The Ringer NFL Show - Lombardi's Week 4 Watch List and Last-Second Fantasy Advice | GM Street (Ep. 311)

Episode Date: September 28, 2018

The Ringer's Michael Lombardi and Tate Frazier break down the Rams' impressive win over the Vikings (02:00) and then spotlight some of the best games coming up this weekend (26:00). Then Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly of 'The Dantasy Football Podcast' hand out some last-second fantasy advice (45:45). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelly. Here's what Ringer content you should be looking out for before the end of the week. From the star of Slow Newsday, check out Kevin Clark's new video series, Worst Picks of the Week, where he offers up the worst NFL and pop culture beds each week. This will be up every Thursday throughout the NFL season, and you can watch on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. Also, up on the site, we have two pieces on The Good Place, and Juliet Lippman is writing about the 20-year anniversary of Felicity. Check it out on the ringer.com. Welcome to GMTree, part of the Ringer Podcast Network. It is Friday. It is September 28th.

And this is the Friday sit down where we sit down with Mr. Michael Lombardi. And we figure out the best games to watch this weekend. Lombardi, first off, Thursday night football. We had a showdown. We had a shootout in Los Angeles. And the Los Angeles Rams 4-0 for the first time since 2001. Wow. Track meet last night.

Really good. Fun to watch. It really was. It was fun to watch McVeigh coach. You know, I've never been that high. I've been had my doubts about golf because I think a lot of it is McVey. last night golf was precise. I mean, his accuracy.

Of course, you know, he didn't get hit at all. And I'm not taking anything away from golf, but I thought he was great. Gough was great. But McVeigh, to me, every week, he is just remarkable. And we talked about the narrative with Jared Gough over this time. I mean, he was the number one pick, obviously, we remember in 2016. And the Jeff Fisher era, we saw that all play out. And a lot of people were sour on golf.

And a lot of people pointing to Carson Went and said that the Eagles made the right choice. Obviously, he was an MVP candidate. And obviously, the Eagles won the Super Bowl. So they're doing well, but sometimes in life both sides can win a situation. And Jared Gough last night, I mean, you just look at some of the balls he threw. That Cooper Cup touchdown that he threw in, you know, Trey Waynes and Mike Hughes are right there, double-covered the ball lands right in his hands in the breadbasket. Couldn't have placed it any better.

Troy Aikman even pointed that out, which is nice for Troy to do. But I don't think we've ever seen Gough play at that level. And you just saw the excitement on the sideline with McVeigh and the whole Rams team. And it was fun to watch if you were Jared Gougham. You could really see, unlike the Cowboys with Jason Garrett, I'm not sure. Like the Cowboys, I have no idea what they're doing with their staff in the offseason. They must be playing Minecraft or, you know, what's that other game everybody plays? I mean, it's ridiculous.

They didn't do anything this offseason, but the Rams clearly spent time studying the Vikings' defensive schemes. And what makes McVeigh so unique, and there are very few coaches in the league that can do this. McVeigh does it. Josh McDaniels does it at Indianapolis. Almost it at Indianapolis. Almost in Indianapolis. a Freudian slip there. Kyle Shanahan does it.

Andy Reid does it. There's guys that do it. What they do is they know the defense so well that they attack the checks and adjustments to the defense. So, for example, like people say, well, how the hell is Anthony Barr covering Brandon Cooks? Okay, real easy. He got in tight splits. The tight split formation.

They played their covered. They were worried about. They were worried about crossers. So because the receiver didn't vertically run up the field, he crossed. Barr has him on the crosser. But what McVeigh did was instead of keeping him crossing the field like most teams do, he sent him vertically. Now Barr's got to carry him because it's his man.

Once he cuts him, he's got him. And so that's an attack of the adjustment to the coverage. And that's what McVeigh does every week. The Rams run really very few different plays every week. What they do is they run plays that specifically attack the coverages of the defense. That's different. All young coaches, they talk about, well, they sit there and they draw on a pad, new place. No, no, no. If you want to be a great offensive coach in football, if you want to be the best offensive mind in pro football, study defenses for the entire offseason. And I'm not talking about just study them. I'm talking about as if you were the defensive back coach of the defense. If you were the defensive coordinator. And that's what happened. Mike Zimmer last night, you could see Sean McBay spent all of his offseason getting in early in the morning. and just basically study in the Vikings tape to the point where if Mike Zimmer had a defensive question about his defense, McVeigh could have answered it.

And Mike Zimmer said after the game, he obviously was a little bit frustrated with how everything played out. And he said, this is probably one of the worst secondaries he's ever coached, which we find interesting because what was happening, and we talked about this off air before we got on here, was the reason that McVeigh was able to do that and elongate these routes was he could basically turn a drag into a wheel because Jared Goff had the time to let a wheel route develop. And that's the way that they were able to attack it. So up front they weren't getting the pass rush.

And then on the back end, McKenzie Alexander, Trey Waynes, all these guys are just getting roasted. I mean, it's the classic example. Look, if you count the five Mississippi, anybody can get open. If you count the three Mississippi, nobody gets open, right? It's the same principle, whether you're playing in the playground or you're playing in the Coliseum. If pass rush gets to the quarterback,

no matter what your secondary looks like, you're going to get the quarterback on the ground. But it doesn't matter how talented your secondary is, if you can't, if the quarterback has time, guys are going to get open. And I mean, when you just examine, the Vikings over the last since the second half of the Saints game. This Viking defense in the last six games has given up over 28.6 points per game.

Okay? They've given up numerous yards. They gave up 456 yards to the Eagles. They gave 358 to the Saints and people say, well, you know, there's some things happen in the second half. No, they only gave up 149 yards in the first half against the Saints. The Saints got another 200 yards in the second half. So people are understanding it.

And I can remember, you know, I forget the year. specifically, but it was opening day of the NFL season. I was working for NFL Network, and the Patriots played the Bengals, and Zimmer was the defense coordinator of the Bengals. And, you know, it looked on paper like it was going to be a really hard game. And so, you know, I was a little bit worried about it. And the Patriots, I think Tracy White intercepted a pass for a touchdown. And the Patriots blew out the Bengals. I mean, it was no good. So I went down on the field, and it was on the field. And after the game, I'm walking off the field with Belichick. And I said to him, I said, God, dang, that was really impressive. And he

said, you know, I've played Zimmer enough to really understand it. So I think we knew how to attack him. What he was saying to me was exactly what I just said to you. They understood the adjustments and they attacked the adjustments. And that's why most coaches that sit there in their office and draw all plays for waste of time. They should go over and go to clinics about defense. They should study defenses because when you can attack the defense specifically, you can look like Sean McVeigh. And I don't see enough guys do it. And we're talking about tendencies at this point. and Mike Zimmer does similar things, and McVeigh was basically playing a guessing game,

which is what we want to kind of debunk a little bit about what was talked about during the game, because a lot of it was, look at these amazing plays that Shaw McVeigh is drawing up, that they can't handle. But what he's doing is, he's seeing what the defense is. He's bunching in these guys,

and he's calling a play to specifically attack a certain position on the field, knowing that Anthony Barr or a linebacker is going to guard a guy. That's a lot quicker than him. He's creating it. He's not reinventing the wheel every week with new plays. He's taking his offense and strategically attacking, I mean, it's like a missile strike. You know, we used to send missiles.

Like battleship. Exactly. We used to send missiles out there and hope they hit, but now we have these laser-focused missiles that we know exactly the target. Maybe we should call Sean McFaid the satellite. He is. He's got laser target. He knows how to do it.

