The Ringer NFL Show - The Backups Have Become the Stars | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 357)

Episode Date: December 4, 2018

The Backups Have Become the Stars | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 357) Dante Pettis and Jeff Wilson Jr. lead this week's Initial Advice (0:30), and Curtis Samuel and Josh Allen are among the top players to add off of waivers this week (13:00). Plus the slew of backup running backs who have stepped up to the plate and could save your fantasy season (27:00). Hosts: Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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My name is Danny Hyfitz, and I'm joined, as always, by my co-host and co-danny. Danny Kelly, what is up, D.K.? What's going on, man? How are you doing? I'm doing wonderful. We are joined by full-time Craig. Hey, what's up? Who, I can't see you because of the studio we're in. there's just like this glass wall separating us

so you look like the scene in Austin Powers like through the tent with the flashlights I can see my shadow I can see your shadow oh cool profile yeah you got I don't even want to describe you're painting a nice silhouette yeah it's a very visual joke I guess but yeah that was really weird week but

we can put that behind us because it is now playoff time DK for most people yeah it's like this is this is it we're doing this yeah DK let's get into some initial advice we're gonna do this a little bit differently because we kind of decided that the most obvious people to really talk about were just these muddled backfields, like very clear situations that became very unclear this week. So

the Chargers, obviously Gordon's out. And then Justin Jackson emerged along with Austin Eckler. And then James Connor had a lower leg injury. And so now we got to talk about the Steelers. And then obviously the chief situation with Kareem Hunt being released. And then there's Spencer Ware. And then that's different because they've signed some people. So we decided we're going to put all these people at the back end of the show. Yeah. And we're going to talk through some other waiver wire ads and some other initial advice. So if you want to hear about the Steelers and the Chiefs and the Chargers backfields,

we're going to have a whole discussion about those situations at the end. So, stay tuned. First, we're going to run through our initial advice outside of those guys. Yeah. So we're going to open the show with a couple of 49ers, which is kind of weird, considering they're going with a backup quarterback and have been pretty terrible over the last several weeks. But I'm starting off with Dante Pettis. receiver for the 49ers. They're going up against

the Broncos next week. Pettus broke out. He's broken out basically the last couple weeks. He had seven targets, five catches, 129 yards and two touchdowns against the Seahawks. That was a blowout game, but he looked really good. He had one long touchdown and then another touchdown where he

caught a ball over the middle and kind of broke it to the outside and got into the end zone. I like him a lot. He's a really good player. I was excited about him early in the season. He disappeared. He kind of had some injuries that he was dealing with and then got in the dog house a little bit. Has climbed out of that, and now he's a big part of that 49er passing offense, which

just based on the way their defense is playing, based on the injuries with Marquis Goodwin and Pierre Garcana, both missed time. I just think he is an interesting player to kind of monitor down the stretch. He's now posted double-digit points in the last two weeks going up against Denver defense next week that just lost Chris Harris Jr. sounds like he's got like a broken leg or something like that. Not going to keep him out for the rest of the season,

but he's definitely out next week. Yeah, I like Dante Pettis going forward for at least the next couple weeks. Well, if he broke his leg, I do think he's out for the season. Well, it's like interesting. They're not putting him on IR according to what I was seeing this morning.

It's like one of those like saving him for the playoff type things. I don't really know. That's one of those moments where I'm like, God, football players are so much tougher than I am. I broke my leg. I wouldn't come to this office for like a year. I'd see you in 2020. Seriously.

Sticking with the Niners, though, the immortal, Jeff Wilson, Jr., who obviously we've all heard of a no deep from his time at North Texas where he was a fighting member of the Mean Green. So Matt Brayda aggravated his ankle in pregame warm-ups. Matt Brady's a tough son of a gun, so he played anyway, and then I think he aggravated it in the game two, and then Wilson kind of took over his leadback did very well.

well. Like 73 yards on eight catches receiving and then 61 yards and 15 rushes. Yeah, he looked good. He looked like a talented runner. Obviously the Niners, and we talked about this way back when Alfred Morris was alive about, I mean, they have no incentive. I mean, they got to give young guys touches anyway. So if Brayda, I mean, this is a massive caveat because Brayda's probably been more

than anyone this year, the most resilient toward injury when we think he might not be out. He's always playing. So massive caveat. But if he's out, Jeff Wilson looked really good. Broncos have a solid defense, but, you know, Harris is out and there's garbage time, and he clearly can catch very well out of the backfield as well. So, also love Jeff Wilson. Also just, I mean, North Texas mean green, he's kind of like mean Jeff Green.

