The Ringer NFL Show - Buying or Selling on the Red-Hot Chargers and Waiver Wire Must-Adds After Week 6 | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 323)

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

The Ringer’s Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly offer their initial advice after Week 6 (1:45), break down the must-add players off of waivers for the upcoming week (18:00), and discuss which players on the red-hot Chargers are worth buying low or selling high (26:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know what's better than showing the money, D.K.? Show me the football. Are you ready for live football on your phone? With the Yahoo Sports mobile app, you got it. Watch local and primetime NFL games on your phone or tablet all season long. Never miss your local game. Never miss a big national matchup. All you need is the Yahoo Sports app.

Get the Yahoo Sports mobile app, and you are golden. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Danny C Football Podcast. Brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. My name is Danny Hyfitz, and I'm joined by my co-host and co-danny. Danny Kelly, how you doing, D.K.? D.H. How's it going, man? I'm doing excellent today. I am great, man. I just slayed the bossman Bill Simmons in the Ring of Fantasy League this week this week this. I will be honest, it kind of made my day.

Are you guys still undefeated? We are undefeated. I know everyone cares deeply about this. You guys are the Rams of the Ringer Fantasy League right now. Yeah, but I know everyone cares deeply about this so we can move on. But before we hop into our first segment, I did want to mention one thing that, some housekeeping. While we were preparing for this podcast, you referred to interceptions in passing as ints.

Like, I-N-T's, but you read out-A-N-T's? It's how, like, you see how it's written, and that's like, you never actually say it out loud and it came out. It was kind of weird to say. My first reaction was, what the hell is, that's dumb? And my second was, I kind of like it.

But I'm not going to do it. You say T-Ds. Yeah, that's... An ints? I don't know. I'm curious what the people listening think about this. I feel like it's a very divisive issue. you. Picks. Picks is better.

Yeah. Well, like, I think it's probably a very divided thing. I feel like there's no middle ground people who are like indifferent. But anyway, we can hop into our first segment, some initial advice guys that we think might strike gold this week. Probably sitting on your bench, not sure if you can throw them in or not.

So shall we dive in, D.K. Yeah, we're going to do it a little bit differently today. I'm going to just give you three guys to start off with, and then we're going to kind of change things up for the second half of this segment. So I'm going to start off with Taylor Gabriel. wide receiver of the Bears. Obviously, people kind of coming into the season did not know what to expect from this

Bears' offense, obviously, how the target distribution was going to go, whether Anthony Miller was going to be a bigger part of the offense, you know, where Alan Robinson kind of stood. It's kind of started to look like Taylor Gabriel is the number two in that offense. Last week, he had, I should say on Sunday, he had five catches 110 yards to build on a nice week four performance when he had seven catches, 104 yards, and two touchdowns. Right now he's second on the team in targets, second in air yards. And I guess we're assuming the Bears' offense doesn't just totally crater after having two really strong outings. But I think Gabriel at this point is probably worth an ad.

He could even be worth putting in your starting lineup right now. He's only 22% owned in Yahoo and 32% in ESPN. So he seems like a guy that has gotten steady targets, steady production, and is kind of like getting in on the ground floor if the Bears' offense is going to kind of keep taking off. from where we are now. I think I'm optimistic a little bit about the Bears' offense right now, so he's a guy that's on my radar. Yeah, he has better ball skills than I ever gave him credit for.

I always kind of thought of him as like that deep dude, the deep threat in the Falcons offense. But there are so many moments watching the Bears where I think, wow, what an amazing catch from Alan Robinson, and it gets up and it's Taylor Gabriel. He's really great to watch. It's truly impressive. And obviously, you know, it's four teams on by this week,

so you could definitely do a lot worse than Gabriel. And the Bears get the Bears get the Patriots this week. So that is going to be kind of a fun, you know, fun match with Patriots and not haven't necessarily had a lockdown defense this far this year. And so I'm really looking forward to that game. My second guy this week, Chris Godd, one of the Buccaneers, it was actually really surprising to see that he's only 44% owned Yahoo 39 ESPN. You know, he's kind of turning into one of the Buccaneers top Red Zone guys. Last week he had nine targets, six catches, 56 yards on a touchdown. I was a little bit worried, kind of like how he would fit in when Winston took over

because obviously he was one of Fitzgerald's top guys, but it just kind of, you know, it just kind of depends on the quarterback a little bit, but still looks like he's a big part of that offense right now. He's second on the team in targets, 31, tied Deshawn Jackson, first and touchdowns for third in air yards. He leads the team in Red Zone opportunities so far with eight. It's kind of just crazy to me that he's not more than 50% owned at this point. Yeah, he's fantastic.