But it's his knowledge of defense. Bill Wall said the way he became the best offensive coach was he spent two years. It's in my book, Red Iron Genius, about he spent two years with Marve Levy understanding he was a defensive back. coach a cow. So he learned defense. Ernie and Sam Psi, who was a great offensive coordinator, revolutionized the passing game in the NFL for years. He studied defense. He was a defensive backfield coach that turned over. People doesn't give Belichick enough credit, but Belichick, because of his defensive background and his understanding of defense,

that makes him a better offensive coach. And so that's what happens. And I think Sean Payton does the same thing. He understands how to attack the defense. And so that's why they're so successful. Do you think there's anything, too, this is just a thought experiment that I kind of have in my head, having Wade Phillips in the building with Sean. And obviously, Sean is very curious and a guy that's very interested in the history of football and all that sort of stuff. But it's one of those things where they talked about Zimmer last night where he has no idea where the offense meets. He doesn't care. You know, that's his own separate thing at this point. But if you have Wade Phillips and you have this wealth of knowledge, I mean, is Sean McVeigh just soaking it in?

Is he in defensive meetings talking to Wade Phillips and looking at Mike Zimmertape, asking him what he's doing here? Exactly. And Wade brings that knowledge and that experience. You know, I'm reading this book, Wisdom at Work. It's about this guy, Chip Conley, who talks about he was a 55-year-old man that started a company, and then he got involved with the Airbnb guys. It's a fascinating book so far. And he's talking about how experience really plays into it and how his experience really helped their business.

And it's true. Like, he can go over to Wade and he could say, Wade, what Zimmer doing here? What's his ideas? And then Wade can easily explain it to him and say the history of it. He can go back and say, well, you know, back in the 80s, this was kind of popular, so people were doing this and we modify. That's really how you learn. It's in the history that makes you better in the future. And so I agree.

I think McVe, and McVe's ego never gets in the way of the game. It never gets in the way. He's not too shameful to go over and ask questions. I mean, you could just see when they were deciding fourth and one. He's got, I think he's got Jed Fish up in the box, talking helping him with game management, which is good. And so he's asking him, we got a pun here. here, right? You could just read his lips and say, we've got a pun here. And, you know, like, he's not, like, trying to become the smartest guy in the room. He's just trying to make sure he makes the

best decision for the room. And it's also a little bit of, like, a youthful exuberance to everything that he's up to. I mean, you pointed out this when it happened, but when Cooper Cup gets that long touchdown, and he runs that drag route, and Anthony Barr has to pick him up, and then he turns up field, and the golf makes the easy pass over top, and they score the touchdown. Shaw McVeigh sprinting on the field, jumping up and down and celebrating, and most people are thinking, that he's patting himself on the back for, you know, making some great call. But really, they saw the coverage. He thought the coverage was right. And they made the decision. They make the pass. And they're all celebrating together because they're all in these meetings the week

before talking about if we get this coverage, we know we can hit this. And when they hit it, they're all celebrating. Exactly. And I think if I'm sure, and I don't know this for a fact, but I can promise you with 90% certainty that the Rams practiced that play this week in practice, through a walkthrough, whatever they did. And it went just exactly the way it came off. And it looked exactly how it happened on their practice that had happened in the game. Because that's how you script. You know, practice, practice execution becomes game reality. And there's the perfect example of it right there. And that's why the Rams, look, the Rams are going to be hard to beat this year because they're really good in two areas. They're really good on offense and they're really

good in the special teams. And they never take their foot off the gas. I mean, you know, they're a gambler's dream come true. You got to think cousin Sal just absolutely loves the Rams, right? Or the degenerate trifecta, those guys? Everybody, yeah, against all out. Because look, that game, I would have taken the Rams plus giving the points up, and it was a push. It ended up being a push for seven. But the reality of it is, is they missed a chip shot field goal, and it would have been a different game. And so my sense of it is, is they never take the foot off the gas.

They're really good in the kicking game. And yes, their defense is nowhere near what they're paying for. Their secondary stinks. And unless Sue and Donald get pressure, they're not going to, they're not, but who can keep pace with them? Who can keep up with them? Nobody can. But it comes down to it. And I think you've said this before, but when you're playing this Rams team,

you're playing a clock management. Let's dirty this game up. In the same way that like Butler basketball, when they play a more superior athletic team, they're going to dirty and play slow and try to stretch this game out as long as they can. I mean, that's what you kind of have to do to this Rams team. But the thing about it is right when they get the ball back, they don't ever miss a beat. It never looks like they're cold for being on the sideline. As soon as they get back in, they're right back at it.

Yeah. And to me, if you're playing the Rams, you better know all your checks and adjustments. and change them that week. Like, hey, we used to play bunch this way, but we're not playing it that way anymore this week. We're going to change it because he's going to attack it the way you play it. And if you make a mistake with how you play it, it's going to screw him up.

That's the way he's going to get screwed up because he's dictating what you're doing by his checks and just. So what you've got to do is you've got to change. You've got to alter some things you have to do. And if you can't win the matchups, which it's hard to win those matchups. The thing I admire about the Rams even more, their receivers are, they don't drop a goddamn pass.

They really don't. They don't. They don't drop a pass. I mean, Cooks, look, I thought Cooks was a good player. I thought he had a hard time against press last year and was not good with the ball in his hand with the Patriots. I mean, remember Xavier Howard or the dolphins just kicked his ass in that game down there?

But Cooks has gotten better there. Robert Woods, I made this statement, Robert Woods. Like, what's he going to do for the Rams? Like, he wasn't that good in Buffalo. And he's like 10 light years better about what he is there. He never drops a pass. You can go to the Buffalo team. I mean, the Bill fans got to look at Robert Woods and say,

like, he never played like this for us. So it's in the teaching. And here's why it's so effective. Because what the Rams do is simple, right? Einstein has five levels of intelligence, right? Simple's the number one, right? They're simple. And because they're simple, they play fast.

And because they don't change their plays every week, they modify their plays. The players have confidence. And when players have confidence, they play faster. And that's really what's happened there. And they coach the shit out of receivers. Like, I don't know how they get them to never drop the ball, but they're remarkable. And when you go out there and it works, if you're Robert Woods, when he scores that touchdown and he gets matched up,

on bars, the same sort of deal, and he turns up field, and he's running down. In his head, as soon as he gets past him, he's probably thinking, this is a touchdown, you know what I mean? Like, you're already celebrating because you know you've prepared for this. It's here. They're running exactly what all the coaching staff has prepared you to see, and here it is. The confidence in that. Yeah, I mean, the fans don't get to hear the coaches of the headset, but you could, I promise you, in the headset, when the Rams, before that snap, McVeigh said, we got it, we got it. This is us. We got it.

Just take your time. Take a deep breath. Let's make the pass. Exactly. Excuse. Exactly. Just execute. And that's fun. And that's fun, and that's fun. And I think that they're going to be hard to beat. I mean, you could just see the Rams and the Chiefs playing in a playoff game, a Super Bowl.

