The Ringer NFL Show - Receiving Yards or Deceiving Yards? Week 3 Waiver Pickups I The Dantasy Football Podcast

Episode Date: September 17, 2019

Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz, and Craig Horlbeck run through the fantasy implications of Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger’s injuries (02:00), whether Lamar Jackson, Austin Ekeler, and John Ross’s stats are real or fake (26:15), and Daniel Jones coming for Eli Manning’s job (37:00). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Welcome to Daniel Jones season and welcome to the Danesie Football Podcast on the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer Podcast Network. My name is Danny Hyfitts and I'm joined as always by my co-host, my co-danny, the hero we need and the fantasy analyst we deserve. The Dark Night Danny Kelly. D.K., what is on your mind? Man, I'm just kind of thinking about how cold it is. I'm up here in Seattle. I had to turn on the heat for the first time today. It feels like fall.

Football is back. It's kind of a good thing. It's a little bit bittersweet. You're a dad now. So by DNA, you just start messing around the thermostat, right? Exactly. Exactly. So, but yeah, I don't know.

It's just kind of getting back into the groove of the NFL season. It feels good, though. Fatherhood looks good on you, D.K. Also joining the studio by Craig Holbeck. What is on your mind, Craig? I'm just worried. Now that Daniel Jones is in the mix, is he going to become the third.

member of Danessie? Wow. Yeah, we could kick you off. I know. I got to change my name to Dan, stat. No, there's no. You either know or you're not. You can't just be a Dan. You're born or Dan or you're not. Gotcha. All right. Well, you watch out, Craig. We can get, can we get, we'll get Daniel Jones on to replace you eventually. We're going to be diving into everything you need to know, who to add, who to drop. Spoiler. Daniel Jones. Which performances are real, which are fake. But before we get into that, we're going

to do our what's of the week, which is exactly what it sounds like. It is the stories and stat lines we looked at on Sunday and said, what? So, D.K., what was your one of the week? I mean, it's the obvious one. Drew Brees and Ben Rothesberger both got hurt this week, adding to a growing list of starting quarterbacks who are out for extended periods of time and or the whole season.

So, you know, obviously, first off, Big Ben, he is done for the year with a right elbow injury. He got hurt in the first half of the Seahawks game against the Seahawks this week. and yeah, so now that has obvious fantasy implications. Yeah, it was really weird. I mean, you have Rathsburg with this right elbow injury, and then he's out for the year, and then Drew Brees does it,

and then Eli Manning will see. Maybe he's going to get bench, so you have three quarterbacks with combined 48 years. And even Rogers got a little bit injured for a second time. Yeah, Rogers, I mean, it's just... Oh, his hand, right? Yeah. Really strange, and then you combine it with, I mean,

Andrew Luck retired, which feels like 10 years ago. Donald has mono, and then there's just... What? You look around the league and you're like, oh, it's week two, and you have all these Trevor Simeans everywhere. Yeah, all the young guys are coming up. It feels like a real changing of the guard. And then also, really weird thing,

the Rathusberger injury was almost 15 years to the day that Tommy Maddox heard his right elbow when Rathusberger started. That's a Rathesberger's career began was an elbow injury in September 19th, and this happened on September 15th. So weird. Craig, you are a Steelers fan, correct? Yes, unfortunately, for 2019. How are you in the market?

this whole thing. I mean, it sucks. I don't know if I actually like Josh Jobs better than Mason Rudolph or not, but... Right. I'm kind of okay with us just bottoming out now and winning three games and trying to get into QB sweepstakes. Do you think that this is it for Ben Rossenberger now? No.

Because he's threatened retirement a few times over the years, or at least it's kind of come out in the press that he was thinking about retirement, right? I still think, yeah, I still think while the team has the talent that it does, that he's going to want to stay for at least a year or two and try it one more time. All right. So more specifically, what does this mean for fantasy purposes?

What does it mean for Juju? What does it mean for Connor? I guess what is the overall fantasy impact? The big picture for me is that it makes everyone's ceiling go down significantly. Danny, what's kind of your thought on how it affects Juju? I mean, I already regret not fading Juju more to begin the year

because I think that it's not that he's struggled, but just that it's like he's not playing alongside Antonio Brown anymore. And I mean, aside from everything off the field with him, Brown is a receiver, has been really good enough for opposing defensive coordinators to focus on Antonio Brown and not Juju, and he thrived in his second role,

and now that Juju is by far the best receiver on this team, and really the only viable receiving option who's proven production in the past, he just hasn't been the same. He had five catches for 84 yards on Sunday against the Seahawks. That's not bad. It's just he was like a second round pick this year. So I don't think that that's going to get necessarily better as they go forward.

So it's just really tough. And then we're going to get to James Connor at a second because he also kind of tweaked his ankle. But it's just it's tough. I think it lowers the ceiling for everyone in the Steelers, as you said. I'm excited to see what happens with Mason Rudolph. I mean, he has looked good in the preseason over the last couple years. It changes the way that the Steelers offense runs, which could potentially actually benefit juju. We'll see... When you see runs, you mean metaphorically running as it operates?

