The Ringer NFL Show - Waiver-Wire Pickups, Dark Knights, Designated Hitters, and an Explosion of RB Catches | The Dantasy Football Podcast (Ep. 304)

Episode Date: September 19, 2018

The Ringer's Danny Heifetz and Danny Kelly offer up some Initial Advice for your waiver wire (02:00) then cruise through a lightning round of "Thank Me Later" stash guys (15:30) before highlighting the latest offensive trend to keep in mind and favorable defensive matchups (29:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelly. I want to tell you about our great football coverage on the Ringer podcast network. Every Monday, Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal recap the weekend and guest next week's NFL lines on the BS podcast. On Wednesday mornings, Ryan Rusillo hits the hardest angles in college and pro football on our new podcast, dual threat. And on Wednesday nights, Cousin Sal and the degenerate trifecta figure out the best gambling angles on against all odds. In five times per week, the Ringer NFL show reacts to the latest news with Kevin Clark, Robert Mays, Tate Brazier, Mike Lombardi and the Danesie football crew. Subscribe to the BS podcast, dual threat against all odds, and the Ringer NFL show on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

And on the site, Zach Cram speculates which NBA roster would be best if every player was in his prime. And Claire McNair is writing about American Vandal. You can check those out on the ringer.com. Welcome, welcome, welcome to the Danesie Football Podcast brought to you by the Ringer podcast network. My name is Danny Haifitz, and I am joined, as always, by my co-host and co-danny, Danny Kelly. How are you doing today, D.K.?

I am doing excellent, man. How are you doing today? I'm great. I see we both showed up to work on Monday and Tuesday, unlike Antonio Brown. Yeah, that's interesting. It is interesting indeed. That's breaking as we speak. The hell is happening in Pittsburgh right now.

Who knows? We don't know. But wow, we're already two weeks in, which is crazy. And this is, every year's September is just nuts. Never know what to believe in the first couple of weeks of the NFL season at all. So it makes fantasy football really hard. Small sample sizes are fun. Yeah.

So let's jump into our first segment, D.K. Yeah. Initial advice, which I still, because it's D.H.'s designated hitters and the legendary D.K.'s dark nights. Who's your first dark night? Giovanni Bernard of the Bengals with Joe Mixing out for a couple of weeks to surgery to his knee. that makes Bernard a must pick up right now he's owned in or I guess he came into last week going in 39% of ESPN leagues 27% Yahoo. That's probably going to shoot up to like 80 or 90 after after Tuesday or whatever. But yeah, go out and pick him up.

He's going to get a full load in that offense. I think he's, you know, he's an explosive runner on the ground. He's really good as a receiver. The Bengals offense has actually looked pretty decent lately. And I think, you know, I guess Carolina, that's a tough front. and he could have tough going in terms of on the ground, but I think, you know, he's still just so good as a receiver and the volume he's going to get,

I think he's a really good fantasy option this week, so he's a must-pick-up. I think he's worth playing, too, because he gets so many passes that he's pretty safe if you're throwing him in his flex or something. Yeah, absolutely. He's a starter this week, I think. All right, so while we're on backup running backs,

I have one this week. This is weird. Latavius Murray on the Vikings, who he's owned in like four, 40% of ESPN and about the same on Yahoo. Here's my thinking on this. So Dalvin Cook tweaked his hamstring this week, and I think he's fine.

I think he's going to play. But the Vikings are playing the bills. The Vikings are favored by 17 points. That's so crazy. And I'm serious this week that I kind of can't, unless you think that the bills are going to give them a game, which they could. But if you think this is going to be a blowout,

I don't know why Dalvin Cook would play in the second half if the Vikings are up three or four touchdowns at halftime. and I think that there's a pretty good chance that Latavius Murray could get 10, 12 carries in the second half of this game, maybe even in the fourth quarter, and I think that he'll have a better week than

Dalvin Cook himself. Yeah, this is smart. There's no reason for the Vikings to rush cook out there, especially in a game like this. I mean, and Murray's honestly looked pretty good so far. I mean, you know, nothing too crazy, but he's a solid backup. He was

a starter earlier in his career, and so Yeah, I mean, I think this is a smart one. It's definitely going to be, well, not definitely, but like the odds are it's going to be a really good game script for them to just like ride, you know, ride the run game and just kind of like bleed out the clock in the second half. So I think that's smart. Yeah, I'm just banking on the fourth quarter. Who's your next dark night? Philip Lindsay of the Broncos, I think, has kind of proven to me that he is a fantasy factor this year. And he's owned right now in 69% of leagues in Yahoo, 61% ESPN.