The over, I don't know what the Vegas would set it at, but it's going to be a pretty high number. Yeah, we're going to be in the 40s, possibly 50s. I mean, it might be who even knows what will happen at that point. I want to talk about the Vikings a little bit, too, because I think they've kind of gotten lost in the shuffle here, just because I think they did play a pretty quality game. I mean, Eggman did say, I mean, he was like, this is one of the few times I've seen in a while

where we have two quarterbacks on both sides of the ball, really playing outstanding. You know what I mean? And we talked about quarterback play and how it's been up and down a little bit, but both those guys, especially cousins last night, made some great throws,

looked like a guy who was ready to get that offense rolling. I mean, putting up 31 points with the Mike Zimmer defense, you know, on paper, if you told Mike Zimmer, you're getting 31 points,

he thinks that's a win. Yeah, no doubt. And I mean, look, the Vikings' offensive line, we know is not very good. They don't travel well. It costs them the game. I mean, the sack,

fumble, strip fumble, cost them the game. Bad lines don't travel. Bad lines don't travel. It eventually cost them. But they played well enough. I mean, look, they played well enough. They just, you're not, look, the one thing you're not going to be able to do,

you're a basketball, you love basketball, you're not going to beat the Rams playing a track beat. You got to slow this thing down. And they tried to slow it down. The problem was they couldn't stop big plays. You know, the Rams were one for seven on third down in the game. They just couldn't get the game to, Zimmer couldn't get the game to third down. You know, and so therefore, it's the same thing. What happens to the chief?

You try to slow the game down. You can't slow it down. Until you eliminate big plays, you're not going to be able to do it. So I think what you've got to try to do is you've got to play coverage. You've got to force them to try to run the ball a little bit and play the run well. And I think that's the only chance you really have. I want to ask you, I mean, this is looking really long term about, because in my head, I think a lot of people most going into the season thought that the Vikings and the Rams are two

of the top cream of the crop NFC teams. Obviously, the Vikings right now are 1-1 and 2. The record doesn't really reflect that at the moment. But is there a world in which, I mean, this is a little bit of a stretch possibly, but is there a world in which where Mike Zimmer knows what he's getting himself? into with this Rams team, and it is early in the season. We're still, you know, figuring things out. We're still in September, is the end of September moving in October? Is there a world in which where he doesn't want to show all of his cards because he knows that this is the team he's going

to see? Or is that just, you know, too far-fetched to think that that's possible? I think that's a little far-fetched. I think what Mike Zimmer's got to be pissed off about. Look, his secondary didn't play well. Xavier Rhodes is not a good matchup for certain receivers, right? He has to win at the line of scrimmage. He's an early, he's what I call a breakfast corner. He's a physical presser at the line. Right, but he's got to win early. He's not, you know, some corners are dinner corners. They win late in the route, right?

The revises of the world. Right. They play off. They read the route. They read the quarterback's drop. They play off. A breakfast corner is a guy that got to win early. And that's really what Rhodes has to do.

He's got to win early. And I think he's pissed off at his secondary, but he's got to be pissed off his defense. Look, they miss Xavier Griffin. And we hope he's okay. Yeah, Emerson Griffin, yeah. Everson Griffin. They miss him badly. He's got to get mentally healthy.

And that hurts them. he was a good player for them. Hunter's a good player. See, when you have a combination of defensive linemen that are really good, then somebody has a single block. But if you only have one or two, it's hard to win. And I think that front's not playing to the level they need them to play. Do you think there's going to be, I mean, they mentioned McKinsey, Alexander, a guy they got out of Clemson a few years ago. They mentioned him having some struggles. I mean, will we see a situation where Zimmer maybe makes some changes? I mean, he might bring Terrence Newman back, who's on his coaching staff. I mean, 90 years old. I mean, Terrence Newman

played better than some of these guys are playing. I bet Zimmer's probably in the headset saying, Terrence, you play better. He's looking at George A. O'K., he's like, I'm going to bring the whole, Pac-Man Jones will be out there in a couple weeks. He's probably saying, hey, Terence Newman, you play better. And these guys, just go half-time, put somebody else's uniform. They won't know the fucking difference. There's one bright spot, though, and that's a former North Carolina guy, Mike Hughes.

He's a rookie. And, I mean, I just, I thought it was wild how after the game everyone seemed to turn so sour on the Minnesota Vikings. I thought they did have some bright spots. Obviously, the defense was what it was. But you're also playing the best. team. This is the best show on turf 2.0 at this point. And if you're not going to get a, if it's a seven-on-seven game and you're not going to get any pressure, the Rams are going to just kick your ass every

time. I mean, nobody's going to beat the Rams if they don't get the golf. There's just no way you're going to do it. You're just not going to be able to do it. But I'm trying in my head to figure out which team that is in the NFC that has that pass-fers. Obviously the Eagles for the team that had that last year and a team that really, but they're not the same up front that they were last year. So there's a lot of up in the air. And if there is no superior, supreme, uh, elite pass rush in the NFC. I don't really understand how you stopped his Rams office. I think the Saints will give the Rams a run for the money because they can

match. They can get in a track meet and play with them. They can get a track meet and play with them? Now, can they cover them so far? I think the Saints have to really simplify what they're doing. The Saints are horrendous on first down defense. They can't, you know, they give it up too many. The Packers possibly have Rodgers.

But the Packers play the Packers play battleship defense. I don't know what the fuck the Packers are doing. Like to me, I have no idea. The Packers can't stop anybody. I mean, Mike Petton's sitting up there. Like at some point, just get into a basic. defense and play sound defense. Like that's what the Saints have to do.

The Saints have to stop trying to dial the best perfect defense against the perfect day. You know, that doesn't work. Get sound, balance your defense up, make them earn it down the field. Play cover two, play a coverage, you know, give up four or five, six-yard gains, and then get it to third down, maybe make a play. But too often they're trying to be perfect all the time. That doesn't work.

I think the Saints could play a track meet with them. I think Philadelphia because Wince is back. If their defensive line gets better, that could happen. Team like Carolina that has a front forward with like short and some of those guys and peppers maybe. That would be a recipe. And Cam could have to make some plays. Just hold on to the ball and run the ball and try to get it. Basically try to beat them 21 to 17.

Well, like the Eagles did last week, the Eagles had the ball 40 minutes against the Colts and almost lost. But they scored 20 points in 40 minutes. I mean, if somebody goes and holds the ball 40 minutes against the Rams and doesn't give up big plays, you'll win. But if you hold the ball 40 minutes and give up four plays over 50 yards, you still ain't going to win. You know, it doesn't matter. You've got to eliminate big plays. you can't beat the Rams and give them two-play drives for touchdowns. You can't do it.

You got to keep the ball in front of you. I have to ask one more thing before we move on. First of all, Jared Goughke's compared to Mark Bollger, first 400-yard passing game since Mark Bollger. That was great. People haven't heard Mark Bollger in quite a while. But the Jared Gough situation, I mean, we talked about being a system quarterback. He's been called a game manager.

He's been called every backhanded compliment you could give a guy that's a quarterback for a team, especially a guy that was a number one pick. He made throws last night that looked like a true, you know, top of level elite quarterback of the NFL. And I'm, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick has done that on occasion too. But, I mean, is it time to start giving Jared Gough a little bit of his doing? I thought last night he convinced me. Like, I've been in doubt with the guy for a while.

You know, it's the worst quarterback in the playoffs last year. He didn't play well. He got pressure. You know, he got pressure last year in a playoff game. Atlanta put a lot of pressure on him and he couldn't handle it. I think the Rams offensive line doesn't get enough credit. I mean, they're playing way better. Aaron Cromer, I said this on another podcast.

He's done a great job with that line. But I do think, I think Goff's accuracy when, Gough has the time to do it. I do think I still would take Wence over Gough, but Gough impressed me with that game last night, and I thought he led the team well. He made, like you said, he made some incredible throws. And, you know, hey, it was a fun game to watch.

Let's be honest. It was really a fun game to watch. And those are the kind of things that I think that the league really wants. We didn't see any roughing calls that were ridiculous. So that's a good thing. So we're making progress there. And I have to bring this up. Joyner, I mean, Diggs is coming down,

and he is going to take a big shot. I mean, the classic shot when a safety is coming in to hit you on a deep ball. I mean, and Joyner pulled up, doesn't hit him. Diggs, comes up to him after the play. And, I mean, they showed the slow-mo. It was basically like, thank you. You know, I mean, he knew he's going to take a big shot. It doesn't make the catch anyway.

