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Limits start at $20 and may be increased up to $200 by Chime. Chime member overdraft fee savings based on eligible members' use of Spot me versus $33 average overdraft fee. Overdraft fee data based on bank rate checking account survey and CRL 2020 June overdraft fees report. Welcome to the Fantasy Footballers Podcast with your hosts, Andy Holloway, Jason Moore, and Mike Wright.
Ah, welcome in. It's Waver Day, Tuesday, September 28th. Mike Wright, Jason Moore, Andy Holloway, welcome to the show. Which one of you two stopped at the Starbucks?
Was it Al or was it Jason on the way in? It was I. Take it easy, not a sponsor. So you carried in a couple of drinks?
I sure did. So you matched the Miles Sanders carry total of last night? That's right. He had one carry on his left, he had one carry on his right, and he did outstanding work.
Yeah, what is it, average 13.5 a carry on his two carries? Long at 24? Yeah, I mean, uh. What a game for Miles Sanders.
Looked brilliant. Way to go, Eagles. Well, I figured we'd just get into it with some Monday Night Shatter. I mean, we have waivers today, we've got quarterback streamers, we've got where there's smoke, there's fire.
Why not talk about the Cowboys and the Eagles, and I don't know, a game that probably had more garbage time in it than any game this year. It was a very strange game. I mean, starting with the two carries for Miles Sanders. We had three carries for running backs in the entire game for the Eagles.
That's not how you win football games. What a bad game. I am firmly on the side of establish the pass. I'm not the old school high T, let's run it down their throat every single time.
Let's be showing that we have way more body hair than they do. We're real men on this side. I think that's crap and doesn't win football games. But also, if you're only carrying the ball three times, like you have no balance, and the other side, the defense is not scared of stopping the run at all.
I would take it one step further and say, I don't care if you run the ball zero times, but you should do what's working. You know what I mean? Like, just watch the play, make adjustments, because the passing game was not, you know, anything special. I mean, at the end of the game, the yardage numbers look okay, but that was not how the game went.
This was a team that struggled on offense. The Eagles looked bad, and Sirianni, not off to an impressive start. Well, I mean, would you like to see what it looks like when you establish the run and then unlock your passing game? Because you could just flip to the other side, where Ezekiel Elliott was 17 for 95, where Tony Pollard was 11 for 60, where the linebackers literally were cracking down to try to stop eight-yard running plays, and then any time they threw the football, they had the opportunity to hit their tight ends, to hit CeeDee Lamb.
Like, they unlocked the formerly pretty good-looking Eagles defense by running the football. Let me ask you this. In recent memory, can you think of a football game where 62 points were scored, and almost all the fantasy players in this game were disappointed? Is that how you feel?
Like, who was that? I feel like Zeke was outstanding. Zeke and Beck. Like, that's it.
Ironically, Zeke barely inched his way to the running back one on the week we talked about. Oh, you got it, yeah. Where's the Dalton Schultz love? Come on now.
Oh, that's true. That's where Dalton Schultz. But Goddard was, like, 60 for, like, 117-1. With the Eagles and the Cowboys, can we just all agree that you combined both of the players?
Yeah, I mean, I don't even know how to feel about this Jalen Hurts situation, because it was so disastrous. But they were in the garbage time, you know, with seven minutes left in the third quarter. And then... That's a recipe for success.
Now he threw for 326, had two touchdowns, two picks. Rushed for another 35. He was fine for fantasy, even though... Yeah.
He should have... There should be a penalty, though. Absolutely. Like a 10-point penalty.
For just sucking. For just, like, throwing yucky balls all around the field. Yeah, but, I mean, Mike, you couldn't have been... I mean, Devonta Smith, three for 28.
Yeah, that's a big time bummer. We'll talk about Schultz and the Waver, part of today's show, because he's been pretty darn good. And, yeah, it was... I mean, what was the...
To close the book on this game. Obviously, the Miles Sanders concern. Let's just stay with the running backs. But the fact that this can happen is disappointing.
But Zeke and Pollard. You know, there was... It seemed like a stretch of, like, two series where Pollard was really involved, and then the rest was pretty much Zeke. Three catches for Zeke.
Yeah, that was great to see. Zeke is the one on the field, running more routes, more involved in the offense. Pollard is a very valuable weapon to this team, and will be used. We talked about Pollard being someone that you could flex in, who might be able to have good games, like a poor man's Kareem Hunt.
And that's what he is. But that the winner of this backfield, all season, not necessarily fantasy results, but the actual clear-cut lead dog, is Zeke. This is why we were saying to trade for him after week one. And I think people are so terrified with Tony Pollard that they aren't willing to have Zeke Elliott be a very good fantasy back.
Like, they're just terrified. Which is why... I mean, maybe not after last night, but you could have still traded for him this whole week. Yeah, he was six inches from three touchdowns last night, because they ended up getting completely stopped on that drive with the touchdown that wasn't a touchdown by Dak.
The other thing that we need to bring up before we leave is... I don't need to put a chip in the football. I just don't understand why we can't do that. That seems really easy to, like...
We have the technology to say whether that crossed the line. Maybe it's money. Maybe they can't afford it. No, that's not it.
