The Ringer NFL Show - Waiver Watch, Le'Veon's Trade Value, and Stash Guys | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 313)

Episode Date: October 2, 2018

The Ringer's Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly break down their favorite players to grab for this weekend (02:00), options for the long term (13:00), and debate Le'Veon Bell's fantasy value (21:15). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, it's Liz Kelly, here to tell you that we have a brand new podcast called Halloween Unmasked, premiering Monday, October 1st. Here's a sneak peek. There's trouble. A teenage girl named Lori Strode crosses a quiet street toward an ordinary house to find her friends. But Lori doesn't know that her friends are dead, and she doesn't know that she's walking right toward the masked killer of Michael Myers. The movie is Halloween. And Halloween just, it was like a, it was a breath of, fresh putrid air. He's a pure

unknowable evil. I'm film critic Amy Nicholson and this is Halloween on Mast, a podcast series from the ringer celebrating the remarkable and terrifying rise of America's most revolutionary horror film. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast to Halloween Unmast and watch your back.

I think the scariest part was that he doesn't die at the end. So when you're 10, it's like, that guy's still out there. We got to get him. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Danishy football podcast brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network. My name is Danny Hyfitz, and I'm joined by my co-host and co-dani. Danny Kelly. What's up, D.K.? What's going on, man? What happened to the

Come One, Kamala? I was really looking forward to that this week. You made me self-conscious about it last week, so I didn't do it because I was like, I don't know, it's like, I like the vibe of it, but then everyone kind of laughed and I love it. It's great. We've got to keep that in there. All right. Well, come on Kamala, everybody. Just, you know, I'll bring it back next week. Anyway, we can dive in. You should see the look that full-time Craig is giving me. We're going to dive into the Leveon Bell situation and just dive, you know, what the hell is going on? Is he going to show up? Should you trade from?

But first, before we do that, we're going to dive right into initial advice. So, D.K. is going to give his dark nights. I'm going to give my designated hitters. All right, who's your first dark night of the week, D.K. Kiki Kootie from the Texans kind of emerged in his first action this year. He actually set, I think he's an NFL record since 1970 for most catches in the debut. He had 11 catches last week. 109 yards for the Texans.

Really, really fast, slot guy kind of plays all over. They used him a little bit on like sweeps and things like that. He played 80% of snaps. That was helped by the fact that Will Fuller had a hamstring injury. So that's something to monitor. But I think even if Fuller is back next week, Couti is still going to be a big part of that offense.

They just don't have a ton of depth at that receiver position. And he's already kind of proven that you can be a playmaker for him. So, yeah, I like, I like Kootie going forward. He's a must add at this point. Do you think that he could surpass Fuller on a week-to-week play? No, I think number one, he's more of a PPR guy because I think his values can be volume,

not necessarily touchdowns because, obviously, Will Fuller's got that amazing chemistry with Deshaun Watson as a touchdown score, and then DeAndre Hopkins is just going to be DeAndre Hopkins. But, I mean, they're going to pass a lot. I was just looking at Watson's numbers. he's passed 34 times, 32 times, 40 times, 42 times in the four games this year. And so there's just, you know, there's a lot to go around.

And the way he's played, I think is really, really encouraging over the past few weeks. I think got off to a little bit of a slow star and people were starting to wonder what was going on. But he's looked really good the last couple weeks. So I'm excited about the Texans offense. And I had my eye on Bruce Ellington kind of as like a late, you know, like a real stash guy just in case there's any injuries in that offense. Now that Ellington's gone, like Coutis. steps into that role. And I think, you know, he has a potential just kind of be that over-the-middle type, you know, dump-off option for Watson.

Did you Google how to say his name before we started? I did. And we didn't actually land on an official kind of thing. There are some people that say QT. I'm going with Quti. You're a Qaeda, D.K. Thank you. Thank you. All right, my first designated era of the week, Muhammad Sunu, the Falcons, they're playing Pittsburgh this week. So obviously, Calvin Ridley has had an amazing last two weeks. everyone's really on the Ridley train. But Sunu's still second in the team in targets. He's played more snaps than Ridley.