Can we go with that? Something like that, sure. Mean Jeff Green. Is that insulting Jeff Green or Jeff Wilson? Oh, like the NBA player, Jeff Green? Yeah. Who is like the Jeff Green of fantasy football? Like, he's just fantastic one game.

and then three months just coasts as like below average and then just pops up again like wow it's a top 10 talent guy Isaiah Crowell he has like three touchdowns in a game I was thinking Kenji Tricic but I would argue kind of just Ron Jackson if you have if you have thoughts about Jeff Green of fantasy football please tweet at either me or Danny Kelly I love this moving on moving on moving on moving on moving on moving on moving on moving on moving on all right we're taking seriously talking all right we're talking to Adam Humphreys The Buccaneers

We've talked about him A few times Over the past couple weeks He's quietly been ridiculously consistent For the last five weeks Five touchdowns In the last five games

He's double digit points And four of the last five games That's in half point PBR So he has been valuable, not just PBR leagues Where he's catching a lot of passes Over the middle He's running about

He's running I think a good amount of his snaps out of the slot So 82% actually So he's not He's not even competing necessarily with Deshawn Jackson for looks in this offense. It's kind of like two different roles.

Yeah, I think it's more Chris Godwin's probably the one add-outs at the short point. So Jackson missing last week was a factor, and Humphreys had 10, no, I see, nine targets, seven catches, 61 yards, and a touchdown. But I think going forward, even if Jackson is playing, Humphreys is still going to be a big part of this offense, or at least, you know, that middle-range target over the middle, kind of the slot guy.

he's good on those whip routes. He's just, I think, you can't rely on him to have a touchdown in every game. I mean, he's basically done that the last four weeks, but I think he's still going to get enough targets. I mean, he's nine, six, five, eight, ten targets going back over the five weeks. So he's a big part of that offense. At this point, he's still available in about 50% of Yahoo League. So people have been kind of slow to jump on this Humphreys train.

So I think right now is the time when you do it. If you're looking for a high ceiling, Sorry, a high floor, lower ceiling type player, Humphreys' man. Did you guys see that James Winston broke the Buccaneers' touchdowns, all-time record? How did that? Freeman? It was Josh Freeman. Josh Freeman?

God. Poor Buccaneers. You know, that's my middle name is Freeman. Really? Yeah. Wow. There you go. Fun fact.

Cool, cool. Also, don't forget that the Bucs beat. Shut up. What's your middle name? You're some boring-ass middle-name, D. Oh, wait, no, we like it. What is it again? My middle name is Brolly.

Oh, yeah. Wow. That's like really good. Brawley Kelly. That's cool. Broly Kelly? Why do we name this the Tennessee football podcast?

Who could have named this Broly Freeman? Freeman and Brawley. That sounds like a law firm. It does. Yeah. Wow. That's great stuff.

Oh, my God. Sorry, we got to move on, D.K. Ooh, we're going to move on. Keeping you on schedule here. Come on. Let's go. I'm actually moving back because the bucks beat the Saints in week one,

and that's very easy to forget, but just want to throw that out there. It might be a competitive game. Weird. Moving forward. The Jacksonville defense. Their ownership is down to 65% ESPN and 57 in Yahoo, which makes sense, but still it's kind of funny to see them, like, own that low. Obviously, they're playing really well again.

They shut out the Colts. I mean, again, where the hell did that come from, by the way? That was crazy. Well, I always say this, but even the horrible teams, it was really hard to shut out a football team of any kind in the NFL, especially a good one. This is a good offense. They sacked Andrew Luck three times. He had only been sacked, I think, 11. times entering the game.

Like he's actually been one of the hardest quarterbacks to sack all year because their lines played really well. They're playing the Titans this week. The first had five games in a row where Luck didn't get sacked. Yeah, exactly. They broke that streak last week, I believe.

And then Luckwood had like some crazy number of games with three plus touchdowns in a row. So they were just on fire. The Colt, like we have to stress that. Colts offense was on fire. Like it genuinely, as close to flawless as really a defense can ask for

in a game to shut. out of a team that was as hot as the cults were. And they're playing the Titans. Last time they played the Titans, it was like that 9 to 6 game. They held them to 232 yards and 9 points. One of the worst games in the season so far, I'd probably. Yeah. And Moriota is playing, I will be generous and say, like trash.

So, and they lost that last 9 to 6 games. So I kind of think they're probably still pissed. So I have fantastic play. Remember when the Titans beat the Patriots a few weeks ago? Who are the Titans? I think that they're like the classic. Like they actually, it's, they're the. actual cliche team where they actually

like to muddy up the game and like trash everything around and just kind of win ugly games like a lot of teams say they like to do that that actually is the Titans in my mind also Mario I don't know if they're going to move out from him but that's neither here nor there DK I do like this I like this matchup though I think you're right the Jacksonville defense seem to kind of find themselves

rediscovered their identity stopped a really good offense and yeah so it's kind of maybe they figured it out finally so yeah moving back moving back to the receiver position yeah we got to move forward come on DK ride receiver Bruce Allington and Lions he's been a target

sort of machine in that offense he's not gaining very many yards so this is a PPR ad only I'd say playing half of his snaps in the slot last week he had 10 targets seven catches for only 35 yards he's the dump off option obviously week 12 he had seven targets six catches 28 yards week before that nine targets so he's getting a lot of targets not doing a ton of them but in the PPR league

that's just that gives you sort of that that established floor that you can work with. It's not going to give you a goose egg probably. And so going up against the Cardinals this week who have, you know, they've struggled as a team. They have problems. I kind of like this. I like Ellington.

