The Ringer NFL Show - Week 3 Matchups, Must-Starts, and Must-Benches

Episode Date: September 23, 2022

We preview the Week 3 fantasy slate with categories including the Hot Tub Club (a.k.a. players with injury concerns), Sunday Scaries, the Debutante Ball Coming Out Party, the Elizabeth Holmes Fraudulent Pick of the Week, Extreme Makeover: Running Back Edition, the Mario Kart Rainbow Strip, and more, before reading a few listener emails. Check out our Week 3 Fantasy Football Rankings for this week's positional rankings and more! Email us! [e-mail]. Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Producer: Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up, everybody. I'm Brian Barrett, former Boston Sports Radio Guy, and now host of the new Ringer show Off the Pike that'll cover your favorite Boston teams and stories. From Fenway to Foxborough to The Garden and Beyond, we're reacting to all the biggest games and moments with episodes at least three times a week, featuring myself, and some of your favorite guests at the Ringer and in the city. Plus, if the Celtics or the Pats make a surprise trade, if the Red Sox's going to run, or if any news breaks, We'll drop bonus instant reaction episodes too, so you're always up to date with the latest chatter.

Get in on the action and follow off the bike with me, Brian Barrett, now on Spotify. For your Fantasy Football Show, my name is Danny Hypatthetat. I am joined by Danny Kelly Craig Coralbeck. If you are wondering who to start and who to sit, we have our rankings are live at Fantasyf Football.com. You can go to Fantasyfootball.com. We have our weekly rankings. It's week three.

It's standard. PPR, half, PPR, everything. And it starts out. Base is superflex, but you can click on running back, a receiver, tight end. make your own flex rankings, look at the positions, do whatever you want. Click the little positional tabs. Check that out. We got that all weekend.

So look at that. And we're updating it again. Sunday afternoon, Fridays. Please, it looks beautiful. Check out our rankings. Today, we're going to preview the weekend with some categories. What are you laughing at, Craig? Nothing.

I like hearing you kind of stumble through the intro sometimes and you don't really know how to transition. No, I just was so into the rankings thing. I didn't know what to say. Whatever. Today we're doing categories. We're just trying to capture the vibes going to the weekend. DK, get us a little

hot tub club and all the injured guys that matter. Yeah, for people that don't understand that reference, it was one of the two truths and a lie things that we did during the draft. The hot tub club is basically guys that are just always in the training room hanging out in the hot tub, the cold tub, never on the field.

Anyway, these are the notable injury news that we need to track going into the weekend. Obviously, the big one is Justin Herbert who has fractured cartilage on his ribs. He was a limited participant on Wednesday. I saw Bridget Condon from NFL Network

said that he looked like his normal self-throwing and this is more about pain management but kind of have to see how it goes throughout the week and of course there is the dreaded idea that he may have to get a pain shot in his ribs. As that doctor is currently getting sued for $5 million by Tyler Taylor. I have the worst fucking attorneys.

It's just not a great situation. But anyways, he's wanting to monitor. Lamar Jackson on the other other hand, looks like he's good to go. There was some fear on Wednesday because he was not throwing at practice. He had a sleeve on his arm, but it looks like crisis of him he's going to play. Jay Dobbins, running back for the Ravens. Has been a full participant all week, but if he plays, he's likely going to be on a pitch count, I would assume, so I would be avoiding him if you have other options. Moving on, basically the entirety of the Packers and Buccaneers'

Wide Receiver Corps are hurt. Like every receiver on both teams is on the injury report. Well, Mike Evans is fine. He's just suspended. Yeah. But he's probably, he would be on the injury report if he wasn't. So, I mean, in spirit, he is. So that's just one to monitor again. Like, it doesn't, we can't really tell right now what's going to happen. Mike Evans pulled his own hammy just in solidarity with the rest of the team this week.

Got to do that for my guys. On the other hand, Colts receivers, Michael Pittman and Alec Pierce, look like they're both on track to play again this weekend, which is great news for the Colts offense. And of course, from Matt Ryan, who has been absolute hot garbage of late. Keenan Allen He's an interesting hamstring injury He said he has a shot at playing this weekend

I don't know what do you guys think Are you playing him if he plays? Not if Herbert does it well I mean Yeah that's a good problem If he's going to play If Keenan Allen Yeah if Keen Allen plays you have to Probably

George Kittle limited participant on Wednesday It looks like he is on track to play He's again he's very tough I think he's going to play I am not sure I want to play him But I think if he's playing I'm going to play him Just because there's no other good tight ends in the NFL right

God, is there a less fun player to have in your fantasy team than George Kittle every week? Sounds like a nightmare. It's hilarious because he's like one of the most fun players to watch in the NFL, but it's also just, oh, God, it's tough to plug him into the line. You get like four games a year where he's actually healthy and playing. Totally, yeah, it's tough. Moving on Alvin Camara and James Winston,

both limited for assistance on Wednesday and Thursday. So it's looking like they're going to play. I would say, plug Alvin Camara in if you got him on your roster. James Winston, if you have an opportunity to maybe stream someone else, that might be the best options because he is nursing a back injury. Back injuries are never good for quarterback. Back fracture. It's not a back injury. He's broken bones in his back. I don't think they're good for anybody back fractures any position.

I mean, yeah, it'd be bad for a podcaster, let alone a NFL quarterback. Gabriel Davis, back to practice. Hyfit, you're going to love this. He saw a video of Gabe Dave running routes. He looked pretty, he was moving stiff. He was a little ginger. Are you trying to like, trigger me. Yes, I am, of course. But I would say

my takeaway, maybe just exercise caution about starting game day. You have another option. I don't know. It just didn't look like he was moving all that well. But of course, we have a few days. I wildly disagree. If he plays, I think you have to probably. Wild. Okay. Well, there you go. Fills, yeah, they dropped 40 points.

