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That's Noom, N-O-O-M, dot com slash footballers. As for the sudden, watch it for them, and you're listening to the Fantasy Footballers. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright. Welcome in.
The Fantasy Footballers Podcast is back for Wednesday, September 22nd. Jason Moore, Mike Wright, I'm Andy Holloway. I am currently watching my colleague over here, Jason Moore. He's bobbing his head, he's feeling the music, and he's moving his hands around.
Like, if you watched it on YouTube, you would have thought he was typing. But he, in fact, was not typing. He was simply my typing. What were you doing?
That's a fingernail. What were you doing? So, legitimately, I know this is shocking, Mike. I was typing.
You were, yes, I was typing. No, that's false. I just saw your hands. You were above the keys, and you were moving your fingers like you were typing.
Yes, well, afterwards, afterwards. But the whole intro music, I was actually typing words onto my computer. No. Yeah.
You're like a phantom type. That was the softest button I've ever seen in my life. Listen, these soft hands are not made for hard labor. They're made for keyboards.
Are you a, uh, that was like an elegant saxophone playing with your fingers. Yeah, I mean, you know, oh. Oh, yeah, that's how I type. Like, you somehow formulated the equation for the minimum amount of pressure I need to apply to this key for it to actually trigger.
Yeah. And that's what you just did in rapid succession. Yes. And, um.
I don't believe you. A hundred percent. I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I'm sorry. But my fingertips are as soft as the day I was born.
I can't play the guitar, Mike. That's what we love about you. You're not, you're not, you don't have callous fingertips. That's right.
Yeah, the callous are on the heels. You kidding me? Uh, Twitter at the FF Ballers. A reminder, we're on Green Room this afternoon for another live show.
Uh, it's a live audio app from Spotify. You can hop on there. It's free. Download the Spotify Green Room app.
Follow Fantasy Footballers. Be notified each Wednesday. We do it at 3 p.m. Pacific, 6 p.m.
Eastern time all season long. It's been a lot of fun. A little free flow and some bigger discussions. Gets a little wild.
Yeah. Answering lots of questions. We have Bicell on the show today. Unsolved Mysteries from the first two weeks of the NFL season.
The Thursday night preview with General Mills himself. And, uh, he's not on the show today, though, right, Brooks? We don't actually have General Mills. No, he's prepping.
He's prepping for the game. We found out yesterday, Jeff Driscoll is the backup to General Mills. Oh, Driscoll. Which is a perfect combination.
Yeah. Join the foot.com's fantasy football community. Let's do some Bicell. Bicell.
Presented by Christine Ochen. You guys are on a hot streak. Aaron Rodgers, last week, he bought three touchdown passes. He pulled that off.
You bought Calvin Ridley, or I'm sorry, you sold Calvin Ridley 100 receiving yards. And, well. He had a good game. 63.
But 63 on a touchdown does not equal 100 yards. I mean, he was probably one of the odds-on favorites for yardage leaders on the year. Yes, he was. Do you know who the yardage leader on the year is?
Because I actually looked this up yesterday. The top three. Okay, so Lockett has got to be close. Lockett's number three.
And, uh, what? Coupa Cuppa Coffee? Coupa Cuppa Coffee's number two. Oh, man.
We've done almost exactly what is necessary. Um, man. Number one. And Waller got shut down.
Out of those two guys. Oh, my God. Oh, goodness. Yeah, that makes sense.
T-ball! I don't know how we went three for three last week. Mike, we are dominating. And Andy just ducked on it.
Buy yourself for week three. Here we go. See if you can keep your hot streak going. Um, we all got the Allen Robinson top 12 wide receiver sell.
He was 45. And he could have done. He had a touchdown in about 18 seconds. And he dropped another touchdown.
That's what I was going to say. He could have done Justin Fields a favor and caught the perfect pass. Buy yourself week three. George Kittle?
Buy yourself 13 fantasy points in week three. Oh, man. I am buying this. I will sell.
This is the week. He's right above your head here in the studio, Jason. You just mentioned how Depot is the yardage leader. He's taking everything away from George.
Yeah, I mean, look, George Kittle still. I mean, when you watch him on the field, George Porgy. That's not nice. You went from the manliest lumberjack to George Porgy?
Yeah, I mean, if he has a bad game. So far this year, he's been George Porgy. I believe George Porgy was an insult that they used back in the revolutionary time against King George, if I'm not mistaken. Really?