Or literally running? Yeah, operates. So across the NFL, I think this is a very fascinating sort of thing. Teams are using play action at a higher rate than ever, or not, maybe not ever, but over the last five years, the play action rate is increased around the league. But for some reason, the Steelers almost never use play action. Big Ben just doesn't like play action for whatever reason. Maybe he doesn't like turning his back to the defense. Maybe just doesn't like. I don't know what it is, but over the last few years, like, the Steelers have been among the league's worst or slowest, or not slowest, but least likely to use play action. And so I think that that's going to go up a whole bunch. I saw from Rich Rebar that Rudolph used play action on 30% of his dropbacks yesterday. So that was a big jump compared to Big Ben, who's done it like 15% of the time since,

2014. So I don't know, it's going to be kind of fun to see how it changes that offense and how they operate and the scheme that they use. So there is, I guess, the small chance that that could benefit some of the receivers as like you get deep, deep passes on play action, you get touchdown, like, pass down the field on play action, things like that. So overall, though, I think it does lower everybody's ceiling, you know, like fantasy-wise. Our colleague Roger Sherman says Mason Rudolph is better than Ben. I think he is the only one, though, so probably not great.

And then another one that this is, I mean, even more of a downgrade. So Drew Brees hurt his thumb. You may have seen the video clip going around, but basically he went to grip of football, just couldn't. He tore, I don't know if he tore is the right term, but it's a tendon injury. He has surgery. It's going to miss roughly six weeks. And then, you know, he's 40 years old. Like, it's,

this is a tough injury. Teddy Bridgewater stepped in and went 17 completions and 30 pass attempts for 165 yards. Saints lost 27.9. It was the second few as passing yards the Saints have had in a loss since 2013, and it's the first game. The Saints' offense did not have a touchdown since December of 2016, and it's just the

fourth time the Saints offense is not had a touchdown in the breeze Sean Payton era. And it affected them across the board. You know, Alvin Kamar had 13 carries for 45 rushing yards. Latavis Murray had five carries for seven yards. Ted Ginn. Now a deep threat on a team that is starting Bridgewater is not really a deep ball passing guy. Right. This is really tough for the Saints' offense.

I mean, what do you do with like Michael Thomas, Alvin Kamar? what do you do with these guys not, DK? Yeah, I mean, it changes the way that I think teams will have to defend the Saints. I mean, before we, when you have Breeze, I mean, he's so precise. He throws with so much anticipation. He can really make you pay if you start cheating up towards the line of scrimmage. I don't think that's necessarily the case with Bridgewater, who has been pretty conservative, sort of, you know, like people throw out the game manager term, and I think sometimes it's inaccurate,

but he's been a game manager over his career, you know, kind of like a low A-DOT, low yards per attempt kind of guy. By A-DOT, you mean average depth of the target, right? Yeah, sorry. I think it changes the dynamic of the Saints' offense that you don't have to defend as much of the field necessarily, you know, and that could change their ability to run the ball.

Like teams might kind of start creeping up into the box and start focusing more on the Saints' run game because the Saints do have a very good run game that they can lean on. But I just think overall, you're looking at the Saints' offense becoming significantly less efficient. Yeah, I mean, the Saints' offense operates with Breeze.

Breeze can't throw us deep anymore. He just can't. So he's compensated for that by within the range he can reach. He's become the most accurate key point thrower in the league, and he's also the most decisive other than maybe Brady. And now you ever... Gets rid of the ball fast, too. Exactly.

So now Bridgewater is neither nearly as, accurate as breeze, not a deep ball thrower, and not as decisive. So it kind of really does change their whole offense. And the running game, too. It's not just the passing. You're not as effective of a running game when a quarterback isn't going to be able to exploit, you know, hedging toward the run as much. So it's really, it's just really tough for everyone in the Saints.

And the other wild card is, you know, you could potentially expect more Tassum Hill. All right. Packages. We have to talk about this for one second. Tassum Hill in two weeks has been blocking. he had like blocking defensive ends. He's lined up as an outside receiver, not like some inside inline weird tight and flow out,

outside receiver and trips formations. Running routes, caught two catches for like 16 or so yards this week. He's a Teddy Bridgewater injury away from being a quarterback that was blocking defensive ends for, that would actually be the coolest thing that's happened in like decades, a quarterback. So more Tase Mille for me is great.

But he would be, you know, he would be, D.K. What's that? The next man up. Ah. So we're going to go into our next segment. Next man up. Great segment. We're going to run through the rest of the injuries from this week because there were a lot.

There were a lot injuries this week. So we're going to run through these. Starting off with just the Eagles past catchers, you know, we use the word decimate a lot. And decimate means like you lose a tenth of something. The Eagles had 10 players leave this game or get testing, which is like a fifth. I don't even know what the word for that is. But so Alphshon Jeffrey left with a calf. He had no finish.

points. Deshawn Jackson left for the groin injury. Dallas Goddard also left for the calf injury, who's the backup tight end at Zach Ertz. Zach Ertz was shaken up but stayed in the game. Nelson Agler got jacked up, left, re-entered, dropped the game-winning touchdown, almost saved the game, but did not. Kicker Turner, Corey Clement left for the shoulder injury. Defense to tackle Timmy Juergen, who was replacing Malikin, Jernigan then broke his foot, and then Wentz took a shot to the ribs and briefly left the game for Josh McCown. Yeah. But Wentz looked awful and had two interceptions.