So he's probably out there in a few leagues. And I mean, if you look at kind of like the breakdown of how they're using him, he's sort of, he's not necessarily the leadback, but it's certainly a committee back situation right now for the Broncos. He had 14 rushes, 107 yards last week, 7.6 yards per carry out, and he added a catch. He out snapped Booker and Freeman, and he's just been a lot more efficient. I mean, when you watch him play, he's really, really explosive. He's kind of like just this open field, you know, breaking tackles, elusive guy. And so he's probably one of the more intriguing running backs in the NFL right now, just in terms of what he's going to turn out to be, how they're going to use him.

But I think he has proven that he deserves to be in there. he's a flex option for sure. Hypothetically, if you drafted Royce Freeman, I don't know, in the fourth round of the Ringer Fantasy Football draft, and someone offered you hypothetically Philip Lindsay straight up, what would you do? For Freeman? Oh, man.

That's a good question. I think I wouldn't probably pull the trigger on that trade quite yet because I still think Freeman is going to be just the base on how he, like, his size and his usage, he's going to be more of like the every down kind of back, or like the first two down kind of back,

but I just think Lindsay has certainly earned, you know, a piece of that backfield. So I don't know. I wouldn't probably make that trade, but I certainly would pick him up if he was on the waiver wire still. I mean, I saw this number from Brandon Gadula from number fire.

Freeman has faced eight defenders in the box, so Stack Box, on 56% of his runs so far this year, whereas Philip Lindsay has seen it only on 24% of his snaps. that right there can help explain why he's so much more efficient. And it also kind of points to his usage. So maybe they're just using him more in spread out situation, passing downs, things like that. But he has a piece in that offense.

I don't know if I necessarily would trade him for free him. I certainly wouldn't do that probably in a dynasty league or anything like that. But I think the breakdown of how they're being used is certainly going to be kind of something to watch. That makes sense. I'm wavering, though, hypothetically. Did you get that offer? I can't just discuss ongoing living.

obligation. I don't think they use that phrase. But my next guy is, this is stunning. This is a real under the radio guy. Ryan Fitzpatrick. I love Connor McGregor in the flesh. He's only owned in a fourth of Yahoo and a third of ESPN, which is funny because literally no one took week one seriously. And this is by no means of sleep or anything. He's literally his best fantasy start in the history of fantasy football quarterbacking. Like even like Peyton Manning's like 2013. He had like seven touchdowns in week one and Fitzpatrick still has more points than him. But basically, I'm saying for week three, like if you're wondering if he's going to crash down to earth in week three, certainly possible, but the Steelers can't tackle.

They're playing a Monday night football. The defense has been problematic, yeah. The Steelers, yeah, and they're, as we said earlier, the whole team seems to be crumbling. And these two teams are one and two in total offensive yards. So this is all the makings of a shootout, and again, positive game script. And basically, what we alluded to do last week is the Steelers kind of can't tackle. And I think the chiefs are took advantage of yards after the catch. and the Bucks are also going to be able to do that.

You know, you've got O.J. Howard broke that long touchdown, which is 75 yards, but 50 of it was him breaking tackles. You've got Deshawn Jackson and Chris Godwin. So they have a lot of tackle breaking. So what's the Kenrick Mad City from Kendrick Lamar? Where they're like, yack, yack, yuck. Can we get that, Joe? Odds? No.

Well, that's what I think every time. So that's kind of what I'm thinking for Fitzpatrick this week. So I think he could definitely be started over people that you would have. I'm just like starting to believe in the buck. in terms of their offense. I don't, you know, I have a lot of faith in their defense at this point.

But, I mean, they've just got so many weapons in that offense. And we've seen Ryan Fitzpatrick, you know, be relatively consistent over a full season before with the Jets. I don't know, man.

I'm just starting to kind of think, like, maybe this is not a fluke. And so I'm with you on this one. I think, you know, ride it until, at least until he gets cold. And then they, you know, if he does get cold,

then they'll bench him for Winston or whatever. But if not, like, he's got super high upsides in that office. offense with, you know, Todd Mock and Collin plays with so many weapons. I kind of like it. I think, you know, he's at least worth just riding until, you know, goes cold or whatever. So, yeah. We'll feel very stupid when this run ends and we'll remember he's riding Fitzpatrick.