and again, like another deep threat that when you're a deep threat, you're able to add in the red zone to it. We've talked about how Craig Cameron Brade is and they have a lot of great red zone weapons, but he's someone that isn't in the category of if he doesn't catch a 60-yard touchdown, is useless because he can still do the underneath routes. He's really

impressed this year. He is a big, you know, strong receiver with really good body control and I think that's why he excels in the red zone. He's one of those guys that's just on the come up. I think he's going to be a star at some point down the line. Obviously, kind of a pack situation

and the Buccaneers receiving core but at the same time I mean this team is going to have to be passing a tonne. I had 500 plus yards last week, total yards and

they're going to be behind. Their defense is just atrocious this year by far the worst defense in the NFL. They just fired Mike Smith their defensive coordinator. Yeah, I don't know if that's going to change anything.

We'll see. But so far, yeah, they're just getting in a ton of shootout so he's a guy to have. My third guy is a little bit deeper, deeper dive into the waiver wire, but I'm going with Jermaine Kurtz to the Jets going up against the Vikings this week.

Right now, he's only owned in 1% of Yahoo Leagues and DSPN leagues. I saw Mike Clay point this out on Twitter last week, and I think it's an interesting thing that could be worth monitoring right now. Curse is kind of, you know, as he got back into the lineup, he's started to run most of his routes from the slot. And, you know, as full-time Craig would say, it's never not a great thing when receiver gets moved to the slot. Like, getting your receiver move to the slot is, like, the best thing.

It's like one of those infomercials where there's cream that makes your skin look younger and your hair look better and you're just like your eyes are brighter and like you know what I mean it's like the before after and everything about it you're tan that's the slot it makes everything about you better so per pff cursus run 33 snaps from the slot in the slot in last two weeks that's 78% of his snaps um and that's pushed anunuwa out into the outside a little bit more nooner ran 69% of his snaps from the slot in weeks one through four so he's kind of getting pushed to the outside a little bit and curse is getting a volume bump because that. And now Noon was really

banged up. I think he had an ankle injury this week and he's kind of battling a couple other things. So if you look at, you know, if you're looking for where you're going to get production in that Jets offense, I think Curse is a guy to potentially add at this point, maybe even start this week.

Do you have any lingering thoughts or emotions since he obviously was traded from your beloved Seahawks about the man? He was always one of those guys that was just really sort of the prototypical possession receiver like he would make one big play a game prototypical or typical?

Yeah, maybe just typical. He was a very whelming receiver. A well-me. I've never heard anyone say what. He was like one of those guys that just make a lot of big plays with Seaxba at times you'd disappear to. I don't know, I think he's a veteran guy. He can run around.

He's a big guy. So I like him in this scenario. Last week he had 10 targets, nine catches, 94 yards. And I mean, last year he was one of their top receivers. He had 102 targets, 65 catches, 810 yards, and five touchdowns. So, I mean, he has a history of production, too. I can't believe you just called a grown man, whelming.

That's like, when I'm trying to subtle throw shit, I'll do like bless your heart or whatever. But whelming is, oh my God, that's the most subtle burn I've ever. You do drop the bless your heart thing. That's way more condescending. Welming. Oh, my God. Okay. Jeez.

That's never, if you ever call me Welming, I might just like have a nervous breakdown. Anyway, on a mind for this week, uh,

I went a little untraditional this week because I was kind of looking at, you know, obviously we like to exploit matchups when we can and where we think there's a possibility. And I just, there's an eclipse on the horizon. I don't know if you know this.

I did not. It has to do with a star landing in Cleveland, Ohio, D.K. So. Okay. I am, you know,

in DFS, there's obviously this concept of stacking where if you think a team's going to do well then you're going to get the quarterback, receive, running back, whatever you think the whole lot, you know, get a part of the rising tide. There is a stack worthy in real fantasy football for the next month.

It is the Cleveland Browns in their passing game. Here are the worst five defenses in football, the bottom five in terms of how much passing yards they've allowed, which we had an whole argument about most or least. It's the teams who've allowed the five most passing yards. Dead last are the chiefs, then the bucks, the Falcons, then the Bengals, and the Steelers. Here are the Brown's next five opponents.

The Bucks, the Steelers, the Chiefs, the Falcons, by week, the Bengals. This is crazy. They are literally facing the next five opponents are literally the bottom five in passing yards. Or top five, depending on your perspective. This is an eclipse, it's unbelievable, and they're not really flukes either.