The buck stops at Hyfitz then. And then finally, last one, Dalton Schultz did not practice on Thursday. He plays. He and the Cowboys play on Monday Night Football. At this point, it's probably best if you have a backup plan. Yeah, I would not. If Dalton Shultz is going to be a game time decision,

you have to have a backup day and I would just play him on Sunday. And like if Dalton Shultz's four touchdowns on Monday football, you live with it. Like you can't go into Monday night football and not have a backup. Like you have to just have a plan on Sunday. Go get like an Erb Smith or something. Yeah, you have to find someone. He finally had a good game, by the way.

Yeah. Let's get in some categories here. Sunday Scaries. DK., what's scaring you ahead of Sunday? Tom Brady and the Buccaneers offense in general. Oh, come on. Craig, look, I understand that he's like, looks fine. Brady is Brady. He's a good

player. Everyone on their fricking roster is hurt right now. I mean, and of course, it's affecting Brady from the fantasy point of view. He is 30th out of 34 quarterbacks that I've thrown a fucking pass this year in fantasy points per game. The Buccaneers

ranked 23rd in total fantasy points per game. And the Packers are giving up the fifth fewest opposing fantasy points. I feel like that's because they played the Bears last week That is part of it. A hundred percent. The entirety of the staff. I also have to the NFL show today, and Solek was doing the same thing.

He's like, well, the Packers this season. I'm like, well, they played two games and one was against the Bears. And they got torched by Justin Jefferson. I know. There's no, I don't want to hear any well this whole season. They've had, do, do it. I'm like, please, come on. Jesus Christ.

Okay. Fine. So you go ahead and start Tom Brady and feel good about it. I am. I will start. I didn't say that. I just didn't like the... Pretty much what you said.

Why you said it. Okay. The one silver lining, I will say, the Packers rank 21st in opposing rushing point for game. So feed Lenny. The Lenny Four Nett game coming up. Well, he literally said, I'll score.

But would you rather play Brady or Aaron Rogers in this? Because I would way rather play Tom Brady than Rogers. Way rather? Yeah, definitely. I don't know. It's close.

If you had to play a quarterback, who would you play? Brady, but I don't think it's like a landslide. Dude, Air Rogers is 29th and points per game. And Brady's 30th. This is the most dismal fantasy matchup, I could imagine. This is like when Al Pacino and Robert De Niro do a movie, but it's like now. It's kind of no longer as sexy.

It's like some romantic comedy. That's literally what Bill said on his pot this week. For Brady and Rogers? Did you not listen to it? Did you come up with that independently? Wow. That's what Bill said. Amazing.

You spent too much time with Bill. You spend too much time with Bill. That's literally what he said. That's hilarious. Jesus. Wow. All right. It's a little concerning.

Okay. So, yeah, I mean, it's going to be an old game. But I kind of think the bucks defense is, they've allowed 13 points this season. I kind of think it might be like 23 by the end of this week. So we'll see. So who are you most afraid of other than on the Packer's side of the football? AJ Dylan, I'm afraid, like, you kind of, I think AJ Dylan's,

you have to play him, but I'm a little afraid, AJ Dylan, like, this is a very bad game for AJ Dylan. I know, this is worrisome. But if you're rolling with him, I'm afraid that,

again, my Sunday scare is just, what if the Packers are just frozen? You know, like, first of all, we didn't mention this this is Thursday. All the receivers are on the injury report. Like, we talk about the bucks,

Alan Azard, Sammy Watkins, Christian Watson, Randall Cobb, none of them practice today. And usually sometimes. That's what I said earlier. All receivers in this game are...

I know, but I just want to reiterate the point. Sometimes with receivers, you're like, all right, you know what? It's better for them to, like, rehab, and they're ready on Sunday. Like, Leo Jones not practicing on Wednesday? Who cares? Do you look at the Packers receivers and be like, yeah, these guys don't need practice? No.

This team needs as much practice as it can possibly get. It's really concerning that they're not on the field. Oh, man, it's not good. So, yeah, I think that it'll be like kind of... I agree with Craig. I agree with Bill. like the old Pacino thing. What's the over under

in this game? It's 41 and a half. Wow. The Packers implied team total is 19. It's lower than Chicago this week. How much short of bet this is going to be like a 50 game?

Ross is going to look like idiots. Yeah, I think I'm going to take the over. 41 and a half is really low. 41 and a half. Dude, the 19 for the Packers. I mean,

to play the Bucs have allowed, again, the bucks have let 13 points this season. but in two weeks, sorry. I did my own thing. Craig, what's your Sunday scary for this week? Terry McClorn going up against Darius Slay. The Eagles are playing the commanders,

and I have Terry McLaren on my fantasy team. McLaren is kind of, his fantasy points do not reflect his actual usage in the commander's offense. He's been okay. He had 75 yards last week, which is fine. And then in the week one, he got lucky base. He had two catches, but one was like a 35-yard touchdown.

But he's fifth on the commander. and catches. He only seven on the season. And he's going up against Darius Slay this week, who just held Justin Jefferson to 48 yards on Monday night. McCloren's just not, I mean, he's averaging like six targets a game. Curtis Samuel is clearly the guy who's winning right now in this offense.

Johan Dodson, the rookie, has had more targets than Terry McLaren. Dotson leads the team in snaps at 93%. I just, I'm worried that McLaren's going to put up a three catch for 20-yard performance this week, and you can't do anything about it because he's Terry McLaren. And you got to, to start him.

Can I ask you guys a question? Yeah. Yes. What was the last time that you looked at your fantasy team and you're like, I'm so glad I drafted Terry McClure. Yeah. I can't remember. I fell into drafting him this year in my auction draft.

I was like upbidding him because I thought it was too cheap. And then I just ended up getting him. I was like, oh, damn it. He's like DJ Moore and that, well, he's good. I'm like, what? Is he? He is good. He is good.

He is good. Real football. Yeah. then ever, I'm like, oh, then you look at the stats and I'm like, well, where's the translation to my life? What about me? I'm also just nervous because, like, people are already kind of like, oh, Carson wins. It's like a decent fringe, like

starting quarterback, uh, like for fantasy. And I just think this game could go south for, for the commanders. I kind of think the Eagles going to work. I hate that I'm saying the commanders so much. Well, you said that at first and I laughed. You were like, yeah, they're playing the commanders this week. I'm like, did you just unironically used the term commanders?

