The Ringer NFL Show - Top 24 Check-in, Take Tahoe, and Bad Beats

Episode Date: September 23, 2020

We check in on the top 24 from preseason drafts and take a look at injuries, whiffs, and other preseason surprises entering Week 3. Craig calls in from Lake Tahoe to give a Take Tahoe. Then we take a look at some of our favorite listener bad beats. Checking in on the Top 24 Christian McCaffrey (07:46) Saquon Barkley (09:44) Ezekiel Elliott (09:56) Michael Thomas (10:05) Derrick Henry (12:12) Dalvin Cook (14:32) Davante Adams (16:43) Take Tahoe With Craig (40:27) Bad Beats (56:18) Hosts: Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly Guest: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode is brought to you by Heineken. Heineken original laugers made with pure malt and their famous A. Yeast, which makes Heineken in all season, all the time kind of beer. D.K., have you tried Heineken in the Frosted Bug yet? No, but I'm going to, just because you're so passionate about it. I'm extremely passionate about the Frosted Bug thing. That's my number one recommendation from this show, this entire podcast. It's Frosted Mug beers, please people. But Frosted Mug, Heineken specifically, pick up a packer.

or have it delivered today, and please drink responsibly. You see, Football Show. I'm Danny Hyfitz here with Danny Kelly and not Craig Wolbeck. Craig is still in Lake Tahoe. He might call him later. We'll do a little take Tahoe. But Deke, it's just you and me for right now. How you doing, man?

I'm doing pretty well. My eyeball is twitching. Have you ever had this? It's just like it won't stop twitching. So I'm going to try and power through here. This is like my flu game. We're going to get through it. Your eyeball or your eyelid?

My eyelid. Oh, there's a huge difference, dude. was switching. That would be disconcerting to say. Yeah, your eye. Yeah. Okay. And your eyeball,

I would like, let's stop this and you should seek medical attention. But, all right, you're fine. Okay. D.K. flu game incoming.

Great to know. We're going to be just kind of rechecking in on the first two rounds of the draft right now. I feel like you can get so easy to get lost in the ebs and flows of the season and like the week to week that you forget. Like, how's your first round pick doing? So we're going to kind of just check in on the top guys and then also certain people who are

either way better or sucking than what we thought they would be doing and whether that, representative or not. We're also going to do, we'll maybe get Take Tahoe from Craig and some bad beats, but first, ready for a fun fact,

DK? I'm so ready. Okay, so this was emailed to us by Connor. Don't forget, you can email us ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Okay, so Connor emailed us that.

Google estimates that every two days we create as much information as we did from the dawn of history until 2003. That is ridiculous. So I'm reading from TechCrunch. Now, always include a,

link with your fun facts. Eric Schmidt, who's then the CEO of Google, said that the real issue is user-generated content, and he noted that pictures, instant messages, texts, tweets, all add to that. That was in 2010. So in 2010, every two days creating as much information as beginning of like monkeys becoming people to 2003. And that was 10 years ago. So, I mean, it's accelerated since then. I think 90% of all data is in the last two or three years. But there's a really important distinction here because this actually applies to football, which is that information is not knowledge. Your tweets and your Facebook posts are technically information by this standard where data is

information. Information is not knowledge. And football honestly is the same way. It's like week one happens, week two happens, and every week there's this churn of so much information like 240 people caught a pass last week. Like what the hell? What do you do with that information? And we're just really, I mean, 21st century in general, we've gone from like looking

for knowledge and memorization was cool. Can you imagine people take tests still where you have to memorize things when in reality you should be filtering things? Like I don't understand why you take it where kids take tests now and you can't use the internet. And it's like in reality they should get the entire internet and it's like either get me

the fastest answer possible or the best answer possible because you're never going to go into a job and have to remember the information. Do you want to know how old I am, Danny? I had to include like, I had to read books when I was in high school and include Bibli on which books I use.

What's a book? On, like, reports and things. And now I think you can just get a ton of information from the internet. There was this thing. Is that like a Shayserano PDF? Is that what a book is? No, it's not quite. It's a little different.

There was, I think, I can't even remember what it's called like Nexus, something or other, but there was like an online portal where you could go in and look at, you know, like digitized books. And that was like this big deal. Nexus Lexis. That was, and that was like when I was in college, that was a big thing. And so anyways, but I was like right on, I feel lucky that I was right on the, the divide between like pre. I mean, the internet has been around my whole life.

Well, since I was like 10 or whatever. But like, I was sort of in the, on the hump between like not having cell phones, not having the internet, not having social media or anything when I was growing up. But now it's just this massive thing. And so I've like lived in both worlds. I feel pretty fortunate about that because, um, I feel like it gives me more, you know, more insights than you. Like, for instance. For instance, just you.

I'm not singling you out, but I have more insights than you. Yes, you do. You're a fountain of wisdom. But no, but I think to like your overall point, I've, it's like nowadays it's all about the, like, synthesizing all the information that you have available to you and figuring out which stuff actually matters. So anyways, I think that's a very, that's a very interesting fact.

is that is that sort of like a technical way of saying there's just a like an amazing amount of like bullshit it's just data is being created like it's just data is being created so much and i mean now we would be like oh well surveillance capitalism we don't have to go into any any of that the larger point is that there's also a lot of data a lot of new statistics a lot of just facts are available all the time and it's whether it's henry rugs was targeted eight times for like however many yards a money in a football that's not the actual numbers but what do you do with that that's information but can you apply it? Is it meaningful and do you know how to apply it?

You know what I mean? And all these hamstring poles, like it's hard to put things into context. So that's what I think we're going to try to do today is we're going to try to look at not just certain numbers of where people are ranked, but we're also going to, you know, the amount of information from the first two weeks,

there's a lot of it. It's overwhelming. We're going to try to get some knowledge, sift through it. Nate Silver wrote this book on. It's called The Signal and the Noise. Really good book, but the title's kind of confusing.

But the point is we're looking for, signals amidst the noise. And this is a podcast, so that's a little ironic. But we're going to go to the early rankings, or average draft position for the first two rounds. We're going to just see which guys are hurt, sucking, really good. We're going to go through them and really what we think about them. And then we'll go through some other, like, big risers or big fallers.

Yeah. It's like basically after two weeks, who we were most wrong on and who, like, the consensus was most wrong on who surprised us so far. and whether or not these guys can continue on this trajectory after two weeks. Here's the obvious caveat. It's been two weeks. It's two games like we know. But also it's really fun.

So without further ado, let's just jump in. So we're looking at preseason average draft position in half PPR. So this is basically we're taking Yahoo's pre-season where people were being drafted on average in Yahoo in the first two rounds. We're doing rounds here is top 12 because D.K. This is like the one where he's the immobile object. He will not accept. a 10 team round? It's mostly like a bit.

Like I'm joking. I realize that like a lot of people play in 10 team leads. And the more emails. Is it because the floods of emails? Is that what did it? The more emails. Well,

I'm also just realizing I don't want to be like, I'm not trying to be like a dick or whatever. Like if you're in a 10 person league, that's fine. I don't care. I'm just like, it's mostly it started out as a bit. And now we're just like entrenching ourselves like just dig again further and further.