Ridley actually only played, I think, a little more than half their snaps last week. He's also probably... Ridley is probably also going to start drawing a little more attention and get less one-on-one stuff. But it's also just an incredible matchup this week against the Steelers.

Pittsburgh's one of just four teams that are allowing more of the 300 passing yards per game. Their secondaries in shambles. They probably should have traded for Earl Thomas before last week. They've given up the third-most fantasy points to wide receivers.

They've given up the most air yard. which is the deepest average depth of target, so teams are throwing downfield more against them than anywhere else. And then, D.K., what do you think is the over-under for this Falcon Steelers game? Guess. Oh, man. 60.

It's 57. It's 57. So there's no defense in this game. I love 2018, man. Yeah. So I think he's a very 2018 game. He's owned in half of the span to like 14% of Yahoo Leagues.

This is the number two receiver on this team's side. All in Insinu this week. Yeah, so this is kind of like, this is the riding the Ridley hype type pick you like that huh because Ridley I think could be like even a sell high option for a lot of people right now that that's actually really interesting I'm more I buy Ridley as part of the largest story about what the Falcons are doing I'm not necessarily sure he's going to keep that going but the touchdowns I mean can you

keep scoring touchdowns he's got like six I think the Falcons offense will keep going red zone at a high rate not necessarily Ridley but who's your next dark night all right Tayon Taylor the Titans the Titans offense has had a really weird year. Obviously, they started out with kind of, they started out slow and then, and then Mariotta got hurt. Mariotta. Do we have a correction? Where's that correction? Where's Mariotta saying his own name? Mariotta. Mariotta got hurt and then, yeah, so anyways, basically they just been out of sorts in the, in the first few weeks and I think people have kind of forgotten about that offense a little bit, but they came to life. The offense coordinated by Matt Leflur. Yeah, and it's like, I was really excited about

this offense coming into the season, you know, it was a chance to get away from the Malarkey Exotic Smash Mouth, and I thought that Mario, Mario was going to break out and kind of return to what he had been, you know, early in his career, and we finally kind of saw that last week. Taylor was

one of the main recipients of that. He had seven catches, 77 yards. His snaps have gone up every week. Start out week one, 13% of snaps. Then it was 41, 52, and 63 on Sunday. Shard Matthews, Delaney Walker, gone. You know, so he's just inherited a bigger piece of the pie, I guess.

And I do think that the Titans offense is kind of like ready to finally start looking like they're supposed to. And Corey Davis is another guy. If he's anywhere out there on your leagues, go get him too. But Taylor, I think, is the guy who's more available in a lot of leagues. And so you're not worried about Mario to having a nerve injury in his hand and maybe possibly not really being accurate more than like 20 yards down the field? I mean, there's that worry, but he looked pretty good. last week, and I just think he looks more dynamic than he had in a long time than, I mean, basically any time last season, really.

And so I think that was just really promising. And this is, yeah, this is one of those things where Taylor was a big hype guy in like prior to the season. And I think a lot of people dumped him after the beginning of the year. And I think it's time to pick him back up now. All right. You love your table on Taylor. Yeah.

Me, sticking actually with the Falcons Steelers game, but on the other end of the spectrum, I love Vance McDonald's on Pittsburgh. He's the tight end that's taken over from Jared. Yeah, he's the semi, obviously, the stiff arm of Chris Connie RIP. But yeah, I mean, tight end's desperate now. OJ Howard has a buy and is hurt. Greg Olson's hurt. Jack Doyle's hurt.

Will Disley's hurt. Evan Engram's hurt. Gronk is questionable for Thursday in football. Tight ends are abound. I like Vance McDonald because he's not like a safety valve. They're designing plays for him where he's like the primary option. We can get into this later in the pod where we're talking about the Steelers. but he's really getting a lot of primary looks

and design things in the backfield where he's getting flip plays. It's actually shovel passes. It's really interesting. Falcons aren't awesome against tight ends and they've just been decimated. So I think he's getting a lot of the targets Leveon Bell used to get.

