The Ringer NFL Show - Week 6 Bold Predictions and Our Million-Dollar Lineup

Episode Date: October 16, 2020

We look back on our Week 5 predictions (which we nailed) and offer up our gut calls and bold predictions for Week 6 before building our million-dollar daily fantasy lineup. David Montgomery, Bears (16:27) Jonathan Taylor, Colts (17:57) Andy Dalton, Cowboys (19:03) Laviska Shenault Jr. Jaguars (22:59) JuJu Smith-Schuster, Steelers (26:03) Jared Goff, Rams (30:45) Mecole Hardman, Chiefs (33:52) Kirk Cousins and Irv Smith Jr., Vikings (35:31) Le’Veon Bell, Free Agent (39:54) Million-Dollar Lineup (42:17) Hosts: Danny Heifetz, Danny Kelly, and Craig Horlbeck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode, we talk about the David Montgomery incoming breakout game. We discuss whether Juju sucks or what is going on there and how Andy Dalton is going to do for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football. And obviously, we try to win a million dollars for the second week in a row on Fandul. And most importantly, we see if Dek can name a single Drake song, even one, just one Drake song. Stick around. Welcome to the Ringer Fantasy Football Show. I'm Danny Hyfitz here with Danny Kelly and Craig Krollbeck. D.K., are there sirens going off from Seattle?

Is everything all right? Call of duty is going on outside D.K.'s house. Right before we started recording, like there's just five, ten straight minutes of sirens, like air raid sirens happening. I'm not really sure what that was all about, but they stopped just in time for us to record this podcast, so it feels good.

What else does 2020 need, if not, like, hiding in bomb shelters? So if D.K. disappears halfway through this pod, it's because they came and took him away. You could do the pod from a shelter. Like you could go deep underground. Like we could still get it done. Totally.

You just need Wi-Fi. It's like my mother's basement. I mean, it's basically the same thing. Meat Loaf! I've seen that scene from Weddy Crashers. All right. Do you guys want a fun fact? Yeah.

Okay, we actually got a submission. My brother emailed us. Oh! My older brother. Does he listen to the pod? I guess because he got the email address. I didn't know he listened, but thanks, Michael. He writes Danny, Danny and Craig.

I have to note he's only called me Daniel my entire life. So him's writing Danny. It's just absolutely nuts. Danny, Danny and Craig, thanks for the winning advice. As you can see from the attached picture, it's helped solidify my spot as the de facto fantasy expert in the Hyfitts household. And he attached a photo of him beating me in our league. His team name is Arby's We Have the Meets.

And he had me that week. And then he said, although it's not a fun fact in honor of fire prevention month, I'd like to share the following. It's from the New York Times. 30 years ago, you had roughly 17 minutes to get out of your home during a fire. Today, that's 17 minutes, is down to three or four. And my brother, who is a firefighter, ask, please check the batteries and your smoke alarms.

Working smoke and carbon monoxide detectors save lives. Wow. A very real fun fact. It's not so fun, but he did beat me. So I feel like I had to read that. That's a very solid PSA. That's a very solid PSA. I've become much more aware of the fire,

like the smoke alarms and everything in my house since I had a kid. I'm, like, so nervous about everything now. You know, you just kind of like, your mindset changes on life, but... If there's a fire and you can take one player from your guys' fantasy football teams, who are you taking? You have three minutes to make a decision. I imagine the sirens going off in the city don't help either with that, DECA. Yeah, right? That was a weird little contrast.

I'm taking Aaron Jones. Of course you are. Taking Devante Adams. Oh, Packers. High Fitz. Who are you taken? Sequin, because he needs a little. help because he has on crutches.

So I'm helping him out. He needs help out of the building. Oh, it's like metaphor. It's not they don't actually need help out of the burning building. Craig, let's be honest. Your question doesn't really make a lot of sense. It's a joke. I was like, these are all professional athletes.

They don't need help. Sequin has one leg. Like, he needs my help right now. That's how I interpret it. This is awful. You guys, you know what you're supposed to do, be like, ha, ha, ha, I would take so and so from the fire and then we move on. Okay.

I misinterpreted. Alvin Camera is fun to have on your team. Both of you remind me of my mother because I enjoy Would You Rather questions? And I'll always be like, Mom, would you rather? You know, like have to eat a handful of dirt every morning for the rest of your life or lick a subway handrail every day.

And she just goes, neither. I'm like, well, that's not how the game works. Yeah, and I'm like, well, the third option is you die. It's those two options or you die. And she goes, I don't like this game. Well, what's your answer? Would you rather do dirt or subway handle? Well, in the COVID world, I'm doing the dirt.

I'll figure out. I'll blend it in a smoothie. Every day for the rest of your life? I'd do the one. You're going to lick a subway handrail? Do you know the diseases that you will contract? Well, sneakily, the easy answer to that's dirt because that means you have to live near a city in a subway every day.

And it's like, well, you don't have any options. Like, what if I don't want to leave a city? The idea was that you had to lick the subway handrail every day as well. Oh, okay. Then dirt for sure. Dirt for sure. Yeah. A little chocolate, little peanut butter in a smoothie.

You're good. Dirt's not bad. It's okay. You can eat dirt. That probably will help your immune system. We'll speak of immune systems. Let's get in some real, real actual news here. The Falcons have had positive tests.

We have no idea how many. We're recording this on Thursday afternoon. Adam Schaefter has reported that one Falcons employees had a positive test confirmed. It's a personnel employee. It's not a player. But he also reported earlier on Thursday that there were multiple positive tests. And I'm going to read verbatim from the East European story on this because it's confusing. Sources told Schefter earlier Thursday that the Falcons had multiple positive tests.

for the coronavirus. One source told Schaefter that there were four positive tests, but a Falcons official said the team is, quote, not at four confirmed, and quote, the official also told Schaefter that Falcons are, quote, still working through the details. So, and then also... I don't think they probably don't know yet.

They don't know yet. Well, here's what we do know. A month ago, A.J. Terrell, cornerback for the Falcons, their first run pick, was the first player in the NFL to test positive during the regular season. That was a while ago. And then this week, on Tuesday, Marlon Davidson, who's a rookie defense of lineman was added to the COVID-19 list that was Tuesday.