But anyways, yeah, we're going to start with a 12 team, like a 12 team standard. here just for, you know, to keep it simple. Yeah, we're going to do 24 people. That's what we're trying to say here. Anyway, okay.

Let's just start running through them. There's just basically just whiffs, injuries and surprises and the not surprises, but just going in order, Christian McCaffrey, he's out four to six weeks. This one, there isn't much to say here other than high ankle sprints are concerning. And Bill Barnwell read a good injury piece for ESPN on Tuesday. We're recording this on Tuesday afternoon. I mean, there have been high ankle sprains where people have rushed back. Athletes are competitive people.

they want to beat timelines. Happen to Adrian Peterson, where he rushed back early years ago and then basically had a season ending injury shortly after. Same thing happened to Adele Beckham a few years ago. And then sometimes even when athletes returned, Roddy White came back, rushed too soon, kind of really derailed his career.

And Mohamed Sunniu, same thing last year. Basically, the idea of McAfree beating this timeline is not great. Just something to keep in mind. Yeah, the idea of. And this is, I think this is a, you know, this goes to Dana. You'd said this quite a bit,

I think in the preseason, like, we're not talking at all about the fact that Christian McCaffrey is the number one, easily, the consensus number one pick in all drafts. There was just like no discussion over. It was just a assumed thing. But, you know, regression is always a concern, the idea of him losing some snaps, all that. And obviously, injuries are part of regression. Like, it's just, that's one of the factors that is baked into that idea. So he's basically having kind of like almost the exact same thing that happened to Sequin Barclay. particularly last year, Seaguana was the number one overall pick in most drafts.

And then high ankle sprain limited him for much of the year. He ended up being a relative disappointment based on where he was taken. And that's going to happen again with Christian McCaffrey. So if you were, if you knew this going in, he would absolutely not be the number one pick overall, clearly, because he's going to miss. I'm not about to do a victory lap because he got hurt because he did. One of the things I was concerned about was him playing so much. He did play 97% of snaps in week one. So when he's on the field, but yeah, it sucks, basically.

That's the headline here. like, sorry. And it's annoying because you probably, hopefully he gets better, but the history isn't great. Sequin went number two. Yeah, this sucks even more. Sorry.

Yeah, he's out for the year, so that's, that's just brutal. At least McCaffrey's two games, he played really well, and Seek won three for Dallas, and he's been exactly as advertised of just top five running back through two weeks. Dallas looks,

offense looks good. Just not much to say there. Michael Thomas for the, Saints. This one, and then Alvin Kumar, so Michael Thomas was fourth in average reposition, Kamar was five. We can just lump them together for this, our purposes. Thomas is also out with an ankle's brain, which is almost more concerning than McCaffrey just being a receiver in a way. But are you worried about the Saints' offense now that Drew Breeze appears to suck? Yes. I'm officially starting to get a little bit worried.

I think I talked about it last week or whatever, just how he had, I think now through two games, Breeze has one pass attempt over 20 yards. Everything is checkdowns. It looks very sort of just everything is labored. It just doesn't look like he has the zip on the ball or the confidence really to push it down the field. You know, this is, I'm not quite ready to sound the alarm yet in terms of like, you know, go to Jabas or something like that. But it's definitely starting to worry me a little bit that he is unable to push the ball down the field. He's been inaccurate at times. He just doesn't look, you know, right. And this is something that's having later in seasons with him.

But now this is like week two and we're already kind of experiencing this. So, yeah, it's a concern. I feel like I didn't fully understand the Saints' problems with this brief situation. I like the word you used labored because it does look hard. But I don't really fully process what's going on there until I was watching that final drive, which was kind of pointless. And they're going down the field. And I'm just kind of thinking myself, why don't they just try a Hail Mary? And I was like, oh, my God, it's because he can't reach the end zone.

And I was like, they have to bring on Tassum Hill or James to throw the Hail Mary. And I was like, he can't even get close. And that kind of blew my mind of like he's just not. They can't even pretend. So I am a little worried about Saints and Drew Brees. I mean, look, they start slow every year. So I'm like you, I don't want to sound the alarm just yet. But it looks bad.

He looks bad. I mean, they lost to the Raiders. That's concerning to me. So again, they have a stupid loss in the first weeks of the season each of the last four years. and they have the most wins of the last three years anyway. But I am a little concerned even if Michael Thomas somehow manages to come back healthy soon that maybe it just won't be the same season.

But he's really good, so we'll see. Okay, let's keep rolling here. Derek Henry was sixth in drafts. Right now, he leads the NFL and carries. He's second in rushing yards, has no touchdowns, has been pretty mediocre. What do you make of this? Because Derek famously has not had good

first halfs of the season for, I mean, completely unidentifiable reasons. Yeah, this is exactly what we were talking about before the season. it's playing out in real time. He's the RB 24 through two weeks, which, you know, it doesn't necessarily mean anything yet.

You know, he's looked good at times, but like he said, he hasn't found the end zone. I'm not worried quite yet because I think he's getting the volume you want to see. And, you know, as we talked about it in the preseason,

he gets stronger as the year goes on. That's like kind of his MO. And, you know, he could be like a force down. Is that just random? Or is he actually just, what is that scene in Black Panther where like the more damage the suit takes, the more powerfully is.

It absorbs energy. I've yet to hear a logical reason for why Derek Henry gets better beyond. It just happens. I'm afraid I'm going to just be start just spewing out cliches if I answer that question. It's fine. It's, okay. Derek Henry just kind of does that to everybody. The football cliche to answer to that is that defenses wear down, get tired,

and he just keeps on trucking. You know, that's kind of like the old- No one wants to tackle him in cold weather. Yeah, like later in game. and later in the season, it gets cold. Like, you know, you know how you, if you ever, have you ever kicked a ball when it's cold? And it just hurts like hell.

No, I let other people kick a ball in the cold. Like, that's, I think it's a similar idea. Like, do you want to really hit this guy when, when your, like, limbs are freezing and all this? I don't know. It's all cliched stuff, but. What you reminded me of is when Thanksgiving comes around and some people want to play, like football and someone's like, well, let's play tackle.

And it's like, what the hell are you doing? No, we're not doing that. What are you talking about? You're going to tear your Achilles. It's going to be a $2,000 surgery. Yeah. So it turns in a pick. All right, I guess that makes sense.

It's the only, it's so hard. I don't even know why else it would happen. But anyway, so would you still take Henry in the top ten? That's a very difficult question. I think so. Yeah, I think so. Especially when you kind of look at some of the other guys that have completely fallen off and we'll get to those guys.

But yeah, I still think I would take him in the area because I think that what we were expecting for him is going to come. Yeah, in a way, it's what was expected. He leads the league in carries and he's not doing a ton with them, but he gets the tonic most carries. All right. Dalvin Cook went seventh. He's, I mean, he's like top ten running back,

but the Vikings just suck, which is, I mean, I don't know anyone who thought they'd be this bad. Kirk Cousins looked awful last week. They're destitute. In the NFL ringer show, I predicted that I was like one of a few people that predicted that the Vikings

weren't going to make the playoffs. And I felt like I was being like a little bit hot takey, but man, they are bad. I thought they'd win the division. Good call. They're awful. They're gross.