I believe he had negative fantasy points at halftime. And then Wentz obviously had rib. He's dealt with rib injuries before and then back as well. So not great to see him planted. Sadeca, how does this, I mean, the Eagles pass catching went from maybe the deepest group in football to suddenly the thinnest with Mack Collins and J. J.J.R. Seagre White's who's a rookie just getting playing time. So it boosts that hurts.

but what do you see happening here if Jackson and or Alshan missed extended time? And we don't know the extent of how long they're going to miss as of right now. Yeah. I mean, I think, yeah, like he said, first and foremost,

Ertz, I guess, becomes the primary target in that group. And he had 16 targets last week or on Sunday night, and then that was the most among any pass catcher in the NFL pending Monday night football. So that kind of tells you exactly how the offense is going to run. If those guys end up staying out, I think, you know, there's a chance that guys like Mack Hollins and JJ our Sega White Side end up getting more playing time. Our Sega White Side actually did play a significant chunk of time in the game.

Didn't get much looks, many looks, but I think that could change as time goes on. And then, of course, Aguilar, Aguilar, if he ends up playing and stays in there, he's another guy that's just going to get a lot of targets because they just don't really have anyone else. So, yeah, it's going to be interesting to see. I'm guessing those guys probably won't miss a ton of time, but it's definitely a situation to monitor. Yeah, it's important to note that Earth's had so many catches last year. He was second in the league in catches with 116, second only to Michael Thomas ahead of DeAndre Hopkins,

and that was part because Alshun Jeffrey missed time in the beginning of the year. So this is, suddenly he's in the same position or similar. Another person got dinged up, probably the biggest name of the week. James Connor on the Steelers, who we mentioned earlier, but Connor exited with the knee injury. Mike Tomlin didn't share a ton We don't know how severe it is right now But ESPN's Jeremy Faller reported

That multiple teammates believe It's not that serious of an injury His backup Jalen Samuels He only had three rushes for 18 yards One catch for 13 yards And he had almost had a really cool acrobatic touchdown But he caught it out of bounds And then Connor had 21 carries for 54 yards

A touchdown And then kind of seven catches for 56 yards Those are two games not a great season for Conner so far but not great for any Steelers so far No James Connor also just said on the radio show 937 the fan that he's confident he's gonna play Sunday

and there are no tears or anything significant with his knee Okay and he did have that angle injury that sapped him through kind of the end of last year as well So for fantasy purposes it's just kind of a worst case scenario because he's going to play but he's probably not going to be 100% There's now no Ben Rathesberger

and Jalen Sammo's is probably going to eat into his time a little bit more Yeah so the offense is bad and Connor So I would view James Connor as like a low end RB2 this week. If you have a really deep team, like, you could bench James Conner and I wouldn't lose my mind. No, I wouldn't either. I think you should treat him as kind of like a flex.

Yeah. Unless you're really thin at running back. Especially because we don't, when you have two variables, like you don't know how good the offense is and you don't know how healthy is, that's really tough, especially because they also have Benny Snell. Who got one snap last week? One snap, but we don't know how that changes with Conner's health. So we have to assume that they're going to try to keep on.

If you don't have jailing already, make sure you add him. Yeah, add Jailens handles. especially if you have James Connor. Another person you should add. Cardinals running back, David Johnson. He injured his left wrist. Man, what's up with that guy in wrist injuries? It's the same wrist.

I think it was the same one. It's just one wrist injury. Damn. Well, maybe he got it was fine, though. He reentered the game. So that's promising. He re-entered the game. Yeah, it's the same wristy fraction

week one of 2017. But Johnson hasn't been great even when he's been healthy. He had seven carries, 14 rushing yards, a touchdown. He had one catch for no yards. Backup Chase Edmonds only had one carry for like two yards and two catches for 15 yards. But if Johnson does miss any time, Chase Edmonds would be definitely the person who gets most of those snaps in Arizona. But Dika, how valuable are the running back snaps in Arizona right now? Because to me,

their defense is so bad. They're never running to begin with. I mean, it's not, it hasn't started out well, certainly for people that took David Johnson in the first round. I mean, the problem is, so they're definitely going to, they're definitely using him in the passing game, but it's not to the extent that I think people were hoping. at least yet. And the game script, I think, for the Cardinals, is probably going to dictate, you know, it's going to be shootouts and or they're going to be coming from behind all that,

just because their defense is not very good. And so far, you know, they've been spreading the field, doing a lot of four-receiver stuff, passing a ton. And that just hasn't, and they haven't, when they have run the ball, they have not run it effectively. So overall, I think, you know, right now, David Johnson just has, like, under-perperms. formed based on his ADP, and it's a little bit worrisome going forward, whether that will

change, even though he's, he is being deployed as a receiver, like a significant amount, but there's just a lot of, I guess, Mow's defeat in that offense with them running so many four receiver sets and all that. So, yeah, it's a little worrisome. And also, Cliff Kingsbury's offense is called the air raid. It's not called the ground raid. It's going to be a little limited for David. So very well done, sir. So moving on, would you rather have David Johnson or James Connor moving forward. If Connor comes back, probably

still Connor, but I just don't think David Johnson's going to be used at all like we were hoping he would. Maybe that changes. DK? Yeah, I think I lean Connor still. But I mean, it's close. They're both, I guess, just kind of like... I think I'm leaning in David Johnson. I guess Johnson, because I guess

Connor's knee injury, it's still so murky, and I guess that could easily become more of a committee, which the Steelers have been loath to do for like five years. I think the Cardinal offense is going to be trending up. That's the thing. I think they can only get better, and I think Connor can kind of only get worse.