No, that's not it. What about Marty Cooper? Huge disappointments back-to-back weeks. Obviously, he's playing out there with, I believe, cracked ribs is what I saw.
I mean, does that excuse it? You know, three for 24 last week while he was kind of injured left the field a little bit. And then this week, three for 26. I don't know if it excuses it completely, but 41 rushing attempts by the team and being ahead, playing from ahead.
They didn't have to throw very often to the wide receivers. Yeah, that's what I was kind of referring to. The game opens up with a 44-yard reception by CeeDee Lamb. You thought he got in, but he was down short.
And then he ends the game with 66 yards. Like, this was an explosion of points. But the fantasy players, I mean, it doesn't help things when the DST scores on both sides. I would throw this name out.
We were asked this morning in our company Slack, if you're a contender, are you willing to go trade for Alan Robinson? Because it's been hard, or are we scared? And we kind of came to the conclusion, a little scared. That quarterback offensive situation is a little scared.
But Marty Cooper's name, I think, if you want to target someone that maybe the manager is a little disappointed in, he's going to have a better season. All right, let's move on. All right, where there's smoke, there's fire for week three. We're looking at some performances this week that, you know, they're not necessarily in the waiver category.
They're more in, like, outlier thus far, or trends that are beginning, and we want to know, is it going to hang around? Is this fire, is this smoke? Odell Beckham Jr., honestly, I was very impressed. He only played 64% of snaps.
Ends up with nine targets. So, I imagine your metric that you brought up earlier this year. Targets per route run. Targets per route run had been great for Beckham.
Ends up five for 77 in a game that the Browns just handed the ball off. And so, I'm pretty encouraged, and they're going to be on the road in Minnesota, where Kirk Cousins is going to put up 300-plus, and I think it's fire. I think Beckham has some real flex wide receiver two consistency coming his way. Yeah, I would say it has to be fire, unless for some reason, I know, this is me speaking kindly about Odell Beckham, but the reality is, Jarvis Landry's injury, I know Jarvis is a guy who's played through injuries forever.
If he can get out there, he will, but I would expect him to miss another game. The matchup is great. Do I think that this will just be him being the alpha every week the rest of the season? No, but I think he looks healthy.
He looked good enough. I think he looked really physically well. Yeah, I mean, so unless we hear something negative about the knee after this game. Matt Nagy considers him questionable.
You know how IRB is, it's crazy. Yeah, so I think it's fire with Odell Beckham. He passed the eyeball test that we have been needing him to pass for a while. It's fire.
He looked fantastic, and nine targets immediately. When he's been on the field, Baker has gone to him. The connection has just strangely not been there for, I mean, I guess we don't really have a huge sample size, because he missed so much of last year and was bad the first year, but Odell Beckham looks like he still has juice, and Baker looks like he has a command of this offense, so this is fire to me. When you brought up Matt Nagy, I thought you might have believed we were in the weather smoke there's fired.
Oh, man, I'm giving that one an eight. All right, number two, number two. Brandon Ayuk. Ayuken.
Oh, he was out there. Played 86% of snaps, had six targets, had a touchdown, just four for 37, but I don't care that much. What I care about is him being out there as much as Evo. They faced Seattle this week in Arizona.
I have to leave this in the smoke category, because the way I look at this segment is, you know, what is the action you're taking with this player? And I don't think I'm willing to start Brandon Ayuk next week, myself. I'm a little too fearful. Really?
I guess Seattle? Yeah, I mean, the embers are starting to crackle. This is not saying I don't think he'll get there, but I'm not. Look, you've got to run your fire, and one week is not going to get me there yet.
Yeah, I would say I'm hitting that super smoke button. Because, you know, I get what you're saying. He has not done enough, really, to say that there is fire. But, man, it's billowing smoke.
This is going to be a nice brisket. But I'm on the other side where I would be willing to start Ayuk. What we've been waiting for, what I've been waiting for, is him to actually be out there. Him and Debo, you know, essentially playing the same snaps, being that one and two.
That wasn't what it was week one and week two. But, you know, in the beginning of that game, I think at halftime, all their... Trencherfield had zero snaps. Yeah, all of Ayuk and Debo's snaps were identical on the field.
If he's out there, you know, he's valuable. He has, right now, two yards after the catch. And he is actually extremely talented at yards after the catch. He just hasn't broken anything off.
And he really should have had two touchdowns last week. If you remember, you know, there was a pass a little bit behind him in the end zone. Definitely think he should have caught the ball. Not a gimme, but I would call it a drop.
And so against Seattle, if he's out there the same as Debo, I'm picking the talent. And I would start. Yeah, this is fire for me for the situation that this is... I think Ayuk is back to his full-time role.
It's going to be a bit of a roulette between Ayuk, Debo, and George Kittle this week, week three. That was George Kittle game. And so moving forward, I'm not calling Brandon Ayuk a wide receiver one. But he has the yards after the catch that Jason mentioned.
That will be unleashed at some point moving forward. So I think that he should go right into your flex position. Brandon Cooks? This guy.
I mean, it's just fire. This guy. Well, it's NBA James' rule, right? We don't have any choice here.