If you're looking for a guy that, you know, like I said, with a respectable floor, I think he could be worth playing this week. Yeah, no, I agree. He definitely has that floor. And if he gets a touchdown, that's gravy. And the line's passing offense has not been quite the same without Marvin Jones Jr. and Golden Tate.

but he's actually filled more of the role than I thought either of us would probably think he fills even. He's not getting a ton of downfield targets. Yeah, absolutely. Before we move on, DK., let's take a quick break. Getting tickets online can be way too complicated. With hundreds of sites and varying levels of reliability, it is hard to know who to trust. That's why Seat Geek is the way to go. Seat Geek pulls millions of tickets into one place so you can easily find the seats you want for a price you're willing to pay.

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Seek, life is an event. We have the tickets. All right, D-K, let's hop through a waiver wire lightning round. Once again, we are leaving the backfield situation with the chargers and Steelers and the Chiefs to the third segment

so we can just hash out all of that. So we're going to run through everyone else. kind of like asking Mrs. Lincoln, like, how the play was. You know what I mean? It's just kind of like, we're going to skip the obvious right now and we're through everyone else. Way to sell this segment, Danny. Look, man, it's like there's still other things going on in the world. The world keeps spinning, you know, just because James Connor has a bruise on his leg. Like, we still have other things we've got to get to, man. I've been really, and I've been really excited to

talk about this first person. Oh, you know what? Just go ahead. You and Craig, I'm just going to sit back. You and Craig can talk. Go ahead. Rishan Penny, the Seahawks. We got to talk about him because Chris Carson left the game on Sunday with a dislocated finger. So far, Carol is saying it's probably not going to be a big deal. He's not going to miss time. But Carol is not necessarily trustworthy when it comes to the injury diagnosis. So I would say Penny at the very least is worth a speculative ad at this point in case Carson is out.

Because right now, Carson's the clear number one in that backfield. they're getting penny looks but he's a really risky play especially if the playoffs are going right now if Carson is going to play but if it come back on like Friday and Carson's not playing or whatever then I think he becomes

a very very strong ad right now he's only he's only owned in 30% of Yahoo leagues he's averaging 5.1 yards per carry and actually he's gotten better as the year's gone on 6.7 yards per carry since week eight last week he had seven carries 65 yards and a touch

He's looked a lot faster on the field. Kind of just sort of found his footing in that offense. I found this interesting, actually, and I don't know if this is necessarily a good thing, but I heard Pete Carroll on the radio this morning say that Penny is playing at like 240 pounds. So having that speed that has been sort of apparent on the field lately with sort of that bruising style, I think makes him kind of an interesting running back going forward, kind of a bruiser. Kind of an all-around talent. Yeah, exactly.

So, again, if Carson's playing, I would not start Penny, but if Carson has any issues going forward with this finger issue, with this finger injury, then Penny becomes a very strong play. So, yeah, he's a guy to, I would probably add him and just hold on to him and see what happens with this finger injury. So to skip ahead, Chris Carson could have played, you would not stop Rashad Penny. You would not start Rashad Penny. That's a more concise version of that? That's correct. Yes, okay, great. Glad we could agree on not playing Rashad Penny.

Craig, any thoughts? I'm not playing Rashad Penny. It just really must suck to be you right now because Amari Cooper and Rashad Penny are just both playing well. I have no regrets and you can refer all comments to my lawyers. Let's move on to the Panthers.

Just do a little combo on right here. Tideon, Ian Thomas, and Curtis, Samuel. So Greg Olson is out for the rest of the year. He had battle-flood injuries and now has, I'm just embarrassed. Another thing I can't say. Planner fasciitis? Yeah, I think so.

Is there any, by the way, is there any worse sounding injury than a ruptured planter fasciata, or fascia or whatever? I don't know how they say it, but that sounds completely awful. So I'm not a doctor, but I play one in my head when I read WebMD. But the thing about the word rupture is it's actually, I think, the same as a tear. It's just like you can say torn it. Let's not go into that. Anyway, the question is kind of like who fills Olson's role. There's a lot of, like, suspects.