So I like him this week and the whole season. Yeah, five targets in each of the last two games, right? So that, yeah. I mean, that's at least a little bit consistent. I mean, the tight end position right now is just so hit and miss and you're just kind of hoping for a touchdown. but that kind of target consistency is nice. My next guy, Naheem Hines of the Colts,

we talked in the past about picking this guy up on the pod. And so if you haven't done that yet, now's the time to do it. He kind of emerged as the, you know, the head of the multi-headed, you know, running back group in Indianapolis last week. You know, four rushes of 10 yards, that's nothing. But he was a big part of the receiving game.

11 targets, nine catches, 63 yards, and two touchdowns. One of those was like a legit route where he was, went up and caught the ball at the high point over Honey Badger. It was really great. He played 73% of the snaps. It is worth noting that the Colts drop back to pass 66 times, which is the most in the franchise history. So not all the games are going to have that kind of game

script where they're passing so much. But Heinz, I think, is separated from the pack in terms of his ability to be a factor in the passing game. And I think the Colts are going to continue to lean on you know, that short pass like dump off, screen passes, things like that as they really kind of, you know, continue to monitor Lux's

shoulder. And so, you know, this guy's got a lot of his, he's got a history of a lot of catches in college. Just looks natural catching the ball. And going forward, playing New England, which doesn't have a lot of speed at the lineback position. You don't say. Could be good. Could be a good matchup

for them. I don't love Kyle Van deroye trying to cover Heinz in the open space. The obvious downside is that, Marlon Mack is coming back, Robert Turman's coming back, but I just don't have a lot of faith in either of those guys at this point. Yeah, as inside tackle runners, I think they're going to come and go, but I think Heinz's role pretty secure. So I like that. My last one, this is the same logic of tight ends. I'm sure a lot of people are short on tight ends this week.

If you're in more desperate straits, Austin Hooper, the Falcons, this is really more of just like a red zone gamble than like huge yardage. But basically, my thinking is, for one, they've really actually started looking at it. to him in the red zone. He's actually tied with Julio for like scoring opportunities for football guys. Yeah, so which is amazing. His are more spaced out. So they do look for him but basically this week, going against the Steelers who are the single worst team

against tight ends this season so far in terms of giving up fantasy points. Next week they're going against the bucks who are the second worst team against opposing tight ends. So it's kind of like that's a pretty kind of dream one two streamer. So that's a nice like two weeks stop gap

and then maybe you can pick up and start looking again elsewhere in week seven. But I like Hooper if you really just don't know what to do. Yeah, I like that a lot. All right, TK. Before we move on, let's take a quick break. Did you get the Yahoo Sports app yet? Are you ready for live football on your phone? Are you ready, DK? I'm ready. There we go. With the Yahoo Sports mobile app, you get live local and primetime NFL games all season long. So never miss your local game, never miss a big national matchup. All you need is the Yahoo Sports app. Seriously, go get the app. It is your ticket to watching live NFL games wherever you want.

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Workflow I've ever encountered is actually just magical. To find out more about G Suite's productivity tools, visit g-sweet.com. That is g-sweet.com, G-S-U-I-T-E dot com. Make it with G-Sweet by Google Cloud. All right, D-K, now we're going to do a little lightning round. Thank me later, guys, for the waiver wire. guys that we're in on the waivers or out on whether you'd add them.

We don't know your league's quite like you guys do, but whether it's someone you're stashing on your bench, maybe you have to plug and play them, or maybe you have to just keep an eye on them on your waivers. We're going to give our take on whether we like them or not. So shall we dive in? Yeah, let's do this. All right, D.K., first one. Mike Davis of the Seahawks, who your beloved Seahawks.

