The Ringer NFL Show - The 40-Point Club, Maddening Mike Evans, and the Sleeper Pool | The Dantasy Football Podcast

Episode Date: October 8, 2019

Danny Kelly, Danny Heifetz, and Craig Horlbeck discuss the wildest fantasy scoring day in almost 70 years, how Christian McCaffrey’s season compares to LaDainian Tomlinson's 2006 season, and which of the top 10 receivers are here to stay. They then pick sleepers to beat each other’s sleepers on Sunday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up guys, it's Liz Kelly, and welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. I want to tell you guys about a brand new podcast coming to our luminary slate called Sonic Boom. For more than four decades, the Seattle Supersonics were among the NBA's most iconic franchises. But in 2008, they packed their bags for Oklahoma. Hosted by the Ringer's Jordan Ritter-Con, Sonic Boom tells the story of basketball and politics, wealth and power, and reveals new truce about the NBA's greatest heist. You can find the eight-episode documentary podcast exclusively on Luminary starting October 3rd. Welcome to the Danesie Football Podcast on the Ringer NFL show on the Ringer Podcast Network.

My name is Danny Hyfitts, and I am joined as always by my co-host and my co-danny, the hero we need and the analyst we deserve, the Dark Knight himself. Danny, Danny, how you doing, D.K.? I'm doing amazing. How are you doing, Danny? I'm jovial. Yeah, you sound like it. Downright jovial. How are you Craig? For a Monday, that's a lot. Monday's a great. I'm abuliant. I just had three-fourths of a bag of sun chips.

I don't know what the first thing you said was. A bullion. Is that an M? It's an E. A bullion. Wow, I got to Google that. Yeah, get on that. All right. Well. Our first category of the day, word of the day. It's what my grandma would call 10-cent word. I never got that reference either. Ten letter word. Your whole family loves 10 cents, Danny Dimes. Wow. Craig just coming out firing. Five hours of sleep last night. Let's do it.

You could have used 10. All right, enough of that. We're going to run through our what's of the week, which are the stat lines that made us say, what? This week, so this one, I think, this one required the least debate of the entire season, other than Daniel Jones,

which I didn't ask what your opinions were. But five players had more than 40 PPR points this week. What the hell? And that's like the first time it's happened in the Super Bowl era, isn't it? Yeah, so if you eliminate defenses, It's the first time that five individual players have had it since record 1950. ESPN's Tristan Cockcroft pointed that out. But even if you include defense, it hasn't happened since 1965.

So Will Fuller and Houston had 14 catches, 217 yards and three touchdowns. That was 53.7 PPR points. For record, he came into the game with 14 catches for 183 yards and zero touchdowns. Not bad. Basically doubled everything he had. He started in 11% of the game. leagues on ESPN on Sunday. So tough beat for the 89%. Brutal.

Aaron Jones on the Packers, he had 26 touches for 182 total yards and four rushing touchdowns for 49.2 PPR points. Chaboy, Christian McCaffrey, the Carolina Panthers. He had 25 touches, 237 yards, three touchdowns, 47.7 fantasy points. By the way, he is on pace to set the new NFL record for scrimmage yards, I think 27-100-something, So keep that in mind. He is just absolutely smashing this year. I saw a crazy thing on that. This actually, once again,

E. Spins, Tristan Cockroff said, so he has 159.6 points in PPR leagues right now. 128.6 and non-PPR leagues. That's the fourth and fifth most by a running back through five games ever. And then in 2006, when Lladenian Tomlinson had the best season ever, check out the ringers,

Fantasy Football Hall of Fame. Not shameless plug. Tomlinson had 126 PPR and 100 points in standard. So he's 20, more than 30 points off from what McCaffrey is doing this year in both formats. And McCaffrey even tried to throw a touchdown this week like Rodanian Tomlinson. Oh, I know.

That would have been awesome. Oh, I didn't think of that. Yeah, the throwing thing, wow. Speaking of, going back just one second to Will Fuller, he also got tackled on the one yard line twice. Yeah, that one's wild. He would have had like a literal. a historic, maybe the best fantasy day of all time.

And just set a bunch of receiving records too. And then last one, this one's not as exciting. Michael Thomas, just 11 catches, 182 yards, two touchdowns. Great game for Michael Thomas. But those guys, yeah, all had 40. That does not include Amari Cooper, who had 39.6 fantasy points in PBR. So absolutely unbelievable day for a lot of people. Theoretically, those five guys who scored 40 points,

it's possible, it's not likely, that you could have every single one of those guys on a team in a snake draft. Maybe not Michael Thomas and Chris McCaffrey, but it's theoretically possible you have all five of this. Someone somewhere has all five of those guys, which is insane to think about. I think our colleague Roger Sherman actually requested screenshots. I saw one where a guy was losing by 200 points. I don't remember who was in his lineup, but it was some combination of those guys, and it was awesome. What a great predictable sport.

I love fantasy football. It's awesome. It's great stuff. How many of these are repeatable? I mean, obviously no one's going to, I mean, McCaffrey, I guess, is probably the most repeatable. He's going to get like 30 points a game. But I don't see,

Fuller is not going to be a guy that does that every week. Obviously, this is more in line with what we were hoping from him this season, but none of these are probably real repeatable. Maybe Michael Thomas. None of them are going to do it every week. Yeah, I think Thomas's line is actually pretty. Yeah. I don't want to say.