But until then. Oh, wow. Who's your next guy? Sony and Michelle from the Patriots. The Patriots backfield is definitely confusing. Obviously, with James White, Rex Burkehead, you know, still vying for touches and things like that. But right now, Michelle's own in 65% at ESPN League, 740. Yahoo. So if he's still out there in your league, you have to go pick him up right now. Just, you know, just to make sure you get him before he kind of turns into the bell cow back. Because, I mean, if you look at last year, Dion Lewis took over about halfway through the season and was one of the best running backs in the NFL in that time. And they basically, you know,

used him as like an every downback. Obviously, White came in and was kind of the third down receiving type thing. But Michelle, I think, you know, he looked pretty solid. He, the game script, Jacksonville was bad. The defense, obviously, Jacksonville's defense is amazing, so he didn't get a lot of traction on the ground. He'd 10 rushes for 34 yards, but he played 13 snaps, and he carried the ball 10 times and then saw two targets. So, I mean, he was like basically, you know, a part of their game plan on almost every snap he was in there. So we'll have to see kind of how it goes, but I think, you know, looking at the situation,

obviously he was a first round pick, obviously very talented guy. and I could just see him taking over the backfield maybe not this week but some couple weeks down the line and people who haven't picked him up now are going to really regret it later on. So I think he's just one of those guys to, at the very least, go get him and stash him. So week six, Sunday night football, Patriots chiefs,

Patriots are down four points with two and a half minutes left. Got to go 75 yards. Who do you think is the running back end on that drive? Do you think it's fully healthy Rex Burkhead, fully healthy James White, or fully healthy Sony-Michel? They're behind? it'd probably be white because they'd be passing. But you think that in the games where they're leading,

you think that Sony Michelle's going to overtake Burkhead? Yeah, which is going to be the vast majority of the games, right? I'm assuming. And so I think he just sets up on a good offense, you know, in a team that's really like the Patriots are probably going to be having a lot of good game scripts for running backs because they're going to be leading a lot. And I mean, even this week, like they're playing Detroit,

who right now is the worst run defense team in the NFL. I mean, they've given up the most yards, second most yards per carry. So, you know, he could even go off this week. So I'm just thinking, I'm just looking ahead right now because he's not going to be available after a couple of weeks, I don't think. I'm totally down on that.

I think that makes all the sense. My last guy is Austin Echler on the Chargers, who is opposite of a good game script this week. They're going to get the Rams. In the Battle of L.A. D.K., who do you think is going to win Los Angeles? That should be a good game. It should be a good game, actually.

I hope so. But, yeah, Echler's own in just a little under half of leagues beat another good week, so that probably will go up. But I think this week he's actually going to be able to be a good flex option because Gordon got hurt, but I think he would have played. He would have came back, but the Chargers were up against the sad bills. But Ackler right now is the highest graded running back on Pro Football Focus. He's the highest graded running back as a runner and as a receiver among all running backs.

And he's number three in yards after contact per attempt, which is more than Seekwon, who has only broken tackle so far, which is kind of amazing. So I actually think that he'll have enough volume this week because they're going against the Rams and I think that the charges are going to be throwing a ton and I think that Melvin Gordon could get three rushing touchdowns again but there would still be enough passing that Echler will be able to be a flex

if you're in a tight spot like that you could do a lot worse than him this week. Off the top of your head, if I just asked you who had more rushing yards this year who would you say? Echler or Melvin Gordon. I think it's Echler, right? It's wild.

Echler's got 16 carries 116 yards to Melvin Gordon's 24 carries 92 yards So I don't know I mean like obviously Gordon is their bell cow But Echler has been really efficient and productive So I don't know I think you lose the belkow term if you don't lead your team The Russian yards

But part of that's skewed by the bills Which is why I like Latavius Murray Yeah no that makes sense I like that Yeah I mean I've been kind of keeping my eye on Echler the whole season Like we talked about a couple weeks ago He was like one of the most efficient running backs last year based on touches. And I think he's showing it again this year. He had some issues last year with fumbling. So that's kind of something to monitor. He hasn't had that this year.