I mean, Devin Funchess traditionally plays pretty well when Olson's out. I think, you know, he kind of fills the de facto tight end position in the offense. So I don't know if Ian Thomas is exactly going to take over exactly what Olson did. The game's out Olson this year, Ian Thomas has what, three targets or two catches and 10 yards, five targets or three catches in 20 yards, six targets for three catch and 30, nothing. He hasn't done anything really with Olson out. Maybe he gets a touchdown or not, but I think Funchess would probably be better. Obviously, he's owned, he's not really an ad. And then Curtis Samuel might tick up, but I don't know if any of these guys are going to be that great because I'm actually a little bit.

worried about Cam Newton. He's been playing really well, but he suffered what looked like a shoulder injury during the game. And then, you know, he had, I mean, he had shoulder surgery on his throwing arm in March. He already has had deep ball issues this year. And his shoulder hasn't been quite 100%. It's not exactly 75, but it's kind of somewhere in between. And then he's re-injured, or definitely banged up the shoulder during the game, threw a Hail Mary to end the game, didn't make it to the end zone. And then it kind of came out for the second Hail of Mary. He didn't throw the next one. Yeah, that was trained.

Yeah, so, you know, I'm kind of hesitant. I mean, it makes sense to want a Greg Olster replacement, but I'm actually kind of hesitant to go with any of these guys. His Cam's shoulder is not 100%. So the Browns is a good matchup, but I don't know. I kind of need to see how Cam's doing in practice because he's going to play, but that might not be awesome. Yeah, I suspect, well, so Thomas had five targets, five catches,

46 yards. I'm wondering how big of a part of the game plan he'll be going forward. I just don't know if you can trust you. I don't know if you can trust it at this point. If you're looking for help at the tight end position, because it is obviously very sort of barren this year. He could be worth an ad, but I'm pretty reticent to start him this week. And that goes, I kind of agree with you. It just goes with all that, all the receivers in that offense right now. Like, can you really trust Funches? Can you really trust D.J. Moore? So much of 50s.

Trust issues, isn't it? Just that offense, just like, they spread. the offense around, or they spread the ball around so much, it's just really hard to know who's going to step up in any given week, and that's scary in the playoffs. Yeah, but I think you hit the argument for Thomas actually nail on the head right there in that tied in so bad that like, what the hell do you have

to lose? Right. Because at least he has upside and those guys don't, but yeah, man. Moving forward, Jordy Nelson had a big game kind of out of the blue again this week. He had 11 targets, 10 catches 97 yards, had two red zone targets, which was tops on the team. This week, they're going up against the Steelers.

I don't, again, it's a trust thing and I don't think I can really trust anybody other than maybe Jared Cook in this offense or Jalen Rashard, our favorite player. Eight points. He had 92 yards. Mr. 8 points.

Well, yeah, did he get over 10, but he fumbled, so he came back down eight. He knew what he was doing, yep. Yeah, yeah. There was, that, I think I watched that run this morning. It was like, it was hilarious. He juked, like, six guys, like, had like, a spin move in there,

and then he just dropped. I don't even know if he got, Paul got hit, just like threw the ball away at the very end of his run. He's like, oh, that makes sense. In his defense, he actually scored 12. There we go. And half PPR, so good for him. Nice.

He tried to fumble more, but. But going back to Jordi, I don't know, again, I don't know if I can trust him. He's only gone over 50 yards twice the season. He had one target in week 12. This week, going against a bad chief's defense, maybe he was taking advantage of that. Yeah, I'm probably, I mean, I guess you could pick him up and see how it goes. not going to start him this week, and I'm just a little bit reticent right now with anybody in that Raiders passing offense.

Yeah, it's weird. The Steelers started as a really bad past defense. I've really picked it up since then and then just got shredded on Sunday to football by Keenan Allen because they kind of played like a linebacker over him. Yeah. Like right when you would think that they wouldn't have to worry about Melvin Gordon could just kind of shut down Keenan Allen let the other guys beat him, they just kind of didn't always put a corner or safety on Keenan Allen and let him just shred some linebackers.

But at the same time, that would so badly that I actually don't know if we can look at that matchup and apply it because you'd think they have to do some new stuff. So I don't exactly know how they're going to play the Raiders, but you have to think they did something different. I would hope so, yeah. So I actually, I would add, I would add Jordy, if you need a receiver on the chance that the Raiders offense has been getting better as painful as it is to admit. Fair enough. Who do you got next? This is just some kind of housekeeping. me. If you have Todd Gurley and you have Malcolm Brown handcuffed, and I highly recommend handcuffing after what we've seen in the last two weeks. Yeah.

Obviously, monitor Malcolm Brown's status, but he hurt his shoulder. John Kelly, who is behind him, not the soon-to-be maybe outgoing chief of staff of the country, but just the Rams' third string running back has been hanging around. And he looked really good in the preseason. Rolling ball of butcher knives, John Kell. For God, I've found this. You have to explain. Please explain. That's just scout speak.