Look, none of these things are going to happen again, but I mean, I think the real notable one for me in this is that the Texans, Deshaun Watson did not get sacked and he only had one quarterback hit. The interesting thing to me on that was that was the only the second time of Deshaun Watson's career that he was not sacked. The other time, he also threw five touchdowns. So every game he's not been sacked, he's five touchdowns. Interesting. There seems to be a correlation between having a good offensive line and playing well. It's almost like when you're not flat on your ass, he's really good at football.

Interesting. It's wild. They should look into that. That's hardcore analysis right there. All right, let's get in a next man up. Yeah, a lot of injuries. And let's just run through him all and the guys were going to be filling in. So real quick, he's fine, but worth touching.

Christian McAfree did leave this game, which is funny to think about because he had so many points. But he left the game with cramps. His backup Reggie Bonifon, who Dika, you have in your like 30-person league with Matthew Barry and Co. I do. Bonifon had a long touchdown to the house. Macfrey had cramps, but he said he was fine and that he was a failure. How did you know

that I have Reggie Bonifon in my dynasty league with Matt Barry? Don't worry about it. This is a little bit creepy. But yes, I don't think he's going to be a big factor going forward. He might get a few carries here and there to spell McCaffrey, but based on everything we've seen, McCaffrey is getting

north of 95% of the snaps in the Panthers' offense. I doubt that's going to change a whole lot. Yeah, again, it is worth saying for one second. I mean, McCaffrey has been getting 95 to 99% and even the, what we call bell cows, the tippity top, the Zeke Gellates and people, those get 85, so it's insane what he's been doing. So he can scale back and still be fine.

Another person, Patrick Mahomes on the Kansas City Chiefs, anyone who watched on Sunnet football, so he was limping, like a pronounced limp coming off the field after he got stepped on by one of their offensive linemen, Cam Irving. Mahomes had 22 of 39 passes. He completed 22 of 39 passes, 321 yards and a touchdown. But 13 of those 17 complete, 13 of his first 17 passes and 15 yards and that score came on his first two drives. The rest came on the ensuing seven.

So he really was not the same after he aggravated this ankle injury. He aggravated actually twice, once of the first half, and then he got stepped on in the second half. He said after the game, quote, obviously it's going to be a little sore tomorrow. end quote. They play Houston next week. So I'd be surprised if he missed this game. He injured it in first in week one against Jacksonville.

Hasn't not missed any time. It's been a full participant practice. But also I would be very surprised if he was 100%. Matt Morris's backup. But I think he's going to play and just not be 100%. Patrick Mahomes. Yeah, I think overall you just have to downgrade the Chiefs offense slightly. I think he's going to bounce back.

But he's come down to Earth over the last two weeks. He's been, obviously, after. three weeks, he looked like he was just smashing all regression, all the thought of any regression. You know, he's on pace to smash the passing yards record. He was on pace for like 53 touchdowns. I think this was after three weeks. And then he's definitely come back to Earth over the last two weeks. And so you just have to take that, you know, into account. I mean, all the, all the Chiefs' skill position players are still completely startable, in my opinion. But it just lowers their ceiling slightly. Well, speaking of which, Sammy Watkins, he was active on Sunday despite a shoulder.

injury, used as a decoy, which does anyone use more as a decoy than Sammy Watkins? Great call. It's unbelievable. He left the game with a hamstring injury. Yeah, you only played two injuries. Played two snaps. Without Watkins, the Chiefs were using Byron Pringle. Sure. I'm going to be

honest. I just thought that was a Madden generator name. I actually didn't realize that was a real person. So, congrats to Byron Pringle. He had a good game. But Tyree... They're a very fast guy. The Chiefs have a lot of very fast guys. And they're all numbered the teens. Everyone's like 13, 15, 17, and they're all super fast. Check out Roger Sherman on the ringer.com wrote about how no NFL receivers anymore have

8. In fact, if you're listening to this, try to think of three NFL wide receivers who have a number in the 80s. Tyler Boyd, that's it. Well, now you ruined it. Now, you know Tyler. That's it. Anyway, I'm sure everyone in the movie was going to get Tyler Boyd. Read Roger's base. Anyway, speed, fast guys, chiefs. Back on track. Tyree Kill could return next week. He practiced this week. Maybe he was going to play against the Colts. He did not play, but could very well play against the Texans next week. That would certainly help Mahomes. Next up, we got Wayne Galman. Running back for the Giants, he suffered a concussion in this game. He had just two carries for 14 yards. Was replaced by Jersey Native in Rutgers

product, John Hilleman. He had nine carries for 20 yards, but he's probably not going to be the main person to replace Wayne Galman because we have a real great waiver sleeper for you guys this week that is probably going to step in for Wayne Galman. His name is Seyquan Barclay. He's probably going to return this week. Which is just crazy. So he had a high ankle sprain. He had a high ankle sprain, and he was going to be out for six to eight weeks.

Sequin was not happy with this timeline. He told Ian Rappaport and Kimberly Jones of NFL.com, this is, quote, how can anyone tell me how long I'm supposed to be out? Maybe because of my competitive nature, but how are you going to tell me that? No one was in the doctor's office with me. no one has seen my ankle. Everyone's different.