But so far, I think, you know, he's looked really, really solid. He could end up getting a bigger piece of the puzzle. The charges are one big puzzle, isn't it? All of Los Angeles, just a big puzzle. All right, D.K., let's take a quick break. People always ask us for advice, right, D.K.? Absolutely. Usually it's what team to bet on this week. And the truth is, we would be on a yacht somewhere very far away if we know who's going to win. But if you think you know who's going to win, you've got to check out MyBooky. I always tell people to bet with My Booky. Trust me, guys, they are your best bet this season. They've been in business for years, have great reviews online, and their mobile site is easy to use. Not to mention,

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at home just for you. All right, D.K. We're going to go through some thank you later, guys. Basically, a lightning round of are these guys worth picking up off waivers? And these are guys who are available in over 50% of most leagues, give or take, 5% or so. And you guys know your league's better than we do. You know, we don't know if it's 8 or 10 or 12 or 14. So whether it's a star or watch list or waivers, you know, shall we dive in? Yeah, let's do this.

All right. Yeah, so my first one's basically the Colts backfill. Like, are you willing to pick up Marlon Mac or Jordan Wilkins or even Nahim Hines? Right now, it's basically just a running back by committee right now, timeshare between Mack and Wilkins. Both guys are under 50% owned on ESPNN, Yahoo. I just, I'm off the Colts backfield entirely until I see anything more productive from any of those guys. I don't, you know, Marlon Mac 10 rushes 34 yards last week.

Wilkins, 10 rushes, 60 yards. It's just, I just don't think it's really worth even investing at that, you know, in that position at this point. I agree. I'm out too. All right, so who's your next guy? I got John Brown with the Ravens, the free agent acquisition. They added Crabtree and Willie Sneed in the offseason, but Brown seems to have the best rapport. Rappor with Flacco.

He got 14 targets, seven catches, 136 yards, and a couple touchdowns in two games. He leads the team in Red Zone targets. He's ninth in the whole league in Air Yards. And Air Yards is like if every target was caught by a receiver and they were immediately tackled, which is a decent correlation with, like, how they are going to do.

And he's ninth in the whole league. And they get the Broncos this week, which is a decent matchup because Chris Harris is in the slot. But I think Brown is both a deep threat but also red zone threat. So he's worth picking up if you're still worth. Yeah, I mean, he's turning into one of their most dangerous players. So I like him a lot. He was on my radar before the season and it's kind of paying off.

I don't know, you know, obviously he's not going to be good for a touchdown a week. So who's your next guy? For people that drafted Alex Collins, this is probably going to hurt a little bit. But basically, Buck Allen is being used in a near even workload split with Alex Collins so far. So it's kind of frustrating. I think he is worth a pickup at this point until that gets more. sorted out right now. Snaps, touches, carries inside the 10-yard

line, carries inside the 5-yard line. This is all for Evan Silva. They're all almost equal. And then actually, Buck Allen is leading in targets 13 to 5. And so, I don't know. I mean, obviously, I don't think Allen is as good as Alex Collins is, but for some reason the Ravens are

really still leaning on him. And so he could be worth an ad at this point. I'm always in on people named Buck. My next guy is Aaron Jones and the Packers. He's one of the running backs. that they have. So he just returned from two-game suspension. He violated the NFL substance abuse policy.

So they have Jamal Williams and Ty Montgomery already. Jamal Williams is considered the better pass blocker, which is crucial of Rogers' injury. And he's also like a take-what-the-defense-gives-you-kind-of-guy. But Jones is like much more explosive. He's much more athletic and he's much more of a home-run hitter. It is definitely worth adding him to see just how he fits in. It'll probably take a couple weeks.

But if he wins the Packers job, he could just be a starting running back just out there. It says a lot that the most impressive thing Jamal Williams has done this year is like a few really good blitz pickups. Yeah, we'll see what shakes out. But I'm in him. Who's your next dude? All right.

Corey Clement, Eagles, obviously right now, Jai is the lead back in that offense. And that's, you know, not going to change unless Jai gets hurt. However, Ajai left last week with the back injuries, already dealing with the knee injuries that, you know, that limited his reps in the preseason and offseason and all that. So I'm just saying pick up Clement right now. If you have room on your team, if you have like an extra bench spot that you're not planning on using with anybody, I think he could be worth a stash because, again, he's in a good offense. They use their running backs in the passing game.