So this episode's coming on Friday. So there's probably already been new information on this. It's hard to add clarity in this situation when we know so little. But mostly, and then also there's Odell Beckham was sent home from practice from the Browns on Friday or Thursday, feeling ill. His test is expected back tomorrow. We have no idea the deal there. This is just annoying at this point.

Obviously, caveat's like obviously the number one priority is people's health and safety and there are real issues. Hopefully everyone's all right. But it's interesting that this is a whole new part of the fantasy week. It's not just games happen, make pickups and drops, and then you set your lineups anymore. Now it's like, there is a whole part of the fantasy ritual that Friday you have to be like, okay, which games are being played and which are not? And you have to figure out which of those guys on your team might be, you have to set backups

and arguments in your group chats. Like, this is kind of just disrupted every week of the season for the last month. it. It also makes the injuries thing more difficult to navigate because if you have games being moved back to Monday night, Tuesday last week, and then you have, you know, you don't know whether Devante Adams is going to play or whoever, you know. And so, yeah, it just complicates everything. I think the same thing that we said last week kind of at this time. If you have a player either on the Falcons or who they playing this week again? Vikings. The Falcons or the Vikings. If you have a player going with one of those guys, you know, Theelin, just put them in your flex spot

right now. Plan to have them in the flex spot. Plan to have other guys starting in your main starting positions. You have to be able to adapt on the fly if these things, if this game gets pushed back or potentially even postpone until next week or later in the season. So, again, yeah, just be ready to have backup options at the go, like at the ready. Yeah, if you're a West Coast guy, wake up before 10 a.m. You just got to do it. It's, It's so true. Just get up at 915 and look at your phone and then it'll be worth it. That's a good point.

I feel like there's never been a bigger difference between East Coast fantasy leagues and West Coast fantasy leagues. Yeah, because so many times I'm sure guys go out, have a few drinks wake up on Sunday at 1130 and they're like, oh shit, Derek Henry's not playing in them. And then they're screwed. It's so true.

Okay. Let's get into, well, speaking of issues with your gut, well, no, that was a stretch because it's drinking, but let's just get into gut calls, bold predictions. Recap last week. So, I mean, your guys' gut calls from Friday, basically you could completely overlap. You just picked the same three, didn't you? Same three.

We each had the same three. Slightly different statistical outcomes we predicted, but the same three people were involved. How did those do? I think they all hit. They did pretty well. So I had Deshawn Watson as the top four quarterback as one of my gut calls. It was wrong, but close. he was the QB6.

He scored 26 points, so easily his best game of the year and his top weekly finish. So I think, you know, in the spirit of the gut feeling, I think it was right. Technically it was wrong. And then I'll just go ahead

and read Craig's other two because these were the ones that we both kind of came up with. Marquis Brown, best game of the season yet, over 12.7 points. He definitely did that. 16.8, half BBR.

His season high in points. So that was a good, that was a ding. That was a good hit on that one. And then the other one, Darius Slayton, 80 yards was a touchdown. Technically it was wrong.

Again, kind of right in spirit. He had eight catches, 129 yards. Big game. Did not score a touchdown. So can't give Craig full credit on that one. But he had like more points than 80 yards than a touchdown. So, you know. Yeah, 16.9 points.

So yeah, Marquis Brown, Dary Sladen, and Deshaunle Watson all had big games. So I guess good job for us having the same ideas. And all three of them were pretty solid guesses. Yeah, thank God. Because I was kind of wrong. So thank you. Hyphins, go into yours, please. Thanks for carrying the load this week.

I was off. I basically did two around the Eagle Steelers game. And I don't think I was particularly brave. I said the Steelers have a great defense. Eagles are all hurt. So that's going to be bad. So I was like, the Steelers defense will be top four.

And then Miles Sanders won't be top 20 running back. And that didn't happen. Miles Sanders had a great game. Yeah, he looked good. He was the RB4, in fact. Yeah. Which is like, you know, that's only 16 away from out beating outside the top 20s. True.

I mean, how wrong was I really? And then Pittsburgh was top eight. So, yeah, all right. I actually think this is kind of interesting, though, because do you think that the Steelers defense, and Craig, you're a Steelers fan. Like, what do you think of the Steelers defense coming into the season? We're like, oh, this is going to be an amazing defense.

It still is really good, but they just didn't play well against the Eagles. And Carson once played better. He also didn't play amazing. Like, do you think this is more of the Eagles offense, getting slowly and surely a little bit more on track? The Steelers defense being not quite, like, it's great, but it's not elite or both? I think it's maybe a little bit of both

but I think the Steelers defense is great but not elite And the Steelers have trouble Against certain teams sometimes I mean like we know their history against like the Patriots They get killed no matter what But I think the Steelers are one of those good teams That will play up or down to their opponent And this was an example of that this week

That's always been them hasn't it? Yeah. DK you wrote a great story this week In your power rankings for the ring You said there's no great teams of the NFL this year Do you want to elaborate on that? Because I thought that was a really important point So yeah, I mean, basically the numbers support this.

I think just the eye test support it. There are no truly dominant teams in the NFL. You know, typically in a typical season, you have teams really starting to separate themselves from the pack. This year, you know, through five games, there's only one team above 30% in DVOA, which DVOA is an efficiency metric that measures the overall quality of a team. I think it's predictive in a very accurate stat.

at this time of the year, it's rare for that to be the case that there's only one team over that benchmark. And so what that tells me and I think what we can take from that is there's a lot of good teams. There's definitely a top tier of teams that we can expect are going to be really competitive, but there's no team that's just like blowing everybody out of the water. Like Baltimore, their offense hasn't been as good or as explosive we thought. The Buccaneers are, you know, good defense, but their offense is kind of hit and miss. Like Seattle, their offense is awesome. Same with Green Bay. Their offense is awesome.