It's the Buckingians. I mean, they just fired their coordinator. You know, the three rookies, in the secondary. Can't really get a pass rush even though spent money all season. The pass rush has not come around.

The Steelers can't tackle. The Chiefs have a decent pass rush maybe the least talented secondary in football right now. They've got some injuries. The Falcons are probably the most injured defense in football. They've lost basically four of their best five players.

And the Bengals, the Bengals are probably underperforming if there's anyone that might regress. But those are all amazing offenses that put up points and cannot score. So basically, I'm basically saying that there are a bunch of browns. There are a bunch of browns.

that are worth having your team through week 12, which is basically to the doorstep of the fantasy football playoffs. So I want to just concisely run through those dudes and which ones, obviously starting with Baker Mayfield. He's owned under 50% of Yahoo and ESPN. He was hobbled with an ankle injury this week. I think he'll be fine. Maybe that cuts down on how great his rushing will be,

but I don't think it's a big deal. He didn't do great, but the Ravens are... He hasn't done great against the Ravens of the Chargers, but those are good defenses. The common threat among those teams and why they get up so much pass... yards is for various reasons. They have massive passing windows. They allow massive passing windows. And in the Steelers and Chief's case, Steelers in Chief's case, a ton of yards after the catch.

All Baker did in college was hit massive passing window. He's so great at that it says bread and butter. And in the Bucks and Falcons case, they don't really have a pass rush either, so he's going to have plenty of time. Yeah, I'm with you on Baker. I mean, he hasn't done a lot yet. Like his numbers have been, shall we say, whelming. Welling, yes. He's been whelming. But this is going to be great. I love this word. What it's so exciting is saying you're new in the lexicon.

But, I mean, I still think he changed. I still think he changes that offense. I think he's an electric player. He's a really good passer. I mean, he's number one. The team is number one in the NFL in drops, I think, right now. So his receivers have really kind of been letting him down. Hopefully that changes going forward a little bit.

So, I don't know. I'm still really high on Mayfield. Quarterback is obviously super deep. And it's certainly possible he's not worth playing for this week. I think he's legit, like, a must add with his schedule. And there's a real possibility he could be worth playing every single week for the next four and then that sixth week after that. Yeah, I think he's a must-down. Particularly in like two quarterbackers who Reflex leagues, yeah, for sure.

Oh, two, yeah, no question. Well, we'll see how he does, but he's amazing. Now, who's going to be catching those passes? First one, I think Jarvis Landry is a huge by-low. He's ninth in air yards. He's six in the whole league in targets. Did not have a great game this week, two catches on nine targets. But of the top 25 leaders in targets right now, he's,

sixth, but he's the only one of the top 25 who's catching under 50% of his targets. There's some chicken in the egg there about whether that's because he's running some deeper routes. But I think it's going to regress back and he's going to get way better. So I think, like, I have him in a couple leagues and I can certainly see how some owners might be willing to part with him. I would grab him this week before he has a bounceback game. The other one, and this is the more interesting one and more probably important for everyone listening. Antonio Callaway, he's their de facto number two. Now, here's the thing.

I have defended him. You've kind of questioned whether he can catch or not. I admit, I was wrong. No, I've defended him too for sure. I was really high on him, you know, to start out. It's not, so sometimes you can just kind of throw a label as like, oh, like he doesn't have great hands,

and that can be all encompassing. For me, we talk about great catch radiuses. He doesn't have an awesome one. He missed the touchdown this week on the thing that he just didn't really play the ball right in the air in the quarter of a second process that's like amazing body movement to actually go from turning your route, boxing out the defender, leaping at the point of catch, and then contorting her body,

which is, I mean, I can't even imagine actually doing. But he's not really there yet at the NFL level, and he leaves a lot of those downfield balls on the crown. Right. Having, so normally I'd say, I don't like him. But they have nobody else. Josh Gordon's gone, obviously. Richard Higgins is out for at least the next week or two.

Derek Willies is on IR. Damian Ratley is concussed. Rod Streeter has a stinger. They signed Brashad Paraman, who was like a ghost in Baltimore. They don't have anyone else to do this. He's going to be their name. number two, they're going to keep going to him. If they started him in a preseason game, like,

a couple days after he got pulled over for car, they're not pulling him. They clearly believe in him. I think you're going to keep trotting him out there. I think he's another guy that I would add, maybe not start yet, but you have to add him for the stretch because he's, he could shred these guys every week. Absolutely. Right now, so he, right now he is, I think I saw this coming into last week, he was dead last in DVOA among receivers. Like, he's just had a ton of opportunities, but like you said, just continues to drop passes. He's young enough I'm willing to bank on going against the numbers right now just because the amount of opportunity on the for-for...