And if Ajai gets hurt, he could have a huge amount of volume. So he's just kind of like a stash guy. I think he could be worth it if you've got that room on your roster. Yeah, I agree. Knee injuries pile up. My next guy, Will Disseley, who I dissed on the last podcast is a blocking tight end. Of course, maybe look dumb again. He got another touchdown with like 10.

seconds left in the game. It was all garbage time. It was all garbage time and I was, I had two thoughts. One, this garbage time is going to make me look really stupid. And my second thought was, you know, if any quarterback other than Mitch Trubisky was in this game, the entire fourth quarter would have been garbage time. So I'm actually flipping on what I said last week and I actually think tight ends so shitty that he's probably in the top tight ends just because of garbage time potential. So I'm in. I mean, I think the Seahawks offense is really hard to trust, but I've been really impressive what I seen with Disley. I mean, like I said last week, he's got good hands. He makes like these tough catches look easy. He's actually pretty, you know, pretty fast in the open field.

I think he's got some potential. My next guy is Calvin Ridley of the Falcons. First week, he basically did nothing. He got two targets, had no catches. And then last week, he started to work his way into the offense a little bit more. He had five targets, four reception, 64 yards, and a touchdown. He's still behind Julio Jones and Mohamed Sunu in terms of snap counts. They got they both got 48. He got 35, but it felt like he was integrating himself more into that offense. We know that the Falcons offense can move the ball. They started to finally play

well in the red zone last week, which is a huge huge deal for them. I think Ridley is worth, again, I mean, we're talking about your last roster spot. I think he's worth an ad if you're not really confident in your last guy because I think there's just a lot of volume in that offense that he could potentially pick up later in the year.

Yeah, no, I agree. I like Ridley a lot. I'm in on that. My next one's the Jaguars receivers. They're owned in a disproportionate amount of leagues that you can kind of pick up them in tiers if they're not owned in your league. So Keel and Cole, who I've talked about, I love him, but he's owned in half. But if you're looking for a discount, Keel and Cole, Dante Moncrief is available in almost 100% of ESPN leagues and more than 90 of Yahoo. He is just as much of a red zone threat as Cole is, and I love Cole, but if you're looking for a receiver, I think, getting in the Jags Pass game with Moncrief or D.D. Westbrook, but Moncrief's available almost everywhere. Whoever receivers are sold.

Bortals look good. Yeah. Who's your next guy? Anthony Miller, he's another guy we saw last night on Monday night football. He had a touchdown in that game. I'm still not. So he was the guy that I drafted with my last spot in a lot of leagues this year and then basically ended up dropping him after he did nothing in the first week.

But I still think he's probably worth waiting on unless you're in a dynasty league because he's still in a very low-volume offense. The Bears offense is just not good at this point. I mean, we saw what they were able to do, which is, you know, it was not very impressive against a supremely depleted Seahawks' defense with no pass rush. Trubisky ended the game with just 200 yards passing.

He's still getting way out snapped by Alan Robinson and Taylor Gabriel. So I'm still not ready to be back on the Anthony Miller train, though I think he is a talented player. It's really talented, but I don't like when young receivers get paired with young quarterback, so I don't like. Next one, speaking of which,

Richard Higgins and Antonio Calloway and the Browns, obviously Josh Gordon is no longer with the Browns. So someone's going to fill that. Jarvis Landry is probably going to get a lot of commissurate volume. Calloway caught that long touchdown. I'm torn on this. Calloway's probably better, but I don't know if I've seen enough from the Browns that I'm adding these dudes yet.

But if Calloway does actually step into that role, it could be really good. But I don't know if it's quite worth a roster spot quite yet. This is a tough call because Higgins is also, I think, in line to have maybe a little bit more volume than Callow. I think Calloway is kind of like that big play guy, but he's still a rookie. still kind of figuring it out. Higgins actually had seven targets last week, five catches 47 yards. So, man, I don't know. I think either one of these guys is, in theory, worth a pickup. But right now I'm probably staying away from that offense. Yeah, it's worth seeing what Todd Alley does with the full week to game play without.

Yeah. Who's your next dude? Theo Riddick of the Lions right now, the Lions offense still does not have a run game. And he's basically just a dump-off king. Like, he's just getting so many dump-offs. He's already got 19 targets in two games. He's turned those into 14 catches for 62 total yards, which is 4.4 yards per catch. Essentially, they're using a dump-off passing game in exchange for actually running the ball.