My eyes started twitching when I started watching Kirk Cousins. So I'm actually, amazing, I'm actually almost worried about Dalvin Cook being worse because either this team gets better. I mean, they're at such a crossroads. And they were kind of at a crossroads like week four last year. So again, teams can turn it around. Like, this is like the preseason we're watching unfold in front of us. Like, don't forget Jimmy Garoppel and the Niners looked awful in training camp and everyone

thought they were going to be horrible. And because Jimmy Grapple threw six straight interceptions and then they had an amazing offense. but if they don't turn it around, I'm actually really concerned for Dalvin, like Dalvin Cook getting carries in the second half at all. Yeah, here's the difference. I think this is interesting.

Here's the difference between Dalvin Cook and Derek Henry right now through two games. Derek Henry, essentially, Dalvin Cook has three touchdowns. That's the difference. He has 26 rushes, 113 yards. Derek Henry has 56 rushes,

200 yards. But Dalvin Cook, Davin Cook has three touchdowns on the ground. He has three receptions for six. yard through two games, which is three for six or six? Really six. Three for six yards. Is that good?

Six singular yards. No, it's actually worse than Derek Henry who has three for 15. That's really concerning. Yeah, that's the main concern to me is because last year he was so good in screen game, you know, so good in the passing game overall. That was a huge part of his value, a huge part of why he was a top 10 pick. And the fact that he's not, you know, even close to using that part of his game, you know, through a couple weeks is definitely concerning.

I don't know what the deal with that is. And if that's just a fluke or not, but that's a concern for me. Yeah. Stop sucking Minnesota. You don't want to be investing in a terrible offense, unless you're Christian McAfrey. Okay.

Sticking with the division, Devante Adams, the Packers, he went eighth. He's the wide receiver too. He's really good. He's a hamstring injury. We don't know.

We're recording this Tuesday. As of right now, he might play, might not. He might be totally fine. There's no surprises here. He's been unreal. I wouldn't have any regrets about taking

him here like still based on I think his hammies is going to be fine and he just looked awesome so far. Yeah, he looked great. Joe Mixing for the Bengals. He went ninth in Yahoo Leagues. He's the, is this like the 37th running back? I thought that was the type of for a second. Holy cow. Right now and a half TPR he's 37th

overall. And that that's behind Antonio Gibbs and Adrian Peterson, Devon Singletary. This guy was a first round pick. 35 rushes, 115 yards, five catches for 42 yards, no touchdowns. So again, that's a very concerning start. And this was what happened last year, if you remember,

they didn't lean on him very much in the first half of the year. And then all of a sudden, in the second half of the year, they were just giving him an incredible amount of touches. And he finally kind of like paid for his ADP or whatever. Yeah, but they essentially had six new players on the offense this year, including Bury. I'm counting AJ Green in that because, I mean, he came back.

But they essentially have six new starters. So is that a continuity thing? Is it like last year? Or does Joe Mixon just not that good? I think it's a combination of the two. Like maybe we were overrating him a little bit like his total talent. I think he's a talented player, but maybe we're overrating that a little bit. And then it's just like last week, Joe Burrow had 61 pass attempts.

And so, you know, the fact that they're not getting him involved in the passing game is kind of weird because if, you know, they're playing from behind so much. It seems like they should try and utilize him in that area more. And we might, their defense is awful and it won't change. And also, we might be changing our tune here a little bit if he had gotten a touchdown last week, but Gio Bernard took a vulture. So always keep, as you said, the tough jumping in mind. But still,

Joe Mixon, not exciting. To me, he's not, like, if we redid the draft today, he wouldn't be a first rounder. Okay.

Next up, Tyree killed the Chiefs. He's the eighth wide, he's the number eight wide receiver through two weeks. I mean. Yeah, I mean,

I don't think there's much to say here. He's, these look pretty much like what we expected. Yeah. If anything, if anything, the, if anything,

the Chief's offense hasn't been quite as explosive as we thought it would be. You know, they ran the ball bunch in week one as, as a heavy pass first team last year. You know, the fact that they were like kind of run heavy, yes, first week one in week one, and then last week against the Chargers,

they kind of had some issues getting things started. Mahomes wasn't super accurate. Yeah, he eventually pulled through, obviously, and they won the game, but yeah, I mean, you know, they, I think division games are always weird. It's hard to really, like, read too much into that. But yeah, I would say nothing has really changed my He's still one of the top three receivers that I would have, you know,

I think I had him as my third receiver going into the season. I'd probably stick with that now. Well, we'll get to Calvin, really, but yeah. Fourth receiver, Julio Jones, he's fourth receiver off the board. He went 11th, so late first or early second or early first, depending on your count. Julio Jones is the 23rd among wide receivers right now. That's obviously because he did almost nothing against Dallas. Meanwhile, teammate, Calvin Ridley for Atlanta.

He leads the NFL in receiving yards. touchdowns, and actually first downs, he's the number one wide receiver in fantasy. And Julio once again can't catch touchdowns. If we redid it today, I'm putting Calvin Ridley over Julio. I'm still bullish that Julio is going to bounce back. I mean, look at what he did in week one,

12, targets, nine catches, 157 yards. But I just think Calvin Ridley has the perfect storm of opportunity, talent, playing opposite, Julio. They're going to be an offense that's going to be passing a ton. And so I think he's in a really good situation. I don't think he's going to keep up the space where he's scoring two touchdowns every game, but he's definitely in a situation where he's getting a ton of volume, very good route runner. And he has a chance to be, you know, like the

Godwin of this year, which is something that I think people had said before the year that he's sort of like this year's Chris Godwin. I don't want to take my horn, but two, too. I think that's, it's playing out like exactly like that. So he would probably be a first rounder, like if we redid it today. Well, yeah, I guess I'm thinking about redoing it, but without pretending we knew the injury things. Like, no one's going to pretend that. Sure. The thing about Ridley, at some point the touchdown thing with Julio,

you know, touchdowns in general are supposed to be random, and they regress except for a few people. At some point, the Julio stuff is real because, and maybe we can't explain it, but at some point, this is the best receiver in the NFL. I think your friend Mina Kimes made a joke that he just made some deal with like an ancient demon that he can't score touchdowns inside the 20-yard line.

But Ridley has 21, it's the same amount of touchdowns as Julio does. in Ridley's last 31 games as Julio does in his last 60 games. That's like, that's pretty remarkable. Calvin Ridley's good. And he dropped a touchdown.

He dropped a touchdown in week two. He was banged out. It was like right in his midst, but yeah. All right. Speaking of confusing teammates, the next guy in Yahoo drafts 112,

Nick Chubb, right now through two weeks, the exact scenario everyone talked about for a couple weeks was that Cream Hunt and they are basically back to back.