We would love to say smoke because look at the awful quarterback situation. Boom-shakalaka here. Yeah, Brandon Cooks. I'm sure we can find it.
Boom-shakalaka! Thank you. I mean, this dude, three weeks in a row, the wide receiver 23, wide receiver 11, wide receiver 13, on the back of seven targets, 14 targets, 11 targets. You are not going to get touchdowns from Brandon Cooks very often.
That's the only thing I'll say. Like, we're all in agreement. You are not going to get touchdowns from the Texans very often, yes. Yes.
But, you know, he wasn't a top 10 wide receiver any of those weeks, but he's going to be a must start for the rest of the season because you have to throw in the football. They don't have anybody. Yeah, and the egg is on my face for Brandon Cooks. I didn't want to draft him, but holy crap, this target volume, the air yard volume.
I'm going to make you sad. Why is that? Because I'm going to ask you, a man who drafted Allen Robinson very high, whether you'd rather have Allen Robinson or Brandon Cooks the rest of the season. All right.
And you're going to answer Brandon Cooks. I don't want to answer that question. That is sad. This is where, full claim, listen up.
This is where you get to the point in the season where draft capital doesn't matter. You have to move on from what happened in the draft. We do our best job to try to get it right, and I think we get it right at least 60% of the time. We have misses, we have hits, but it's about winning the bets more than we lose the bets, and we get so enthralled in what we believe that it just is irrelevant.
Now we have enough on the field, real NFL games to where just throw out draft capital, use it to your advantage because it's really hard for people to cut ties with that. Go look at ADP lists if you want and find the value on your team that was drafted high that you don't believe in and go get something for them from someone you do. Yeah, it's very important. All right, that was Where There's Smoke, There's Fire, presented by our friends at Traeger Grills.
Put a Traeger wood pellet grill in your starting lineup and make every game day more delicious. You can head to traeger.com slash footballers to discover how simple wood-fired cooking can be. News and notes from around the league, presented by Sleeper. Christian McCaffrey will not be placed on injured reserve with a hamstring injury.
Okay, okay. If he was going to miss three games with certainty, he would be on injured reserve. That is absolutely true. We will talk about our expectation for him more when we're in the waiver wire talking about Chuba, but good news for now.
So, yeah, exactly. Rob Gronkowski expected to play Sunday after the X-Rays. Everyone's excited about Gronk and Brady returning to Foxborough. I mean, well, Patriots fans are not.
That's fair. I wonder if that's true, Mike. Like, I get it, you're wanting to win, you're wanting, you know, it's a tough matchup. But if you're a Patriots fan, I can't imagine that many Patriots fans are not still Tom Brady fans.
Oh, I know, that's not what I'm saying. They're excited for him. They're going to lose this week, is what Mike's saying. Oh, yes, they are.
That is what I'm saying. They're trying to build this as, like, a real, you know, juggernaut matchup. And Matt Jones can't score enough points to make this game competitive. I feel like Patriots fans are rooting for Brady in this game.
Like, maybe I'm wrong. Patriots fans let me know, but, you know. Probably not. No, yeah, maybe not.
Probably rooting for his replacement to take a step forward, hopefully, and give them another dynasty. Gio, day-to-day. Kyle Shanahan said George Kippa has a sore calf, day-to-day. Okay.
AJ Brown. Oh. Hamstring injury week to week, according to Adam Schefter. I wouldn't expect him this week.
No, very similar to Chris McCaffrey's situation. Juju Smith-Schuster, day-to-day after x-rays came back negative on his ribs. That sounds like... There were some ribs...
Ribs are getting beat up. It was a real bad week for ribs. It really was. So, you know, I'm going to go get some ribs cooked on the tray.
That's what I'm saying. Just as, like, an honorary... This one's for you, Juju. And I will sacrifice that meat while I eat it.
And this is for everyone's ribs going forward. When Rob Gronkowski got smashed, Jason walked outside and put a rack on. We'll be back. James White out indefinitely.
This was, I don't know if we see him again this year, to be honest. Yeah, you might not. I don't think he's been put on the IR yet, but he certainly will be. KJ Hamler, ACL fair.
He's done for the year. It could be longer than a year. It was not just a simple ACL, additional ligaments for damage. This is going to be a tough recovery and really, that means if you're in a dynasty league and you've got KJ Hamler, I would view it as that player's gone.
I'm not saying he is. Just view it that way for the roster construction moving forward. Don't rely on him. It's probably a buy window for Noah Fant after the bad week.
They did go out and sign David Moore. But it's going to be Cortland Sutton, it's going to be Tim Patrick, and it's going to be Noah Fant for the majority of the pass catching. I would add Cortland Sutton to that because he had the big week in week two. Yeah, to buy low.
I thought you were adding into the list of Andy already saying Cortland Sutton. To buy low? Did you say to buy Cortland Sutton low? No.
Oh, okay. I'm confused by Mike as well. You said it's going to be Cortland Sutton, Tim Patrick, and then Jason said, I'm going to add Cortland Sutton to that list. Oh, I see.
I mean as a Target Lake fan. Got it. T.Y. Hilton is making great progress.