I love scout speak. There's the way human beings say that. I don't know. It's like tradition. You have to make up these crazy, yeah, you have to make up like these crazy euphemisms for whatever they are. Yeah, rolling ball butcher knives is a good one. That's just how he runs. I mean, he's like really physical.

What are some other scouting terms? A lot of tackles. Oily hips. Oh, I've heard that one about the chief of staff, John Kelly. Tight skin? which means like your... House of Chief of Staff, John Kelly. All right.

Moving on before I get fired. There's just so many good ones. Well, no, sorry, we have to stay here for a second. Pick up John Kelly if Malcolm Brown is out for any extended period of time and you have Todd Gurley because John Kelly, he looks pretty good. And we probably get plenty of time.

Yeah, it could inherit an enormous workload if Gurley were to go out. Knock on wood. One last one that I feel like we have to talk about is Josh Allen on the bills. going up this week against the Jets Allen has rushed well let's see he rushed for 135 yards on Sunday

actually he and that makes him join Michael Vic Kaepernick and Griffin Robert Griffin as the only quarterback's 130 plus yards I saw this stat I think on Twitter over the last 20 years so that's a significant number obviously a lot of it was on scrambles but I mean he's just he's to me he's sort of the new Blake Bordals

like he's very inaccurate. Scattershot as a thrower. You never really know what you're going to get from him in terms of the air. Last week he had two touchdowns. He scored 26 and 30 fantasy points the last two weeks partly because he's just running the hell out of the ball. He had 99 yards, I think, last week.

I don't know. Going up against this Jets defense, is Allen a guy that you're actually thinking about potentially starting in the playoffs as they kick off? First of all, I think Josh Allen is the Jeff Green. I think we actually just settled this. I don't think he's Blake Bortles. He's, I mean, in real life, football, he's way better than Blake Bortals, I think.

I mean, brings more. Really? I think he's, might be the best Russian quarterback in football right now after, like, I mean, consider Cam's shoulder injury, probably not lowering it much. I mean, Josh Allen might be the best rushing guy. You like it more than Lamar Jackson as a runner? Yeah, he's done better. I mean, it's a pure runner, sure.

I have a question for you both. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah. If you had to put your life on it, who's going to have more rushing yards next week, Josh Allen or Alvin Kamara. Oh, well, scrimmage or rushing? Rushing.

Camara. Yeah? My life on it, Camar. I think I would say, yeah, I think I would say Kamara too. I'm glad you asked that because here's why. You said my life, and if you play fantasy football, you should look at fantasy playoffs like your life is on the line. I think I saw someone say that Josh Allen has as many 100-yard rushing games as Dalvin Cook in his career.

He has more than Kamara. Dalvin-Cook's been hurt. Okay. The Alvin Kumar stuff, this is one of those things they say in a broadcast that you're like, that's bullshit, because it's not telling the whole story. You're like, oh, Alvin Kumar had 50 rushing yards last week. Yeah, he had 160 receiving yards or whatever. And I just made that up. Anyway, Josh Allen, I could see him crushing the Jets.

But there's so many quarterbacks out there. Maybe. He's worth a start, 26 and 30 fantasy points in the past two weeks. High Floor. I'll admit very high fleur. And he's not as bad as the... Well, I mean, this is his whole thing and this will he be him for the next few years, which is you will not like... learn about Josh Allen really watching the highlights or the low lights.

There will always be a lot of ridiculously dumb picks and a lot of crazy plays. Who he is as a player is actually everything in between when you're kind of watching in the boring stuff. He's been better than I thought he would be on the, unlike the boring stuff, I'll admit. So there. I'm thinking about,

if in a two-quarterback league or a Superflex, I'm thinking about it simply because of what he brings. Oh, if it's two-quarterback league, then, yeah. I mean, I'm talking, yeah, I'm talking definitely for just two quarterback leagues. I'm not starting him over like a Philip Rivers or something like that. If you, uh, you know what? It's bold, but I respect it, Cotton. If you play it.

All right. Word. Let's move on to the main course, D.K., but before you move on, let's take another quick break. The fantasy two playoffs are fast approaching. There I say, they're here. And at this point, you probably know whether or not your team is in the championship mix. If you're not, then Fandl wants you to know that there's no shame in walking away from a losing. team.