Yes. He actually had a really good game out of the blue because I think Chris Carson was presumed starter for most of the week and then got hurt later in the week and then he was the late scratch everyone assumed rshaad penny was going to be a starter from there but no it was mike davis he rushed 21 times 101 yards two touchdowns caught four passes for 23 yards out touch penny 25 to 9 um he actually looked pretty solid pretty good like dynamic i think if you're desperate for running back it's worth picking him up at this point because penny does not appear to have um any hold of the job at this point i don't know what carson's status is going for to you as a

injury and we don't really know exactly what's going to be. So he could be worth a speculative ad at at this point. Wait, D.K., I cede my time to full-time Craig, alum of San Diego State University. Craig, defend your boy, Roshad Penny. So everyone thought Sony Michelle was bad, right? Oh, look, they keep playing him and he has a fantastic game.

Let's give the ball to Rashad Penny. So, Michelle was playing in the SEC. Penny ran well. Penny ran well in the game, too. I don't, I really, you know, I've stopped trying to figure out what the CIOs have, like, what their strategy is. Like, it just doesn't make any sense to me. I don't know why they drafts.

guy in the first round if they weren't going to run with him. But yeah, I agree with you, Craig. I mean, Penny looked pretty solid. He didn't look great in the first couple weeks, but in this last game, he looked pretty good. So I don't know what the deal is there. At the sake of keeping this a lightning round, I won't jump in, but I'll just say, I'll die on the, I'll die on the Rashad Penny Hill. Can we

call that just segment Penny for my thoughts? Sent for my thoughts. A full-time segment, yeah. That's why he got hired. Lightning round. Antonio Calle against the Ravens. So in the last Two weeks since Baker came in, he is third in the entire league in Air Yards from Ayryards.com, which is amazing. Basically, if every receiver caught the ball and immediately fell down. And it's a very good predictor of future performance.

And Cali's third in the whole league. He has not translated, but that means you can kind of get him. Yeah, he's flying under the radar because he keeps dropping passes. But that's not... Look, he's going to get one other day. So he's a... I like Calloway for the record. But yeah.

The new to Sean Jackson, but he's free. I like him. I mean, I think we're... This is like getting on the ground floor of the new bear... the new Brown's offense. I think Calloway is going to be a big part of it. So I definitely think he's a pickup. Similar-ish, but not quite as strong thoughts on Anjoku

if someone dropped him or Dukon. But what about your next good, D.K.? Andy Dalton, are you buying in on him yet? I think he's having a really good season and all of a sudden it looks like he can throw it all over the yard. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that Tyler Boyd has kind of emerged as his security blanket underneath.

But Dalton, to me, in that offense, with what Bill Lasers done, I think he is at worst, the streamer. In some cases, he might be worth being a starter. So if he's still available in your league, I think he's worth a pickup at this point. I like who you asked me if I was in on him yet to subtly shit on me after I just destroyed you for liking Eddie Dalton in August. So there, you're welcome. You were right about Andy Dalton.

Did that happen? I didn't even remember that. You can, there. Revenge. I'll give it to you. Who's your next guys? These are kind of obvious, but not crazy. But to me, they're the same player, but same situation.

T.J. Yeldon and Latavius Murray. They are both highly capable backups playing behind someone you probably drafted in the second round who is dealing with a hamstring injury that will not go away. They're both owned in like basically half of ESPN in Yahoo Leagues. Murray actually a little less. Dalvin Cook said this week his hamstring is still not

100%. These are very similar things to me. This week they're different. The Jaguars play the Chiefs, so they'll be down so Yelden might actually have value independent of Fournet. He's been very good in the games. Fournette has played. where Murray, the Vikings have had crazy game scripts. They fell behind 27 points

against the bills, which, what the fuck? And then they had six rushing attempts. The third time in NFL history, a team has had just six. It's the lowest ever. And then they fell behind the Rams and they also abandoned the run.

I really think those two are outliers. They don't represent any... Look, it's a weekly game. It's worth having Yeldon and or Murr in your bench because any week that Cook or Four Nets out, they're really valuable

and actually Yelden at the very least might have value anyway. So if you own one of those dudes, you should definitely have. them, but I think they have value independent. Yeah, the Furnett thing is, it looks like it's going to be at least two more weeks, maybe more. And so, I mean, in that offense with, you know, with their dedication to sort of the ground game and Bortles that's quarterback, yeah, I think that's, I think that's smart. My next guy is actually kind of similar to the whole Antonio Callaway thing.