Cream Hunt has more points than Nick Chub through two weeks. We're not going to like get into the specific fix here too much. I think it's worth for a moment just understanding this is so by a thousand percent the best duo in real life football of Nick Chub and Cream Hunt because they were both top 10 and elusive rating for pro football focus, which is basically how often can you get away from a defender

and get yards, which is the entire job of being a running back. And they're both top 10 last year. So far through two weeks, they're both top five. So they're both amazing. It's just if the Browns are like winning, they're going to run and Chub will be better. And if they're passing, it'll be a lot more even and Cream Hunt seems a better guy after the catch. Yeah, I think the note or the lesson here is less that Chubb was picked too early because he's still, he's right now, he's the RV 11, so he's still valuable as a fantasy asshole. I think the lesson here is that Hunt was too low. Well, we'll see if this offense can sustain two guys because I think that what's weird

about this is we've seen, I think we'll look back and say that we are looking at two extremes here for the Brown's opponents. The Ravens are probably going to end up having a top three defense. the Bengals are probably going to end up having at least the bottom five defense. So the fact that those are somewhere in the middle. So yeah, the first two opponents, it's kind of bizarre to be like, oh, yeah, how are they doing? Those are two such extremes. I don't think it's an accident and jump out of bad week one and then a really good week two

because the Brown's offense got crushed and had to pass in week one, and then they got a lead and had to run in week two. So, but either way, I think you can play both, clearly. I mean, yeah, you got it at this point. Yeah, for sure. Want to move into the second round here? Let's do it. Okay.

So, yeah, the next guy, I think, is a very interesting one. We talked about him a lot before the season started. DeAndre Hopkins at Arizona. We spent quite a bit of time talking about how history has told us, you know, the odds are if you're a receiver going to a new team. And all the reasons are completely logical. You know, you're going to a new team with a new offense, new quarterback. You've got to establish that connection. They didn't have any time to ramp up during the off season.

He held out. I think he had, like, one practice. DeAndre Hopkins is just the outlier. Well, that's that, yeah. So I, I, look, you don't have to hide behind we. I, I said DeAndre Hopkins would not be good this year. I ranked him outside the top 20. If you don't have Hopkins on your team, it is probably largely because of me.

And I will end up to have fucked up. So I'm sorry because DeAndre Hopkins. Yeah. Again, we were talking about new receivers and new teams, it's hard. Well, through two games, DeAndre Hopkins has set the record. for a player for catches from a player in a new team through two games. He literally broke the record for what we were talking about.

He leaves the NFL and catches. The only thing I will say in my defense is that one of his touchdowns, Washington literally forgot to cover him. Someone said it was like he was wearing a visibility cloak. I actually think you could wipe him away from the screen and Washington would look like he wasn't there. But yeah, no, he's been unreal with the Cardinals.

The Cardinals' offenses looked unreal. Credit to Kyler Murray, who is just, I mean, I think he is more passing yards than Mahomes. He's more rushing yards than McCaffrey and more receiving yards than someone else really good. I forget who. Hopkins is great. I want to throw a few stats at you here. It's worth celebrate.

Let's just celebrate. Instead of beating you up about it because it happens to everyone. Let's just celebrate how awesome Hopkins have been. He's on pace for 200 targets, hyphids. 200. Remember how we were talking about he wouldn't reach 150 or whatever? Like, he's on pace for 200. Dude, look, I don't even.

feel bad because here's the thing. I basically was like at Houston he had the second most targets of the decade over the last 10 years only after I think Julio. I just was like what are the odds that he goes somewhere else and gets more and apparently that's what happened. So yikes. But he no, he's looked really impressive and the cardals looked really impressive. But flipping, staying with Arizona for a second, I'm skipping ahead. But Kenyon Drake was also a second rounder. And Kenyon Drake has been pretty disappointing both on the field and also also all. the field because his Twitter account was like, hey, fantasy football managers, like buy from our online store for Kenyon Drake. And after two weeks, he's like, all you fantasy football people

who are mad at me, like, go away. So it's like, pick one, okay? But he has been middling. He's like a barely, not even a top 25 running back through two weeks. And basically my question for you is, is this just a really great offense that eventually Kenyon Drake's going to have a good game? Or is Kyler Murray basically like the vulture, which is a polite word for Cockblock, because he has more rushing yards and more rushing touchdowns through two games. And is it going to stick that way? Yeah, I think it's more of the latter. Like you said, it's kind of like the Cam Newton situation a little bit in New England

where now none of New England's running backs are even worth having on your team because Cam Newton is just going to steal all the goal line touches. So I think it's a combination of a few things. It's partly due to the fact that, you know, essentially coming off of an injury, whether he wants to admit it or not, like he had his foot in a boot. And he hasn't looked to me as explosive as he did last year, you know, early on in the season. So that's one factor. Yeah, the second I saw that foot in a boot, especially in this year where reporters can't

actually be anywhere near players for most of the time, I just felt like we were just not going to get the story there ever. It's so difficult to know whether to trust those things or not. In this case, it sounds like we probably should have, you know, downgraded him a little bit more based on that. But it's still early, you know, he's not like he's been terrible. It's just he hasn't been as absurdly efficient as he was last season

So I think but to be clear I think better days are coming from because when you have an offense This good it's kind of like a basketball team like some days Teams make defensive decisions To let certain players beat them And when Hopkins is unbeatable Eventually they commit more resources to stopping Hopkins And someone else is like a basketball court

Someone else is open eventually Kenyon Drake's gonna have like a two or three touchdown day The issue is it's just not going to be as consistent As we were hoping that he would be getting a lot in the receiving game as we were hoping. And Kyler Murray is running so much more than last year. Clearly has a better understanding of when to pulp and run. They also lead the league in RPO's. They have run the most RPO plays through a couple weeks.

Chase Edmonds has nine targets already, and Kenny and Drake has four targets. So Edmonds is kind of stealing some of his receiving work. Kyler stealing some of his... Yeah, well, they gave Drake $14 million, which seemed like, they were like, okay, yeah, we're going to give it to you. And then, yeah, they're splitting it a lot more than you'd think. Okay, let's keep rolling here.

I skipped a couple people. So Hopkins was 13th in drafts. Clyde Edwards-Olayer was 14th for the Chiefs. He's been really good. He's been good. Do you think he's still, I think he ended up being like a mid-first rounder in a lot of our rankings? Do you feel, do you feel like still like you would probably still do that? Yes, because knowing what you know now?

Yeah, it depends on the goal line work. Basically, I mean, he should have, he could have had like three more touchdowns. in week one. He just didn't get through the goal line. Six goal line. And look, we're very fickle. Like, if he had scored two of those, we'd be raving about him. And then the Chief's whole offense wasn't great last week. Now, the Chiefs basically, unless they take

the goal line work away from him, or he just sucks at the goal line. The Chiefs are going to be at the goal line quite a bit. So I'm unconcerned about him, and I think he's going to be great. I think the question is just, I hope he's not bad at the goal line. Because that would be the problem. Because opportunity for the office is not going to be an issue.

But speaking which... he was more involved in the passing game last week, which people were very worried about after week one. He got like two targets, no catches in week one. And so he was much more involved in the passing game last week. And so that's definitely a good time. Especially in PPR.

Zooming out, I don't think the rookies will get less work as the season goes on. I think the rookies, responsibilities expand, not to contract as the season goes on. Speaking of which, Josh Jacobs, the Raiders,

he was basically a second round pick. He was second round pick. He was going 15th. And the question was, is this a three down back who is going to be elite? Or is he a two down back? He'll be pretty good. And he's kind of like a two and a half down back. Jalen Richard takes some receiving work.

