The Ringer NFL Show - Week 1 Standouts and Waiver Wire Adds

Episode Date: September 14, 2020

Football is finally back, and we break down the headlines from the weekend, including Cam Newton’s promising fantasy start, the Bucs' disappointment, and how the lack of preseason affected fantasy s...cores. Then, we get into the top scorers of the week, discuss rookie running backs, and recommend our top waiver wire adds heading into Week 2. Headlines (6:43) Top Scorers (20:00) Waiver Wire Adds (49:30) Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Starting point is 00:00:00 It's footlong season at Subway, and that means making good calls all season long, starting with your game day order, because take it from us when we say that eating too many cassidias or nine hot dogs in a nine-inning baseball game is a bad call. Do you guys have any bad calls this week? Not a lot of fantasy bad calls, but a couple bad eating calls. You never want bad eating calls. This week, why not make a good call instead like a sweet onion chicken teriyaki, a turkey breast, black forest ham, or a veggie delight footlong from Subway?
Starting point is 00:00:28 remember the top tier of the footlongs is the sweet onion chicken terriac in the turkey breast but whatever footlong you want you can sign us up for that deliciousness and another good call is ordering and paying contact free in the subway app for quick pickup or delivery it is easy just tap tap boom
Starting point is 00:00:45 delicious foot long and today's episode is also brought to you by Heineken Heineken original lager is made with pure malt and their famous A yeast which makes Heineken in all season all the time kind of beer It is the perfect beer to enjoy watching a game.
Starting point is 00:00:59 Monday at football, the NBA playoffs, MLB postseason, cornhole and ESPN 4, whatever you want. Heineken is the perfect companion. It's light. It's crisp. It's not too much. It's not too little. It's exactly what we want.
Starting point is 00:01:11 So pick up a pack or have it delivered today and drink responsibly. This is the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I'm Danny Heif. It's here with Danny Kelly and Craig Whirlbeck. And football is back. It's back. Holy crap. There's so much happen.
Starting point is 00:01:39 what did you guys think? It just feels good to have stuff to actually, like real games to actually talk about, real stats. Instead of talking about all the things that we think is going to happen, we can finally unpack what actually has happened. So that was really fun. So many things have changed and so many things haven't changed. Ms. Chubisky is still Mitch Trubisky.
Starting point is 00:01:56 Josh Allen is still Josh Allen. It's great. This was the most Josh Allen game of all time. Brady being on the Bucks was so weird. It kind of hid how much of what you're saying or the other stuff. It's like the more stuff changes. and we're in a global pandemic and everything in the world's upside down, but Trubisky is still throwing interceptions,
Starting point is 00:02:15 and Josh Allen is still having perfect passing games, but still fumbling upside down. And nothing's changed at all. The NFL's amazing. It's like, it's completely inoculated from like the rest of the universe. I don't know how to do it. I mean, like, I guess obviously the biggest changes
Starting point is 00:02:28 was there's no fans in the stadium. There was no preseason. Like, did you guys notice differences in the gameplay? I thought the crowd noise was weird. Did you guys like the fake crowd noise? Sunday night game was, was low energy. Well, you're literally an audio engineer.
Starting point is 00:02:43 What did you make of the fake audio? I think it's, I don't really like it. I don't think they do that good of a job. I think they need to figure out, I'm okay with them piping in something that sounds ridiculous. Like, play music even, like they do an NBA games.
Starting point is 00:02:56 I'm down with that. Yeah, the music works. They tried that before, you know. At football games? Like Fox, this was a few years ago. They tried having like, sort of like background music. It was very, like, dramatic.
Starting point is 00:03:08 and felt like a movie based in medieval times or something. It was really bizarre and people fucking hated it. I think they should just do what the NBA did where it's just kind of like general beats, general hip-hop background sound. I think that works.
Starting point is 00:03:23 That would be fine. That would be fine. D.K., you're a Seahawks fan and the Seahawks have been pumping in fake crowd noise for like years. So what did you think? Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Good one.
Starting point is 00:03:31 D-K., that's true. To be honest with you, I honestly didn't, I did not. They have not piped in crowd noise. Okay, it's not a fact. It's actually the Falcons. Yeah. Don't you think the Rams Cowboys game was like weirdly quiet and boring? It's weird enough when all the announcers feel they need to comment on it.
Starting point is 00:03:49 And that's so you know it's awkward. I just found myself not noticing it at all. Like honestly, throughout the whole day, I got through the whole day without really thinking about the crowd noise. I agree. It was only Sunday night. I think it's when you really focus in on one game and you kind of expect like a 30-yard catch to have like a huge upswing. Yeah. Like there's just none of that.
Starting point is 00:04:08 When you're doing like Red Zone or you're watching like three things flipping back and forth, I don't think you notice it as much. Yeah. The real tangible impact is definitely on the players for two reasons. One, there was like a tactical element of the hard counts yesterday were absolutely more effective than I'd ever seen them on a Sunday. Oh, yeah. For two reasons.
Starting point is 00:04:25 One is just without the preseason, it's just going from training camp and practices to like, oh, like I'm trying to not jump on a Drew Brees hard count. And that happened in the Bucks game when Vita Valle kind of jumped all sides. And like the fourth and one where they were going to call the time out. and they weren't going to go for it and they got them. That happened in so many games and then also just hearing
Starting point is 00:04:42 player, like, like being, for teams being able to hear their own teammates, like Tom Brady in the Superdome being able to actually use verbiage at the goal line is usually something that would not be in play.
Starting point is 00:04:55 I thought Trey Kman made a really good point about that. But honestly, the tactical stuff isn't the interesting part to me. The interesting part is that the football player is all kind of admitted this week. Like, we're gladiators. We do this for the crowd. Like,
Starting point is 00:05:06 you score a touchdown. The sick part is looking at 70,000 people staring at you. And actually, OJ Howard brought it great. He was like, this is B.Y.O.J. You got to bring your own juice. Because especially the younger players, like, we get jazzed up for a crowd. Like, we've never played football for not in front of people. You have to manufacture the energy.
Starting point is 00:05:24 So maybe the teams with guys with really big personalities, you're going to have a little bit of an edge this year. That's kind of interesting. I don't think that's the case, honestly, because I think some of the big personality guys are guys that hype themselves up and, like, aren't really shy about it. I think Michael Thomas is actually going to. example of like, I don't think Michael Thomas is shy about doing stuff for a crowd.
Starting point is 00:05:40 I had no problem getting hyped up in PE without a crowd. So I can do it. We do this podcast. I mean, we actually have fake fans in the audience when we do all these podcasts. We have like thousands of fake people and like people. It's wild. But no, I actually do think that like the Julio Joneses and people are more interesting to me in a year where it's like, okay, I'll take like quiet veteran guys instead of the young. But I don't know. Anyway, a weird start to an extraordinary season. But at the same time, like you said, I didn't, I honestly didn't notice the fact that there weren't fans. Yeah, it was normal. It was pretty for us.
Starting point is 00:06:11 I thought it was a normal day of sports and it was the first normal day. Because even basketball and baseball, it's like the pandemic quarantinedness of it is dripping over everything because baseball has different rules and basketball. It's like, why am I watching basketball in September? And football is like, this was normal week one. So honestly, corny, that was cool. It was nice to have normal sports for like four or five hours. Other stuff, though, I did want to just touch on before we get to some specifics
Starting point is 00:06:36 Obviously, there's Brady on the Bucks and Cam Newton on the Patriots and there's a thousand things to get to. But I did think the quality of the play was just bad. Yeah. Like, I think that this was the preseason. And I think that something that is clear is that this is going to be preseason. Sean Payton said before the season that we're calling this training camp. It's not a training camp atmosphere. They had, what was it, 11 or 14 padded practices?
Starting point is 00:07:00 You know, sometimes it's double that. Yeah. Just 10, 12 years ago, it was triple that. So I think there's a couple things worth going through, but the effect of having limited practice time is rotations. I think that we saw more substitutions this week, and that will probably go like probably change as the season. But guys just weren't in shape to play 70 or 80 play football game.