I think an important thing that Dr. Anderson and Dr. O'Malley said was, you treat the patient, not the injury. When I heard that, I just took it to heart. Everyone's pulling these messages out there, and no one heard from my mouth that I'm out there six to eight weeks. That made no sense at all. Now, I respected that a lot, because you know what Sequan did say immediately after the Bucks game when he hurt his ankle?

He told Jordan Renan of ESPN, I had the same injury at Penn State my freshman year. I missed two games. And now that is what it's going to happen. He's going to miss two games. It'll be back. So, Sey Juan Barclay. There was video of him running around on the practice field,

but pretty normal. This was last week before, and he missed the game, obviously, this week. The real impeded him is the Giants play on Thursday night. So they're playing the Patriots, which is delicious for me. It wouldn't surprise.

Would it surprise you if they kept him out one more week? No, because it's a short week. I think if it was Sunday, it would be no question. So regardless, I don't think it's necessarily worth picking up John Hillman, unless you're really in dire straits.

Against the Patriots? Yeah, against the Patriots, no. So I don't think Gallman's in good position to be clear. from a concussion in three days. I certainly hope not. And then Hillam... But Hillman's, at most, I think, a one-week option.

And then Sequin's probably back, week seven, against Arizona. Mason Rudolph, quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, suffered a scary, scary concussion on a scary hit on Sunday. Basically got knocked out while he was still standing. That was bad. It was very bad.

He was in league concussion protocol. He was replaced by Devlin Hodges, who is an undrafted free agent out of Samford. Hodges went 7-09 for 68 yards in relief of Rudolph. Do you know anything about Devlin Hodges? Do you know I do? You do. Well, actually, before you get to that,

I just want to put this out there. Dane Brugler, really good NFL draft analyst, describe Hodges, because I didn't study Hodges before the draft. An FCS version of Trace McSorley. So I guess that. An FCS version of someone who basically is not an NFL quarterback? A scrambling running athletic guy, I guess that means

he doesn't have a very strong arm based on scattering reports, so I don't know you know, if he ends up having to start next week, they're probably going to be doing a lot of that Wildcat stuff with Jalen Samuels, kind of having to get a little bit creative again. And it doesn't seem like Rudolph is

going to be ready to come back, which I think is a downgrade for you know, Juju Smith-Schuster, Deonti Johnson, basically all the receivers in that group, and then hopefully they'll get their running backs a little bit more involved. Bill Barnwell at ESPN floated that they could trade a late-round pick for

Ryan Fitzpatrick. I was super jealous. I did not think of that. That was brilliant. That would be awesome. Let's all play where, what state is Samford University in? I looked it up. What do you guys think? Oh, man. I have no idea. Texas.

I am going to pretend I know the answer. So just tell me. Give me a guess. Georgia. It's in Alabama. I was close. I was closer. I win. The real winner, though, is Hodges is a world champion duck caller. Thank you to Chris Vanini of the Athletic, who is for this imperative reporting. Chris Finini, or so not Chris Vittini, Devlin Hodges was a world champion junior duck caller, but then stopped, gave up the duck calling life when he went to college. He really gave up the dream. He was like, you know, screw it. I'm going to enter the state tournament.

He became a signal caller. And then he won. And then he was going to be able to go for the qualified for the world championships, but it was on a Saturday and he was a college football quarterback. So tough be. Is duck calling on the Ocho? I have no idea. I had no idea that it was a competitive sport.

I mean, are you even a sports fan D.K? Let's get fantasy going for it. I know. Oh, Tennessee for duck calling? Let's move on for God's sake. Sterling Shepard, receiver in the Giants, also had a concussion. he is in concussion protocol. This was announced this morning.

This is Monday. It was. So that was a late add to the injury report. This is his second of the season. So it could be a little bit for him. And then he also said that thumb injury in August, but obviously two concussions in the same year are a bit more serious. Golden Tate is back.

Evan Angram is at tight end. So those seem to be the Giants' top two options while Shepherds out. Darius Slate and a receiver is probably a much better real-life player for the Giants than he would be for a fantasy team. Right. So I love watching Slate, and I'm not sure that he's necessarily a fantasy ad, especially with a giant schedule coming up. How do we feel about Sterling Shepard with Golden Tate back? I know he played most of his snaps on the outside this week.

It's tough because Golden Tate and Sterling Shepard are essentially both slot receivers. Well, ironically, I think that the concern was that they would have overlapping skill sets, and now it seems like they just won't overlap for a very long time. Because Golden Tate missed the first four game suspension. It comes back for one game, and now, I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Shepard's out for a decent amount of time. All the reports we've seen are that he'll miss some pretty significant time. I mean, I'm not a doctor, but it's like concussion does make you susceptible to concussions. It's easier to get one after you've had one.

A three concussion season is really bad. So I would not be surprised as DECA said, this is an extended absence. So actually, of all the off-season talk of Golden Tate and Shepard, they're not really going to overlap for at least maybe the beginning of the first half of the season. I was listening to the Fantasy Pros podcast, and they said that Sterling Shepard has never scored a touch down from the outside. He's only scored touchdowns on the slot in his entire career. Well, maybe just the arm couldn't really reach outside. You know, that might not be Stirling's fault. All right.

Last one, next man up. Jay Gruden, head coach for Washington. R.P. to Jay Gruden. Fired this morning. Did they make him come in at five in the morning to get fired? High Corramba. Also, wow, look at high carumba. D.K. replaced by O-line coach Bill Callahan, who also replaced John Gruden in Oakland, which is insane. Something we don't talk about enough. John Gruden traded from the Raiders to the bucks, and then the Raiders and the Bucks met in the Super Bowl that year.