Both those teams' defenses are not very good. So I think that is just kind of like the overarching storyline of the season. To me so far is that there's no elite teams. There's no dominant teams. There's a lot of good teams, but no dominant teams. And that was one of the big questions coming to the season was, okay, they didn't really have all-season activities. Practices were limited. Training camp was weird.

There's all these odd things as a result of the pandemic and limited practice time. Does that mean that there will be a few dominant teams, a few awful teams in a big middle but like, you know, the rich will get richer, etc. Or did it mean more parity? And I actually thought that it would be like, the four teams that were really good would used to be so much better than everyone else.

Same here. And it's not like that at all. It's actually really, there seems to be more parity. I mean, I was thinking that right around when Justin Herbert came in, and he looks great now. But when Herbert came in with like five minutes notice

and held the Chiefs in week, was a week two or three, I remember thinking, wow, like maybe I was wrong about the rich getting richard thing. And that really seems to be the case, at least so far. I mean, I think it's important to remember,

like, the same way the NBA season kind of starts on Christmas, really. I mean, well, now who knows when the NBA season starts. But traditionally it was like, okay, the first two months or whatever, now we'll really start paying attention from Christmas forward. Football's kind of like that right around mid-October, Halloween or so. It's like, this is really the beginning of football season and like what's going to be going forward, especially this year where the September was kind of like a weird mix of preseason and like Alabama scheduling Alabama A&M.

But so that's just something to know going forward. I think that the parody is really interesting. But, all right, should we get into gut bolds for week six? Got, gut bold? Do we want to address the rest of the ones? We didn't get all these last, the... Well, so, D.K. and I had to, like, come up with bolds on the spot because... Oh, yeah.

How did those two? So, mine was that Antonio Gibson would outscore the Rams running backs. Did not happen. Daryl Henderson had two touchdowns. Gibson did not. But I thought of it in 20 seconds, so give me a break. Still standby. Antonio Gibson over all those guys.

Yeah, I'm going to use the same excuse. Brandon Ayuk, 15 fantasy points. That did not happen. That was my prediction. That did not happen. He had 5.9 and a half ppr. My God, the QB play in that game was atrocious. Jimmy Garofalo looked terrible.

I don't think that was one of the worst quarterbacking performances I've seen. I feel bad for Niners fans. Do you think he sucks or was the ankle sprain? I mean, I think he has the excuse. He has the excuse that he couldn't plant off of his ankle. And that certainly affects your accuracy. but they shouldn't have had him in.

They should have had him playing. And then, you know, they dug themselves such a deep hole. They just couldn't get out of it. Their offense looked terrible. My other bold prediction, which you guys basically talked me into. I made you do this.

I'm not taking full... Yeah, I'm not taking full blame for this one. Zakeas to outscore Calvin Ridley. That was very wrong. He only had one catch. So let's just move on from that one. Flush it. Not going to worry about that ever again.

Hyfitz, what was your bold prediction? Well, I also did this on the spot. I was like, oh, yeah, Bengals would beat the Ravens, screw it. Which didn't work. Did not happen. Vaughn into the windup in his first offering. Just a bit outside. He tried the corner and missed.

So, yeah. It's all right. That's all right. Joey covers did not cover. It was Joey exposed. That's what really would happen. I will say that all the credit for the Steelers defense, the Ravens defense looks pretty. Did you, this Ravens had five sacks just from the defensive backs.

Most since that sacks became a stat in 1980. Listen, I think the three of us could line up against the Bengals and sack Joe Burrow. No, but almost. That would be hilarious, actually, to watch that. That's like, would you rather fight like one, like a hundred horse-sized ducks or like one duck-sized horse? Or no, it's the other way around. But either way, how many of us would it take did sack Joe Burrow? That's interesting.

Do you think if it was two Bengals, offensive linemen's versus us three, one of us could get to Joe Burrow or no? No. Because that implies that one of us could chase him down. That's obviously not the case. Yeah, he's pretty fast. There's no chance that even two. Three of us need to be unblocked to get him

because two of us are not wrangling Joe Burrow. It would take three. I think I'm at the point in my life where I'm done overestimating my athletic ability. I can't. Oh, I'm not. I'm fully entrenched. I will say it's like.

There's a turning point at some point in your life, Craig, it's probably going to come after you turn 30, maybe 35. Yeah. All right. Okay. So let's get in a gut gut bold for this week. DK, what's a gut call for this week? All right.

So this is piggybacking a little bit off of Craig's analysis from the last spot. But David Montgomery, big game versus Carolina. Carolina has been the worst team in the NFL against opposing running backs in terms of fantasy points. They've given up the most fantasy points to opposing teams running backs. The league worst, 43 receptions to opposing running backs, which I think is. is the big number to pay attention to this week because Montgomery has had eight catches and six catches in the last two weeks,

or I should say eight targets and eight six targets in last two weeks. He's a big part of the passing game. I think that's going to help him kind of potentially explode. I'm putting it at 20 points in half BPR. That would be his best game this season. And the other thing to keep in mind here is the Panthers also just lost K1 short, you know, an integral part of their defensive line. Or I should say he's out for the year officially now.

So he's not coming back. So, yeah, I think, you know, we can expect more of the same, I'm guessing, from Carolina's defensive line. Their overall defense, and they're just banged up. They just weren't super deep to begin with. I think David Montgomery has a chance to really go off, both on the ground and through the air. Craig, you're the Montgomery guy.

Do you like this? I love it. I think this is great. And, like, one thing about Montgomery is that last week he played the most snaps of any running back. He's just, like, if you want to do, like, the volume is king thing where it's like you just want a guy who's on the field, that's Montgomery. He's on the field more than any running back in the league. Yeah, his snap carries in the last two weeks, 85% and 81%.

So there you go. All right, Craig, do you have a gut this week? So I'm going with Jonathan Taylor is going to have the best game of his season so far. Ooh, I like this one. I almost did this one too. Craig and I think are always on the same page of these. The Colts are weird with their running backs. I mean, they've said before that, like, you know, the running back usage will be, like, game by game. It depends on their weekly game plan.