Well, that's their name. It's their name. Technically, it was a correct usage. Craig, good job. Thank you. D.K., that caught you up too, right?

They're playing the commanders this week. I just keep thinking about how you said the word Palmer, like 17 times in a row when you're talking about Josh Palmer the other day.

Palmer. Palmer. How was that related to commanders? It's because you kept saying it over and over is the only thing I could think about. You got hung up on him saying commanders. I got hung up on you saying Palmer.

I'm getting hung up on this conversation. Let's move on. Yeah, yeah. Combucha Girl Player of the Week. Okay. Once again, please describe this one because I don't know if everybody gets.

Yeah, so the kombucha girl. It's not obvious? It's a meme for those of you who are unfamiliar. Can you imagine somebody listening for the first time? And we're like, all right, what's next? The kombucha girl player of the week. To a Tonga by Loa. What the fuck are these guys talking about?

It's a meme. It's basically, it's a big reaction gift that everyone uses where she's trying Cambocha for the first time and she's like, well, no. Craig in California is like Cambocha and then he caught himself. Like, no, don't be the. the guy who's like, it's kombucha.

Oh, sorry. I'm saying it incorrectly. I didn't want to be the guy who has to say it's kombucha, but Hyvitz did that. Sorry. But, no, she's like, ah, ah, ah, so are you saying that, but is Tua good? And you're like, what? What? Well, hey, good.

This is me trying to decide whether to start Tua Tua against the bills this week, who had the most absurdly ridiculous game I've ever seen last week against the Ravens, but now he's playing against a very, very good bills defense. basically on one hand, you got Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, two very good defensive backs for the Bills, who are both injured, may not play.

That's good for two-off. On the other hand, Bill's defensive line, by far the most dominant group in the NFL. Like, they're getting insane amounts of pressure with four every time. It's so hard to play them. They're a hockey team. They're doing shifts, and Solic just said to me. They have six players with a sack in two weeks. They do, like, actual line shifts where they have, like, four different guys each that, like, play.

I don't know, not every time, but spiritually they're a hockey team. It would be cool. I've always wondered what something to do that, but basically. Yeah, yeah. This is the second unit. No, I think, and then so that obviously, not good for Tua. Still, Tua, third in the NFL in time to throw. So the quickest time to throw, that could negate potentially an elite pass rush.

That's good, maybe. But he's short, not super physically impressive, can't escape the pressure that well. Not great. Something about not physically impressive is funny. No. No, like I'm just trying to decide whether to start two of this week, basically. Obviously, this is more applicable for Superflex than regular leagues. Well, I mean, yeah, you buried the lead right there.

Like, I mean, if the bill's starting defense plays, like, don't, I would not put two of them. Well, not in a one QB league. But I actually think, I think it's borderline. I think it's borderline. And I think also, you know, just tangentially, of course, like, we're talking about fantasy. Like, what does this mean for Waddle? What's it mean for Hill? I'm still very, I'm still very, I'm still very,

confident in both the receivers. You're playing those guys. I think that in terms of, it's kind of like is to a good or not. Dude, I just kind of think, like the Ravens blew a couple coverages and that made the statlic line

like better and that the reality is like it's, I think Mike McDaniel did a really good job in this game and that Jalen Waddle and Tyree Kill and the speed and they basically just kind of overloaded the Ravens coverage. The Ravens had entries in the secondary. And the gravity that Tyree Kill and Jiland Waddle have with their speed, like they took advantage of it until it was kind of executing. but I think that this is like a very hater thing to say,

but I think you could drop 12 quarterbacks and they probably could have done it, which sounds insane for the four touchdowns in the fourth quarter, or whatever, but like, again, two of the, like, Tyree Kill is wide open. Like, they didn't cover Tyree Kill. Any under through it. Yeah, does he get credit for the 80 yards

when Tyree Kills uncovered? I mean, he had four other touchdowns. Does he get right for those? One of the other ones was also, like, uncovered. So, yeah. So I would say, I'm trying to think of, I'm trying to count them in my head, At least two of them were extremely impressive throws.

Another one was where he escaped pressure, made a really good place. So three very impressive touchdowns. The fact is, they're scheming up these guys with incredible speed. Yes. And that's great for Tua. Like, I think we're kind of missing the force for the trees. It's not whether Tua is good. It's whether he's going to score a lot of points.

And I think that in this game with the coaching that Mike McDaniel does, and I was listening to Greg Kosell, talk about what makes the Dolphins' offense click. And it's basically opposing defenses. cannot, and they refuse to not, press waddle and hill, which means they get free release off the line of scrimmage, plus McDaniel is scheming up ways to get them free release by using motion and things like that. So basically, Tua is a timing and rhythm passer, and there's no hold up on the line of scrimmage,

which means he can hit those throws with timing and rhythm. So, like, it's all, like, working together. I just very fascinating to see how this goes. Yeah, that's a good point. I think it was funny, though, that when you're like, well, I'm missing the force of the trees with the, is he good, or is he, or he's going to score points? And you're right.

But I think ironically, that's what everyone else would say about fantasy football, which is like, we're like, are they going to score points? And everyone else is like, are they good? Right. We just reprioritized that order. Yeah. Morons who are. Sometimes we actually want bad players. Yeah.

All right. Craig, next award. Yeah, this is the debutante ball, aka the coming out party. This will be Damien Pierce's coming out party this week. This is popular in the South. Very popular in the South. Damien Pierce is maturing.

Week 1 versus the Coles. I didn't like that. That weirded me out. Well, that's what the debut time ball is. I'm not comfortable. I'm very uncomfortable. It says, Kinsenaura.

I didn't make it up. Okay. Debuton is not a Kinsella. Those are different things. Isn't it like similar to coming of age? Whatever. Go ahead. I don't know.

Yeah. It's like somebody's reached maturity and there's a Debuton ball. I don't like that either. I don't like that either. Again, I didn't make it up. I'm not from the South. I don't know. I just know what they are.

Anyway, Damien Pierce, back to football. Week one. Week one, he weirdly played behind Dami and Rex Burkhead who had 14 carries. He played three-fourths of the snaps. And Damien Pierce was like the 1B guy who got mixed in. Week two, completely different story.