Crazy stuff. So Jay Gruden, you are free now. Also, shouts to the Jay Gruden coaching tree of Sean McVeigh, Kyle Shanahan, and Matt LaFleurr. That's totally Jay Gruden's coaching tree. How do you guys think this affects the fantasy prospects for the Washington team now going forward? I mean, obviously, Calihan came out and immediately said,

or at least reports came out and said they're going to rededicate themselves to the run game, which is always what you love to hear. I don't know. Adrian Peterson, that game against Miami. In all seriousness, so they play the dolphins this week, which was a major part of the timing, because you want to soften the landing on the interim guy. Yeah. I actually think we'll learn whether the dolphins are Washington or a better team.

I know that sounds silly, but, like, I think, I mean, if the dolphins are ever going to get a win, this could be the two-a-bowl right here. It sounds like they haven't decided yet who the starter at quarterback isn't going to be, which is a big deal. Case Keenum. Over the first few weeks, Keenom actually was a pretty fantasy-relevant starter, and helped make McLaurin a fantasy-relevant. guy.

McLoran's been great, but Jigran's a nice guy. Shouts to Titus and Tate, nice guy, Jay Grin. But when he said last week, they asked him what the plan was at quarterback against the Patriots

and he said, we don't have a plan. That was when it was decided. Sealed your face. So going this week, which defense, let's say Dwayne Haskins plays, would you rather start

Miami's defense or Washington's defense? No, Haskins is not going to play. I think he already said that he's not going to play. But regardless, Cole McCoy-Keean,

would you rather play the Dolphins Dekin against Washington or Washington's Degans? You know I actually was thinking about this? And I think going to my head, I'd rather have Miami. Really? Well, Miami's coming off a buy, and I'm kind of just less susceptible to believing that you're going to get

turnovers off a buy. I still think I would take Washington's defense. I think I would take Washington's defense. They at least have some pass rushers. But it's, I mean, the fact that we're actually discussing this, it's bad. Yeah, it's bad either way. All right.

Well, let's forget. For good to sake, let's move on. Let's get in some categories. First up, we got deceiving yards. I'm very excited for this. Deceiving yards. Are they real? Are they receiving?

Are they DC? You guys get it. Fools gold or not. I wanted to read off the top 10 receivers this year so far by yardage. This does not include Monday night football. 49ers and Browns have not played. It is 232 Pacific time. So if O'Dell Beckham has 100 yards, then he joins this list. And he has less than 90s.

So these are the, there's conveniently, the top 10 receivers are also the only 10 receivers who have more than 400 yards through the season. They are in order. Michael Thomas with 543 Amory Cooper with 512 Chris Godwin of Tampa Bay with 511

Cooper Cup of the Rams with 505 DJ Shark of the Jags with 485 Heenan Allen on the charge of the 470 Travis Kelsey of the Chiefs He's obviously a tight end He's at 439 Tyler Boyd of the Bengals

One of the few guys in the 80s At 406 Cortland Sutton of Denver at 401 Will Fuller of Houston rounding it out the top 10 at 400 on the dot. Yeah, the 217 yard game helped a lot there. Yeah, it does. And then just to extend that for one moment because Kelsey's in there,

John Brown of Buffalo is at 390. And then Tyler Lockett at 379 is that's the top 12. Now, the top 12 in receiving yardage is more or less the same as the top 12 in PPR scoring. Julio swaps in and Mike Evans swap in because they've had touchdowns, Tyler Boyd, and Will Fuller fall out. They're not too far out. But I really want to just ask you guys, like, of that list, like that's kind of shocking.

Like, DeAndre Hopkins, not there, Juju, not even close. Julio had a really couple good games and then has dropped off. So of that list, who do you think, do any of those guys, do you think are deceiving? And are any of those guys so legit that you're like, no, they're going to stay top 10, top five at the position going forward, both receiving yards and fantasy? Going down the list, you have to, there's a few guys that are just not surprising whatsoever.

Michael Thomas, Marty Cooper, Keenan Allen, Kelsey are not surprising whatsoever. Godwin has... Godwin at three. He has absolutely lived up to the hype and more. I mean, I think he's actually been better than any of the hype was saying, which is really crazy to think about it. Because, like we talked about this preseason, he's been a guy that has been sort of a hyped up player for a few years now. Without exaggeration, the most high... the most consensus-hyped player I've ever seen in fantasy

and that every expert was in on Chris Godwin. And he's absolutely lived up to it. He's the number one receiver in PPR right now in points. So that, I mean, yeah, you can't get any higher on that. So I think he is absolutely here to stay. I mean, he's been the go-to guy in the Buccaneers' offense. He runs out of the slot. He's, you know, Mike Evans has been incredibly inconsistent.

They're both very good, and Mike Evans actually still has more air yards than Godwin, but Godwin's just been super reliable. And I think he's absolutely here to stay. I don't think that's a fluke. Same with Cooper Cup, who's number four on this list. I think he's here to stay just because the way that offense runs, he's a security blanket underneath for Goff. Goff looks to him in a lot of situations.