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and terms and conditions, go to Fandul.com. All right, TK, let's do it. it, man. So obviously there was just a ton of turmoil at some very stable running back positions this week. James Connor heard his lower leg. Melvin Gordon had another injury. He might return soon, but Austin Eckler was maybe a little bit usurped as the started there. And then obviously Kareem Hunt was released by the Chiefs this week. So we're just going to run through those each week

and we're going to look at the state of those backfields for fantasy purposes. Let's start with the Steelers. Yeah, let's do this. So first of all, we're recording this on Monday afternoon. there's some confusion kind of over what's going on with his ankle injury. Yeah, from anyone who watched the thing and then the injury and then like the reports afterward. Everyone's confused, I think. Yeah. So Ian Rappaport says his understanding is the injury is not ankle. It's not considered major at all. Tomlin called it a contusion and he seems to be okay. We'll see in it, and quote, how much it swells will be telling.

There was other people that said that it looked like. I'm sorry, that's a quote from Ian Rappaport. I don't think it's a quote from Tom. Right, right. But still. okay, gotcha. And then, you know, there's other reports that it was a high, or not reports, but speculation that it was a high ankle injury.

It looked more like that. I don't know. I think we're just kind of still in the waiting period. And it just can't hurt at this point to handcuff right now. I think Jaylon Samuels. Oh, yeah, you have to. Yeah, Jalen Samuels is sort of the number one target, I think, in that area. He's kind of a positionless player.

He didn't really have a position in college. He comes in. He's actually a tight end. I think in Yahoo leagues, he's tight-end eligible. He is. Which is such a game-changer. I've never seen anything like that for like a relevant player. Yeah.

To be running, maybe a running back playing tight-in eligibility. It's incredible. He's essentially like the athlete designation, right? Didn't have a position in college. Yeah, he's going to be, I think more heavily featured,

if Connor were to miss time, he'd be more heavily featured as a pass catcher, likely. And then I think Stephen Ridley would get some of the, The early down work. Yeah, I would not be fooled by really not getting carry on Sunday night. I think that really would get more carries than Samuels, but Samuels would be the better fantasy play if Conard would be out.

But I also kind of think there's a serious chance that Connor plays and then doesn't get the full workload. In which case, I would still play him, but he would definitely not be obviously like the dominant, almost plug-in top five guys every week. In other words, this is all very bad for fantasy football, especially in the first week of the playoffs, especially if you rode Connor to the playoffs. Darkness breeds light elsewhere, DK. And I would say that if there is a light here, it's like if Connor's out,

Samuel's being able to plug into tight end is like such a game changer if you don't have a tight end. Even for like one week is incredible. And that upside alone, it's like, it's wild. I mean, this is really a fantasy baseball conversation, but like, you know, it's like Ben Zobris used to be. Or who is the recent example? Anthony Rizzo qualified at second base

because of the shifts the Cubs were doing things like that. It's just suddenly like the positional value. That's not really ever conversation in fantasy football for important players. I think that could, if Connor is actually out for a couple weeks, Samuel's just the potential

that's way more valuable to me. Yeah. And going up against the Raiders this week who have a atrocious defense, there is definitely potential for, for high volume, lots of scoring, and things like that. So yeah, it's definitely something

to monitor. Keep an eye on what's going on with Connor. In the meantime, I would definitely add Samuels. Think about adding Ridley. If you got an extra spot out there back here roster, I mean, you're probably not going to play. There's guys you're not going to play regardless going forward, I think, if you're in the playoffs.

So these are a much higher potential higher upside guys to add. So yeah, I think Samuel's priority one. Ridley, don't count Ridley out as a potential guy who's going to get carries. But, yeah, If you have Connor handcuff, and if you don't, it's always worth, you know, just a speculative ad at this point.

Yeah, and moving on to the charges right now, Melvin Gordon, the Adam Schaft reported that he will be back either this week against the Bengals on Sunday or on Thursday night against the Chiefs. My gut would tell me that probably means Thursday, but who knows? But in his absence, we kind of thought Austin Echler would do, you know, a lot more of the work than he did. And then ended up the second half, Justin Jackson really took over. over, look better. Just straight, I think he just outplayed Echler. It looked explosive, yeah. It looked really good.

Obviously, Echler's owned in a ton of leagues. I mean, I would add Justin Jackson. I think that he maybe has a better chance of sticking around and taking Echler's snaps when Gordon's in the game. And if Gordon does come back, the charges are prime for a playoff run. And this is the important part I think here. Even if Gordon comes back in the regular season, I don't think he's going to be getting the volume he got because they need to preserve him for a playoff run.

if they're easing it back from an MCL injury, I don't know if it makes sense to just keep feeding him. And I kind of... Why would they bring him back this week? That just... I think it'll push it. Don't push it. And again, if they bring him back,

we don't know what the split will be. And that's the thing is, this is different to me... It's actually similar to Connor, but Connor, I think that it's more about we don't actually know what the injury is. Maybe he's totally fine. With this one, I think it's much more clear that, like...