Starting point is 00:07:23 So we saw more rotations. And also I thought we just saw simpler offenses. Deacon, I'm curious what you think about that because we saw the chiefs and the Buccaneers be running a lot instead of passing. What did you make of the actual football being played? and do you think things might change as the season goes on
Starting point is 00:07:36 and they get more practice time? I mean, I think the Chiefs was the most interesting one because they went from what had been over the last few years with Mahomes the literally like the pass heaviest team, the most aggressive passing team in the NFL and then they went, I charted it.
Starting point is 00:07:51 I didn't chart it, but I looked at the box score. Half of their early... Well, I charted the box score so I went through and counted all... I went through and counted all the actual like plays in the play-by-play. I think it was literally exactly half of their early down
Starting point is 00:08:08 plays in the first three-quarters. So like, you know, you don't count the fourth quarter because that sort of changes with game script and everything. But early downs in the first three-quarters, they ran the ball on 50% of their plays,
Starting point is 00:08:20 which would have been the second highest rate in the NFL last year behind only the Ravens who are like the most, yeah, the most run-heavy team. So that goes from them last year. They were easily the past heaviest team in those situations,
Starting point is 00:08:35 first and second down in the first three quarters. So that was weird. And I think it, and I guess the question now is, you know, is that something that we're going to see all year? Or is that more just like it's week one? You know, the Texans were playing a specific type of defense where they wanted to keep everything in front. So they just kind of like, you know, death by a thousand like paper cuts or whatever.
Starting point is 00:08:54 Yeah. So, yeah, I don't know. That's really interesting to me because Mahomes, number one, he didn't go deep. I think he only went deep one time. 20 plus yards, which only happened one other time in his career. I saw that from sharp football. And then, yeah, I think, you know, just their style of play not being super pass heavy,
Starting point is 00:09:12 that's something to watch going forward. The Chiefs ran the ball more than they passed, and they never did that one time last year. Yeah. And the Buccaneers did a very similar thing, and the first half of this game, they ran more than they passed. And again, they were, I think, the second or third pass heaviest team on early downs last season. And again, they're going, now they're running more than they pass. in the first half. And I think, so like, why is that? And I think really a lot or most of it's related
Starting point is 00:09:36 to the pandemic and just the reduced practice time for a few reasons. The complex downfield pass plays are harder to install. Installs like sounds like it's some like computer world, computer word. It's, they're just, you have to practice it until they get the timing perfect and not in a way they get it right, but in a way they can't get it wrong. That's really hard to do when you only have so many padded practices. So I think the deeper passer plays when you don't have the timing down are the riskiest ones. But then if you do short dump-offs and runs, you're hoping that the defense has not been practicing tackling very well because the defense doesn't have very much time to practice either. And you saw in the Chiefs game, they're like,
Starting point is 00:10:14 well, we don't need a deep passing when the Texans can't tackle, especially those cornerbacks. So I think they're like, let's just do the safer options with these running plays, short screens that are essentially running plays through the air and hope that, you know what, they can't tackle and we'll get a big play anyway. I think that'll change as the season goes on. But big plays don't have to be deep plays in September. I think that's one thing I learned yesterday. And also just substitutions are going to be something to watch. Yeah, you know, if you watched Red Zone, like there wasn't a lot of like,
Starting point is 00:10:42 now let's go to Minnesota where Adam Feeleon just ripped off a 50 yard catch. Like there was not a lot of chunk plays. And without even reading any data, like seeing any tweets, I feel like my general takeaways were like a little bit more running. Plays were just for less yards. Like it was dumpoffs. Like the frickin' Rams Cowboys game, it was like, Eight-yard pass after eight-yard pass.
Starting point is 00:11:02 It was kind of a boring week one. Like, thank God it was week one because we were excited. The excitement of the games wasn't really there for me. Really, it was almost like college football in a way where it's like college football. They start with these cupcake cream pie schedules early on and they sub people and rotate people in. It was like that, but it wasn't cupcake games because they had no preseason. So it was like a mix of preseason college football to me early with just people being thrown into fire. So I think that to me that's the caveat for this whole conversation is I think that an
Starting point is 00:11:30 part of with trades or player acquisitions, whatever you're doing in your league, just keeping in mind that what we're seeing now is not necessarily going to be keeping going and just keeping these themes. So with that said, Tom Brady's on the Bucks, that was weird. That was like the most surreal moment. It was when that game started in the afternoon and seeing Brady. And he had a couple like really nice passes early on. And like when they did their scripted stuff, I think they looked really good.
Starting point is 00:11:55 The first drive looks great. Dude, the first drive, I was like, holy cow. what if they're just twice as good as last year? What if the offense is just as good and they don't turn the ball over? Because also he spiked that ball. When Brady ran the ball in, I was like, what an amazing way for him to begin.
Starting point is 00:12:12 And he gronk spiked it in a way that even gronk has never done. It went straight back up into the air. I think that one thing went 100 feet. And my first thought was, wow, he's deflating the footballs. I've always had secondhand anxiety for people spiking the ball because I don't want it to come back up and hit him in the face. Or the nuts. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:12:28 That never happened to you? All right, I'm not going to tell that story. But you can imagine. But yeah, no, and then they came back because he was also ripping the ball in the first drive. And then he just lost the accuracy. The bucks were sloppy.
Starting point is 00:12:41 I thought the bucks looked like preseason. I mean, they looked like a team who led the league in Pounties and then added a 43-year-old quarterback. Yeah, they just seemed like they had a lot of miscommunications. They just, like, weren't on the same page. It was just like breaking off a lot of rust.
Starting point is 00:12:51 That was the thing is like, I actually didn't, I didn't think Brady looked as bad as people are sort of making it out to sound. You know, he did have a pick six, which is not a great. you know, not a great thing, and that's kind of like brings up the James jokes. But it just to me, they just look like a team that has had 14 pad to practices together, you know? There was a couple of instances where Brady was like on a different page with his receivers.
Starting point is 00:13:15 I think they'll clean that up eventually. It's a very good defense that they were playing. And so to be honest with you, I'm not panicking too much about Brady. And honestly, like, the fact of the matter is he had 24 and a half points. He was a QB8. And we are now, we are recording Monday afternoon. So we haven't had the Monday night football games. There's two this year or this week.
Starting point is 00:13:37 So I can just one more time just reiterate that the Giants, Joe Judge, will have an ESPN custom graphics tonight. Just put all your money on that. Yeah. And the other thing about Brady that I thought was, you know, interesting and that could have made his day from a fantasy point of view even better is he had probably like 100, at least 100 yards wiped out on DPI. You know, I had one big play down the sideline that I think Mike Evans
Starting point is 00:13:58 got DPI and then another one to Scotty Miller who got held or whatever one hand held that would have been a big play so I mean at the end of the day yeah he had two turnovers and in fact Bruce Ariens is kind of like publicly calling him out on that so that's an interesting
Starting point is 00:14:14 like variable but from a fantasy point of view his day wasn't that bad QB8 through Sunday night football could have been leaving better so that's against a really good defense I don't know what do you make of Mike Evans because Mike Evans was almost not going to play in this game and then ended up playing like the whole game. He had a hamstring injury, did nothing. So, and on one hand, healthy Mike Evans has also been shut up by Marcus Latimore, who's the sixth otherworldly cornerback. He had basically did nothing. He caught a garbage time touchdown that otherwise he wouldn't have had a catch. Are you worried about him or is he just one of the thousand people of hamstring polls this year? I don't think I'm worried about Mike Evans as like a player or his hamstring or anything like that. The only thing I'm worried about is that Tom Brady hates him. I think on that pick, you know, the pick he threw over the middle of the field.
Starting point is 00:14:58 I'm pretty sure when he threw it. I heard him go, Brady yelled something like, oh, Mike, get vertical or something. You know, he yelled something at him because initially Arian said that the pass was on. It was just a bad pass up Brady. But then I think this morning, Ariens came out and said, actually he looked at the tape and it was Mike Evans fault. I was going to say, I thought Arian was lying when he said that.
Starting point is 00:15:22 Whoever was announcing the game was like, oh, Mike Evans kind of hesitated, and it looked like it was like an option or like he, was supposed to go deep, but he actually kind of pulled up a little bit and then Brady threw it as if he was going to go deep. It actually reminded me of Reggie Wayne in the Super Bowl when Peyton Manning
Starting point is 00:15:35 through that ball that the Saints picked sixth and took it to the house and it was just Reggie Wayne just stopped running the route. You add that with Mike Evans getting chippy with Latimore and just like screwing up a couple times.