Rex Burkhead got zero carries. Damian Pierce got 15. Damian Pierce played two-thirds of the snaps. And even in the passing game, it changed as well. Week one, it was all Burkhead running the routes. Week two, it was almost even routes run. So now it seems as though Damien Pierce had. is the first and second down guy

and like half of the third down guy. They're playing the Bears this week who give up five in a third yards per carry, which is a ton. They've given up the ninth most fantasy points to running backs this week. And like, to be honest, I mean, we watched Aaron Jones

towards them last week, but the Texans have a real shot at winning this game, and it could be close, and I don't think they're going to be down 20 or anything like that. Right. So this is a rare case

where the Texans could be in a positive game script. So I think this could be like a 20-point plus touch game for Pierce and I think we could be all talking next week about how the preseason king that was promised has finally arrived or matured come of age.

I'm going to start saying players are going to mature this week. It's kind of weird. But you have investments that mature like your bonds mature. Investments aren't people. Well, you're investing in this player in your draft. Can we say Damien

Pierce will reach fantasy puberty this week or is that too weird? That's weird. Somehow that's less off-putting. I don't know why. All right. Well, that's what's

happening with old Damien. What are your guys' thoughts on that? We're just going to let us go. My thoughts, I want to move on as quickly as possible. Getting a higher conversation. You know that Damien Pierce thoughts? You don't think this is a great week spot for this week? No, it does make sense.

I just couldn't focus on anything you were saying. So, Craig, with the caveat that I barely listened to what you were saying because I was going to figure everything out, I did think it was interesting. did think it was interesting that Levy Smith was talking about how he's like the heartbeat of their offense. He's like everything that they want to be philosophically. Like he

finishes plays, he runs hard, he runs through people's faces. Yeah. So that's good too. Well, because he was saying that the Texans couldn't finish right against the Broncos, but he said that wasn't Damien Pierce's fault. Damien Pierce was the only player finishing every player. Boom. Boom. I think D.K. saying with the caveat, I didn't he listen

to X. He said it's the funniest things ever said to the podcast. Did I repeat what exactly what you were to say? No, I didn't mention the Lovie Smith quote. Thank God. Okay. Okay. All right.

The next one I got here is one of the best arrest development quotes, which is the, does that work for anyone? It's like, no, it never works for anyone. People just delude themselves and I think it'll work. But it could work for us. And I'm giving that this week to the Colts, because the Colts are playing the Chiefs. Yikes. And the Colts defensive coordinator, this guy named Gus Bradley.

Do you guys remember last year with the whole too high thing and the Chiefs offense was doing well, and then everyone just played the two high safeties and the chief's offense just broke for like two months, they couldn't do anything. Except. Within that, the Raiders just didn't do the too high thing. Like, every team is just stopping the chiefs.

The Giants almost beat the Chiefs on Monday day football. The Raiders are like, you know what? Nah. We're just going to do our own thing. Remember the thing that wasn't working? We're going to do that. It's like your grandfather refusing to like use like Apple Maps to drive somewhere. He has like a real map.

He's pulling out. It's way easier, Grandpa, and he's like, nah, I like it this way. Or even now, you know how like some parents still are like, oh, I'll MapQuest and they're like, I'm not going to print out the directions. Like, we don't need to do that anymore. So the Chief scored 40 points against the Raiders,

went back to sucking. They played again a month later. The Raiders did the same thing. They just played the cover three. It's unbelievable. So I actually... As a little caveat, as a little aside, I should say. This is why I don't ever trust coaches.

Like, we always don't put coaches on a pedestal. Well, I'm making fun of this coach. I'm saying, generally speaking, they know more than football. I'm saying returic, I'm not telling you. D.K. is just calling out coaches at large saying, yeah, you all are frauds. Yeah. All of them.

Especially when you're not utilizing my favorite fantasy players very well. So, Gus Bradley was asked to be clear, the Raiders played cover three against the Chiefs twice as often as like everyone else did. Gus Bradley was asked about that. Like today,

And they were like, so, you know, Patrick Mahomes, been really good against cover three last year, you know, had success against the Raiders. You know, you think you're going to do anything different this week now that you're on the Colts playing this week? And he was like, well, no, I think we had a lot of success stopping him. You know, it held them down. I'm like, dude, the Chief scored 40 points.

And then they had 48. And he was like, yeah, well, you know, they were turnovers. I'm like, yeah, they had seven straight scoring drives and then kneeled down to win the game. It's honestly unbelievable. and I was like, am I taking crazy pills? And I looked at all this. And so I was like, let me look again.

Two things. One, on the season, you know what Patrick Mahomes is doing against cover three? 17 of 19, 15 yards per attempt. Yeah. So essentially, if you play Patrick Mahomes in the month of September and you run a cover three, you're screwed. And then also worth noting, last week, the Colts did the same thing against the Jaguars. You know what happened with Trevor Lawrence?

like on throws under like two and a half seconds I got this from Josh Norris who's doing fantastic stuff at Underdog under two and two and a seconds because you can kind of quick game cover three Trevor Lawrence started the game finished the game sorry 18 of 19 completions

wow he's in his second year dude this is unbelievable so all this say I think the chiefs romp I do not understand how the chiefs are only favored by five and a five and have points it's gonna be a fucking bloodbath and I like I so that's a long way of saying obviously my home's Kelsey fantasy

to play him. Juju. Juju Smith Schuster, if you're wondering if you're on the fence, play him. Marcus Vald is Scantling. Maybe if you're in a deeper league, you're wondering about playing him. He's more boom-bust, obviously. You can play him. I'm not saying just blindly play those guys if you have like other options. But if you're on the fence between anybody and Juju, you're on the fence

between anyone at MBS, I think the Chiefs are going to wreck the cults, man. Juju, I like a lot more than MBS. But this is crazy. It might work for the cults, maybe. It'll work for us. Maybe Gus Bradley's playing chess, and we're all playing checkers and he's going to come out with too high after saying this all week.