I mean, let's be honest. I think that, like, Kyler Murray passed a pretty big test on Sunday, playing really well, or at least pretty well against a very good defense. They were in that game. I think he's definitely shown signs of, like, positive steps.

It's only a second game in the pros, obviously. But, yeah, I think, actually, I'm changing my answer to Johnson. just because I think that Cardinals' offense is definitely trending up, and I think it's going to get better as the year goes on. And I think David Johnson's just more talented than James Connor. That's fair too, yeah. Definitely more talented and probably healthier, so that's about it.

But, you know, another offense trending up. Kansas City Chiefs. Pretty good turns out. Trending up, yes. Lots of passing, but not so much running. They're two top running backs, so Damien Williams and LaShawn McCoy both left this game with injury. Williams left first.

He had a knee contusion, and LaShawn McCoy then had an end. ankle injury. So Darwin Thompson, who's the third string guy, was finished the game out. McCoy at 11 carries for 23 rushing yards. Three catches for no receiving yards. He's getting an MRI on his ankle. We don't know the results of that yet.

Also, don't really have word in Damien Williams, so we don't really have too much advice here until we know the severity of these injuries. Obviously, if one or even both of them is gone, obviously Darwin Thompson is a must add if he's going to get serious playing time in this offense. Yeah, I mean, like this early when we don't know

what's going on, obviously we're recording on Monday afternoon, Darwin Thompson becomes a lottery ticket type pick. Like grab him and if either of those guys end up missing significant time, they are, you know, or Thompson has

really, really elite potential because that offense is just so just explosive and it does such a good job of getting the running backs in space and involved in the passing game. Yeah, there's just a ton of potential there. So you want to be,

You want to be adding players on the Chiefs, bottom line. Yeah, and tried and true. Tried and true method. People also say that about the Buffalo Bills, right? These more people in the bills often. So Devin Singletary, Bill's running back. He had a great touchdown run, but he tweaked his hamstring this game. He had six carries for 57 yards in that touchdown.

Frank Gore has been out snapping Singletary, getting more touches anyway. Gore has 30 carries this year. Singletary's 10. Singletaries certainly played better, but Gore is better at the little things. and this hamstring injury is not going to be helping his playing time. So, you know, Singletary certainly seemed like he was going to be trending to getting more and more. And now this hamstring injury is going to sap that. T.G. Eldon can get more snaps, but I don't think I'm adding T.J. Eldon to be getting this backfield.

I like Singletary for his explosiveness. But hamstrings are not great for explosiveness. So, tough look for Gavin. I like Singletary and I'm holding on to him for the year. But this makes him a lot less trustworthy. It's just now three for sure. I'm not playing him until he has a good. game again because a hamstring injury for a guy

these explosives is really tough. Similarly, Michael Gallup on the Cowboys who quick sidebar. Do you guys think that this is the best named person in the NFL? Honestly, it might be. Deep threat for the Cowboys being named Gallup. Yeah, it's unbelievable. No one else is club.

That's why I drafted him. Chef's Kiss. If you have a better name for a better aptly named person in the NFL, please write that in the Ringer NFL show Facebook group. What if his name was like Colt Gallup? Colt McCoy is the problem. probably the best football name of all time. Yeah, but this pairs with Cowboys, you know what I mean?

Yeah, that's a double. Well, Colt does. Cowboys like breaking a Colt. Yeah, but he's not in the cults, I'm saying. Oh, like, well, hmm, let's see what you're saying. That's the point. He's on the Cowboys. We're going to come back to this. Really good stuff. You know what the real best name for your job is?

Danny and I, because we're both named Danny. So that's like, it's huge. Moving on. All right, so the point is Michael Gallup had the most targets for the Cowboys on Sunday with eight. Six passes of 68 yards, but he left in the fourth quarter. He's getting an MRI on his knee. he's going to, sorry, had the MRI on his knee, is now going to have arthroscopic surgery to trim his meniscus,

which I'm not even sure what that means. I don't trim, I don't know, that sounds like branding for surgery, trim the meniscus, I don't know. But anyway, he's out for two to four weeks, no structural damage. Players do come back from arthroscopic surgery much quicker than it sounds. So don't drop him. Yeah, so he'll be out like a month, which opens up an opportunity for Devin Smith,

who I kind of had forgotten was still in the, NFL. He came in, former New York Jets second rounder, had a really good preseason. We came in yesterday and what did he do? I forgot. Three targets, three catches, 74 yards, and a touchdown

and he caught this long ball that was for a touchdown that was his first catch in like three years and it was this long touchdown. So he seemed to fill the Gallup roll for bits of that game. Yeah, he's like the outside speed threat. He ran that post for a touchdown. It makes

sense that he might fill in for Gallup in the meantime. So he's a good guy just to kind of keep in mind that the Cowboys' offense is humming right now. Prescott has really dialed in. And so, you know, at the very least, is the guy to have kind of on your bench if you need a flex option because he does provide that deep threat that Gallup was doing for the team. So in the meantime, until Gallup comes back, he's an option for you. Love a good hum in offense. Love a good hum.

Man, they've looked really good, right? Yeah, they have. And I think the Cowboys, I picked them to go on at the Super Bowl. I don't feel bad about it. Did you? Wow. The other person that, I mean, I think Dak is, I mean, Dak leaves the league in yards per attempt and all these.