Starting point is 00:15:46 I think he dropped a pass. I don't know, man. The Brady Dog House, you get quick. You're in there quick. Scotty Miller. That is good for Scottie Villa. I will say, just from a football point of view
Starting point is 00:15:55 really quick, because I think that's a perfect illustration of what you were talking about Danny before, where passing games are so intricate. It's a perfect example of what's called a site adjustment by receivers, which is receiver's routes are, receiver will alter his route based on what coverage the defense is playing. And you have to be on the exact same page and be on the exact same timing with your quarterback. It's like it all happens extraordinarily fast against a defense that's all moving around. And that's like a perfect example why NFL passing games is so fun. fucking difficult, so intricate.
Starting point is 00:16:29 So anyways, that's just a good example from a football nerdery point of view. No, it's true. It's like you see in week one that 60 yard touchdown pass to like deep receiver X and you're like, oh, how'd they do that? It's like, well, they worked on that for seven months is how they did that. And they waited for a specific moment to try it. So it's hard. And on that note, again, the number one thing lost from this is I think the saints
Starting point is 00:16:48 are the best team in football. I think it's, well, at least the top tier. Chiefs, Saints, Ravens put them in however you want. Yeah. I think they're just as good as the chiefs put them in. whatever tier you want, but the point being, next week they're playing the Panthers
Starting point is 00:17:01 who have maybe the league's worst defense, definitely the league's youngest defense. So the bounce back doesn't have to be a month from now. Could that literally happen in six days. So keep that in mind. Other one I want to talk about just the Patriots, Cam Newton running Reed option plays on third and five or third and six
Starting point is 00:17:19 on like the first or second drive. It was, I remember, like I grew up rooting for the Giants and I remember the first Daniel Jones, start, just seeing a quarterback that looks like Eli Manning, but fast, blew my mind. And I'm sure for Patriots fans who've been watching Tom Brady, who is as close to a statue as there's been since Joe Montana himself, that seeing Cam Newton run a design play on third and six must have been
Starting point is 00:17:44 mind-blowing. I saw, I saw, and I don't have in front of me, I'm trying to find it, but I'm not going to find it. It was like the most rushing yards by a Patriots quarterback since like the 70s, what Cam did today, or what Cam did on Sunday is. pretty great. I think it's going to be a really fun offense to watch just because it's going to be unique in the way that they they're going to be really run heavy. I think they're going to use Cam. I mean, clearly
Starting point is 00:18:07 they're going to use Cam as a rusher a lot. It makes him very, very fantasy relevant, which is exactly what we kind of thought would happen just because he has that upside as a rusher. Yeah, it makes the Patriots infinitely more interesting to me, especially from a fantasy point of view. Maybe not so much the receivers, but certainly Cam Newton. Well, the annoying thing
Starting point is 00:18:25 though, is he clearly had a hamstring injury. And he's denied this and I rarely do this, but I don't care. Like he clearly left this, like walking off the field was grabbing his hamstring and limping. And then after the game was like, no, I'm good. And then they asked him again, I think this is Monday morning. They asked him. And he's like, basically like, well, we won so I'm not hurt anymore. Which I believe what he said.
Starting point is 00:18:47 And so the Patriots beat reporters are basically like, I mean, please ignore what he said. Like he clearly has a hamstring strain. I feel like everyone has a hamstring strain in this limited run up. So are you worried about this? Because I hate falling into cliches, but the cliche of like they're going to use him as more of a running, not a running quarterback, but they're not afraid to let him be design runs.
Starting point is 00:19:07 And he's already banged up in a week one. He's like the most classic conversation about using your quarterback as a rush. So like, are you trying to trade away Cam Newton because the week one buzz? Were you trying to trade for him because you think he could be like a top three guy? Yeah, that's a good question. I probably wouldn't, I wouldn't trade him away guy quite yet. I think you get such good.
Starting point is 00:19:28 you've gotten such good value. If you have him, you probably got him late. And I think he has a chance to be like a mid-range QB-1, potentially. But the hamstring entry is a concern. You know, it's something to kind of watch. You might have to stream next week. They're going against Seattle next week who has, you know, number one, they've got a lot of experience against re-option quarterbacks.
Starting point is 00:19:48 They have a really good linebacker core and a really good safety core. So that's going to be kind of a fun little matchup between those two teams. I don't know if Cam will run quite as much next week. All right. Want to get into top scores? Yeah, let's do it. All right. So these are,
Starting point is 00:20:04 these are players we're just gonna, we're just gonna call them the Remarkables. I feel like remarkable has become like this weird word where Remarkable's a comment. I feel like Remarkable literally just means it's worthy of remarking. Yeah. And we work at the ringer and,
Starting point is 00:20:14 you know, Remarkables or watchables. Anything that sounds like that, we're into, the Remarkables. Players we'd like to remark on. The top scores, we're just run through the top scores.
Starting point is 00:20:24 We're just run through the Remarkable's. Quarterback, the top score this week, was Chagai, D.K., Russell Wilson. Number two is Aaron Rogers. Number three is Joshie Allen. I mean, do you want to take a victory lap in Russell a quick? I don't want to take a victory lap.
Starting point is 00:20:39 I just hope they keep this up, man. Like, they let him cook. Legitimately, unabashedly let him cook. They ran. I want to ask you, was this just like he was extra efficient today? Or was it and got lucky on a couple deep balls or a couple touchdowns? Or was it a difference in offensive play calling? No, it was a sea change.
Starting point is 00:20:58 in their schematic philosophy, like legitimately. They ran the, sorry, they passed the ball on early downs. Like 68, I think I did, I did the math because I'm writing about this in my column, 68% of the time on first and second down in the first three quarters,
Starting point is 00:21:14 which again, would have been first the NFL last year, and it would have been more than the Chiefs. Russell Wilson spent the entire offseason kind of like lobbying to the fans and lobbying to Pete Carroll to kind of like take the restrictor plate off, let him go, you know, let him play loose earlier in games. Because like the Seahawks thing is they play really slow and keep everything close to the vest the first three quarters.
Starting point is 00:21:38 And then it's like close the whole game and then they like make Russell Wilson win the game for him in the fourth quarter. This year, this game they let him loose in the first quarter, the first half, the first three quarters. And he did exactly what we all thought he would do, which he just went scorched earth. He was like 31 of 35. unbelievable. He had as many incompletions as touchdowns. Yeah, he had 89% of his passes completed. Like, he just went off. And anyways, the bottom line is hopefully this keeps up.
Starting point is 00:22:05 If it does keep up, if they let him keep doing this, he has overall QB1 potential. So I actually have a hot take about this in Aaron Rogers, and I actually believe it. I think that the Russ and the Rogers game, obviously they're both really good. I'm not talking about their talent level, but in terms of whether Rogers and Russ will keep doing this,
Starting point is 00:22:22 and specifically whether the teams want them to keep airing it out, I think it says less about them than it does their opponents. Both the Vikings and the cornerbacks are basically the same defense in that, for this week, neither of them had a pass rush and both were using their top two or three cornerbacks are both like 22 or 23. The Vikings had like their top three cornerbacks had a combined nine career starts. They're both 22 or 23. And then the Vikings didn't have their top two defensive event.
Starting point is 00:22:50 Well, they had Daniel Hunter was out. And then Yonnik and Gokwe just showed up like six days ago. So he wasn't really playing all the snap. So I think that when you don't have a pass rush to get Aaron Rogers, who was the number two quarterback this week, and then he's going against 22-year-old cornerbacks making their first start, like a third rounder, who's playing at Mississippi Strait,
Starting point is 00:23:05 you're going to get shredded by Aaron Rogers. He did the same thing to the Raiders last year, five touchdowns, no picks. He didn't go over, he had 450 yards or something. He didn't go over 350 the rest of the season. He went over 250 twice the rest of the year. I think Russell Wilson is the same thing. The Falcons have, I believe, all their quarterbacks,
Starting point is 00:23:20 or the ones that are playing are all, like, 23 or younger. what were you guys doing when you were 23 not guarding you know what I mean you weren't guarding DK. McCaff so I think that the Falcons corner like I'm not convinced the Seahks are going to keep doing this I'm not convinced the Packers going to keep doing this I don't I'm actually in
Starting point is 00:23:37 the same boat as you that's why I said I really hope they do I'm not convinced like I'm not fully convinced yet I think it'll be you know obviously next week is going to be a stark contrast or going up against the Patriots secondary which is really really good so could see a very different game plan next week. The other the other
Starting point is 00:23:53 people just want to note here, Josh Allen, the third quarterback, this was a modern art masterpiece. This was this game, the first half of this Bill's game was like a shit sandwich. But he fumbled on the first drive the bills had in the first half and he fumbled on the last drive the bills had in the first half. And in between were like three 20, like three touchdown drives. Like just prime roast beef sandwich. And the two fumbles he had, I swear to God, I've never seen before. He was upside down on one. And the other one. he was like lateral in the, Josh Allen fumbles in a way
Starting point is 00:24:27 that's like innovative. He's like the Steve Jobs of fumbling. I've never seen it before. And the fact that he's the biggest reason by far they won by 10. And also the biggest reason by far they didn't win by 24 is like they're the most mesmerizing team.