Not expected to come off of IR. T.Y., take your time, man. Michael Pittman. Pass the Margos.
Just relax. Pittman is taking care of business, my friend. You know, the Colts have to be one of the most disappointing teams in football. Because they're sitting 0-3.
I don't believe that they, I think they have played from behind more than any team in the entire NFL. There are different ways you can be 3-0-0-3. The Colts have looked bad in all situations. Yeah, I do believe their defense will be all right this week, They've been middle of the road so far.
Josh Gordon signing with the Chiefs practice squad. Come on, Josh. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter for Josh the person, but not for fantasy.
And then, of course, Bears head coach Matt Nagy told reporters today that all three quarterbacks, Justin Fields, Nick Foles, and Andy Dalton, are considered possible starts. I got the seven of diamonds over here. I knew you were going to get that card. Lucky number seven for Bears fans.
This is so ridiculous. I don't care if in Matt Nagy's heart he is believing this. It was so bad for Justin Fields. I have to decide, am I going to put a banged up Andy Dalton or I'm going to go to Nick Foles?
You saw what Nick Foles can do for your team already, man. Why are you doing this? I have to imagine that's like Dalton can't play and then it's like, I guess the production. To me, this is passing the buck.
This is the quarterback's fault again, not my fault. So I can, the narrative of, excuse me, that if when Andy Dalton comes back, we firmly said he only lost his job because he was hurt and when he comes back, he's the guy. Which is, I think it's going to happen. It could happen.
But the fact now, after one horrifically bad game with your new franchise quarterback, you're already like, well, Nick Foles might be starting next week. You are a clown. You are a clown. I don't have much to add to that.
I mean, I think Nagy has shown that he is not a great coach. I don't put him in the category of worst coaches, Adam Gase coaches. He did take Trubisky to the playoffs twice. But he's frustrating and he certainly, and he passes the blame.
He's worried, I think, about his job. I believe coming into the season, he was the highest odds to be fired first, which surprised me because when you draft a franchise rookie, you usually get some time. No, I mean, and the frustration is building for Bears fans, clearly. Pride seems to be an issue for Nagy.
He gave up play calling for a little while and took it right back. He's gone through these rotations of quarterbacks. He had no game plan in place. And worse than no game plan is you had no adjustment at halftime.
So, you know, you come out and things go the wrong direction. All right, we'll go into the half and then come up with three or four things that can work. You know, to Sirianni's credit last night, they did make some adjustments that got the ball down the field a little bit. I mean, the yardage pot maybe was all against the prevent, but still, you have to make adjustments and the adjustment was, yeah, again, pride probably.
My game plan is the right game plan. My quarterback's not executing it. So it's his fault. We won't make a change.
Yeah, it's frustration. For those listening at home I'm not watching on YouTube. There are a lot of magicians playing cards all over the table. Thanks, too.
Look, that wasn't my fault, guys. Oh, you have an obligation. All right, that was today's news notes brought to you by Sleeper, the leader in breaking news alerts. Download the Sleeper app.
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Put me in, coach. That was an eventful. Judge Yamati, I can't get over pork chops. I really can't.
Yeah, that was amazing. Have you ever had some pork chops? No, they sound delicious. Those are a little thicker.
You can get pork chops. Very gamey. Pork chops are all right, but if you really want to take it up a notch, you get the pork chops. Oh, man.
We're doing it live. Wide receiver waiver pickups. Well, the people want to know, can they drop Robbie Anderson? And the answer is no, you cannot.
And here is a ridiculous statement, but I do think, you know, Dan Arnold's been traded. He was getting some targets downfield. That's got to open up a couple. And then you've got a couple-week period here with no Christian McCaffrey.
I don't think you, I don't think the team's going to prioritize Chuba Hubbard the way they would prioritize McCaffrey. So Anderson is the ultimate by low. You can go trade nothing almost and get him from somebody that wants to drop him, free up their roster, and maybe it's your game later on. Yeah, and I would say that you can throw him in your flex right away.
I know it's hard to play a player on the back of disappointment. You want to wait. You want to wait until, okay, it comes to fruition, but the reality is if you wait and he scores that big touchdown, the next game might be the one you play him and don't get it. All right, other drop candidates.
Alan Robinson. No. Darnell Mooney. Yes.
He's not a drop for me. You just got to throw that game out. Yeah, they get the Lions next week. If everything is terrible again against the Detroit Lions, then you can go to what?
DEFCON, is it the higher number or the lower number? Higher's worse. So you can go to DEFCON 1 if they're terrible against the Lions? But I guess...
Higher's worse. Yeah, that's what... So why does DEFCON 1? Chicago's got to be a DEFCON 4.
I did it backwards in my head. Just the thing with Darnell Mooney is when I'm comparing him to the players we're talking about, like would you drop Darnell Mooney for Emmanuel Sanders or these options that are on the way for Tim Patrick? I would much rather have Emmanuel Sanders or Tim Patrick on my roster right now. Yeah, I can agree with that.