Well, they're playing the bangles this week who give up five. almost five and a half yards per care to running backs. They gave up 131 yards per game to running backs. Jonathan Taylor's only had 100 yards once, and he's kind of been lucky with touchdowns. That's pretty much how he's kind of survived as a fantasy asset. He only had 12 carries last week, but he ranks fifth among all running backs and red zone touches.

And I think, especially this week against the Bengals, a game I think they're going to win. I think Jonathan Taylor will skyrocket this. And the Bengals just lost DJ Reader, who is this defensive tackle. they signed from Houston. He was one of their bigger free agents. And is he out for the year?

He's definitely out for this game. I think he's on IR. Yeah, who knows what that means anymore? But he's not playing this week. So I think that that's a good. It's not like Cincinnati had a great defense before that. So I think that's a good call. Hi, if it's what do you got?

I think Eddie Dalton's going to be a top 10 quarterback this week. This is a good one. I think he's going to play well. So there's a couple reasons here. And this isn't just about Dalton. It's more just I am not afraid of the Cowboys. I think, sorry, I'm not afraid of playing the Cowboys. Obviously, you're playing Amory Cooper.

If you've got C.D. Lamb, I'm still plugging him in. And even if you got Michael Gallup, I mean, I guess he's been particularly frustrating, so it depends on your options. But I'm not worried about these Cowboys with Andy Dalton the rest of the season. But I'm certainly not worried about him this game for basically a few reasons. The Cardinals defense sucks. Or if it doesn't suck, it will, I think it'll be pretty bad. Chandler Jones, speaking of defenders after the season, he's their best pass rush.

That's brutal for them. He was close to 100 career sacks. now it's that's a ways away for him, which is too bad. But yeah, so he's out for the season. So the Cardinals defense, I think, losing your best pass rusher, especially in a team where you really only have one good one has just this cascade effect, because when you have a full second more in the pocket than usual, or the defense has to cover more than a full second, an extra second, that's a big deal.

And it really just makes everyone's job harder the other 10 guys, especially Patrick Peterson, who's going to probably shadow Mara Cooper. It's just harder for everyone. So that's number one. Two, there's just going to be a lot of plays. in this game. Unless the Cowboys slow down their pace and obviously, I mean the most obvious but kind of an invisible thing is you want games where there's going to be a lot of plays, right?

Right. So that means teams that snap the ball fast and just keep going, keep the clock moving. The Cowboys are number one in pace this season in neutral situations and number one in first half pace. The Cardinals are number two in neutral situations. These are the two fastest teams. They don't run... So I think the Cowboys have run the most plays. The Cardinals are like sixth overall, should be a lot of plays in this game.

And it's a perfect, on-paper matchup for just a shootout. Like the Cardinals, the Cowboys defense obviously sucks. We don't need to go to that. So I don't see the Cardinals' offense has had some problems, but I don't see any issues with the Cardinals carving up them. I think the Cowboys are going to have, I think this is going to be a high-scoring game. It's one of the higher overs of the week.

And, yeah, I just think Andy Dolton's going to play pretty well. So top 10 for Andy Dalton. Let me ask you a question about Michael Gallup, who I think has been a thorn in people's side, specifically me all season. He's had single-digit fantasy points in every game but one this year. So let's say you have Michael Gallup

as one of your receivers, and then you got a guy you got lucky with this year like a Leviska-chanal. Like with Andy Dalton, with everything you just said, are you firing up Michael Gallup if you got him this week?

So it always depends on your options. But the annoying thing about Michael Gallup is we all loved him because we're like, the Cowboys offense is going to be high flying and Gallup's going to be the number two. And the reality is Cid Lam took the number two job immediately.

We were right about the number two job in the Cowboys. we were wrong about who it would be. I did not anticipate that happening so quickly. But Michael Gallup officially became a completely like rider, not ride or bust, I guess. I hate that phrase, but kind of player when DAC had 502 yards,

or he had two career high passing yards back to back, and Michael Gallup had like, you know, 29 yards in that game. And it's like, all right, well, if Dak throws for 500, Michael Gallup gets 29, he's never going to be safe. I do think it's always possible. you have to always keep an open mind about how the dynamics of an offense could change when a new quarterback comes in.

So I wouldn't be shocked if Andy Dalton can hit Michael Gallup this week and maybe Gallup can overtake Cid in the pecking order. But until you see it, it's hard to believe. It's like if you believe in the pace of this game and you want a high upside option, you can put Gallup, but obviously there is no floor for the guy. So that sucks.

He's the new Will Fuller. If you were writing your own Matthew Berry's Start Sit or Love, hate, like this Michael Gallup, if you had to pick a side of the coin, where is he? I'd play him this week, but that's just because I think that everything we just said of just, there's going to be a lot of plays.

I don't think there's going to be a lot of defense in this game. I'd throw him in, but I also really am probably keeping that to really favorable matchups because he hasn't earned it, quite frankly. Yeah. All right. D.K., you got another gut call for us? I do.

I'm going with Loviska Chanel goes over 100 scrimid yards versus Detroit. It's looking like it is Thursday afternoon. It's looking like DJ Chark is going to be out. He injured his ankle late in the game last week. You can, Chanel is actually on the injury report, too. So keep this guy kind of in mind over the next couple of days, make sure he's actually playing. But it's looking like he's on pace to play.

And with Chark out, he could potentially be like the de facto number one in this offense. He's playing more often in the slot. They're using them all over the formation. It's looking like he and Keel and Cole are kind of like going to be the top two guys this week. So I think Chanel has a really good chance to have like a spike week. Lions are top 10 in points allowed to opposing receivers this year. Schnalt's targets the last three weeks, 6, 6, 8,

and he's getting a handful of carries in there, so he's getting pretty good volume. I mean, like, he's second in catches among all rookies right now. So I think, you know, overall, his usage is strong. He's shown that he's actually a really, like intriguing, fun, explosive player.

I think this has a little bit of potential to be a shootout type game with Detroit versus Jacksonville. So all things together, I really like this match. I like Chanel this week with Chark out. This is great for me, D.K., because this show, and this is my dream, is that I eventually just want this show to turn into, like, what should Craig do each week on his fantasy team. I have Leviska-Shanal, and I'm debating between him and Debo Samuel.