It's getting in on the ground floor, the New Look Cardinals offense with Josh Rosen under center. Christian Kirk, they're playing San Francisco this week, the Cardinals last week. In week three, I should say he had eight catches for 90 yards. Week four, five targets, four catches, 28 yards. He had one big drop. I think he would have had a lot more yards in this last game if he hadn't had this one big drop. So I think that last line doesn't really indicate how involved he was in the game.

He's one of those guys. Horseshoes and hand grenades, D.K. Yeah. And so I think he's a dynamic player. They wanted him in the draft for a reason. They're going to get him to ball a lot. think this is sort of a lost season for the Cardinals where they're just going to try and develop their young guys.

And I think Kirk could kind of emerge as one of the top playmakers in that offense behind Larry Fitzgerald. I'm afraid there's not enough volume and the offense will just suck even if Rosen looks good. So I don't know. I like him. I want him to be good. I'm afraid he won't. How do you feel about Marioo, though?

I did two in a row, so I'm making you do two in a row. Marioo, man, I like him. And again, it was sort of really refreshing to see what he did. He was, you know, he was aggressive with his legs. He ran a little bit. And that's kind of one of the big things that Mario da brings to just the fantasy football realm is he's a good rusher.

He adds that element. He scored a rushing touchdown last week in addition to his two passing touchdowns. I think he's one of those guys that, I think he was a very popular fantasy pick early on in the offseason and then the disastrous start. I think a lot of people dropped him. So he's probably available in a lot of leagues.

If he is out there, I would say he's worth a stash at the very least to see if that offense, can really take off. Well, so, I mean, to be clear, so he has this nerve injury in his hand, and it affects, among other things, his grip, and that really reduces accuracy, especially the further you target downfield. So that was probably a huge concern for if you had, like, Corey Davis, and then suddenly

you're like, oh, well, maybe it's not. Part of me... I actually thinks I would maybe sell those dudes while people think it won't be an issue, because I'm actually still afraid that that's, like, a huge concern. So I actually'm going to go against you on that. You're selling. I'm down with Taiwan Taylor, who's free. But, like, if you have Corey Davis and someone thinks...

thinks that he's, he can, Corey Davis can become who he's going to become, and that's still a scary week-to-week situation for me. Fair enough. Before we move on, let's take one more quick break. Football season is underway, and I'm sure a lot of us already have major regrets

on our season-long fantasy teams. Oh, Powell, and I'm about to go undefeating a ringer fantasy, so, well, the teams suck. But we spent all off-season researching and getting excited for this season, and then comes the pain, and our team suck, and everything's terrible, and we don't remember why we do it,

which is why I'm so excited, to be doing Fanduel this season. At Fandul, you get the excitement of researching and building your team each week. Every week is a new season, so regardless of the outcome, you get to do it all over again. Fanduel has never been more fun or easy.

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no spreads, and $10,000 is split amongst the top pickers. New users get a $20 bonus when they make their first deposit on Fandul. Come play with me at fanduil.com slash the ringer. That's Fanduil.com slash the ringer. We already actually recorded our final segment Intrigued deterred today. We discussed potential scenarios for the Levion Bell contract dispute at length for quite some time. And then 30 minutes after we wrap recording.

turns out plot twist. ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that he will show up during Pittsburgh's week seven by thus making everything we discussed earlier for complete knot. But still interesting to talk about. So we kind of wanted to rerun through

all these scenarios and what that means for his trade value and everything going forward and is he actually going to play and what's going to happen. What was your first reaction to this? The most basic level is like, okay, if he comes back, that's one thing. But this timing is actually right before the trade deadline. So the obvious

Occam's Razor here, and maybe we're Galaxy braining this, but like the Occam's razor is he's coming back. He's going to take the job from James Connor. But at the same time, he's reporting just in time for to sign his tag and get traded because he's not actually allowed to be traded until he signs the franchise tag because he's not signed it yet. So it gives him a de facto no trade clause. So by signing, he would then be allowed to be trade, shows up conveniently the week of the leading up to the trade deadline. So when you first heard this, like, do you think he's going to play for the Steelers? Do you think he might be ending up elsewhere?