Because again, these are, like, you think about the Chiefs or the Steelers, teams that are slow, that cannot tackle, and maybe he's... Look, and never mind if he starts catching those bombs 60 yards down the field, but he's also like that Albert Wilson type that you kind of think he's going to get the ball, and he's going to just break one. And at the very least, even if you're not going to play him,

At the very least, you want him to have that breakout game on your bench instead of on the waiver wire so that everyone else has shot at him. And there's such a high chance of him having that breakout game so soon, I'd really grab him. Now, if you can't do it. We talk about volume all the time, and the volume is there. So, yeah. Now, here, the flip side, if he can't do it and he just keeps screwing up, Richard Higgins, when he comes back and he, I think, is an MCL injury. MCL, I'll be real. I don't know how knees work.

I don't know when MCL's. I don't know. MCL is like a two to four week thing, I think, usually. Who knows what that ever means? That's what they said about Joe Howard. So when he comes back, if Calloway's really still underperformed, I'd grab Higgins. But for now, we'll do Calloway. And then last, again, the same thing of all these passing opportunity, but Callowie's not trustworthy.

No, these guys are healthy. Duke Johnson, I will scream it from the rooftops. Hyde obviously be running more. He's gotten a lot of his rushing volume taken away, but I think that he's going to come back. The game scripts and the game flows will favor him more. They'll be passing more. He'll be on the field more. I also think they'll be targeting more.

Because they have no receiver depth, he is one of the few running backs who can really line up in the slot as a legit quality slot receiver. So I don't think he has to come off in these games when Chubb or Hyde is in the game. And I think he's going to get more dump-offs, but also more design stuff, more screens,

more wheel routes, sending them up the seam like the Chiefs Doof Cream Hunt. Way more designed stuff when they're going to be looking at all these passing plays to their playbook, but they don't know who to do it. I think Duke Johnson's huge, and he's owned, I think, under 40% of leagues, under almost a third in Yahoo. For a team that has such a need at receiver and so many, you know, such a need for playmakers on their offense right now, it's crazy to me that they haven't been using Johnson as a receiver more.

Like, just put them out there in two running back sets, and like you said, use them as a slot receiver or whatever, because, I mean, right now they're just, they need someone who's going to make plays, and they just have been severely underusing Johnson. So, yeah, I'm with you. And I have similar bullish thoughts on Joku, but he's probably not, he's probably owned in your league and not going to be able to be traded. But again, on the Duke Johnson thing, just to say it one time, I believe he was in full-time credit can correct me if I'm wrong. I think 14th overall among running backs in full PPR last year. He's unowned in two-thirds of leagues, not there.

And again, the bottom five passing defenses are their next five games. And he's crazy. So, yeah, there you go. Stack the Browns until Thanksgiving. I'm into it. I mean, I really like that. I like the look forward thing. I hardly ever look at anything beyond like one week.

So that's really smart. I like it. You know, once Bill Belichick was asked, how did you go 16 and O? And he laughed. He said, we didn't go 16 and O. We went 1 and 0 16 times. That is fantasy football.

All right, we will move on, DK. But before that, let's take a quick break. Football season is underway. Yes, it is. And D.K. already has major regrets about his season-long fantasy teams. It's just rude, yeah. I'm sure most of you fantasy players feel the same way if you've been listening to

DK. You spent all off-season researching and getting excited for the draft, and then comes the pain, which is why I'm so excited to be playing Fandul this season. I'm sure you are excited to be playing Fandul. At least you have something in your life. Over Fandul, you get the excitement of researching and building your team each week, regardless of the outcome. Plus, Fandul has never been more fun or easy to play.

I've been playing the Gridiron Pickup contest every week. It's a free contest where all you need to do is. pick winners, no spreads. Then $10,000 is split amongst the top pickers. Bill talked about his lineup on not doing so well on his podcast this week. I noticed he did not

talk about his team not doing so well against mine. That's okay. But trust me, if you're not a fantasy expert, then Fandul is clearly the place to play. Plus, new users get a $5 bonus when they make their first deposit. So come play with me at fanduel.com slash the ringer. That is fanduel.com

slash the ringer. All right, TK. Now we're going to run through a little lightning round of some other guys. Waiverwire people that, you know, maybe you're considering picking up, and we're just going to go whether we're in or out on them, because, you know, we don't know your leagues quite the way you guys do, but we have thoughts. Right.