He's second in QBR. Yeah, he's unbelievable. And then, so the other person in that offense is fun, man. Yeah, and the other person in that offense doing, Randall Cobb has been interesting, five or six targets. He caught, sorry, he caught five or six targets yesterday for 24 yards. Set the pick for that gave Jason Witt in the touchdown.

So, I mean, I think Cobb could be getting more Reds-un looks in the future. He's played really well as better Cole Beasley in their slot role. we know we all love slot here. Craig really loves the slot. I sure do. Yeah, you do. All right, we're going to get into our categories of who we want to pick up this week.

But first, we're going to take a quick break. Today's episode is brought to you by 20th Century Fox's new film, Ad Astra. You may know it from the Latin phrase, per aspera ad Astra, which means through hardships to the stars. In this movie, Brad Pitt stars as Roy McBride, an astronaut who travels to the outer

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All right, let's move on before we focus on Daniel Jones anymore. We still a lot of Daniel Jones coming up, so don't worry. Let's get into our categories. First up, we've got D.C. Leasieving yards. Fools gold. Guys who had big days that some of us are buying, some of us are not. Some divisive people here.

Like, I don't know. John Ross. So let's get into deceiving. Or actually, Craig, you want to do a little big picture? It's only two weeks. So it's kind of like a small, slightly bigger picture. Yes. Before we get into the week two deceivers, I'd like to take just a quick second,

talk about the season-long deceivers. The two-week-long deceivers? Yeah, I just want to read the guys top of the charts that they're each individual position through two weeks. QB1, Lamar Jackson, QB1, Austin Echler, wide receiver one,

John Ross, and tight end one, Mark Andrews. So, one, literally zero people predicted this. Maybe Lamar Jackson, maybe.

Who do we believe and who are we deceived by amongst those RB ones? Well, first off, in the words of David Shoemaker, our beloved ringer colleague, I'm going to just say, you know,

not to toot our own horn, but toot-toot. D.K. was all about Mark Andrews in the pre-season. And I... And Jack. And Lamar Jackson was my guy, literally on the segment, my guy. And you all know my love about John Ross.

Yeah. I'm kidding. Yeah, no, no. I was just like searching. The weird way to pronounce Tyloy. The old memory on that. I could not remember that. So this is a perfect way to talk about John Ross.

The one of the most deceived by probably. So I am deceived by John Ross. I'm literally selling John Ross. Like I'm trade, if you have M in any leagues. So I had him on this last week because his two touchdowns in week one were a flea flicker and then a whiffed interception. And then this one. week had four catches for 112 yards in a score. But more than half of those yards came on a 66 yard touchdown that was with 51 seconds

in the game, they were down 31 points. And then he had a, all right, he had a three catch day for 46 yards that then turned into 112 yards in a touchdown. I admit, is this what you're going to say? The targets are real. He's getting more targets. He's a real NFL receiver. This is a case studying while you do not give up on someone after two years.

in the NFL, especially if they're a receiver. But he is not the number one wide receiver. He's not even a number one wide receiver. He's like, I believe that he may be a decent wide receiver two right now. But if anyone in your league believes that he's like a top 10 receiver for the rest of the season, I'm selling him in a heartbeat, top 20 even. I would sell him for that price because I think that's a ceiling, not where he ends up. I don't understand the garbage time point when people make fantasy arguments using that

in their argument because garbage time is still a part of the football game. And it's like Blake Bortles was the QB2 in 2015, all in garbage time for the whole season. It doesn't matter. If you scored the points, it matters. Yes, it's the same thing as a tight game. Yeah, but the goal in garbage time is to just not give up big plays and the Niners just can't tackle. I understand Ross's speed, the whole point is he's going to be able to break things. But I think he's a boo, my point is he's still a boom or bust player.

And there hasn't been the bust yet. That's all. I'm not disregarding anything that's happened here. I'm not disregarding that Zach Taylor running the Bengals offense after, I mean, Marvin Lewis took over before. the Iraq war started. So, like, a lot's changed. And, like, there was a lot to be modernized about the Bengals' offense.

But having said that, I do not think that we should just erase the first two years where John Ross can just not show up sometimes. And I think that if someone's like, oh, wow, someone who's, like, obsessed with four-yard dash times in your league wants to get in on him.

I mean, Ben Glicksman here at the ringer, obsessed with John Ross. You should, if your league has a Ben Glickman, trade him to John Ross. I'm sorry, John Ross to Ben Ross to ban. If you're going to get a treasure trove for him, especially considering A.J. Green is going to be back at some point. Go for it.

But, yeah, I mean, I'm kind of, I mean, I'm hanging on to Ross, just because I think there's probably going to be a lot of garbage time for the Bengals this year. And I think he's like 12th or 13th in air yards so far this season. I mean, they're airing it out to him. I mean, yeah, I don't know. I definitely think if you can get like a crazy amount for him, go for it. But I do think he's here to stay as a fantasy factor. I have no problem keep flexing him if you still have them.

I'm just like, there will be bust weeks. This is not the new normal. That's all I'm saying. Fair enough. Another person who I, yeah, this is a real worthy conversation for deceiving yards. DeMarcus Robinson on the chiefs. It was no surprise the chiefs beat the Raiders last week. I mean, the chiefs are the chiefs and then the Raiders give up the most points.

