As for the sudden, wide receiver for Denver Broncos, you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast, with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Oh, welcome in. Wednesday edition of the Fantasy Footballers, thank you for joining us.
You beautiful people out there. So attractive. Thank you, Mike. That's so...
Out there. I'm outside of you. Yeah. The bone structure of your face is perfect.
Listeners? Yes. Okay. Look at those cheeks.
Welcome in, one and all. Excited to have you join us. Let's talk trades today. We're going to talk trade for, trade away players.
Always fun to discuss that. And in the spirit of today's episode, I made a trade on my own in our League of Records. Just, you know, get in the mood. Be able to talk trades more, you know, intimately.
And we've got NFL news. We've got Hungry for More. We've got the Thursday Night Preview. One of the most ironic things before we move on is that on today's episode, we have some players to trade for, and some players to trade away, and you traded away.
One of the players you were saying should trade for. That is true, but you have to admit, in my situation, it makes perfect sense. Yeah, situations are different. And obviously, players that you think you should trade away is because they have value.
That is correct. And so, yeah, we'll leave it there, and then we'll talk about it here soon. You can check out the Dynasty podcast. Jason was on the most recent episode with Morgan Betts.
They talked old, bland, and undervalued players. Yeah, it was a really good episode where we talk about the importance of aged veterans in Dynasty Leagues, how to appropriately use them, capitalize on them. You know, it's a very valuable episode, I thought. Absolutely.
We had, I just saw waivers go through in our Dynasty League, and Mr. James Winston going for a big Dynasty cash. Yeah, makes sense. Does it, though?
Yeah, look, in Dynasty, at least we play with two budgets, your in-season and your off-season. So your in-season, it's going to reset, and it's very rare to have anyone of true value pop up on the Dynasty waiver wire. And if you need a quarterback, then you should go after it. If a team really needed a quarterback to play this week, that would make sense to kind of secure a start.
But obviously, we don't know how long James Winston will last. We don't know how good he will be in most matchups. I mean, we do with that. But this week, if you need to start them, that makes sense.
No other bids on James Winston. What if your Dynasty quarterbacks were Russell Wilson and Matthew Stafford? Yeah, I still wouldn't do that. Your Dynasty fab, really?
No, I mean, look, everybody, you know, like you said, the Dynasty fab, there's not a lot of guys to spin it on. It just feels like, are you going to play Winston over Russell Wilson this week against Chicago? I would play Russ. Why not this week, but what if that thing?
But James might not be starting the next week. Maybe not. But what if that's a Jameis Winston manager? I respect the move.
Derek Carr's going to be out multiple weeks. And let's be honest. Yesterday, we talked about what it's like. James Winston was.
And I think this is just a situation where it's like, yeah, I want that in my locker room. I want him on my team. Well, see, that makes sense. But you know who I got for three fab?
That might be the start of the rest of the year. Trevor Simmons. Sure, I'm not starting this week. No, no.
So I just wanted to, long and short of you, I get it. I'm not mad at you, Brooks. Oh, no, I just had to explain why I would spend up that much on Adonis, guys. Yeah, I feel like if Winston, I feel like Winston was worth rostering probably in a Dynasty as a depth play, anyways.
What else is going on? We have, we got our Drop It Like It's Hot reminder, which is, I just said, waivers went through in every league. Players hitting the waiver wire after it runs is very important. You want to browse that.
Guys are going to hit, in fact, Dak Prescott just hit the waiver wire. He said, keep Mike Williams on the roster. Put him on your IR so he can get a ring with the rest of the players if you have to win the championship. Oh, boy.
Yeah, so a lot's going on. Let's go ahead and jump in. Welcome to Hungry for More, presented by Uber Eats. It's quite the tail on that drop, Mike.
Very nice. Yeah, he's Hungry for More. Yeah. Well, we all chose wide receivers this week.
Some players we've seen flashes of through the first three weeks of the season that we, you know, we're hungry for more. We want to see more production. We're expecting more production. And they may be worthy stashes for your bench.
For me, this is really PPR leagues only. But I would put this player on your bench. And that is Josh Downs, rookie wide receiver for the Indianapolis Colts. 12 targets this past week with Gardner Minshew, 8 for 57.
And to me, Josh Downs is a talented player that will demand targets for the rest of the season. It won't be to the tune of 12 because Gardner is going to pass more than Anthony Richardson, who is back at practice. But I'd like to see. I think the trajectory for Josh Downs is very positive.
You had involvement from the beginning of the season. They had spent off-season capital on Isaiah McKenzie, who has not earned a role. Josh Downs is establishing it. And it's a nice compliment to what you have in Michael Pittman.
So Alex Peer. Alex Peer's not been very involved. He's a downfield guy. He's going to have limited total volume.