He's a great route runner. And just based on the way that offense runs, I think he's just going to be a really heavily targeted player all the time. Yeah, I was wrong with Cooper. He's the best receiver they have. Even if Cooks was healthy. Like Cooper Cup is their best receiver, which is amazing to think about it. He was going to be hard to hype up that much just because he was so close coming off of a torn ACL. I mean, his recovery.

His recovery from that has been astounding. So that one, I think, is a really cool story. DJ Chark was undrafted in most leagues. He was a second rounder in real life, which, you know, he had a lot of speed. He was a senior bowl kind of standout guy. but I don't think anyone expected him to be this good. He's had touchdowns in four or five games. He had two this week.

I mean, 36 fantasy points this week. He was absolutely unbelievable. Also, the real thing for me that stands out with DJ Shark, and, again, seeing his name at five above Keenan Allen and Kelsey in receiving yards is amazing. But the thing that stands out for me is he's had chemistry with Gardner Minshu from the jump. Like in the first game when Gardner Minshu entered mid-game. And it's one of those chemistry things where it just hasn't ended. they just have, they're just on the same page,

whether it's, even when the play breaks down, like Minchew's gotten so much credit for being able to kind of extend the play and kind of like there's that video from jumping around like a Jedi and avoiding all the Broncos defenders, but DJ Char can find him, like knows where he wants to be, but also just, it's been really great passing game dreamed up by their offensive coordinator, John DeFilippo, and it's been amazing to watch him.

So, I mean, is he the guy that drops out of the top 10 for you? I think so. I think so. He's, I mean, and that's not even to say that, it's not even to say anything negative about him. It's just the nature of, I don't know if he'll have the volume to stay in this list. I don't think he's going to get touchdowns every week, you know. So that that's kind of... You also know what happens when Nick Foles returns.

Right. If Nick Foles gets the job back, now, of course, Foles has a touchdown pass. Foles's one touchdown pass this year was to DJ Chark. So, you know, it doesn't necessarily eliminate him from his list or whatever, but I do suspect he'll fade slightly. And that's not to say that he's not a good player, but just based on the volume and everything like that.

I think he'll probably fall. Out of all the people in this list, he's probably the most shocking to me. One of the people I think that really jumps out as deceiving here is Tyler Boyd. And yet there's reports that the Bengals are going to be pretty open to trading AJ Green. So even he's someone who probably won't lose volume.

Yeah. He's another just fantasy stud in the PPR realm, especially just because he gets so many targets. He's the only guy left of that offense. I mean, we've talked about Auden Tate, who, you know, is a fantasy factor going forward, but Boyd is by far the best receiver in that group right now and is going to continue to get a lot of volume. And they're playing a lot, they're throwing a lot, and they're playing a lot of plays.

So that's also good for fantasy production, real-life production, all that. All right, so we're going to drag this list into gone fishing. So these are guys that are worth dropping a line on. Who's a receiver not in the top 10 receiving, not in the top 10 and people are scoring, or someone who is, but based on the lack of production or lack of consistency that you want to drop a line and see if you can snag in a trade. Well, I was just going to ask you guys this. Where are we with Mike Evans at this point? Because the buy low window for him seemed to smash shut when he had those three touchdowns against the Giants.

And then now it almost feels like it's open again all of a sudden because he had literally zero points last week. And so what do we do with him? One, has a player ever scored 40 points and then zero points in a season before? Sure, I would bet my life to Sean Jackson has been back. Okay, in the same season. Mike Evans is having his career in a season. He's had seasons of 12 touchdowns. The next season, he had three.

Then he had 12 touchdowns, and the next season he had five. Then eight, this year, four. And his fantasy totals this year, he's had 41 points and three, 16 and zero. He's just so incredibly tumultuous. Yeah. I think you've got to hold on. him and I don't think anyone's going to trade him. But do you buy? Are you going out looking

for him or are you just kind of like letting other people deal with that? I think he's properly rated. Right. I saw this tweet along those lines, Scott Barrett tweeted this today. In the first half of week three which is notably against the Giants who have not been able to stop literally anyone this year, he had 39.6

PPR points. In all other nine halves of football, four and a half games, it's 39 points. I think there's your answer. I don't know. But he's, He also still leads the entire NFL in Air Yards through five weeks. Well, how much of it was the first half of the Giants game? Probably a good chunk of it.

And he has a 23% target share. So all the metrics are there that he's a by-low. But honestly, at this point, I'm maybe kind of staying away from it. Do you guys think Air Yards has gone a little too far? I feel like that's the only stat that anyone talks about now. And it's like, well, his Air Yards are great. The Air Yards statistic is. You know, I could have 100 air yards a game in an NFL game, right?

I could just run straight and they throw me the football. Devante Parker. Anybody can get areaards. You don't have to be good. Any number can be misapplied or misunderstood. It's about can you apply the proper amount of context to a number? I agree, but I think people don't really do the research on air yards and they just hear it now as a buzzword and just assume that it automatically translates to fantasy relevance.

You're saying I should do a better job explaining air yards? Because I was supposed to stop explaining air yards. No, but every week it's like, well, this guy's been. No, we don't know what air yards is. Every week it's like, man, this guy's been really shitty. But his air yards are great and then he's just shitty again. All right, you know what, let's just cut to the chase Who did you lose this week because of the air yards?