Yeah, I would take it as an insult. George Porgy putting an eye or something like that. Hasn't that to do with porridge? A little mother goose action, but I don't know.
This shows. We are. You are right. George Porgy is a rhyming nickname for George.
Yeah. Putting pie was probably added just a rhyme. Yeah, take that, King George. I'm buying 13 fantasy points from George Kittle.
Has Green Bay this week. The matchup is good. Green Bay's defense has looked like they hired the wrong defensive coordinator. And I think Kittle gets back on track.
I mean, it's time. I would agree that this is a good matchup. Certainly, you're going to play George Kittle. And the Green Bay Packers should be able to score better than the Philadelphia Eagles did last week, which will help George Kittle be necessary in the passing.
But I do think with what we've seen from Debo and what we've seen from Garoppolo, who has not looked great so far, a potential change. I'm going to sell this. I think that to get that 13-point line and half PPR, he's going to need a touchdown that's not usually his forte. He's more of a yardage guy.
That's where I was going to go. Andy, do you think he can hit that mark without a touchdown this week? Yeah, I do. I mean, he's a big yardage guy.
He's hit that mark plenty of times without. Sure. But I think he'll score. Man, I...
They're going to need a score. Yes, all football teams usually need to. No, they don't. They didn't need to last week.
Their defense has been dominant. It's going to have to be dominant. Is it going to be dominant about Aaron Rodgers? I mean, against Aaron Rodgers.
I see what you mean. I'm going to buy. Reluctantly. So you two finally divert.
We did. James Robinson versus Arizona. Does he get 15 total touches? In week one, eight touches.
In week two, 14 touches. Buy your sell. I'm selling. I love the sell.
Because I think... When I looked at this morning, I thought the line was pretty high. We're asking him to touch the ball more than he has so far this entire year. But I do like...
What we saw from James Robinson was that he was the clear lead back. He was basically a full-time back. Carlos Hyde did virtually nothing. And when you look at the pace of play for both Arizona and the Jacksonville Jaguars, it's actually...
They are two of the faster, more plays per minute teams in the NFL right now. So I like this. I think the line's high, but I'm still going to buy. I'm going to buy because I think he's very involved this week.
Good number. That's very hardy if you're up in the 80s. Only saw the 9% target share, unfortunately, which is what Robinson's really going to need if he's going to return his draft day value. But I will buy the 15 touches.
I'll buy that. You'll buy it. What was that number, Brooks? You want to read that to me?
In all 14 games last year that he played, he had over 15 touches. Opportunities. Wow, and he hasn't done it for the first two weeks of this year? Yeah, we certainly knew that.
Last year's gone. Yeah, we talked about what James Robinson was last year, was a 90-plus percentile snap in running back. He had all the running back, carries all the running back targets, and Carlos Hyde is mostly gone, but certainly still there. Last one here.
Buy or Sell, Robert Woods is the top 24 wide receiver this week. First two weeks outside of the top 40. They take on Tampa Bay, and Tampa Bay's secondary, back into their defense. It's been vulnerable so far this year.
You know, Jared Goff had a nice game against them. I, look, Cooper Cops is not going to catch 40 touchdowns this year. It's not going to happen. Robert Woods is going to get his, but I don't bet on a touchdown, and I think he'll need it to get to the top 24, so I will sell Robert Woods' top 24 wide receiver.
You illustrated my exact beliefs as well. I think he'll need to get in the end zone and won't this week, so I'm out. Yeah, I have him framed right there, currently sitting on my wide receiver 23. I mean, it's Wednesday morning, so that'll alter a lot, but because it's so close to the 24, I'm going to take a probability that it's sell.
All right, that was Buy or Sell brought to you by our friends at Pristine Auction. Use the code BALLERS to get a $10 credit toward your first sports memorabilia purchase at pristineauction.com. News and notes from around the league, presented by Sleeper. All right, the Browns play Jarvis Landry on injured reserve, so he's going to miss, what, at least three weeks?
Yep. And there have been two OBJ social media posts that are hinting at his debut. Like recent ones? Yes, yes.
He retweeted or replied to the tweet about Landry going on IR, that he was going to hold down the fort for him, and he's going to be in another tweet about, like, back like I never left. So OBJ should play this week. He should not phrase it that way, because if he's back like he never left, then he will be back to doing nothing for the Cleveland Browns. He will be back to doing something occasionally for the Cleveland Browns.