See, that's a great point, Dave, Frazier, because that shows you they're coaching it. That shows you their coaching. I think it also shows that there's a little bit of the players are starting to try to protect one another. It's like, why am I going to do this to someone that's in the same thing? And that, look, all the players, want is rules that are applicable. Now, they change the rule that, you know, like it's a crock of crap.

I mean, the league office is like the Warren Commission. They can rearrange anything they want, you know? So they've rearranged the rules, even though they didn't change it. So they understand how ridiculous it is. They just don't want to admit they made a mistake. So they changed it. I think we'll see less calls. But I agree with you. I think that proves that the Rams are coaching it. They're trying to coach it to the way that the rules are. It's just when the rules are so obscure and written so poorly, it's hard to do. And then I should say this in the next play, digs got wrecked by little John, you know, and a hit and his helmet flew off. So, I mean, it goes both ways.

Obviously, we're dealing with football. George Whitfield Jr.'s back tape, right? Yes. Can we talk about this? We're very excited about. This made my day. I love it. We're in the middle of Fitzmagic.

You know, everyone's excited about it. He is basically the David Blaine of football at this point. We all know that James Winston has missed the first three games, and everyone's been wondering what's going to happen when he comes back. And now we know, Lombardi, he's going to probably win the MVP because he has been working with the guru himself, Mr. George Whitfield, Jr. The brooms are back out. This is not a sweep time. This is a... How many games is George won in the NFL, by the way? I mean, I don't know. Look at his resume. Look at all the guys he's coach. How about the guy that took credit for

Christian Hackenberg's great success this offseason? You know, I fixed Hackenberg. Where is that guy? Where is that guy? He's probably cutting grass somewhere. I mean, like, give me a braid. Yeah. Hey, look, I mean, I'm happy George is back. What else will we talk about? It's great. George, George can promote George better than anybody. We just need all the characters back in football. I mean, I saw the other day I was watching FS1, Trent Dilfer's on the, you know, I miss everybody. You know, I just bring the band back together. I was just in Maui.

All I wanted was for Chris Berman to be somewhere out and about so I could give him, you know, little rumbling, dumbling, you know, something like that. I mean, we're at a time where all the characters are out and football is doing really well right now. You know who does a great Chris Berman impersonation? I mean a brilliant Chris Berman impersonation. Jim Nance. He does Chris Berman better than Chris Berman to do. We need that. I need that on record.

I got to get, we have to get the great one on the podcast at some point because he does it so good. He does it so good with the pauses, the, you know, have you ever seen a guy who doesn't finish a sentence and continues another sentence than Berman? But anyway, it's great. I love it. I'm happy that George is back. I mean, we need it. We need George. All right, Lombardi, before we move on to do our week four watch list of all the games, let's take a quick break to get a word from our sponsor, Yahoo Sports.

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And now back to GM Street. All right. And we are back. GM Street here. This is Lombardi and I. We go through the five games to watch out for this weekend. Lombardi gives you his picks. We got people on Twitter keeping up with this.

Everyone's very excited about your picks now. Now that I'm giving your record out and it's always wrong, people are coming in and correcting. I know. I forgot the guy who, whoever is listens to this and keep score. I've labeled you the scorekeeper. Yes. I got to get your address. I want to send you a book, courtesy of me, because I appreciate you.

Get him an autograph played in there, right? I'll do an autograph one, yeah, too. Speaking of autograph books, so we got to this week, I'm not going to Tony Peace this week because I'm going over to this Patriot Bar here and, Culver City to sit with all the Patriot fans and hopefully watch the Patriots play Miami. They might be disappointing. We might be a therapy session over. Miami is the trap game always. I might have to call Melty. Well, I mean, Tadahill's never won a game in New England in his career. So he's three and one in Miami against the Patriots, but it's never one up there. So I don't know. We might have to call Dr. Melfi for some therapy sessions going in there. You never know. I mean,

like we said, the Miami Dolphins are not necessarily winning football games. They're not losing football games. That's exactly right. Take it. That is the middle ground where you want to be in life. Speaking of a guy who is not necessarily losing football games, but definitely not winning football games at this point. That is my quarterback, Mitchell Tribesky of the Chicago Bears. He's my quarterback.

You took them away from Big Cat? I mean, Big Cat, tell me I'm not allowed to say anything bad about it. He's right. He's absolutely correct. You can't say anything bad about him. And if you watch Carolina play football now, you know how good Mitchell is at football, because my goodness, they are horrible at this point.

They are the only team in the country that's duet. You talked about duality all the time, Lombardy. False duality. Yes. No, this is true duality. These quarterbacks have thrown as many picksick as they have thrown real touchdowns at North Carolina right now. So Mitchell did some things there. At this point, Matt Nagy is still trying to figure out what he has on the offensive side.

They were able to eke out a win against the Cardinals last week. And now they're going to take on, we're going to see Fitzpatrick, right? There will be Fitzpatrick. I mean, unless George makes a quarterback substitution. I don't know. I mean, George could. We haven't heard. Dirk Cutter might have George Whitfield in the headset up there.

He's called a ton of plays. He knows how to do it. I mean, if I would, I would call George. What if George is any good at Madden? You think he's good at Mad? Yeah. I bet he's great at Maddened. I think that's how he invented this old brand.

You know, I was great at Tiger Woods at one time. When my kids were young, I was addicted to Tiger Woods. I play that damn thing every night I come home from work. It was ridiculous. I get addicted to golf in like 6th to 8th grade. And I played every single day I came home, played Tiger Woods, watched the golf channel for about eight hours a night. Brando Chambly, Frank Noblo, all those guys.

It's Rider Cup Week, Lombard. Yeah, I know. Tigers out there in France. I was addicted to that and I was addicted to Batman. There was like five levels of Batman, and I was addicted to it. The babysitter used to have to come get me through, like, level two, and I could get through that, and I could get through like three levels. And then like 10 years later.

What are you playing this on Nintendo 64? Yeah, like it was like a PlayStation. It was like a PlayStation. It was like, you know, and I was addicted to it. I could get to level four, but I couldn't get any further, right? And so I gave it up. And then like 10 years later, I'm at the beach house in New Jersey, and it's a summertime, and I hear this scream.

I don't think, oh, no, something happened, you know? Yeah. And Mickey, my oldest son, he finally finished the game and got through level five. It was like it. It was like a great moment. That was Einstein's five levels. It was through that Batman game. Yeah, it was.

That's what it was. All right. So the Bears, look, if Mitchell Tribeskey can't move the ball against this bad buck defense, then you've got problems. Here's the issue of Mitchell. He's 54 quarterback rating when people blitz him. He doesn't handle the blitz very well. Now, this team in Tampa Bay, they don't play very good defense at all. And I think the Bears pass rush, you've got to think Fitzpatrick.

is sore after last week, right? The Steelers beat the shit out of them, right? So it's going to be hard for him to really make plays. I think the Bears win the game. I think the Bears dominate on defense. And I think Tribisky should play better in this game. They should be able to move the ball. They're playing home. And they've got enough tape on Tampa. Tampa's coming off a short week. I like Chicago. And I will say this. I would watch out for Levante David and Kwan Alexander because both those guys are going to be Blitz and Mitchell Trubisky. And if they get in those situations, as we've talked about, I mean, he has their Trubisky tuck. That is his patented move at this point where he tucks it and tries to get out of Dodge

when the pocket collapses. Look, if Trubisky doesn't move the ball against the bears, then you better admit he's not very good. Against the bucks? Against the bucks, I'm sorry. I'm giving him time. No, if he doesn't move the ball against the bucks, you got to admit it.