I feel like this is very personal. It's not personal, is this personal? No, it's just, that's just the stat of the year. Who was it? Was it Marquise Brown? No, it certainly wasn't, although we did bet on him. The person I would drop a line on is DeAndre Hopkins. I think that there's a, when someone took him in the first round,

there's a certain psychological rupture that has to happen for you to trade your first round pick. I think it's very difficult for people to let go. He was the unanimous. number one before this season, except here. But Hopkins has not broken 90 yards since week one. He's still eighth in targets, though. And I think that Hopkins could, I mean, he has valleys like this sometimes just without the touchdowns.

That's the difference in the last few weeks. The touchdowns are going to come in not bunches. They're going to come in barrages. I would definitely reach out if someone's getting a little antsy about Hopkins. And if you had to trade away someone, I think do whatever you got to do to get Hopkins, if the Hopkins owner is kind of willing to. to get rid of them. That's a general rule for anyone is you don't want to try to go a

by-low on someone who still believes. But if you can find someone who doesn't believe in Hopkins, I love it. I still believe in Hopkins too. I think I'm with you on that one. Craig, you got anyone you dropping a line on? Yeah, I would drop a line on Josh Gordon on the Pats. He's currently the wider Zeeva 41. His fantasy points this season, he scored 14, 2,

11, 6, and 8. He's had decent target totals, 4, 5, 11, 7, and 8. He's playing a ton of snaps around like 85% a game. I think this is just strictly related to the pats are killing everybody and just don't need to use Josh Gordon. And after the week 10 by, the Pats start to play real football teams. They play the Eagles, the Cowboys, the Texans, the Chiefs.

And Gordon's like a top five most talented receiver in the league. So I think now, if you can, a few weeks early by him, because they're going to need to use him down the road. It's kind of insane how the Pats – if you look at the Pats schedule, it's almost like a launching pad. It's like a skateboard ramp where it's like it perfectly lets them wind up, get into perfect season four. and then week 17 it's the dolphins again and they can just rest. It's unbelievable. God,

Patriots. Last one. Is there anyone else you drop a line on Gregorio? I would try and get rid of and sell James Connor and Jujo if I can. They both scored last week. James Connor said two good weeks.

I don't think he's going to have two good weeks again probably. I just think their old line doesn't look great. The quarterback situation's a mess. I would sell if I can right now. Yeah. Well, the issue is now. I think in a way you might have to hold on

because I think everyone now understands the friction quarterbacks tough. Who's going to buy Connor at this point? You kind of have to hold on to him. And the interesting thing is that even when Mason Rudolph was playing, Mike Tomlin said, a way we can make his life easier

is to do 50 plays a week instead of 70. Obviously, that's not good for fantasy. Even Jiu-Jy touchdown was kind of fluky. Oh, yeah, it was. You should have, yeah. Try. I would, you could try, but I would also be willing to hold on

and maybe self-y have one more good week, but it's a tough situation. You have those guys. those are guys we're worried about, but these are the guys you're not supposed to worry about, which is actually the guy you're supposed to worry about. It's an internet joke, but I think people get it.

D.K., who's the guy you're not supposed to worry about? Running back Jordan Howard of the Eagles has sort of officially become a thing now. Okay, so he's still on a pretty even snap count with Miles Sanders, the rookie Miles Sanders, who everyone was really excited about, including me, coming into the season, the Sanders thing just has not happened.

And it's looking like, according to Doug Peterson, now Howard is going to kind of just, he's going to take on a bigger role, at least in the ground game. He's going to start, I think, being a bigger factor on the ground for the Eagles. He's looked a lot better than Sanders,

at least on the ground. Sanders has made a few big plays in the air, but going forward, I think Sanders is almost, Sanders has become the more rosterable running back in the Eagles lineup, which is devastating for me. You have a lot of,

Miles Sanders stock. I don't have a lot of it, but it was just, I mean, I think Howard is kind of the, I guess, perfect example of the really boring veteran back that it's like the Frank Gore thing with Devin Singletor. Everyone's really excited about Devin Singletory, but Frank Gore just won't go away, and that's Jordan Howard with the Eagles.

He just won't go away. And he's got four times. Jordan Howard has 10 more years, is not going away before you can compare him to Frank Gore. 2027 when the C's rise in the, to the land is when you can start talking. Jordan Howard is still plotting for 4.2 yards per gary.

Okay, give me a better example of the Jordan Howard situation than Frank Gore because you're right. Gore's just ageless and forever. Frank Gore's never not been the leading rusher on his team. Wait, what? Yeah. Seriously?

Thank you for saving me from D.K.'s question. Appreciate it. Yeah, move on. Guy you're not supposed to worry about. Cortland Sutton. my guy receiver on the Broncos this is the number one receiver on the Broncos

as you know 401 receiving yards 9th most in the league he's looked really good he has surpassed Emmanuel Sanders as the top dog on this offense he has 28 targets 26 catches 4101 yards

3 receiving touchdowns all of those figures lead the Broncos Denver does not have what I would call a prolific passing attack but Cortin Sutton's the guy he's a second year guy and he's amazing and I love him already

I wish he wasn't tethered to Joe Flacco. Most people do. All the people tethered to Joe Flacco feel the same way. It's like a kinship. But he has looked amazing. I mean, he's changed sort of his whole style of play from last year. Oh, he hasn't changed it, but he's just, everything looks better.

Everything looks crisper. He's really, really, he looks fast, decisive. You know, he's attacking the ball in the air. He's good in the red zone. I'm really excited about Gordon's Sutton. I think he's going to be a star in this league. It's wonderful. It's wonderful.