And I think he got the touchdown last night. But Jacobs looks pretty good, dude. What do you think of Jacobs? He looks awesome. I mean, he looks like one of the best backs in the NFL. And it's like you said, it's been important that he's been getting some of that passing game action. You know, he's, we were very worried about game script and being really game script dependent. In other words, if they're ahead, he's going to get a lot of action, if they're behind.

like he's not worth nearly as much. And so, you know, I think, you know, they're two at O. So is that also, is that kind of crazy? The Raiders are two and O right now. They beat the Saints. I found that surprise. The Raiders is just a weird team because they're so boring. It's like they're in Vegas, which is sick.

Gruden is really funny. The team is so boring with the exception of like Waller, who's great story, Ruggs is really fast. But, I mean, can you name three, can you name two defenders in the Raiders? It's just, it's so, such a boring team. It's a young. It's a young group.

Derek Carr is the most boring player on and off the field in the entire NFL, I think. So I don't know. The Raiders, whatever. We can, let's keep rolling here. There's not a time to say about these next guys. Kittle is hurt. So George Kittle, there's not much to say there. Like, you know what I mean?

He's good. And if he plays, you play him. Travis Kelsey, really good. Not much, like exactly what you thought. Patrick Mahomes, I mean, he didn't have a great game last week. He's still Patrick Mahomes. I don't think there's a time to say there. Probably shouldn't have gotten the second round.

And Lamar Jackson. So we got 19 is Patrick Mahomes, 21 is Lamar Jackson. I'm going to, we'll talk about them a little bit later. It's too high to take people, but you know what? If you wanted them on your team, you got them. They are still who they are. And then Chris Godwin, honestly, not much to say about Godwin either. Like, he has a concussion.

He missed week two. Like, I think, sounds like he's due back. So that's good. He's not going to miss a time of time. Hard to draw a conclusion there right now. Aaron Jones was going 22nd. Two weeks in, he's the number one running back. This one looks like the biggest steal so far.

Craig was the one. one, he's like, he's going to have 19 touchdowns again and Aaron Jones right now. He's just basically, he's already, he's already there. He's going to, he's going to make it happen. Yeah. Fulling Craig, we're still here. Aaron Jones, to me, looks like the biggest steal so far, pretty much of the draft. So, yeah, so congrats if you got Aaron Jones.

And then Austin Echler, who's 23rd in drafts this year. So he has 35 carries this year. And Josh Kelly, the rookie at UCLA also has 35 carries this year. People are, we're freaking out about him not having any cash. after week one. He had five catches last week. Are you concerned that Echler has the same amount of carries as a rookie, or are you like just more happy

that he's still involved in the passing game, and they're playing the Panthers this week, and it'll be fine? No, I'm, what I am is concerned that the Chargers are going to stick with Tyra Taylor at starter. I'm going to be writing about Justin Herbert this week. I think he looked really good in his first game, and I think he changes

the dynamic of the offense a lot. And I think if he's the quarterback, he's going to get Echler more involved. I don't know why. Like for some reason after week one, Anthony and Lynn even came out and said like, oh, the nature of our offense is like they're just not going to get a lot of targets to running backs. It's like, okay, so let's take out like your best player, one of your best players, one of your two best offensive players. It's Keenan Allen and Eckler. Let's just take out like what he does best. Why would you, why in the hell would you

do that? It makes no sense to me. So that's, that's strike number one against Anthony Lynn. And then last week after Herbert came in and had a really great game, I won't. I don't want to overstate it. A very good game for a rookie. Considering he learned he was playing 30 seconds before he went in, it was a great game. Okay, so

he didn't prepare. And then he comes in, I think he changed the dynamic of the offense. Really kind of helped a couple of the guys come more alive, Hunter Henry, Keenan Allen, Eckler, who that's the trio you want to be like doing stuff for your offense. They went toe to toe with the defending champs, took him to

overtime. Obviously, the defense had a big part of that, too. But Anthony Laine comes out and says, like, he's almost like railing on Herbert. Like, oh, he's a rookie, or he's a backup for a reason, blah, blah, blah. We're sticking with Tyra and Taylor. Like, if they actually stick with Tyra and Taylor, and we're so pissed, to me, it just reeks of, like,

it reeks of coaches outsmarting themselves. No, I don't mind it for a couple reasons. One, because it's just some words. Like, it doesn't mean anything. Like, you know, we can stick up with them for a week or two. You know, who knows? And second of all, they spent eight months preparing for Taylor to be the starter. And to just pull the plug, there's an emotional shift for your entire team, your entire roster that to just make, what is the upside for Lynn to make the decision?

Because the way he handles it is, one, you can make the decision later. And two, you're not kind of gassing up Herbert's head and putting all this stuff. Like, you can make the decision later. You know what I mean? I don't think it's the worst. Later as in like later this week? Whenever he, yeah, whatever he wants next week. Like, I don't think there's a problem punting a decision like that.

I think it makes sense. But I just think, man, you took him tense overall or whatever. I don't think he's, just freaking play him. I don't think him defending Tyrod Taylor in a press conference will preclude the charges from making the switch like 10 days from now. Yeah. So anyway.

But I'm just, to me, like if that happens, I'm going to be so pissed. But last one, Miles Sanders was the last pick of the second round for the Eagles. He missed week one with hamstring strain. Boston Scott is just a round.

The question is whether the Eagles would give him a lot of work. And he was, you know, he was the heir to Sequin at Penn State. And would he just be unleashed, so to speak, in Philadelphia. And, What do you have make of him so far?

Miles, it's more like Yards Sanders. He was RB 12 in week two. He missed week one. He was the RB1 in week two. I thought he looked okay. The problem to me is the Eagles offense is a disaster. That's the thing. They're dead last, Danny, in DioVA through two weeks.

Carson Wentz has been terrible. He's been one of the worst starting quarterbacks in the NFL. If they don't get this turnaround, I think that could really, really hurt Sanders value overall. Pro football reference tracks this great stat now. It's just bad throws. Just how many bad throws and bad throw percentage? And the top five is it's basically like, it's Dwayne Haskins,

Trubisky, and Mike Carson wins. And I was like, holy cow. That is concerning. It's frustrating. Because I was like, I went back and I wrote about him before the season. I'm like, there was definitely some positives to take from last year. But like he's got to stop doing a few things, namely like trying to play. hero ball

and do too much. He is hero ball. But he's like James. He's almost like James. He just tries to do too much. Can I give you my theory on Carson Wentz? Yes.

So I think that he is big man on campus syndrome or hero ball syndrome because everywhere he's gone. So like he played at North Dakota State, right? So he's like clearly the best player

on the team. And he could do all those crazy things of extend a play. Oh, don't worry about taking his sack. You can get away. You can make the crazy

play downfield. Don't wait for the, you know, eight-yard throw, you can make an 80-yard play. He could do that in college. And then you get to the Eagles, and basically his second season, the offense is flowing so well,

and he had so much early success on that Eagles team, was almost probably going to win the MVP, didn't tear his ACL. Yeah, MVP candidate. And then comes back, has the pressure of Nick Foles won the Super Bowl. He comes back, and then everyone gets so hurt in 2019

that he actually does have to play hero ball. So I feel like between college and the amount of time, that he's actually really truly needed to be the hero, so to speak. Last year, it's just been reinforced that I need to be doing all this. He just needs to be a quarterback.