So they also said Demetri Felton, who was their leading receiver last week, running back, is going to take additional reps in the slot, whatever. OBJ is interesting this week. It is wild. I mean, I couldn't have envisioned a scenario where Odell Beckham has been gone with injury, recovering from the ACL, and first game back, you're tempted to start him.
But with the crazy timing of Jarvis Landry going on IR, I think there's going to be a lot of people starting Odell Beckham this week, and I can't say that that's a terrible idea. I would prefer to take the wait-and-see approach, but he's going to be the main wide receiver there. The other guys have done jack squat. Yeah, it was with Rashad Higgins and Peoples-Jones and Schwartz, and no.
Breaking news. I like the breaking news that's happening during the news session. Oh, you bet it is. Right in the middle of it.
This is the first time ever. There's just been more news. Look at what it just came through. Oh, this is breaking, man.
It's breaking square. Oh, let's hear it. The Bucs have placed Antonio Brown on the reserve COVID list. It sounded like you reacted to breaking news, not just regular news right there.
That was, because I hadn't heard it yet, because it just broke. So the timeline here. Not good. I believe Tampa Bay is one of the teams that have said they're 100% vaccinated.
I think it's correct. So that means that, I think that's correct. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm confusing that with Atlanta.
We'll have to see about the timeline if he can get two negative tests, but I would presume he's probably going to be out, given that it's a Wednesday right now. And we've had questions in the office of who is Jalen Ramsey guarding. You know what I mean? It might not just be shadow coverage on someone, but this was a game where I thought Antonio Brown was a sneaky good play, because when I think about using Jalen Ramsey, it probably would have been on Godwin, and if not, the bigger corner on Mike Evans, leaving Antonio Brown to kind of do what he wants, and he might not be there.
Yeah. Interesting. So, back to regular news. Brian Flores announced...
Not breaking. Not breaking. This one is breaking. Oh, no.
Tua, Tengavailoa, Fractured Ribs, will not play this week. Oh. Jacoby, Brissette. Hey, wait for me.
It's not ideal. It's not ideal, Mike. That is right. What do you do with anybody from the Dolphins?
You bench all Dolphins. I cannot... Even the gas man? Even...
If you can. No way. He did very, very little last week. And granted, that was the Buffalo Bills, and their defense so far through two weeks has looked absolutely outstanding, and he probably will have enough receptions and a PPR lead to be a viable play, but, I mean, is he any different?
Let me ask you this. Is he any different than James White with Jacoby Brissette at quarterback? Is that kind of the player you're putting in your lineup? You're saying between the two?
Yeah, between the gas man and James White. I play the gas man. Sure, but I'm saying... I must be confused.
I am saying... With the quarterback downgrade. With the quarterback downgrade, do you view him much differently than you would view plugging a James White into your lineup? A guy who can get, you know, five receptions and pad those numbers but probably isn't going to do a ton?
Slightly different, yeah. Only because he's going to get carries that James White won't get. So his ceiling is probably higher than James White's ceiling, but, yeah, I mean, they're probably fairly similar this week with Jacoby and Mack. The gas man did see his running back attempt share drop.
It was only a 53% a week one down to 31% of the carries last week. Yeah, I mean, maybe it's just bias, but they were being blown out 35 to nothing or whatever the case was. Like, back after that entire game, he wasn't on the field. So I don't know what that means.
I don't know what it's going to mean with Jacoby. It's probably a similar comparison with James White just in the fact that the quarterbacks aren't going to do a lot. But the wide receivers, I mean, are you just avoiding all of them? Will Fuller's going to make his debut.
Yeah, I mean, Jacoby's not terrible. Yes, he's a good backup. He's not a full-time starter. He's not...
There's far worse backups out there. Like, oh man, Jeff Friscoll's out here being a backup. For the NFL, I would agree with you. For fantasy, I would disagree.
I can't fathom starting a wide receiver for the Dolphins. I mean, we have enough starts from Jacoby Brissett to know that it takes a big broken play from T.Y. Hilton to actually be relevant. Otherwise, you know, so maybe you want to throw Jalen Waddle in there because he's got the speed and he could, you know, Will Fuller could break something open.
But I think outside of one big play, you're probably not going to enjoy starting Dolphins wide receivers. And the Raiders' defense, their matchup this week, they looked pretty legit too. All right, Mike Thomas says, Big Ben has a pectoral injury. Mike Thomas says it will affect his preparation ability.
We better be ready to be adjustable. What does that mean? I think that means that... So, this is a great question.