DeMarcus Robinson, six targets, six catches, 172 yards and two touchdowns. Sure. What do we make of that? No idea. I think we all a little bit thought it was going to be McColl Hardman, who also received six targets and had a 72 yard touchdown call back. Brutal. I know. And he looked great too, but it kind of feels like anybody in this offense can hit at any moment. I almost believe that you can start Robinson, Kelsey, Hardman, Watkins. You should start all of that every week. I kind of think that until Tyree Kill comes back.

I mean, I'm buying this Chief's offense, man. Watkins played 92% of stats. Robinson played 91% and. Kelsey, 85% Hardman, 73%. Like, they're all playing the whole game. We were going to talk about this later. I think we should just do it now. Sure. Do you think the Chief's offense is...

So the whole conversation around Mahomes and the Chief's offense coming to the season was Mahomes was historically great. The Chief's offense was historically great. And history says historically great offenses drop from best among all teams ever to merely among the best in the league the following season.

And that the Chiefs would still be an elite team, but not like 50 passing touchdowns, maybe like 38 for Mahomes this year. And as your editor Riley McAtee wrote for the ringer.com on Sunday, Mahomes is better than he was through the first two weeks last year. So do you think the chiefs are actually just breaking football? I mean, yeah, I think they're perfectly constructed to win with Mahomes' skill set and things like that. Like obviously they've got a ton of speed on their offense. they've managed to sort of replace Tyree

Hill seamlessly with their other speed guys Mahomes has been playing with a with a bum ankle right like he sprained his ankle early on in the first game and he still managed to do what he's doing they also had a few plays called back that would have like boosted his numbers which already look amazing

so through two games in 2018 Mahomes had a 69% completion percentage 582 passing yards 10.6 yards per attempt, 10 touchdowns and zero picks. Through two games this year, 71%, so that's a little bit better.

821 yards, which is way better. 10.6 yards per attempt, just about the same. 7 touchdowns, 0 ints. So he's still on pace. Did you just go an interception and int? Yeah, you get mad at me about that a lot. No one does that.

This is shorthand. I just read what I got on the dock here. You're Ron Burgundy? If you put it in front of me, I'll read it, man. Be careful. We'll test that. I love Rashad Bennett. Don't you dare.

So anyways, Mahomes is on pace for 6,500 yards, 56 touchdowns. The NFL records are 5,400 yards and 55 touchdowns. So he is a freak. I mean, he's just, yeah, he's already started hotter than he did last year. I mean, I don't know. My one of the week before Rathusberger and Breeze, the severity of their injuries was No, that was that he had 313 passing yards at halftime again, because he did it in week one as well. And then also that the Chiefs had a first quarter score for like an NFL record, like 22 games, and they were held scoreless.

And then they had 28 points in the second quarter. And he had like 278 or so of his yards in the second quarter. I think if the Chiefs... After the first scoreless first one. If the Chiefs were only allowed one offensive half per game, I think they'd still go like 10 and 6. that's a good fit. Oh my God, wow. That's a good move.

So let's circle back to Craig's original question, though, D.K. Like, do you think you could reasonably plug anyone from their offense and just hope? Or if you plug into Marcus Robinson right now, you're just like, you're going to be doomed for next week. I mean, there's a little bit. There's obviously a little bit of boom bust in any of these guys. I mean, we put a lot of faith in Sammy Watkins last week. He ended up having 13 targets, which was, I think, second or third most among any players. but he just didn't, you know, there was a few misses there and it didn't happen.

I just think there's an element of boom-buss with any player. I'm buying this offense just because they can score way more points than anyone. They can throw the ball all over the field. I mean, I started Hardman in one of my leagues. Basically, just because I was like, this is going to be fun. Like, let's see what happens. Hardman is super fast. He's in a really perfect offense for his skill set.

And it paid off. And I was like super pissed because he actually had that 72-yard touchdown called back on a kind of an iffy holding call. So I don't know, man. I think just like the ceiling for these guys is outstanding. And just in that offense, you can expect their, you know, you can expect fireworks every week. So I'm pretty comfortable starting both Hardman and Robinson going for it.

Not on the same team necessarily, but like either of those guys, if you got them, go ahead and start them. Damn. Wow. Deploy them all. I didn't expect that. Yeah, deployed. You can't ask for a better situation for like a guy you just picked up off the

off the waiver wire, right? Like, this is the perfect situation for them. That was the perfect situation. You know also had a perfect situation? Nelson Agler is streaking down the sideline on Sunday night football and just like getting a ball delivered full sprint into his chest. The best throw Carson went out all night. And he just dropped it.

And I felt really bad for him. I was so happy he caught the deep ball, though, and kind of made up for it. Yeah, and then they lost. So it's like this weird. Like he made it. Yeah, it's tough. Anyway, how do you feel about Nelson Agler? I mean, Deshawn Jackson's out.

Jeffrey's out. Aguor had drop his shoes that almost ended his career and then he dropped this ball but he's been playing really well. So you like Algoal... Would you start Agilor if either Jackson or Jeffrey can't go this week? I mean, I think he's... Yeah, I mean, he's a fine flex option

off the waiver wire if he's there in your league or whatever. I don't feel super confident about it just because there's so many mouths to be in that offense and Ertz is like the one, the guy that's going to get like the most focus from from Wents and that offense. And I also kind of like JJR Sega White's side

to potentially kind of fill some of those opportunities going forward if those two if Jackson and Jeffrey were to miss time. So I don't love it but it's,

you could find worse situations. Hopefully there are worse situations. Speaking of worst situations, let's go to the guy you're not supposed to worry about. You know it's a worst situation, D.K.? The New York football giants.