Wonderful. All right, this is what's on streaming. For all you cord cutters out there, I will never let that joke die. Just streaming for week six. I kind of was actually blown away by the ownership percentages here. The Cowboys defense is owned in 38% of ESPN leagues. So it's like almost more than 60% of leagues that are out there. They played the Jets this week.

The Eagles just at 35 points. And if Sam Donald plays like he could die still. So, you know, hopefully Sam Donald does not play. Either way. Cowboys are pretty good one. Don't let that Green Bay performance fool you. Didn't the Eagles have like 10 sacks? Yeah, that's the extent of my analysis.

The Eagles defense played the Jets this week. 10 sacks, 35 fantasy points, and now they play the Cowboys, and the Cowboys are available in 62% of leagues. 35 points. So, yeah, that's my hard-hitting analysis right there. I'm with you on that one. My streamer of the week is Preston Williams' receiver for the Dolphins.

He's only owned in 7% of... Yahoo Leagues. He leads the Dolphins and Targets this year with 30 as a 22% target share, which is top on the top on the dolphins. I saw this tweet per Graham Barfield. His target share is actually 29% when Rosen is starting.

So Rosen definitely looks to him a lot. And they're playing the Redskins this week who have given up the third most fantasy points to receivers and the sixth most points to fantasy quarterbacks. Rosen has quietly looked somewhat decent. He's suffered from a lot of drops. There was that tweet kind of going around the viral tweet of all the drops from the Dolphins players,

and it kind of sums up that offense in general. But against a really bad Redskins defense this week, I think there's a slight chance that Williams could go off. I think not go off, off, but into the tune of what we saw this week, but I think he's a solid streamer at receiver this week. I still believe in Rosen. I don't think you'd be hard pressed to find a quarterback who has had, in their first two years, a more challenging set of on-vour.

field hurdles than Josh Rosen. And Preston Williams is his favorite target. Imagine going from the disaster that was the Cardinals last year. One of the 10 worst offenses in the last 40 years. An even bigger disaster in Miami this year. Also, think about he's been on two teams where each team has wanted to get rid of him to take the first overall pick as a quarterback and back-to-back teams. Yeah, that's not good.

What a miserable situation to be in. They're like, actually, we're going to drop you for, Tyler Murray and then trade, oh, now we're going to drop you for Tua. Look, I think the thing that everyone forgot when they washed away Josh Rosen's career when he got traded was that for us Jews, the story does not end when you're wandering in the desert. That is the beginning. It's the beginning of the story. Well, I've been, I've been intrigued. I'll put it that way.

Like the last couple of games that he started, I've been intrigued. I'm excited to see kind of how he does going forward. They have nothing to play for anymore other than hopefully developing Rosen and seeing if he's someone that is worth hanging on to long term. But yeah, Preston Williams is long story short, Preston Williams, a good streamer.

Love Preston Williams. All right, let's get into a sleeper of the week. We're going to pitch or sorry, we're going to pick one fantasy flex player each week who's owned in less than 40% of teams on Yahoo or ESPN. And whichever one of us picks the guy with the most points that weekend, they get the

win for that week. Have we decided whoever gets the most wins at the end of the year is what they're going to get? No, we've got to figure that out. If you have any ideas. If you have any ideas, drop that in the Ringer NFL show Facebook page. What should the winner get or what should the other two losers have to do? Yes. And to clarify, so it's going to be under 40 percent. We're going to pick

a person. They have to outperform them for that week. Yeah, just each week we're going to pick a guy. We're going to do Yahoo. So my guy for this week, it's Kiki Kootie receiver in the Texans. He's owned in 17 percent of leagues. Kenny Stills has missed the last week with a hamstring injury. Banking he's not going to play this week, but Qutti had three catches for 72 yards against...

Oh my God, I'm blanking in who the Texans played. I know the Falcons. I just wrote about the Falcons. The terrible, terrible Falcons. The most forgettable of the 32 teams, I feel nothing. I'm going to get some tweets for that one. From Atlanta, not really. I think he could lead the Texans.

I think Kiki Kutti could lead the Texans in catches on Sunday. Essentially because Deshawn Watson was not sacked against Atlanta. They only had one. quarterback hit, but the Chief's pass rush is way better than Atlanta's. They're still going to be able to pass the ball, but there are going to be plenty of plays where Watson has to get rid of the ball quicker. Coutis going to be that underneath option.

I think that he is, I mean, potentially could even get double-digit catches. Love him to kick your guys' asses this week. What if Stills comes back, though? I'm screwed. We're doing this on Monday. These guys are under 40%. What can we do? I have to throw myself out there, D.K.

Who are you picking? That was the perfect answer. I'm going with Gerald Everett, tight end, for the Rams, and in retrospect, I'm an idiot for picking a tight end on this, but I'm going with it anyway. Well, you can change your mind. No, it's too late. We're committed.

Going up against San Francisco. Like Harold and Kumar, when they go back for the phone, we've come too far. Yeah. Gerald Everett, D.K. Everett owned a 9% of Fantasy League so far. Had a couple really big weeks, last couple weeks. Rams up their usage of two tight-end personnel groups. They were famous for the 11 personnel last season.