Like, what do you mean when he says we better be ready to be adjustable? I think that means they need to run the ball more. Tomlin is saying we need to be able to succeed at running. I mean, I'm not a mind reader, but that's how I interpret it.
Man, you thought Big Ben couldn't get worse. And now, this isn't great news. I thought they were just like, he's like, we got to be ready to go to the chiropractor. Maybe that was it.
I don't see it in here, but we need to mention the Deontay Johnson news, which was, like, Mike Thomas is pretty forthcoming. He's the opposite of a lot of other coaches. And he was talking about the knee for Deontay Johnson. And he was saying something to the extent, I don't know the quote in front of me, that it was doing good, not to be confused with great.
That was the quote. That was the quote from him. It was that it's doing better, good, not to be confused with great. So, still on Deontay watch for this week as well.
He's been outstanding through two weeks. Clearly the number one target. But if he's off the field, it kind of gives you more of a, a little bit of an encouragement for maybe Chase Claypool. Claypool's number two or three in the league in air yards, but they have not connected at all.
I was talking to you guys that I went back and I watched all of the, that Pittsburgh game again because it was like the, the end numbers for Claypool. It was, he ended up with three for 70s. How did we get here? And he had, he had at least four really deep shots and they were good throws by Ben.
This wasn't, you know, Claypool's running stride for stride with a DB and Ben overthrows by three yards out of bounces. No, Claypool got hit in the hands. He did catch one of them. But then he had some other ones that were just knocked out, which.
A lot of the credit goes to Casey Hayward, because that's who was guarding him. But seeing those, it was disappointing that Claypool was not more aggressive in going after and saying that that ball belongs to me. He's got a rough stretch. Maybe we've got a Canadian problem.
He's too gentle and too kind of when the 50-50 ball goes, it's just that nature comes out. He says, well, no, no, sir, after you. I don't want to hurt him. Yeah, so Mapletron, take that ball.
It's yours. It's been, I think that's what Andy was starting to say, it's been quite a stretch. If you go back and look at the end of last year, week 17 was fine, but he had a six-pack of games that was just brutally bad, and now he's continued there. I think if Deontay Johnson is hobbled or misses the game, it's juju to me, the short route guy, the slot guy that's really going to, I mean, how does he not have 12, 13 targets if Deontay is gone?
And it might be fair to conclude that Big Ben's deep ball is lost. Like, we don't have the same confidence in it, you know, at this point in his career. They passed all the short yardage routes, and there's some reasons to be concerned there. Let's, Andy Dalton, week to week, unlikely to start the game against the Browns.
Pirate Taylor, injured reserve. We will talk about the general later on here. That was today's news notes brought to you by Sleeper, the leader in breaking news alerts. Make sure you download the Sleeper app, join the Breaking Alerts channel.
You will enjoy getting the news, as we did. Yes, the breaking news. Before we move into the new segment, which we're very excited about. I'm very excited about this.
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Literally this week, I was talking to somebody that is in a certain job that they don't love, but they love computer science, and they love gaming, and they love coding, or the idea of moving into that area of expertise. They don't really know how to move from one job to the other job. That's where Codecademy can help you reach your coding goals on your own terms. Simply put, Codecademy is the best way to learn code online.
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Unsolved Mysteries. All right, Unsolved Mysteries. Thank you for that spectacular drop, Mike. That was a treat.
Number one, the first Unsolved Mystery that we will be diving into today, Rob Gronkowski. The tight end one. Gronk, Gronk, Gronk, Gronk. Thank you.
Yeah, that was so annoying on Sunday. That was so great. Mike? It's annoying because you don't get to do it.
Oh, 100%. And my son, who's 10, was watching it, and he has Gronkowski. And so Mike and my son were just alternating. Gronk, Gronk, Gronk, Gronk, Gronk, Gronk, Gronk.
And it was, you know, I was jealous. It's super fun. Week one, eight targets, eight for 90 and two touchdowns. Week two, five targets, four for 39, two touchdowns.
And here we are with breaking news today that Antonio Brown will be available most likely for this game. Gronk, Gronk, Gronk, Gronk. Four tight ends in NFL history had four touchdowns in the first two games. Gronk's two of the four.
Two separate seasons. Nicely done. Look, it's going to keep happening for Rob Gronkowski. Very few tight ends are dependable, predictable.
He is one that you know has the mind meld with Tom Brady. Did you see his ridiculous quote yesterday? No, I would not. It's the most Gronk quote of all time.