So you think Levisca is the guy. Yeah, I would play him over Debo, especially Debo is still coming back and coming back from that foot injury. I think that offense is far less reliable right now. We don't even know. Do we know who's starting this week for the 49ers? We do not. Yeah. So I would go with Chanel.

That's just every great. We can say that every week. Chanel has been pretty solid in every game this week. He's just that guy that you're always, you're like, hey, he's like such a rando that you're always like, oh, I can't actually start Leviska-Shunalt over Michael Gallup, right? And then maybe you should. I mean, in PPR, which is what I always play. I've got him in a couple of leagues.

He's been in double digits. He's been in double digits with PPR in every game except for one this year. Yeah. Thanks for just skipping over that. I like that I got that little snide comment. You got the eye roll high fits. I just didn't want to address it. It's like you can't say,

you can't say my name. You know what I mean? You can't address it or else. Like feed the trolls. You can't feed the trolls. Pretty much. Oh, one thing I wanted to add to you guys' discussion about Galv, this is just an out.

This is like an aside. I saw it today from Graham Barfield. CD Lamb is on pace for the most yards for a rookie receiver ever. Wow. I mean, this, again, this is like a year. This is a weird year with passing and everything. still, that's pretty goddamn impressive. Should we call them something other than CD?

DVD. What came after CD's iTunes? MP3. MP3? I don't know. I'm not a scientist. MP3 lamb. MP3 lamb?

I saw someone be like CD lamb or like CD goat? 5G lamb. That's what we're going to call. Okay. Okay. Oh, CD goat. Oh, that's actually watched. You know what I'm saying?

I'm up. I'm going. Juju Smith-Schuster is the best scoring wide receiver on Pittsburgh this week. I can't believe we're at the point of this season where that's actually even a thing. Can we just talk about how we even got out here? Chew's the number one guy for Pittsburgh. Well, the Steelers are literally too good at drafting wide receivers

that you should just always draft the lowest ranked guy in fantasy football each year because he'll just be great. It's the new Patriots rule. Like the Patriots backfield. Yeah, she'll draft the cheapest one. Yeah. So, you know, obviously the Claypool frenzy has taken a hold of this nation.

And Canada. He's from Canada, Craig. He's from Canada. Oh, you're right. The whole of North America is going crazy for Claypool right now. Well, that's the top two in North America. There's like one south of that. Well, I don't deny that Chase Claypool is fantastic and I love him. You know, you had four touchdowns last week. You know. I don't know. We need to temper our expectations a little bit.

I do think you should shell out for him in your free agent auction bid. or your salary cap, you know, things in your leagues. But like this week, they're playing the Browns who get shredded by wide receivers. Deonti Johnson, who has actually been the best wide receiver on Pittsburgh this year. He's pretty banged up. He didn't practice on Wednesday. I don't know if he practiced Thursday by the time we're recording, but he's got a back injury and a bunch of other injuries.

And Juju's still the guy. He's playing the most snaps. He's played more snaps than any Pittsburgh wide receiver this year. And, you know, the way the Steelers use their wide receivers is they're kind of all lined up everywhere. They kind of all play slot outside X, Y. They're doing everything. And Juju is solid and he comes up in big games and he still has the best rapport with Ben, I think. And I think this week I would bet on him to be the best guy. Yeah, Juju had almost 70 yards, but he had two touchdowns against the Giants

the week one and hasn't done much since. No, he really hasn't. And against the Browns this week, a division game. I think Ben's going to end up relying on who he knows the most, especially if Deonté doesn't play. I think James Washington's interesting as well. Dek, what do you make of just the broader thing of Juju being so good when Antonio Brown was great? And then Antonio Brown leaves and then Juju, it's like, okay, can he be a number one wide receiver? And then how is he doing with that, DK? I mean, look, if you want to get real, like, not very good. Yes, I didn't want to be real.

He's not, he's not doing very well with it, I should say, in terms of, like, proving that he is the true alpha number one. You know, clearly, you're going to benefit from playing alongside. one of the greatest receivers of all time, right, in terms of Antonio Brown. And defenses were forced to tilt their defense that way. I think Juju played a lot in the slot, which is going to give you those, you know, quick hit, passes over the middle of the field, all that stuff. Juju was awesome in that role. But I do think there are still major question marks in terms of his ability to be like a true

number one in a passing offense. We were, and we talked about this before the season, honestly, like he was invisible at times last year while the team was cycling through these terrible quarterbacks. yet we were really excited about Deonté Johnson, who managed to do pretty well in that same situation. We were excited about James Washington, who actually caught more balls, I believe, from like week eight on or whatever.

So I don't know, man. I still think Juju is extremely talented. And what he's done, you can't dismiss what he's done in his career. But if I'm answering the question you asked me, which is how is he done proving he's like a true number one? I think the answer is pretty easy. It kind of reminds me of Julio and Calvin Ridley when it's like Julio plays,

and it's almost the opposite where Julio can disappear at times and then Calvin Ridley's so succeeded but I feel like Ridley's been better when Julio's out than Juju's ever been like when you think about great number two is being promoted

to number one when that guy's gone I feel like Ridley's been significantly better and you know like I don't know we still have time I think he's only had four games with Ben or whatever it's been like since he's been back and now with all of these great receivers like I don't it's not like Juju's getting doubled anymore

you know so we'll see what happens He's 23 years old. Haifitz, the big picture of your question, I think, is interesting, though, because right now it's, I think, you know, not a foregone conclusion, but like a lot of people, a lot of the Steelers beat reporters and stuff think that the Steelers are going to let Juju walk. And I think the reason is, the big reason is that, like, he hasn't separated himself as that, like, true game-changing number one. And they just have an embarrassment of riches. Like, they just have too many good wide receivers who are, too. cheap. They have to sign a couple of pass rushers. They have an embarrassing. They're, insanely good at scouting and drafting receivers. So yeah, I mean, all those things put

together. I guess that's kind of like, that tells you what you want to know. You're up, Hyfitz. The first one was Andy Dolan's top 10 quarterback. I think Jared Goff's top 10 quarterback too this week. Wow. I just think the Niners are so hurt on defense and it's, it's still kind of a mental block to be like, target the 49ers. But that's what you should do because their team is so unbelievably injury ravaged. They're playing practice squad people. I mean, we all know, you know, Nick Bosa's on IR. He tore his ACL.