So we run through our thoughts and leave it to you guys to decide. Let's kick it off with Rashad Penny from the Seahawks. Can we just quickly? What? How did he get there? Yeah, full-time Craig. Oh, wow. He must have played well.

San Diego State Alumni, full-time Craig, slipping this one in. I don't know what you're talking about. Jeez. I'm not even... My thoughts on him are established. The number speak for themselves. Like Blake Bortles,

Rashad Penny thrives in London. Thrives or survives? Same thing. So let's get into this. So Penny is still, I think, third on the totem there. Although he did get more touches

this week than Mike Davis. So it was Carson 14 touches, Penny 11, Mike Davis 7. Although I think part of that was the C.R. were dominating and they kind of just wanted to get Penny more involved. I'm personally still pretty low on him.

I think, you know, if you want to add him and hope for an injury in the other, in the Seahawks other, you know, backfill or whatever, that's, I think, you know, something that's worth doing. But I don't really see the sort of the breakdown of where these guys are playing, changing much unless an injury happens. Now that's definitely possible. But I still think that Chris Carson and Mike Davis are more, they look more dynamic, you know, for the first couple of weeks.

and so I'm just waiting on Penny at this point. Yeah, how about like that game was just over and they didn't give a shit? Well, that's probably part of it. The Raiders definitely felt like they gave up a bit. I mean, Penny had one big play on a screen pass. I think he picked up like 20 yards. And actually, he was the fastest player on the field in that game on that play.

So that's kind of interesting. But otherwise, to me, he didn't look that dynamic. What a Michael Barbar of the Daily from Craig right there. That was... What was that, Craig? Unbelievable. Anyway, so much... Moving on.

All right, I feel... I'm going to... Albert Wilson of the Dolphins. This is the next person and actually, because in very opposite ways I think of them similar for this week.

Wilson obviously had an incredible game against the Bears. He had... He's been playing 63% of snaps, but against the Bears, he had two incredibly long touchdowns with basically he caught them for like behind the line of scrimmage

and five yards. Took them a combined 120 yards downfield for two touchdowns. One of maybe the best open field runners in all football right now, so credit where credits do. He's amazing. He's by next-gen stats and yards after catch,

he's one of the best in the receiver, forcing his tackles. By every metric you could want, he's an amazing runner. But I'm going to throw a little cold water in this, and like, I don't love him because I think to a certain degree, some of these performances need to have a little predictability go forward to warrant adding. Somewhat similar to Rashad Penny,

I don't, I mean, if you watch the plays, they're amazing, but like, you know, a shoestring away from just being very easily tackled. And I don't think anything about that is replicable necessarily, or at least not in a way that you're going to be able to project it going forward. I think you're much more likely to have him going five or six yards, or sorry, five or six points and just having fairly pedestrian games. I don't love the Dolphins offense. Maybe that's where I'm wrong, but I don't like the dolphins. I don't like Alville Wilson. I'm sorry. I just don't think they're not using him enough.

I mean, so I was always wondering why the Dolphins signed Wilson in the offseason. And so when you dig into it, he's actually like one of the top run after the catch receivers in the NFL since he came into the NFL in 2014. In fact, he's first among all receivers and mistackles force per reception in the NFL since he came into the league. So, I mean, he's a really outstanding run after the catch receiver. But it just, they just don't use them enough, I don't think. Right now, he only got 63% of snaps last week. They just seem to, I don't know, it's just one of those things like every team that annoys you. they just don't go to their best players.

I mean, not like he's necessarily their best player, but he's like a very dangerous run-out-to-catch guy. I just think they could utilize that a lot more. If you have a roster spot free and you just, you know, that's the best person in your way. I understand it. Otherwise, I am hesitant about, you know, if he has three points next week,

I feel like he's right back on the shopping block. He's one of those, he's actually one of those guys who I've picked up probably twice this year and then dropped. Maybe that's the jinks. The flip side of that staying in the same game, Frank Gore, probably the opposite, probably the exact opposite, upside physical profile and all this, but he's just starting running back.

He had a great game this week, more than 100 yards. He had a touchdown. Was better than Kenyon Drake, who fumbled. But in essence, he's owned in like one out of 10 leagues in Yahoo and ESPN, 10% or 11% of ESPN. He's just starting running back. He is getting the most carries on a team. He needs to be owned. It's wild.