Adam Schaefter is actually just tweeting, Pittsburgh is still expected to be interested in listening to trade offers for Bell. He's planning to report later this month would not dissuade the Steelers from making the deal. So, I mean, it kind of seems like they're setting up a trade situation. My first reaction was that week seven return is quite a bit earlier than we were. were kind of thinking because the original sort of line of thinking was he was going to return before week 10, which would make his contract toll for this year. If he wasn't going to return before week 10, then essentially his contract wouldn't, or his season would not toll and therefore

he could have, you can run the risk of being franchised again next year or whatever. So we kind of all had that week 10 on our minds. And so now when it's week seven, that changes things a little bit. that's only a few weeks out. That definitely changes things for people who have Lavinbeon Bell on their bench and or have been getting trade requests for Laveon Bell or whatever. It just kind of changes the thinking, I think, is now that's one of those situations where you can wait three weeks and have a guy on your bench and kind of like make do in the meantime.

Yeah, so I think what we talked about earlier when our RIP segment before was that, it might actually have been worth waiting potentially for Bell later on to trade him and get maximum value. Now it actually feel that way about James Connor in that his trade value right now is probably at rock bottom because people are like,

oh, he's going to expire as soon as week six because he plays the next two weeks. They go on by week seven. They play in week eight and he's gone. And the Steelers aren't known for sharing at running back. So theoretically, you're probably not going to get anything. But if you wait a little bit

and there's either more hype that either Bell gets traded or I think it's very possible they might actually split carries I mean more than Bell hasn't in the past which is basically and he doesn't share at all so I would actually not trade Connor yet if you're freaking out

I have Connor in a bunch of leagues and I probably am going to be holding out and hoping that there's a light at the end of the tunnel where either he can somehow keep the job but on the flip side for Bell if you've held on with this long congratulations you've reached the end of the tunnel and it's beautiful

but I still kind of have like this feeling that like this has been too easy because on one hand like Bell does this where he just will sacrifice all of his leverage in a negotiation for no reason. Last year he tweeted like in July or August, like, I'm going to come September 1st, which in theory deletes all of his like leverage.

And then he did it, which doesn't necessarily make sense negotiating wise, but that's his like, I know he does it. So this time, on one hand, I don't want to overthink this. And I think he might just show up and play for them

and make this playoff one. The other part of me is thinking that it's a bat signal to all these teams like, yo, like I will sign my tender. I will come and trade for me and I'll play for you for the final stretch. But I also kind of think it doesn't necessarily make sense

for him to play anywhere but Pittsburgh. Because his agent has heavily implied that he wants to have this historic record setting per game pace for these final games he returns to. That he's going to use this small sample and erase all the doubts and basically concentrate the physical energy expends and toll over a whole season into these few games.

And that they want to like really, that's their plan to kind of reset the market. It should be unbelievable. So I don't think he could do that anywhere But Pittsburgh because he can't learn I mean never mind learning plays you have to learn names You know what I mean? Like you don't even know who you're playing for blocking

Like the Steelers line knows that a block from specifically Because he's this weird patient running style Which is like overhyped at this point But it's real in terms of like you need to know how to block for him I still actually am not sure it makes sense to trade him I think he has more value with Pittsburgh than anywhere else But if you have so at this point like Would you trade for Bell or are you kind of worried that he might not be as good as advertising

He might just be rusty. If you're a team that's willing to trade for Bell, I think you have to be pretty desperate in the sense that you're thinking like he's going to be the kind of player that put you over the top and may give you a playoff run. You know, the Jets were a team, I think, that were linked to him earlier on in the season when they were, I think there was a little bit more excitement about their defense and what Darnel was doing.