So he's not like a high upside guy in terms of like he's not very explosive. So far he hasn't been explosive with his targets. But if you're desperate in a PPR league, he is getting a lot of targets. And so he could be worth an ad. Yeah, I like that one too. And then while we're giving you guys all these people to pick up, we figured we might as well throw some guys out there that are probably overowned and maybe worth dropping in some leagues.

We're not saying specifically drop these dudes, but rather ownership. It's really tough to drop someone's own in 60 or 70% of leagues and it feels weird until you can move with the masses. So these are guys that we think might be worth if you have someone you really want to add and this is the last person on your bench that might be worth cutting. Yeah, so my first guy in this is we're going back to the Browns. Duke Johnson has been sort of an enigma this year. Obviously, they gave him a contract extension over the offseason. He was sort of a popular mid-round pick, I think, because he's such a good receiver. But through two weeks, they barely used him. I mean, like, well, I should say he's been on the field, but they've barely targeted him. You know, right now, in week one, he had six targets, one catch for eight yards. And in week two, he had two catches for seven yards. excuse me and so I mean he's still just really not producing in that offense I don't really trust the Brown's offense in general I actually had a conversation with my buddy because I was like after week one I saw a bunch of people drop Duke

Johnson I picked him up and he was like I dropped him and I'm like maybe thinking maybe I'm probably going to drop him after this week too because he just doesn't seem to be a big part of that offense I think there's other guys that might have a little bit higher upside at this point so yeah I think Johnson and for me is probably worth drop I'd still hold on for a couple more weeks. I want to see other offense changes. Yeah, that's fair.

I mean, it's one of those things. It's tough, but yeah. I wouldn't cut bait on him yet. Who I will cut bait on very easily. Kelvin Benjamin on the Bills. He leads the team in targets. Congratulations. 10 targets, three catches, 29 yards, and a touchdown.

It comes down to this for me. Even though they're going to have positive game scripts, there's nothing else positive about the Bills team. And it's really simple. Are you actually going to be confident starting Kelvin Benjamin, literally ever. And it's no.

And at the end of the day, it's like, if he's the number one team on the worst passing offense, I have no confidence in Josh Allen, and that's what it comes down. I can't ever imagine plugging him into my flex

and being happy about it. So I'd rather not have him at all. Yeah, it's like, it's one of those players you just don't want to ever have like on your starting lineup, so might as well just drop him. Yeah, I'm with you on that one.

I picked him off in a lot of drafts, but it's looking grim for that offense right now. Sometimes volume isn't great. Who's your next guy? So Rashad Penny, I think, is another guy that's like, I don't know what to think of him right now because obviously first round pick and then basically seemed to lose the job to Chris Carson after week one. Like Pete Carroll came out in the media and said, like, we're going to give Carson a run.

He's going to get like the lead role. Penny is just like he wasn't quite ready to come back. And then in week two, he out snapped Chris Carson, especially in the second half where he was basically the only guy that came in for them. Carson was just on the sideline, basically this whole second half. But the problem is the Seahawks offense is just a flaming dumpster fire.

And so I just don't know what to make a penny. Right now, I'm not dropping him because I still think it's just worth picking him out. It's just worth holding on to him for now in case the Seahawks kind of figure something out. But it's like borderline. I'm getting close to being like,

okay, screw this. Just screw a whole Seahawks offense. in general basically. San Diego State alum, intern Craig, loves his beloved Rashad Penny, and just has absolute stars in his eyes right now as we're talking about him. I am also getting sick of him,

and God damn it, I hate the Seahawks. I think I'm just more sick of the Seahawks offense. Well, because you're a Seahawks fan. I would hope you're sick of this. I don't want to talk about our teams this week. God, yeah, it was bad. Who's your next guy? Dack Prescott's owned in like half of leagues,

and he's put up nine and 15 points. I don't really get it. basically if he's on your bench, he's probably your backup quarterback, but every week there's probably three or four quarterbacks, whether it's Flacko or Dalton or whoever, you're better off just streaming a quarterback on their by or if your quarterback gets hurt. Dax basically good for rushing touchdowns,

and they're not going to be throwing a ton. I don't like Dack at all. I wouldn't own him. Yeah, I'm with you on that one. I don't think he's worth the roster spot. All right. Sorry, intern Craig. Sorry San Diego State.