Who knows? He's just to buy his fumeke. Wouldn't be playing too high just like, that's checkers? Or sorry, that's chess? Like, that's the, it's like how you'd actually win? Yeah, everyone else is like that they're playing checkers. I don't know. That is true.

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No, that's like chess. That is chess. I'm sorry, checkers. That's checkers. Right, that is checkers. I've never played out of it. Sorry. What's harder?

You're like the first thing in the wire where they're playing checkers with the chess pieces? You've never seen that. It's okay. All right. Takes too long. It would take me like, six months to finish that show. I don't have time for that.

The wire is, I'm not going to I know it's great. Listen, there's a million shows, there's a lot of good shows out there. It's only the defining, it's only defining text on capitalism in the West, but it's fine, don't worry about it. Have you seen every prestige television? Have you seen the Sopranos and Breaking Bad in every other show ever made?

Mad Men, do you watch all those, Game of Thrones? I see those two. And Thrones. You've seen Madman and sopranos. I don't like to be the guy. I don't like to be the person who shames people haven't seen TV. I'm just going to shame you because you literally studied film. Well, it's television. It's not film.

Oh. I'm kidding. I don't know. Sorry, I haven't seen the wire. D.K. He's like lobotomized me. How did you just show that guy to be like, it's only the defining piece of art of the 1990s.

Shut up. Jesus. Stuff him into a locker. All right. The next category here is called Extreme Makeover Running Back Edition. and it's for the running back dead zone. The running back dead zone has gotten a facelift at the start of this season.

Do you guys ever remember Extreme Makeover with Ty Pennington? The move that bus. Yeah. I never watched it. I just know moved that bus. You didn't watch it, High Fitz? It's only the defining show on style.

Yeah, we need a giant company to buy these poor people at home because no one get a forward one. It's actually an interesting expose on capitalism, but. Who's playing chess now, bitch? Yeah. This is off the rails.

We're feisty. We really want to get to the weekend. It's late in the week. We're tired. Dude, those people who are listening to us for the first time, we're like, what on earth is the show?

Anyway, the running back dead zone is dead. In week one, it was Antonio Gibson and Miles Sanders. In week two, it was David Montgomery. Up next out of the

coffin is Josh Jacobs. Yeah. Josh Jacobs is fantastic. Looks amazing. I was on him in the offseason. He's played solid. His stats don't really, his fantasy numbers don't really explain how well he's played. I mean, he's third in mistackles.

He's eighth in yards after contact. He's fifth in PFF rushing grade. And he's playing a lot. He's ninth in snap percentage. Yeah. I think Josh Jacobs is great. The Raiders have had kind of a tough go, the first two games this season. They're playing the Titans this week, though, who got eviscerated by Sequin Barkling,

Week 1, Sequin had 160 plus yards with them. So I just really liked Josh Jacobs this week. I think he's going to join this group. I mean, the Dead Zone guys are all startable. Like the grossest running backs in fantasy, Gibson, Sanders, David Montgomery. I know Gibson has the Brian Robinson thing, but there's a lot of these like middle round running backs. You're actually kind of paying off right now. And I think Josh Jacobs is the next one.

They're all startable because they're starting running backs. But like I also think this whole list, all these guys were disappointed, like Gibson, Sanders, Jacob. Like they were all disappointing last week. And then... What he said? David Montgomery was good last week. So Montgomery is good. Montgomery was good.

Sanders had like single digit points. Well, I said he... Well, he had like nine. I mean, if you want to talk with Amendoza line, but I'm saying Miles Sanders, week one at like 90 yards in a touchdown.

I'm saying these guys have kind of like established themselves. Here's my bigger question. And I want you to like take a moment and think about this when you answer. I want you to be 100% honest.

If I did not... Oh, guys. If I actually went in all-off season loved Josh Jacobs. Would you also like Josh Jacobs or do you like him because I hate him? I was in, I agreed with your Josh Jacobs hate. And then you started to devalue him

at such an extreme rate. I started to back off and realize, okay, the hate has gone too far. I was like a radical extremist and you're like, this isn't what I signed out to. Yeah, it's like, hey, I think I'm a moderate Josh Jacobs guy.

You know what I mean? You're the Romney Josh Jacobs. Yeah. I'm fiscally conservative. He's not the worst running back of all time. So, yeah, I like Josh Jacobs this week. Sue me. What's with you guys?

Did you guys have a fight while we were away? What's going on? By the way, Miles Sanders had 10.1 points less. I want to go back five minutes and tell us the past versions of ourselves that it kept getting weirder on the show. It's a testy week. Craig, Craig, I'm going to back you on the Jacobs thing, though, because he's been he's been, like, the big fear coming into the year with him was that, like,

it was going to be this monster of a committee, and there was going to be like four different running backs that play. Oh, Kenyon Drake's there, Amir Abdullah. What about the rookie? It's like none of that shit matters. It's like, just how it always goes. Yeah. Yeah.

Which is what we are. He's going to go off. Yeah, I like this. All right. The Raiders need to win. Like, and if they're up in this game, Josh Jacobs is going to get the ball. Like, Raiders can't go 0 and 3.

That's what my dad says, always right before a team goes 0 and 3. every year. 50-50 shot. It might. They totally could. I'm going to give it a new award here. I don't know if I went with the Elizabeth Holmes Award. Okay.

You know, the, I had to Google this. The Theranos, the woman at the Theranos with the, they were like, it's Theranos. Clearly you didn't watch Hulu's the dropout. I always confused with Thanos. I always want to call her the Thanos woman. I don't know. I read about it.

Well, I read about it. in the Wall Street Journal. I don't know. That makes more sense. But whatever. They were doing the blood tests, and they thought they could like, they thought they could like test all the blood and like,

oh, you could do it. And it turned out they were just sending it to Lab Corps. Yeah. I think that's kind of like the Giants. Everyone's going to realize they're total massive frauds this week. I think this is a really good call. Like everyone, like it's unbelievable.

The Giants are two and oh. And everyone, like people are asking me like, are they going to make the playoffs? Do you think that, you know, if the Eagles stumble, could they win the division? and I'm like, guys, I hate to tell you, but like, the Giants suck.