That's fine. Yeah, I mean, you got... One of the things that I was talking about in the studio with Jason yesterday and at lunch was that, like, I don't know if it's just because there's the extra game, but... Or maybe the way offices are changing, but I feel like more than ever, you know, fantasy players need to look at the season in very small segments.
Yes. And you need to realize that there is no set and forget. You can't... Like, every single week is its own island of maneuvers and trades and waiver wire pickups and you just try to pile up wins one week at a time.
So, no, I think you persuaded me. If Sanders or Patrick are sitting there and I have to decide between what they showed people this past week and what's going on at quarterback in Chicago, you just need to move forward. And so you're right. And then, you know, more heavily rostered, but Cole Beasley had 13 targets.
They have Houston this week. And... Yeah, go ahead. But, Andy, you've got Diggs and you're telling me to get Sanders and how can I do Cole Beasley as well?
Oh, don't worry. We're going to tell you to pick up Dawson Knox too. Yeah, you do that because, Mr. Voice of Public Opinion, the Bills are the template that the Eagles were following of not needing a running game at all.
So, and it was very successful this past week. Yeah, I mean, you want those outrageous offenses in fantasy. You want a team that can throw up 50 points and the Bills are... 50.
The Bills are the Chiefs of Buffalo, as I call them. So they can put up a ton of points and you want all the Bills you can handle. All the Bills. I still prefer Sanders too, Beasley, because I want downfield targets and I want touchdowns.
Even if it's PBR. Still prefer Sanders. Okay. From what I've seen the last two weeks, you know, you've got a budding romance.
Romance between Allen and Sanders downfield. In fact, it's to the point where you wonder if, like Diggs was so ridiculously out of control last year that it was inevitable for him to come down a little bit in total targets and receptions. But like Jason, you're nodding. As a Diggs manager, are you seeing that ceiling come down?
Or is this just kind of a start to the season? No, I think that the ceiling has come down because there is another target deep that can get open, that can stress the defense. And if you're the Bills and the defense on the other side is rolling towards Diggs, I mean, it will cause, you know, some of the yards to go Sanders' way. You were missing John Brown for the majority of last season when Stephon Diggs really went Hamburglar.
And so I think that Diggs' ceiling comes down a little bit. He's still the clear one. He's still going to be amazing. I'm not worried about Diggs at all other than to say he's not that number one fantasy wide receiver, you know, the rest of the season.
You said he is or isn't? Is not the wide receiver one. Well, and with what you had to invest with him, I mean, you talked about Jamar Chase's draft cost and the apology you had yesterday and then the unapology and the re-apology. But like Diggs may not pay off on draft cost if he doesn't start turning it up.
Tim Patrick. Needs touchdown. Tim Patrick is extremely interesting. He should be very consistent.
Yes. You will never feel excited to put him in your lineup, but you should put him in there and just expect points. He has the chance to score every week. He had 98 yards last week.
And they didn't have to throw the ball very much at all. No, he did not. Yeah, Fireball Jones here is getting no respect. Tim Patrick should be rostered in 85% of leagues.
The data that we're looking at has him rostered in 37% of leagues. This is a guy who already has been good last year for fantasy. This isn't your wide receiver one or even your wide receiver two, but this is a every week flex-worthy start. He's a big boy out there, can get the touchdowns and will make an impact for fantasy.
Should absolutely be rostered. Christian Kirk is rostered in 58% of leagues. He was dropped in a lot last week after Rondale Moore had the big week. Him and AJ Green put up about the same fancy points, but through three weeks, Kirk has been solid.
So, you know, if you don't want, if you swore off AJ Green and you don't want to mess around with snap counts with Rondale, you can probably put Kirk out there. Always have a chance at a touchdown. It is going to be a tough matchup this week to compound the decision-making in Arizona. They have the Rams on the road.
I do expect them to be able to move the football, but it might be a little bit more of what you saw from the Buccaneers this past week, a great offense that was still underwhelming. Yeah, I think the Cardinals will be underwhelming, but when you add Jalen Ramsey to DeAndre Hopkins' injury, I think Kirk probably has the best chance this week of being the, you know, the shot you want to take on an ancillary piece for the Cardinals. There's a chance, if I end up picking him up off of waivers, that I had to start Green, then Moore, and then Kirk in three straight weeks, and I just don't think he's going to end well. Hunter Renfro, six targets, five for 77 and a touchdown.
It's more of a full PPR play because he's, you know, he's had over 70 yards twice, which is great, but he's not exactly the touchdown machine, but goodness gracious, I mean, he's a really good NFL wide receiver, so if he's going to have a baseline of, you know, six receptions, I like him. That's tough for me. He's basically like a Cole Beasley with slightly fewer receptions and greater touchdown opportunity. Okay, I like that comparison.
Brian Edwards, five targets, three for 89. He just needs games to go into overtime. That's the case. That's when he gets into his final form.
Yeah, that's tough to do every week. Brian Edwards, to me, so he's available in most leagues. I have him in several leagues. Do you ever want to play him?
No, every week I question him. Every week I'm like, eh, he's in consideration, and I decide no, but he is like, when we talk about drop candidates, I'm going, I'm not dropping him, but I can't play him, so he's like a purgatory player. Purgatory player. Yeah, I just feel that way.