He doesn't need to be extending plays and trying to look for all this stuff. Just throw to the open people. Just play on time, dude. He needs to learn how to take a sack, too. It's starting to make me mad. Like, he just tries to, like, escape these sacks and ends up fumbling or whatever.

It's like, man, protect the football. Anyway, I really hope he can turn it around. I think pretty soon there's going to be... People are going to start calling, if they already haven't, you know, start calling for Jalen Hertz. because this is just an atrocious start for them. Okay, we're going to go to some other surprising people

who have risen a lot since the preseason began, or the real season began. But first, let's take a quick break to talk about Fandall, because the Ring of Fantasy football show is proud to be presented by Fandall Fantasy. Week two of the NFL season is here, and we are entering our fantasy lineups on Fandall. Have you never played Fandle Fantasy before?

That's okay, because Fandle is offering users the chance to play free this NFL season with no deposit required. and this year, Fandul is now offering daily snake drafts. Snake drafts are the simplest way to try daily fantasy. Draft live just like season-long fantasy, but with winners every game day. The best of seasonal drafting with DFS all in one. Here's how it works.

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get to draft during the season. How wonderful is this? I love it. It's like Christmas, whenever your contest fills. Just sign up and Fandall will give you a free entry to a contest each week of the football season where you can win real prizes. And for those folks who want to deposit, Fandall is offering up to a $500 bonus instantly

when you make your first deposit with Fandall's 20% deposit match So go to fandul.com slash ringer fantasy or download the fandle fantasy app to play now that is fandul.com slash ringer fantasy. Fandle, more ways to win. And today's episode is also brought to you

by Heineken. Heineken would like to remind you that it's time for seasonal beers again. That's right. If you thought a cold, Chris Summer, Heineken was something, just wait until you taste

the Heineken fall lineup. Is it a new product? No. It's just the same great taste lager that is perfect for any season. It's also perfect in a frosted mug. Yes, I'm still on the frosted mug thing because I'm serious about it.

You should do the frosted mug. But D.K. loves the bottles. It's okay. I'm a big sit on the porch and drink Hineken guy. Oh, you love a pool. Well, porch is the best place for Hineken. A porch beer. Loving it.

Maybe another episode will like draft places to drink. Drink Hineken. There we go. All right. Hineken original logger is made with pure malt and their famous A. yeast, which makes Hineken in all season all the time kind of beer, especially we can compromise frosted mug on a porch.

So pick up a pack or get it delivered, whatever your style, and please drink responsibly. Also, one more thing before we get back to show. If you're listening on Spotify, you might see we're asking for your vote in our poll. We want to know which of these four-rigger receivers, C.D. Lamb, Henry Ruggs, Jerry, Judy, or Jalen Rager

will have the best fantasy season. So please vote if you can. All right. Now coming to you live from vacation is Craig. Craig, how is Take Tahoe? Nothing can keep me away from fantasy football. Let me just say that. It doesn't matter what lake I'm on, what boat I'm on,

what libation I have in my hand. It doesn't matter. I'm always thinking about fantasy. You better be a He doesn't matter. Oh, you know it's all right. It certainly matters. Okay. Do you have a take Tahoe?

I have a take Tahoe. Here's my take. I didn't watch all the games. Obviously, I'm on vacation. You know what I mean? You got to separate work from life. But I did watch a lot of the Monday night game. So here's my take.

Take Tahoe. The Saints would be better with James Wich. Yes. They just would be. The Saints have like 12 Lamborghinis that are keeping in the garage because Drew Brits can't throw a D ball anymore. And James, you know, Mike Evans and Godwin with James were each top 10 guys last year. Kamar is doing the best he can.

I know Michael Thomas has hurt, but, man, Treyquan Smith. He looked good. Harris guy's good. yeah what do we what do we do in here at drew breeze when are they going to bench him what is it going to take for them to potentially bench true breeze on his final senior what if tasem hill throws the touchdowns and james throws the interceptions i just think let's just get james on the field and everything gets better i mean they just lost to the raiders put a date on it when does drew breeze get bench for james i'd have to look at their schedule they're playing the packers next week it's not going to be next week they're not going to do it which is a shame because it's out of respect but everybody wants it to happen and it's just going to be a sad end to Breeze's career because he does like watch. What do you guys think of the Monday night game? We talked about it for like two minutes, but basically

we're concerned, man, about his like I told, hyphen three later. I think he has one pass over 20 yards this year. Well, yeah, it's just he couldn't throw the Hail Mary when they needed to throw a Hail Mary, which I thought was pretty revelatory. And then we gave Larry Fitz the Old Yeller Award two years ago.

And like, Drew Breeze is like the front runner for Old Yeller 2020. My second take, Tahoe, I was debating was that I'm just not afraid of a single player on the books from a fantasy perspective. I'm not afraid of Brady. I'm not afraid of Evans. I'm not afraid of Godwin, Howard, Gromf, even Ronald Jones and Fornett. I'm just not afraid of anybody. They're an old dog, and they're not doing anything special anymore for me. Brady and Breeze, I'm good. I'm ready to move on. We actually have a listener question on Lenny Fornes. If you want to, you want to be here for

listener question? You want to go back to your real life? Let's do it. Yeah, do it right now. Go ahead. Loyal listener says, I started Naheem Hines in week two, who only got me 0.9 points while Leonard Furnett had a big game on my bench. Do you see Leonard Furnett being the number one running back in Tampa Bay, especially after the rojo fumble? And would you start Leonard Furnett as such moving forward? Craig, Craig, give us your take first since you're our guest on this show. Yeah, thank you guys. I would say that... Produce it a guest, man.

It's kind of alarming that it's week two and Fournette got so much run. literally that I think that going forward I would probably pick money for that. I know my bold prediction per week too was that Ronald Jones has become a household name and I don't know if it's just a fumble is the only reason why he just didn't play in the game. I kind of find that whole practice

that coaches do BS for like a guy fumbles and they bench you for the game but it doesn't affect like how they feel about you for the season. I don't think fumbling once is going to make you more likely to fumble again in the game unless you're like a complete head case. It's like a parent putting a kid in timeout. And that isn't what happened to be clear. Like after the fumble,

Fournett had twice as many snaps and twice as many touches as Roger did after the fumble. Yeah, so I guess the question is, do you guys think that's going to last? D.K., what do you think? I think it's going to be a disaster all year where we don't know who to start in any given game. They're going to ride the hot hand, so to speak. Ariens already came out and said after the game, or he came out this morning, I guess it was, Tuesday morning, and said on the question of are they going to make a change of running? He said, not right now.

I think everybody's role is good right now. There's no need for that. He still doesn't know enough of the offense yet to be the starter anyway. he says of Fournette. And he's like, he basically goes on to say he loves how it is right now. Fournette's their closer.