Oh my God. D-Ford, you know, is on and off with an injury. He's, he's just been hurt on and off for like a couple of years now. Hyphids, I think I saw, I saw this week. I believe this is the stat. The Niners have 13 players on IR and the Rams have three. It's absolutely nuts. Yeah.

Yeah, that's so much of life comes down to availability and showing up and that's this game to me. It's the Rams, relatively speaking, are pretty healthy. The Niners aren't. Richard Sherman's hurt. He's not going to play for this game. Emmanuel Mosley has a concussion. He may play. He may not either way.

I don't think he's, as of today's Thursday, I don't think he's been fully cleared from concussion protocol yet. Kwan Williams, who's a great cornerback, but he has a hip and a knee injury, I believe, so I don't know if he's going to play. Akella Weatherspoon,

he's coming back from hamstring injury. He's not playing that well. I mean, understandably, because he said, Brian Allen played for this team last week, got his first career start, and Ryan Fitzpatrick were shredding him. And so obviously everyone's like,

well, the dolphins just wrecked the Niners. What's going on with the Niners? What's going on is they're hurt. And so it's so tempting to track the dog, because there's two ways to go from this, right? The dolphins just beat the Niners. Now the Dolphins are playing the Jets. They're going to shred the Jets.

That could definitely happen. I'm more, and maybe that's a whole other intelligent thing we should be going down. I'm more thinking, I'm looking at this Rams Niners game. I'm thinking about Sean McVeigh watching the tape of a defense that at this point is off the top of my head, what, six of the defenders from that Super Bowl team are now not playing this week, or is it more? I can't even keep track.

because Drey Greenlaw is back at linebacker, but Juan Alexander has our knee injuries. So they're hurt linebacker too. So Jared Goff, top 10 quarterback, and I think by extension, I think all the Rams, obviously are a guy Bobby Trees, Cooper Cup, Tyler Higby,

you know, Acres and Henderson, to be honest. I just like the Rams this week to score a lot. Right now the Rams are only laying three and a half points. I think that's shocking. I don't understand it because to me it's about the sticker. It's kind of like, I don't know cars well enough.

I was going to say a car that is really good, but a Corvette, if you will, although it's not really yet. I don't know. The point is that the Niners are like, oh, yeah, they're Super Bowl. I understand that they just lost to the Dolphins, so maybe people think they suck, but they're just so hurt. And I know everyone knows they got hurt in that Jets game, but they've gotten so many injuries since the Jets game.

It's, it's, no team can really have their four top cornerbacks go out and be okay. So. I'm going to do a quick, quick fire. Give me a yes or no. Would you start Acres this week if he's on your team? Yeah, I'd flex them. I mean, it's hard in a vacuum. it depends on your situation.

But yes, I just think the rims are going to run down their throat. McFey also talked about how they're going to play. They're going to play him a little bit more, giving a little bit more workload. You're starting Henderson, I assume, too, right? Obviously, it always depends on your situation, but I have no problem flexing both because I think this is such an enticing matchup.

Yeah. All right. The odds of getting a touchdown are pretty high. Yeah, I agree with that. All right, let's get bold, D.K. All right, my bold prediction, and I'm looking at it, it's not as bold as maybe some of my previous,

previous ones, but Mikul Hardman, 80 plus and a touchdown against the bills. Okay. Sammy Watkins is out with a hammy injury, at least I think he's on track to not play. Hammy Watkins. Hammy Watkins, which, I mean, this, look, we talked about this all offseason. Like, if Watkins goes down, he's inevitably going to go down. That really makes Hardman's role exciting. He played in a season high, 69% of snaps last week, part of the game that Watkins missed.

three targets, two catches, 50 yards. He's had three plus targets, actually, in four straight games, which, I mean, he's, he's, he's boomer bust, but he's not maybe as boom or bust as he felt last year. He's still getting, you know, three, three targets a game. I think in this game, if he plays a full, like, 80, 90 percent of snaps or whatever, which is possible with Watkins out, maybe he gets four or five, six. And he always turned, he's got that big play potential. So, man, the bill, and the bill's defense has looked really human lately.

Like, we saw them against the Titans on Tuesday. Yeah, they're just, I mean, well, like, the bill's, defense is supposed to be good, but yeah, they just have not been what we expected. I like it. But to be clear, they have, they've been bad. I mean, the obvious caveat of like Tradavius whites out and they've had a couple other injuries too that are really important to the team, but been pretty bad against the run and pretty bad against the pass.

The bills have, at least thus far. So it's kind of like the entire team's just reversed from everything they did last year, where it was like the passing offense was fine. And then the running was pretty good. the blocking was good. The defense was great. And now it's like, actually the passing offense

that Josh Allen's the only part of that team that's really good now. It's a really weird flip. Craig, what's your bold? Kirk Cousins and Irv Smith combined for 30 fantasy points. Ooh.

The Irv Smith breakout. I like this. Irv Smith tight end for the Vikings. Played the most he's ever played this season last week. And he had four catches for 64 yards receiving against the Seahawks

who are a terrible past defense, but you know who else is a terrible past defense? Is Atlanta, who just gets shredded every week. Teddy Bridgewater just went over 300 last week against them, specifically with tight ends. The Falcons didn't allow a catch to Ian Thomas last week, the tight end of the pancers, yet they are still

giving up the second most fantasy points to tight ends. That's how bad they are against tight ends. I like that. That's good. You know, I actually think the Vikings are not as bad as their record suggests watching them. Sort of Vikings fans. I kind of like the Vikings. I agree with that, though. I agree with them.

You know, what are they? One in four? I think they're a lot better than that. I think they're going to beat the Falcons. And I think Kirk's going to have his best game of the season. So over 30 fantasy players. First of all, they better beat the Falcons because if they don't, they have an existential crisis.

