song. Which one? She does have a very 80s vibe, wearing this purple, purple zebra print

onesie. Leotard with like the weird sunlight coming through. With a red belt. Yeah. We got to bring that look back. It's coming back. They're like jazzer size look.

Yeah. It's coming back. What's your name from Greece who sadly passed away? She had that sound. Olivia New John. Physical. Oh yeah.

Yeah. It's great stuff. All right. Goodbye everyone. Must be 21 plus and present in select states. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem?

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