So, we don't. have to dwell on this too long. Lord knows I don't want to dwell on this too long, but basically Pat, I mean, Eli Manning was abysmal and there's no shame in getting carved up by Josh Allen, but there is shame in how poorly Eli Manning played. Pat Schumer asked on Monday about benching Manning for Daniel Jones, and Pat Schumer said, quote, he's been our starter to this point. I'm not ready to talk about that. Giants fans are ready to talk about that. They should play Daniel Jones. Giants are 0-2. 90% of O&2 teams don't make the playoffs.

This team has nothing going on. I think Daniel Jones plays sooner rather than later. I actually think it's bad news for Sequin Barclay. I mean, Sequin Barclay had like ripped off a 50-yard run, did very little after it. I mean, I think it's bad for everyone in this offense, but it's going to happen sooner than later. I think I'm interested also to see how it happens to Evan Engram, but I think all the New York Giants, if you have any giant stock, I wouldn't be shocked. I would love for Daniel Jones to be good, but I have a little hope. And I think it happens within three weeks. I'm rooting for Jones to start.

I think it's going to be fun. I mean, like, I was really low on him in the draft, in the pre-draft process, like a lot of people. But he kind of won me over in the preseason. I mean, he just looked confident and poised and, you know, competent, which you can't say the same necessarily about Eli Manning anymore. I just think it gives them a chance to actually be interesting. He's also, like, way more athletic than I think people give him credit for. He was a really good runner at Duke.

He gives them sort of this poor man's Josh Allen ability to scramble and things like that. I think it would just make them way more interesting, way more fun. I do think it could improve some of the guys around him. Pretty impressive for Josh Allen to Hardy have a poor man's version of him. You would have never thought that way. Well, he's the rich man's version of Josh Allen because he has paid more money because he was drafted higher in the drafts. He has more money than Josh Allen.

Get out of here. Anyways, I'm just rooting for it. Ever since they booed him at Yankee Stadium, I'm like, okay. I kind of hope he does well now. Look, you know what? I said I wouldn't dwell, but here we are dwelling. The Giants played bucks, Washington, Vikings, Patriots. Cardinals. It would be absolute

malpractice if the Giants gave his first start against the Vikings or the Patriots. Sounds like they'll do that. Yeah, so maybe that's what it'll happen. So they kind of either have to get him in the next two weeks. Giants malpractice? What? But basically it's like they have to start

him in the next two weeks. Wait a month and then play him against the Cardinals October 20th. But you're right. They'll probably throw him to the wolves against Mike Zimmers, a double A-gap blitz defense, followed by Bill Belichie. looking as like destroying like the death,

like the only thing that's ever taken anything from him, which is the nearer Giants. But my God. What if he just destroys Daniel Jones's confidence? Wait, what if Bill Belichick is so mad,

like he wants this Patriots team to go 15 and 1 instead of 16 and 0 so he throws a game with Daniel Jones as the Giants quarterback to make him look really good and be like, and Eli Manning's career

because he's so mad at Eli Manning. I don't think he need, I don't think Eli needs any help. to be honest. That was really painful. All right, let's... Sorry. Moving on.

Another team that ran into the Patriots buzzsaw. Pittsburgh Steelers. We talked about Jujer earlier, but James Washington and Deante Johnson has seemed to be coming for Dante Moncrief's job

for the number two role. So, Dekar, what's going on there? Yeah, I mean, the Moncrief experiment, I think, in Pittsburgh is not going well. It could be coming to an end pretty quickly here. In week one,

he caught three of ten targets for seven yards with a drop. Not super efficient. Then week two, he only saw one target, and it went through his hands, bounced off his helmet, and landed in the hands of a C-Ox defender. So not a great start for one of the teams. I wouldn't say he's maybe one of their top free agent additions, but one that we thought might have a big role in the offense.

Especially going now from Rothesberger to Rudolph, who played alongside James Washington College. Obviously, they have a very good connection. They've shown that in the preseason. So, yeah, I'm excited to see if the Steelers start to lean on James Washington and potentially even rookie Deonté Johnson, who has started to get more snaps in the past two games. Or I should say he's making progress in working his way into the starting lineup

with Moncrief's struggles or whatever. So going forward, I think you could see it just be a three-receiver set with Juju, Washington, and Deontay Johnson. You know, maybe that's a few games down the line, but I think those two guys are people to watch right now. I have a piece of trivia for both of you. So... Go. What's that?

Pro football focus charts their own drops. So they do drop percentage based on how many catchable balls you've had. Dude, who leads the league in drop percentage? I would... Is it Moncrief? Yes, it is Moncrief. But do you know who leads the league in just drops and is second in drop percentage?