Now they're one and three. It doesn't really look so great for them, you know, going into the playoff situation. I don't know if the Jets are really going to spend like a second or third round pick in order to basically rent the guy for the rest of the season. Now, if you look around the league, how many teams do you think are in the situation right now where they desperately need a running back of his ilk? I think very few.

Who comes to mind? I mean, teams with Capspace and maybe think they can make the playoffs, dolphins, jets maybe, but I really don't think. Buccaneers. Yeah, Buccaneers is an interesting one. Thank you full-time, Craig. But I don't think it makes sense because we discussed this. I'm forgetting what we talked about.

I'm mixing up what we talked about earlier in the pod versus the now deleted segment that will never air. See the later day. But basically, the floor for a trade is if the Steelers just let him walk in a free agency, they're going to get a compensatory pick. And compensatory picks sound complicated. But basically it's like when a free agent leaves, it's like the NFL treats it like the team got broken up with in a relationship.

And they're like, oh, sorry, we'll buy your beer. Like, oh, my God. I'm so sorry. And they buy him a beer, and the beer is like the third round pick. And they're like, it's an apology. Like, sucks to suck. So the Steelers are going to get a third round pick almost certainly for Bell if he leaves. So that's kind of the floor negotiations, which is actually a broader NFL trend.

It's why you see all these second round picks for Sammy Watkins or expiring guys. It's basically we'll give you a slight premium like goodwill above the third round pick the bills we're going to get for Sammy Watkins. Or like the chiefs would have gotten if Marcus Peters left and free. Like it's bumping up the third to his second round pick. So it doesn't really make sense for any of these teams to trade. a second because they can't give him a long-term deal, right? Because it's like the Steelers, they have to do an under-the-table thing, which is complicated and wouldn't make sense, because Bell wants to hit the open market.

So a second round's too much for a rental of eight games or whatever of a very highly-paid running back. So he's probably going to be a stealer, is the point. I think that's where we're landing, yeah. So for fantasy purposes, so for fantasy purposes, what does that mean? I think the simplest and, like, most realistic and maybe most boring answer is I don't think he's going to be, I'd love for him to be this record setting, like, blazing dude. But in reality, there's that, there's who he's been, which is arguably the best running

back ever through 61 career games or whatever he's played. And he's probably not going to be this rusty shell of himself. He's probably somewhere in the middle, and I don't think he'll have like the 98% death grip he's had on carries in his career thus far. It might be frustrating. I also think he won't be himself in week eight. I'm not sure I'd play him in week eight even off the by because it's like, who knows what his carry splits will be?

James Connor, so even he's dangerous to play that week. So I think the question is, weirdly, do you sell high? This is a weird question. Ride the wave of excitement. I mean, I think along the range of somewhere between Dalvin Cook to Kareem Hunt to Christian McCaffrey, like people are going to be interested and whether you can get a premium. I think McCaffrey's probably toward the premium end versus down the line.

Like, it's actually interesting what you can get from right now versus what you can get from a few weeks. Would you hang on to him and see if he plays? Or are you afraid of the risk of like two weeks before? the fantasy football trade deadline, which is like November 19th or whatever, you basically have one or two games where he has to look good, or else you might not be able to get anything for him. So that's the other fact here.

I'm conservative about it. Like, I wouldn't probably trade a whole lot to go get him. I know full-time Craig, Steelers fan. Maybe he's got an opinion on this. Here's my question for you, Craig. Is Levi-on-Bel a sunk cost if you own them, or is he a trade asset that you're trying to maximize? Or you're just excited to have them, whatever he gives you, it gives you.

Whatever guy you're thinking about, like Christian McCaffrey, let's say you want to trade Christian McAfre or Levion or vice versa. I think you should take what you think Christian McCaffer will make every week, points-wise. Let's say he puts up 20 a week. Leveon at his peak, maybe he puts up 25 a week. Leveon has 10 weeks to play if he plays week eight. You do his 25 points times 10, and you do McAfreys 20 times the 13 weeks remaining that he's going to play. And if one outweighs the other, you make the trade.