Starting point is 00:24:40 He's the perfect red zone quarterback to watch the channel because when it's like, let's see what Josh Allen did. You never know what he did. And now that we have Trubisky, I feel the same way about Trubisky except Trubisky's just worse.
Starting point is 00:24:52 What do you mean now that we have Trubisky? Well, he's back. Well, he's not back, but he's back. Well, the Trubisky thing, here's the thing with Trubisky. I have two thoughts. This means nothing that Trubisky had one good deep throw to save a game. This means literally nothing.
Starting point is 00:25:04 This just sucks because now they have to start him for another week. The next two games are the Giants and the Falcons. So I actually think Trubisky, who is like the seventh best quarterback fantasy-wise because don't watch him play. Like, don't watch him. Just check the numbers after. Because here's why. Trubisky had 240 yards, three touchdowns, no picks.
Starting point is 00:25:20 I propose a rule. It's called the Mitchell-Tribisky rule. If you throw a pass that hits a defender in the chest and they don't catch it, you still get credited with an interception because the fact that Mitchell Tribisky had technically no interceptions is literally true but spiritually false.
Starting point is 00:25:37 The amount of balls that just hit defenders in the hands, the chest, the face, the fact that you can like, oh wow, he didn't throw a pick is mind-numbing. He's like so accurate that corners would never even expect that the ball could possibly be where the ball is. They drop it out of shock. Uncatchable passes.
Starting point is 00:25:55 Wait a minute. Going back to Josh Allen, I feel like it's notable that this was his best game as a passer probably ever. 33 or 46, 312 yards, two touchdowns.
Starting point is 00:26:07 It's kind of a positive. He was unreal through the air and he had a career high and carries. So he's like the ultimate fantasy quarterback. Also, he literally had the worst throw of the day.
Starting point is 00:26:16 John Brown was, all three of us could have made that throw to John Brown in the corner of the end zone and he sailed it into the fanless stands. The amazing part is, you're right, D.K.,
Starting point is 00:26:26 it was definitely his best day as a passer in the NFL. And yet at the end of the game, Sean McDermott was like, we can't turn the ball over like that in win football games. It's unacceptable. Like, that's the thing. But it's true.
Starting point is 00:26:37 It's kind of hung around. I mean, they weren't ever really, like, in the game, but they hung around. They had that one crowd or long touchdown that made it seem like that. Anyway, I just wanted to throw all that out there. I just... That's fair.
Starting point is 00:26:50 You know what? They're good for content. They're good for fantasy, believe it or not. Yeah. If we look at the top three scoring running backs, it went pretty chalky. Josh Jacobs, RB1 against the Panthers who suck on defense, McCaffrey number two, and Zeeke number three. Pretty chock for the top three. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:27:03 Yeah. Jake, do you have any thoughts on any of those three dudes? Jacobs was the most interesting one easily because, you know, obviously, we talked about it all offseason. Is he going to be a part of the passing game? He ended up getting six targets, which was second on the team. I think that's really, really encouraging for, you know, his viability as like a top-tier running back the rest of the season. season. He had 25 carries, 93 yards, three touchdowns. We know that he's going to get sort of the early down and the goal line work in this offense, but the question was, is he going to be involved in the passing game? And it was a very promising early indicator. So going forward, though, you know, I think you have to temper your expectations a little bit. He's going to face three really tough defenses, the Saints, Patriots, and Bills the next three weeks. So we're not going to see Josh Jacobs likely at the top of the standings every week, the next three weeks, particularly. But again, the good sign was that he had six targets, four catches, 46 yards,
Starting point is 00:27:58 and that's a huge part of whether he's going to be a top tier guy. If he can stay in games when they have negative game script, when they're playing from behind, that's going to be huge for his fantasy value. All right, D.K., so is Josh Jacobs a cell high? Would you shop him for Miles Sanders or Kenyon Drake? I don't know if I would, you know, I don't know. Like, honestly... Not shopping for Kenyon Drake.
Starting point is 00:28:20 My God. Not, especially not Drake, but like, you know, Miles Sanders is hurt. Like, it's one of those things that's like, you know. Week one is insane, man. Week one is poison to all of our brains. Like, grass is always greener. We now completely have thrown out everything we did all offseason, literally everything because he got six targets against the Panthers.
Starting point is 00:28:38 And now we're like, well, I don't know. He might be a top six option. That's the, that is like the eternal battle you have to go through, like, in every season. It's like, man, I got this guy now. But like, it's, you know, two in hand versus one in the, Bush or whatever. It's like you're going to get, you're going to trade him for Miles Sanders who might sit out the next couple of weeks with a hamstring injury. Might get hurt again with his hamstring. Like, you know what I mean? It's like, God, it's tough. A great rule of thumb is don't have injured
Starting point is 00:29:02 players and I know that sounds ridiculous. Like you can't do anything about the ones who are hurt, but don't add injured players. Like the ones who have picked up injuries to me, honest, I'm very concerned about a lot of them like Sanders, Michael Thomas, just sprained his ankle. We'll get to that in a second, but not thrilled with all these injuries. So I will speak in any of the injuries, one of the big ones is Marlon Mack Torres Achilles. He's out for the season. And Nahim Hines, our guy. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:28 Danny Woodhead 2.0. As we all expected. And we predicted, not really, I'm kidding. But he was the first person to score a touchdown of the season, which I wish we had put money on. We could have been doing this podcast from a yacht. But yeah, he had 15 touches for like 70 yards, a couple touchdowns. He's Danny Woodhead.
Starting point is 00:29:46 Yep. And this is absolutely... He's like potentially Echler, man. Well, Dan, well, they should. showed him tape of Danny Woodhead before the season. And Woodhead, believe it or not, in 2015. This is crazy. If it weren't written down, I wouldn't believe it.
Starting point is 00:29:56 Danny Woodhead was the third running back in PPR in 2015. I love that. Which I've double-checked four times because I just don't think that's true. But it's true. And he's Danny Woodhead. So he doesn't have to be the top three running back to be, I think he's clearly the number one waiver pick you want this week. He's, yeah.
Starting point is 00:30:10 And he's benefiting from not just the Mac injury, obviously, but this is what you had talked about before the season. Danny is, you know, Philip Rivers is just notorious for targeting his running backs in the passing game. And that absolutely carried over, you know, obviously from the Chargers to the Colts this week. As a contrast, this is crazy. I saw this from Perrera-Levaton. Tara Taylor targeted his running backs on 3% of his throws on Sunday.
Starting point is 00:30:37 Philip Rivers on 37% of his throws. So, like, it's just, this should be like a quarterback's dad that we all track because it's so, so important, especially in PPR leagues, half-PPR leagues. Naheem Hines and Jonathan Taylor, rookie Jonathan Taylor, both were a huge part of this passing game for the Colts, and that's like fantasy goal potentially. And you know who would have caught a touchdown if Philip Rivers had actually thrown the ball on target? Who's that?
Starting point is 00:31:02 Jack Doyle. Damn it. Oh, yeah, I remember him. Look, man, hey, he's a solid game. He got red zone targets. It was great. But sticking with running backs, though, not tight ends for it now.
Starting point is 00:31:12 The running back situation just seemed to, a lot just seemed to change. and Jonathan Taylor is obviously now a much bigger presence in the cults with Marlon Mack out, but Cam Acres was considered to be the starting running back for the Rams or at least would earn it quickly. Malcolm Brown had two touchdowns on Sunday night football. He was like a top five running back this week.