You're kind of, you're praying when you put him in the lineup that you get a deep play. Would you play Renfro in the flex or Brian Edwards in the flex rest of the season in a half PPR? Or would you rather have locked in? I would rather have Renfro locked in as a known commodity.
But I think I would probably play Ruggs ahead of both of them. That being said, he's probably not available on waivers. Other guys to be aware of that you want to bring up? I mean, is it time to stash Curtis Samuel of Washington and even then you can, if we're looking at that time period, because Curtis Samuel was put on the IR.
He's eligible to come back this week. So he's eligible to come back. And we haven't seen, I mean, Logan Thomas has been fine, but there hasn't been like a real number two for Washington. De'Ami Brown hasn't stepped up into that role as a rookie yet.
He's the one getting a bunch of snaps, but he's not seeing a ton of opportunity. And then I would just combo that because it's the same type of a situation. Rashad Bateman for the Baltimore Ravens, their first round rookie wide receiver selection, who unfortunately had an injury, had to get surgery over the offseason or in that training camp. He should be coming back soon as well.
Which one would you prefer to stash? Neither? No, I don't really want to mess around with Curtis Samuel, with Taylor Heineke and with what I've seen from Logan Thomas. He's slinging it, man.
He gets after it. I mean, it's just me, just my opinion. Yeah, I worry about still the injury. It's worth bringing the name up to know that he is eligible.
If you want to call your shot, he could play this week, but the injury combined with Heineke, I am probably, the other names that we brought up, I would rather take it on. But speaking of the real number two that you brought up, did you guys see Jalen Hurts' quote about last night's game? Yes. Oh, no.
It did have to do with the number two. It did. Here's his quote. You take a deuce.
You don't sit there and look at it. You flush it and move on. We're going to... flush it and move on, which is the right approach.
Jalen, I love it. Good for you. At least you know that it was caca. Yeah, I mean, it happens.
It happens. Running back waiver pickups, oh, it's thin. It's thin on the waiver wire for running backs. I mean, everyone's going to compete if he wasn't already picked up like he was in our League of Records.
Yes. Oh, man. You would have been everything. Well, even before the week, I went to pick him up.
I did, and I went a day late. One day late to pick him up. Prior to the week, I'm the Christian McCaffrey manager in our League of Records, and I saw he was on Andy's team, and I literally thought, well, I'll just pick him up next week after he drops him. How hard do you go after Chuba?
Well, so here's my take on Chuba. Chuba should go to the CMC manager in almost every situation, because if I'm not the CMC manager or someone that's absolutely injury riddled and desperate for a play, I don't look at Chuba as someone I'm spending all my capital on. I look at him as 25, 35%. That's fine.
You're going to get a little bit of play. Matt DeSorbo, one of our writers, looked since 2015. Backups make more than one start in a season just 41% of the time. More than two starts just 32% of the time, and those starts average 10 fantasy points per game.
So this isn't like a must. You've got to get him. You've got to have him. And if I'm not the Christian McCaffrey manager, I don't think I want to take that shot.
If he's not absolutely necessary to you this week, you probably just let that CMC manager. I mean, if you're playing against the CMC manager, okay, maybe play keep away and you get a twofer. I think I'd go a little bit harder than you're talking about, Jay. Dallas and then Philadelphia, and I think that Chuba Hubbard can, I mean, Andy just said it.
You have to, you're trying to buy wins a week at a time, just a chunk at a time. And Hubbard, at least what they showed us from this past week, he's going to be the primary guy. Royce Freeman is still around. And honestly, I don't think we have him on the list, but I think in a little bit of a deeper league, Royce Freeman, just put up a one, a two dollar, whatever.
Try and just sneak him on the back of your bench and see what happens. See if it really is Chuba being a 65% guy or maybe it ends up being 50-50 after that's what they game plan. There's two things I think that matter here. I agree with Jason Senneman.
The CMC manager should end up with him. And then take a look at your roster. Do you need a flex star for the next two weeks? I think Chuba Hubbard will be flexible for two weeks.
Yes. What if you've been counting on Tyson Williams as you're running back too? I would play Chuba over him. That's what I mean.
So if you're in that boat, now the other thing to consider that I wanted to say was just that there are players that may have a longer shelf life. Like if Cordero's still out there, it seems like he's going to be a part of the offense for the whole season. And so you may want him out there and you may want to invest in him more than Chuba Hubbard. The way that I look at Cordero Patterson is coming into the season, there were people who really believed in Mike Davis as the every down workhorse role and he's stolen a piece of it.
He's behind him. And then there was all the Russell Cage to talk about him being really, really valuable in passing. He's stolen a lot of that. And then there's Hal Pitts, rookie sensation going to light the world on fire and have over 1,000 yards and he's stolen a piece of that.
And you take all that and all of a sudden you go, this is a pretty good fantasy option for Cordero Patterson. He's certainly, I went and tried to kick the tires in a trade last night for Cordero as the CMC manager who cannot get Chuba. Would you rather have, let's say to both there and this is, both of these guys are only available in like 30-35% of leagues. Would you rather go after Cordero Patterson or would you rather go after Zach Moss?