And if you think Leveon's going to put up that 25 a week and that's going to outscore Christian McAfree's 20 and 13 weeks, you do it. My thinking on this actually, even despite everything changing since our first conversation about this, actually is weirdly still the same thing in that what we were talking about was whether or not he'd return around the first week of November. In reality, that's still happening.

He's coming back, I guess the first game he can play, he's going to be this October 28th game against the Browns. And again, I'm working with the assumption he will come back and for the Steelers and maybe that game he's going to split carries. But I think that basically whether you're going to trade for him or deal him away,

same with James Connor, making a trade of that magnitude it's about like what is your season what are you doing with your season your fantasy season and you have to really be honest and take stock of like where are you if you are fighting for a playoff spot

and you are like two and three or whatever and you really don't know what's going or one and three or whatever it's going on that's so different to me than if you're four and out if you are four and oh and you have the inside track for the playoffs and you're thinking first round by and or like you're thinking for the chip you've already accomplished step one

which is make the playoffs step two is then to dominate in December so go get levy on Leveon's way more valuable to me, way more interesting, because if he takes two weeks to round out of form, that's way more interesting to me.

If you are like one in three, you need someone to play for you in October because Leveon Bell coming back on Halloween doesn't mean Jack shit if you're two and five on Halloween and you're not going to miss make the playoffs. You need to get to step one, which is make the playoffs.

Step two is win. And that's the order of operations you have to go in. I am thinking fundamentally differently depending on where I am in that process. So if you have Leveon and you kind of just don't want to waste another five weeks of this, maybe deal them to a contender or the team who has James Connor and it's like freaking out. But on the flip side, maybe if there's any doubts in the coming weeks, like maybe there's a conflicting report, maybe this reporting might get traded,

maybe then that's a moment to swoop in because I wouldn't trade for him right now because I feel like whoever's had him is like ecstatic. But if there's any reports that like maybe this was a tactic or something, a negotiating thing, I might swoop in if you're like undefeated or whatever. and grab him from someone. Yeah, this is a good way for the rich to get richer in a fantasy league. Yeah.

But it's like a warrior's, but it's a warrior's-esque move, right? Like step on their throats. Like, oh, great, you had the best season. Like, go sign Durant. Yeah. It's really intriguing and you kind of have to swing for the fences if you're trying to win, right?

And that this is the kind of thing. You want difference makers and the end of your bench should be pure upside. And that this is the highest risk, highest reward upside move we can ever remember in like fantasy football. A dude who just might not fucking play

out of like sheer. Yeah, this is like a, weird, unique scenario. Yeah, it's like a hypothetical thing that happened to happen in real life. It's crazy. I still think it's very likely that when he gets up to speed,

he's going to be the number one running back in fantasy. Realistically, I don't think the people who have Levy on Bell and have waited are going to trade him. No. I think it's more prudent to discuss Connor. And with him is kind of like,

I would wait a few weeks and keep him because at this point, his value can go up. You're selling low right now. Yeah, this is rock bottom for him. It's not going to get... Because at the very least, you're probably going to hold on him through the playoffs

because if Levion Bell strains his hamstring, which is quite common for guys who hold out. You come back, you're in shape or whatever, and then you strain your hamstring. At the very least, you know James Conner's like a top eight guy in a weekly basis anytime Levianbel misses. So he's not someone I would ever cut, literally ever. But yeah, now that he's expiring,

the idea that he even might be able to take over the job again would spring him back up. To all the Levon Bell owners, you guys did it. You should be proud of yourselves. Give yourself a tap on the back. You won today. and to all the James Connor owners, the night is darkest just before the dawn,

and maybe trade for Leveon Bell. On that note, DeKal, see you on Friday, man. All right, thank you to Jim and full-time Craig. Thanks again to Fandulul. Football season is underway, and that's why we're so excited to be playing on Fandual. Fanduel has never been more fun or easy.

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