Starting point is 00:31:31 DeAndre Swift was, I mean, poor DeAndre Swamp. If you didn't see to drop the game winning touchdown, that was right in his hands uncovered, that was the saddest. That was some middle school football stuff. That was brutal. And then Clyde Obrids-Layer was, was he the only running back this week to go over 100 yards?
Starting point is 00:31:45 He was. Not a single rusher yesterday. So shout out to Craig for your prediction last week about the rookie running backs except Clyde Edwes-Aler. So, D-K., what do we make of these rookie things? Is this like the limited practice time? They're going to be eased into the roles? Or are you concerned about Malcolm Brown outplaying Cam Acres and everything that happened?
Starting point is 00:32:06 I mean, the Acres one, I think was the most concerning. And I actually would sort of like push back on Craig. I don't think that the rookie running back's disappointed. and like Clyde deers layer went over 100 yards. He had a really good game. No, yeah, but we excluded him. He wasn't a part of the game. Okay, but Jonathan Taylor,
Starting point is 00:32:23 he had nine carriers or 22 yards. That's very nondescript. Six catches for 67 yards in the passing game. That is impressive. He currently leads all rookies in receiving, including receivers. The question about Taylor was the receiving, was it? Yeah, it was a big question.
Starting point is 00:32:36 Like, he had a bunch of drops. You know, he wasn't a huge part of the passing game in college. And so there was a lot of questions about it, but he looked great in the passing game. You know, he looked good. in the open field. I think he registered like 21 plus miles an hour on one screenplay. So I think Taylor, especially now with Mac out, like Taylor is going to be a legit fantasy factor. I was not disappointed at all in what he did. The O line for the Colts was really banged up this week. So
Starting point is 00:33:00 that's probably a big reason why he didn't get much going on the ground. But yeah, getting back to Cammakers, he definitely did not look ready. And you know, the lack of preseason, lack of reps certainly looked like, it just looked like he was pressing too much as a runner. And so They ended up going. He did get 14 carries, only turned it into 39 yards. Malcolm Brown looked far more effective in that running game. So Malcolm Brown looked better than he had in years past. Yeah, yeah, he looked good.
Starting point is 00:33:25 He looked legitimately good. So the Acres thing is definitely concerning. I still think he's going to get a big role in that offense. He had 14 carries, so that was only a few fewer than Malcolm Brown got. So he's still going to be a big part of it, but he's definitely got a ways to go before he's going to kind of take hold of offense. I think Swift obviously would have had a much more impressive day if he would have caught that game-winning touchdown. It would be a completely different narrative if you had caught that.
Starting point is 00:33:50 It would have been a second touchdown. He would have caught the game-winning play. It would have been on a vertical route. Like there's so many things we'd be talking about how stoked we were on DeAndre Swift had he caught that ball. Obviously, he missed it. But to me, his hands are not a problem. He didn't drop any passes last year at Georgia.
Starting point is 00:34:05 That was just a fake play. I don't know what we were doing here. I think the hands were the problem. It wasn't the feat. This is the opposite of saying, well, Aaron Jones isn't going to be good this year because he was too good last year. So DeAndre Swift fucked up
Starting point is 00:34:15 and we're like, well, if he didn't fuck up, he would have been good. I'm saying the narrative's changed because he had one mistake. It doesn't make me less confident in him as a player in the NFL. I think he's going to be fine. I don't think he's going to drop every pass
Starting point is 00:34:29 that goes to him at this point. So anyways, my point is the narrative. What a nuanced reasoned analysis. You're not going to call him mentally weak and terrible now? How do we feel about Adrian Peterson almost getting 100 yards? on the lions.
Starting point is 00:34:42 Dude is just ageless, man. He's never going to go away. So if you had to pick up someone, if you have Marlon Mack or you see you never running back, would you rather have Naheem Hines, who's going to be Danny Woodhead, or would you rather have Malcolm Brown? Who are you adding first?
Starting point is 00:34:55 They were like third and fourth, or fourth and fifth this week in fantasy points. That's really tight. It's a close call. I'd say, Heinz, I guess. I think it's hides too. Yeah. And obviously in a PPR,
Starting point is 00:35:06 he's a lot more valuable than if you go to PPR. I'm always partial to the receiving guys because it's like the zero RB strategy. you know, they're anti-fragile. No, what? Naim Hines is always going to be there. Malcolm Brown, I don't know. Get a good floor.
Starting point is 00:35:15 Yeah. The other guy that I want to mention, Jacob Davins had two touchdowns. All the, like everyone except for Acres essentially had a pretty solid week one. So I would push back on that. He had seven carries.
Starting point is 00:35:25 Two touchdowns. He's fine. If you started him, you did fine. All right. I'm going to point to D.K., because Craig, if Craig was arguing for someone
Starting point is 00:35:34 that had two touchdowns, he would not be washing away, two touchdowns. There's zero chance. He would just be like, oh, yeah, yeah. I can't see who you're pointing to on Zoom.
Starting point is 00:35:42 No, I'm giving a point. I'm awarding D.K. a point for winning the argument. Like DK.K.1. I think you're right, D.K. Well, D.K. also pointed out that Kermakers is going to outscore Aaron Jones this year. We still feel good about that?
Starting point is 00:35:52 No, I don't feel good about that anymore. You know, it's early. It's early. Hey, I will say, I will say, I thought the Rams' offense looked pretty good, though. Like, Bobby Trees. Overall, I thought they did, like, a pretty good job of moving the football.
Starting point is 00:36:06 Jared Gough was fine. The running game was good with Malcolm Brown. I'm definitely worried about Acres. That was my bold prediction. It doesn't seem like he's going to get there, but it's pretty early. We'll see how it goes. It's all right. He's a bold prediction.
Starting point is 00:36:19 Get to top scorers for receivers. Devante Adams is number one. He was great. Calvin Ridley was the second. And then Adam Thielen was the third high-scoring receiver the week. Yeah. Any remarkable from receiving this week? You want to talk about?
Starting point is 00:36:34 I think we got to bring up quickly Sammy Watkins once again. Do we? Yes, we do. I don't want to. Let's quickly digest this because he had seven catches for 82 yards and touchdown. He gives me indigestion. I don't want to talk about Sammy Watkins. I know, but we got to, man.
Starting point is 00:36:47 He's the week one king. Going back to last year, the 2019 opener, he had 11 targets, nine catches, 198 yards and three touchdowns. Everyone was like, this guy's going to shred the entire season. The rest of the year, he only had 43 catches for 475 yards and zero touchdowns. Wait, he had 200 in week one and 475, the next 16 game? Yeah. The next 15 games, yes.
Starting point is 00:37:10 I want to couch that, though, by saying he actually had a pretty damn good playoff run. In their three games, he had 18 targets, 14 catches, 288 yards, and a touchdown. So I guess my question to you guys is, what the fuck do we do with this guy? Like, we have to pick him up off waivers, right? Yep, you do. That's what sucks, as you do. Yeah, you got to be. Like, the best offense in the NFL.
Starting point is 00:37:30 You have to add him, and he's on the Chiefs, and McCull Hardman had, like, one target. And you know what? You might have to start Sammy Watkins. That's the thing is like neither Hardman. ride and throw up until you're like, I don't want to ride the ride anymore. Yeah. Is this why people didn't want Will Fuller? No, Will Fuller is good.
Starting point is 00:37:47 Will Fuller is great. Sammy Watkins is, Sammy Watkins, the amount of Pete, is there ever been a fantasy football who has been started and gave a sub five-point performance in the history of fantasy football and Sammy Watkins? Back in the day, it was Miles Austin. That was like two years. Sammy Watkins is going on six years in the NFL. good for like one and a half.
Starting point is 00:38:11 We should have like a segment where we do like ridiculous week one overthinking like comparisons where it's like week two, who would you start? DJ Moore or Sammy Watkins? I'd like to underthink. I'd like to underthink. My thinking is he's broken.