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To learn more about Full Sail University's Dan Patrick School of Sportscasting, go to fullsale.edu slash NFL show. Dan Patrick, you were invited on to the Danesey football podcast whenever you want. He's a Dan. We love our Dan's here. All right, D.K. Final segment. We're going to do

a little intrigued or deterred, which is by our cell without the commitment. We're going to zoom out a little bit. There's been some really interesting trends through two weeks. We've talked about a lot of PPR concept earlier in August, and then now there's actually been some interesting developed. So what have you noticed through a couple weeks, DK? The insane amount of catches that running backs had. I mean, they were, if you look at just the

total receiving stack column, three running backs are at the very top of that for last week. Sequin Barclay, Christian McCaffrey, Chris Thompson, all had 13 plus catches. And right now, if you go back to 1999, three of the top 11 running back receiving games just based on catches are from those three guys from yesterday. So in one day, three of the top 11 running back receiving records were set. So it's kind of crazy.

Like basically, teams are using their running backs in the passing game more than ever. It's just kind of like this weird explosion. And so I think obviously that has a big factor in fantasy of football. Yeah, and as intern Craig is flagging me down, McCaffrey and Chris Thompson are actually

second to third in the league and catches. And there's also a stunning stat about Sequin Barclay. His 14 catch 80-yard line, that is the fewest receiving yards in NFL history for 14 or more catches, which is crazy, but that was, I mean, talk about average depth of target,

and half of them were coming behind the line of scrimbage, and we had talked a lot about McCaffrey and how much volume he was going to get before the season, and he's not getting as many touches as Ron Rivera promised, but, like, the spirit of it was really accurate, which is, they're just feeding the ball a ton, but as Kevin Clark of Theringer.com has written, there's a lot of checkdown

and the average depth of target is moving down and down and that's a wider trend around the NFL that the Chiefs are actually bucking but it's interesting as these more dynamic running backs just kind of become

the equivalent of handoff sometimes I just think okay so I went back I'm writing about this for Wednesday and I went back and watched all the targets for Barclay McCaffrey Thompson a couple other guys Kamara

Barclays were almost all of the dumpoff slash swing pass variety. So his actual a dot per area yards.com was his average depth target was negative 1.3 yards. So it was like he was basically just getting swing passes and screens all game. There was a couple where he would like want to run through the line and wait for the ball. But, you know, we talked about throughout the whole offseason, we talked about how he can live up to that number two spot by being a dynamic receiver sort of in the mold of David Johnson or, you know, Lavinon, Bell where they're using him as a de facto receiver.

We haven't seen that yet. He's basically being used in traditional ways, you know, in terms of the receiving game. And it's frankly kind of disappointing. Obviously, it's really good for... Oh, you think it's disappointing. Yeah. I mean, he did a great...

He did it, like, with what he was given, he did a good job. Like, I mean, he was breaking tackles everywhere. I think he had, like, 90-something yards after contact, and considering he only had 80 yards total, like, he was getting hit in the back of the lot. So obviously he's a dynamic talent,

but they clearly haven't figured out exactly how to use them yet. Someone asked me this week what I thought of the Giants offense so far, and I had basically one thought come to mind. They have Odell Beckham and Sequan Barclay, and everyone unanimously agrees that the Giants are boring to watch. Yeah, it's so annoying. It's stunning, to be honest. God damn it.

But I mean, I think it's not just Barclay. I mean, it's not just the Giants. I think McCaffrey has used a little bit more creatively Chris Thompson, I watched all his targets from this week. I think he's a guy that they could use more creatively too. It was basically just a bunch of dump-offs, and a lot of it was actually garbage time stuff.

So I don't know what we can really read in for the whole season with him. The one guy I think is being used most creatively so far is Alvin Kamara, and there's no surprise there because the Saints have always been really good, getting their running backs into the passing game, but he's running like legit receiver routes out of the backfield. So, you know, teams should turn on some

New Orleans tape, I think. This season lens, if you can get any of these guys for low, I think the running backs at the top of the target share of, not just among running backs, but in the NFL, are worth grabbing if there are owners who don't maybe see the value in that. Wider lens, in terms of, like, next season, these are arguments to me against PPR altogether, which maybe we don't have to do, right?