Like, they're awful. And I feel like, because Brian Dable went for a two-point conversion, everyone's like, oh, and it's like, okay, well, now people are unrealized the Titans suck. And then I just, I just, the Daniel, like, I have no earthly clue how the Giants will block Micah Parsons. And while I don't want to engage in the whether Michael Parsons is the next Lord's Taylor discourse, it will come up because. He is going to destroy them.

Like Daniel Jones is being pressured on half of his dropbacks. Meanwhile, Michael Parsons is, I mean, leaves the NFL in sacks, leaves the NFL in pressures. He has been tracked something called pass rush wins, which is how quickly you get to the backfield. It's kind of a weird stat, but like regardless, he has more than like a quarter of the league teams in the league so far. That's pretty good.

Like, Andrew Thomas. He passes the eye test too. Like, you could name any stats, like, but just watch it. He like is absolutely dominating. Meanwhile, the Giants for attack. McAleave and Neil is a rookie from Alabama, and he's like the second worst-graded

blocker on pro football focus. Like, it's a disaster. The Giants are bad. Like, Kenny Galli is out of here. Like, why aren't I playing? The Giants are playing David Sills. Like, they're a bad team. And everyone's going to watch them on a minute of football,

convince themselves, like, excited for Giants Cowboys. And then they're going to turn in and watch 10 minutes. And be like, right. Yeah, I do hate watching the Giants in prime time. I can't believe I was excited to watch this game. I can't believe the Cowboys are getting a point in Vegas. And they just beat the Bengals. They're going up against the giants who, like, have played nobody, beat nobody, and aren't good.

And I can't believe the Cowboys are getting points. Well, it's because they're better. That's my point. The Giants are just sending the stuff to Labboy. Like, they got, there's no business here. Can I be honest? I had no idea the Giants were 2 and O. When you said that, I was like, whoa, really?

I know. Well, you know, the Giants hasn't been above 500 for five years. DK's like, with the caveat that I haven't watched any football this year, I have no idea of the Giants for 2 and O. I mean, I just like, that is the most shocking stat I've ever heard. They're 2 and O. Holy shit. Good for them. Yeah.

Well, this is the weirdest episode. They don't feel 2.0 is my phone. It's also my point. Thanks. All right. I agree. Next award here, DK. Okay.

You guys, we've done the Market Correction Award in the past, which is, Craig, you've explained it before. It's basically the analogy is a up-and-coming movie star. he's in everything, he's turning into an A-Lister, and then some other guy that basically is the same sort of... Steels their thunder. ...category comes in and steals their thunder. And I'm going to say this is the holds-off the market correction award. And I'm giving it to Jalen Hertz, who...

We've been really excited. Look, we were part of it. The Trey Lance stuff, the Justin Fields hype, like the new up-and-coming great fantasy quarterback who's like a dual-threat guy. And it turns out Jalen Hertz has been that guy all along. Like, maybe Jalen Hertz is just the next... like quote unquote the next Lamar Jackson. Like he has taken a big jump as a passer this year, I think, which is the big thing.

And crucially, I think he could keep his job as a starter long term. Like this was like the main worry coming to the season is like, oh, God, the Eagles are trying to replace this guy because he can't really pass. He's a really good rusher. He's really good in fantasy. But is he actually a good NFL passing quarterback? I think that was like sort of a big talking point in Philly all off season. And he has, I think, kind of like shut up some of the haters this year. right now he's seventh in the NFL

in passing yards, 11th in pass rating, he's first in percent of completions over 10 yards, and he's third in the NFL in the NFL in the NFL in off target rate. So he's like 6.3 off target rate. He's been very, very accurate. Yeah, I think that broadly speaking, we had the right idea. We were basically

like, you want a Russian quarterback this year, so like if you're going to get one early, maybe Josh Allen or Lamar, and then if you want to get one mid, Jalen Hertz, or late, we like Tray Lance. And we were like, but of those three at where they're going, we like Tray Lance the most. Obviously, that was disastrous and Hertz is the guy. But also, Hertz is improved, like, it's a cliche, but it's true. Hurts has gotten a little bit better

for eight years in a row. Like, he was a freshman at Alabama. He's the first true freshman to ever play for Nick Sabin. And then, like, it was like, oh, this guy's too raw. And every year he's picked up a skill. And the one that jumps out of what you just said, D.K., first in the percent of his, first in completion rate for 10 plus yards and him targeting the middle of the field. I mean, that was the big question around. Like, can Hertz do this? And he's doing it. And it's like, oh my God, he went up a level again. Yeah. And so I think that's like, obviously, that's going to help his bottom line with fantasy. But by the way, he's also still an incredible and incredible running quarterback. He has, he's second this year in design rush at 10 behind

Traylands, first in rushing yards, first in rushing TDs, first in scrambles in 16. I saw this from Jake Tribe. He is averaging 16.4 rushing fantasy points. per game. The all-time record per game is 10.8 set by Lamar Jackson in 2019. So, like, obviously, he's not going to carry on doing that all year, but, like, he is on a torrid pace as a rushing quarterback, too.

So, I don't know, like, he's just holding off all the, all the, like, potential up-and-coming guys right now, and he's just, like, sort of going to be the man, I think. I feel like everyone who is Jalen Hertz is 2-0. He's been awesome in their leagues. I know. What are Jalen Hertz MVP odds? they were better two weeks ago.

Also, remember when we bet Jillen Hertz to lead the league in rushing touchdowns last year and then didn't even talk about placing that bet this year? What's wrong with us? He already has three rushing touchdowns. Oh my God,

Jalen Hertz currently is third in MVP odds. Wow. Well, I think, you know, the Eagles are, I think they tied the Packers for the odds to just win the Super Bowl, which makes sense because they look great.

You're right, wow. The next one here, I love this one, the Costanza. Yeah, if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite must be right. Darnel Mooney has four yards. Oh, boy.

Darnel Mooney has four yards total on the season as a player. He did not get hurt. He played both games. He has four yards. The Bears are playing the Texans. There's a chance of rain in Chicago. Justin Fields somehow ranks 33rd in pass attempts this season. There's only 32 teams.