This game of the Falcons versus the Vikings where it's like Dan Quinn just got fired, it's like the ghost of Mike Zimmer's future. Because if the Vikings lose this freaking game and they're one in five and the falcons are also one in five, like it's just, so they better win the game. But are you not at all worried? Like Dan Quinn just got fired and now Rahim Morris is the coach. And Rahim Morris was like literally their. defensive backs coach. Do you think anything could change?

No. All right. Thank God it's so simple. All right. I have a question related to the Vikings offense. So I'm assuming if Irv's on your team, you're starting him this week. You feel in this. I know it's a bold prediction. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What?

We just jumped to starting Irv Smith? Well, Craig, you tell me. Well, I mean, you know, do I think he's going to score double-digit fantasy points? Yes, but if you have Travis Kelsey, maybe you don't start him. I mean, okay. Well, that's not my question. That's not my question. Let's give back to my question. How do you feel about starting Justin Jefferson this week? Because Irv Smith kind of felt like he, you know, ate into Jefferson's role a little bit against the Seahawks. Jefferson had a really quiet game. My question, I guess, is like, can we have three viable fantasy players in this offense? Can Thieland, Jefferson, and Irv Smith produce? Well, it's basically, you just have to figure out the games where they're going to need to and where,

there's going to be a lot of points and where they play crappy past defenses, which is Atlanta this week. Yeah, this feels like one. Probably only two out of the three are usually going to perform. I think Justin Jefferson has reached start every week status.

Yeah, I do too. Okay. And obviously we're not sitting feeling, so, yeah. Also, there's no Dalvin Cook this week. I don't know how much that affects the way they throw the ball, but yeah. D.K., how much better is Cid Lamb than Justin Jefferson? I mean...

And they swap teams. What happens? I think C.D. Lamb is a better player. he has got a higher ceiling. I think Justin Jefferson's really good, though, too. I mean, how do I answer that question, Danny? Seven. He's seven better. All right. Good. I don't know. Seven. I think I would rather have C.D. Lamb on my dynasty team than Justin Jefferson. Is that a way to put? He's at least 17 better, but it's okay. Right. Like, I don't know. But I think they're both really good. I think Jefferson's proven that his numbers last year were not

like a fluke, you know, in this offense, this LSU offense, which I think some people kind of felt that, Oh, he was just in the slot every time And these numbers Some people, me, me, I felt that Those some people me Yeah, how dare you I think he's proven that that was not a fluke He's the real deal

All right, hi Fitz, what do you got? Bold Bold, I'm turning my bold to gold baby I got my preseason bold predictions pod I already got one I said Levi-on Bell would be benched for Frank Gore by Halloween And I'm freaking I won

I've put me on the board I forgot about that. The funniest part is, I think on that pod, I said my only regret with that one will be, I should have said it was by Columbus Day or Indigenous People's Day. And it happened a day later. So I almost hit it exactly. But I somehow think I'm even more right than I said because I got it right. But the fact he was cut, just saying. So I already feel like I won my bowl of the week because I won my bowl of the season.

But I'm going to double down. I'm going to do another less young one. Wait, wait. While this is great. Now, you're just skirting it and not taking it? No, I'm doubling down. And this might not necessarily hit this week, but my bold for this week is that Levy on Bell will sign for a team that plays the Jets this season.

And he will have a better game than any game he had for the Jets this year, which is 60 yards and a touchdown. He did not score for the Jets this year. I think he scores against the Jets this season and has at least 60 yards. Okay. That's kind of an insane bold prediction. So let's look at who the Jets are playing the rest of the season. the dolphins, the Bills, the Chiefs, the Patriots.

To be clear, he said, well, he reported that the teams he's interested in are the Bills, chiefs, and dolphins. Those are the next three games. He literally is trying to play the Jets. He's actively trying to sign with the team that will play them. Among other teams are the Chargers and the Browns who both have injured starting running back. So something to keep an eye on. Yeah. And by the way, this is Thursday afternoon. We still haven't heard who Lévion Bell is going to sign with. He said the top, three teams reportedly are the next three teams the Chatsby. The Chiefs, the Bills. The Chiefs the Bills and

what was the third one I forgot? I think it's the dolphins. The dolphins, yes. So, anyway, we'll see how, we'll see how that goes. So Hyfitzer, are you just basically saying we're not going to know the answer to your to your bold prediction for a while? No, but I'm taking a little bit of a lap because I won my bold preseason prediction.

So I'm like, yeah, I mean, this will still come back to me. I'm just thrilled. That's what's going on. You know, we're going to do a poll. we do every Friday on the Spotify feed here where you can vote on our gut or bold predictions. We obviously can't do the bolds now because hyphen says it doesn't make any sense. So maybe we'll have to do. Well, maybe you guys should have won your preseason bolts and you get to do that too. Well, our predictions didn't require something to happen by Halloween.

We made full season predictions. So we'll do three guts. So make sure you check that. They hate us because they ain't us. Yeah. So, yeah, scroll down while you're listening to the pod on Spotify. And if you're lucky, you'll see a poll and you can vote on it. last week, people voted slightly that Deshawn Watson would be a top four quarterback more than

our other two bets on Marquis Brown and Dary Sladen. And you all were wrong. So it'll be better next time. Well, aren't you talking to yourself? Because you guys both had the same ones. Well, all of those hit. We did the DK and Craig Poll. And honestly, you know, everyone hit. But the one that actually got the least amount of votes was Marquis Brown. And he ended up playing the best. All right. Well, speaking of things that hit, a million dollar lineup, because again, we came at first. Did we win the million? Yes, we did. Yeah, we won.

But the goal is to win a million every week. But the problem is the Bugatti apparently cost three million dollars, so I need to win this thing like ten more times. Ten more times. Should we do like a time share with the Bugatti where it's like we have one, but we have to like share it and like you guys can get it Labor Day weekend and I'll get it for Thanksgiving. Yeah, I love that. I want to be a part of Haifitz. I want you to be in those new TikToks where that kid goes around in my way. They're like, what do you do?

you're like DFS. To be clear, though, high fits, for the first time ever, you need to actually enter our lineup correctly. So let's make that a big gold. All right, let's get to the lineup.