Oh, is he out watching film? I don't watch film because Tom watches it and then tells me what coverages I need to know. Oh, he is who we thought he was. Things just work out for Rob Gronkowski.
Tom Brady has nine touchdowns in two weeks. Is he just leaning in? No, he doesn't have a self-awareness. I bet he actually watches the film.
When you watch the film of Gronk, it's more than just a mind meld that Brady and Gronk have. It's the decision making that Gronk has on the field of when to go, which direction. Like, he has to watch. He's either just, I mean, obviously he's naturally gifted physically, but his actual football IQ is really, really high.
And if he can do that just by Tom telling him what to do, that's impressive. I think he's just got that incredible muscle memory, mental memory. He's a football player. It's in his DNA.
So in terms of an unsolved mystery, I think fantasy players want to know, okay, you're two weeks through the season, but now you've got some tough matchups coming up. You've got the Rams on the road, the Patriots on the road, the Dolphins, the Eagles, who look great on defense so far, the Bears, then the Saints. The next six weeks are brutal matchups. And Gronk did this last year.
It wasn't at the very beginning, so it feels much different. I think that happens, though. But week six through eight, he was tight end six, tight end two, tight end four, and then 47. Followed up, tight end number one, but then number 32.
He's going to, I'm with Andy, this is a whole season thing, that Gronkowski is eight. He's a tight end one. He's probably, you can lock in, he's going to be a top six tight end. Yeah, here's the deal.
If you go box score hunting through the last year plus with Gronk, he really, there's been one game, one single game, where you've been very happy with his fantasy production where he didn't get a touchdown. However, he gets a lot of touchdowns, so you're happy quite often. In fact, this kind of blew my mind. So remember, at the beginning of last year, Gronk was coming out of retirement.
They had O.J. Howard. So those first two weeks, Gronk was not really involved in the passing game. Throw those first two weeks out from week three through the rest of the season, which is obviously the vast majority of the season.
Do you know what Gronk was, fantasy football-wise? He was a tight end four from week three on through the whole season. He is legit, and he's good. However, he is touchdown dependent.
He's going to score a lot of touchdowns. For my flavor, I would prefer to have a Hawkinson, someone that you're going to get, you know, ten targets every single game, a ton of yards, and you don't have. Well, I don't think that everybody is that way. I think some people might want the explosion games of the two touchdowns, which won't be coming from Hawkinson.
The big question for me, if you have Gronk, is do, are you tempted to trade him away? But, I mean, you obviously got to figure out what kind of tight end you think. I got a perfect question for you. Let's hear it.
Rob Gronkowski for Kyle Pitts. Oh, I did not think that was. I thought you were going to go 4G. No.
I thought he was going with Mark Andrews. I'll tell you right now, you should trade him for George Kittle if you could do that. Mark Andrews, probably you should. And then Kyle Pitts is another one where it's like, what kind of preference do you want?
Do you want yardage, or do you want touchdowns? I think I would want, that's kind of the breaking point. I think that's a very, very fair line in the sand. I would rather stick with the 45 touchdowns thrown from Brady and hoping that you get a monster performance on the regular with Gronk.
But then, you know, Kyle Pitts had a very good week too, I think he was over 80 yards, and that could happen a lot. But the Falcons offense hasn't looked great, he's still a rookie, so I would rather have Gronk over Pitts. But if I could trade Gronk for Hawkinson, Andrews, or Kittle, I probably would, but I'm not looking. This isn't one of those situations where I'm going, tons of touchdowns for the first two weeks, I have to move them, I have to capitalize.
I think Gronk is legit. I think he's legit, and I hope, selfishly for me, that by week five, I'm not looking back after he has to play the Rams, the Patriots, and the Dolphins going, Oh crap, I should have cashed out. Yeah. But my chips are like, I'm right, I'm right.
Well, yeah, I mean, and your investment was nothing, it was a waiver wire. Unsolved mystery number two, which maybe is the biggest one that exists right now. Ezekiel Elliott, Tony Pollard, right now Pollard's the running back 10 on the year. No, he's not.
Ezekiel is the RB22. No. I saw a metric yesterday, and the metric was yards per touch, okay? So you're not looking just at carries or catches, you're just saying when this person touches the football, how effective are they?
Tony Pollard is presently the number one most effective running back in yards per touch in football. However, it's two weeks of the season. How do you view this unsolved mystery? What is the lens you're looking through?