Yeah. There will be volume for Echler or Jackson. I think Jackson might use Echler going forward. So it's interesting. Echler had 13 carries for 21 yards Is that is that it 13 carries for 21 yards? Man, that's too bad It's tough

Five catches for 22 yards And then Jackson He had eight carries for 63 yards In a touchdown added a reception for 19 yards So yeah he was he was making open field moves So he literally exactly tripled what Echler did On five fewer carries But like that's actually representative

The eye test bared that out He was three times. He's good. And I like Echler a lot. I still like Echler. I think he can be a productive player in that offense. But maybe what we saw last night is that he's not necessarily like a 20-touches-a-game type of player. And that's why Jackson got some more action.

So, yeah, Jackson's definitely worth that at this point, I think, just because he showed out really well. I think Gordon's probably going to be out for at least another week. And they're going up against the Bengals who have a terrible defense. The difference between this one and the Steelers, I think, is that with the Steelers, we don't know what's going to, I mean, it's Monday, we don't know what the deal is. On Friday, I think it'll be much clearer if either those guys are worth playing.

With this one, I think it's much more, might be like a Sunday afternoon thing, but you should want them on your roster regardless because there's a real chance. And then with this one, even more so, I think, than Jalen Samuels, they might be relevant week 15 and 16 as well, based on how that workload pans out.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, moving on to the Chiefs. So Spencer Ware is obviously owned in probably 90 plus percent of leagues at this point. That's no secret. I thought Damien Williams outplayed Spencer Ware. Spencer Ware had, let's see, he had 70% of snaps. He ran 23 routes, 15 touches total.

And he only took 14 carries for 47 yards and a touchdown. And then Damie Williams, on the other hand, played a quarter of snaps, ran eight routes, got seven touches. He took five carries for 38 yards. So similar to where, but more importantly, Williams just looked better. He looked a little more explosive, I guess. Yeah, wait, yeah. Yeah. He just, he looked like he was able to create more with less.

A little more oily. Oiler hips? Yeah. Got tighter skin. What that? What does tight skin mean, D.K.? Tight skin means you can't, there's not a lot of room on your frame to add like a lot of muscle. So like Calvin Ridley last year was called, had tight skin.

He's like a little too skinny or whatever. I mean, it's not always, it's not always damning. That's somehow worse. oily hips. I didn't think any of these scouting terms could get worse than I. Yeah, there's some weird scouting terms. I like bowling bowl of butcher knives, though. I'm going to stick with that one.

Damien Williams, bowling bowl of butcher knives. Rolling ball. Oh, it's not a bowling ball? Bowling ball is good to it. I think, why? What's that line from the Lord of War? I like it in my way. Craig, we get that dropped?

No, he cannot. I like it. Anyway, so Damien, here's the point. I think, I mean, Spencer War is obviously still the guy to own and play. I think, though I would not be surprised of two weeks from now, Damie Williams is like taking the job

and a top 10 fantasy running back. I would add him if that is intriguing to you and then the sleeper here, the dark horse, they said they were going to sign CJ Anderson. They did not.

They added Chircandric West who'd been with the team for the last four years, including this year's training camp, they cut him. But now he's back. He knows the playbook. That's another guy

I wouldn't be surprised. I also think that this could be a situation where like there's two guys that are fantasy worthy. But yeah, Yeah, Ware is going to be the volume guy and then Williams, and maybe West will be the upset guys, but probably not Williams nor West will be helpful this week.

But for the 15 and 16 weeks, I actually think might even be better than Ware, possibly. I'm sticking with Ware. I think Ware, he did look a little underwhelming in this game. And they have a tough matchup next week against the Ravens. It's not necessarily a great matchup for the Chiefs run game in general. But I'm still sticking with Ware. I just think you've got to go with the volume until it changes.

I mean, I think you're putting your hopes on a lot with Williams. Sorry. Let me clarify. I'm not saying you should play Damien Williams this week. I think you should add Damien Williams in the hope that if he wins the job, it's on your bench and not on waivers. That's kind of my, but again, it's complicated because you also have to balance with like, I mean, look, I would rather have Justin Jackson or Jalen Samuels if Conner's out.

But if you lose that on those guys, I'll take you. Damien Williams and roll the dice with, well, if he usurps then maybe you have a top 15 guy. And West is someone to keep an eye on. I don't know if I'd add him yet. Right, exactly. One last team that kind of

had a, there's an interesting development, kind of late in the game. Rex Burkhead is back, and he's actually playing, which kind of muddles again, it muddles the Patriots backfield situation. Burkhead had picked up seven carries for 20 yards, two targets, two catches, 21 yards,

does this change your feeling about, I guess, the upside of James White and Sonny Michelle going forward. Like, is this something that actually changes your, I guess your willingness to start either of those guys going forward? Or you just think it's just sort of like a thorn in our side going forward? The situation has changed, but it doesn't change my feeling about the situation, if that makes sense. You're still playing James White because he's, I mean, look, maybe Burkheads, there's certainly, let me clarify, there's certainly a risk Burkhead's numbers tick

up going forward and that just when you get to the championship round, James White's numbers get overcut by him. That's a risk. But until them, James White's still running an extraordinary amount of routes. I mean, he had nine targets, seven catches, 92 yards, which is, I mean, good receiving numbers. That's like, those are good receiving numbers and also got six carries. Sony Michelle, I mean, his season average was 41% of carries this year.