Starting point is 00:38:25 I just, I can't. I'm scarred. I'm triggered. Sammy Watkins. You're going to let someone else deal with it, I think is the deal. Okay. Would you rather Sammy Watkins
Starting point is 00:38:32 or would you rather have Nehem Hines? Would you rather have Sammy Watkins or Odell Beckham? Oh my God. Let's get in. into that. All right. Yeah, let's unpack that. The Browns suck. And O'Dell sucks too, man. I'm sick of O'Dell. He's not a fun fantasy player to have on your team. I don't like his body language. He always seems unhappy no matter what. He got 10 times he caught. Yeah, him and Baker are going to fight at some point.
Starting point is 00:38:57 They don't like each other. Baker's, by the way, for Baker, there's a level of skill at which you can no longer be in commercials and Baker's reached it. Yank this dude from Hulu. You know what's bad when that deep fake Hulu commercial, which by the way, that is the end of reality, as we know it. But literally in the Hulu commercial, they're like,
Starting point is 00:39:14 oh yeah, you said I was doing too many commercials. It's like, yeah, you are. Odell had three catches. He had a couple, like, you know, pass interference calls. He's got like, drop.
Starting point is 00:39:23 Yeah, he had a bad drop. He's got no connection with Baker, it seems like, bad body language. The Browns are terrible. You're going to have to keep starting him because he's Odell, and he'll make,
Starting point is 00:39:34 every time he catches the ball, it's flashy and looks cool. Like, every time he catches it, you're like, wow. this guy is talented. But I don't know. It seems more and more unlikely for him to put together a really good game. Like,
Starting point is 00:39:44 it used to be Julio and Odell. Like, there was a time two years ago when it was like, Julio and Odell are the two best receivers in the league. And in my head, what it would take for O'Dell to have what Julio did yesterday, like nine catches 157. Feels impossible.
Starting point is 00:39:58 This is the same thing to me as the Bucks. It's like, the Ravens are one of the three best teams in football. And they also probably have the best secondary in football. Marlon Humphrey is one of the best five cornerbacks in football. like their secondary is absurdly deep. Like this was a really hard game for the Browns to play. And Odell probably won't have a worse matchup,
Starting point is 00:40:14 especially going into week one with all the stuff. The Ravens barely swapped out any players except they made massive upgrades. This was a really tough game for them. I'm not willing to just write off the Brown's offense yet. I don't think they're going to be as exciting as people thought. But at the same time, their schedule gets way easier from here on out. So, yeah, this is like the perfect litmus test for whether we should panic after week one.
Starting point is 00:40:36 Because like Danny said, that was a really tough matchup. It's not ideal to have a new head coach and two new starting tackles going into a game with a new system. The next games are against the Bengals, Washington, the Cowboys Colts. Like the Steelers is a really hard matchup. You watch the Bengals, that game's going to come down to the wire. They're going to lose the Bengals. Are you just locking it in right now? Joe Burroughs already better than Baker.
Starting point is 00:40:59 I love it. All right. Well, I wouldn't panic on Baker on O'Dell yet. So any of the receivers you guys want to remark? any of the Remarkables? No, let's move to Tide-in. All right, tight-end. Mark Andrews is the number one
Starting point is 00:41:10 tight-in-the-week. Dallas-Gottet was number two. T.J. Hawkinson was three. What do you make at that, D.K.? What do you remarks? One of the things that just looking at that top three that I think is very interesting is like this reads like a preview
Starting point is 00:41:23 for the next generation of great fantasy tight ends. Andrews, Goddard and Hawkinson. Goddard was awesome. He looked great. And Hawkinson, I mean, you know, he's still developing, but that was obviously a very promising start to his season.
Starting point is 00:41:36 He was very quiet after his week one outbursts last year. And Andrews legitimately could catch 20 touchdowns this year. Like he is absurd. I will say,
Starting point is 00:41:46 Craig was like the worst throw of the day was the Josh Allen missing John Brown. You're going to say Lamar's throw. Lamar Jackson's touchdown fest
Starting point is 00:41:53 to Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews was perhaps the most open I've ever seen someone under the goalposts and Lamar almost missed him for no reason. Like he threw a laser at him
Starting point is 00:42:03 and it was like really high. Really off target. Andrews went up and got it with one hand. So looking at last year, Andrews was the tight end for you, 10 touchdowns, and he only played 41% of their snaps last year with a foolish snap load.
Starting point is 00:42:17 And he did play a good amount of snaps. I don't know the exact number in front of me, but he got pulled out. Like they pulled starters in the fourth quarter. I'll forgive you for not knowing the exact number. Well, the point is he played a full load of snaps. This guy is legit. The whole offense works towards like funneling targets
Starting point is 00:42:35 to the tight ends. He's a really good player. He's like the new gronk in terms of, he's not the same player as gronk because he's not the blocker that gronk is, but he's the same kind of guy in terms of his red zone prowess, I think. Like he could potentially have, to me, he's like a lock almost for like 10 plus touchdowns, but, I mean, he could just go off. So I'm really excited about Andrews.
Starting point is 00:42:55 I wish I had him on more of my teams. It's kind of sad. No, I don't because I don't mind it because I think that even though he might join the Kittle Kelsey tier this year, I just think it's more valuable. The Goddard and Hawkinson getting those guys who might be nearly as good after like the 100th pick or spending like a dollar on them.
Starting point is 00:43:12 And that's ultimately going to be the play this year. And I think that the best teams are going to be the ones that got one or two of those tight ends for nothing. But Hawkinson looks great. But yeah, no, the tight... Also, we do have to point out that Hawkinsons did play in a game without Kenny Gallaudet. But yeah, that's true.
Starting point is 00:43:29 You know what, man? You just play the people in front of you. You know what? You just, you know, we just, we just, we don't worry about, them, you know, Hawkinson had a great week one last year, remember. Yep, that's true. The most underrated part of fantasy is the woulda, could have shoulda, in my humble
Starting point is 00:43:42 opinion, just like... The things that you're thinking about at the end of the day are like, God damn it. I wish so much, like, Swift would have caught that pass. That would have been so awesome. Yeah, the things that don't make the box score that you're just... So just a couple notes is, AJ Green, Dickey, you want to run through the AJ Green debacle where he should have had, what, one or two touchdowns? Like four?
Starting point is 00:44:02 I've got OPI. I should have won the game and he got call for OPI, which was, I tickey-tack the call. That's not a situation refs usually call OPI. Same with the Gallup thing at the end of the Rams game. Yeah, like, talk about narrative changing. Like, you know, talking about the swift thing changing the narrative. Like, think about the narratives we have right now, if they would have allowed that AJ Green
Starting point is 00:44:20 touchdown, like, Burroughs legend grows. Like, you know what I mean? So it's like, oh, God, those plays just stick with you. Anyways, AJ Green had a good game. He should have had a much better game. And, you know, there was one play late in the game. I can't remember exactly when it was when Burrow just like straight up over through him by about like three feet He was wide open all by himself
Starting point is 00:44:42 Streaking into the end zone burrow overthrew him actually I love it at Burrow after the game was like That's a play a high school quarterback has to like can make I gave himself a D Yeah, great and then obviously the the game ending sequence where AJ Green got called for OPI was really tickey tack in my opinion. It probably should have counted Yeah, so I think AJ Green is a lot of more interesting to me. And this is a guy that's coming off, you know, preseason basically didn't have any practices in the preseason. I had like one practice. And he's coming off a hamstring injury. He looks pretty good. Talk about practice. But he only had like, he legitimately had no
Starting point is 00:45:19 time to prepare and he still looked pretty solid against a good secondary. So I think green is, green is definitely growing on me as like a guy who could outplay expectations a lot this year. The other woulda could have should it was, I mean, we talked about DeAndre Swift's dropping the touchdown. That's a career defining thing. Like, that is, Lions fans will now always think of him as either. That is his starting point. The rest of his career is where he goes from there. That's like so, I feel bad for the man.
Starting point is 00:45:45 There are other ones, but we want you to email us your bad beats because, you know, people say no one cares about your team. People love to care about your team when you lose in a funny way. So if you have a bad beat, like you ended up losing because of DeAndre Swift or whatever, after these Monday night games lock in, shoot us an email with your bad beats. Please include a screenshot. Not that we don't trust you, but include a screenshot.
Starting point is 00:46:06 And yeah, we'll go through the bad beats on Wednesday show. What it could have should us. Let us know. All right. We're going to get into waivers and who everyone should pick up this week. But first, the Ringer Fantasy Football Show is proud to be presented by Fandul Fantasy. Fantasy sports are finally back. Basketball playoffs, hockey playoffs, baseball, golf, cornhole, whatever floats your boat.