No, I'm serious. But, like, when Sequin Barkley routinely is catching passes for losses and, like, getting positive points, this, as an overall macro trend is to me, is like, this needs to go. but that's for next season. Moving on, another thing we wanted to briefly touch is defenses to target.

This is actually one of the best ways to create value as the season goes on, and it's hard to parse out small sample sizes from legitimate trends in the beginning. The one thing that is a bona fide to me through two weeks is that the Chiefs are the perfect matchup for passing options going forward because they're just exactly what you'd want.

They're the best offense. They're going to take the lead on... I mean, they put up a 21-0 lead on the Steelers, and Rothesberger went out and just bawled out and look what happens. Like 450 yards passing. Yeah, Jesse James gets like 20 points or whatever. And so as a general thing, if you're streaming

and you're not sure who to pick up, anyone facing the Chiefs defense in the passing game seems like a fantastic bet. So like Matt Brated this week, if he's sitting on your bench and you're curious if he's going to be able to repeat a great week, maybe he'll have 40 rushing yards, but he might have 25 fantasy points

because there's going to be so many passes going around. So I would probably fade running backs who don't play in passing downs. against the Chiefs and like, the Austin Ecklers of the world are going to be

great. The tight ends you've never heard of when you need a tight end stream, probably good plays. Everyone involved in passing against the

chiefs is good. And there are some other defenses we can look at too. Yeah, I mean, like right now, I think you could probably look at the Lions

as a, I mean, number one, they've got a good number one corner. So you have to be kind of careful about that with Darius Slay.

But they look like a team could get into a lot of shootouts this year. The defense, I don't think is very strong. And their offense is good to, like, kind of keep it going. So they're a shootout team. The Niners, the Saints, I don't know, the Saints defense has been really disappointing this year.

So they obviously have the offense to kind of make games a shootout and keep the game script going for past receiving targets. And so I don't know, we don't know enough necessarily to make these broad sweeping judgments, but those are some of the teams that are kind of on my radar right now. Yeah, and that's one of those things I think around week three or four the first quarter this season, we can really parse that out. But for right now, running backs against the lions and all passing options against the Chiefs are super safe bets.

I saw this tweet from football perspective. In week two, NFL passers had a pass rating of 102 and average 278 passing yards at game, which is like really, really freaking good for a league-wide average. I mean, you're talking like league-wide average nowadays is more like 85 passer rating. or something like that. And so you're getting an average of all the NFL passers

over 100. Like, offense is insane this year so far. Yeah, and last year, the conversation was the exact opposite that there wasn't a lot of exciting games or offense in the beginning of last season. So that's an interesting turnaround. Quickly before we get out of your D.K., should be given update on the Dynasty Football League?

So I don't even know last time we mentioned this. How are we doing? We did our three-team-person league between me, you, and Jim. Who's winning? Well, that's a great question because I kind of messed up setting up the league. First of all, you're wondering why we did a three-team league. Everyone's like, oh, 10 team leagues are too big, so they do 12, and then 14. I know people in 16, intern Craigs in like a 20-team league.

Like, oh, no. Real football, real fantasy football is like shallow leagues. That's the new thing. It's like small sunglasses are back in. So we're doing three-team league. But I think I set it up in a way that week one didn't count. And I can't change the settings. I'm just looking at the standing.

right now, Danny? There's Alpha Danny, which is you. There's the Danny Killers, which is Jim. Hell yeah. And then there's me. And then there's a buy because there's only three teams. Oh, because I had to set up a fourth team. How does a buy have points?

No, because the boy, because look, listen, listen. No, the buy is the name of the team because we had to set up a fourth team to create the league. Oh, my God. Because there's literally no fantasy site that will let you create a three team league. I'm going to go down the lineup really quick. You set up with the biweek lineup is Josh McCown, Des Bryant, Devonte, who's hurt,

Theoretic, Tian Green, who I didn't even realize was still in the league, Jason Witten, Tavares King. A lot of these... Yeah,

I had to give them players for the league to start. Yeah, I had a really hard decision to make this week because, you know, I mean, I wasn't sure whether to start,

you know, Leonard Fornett or Odell Beckham in my flex. It's really hard. I have DeAndre Hopkins in my flex this week, so it's really hard.

Oh, man. That's tough. It's too bad. All right, D.K. Thank you for doing this, man. I'm excited, and I'll see you on Friday, dude. It sounds good. Peace, man.

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