And then he got 44% in this game. So I don't know if that really, if Burkhead's really going to, take his numbers away, maybe the goal line even. I don't, I need to see it. And then obviously James Devlin vultured, or as full-time Craig would say, Matt as he added, two touchdowns away from Sony Michelle. Yeah.

But it's the Patriots. It's fancy football. Shit happens. Like, I still trust Sony Michelle to get those carries. You still got the goal line back and one of the best offenses in football that runs more than almost any other team in football when they are near the goal line.

The Patriots trust Sony Michelle at the goal line. I am willing to take the devil in risk and maybe even the Cordor L Patterson risk and maybe even the Rex Burkhead risk, I think Sony Michelle is still like a pretty good bet. And until you see James White not be productive, I think you got to play James White. So let me ask you guys,

after this, we just said this third segment here, so how would you rank everyone? So we have Justin Jackson, we have Jalen Samuels, we have Spencer Warren and Damon Williams. So how are you adding them? If you could add one of those? This is a great question.

I would sort yourself into two categories, which is one, do you need someone for week 14, or do you need someone for weeks 15 and 16? Yeah. I think that's definitely a thing. If you're talking about this week, and now, I mean, this is also where injuries and information, I mean, to answer your question first,

you kind of have to rank how do you think these guys are going to play? I think Melvin Gordon has a lower chance of playing this week than James Connor. So that's kind of how I'm sorting this. But if that changes, then the rankings change. If you need someone for this week, I think Justin Jackson's one. Jalen Samuels is 2A and Ridley's 2B, but Samuels gets the tight end stuff,

and I think that it's more valuable for this week. Yeah. I'm with you on that. If you kind of think your lineup's set and none of these guys are going to crack it for you, or at least you don't know, and you're kind of plotting for if you have a buy or whatever, you're plotting for next week,

or maybe you just want to take stuff away from your opponents because there's game theory going. Maybe it turns out Conner's fine or whatever. I think just, Once Gordon returns, Justin Jackson might not be as valuable suddenly in the three-headed backfield. But I'm kind of super intrigued by the possibility of Damon Williams by week 16

and maybe even Jalen Sammons to steal some receiving stuff from James Connor going forward. I like Justin Jackson the most too, I think, especially just for this week going up against the crappy Bengals defense. And Spencer, where? How is he shaping up against Jalen Samuels and Justin Jackson? Oh, well, I mean, I'm not even counting him.

I think he's owned at like 90% of weeks. I mean, I'll literally check right now. Or even Damien Williams. Does he... Ware legitimately, like, gets his own tier, and then there's a tier below him that is empty out of respect for how much higher. Sorry if that wasn't clear,

but Spencer Ware is clearly number one here, and then the rest of the guys are varying levels of speculative. Justin Jackson is week 14, I think pretty legit if Melvin Gordon doesn't play. And then the charges can say whatever they want, but there's still a chance if Melvin Gordon might not play on Thursday, because it's a quick turnaround.

And only he has to do is have one setback. And then, you know, because if he has a setback for Sunday, and then he doesn't play on Thursday, well, then you just got two rounds of the playoff set of Justin Jackson. That's super valuable. But if he does play, then you're kind of banking that he gets Austin Neckler's touches. And then that's dicey. But that's the highest upside thing, I think.

And then Samuels, there's also risk here because Stephen Ridley might just get more carries. But the tight end thing, basically if you have Kelsey, Ertz, or Ebron, sorry, DK. And maybe even Jared Cook, you're cooking. but if you have any, I didn't even mean to make that pun, which is sad. I'm actually more upset that I didn't. I once had a social studies teacher who told me the best advice I think I've ever gotten, which is every pun is intended. Don't trust people who tell you the pun wasn't intended.

So, um, anyway, uh, that's a good note. That's a good note. Why don't you take us out? I love it. Um, shout out, Ms. Keeter. Anyway, Justin Jackson won. Jalen Samu's two way. Ridley 3, 2B,

Danny Williams 3, Rex Burkhead 4, and Charkandrick West 5. What about James Devlin? Probably should be number 1. I don't know. Oh, God. All right, TK., that's all we got. Thank you to everyone for listening

and your profound patience, and we appreciate it. That's the luck. Yeah. If you're not a fantasy expert, Fandul is the place to play. And even if you are a fantasy expert, Fandle, still the place to play. At Fandul, you get the excitement

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