Ronald Jones is their starter. So it's going to be a fantasy disaster all season long. Well, that sucks because now people aren't even closers anymore. It's just like you have a thousand people in the bullpen

and you never know who's going to come in and get some people for lefties. Maybe that's what they'll do with Fournette. Yeah, that's like the fantasy baseball team. You don't know, there's no closure that you can draft because they all just get like 15 saves each

and just like this sucks. So here's the bottom line. because I have Ronald Jones in one league. I have Leonard Foren and another league. And basically, these are Dynasty League, so there's not like a lot of people on waiver. So I got to, I'm starting Ronald Jones in that league,

and I'm starting Leonard Fornes the other one, and I'm just hoping for the best. Hopefully they both do well. Well, we know Brady can't really sling it anymore, so he's going to have to hand it off. So long story, short, this situation is going to make your eye twitch. Oh, Craig wouldn't get that joke.

It's a reference from earlier. You weren't here. You don't get it. You know what? Why don't just go back to your vacation? I'm going to go jump in the lake. Thanks for having me, guys. For the record, Craig, we really appreciate you, taking the time,

call us on your vacation. He was begging to do this. No, everyone should know. There was begging involved. He pleaded. We had 100 text messages. No, this all was incepted because just, no, we thought of the word take Tahoe came up. We're like, well, we have to do this now.

That's just too good. All right, Craig, go back to your life. Okay, I'll be back on Friday, guys. I'll see you guys soon. All right, man. Peace. While we're talking about Ronnie Jones and Lenny Forns, Let's just look at a couple of the running backs who have been of note through two weeks.

I was wrong about Antonio Gibson, D.K. You were right. So, kudos. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, let's just pause on that quite quickly and just be like, yeah, he actually looks pretty good, man. Like, he's in a bad offense. That's going to limit his overall, like, ceiling.

But I think, man, this guy's got a ton of potential. He's already, you know, one of the top guys in the NFL in terms of elusive rating. He's looked really good. I think he only has, like, he's only going to go up. this point. They're going to get him involved in the passing game. Yeah, he's, he's looked really good. I think he's already kind of like establishing himself as their starter. So it's been two weeks and it's happened. I don't, I still don't mind. Like, again, he has 13 carries last week. That would have been his career high for carries at Memphis.

And I just doubted that that would happen. He has, again, he had 33 carries at Memphis total. He has 21 carries through two games. I just didn't think that was going to happen. Kudos to the guy for just being ready early. That's really cool. And he leads the league and or miss tackles, which that's pretty impressive through two games. I mean, yeah, like in terms of the stats that you can look at for a running back to tell you the quality of a running back, there's a few. It's not like yards for carry because that's so team dependent and all that stuff. Like broken tackles or forced broken tackles is definitely one.

I think that tells you the skill of a player. And Gibson absolutely has that. Number one, he's the only one with 10 on the season so far. The other one who just wanted a shout out is, talk about rookie running backs. James Robinson is basically has the same amount of points as Clyde Edwards O'Lear through. They're basically at the same level. So shout out to James Robinson. Well done.

That's a crazy stat. I love that. He's actually looked really good. It's so weird because, man, we talked about how useless, like the, the, uh, Jaguar's backfield is probably going to be this year. We were debating between him and Divina Zigbo, Chris Thompson. Um, but man, he's taking like all their reps. He's already kind of cemented himself as their starter.

COVID list for 18 days. That does not help. But he's looked legit. Like, he's looked good. So he's the next. We were talking about this on Twitter. He's the next someone. I threw out Chris Carson because Carson was like this seventh round pick that no one

had ever really heard about or talked about before the draft. And then all of a sudden, he's a yuck starter. So I think that's an example. Who's the former Washington running back that has kind of bounced around? he's on the Cowboys, I'm just blanking on his name. And Alfred Morris? Yes, he's like Alfred Morris kind of style too. I think it's the first James Robinson because he's the first

undrafted free agent to start in week one, I think ever. So everyone else is going to be the next James Robinson. But while we're looking at risers from preseason, we have to talk about quarterbacks. Josh Allen is unreal. Josh Allen is the number two quarterback in fantasy. He's number two in QBR, which is quite the come up for the guy. and then he leads the league in passing yards.

And then subsequently, Stefan Diggs is like a top five receiver and John Brown's like top 10. Yeah. So the bills and Josh Allen lead the league in passing yards. How does that make you feel? I think it's fun. I think it's really fun. It's been cool to see him emerge.

I'm not convinced that they're going to pass at this volume throughout the whole season. But I mean, it's great to see him kind of like taking that next step as a quarterback. And he's been way more accurate than I had ever. thought he would be. So, yeah, he's the kind of like, I'm not going to compare him to Lamar because it's a different situation, but he, in terms of like a guy you can get much later in the draft, he was like a, you know, middle round guy, he could have potentially end up being the QB1 and then like provide teams that incredible value because you were able to get, you know,

other players on your team before you grabbed him. So right now he's looking like one of those players. Cam Newton is the other guy that I think is like just another perfect example of why you wait on quarterback and take a quarterback late. He's a QB3 through two games. A lot of that is due to his rushing upside, which we hammered on all preseason. But he also showed against the Seahawks.

He can still throw the ball. He was really, like, aggressive, accurate, throwing the ball down the field. So I think Newton has a real chance to finish as the top three quarterback. I mean, the dude is just, like, clicking right now. So those two, I think, are the most notable, like, risers.

Gardner Minch would be the other one I mentioned. That is just, you know, so much better than anyone thought in terms of fantasy. Joe Burrow, is also the QB12, which is a first or a starter or not, depending on how many teams are in your league. So pop quiz, if Minshu is on your waivers, would you cut Drew Breeze for him? Yes.

Would you cut Carson Wentz for Gardner Minshu? I think I would at this point, honestly. Would you cut Tom Brady for Gardner Minshu? I don't know. Yeah. I'm all in on Minchoo Media, man. Minchie's fantastic. Just ride it, yeah.

Does Mike Evans and Chris Godwin come down then by nature? And that was like what I was trying to go through in my head, you know, because like, I don't know. Because I'm still confident. Like I disagree with Craig. Like I'm still confident in Evans and Godwin going forward. But it's one of those things where like, man, there were moments where Brady did look a little bit off. And I don't know. Overall, I'm still bullish on the Buccaneers offense.

I'm out on, I'm out on gronk now. I regret to say. Gronk is not in my, he's not on my radar anymore. I don't have many rules. but if you retired and then unretired, you know what? I should have, yeah, there were so many freaking signs

and it's one of those things where it's like I was so focused on his touchdown. The man's a siren, you know, you got to plug your ears with wax. It's just so. I really did freaking get caught up in the siren song of Rob Garnkowski,

but I mean, they basically already said, like, Ariens has basically said like, dude, we have receivers. We're not throwing it to Gronk. That is basically what's happening so far.

Never mind. Rob Grunkowski, blocking tight end. Okay, receiver real quick. We have to talk about Will Fuller, who has just Will Fuller at us already. The Will Fuller experience. Week one, who's really good

and almost had a great week because he should have had like a 50-yard touchdown that Deshawn Watson under through felt really great. And then we got Will Fullard. He had no catches, no targets, one carry for no yards,

and then he had a hamstring injury, which is like the Will Fuller or like quad-Fecta, except it's not a quad, it's a hamstring. But my God, the fact that, one, it's a hamstring injury and two, we don't have any...