Dante Moncrief. John Ross just so you know All right now I feel like I won't We've moved past Ross Danny Come on All right Craig

Who's the guy You're not supposed to worry about for you Rahim Mostert has Pretty much split carries With Matt Brayda Now that Kevin Coleman's been out With an ankle injury

And I if he's not owned in your league you should definitely grab him now He looks really good But kind of so does Brita Both these guys actually look pretty spry and agile So does Jeff Wilson

Yeah hell All of them All of them are undrafted free agents, by the way. Breda had 12 carries for 12 yards for 183, plus 68 yards receiving and a touchdown. He had a touchdown called back also. The reason they have running back to pop up out of nowhere is the same reason Nick Mollins was fine,

which is anyone in Kyle Shannon's system is fine if they're all competent. And Mostert played 46% of the snaps to Breda's 30 and Wilson Jr.'s 22. So I think Breda and Mostert are both extremely competent flex plays next week. my one fear with this is that it's hard to predict what they're going to do but 2509 rushing was oh my god against the bangles

that's wild next up we got what's on streaming so for you know all you cord cutters out there here are streaming recommendations which I mean first obviously Seinfeld which is on Netflix big news huge news I bing it all on Hulu already

but I'll do it again so you're gonna switch from Hulu to Netflix now I got them both wow look at you Craig rolling in the dough D-K who's your stream for this week Oh man, it's painful to say this, but Jason Witten is a thing. Yeah, we have a Matt Culper here. The 37-year-old has now caught two touchdowns in two games.

Now, he's not, like, getting a lot of targets or, you know, necessarily picking up chunk yardage. He had three catches for 15 yards in a touchdown in week one, four catches, 25 yards in week two. But, I mean, it's pretty clear that that Prescott is looking to him as a dump-off option. They found him in the red zone a couple times against the... The Dolphins in particular, I think he has streamable value going like this week just because of what we've seen from the dolphins last couple weeks. The way you said the 37. Wait, Jim, how old are you? Jim's 37.

You want to take that back, D.K.? I mean, I'm 36 and like the way that I feel I don't think I could play in the NFL. I agree. I'm also going with against the Dolphins. I have the Cowboys defense to stream this week. Cowboys defense has only allowed 38 points this year. It's the fewest in the NFC. It's the fourth fewest in the whole league.

They're playing the Dolphins. Dolphins have allowed 92 more points than they've scored, which is the fourth biggest point differential through two weeks ever. And Ryan Fitzpatrick will start, according to Brian Flores. So the Cowboys defense is owned... Pick six machine. Yeah, I know, right? So the Cowboys defense is owned in less than 38% of ESPN league.

So you should fix that and play them because the Patriots had like 30 plus points depending on defensive scoring last week. So do that. And then the real question is, D.K., I mean, the real question is, are the dolphins so bad that you should just be comfortable if you need a streaming option to plug and play whoever they're playing no matter what? Generally speaking, yes, I think so. Every year, there's like some team that's so bad out of the gate that we're like, oh my God, could this team go in 16? And then they are like, get close. And it's like, could this team lose to Alabama or Clemson?

Talent-wise, this is the closest we've come to a truly not NFL team. They wouldn't actually lose to a college team. rid of every player every week. That's the thing is the players want off already. There's not resilience. They're like that this is actually why you can't take in the NFL. Can you drink in Fitzpatrick? They're just siphoning guys. This is why you can't take because the players won off already.

It's wild. So yeah, I'm totally down to stream anyone against the dolphins. That's you basically when in doubt, it's more than a tiebreaker. It's, I would target it every week. Unbelievable. I mean, holy cow. It's just both of both of their quarterbacks, whether it's Fitzpatrick or

Josh Rosen. I mean, both of those guys are just Interception machines. They've already given up more than a thousand yards so it's wild. All right, D.K., let's,

we're going to wrap this up. Hot take of the week. Let's take us out. Actually, Craig, you start. Hot take of the week. All right. My hot take of the week.

We all remember Melvin Gordon, right? Whatever. Until Melvin Gordon returns, Austin Echler will be the overall running back one in the National Football League.

Did you just see that he was the number one through two weeks and you're like, oh yeah, this will be my hot take of the week? Actually, no. I did that and then looked him up and went,

holy hell, he's the number one over a running back. I got to see who the other ones are. And it was all random people, and I was like, this is worth mentioning. And that's how my brain works. I'm always down for insidate it how your brain works. So just wait, week nine, Melvin Gordon will come back. Austin, Echler's going to be number one.

Well, you know what? Echler's awesome. Man, he's such an explosive past kick. He leads running backs in touchdowns, receptions, and receiving yards. Yeah. Is that good? It's pretty good. Decent.

My hot take of the week, I still haven't a hot take anymore because I, Cowboys, Cowboys are going to be in the Super Bowl, man. Cowboys the best team of football. Wow. Who are they playing in the Super Bowl? I had Chiefs and now I, obviously that was before many things happened. But, you know, I'm still sticking with it. Chiefs, Cowboys, no reason to change.

Pretty good. D.K., you got a hot take? We stopped on your hot take because it was about Mahomes. You got another one? Yeah, my hot take was just that Mahomes is better this year than it was last year, which I don't even, it's not even really that hot. That's luke one. That's not, yeah, it's a very cold, you got your hot take for us.

Anything off the cuff right now? I mean, Craig was saying before the show that we had to mention Rashad Penny. I regret asking. My hot take is that Penny stinks? I don't know. It's not that hot actually either. This is our new category. Penny for Craig's thoughts.

How about this? Craig, you say your hot take is that Penny is better than Carson, right? It's not a take. It's a fact. San Diego State alum, Craig. All right, guys, D.K., thank you, Craig. Thank you. Thank you to everyone for listening. We'll see you guys next week. Pepsi takes all NFL celebrations to the next level. Whether it's a Hail Mary touchdown,

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