I mean, to me, it's, you got to say something. I watched Jared Goff his first year. Yeah, but this is... I remember. I remember. But Jared Goff, when he finally got the good coach, when he got McBey in there, changed immediately.

I think Nagy's a good coach, too, but I think they'd be better with Chase Daniels. but that's a whole other story. I do like Chase Daniel, that's for sure. Let's talk about the next game that we have on the docket. We have the reigning champs, the Philadelphia Eagles, they're going to take on the Tennessee Titans. And they're only a three-point favorite against the Titans.

I mean, how is that possible, right? It's very interesting. I feel like the Eagles are not getting their due right now, especially with wins coming back, right? Yeah, I mean, plus here, realize that the Titans only score three points of the second and third quarter combined. I mean, they can't score points.

I mean, where are they going to get offense from in this game? I mean, seriously, how are they going to keep pace? The Eagles keep the ball. Anyway, probably the Titans will have the ball 26 minutes in this game. Where are they going to get 20 points? Like, I can't find it. Their longest pass play is still that fake punt. They have no ability to make a play in the passing game.

Mario is still, Mike Brabel's saying his arms still can't make throws. This is not a good situation. He said he's working back into his rotation. And then I saw a video. It reminded me of the Andrew Luck video that came out where he barely like threw the football and everyone got really excited. I mean, he like floated a ball on a little wheel route. And people are like, Mariotta's looking like he's getting there.

It's like, no, that did not look great. I mean, I don't know. I just like, where are they going to get offense from to keep pace? I mean, if the Eagles block a rack-po and they're able to make some plays, look, I think the Eagles receivers are lacking. I mean, Aguilar is averaging under eight yards a catch so far for the team, so they're not making any explosive plays with their offense. But for me, I think this is a game where I can't see where the Titans get 20, and I think the Eagles get 20. I think the Eagles are, this to me is one of those that looks so easy, it scares me, but I just can't see how it happens. Is there anything that we should take away?

I saw this week, this was all over, like, NFL Live and all those types of shows, that people were saying Carson Wins was really struggling with the cover two defense that the Colts were thrown at him. He had to really settle into the cover two. I mean, I don't know how much you buy into it. It seems like a very blanket statement for something. Yeah, no, I mean, look, the play of the game. But that's what the Titans run as well.

Yeah, I mean, look, they're going to run their plays to beat it. And I think Wence, the other thing I think it's going to happen in this game is Wince is going to play better because this will be the second game Winsers back and his feet will get underneath them. he'll play faster. I think the Eagles' offense, maybe Alshan Jeffrey plays back. He hasn't been cleared. They need explosive plays out of their outside. But I do think the Eagles can win this game easily because their defense should be able to dominate the Tennessee defense. I mean, the game's never going to get away from Tennessee. Tennessee, if the Eagles get up 14 to nothing in the first quarter and they start fast, where does Tennessee get 14 points? Like they tried the

fake punt. They did that. They beat, you know, the Texans went in there and gained over 400 yards against them. I think the Eagles will move the ball. We'll see what happens. I mean, we should say Carson Winses obviously does not have the weapons that he had last year. I mean, he's throwing the ball to, you know, Josh Perkins and all these other people around him. So he's still trying to find his footing as he's getting back into the routine. So that is one thing to watch out for. The next game we have is the Seattle Seahawks are going down to Arizona to take on the Cardinals. The Cardinals almost stolen away from the Bears.

I mean, maybe you should have won that game against the Bears last week. Steve Wilkes and that Cardinals team trying to still figure it out. Lombardi, just looking at this game, I mean, Russell Wilson, I mean, he looked like Russell Wilson last week against the Cowboys as we both thought he would. Yeah, he played better. I mean, it seemed like he got a little bit more rhythm going. I think they blocked a little better. He loves playing the Cowboys.

Yeah, he loves playing the Cowboys. Look, he's played really well in Arizona. You know, going down to Arizona, they're 3-0 and 1 in the last four games, the Cahawks. The Seahawks go down, even with a bad team, they win down there. So I like Seattle here. I think Seattle's better. I don't think they're 214. They're the same team as they were in 2014 or 2013, but I think they're getting better.

And I think they're running the ball better. I think they're able to pass protect better. I think the running games a little more diversified. I just don't see where Arizona is going to score any points. I mean, Arizona's scored about six points in the last three quarters of games. But now we have Josh Rosen. We have chosen Rosen. And I think it's going to be a challenge for him to get used to the speed of the game

and have to handle something. He said there were nine mistakes before he was picked in the NFL draft. This would be huge. I mean, I just think Seattle's the better team. I just don't know where Rosen's going to be. going to be able to create plays. Can David Johnson run the ball against him? Yeah, I think he probably will. Can he do it consistently for 60 minutes? I don't know about that. So I think it's going to be a real challenge. I had someone actually reach out. I apologize. I can't remember the name, but someone

did reach out and say, why is David Johnson not a guy that is a lot of teams are trying to target to be their number one back of team, maybe like the New England Patriots or any of these teams that are truly contenders that are trying to find that one piece in the backfield. And David Johnson, obviously has been that guy before. Is there any interest in that or is it one of those things where it's almost like an Adrian Peterson situation about four or five years ago where obviously it would be nice to have that premiere back, but then you have to dedicate the offense to him. Look, I think David Johnson, I think they're hoping that Rosen's going to help David Johnson

get going on with the run game. I think they're, you know, look, the great Sam Bradford's average five yards. He loves checkdowns more than anybody, so he was taking them. I had someone this weekend when I was in Maui told me that Sam Bradford was a better quarterback than Carson Palmer. And who is that person? Was it George Whitfield? It was a Los Angeles Rams fan from London.

He's full of crap. He's had too much warm beer, Tafraser. Yeah, something was going on there. But Sam Bradford, again, working magic in the world. But back to Josh Rosen. He's not going to start this week. You know, look, I think Seattle's not great on defense. I think they're better.

I think Rosen will make mistakes in the game. I think he'll take more chances than Bradford did, which will be good and bad. I think he'll turn the ball over. And turnovers is what Seattle's after. I like Seattle here. I think Richard Penny's not quite the back that they, that they really need. The cards have only been in the red zone

two times with Sam Bradford. So like this offense design, their play, I just don't think it's good enough. They had a chance to win last week. They couldn't make the plays. I like Seattle. Yep. And we'll keep an eye on that.

And obviously, if the Seattle team gets back-to-back wins, people will start changing their tune on them because a lot of people were saying they were playing for the number one pick. Not too long ago. Next up we have the San Francisco 49ers, Sands Jimmy Garoppolo, going down to take on the Los Angeles Chargers.

Obviously, Ruben Foster, Fred Warner, that run defending linebacker group that they have there has been great for the 49ers. We'll see if Melvin Gordon can do something against those guys. I mean, what do you see in this one? Do we have a chance where C.J. Bethard can do something? I think the Chargers win, but I think this will be a closer game. I don't see why anybody thinks the Chargers can dominate anyone. I mean, they're 10 and 9 under the Anthony Lynn administration. And when you break down the 10 wins, they beat a bad giant team last year.

They beat Oakland twice last year. They beat a bad Denver team. beat a bad Buffalo team twice, beat Dallas, Cleveland, Washington, the Jets. So they don't have a signature win ever. Not that the 49ers would give them a signature win because I think the 49ers, but I think the 49ers will move the ball. I think the 49ers, the Chargers have allowed 73 third-down conversions already this season. Their schemes are too easy, predictable.