And Josh Downs, through three weeks, has passed the eye test for me. I think he's a player that he's spot-startable on any given week and may have more value as time goes on. So I completely agree with most everything you're saying. You can't ask Josh Downs to do much more than he's already done.
Winning the job pretty much from week one in his rookie season. Looking good. Passing the eyeball test. It's pretty much completely a green light situation.
And you're right that it's primarily a PPR play. He's not going to be a giant play downfield stretcher. So the only place I disagree on, I don't think it's a disagreement at all, is just I do think the ceiling is limited. You're hoping that he has a Cole Beasley-type career in just the role.
And Cole Beasley was very relevant for several years in fantasy. Yeah, I see it. And I think it's a little bit like, you know, last year it was exciting before the injury for Wondale Robinson in New York. Like Josh Downs has got the same type of, I think, the same type of player as Wondale is.
The jitterbug. Yeah, undersized. He's going to catch the football. And, you know, his yards per catch this past week with Gardner was 7.
You know, that's just the name of the game. But is he going to produce similar to maybe like a Michael Thomas does over the course of the year? It's possible. Yeah, looking at the target shares, it's for a rookie.
18. That was, you know, week one with Anthony Richardson. Then 16%. Then 29%.
Meanwhile, Alec Pierce, which is different types of targets, but 8%, 6% in the two games with, well, mostly with Anthony Richardson. He got Richardson, of course, got knocked out in week two. But Richardson goes to Michael Pittman, and he goes to Josh Downs right now. And the wide receiver target share was 39% for Josh Downs in week number three.
32% of the yards. Just a guy to keep your eye on. Absolutely. Hungry for a little more.
Oh, we're talking about hungry for more. I'm sorry, guys. I've got the dude. Yeah, I've got the dude.
He is also hungry for more. Everyone is hungry for more Marvin Mims. Champagne's full. Well, yeah, apparently.
He's seen enough. Get on the freaking field, man. He is. First of all, he's really, really good.
This is a wide receiver. We talked about him in the offseason. Obviously, in the draft season. He's talented.
His production profile is great. He checks virtually every box of, like, the things you look for in production, in age, in athleticism, in film, draft capital. He's the wide receiver 13 and 18 on 24% of snaps the last two weeks. You know who he reminds me of?
He's now the wide receiver version of rookie year David Johnson. Yes! Because David Johnson never got on the field, and yet he found a way to have fantasy-relevant weeks with limited touches, kick returns, stuff like that. Totally.
And what's funny is you say he was the wide receiver 13, he was the wide receiver 18. The wide receiver 18 finishes last week is only if you do not include his touchdown on his awesome punch return. He ran 11 routes last week, and I don't know if you know this, but this is, by the way, Marvin Mims is a rookie wide receiver for the Denver Broncos. Most people are completely unaware at this point.
The Denver Broncos were down in that game. Wait, I guess the Dolphins this last week. It's in doubt. Yeah, everyone did, so did the Broncos.
But this was an opportunity to get this rookie on the field who was an explosive athlete. He was the only, even after the game, Sean Payton said, the only good play of the game was Marvin Mims' touchdown return on special teams. Brandon Johnson's getting 60% of the snaps. What are you doing?
Brandon Johnson, get out of Marvin Mims' way. Get Marvin Mims on the field. He was breaking every yards per route run metric that exists. And here's the thing.
It almost feels like yards per route, a single route run. How good was your route today? It was great. Marvin Mims is talented.
Johnson being on the field that much shows that there is an opportunity to get Marvin Mims more snaps. Additionally, the Broncos are running 11 personnel on just 47% of their snaps. That is 23rd in the league. I'm sure Dulce is going down.
Changed that a lot. League average of three-plus wide receivers is more like 65%. So there are multiple ways, because you brought up, he's not overtaking Cortland Sutton. He's not overtaking Jerry Judy.
Now, an injury to either of those players should catapult Marvin Mims' opportunity easier. He will be the wide receiver three. But if you could have him be a 60% snap player, like Johnson is, I think Marvin Mims will be someone that you could throw in your lineup every week and hope for a great play. Because he is, I think, a special, talented, rookie wide receiver.
Negative game scripts. You just talked about it. That could be the recipe for Denver the whole year. Yeah, I really, really, really want to see more Mims.
And the problem is, do you roster him? Because I don't think right now, I think he probably is weight and fab. Yeah, I have him on a couple of different teams. In redraft?
In redraft, where he's just waiting on my bench. You know, if you need a start immediately, then sure, you probably want to look elsewhere. But I do think, I mean, after this last week, I wouldn't be surprised if Denver goes, eh, let's make some changes. I mean, at some point, Marvin Mims will work his way out of the field.
Mike, give us the third wide receiver you are. I'm hungry for more. I'm hungry for more because I want to know what is the truth for this player. And I don't think that we can accurately say what it is.