I would rather go after Cordero Patterson. I think that we brought up, Zach Moss is certainly a pickup if he's out there on your waiver wire. He's had two back-to-back weeks. He actually out-touched Devin Singletary but he is still in a timeshare and in a timeshare that doesn't want to run the ball.
They have had a little bit of success so far this year if that continues, great. But obviously we just brought up Diggs and Emmanuel Sanders and Cole Beasley. It's a passing team when you split the running backs in half. The touchdowns make it valuable and there's been touchdowns to the running backs so far.
I just don't think that's going to stick. Other names to throw out there, Sonny Michel, I wouldn't heavily invest unless you were the Daryl Henderson manager because he could be back this week but Zach Moss was brought up. Naeem Hines continues to contribute but mostly rostered. Latavius Murray mostly rostered.
Kevin Gainwell is very difficult to really make a compelling case for. He was barely used last night and so that's a stash, not a play this week. And then Peyton Barber, the hard part about Peyton Barber I'm going to just lay it out there for you right now on Tuesday. It's the Monday Night Football game against the Chargers and so if you are going to have a song and dance with Josh Jacobs availability which went right down to the wire this past week, you better have a backup plan.
So if you have Josh Jacobs, go grab Peyton Barber. If you have, I mean I just don't know what the pivot is on Monday Night Football when it comes to, you know, Eckler's going to be rostered and yeah, you're 100% right. Peyton Barber is the guy who should be rostered for Josh Jacobs managers and that's the situation where you can be confident. Otherwise, it's going to be one hit wonder for Peyton Barber.
Yes, you can't possibly put him in your lineup but he has proved positive in the camp of running backs don't matter because you go out and you pay $11 million for Kenyon Drake and a first round pick on Josh Jacobs. Let's just bring this guy in off the street cut off of another team. I think that Barber is still a good speculation ad from one, you already have proof of concept that two weeks in a row now that Peyton Barber was the guy that John Gruden went to in the absence of Josh Jacobs. We don't know if Jacobs is going to be okay this week to play but we know that he has been banged up multiple times throughout his career and maybe Monday Josh Jacobs plays and he goes out there and boom, the toe is already a problem re-activated and now he misses a couple games so I think that people aren't excited to get Peyton Barber and you probably shouldn't be really excited about it but the way that running backs the way that the running back landscape is right now like Barber is a good stash for waiver running backs in fact every single player that we've mentioned so far could already be rostered in your league but there is one backfield that if you're in desperate need has an opening and that is the New England Patriots we talked about it in the news James White who was very very relevant very used used in the passing game had a rushing touchdown is out for a while indefinitely so you have to make the decision between Ramondre Stevenson and J.J.
Taylor here's how I view these two backs they really like both backs they both looked good in preseason Ramondre Stevenson is the more talented running back if you want to take the shot on talent I would take it on Ramondre Stevenson he tore up preseason came in week one and immediately was in the game like first drive I think fumbled and then has been Baxter punted off the bridge has not seen anything since that fumble hardcore benched J.J. Taylor is the more James White role the guy that is a really good pass catching back has not done much of anything so far in his career but has the talent to succeed in that role so it's just a matter of do you want to go with the more talented Ramondre Stevenson this is an opportunity to be forgiven for the fumble or Bill Belichick against Tom Brady in what he views as man I want to win this thing is he going to trust the guy who he has a fear of fumbling to me they're just both long term stashes I mean Brandon Bolden is going to play and Damian Harris is going to play and so then it's like you're at the bottom of a barrel here it's not like Ramondre is getting first and second downs yeah you're probably not starting either of these guys and if you're not starting him this week then it would be Ramondre Stevenson as the player that I would pick up hope he gets out of the doghouse due to injury and dominates because I think he can tight end waiver pickups tight end always tough in the streets you can drop Johnny Smith and I think move forward trying to find a better solution there would you drop Jared Cook after two disappointing weeks for some of these guys this is actually a good waiver wire week for tight end do you believe in Tyler Conklin 7 for 70 in a touchdown 72% of snaps he looked great it's interesting because my brain immediately wants to go to the narrative well Dalvin Cook was out so you know some of those check downs they just went to Tyler Conklin except Alex Andrew Bass was heavily used in passing games can I make one quick argument to help you decide sure pick him up pick him up he's the best pickup this week of the best I would say Evan Ingram that's where I'm trying to decide Evan Ingram also talented that's all you can say that's all you can say now you can say there's opportunity because Sterling Shepard is hurt and Darius Slayton is hurt so Kenny Galli is still not 100% they need Evan Ingram on the field he'll see 4 plus 5 no he'll see more than that 4 plus ok that's fair I can't say that you didn't agree with that 4 plus I think Evan Ingram ends up with a stat line of 10 or 11 targets for 4 receptions you know I think I would go with Evan Ingram over Conklin but those are the 2 guys that I would get it to you just said I'm going Daniel Jones over Kirk Cousins yeah I know just looking last year he had 109 targets you were happy that you started 4 out of 17 or 16 weeks I guess I'm done mentally with it I would rather than bet on something that