And it's deflating. If you watch these Chargers games, I mean, every single game you feel like they should be in a better position than they are. and then they get in these, you know, it would be a third and 12, third and eight, whatever it is. And then it just seems to always go the wrong way for whatever. They can't get pressure. They have five sacks against Buffalo. They have seven sacks for the season.

I mean, James is a great free safety. But, like, I don't know where their defensive play. They miss Bosa badly. And he's out until at least week eight at this point. I think Kyle Shanahan will attack the scheme. I think this would be a really good game. I think the Niners cover. I think Los Angeles can win the game.

But, like, I'm not buying, I'm not buying the Chargers at all. Until they prove that they can beat a really good team. somewhere with a home or away, I'll buy them, but right now I'm not buying them. Okay, and final game of the week, we have the Terrell Suggs Bowl, the showdown. This is the most important game of that man's life always. The Ravens are going to go up to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers.

Big Ben has been coordinated yet again. Big Ben is back, as they like to say. And last year, we remember when Rathsburg had played this Ravens team. I think he threw it, what, like 60, I think it was like 66 times, something crazy like that. But at this point, I mean, what do you expect to see in this game? Are the Steelers? Did they write the ship against the,

looking years last week. Well, I mean, look, they played really well, and their defense got a lot of hits on the quarterback. They put pressure on them, which is what they had to do. They can't really cover anybody. Baltimore's the best red zone offensive team. They've had 12 trips down there. They've scored 12 touchdowns. Remarkable, right? But Baltimore's a bad road team. They're one and three on the road against Pittsburgh so far, but every game is close. I mean, every game is really close. One game, they got blown out, but for the most part, there was an overtime game that the Baltimore won, and then there was a four-point law. and then it was a one-point loss.

So I think these games are going to be really close. I think, you know, the thing that's funny about this game, Tate Fraser, everybody thinks it's going to be the slugfest, right? Everybody thinks this is going to be two tough, hard-nosed teams battling out. No, the Steelers throw the ball almost, they throw the ball almost 77% of the time in the first half. That's last in the NFL in terms of rushing attempts in the first half. And 31st of the last rushing attempts are the Baltimore Ravens.

So this is a game that's about two-quarterback. And so if you're going to put the game on that level, I'm taking Rothesburg. Yes, so it's Flacco versus Big Ben. It's Flacco, and I think Blacko will make a mistake. And I think that's why I favored. I think it'll be a close game, but I favor Pittsburgh in this one. It always is a close game. I mean, it is one of the best rivalries we have in football.

And obviously, in the AFC North, it is always a lot of fun to see those guys. And see Big Ben and Flacco go. Mono I'm always a good time as well. Before we get out of here, Lombardi, is there anything just on the docket as far as just the NFL cleanup duty? I mean, we obviously hit a lot of stuff with McVeigh. But it's good at Eric Reed came back in the league. That's a good thing, right? I think that's good for the league.

Congratulations to Carolina Panthers sign. Eric Craigs for people that didn't see that. Which they needed them. I mean, look, they don't have any safeties. Colin Jones is playing safety for them. I mean, they got. Last year, Tray Boston played safety for them. I mean, yeah.

Goes to show you. They were not, Tray Boston's playing for the Chargers now, by the way. You know, and missing tackles for them now as well. Thank you very much. So, you know. It's garbage time interceptions. Yeah, we didn't talk about the Great Blake Bortals.

like Bortle's playing the Jets this week. You know, there's an example of that. The Jets beat the Jets beat Jacksonville last year in overtime. I know they ran the ball effectively on them. But I think this week, the games, it's going to be interesting. If Indianapolis, if Houston doesn't beat Indianapolis this week, which I don't think they will, but maybe they do. I don't know.

I'm not talking about that. I don't put that on the scorecard, please. You know, I mean, they're 0 and 4 and then where do they go from there? So, I don't know, this is a season that I think September is really all about. you know, where your team is. Filling each other out. Right. And I think this Miami, New England game's going to be, I mean, if Miami wins and goes

four and O, and New England's one and three, they have a three game lead in the east after four weeks, huge, right? Huge. And New England's got their challenge because Miami's offense is really the Kansas City offense. Okay. What I think Adam Gase did is he took, he saw Kansas City take New England to the woodshed an opening day last year. And he said, and I think through this offseason, he said, you know what?

I got a change. I'm going to do the Kansas. So he got Amadola to be a role. He got Tyreek Hill's role placed by Grant and placed by... We're going to spread the field. Spread the field. And we're going to spread it horizontally, use the whole field, and take Tannihills really influence out of the game and have a lot of big plays.

And that's what they've done. And they've done it really well. And their defense has been able to get control and make those turnovers that they need to. This will be a challenge for New England. I think people think New England's going to win. I think Miami, I think the spread is about seven. I think Miami will, it'll be a close game unless Tannahill turns the wall over and loses the game, which he's very capable of doing.

Yes, we do. Especially on the road. Yes, we do know that. I have two AFC Westings to watch out for. One, Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns going to see John Gruden and the Raiders. If Baker Mayfield and the Browns get another win, back to back wins, and John Gruden goes winless to start out this season. We might need to send John to Vienna. He's going to need a team of psychologists.

Yeah, we're going to have to figure out the Lamb situation. Maybe I may go drive up there and just help get him out. of Dodge. Yeah, I mean, he's in trouble. If he loses this game, I mean, look, Homefield has got to play a vet. Look, we know that, we know the Raiders. If Cleveland goes to Oakland, just the optics of that with those Raiders fans, I'm just saying, if Baker-Maidfield goes in there,

first of all, Grude is going to have to give Baker-Mayfield the Gruden Grinder Award, you know, because he's just going to respect him so much. You're not going to be able to, you know, we might trade for him. We might put it up. We might try to trade for him. I mean, it will be a scene, honestly, if this does happen. You can see the frustration sort of building up there a little bit

at this point. I'm telling you, this is Look, the Raiders in all three games had chances to win. They've given games away. They've lost games. The other team hasn't really won them. I think the Rams did win it, but they've lost games. Carr's been one for five on third down in the red zone. He's three for nine in the red zone.

Only one touchdown pass, two rushing. So they haven't been able to convert red zones. They give up way too many big plays. But they're playing home. Crowd noise has got to help them. They've got to put pressure on Mayfield. The Jets never even hit Mayfield. I mean, essentially, they really, I mean, they got them once.

But for the most part, in that whole second half, the Jets played vanilla. The Jets players, to me, were right. They played a vanilla game. The Raiders got to turn up the heat and they got to put pressure and force Mayfield into making mistakes. Yep. And then the other game I want to talk about Monday Night Football is pretty far from now. But the Kansas Chiefs, obviously, what that offense has been and what Mahomes has been, this will be the test. Because Von Miller is the guy.

With crowd noise. He is a trust buster in every sense of the word. I mean, that Carolina Panthers offense came to the Super Bowl. Everyone thought that they were unstoppable. Guess what Von Miller did? He shut them down. But they were better in the back end. The Broncos are not good in the back end.

The Broncos defense. They're all gone. I mean, this is a completely different. But you're right. This is the chance where this could be a game where the Chiefs actually have to execute on third down and force them to have to not make big plays. If they can do that, look, I think Denver will move the ball in Kansas City. This is the three Mississippi game. If Von Miller is playing at Bob Miller's level.

This is a three Mississippi game. If it's a five Mississippi game, the Chiefs win easily. Absolutely. So we're going to keep an eye on all that stuff going into the weekend. We'll be back on Tuesday, of course, to break down all the reactions from all the games. Thanks for listening. Thanks, Dave Fraser. All right, that does it for this week's Friday sit down of GEM Street.