The truth of the first three weeks is Romeo Dobbs of the Green Bay Packers has been fantastic for fantasy football. Week one, number one, wide receiver ten, wide, week number two, it's terrible. Jane Reed gets all the love. Week three, his hamstring looks like it is finally back to healthy.
His snaps have jumped from foot. It's me, my hamstring. Is that Adam? He's such a young man.
Okay, 48% of the snaps in week one, he's now back up to 86% and 12 targets. Now, I know that the Packers were mounting themselves. They come back against the New Orleans Saints, but 12 targets, only five receptions, but 73 yards and a touchdown. Jordan Love, I mean, has been really overproducing when it comes to touchdowns.
Romeo Dobbs has been part of that. And the accuracy hasn't totally been there for Jordan Love. Now, what I mean by it, we don't know the truth is, Christian Watson should be back Thursday. Aaron Jones should be back on Thursday.
But Romeo Dobbs was the one who got the bulk of the offseason hype yet again for the Green Bay Packers. The beat reporters were saying, Romeo Dobbs, he looks like he is Jordan Love's guy. He's 6'2", he's 204 pounds. I was like, he is built like a wide receiver one, or the X player who can absolutely get it done.
What does Christian Watson do to the target share when Romeo Dobbs is on the field? Maybe he comes in and Watson's the superstar. But that's why I'm hungry here. I want to see Kedobbs become that player that had hope two years ago, had even more hope this year.
And so far, so good. I think it's very possible. If you look at the targets being distributed to, you know, I think he's a good young player. Jayden Reed, seven, eight targets the past two weeks.
You look at the targets distributed to Dontavian Wicks. Six targets, four targets. Luke Musgrave getting targets. This offense, you know, they're throwing the football.
And so there should be enough to go around. I do think Christian Watson, and, you know, he's not in the segment later, to me, he has a trade-forward target. Sure. I think Christian Watson, potentially, and I hate saying it out loud right now because I had some offers in the works for Al Borland, who's got Christian Watson on his desk.
You are getting it for Al. And I gave up because, exactly. I said, man, he's not doing this. He's a Packer fan.
He's a Packer fan. I think Christian Watson's going to be very good. And I think Romeo Dobbs could be very good as well. There is a world where Watson is getting, you know, the six targets a week and just hitting on two to three huge plays.
But Romeo Dobbs is more like a Des Bryant type of player, whereas you get higher target volume and you get a lot of touchdown outside because he's so big. And the nice thing is when Watson's out there, you know what won't happen? Right. Double coverage.
Double coverage. Do you like it? I'm hungry for more of that. Don't even hit the button.
I don't know if I have a button for that. Oh, that works. Okay, you approved. Okay, yep.
I've got a button. Here's a button. Take a bow. That was Hungry for More presented by Uber Eats.
With Uber Eats, get anything delivered? Well, almost, almost anything. Running backs? No, no.
Mike could use one. Yeah, can we get that? I can't get that delivered. I've got, you know, make me a trade offer.
Flapjacks and David backs? Yes, you can get those. Yeah, I was going to come at you with like a, uh, like a Laporta-based offer for Christian Lonson, but then I realized... You did?
Oh, I did. But then I realized I did. Did I really? You did?
I realized you said no. I think my, uh, Andy trade offer AI bot might have sent that through and not me, but I saw you, you know, you got Darren Waller and you're kind of, kind of stuck, right? Yeah, I mean, I'm not happy with the output I've gotten from. Like, were you actually interested in Laporta despite being a Waller manager?
Sure. Okay, I'm stuck. You learn it. It's something new every day.
All right, into the news. Saquon Barkley day-to-day category. According to Brian Dable. He's been day-to-day since the injury.
There's two things that cannot be true here. Right. He can either be day-to-day, and it's not a high ankle sprain, in my opinion, or he can have a high ankle sprain, and Brian Dable is what we call a liar. Well, considering Saquon came out and said it is a high ankle sprain, and considering that almost every head coach in the league is a liar, I'm going to 100% assume that this is a high ankle sprain.
I saw a really neat tweet from Edwin Porras, who talked about how high ankle sprains, the average time to come back on the field is almost always either zero missed games or three missed games. Like, that's when you have a high ankle sprain. Interesting. You're either back the next week and you just...
Yeah, or you're going to miss three games, so I don't expect this day-to-day... I mean, the day-to-day nonsense is probably something where it just means bad news for waivers, and you've got to wait until Sunday before you roll down. Yeah, nope. Even worse, Jason.
Giants are Monday night. Oh, are you? Brian! It is an absolute disaster, and I'm cackling over myself imagining...
Because coaches do this. You know, just like the Gannon move of who's our quarterback. Brian Dable's trying to gather some sort of competitive advantage. And imagine being the defense.