He ranks 33rd in pass attempts. the leading receiver on the Bears is Equanimia St. Brownie has three catches. That's the leading receiver. That's the best step. Colquette has zero catches. And Colquette has zero catches. He has zero targets.

He has zero targets. Zero targets? Good Lord. Well, Jeff Fields has only thrown like 25 passes. Justin Fields has 15 completions on the season. In week two of the preseason, he had 14 completions. And he has 15 and two NFL games. So Luke gets...

With all that said... Freaking Flackos throwed like 100 passes. Well, their offensive coordinator actually was asked and he seemed mad and he was like, look, we only have 45 plays, guys. Yeah, we know. That's the point. Run more place. Run more fucking plays, guy. With all that said,

I'm Costanzing myself and I'm like, listen, one of these days, I think... I mean, in that week two preseason game, Fields was like 14 for 16, 170 yards, two touchdowns. It was like, clearly this guy can throw the football. Clearly he has armed talent.

And Darnell Mooney is the only Above average wide receiver on this team The ship will ride itself And it's so bad right now It's at the bottom of the ocean right now But Every instinct I have is like You cannot play Darnell Mooney

And I think that this is potentially The game where he has like eight catches For 120 yards And we're all Yeah I'll let me do a caveat Before anyone listens to you The real instinct is to cut Darnel Mooney

I'm not saying anybody I mean this category is not this is who you should start it's actually the opposite it's these are all of my my instincts are to not start up and this whole show is based off our instincts

like my instincts don't start them but as we know this is how it goes in fantasy football sometimes your instincts actually aren't correct and so I'm just saying everything in my body says don't start darned al-Muni

which usually means darnedomuni is going to do something good the first can't continue being this bad I mean they can't I don't think anyway. Well, they can't continue

being the worst offense since like the 1980s. Yeah. It's like, yes. They're gonna, there's going to be some positive regression.

You know what I'm with you, Craig? I think Darnel Mone will surpass his receiving yardstote on the entire season in this game. You're going to double it,

double it. You could triple it. Actually, that's the best thing. As an ostensible number one receiver in a team, have they ever like, you know,

a 30 times increase on their receiving total in one game? You know, that's totally possible. All right. Oh, wait, TK. Did you have a Costanza? I did. It's not nearly as bold as Craig, so I almost didn't even say anything. But Elijah Moore from the Jets. All my instincts are saying, it's not looking great.

He's been very disappointing relative to expectations. He hasn't really shown up. He's fifth in target rate on his own team, which is just so depressing. Despite the fact that they're passing a ton. And basically everybody else is getting a ton of production except for Elijah Moore, who I really liked coming into the season. And then, of course, Garrett Wilson comes in and completely and utterly just embarrasses him and takes over as like the number one.

Everyone's super excited about Garrett Wilson now. So because all my worries and all my concerns are basically saying to bench more until something anything happens, like maybe this is the week Elijah Moore has the eruption game. What do you think? I mean, I think it won't happen, which is why it took a good stance. right there you go so you're benching Elijah Moore everywhere I assume right

I mean I mean probably yeah unless you're really desperate I think you gotta yeah I mean obviously it depends on who you have on your team but I don't think you're dropping him and I think I still think you wait one more game for

Don't drop and if yeah yeah well you guys said that way quieter than I thought you would have there was less like emphasis on like Don't drop don't drop it don't do not do drop it. Do not drop it.

I agree. That's like the level of enthusiasm I wanted for the don't drop them. Okay. I want to do the Mario Kart rainbow strip. You know when you're playing Mario Kart and there's like the little rainbow thing and you hit it and you're like, oh, you go and play faster? No, you said this last time. That's not what happens in Mario Kart.

You're talking about the turbo pads on the ground? Yeah, when you go faster in Mario Kart. We had the same conversation last time. You know what I'm talking about DK? You ever played Mario Kart? I have played Mario Kart, but it's been probably about two decades. So I don't really know. No.

at another margin. In Mario Kart, you hit the rainbow and you go faster, like it increases your speed. So my vague, vague recollection is that they're a different song plays, but I think that's if you, like, hit like a power up or something.

That's when you get a star. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Never mind. Go ahead. Anyway, I think the Arizona Cardinals are the Rainbow Strip. I think the Cardinals defense is awful. The Rainbow Strip of NFL teams. The Rainbow Strip of NFL teams.

We're also focused on how, like, Kyler brought the Cardinals back. I'm like, yeah, but did you see how they've gone down the last two weeks. Like, oh my God. Like, their defense has given up the second most passing touchdowns,

second most passing yards. Their bottom five and allowed in yards per route on, bottom three in yards after the catch. And again, is that on this season? Yeah, only been two games. Yeah. Did you watch the two games?

They're awful. They have no one to play a cornerback. They have, again, PFF grades are like, not perfect, but they have like one cornerback in the top 100 graded cornerbacks in the NFL. Like, the Rams are playing the Cardinals

this week. And if you have Alan Robinson, you've probably been like, oh, my God, one terrible week, one good week. That should have been better. What do I do? Dude, I think Alan Robinson, this is the week. Like, if Craig was saying before, like the debutante coming out ball, if we could have a, another coming out ball for people in, I don't know, the middle ages who are just middle aged, middle ages, middle aged, super different things now that I say, I don't laugh. Are you talking about like medieval times or, okay. Middle-aged people? But if Alan Robbins could have like a middle-aged people, but if Alan Robbins could have like a middle-aged debut top ball.

Like this is going to be the one like, okay, that wasn't a disastrous pick. Like Alan Robinson, like on the, I just think the Rams are going to lightly dominate the Cardinals in the passing game. And Alan Robinson is going to have a great week. And just overall, I think that will probably be

replicable for almost everybody who plays Arizona. Yeah, I like this theme. I like, yeah, I like Mario Kart and Rainbow script. That's really funny. Oh my goodness. All right. That's all we got for the categories.

but I have to say our emails this week, it's one of the absolute best parts of this job is the random things people like email us about. And every now and then we hit a topic that really just strikes a quarter. Resinates, yeah. I got to say, I need to start setting my phone to not preview emails

because I'll be like sitting in bed next to my fiance and an email will pop up on my phone that says like, porn in the woods with my dad. And I'm like, I swear that's a work email. Oh, man. Good thing it's a Gmail and not like a Spotify email. Oh, my God, yeah.