And coming up now, we've got the Danesie football show with both Danies. But first, we've got to get a word from our sponsor, MyBooky. People always ask me for advice. Usually it's what team to bet on this week. The truth is, I don't know who's going to win. Lombardi might know. Maybe the Danys know. I don't know.

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You play, you win, you get paid. And now the Danesie Football Podcasts. Here are the Danes. Hey guys, my name's Danny Hifitz. I'm joined today by Danny Kelly. How you doing, D.K.? I'm doing great, man. Nice.

I'm glad to hear it, dude. We're the host of the Danny C. Football Podcast, and we're going to throw up some last-minute fantasy advice heading to the weekend. Shall we do it, D.K.? Let's do it. How do you feel about Richard Matthews this week? For good things out of Tennessee. I think he just asked for his release, so I would probably not start him. Yeah, not quite.

Great stuff. Real Lightning Round. first guy. All right, Amari Cooper, Raiders, he's at Cleveland. I gotta say Cooper's probably like the most frustrating fantasy football player ever. I have him in multiple leagues this year. He's just one of those guys that'll go off one week, not the other. I think you have to, I'm sticking with him, begrudgingly, just because I think he's still going to get the volume. But I mean, if you have him, just trade him. That's my, that's my advice. Amari Cooper, comma, begrudgingly, should just be his name on your roster. Exactly. I'm out on the guy.

Who do you got? My next person, Sony Michelle, Patriots are playing the Dolphins this week. So look, he obviously has the job. He got 10 carries in week two for just like 34 yards. 14 carries in week three for like 50. Bill Simmons has been very clear about his distaste for Michelle's abilities on his podcast. Lombardi, as he pointed out, I mentioned, you know, sometimes Michelle just kind of just looks lost sometimes on the field. Obviously, he's a rookie at surgery in early August.

but for our purposes here with fantasy and stuff, look, Rex Burkett obviously is on injured reserve with his neck injury, Jeremy Hill, already tore his ACL. He has the volume. He seems to be like he's going to be the lead back, almost certainly. And as Lombardi mentioned on the pod this week, you know, James White is kind of a catcher.

He's not really a runner, can't really do things in traffic. Even if you don't believe in Michelle as being Dionne Lewis, I still think for fantasy purposes, he's totally worth a flex spot. So I'm totally in. Yeah, it's volume, it's volume. I'm with you on that one. My next guy is Buck Allen of the Ravens at Pittsburgh. Allen has been one of the NFL's best touchdown vultures this season.

So I'm actually in on him. I wouldn't say start him over Collins if you have Collins, but I would say he's worth the start at this point just because he's getting a lot of the Red Zone stuff. He's been functioning in their passing game, so I think he's worth to start. On the fence? It's a worthy flex, as we'll get to later.

running backs shockingly thin at the moment at the end. Next one for me is just Packer running backs. I mean, this is all inclusive right now, Aaron Jones, Thai Montgomery, Jamal Williams. In theory, this should be a good game against Buffalo. It wasn't great in theory against the Vikings last week, but I kind of count that as an aberration. I think the Packers will get up big on Buffalo.

I think they'll be up three touchdowns. In theory, you would get a lot of volume. I think playing them, maybe you could get 25 points from Aaron Jones, Jamal Williams. I think that they have really low floors and you don't know who's going to get the ball right now. Very risky. I'm out. I feel like you probably have a better option on your bench somewhere.

Yeah, I got Jamal Williams in the Ringer League, and he's going to be sitting on our bench, so I'm out too. Another packer for the next one, Randall Cobb versus Buffalo. Last week was kind of a disaster for him. I think he had two drops, a fumble. You know, he just did not look in sync. At the same time, he got a lot of volume. He still had 11 targets, four catches, 22 yards. I'm in on, I'm in on Cobb versus Buffalo.

I think with Devante Adams probably going to be. lining up against Chardavius White. That's going to be their shadow coverage there. And I think that could open things

up. They'll look for Cobb. And I want to say that Aaron Rogers is one of those quarterbacks. This is something

that Scott Barrett has talked about. He just, in those tight, you know, coverage situations with number one corners,

he ends up just going to other receivers usually. He just doesn't try and push the envelope there. So I like Cobb

in this game. I still love Geronimo, Allison, but I feel Cobb. I feel the yeah, they both could

be good options, honestly. I feel Billicob, though. Next one for me, Royce Freeman against Kansas City. I have such mixed feelings on this. I have him in the Ringer Fantasy League. So last week, 13 carries, 53 yards in a touchdown

after Philip Lindsay got ejected. And what we learned from that is not so much that they're competing against one another as much as they really just seem determined to divide them into a true committee and that each guy's going to get a certain split and they're going to roll with who seems to be reading the blocks best. and that's good and bad.

It's annoying because it's kind of like, wow, Royce is not going to be the three-down guy you probably envision when you got him. But at the same time, there also seems to be a floor built in where Philip Lindsay's not going to just usurp him and get his job like week seven and you're just going to have this useless Royce for him

and you have to cutter trade. So I'm in very begrudgingly. Are you not worried about the game script on this one? I am for sure because the chiefs are probably going to be up. But at the same time, I still think, look, if they're trying to score, I still think there'll be red zone opportunities who's going to be able to get.

I would throw him at flex, but very, like, I am not excited about it. Next guy, Tyler Lockett, Seahawks at Arizona. You know, we talked about Brandon Marshall before. Lockett has kind of emerged as the guy, I think,

to go with in the Seahawks passing game. Now, the question is, will Doug Baldwin play this week? Because he's practicing today. He says he's ready to go. So that is kind of a factor here. I'm in on Lockett, but it kind of depends on what happens

with Doug Baldwin. Keep Baldwin's status in mind on Saturday, Sunday morning, or whatever, see how that goes. I think if Baldwin's out, he's a sure-fire start. If not, I'm a little less confident by it.

I'd probably be out if Baldwin plays. I don't, I'm not worried about Baldwin even if he does play because, so what happened with him in week one was he kind of hurt that knee. He'd been dealing with another knee injury.

He hurt the other knee in the game, stayed in the game, and he should have came out. But he's a tough dude. I don't think he'd ever miss the game before that, I could be wrong, but he had a very long stretch of never missing time,

and I think that they won't be trying to re-aggravate this or make anything worse in the game. I think they'll be very cautious with him. Yeah, that's fair. All right, D.K. Now we're going to do some stargazing. These are the star players

keeping you up at night. There's actually not that many this week. There's actually a lot of good matchups. We almost talked about Isaiah Crowell, which is how deep we scraped the bottom of the barrel this week. The only person really, think that caught our eye this week was Jhajai.

Caught our eye, Jhajai. We're going against the Titans. He's been dealing with a back injury. Broken back, in fact. That's, that just sounds bad. Sounds really bad. So this is kind of more of an approach about how you approach injured running backs in general

and just a good matchup. So my thinking here is he's going to play and the question is pain tolerance, which is kind of like the last thing you want to hear. I think the Eagles are good enough, deep enough that if they're winning by a lot, they're probably not going to be a situation where they're going to force them out there if they have to.

At the same time, my sense is a Jai, even in a limited role, getting limited times probably better than what you have on your bench. I'm still rolling with him. What do you think, D.K.? Yeah, I mean, if you have a deep, if you're on a deep league and you really need a running back, I think I would be fine. I would feel fine going

with him this week because I could just see him having one of those games where it's like 10 touches and two touchdowns, you know, like that kind of thing. He's kind of their guy at least based on what we saw sort of in week one. He's their guy in the red zone. He's the kind of guy that can break open a big run. So I'm sticking with him for now.