It doesn't matter if he's not that efficient he's owned. So it's really simple in that one. But next more interesting ones, looking to Dallas. Let's talk about Cole Beasley because he had a kind of a breakout game. 11 targets, 9 catches, 101 yards, and two touchdowns last week, which is a huge jump from his numbers, basically, you know, weeks 1 through 5 before. He just all of a sudden kind of came out of nowhere.

Part of that could have been the fact that the Cowboys were playing against the Jaguars and kind of just decided to funnel everything to the inside of the field to avoid A.J. Boye and J. Ramsey and all that. And so I think there's some of that involved. But at the same time, Prescott looked better than he had at any point, probably going back to maybe even 2016, or at least the early part of last year. He just looked under control. They used him as a runner more. He was attacking downfield. I think he could be worth an ad just in the thought that maybe DAC finally turned a corner. But to me, that's about it. Like if you're confident that

that DAC all of a sudden kind of figured it out and the Cowboys' Offense figured out of their problems, then go ahead and at him. Otherwise, he's probably a really low-ceiling kind of guy. If the Cowboys' Offense has figured out their problems, okay, I think you probably know how I feel about that, in that case. Well, I mean, they did just drop 40 Burger on one of the best defenses in the NFL,

so I don't know what you take from that. All right, fine, maybe I'm biased. Fine. Moving on. Who's your last guy? Willie Sneed of the Ravens. He's been, so like obviously a couple years ago, he was a huge fantasy factor.

That dropped off precipitously. And now he's kind of just another guy. But over the last few weeks, he's averaged, actually, in the last three weeks, he's averaged eight targets per game. He's kind of turned into Joe Flacco's possession type receiver guy. And it's one of those things where, again, he's probably a low-ceiling guy,

but he's got a high floor because he's just getting targets and Flacco kind of depends on him. And so I think he is definitely worth an ad. He's worth having on your, on your roster to kind of just have for like a buy week or whatever because, like I said, he's got that low floor that, you know, it's just kind of nice to get like maybe like eight or nine or ten points on a week when you have no other options. And this is another dude who had a good 2016 was a huge popular sleeper in 2017,

but never really materialized with the Saints because he missed some time. And then this year, just everyone forgot about him and kind of wrote him off. And now actually just assumed, oh, the Ravens will be bad. But he's been pretty good this year. So I like that. All about the post type. All right. Before we move on, let's take a quick break.

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All right, DK, I'm very excited for this. I have a simple question for you. And I'm expecting a complicated answer, but Melvin Gordon has been so good. Would you trade him away? Yeah, so that, like you said, that's not an easy answer. I think the easy answer I would give you right away is no. I mean, to me, he looks like the kind of guy that you ride to a championship, you know,

in the in the Todd Gurley-esque kind of role or even Alvin Kamara. So, but I think you have to take a bigger picture look at just the Chargers' offense in general, like what they're doing this year to kind of get a better idea whether he can continue doing that. So first of all, Philip Rivers is playing some of his best football of his entire career. I mean, he's just on point. Right now he's third in touchdowns with 15. Third and yards per attempt, 8.8, second and pass rating, which would be a career high, 115.1. And the other thing that Rivers has figured out over the last couple years, that's been a huge factor for him, is he's not taking any sacks anymore.

Like right now, he's fourth in sack percentage, just 3.5%. Last year, he led the NFL in sack percentage. So he's just getting rid of the football, you know, not taking sacks, not doing those drive-killing type sacks. And so that's been huge. Right now he's on pace for 4,500 yards, 40 touchdowns, 8. interception. So he's kind of the obvious foundation of what looks like a really good offense. Basically

right now, coming into the week, they were third in offensive DVOA behind the Rams and the Chiefs, obviously. Which is efficiency per play. Right. And they just beat up on what was the second best defense per

DVOA in the Browns. And so they're probably going to go up quite a bit. And so they're probably never going to catch what the Rams and the Chiefs are doing offensively this season. But I mean, they're a top three offense right now. And I think Gordon has a lot to do with that. Yeah, so how have they been using Gordon differently? Because obviously, an amazing college career and then hasn't quite been the guy, like this kind of guy yet. So what, what changed this season? Or did anything change this season? Well, I mean, I think the big thing that

did change was he made it a huge focus during the off season to become a better pass catcher. I know he worked with Ladania Tomlinson on like routes and like hands and things like that over the off season. obviously Lidane and Tomlinson is an excellent, was an excellent past catcher, Hall of Fame, you know, running back. But sometimes this is lip service and everyone's in the best shape of their lives and stuff. Totally. But they're really changing the usage so far. Well, I don't know, like, you know, schematically,

they actually kind of remind me of the Rams offense a little bit. I mean, when I was, when I turned on the tape, because I just wrote about them last week, when you turn on the tape, there's some actual similarities to what Sean McVeigh does. Number one, like, they use a lot of tight splits. So their receivers all line up real close into the line and then spread the field at the snap and go out. And it just kind of opens things up down the field. And so you're getting the benefit of like you lined a lot of tight ends there.