never can materialize for Evan Ingram I'd rather bet on something new materializing for Tyler Conklin or I'd rather bet on Mike Gisicki Mike Gisicki at 12 targets in this game run the second most routes at tight end in week 3 and this was obviously a completely new game plan built for not having Tua so you could see it again and then Dawson Knox with Dawson yeah he's more of like a 3 yeah I don't like it and he's been I mean 2 weeks in a row with a touchdown you go back to the end of last year he's a touchdown gamble and if you want to make gamble on a touchdown why not I'd like to have Josh Allen as that quarterback he's like Robert Tunyon he's not a guy that's gonna you're taking a bet on Aaron Rodgers throwing a bunch of touchdowns that's what Dawson Knox is what about the tight end 1 in Dallas yeah Dalton Schultz with the number 1 overall week at the tight end position 69% of snaps that's where he's been hanging out it's pretty nice I would say that you saw week 1 he was ahead of Jarwin week 2 Jarwin was ahead of him week 3 obviously Schultz's not really a fun game to play it's not it's tough when you're when you're splitting it's Dallas Goddard and Zachary when you're splitting tight ends man it's gross I mean Johnny Smith is good Hunter Henry's good neither of them are even fathomable to roster a play because they're splitting tight ends the two most ridiculous plays on film this past week were Big Ben falling tripping over nothing and then Johnny Smith causing an interception basically the ball hit him and it looked like he exploded and he threw the ball he threw the ball straight up into the air for a pick 6 it's so fantastic it was just like a stumbling bumbling type of play it reminded me of it looked like an infomercial or the gif of the woman who falls with the popcorn I mean like the popcorn explodes out of her hands I want to get into our streaming quarterbacks I'm just going to read off I would prioritize the Titans the Jets are just giving up not just sacks but interceptions I would prioritize the Saints their defense is awesome yeah did you find the Johnny Smith play yet? I have not oh that's a shame quarterback time full stream ahead alright streaming quarterback candidates heading into week 4 I'm going to go with the Monday night matchup and go with wait a minute I need to make sure I have this ready send me the card send me the card hey NBA Jim Roles no no I'm just shaking my head Derek Carr leads the league in passing yards in 20 plus yard passing plays we saw Justin Herbert he was great I think this is a shootout on Monday night only 4 quarterbacks have been quarterback 1s all 3 weeks Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Dalen Hurts and Derek Carr so I will very trepidatiously step into the flames and expect to be pleasantly rewarded I think that this is a week where all 3 of our picks are guys where you need to suck it up and say they've been good and stick with them my pick is Kirk Cousins against Cleveland I mentioned yesterday there is some worry about the ground game soaking up so much clock for Cleveland and the ball control but Kirk Cousins has been great back to back quarterback 6 on the week finishes he's at home which makes a big difference for me against Cleveland in 2020 Cousins averaged 284 passing yards and 2.8 passing touchdowns per game and so far Cleveland's defense has allowed 2 top 10 quarterback weeks and then they got Justin Fields and said you don't play football do you expect the Vikings to implement the same Bears offensive strategies this week? I don't think so I don't think so copycat league is a good head coach and I think you can stream Sam Darnold against the Dallas Cowboys they've got the second most passing yards the most 20 plus yard pass plays that hurts me those stats hurt me because I think Dallas' defense has been one of the more impressive like Washington's defense on the bad side and Dallas in the parts of the games where it mattered has been pretty good but those stats say something else it's a little scarier with Darnold that the offense came to a screeching halt for half the game after Christian McCaffrey left they did get it going but I think Darnold is in play and we always give just a one but Taylor Heineke is in play against the Atlanta Falcons QB won two weeks in a row you can't argue with the Peyton Barber whisperer over there with his uncomfortable starts that should be a new segment Mike's uncomfortable starts those are the streaming quarterback options and we want to thank Traeger Grills of course you heard the Weather Smoke There's Fire segment and you can check out our draft party our League of Record draft on YouTube we had the privilege of having Traeger come out and cater that event we are all huge proponents of the Traeger experience in fact Al Borland maybe even more than everybody else has been grilling like a madman on a regular basis smoking like a madman like a chimney all natural hardwood pellets that give you real wood fired flavor in every bite that's what you get and they got the Wi-Fi technology which is like a really nice play on words and it's incredible tech yeah it lets you monitor all of your cooks adjust grill temperatures and you do it all from your phone so you can literally check the temperature of your meat from your couch it's awesome yeah yeah they don't have the technology to move it off the grill into your mouth they're working on it they are working on it but check it out go to traeger.com slash footballers and we'll be back with another show tomorrow so I don't know what we have in store that's up to the judge there's probably more pork chops get the pork chops on the grill tonight good luck with your waivers selections we will see you tomorrow everybody goodbye thank you for listening to another episode of the Fantasy Footballers Podcast join our fantasy football community on jointhefoot.com and follow us on Twitter at theffballers this episode was brought to you by Omaha Steaks visit omahasteaks.com keyword footballers save over 50% when you order the deluxe grill out assortment plus get 12 free Omaha Steaks burgers and keep making memories with the ones you love that's omahasteaks.com keyword footballers