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Starting point is 00:47:34 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 is right. If you thought a cold, crisp summer Heineken with something, just wait until you taste the Heineken fall lineup.
Starting point is 00:47:49 Is it a new product? No. You don't need Heineken to be different because Heineken's perfect the way it is. Just the same great tasting lager. It's perfect for any season. I'm a big frosted mug guy. I always make sure I have mugs in the freezer.
Starting point is 00:48:01 Yeah. Because you got to do Heineke with the frosted. Do you guys do good frosted bugs? That's a great call. I love that. I do. I do, but I also just, I like the Heineken bottles. The green bottles is kind of like, just kind of cool.
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Starting point is 00:48:31 they make it easy to make your good call and food. So here's a little segment called Bad Call Good Call, where we'll look at some of the good and bad plays from last week. D.K., what's a bad call from this week? The offensive pass interference on Michael Gallup that could have changed that Sunday night game. What was a good call from this week? D.K.'s prediction on Scotty Miller on the bucks.
Starting point is 00:48:51 Hell yeah. There you go, D.K. Another bad call from last week. Shouldn't they eat three cheeseburgers in the middle of the lines game? You know what? I was stressed that DeAndre Swift dropped that ball. All right? I was eating in solidarity with him. Not my greatest decision. So this week, why not make a good call instead?
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Starting point is 00:49:29 all right let's run through some injuries and some waiver wire people to add for this week so there was a pretty good amount of injuries none of them are season inning but all of them are in weird places mike evans has a hamstring injury michael thomas had a high ankle sprain which again he suffered in garbage time when the saints were just trying to run up the score marlin mack towards achilles livin bell is a hamstring injury i guess when he said my hamstrings are fine well they weren't so that's a weird situation henry rugs had a knee injury that looked really bad and then he came back in the game cowboys tied in blake jarwin towards acel devante Parker as a hamstring pole.
Starting point is 00:50:00 I feel like half the league is a hamstring pole. So let's just run through some of these replacements. And we're going to divide them into two camps for each position. We're going to go with streams who basically people who have value now. And then we're also going to go with stashes for people who might have value later. So let's just start running back. We already talked about these guys of specifically why we like them. But Nahim Hines, who is going to be the Danny Woodhead, it seems, for this Chargers team.
Starting point is 00:50:23 And then Malcolm Brown for the Rams. Those are my two biggest pickups of the week. Are there any other running backs you guys would even consider above those two dudes? No one above them, no. But mine, if they're gone. I think Jamal Williams on the Packers is a solid ad for next week. I mean, he played a lot. He had 11 touches and split a lot of time with Aaron Jones in the first half
Starting point is 00:50:50 until the game kind of got out of hand and then it just kind of pounded the rock with Aaron Jones. But the rookie AJ Dillon that everybody kind of hyped, he played 7% of the snaps and clearly that like no preseason hurts him so Jamal Williams is like involved and is like you could use him as a flex this week if you had Marlon Mack as your flex this week. Did they not see his quads?
Starting point is 00:51:08 What the hell? I know. AJ Dylan, man. I just again want to point out the Packers took a quarterback in the first round and then a running back in the second round that he's not been third second string running back. It's just that's amazing. As a rule, the running back you draft should be at least the string
Starting point is 00:51:24 on your team. That's a rule. Of the round you drafted them? Yes, that's a good little short-hand roll at the minimum. So, okay, so I guess we agree. Heinz is the first priority you want at running back this week. Malcolm Brown seems to be two, or Deke is there someone else you would take over Malcolm Brown this week? You know, I think I would throw James Robinson of the Jaguars in there.
Starting point is 00:51:42 He looked pretty solid. You know, he didn't get a ton of points. He rushed 16 times 62 yards out of a 20-yard catch. But he looked pretty spry. I mean, he was explosive. He had a couple really intriguing-looking runs. and he got 100% of their running back touches, carries. So he is their guy in the backfield.
Starting point is 00:52:00 Well, this is bizarre, because Zygbo is an injured reserve, which is only three weeks. And then Reichwaldwald Arnestead is on the COVID list. So we've been trying to guess this backfield, which ironically might be one of the worst in the league. But Robinson's the guy. And he was like the fourth choice. And now he's the starter, getting all the touches. He's the guy. They were very high on him in the preseason.
Starting point is 00:52:17 It was a big part of the reason that they cut Leonard Fortnight, apparently. And he looked pretty solid. you know, Chris Thompson was also like threatening to potentially cut into his workload, but he was not really involved. So Thompson had two targets, two catches, six yards. So, I mean, you don't really want the lead back in a team that's likely going to be playing for behind a lot, but the Jaguar has definitely showed more offensively than I think anyone expected.
Starting point is 00:52:41 They're a little bit better than anyone expected. So he's one of those guys that if you need a flex option, you know, he's definitely, he's going to get a lot of volume. Also, the last running back, I'd be remiss if we just. just did mention him really quickly. Peyton Barber had 17 carries and two touchdowns. Oh, look at that. On Washington.
Starting point is 00:53:00 He had 17 carries for 29 yards. Just want to point that out. I just want to point out that Antonio Gibson had, I think, more carries than all but one of his college games and still was not very good, which... I mean, if you watch him, he looked pretty intriguing. They gave more of the carries in the second half to the veteran, though. That was for sure. and that was more in line with your call, Danny.
Starting point is 00:53:23 So go ahead and take your victory lap on that 17-carry 29-yard line. Now I feel like a dick. I was not touting Peyton Barber. I was saying that everyone's going to be really disappointed when Peyton Barber is getting the carries. I'll say this. I think if you can add Antonio Gibson, do it above all these guys.
Starting point is 00:53:37 Hell yeah. No one's at, Antonio Gibson's not available in any of these links. My point with Washington Jacksonville was people are trying to parse these backfields. Both are going to suck. You don't want any of them. It's just like, you know what I mean?
Starting point is 00:53:49 It's like you're looking for the best sand, which at a gas station. Get something else. Anyway, speaking of that, let's go to receiver. Again, streams, people have value now. We don't have any stashes
Starting point is 00:53:59 for running backs yet, right? Because I feel like all the running backs around like have value now. So we don't have to go through stashes. A receiver, people who have value now, I got a shout to just receiver.
Starting point is 00:54:08 Scotty Miller, D.K. You were on Scotty Miller back when I thought he was Scott. The hype was real. The hype was real, man. Like we got, we saw a lot of preseason hype, like the connection with Tom Brady. And it paid off
Starting point is 00:54:20 in the game. And, you know, if we see this Buccaneers offense kind of like transition from more of the deep stuff, which we saw week one, to, you know, like the Tom Brady style stuff where they're just peppering short stuff over the middle of the field, maybe Scotty Miller even, like, his role grows.
Starting point is 00:54:35 And we have to nip one thing in the bud because he's a white slot receiver, everyone wants to compare him to West Walker and Julian Edelman. But it's important to note, you were the one who told me, Chris Godwin called Scottie Miller the fastest player in the team. Yeah, he's super athletic. He also plays on the outside, too.
Starting point is 00:54:49 So he's not like pure. a slot receiver, but he's very quick, and he's like four three speed. So, he's not, exactly the Julian Edelman mode of like, oh, yeah, he grit and grinded his way. No, he's, yeah. So Scotty Miller to me is the number one guy I want. Who else are you guys adding if you need a receiver from waivers this week to what you saw? I think, I think throwing a dart at Al-Lazard or Marquez Valdez Scantling on the Packers is worth it. I know Devonte Adams had 100 targets and 90 catches last week, but there's really no one else to throw to. And Scantling and Lazzard both had touchdowns.
Starting point is 00:55:23 And if Rogers keeps us up, which I actually think he will this year, one of those guys is going to be worth it. Yeah, I mean, I think Lazzard has been like Rogers' guy kind of like all offseason. Like he's talked about how much he trusts him. He had four catches, 63 yards and touchdown.
Starting point is 00:55:41 Then MVS kind of came out of nowhere late in the preseason and Rogers was talking to him up. So absolutely. Like, Valdives Scantling is the absolute post. type sleeper this year because everyone was talking about him last year. I was talking about him last year. Yeah. So I think that's a great call.