I think we would have fired so long ago. So the emails, I can't, so in our last episode of Power Hour, we mentioned competitive dads. We mentioned it like, you know, Shea Serrano always just tries to kill his kids in Mario Kart and all this stuff. The amount of emails we have gotten

from all the people listening about them being competitive dads or having competitive dads, we have opened the floodgates. I wish we could like read all of these. If you sent us one, we saw it. I have no,

like, it's so funny. I will just rip for you a few. Nice. This one's from Kyle. Kyle, Kyle. My dad and I used to play Madden 98 on the OG PlayStation.

He would always kick my ass. Finally, I was on the verge of my first victory with a wide open lane on a punt return to win the game. but the house phone rings and my dad pauses the game talks on the phone long enough for me to get bored

and then he comes and unpauses the game before I'm ready my player stops running and gets tackled as time expires and I lose I just talked to him for a week never played video games with him every that is the most petty unsportsman like you could ever do

dude we got an email from Jordan who said his dad bought him Madden and then he played his dad and he beat his dad like 70 to 14 because his dad didn't know how to play Madden. And then the next day his dad buys a basketball who puts it in the driveway and then starts dunking on him

in the game. You got to reset the order of things here. Yeah, he's like, do you want to arm wrestle next? We got one from Jaron that says typically my dad's mild manner to the competition, but one day we were playing one-on-one basketball in the driveway and I was crushing him for the first time ever. At one point, my dad airballed a shot

and he's running out, he's getting out of bounds. You know when you keep your feet in bounds or you have to jump out and grab the ball and you got to like whip the ball and throw off someone's feet so it's out on them, you know? His dad does that, but he aims and hits his balls.

So his dad just whips the basketball on his balls. Oh my God, dude. Don't you want grandchildren? Come on. I'm excited to see how competitive I get, Calvin. Get out of bounds in the driveway. Well, yeah, it's the grass. I feel like you don't really play that.

Like, I feel like you just step up. on the grasslet. It's like, we're not like, out of bounds. You can't run for the tape. You're taking charges. You can't dribble there anyway. He said it's an air ball. It's buying the hoop.

I know, I guess, I don't know, that's weird to me. I've never played out of bounds in a driveway. Usually it's just, but if you, what happened to the ball goes behind the hoop, you keep playing behind the hoop? Well, usually, I don't know, isn't there just a garage behind the hoop? There's no, I don't know. Well, if it continued, clearly. Anyway, I want to be one from Stephen.

When my son was three or four, I would take him to the electronic section of Target and give him one of the Nintendo Switch demo controllers. I'd set up a one-player race, and I'd tell him that he was driving, and I'd point to a random computer racer and say that was me as he flew past, and I would hype him up for how good he was doing.

We both had fun, and he thought he was dominating, but he also pushed zero buttons, so I'm pretty sure he thought he was a Jedi. After about a year of doing this from time... Yeah, I was going to say, I thought that was really funny. after about a year of doing this from time to time, he started talking shit to me about Mario Cut.

And not just when we were playing, but all the time. So I convinced my wife that we should get a switch for father-son bonding. I set up a race with him. I never told him what the buttons worked or what buttons did what. And he continued to talk shit to me. I came in first. I think he lost yards. He just kept going backward under the walls.

He was demoralized, crushed. And he learned humility and he does not talk shit anymore. and I'd welcome the fantasy court's opinion of whether this is my best or worst father moment. I can say you broke his spirit. Good job. Men don't mature. They just get taller and older.

We're just the same. Yeah, we're just the same until we die. I think this was a necessary step fake as a father. I think so too. You can't have that in that household. DK, what kind of dad are you going to be? Are you going to be like, are you going to let your son win?

I think it's just, well, relative to this email, it depends on if he's a total fucking jackass to me. me. Like, if he's, like, talking shit constantly, I'll probably beat him for as long as I can. Based on what you know about Calvin and, like, who he is, does he seem like a shit talker? Oh, man, that's tough. He is extremely strong-willed. The most strong-willed child, but he's also kind of sweet. So, like, it's tough to know. I bet you, if I had to guess, I'd say he's going to be a shit-talker.

Were you a shit-talker growing up? No, not at all. You're going to have to forge him in the flames. It's got the eye of the tiger, and then I can see it. My mom saw the photo of the first photo you sent of Calvin when he was born. My mom was like, that kid's going to be a fullback. No, fullback. Fullback. Yeah.

No, fullback starts. Mike Alstot right there. They will not exist by the time he starts playing sports. No, I said that. She's like, no, no, the game's going to come back around by then. It's cyclical. Circular. Yeah, it's true.

Oh, wow. Good point, man. Okay. Anyway, thank you to everyone who emailed us. Ringer Fantasy Football, g-gmail.com. if you have any competitive dad stories. I mean, we'll take all of them. Thank you, Craig.

Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Calvin, for bringing the fullback position back. Thank you, Lauren. Lauren. Thank you, Merle Haggard. Oh, and thank you to anyone who listened to this was your first episode of listening to this show. If it was your first episode, email us, and we will acknowledge you. We will respond to the email read on the show.

That would be amazing. And tell us what you thought. If it was their first episode, they're not hearing this. No, if you made it this. As far, bringer fantasy football at gmail.com. We'll respond. We will. Put first show in the subject.

Who did you say, Merle Haggard? Yeah, Merle Haggard. Imagine also being the first time of this thing and getting to this part. They're like, what are they even doing? What's funny is we've really never explained this. I think we've got used to it. We get a lot of people asking about it. People are just like, I guess they just name bands at the end and think a guy named Lauren.

They're probably like, why are they saying goodbye? But the podcast says there's 10 minutes left. That's weird. We got an email about that being like, I love when you guys are doing the Lorne Michael segment, and I see that there's like 13 minutes left to the show. All right, well, we can disappoint everyone. All right, goodbye, everyone.