All week, you're getting ready for Saquon Barkley, and then he's ruled out, and you're like, oh, crap! Our plan was for Saquon. How are we possibly going to stop Matt Burrita and company? People should be saying, oh, it's probably going to be several weeks, and then boom!
Saquon's on the feet! He might be month-to-month at this point. I don't know. You're right.
He should completely flip it. That being said, Monday night game. Give him an extra day recovery. I mean, I don't know if I want to throw the committee out there.
Matt Burrita had four carries last game. Now, one of them ended up as a touchdown to salvage your night. But it would have been an unmitigated, almost goose from your running back position. And Kerry Brightwell got a lot of work, and we didn't even see Gray, so...
Yeah, they did basically split the work. We've talked a lot about Brightwell as... Or, I'm sorry, we've talked a lot about Burrita and not a lot about Brightwell as a replacement. So, you know, I would still definitely go Burrita first, but it's not like he just inherits a lot of Barkley's volume.
I mean, you know it was going to be a disaster against the San Francisco 49ers, and that picking up Burrita was more of a, well, if... Barkley misses time, then they get the Seattle Seahawks the next week. That's not that you're loving playing Matt Barita, but look at the landscape of the running backs. We're not loving very many of them at all right now.
Anthony Richardson progressing through the concussion protocol. We'll take normal reps today. We expect him back home to see. Doug Peterson says Zay Jones is a long shot to play in week four.
See, now that's how you do it, Doug. That's how you do it. Oh, he's definitely not going to be there. Long shot.
Cardinals not in a hurry to immediately activate Kyler Murray when the pup window opens, according to Jonathan Gannon. I know Jason Yost was tough to say. Yeah, this was a really important quote from Jonathan Gannon. Not only did he say that just because the window of his availability to activate him from the pup, he said, you know, yeah, we realize we can.
You know, it's probably not going to happen right now, so that's important. But then he talked about he wants him to be ready physically and mentally, have a couple of weeks of practice. So what this means is that, so the way that the pup works is once you activate someone off the pup, they can practice. But you still have, I think it's 21 days before you basically have to have them active in a game, or I'll say basically go back to the pup for the rest of the season, which means, based on his own words, and I believe this because of how and when it was shared, basically they're not going to activate him yet, and then when they do, it's probably another three weeks until you see him.
So I think you're talking about a month and a half, two months before you see Kyler. And this is really important for fantasy because I was starting to toy around with, okay, the Cardinals play San Francisco this week, probably not going to go well. Obviously they had a good game against Dallas, but this one's in San Francisco. And Hollywood looks like a great trade for Target if Kyler's going to be back soon.
This quote means Kyler is not back for another month or two. Okay. That's, yeah, yeah, you're right. And I think, did you see this thing?
Arizona didn't have a jersey available for Joshua Dobbs. Yes. They weren't selling it in the store. So they fixed it, and he got one.
All right, that was today's news and notes presented by USAA Insurance. Learn more at usaa.com slash insurance. Quick break back with our trade segment. All right, let's jump in.
Let's Talk Trades. Shall we? Shall we? Yes, let's do it.
Shall we trade? I jumped in this morning. I made a big trade in our league of record. You did.
You fired the silver bullet. Which was? Your number two overall pick. I did.
In our league, we can trade draft picks. You cannot trade your first. The second is the strongest draft capital pick. You can move.
And it's always in our league a game of chicken to see who's going to start blasting that draft capital away. And the winner this year is Andy. Well, I try to win our winner most years. I get impatient.
I'm going to double down on my trade four players. I'm going to throw two names. Okay. The original name is Sam Laporta.
The tight end for the Detroit Lions, currently the tight end two on the season, you still have an opportunity to go and trade for Sam Laporta. You can play up the rookie narrative. This is a player that is on pace to break the rookie record in terms of total targets. He's not going anywhere.
That is my message to you. So I think Sam Laporta is, in the landscape of tight end frustration, is a very worthy player to go and pursue. And very likely, he may be rostered by somebody that has a couple of tight ends on the team. Because he was picked up as a free agent option.
It's possible he was picked up by the Andrews, Waller, Kittle, Goddard, Kelsey managers in your league. And if any of those are the case, there's going to be an opportunity to pick him up. And this message is, he's worth picking up. He's worth putting on your roster.
I have Travis Kelsey. So that was something that, look, other than the bye week for Kelsey, he's never touching the field for me. So you're saying Kelsey's going to be better than Laporta this year? Yes.
Was he from Clueless? Yeah, that was a very California girl. So I think Laporta is the pickup. And the other name I want to throw out there, and I know I mentioned Christian Watson earlier, I actively went and traded for Garrett Wilson this morning.
I made the determination, this is a generally untouchable player, that the situation in New York is so cataclysmic that people are down. I mean, he hit our waiver wire, he hit the waiver block in our league. I'm sorry, let me rephrase it. He hit the trade block.