Again, we're trying to win like out of 700,000 inches. We're trying to make a million dollars a week here. The year I turned 26 as the head of my own brokerage firm, I made $49 million, which really pissed me off

because it was three shy of a million a week. So last week, we got scorned by DJ Chark and J.K. Dobbins. DJ Chark hurt his ankle, and J.K. Dobbins continued, used to suck even though on our Wednesday pod. We don't know why they're not playing him. He's great. So selfish of him to hurt his ankle. It's like a really good restaurant that gets no customers. We don't know why, but it's for some reason it's happening. Yogi Barrett, so crowded they don't go

there anymore. No one goes there anymore. It's never been more true. Okay. We got the million winner again. So we're going to go back to back, right? Right. We're feeling good this week. Back to back, baby. We're hitting a couple of games hard this week that we think are going to be solid. All right, correct. Roll us through. Sure. So our quarterback, we're doing Matt Stafford. And this is a big game. Detroit's playing Jacksonville. This is a game we want to hit this week. We think it's going to be high scoring, bad defenses.

So we're going Matt Stafford as our quarterback. Our running backs are going to be Mike Davis and David Montgomery, who is part of DK's gut calls. Our receivers are Calvin Ridley playing Minnesota, Liviska Chenault, on Jacksonville and Kenny Gulladay, who we're pairing with Matt Stafford. Our tight end is our boy, John Hsu Smith, who high fits hates, but we... I hit him.

Two touchdowns last week. Yeah, he's great. Absolute tight end sleep. Touchdowns are random. I don't know if you guys have heard. They also win you leagues. Aaron Jones, for example. Anyway, our so yeah, our tight end is Johnny Smith,

and then our flex running back is Jonathan Taylor, who is a part of my gut calls going up against the Bengals. And our defense is a team that just shut down the high-flying San Francisco 49ers. We're taking the dolphins against the Jets this week. Easy call. Against the Adam Gases. You guys don't want either Hockinson

to keep the stack with the lions going or my guy Ertz? At a certain point, if you stack, I don't like stacking too much because, like, how often is it that, like, everybody on a team goes nuts? More than one in 700,000. A lot more than that. That's a good point. But Kenny Galday is, I think, flying under the radar because he didn't start the season well.

So when you look at, like, season-long rankings, he's not in the list. But he's had two touchdowns in the games he's played. And I think he's going to be clear. The reason Mike Davis is in this lineup is because he's flying under the radar. Because Christian McCaffrey costs like $10,000 in Fandall. Mike Davis is $7,000, which makes zero. 0.0 cents because Mike Davis is better per game this season than Christian McCaffrey, even if you exclude the injury game.

So, you know, just that's a deal. So there we go. I like this lineup. I'm feeling really good about it. So if we win this week and then we're one away from the Bugatti, we have to do one more win and we get the Bugatti. Yeah. The Bugatti challenge.

So can I want it during this summer because I feel like there's no point in having a Bugatti if I'm on the East Coast and it's the wintertime. You're taking it out of the snow. Can you drive a Bugatti in the snow? because I feel like it's no, but why am I paying $3 million for a car that I can't have in, like, the snow? That'd be a huge flex if you did drive it in the snow and got it super dirty and didn't even care about it. Dude, the line in the Drake song, Childs Play, when he's like, you take my, you go to CVS and my Bugad. You go to CVS to buy Kotex in my Bugatti is my favorite Drake line of all time.

Heifitz mentions a Drake lyric every three. I know. I was going to say this. How many times have you referenced Drake? We've never talked about it, but you must adore Drake. I mean, yeah, no, I think he's good. He's good at his job. How often do you listen to Drake on a weekly basis? I've been listening to a lot of couple weeks because I was in the car a lot.

What's your favorite album? Take Care, you take care guy? Oh, it changes. It changes with the seasons, you know, like, like, you know, like, like Drake himself. That sounds like you can't name an album, but all right. It used to be nothing was the same. Okay, there you go. That's, I think High Fitz has referenced Drake approximately 86 times on this podcast in the last two. seasons, and I've gotten zero of those references. D.K., can we do... It started because Kenyon Drake was traded and had four touchdowns in October,

and I said, a man, in October's very own joke, and then you didn't get it. And I was like, well, maybe I'll keep it going. But yeah, no, I admit I've listened to a lot of Drake in the last 30 days. I will admit that. High Fitz is the anti-pop culture guy who's never seen wedding crashers and many famous things. I've never listened to it. Well, I know like maybe two lines from Drake songs ever. I was going to ask, D.K., can you name two Drake songs?

Yes, you can. It's not that hard. Please. I'll wait as long as you need on this pod. Two Drake songs. You could do it, I think. Who knows the names of songs? Don't you just like, you listen to songs? Drake has more songs than anyone else who's like under 40.

Well, that is a strong take, D.K. And I applaud you for it. Who names songs these days? You should still be able to do two. I should be. I don't think I can. Can you do one? Can you do one?

No. What? What? You can't do one? Not off the top of my head. I mean, I can picture the one that's, it's the one that Hafeits always sings

with there was a certain player. Kiki. Kiki. What's the Kiki? Kiki. Do you love me? That one? Yeah, that one.

Does that count? Sure. All right. Well, listen to Drake. It's really good. man. All right. Good at his job.

Okay. He's the music video and they go to the Nike. I'm not going to get him to it. Give me, give me like a few names of the songs. I'm telling you if I could recognize it. Hotline bling, the motto.

The one I thought you were going to get is, is, Hotline bling. That's an obvious one. Yeah. God's plan, I think, was the one that I thought you were going to be able to get that one.

Because he says the term God's plan quite a lot. What's the key key song named? In my feelings, I think, right? In my feelings, okay. All right. That's enough of that. Enough of Drake.

Hold on, honey. home. Thank you, D.K. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, Drake, for making all that music. We appreciate you. And thank you, everyone, for listening. We'll see you on Monday.