My God. We have no idea what the severity of it is. And they're playing the Steelers who are like the best defense by a lot so far. I basically feel like you have to. I think you have to because we don't know if the hamstring injury, he didn't really play a ton in the fourth quarter and we don't know if that's precautionary because they were losing or because they're just actually worried about him. And I feel like it's annoying because if you bench him and he goes off, that's a good thing long term.

but if they're playing the Steelers and he had the hamstring thing and the hamstring gets worse and you risk a zero in your lineup again that would suck. The Steelers are so good. I would not play him against the Steelers just because that's the best defense in football

and the Texans aren't very good, honestly. Like the offense is just, Bill O'Brien's offense for Deshawn Watson is just the whole thing. Some of the parts are so much greater than the whole and that is just always how the Bill O'Brien Texans seems to have been, even though they've won the division

like three or four years in a row. it's just they're not in the same class as the Ravens of the Chiefs who they're going to have to go through to win the Super Bowl and the Steelers I think are going to stifle them so I'd rather bench him and be wrong

than start him and be wrong but that's just me other receivers we got ahead here I think I'm with you on that one it's just the Steelers are so good the other receivers are going to hear here Robbie Anderson is a top six receiver which again people escape

are you buying it? A little he's not this good but I do think they signed him and they're going to be Teddy Bridgewater is like top five in passing yards. I think their defense is really bad, and they're going to have to throw a ton. And I think the offense will keep moving the ball. So it's not always going to be Robbie Anderson.

I think Curtis Samuel will eventually have a big day, but I think Robbie Anderson, I mean, you could certainly flex the guy. Wow, I did not realize that that was news to me. Teddy Bridgewater is fourth in the NFL in passing yards right now. That just flew under, that flew under my radar. I actually did not notice that.

That's crazy. Signal a noise, baby. That's a good stat. I think that one is knowledge. I think the Panthers will keep having to air the ball out, especially now that McCaffrey is hurt. They're going to have to keep doing other stuff. One more, I just wanted to throw in. And this is like half joking because I don't know if I necessarily really buy it, but is CD Lamb coming for Mari Cooper's crown as like the number one receiver on the Cowboys?

I think at this point, like, I'm not giving up on Gallup. I mean, you sound like it. You skipped him in the line of succession. He's had a few missed, like, opportunities that like would have changed the narrative around him. And like he had one missed in the end zone and that OPI that came back, would have been like an extra 50 yards on his first first game. So that his fault. If he had caught the ball,

no one would have been like, OBI. But man, C.D. Lamb has, to me, looked really good. And he's only,

he's four points behind Amari Cooper through two weeks in half PBR. So that's just something to monitor. I think, I'm just like a huge C.D. Lamb guy. Like, he was my number one receiver coming into this year's draft. I think he's looked exactly like I thought he would look on the field.

And I think he's going to continue to get pepper with targets. Week two was his best game. I think he's just going to get better from here. I don't necessarily think he's going to be the number one on that team in terms of fantasy points, but it's close through two weeks. I still like Michael Gallup. I mean, I don't dislike Gallup.

You skipped him in the line of succession. That's quite the statement. Okay, tight end, we just have to shout out. There's a lot of good ones, but no offense, like the number two tight end through two weeks. He's looked awesome. He's looked great. And now Cortland Sutton's out for the season,

so it actually seems like he can get better. Do you think Noah fans are top four, top five tight end for the rest of the season? Yes, yes, I do. He's fantastic. I think the reason I like him a lot, too, is because he's not, I don't think he's super dependent on the quarterback. And that's important because Drew Locke is hurt for however many weeks, like a month, probably, something like that. I don't think he's super dependent on the quarterback because he's so good at yards after the catch.

Like, they've been using him on these little, like, shallow crossing routes where, you know, he's kind of, not necessarily the primary target of an offense, but like, he's so good at picking up yards of a catch. He's dangerous in the red zone. I think he has a chance to, like he said, be the top four, like keep doing what he's doing throughout the whole year. Okay, let's get to some bad beats. I really like this one.

Thank you to everyone who sent them in again. That's ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Shout out to a lot of people who emailed us actually had a follow-up to say that they either won or lost based on a statum correction. I think it was to Christian McCaffrey. So to all of you, just my goodness. But this one, I like this one.

Caleb emailed us and saying, he writes that I had a bad beat that was too good not to share. I went up against my twin brother this week. It came down to Monday night in which he led by around 20 points going to the game. I had Camara left and he had Jared Cook left. The final drive of the game,

I have Camara down a half point to my twin brother, and then these are my words, but it's the saints of the meaningless drive, they're down 10 points with a minute and five seconds to play. They're down 10. We talked about this. They're not really trying to score. They're just kind of dink and dunk. And then these are Caleb's words

again. The last three plays of the game, win as follows. Oh my God. I'm reading this now. Drew Breeze to Alvin Camara for eight yards, putting me up 0.3 points. Oh, my God. Drew Breeze to Jared Cook for seven yards,

putting him up 0.4 points. And then the last play of the game is Drew Breeze to Alvin Camara for 15 yards, putting me up 1.1 points as time expires. First of all, I have to say, as I was watching that, I'm like, why are they giving the ball Alvin Camerra? Because last week,

Michael Thomas got hurt in garbage time. And that's what I was thinking at the time. Yeah. But Caleb's email continues. Lastly, I know that segment is supposed to be for when you lose. However, there's nothing I'd love more than for my brother to hear this while he's listening just to rub my victory in his face and the fact that I'm yet again the superior fantasy player. Keep doing what you were doing.

You've been fun to listen to over the years. Wow. That's incredible. And I actually want to add to that. High Fitz, I didn't tell you this. I had that last, that final Alvin Kamar catch that he talked about in that, literally won me two leagues. I was behind in two different leagues and I won on that play in two leagues.

I couldn't believe it. It was incredible. It was like one of those things where like on the very last, if you're betting or whatever, like the very last play of the game is like a Hail Mary and they return it for a touchdown, you know, or it's just like. I think that garbage time should be banned in fantasy. We need to figure out how to do that. Like, the metric needs to be, like, you're never going to be like, oh, down a certain amount

with certain time left. It needs to be like a feeling. Like when the announcers start being, when the announcers show the graphic of like who they're playing next week and like they already updated the records on the screen, that's when you need to be like, you know what? The stats don't matter from this point forward, but they still do. So congratulations to Caleb on beating your brother. I can attest that's the best feeling in the world.

The swing there, like the emotional rollercoaster is fun. There's also on the younger brother. So there's nothing like beating your older brother in fantasy. I don't know which of these twins was born. first, but as the younger brother, the older brother, if you lose, you can always pretend to be like, oh, I have more important things to do. Like, I got to study for a test or, you know, I got to send kids to college. There's always older brother shit that they can do. But the younger brother, if you win, it's so much better than you. Anyway, yeah, thank you to Caleb for sending

that email. That's ringer fantasy football at gmail.com. Keep sending them in. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Steve. Spotting for Craig. Thanks Craig for coming in on his vacation, although he probably need some more time himself. And yeah, D.K., your eyes still twitching? No, I'm good. All the stress left my body. That was fun. All right, hopefully it did for everyone listening to.

Thank you, and we will see you guys on Friday.