He was not released. I don't see a way that it doesn't get better for Garrett Wilson. Now, in three weeks, he's got the least accurate quarterback in football in Zach Wilson. He's put up in our league format, which is half point, 11, 17, and like eight.
Zach Wilson is not going to be the permanent starter for this team. There's already talk of friction in the locker room. Players very upset about the fact that Robert Sala is the Zach Wilson apologist in the room. Players do not want to go out and put Max Stafford on the field if they're not getting the best on the offensive side of the football.
We've been here before. And Garrett Wilson's a top five talent at the wide receiver position. So for me, if you can go bargain shop for Garrett Wilson. Which I think you can.
Which I think you can do. I think you can go trade somebody that's had a really juicy or pretty good three weeks and then go make the trade offer for Garrett Wilson. I think it gets better. I really do.
I think New York is Trevor Simeon or somebody else. Yeah, I mean, I will agree with you that when Zach Wilson is replaced, it will get better. Literally no matter who it is. Trevor Simeon is not good.
And it will 100% be better if it is Trevor Simeon. I would just say that the reason I think it works especially well in your context where you traded for him is we're a keeper league. So if it doesn't work out this year, which I could see, you know, in the Megaloball, I benched Garrett Wilson for four different wide receivers this last week and it was a good move because he scored fewer than them. And if it doesn't work out, you have the option of a great keeper value in giving up your second.
So I think if you're out there playing in keeper leagues, it makes a lot more sense to say, hey, this is a player I can't usually get a hold of or a dynasty league. Well, I don't have to start him. I mean, that's the other situation. If you have a couple of good starters, you're looking for a flex, you're looking for a wide receiver of three or four, and you can get him on the chief.
I believe that the talent of Garrett Wilson, we saw it last year. Did they have quarterback play in New York last year? Not when Zach Wilson was off the field. They had better.
But I mean, it was a challenge on offense and Garrett Wilson still had a big year. So look, that's a couple of trade for ideas I will hand off the baton. Well, since you're bringing up last year, I'm going to trade for a player who was great last year, who was bad the first three weeks of last year, who's been bad the first three weeks of last year. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Talking about Josh Jacobs, currently the running back 25, and half PPR scoring has not eclipsed 10 fantasy points, 8.1, 10.4, 9.5 fantasy points per game. You look back at last year, the first three weeks, he averaged 9.5 fantasy points per game, 16.7 opportunities, so he was getting the ball, just wasn't getting it done last year. Don't know why those things happen sometimes, but they're happening again, because this year, he is getting 19.7 opportunities per game. The running back landscape is putrid right now.
Everyone is in need of running backs. The only teams that seem like they're okay at running back are the ones that just happen to get, you know, Kyron Williams or Zach Moss and pick someone up that was unexpected to add to the roster. Because a lot of these guys that we drafted to be relied upon have not worked out. And I think Josh Jacobs' managers are freaked out.
They're like, this guy just isn't getting it done. He's not that good. This is an elite running back who is getting almost 20 opportunities per game with no one on the depth chart that's going to change that going forward. Josh Jacobs, this is the worst stretch of his season.
So for me, I'm 100%. I've gone and made a couple offers for him in a couple different leagues. I'm not paying a premium. I'm not trying to say, like, I think he's going to be the running back three like he was last year after, you know, the bad start to the season.
But he's a quality, volume play that is not going anywhere. And managers who have him, I think, are willing to sell him cheap right now. After three weeks, the smell is starting to accumulate on the nostrils of Jacobs' managers. Because I even found myself in my dynasty league going, is he the guy I try to move?
Do I try to move him to try to get younger someplace? Because it's not been a fun ride. But I like that you brought him up here. It encourages me, Jason.
Generally speaking, you have to buy into two running backs for getting that opportunity. We do have, now we're only three weeks in, but you've got to make some decisions. Week one is what freaks me out. They played the Denver Broncos.
And in that matchup that we have seen, now two other games, the Washington Manders destroy them on the ground. And Brian Robinson, the fiasco against the Miami Dolphins running backs. And in week one, Josh Jacobs and crew was only able to manage 2.5 yards per carry against that Denver Broncos. Now, maybe they were more fired up because it was week one, and they're now getting demoralized and losing faith in their defense.
But that is, that's the one note where I'm like, I don't know that Jacobs is going to turn it around. But the argument for pure volume, and if you can get pure volume cheaper than you would have paid for the draft, I would do it. Okay. Mike, your trade for candidate is?
It is Zach Charbonnet of the Seattle Seahawks rookie running back. And this is a play for the future. The snaps of Kenneth Walker and Zach Charbonnet are cross-fading. Like, look, Walker's been great.