Because I've seen everything. I've seen people trading Zeke for Pollard. I've seen people talking about cashing in on Tony Pollard after two weeks. What are the Cowboys going to do, and what is, demystify this.
Do not trade Zeke for Pollard. That would be absurd. The only way that that's going to come to fruition is if Zeke gets injured. Look at the snap counts.
84% of snaps to 24% of snaps week one in Zeke's favor. Week two, it was 71% to 34%. And I get that. I think that that's probably more accurate for the rest of the season is a healthier split.
A 70-30, maybe a 65-35 split in Zeke's favor. You look at the routes run, they're still in Zeke's favor. The targets per route run are heavy. I mean, when Pollard is on the field, he is utilized, which means to me that they're both valuable.
Do you think Pollard will be flex-worthy the rest of the season? I think he will be flex-worthy the rest of the season. He's touching the ball enough, and he's efficient enough on his touches. I mean, we've looked back over the last couple of years at some comps.
You had kind of the Melvin Gordon-Austin-Eckler backfield three years ago where you were happy with both players. Melvin Gordon was great for fantasy, and Austin-Eckler was great for fantasy. And even last year, Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmonds, you were less happy with the group. But Kenyon Drake finished with a running back 15, and Chase Edmonds was flex-worthy most weeks, whether or not you had the confidence to do it.
But that's kind of how I view it. That's scary, though. That statement and that comparison is scary from what you hoped you could get from Zeke. You can't be happy that there's a backfield where a very relevant other running back exists for the elite production, can you?
I think you're not happy. I mean, you want your guy. I want it all, baby. Yeah, exactly.
You want it all. But when I compare those two, right? Let's take a look at both of those comps over the last couple of years. You've got Melvin Gordon-Austin-Eckler.
Melvin Gordon-Austin-Eckler, you were thrilled. Whereas with Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmonds, you weren't. Zeke and Pollard are far more talented individually, just on-the-field football players, than last year, Kenyon Drake and Chase Edmonds. They're far more like Melvin Gordon-Austin-Eckler when you just look at the talent of the player.
And so, yeah, it can be scary, but they're just examples of how it can work. And I think the talent wins out. I think that the Dallas offense is one that you really, really want a part of, right? You do.
And I think it's just kind of a... Minds are getting distorted with Pollard's hot start when you still had Zeke really effective last week. By the way, Pollard at eight yards from scrimmage per touch. You guys want to know the other top five?
Sure. I'd love to, yeah. Number two, Nick Chubb, 6.9. Yep.
There is another running back tied with him at yards from scrimmage per touch. Okay. Tyson Williams. Dude, he's been a monster.
6.9. Nice. There's two more after that. Cordero Patterson, 6.5 yards from scrimmage per touch.
Melvin Gordon, 6.4 yards from scrimmage per touch. A 70-yard run will do that. I know, I know. Hey, do you want another baseman or should we leave that alone?
Let's give me the worst. The worst is Mark Ingram at 3.0. Sounds about right. James Connors, the second worst in football at 3.3.
Alvin Kamara, 3.5 per touch. Saquon, 3.7. Clyde, 3.9. I thought you were going to say Clyde was the worst.
Alvin Kamara is maybe a nice segue to the next unsolved mystery. Yes, yes. My piece on Zeke and Pollard is, I think our hope for that Zeke could return to being that monster top five running back, I think that is gone. And I don't think that's because of the receiving work.
Because of the receiving work. Where, yeah, Zeke is doing a bunch of pass blocking, certainly. But he's out there. He is running routes.
I don't know why Dak isn't looking for him like he has in the past. Maybe it's just he likes, you know, his options with Amari Cooper and CeeDee Land now. He's just in the tight ends. He has more confidence in those players.
Yeah, CeeDee Land makes a difference. But if you're seeing two targets a week for Zeke, then the top five hopes are gone. Still, I believe, a solid running back one because of the volume in the offense that he's in. So I'm not bailing on Zeke.
But that hope in the draft season, at the back of the first, you've got a top five guy. I think that's probably gone. Al, you just wrote in our Slack channel that you're playing both. Is that Pollard and Zeke?
No, that was in regards to Pitts and Gronk earlier. Well, never mind. Number three, unsolved mystery. We talk about it every offseason.
There is turnover when it comes to fantasy defenses. You kind of have in your mind when you start the season. This is a good matchup. This is a bad matchup.
This is a good matchup. The Carolina Panthers defense and then the Washington football team defense. You started the year saying, hey, plus matchup against the Panthers. Bad matchup against the Washington football team.