So you get the people in the box, but then you still have the personnel to shred those types of sets, right? Yeah, I mean, it allows you to attack the outside a lot easier. It changes what the defense can do. In fact, sometimes it makes what the defense can do. They have to check into simpler stuff because the alignments of the defenders and stuff like that. So they're doing a lot of that. They're doing some of the pre-snap jet sweep stuff that you see with, you know, that's so prevalent with the Rams. In fact, Keenan Allen had a couple of jet sweeps in this last week.

He had four carries. Yeah. And so he actually, Keenan Allen had more rushing yards than the Browns, I think, in this last game. So they're using that to their advantage. You know, Philip Rivers has been excellent on play action. They don't use nearly as much play action as the Rams do, but Philip Rivers has been really good on play action. And then the other thing that's huge is they're using that play action to run screens. And some of these screens, you know, obviously McVeigh's sort of next level genius on scheming up screenplays.

But there are screenplays you see them draw up for Melvin Gordon where it's like you can kind of see Todd Gurley-esque like open field prowess with Gordon. And so there's just to me there's a lot of similarities. Right now he's on pace for 80 catches, 744 yards and eight touchdowns in the air. in addition to 1, 240 yards, 16 touchdowns on the ground. So to me, Gordon, I'm not going to say he looks like Gurley because Gurley is just a special elite player. But Gordon, to me, is not that far off in terms of the way they're using him. His production is way up there too.

And so far, I mean, it doesn't seem to be slowing down. I think he's just like a huge foundation of what they're doing on offense and they really want to make him a more balanced guy. And he's actually kind of, I don't know, You know, it's like he's almost their number two receiver because last year, obviously Hunter Henry was a big part of the passing game. I think they've almost kind of like used him

in a similar way that they were going to use Hunter Henry in the sense that like he's running those routes just over the middle of the field. He's the river's security blanket, things like that. And so I think he's just having a huge year in that respect. Yeah, without Hunter Henry, a big question is where are those targets going to go and they haven't gone to Mike Williams

or people as we thought, but they're going to Gordon. So you're saying Gordon's basically number two running back in football. Probably wouldn't deal straight up for anyone except Gurley. Well, I mean, you've got to throw Kamara in there. And obviously, you know, Sequin Barclay is also very good. But I just think at this point I wouldn't trade Gordon because he's the kind of guy, I think, who could get you like six touchdowns in the last two weeks and help you win your league.

Okay. So flipping that around then, while the Chargers doing all these new things and more creative things than maybe they've done in the past, with formations and also their personnel and stuff. They're spreading the ball around more, which is cool. But Keenan Allen, who we mentioned, has been... Which is cool. It is cool. You're a mock mouth? I love it. I had so much fun watching the offense, so yeah.

Oh, fine. I'll see what it is. It's okay. Welming. But anyone who has Keenan Allen this year kind of knows that he's been really bad since week one from fantasy perspective. Obviously, he's still incredible. He's getting those K-A-Ries. He looks to me the same dude. It's just my personal thing is it seems that they're just spreading it out more. So my question, if he also kind of had a slow start last year, but then just exploded. So would you try to buy low on Keenan Allen right now, or do you think that this is just, not he's a different player, but he's being used in a different way?

And the offense is overall increasing, but his share of the pie is, he's probably a better real-life football player in terms of what he forces other defenses to do than what he's actually producing. Yeah. Yeah, because I think they probably are using him a little bit like a decoy. I mean, he's their number one guy, no doubt, as a receiver. And, you know, he's going to draw number one corner typically against, you know, all their opponents. And so that's a factor. In the previous years, you know, Rivers is really, really force-fed him. Like, he's an amazing player.