He, like, for fantasy football, I think that's what makes trading for Zach Charbonnet an even easier proposition right now. When you go to whoever's holding on to Charbonnet and go, look at Walker's doing. You think Charbonnet, like, Charbonnet is not the guy right now. Meanwhile, the snaps for Kenneth Walker, 63, 61, 51.
The snaps for Charbonnet, 24, 26, 43. He was brought down on the two-yard line on an absolute beast of a run. He was drafted in round two for a reason. I still, like, I don't think he's overtaking Kenneth Walker to be the number one.
But I think that this is going to morph into a timeshare sooner rather than later. And right now you don't have production that is matching the outside peripherals looking at the opportunities that Charbonnet is getting each week. Three opportunities week one, six the next, 11 the next one. And Charbonnet is going to be the guy they turn to when they need to pass the ball.
And they're scoring 37 points each of the past two weeks. Like, this is an offense that's starting to get going. Both Walker and Charbonnet can have fantasy relevance. But, and Andy, you're going to talk about Kenneth Walker.
If a manager is in love with Walker right now, it's going to be pretty hard to go get him. Meanwhile, Charbonnet is not doing a ton. And I think that the arrow is going to be pointing up. Yeah, let's transition into trade away.
Because I intentionally put Kenneth Walker into that category. And you guys might both disagree with this assertion. He's a running back three, so it's rare to say, hey, a guy that's dominating for fantasy, you should move him. But it's very difficult.
Charbonnet snap counts are going up. He seems to be the two-minute drill back. Kenneth Walker has scored four touchdowns in two weeks. Okay, Josh Jacobs, three games, all those opportunities, no touchdowns.
You're not getting 38 touchdowns a year from Kenneth Walker. He has benefited from two weeks, Detroit, Carolina, 37 points in each week. I think he's a top 12 running back. But if you can cash in on the ceiling level, like, you could go get a different running back right now.
Like, could you go and acquire, you know, make an offer for the tippy-tippy top of the running back position? If you attach Kenneth Walker with somebody else, would you be tempted? You're going to try to go get Christian McCaffrey using Kenneth Walker plus something else. That's what I'm saying.
Yeah, I would do that. I would do that. If I can trade up from Kenneth Walker, I would do that. Now, let me offer one more, two guys we talked about.
Would you trade Kenneth Walker for Josh Jacobs and Garrett Wilson if the manager had that? Yes. Okay. Cool.
I would. I would as well. You would? I would.
I'd rather have the Jacobs and Garrett Wilson side. Yeah, I mean, those are two players that have been frustrating through three games. That opportunity and talent is something you believe in for both. And that would take a lot.
I mean, Garrett, Kenneth Walker played 51% of snaps this past week. This past, and he was great. He was dominant. He is a super, super talented player.
But he has dealt with injuries historically. And Mike, you know, you just talked about Zach Charbonnet. There are going to be some games where I think Charbonnet is going to be more involved and Kenneth Walker is not going to fall into the end zone. And, you know, week one for Kenneth Walker is going to be part of his story.
You know, 12 attempts, 64 yards, didn't score. Well, that's good enough for running back 28 that week. Well, if you look at the following week, I mean, he scored 17 fantasy points, but he scored two touchdowns. Yeah, 17 for 43 on the ground.
Yeah, two and a half yards carry. He didn't have a great game. He had a very, very good fantasy game because he got a couple touchdowns. So it's a matter of, do you think the touchdowns are going to keep coming on the regular?
I'm sure he gets plenty of them this year, but it's not going to be two a game. And as of right now... Would you trade for Bijan? Yes, I would much rather have Bijan.
I mean, that trade offer will go through in leagues, for sure. I think I would do that. I would try to extract a little bit more because Bijan had the down game. But looking at, like, five zone carries, that's the money.
That's where we want to run him as getting attempts. Kenneth Walker has six total, three in week two, three in week three. Charbonnet already has two. I'd rather have six, but the point is, Kenneth Walker is not the exclusive goal line running back.
They're already factoring in Charbonnet into those players. And last year, I believe, if my memory is correct, he was the only player in the NFL who had 100% of his team's inside five already three weeks in this time. And he was very inefficient. He's been far more efficient.
He's not converting him this year. Yeah. He's a good player. This is not a...
This is not... And it's really important that everyone listening understands this. This is not a saying, Kenneth Walker's going to sink. You should trade him away.
This is saying, he's at probably a peak value that you can capitalize on if you squeeze everything out of that. You know, that's the point, is capitalize on peaks as opposed to just saying, oh, he's not going to be as good, so let me get rid of him. That's not what we're saying. Yeah, and he had nine touchdowns last year, but six of the nine came in three weeks where he scored two a week.
So it's exactly about capitalizing on the high performance of the most recent week, trying to remove some of the emotion from the equation and looking at higher value options. So, Jason, you have a provocative... Yeah. A provocative...