Starting point is 00:55:57 The other guy that I think is definitely worth an ad right now. And I think you could even start him as a flex is Paris Campbell for the Colts. Second round pick for the Colts last year, you know, one of these Ohio State receivers that like didn't really get a lot of love, like they didn't use them in a lot of different ways and then came into the NFL. People had high expectations. He was injured for most of his rookie year. But in week one, nine targets, team high.
Starting point is 00:56:20 had six catches for 71 yards plus a nine-yard rush. They were using him on these deep crossing routes, deep outs. Philip Rivers had really good connection with him already. I think he's potential to be one of the breakout receivers this year. And so he's definitely a guy to grab now. And you could probably play him in a flex and at least hold on to him and see how it all kind of pans out. I think that's a great call.
Starting point is 00:56:45 And when it comes to the kind of receiver, the second year of speedy breakout, it's easy to be like, add these people. I'll tell you to cut, I would have him over almost all the rookie receivers. Like, I want him over. Like, I, I, I'm probably on an island on this. I would rather have Paris Campbell than, like, C.D. Lamb. I'd rather have Paris Campbell than Justin Jefferson.
Starting point is 00:57:02 Because in this all short and off season, I want the guys who've had, what is it? I'm trying to math in my head. 18 months with their team instead of five. Like, just as a whole. Yeah, Campbell is the legit number two option. It's offense. You're talking about C.D. who's, like, three at the best. Three or four.
Starting point is 00:57:18 you know, if you include Zique. So, yeah. I like that one a lot. You have any stash, like for someone in a deeper league who needs a receiver? Yeah, I think Leviska-Schanalt for the Jaguars is worth adding now to kind of see how they grow his role. He had a very promising week one, three catches, three-seven yards, and a touchdown. Even though he's a rookie and I just shit-talked rook-dik rookies. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:39 I mean, honestly, like, the Jags seem very intent on playing their young guys and kind of like building that core. They got nothing else to do. Yeah, I mean, might as well. And so, you know, I think Minchu showed some confidence in him. They used him in Wildcat runs a couple times. If he gets a few Wildcat runs in the Red Zone every game, like that's potentially really interesting for fantasy. So he was, he was, you know, he didn't get a ton of volume,
Starting point is 00:58:02 but I think he's worth kind of keeping an eye on. All right, tight ends. Who's a tight end you guys are adding this week? Dallas Gotter. He looked awesome. It looks like he's, you know, who knows how it goes, you know, going forward. But he looked like, to me, like one of the, of their best players, honestly, one of the Eagles best players.
Starting point is 00:58:20 So this could be the beginning of his breakout season. Finally, you know, we've talked about it a few years now, but. Well, I mean, big picture, Travis Kelsey got a huge contract extension. George Kettle got a huge contract extension, like three hours apart, which is funny because they also broke a receiving record three hours apart. And then Zach Hertz just is like, what about me? What about mine? And this is why, like Dallas Goddard clearly is the successor to Zacherts,
Starting point is 00:58:41 and we kind of saw it already. So I like that a lot. So again, to go through that. Well, quarterback, we don't, none of the quarterbacks got hurt. I would keep, like, if you really need a streamer, like, Mitchell Trubisky and like, don't watch. But like, probably don't need to add to quarterback. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:58:53 Or Minchie. Gartner Minchu. Minchu's the new Ryan Fitzpatrick. That's going to be his career. Yeah. Minchu only missed like one pass. I'm just saying. Jake Rood and he's going to be the guy who bounces around
Starting point is 00:59:04 and like his like on like four teams has some good seasons, a couple good fantasy performances. And he's in the league for 12 years. Jake Rood is underrated offensive coordinator. Sorry. Yeah, their offense was fun. Quarterback, if you need someone that's, Min Schuert Chubisky, if he's short term.
Starting point is 00:59:19 If you need a stream, I think we're ranked Naheem Hines for the Colts, he's Danny Woodhead. Malcolm Brown on the Rams, he is the starter, at least for now, on a running heavy team. James Robinson on the Jaguars, he's starting running back on a terrible team, but he's starting running back. Jamal Williams on the Packers,
Starting point is 00:59:33 he's the backup, not A.J. Dylan. And then receiver, Scotty Miller, Alan Lazard, and or MVS. Do we have a preference there? Lazzard? Sounded confident. Paris Campbell, that receiver for the Colts. And then if you want to stash him on Liviscus,
Starting point is 00:59:49 Chanel for the Jaguars, and then Dallas got it, grab him before he's just gone. And potentially, I know if you listen to this pod before the Monday night game, Eric Ebron, we'll see.
Starting point is 01:00:00 Yeah. Yeah, look for that. That's a good one. And if he gets two catches for 12 yards, then can we retroactively delete things from this pot or now? You can. I can cut it and then re-upload it,
Starting point is 01:00:11 but some people might still have heard it, so we'll see. Okay. Well, I'll leave that to you. But, yeah. The internet never forgets. We've done that all the time. I mean, I remember D.K. was saying that
Starting point is 01:00:20 Aunt Russell Wilson was going to have a terrible week this week. And then he went off and we just retroactively just removed like this 20-minute segment from last week. Yeah, that sounds like that. Fun facts? Yeah, real quick, want to get to some fun facts that you guys all sent into us because we appreciate them and they're fun. From Walter Knight, bonus pyramids fact. The last woolly mammoth on earth died in Siberia hundreds of years after the construction of the Great Pyramid of Geh. Giza. This is another one of those mind-blowing thing. The woolly mammoths were alive for like
Starting point is 01:00:50 500 years after they built the pyramid of Giza. Are you serious? Yeah, the mammoths died. You know? Maybe. The mammoths died around 2000 BC. The Great Pyramid was built circa 2560 BC. So pretty crazy. What? Yeah. Have we figured out how they figured these things out? Like carbon, like they carbon data recount the, that's wild. Okay, that's a really good one. Yeah. And then more dinosaur facts from our dinosaur expert Samuel Guthritz. He says, regarding T-Rex, because we were making fun of T-Rex for being short, yes, T-Rex was, quote, only 12 to 20 feet tall, but that is a misleading stat like Sam Bradford's record-breaking completion percentage. T-Rex was still 40 feet long, a.k.a. a size of a cargo container, a tiger, stands only two to four feet tall, by the way. but I'd still be terrified.
Starting point is 01:01:44 I'm reading this verbatim, by the way. But I'd still be terrified of coming face to face with one. Also, depending on which you used, or which estimate you used, an adult T-Rex would have weighed 10 to 15,000 pounds, roughly the size of a bull elephant.
Starting point is 01:01:56 Or Ben Rothesburg in the off season. Oh, imagine a cargo container, the weight of an elephant charging at you with five-foot jaws that could crush a car. No one was saying we're not afraid of T-Rexes. I just want to point that out. We were just like,
Starting point is 01:02:09 oh, a little bit shorter than we thought. Yeah, they're like Kyler Murray. But you're saying they're thick. Yeah, they're d'alline. So they're not Austin Eklou. They're like, they're a bowl of oatmeal. Yeah. So.
Starting point is 01:02:19 No, they're M. Of oatmeal. What are you bowl of oatmeal? They're Clyde Edwards-Halear. What the hell is bowl of oatmeal mean? Thick is a bowl of oatmeal. You don't know that meme? Oh, thick as a bowl of oatmeal.
Starting point is 01:02:28 I thought you were just saying bulls. You've never seen that meme of that guy? I thought you were. The guy in court and they're like, you quote said she was thick as a bowl of oatmeal. And he like, points his finger. And he's like, yeah. I was about to be like, let's never explain a meme on a podcast. But you actually explain that well.
Starting point is 01:02:42 That was fun. Yeah. All right. So yeah, those are some more dinosaur facts. Thank you again for those. All right,
Starting point is 01:02:48 let's get out of here. Thank you, D.K., thank you to everyone for listening. Thank you to everyone who emailed us. That's ringer fantasy football
Starting point is 01:02:54 at gmail.com. Send us your bad beats and do our fun facts. We'll get to as many as we can. And thank you to the asteroid for killing off the D.rexes. That sounds really scary. Thanks to Subway.
Starting point is 01:03:25 We made some bad calls and good calls this week. But remember, it's foot long season at Subway, so let's try to keep them mainly good. You can start by grabbing it delicious,
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