But at the same time, Rivers was force-feeding him because he just really trusted him. It seems like this year, you know, Rivers maybe is just more comfortable with the rest of their past catching core. because we see, you know, like Mike Williams has been a bigger factor at times. Tyrell Williams last week was, you know, he had three catches, I think 112 yards and two touchdowns, and he's kind of reaping the benefits of drawing the, you know, other guys in the secondary.

So, yeah, I don't know if it's, I don't know if it's going to change it all. I don't know if I would necessarily trade for Keenan Allen, and right now it's going to be kind of hard to get good value for Allen because I think his value is depressed right now. And on that note, as someone who paid probably a little too much Fab, like free agent auction money for Mike Williams and then now see Tyrol Williams go off

and now people are probably going to pick up Tyrol Williams. I don't actually like either of them anymore to play because I just think there's a certain randomness to how you can execute these guys. And unlike maybe the Falcons where there's just somewhat predictable kind of flow of volume in a way that the charges are other receivers because of the way their offense works

and how much they rely on Gordon, you don't really know if Tyrol Williams or Mike Williams will be the wide receiver three that day or who's really going to be winning their matchups and stuff, and it's really hard to predict, not to mention how hard it is to actually catch those downfield throws, you know. Not every time you get three deep throws, you're going to catch all three. So I don't actually, I wouldn't chase those numbers anymore.

Obviously, Mike Williams is physically gifted, but that doesn't really mean anything in fantasy. I'm with you because I think, I mean, if you look at, I don't have Williams numbers right in front me, but I mean, it's like he's really boom-abust. Well, both Williams, for that matter. I was talking about Mike Williams, but they're kind of touchdown dependent at this point to be fantasy factors and I just kind of hate to chase that, especially when, you know, the chargers are kind of scheming up ways to get Gates involved, even Virgil Green. And then obviously, we haven't even talked about Austin Echler, who is one of their best offensive players, frankly.

I mean, he's like incredibly explosive. He's been a factor in the passing game. He's, you know, I think he plays around 35% of the snaps. You know, they're using him on the same, on the field the same time as Gordon. Sometimes they're using him in, you know, to spell Gordon and others. He's just kind of this explosive guy that they use in different various ways to get, you know, just explosive plays. And so, yeah, there's just kind of a lot of mouths defeat in that offense, you know, for fantasy, apart from the, you know, the main pillars of their offense, obviously, with the Rivers and Gordon and Keenan Allen. It's just kind of hard to predict anyone else in that, in that offense at this point. Okay. So Philip Rivers,

is legit. Melvin Gordon is legit. Keep him. Keenan Allen is not worth whatever he was you know, what was he, an early second rounder usually or something like that? He's not. So let me ask you guys, is Keenan Allen a sell while you can guy? That's tough. No, I think you have

to wait. Actually, Riley McEntee, who's our editor, like, was RIP. He's still your editor, but I miss him. But he's said this week you can't do anything with you. You can't bench him. It's hard to play him. You can't trade him. can't cut him. You kind of have to just, you know, suck it up and play him, which is frustrating.

Wait until he goes off and then trade him, maybe, I guess. That's what I'd say. You wait for him to go off. You watch the highlights from that game. You determine if it's like random or you just think it's like, all right, this was coming. You'll probably know then whether you want to deal them while you can or not. That's just kind of what I think about most things, to be honest, is if you were going to trade someone, just wait for them to go off.

Yeah, I agree. All right. Well, actually, I'll just, before we break, I think the charges are going to be in the Super Bowl. Really? Yeah. I got them... So you think they're going to come

out of the AFC, huh? Yes. My preseason Super Bowl prediction was Saints over Chargers. It was a rough rough beginning in September. I'm sticking with it, D.K.

So I actually... I think I went with Saints over Patriots, so... I think so many people just turn this podcast off hearing those things. I think everyone...

Maybe we just harnished everything everyone just heard before. The Saints' defense was dope last year. I don't know what happened, but yeah. They don't either. All right, but I think that's all the time we got. Thank you, D.K.

We'll hear from you on Friday. Until that, peace, man. Thanks again to Fandul. We're so excited to be playing on Fandul this football season. D.K., more excited than I. Over at Fandul, we get the excitement of researching and building your team each week, regardless of the outcome.

Plus, they have tons of ways to play, like the Gridiron Pickham contest, where you just pick winners, no spreads, and then $10,000 to split amongst the top of pickers. Trust me, if you're not a fantasy. expert, then Fandul is the clearer place to play. And new users get a $5 bonus when they make their first deposit. So come play with me at fanduel.com slash the ringer.

Or if you want to win, play with DK. That is fanduel.com slash the ringer.