I feel like you've made a decision here. I have made a decision, and my decision is if I have King Henry, Derrick Henry, the Yeti, the unstoppable, immovable force, the monstrous mountain of the man, I'm going to try to trade him away for something that I think is more safe. I think there's a lot of risk in Derrick Henry right now, and he has not been terrible. His first two weeks was pretty good.
This last week was a down week. But with his name recognition, his volume, the fact that he's still been okay this season so far, you're going to be able to have teams that are willing to pay a premium for a premium player, for a player who was in the running for MVP over the last couple of years at the running back position. He's awesome. He's great.
However, for the first time in his career post taking over, he has competition for touches. He has another competent running back on the team. He has someone stealing both carries and snaps away from him. He's obviously the oldest he's ever been, and will continue to be so.
That's very astute. Thank you. This is a team that looks like they could be on the cusp of collapse, and I think that they will recover quickly as a franchise. They'll make a couple good transactions and pack it in if that happens.
Right now, they're going to be fighting for wins. Vrabel's a good coach. It's a well-run franchise. But you look at the upcoming schedule, you say, okay, well, this week, Cincinnati.
Who do you expect to win that game right now? The Tennessee Titans or the Cincinnati Bengals, even with the Hobble Joe Burrow. I'm sure that the Cincinnati Bengals are the favored team. Derrick Henry's going to do much better in wins than he does in losses.
He also does better on the road than he does at home, and so this is a home loss. So it might not be a good week for Derrick Henry. You've got Baltimore two weeks later. You've got a bye week after that.
And if, at this point in the season, coming out of the bye, this is a team that has not won a lot of games, I just worry that the risk is calamity. It's not just mediocrity. The risk to me in holding on to Derrick Henry is that, and I don't think it's a guarantee. I don't think, oh, Derrick Henry's done.
But I see the path where Derrick Henry could be done soon, and you don't want to be holding that bag, especially if it's a valuable bag you can get something for right now. So to me, that's the player I'm most scared of the future of the rest of the season. I think you can definitely find people that are willing to make the bet and the gamble and say, okay. hey, he's going to be back to form.
And there's going to be some people out there if you put him on the block that's probably interested in that. So if you believe that the odds are low he comes back to form and this team competes, then... I would rather have, so to talk about my trade away and trade forehand, I would rather have Josh Jacobs than Derrick Henry rest of the season. I think most players out there, if that trade was offered, they would take Derrick Henry over Josh Jacobs who hasn't been good so far this year.
So I think that would be easy. But you might be able to do even better if you've got a good team, you've got some wins and you want to take a shot at Saquon because maybe he misses this week and the manager's desperate or package him and trade up. There's a lot of... Derrick Henry right now, and the reason why I'm saying trade him now is because he's got value.
If he ends up having a bad couple of weeks, goes on by week, middle of the season, you're not going to be able to get anything for him. Mike, yours is depressing. Yeah, it's... Look, any trade away candidate, it's depressing because you're scared of King Henry that he's circling the whirlpool and he's about to head down.
Swim strong, Derrick. I want you to see him. Yes, we do. My trade away candidate is Damian Pierce of the Houston Texans.
He's currently the running back 29 and I still believe in the player of Damian Pierce but I believe that he is in close to an impossible situation for his skill set. He has been... He had a good week this week. That's why I'm saying maybe you can find someone who's desperate for a running back and looks just at the total fantasy points and says, okay, I'll take on the risk of Damian Pierce and he's going to get better.
But he's averaging only 2.38 yards after contact, which that is the same as A.J. Dillon who has been ferociously dunked upon throughout this season by you guys. He's averaging 2.5 yards. What?
He's averaging 2.5 yards per carry on the season. And it's, again, I think it's the offensive line. Now, the story that you can weave is the offensive line is going to get healthier. And maybe that's something that you believe because they should.
They've got some guys on IR that are going to return. Maybe things do actually improve for Damian Pierce. But I think we're a long ways away from that happening and it is not the... The carrot that was dangled out for all of us for preseason was, holy crap, Damian Pierce might be truly a three-down workhorse in this offense.
He's not... You're saying he's no Zach Moss. Yeah, I'm saying he's not getting 98% of the snaps, Zach Moss style. They are going to...
Devin Singletary is the two-minute drill guy. They're going to use Devin Singletary's skill set when they're trying to catch up, which they will be trying to catch up in a lot of games. The upcoming schedule, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, the Saints, and then a bye week. And Pittsburgh's actually 29th against running backs.
So if he fails again this week, I'm going to be real depressed. Which he probably will. And that's the way I'm projecting it as well. So even if you're holding out hope for the offensive line to return, it might be five weeks from now before you're actually recouping some of the dividends from that gamble.