And then through two weeks, the Panthers week one, 14 points allowed, six sacks and a pick. Second week against New Orleans, the more impressive week. Seven points allowed, four sacks, two picks. They added Redick in the offseason, who's been a very effective pass rusher for them.
On the other side, Washington gave up 20 points in week one against the Chargers. And maybe much worse, 29 points given up to the Giants in week two. Only one turnover? What do you do with these two mysterious situations?
Should we start changing the way we look at our matchups? Well, let's take a look at each one individually. And keep in mind that this is indicative of the rest of the league. Be open to change, especially on team defenses.
There's too much personnel changes on 11. There's 11 people that make up your defense on the field. So the Carolina Panthers, I really, it's so hard to say because you're talking about they played against Janus Winston, turnover machine, and rookie first game ever, Zach Wilson. Like, this is, you want to inflate and get something wrong?
This is set up to do it. But man, I believe. I have watched these games, and whatever you want to say about Janus Winston and his turnover-prone nature, okay, that's fair. But what about the New Orleans Saints offensive line that is legitimately very good and got decimated?
I mean, just outclassed by Carolina last week. We just talked about bottom of the barrel, yards per touch, Alvin Kamara? What? He's not bad.
He's outstanding. And Carolina shut him down. So when I've watched these games, I've been blown away by the Panthers. I think that they are a really, really great defense.
Ooh! Oh, speaking of this, I just realized our waivers must have gone through. They did. I'm playing against Andy.
Did I get the Carolina defense against you to go up against General Mills? Let me tell you the answer to that, Jason. I have it. Oh, no.
You're too happy I didn't get them. You saw right through me. You did not get them. Ooh!
Man, waivers should suck for me. Your bid was four, and the winning bid was six. Darn it. Did you get them, Mike?
No. Okay. Sorry, Jay. That's disappointing that you didn't get them.
Yeah, for one of us. So my position on the Panthers' defense, because of how atrocious they were last year, the rebuilding process, and the fact that they played what we've now seen. I mean, there's two quarterbacks leading the league in interceptions right now. They're both rookies.
Trevor Lawrence and Zach Wilson. Thank you. Thank you. You played Zach Wilson in Week 1.
You played New Orleans in Week 2 with Jameis Winston, who struggled mightily. I expect them to succeed on Thursday night, but I will be curious how they perform against a powerful Dallas defense, a tough offense to face in Philadelphia with Jalen Hurts running the football, and then the ever-efficient Dalvin Cook plus Kirk Cousins and Justin Jefferson in Week 6. So would I sit somebody because they're playing the Panthers right now? No, I wouldn't.
But I am intrigued. I am intrigued. That is a good way to look at it. Does their defense affect your decision-making on the offensive side?
And right now, I probably would not as well. I think it is possible by the time, like, you're not playing any Houston Texans today, and you're going to sit the Panthers against the Dallas Cowboys, not going to sit any Dallas Cowboys, but if the Panthers show up against them boys, you might be hesitating about starting Jalen Hurts against the defense. Now, Mike, what is your viewpoint? Because I think you can interweave the Washington defense with how we saw the narrative-wise playing on offense, right?
Like, you kind of, we all viewed them as a great defense that maybe puts the offense in a position where they can do what they did last year, which is win with kind of a muddling, Gibson-led, run-led offense. Is this defense not as good as we thought it was, or are they just finding their footing to start the year? Ah, man, they are one of, I mean, it's perfect to turn the unsolved mystery area because they are one of the most baffling things about this NFL season to me so far, like, especially against the Giants, where, yes, Daniel Jones is showing up, you know, and he's playing pretty well, especially for how much crap that everyone gives him, but the fact that Washington couldn't, it didn't just demolish him in that offensive line, that's where it's really worrisome if you are playing that DST, and now, you know, are they worth holding on for, you see that Atlanta matchup and the Saints matchup coming up in weeks four and five, that's juicy. I want in on that for Washington, at least the defense I thought they were, but they've got to play Buffalo now.
Are they good enough that you're going to play them against Buffalo and take whatever number they give you, or stash two defenses? And I think that answer has to be no, you've got to move on, you've got to pivot their way, and just take that love. Yeah, there's no way I'm wanting to play Washington. Whether I would hold them depends on the other options on my bench and the waivers, but I would be looking for a different DST to play against Buffalo.