They've kind of changed things up a little bit this year where they're using two tight-end which is 12 personnel a little bit more often. He's played 81%, 57% and 88% of snaps in last three weeks. He's run 100 routes, which is fourth behind only Hooper, Kelsey, and Ingram per PFF, and his 19 targets in the last three weeks is seventh among tight-end.

So he's been a bigger part of the passing game and he's been really impressive. He did have a drop which led to an interception against the Seahawks but otherwise he was very, very dynamic, picking up yards after the catch, rumbling and tumbling in the open field. I was really, really impressed. He's a good athlete. And so I think his role has a potential to really grow in that offense. He's had 15 ppr points and 20 ppr points last two weeks.

And it also helps that Jared Gough has thrown 117 passes in the past two weeks. 117 passes in two weeks. That'll do it. Also, I think Everett might be a better receiving option than Josh Reynolds, who's kind of their fourth receiver. And if the Rams, if any team in the league has kind of like a numerical pecking order of who their fourth receiver just steps in for anybody,

it's kind of Josh Reynolds. So I think Everett actually might be on the field more. Keep an eye on Brandon Cooks. That potentially helps Everett. He'll be a bigger part of the passing game probably if Cooks can't play. Precisely. Craig, who's your sleeper of the week that you're going to lose to us on?

Dante Pettis, who I actually drafted in a couple leagues and have subsequently dropped. But I'm beat. But I'm back. The Rams, that's who he'll be playing. they're playing tonight, Monday night. Yeah, bold. No idea what's going to happen.

I might be eating my words in like six hours. But, because we're not doing this for the Browns game. This will be for next week. Yeah, for next week. When they play the Rams. The Rams have been getting... It is 255 p.m. Pacific. Correct.

The Rams have been getting toasted through the air. Godwin, Evans, Matt Calf, Lockett. They've all had big games. Shanahan shootout. Dante Pettis is playing in his hometown city of L.A. He's born in San Clemente. He grew up there. Let's do it.

It was all this just to plug like a Cali guy? Not really. He went to school in Washington, so. Yeah. I love Pettus. I forgot you only love your San Diego State law. Who's the Holy Trinity? It's Kawhi.

It's Rashad Penny and... Tony Gwynn, Marshall Falk? Yeah, yeah, that's the Mount Rushmore of San Diego State. Yeah. Steven Strasbourg? Oh, so who gets left off? Probably Tony... No, Tony Gwyn's on there.

Sorry, Marshall Falk. It might be Strasberg, actually. We'll see if they beat the Dodgers. Actually, are we going to hot talk about? of the week, but that's probably the hot take of the week. What? Steven Strassberg over a shot. Doesn't make the rest more.

I just wanted to use this as excuse to say the Giants are going to beat the Patriots and Thursday Air Football. That's all I wanted to say. I want to parlay that by saying that the Steelers should trade for Eli Manning. Holy. Wow. That's my hot take of the week. Whoa.

Do you like that? That kind of hurts my feelings, but it's a really good idea. I actually don't think it would work. Like, I think him in a Steelers jersey, like, I don't think football fans would all combust. Well, him and Roth. God, him and Rothesberger are like sneakily like opposite people. I just don't, I just can't picture that

like him in a Steelers jersey, but I actually think they should do it. I like the Ryan Fitzpatrick idea a lot more. I actually like, me too. Wait, here's the issues. But Eli's funnier. How do you think his duck calls are? Imagine him and Devlin Hodges, just like,

I got to figure out what the bird scene is like in Pittsburgh. We'll do some research. We can let Eli Manning report back to us. That's all we got for the. Hold on. Hold on a hold on a hold on a D.K. I got a question.

Premature. Yeah. Craig, Craig is the resident Steelers fan and I want to get his take on this. If Mason Rudolph is out for an extended period of time, do you think the Steelers will trade for a quarterback? Because they have no pick.

They traded, well, they could trade like a second or something. They traded for Mink of Pittsburgh, their first round pick, which is like starting to get like into the top five realm, right? And so they're, They seem to be all in on this season. So do you think that's a realistic thing that could happen? Yes.

I do think the Steelers are still in a bit of win now mode. They're one in four. You know, they almost beat the damn Ravens. And if they could have pulled that out and Mason Rudolph was going to be out for like a significant amount of time, I definitely think they would have traded for somebody. Now, I don't know, they're right at the precipice of give up or stay in it. It's really weird for the Steelers. The Steelers actually like the Giants are very, not only like a very traditional,

staunch organization, but very proud of being traditional and staunchy. The Steelers have had a first round pick in every draft since 1968. So when they gave up that pick from Inka Fitzpatrick, that spoke loudly about what they wanted to do this year. They are not a team that just kind of whimsically tosses picks around, and then they traded that mid-round pick to Seattle for Nick Vinette, the tight end. So they've been wheeling and dealing in a way that is weird, but they're already out of character.

Why aren't you allowed to do protected picks, like the NBA in football? different, I don't know, different rules. That should be a thing. I think the Steelers should have done like top three protected. Well, they're going to do the collective bargaining agreement. I don't know. Save it for your CBA podcast, Craig.

All right, now, can we get out of here now? Is it okay? Yes, that's all. We have any of the Steelers draft pick capital? All right, wonderful. Thank you to both of you. Thank you, Craig. Thank you, D.K.

Thank you to our beaming ray of sunshine, Jim Cunningham. And thank you to all of you for listening. We'll see you guys later this week.