And by then, then Damian Pierce's trade value could be absolutely cratered and you're all in. Your chips are all in on Damian Pierce. And if you're tempted to buy low on Damian Pierce on the other side of the logic train and you're saying, hey, I'm going to let him hit the ground and wait for that. He's got the single most depressing end-of-season playoff schedule I've ever seen in my life.
He faces. The week before going into the playoffs, he faces the Jets in New York. Perfect. Then he faces Tennessee.
Great run defense. Cleveland. Great run defense. Same as the one before.
Wait, wait, wait. I hear what you're saying, though. Let's invert that. So you're telling me the Yeti?
Blake Houston? What am I doing? Trace and Eric Hensley! You have made a terrible mistake.
Retract. The Yeti is winning championships this year. Houston? Blake Houston?
In the playoffs? Oh, that's rough stuff. Well, you make your own decision out there. No, no, but between the Houston and Houston game, he does play Seattle at home.
That's pretty nice. Going back to Damien Pierce, I think this is great to bring up, Mike, because especially bringing up what happened in preseason. This was a player I was OUT the whole offseason. Completely did not want Damien Pierce.
Didn't have any serious of him in basketball. Saw the way that this could happen and then preseason happened and it was like, oh my gosh, they're actually going to use him as a two-minute throwback. As the passing, as everything. They're going to use him as a full-time workhorse back and there's just not many of them.
Well, they've already shown that's not what they're doing. That isn't what they're going to do. And if he's not a workhorse back, you're going to be disappointed a lot more than you're going to have great games. I mean, maybe I'm wrong.
I don't think you can get anything for him after that three weeks. Well, not after this show. I think you're at least going to have some volume from him. I mean, you talk about talented players that's going to have volume.
I don't think it's going to be a fun ride. I think you have to look at it like he's not going to win weeks. I mean, he got into the end zone because someone got dragged down on the one. He's going to score every time.
That happens. So that'll be nice. But I mean, the yards per carry is terrible. I'm somewhat happy with three targets a week, every week.
I mean, that's going to help you a little bit. So much better than zero. But I mean, his fantasy production in the first two weeks was five points and four points. I mean, that was against, you know, Indianapolis in week two, Baltimore in week one.
His snap count did go up last week and they put up 37 points. I'm encouraged that the offense could be better. But I'm with you, Mike. I've tried very hard in my brain to create the pathway for Damien Pierce for it to get a lot better.
But it's not easy to find. Yeah, and I'm not disagreeing that it could be difficult to find the trade partner to move on from Damien Pierce. But because you had the one spike week and looking at what's about to happen with the Houston Texans, this is kind of, you're either bailing out right now and maybe you're not getting a full return on the trade or you're fully committed to Damien Pierce because it's probably going to be a rough release. I want to put it to the test with names.
Okay. Because you said you might not get the full return. Are you trading Damien Pierce for Isaiah Pacheco? I would rather have Pacheco, yes.
Are you trading Damien Pierce for Najee Harris? Ooh, that is, that's super tough. I think I'm going to go Najee. But I mean, they're both in a very similar situation.
Of their offense, these are talented players. Brees Hall. Oh, I'd go Brees Hall. I'd go for, I'd shoot for second half upside.
Devon Achan. Man, that sounds wrong. I'm still not over it. But yeah, Achan.
That is, that is a volatile move. The first name that came up when you brought this up in my mind was, okay, so would you, if you had Achan, would you trade for Pierce or if you had Pierce, would you trade for Achan? I know my answer, but. I don't think things are going to be great over the next three weeks for Pierce and they could be for Achan, so I think I'd make that move.
I would as well. Talk about a completely different type of player and a different level of utilization. Pierce will have lots of opportunities to run for two yards. Achan, they have minimal opportunities to run for 70.
Right. And that is a tough thing because your low is made. I mean, it's hard to get lower than what Pierce gave you in week one and two. Okay, I've got one last question for us that, you know, we might have more questions from the listeners, but for me, I really want to know where you guys stand on this because I think it is a question that the answer will be so right or so wrong by the end of the season.
And when you're trading running back for running back, someone wins and someone loses. Who would you rather have at this point going forward? Devon Achan or Zach Moss? Oh.
Oh, man. The 100% of snap type of player who's dominating but has a JT problem possibly. Or Achan. So I want you guys to have to answer this.
I think it's a very fair thing to bring up because if Jonathan Taylor comes back week five, I think he goes right into what Zach Moss is doing right now. Only it's Jonathan Taylor who, Zach Moss has been great, but Jonathan Taylor is a better player. There's a chance that maybe it's, you know, like only 70% of the snaps or something for Taylor, but the point is that Zach Moss is valuable greater if Taylor actually plays for the Colts. Oh, man.
It's such a mess because it's not football stuff. Right. I'm not in the locker room for the Colts. I'm not in the management.