Unsolved mystery number four, Clyde Edwards-Alaire. In week one, 14 for 43, week two, 13 for 46. A tweet this morning from Jared Smola summarizes, sorry, the situation. 51 running backs have 10 plus carries through two weeks.
Clyde Edwards-Alaire ranks 51st in pro football focuses running grade out of 51. 49th out of 51 in elusive rating. 50th in yards after contact per attempt. He's 3.3 a carry this year.
He was 3.8 from week nine on last year. With the fumble that cost them the game. With the fumble that cost them the game. This team right now doesn't need the running back to be the focal point of the offense.
There's no real reason to believe that they would make him the focal point of the offense. Right. So expectations moving forward. I mean, I have seen the widest gamut of what do I do with Clyde Edwards-Alaire.
And when I say that, I mean trade offers, right? Do I trade him for, do I drop him? I've seen that. Oh, don't do that.
And I've also seen like, do I trade him for James White? Do I trade him for somebody, Elijah Mitchell? So I'll give somebody else the floor here to weigh in. The first thing that, I'll start with this.
Those numbers are not surprising from that Smollett tweet. If you're watching him on the field, he looks bad. But what's the craziest part in this, it just fits perfectly with what I think the rant was yesterday. It was some time this week.
Why did you draft Clyde Edwards-Alaire? Like, as a team, what were you doing if you're not going to throw him the ball? Currently, Kansas City, 8% of their targets are going to the running back position. That is dead last in the NFL through two games.
Where last year, they weren't setting the world on fire at that, but 18%, which was right in the middle, 16th. So, you know, I would imagine that just will naturally turn into more targets for Edwards-Alaire moving forward, but at this point, I mean, he's probably going on my bench. If I have anybody that I can plug in over him that I think is a top 24 running back or even a top 30 running back, I'm going to let Clyde Edwards-Alaire sit for the future. Chargers, Eagles, Bills, football team.
That's four weeks. You know, with the exception of teams that just completely shut down the running game, you know, the Steelers, who outside of breaking a long play, you just don't get the run on them at all. I don't think that the Kansas City Chiefs are one of the offenses you really match up, hunt against. You know, they're going to be able to score.
The problem is, like Andy said, they don't need Clyde Edwards-Alaire to score. They don't have to rely on him to be good because of Pat Mahomes, but Pat Mahomes is so good that the offense is going to score a ton of points. They're going to get a ton of yards. They're always going to move the ball, and he is still the running back getting the vast majority of everything.
He has done very, very little with it, and outside of that fumble, they've not needed it. They should be 2-0 if not for that play, and this is one of those you don't want to overreact because in the end, take the names out of it, take a step back and think about it this way. This is a starting running back getting the majority of the work on a great team. You look back at all these different teams, all the Andy Reid offenses, even the Pat Mahomes offenses, and you will find bad stretches for everybody not named Travis Kelsey.
Obviously, weeks in a row, and if these two weeks, these atrocious showings, happen in week 12 and 13, you look at his rookie season, Clyde Edwards-Alaire was not special. He was a major disappointment, and very valuable on the course of when he was playing. He was still at the running back position. I think that the hope that I had of having the high upside, the year two leap forward as a player, that looks like it is unfortunately shot, but he's still a player that is getting the majority of the work for a great offense, and I can't imagine that I would look to move him while his value is super low.
I wouldn't trade him for the Tony Pollards and James Whites of the world. I would trade him for Tyson Williams. I wouldn't because if you look at going forward, Tyson Williams could... If we say Crystal Ball four weeks from now, is Tyson Williams the starting running back for the Ravens?
I would say probably, but I know Clyde is the starting running back for the Chiefs outside of injury, and Tyson just carries too many variables. There's two things I'll throw in this. Number one, this will be the worst game of Clyde's season. This will come out?
No, the game you just played. Yes. So the game you just played will be the worst production you get from him. So if that echoes what Jason's saying about like, you know, it'll be better.
It doesn't mean it'll be great. So the second thing I would advise people with Clyde is don't consider him to be an anchor to your running back room for your fantasy team. You need to adjust. If you had him there, go pursue another running back.
Go re-insure that room. Clyde looks better in the flex this year than he does in the R2 spot. So if you can go do that, then you're going to, I think, stabilize your team a little bit and just change your expectations. And just again on the targets, I'm sorry, I've got to hark on it, but in a game where your number one wide receiver is taken out, like Tyree Hill was removed very successfully by the Ravens, and that turned into nothing through the air for Clyde.