I think that the injury is definitely something to monitor going forward. And that's why I think we talked about Corey Clement being a really interesting stash option just because if Jai, if these injuries keep building up, I just think at some point they're going to shut him down. So I'm good to go with the Jaii this week, but that back injury is definitely something to monitor going forward. So I'm going to chime in here. What's up, guys?

So I have JJ on my fantasy team. Really? I'm just wondering, is it worth the headache to worry about him getting injured midgame? If you have somebody else, like, let's say, carry on Johnson. Is that your option? Yeah. I mean, I probably go with Johnson. Really?

Yeah, I mean, he seemed to separate himself in that backfield. They finally got over the hump and they got that 100-yard game finally after years. They seem to be kind of, you know, figuring it out, at least on that offensive side of the ball. So he has more of a guarantee to play the whole game. I thought that had more to do with how bad New England's run defense is, and I don't think Dallas is going to be a similar matchup in the grand history of the lion's not running. So I think the Johnson thing, I need to see the Lions do that twice before. I'm just like, oh yeah, I'll get another 100 yards. I still think a Jai 15 touches from him is better, but sucks to suck.

That sounds awful. Great. Also, intern Craig, who is no longer intern Craig. I'm just Craig now. You're just Craig? No, no, no, you're not Craig. Craig is the chief. Just Craig.

Anyway, moving on. to, we're going to build a little streamer lineup. We're just going to, if God forbid, you really have to pull someone off waivers and put them in your lineup right now. Buy weeks are here. We're just going to throw together a lineup of people who are under 50% owned, ish.

So, starting at quarterback, first one we got here, Case Keenham, all the Broncos, going against Kansas City. I think this is kind of just bare bones, right? D.K., I mean, Kansas City blows people out, and by the second quarter, they've abandoned whatever faint game script they put together, and you just

start shucking the ball. And Case Keenum actually plays pretty well from behind. And he's like, he's the gunslinger. You know, he had like an amazing amount of passing yards in college. I think it's a kind of, it's one of those situations that shapes up it could be passing at a time. He could throw like 50 passes because the, uh, the chiefs are up 21 to nothing in the first quarter or whatever.

So, um, yeah, I mean, I like this from a fantasy point of view. Keenum is not necessarily an exciting option, normal, in normal situations. Respect him. That's the, that's the best guest in the history. true, slow news day with Kevin Clark. So how dare you go? How dare you? All right, D.K., who do we got at running back this week?

All right, so the running back streaming situation this week is really, really tough. There's basically no solid options. I think the two that we came up with, I'll start off with Theoretic at Dallas. He's one of those guys that's going to get a lot of volume in terms of just receptions. This is a PPR option only, I would say. He's kind of the outlet option for Stafford and that offense. And right now he's sixth in running back reception. He's playing a Cowboys team that has allowed the six most catches to running backs and they don't have Sean Lee this week. So it's an option now again

The Carry-on Johnson thing complicates the situation. I think that they're probably going to lean on Johnson a little bit more But if you're super desperate, Riddick is an option Sorry for the pause. I just I am I threw up in my mouth a little bit while you were talking I'm thinking about fear Riddick in my starting lineup My next guy. It's it's the same principle in that look I have Nahim Neheim Heinz I can't say names Naheim Naheem Heinz.

Well, here's the point. These are both past catching dudes that are going to get like five catches for however many yards. And you kind of have to pray they get a touchdown. Maybe really gets a little more cat. But the point is that there are no good streaming running backs right now at the moment. That is like the overarching point of what we're saying. Don't do this. Don't take one of these dudes to throw them in your lineup.

If you have to, you're probably hoping that they get a touchdown. But the overarching point is the next wave of running backs they're going to be getting playing time or massive increases are probably some handcuffed to someone who gets hurt. And like, that's really, that's all that's out there right now. It's really bare bones. Receivers, on the other hand, is very interesting. Yeah, I mean, there's definitely more guys in the receiver position that you could, if you got a flex spot you need, I'd probably rather go with some of these guys.

First guy I want to bring up, Antonio Calloway, the Browns. Coming off a, you know, not a great game. You only had four catches, I think. And, you know, so he's not really on a lot of people's writers. But he had 10 targets. I think that Baker Mayfield really changes that offense. I think just the way that they're going to play the amount they pass, the amount of first downs they get,

how dangerous they are everywhere around the field. I think that makes him an interesting target. Now, if Calaway hadn't dropped a few passes downfield, he probably would have had like 70-something yards or whatever. And Toronto under threw him on like two touchdowns, too. Yeah, I mean, so like, I think he's an option. He had the touchdown the week before in the Saints game, and he's just kind of, I think he's going to develop as the outside guy in that offense.

And so, you know, I think he is definitely worth the stream this week. And, you know, going forward, I think that the Brown's offense can look a whole lot different. I agree on that. He's at the very least the bench stash. Yeah. Someone this week, I'm a Giants fan. I hate the Giants. Love, hate.

Ted Ginn Jr. this week, the Saints crush us. The first football game I ever went to where one of them was actually a Saints Giants game where Drew Brees lit them on fire. They dropped like 50 points Reggie Bush returned a punt fell down, no one touched him bad memories. The point is the Saints are going to crush them. Ted Ginn is

really good bet for a touchdown in this game. Probably a little desperate if you have to actually play him but you could do a lot worse. I mean, you know how I feel about Ted Ginn. Ted Ginn is your boy. Kevin and Mays laughed at you

on air. To your face. He's been pretty good. Six targets week one, seven targets week two, six targets week three. I mean, obviously the lines share of the targets are going to Michael Thomas, but he's like their number two, and that's a good passing offense. So it's not the worst option you could have. R.D.K., tight ends, you've got to throw in your lineup from waivers. Who are you looking at? I think Dallas Goddard, the Eagles is worth a, you know, if you're really desperate at the tight-in position.

He played a bunch last week with injuries to Mike Wallace, Alshan Jeffrey. I don't know what Jeffrey's, you know, status is going to be. He's been cleared for contact, but we still don't really know exactly how they're going to use him. So last week, they used a two tight-end set on 67.5% of their snaps, and he had a big game, seven catches, 73 yards, and a touchdown. I think they could still try and lean on that two-tied-in set a bunch this week. And so, you know, if you're looking for a desperation ad at Titan, he could be a guy. I agree.

I like that a lot. Well, just for this week, because Titan's so terrible this year. The last person I got, Vance McDonald, I thought he'd be way higher own than he actually is. He's like roughly a quarter of leagues roundabouts, but he's on the Steelers. I think people kind of assume that Jesse James is the dude in Pittsburgh, but in reality, Vance McDonald's, Vance McDonald is the person that schematically just fits what they do better. He's much more versatile. He's a better athlete.

And they actually ran specific designs for him. They had one of those little kind of flick plays. It's really interesting what they're doing with him. Jesse James is just a dude. That might be mean. But Vance McDonald's like, the dude. And I would totally want a piece of him in that offense going forward. So I'm down with him this week, but he's also, I think he might be worth keeping for the rest of the other.

Yeah. Five targets last week. Five targets this week. And yeah, he's beginning to be a little. bit bigger part of that offense. And so yeah, I think that's smart, at least worth an ad at this point. All right, TK, that's all the time we got. I will let you

go. Enjoy the games this weekend. Although you are going to go against Josh Rosen, your Seahawks against Rosen's first start ever. It's embarrassing to lose that one. Hopefully they hopefully the Seahs crush him. I think you're going to get crushed and it's going to be awesome. And then you're going to trade Earl Thomas and then I'll make fun of you. But until then, peace man.

All right, sounds good.